Joss' Blog

Mise-en-scene The setting of this scene sequence is located in front of the house of Peter and Juliet and the street adjacent to it. The scene portrays an interaction between the characters Mark and Juliet in which Mark reveals his hopeless and forbidden love towards her. Due to the setting being located in a relatively urban area the viewer is shown the whereabouts of where these people live and instantly becomes accustomed to the type of housing visible, the area where this scene takes place is neither poor looking nor particularly wealthy, this infers to the reader that Peter and Juliet are of middle class and helps to further build on their characters by showing their place of living.   As the camera jump cuts between the two characters as Mark pours out his feelings through signs the street behind him is visible. With this scene being based around evening/Night time it is dark outside yet the street that would normally look ominous, due to the lack of other people walking ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSYmshgrTXg  - Our groups collective 2 minute horror movie opening scene

Juno (2007) Mise-en-scene, meaning and camera angles.   Scene 1: “I think it’s best to just tell them” In this scene, the director wants to portray the unavoidably awkward situation that Juno has to face whilst admitting her pregnancy to her farther and step-mother. The director wants the spectator to empathise with Juno and put themselves into the situation of having to admit something so life altering to the family members that are closest to you. The spectator immediately understands and relates to the feeling of being judged due to their actions by those nearest and dearest to them. The setting in this scene is based within the home of Juno and her family, the home is shown to be lived in and loved. This is proved by the amount of child’s drawings and pictures presumably of Juno and her sister as younger children visible throughout the area of the camera shot. The setting of the scene portrays a comfortable and cosy environment as Juno’s parents sit together recli...

Footage 1 and 2 takes place where the main conversation and present time will be filmed. Footage 3 and 4 takes place on and around the bridge, which we may use for the flashback; it doesn't matter if sound is recorded, as the flashback will be muted, so narration can be overlaid. The daylight will be good for filming, as the shadows through the trees will help to create contrast.

An important costume in our opening was the costume of 'the killer', we decided the actor would wear all black so there would be a sense of anonymity and mystery. The mask was significant to this scene because it made the anonymous figure more threatening and scary, the LED lights were effective in the darkness and made the character more memorable than just being faceless. For one of our main characters played by Esme we asked her to wear clothes that were suited to a forest environment and clothes that suited her age and weren't too bold so the audience’s attention was drawn to her acting and not her clothes. I like this still of her because I think the river behind her looks pretty in the lighting and she is central in the frame. I also think her expression is moving, she looks very afraid and perplexed. For one of our main characters played by Lucy, we chose a white t-shirt for her to wear as the blood would show up much clearer and bolder on a white t-shirt. We ...

Costume There are some typical costumes for characters in horror films, you would expect to see any little girl wearing a white dress with blood on it and her hair long and over her face such as the grudge, Samara from the ring and Regan from the Exorcist. Costume plays a big part in audiences identifying the antagonist at a glance, Freddy Kruger is famous for wearing a red and green striped jumper with knives for fingers and Jason from Friday the 13th wears a hockey mask which makes them both easily identifiable and famous. The clear style of a characters costume can quickly show audiences whether the character is good or evil.    For our horror opening we knew we wanted to incorporate some effects makeup as a way to demonstrate gore in horror. Initially, we wanted to go to a butchers and buy pig intestines or a sheep's heart, but then we decided this was too messy and gross and I had a fake heart we could use instead. From the beginning we knew the killer needed a mask...

A setting such as a forest or an abandoned building are typical locations for horror because they are usually enclosed, cut off from civilisation and unknown to the victim, the idea of being alone whilst running away/hiding from something builds tension and the feeling of helplessness. Forests are commonly used in horror settings like in Friday the 13th because they can be disorientating and characters can get easily lost in them, feeling hopeless and terrified, with no easy way of escape. Lighting Often in horror movies darkness is used because this limits the audiences vision which builds tension and fear of the unknown, the fear of the dark is a common fear that resides within most of us and so is effective in scaring the audience. The darkness is used to suggest it is concealing a presence that could harm the character and creates a sense of mystery, had some horror scenes been filmed in daylight it would completely lose this effect. Props There are a variety of p...

·   In this task, we deliberated as a group and came to the conclusion that we would film in a wooded area. ·   We would refrain from making the setting cliche, in order to make it original and interesting.  ·   In addition, we decided to make the victim young and innocent to make the killer seem much more sinister, brutal and merciless. ·   When we were generating ideas everyone wrote their own version of the story and then we chose our favourite parts of each and made a different story.

·   For this task, we watched existing openings for horror films.  ·   Once we completed this task, we came to the conclusion that we didn't want our opening to be funny and cliche.  ·   We realised we should use a drone for establishing shots to introduce the viewers to the eerie setting. ·   We wanted our opening to launch straight into the action and imply initial threat to keep the audience hooked.

·   We decided to do a horror film opening because we thought we would achieve more views as a lot of people these days are into gore and horror. ·   Also because the other Film Studies group were also doing horror so we thought it would be more of a competition if it was the same genre. ·   A horror film would create a  tense atmosphere keeping the audience intrigued and on edge.      ·   Horror seemed like quite a fun idea as it would be exciting to get creative and make all the gory scenes.