Evaluation

Evaluation

My final post is about my personal evaluation on the end result; overall, i found it a long yet rewarding process and I learnt a great deal on how each stage of creating a film sequence is just as hard as the last.

Thinking of an idea was probably the most easy part of it as we knew what we, as an audience, would most like to see. There was some arguments at first with the details of the storyline but in the end we all added our own ideas into it together and learned to compromise. I think our final opening sequence matches a description of an action genre perfectly and there is nothing that I would change about it, although I think if we were to re film we would of had more people involved with the film to make the chase even more exciting than it already is.

The actual filming was a very long process because, although we had a storyboard to stick to, we thought it was wise to do all the filming in one night so that we could edit it all together and so we were filming constantly for hours. We also wanted to get as many different shot types in as possible to make our opening  as varied and interesting as possible. There was no point during editing where myself or anyone else in the group mentioned regret that we did not try certain camera angle for a particular shot.

I had no idea how long the editing process is until we finally finished. It was amazing how a couple of seconds could change a shot completely and make it even more exciting or interesting. When we first thought we'd finished and we showed it to the class, things that I did not notice were pointed out and I'm glad that we were able to show it and now feel that the opening sequence is definitely better than it was at the first showing and so now I am happy with the end result of the editing.

The music is my favourite part of the whole opening sequence, the dramatic piano music at the very beginning sets the mood of the film straight away and shows the seriousness of storyline. The street style song during the chase shows the focused age group for our audience and the lyrics almost fit in with the storyline perfectly. I would of liked to have more footage so that the music could be played in the sequence for longer.

I believe that my groups hard work and effort shines through in our opening sequence and I am very happy with our ending result.

Another evaluation has been filmed with myself and the two other members of my group which can be seen on the group blog. The link of this post is shown below:

Evaluation Post

Our Final Version !

Our Feedback

We received many useful comments for our first final film opening sequence and below shows the comments received from our teacher.

Our First Showing

This video shows our first "finished" film opening sequence. At first we were happy with what we came up with but felt that we wanted other opinions and suggestions from our classmates and our teacher so that we could make the film opening even better and hopefully get a better mark.

Our Chosen name

Below shows the website where we found the name for our film... "In the Red". We thought it sounded dramatic and powerful and didn't give anything about the film narrative away.

Coming up with a name

Today we finished editing our first completion of our opening sequence. We then had to fill out sheets explaining what the film was about and the first question was "What is you film's title?". We had not thought about the title of the film at all and so we thought that the best way to go about it was to brainstorm names that we, as a group, liked the sound of. Firstly, we thought about the story of the film and made a list of words that described the storyline, below shows what we came up with:

Editing Process

Overall, I think that the filming went well and there were no major problems that prevented my group from getting the wanted footage. Occasionally, when looking over what we had just filmed, we didn't realise that you could see the camera through the reflection of the windows and mirrors and so we had to do them again. The filming took longer than expected but we wanted to get as much footage to work with as possible and filmed scenes from a range of different angles.

Editing is a very long process, we imported all the footage in one piece so that we could see everything that we wanted to work with, this alone took most of the first editing lesson.

First day of filming

Today is our first day of filming. We hope to get all of our footage done today so that the editing process is quicker and easier. We are going to film at Adams house and so permission is not needed. However, we wanted to film in William Hill but because we are under the age of 18 we were not allowed in the shop. The owners will allow us to film by the entrance only so we thought that we would have to have a fade in cut to show that the character had been in there for a long time.

Analysing Opening Sequences-The Prestige

Opening Sequence

As the production companies appear, there is complete silence so tension has already began to build before the film has even started. The title appears immediately shows on the screen and stays on as a visual bridge as the black background fades into the first scene: a group of identical top hats in the middle of a forest. The audience do not know why they are there or who they belong to and so the first image has already filled the audience minds with questions. "Are you watching closely?" an off-screen question quietly asked to the audience; again the audience then have more questions in their head like who said it, are we supposed to be looking at the hats, if so, why? This is done to get the audience to make the effort to remember this scene foreshadowing that our questions will eventually be answered. This makes this a successful opening sequence in which the audience are already hooked and wanting more.

There is then a sudden direct cut to take the audience to the next scene. The quiet, mysterious atmosphere changes to what looks like a frantic, noisy scene as we see caged birds chirping and flying around everywhere. We then hear an off-screen non-diegetic narrator whose voice can be recognised anywhere as they are so well known. Michael Caine walks into the shot and so now the audience that the narrator is a character in the story. The audience are also introduced to the main subject of the film: magic. As the audience listen, we see two different magic tricks, one is small to entertain a young girl, another is entertaining a huge audience and looks dangerous. These two tricks both involve the the audience of the film as we cannot see how the trick is being performed meaning that the audience feel like they are part of the film. Hugh Jackman's character is also recognisable to the audience and so, although he does not say anything, we know that this is most likely to be one of the main characters of the film and so we concentrate more closely onto what he is doing.

As a character goes backstage, the audience discover the final well known actor of the opening sequence; Christian Bale and from his dialect, are mislead into thinking that he is part of this great trick. As he travels down the stairs, the use of dark lighting and colour creates suspense and then we realise that this is no ordinary magical genre film; we get our first glimpse of mystery and horror. There is a strong feeling of fear and shock as the audience catch a quick glimpse of an old man with cold, all-white eyes. Although the narrating voice continues, the scene suddenly changes back to Michael Caine and the little blonde girl to emphasise the contrast of the innocence of the child, and the horror and possible evil of the man under the stage.

As the end of the trick is drawing closer and closer, the timing between the different cuts of the two scenes become shorter and shorter to build up suspense and tension. Also at this point, the bigger trick starts to look more dangerous and the lightning keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, emphasising again that this is no ordinary magical magician story-line. As the small bird and the character disappears, the noise coming from the machine stops, the audience in the theatre are silent and so is the little girl. The sudden drop of sound level hooks the audience as we wait for the final part of the film; which Michael Caine gives the correct name... The Prestige. The audience immediately recognise this as the title of the film and so we now know more about the films story-line, it is about a trick (or possibly an event) coming to an end. The audience are then shocked and scared as we see that the big trick went wrong and the magician is drowning, another contrast to the smaller trick.

To add a final and dramatic twist to an exciting film opening, we realise that the narrative of Michael Caine was actually a long sound bridge that took us to the present tense, although we did not realise we had been watching scenes that had already happened.

Analysing Opening Sequences-The Dark Knight (2008)

Opening part 1
Opening part 2

As the company logos appear, dramatic, tension building sound effects can be heard. The subtle yet dark symbol of Batman appears through the smoke, immediately setting the mood of the film and engages the audience's attention. A straight cut takes us to the first scene; Gotham City. The non-diegetic instrumental music gets louder as a zoom in camera movement takes us closer and closer to one building window. There are no credits appearing anywhere which tells the audience that they want us to concentrate only on what is happening. Although the audience know that this is a super-hero film that is going to include unrealistic events, the lighting and setting makes it look like a everyday scene making the super-natural seem realistic, almost automatically bringing the audience simply into another city rather than a whole new way of life. The window then explodes so the audience get their first taste of action. However, the music does not change which is a sign to the audience that this is not the main focus of the opening sequence, that there is still more to come which keeps the audience hooked and wanting more.

The first characters in the story are then shown to the audience. Instead of having normal, everyday robbers in balaclavas, the audience are introduced to criminals who are all wearing different clown masks. The clown masks are a symbolism of fear; although clowns are supposed to be people that make you laugh, there are many who have a great phobia of them. Therefore, when there is a focus on one robber and another zoom in shot takes us closer to his mask, the audience suspect that there is possibly more to this robber than meets the eye and so we are wanting answers already from this opening sequence; who are these clowns and why is this one (shown above) the main focus?
As a car pulls in the scene to pick up a robber, the non-dietetic music then changes to an even louder sound that is more dramatic, creating a constant build of tension with the music. Once the currently unknown character is in the car, the audience receive a small amount of information about the narrative: "So why do they call him the Joker?". The joker has been one of the most famous villains in comic book history, so the audience already have a brief idea of what this character is going to be like and we also know that he has organised this robbery. The robbers in the story, however, have only heard rumours about him: "I heard he wears make-up!"



The audience then get what they have been looking for as the action begins. As the robbers enter the bank, there are strong on-screen diegetic shot guns and screams of the bank's customers sound effects which gives them a dramatic entrance. This particular part of the opening sequence has a tracking shot; this allows the audience to follow their every move which makes them feel more involved in the film. This also adds excitement to the opening sequence.


Action then turns into danger as the people in Gotham City Bank's lives are literally in their own hands. A bank worker than appears and misleads the audience into thinking he is going to stop the robbers and save everyone. Another twist then occurs as the clown shoots him (this is done again with powerful and dramatic diegetic sound effects). 

The narrative then becomes more clearer to the audience as each robber kills the one who did the last job (like disable the alarm or open the safe). We discover how clever and manipulative the Joker is by how he has organised this bank robbery. To make the opening sequence even more entertaining, comedy is added as one robber thinks he has sussed out what is going on but is too late as he is hit by a bus: "no no no no... I kill the bus driver" Yet there is still the hook for the audience as we do not know where or who the Joker is.

The opening sequence comes to a heavily dramatic and yet massively entertaining end. The Joker finally reveals himself to the audience with a memorable, dark line "I believe that whatever doesn't kill you simply makes you...stranger" and a creepy evil grin.

Analysing Opening Sequences-JAWS (1975)

Opening Sequence Link

As the production companies appear scuba diving sounds can be heard, this means that already the audience have a brief idea of where the majority of the film is going to be set. The feature that makes this opening sequence so effective is the soundtrack. This trademark soundtrack can suddenly be heard as the first credit appears. The two low base notes in the soundtrack build incredible dramatic tension as an underwater, point of view shot fades in with the opening credits. The soundtrack became so well-known because it is so effective; it gradually gets louder and louder creating an interesting and dramatic texture. The soundtrack manages to manifest a dark, tension building atmosphere which introduces the horror style genre to the audience. Later on in the film the audience discover that this is the non-diegetic signal that the shark is coming to attack. As "JAWS" appears in the middle of the screen, the next layer and the most important part of the theme tune can be heard; the horns. The sound eventually becomes so loud that the audience are mislead into expecting a visual scene of horror to appear. This was obviously the desired reaction as the scene suddenly changes.
An easy-going, teenage atmosphere appears as the audience can hear a campfire burning, guitar playing and young people laughing, drinking and having a good time. This is done to almost make the audience forget the horror genre that was introduced so that when the horror scene appears, the audience will be even more shocked and scared.

Our focus then turns to a young, and obviously drunken, boy; he notices that a beautiful girl with long blonde hair has her eye on him. He approaches her and sits by her which again misleads the audience as they get a small glimpse of romance. For the audience, romance then turns into excitement as the girl gets up and starts running. As the boy follows, the atmosphere changes again; the campfire no longer provides light to the scene which creates suspense. The wooden fence that they are running across looks like teeth.... meaning the horror is back and the tension is yet again building. She dives into the sea and swims around, in a scene that was darker than the last, meaning that the less the audience can see, the more tension is created. The horror soundtrack appears as we have another point of view shot. This is when the audience realise that the character's point of view we are seeing is Jaws himself. The soundtrack builds and builds until the girl is finally pulled down. Screams of horror shock and scare the audience as she is thrown around in the water. The scene then jumps to the drunken sleeping boy on the shore where only relaxing sounds of the waves can be heard, creating an interesting contrast between the two scenes. She is suddenly taken under, the audience are left stunned as the girl can no longer be seen or heard.

Harry Potter Sound exercise

Knowing that planning to start our film opening sequence was coming up, in order to get a good idea of what sounds created the best effects, we experimented a soundtrack for the opening of the fifth Harry Potter film. I personally really enjoyed this exercise as it made me realise just how important small sound effects are and how much they contribute the overall mood of the scene. Below is the video that shows what I came up with.

Planning our Storyboard

We decided to go with the action/thriller genre as we thought it allowed the most opportunities to add in varied shots. We then had to come up with a basic storyline for our film opening and so wrote a storyboard:

Planning our film opening

In my group, we decided to make a spider diagram of possible genres for opening sequences. We thought that this would make coming up with ideas for our storyboard easier as we would have a genre style to stick to. Below shows the spider diagram:

Harry Potter Film Release

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Simple things have a great effect....


When a new film is soon going to be released in the cinema, good advertisement is essential for the film to be successful. Usually it is very easy to draw audiences in with large, dramatic posters, one of which is shown below. The background is dark, which gives the audience signs of the style and genre of the movie. The bright object also stands out in the background so that the poster is eye catching; it also gives a magical and mysterious edge to the poster. In all cases, the bolder the poster, the more dramatic the film is going to seem and the more likely that larger numbers will see the poster and therefore want to see the movie. "One way, one fate, one hero"; minimal amount of text is usually the most effective as it can appeal to most age groups and these words are extremely dramatic making the audience wanting to know more. The title of the film has its own trademark font which means it can be recognised all around the world and again it stands out against the dark background of the poster. The website at the bottom is given so that audiences can get more information about the film which is also another form of advertisement.

....but going the extra mile is important.

Posters, leaflets, fast-food advertisement, trailers are all common forms of advertisement which always attract many audiences as they are a part of their every day life. However, the final two films of one of the greatest movie series ever is a massive event and so the need for part 1 of the finale to have large numbers of audiences is massive. In order to achieve this, advertisers have taken it to a new level, which is shown below.
Instead of just a thin film advertisement going across a bus as it usually is, the whole bus is covered with images to advertise the release of the new Harry Potter film. Because a bus is always on the move, more people will be able to see it and also because of the unusual colour of the decorated bus it is more eye catching. This makes this new advertising technique incredibly effective and the new film can attract new audiences.

"How effectively does the opening sequence from 'Children of Men' (2006) use the forms and conventions of film openings? What is your personal response as a member of the audience?"

"Children of Men" is an american film released in 2006. Although this film was not a particularly great financial success, it received positive reviews from critics and was recognised for its achievements with three Academy Award nominations and winning two BAFTA awards. This was down to their unique screenwriting, exciting and creative cinematography and innovative single shot action sequences. All of these can be found in their opening sequence alone which is what makes it so effective.

There were many different features that contributed to make the opening sequence of the film a great success. The film begins with off-screen non diegetic news casting as the credits appear; the blank, dark screen allows the audience to concentrate only on what they are hearing which was the aim of the opening as the audience need to listen to the essential information of the setting. "Day 1000 of the siege of Seattle"- a small line that gives an audience a lot to think to about as we are given the setting, and the mood of the population there. A sound bridge is used to bring the audience to the first scene of the film; "the world was stunned today by the death of Diego Riccardo the youngest person on the planet". This one statement causes the audience to ask a number of questions and immediately captures their attention and makes them want to see more, when I first watched this part of the opening sequence I realised I was watching a film about a world without any children and I remember asking myself why this was.

The first scene appears as the audience see a crowd of people surrounding a television in a café. This tells the audience that the person who died on the news meant a great deal to the people; this again raises more questions for the audience. There is little camera movement in this scene with only the occasional cut, this along with the dull lighting, ties in with the mood given during the opening credits. In this scene the audience can see that the crowd's facial expressions are all very similar (saddened and depressed) , pin pointing the audiences first main focus: Clive Owen. A well-known star suddenly appearing in this scene naturally caught my eye as he is very recognisable. However, if a member of the audience did not know who he was, he stands out mainly because he is the only one who is more concerned about getting his coffee than what the breaking news story is.

So far in the opening the audience has a strong idea about the narrative: it is a time of great depression in a world where there is no children. The boy on the news was born in 2009 and died at the age of 18 and so the audience now knows that this film is set in the future, giving hints of a science fiction genre. The description on the news of "the siege of Seattle" alos gives hints of a dramatic and tragic storyline. When watching this opening I had all this information in my head but I didn't know why the setting had become like this in the future, this was an important feature of the opening that drew me in and made me want to see more in order to get some answers.

As the main character steps out of the café, the audience are stunned by the amazing cinematography. A small date appears to remind the audience that this film is set in the future and tells them that the location is London. There are shops in the background such as Tie Rack and Santander bank which creates familiarity for the audience. The lighting was the same as it was in the café; dull and like everyday life making the scene easier to relate to for the audience and very realistic and believeable.The use of futuristic props also stand out in the scene, for example the easily recognisable big red buses had moving videos on the side rather than just posters. These props do not only tell us where the film is set, but what the setting is like; for example when I was looking in the corners of the setting, I saw helicopters were flying around and there were signs on top of the buildings saying "Please report suspicious activity. I thought then after seeing these features that there is a high frequency of crime in this time period.

Then in this scene, we get to know a little bit about the character; Clive Owen takes his coffee, puts it down and then takes something out of his coat. I remember firstly just assuming that he was adding sugar to his coffee, however, when I looked closer I could see that he was adding alcohol. I considered this to be a strange thing for someone to do as it was obviously during the early hours of the day. To me, this shows that he is quite a complex character who could have some issues but it also made me wonder whether this had become a normal habbit for most people in the future.

After giving a little more information of the character, the audience are suddenly shocked by an enormous explosion that took place in the café that he was standing in a few seconds ago. A gathering of smoke keeps the audience unaware for longer so that the suspense builds and makes the explosion more dramatic. The perfect ending to an opening sequence is shown as a piercing high pitch noise adds a sense of horror to the final few seconds. Great shock and fear comes over the audience as a girl appears through the fog screaming as she is holding her own arm. The title then appears and the audience have already experienced the amazing action and horror in just the opening sequence which is what made it so effective and dramatic.

Comparison Essay

How are the sequences from “Pillow Talk” and “Fringe” different? Discuss the

differences in pace and style of editing as well as the effect the editing has on

Meaning the audience’s reception of the extracts.

The “Pillow Talk” extract is from the film which was a romantic comedy that was made in 1959. The “Fringe” extract is from a science-fiction, thriller television series whose first broadcast was in September 2008. Except the fact that these extracts were made over 50 years apart, there are many other differences.

Firstly, looking at the cuts in the extract, after looking at both, I noticed that Pillow Talk had a split-screen cut to show a two-way conversation that was taking place over the phone. This was done mainly because technology was not as advanced as it is today and so the discovery of being able to have a split screen in a film was exciting for the editors of the film but more importantly the audience. The split-screen’s meaning allowed the audience to watch both character’s reactions and what they were both doing at the same time making the scene different and interesting. 

Thinking about meaning, this cut in the scene does affect the narrative of the storyline as we are not mainly seeing the story from one character’s point of view, but all characters as a whole.

This particular cut was also one of the longest in the sequence which would have lost the interest of modern audiences even though both extracts were probably aimed at similar age groups around the time they were shown. However, as the editing process took longer around the time that the film was being made and so the audiences back then were used to having such long cuts in the scenes. Therefore, an audience’s response to this “old-fashioned” extract would be different today then it would when the film was first shown.

 In “Fringe”, being a modern television series, the cuts are much shorter so that the attention is not lost from the audience and it was a good way to build up tension in the extract when necessary. This is referring particularly to the end scene where a man is being interviewed; as the scene progresses the cuts become quicker and more frequent, showing the increasing intensity of the conversation. This also makes the extract seem a lot more dramatic to modern audiences.

The split screen also continued in the next cut of “Pillow Talk” but there was a close-up onto the character’s faces. This allowed the audience to have a better view of the character’s emotions and reactions to each other therefore making it easy for the audience to understand how the character is feeling. This is one of few similarities that this sequence has with “Fringe”; although not as few as “Pillow Talk”, it had a mixture of mid-shots and close ups in a two-way conversation in a scene, making it more interesting to the audience and easier to relate to. “Fringe” close ups were slightly different in which the camera was zoomed in much closer and so it was easier for the audience to see and understand the emotion experienced from the characters. 

The other editing technique that I noticed was the fade out shot that took place around the 23^rd second of the extract of “Pillow Talk”. This is done to imply to the audience that this scene is taking place quite a long period after the previous. This style of editing is rarely used in modern films as modern audiences are used to being able to assume that the next scene is set at a later time which is why the style was not used in “Fringe”.

Secondly, looking more closely at the different styles of the extracts and focusing on the elements of mise-en-scene, the extracts are very different mainly because of the time period in which they were made. Because coloured films had not been around for very long, the use of colour in film was not experimented with as much as it is today. In “Pillow Talk” the use of colour almost gives the scenes an artificial look but ,again with the limitations of 1950’s technology, the audiences were used to seeing colours as bright as that on television. The film’s genre was also a romantic comedy and so the bright colours were appropriate. “Fringe”s use of colour was a lot darker to reflect the situations in the scene and to reflect the genre of science-fiction and thriller. This also applies to the lighting in both extracts; in “Pillow Talk” the lighting is always bright (even when sitting at a bar in the evening) and in “Fringe” the lighting gives the scenes a slight darkness to then (especially when a short cut was shown outside during the day) this gives the similarity of both extracts having the suitable colour and lighting or their genre.

The elements of mise-en-scene also reflect on how we, the audience, see the characters. The brightness of “Pillow Talk” gives the connotation with the characters being fun, happy and charmingly witty characters and the darkness of “Fringe” makes the audience think that the characters are evil, depressed and/or extremely emotionally complicated.

Both extracts are very different to each other but so were the audiences at the times they were both being made; “Fringe” being a modern television series to us has a positive emotional and dramatic response from modern audiences as did “Pillow Talk” when it was first released in 1959.  Therefore, the audience reactions would have been quite similar; interested and excited about the new “modern” editing styles

Starting Comparisons

After having now completed the preliminary sequence, I feel that I can now familiarise myself with the different types of shots and cuts. In class we have been also looking at different successful film openings in order to gain knowledge of what makes a good opening sequence. We have now been assigned an essay to comment and compare these features.

My Group's Preliminary Sequence

This video is of our preliminary sequence. It shows our research and experimentation of the different shot types. We found this a very useful exercise as it brought us together as a group, it allowed us to get use to all the equipment and figure out how to use them productively and it taught me many different shot types that I had never heard of or seen. These shots could be used in our film opening sequence and so we kept these shots in mind.

The Formation of Group P

After returning from the school holidays, we were put into groups for our film opening, together we would create our own film opening sequence for our AS coursework. We were given the group name Group P and my group was myself, Shauna and Adam. We were then told that our first assignment as a group would be to create a preliminary sequence.

Secrets and Lies - THIRTEEN

Notes on THIRTEEN

Mise-en-scene 

Costume – The gentlemen all look very smart and neat in their suits and are also colour coordinated with each other; this shows that they wanted to show a connection between all of them (e.g possibly business partners).

Body language&Facial expression- All of the men have enthusiastic smiles with their hands neatly in the pockets before the shot has been taken. However, as soon as the flash goes off the smiles immediately fade, the hands come out of the pockets and a man even checks the time. This shows that they were not as enthusiastic about the photo as they made out. Their sudden change in expression tells the audience that the photo shoot was actually an inconvenience for them.

Lighting– There is a darker background and strong lighting coming from above the gentlemen shining down this is so that the main focus are the gentlemen and the darker, plain background makes the light source clearer and could also be considered as a prop backdrop for the photo shoot.

Sound- There is no music while the photo shoot is taking place so the speech from the photographer is clearer and their lines. The gentlemen have no dialogue; this could be to show how they just want to get it over with.

References to Britain- The photographer has a stereo typical cockney accent and there is a stereotype towards british men as being dull, unattractive characters .

Colour- There is a lack of bold, bright colours to reflect the dullness of the situation and the moods of the gentlemen.

Secrets and Lies - TWELVE

Notes on TWELVE

Mise-en-scene 

Costume & Props – The woman in the shot is wearing a very revealing and very sensual outfit; black lingerie along with a long, black opaque blouse and black heels. This costume reveals that the photo is mainly for private showing. On the right side of her is a column to make the photo more dramatic and more like a painting.

Body language&Facial expression- The woman is sprawled across the sofa and a very suggestive and sensual pose. Her lips are pouted to show that she wants to look attractive during the shot. However after the flash the nervous laugh and the "this is silly line" reveals to the audience that the photo was possibly not her idea.

Lighting– There is a darker background and strong lighting coming from above the woman shining down this is so that the main focus is the woman and the darker, plain background makes the light source clearer and could also be considered as a prop backdrop for the photo shoot.

Sound- There is no music while the photo shoot is taking place so the speech from the photographer and the woman is clearer and their lines are overlapping; this gives the scene a very realistic setting.

References to Britain- The photographer has a stereo typical cockney accent and the woman has a typical posh sounding London accent.

Colour- There is a lack of bold, bright colours in order to create a dark sensual look to the painting.

Stereotypes are used frequently in this clip so that it is easy to relate to and is entertaining. 

Secrets and Lies - ELEVEN

Notes on ELEVEN

Mise-en-scene 

Costume – The little boy has his blonde hair combed over to make him look smart and cute. He is wearing a little red waistcoat and black shorts which is quite old fashioned clothing and so the aim of this shot was to make the photo seem like it was taken decades before, it also again makes the boy look smart. The woman (possibly the mother) is wearing baggy clothing (which was fashionable at the time).

Body language&Facial expression- The little boy is clearly unaware of what is going on and is not cooperating with his parent for the shot as he places his finger up his nose. This is done for comedic effect as the dirty nose picking activity contrasts with the smart clothing. The woman also has to grab his hand and hold it on the arm on the sofa to show him how she doesnt want it up his nose. This is a very motherly gesture giving the audience hints of the relationship between the two of them.

Lighting– There is a darker background and strong lighting coming from above the little boy shining down to make him more apparent in the photo. Also, darker, plain background makes the light source clearer and could also be considered as a prop backdrop for the photo shoot.

Sound- There is no music while the photo shoot is taking place so the speech from the photographer allows the comedy coming from the lines are heard by the audience. The lines are also overlapping; this gives the scene a very realistic setting.

References to Britain- The photographer has a stereo typical cockney accent. However the woman has a very recognisable irish accent.

Colour- There is a lack of bold, bright colours except from the little boy's red waistcoat and his blonde hair which makes him stand out in the shot.

Stereotypes are used frequently in this clip so that it is easy to relate to and is entertaining. 

Secrets and Lies - NINE

 Notes on NINE

Mise-en-scene 

Costume – Typical late 1980 to 1990 style dress, women wearing unsuited clothing which looks like they have attempted to look more youthful and fun. The woman on the left is wearing a white cropped shirt with light high-waisted jeans and has very wild curly red hair; this is a look that would look fashionable on a younger person however the aim of her costume was to show the audience that the women were desperately holding on to their youth. The woman in the middle is wearing a opaque blouse which is unbuttoned low enough to see her cleavage and her lingerie style top; a combination revealing to the audience her want to look alluring and sensual in the photo. The woman lying is wearing a short skirt with an open embroidered jacket showing a small section of her bra again showing the audience a desperate attempt to make herself seem youthful and sensual. The three women are also wearing bold coloured lipstick to make themselves also seem more attractive.

Body language&Facial expression- The women in the shot are clearly enjoying themselves because of the smiles and the laughter that comes immediately after the shot has been taken but this could also be to hide their embarrassment of what they are doing. Before the shot is being taken, the woman are making very strong, suggestive and sensual poses with their tongues out making the shot seem quite vulgar to the audience.

Lighting– There is a darker background and strong lighting coming from above the women shining down this is so that the main focus is the women and the darker background makes the light source clearer and could also be considered as a prop backdrop for the photo shoot.

Sound- There is no music while the photo shoot is taking place so the speech from the photographer and the laughter from the women is clearer. Their lines are also overlapping which gives the scene a very realistic setting and feeling of an everyday event

References to Britain and stereotypes- The photographer has a stereo typical cockney accent otherwise there are no more obvious british stereotypes. However the stereotype of older single women being desperate is clear in this.

Colour- There is a lack of bold, bright colours to reflect the attempted sensuality of the shot.

Secrets and Lies - TEN

Notes on TEN

Mise-en-scene 

Costume – The woman on the left looks as though she is dressed for work; smart casual with her hair up and away from her face. The woman on the right has a loud printed dress (which was quite fashionable at the time) but the style was designed to be comfortable and easy to wear, features that mostly attracted mothers and so the woman's costume tells the audience that she is wants those around her to know that she is a proud mother. The three children in the middle are all wearing baby blue ballerina outfits. This tells the audience that the mother wanted this shot to make her three "miracles" look like cute and beautiful ballet dancers.

Body language&Facial expression- The mother shows her excitement for the photo shoot through her constant grin and her fast adjustments of the girl's tutu. The children are standing very still holding a dancers pose which they were obviously instructed to do so. The children's facial expression are blank to show how they are oblivious to the conversation going on around them. 

Lighting– Unlike all the other shots, there are two spot lights coming from each top corner of the shot. These spotlights are often visible in theatres during performances and so the mother could want the shot to look like the three girls are performing.

Sound- There is no music while the photo shoot is taking place so the speech from the mother and the helper is clearer.

References to Britain- The mother has a typical posh sounding London accent.

Colour- The three girls are wearing light coloured clothing which stands out making the girls the main focus of the shot (which is obviously the mother's aim).

Stereotypes are used frequently in this clip so that it is easy to relate to and is entertaining.