Deconstruction of The Lovely Bones - Journal

Mise en Scene

'The Lovely Bones' is a supernatural drama directed by Peter Jackson however the film itself features elements of stalking and obssessive behaviour which we hope to use in our plot for our film opening. My primary focus when looking at 'The Lovely Bones' will be the antagonist's, George Harvey, journal, which show his plans and observation to capture his victim 'Suzy Salmon'.

Firstly when looking into the film I looked for scenes where the antagonist uses the journal to make notes and sketches. When he makes notes in his journal he does it within the own comfort of his home. He usually does this within his bedroom whilst sitting on/in his bed.

The most common type of entry in his journal is architectural sketches of houses and concepts to lure his victim in. Along with these there are also observations of the everyday activities of his 'victim' and snippets of pictures of his victim and a clipping of hair.

Clipping of hair and image of victim

Observations and time keeping of his victim and family  

 Another entry in the journal is of a map plotting a route. This could be used to mark the typical route home in order to follow his victim. The use of the map would be a good concept within our film opening to show the stalker's attention to the fine details and obsessive behaviour to feel the need to keep taking the lives of other people. Another type of entry was sketches of scenes. This image below is of the lair that George Harvey will lure his victim into. Either this was sketched to be the interior design or capturing a memory the the lair he once made. Again this would be an interesting concept to use within our short film opening.

 

Another point that I observed is the location where the journal was kept within the antagonist's home. The place he kept it within was his draw, which isn't the safest of places. The other location where the journal was kept was under the floorboards in which you had to pull up a loose wood panel. This location has been carefully as well as cleverly sourced as it is very much hidden. This again is another concept to consider for the film opening.

The final factor I want to look at is the overall appearance of the journal itself. The journal has a very solid and classic structure being plain black canvas with a red binder. What I liked about this journal used it the seemingly innocent look of the journal when in fact it contains deeply disturbing and obsessive information and observations. The pages within the journal are creamy cartridge paper. Making it more designed for the user to be using for drawings. By this it showing that the antagonist is in touch with his creative arts side this is also shown in the film with his hobby of dollhouses.

Overall I think 'The Lovely Bones' is of great inspiration to the film opening that we hope to create. The use of the journal throughout the film provides interesting ideas and concepts which we can interpret if we were to create our own journal to be used for the film opening sequence.

Experimenting with Bokeh

What is Bokeh?

The word Bokeh comes from the japanese term 'boke' which means blur or haze. Bokeh has been describe to be the way a lens renders out of focus points of lights. Bokeh occurs when parts of the scene captured lie outside the depth of field. Depth of field is the distance between the nearest and furthest objects giving a focused image.

Bokeh in Movies

The Awakening (2011)

Drive (2011)

Testing Bokeh

• In this video clip I wanted to achieve the basic bokeh effect. 
• To do this I switched my camera from autofocus to manual focus and then adjusted the focus for it to be unfocused on my camera to achieve the blurred circles of light.
•  I have not used a subject here because I wanted to focus on the blurred effect.
• This could be used in our film opening as a manual camera effect.
• We could use this effect in a night shoot if there are street lights and car lights etc.

Inspiration for Custom Bokeh

Light Works from Supernormals on Vimeo.

• I came across this video on vimeo which took on a twist to the typical bokeh lighting effect used in photography and film which instead of shapes used words instead. 
• With this in mind I thought it would be an interesting concept to consider to use for the titles of our film opening.

Dream House Deconstruction

Dream house is a film directed by Jim Sheridan starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts. The film is based around the psychological state of a man called 'Will Atenton' after his family had been murdered. The plot of the film follows his unravelling of what truly happened that night his family were murder and whether he did it or not.

Diegetic 

• Throughout the film 'Dream House' there was an extensive us of diegetic sounds which occurred both on and off screen.
• Within the sequence above there were several diegetic sounds such as: dialogue, whistling wind, heavy footsteps, flick of the light switch as well as the predominant sound which has the biggest impact in the sequence the thud of an awning falling against the panes of the window
• As for the rest of the film they also use music however this is played within in the scene itself making it diegetic
• An example of the point above is when one of the daughter's were playing 'Fur Elise' by Ludwig van Beethoven on the piano

Non-Diegetic

• The non-diegetic music is a score.
• Score meaning it is original music that has been written specifically to accompany a film in this instance the film, Dream house. 
• The music was composed by John Debney and conducted by Robert Ziegler
• The non-diegetic soundtrack has an eerie tone to it with the use of voice
• Predominant use of strings which adds this underlying tone of eeriness which conjures this haunting and powerful effect when used in the film.
• Build up in music which adds tension

• In the sequence above non-diegetic score music has been used to intensify the unravelling of a person called 'Peter Ward'.
• The non-diegetic music is parallel to the sequence.
• The use of the soft piano playing accompanied by long stringed notes creates an atmosphere that is quite somber but leads the audience to be quite apprehensive for what is to come.

Manipulating Text

I practiced manipulating text using an online photo editor called Pixlr. First I opened a new image and chose the font I wanted for the typography.

I then used different tools to manipulate the text and make it look more disturbing as this typography is supposed to be used in a psychological horror film. For example I used a blur tool to create slight shadows around the font and blur the edges slightly so it was more interesting to look at than plain text on a stark background. 

I decided to experiment with more tools to make the font look different but still eye catching, such as using bloat and pinch tools to manipulate the shape of the font extremely. I felt this particular manipulation was effective for typography used for psychological horror because the text looks warped and strange, which conveys the genre accurately.

I also used tools such as the sponge and drop tool to fade the colour of the text. This manipulation made the text look shadowy and sinister while still retaining the original shape of the letters, creating juxtaposition between the harsh font and the softer colour of the text. However I felt this manipulation was not very effective and looked quite amateurish. 

I faced some difficulties during this practical as I do not have much experience with photo editors and found this particular editor difficult to use. It took me a lot of time to work out how to use the tools and what their purposes were and so my manipulations were quite basic. 

'Fighting' Deconstruction

The film I will be deconstructing is 'Fighting', a 2009 urban drama film.


Conventions of urban dramas:

• Set in cities or towns (usually in rough areas)
• Portrays a realistic view on society and societal problems
• Explores issues with violence, gangs and drugs
• Situations involving money sometimes central part of the plot (ties in with previous convention)
• Central characters usually 'young' e.g. aged between 15 and late 20's
• Protagonist usually male, struggling with problematic life
• Characters portrayed as products of their environment
• Tracking shots often used e.g. to show a police chase
• POV and eye line shots used to immerse audience in action and create tension
• Closeup and medium shots used to convey character's emotions, invokes response from audience
• Characters will usually wear dark, outdoorsy clothes e.g. jeans, hoodies etc, shows status in society
• Typical props include weapons (guns, knives, etc) and vehicles

How 'Fighting' conforms to these conventions:

• Explores issues with violence and money- protagonist is paid to win fights 
• Protagonist male, young (in his 20's), struggling 

• Urban setting (New York), many scenes take place in 'rough' areas, ties in with convention of portraying realistic outlook on society and its issues
• Establishing shots used to show different areas of New York throughout film, establishes different characters' locations

• Protagonist wears casual clothes like jeans and hoodies throughout film, young male characters also wear these kinds of clothes- establishes age and social standing to audience

Typography

The typography used is very brightly coloured (the colours used range from blue to pink to stark white) and is eye catching as a result. The font is interesting in its shape and irregular capitalisation, and is clearly modern so it is established that the film is contemporary as opposed to being set in a later time period. The modernity of the font ties in with setting of the film, as it is very urban and contemporary.

Use of Sound

• Diegetic sound: most of the sound in the film was to diegetic to realistically 'set the scene'. These sounds were typical noises you'd hear in a busy urban setting such as traffic and car horns, people talking in a busy street and music playing in restaurants and shops.
• The most interesting use of diegetic sound was the sounds added to the fight scenes in the film. These sounds included the fighters' heavy breathing and grunting and the sound of their punches landing on the other's skin. Other notable sounds included the fighters hitting a wall or the floor during the fight. These sounds immerse the audience in the action and make the scene more intense and enjoyable because it's made so vivid.
• Non diegetic sound: this was made up of background music. The music was mostly hip hop and soul, which reinforced the urban genre of the film and was also parallel to the scenes the music played in.
• The interesting use of non diegetic sound was in the background music used during fight scenes because it was so varied. In one scene, the music is comprised of plucky, upbeat string instruments that are contrapuntal to the action of the scene, making it interesting and also somewhat light hearted to watch. However, in another fight scene later on in the film the music is comprised of of intense drums and bass with a heavy beat, making the scene feel dark and tense. It also reflects the protagonist's worried and scared emotions in the scene, immersing the audience in the action.

Choice of title

The title 'Fighting' is very short and harsh sounding. It's a simple title that is memorable and it immediately sets audience expectations of violence and struggles in the film (in this case, the protagonist's financial and moral struggles). The word 'fighting' also sounds blunt and hard when spoken, conveying the general mood and gritty subject matter of the film clearly to the audience.

Psychological Horror Titles Research

For research into our chosen genre of psychological horror I looked at two different films titles to give us inspiration to what our title could be and how it could look.

Shutter Island.

The name 'Shutter Island' doesn't really give much insight into what the film would be about so it allows the audience to think with the characters as the film goes on, leaving them in mystery and to think what could happen further into the the story's plot.

The colour of red and the scratchy, capitalised font f the title makes the audience look at it as it is eye catching compared to the dark colours of the rest of the title picture.

Se7en.

The name 'Se7en' also gives very little information away to the audience to keep them guessing but still tells the audience that the number seven may have something to do with the film. 

It also stands out in white against the black background to catch the audiences attention in the same way that shutter island's does also. The similar scratchy font gives a sense of uncertainty to the audience and is effective for that of a psychological horror film.

I believe that my research will be useful to us as a group when it comes to deciding on a title for our film opening as we may not want to give much away to the audience and these titles show us that by using one or two words we can do this and they also give us an idea of what the font could look like to have an appropriate effect on our audience.  

Lighting

Practising lighting with candles and torches.

At first I had some ideas of what kind or lighting I wanted to experiment with and after watching this scene from shutter island ( a psychological horror film) I was inspired to use a flame from  a candle and torch light to focus the light on just the subject and sometimes parts to their surrounding so it captivated the audience to just focus on what was being lit.

Candle light.

The candle lighting was difficult to control as the flame was sometimes flickering and also did not light up as much of the subject's face as I would have wanted it to but I was still able to get some good shots as well. The majority of the candle shots made the lighting around the subject red in colour and also created a slight shadow behind the subject on the wall.

Torch Light.

This lighting was much more successful than that of the candle light as i was able to control it a lot more and it also gave the pictures a sharper effect than the candle light. I also used red sweet wrappers over the front of the torch or simply by covering the flash on the camera with my fingers to give the lighting a red tinge or completely red lighting all over to make the subject and picture more sinister. The torch light also gave a more solid shadow of the subject on the wall behind to make the subject look smaller, or maybe more intimidating. 

 I also took a few videos of different movements of the torch that looked effected these included:
Two of the torch flashing on and off quickly,
One of the torch flashing on and off quickly but with a red colour,
One where the light moves across the subject,
One where the torch is moving very quickly as the subject looks up.