Women in Black Opening Two Minutes.

The opening to the clip starts off with a close up shot of two detailed china tea cups on a little wooden table. As we then see the teapot being lifted and poured into the tea cups we see not actual liquid being poured which connotes that some kind of role play by a girl or girls is being performed. As the teapot is placed on the ground we see a close up of a dolls face wit non- diegetic playing quietly in the background playing at a low volume allowing you to hear the china when it clunks together. All of this creates a mysterious feeling about the girls and to what's about to happen as it fits in well with the music and the blank expression of the dolls faces.

We are shown three innocent young looking girls wearing pretty frilly dresses which infer to the audience that this may of been set in a different era, this also fits in nicely with the music sounding old fashioned. We see the girls playing together and smiling making the audience wonder why this mysterious, creepy music is being played a the girls look so innocent and happy. Through mise-en-scene the girls look well looked after as their hair is neatly presented with pretty bows and their dresses and shoes in a clean and tidy condition showing perfection as see them doing to their dolls whilst they brush their hair and sort out their dresses.

The non-diegetic music gets louder all of a sudden playing the sound of chime bells, creating a sense of something being there which is effective as it makes the audience wonder what it is. The conventions of a stereotypical horror film fit in well as the girls are shown to be in a dull room with things such as china dolls, rocking horses and tea sets which are sometimes used in horror films. Other things such as the slow paced mysterious music is played creating tension and the feeling of someone either watching the girls of being in that room. As the bells start ringing the girls start to slowly turn their heads towards the camera making it seem like they are looking straight at you with a blank expression on their faces, which contrasts their facial expressions of only a few moments ago of them looking happy. As the camera gets closer to the girls they then turn their heads the other way where we are show three windows. The girls walk over towards the windows being followed by the camera with the use of slow paced editing creating an effect of them being followed or someone walking with them. Close up shots of the girls feet are shown, crushing the china tea set and dolls, these actions contrast the way they were acting towards the dolls at the beginning as they were caring towards the dolls as if they were important to them, so this makes the audience believe that someone must be telling them to do this.

A mid-shot of the girls are shown standing in line with the three windows which leads the audience to think the worst of them jumping out the windows as there is one window allocated to each individual girl making you think that someone has planned this. The way the girls have done everything synchronised makes them look robotic an creepy as if someone s controlling them as you would do with a robot. The music builds up as they open the windows and then slows down to build up tension before they jump, and as they do it goes silent until you hear a diegetic sound of what's to be believed the mother screaming as you hear her cry "my babies!" the clip then ends with an over the shoulder shot of a 'women in black' relating to the title.

Codes and Conventions Of Horror

Target: finish your analysis in the opening two minute posts - asap and three genre ming-maps - explaing the codes and conventions of films in that genre.

Research film titles and write a post analysing how/why titles are used in an opening to a film. Explain the different types of titles and how they are typically used in your chosen genre.

You need to be creating research posts explaining how your research is informing your planning.

Codes and Conventions of a Romance.

 

 

 

Target Audience:

·         Romantic Comedies tend to be directed at women aged 13-17 or potentially even older, due to the light hearted nature of the genre.

·         Romantic films can also target the ages from 13-40+

·         Teen age girls are especially targeted at a romance film if there is a good looking man/ famous male actor – Channing Tatum

Codes and Conventions of an Action Thriller.

 

 

 

 

Target Audience:

·         Physiological thrillers are more intellectually demanding; therefore the target audience is about 25-45 years old.

·         Cross genres like Horror thriller and Action thriller which are less intellectually demanding attract a younger audience (teens) because they want excitement.

·         Romance thrillers and Supernatural thrillers attract a bigger female audience.

·         Political thrillers are more likely to attract an older male audience.

Opening two minutes of the Vow

The beginning to the Vow starts of with romantic and slow non- diegetic music, which suggests straight away that this is a romance and about love. We then see a two shot of what seem to be a young couple coming out of a cinema, which relate to the conventions of a romance film as they are normally set in places like cinemas, cafes and lakes. A mid shot is used showing the couple holding arms in the snow, another convention as one of the most romantic seasons is Christmas and a snowy setting. To make sure the audience get a idea of the setting an establishing shot is used to make the audience familiar with the setting, the man then kisses his girlfriend or wife on the head showing us that they are in love which is typically found in a romance.

A close up of the woman in the car is shown, emphasising the fact she is cold as he nose and cheeks are red, through mise- en -scene denotations are shown, of a coat, scarf and hats which connote the fact that it is winter and icy. The camera shows two close up shots of the man and woman both smiling showing how happy they are together, and as this is emphasised so much this could mean that there may be a problem that they are going to have to over come later on the film.

A two shot is uses showing the man warming up and kissing the girls hands and showing how they are in love and being affectionate. We are shown the car driving away from a low angle, showing us the the sky and the lights from the street lamps once again showing the audience the snowy setting and as we seem him pull away from the curb it shows the car skid, so we infer that the roads are icy and dangerous. As the man drives away we hear diegtic music from the radio, and he turns it up and starts singing along, showing a close up of the woman's face looking confused and saying "you don't like this song" which means that hes turned it up and started to sing that song for a certain reason. The lines to the song that he sings are 'i will do anything for love' which relates to the genre of the film. They start laughing and smiling together showing the audience how happy they are together, and has he starts dancing she mentions the fact that they are married, which shows the audience how close they are and are able to embarrass them selves in front of one another.

As the car comes to a stop the woman unbolts her seat belt as she leans over to the man and starts kissing him, as this is happening we are shown a two shot of them both kissing and in the background we see headlights of another vehicle, which is effective as it makes the audience panic and worry if it will hit the car as we are shown a close up of the seat belt being undone so straight away we suggest that something is about to happen. We then hear a voice over from Channing Tatum telling the audience of his theory of moments of impact, and as he says this the lorry behind them goes straight into the back of their car creating an 'impact'. This is a typical thing in a romance film as there are always things that go wrong where both the man and women have to try and overcome it and sort it out.

In the film the two main characters that are used to play the man and woman in love are Channing Tatum and Rachel Mc Adams who are both good looking which attracts people to the film as it has well know actors and actresses in. Its common in romance films to have a couple that are attractive as they are known as the 'perfect couple', and engages the audience more as they are mainly female so typically they need a good looking man and to have a good looking woman also in the film and putting them together makes sense, however people would question the fact if he was with a woman less attractive than him.

Love Actually Opening

The scene opens with soft and slow non-diegetic music, showing a couple in a crowded place hugging as if they haven't seen each other in a long time, these denotations could connate that they may be in an airport and meeting each other again as the woman had a rucksack on her back which tells the audience that she may of been away travelling. The music gets happier when the couple start to kiss and when we start seeing other families and couples see each other after a long time.

A voice over by Hugh Grant comes into the opening as he starts to discuss the fact that all of these clips of people are all reactions to families and couples at Heathrow airport and trying to show the audience that 'love is everywhere'. The voice over by Hugh Grant is effective to the audience as he is a well known actor so therefore him speaking in the voice over gets your attention. The voice over is also effective as it shows the typical conventions of the film being a romance, as there is non-diegetic ballet music playing and shows love and happiness at a stereotypical such as an airport where most scenes in love films end, however this film subverts this as it is opening with the scene.

You are shown close ups of different people showing different kinds of love such as old couples, young couples, husbands and wives, mother and daughter and father and son. Hugh emphasises on the phrase 'love actually is all around' which relates to the title of the film and genre 'love actually'. The effects of all the close ups used show the audience the emotion on peoples faces, of happiness, love and joy which are all stereotypically related to a love film such as a romance. The voice over is again also effective as it also makes the clips of the people at Heathrow more special and shows the importance of love because if you didn't have the voice over explaining the meaning of 'love' and what was going on then you wouldn't get the same effect as it  in captures you as the audience into the opening which makes you want to keep watching the film to the end.