Let Me In Analysis

Today, some students, myself and the teacher went up to the Odeon up in Covent Gardens to watch a film 'Let Me In' which had a storyline of a little boy named Owen, how became friends very quickly with a girl called Abby who had moved in next door, however she wasn't the ordinary girl he thought she was as she had an evil spirit or a type of vampire that lived on blood.
How do the film makers use the camera to tell the story?
They tell the story by using a variety of shots, they ranged from POV, Long shot, Mediums shot and more. These told the story by informing the audience when a scary, intense or normal event was going to take place.
Is the camera used objectively or subjectively? is POV used and if so, how, when and why?
The camera was used both objectively as it showed us the scene without getting involved. This is used when we see the little girl sitting in an underground passage where she creates a conversation with a person who is walking by, she then asks him to carry her as she had hurt herself. Once he has picked her up she then attacked him to drink his blood. We can tell this is objective as we get the feeling that we are witnessing what is going on. 
As well as subjectively as we feel more part of what is going on, this is shown when the police man enters into the girls apartment and realises something suspicious is taking place. He finds a note on the floor revealing the girls where abouts. He then goes to the bathroom where she is and takes part of the cover off from the window to let light into the room, this wakes the girl up as she feel the slight burning sensation no her leg. This brings out her evil side where she then attacks him to drink his blood. We see this as subjective because we are watching from the little boys point of view. 
Point of view is used in the opening scene which takes place in a hospital as a police officer goes to visit a man who is severely burnt by acid which a deformed his facial features. When a policeman speaks to this other man we see that the shots blur in and out of focus, this could have been used to show how badly damaged the mans sight is as he is unable to view people clearly.
How does Mise-En-Scene reflect the themes, genre and ideology of the film?
It reflects themes by showing the girl is an approachable character but not at the same time due to her clothing that she wears. It reflects genre as we don't expect it to be a scary horror film or not to be as scary as it looks like a normal setting which leads us to think that it could just be an ordinary film. The ideology   
In the opening sequence, what codes are embedded into the titles and opening shots/scenes which signify the genre of the movie? How do these reflect or subvert the conventions of the genre?
The codes that are embedded which sets the genre are the eery music which was dramatic, the simple titles in black writing against a clear white background and then it quickly shows us a black background which slows fades in each part of the title 'Let Me In' which was coloured in a deep red colour which could represent blood will be in the film. 
Think about the use of sound. How is sound used develop narrative? How does sound add to or even substitute for image in the movie?
Throughout the film there was many diegetic sounds that were used from police sirens, talking, back ground music and very intense music. they help to create narrative as they all have a meaning in the film, it lets us know when different types of scene will happen. for example the intense music, this told us when the girl may strike her next victim toward the middle and ending of the film. It makes the film more interesting to watch due to making it more interesting, also by adding the different sounds through the film it keeps us watching to see what will happen next. For example again with the intense music when Abby was going to drink someones blood.
In what way does the film seek to appeal to a specific target audience?
I think that this film was aimed at teenagers of around 15 - 20 years of age, this is because it it more based on the children more then focusing on the adults that are in the film. As of this the teenagers are more near to the age of the children that appear in the film where they can relate to them a bit more. 

Thursday 7th lesson analysis

In the lesson we had to set up all the equipment from the lights, room layout and camera positioning. We were then split into two groups of 4 and 5 in which we had to put together a scene of a range of shots where someone walks through a door and goes to sit directly face-to-face with another character and exchanging a few lines of speech.
My group had decided on doing 8 shots that was given a mysterious atmosphere, the character who walked in through the door was the detective and the character who was already sitting down was the criminal. To get these shots more realistic we had to draw up a storyboard and write down the shots/angles, lighting and speech.
Once this was done, we needed to lay out the room to how we wanted it. However we did have a problem as we wanted the whole room to be dark in order to set the mysterious vibe but we were unable to do this so we had to find a way to work with this in our scene.
We also had to change some of the shots we used due to this set back so that we could still keep to this effect but it took much more time so we didn't meet our time target meaning we couldnt edit any of. While we were filiming this, we had the other group film us so that we could see what we were doing and for them to get some idea on how to do their scene.

Opening scenes analysis

Waterloo Road
The opening scene if filmed in a family kitchen telling us that it is interior with four characters shown. Three of the characters are in school uniforms which show they are in their teenage years who are eating breakfast. The fourth character is a middle ages woman who is on the phone wearinng formal clothes. This could suggest that she may be a business woman in the way she presents herself.
The lighting used was bright, this shows that it is during the day in the morning as we notice the characters eating cereal. Also by using bright lighting it has lit up the characters faces so we know who some of the main people are going to be in this particular episode.
Diegetic sounds are used in the opeing scene of people talking about school things and speaking on the phone, these are the two sounds that can be heard show that is a very busy morning that shows the characters as unsettled and in a rush. This tells us that their will be dialogue throughout and gives us an indication to what the story line will be about when watching.
Many shots are used in the scene from medium close up, point of view (pov), close up and more, this helps to gain people attention by making it look interesting to watch and so that we stay watching the episode. Also using these shots they also help to tell the story as well as the dialogue keeping us entertained.

City of God.

This is a very stange film, at the begininning we get a celebration vibe and this is becuase we hear background music which is very loud and many people dancing around the place. Throughout the clip there are many diegetic sounds that are heard from the more good happy vibe of music, loads of people having conversations to more serious sounds of heart beating, guns and shouting. Hearing these sounds give the audience a sense of a market place that is very dangerous due to the guns.
In the clip, the lighting that is used from dark which is shaded areas and bright which is hot areas. The dark lighting could have been used to make the characters more clear to see so that we are able to pick up their facial expressions, or it could have been done in order to show th gang's dangerous side showing that they are evil and bad. The bright lighting shows that it is hot where the film is being filmed which tell the audience that they are in an abroad country. We also pick up this piece of information as the language the characters are speaking is not recognisable.
The shots that are used are long shot to show some of the characters to get an idea of what they are wearing, close up to show facial expressions, point of view (pov) to show the chicken running away. They also cut from one shot to another quite fast, this creates a suspence and interesting vibe.
There are a range of characters that are shown in the clip, it is mostly dominated by boys which shows that this type of film is targeted at boys/men more then women. We notice that everyone is wearing scruffy clothes, this could mean that the country they are filiming in is a poor country. By showing that they are poor gets us thinking that the way they make their money is through the market which is why they are selling cooked chicken and not just as a celebration.
The protagonist character in this short film is immediatly picked out to be the gang leader who seems to be holding guns and knives, this is the danger aspect of the film showingf that there is alot of crime that goes on. The antagonist of the film would be the school boy who gets caught between the two groups people whom are the gang and the police. We recognise this as we see that he is a innocent person who was in th wrong place at the wrong time.

Opening Script.

A girl (Amy) is in a happy mood and cannot wait to get to her lesson to tell her best friend (Rachel) about the time that she has had over the weekend. We can hear the classroom atmosphere by all the children having there own conversations waiting for the teacher to enter.


Amy: (walks through the door, shown by a medium shot to show her face expressions and her mood - happy and smiling)


Amy: (starts walking towards her desk while getting ready to sit down in her chair shown by a long shot - still happy)


Rachel: (already sitting in her chair looking up at Amy following her across the room from shown from her Point of View)


Amy: (sits down in her chair next to her best friend and slowly turns towards Rachel using the 180 degree rule - her face expressions smiling but more calm now as she is in lesson)


(teacher enters the room, everyone goes quiet)


Rachel: What's up, Why are you so happy? (whispering because the teacher has started the lesson, over the shoulder shot so we can see Amy)


Amy: I'll explain to you later. (whispering too, close up) 


(end of the conversation)