Research

Directors research - Guillermo Del Toro

GUILLERMO DEL TORO

• Guillermo del Toro was born on October 9th 1964.
• He's from Mexico. 
• He is a director, producer, screenwriter, novelist and designer and he started off his career studying special effects and special effects make up. 
• He first got involved in film making when he was eight years old where he used his father's camera to make short films with his toys. 
• Guillermo del Toro has directed a variety of films such as comic book adaptations, fantasy and Horror films.
• Guillermo del Toro was hired by Peter Jackson to direct the 'The Hobbit'. However he later had to step down from the project because of an extended delay because of MGM's financial troubles. Although he removed himself from directing the film, he continued co-writing the screenplays.
• In 2009 Guillermo del Toro's first novel 'The Strain' was released. It is the first part of an apocalyptic vampire trilogy co-authored by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. The second volume 'The Fall' was released in 2010. The final novel, 'The Night Eternal' followed in 2011. Guillermo del Toro has expressed an interest in adapting the trilogy as a TV series.

Films that he's directed include: (Films I've seen)

The Devil's Backbone (2001)

Hellboy (2004) 

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

(Information from Wikipedia & Youtube videos seen above.) 

                         Tarryn Rose

3 directors

3 Directors

Peter Jackson:
He has directed many films such as:
-Lord Of The Rings
-The Lovely Bones
-The Hobbit 
-King Kong
is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, who is well known for his The lord Of The Rings trilogy. Jackson is known for his attention to detail, a habit of shooting scenes from many angles, a macabre sense of humour, and a general playfulness.
Peter won :Best Picture ,Best director and best adapted screenplay in the 2004 Academy awards for Lord Of The Rings. He has most recently won 'Outstanding Producer of Animated Theatrical Motion Picture' for the film 'The Adventures of Tintin'

Tim Burton:
 Has Directed many famous films such as:
-Alice In Wonderland
-Beetlejuice
-The Nightmare Before Christmas
-Planet Of The Apes
Tim Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for his dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare before Christmas etc. Tim Has won many awards for example: in 1990 he won an Emmy award for 'outstanding animated program' for Beetlejuice, in 2008 he won a National Board of Review Award for 'Best director' for Sweeney Todd


James Cameron:
He has directed films such as
- Avatar
- Titanic
- The terminator
- Aliens
James is a Canadian film director, film producer, deep-sea explorer, screenwriter, visual artist and editor. Cameron's films have recurring themes and subtexts. These include the conflicts between humanity and technology, the dangers of corporate greed , strong female characters, and a strong romance subplot. In almost all films, the main characters usually get into dramatic crisis situations with significant threats to their own life or even the threat of an impending apocalypse. James has won awards such as Teen Choice awards , Best Director , Best Film , Best Editing , Best motion picture etc .

     
   Ellie Hawksworth

Target Audience Mood board:

Tarryn Rose

Iconography in Vampire Films: 

Crosses and crucifixes

Fangs

Blood

Goblet - full of blood

Death

Black cloaks

Church - can suggest an eerie atmosphere if abandoned.

Red eyes

Pale skin

Graveyard

Chloe O'Brien

Director's Research video (Incomplete)

Tarryn Rose

Lighting in the Lost Boys Opening sequence

• The lighting throughout this opening sequence is low key to due to the fact that it's set at night time. The only lights that are visible in the sequence is the lights from the fair ground rides.
• As the camera moves across the water in the first seconds of the opening sequence there is a clear contrast in the lighting between light and dark. This could represent conflict between light (good) and dark (bad) in the film. The moonlight reflecting on the water connotes mystery and gives a feel of eeriness. 
• When the lights get turned off at the end of the opening sequence it gives a feel of danger and impending doom. 

Tarryn Rose

Group Research Task:

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Research Task

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Institutions Research

The institution that we've decided to use for our film is Warner Brothers.

The reason why we decided to use Warner Brothers as a institution to represent our film opening is because Warner Brothers have produced a number of films similar to our own film. 

Some examples of similar films are: 

Dracula has risen from the grave (1968)

Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)

Dracula A.D (1972)

The Shining (1980)

The Lost Boys (1987)

Sweeny Todd (2007)

The reason why these films are similar to our opening sequence is because of multiple reasons. 

One reason being simply because some of the films' storylines are similar to our opening sequence and some of the films have vampires in it. (Dracula has risen from the grave,Taste the Blood of Dracula,Dracula A.D & The Lost Boys).

Another reason why some of these films are similar to our opening sequence is from the visual similarities between some of those films and our own film. For example, the colorization and the visual style of our film is very similar to Sweeny Todd. (The make up and costume is similar and the way the colours have been altered in the picture edit is similar to our film etc.)

The Lost Boys hold some similarities with our opening sequence due to the fact that The Lost Boys tried to bring the idea of vampires into a modern setting. (Back in the 1980s when the film was made). This is similar to our opening sequence because we've also tried to make the idea of Vampires into a modern idea. 

The Shining is edited is similar to our opening sequence. They both use quick cuts to add tension and fear and also there are fast jump cuts to make the audience feel disorientated. 

For Example:

Tarryn Rose

Traditional order of film credits in an opening sequence:

• (NAME OF THE DISTRIBUTER)

(Eg: Walt Disney Pictures, Columbia, Lions Gate, Universal, Marvel Studios, Dimension, Miramax etc.).

• (NAME OF THE PRODUCTION COMPANY)

Name of the production company that actually made the film. 

• (PRODUCER NAME) PRODUCTION...A FILM BY (DIRECTOR NAME)

Director's first credit.

• STARRING

Main Actors.

• (FILM'S TITLE)

Name of the film.

• FEATURING

Featured actors.

• CASTING or CASTING BY

Casting director.

• MUSIC or MUSIC COMPOSED BY

Composer of music.

• PRODUCTION DESIGN or PRODUCTION DESIGNER

Production designer.

As a variation some of the below may be noted:

• SET DESIGN
• COSTUMES or COSTUMES BY or GOWNS (older movies)
• HAIRDRESSER
• MAKE-UP ARTIST
• SOUND RECORDING (older movies)
• VISUAL EFFECTS DIRECTOR or VISUAL EFFECTS BY

• EDITOR or EDITED BY

Editor.

• DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Director of photography.

• PRODUCER or PRODUCED BY, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER

• BASED ON THE BOOK (PLAY, GRAPHIC NOVEL etc.) BY or FROM A PLAY/BOOK BY 

If based on a book or other literary work.

• BASED ON THE CHARACTERS BY or BASED ON THE CHARACTERS CREATED BY

If based on characters from a book or other media.

• STORY or STORY BY

Person who wrote the story on which the script is based, gets "story by" credit, and the first screenplay credit, unless the script made substantial changes to the story.

• WRITER(S) or WRITTEN BY

Screenplay writers. 

• DIRECTOR or DIRECTED BY

Director. The Directors Guild of America usually permits a film to list only one director, even when it is known that two or more worked on it. Exceptions are made in rare cases such as a death, and subsequent replacement of the director mid-production.

An example showing the order:
'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' Opening sequence.

(Information found and adapted from Wikepedia)

Tarryn Rose

Analysis of camera in Twilight opening sequence

Camera:

• Pans upwards over a fallen tree to focus on a deer drinking water from the stream. 
• Cuts to a wide shot from the behind the deer. 
• Cut to a close up profile shot of the deer with foliage out of focus in the foreground. Camera isn't stationary and moves around to keep the deer's head positioned in the centre of the frame. The fact that the camera is moving behind plants gives the illusion that something/someone is watching the deer and we're seeing the deer from their perspective. Also the fact that the deer's head is always positioned in the centre of the frame makes the deer appear to look like a target and makes the deer the main focus. 
• Cuts to a bigger profile close up of the deer with more movement and more foliage in the foreground. The deer is still in focus. 
• Cuts to the camera looking up into a canopy of trees. The camera then tilts downwards to see a pathway and the deer at the end of the pathway. The tilt isn't done smoothly which could mean that the camera is hand held at this point. 
• Then, the camera moves along the path towards the deer. This again, isn't done smoothly  and the camera seems to be hand held as the camera man runs along the path towards the deer. This gives the effect that we are seeing the scene from somebody else's perspective. 
• There is then a series of shots and angles of the deer running away from the camera. This is cut quickly to give a sense of panic and urgency. 
• You then see out of focus extreme close up shots of somebody running after the deer.
• Then there is a mid shot of the deer jumping over a log while somebody catches is. There is then a fade to white transition (that looks like a sun glare) which prevents you from seeing the person's face. 

Tarryn Rose




Research in vampire films
In the opening sequence of 'blade there were many ideologies of vampire genre such as

-The ideologies are represented in bold

At the beginning of the opening there is a shot of a hospital , this could represent people getting hurt and needing help. there is a woman being rushes into a hospital room holding her neck as she had been bitten there, and this tend to be the most common place a human could be bitten. Red writing at the beginning this represents danger. The time of the day was night and this relates to vampires as they are known as 'night walkers'. When they are inside the club there is a moment where blood drops on the humans hand and then the whole room is covered in blood; Blood represents vampires as this is what they eat and what their whole life is based around. All the vampires around the man try to intimidate the human by showing him their Fangs as they use their fangs a weapon against humans, this could represent that they are trying to show the human that they are more powerful than him. When Blade walks into the night club he is holding weapons and is killing the vampires; The weapons could represent how violent vampires are and the danger that surrounds them and the killings could represent how this is what happens commonly around vampires i.e when vampires are around people get killed.

The human in this scene is a male and he is lead by a female vampire this could represent that humans are weak as usually a male tends to be a stronger character than a female. When he enters the club the vampires surround him and circle him this could show that he is like prey to them and he's helpless. When he's manages to crawl out of the crowd of vampires  and he comes into contact with blade he is on the floor , this could suggest that blade is more powerful that the human as he is higher up.
The women vampire we see in this scene, tends to be quite flirtatious towards the man and quite dominant and controlling over him, this could show that as a vampire women are more in control. and women vampires are represented as a sexual icon. It is not obvious at the begging of the scene that she is a vampire as we could have just mistaken her as 'bossy' but when inside the club it become a lot more obvious as she is covered in blood and she shows her fangs to the human and this could be seen as a threat towards him.
 All the vampires seem frightened of blade this shows that although they are strong creatures they still can be defeated by others , so they are not the most powerful and they still can be made to feel intimidated by stronger people, this relates to bullies in a real life situation as they are not afraid to pick on someone who seems to be weaker than themselves but are frightened to pick on someone stronger.

By Ellie Hawksworth

View the first 3-5 minutes of any of the films suggested.

How do they establish genre, narrative, character, ideology, through technical and symbolic code?

The Ring- a film based on a young girl who got terribly traumatised by her unruly mother, therefore she seeks revenge to do the same to other people. The film explores many themes, the main one being tragedy.  

In the opening sequence of 'The Ring' we get a real glimpse that the film is aimed at young adults and perhaps an older audience, however we could say it appeals to every audience except  children. I've made my decision based on the seriousness and the atmosphere of the opening sequence. The atmosphere feels gloomy and mysterious therefore this shows that this tension will lead onto something happening, and I'm sure this particular target audience would enjoy this horror type film. 

In the first few seconds of the clip, there is a teenage, brunette girl introduced with a petrified facial expression which then creates the tension of the scene and makes the audience believe something is about to happen. Whilst holding the glass of milk we begin to see the girl trembling, which suggests she is scared. Further on a little, there is a close up of her face showing us yet again that something is about to happen. 

She calls out to her friend calling her a 'bitch' thinking she is the one that's turned the tv on so it's just a fuzzy grey screen, so she goes into the living room and turns it off. There is a medium long shot in this part to show us her reaction to the tv being like that and the tv turning off. After this, as she begins to walk away, on a long shot, we see through the window that the tele turns itself back on, this suggests somebody's there and someone or something is about to appear.

After this the camera slowly begins to go towards her face as she is freaking out about the tv, this slow movement of the camera shows us yet again something is about to happen and even the girls beginning to notice something's not quite right.

There's a very tense camera shot when the girl and the TV are close up from a side angle, medium close up. This then begins to make the audience think that something s perhaps behind her at this point, it almost could suggest by not seeing behind her, she is not safe. 

Throughout the clip, the pace of the camera was kept fairly slow, to create a gloomy atmosphere. However, whenever she would hear or see something she would run, and the camera would go towards her fast to let us know something is literally about to happen. This clip used high angle shot on the staircase which went really well with the genre of horror of the film, I thought this because the fact we could not see up the stairs created more tension, as we didn't no what to expect, because the camera didn't allow the audience to see certain things. Throughout the clip, this happened a lot to create the tension. 

When she's upstairs the camera is on a floor shot, capturing her feet as she walked slowly towards the bedroom. This shot allowed the audience to see the blood scattered across the floor in front of her, which gave us a opportunity to know something bad was about to happen, before she even knew. 

She then goes into the bedroom, there is a close up on the tele, and the a quick cut straight back to her petrified face, which then turns into one of the 'little girls victims' quite obviously.

Throughout the clip, there was little colour used and a low key lighting, which portrayed the themes and genre of the film very clearly. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gIuCfnmPQg

Chloe O'Brien

500 word representation of gender/sexuality in vampire tv shows

In the series True Blood the director explores gender and sexuality using female and male vampires to portray this image. In a clip of the queen Sophie Anne and Eric (both vampires) the pair of them exchange thoughts about the human girl that Eric is holding.
Firstly, when Eric walks in he drags the human girl across the floor towards Sophie Anne who is placed inside a cage locked up, this clearly shows the power of the male vampire and the control he has over female  humans in general. the human girl is seductively dressed in a white corset, which suggests she is there as a sexual object as-well as the vampires 'prey' or 'food'. 

The Mise En Scene in the scene gives the audience a good understanding of the class in which the protagonist 'Sophie Anne' is placed in, the surroundings seem to be rather classy, for example their are chandeliers placed all over the ceilings of the wall in the room. Furthermore, their is a swimming pool based in the center of the room and also classy furniture surrounding the room. This clearly shows that Sophie Anne is a female vampire with very much order in her life and has everything she wants.  Adding on, the clothing she wears is rather classy, she has a a cream jump suit with gold beads around her neck and perfect makeup and hair. This portrays her to be high class, attractive and perhaps even seductive. 

When the human girl is brought in-front of Sophie Anne's cage by Eric  instantly the audience gets a glimpse of Sophie Anne's feelings towards the human girl. Eric goes on to say ''I'm going to put my fangs into her and drink'' After this Their is a medium close up of Sophie Anne slowly moving her head up with a worried facial expression looking at Eric. This clearly shows the audience that Sophie has some sort of feelings for this human girl, whether they be sexual or friendly. After this, Eric goes on to say hes going to bite the human girl in a sexual way, this seems to aggravate Sophie, which suggest she has some sort of sexual feelings for the human girl... 

From watching the clip from 'True Blood' I clearly learnt that Women vampires are seen as strong and masculine characters also very seductive. However, although this masculinity is usually seen, there is still a part of which the male vampire has more control e.g. when Eric teases Sophie and then goes on to bite the human girl. This shows his power over the whole situation and the fact Sophie Anne is behind a cage suggests she has little power to stop him. Therefore Vampire TV Shows portray woman as mainly masculine, however they still stick to the usual convention of the woman having less power. Male vampires seem to be more in-control of most situations, and usually have the power to get a women to do what they want. 

Chloe O'Brien

Target Audience Research

Chloe O'Brien

Iconography of Vampire Horror films mood board

Chloe O'Brien

Why I chose to do the makeup the way I did

I felt for our piece the opening sequence was meant to be realistic, so I choose to make the makeup as realistic as possible to match with our realism. The makeup at the beginning was made to look as neutral as possible so the audience didn't suspect  the so called 'priest' was a vampire. So I choose to use neutral colors in order to achieve this. As time progressed, I choose to make the face more defined, eg. defined cheekbones and a whiter face to show the change from a priest into a vampire. I choose not to have blood on the priests mouth at any point because I felt that It would be too CLICHE' so I took the more realistic approach to be as neutral as I could be to give the opening sequence a more realistic view; to satisfy our audience.