Audience Profile

THE DARK KNIGHT AUDIENCE

Johnathon, aged 22, works in retail. His life isn't exceptionally exciting as he struggles on minimum wage, but every Friday night he enjoys going out for a pint with his mates. Amongst his group, Johnathon is known as the dreamer, attempting to find excitement in his otherwise dull life.
He likes to think of himself as active and fit, but realistically his days off of work consist of lounging on his couch, binge watching action movies. One way his mates know to annoy him is to mention the DC vs. Marvel debate. He's fairly loud and outgoing, but seen as pretentious to most females. He's not particularly smart or literate, so sticks to the movie versions of everything.
Johnathon is always the first to see a superhero movie, and within half an hour of watching it he posts a review- which is often very harsh if it doesn't meet his high expectations of modern film making. He thinks of himself very highly, causing him to come across as arrogant, but to his mate he's known as a good laugh with an impressive imagination.

Analysing two similar scenes

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

The main genre of this series of films is fantasy, straightaway connoted in this scene due to the uplifting music created by violins and flutes. It also shows off a seemingly alive chocolate frog- a prop to ensure the audience are aware of the magic in this particular scene. Props are used again in the form of special coins, photos that move- also including the special effects makeup of Harry's scar, which of course isn't a normal occurrence. Fantasy is a fiction genre that uses magic or other supernatural elements as a main plot element, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic and magical creatures are common.

The scene begins with three extreme long/establishing shots to set the scene. There is very little detail visible in the shots, it's meant to give a general impression rather than specific information. It then uses a close up to show off the lead character, and it's a rather intimate shot due to the fact we don't usually let people that close to our face- meaning it can help us feel more comfortable with him. It then shows us a mid close-up of Ron, another vital character in the plot. A bit further on it shows amedium shot of dialogue between Harry and Ron, forming a friendship that's extremely relevant to the rest of the series. They've also been placed sitting opposite each other with the camera eye level to them, connoting the friendship soon to come between them. Later on they use a cut-in in order to focus on the props (in this case, the wizard money) as they connote the genre of the film. A tilt movement is used to show the lady pushing the trolley peering in, to help the audience understand the situation. They use another extreme long shot of the train, but this time it's used as a transition to skip ahead in time. Throughout the rest of the scene they tend to stick to close ups, mid close ups and medium shots as they're commonly used in dialogue scenes. This part consists of mainly eye level angled shots, to help make the audience feel like a part of the story, but when Ron peers in through the door a slight low angle shot is used, to almost make it feel like we're looking at him from Harry's point of view. The beginning part (the establishing shots) use a tracking shot to follow the train, helping build up tension and excitement towards the travel to Hogwarts.

The most common form of editing in this scene is continuity editing: shot reverse shot. The camera goes back and forth between the two characters to show a connection, hence why it's used in scenes full of dialogue.

Of course the dialogue is diegetic, and often used as a sound bridge between each shot to make it run smoothly. It would have been enhanced during the editing stage of production to make it stand out more and get people's attention. For the first 25 seconds of the scene, the non-diegetic theme song is played to help create the mood, but it fades out when the dialogue begins so as not to drown it out or draw attention away from it. The theme song is also highly associated with Harry Potter, and easily recognisable for fans (and even people who haven't watched the films will recognise it) In the second and third shot that show off the train, a train chugging sound effect are layered in (ambient sound), and throughout the whole scene quieter train sound effects are added for the same reason (room tone) for a heightened realism effect, as they wouldn't have used an actual train to film and it's vital towards helping the audience feel like a part of the movie (and attracting them to watch the others in the series). 

They would have used frontal lighting to make the lighting appear natural from the outside, helping the scene appear more realistic with the green screen.

Nightcrawler

This film is a "neo-noir" crime thriller. Thrillers are characterised and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety.

It begins with a medium shot to clearly show the character entering the room. The background detail is minimal as the audience will already be aware of the setting and now want to focus on dialogue and character interaction. When the female interrogator talks to Louis an over-the-shoulder (OTS) shot is used, but when Louis responds a close up is used, which is a very intimate shot to connote to the audience to relevance/importance of that particular character. A bit later on it switches between an OTS shot and a close up when Louis speaks, but the OTS shot is used mainly to show off Louis' hand gestures- vital for acting as it makes the dialogue appear more realistic. When the woman refers to the camera in the interrogation room, a very high angle shot is used and edited to look like the audience are watching from the camera's point of view in that particular shot. When the woman stands up a tilt shot is used changing it from an eye level shot to a high angle shot, further going along with the idea of looking at her from Louis' point of view. It also emphasises her attempts to intimidate him as we can relate more with the character if we're watching from his angle. When she speaks after that shot more of a close up shot (still with Louis' shoulder included) is used to clearly show her facial expression and help set the atmosphere of the scene- filled with tension. It flickers between the shots I previously mentioned and a mid-long shot of them sitting opposite each other, creating even more tension in the scene.

Sound isn't used particularly much in this scene, as silence helps set a tense atmosphere. Only diegetic sounds are used and enhanced to emphasise the eerie quietness of the room. A microphone would've been used to record the dialogue separately, counselling out any natural background noise there would've been whilst filming. 

The editing follows the 180 degrees rule, establishing the placement of the characters and ensuring that they don't accidentally make the characters appear to suddenly change place. The whole scene mainly used continuity editing: shot reverse shot, making the dialogue flow more naturally. That particular edit is a form of eye-line matching to show Louis looking at something, and then showing what he's looking at.

Lowkey lighting is used for a more shadowy effect, which is a convention of genres such as horror and thriller.

AS G321: Film Brief

Preliminary exercise: 

Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. 

Main task: 

The titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. 

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.