Genre Analysis - Mood Board

Mood Board: A specialized form of visual stimulus material, as a collage, to represent a mood, atmosphere or feeling. Commonly used to define and help with analysis of genres as it explores key aspects.

During our lesson we partook in an activity where we separated many different pictures into the genres: Horror, Thriller and Rom-Com - our results were as follows:

Then we designed and produced our own mood boards for each of the genres.

This mood board consists of images which relate to very stereotypical associations of Rom-Com movies. 

These include:

 - Weddings 

- Romantic Locations 

- Happiness

- Love

- Family

- Chocolate

- Candles

- Courting

I included these specific images to reflect the above associations to convey to an audience what they should expect to see within rom-com movies if they haven't already viewed one. The couples, one with an umbrella and the other under the clouds, represent the early stages of the romance, where the interests begin to court. The happiness, the candles, the chocolate and roses represent the joyous emotions during this period and the sentimental actions in which occur between the protagonist and antagonist. After this would come the marriage, symbolized by the wedding dress and the rings which ultimately is the next step within the interests romance even if it is not seen on the screen - following this is the children, which is assumed to come after the ending of the movie, alongside the wedding if it has not yet occurred. These images and ideology help audiences who view this to understand what to expect within movies of this particular genre.

Movies which fit into this genre and prove popular are: The Notebook, The Titanic, When Harry Met Sally, Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Ghost, Dirty Dancing, Sweet Home Alabama and Never Been Kissed.
This is my horror mood board which consists of images which are also associated within the horror genre.

These include:

- Cellars

- Graveyards

- Weapons to commit crimes/murder with

- A victim

- A villain

- A Ouija board

- Nightfall within a forest

I used these images because they commonly occur within horror movies, if not always. My cellar represents the lurking murderer who usually attacks the victims within their house, a common hiding place is therefore the cellar - this is more frequent within supernatural horrors as there is usually a story behind suffering, burial or torture occurring through the history of the house located within the cellar. The graveyard also represents the death and burial of the victims but also the villain whom murders within the movie as they are not always alive, such as with supernatural horrors, also. The image of the spooky girl and the blood covered knife represent the different murderers and attackers that can be present within horror movies as they are so diverse in the range of plot and sub-genres. These killers can be called upon in a myriad of ways, the supernatural could be through messing with the boarder between the afterlife; one way to do this is through Ouija boards which is shown above as they usually evoke supernatural, evil spirits to condemn whomever interacts with them. Nevertheless you need victims and it is very common to see pretty, youthful females being the victims of the torture/murder as seen with the image taken from Hostel above. Forests are also a common location for horror movies as they are deserted, thus the murderer seldom being caught; this location is more common for murderers whom kidnap their victims and take them into place, within movies where the victims car conveniently breaks down and also with cannibal movies as it provides a perfect location.

Movie of this genre include: Inside, Let Me In/Let The Right One In, The Descent, A Nightmare on Elm Street, [REC], Martyrs, Dawn of the Dead, The Exorcist and The Ring.

This is my thriller mood board which includes:

- Detectives

- Ammunition

- Bio-hazard symbol

- Train station

- Crime scene

- Alleyway

These images were selected as they appear commonly within thrillers. The detective is probably one of the most prominent image as there is always a huge investigation within the plot, this occurs due to a crime, usually a murder of some sort, which is shown through my image of the officers exiting a abode with the crime scene tape closing them in. The ammunition has been included as weapons used within thrillers are frequently guns: by the officers and also the villains. This may be because inhumane, torturing devices are used within horrors to frighten whereas thrillers are more for suspense and the crime rather than gruesome decapitations - guns are also more available for subjects to buy making thrillers more realistic. The alleyway has been included as a variety of things such as acts involving drugs and dealings of any sort could happen within an alleyway and there is often scenes where action goes through them, albeit it in a car, through walking, fast paced, slow paced etc. The bio-hazard symbol has been placed within my mood board as within thrillers there is sometimes a break out of a deadly infection in which the audience follows the plot to discover it as it is destroying human existence - this happens within movies such as The Happening. I've included the railway image as many thrillers include a railway station somewhere within the movie, whether it be for escape or to capture somebody thus causing violence.

Famous thriller movies include: There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, Bourne, Zodiac, Fatal Attraction, Cape Fear, Se7en, Taxi Driver and Silence of the Lambs.

Comparing and Contrasting the openings of two Romantic Comedies

      The two rom-coms in which we watched were: How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days (2002), directed by Donald Petrie, and Just Like Heaven (2005), directed by Mark Waters. We analysed camera angles, mise en scene, framing, and sound effects within the two films.
      How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days is centred around a middle class magazine journalist, Andie Anderson, played by Kate Hudson, who ends up falling in love with an edgy, rebelious male played by Matthew McConaughley through perusing a forthcoming article. 
      The opening starts with an uptempo, pop song overlapping Paramount studio logo rather than the studios theme sound itself - this is irregular within movies which automatically sets itself up as a joyous, romantic movie.
      Magazine articles appear on the screen in femimine colours, such as yellows, pinks, and purples - yet when the the name titles appears, with white lower case forenames, and colourful, bold surnames, masculine associated colours such as blues appear for the males surnames. The titles, and the magazine backgrounds fly into the screen at a rapid pace to emphasise the joyous, uplifting movie in which this is. The montage of magazines and titles are articles in which the protagonist herself has wrote, we know this as it shows her image as the writer of the article and also shows us clips into her life to show us where she gets her inspiration from and also gives us an insight into her character as she uses flirting to her advantage to get out of situations. When Kate and Matthew's names appear on the title screen, Matthew's is on the left which shows the bias towards males in this industry as you read from left to right so he will be noticed first, even though he's not the protagonist. Although Kate's is slightly higher, she still doesn't have the prominent name due to her being rightly aligned, this illustrates the glass ceiling effect.
      Kate Hudson plays Andie Anderson is a stereotypical attractive young lady with her blonde hair, blue eyes, and her maintained physique by her regular gym visits, shown by her attending the gym at the start. The job she has is an aspiring one for the female demographic watching this movie - her job is an abitious, aspirational, glamorous proffession to become a part of this shows the audience for this particular type of movie. All the workers at Andie's office are all attractive to convey the sort of women which get the job and evokes the fantasy of these women finding true love.
      The title screen appears, the film begins to play in the middle of the 0 in '10' and we zoom into see the bigger picture. The names of the actors, and producers, are shown over the movie as it plays. We learn further that Andie is dedicated to her work, and wants to better herself through it, yet it also shows the enthusiastic, stereotypical female side before a sound bridge moves us onto the next scene where we meet the antagonist.
      Upbeat rock music takes the scene and fits in tightly with the persona on the screen in their leather jacket, on their Harley Davison. This implies the character under the helmet is considered cool, edgy, rebellious, and physically fit. The antagonist conveys himself as a quite flirty, confident male who speaks his mind with the women he works with, which alongside proxemics, articulates his good relations with the female members of staff which is stereotypical of this type of character. The female workers are in formal, tailored wear which contrasts drastically with the antagonists casual wear which shows an irregular power shift in these situations, as the women are conceived as the powerful ones - not the male. 
     Yet again the female audience is portrayed through the magazine in which a female character is reading: 'Composure' which sounds oddly familiar to Cosmopolitan which is quite facetious. 
      Just Like Heaven is centered around an upper class female doctor played by Reese Witherspoon. Elizabeth, the protagonist, is aspiring her long deserved promotion at work, and wishes she could have a happy relationship with children, like all the other colleagues. When Reese is involved in a car accident, her spirit remains and her aura floats around her old apartment; the new tenant, a lonely architect, soon falls in love with her spiritual presence. 
      To open the movie a pop song plays behind the trademark screen, which is similar to 'How To Lose A Guy...' thus conveying the associated aspects included within the opening of films to portray their genre. The trademark screen smoothly flows into the movie through the clouds whilst titles slowly fade in and out in female associated colours such as reds and purples. The clouds at the start here emphasizes a utopia, heavenly atmosphere before there is a juxtaposition of the believed protagonist, for the first glimpse at the characters. 
      'Reese Witherspoon' appears in yellow whilst we see the female persona on the screen, automatically anchoring the name and the face together. Brilliant blonde hair and blue eyes are seen within this female subject, which is the stereotypical attractive woman conveying the female audience. This scene is very feminine due to the floral surroundings implying romance, and love. Dissolve cuts are used here to imply a passage of time as the persona sits in this nirvana.
      We cut into reality for the persona, rather than her dreamland, and automatically notice her inspirational job, a Doctor - women aspire for jobs such as these as they were not always around for women to have; during the 1950's equal rights came for women, opening a whole new era for film makers, novelists, ect, as they now had a new audience to appeal to - independent women who wanted to make their own way in life, and support themselves before getting married and having children which completely contrasts to women before this period as their only responsibilities were to be family makers.
      Incidental music plays behind Elizabeth whilst she's lacking control of her job due to sleep deprivation; she soon changes and becomes professional where the tempo of music switches to: Lust For Life by Iggie Pop. Her multitasking and boost in morale is emphasized by this chosen music, dissolves are used yet again to show her everlasting shift at work, and her determination to continue working due to her lacking other responsibilities unlike the other workers. 
      The persona suffers from elder sister syndrome within this movie, as her sister match-makes for her, highlighting her sisters worry that Elizabeth will never settle down and have the perfect home family scenario, such as herself.
      The persona gets her much anticipated promotion before attempting to leave to her abode - unfortunately a car accident happens when an artificial white, glowing light fades in to take over the screen; the connotations of white imply her passage to the afterlife, her innocence, and her angelic entity. The Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco appears within the clouds which merge onto the screen, deepening the subject being within the clouds, which highlights her passage further.
      
      The two movie's share many similarities, such as the way they are opened with the trademark image, yet upbeat pop music playing in the back of it. This is very uncommon within most movie genres, other than romantic comedies, which automatically heightens the females anticipation to watch the movie, as they already feel part of it due to relating to the stereotypical female music genre.
      Secondly, both of these films are based upon Best Selling American novels, which already targets these films to a mass audience, who will watch the film purely through the enjoyment they received from the novel. This is also very uncommon with most other genres and styles of movies, yet with romance/comedy/romantic comedies, it is completely mediocre. 
      Another similarity they share is the stereotypical blonde haired, blue eyed, physically fit, attractive, young females as the protagonist - this is due to the audience having their fantasy on the perfect relationship and perfect romance, which is satisfied completely when good looking, high achieving, glamorous females take on the roles they dream of being in.
      Furthermore, the two protagonists both have male love interests which is very stereotypical, and could be seen as slightly homophobic due to the ignorance of 21st century relationships, as homosexuality is now accepted and seen everyday. However, this is not necessarily the views of the directors, as their role is to make movies which will appeal to the mainstream target audience - straight, single, Caucasian females from which the majority are interested purely in males.
      Moving on, the two subjects have very aspiring professions which many people strive for and would be considered glamorous. This is due to the audience not wanting to see somebody with a low achievements falling in love as it ruins their image of true love and women's independence without males.
      Similarly they both share an ambitious nature, and their eagerness to better themselves in the work place. Elizabeth wants a promotion, and Andie wants to write more serious articles on areas such as politics, rather than on make-up tips. This conveys the personas intelligence, and distances them from being 'dumb blondes' which is quite stereotypical of people with their hair colour. This attracts the audience as it emphasizes that looks don't necessarily mean anything, and that you really can not judge a book by it's cover.


      These were just interpreted from the opening scene of these two movies, with further watching, there would be many more similarities and differences between the two movies, even though they're both based within romantic comedies.

Christian Mertz - Model of Genre Development and the Auteur theory

      Christian Mertz (1931 - 1993) was renowned for his book Language and Cinema (1974) and his creation of genre films; Mertz believed and exercised that movies go through four different stages of existence, these being: experimental, classic, parody, and deconstruction.
Experimental is the phase of early films which explored and experimented with horror themes in its narrative. These were shown through German expressionisms.
Classic is the phase of films which established the narrative conventions of the horror genre in its most successful period.
A parody is a film which mimics the horror genre in a comical way.
Deconstruction is a film which has taken the gentic elements of the horror genre and amalgamated them into sub genres.
      We identified movies in class which had horror themes within them from a list of movies. The eleven we managed to identify correctly were: Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr Caligar, Frankenstein, Dracula, Carry On Screaming, Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Scary Movie, The Sixth Sense, Scream, and the Blair Witch Project. We put these into the four phases of existence.
Experimental:The Cabinet of Dr Caligar (1919) and Nosferatu (1922)
Classics: Dracula (1931) and Frankenstein (1931)
Parodies: Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Carry On Screaming (1969) and Scary Movie (1999)
Deconstructions: Scream (1996), The Blair Witch Project (1998) and The Sixth Sense (1999)
    
      Auteur - ōtörˈ, in film criticism, a director who so dominates the film-making process that it is appropriate to call the director the auteur, or author, of the motion picture. The auteur theory holds that the director is the primary person responsible for the creation of a motion picture and imbues it with his or her distinctive, recognizable style. Propounded most notably by the French director and film critic François Truffaut and the American film critic Andrew Sarris, it has been attacked by others, including Pauline Kael. (Source: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition).


      Hammer Film Productions, founded in 1934 was famous for their Hammer Horror films produced from the mid 1950s-1970s. Hammer dominated the film industry in regards to their horror franchise resulting in financial success due to their partnerships with American studios. Hammer Horrors were idolized, inspiring and driving youngsters into becoming directors for their professions, some of which are very famous directors today. 
      Two iconic British actors from Hammer Horrors are Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. The two were good friends, and even worked well together in a myriad of films, where they switched between the protagonist and the antagonist. Unfortunately Cushing (1913-1994) can no longer bless us with his presence in films as he passed away after leading a very eventful life. Lee  (1922-present day) is however still with us after a brilliant 89 years.

Red Dragon (2002)

      To open the directors names appear on the screen with their first name in red, and the latter in white whilst on a black backdrop - just like the title of the film; this is done as connotations of red are blood/death, and danger/warnings; connotations for white could represent purity - a paradox due to the contrasting connotations. The black background contrasts with the colours well and convey the darkness of the movie, automatically suggesting it is a horror or thriller. As the white shown is masked by the black and red due to the minimal white, the darker colours appear more dominant making the audience know that although there are some aspects of pure souls aiming to do well, there is many more immoral subjects which dominate. Whilst this screen appears, a short ping of sound effects is heard, almost to make the audience jump as the writing pops onto the screen, implying further the type of genre this movie would be stereotypically placed into.
      Scene One: An establishing master shot is used to set the scene inside the opera house with an old fashioned styled font setting the date of when the action within this scene occurred - this automatically conveys the wealth and status of the people who will be in the next shot due to the time period in which this opera house was attended. Cuts to close ups are then shown of the orchestra, before switching to medium shots. An extreme close up then occurs to show the way in which a cello is played to convey the talent the orchestra have and heighten the belief of the upper class society being present. A cut to a low angle shot of the conductor is done to portray his dominance over the orchestra, and his control to lead the piece - if he conducts wrong, everything falls to pieces - he has a lot of responsibility to uphold. The mixture of seemingly irrelevant shots occur before a crane into the audience happens, to end on a close up of a blinking male - an eye line match occurs in a shot reverse shot to show the audience what the protagonist is directly looking at, before returning to the close up. These shots make the audience question why the flute player is being watched by the protagonist; therefore suggesting the flute player has the most unfortunate luck of being prey to the watching predator, as the protagonists actions reflect that of a wild, animal who it watching it's prey, ready to strike. This is quite a paradox as wealthy, upper class males, such as the protagonist - implied by his suit and hobbies like attending events at opera houses - are not usually associated as immoral, 'bad guys' within society.
      Scene Two: A cut is used to an establishing master shot of the protagonists abode. Hannibal - the protagonist - has an upper class, white, American home with pillars and expensive cars outside, emphasizing his wealth further. A sound bridge occurs before a cut into the dinning room which shows where the persona's are speaking from, this is done to automatically add to the scene at hand, and help the audience connect with the words before they see where/why they are being said. The dinning room conveys further Hannibal's wealth due to the props on the set such as the red wine, the candelabra lit dinner for his guests, and the cultured Victorian wall decor - the red wine shares the same connotations as the red writing, and the candle lit dinner conveys his place in social hierarchy. He makes his way around the myriad of guest sitting at his dinning table, with a low angled camera, as if he is herding them like a shepherd, and they are his sheep - therefore showing his dominance and control over the guests. One of the guests even quotes: 'speaking for the rest of the herd' which conveys his control over them all. Throughout the dinner sequence dialect is used which would not be recognized within today's society such as: 'cribbing the lines' - this conveys the time era, and also the sociolect of the persona's. One of the subjects at the dinner table converses about the missing opera house member, as if it is a laughing matter, and not as serious as a missing person really is - this shows their haughty nature and ignorance, fully supporting the pompous, upper class image they convey. It is implied that the guests are eating the missing person, as an upper class lady asks Hannibal to confess before swaying the conversation onto the food where he replies that if the guests knew what was on their plate, they would not eat it. He smiles quite a sickening smile when, through an over the shoulder shot, he views the guest eat their 'divine looking' prepared meals.
      Scene Three: Once the dinner date had commenced, a knock is heard from outside the front door - Special Agent Graham is greeted by Hannibal with an over the shoulder shot - it is ironic that Hannibal already knows Graham, and suggests they have had previous meetings in the past but why? Hannibal invites Graham inside before they share a series of over the shoulder shot reverse shots in a close up framing whilst Graham confides in Hannibal about his discoveries into the murder cases. A subjective point of view is used to show the contents of Hannibal's shelves from Grahams eye line - soft flowing, incidental sound playing in the back ground behind this to create tension; the items on the shelves suggest his intelligence, and his religious views due to the elephant statue he has on show therefore implies his facade. The pace and pitch heightens when the book is picked up where the shot cuts from a POV to a medium side shot, a POV is used to show the contents of the book - zooms in are used on the book to emphasize the contents, with cutaways of Graham in close ups to show his focus and his piecing together. The final cutaway shows he's figured out the real murderer from a shift in his eye focus - this is where the music is the loudest before Graham turns around into a medium shot of Hannibal stabbing him. An cutaway to show Graham's reaction is used to emphasis his pain, and the immoral act in which Hannibal performed, thus emphasizing Hannibal's criminality. Shot reverse shots are used between Hannibal in a close up of his face, and medium shots of Graham being held into place by Hannibal where Hannibal's face is not seen. Hannibal speaks quite sadistically to Graham explaining what will happen to him, showing his sickened mind. He lowers Graham down, before Graham stabs him as his last attempt at helping himself survive - a high angle shot over Hannibal shows his vulnerability here as he stumbles backwards. Vertical downward tracking is used to show the wound before reversing backwards to Hannibal's face as he starts to stumble forwards to yet again attack Graham. Shot reverse shots are present here, between different frames such as close ups of Hannibal, yet full body shots of Graham. As Hannibal falls onto the desk, a downwards vertical track is used to to show Hannibal's seemingly dead body. Yet, is he really dead, the audience asks themselves?
      Scene Four: We cut away to a black screen before the actors names appear upon the screen in the same style as used on the previous title screen - red forename, white for their surname. A fade into a scrap book is used, as the names continue appearing and disappearing. The scrapbook contains articles about Hannibal's injuries, and Grahams - these are emphasized by extreme close up vertical tracking of their faces, zooms in, forward tracking, zooms out, pans, and horizontal tracking. The scrap book reveals the time period change since the incident with Graham and Hannibal as it reveals information about Hannibal being found guilty, and being jailed in his iconic orange jumpsuit signifying him paying justice for his actions. Indecent images of adults and children are also viewed showing the scrapbook owners's perverseness due to the exploitation of people: especially the children. Other interesting images which appear are found in the book of revelations, and are quite religious figures, representing his remorse, maybe, or the paradox between the two personas from the opening scene- religion representing the detectives morals, and Hannibal represents the lacking of them. It could also signify that death is not his punishment, that he will continue living his life with the haunting memories of his actions, his torture and punishment, rather than him dying and not having to live with the consequences. The scrapbook could also foreshadow the latter of the movie - that some immoral subject idolizes Hannibal and therefore keeps note of all of his actions.Indecent images of children appear making us question the motives and the thoughts of this retrobate.This results in the audience being intrigued to continue watching to find out which one of these theories, if any, is the correct one.

Halloween (1976)

Analysis of the opening scene of Halloween (1978) directed by a legendary auteur: John Carpenter.
    Halloween is an American independent film set in the fictional suburban town of Haddonfield, Illinois. Halloween was produced from $325,000 yet grossed $47 million in the American box office, and $60 million worldwide; therefore being one of the most profitable independant films made. Critics credit the film as the first film of the slasher films as Halloween originated several cliches found in low budget horror movies from the 80s.
    The scene opens with a black background with a flickering jack-o-lantern centre left; the sound behind this is a quite fast paced, high pitched, eerie music to set the creepiness of the scene. The jack-o-lantern has a menacing face to associate with pagan rituals, thus conveying the eeriness. As the titles come onto the screen, changing colour from yellow, to amber, to red, the pumpkin is slowly zoomed in on. The colours have been chosen as the connotations of red are danger, blood and therefore death, preparing the audience for the upcoming gore. The zoom continues until all that is left on the screen is the eye of the pumpkin face.
    A full black caption screen appears with white text to keep it quite minimalistic and spooky. The text sets the scene back in time, to show the beginning of what resulted in the happenings of the present day - it starts the cult of Michael Meyers. The horror of Michael is that he is an actual human being - he is not a mythical creature such as a vampire, but just an average man therefore it is unexpected for him to be the monster of the film. He is a monster which is within a normal American society, and culture; the movie is set in a suburban area, thus being a realistic place, which frightens audiences.
    Behind this caption screen there is non-diagetic sound of children singing. The ending words of their song are 'trick or treat' portraying the spookiness, and setting the mystery of what is next to come; this is juxtaposition as children singing is usually associated with joyous, happy moments - not violence.
    There is then a pan into an establishing master shot of a middle class, detached home in an everyday suburban area. This is to make the movie appear more realistic, as it's happening to middle class families - not just lower or higher class. A Sub POV then shows us around the house whilst ambient sounds play in the back such as: crickets, owls, the wind, ect. - these are all very Americanized stereotypical sounds to hear during the night. The jack-o-lantern is spotted, perched on the outside of the house linking back to the title of the movie.
     A boy and girl are spotted through the window whilst the protagonist watches them - the male gets suspicious and says he feels asif somebody else is there, watching them. The female comforts him saying it's just her brother. They head upstairs and you see through the Sub POV that the bedroom window light goes off, at the same time a high pitched non-diegetic sound to add suspense.
    Whilst the subject walks around the house, it is implied they are an adult due to the eye height of the Sub POV. Throughout his strolling around, an eerie hum plays in the back ground before an old grandfather clock strikes - time is running out.
    As he approaches the bedroom of the girl, you hear her humming - showing her happiness. A quick change from Sub POV to over the shoulder happens whilst Michael picks up the mask before you see a POV through his mask. He moves into his sisters bedchamber where the supposed sex scenario is implied by the ruffled bed and her being nude - this makes Michael upset that his sister is acting in this manner, and therefore attacks her. He watches his arm stabbing her, which conveys his lack of control over what he is doing. The first killing being a white, female is what was believed to have being due to the sexual revolution where middle aged men fought against feminists through things such as this as they viewed the sexualisation of younger girls to be unsavory. The sexual revolution gave birth to the pill, as birth control was so easily came by, women were now allowed to have as many sexual partners as they so wish, resulting in the age of their first partner decreasing. This was believed to have made middle aged fathers angry that their daughters would turn out in such ways, thus the first in many deaths in horrors were to be female virgins, to frighten young girls into not performing the act and into not being promiscuous, by making them think that if the do, they will be punished. This ideology is enforced within the film.
    As his sister lays naked and dead on her bedroom floor due to being viciously stabbed multiple times, Michael appears to glide down the stairs into the front of the street. His mask is pulled off and his image is revealed as a minor boy, no older than eight years. This shot is a reverse crane shot, moving away from him to show the scene of a middle class American street where something has gone wrong with the home dynamic, before a fade out is used to go into a black screen again.

Preliminary Task

    Our first assignment in Media Studies was our preliminary task; we were required to make a short video which consisted of the 180 degree rule, a match on action, a shot reverse shot, and an eyeline match. To perform well in this task we needed to understand what was meant by the terminology to ensure we included the correct elements. Definitions are included below:

The 180 degree rule articulates that two characters within a shot should sustain the same left/right relationship to one another. If the camera crosses the axis connecting the two subjects, the shot then turns into the reverse angle shot, thus breaking the 180 degree rule.
A match on action is a cut made showing action or movement between two shots; the action gets overlapped either by repetition or by the use of more than one camera. This is usually done during editing, where shots are overlapped to make it flow.
Shot reverse shots are frequently used when two subjects are conversing to convey the change in speaker; since the characters are facing opposite directions, it implies they are looking at one another, emphasising the use within conversations. This is an example of an eyeline match.
An eyeline match is an editing technique which is based on the premise that the audience will want to see the view of the subject. This is usually followed by a cut to show the audience exactly what is being looked at.
    To execute the task set we used a HD hand held cameras, and tripods. We got into pairs/three's - I worked with Kiran Paul and Abbie Price. We thought through our story, and decided we wanted to set the piece outside as it establishes the scene as an edgy, dodgy place, and automatically adds tension to the piece. We decided we'd keep the mysterious theme throughout our work by ending on 'I'll be back' to intrigue the viewers and leave it open to interpretation - for the same reason we also never gave too much away with what the key is for when it's handed over. We used our match on action to pass the key between the two subjects within the piece; we did this within our shot reverse shot when we are conversing about the object itself. 
    Opening our scene with a subjective point of view shot from Kiran meant that the first thing that would be saw would be myself waiting impatiently, automatically adding suspense to the piece as it implies the menace to come. Following Kiran with a horizontal tracking emphasizes the tension, as it conveys the importance of what she's representing within the piece. We then go into medium shot reverse shots as we converse before a low angle of Kiran is shot to portray her dominance, and power within the short scene when she speaks: 'that's not good enough'. The object is then swapped between the two subjects, before a cutaway to show my reaction to the received article. We then ended on an eye line match onto Kiran for her to conclude with 'I'll be back'.
    We then went back into the Media suite, and put our shots onto iMovie. We then cut the shots and put them into place, before editing the lighting to make it more dingy to fit with the atmosphere. We looked at sound effects and found the perfect piece to use as incidental background music for the scene; we overlapped it twice from the opening credits into the actual shots. The ambient sounds of the wind worked well within our work as made it more naturalistic and deepened the rough, edginess we were going for.
    I think that our shots worked well within the piece - especially our match on action as I believe it to be very realistic; our music made the finished article even better for us as it really emphasized the atmosphere. Our title articulated the ambiguity from the start which I believe also is a good aspect to have. However, I thought that we needed a more in depth story line, as ours was quite vague even though we wanted to keep it mystifying. We also needed to shoot on a less windy day, as although the dingy weather conveyed the secrecy, it participated in the projection of our dialogue as we were required to speak louder to overcome the rustling on the recordings, which we couldn't fully remove. Next time I would like to use a more diverse range of shots, which would be a major improvement for me.


Below is our finished piece.