14/9/2011 - Textual Analysis (Updated)

Research: Textual Analysis

For our project we will investigate in to previous films that we feel will influence our media project as well as how we feature our short film in terms of camera and filming techniques. We have a variety of films such as James Bond: Casino Royal, Irreversible and two short films; The Last Three Minutes and The Black Hole. We will only be studying certain aspects and scenes from the films Casino Royal and Irreversible and the techniques used to make a short film effective. We will link the aspects together creating the three scenes that create our short film.

James Bond: Casino Royal

“Daniel Craig impressed me so greatly in his debut outing, Casino Royale, by introducing a more gritty, unrefined edge to the character that I thought Sean might just have to move over. Craig’s interpretation was like nothing we’d seen on screen before”.

I agree with this statement made by the acting of Daniel Craig in Casino Royale: he played his part rather well and I feel that one of the most effective parts was when he showed signs of Bond making mistakes at the start of his agent career. Craig pulled this off, exploring emotions that is also featured in the shower seen with Vesper Lynd. Both create an emotional scene that is combined with the effectiveness of the slow melodic soundtrack in the background.

For our first research film we will be looking at the shower scene from the 2006 film James Bond directed by Martin Campbell where Vesper Lynd played by Eva Green collapses in the shower through a tough phase of her life. We will use a similar scene to this in our production after Lily Rhodes played by Charlotte Moore is sexually assaulted. We will investigate the actors’ dedication and creativeness in James Bond and advice Charlotte how to act.

We will use similar music to the soundtrack featured in Casino Royal; which will add to the emotional outcome making it possibly awkward for the audience as they watch Charlotte (Lily Rhodes) in distress feeling her emotions. The song we will be using is Good Enough by Evanescence which will either be played on piano by Mark or we will simply use the backing track.

From the shower scene of Casino Royal we will use a few techniques that are used such as the two person high angle medium close up. We will use a close up like this on the woman sitting in the shower showing her body language and expression. We will similarly use the same body language as the girl and direct Charlotte to shiver from the freezing shower. The idea of the high angle view creates the impression that Bond and Lynd are vulnerable and we will take this assumption and use the same camera angle in our scene focusing on Rhodes. We will also take the shot of the camera moving away on a track from the scene. However obviously as students we don’t have this type of equipment and this is a limitation we face, therefore instead we will simply use a steady hand or a tripod to do this.

Instead of the woman remaining calm from Casino Royal we will have Rhodes throwing objects and knocking of toiletries to show her anger and frustration. This was our own idea which hasn’t been influenced by any movies that we have viewed. We will also feature a scream from Rhodes which isn’t seen in other research films however we felt this was the most effective way to explore Rhode’s true emotion.

Irreversible

“I’m not exactly a squeamish sort, but Irreversible nevertheless contains the two single most shocking scenes I’ve ever witnessed. Scenes so realistically horrific that they immediately had me quivering in a dark corner with fear and sickness.”

Even though this statement may be seen as true, it still explores well how the woman is mistreated and how vulnerable she is when approached. We will use the idea of her being approached the same way with a low camera angle on her as she is followed however we will not show so much of the assault, creating more close ups of certain body parts e.g. the man’s hand running up the woman’s leg so the scene we create clearly shows what is happening, allowing the audience to get some idea of the rape.

Irreversible is based on a film that involves a lot of sexual frustration, and intimacy. Rated 7.3 from IMDB, Irreversible explores the emotions and lives of many that are hurt or in love which we would like to take from this film concerning Rhode’s and how she deals with her emotions after the rape.

We like the idea of the man being hidden and will take this idea, keeping the audience on the edge of their seat as it builds suspense. We will hide the offender in our film by making Chris (who portrays this character) wear a hoody and hiding him the shadows of the tunnel it will be filmed in. This idea creates an unknown impression that puts you in the same mind as the woman being assaulted.

Obviously the whole idea of the rape in this scene is a subject that needs a lot of care and attention when we begin filming. With cries, screams and actions that will involve similar relations to an assault we will have to make people aware that we are only filming by creating signs on either side of the scene with people warning pedestrians when they go past. We will also have to explain to people in houses that filming is in progress, this will allow us to create an effective scene like Irreversible where both actors will be getting close however both are comfortable in the situation together.

The soundtrack and effect of the background noise builds up creating more suspense during the scene. We will use a similar chilling music that Irreversible used as it becomes louder during the assault. However we are not using the music during the rape and only after where we show Rhode’s depression.

Research: Textual Analysis (Short Films)

During the progress of planning our short film we felt it would be effective to analyse other short films that involve plenty of editing and camera techniques. We would not be necessarily paying much interest in the music as we are more than certain that the sound track we have chosen will fit fluently well with our short film.

We used the website http://www.filmsshort.com/ to review a variety of short films through different genres and came across “The Last 3 Minutes” and “The Black Hole”. We felt both hold effective camera techniques that will highly influence our production.

The Last 3 Minutes

The first film that we have chosen is called The Last 3 Minutes. The film is about an old man having a heart attack where flash backs of his life are featured.

The short film opens in a scene featuring a Caretaker who begins having a heart attack. From collapsing on the floor, some sort of crystal is dropped out his hands where the flash back begins; supposedly showing the life or the crystal in relation to the man being it’s owner.

In one of the scenes, the camera’s view is moving around in the direction of the man’s head; showing that theoretically we are the man’s view. We felt this was interesting as it allowed us to see things from his perspective. This is something we will consider in our short film with the woman being rape to put the audience in her position of fright and being upset.

When an object is in scene as the view of the man’s vision, the camera is focused upon it however often something else becomes in focus in the background and therefore the past object is put out of focus. This change of the man’s view is used to show the impotent’s of an object in the scene through the lens of the camera. This is a technique that as a group we think is important to us which will allow us to make the audience focus their concentration on a certain important object. We will attempt to create this with a Canon 500D camera to make our short film look professional throughout.

The Black Hole

The Black Hole is a film that came across our interest after realising the fact that it has no dialogue. From the start we are captivated by this factor and it begins with a man discovering a black hole. This object is something that encourages us to watch on and find out what it can achieve whilst following this usual everyday office worker.

When the first scene opens, we are revealed with the credits at the start over lapping the screen, whilst putting the background out of focus. This is something we will consider as it puts all the focus on to the title. Once we arrive to the man we feel he comes alive from his boring day job. This instantly makes us believe that something will change his life, which is something similar to our short films. We watched how he reacts causally and how there is no music making the film simple and effect. During the assault of our short film planned we feel having no music will make the scene quite tense a long with the idea of no sound.

Even though our group found this short film quite interesting, it wasn’t overly helpful, a part from a few key areas that could influence our film. With ideas already set in mind about what we want to achieve we believe that because this short film isn’t the same genre and same approach as us we can’t necessarily relate.