Film

The theme of the film that I am doing for my storyboard is a thriller. The film is about a teenage boy who is being stalked by an unknown person. It all starts off with anonymous phone calls and the doorbell ringing while there is no one there. At first these events don’t bother the boy (Greg). However later in the film events start to become more sinister e.g someone staring at his house during the night , receiving threatening letters and phone calls and eventually realising someone has been entering his house while he isn’t at home.

The chosen extract is from one of the earlier fight scenes from Zack Snyder’s 300. In the sequence the 300 Spartans are fighting at the  ”Hot Gates” ,a strategic battle point chosen by King Leonidas (Gerard Butler), against the Persian army. The war began because the Persian King Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro) tried to take control of Sparta and other cities in Greece . However Leonidas killed the Persian messengers and started war with the Persian empire.

The extract begins with a shot of rocks falling off cliffs and the camera shaking. This shots shows that something is happening. The rocks are actually falling because of the Persian battle march. The shot that is used next is a long shot of the Persian army running along the cliff side towards the 300 Spartans. Immediately after it changes to an over the shoulder shot from King Leonidas’ point of view. It shows the front line of the Persian army running towards them but stopping a few yards away from where they stand.

The next few shots that are used are close ups of  a Persian General and Leonidas. The General tells the Spartans to lay down their weapons so they will be spared. The close up of Leonidas shows that he looks confident and quite cocky while talking to the Persian. The King then tells the Persian that they will have to come and take their weapons away from them.

The next shot used is a birds eye view shot of the Persians sprinting towards the Spartans. This shot shows the vast number of Persians compared to the few Spartans. The camera then cuts to a shot of the two armies shields clashing together. The next sequence of shots are of each army pushing against each other to try and take control of the battle. The shot then changes to a close up of some Spartans feet digging into the surface. This shows that the Spartans are stronger and taking control of the situation.

After that shots rapidly change between Spartans fighting and Persians getting killed. Changing rapidly between shots show the frantic action during the fight. A lot of non diagetic sound is used during this part, such as the sound of the shields hitting against bodies and the sound of of spears piercing enemy flesh. During the fight the camera cuts to close ups of dead Persians lying on the floor. This shot shows how careful the Spartans need to step to avoid tripping over the dead bodies. Also allot of close ups of King Leonidas and his General are used to show the aggression on both of their faces.

After the panic and rapid shot change the battle enters a more open environment than the enclosed one they just left. For this sequence a shot of the side of the King is used for quite a while.  The camera tracks the king and slow motion is used during this section. Using the slow motion and no longer using rapid shot changes shows that things have calmed down a bit and that the King and the Spartans are taking control. Also using slow motion makes the Kings attacks look more brutal. The sound during this part is also enhanced. The sound of the blows from the shield and the swift attacks with sword and spear sound more devastating because the sound is louder and lasts longer because slow motion is used.  Special effects such as blood and limbs getting severed make the scene look and feel more realistic.

After that sequence only a few Persians are left and the Spartans move forward to push them off the cliff. A close up of some of the Persians faces are used to show how scared they look. A birds eye view of the edge of the cliff show how far it is if they fall. Eventually when they are pushed off the edge a shot of them falling is used with the sun shining behind them which just shows them as silhouettes falling.

To conclude things such as the special effects make the film look and feel more realistic. Using rapid shot changes made the scene more exiting and tense because the viewer doesn’t know what will happen next. Finally a variety of camera shots are used for different aspects such as close ups to show how people are feeling and shots like birds eye views which help the viewer see the size of the battle.

The film Loneliness of the Long Distance was written by Alan Silitoe and directed by Tony Richardson. The film is set in Britain in the early 1960′s. The film is about a young man called Colin Smith (played by Tom Courtenay) who robs a local bakery but is later arrested and sent to a young offenders institution. However he quickly rises through the ranks of the institution through his skill of long distance running.

One of the first scenes of the film is Colin locked up in the young offenders institute. The viewer does not know how or why he has been locked up at this point. Whilst in the complex the boys have to different jobs such as gardening and taking apart machines on a daily basis. However the viewer soon realises that the Governor of the prison also encourages the boys to take part in athletics to try and change the boys attitudes towards life. Colin immediately catches the Governor’s eye by winning his first long distance run he takes part in. This gives the Governor the idea of letting Colin take part in the cross country run against a nearby public school, if he trains reguarly.

Whilst Colin is locked up at the institute he has a series of flashbacks about the time before he got arrested and locked up. The flashbacks involve different thmes such as his family life, his father dying and being replaced by a new “fancy man”, how him and some friends went away on a holiday to Skegness and when he robbed the bakery. The flashbacks give the viewer an idea of how hard his life was which eventually led him to commiting several crimes and eventually getting caught when the money he stole from the bakery gets washed out a drainpipe whil an police officer is at his door.

Back in prison Colin begins to gain the Governor’s trust by doing various jobs and training hard for the lond distance run. This good behaviour causes the Governor to allow Colin to leave the prison to train for the running event alone. The viewer feels that he may try to run and escape however he returns to the prison after training. Colin becomes the Governor’s favourite inmate and treats him differently to the other prisoners by not disciplining him lije the others.

Finally the long distance run arrives against the local public school. Immediately the viewer makes a comparison between the two sets of boys. The public school runners speak poshly and alos have better kits and equipment. When the race begins the main rival for Colin takes an early lead in the race. However towards the end Colin has a big lead over everyone else and looks set to easily win the race. When he is nearing the finish line he plays flashbacks of his life ,before he was arrested, in his head. When he is about to cross the finishing line he stops and a close up shows him smiling smugly at the Governor and allows the boy from the public school to win.

At the end of the film Colin is back in the machine shop and is completley ignored by the Governor.

I have chosen 300 for my favourite film sequence.

Genre: Action

Director: Zack Snyder

Cast: Gerard Butler (King Leonidas),  Lena Headey (Queen Gorgo),  David Wenham (Dilios),  Dominic West (Official), Rodrigo Santoro (Xerxes)

I have chosen one of the fight scenes where the persian army is thrying to take over the Hot Gates. I think it would be good for film analysis because ther are many different techniques that the viewer can identify. There is good use of editing in this scene. Slow Motion is used for part of the when the camera is traking only the Spartan Kings movement. This makes the attacks seem more brutal like when a leg gets sliced off and the Persian falls to the floor gradually while blood slowly spurts out form his severed limb. Also sound is emphasied during the scene like when somene is sliced with a sword or slammed with a shield. The slow motion used in this part of the fight scene causes a different feeling to that of the start of the scene. Whwn the King is moving in slow motion he seems very much in control of his actions. Unlike  the start of the scene when everything is fast paced and the camera is shaking around making the action seem more intense.

While watching Gangs of New York we had to look out different things such as Mise en Scene, camera angles and camera movement.

Mise en Scene icludes a variety of things such as: Setting, Costume, Props and Make Up. These four things were all used in the extract that we watched. The setting was one of the first things that I noticed. The town  was set up with a square of dusty surface surrounded by tall old looking buildings. The town square was where the fight took place later in the scene. The old looking buildings and the town square show that the film was set quite a while ago. Also it was snowing during the scene which showed the harsh conditions that they had to live in back then, without much heating and very thin, tattered old clothes. In the scene pigs were placed next to one of the buildings which added more realism to the scene.

Costume and make up were used to good effect in the extract. Hats were one of the main items of clothing to distinguish the Americans from the catholics. The Americans had big tall black hats with a blue band going around them. These hats were used to show the different teams but also that they were wealthier than the Irish catholics. You could also tell the difference in wealth from the clothes that each gang was wearing. The American’s had the hats, long coat and nice shoes while the Irish gang had tattered dirty looking clothes.

Props were also used in the sequence. One prop that was one of the main focuses before the fight started was the cross that the Irish leader was holding. This helped to show that the fight was not just about land but about religion. The weapons used for the fight scene were very old compared to todays weapons. However the weapons that were used in the scene showed the difference in class and wealth. The American gang had weapons such as swords and axes while the Irish gang looked like they had picked up anything they could get their hands on such as spades and random pieces of metal.

Camera andles and movement were also used in the scene to make it more dramatic. Long shots were used to show the number of people involved in the battle. Panning was also used to show the area the fight was taking place in as well as the distance between the two gangs. A lot of low angle shots were used to make different gagn members look more powerful and intimidating. Finally a shot of the American leaders false eye made him seem intimidating and quite scary. Also the shot was used to show the reflection of the eagle flying in the sky. The eagle is one of the main symbols used for America so this shot could also represent the gang fighting for American land.