Once upon a time in the west

This thriller film uses a lot of different things in order to make it seem tense, dangerous and exciting. For instance the characters that they use, the props they have/wear, the way some of them walk and sounds or music.

Within the first few seconds of the film their is no dialogue whatsoever but the scene is not quiet, you can hear a few things at the beginning of the opening. Some of them include:
The wind - which creates a kind of tension as it sounds like screaming and it also lets the audience know that the place is deserted.
Chalkboard - the chalk that scratches on the blackboard give an eeriness to the scene making you wonder whats going to happen.
A bird in a cage - there is a bird that keeps making a high pitch noise that almost sounds like a scream which could mean that he is trying to warn his owner due to the fact that it is scared.

Their are cowboys positioned at each door way which stops the audience from looking out of the cabin which makes them feel trapped and isolated. The old man behind the counter is weak, small and timid compared to the cowboys who are wearing strong clothes and a gun each, these show that the characters are quite powerful or dominant. As the cowboys walk slowly towards the man you can see only there feet which again shows you that they are strong characters.

The director also uses symbols in order to give you even more clues on the characters, these include:
-The cowboys have guns that are clearly shown to the audience this shows that they are powerful characters and that there may be danger coming up within the movie.
-The cowboys are wearing dark clothing this usually means that they are villains this is very symbolic because you know that black represents evil and white good so as soon as you see their clothing you can quickly identify who is the villain and who is the hero.
-The cowboys are both wearing cowboy hats this shows that they are actually cowboys and they are a well known symbol as soon as you spot you know exactly who that character is.

Diegetic sound means that it is natural to the film e.g. wind, voice etc. Non diegetic sound means that it has been added to the movie e.g. music etc.

This film is similar to another thriller western known as “no country for old men”. These are the fact that they are both set along the lines of the western genre, the characters are similar and the following:

The weapon that the cowboys wear, which are guns which shows that thy are powerful.
The lack of dialogue in both films.
The locations are both deserted and alone.
The feeling that you have when you watch the film, the fact that you feel scared, nervous, excited etc.

As you can see there are a few different ways that the director purposely shows the audience symbols etc in order to give clues to what may happen and to what the characters are like. He could also be using them to make you watch the clip a few times i order to identify what they are.

Notes from Somers end

British films are mostly influenced by the french and are usually about the working class, and real life events, not fantasy or myth, they are also mostly in black and white. They have a strong sense of place which means that the cameras are cheaper as the filming is usually done on an urban landscape e.g. london. Films are also focused on the north and the journey in life.

The film is based on finding new identities, outsiders are usually in the film e.g. black, pregnant mothers, unemployed etc. Soaps also come from the same ideas, corination street which started in the 60s, eastenders which started in the 80s.

Brit grit also known as Brit fim are films like vera drake by mike leigh, looking for eric by ken loach, full monty by shane meadows. People also recreate Billy Elliot. Shane meadows was self taught and was in the working class , he made this is england.

Somers town is about two boys, one had no background and is streetwise while the other one is polish and innocent. The location is never mentioned eventhough the film is called Somers town, the film shows the growth of eurostar as they sponsed the film. The boys are both constantly reinventing themselves.

What is a Thriller?

(A thriller is something that thrills, especially a suspenseful, sensational genre of story, book, play or film)

Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more-powerful and better-equipped villains. Writer Vladimir Nabokov, in his lectures said that "In an Anglo-Saxon thriller, the villain is generally punished, and the strong silent man generally wins the weak babbling girl"

Here are a few examples of thriller films:

The matrix
Alien
The godfather
Jaws
Fight club

No country for old men

No County For Old Men Intro Scene:

There are many ways that the film conforms to the conventions of a thriller, these include the sounds, use of music, objects in the film, characters and their clothes, behaviour of certain characters in the film etc. Thrillers are known for many things such as being scary, gory, nail biting, exhilarating and much more.

This thriller uses all of the above to make it a worth while film to watch and to show what type of film it is. The colours are used most efficiently in what the characters wear, for example dark colour of the sunset which makes the scene seem scary and desolate, in then leads into a more lighter scene but abnormally which raises the tension even more. The dark red colour of the wet blood which stands out along the light brownish coloured sand, which is dry and dusty, as the intro scene is about half way through.

The weather is also used to give hints in the scenes of thrillers, in this film it is used to show that something bad is about to happen. This is shown by the shy getting darker and by clouds which cover up the sun, almost hinting that something is hiding just round the corner.

Sounds are one of the biggest things that raise tensions in films, especially thrillers and horrors. The silence at the start of the films raises tensions and draws you into the film, the silence is then broke by a man talking yet you can hear some quiet sounds in the background. The intro scene doesn't have a lot of dialogue between characters as the sounds are mostly based on the wind etc.

The film shows many scenes which are typically in thriller films, they include a murder/death a scene of deception which is when the killer pretends to be a police officer in order to get a car. The film also introduces a question quite early on in the film which is based around the metal device that the killer takes everywhere (an oxygen tank). This makes the audience wonder why the man is keeping the tank so close to him which could mean that there is something inside of it. There is also a scene where the killer is taken in a police car to the police station on a open road, which gives off a feeling that there is no where to run. The final typical scene that i am going to talk about is the one where the main character sees a blanked out car door which he slowly walks up to, this raises attention and makes you wonder what is behind the door, this type of scene is used time and time again in many films.

The scenes are compared quite similar to each other as they feed into each scene quite a lot e.g. after the killer has killed someone by saying hold still it goes to the hunter who also says hold still, another similarities is the fact that the killer is classed as a hunter, hunting humans and leads to the man who is hunting animals.

So all in all the thriller genre film uses many similar things used in other thrillers which gives it more tension and gives it a better quality feel, it also gives the audience hints to what type of film it actually is so that they will know if they want to watch it or not. e.g. the dead bodies with the flies around them which shows that they have been dead a long time could be used in mostly either a horror, action or a thriller movie.

Final Cut Express And What I Learned =)

Final cut express is a must need for anyone studying media or just for fun if you like to make films etc. It is rather quick and easy to use once you know what your doing although you have to be focused as it is difficult to learn at first. Its best to get some hands on learning by actually using the software as your brain will process it quicker then just being told what to do.

You can do a multiple amount of things which include, uploading a complete DV tape and then if you delete a section of it because it doesn't work or such you can again film but over the part that you deleted on final cut meaning that you don't have to waste the tape space. You can also go forwards and backwards on the timeline by pressing the left and right arrows. You can even go frame by frame forward or backwards in the film which gives you a better look in case there are any problems with shots etc.

If you thought that the things above were good then your gonna love what follows: the editing and placing the film, music etc in the timeline is the best part of the software (in my opinion). This is because it makes you think about what your doing, you cant just place clips here and there you want to fit the music beat with the clips/effects to create the effect that the film is of a good quality.

Choosing the music is one of the hardest things as you don't want music too fast or you will need a lot of footage, where as if you have it too slow then it will be boring watching it. This most useful type of music for clips with no dialogue in them would be ones with no lyrics, this lets you hear the beat easier and the audience wont get dragged into the lyrics instead of the film however if the lyrics fit with what the film is talking about or describing then it would be better to have the lyrics in.

Final cut express is especially useful for making things like trailers as you can edit a lot of footage with music in order to give a variety of effects and ideas. All in all the software is easy to use once you know what your doing but you have to get some hands on experience and just try things out as you go along. e.g. special effects- you never know if they are going to work but once you look through a few the right one with stand out.

My First Post

Hey my name is Jonny Holmes and i am currently going to Reepham College to learn my four A levels. They are as follows:

Media (the study of audiences and the media)
Sociology (the study of social groups)
Photography (the study of how to take good quality photographs)
Psychology (the study of the mind and behaviour)

I am creating this blog so that the school can save on paper (save the planet =D) and so that my work is easy and quicker to complete, process and mark. This is the first post so i hope that you have enjoyed knowing a little about me!