Thriller Clip..The Shining

In class, we watched a short opening sequence of the movie 'The Shining'.

In the opening of the clip, we see a car driving along a cliffside road, in a very open space.
This creates a foreboading atmosphere as you cannot see anything but the car and the surronding area. You do not know what is going on, therefore this creates a feel of suspense.

In terms of camera shots, we see a lot of wide angle shots. This enables us as the viewers to see the surronding area in the opening sequence. It also makes the area a lot more mysterious.

There is a panning shot which gives us the feeling that we are a bird sweeping through the cliffs.
There is a bird's eye view which gives us a clearer shot of the landscape.

The music has an ambient feel to it which puts us as the viewers in a very tranced, hypnotised feeling.

In our media lesson, we went onto two different programmes called LiveType and Soundtrack Pro.

live type and soundtrack skills audit

We used the software program 'Soundtrack Pro' which is commonly used to produce and create soundtracks for films etc. In soundtrack pro we had to create our own soundtrack by using the many features and also we were able to combine and intergrate diffent types of sound based and instrumentals into one piece and also edit them. We chose the audio we wanted to use and dragged it to to the timeline to become a part of the soundtrack. The photo above demonstrates a visual representation of my sountrack in which I created.
In my previous lesson i learnt how to use the 'Live Type' software program. Livetype is used sometimes to create title sequences for the openings and closings of films.In livetype we were able to experiment with a variety of fonts, backgrounds and colours. As from the picture above you can see i chose to do a mysterious purple background and bold pink writing with black outline.

Teacher comment

Generally a good number of blogs - but not all of you seem to have got the 'blogging habit' (name begins with T). Try to blog on a regular basis, after each lesson.

Skills Audit- Editing

In my previous lesson, I learnt how to use the software program final cut pro to edit and match different scenes into a timed sequence. The clips were parts of a professionally filmed movie known as ‘Bait’. In class we had to watch clips of the film and manipulate what we wanted to use and at what part we wanted to use it. There were two screens, one which we watched the actual unedited clips this was called the viewer and the canvas, this was where we watched our personally edited film.

We had to make notes on the clips and decide on our own where we thought each part should be in our own edit of the film.

I also learnt how to use input and output tools to cut clips and close clips and then drag them to the to the timeline in order to create a sequence. In addition to this I learned how to use the razor tool to cut clips in the timeline and drag them to various places in the edited film or even use the same clip at different parts of the film.

I thought this exercise was quite fun as even though I weren't able to finish my editing I have gained experience and I have learnt the very basic skills on how to use final cut pro which will be useful later on in the unit when we have to edit our own group work.

News and Current Affarirs events

Murray defeated by Roger Federer

74 years In the wait for a British Grand Slam winner and set to Increase. Andy Murray was playing some wonderful tennis beating heavyweights such as Nadal and cilic but came up short against the legend that Is Federer who now extends his lead at the all time Grand Slam winners list. The last Brit to win a Grand Slam was Fred Perry In 1936, winning the US Grand Slam. Murray was beaten In straight sets 6-3 6-4 7-6 and the 22 year old Is yet to win his first Gran Slam. Also, this defeat conjures up the question will Andy Murray be able to win a Grand Slam as long as Roger Federer Is playing? Perhaps the line Is growing thinner and Murray Is coming closer to winning a British Gran Slam, but I'm sure he will be hoping for another opponent to play In the final. Despite the loss perhaps Murray can take a lot of experience from this defeat and come back bigger and better. Also, Murray rises Into 3rd In the world rankings from a previous ranking of 4th. Britain's wait goes on 74years and counting. But perhaps Murray's wonderful display In the road to the final and coming up short to a class proven act like Federer could only mean they're getting closer.

Analysing Thriller Clips

In the thriller clip of the shining there are very unique aspects involved. In the opening of the clip we see a car driving in a very open spaced area. This alone is very effective as it creates suspicion of the area itself and who exactly is driving the car and their reasons for being there.

In terms of camera work, the camera work in this clip is very interesting. There is a range of wide shots of the area, making the area feel even more mysterious and gives feeling of wariness of the area itself. In addition, extreme long shots are also a camera shot feature in this clip, these shots particularly create feelings of distance and uncertainty. The mysterious wilderness is highlighted even more as panning is used to sweep across the landscape, placing emphasis on the ‘emptiness’ of it and places focus on the car driving on its own in this place. As well as this in this clip of ‘The Shining’, birds eye view shots are also used when the landscape is shown, this birds eye view tends to be used very efficiently as it concerns audiences and makes them think the car doesn’t belong, or should not be there, simply because the birds eye view shot makes it seem the place is so far away it is untouchable and that the car venturing the area is in danger and doesn’t ‘fit’ there. Furthermore, the birds eye shot could be said to also enhance the thoughts of anxiety and uncertainty the audience may have because it makes it look like the car is a target of am eagles prey or even something else so it is in harms way.

The music featured on the clip, is very ambient, it sets the mood for the audience. The music in the clip is also very heavy lone drone, it is very noticeable and so has an impact on the audience by giving it an eerie effect.

The mise en scene in the thriller clip is quite distinctive also. The scene is based in the middle of no where, very secluded. And as the clip moves on and the car is driving towards an area which Is becoming even darker and more unwelcoming and isolated. To accomplice this, the editing is very slow so there is a direct influence to notice every aspect of the mise en scene.

The titles in the clip are quite plain and simple, they are moving titles but are almost like they are strolling, slow moving like the editing which distracts the audience from the tense atmosephere by created by the other aspects such as camera work etc. The only problem with this type of title sequence though is that the audience may become bored f seing the same writing lingering on the screen. Although this could have a massive impact on the audence as the film is totally contrasting to the title sequence and so the audience are suprised by what actually happens in the film.