Showing posts with label Inspirations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inspirations. Show all posts
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Inspirations
The Ring - Opening Scene , posted by Alice
The Ring is a horror sequence that begins in a house, exactly like our idea. For this reason, i decided to look at the shot types, the lighting, the mise en scene and general camera work that is used in this scene in order for us to be inspired and use interesting effective shots when we storyboard.
A clear connection between The Ring and our idea, is the use of stairs, so i thought i'd look at how this was shot first. (this sequence starts at 1.47) It's a high angle shot, looking down the stairs, and this allows the girl to creep round the corner, increasing suspense. The shot is long, it takes her a while to turn the corner and look up the stairs before the cut. This is effective because it really helps to build up the suspence, because we know that she is scared about going up the stairs. Perhaps she can see something up there that has frightend her? But from the position of the camera, we don't know this yet. She goes up the stairs quickly, and i really like the shot through the banisters of her feet quickly ascending upwards. This type of shot would be practical in our location because the stairs in my house also have banisters, and i like the next match on action of her coming up the stairs through the hallway. Although for our opening scene we wanted to have the girl descend the stairs, the principles of the shots remain the same. For our idea, we were also thinking of having high angle shots from above, which would also be effective. An important thing to note in her going up the stairs, is that the camera work is still. They do not try to follow her up the stairs or be creative with any tilts etc - and this fits in with the idea of controlled camera work, which we are trying to achieve.
At 2.16 it shows her feet walking down the corridor, and this is very intersting because we wanted to do a shot exactly like this in our sequence because we do not want to show the main females face until right at the end, for a shock factor. I really like the LA shot here, which draws attention to the seeping blood on the floor. This is a shot that we would be able to achieve quite sucessfully.
Another shot which i thought was quite inspiring was the shot at 0.06 seconds. The CU of the girl turning her head ever so slowly. It could be an idea if the girl does this at the end when holding the knife. Slowly turning around smiling menacingly towards the reflection of the guy standing innocently at the front door.
Lighting: it's obviously night, as the house has been artifically lit and there are no curtains on the windows so we can see the darkness outside. The rooms are not well lit at all, and this fits the genre as it creates shadows upon her face and in the environment. It really adds to the horror portrayed. This is an idea we could use, but we have decided to film the outside sequence at dusk/beginning of darkness to make lighting issues outside easier, therefore having a pitch black house would not fit as it would break the rules of continuity.
General Mise on Scene: the house is quite bare. There is not a lot of clutter at all. In the living room when the Tv is first shown, the room is practically empty except for a few things on the table. This is quite generic (horror), and is an idea we should use when filming the bedroom shots etc. Having a bare room would make the environement a lot more spooky and a lot less 'homey' and 'safe.' Would be definately be a good idea to try and achieve this in our sequence.
The Ring is a horror sequence that begins in a house, exactly like our idea. For this reason, i decided to look at the shot types, the lighting, the mise en scene and general camera work that is used in this scene in order for us to be inspired and use interesting effective shots when we storyboard.
A clear connection between The Ring and our idea, is the use of stairs, so i thought i'd look at how this was shot first. (this sequence starts at 1.47) It's a high angle shot, looking down the stairs, and this allows the girl to creep round the corner, increasing suspense. The shot is long, it takes her a while to turn the corner and look up the stairs before the cut. This is effective because it really helps to build up the suspence, because we know that she is scared about going up the stairs. Perhaps she can see something up there that has frightend her? But from the position of the camera, we don't know this yet. She goes up the stairs quickly, and i really like the shot through the banisters of her feet quickly ascending upwards. This type of shot would be practical in our location because the stairs in my house also have banisters, and i like the next match on action of her coming up the stairs through the hallway. Although for our opening scene we wanted to have the girl descend the stairs, the principles of the shots remain the same. For our idea, we were also thinking of having high angle shots from above, which would also be effective. An important thing to note in her going up the stairs, is that the camera work is still. They do not try to follow her up the stairs or be creative with any tilts etc - and this fits in with the idea of controlled camera work, which we are trying to achieve.
At 2.16 it shows her feet walking down the corridor, and this is very intersting because we wanted to do a shot exactly like this in our sequence because we do not want to show the main females face until right at the end, for a shock factor. I really like the LA shot here, which draws attention to the seeping blood on the floor. This is a shot that we would be able to achieve quite sucessfully.
Another shot which i thought was quite inspiring was the shot at 0.06 seconds. The CU of the girl turning her head ever so slowly. It could be an idea if the girl does this at the end when holding the knife. Slowly turning around smiling menacingly towards the reflection of the guy standing innocently at the front door.
Lighting: it's obviously night, as the house has been artifically lit and there are no curtains on the windows so we can see the darkness outside. The rooms are not well lit at all, and this fits the genre as it creates shadows upon her face and in the environment. It really adds to the horror portrayed. This is an idea we could use, but we have decided to film the outside sequence at dusk/beginning of darkness to make lighting issues outside easier, therefore having a pitch black house would not fit as it would break the rules of continuity.
General Mise on Scene: the house is quite bare. There is not a lot of clutter at all. In the living room when the Tv is first shown, the room is practically empty except for a few things on the table. This is quite generic (horror), and is an idea we should use when filming the bedroom shots etc. Having a bare room would make the environement a lot more spooky and a lot less 'homey' and 'safe.' Would be definately be a good idea to try and achieve this in our sequence.
Inspired By Legally Blonde
We decided to take a closer look at the opening sequence of Legally blonde, as although it conforms to a completely different genre, it uses the same idea of showing a girl getting ready without revealing who she is. It is interesting to see the types of shots used!
It begins with an out of focus ECU of the hair so at first the audience cannot completely make out what it is. The camera then slowly zooms out as Elle, the girl combs her hair and we see her perfectly manicured nails. This idea can be reused in our opening sequence showing the Psycho woman’s long red nails, which could connote love as she is getting ready for a romantic meal as well as danger and blood. We could also maybe show her red bracelet to tie in with the theme of red. It the cross cuts to her cycling down the road but we do not see her face still. We too can cross cut to the feet of the guy walking down the road simultaneously as the girl is getting ready.
At 53 seconds there is also a shot of Elle shaving her legs which is like our shot when the girl steps out the shower. We were thinking of showing her red toe nails as well building up her character to be quite elegant and sophisticated as opposed to the pink and girly Elle. In this shot the camera is also placed at a low level which I think is quite effective.
Then again it cuts away to her cycling down the road. The director has used steady tracks for this as well as POV shots when she looks around which we too could try out when the guy is walking down the road. At 1.09 there is the BCU of Elle putting on her tiffany necklace. We plan to have a similar shot of the girl putting on a red sophisticated necklace to match her elegant dress. We also plan to have MCUs and CUs of her tying her dress at the back and putting lipstick on.
At 1.22 there is a nice CU of Elle painting her nails. The thing I noticed with this was that there is great use of mis-en-scene to match the chick-flick genre. We can see nail varnishes, a hair brush, make-up brushes and lots of pink things on her dressing table which tell us about her personality. Likewise we can also have objects like elegant perfume bottles, red nail varnishes, red lipstick, a jewelled notebook and a photo of the girl and her boyfriend on her dressing table. This would show that she is quite romantic and classy. At 1.34 there is a nice forward track of a girl walking which is a useful shot to look at when we film the girl in our sequence walking out of the bedroom, and how we can use the two walls on either side as a frame within a frame. There is also nice continuity editing here, where the camera switches angle and continues to track from behind and bunch of flowers. We could use a shot like this but shoot from behind a vase of red roses instead.
At 1.40 again the director has made great use of mis-en-scene showing all Elle’s creams hair-dye, nail varnishes, fluffy pens, photo frames and a teddy bear. It shows the importance of setting the scene and mood as well as the significance of every object in a shot. There is a nice tilt shot when Elle puts her blusher on, which would be good to use for variety in our sequence. I also think the High angle shot of Elle putting her shoes on is important because it is clear to the audience that she is ready now, so the order in which we plan out shots of the girl getting ready has to make sense (i.e. Starts with stepping out of the shower…ends with putting some elegant shoes on). I also think a shot similar to the one at 3.00 seconds would be good to use as the establishing shot of the girl in the shower, but without the characters there.
I think the main thing we can get from this sequence is the way in which Elle has been shot getting ready and the director’s use of mis-en-scene. I think the idea of using pink throughout the sequence is really effective as it acts as a theme bringing the surroundings, objects and characters together under the girly genre. As we are planning to do an opening sequence for a horror film, red is one of the obvious colours to use as it connotes, blood, death, murder, danger etc. Therefore inspired by Legally Blonde, we thought we should have a running theme of red in our opening sequence to bring it together and conform to the horror genre.
Red things in our Sequence
-lipstick
-nails
-necklace
-earrings
-bracelet
-wine
-light
-tie
-roses
(you guys can add to the list if you come up with anymore =) and also I’m not sure how to link the video because it’s not on YouTube but we can work that out later)
-Aarti
We decided to take a closer look at the opening sequence of Legally blonde, as although it conforms to a completely different genre, it uses the same idea of showing a girl getting ready without revealing who she is. It is interesting to see the types of shots used!
It begins with an out of focus ECU of the hair so at first the audience cannot completely make out what it is. The camera then slowly zooms out as Elle, the girl combs her hair and we see her perfectly manicured nails. This idea can be reused in our opening sequence showing the Psycho woman’s long red nails, which could connote love as she is getting ready for a romantic meal as well as danger and blood. We could also maybe show her red bracelet to tie in with the theme of red. It the cross cuts to her cycling down the road but we do not see her face still. We too can cross cut to the feet of the guy walking down the road simultaneously as the girl is getting ready.
At 53 seconds there is also a shot of Elle shaving her legs which is like our shot when the girl steps out the shower. We were thinking of showing her red toe nails as well building up her character to be quite elegant and sophisticated as opposed to the pink and girly Elle. In this shot the camera is also placed at a low level which I think is quite effective.
Then again it cuts away to her cycling down the road. The director has used steady tracks for this as well as POV shots when she looks around which we too could try out when the guy is walking down the road. At 1.09 there is the BCU of Elle putting on her tiffany necklace. We plan to have a similar shot of the girl putting on a red sophisticated necklace to match her elegant dress. We also plan to have MCUs and CUs of her tying her dress at the back and putting lipstick on.
At 1.22 there is a nice CU of Elle painting her nails. The thing I noticed with this was that there is great use of mis-en-scene to match the chick-flick genre. We can see nail varnishes, a hair brush, make-up brushes and lots of pink things on her dressing table which tell us about her personality. Likewise we can also have objects like elegant perfume bottles, red nail varnishes, red lipstick, a jewelled notebook and a photo of the girl and her boyfriend on her dressing table. This would show that she is quite romantic and classy. At 1.34 there is a nice forward track of a girl walking which is a useful shot to look at when we film the girl in our sequence walking out of the bedroom, and how we can use the two walls on either side as a frame within a frame. There is also nice continuity editing here, where the camera switches angle and continues to track from behind and bunch of flowers. We could use a shot like this but shoot from behind a vase of red roses instead.
At 1.40 again the director has made great use of mis-en-scene showing all Elle’s creams hair-dye, nail varnishes, fluffy pens, photo frames and a teddy bear. It shows the importance of setting the scene and mood as well as the significance of every object in a shot. There is a nice tilt shot when Elle puts her blusher on, which would be good to use for variety in our sequence. I also think the High angle shot of Elle putting her shoes on is important because it is clear to the audience that she is ready now, so the order in which we plan out shots of the girl getting ready has to make sense (i.e. Starts with stepping out of the shower…ends with putting some elegant shoes on). I also think a shot similar to the one at 3.00 seconds would be good to use as the establishing shot of the girl in the shower, but without the characters there.
I think the main thing we can get from this sequence is the way in which Elle has been shot getting ready and the director’s use of mis-en-scene. I think the idea of using pink throughout the sequence is really effective as it acts as a theme bringing the surroundings, objects and characters together under the girly genre. As we are planning to do an opening sequence for a horror film, red is one of the obvious colours to use as it connotes, blood, death, murder, danger etc. Therefore inspired by Legally Blonde, we thought we should have a running theme of red in our opening sequence to bring it together and conform to the horror genre.
Red things in our Sequence
-lipstick
-nails
-necklace
-earrings
-bracelet
-wine
-light
-tie
-roses
(you guys can add to the list if you come up with anymore =) and also I’m not sure how to link the video because it’s not on YouTube but we can work that out later)
-Aarti
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction
As soon as we started discussing the main girl character in our opening, Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction (1987, Adrian Lyne) came to my mind. At first she seems quite normal but slowly turns into an obsessive women. We do get hints of it during the beginning of the film, before it's made very clear. As you can see in this still, on the second time they meet, when they haven't even started a relationship there are hints that shes a bit pyscho. Her hair is quite big and she has quite dark eye make up for her skin tone. I think the way she's smiling and the way she acts at the beginning of the film, when she still hasn't revealed her true side would be perfect inspiration for whoever we chose to play the girl. - Mel-
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