For this task we were asked to experiment with film. We had to create a small film with no story to show what film could do.

I decided to create a montage of my daily life right now. I used clips of me getting up and doing work as well as hanging out with my dog and sister. I feel like I could’ve been a bit more experimental with my shots but at the time of filming I was stuck with what to do. I was also quite limited as i was filming on my phone and it doesn’t give you a lot of room to change your shots by changing focus or even aperture.

Spirited away is a fantastic film that is well deserved of the praise it has gotten over the years. A classic for all ages that goes to show tha animation can be just as good as other genres.

Spirited Away follows a 10-year old girl Chihiro a lonely girl who’s scared of moving away, who stumbles across a bathhouse for spirits after getting lost on the way to her new house. After her parents are turned into pigs Chihiro must get a job at the bathhouse to save her parents while hiding from the witch who cursed her parents. We follow her journey through this strange world as she makes new friends, helps clean spirits and goes on an amazing adventure.

Spirited Away has a variety of weird but wonderful characters who’s personalities and designs help shape the amazing world Chihiro finds herself in. From her unlikely friends Haku and Lin, to the evil witch Yubaba and the mysterious No-Face, Spirited Away has no shortage of lovable characters. These characters help Chihiro though her journey while making sure that us the audience care about their stories too. Haku does a great job of assisting Chihrio without taking over and being the hero instead, and Lin is a lovable big sister type who learns to care for Chihrio instead of thinking shes a bother.

The design of this film is spectacular, the bathhouse is a massive building that takes your breath away when you first witness it with Chihiro and it many rooms do not disappoint. From the steam room to Yubaba’s office, every room has character and are beautiful to see. Outside the bathhouse the scenery continues to amaze, the boats pulling into the bathhouse is one of my favourites as the lights reflecting on the water are stunning.  The film also does a great job in it’s takes on traditional Japanese spirits, the “stink spirit” is a perfect example as its small story line has a powerful message on pollution. No-face also does a fantastic job of being both creepy and lovable. And the turnip spirit is such an amazing little add that got chuckle out of me.

Yubaba is a traditional witch but has still managed to be completely unique thanks to her personality and her crazy big head, which helps her become a great villain. Yubaba’s hold on Chihiro isn’t something physical, she steals her name, this is something more powerful as Chihiro starts to forget herself which could keep her enslaved forever just like Haku. In the end Chihiro needs to not only save her parents but her freedom.

Ultimately, Spirited Away is a story about family, friends, and the ability to stand up for ones self. A story full of adventure, love and personality, that leave the audience smiling.  This weird but beautiful world had me captured from the start and wouldn’t let go. Spirited Away is a film I’d recommend to anyone of any age, personalty or film experience.

Today I will be talking about the conventions of horror, I will mostly be looking into the visuals and story elements.

Visuals:  Horror films usually have a dark tone to them in both their visuals and themes. Visually this includes darker lighting and a darker colour palette for things like props and costumes. In Insidious darker lighting is used to help keep the main villain hidden to help keep the audience scared of the unknown.

Most people have some kind of fear of the dark which is good for horrors because they like to use well known fears to help add to the scares of the film. For camera angles, high and low angles are used to show power of the villain or the weakness of the main character. Like here in IT Chapter 2, you’re viewing Pennywise by looking up at him which gives him the power in this scene.

Another angle used a lot is the POV shot, this is a great way for the audience to feel like they’re in the film as they are seeing it all through a characters eyes. Another thing horror uses is gore, not all horrors use gore but it is a staple of a lot of well-known horrors and also is a main part of slashers. Gore is also useful as it’s a special effect that is almost always practical.

The locations for horrors are also important, they usually pick big empty places to show how small and defenceless the characters are or smaller spaces to use the common phobia claustrophobia. Places like abounded buildings or haunted mansions are also used culturally these places are considered spooky in their own right.

Story: Good vs evil is used a lot in horror films, audience members usually like seeing an underdog (or sometimes a group of them) defeat a seemingly all-powerful evil. This isn’t always the case though, an example of it not going that way is The Blair Witch project in which the main characters get defeated instead.

Popular themes for horror films include religion, urban legends and folk stories. Examples of these themes include The Nun and The Curse of La Llorona.

Main characters typically are younger people like teenagers and kids, but you do also see parents a lot as they struggle to keep their family alive. Teenagers are usually seen as powerless and naive which helps with the underdog approach. Teenagers are also used a lot in slashers as most of the monsters love to hunt them. The Babadook is a good example of a mother desperately trying to save her son from an unknown villain.

The villain is usually a supernatural being of some sort. Ghosts, Zombies and demons are seen a lot as most cultures have them in some form. Another trope is to take seemingly innocent things and turn them into the enemy, popular ones include clowns, dolls and children.

Loosing characters along the way is almost expected in horror, A lot of horrors will end with one survivor (for slashers its normally a teenage girl) battling or running away. Horrors will also leave the ending open for sequels by letting the villain survive as franchised horrors do very well, examples of this include Friday the 13th and Paranormal activity.

For this task we have to create the first page of script to introduce a character. My character is a 12 year old girl call Theo, she lives in her house with her dad and a bunch of ghosts that wont stop haunting her. My story would follow Theo as she tries to get over her fear of the outside.

Int Theos house- morning

We follow Theo as she walks into the bathroom and goes to the sink

Theo is a boyish looking girl with hair down to her shoulders, shes quite plain looking except from the large bags under her eyes. Shes wearing plain pyjamas and it doesn’t seem as if she cares about her appearance.

Theo looks in the mirror she seems to be looking behind her more then at her reflection. She reaches for her toothbrush while stifling a yawn. Suddenly an aggressive knock comes from the other side of the bathroom door. Unfazed by the knock Theo replies with a slight annoyance.

Theo

I just got in here! Gimmie a few minutes.

Theo rolls her eyes and continues to brush her teeth.

The knocking continues

Theo

I said give me a minute! 

Theo is getting more annoyed as as she continues to brush.

The knock is heard again this time it sounds like someone slamming their body against  the door.

Theo

Oh my God what!

Theo storms over to the door and rips it open, but no one is there. Theo looks around the corridor and then goes back into the bathroom. She returns to the sink and picks up the mouthwash.

Behind her the shower starts to drip a weird black liquid into the bath tub and we see a hand print on the window.

Theo leans into the sink to spit out the mouthwash as she comes back up a figure appears in the mirror, this figure looks grotesque and menacing. Theo sees this figure but she doesn’t jump, she stares it in the eyes with a disapproving look.

Theo

Really Fred! I’m starting to get sick of your lack of patience. 

Theo walks out of the bathroom as she walks through the corridor into her bedroom we see things being chucked by an invisible force Theo doesn’t react to this happening and just moves to her bedroom.

For this task we were asked to film a short clip that used the same aspects as early cinema. I decided to film a tree in my garden as that is quite mundane.

Video

I filmed this clip on my phone which means it isn’t the best quality. I wanted to show the wind moving the leaves which I managed.  The biggest issue with this footage is how shaky it is. Unfortunately I had nothing to rest my camera on so I had to hold it with my very shaky hands. I would’ve liked to of had some more control over my camera so I could focus more on the leaves instead of the background.

Mis en scene: Everything that is shown in frame, this includes the actors, lighting, props and sets.

Shot reverse shot: Typically used for dialog scenes. This normally uses three angles, one showing both characters, one showing an over the shoulder shot of one character and the other showing an over the shoulder shot from the other character. This also uses the 180 rule often.

Pan/Track/Zoom: Pan: Turning the camera while its on a fixed position. Track: The camera follows an object or character. Zoom: Camera zooms closer to the target.

Psychoanalysis: The idea of using symbols and certain visuals to show the mental state of a character.

Suture: An editing technique to make the audience feel as they are watching it instead of seeing it through the camera. This includes using things like continuity editing and the shot reverse shot technique.

The gaze: Showing the audience through a certain demographics eyes. The male gaze caters to the male view of the world while the female gaze does the same through the female view.

Representation: Including or creating a film for a certain audience demographic. Including someone from the LGBTQ+ community for example.

Montage: A technique in editing to put scenes together to show the passing of time.

180 rule: When doing dialog you need to stick to the characters facing one way throughout the scene. If you film over a characters left shoulder you can’t then film the same person over the other shoulder.

Diagetic sound: Sound both the audience and the characters can hear. This includes dialog and background sounds.

Non-diagetic sound: Sound the audience can hear but the characters can’t. Like narration and music.

Bibliography: Mott, P. (n.d.). Shot Reverse Shot | Art of the Guillotine. [online] The Art of the Guillotine. Available at: http://www.aotg.com/index.php?page=shotreverseshot [Accessed 11 Feb. 2020].

An example of shot reverse shot. (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://www.aotg.com/index.php?page=shotreverseshot [Accessed 11 Feb. 2020].

Storyblocks. (2019). 7 Basic Camera Movements – Pan, Tilt, Truck & More – Storyblocks. [online] Available at: https://blog.storyblocks.com/video-tutorials/7-basic-camera-movements/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2020].

McGowan, T. (2011). Psychoanalytic Film Theory – Cinema and Media Studies – Oxford Bibliographies – obo. [online] Oxfordbibliographies.com. Available at: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199791286/obo-9780199791286-0052.xml [Accessed 11 Feb. 2020].

Oxfordreference.com. (n.d.). Suture – Oxford Reference. [online] Available at: https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100544746 [Accessed 11 Feb. 2020].

Forster, S. (2018). Yes, there’s such a thing as a ‘female gaze.’ But it’s not what you think.. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/truly-social/yes-theres-such-a-thing-as-a-female-gaze-but-it-s-not-what-you-think-d27be6fc2fed [Accessed 11 Feb. 2020].

McGowan, T., 2012. Real gaze, the: Film theory after Lacan. SUNY Press.

Plantinga, C.R., 1997. Rhetoric and representation in nonfiction film (Vol. 997). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wallis, B., Acker, K., Baudrillard, J., Borges, J.L., Crary, J., Foster, H., Hoberman, J., Jameson, F., Krauss, R., Lawson, T. and Lippard, L.R., 1984. Art after modernism: Rethinking representation. The New Museum of Contemporary Art.

Stam, R., 2017. Film theory: an introduction. John Wiley & Sons.

Elementsofcinema.com. (n.d.). What is a Montage (Film Editing)?. [online] Available at: http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/montage.html [Accessed 11 Feb. 2020].

Barrance, T. (n.d.). The 180 degree rule and eyeline match. [online] Learn about film. Available at: https://learnaboutfilm.com/film-language/sequence/180-degree-rule/ [Accessed 11 Feb. 2020].

Filmsound.org. (n.d.). Diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. [online] Available at: http://filmsound.org/terminology/diegetic.htm [Accessed 11 Feb. 2020].

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