Researching Company Names

I researched existing Production Company Names on Wikipedia, and some that inspired me were:


- DreamWorks animation
- Anchor Bay
- Blue Sky Studios
- Paramount Pictures
- Tristar Pictures
- Warner Bros.
- Walt Disney
- Pixar Animation
- Touchstone pictures
- Elevating Entertainment


After researching these names, I considered some names that suited our theme of movie, for example:
-BlackStar
-EyesWide Producion
-PressPlay Production
-Shooting Star Production
-Rising stars Production
-KMG Productions
-BlackDust Productions

Inspirational Screen Grabs

Memento

This particular screen grab from memento whilst the protagonist is searching for his identity shows evidence of scars and acts of violence in his past life, and the close up shows this in detail and focuses on him, this is a shot we'd like to master.

This, another shot from memento which shows the main character attempting to retrieve his past as he finds a clue, this close up of his hand and the evidence and shows a tattoo too on his left arm, the close up allows us to see little details like this

This third shot i have chosen from memento shows the protagonists unconscious on the floor, and this shows the stillness of the frame and time.

Ghajani (Hindi Version)

This is another film that inspired us, this shot gave us the idea of using photographs to identify our protagonists enemies, and those she was killed.

This close up of the screen on the mobile phone is a good idea for a way in which the character attempts to find her past and learn who she is; we can attempt this too.

This shot in the film is a flashback, and shows the protagonist's memories that still linger.. We had this idea too, and this particular shot shows the close up that should be used, to show the pain and tension

The second image is the first image zoomed in, with an important name in bold which happens to be an important name or enemy in the protagonist's life so this shot emphasizes the importance of this piece of evidence.

This is a tracking shot, that follows the protagonist as he enters his home which he is unaware of, also this shot in the actual scene is videoed shakily to make an effective atmosphere, symbolizes the confusion we wish to attempt this.

These two shots show the protagonist awaking from somewhere unknown and this shows a close up of his face, and represents the film on the whole as a normal film, and doesn't give away much detail.

Theory of Binary Oppositions

Claude Levi-Strauss'
Theory Of Binary Oppositions


In 400 BC, Aristotle claimed that 'All drama is conflict' 


However, now in the 20th century Claude Levi-Strauss added that all stories are driven forward by conflict that is raised by characters and events opposing each other.
[OPPOSITES ARE IMPORTANT TO A STORY]

Binary Opposition:
A theory of meaning that can be used to look at some of the cultured beliefs built into texts. 


The way in which WE happen to understand something by looking at the difference between the word and it's opposite. 


Opposition can be visual: so light or dark, movement or stillness or emotions like love or hate.

Vladimir Propp's Theory On Character

Russian Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp's character theory (1895)
Propp analyzed 100 tales, and notices the characters in each narrative there are definitely as identified 8 characters that definitely appear. 

• The Villain 
• The Donor
• The (Magic) Helper
• The Princess 
• Her Father
• The Dispatcher
• The Hero
• The False Hero/Anti Hero 

The Villain 
This is the character that's seen to struggle against the hero


The Donor
This character prepares the hero or may give the hero a magical object


The (Magical) Helper
The character who helps the hero on his 'quest'


The Princess/prize
This is the character whom the Prince will marry, it brings forward the idea that the hero deserves her throughout the narrative but is unable to have her because of the role of a villain or evil in general. The narrative usually ends on a happy not, with the marriage of the hero and his lover which indicates the victory. 


Her Father 
This character takes the role of giving he hero the task and also identifies the false hero, but however his role in the narrative is not always clearly identified.


The Dispatcher
This character will encourage the hero to do whatever it is, he is to do(quest), and send him on his way.


The Hero
Simply the hero, also perhaps a victim who will eventually marry the princess. 


False Hero
Any character who claims falsely any of the hero's action as their own, and attempt to marry the princess instead. 


So, according to Propp all narratives had the same characters that carried out similar roles. Also traditionally appropriate to the time period he is from, Propp believed that the hero could only be a male, hence the categorization of 'princess' and not prince.   

Thriller Project, Early Research.

We began by brainstorming all possible ideas that can be considered for our thriller.

 We also came up with possible titles for the opening at our first group meeting.

• Unforgettable
• Forget Me Not
• Amnesia
• Remember Me?
• Rewind
• Preach 
• Watch Out.
• You're next!
• Who's Next?
• Voyeur
• Obsession
• Wasn't me.
• Lies.

 We also focused on our plot, our initial ideas: 

We decided the main issue would be that the main character who is a female, suffers from Amnesia. The opening begins with the character awaking and clueless of her surroundings and questions of her life. She crosses out names off pictures that are in the room she is in, which is not identified where. She ends up crossing out her own name, not sure why.. at this point enigma is created.

We considered the different possible sub genres, and then decided n the psychological thriller.

We further developed on the plot and decided that the female protagonist character who has amnesia would kill people, and we see evidence that she attempted to kill herself, but the answer as to why is kept away form the audience causing questions and grabbing their attention. The people she is out to kill are people who have abuse her.

This is the version of our more updates ideas for the plot of the whole film.

Narrative

A way in which narrative is understood is as a series of events, emphasizes on structure. There's a cause and an effect, Event B happens because of Event A; and therefore is in chronological order. the narrative however always centres around a crime, a theft or a murder.

The general Narrative Structure

gives us a basic situation of the story

Complication
Where the situation is disrupted

Climax/Crisis
the turning point

Resolution
where after the crisis, a new situation is established


French structuralist Tzvetan Todorov (1966)

Todorov's theory consists of the traditional idea that there are 5 stages to a narattive.

1. Equilibrium                                                                                                                                    The setting of the film is established, along with the main/key character
2. Distruption                                                                                                                                                    The oppositional character(s) is introducued, perhaps the villian; the atmosphere of the film will gradually decrease from happy to sad.
3. Recognition (of Distruption)                                                                                                           The lives of the characters are distrupted, and this causes the longet tension throughout the whole movie
4. Attempt to Repair                                                                                                                         The main character dradually stops being the victim and becomes the hereo
5. New Equilibrium                                                                                                                           The problem is solved/sorted out

Barthes' Theory
Barthes believed that texts can be either 'open' or 'closed'. He introduced five codes, however I am only studying two of the five codes in my curriculum at present; The enigma code & The action code.

Enigma code 
Enigma code that is also known as the proairetic code is literally the way the tension is built up, leaving he audience with questions of what's happening next. 


Active Code
This is the ideology that one action triggers another.



Beginning or exposition

The Bourne Identity NICCS Grid.

Element	Film: The Bourne Identity. Genre: Action thriller (spy)
Narrative Typical storylines and structure used	The protagonist in this film, suffers from retrograde amnesia and he also happens to be the government’s top agent; and is about to become the government’s number one target, this is an immediate change in the atmosphere. He spends a lot of the film running away and hiding from people, and attempts to find out who himself is before ‘they’ do.
Iconography Things we except to see	Things we would expect to see in this film are, fast-moving scenes, police cars, spies, agents, cars, sirens, guns, fighting, action,romance, police officers, (authority).
Characters Typical characters who drive the story forward	The protagonist of the film is, Matt Damon who takes on the role of the character Jason Bourne; there is also a female who gives him a lift to Paris, and of course the antagonists who he is running away from, the authorities.
Camerawork Typical Cinematographic style	Slow motion has been used to slow down the action and show Jason Bourne’s entrance in the trailer. Various different shots such as, short reverse shot, medium shot, close up and long distance has been used effectively. Short reverse shot has been used to establish many different views of an event. The shot has been zoomed in on too at very various point ot make it more effective.
Settings Typical locations used	Locations used in this film is the streets, Jason bourne’s home, secret agent’s office, and the hotel in paris.

Genre Documentary

Genre Documentary

Genre Lesson

In this lesson, we were working in pairs and we had mini printed versions of film posters and we had to chose which genre we thought it came under, we had a sheet with a range of different genres to help us and remind us of the genres that the films may fit into.

The genres above are: Western, Horror, Melodrama/Weepers,Comedy, Action, Guy Films, Musicals/Dance, Thriller/Suspense, Crime&Gangster, Science Fiction, Film Noir, Great Chick Flicks, Fantasy, Romance, Disaster, War, Children/Family and Animated, however hybrids such as romantic comedys are not mentioned. 

Batman Dark Night

 This is one of the many film posters analysesd, and i decided it was a a mysterious althgough it's not on the list and that it was a guy film,  i judges this from the main character himself and also the background with the orange and bats flying from the sky, which is not quite blue.

Dr DoLittle3

The above movie poster came across to me as a comedy film, as it clearly indicates comedy with the animals in the poster and a monkey dressed in clothes which you don't often see, however i also thinnk it also falls into the Family/Childre genre.

Creep

Lesson on Genres.

GENRE

Analysis of 'Silence Of The Lambs'

This film opens with a shot of scenery in a dull and dismal atmosphere with only the colours black & white, with an eerie non-diegetic soundtrack in the background setting the scene(for the duration of 29-40 seconds).

As the credits are being listed frame by frame the camera frame moves lower and lower gradually and the speed slows down even more when the film name is revealed. As the credit appears again the frame is originally zoomed out as a female character heaves herself up a hill with the aid of a rope, as she approaches the top the camera moves away from her. As she reaches the top there's a mid angle shot of her breathing heavily of exhaustion. 

Consecutively she runs out the frame on to the woodlands, the next shot is a tracking shot following the actress, however the tracking pace does not equal the speed of the actress as she is slowly moving away fro the camera resulting in a long shot; the frame is on screen till she fades away into the mist.

The following shot is a close up of her face as she runs(match-on-action), although the eerie music is still present the volume is high and low at different points, and now the soundtrack also consists of simply the treading of her trainers, birds in the distance and her breathing. The scenery around the actress is dull and uninviting; this may suggest the isolation of the setting and highlight a negative image.

Soon she reaches a climbing flame and then she climbs over the climbing frame which then suggests that it's part of a training of some sort; a tracking shot is taken moving around the character climbing up the frame, this may be to create the idea that she is the main character, and too emphasize on her struggle.Later we learn that she in fact carrying out a training as a male character that has the appearance of a trainer approaches her and tells her to see someone in their office which results in her running the way she came from.

The next scene happens to still be the woodlands but  she passes a tree that has 'pain' 'hurt' 'agony' 'love-it' nailed on the wall, creating a harsh and strict atmosphere.

After she reaches a building that appears to be where a training institution is located. Once she is inside the building she is greeted by a fellow trainee, and another further on which enlightens us on her characteristics that she is a sociable character that has friends.

On her way to see the person whom called her she gets into a lift with men wearing red t-shirts, which singles her out as she is the only female and wearing a completely different colour. Two men are also looking down at her one either side perhaps indicating she doesn't fit in or suggesting a patriarchal that all men are higher than women.

She is then in an office waiting for someone, while she looks around the shot tracks around with her, suddenly we see a close up shot of her face, this shot is used to show the reaction she makes to something she has seen.

The next shot immediately shows the audience what had caught her eye it turns out to be disturbing pictures and clippings of newspapers on his wall, while we see this a mysterious soundtrack is also played in the background to create tension.

When the shot is back on her face, it's taken from the side also showing the man she came to see not in focus, but quite obviously watching her.