Wednesday, 30 November 2016

Characters

How important are characters particularly in the opening 2 minutes of a film?



Movies tell stories about people. In every script, the writer has to create one character (or a set of characters) that the audience will root for or hate. This special character is known as the main character, often referred to as the protagonist. He or she will be the character with most obstacles and normally the one with most screen time.

Creating interesting, realistic characters is an art in itself. To find the right dose of believability and novelty to mix together and form an exciting, plausible character ranks as one of the hardest tasks in screenwriting. However characters in the first 2 minutes of a film are not too important as you could get a film opening of a setting, so overall characters are important for the film however are not essential in the first two minutes 



3 existing character profiles 


Mia Wallace (Pulp Fiction)


 


Before we even see her, Mia Wallace is the most talked about character in the film.
We know she's the big man's new wife, a "don't touch" person if there ever was one. But she's also beautiful and bored. So when Jules, and later the bartender, learn that Vincent has to "take her out" and "show her a good time," they think it's hilarious. She's the most dangerous character in the movie. 

Vincent needs to get high on heroin in order to go through with it.

Heath Ledger as The Joker (The dark knight) 
 


Appearing to be the most evil, deranged, and flat out psychotic killer of all comic book villains, The Joker is the primary antagonist of Batman. He is the complete opposite of Batman, in everything from appearance (Batman tends to be a rather large and muscular man, while The Joker is typically a man of average height or even taller possessing a skinny frame), to ideals. The Joker views murder as sport, and will not hesitate to toy with his food before he eats it, even if said food are the men he has hired to work for him. As intimidating as he is psychotic, he still manages to recruit hordes of henchmen despite his maniacal insanity.

The Joker's physical appearance is a polar opposite of that of Batman. Batman uses dark colors such as gray and black to intimidate criminals, while The Joker relies on bright colors, such as purple, green, and sometimes orange to do his bidding. The Joker also has a melted cliche clown face, the origins of which differ depending on the continuity he is used in. Some incarnations of The Joker see him wearing actual make up (such as in the film "The Dark Knight"), while others show his skin actually having been bleached (as in the 1989 "Batman"). He also traditionally has green hair and red lips, to complete the look of the psycho clown.

His methods are unpredictable and incalculable. He does things according to his own twisted sense of logic, and does not desire money. If there was one thing that he did desire, it would be the power to instill anarchy into Gotham by any means necessary, proving that organization is meaningless and futile. He is an exceptionally intelligent man, and this tends to be his greatest weapon against Batman, the police, and the District Attorney's office. He is often confronted by the authorities, but easily evades capture due to sick and twisted mind games he plays on them, all full of mystery. While Batman prefers to stay in the shadows, The Joker basks in the spotlight, often broadcasting himself to the public and media outlets.


 Renton - Ewan McGregor (trainspotting)

 

The main protagonist in Trainspotting, Mark Renton is the Scottish anti-hero who struggles with drug addiction in memorable scenes beginning with a scene in which he fishes a suppository from a blocked toilet to feed his habit. Later he overdoses on heroin and is subsequently held captive by his parents in an intervention where he experiences withdrawal hallucinations. Despite this, throughout the movie Renton remains the most sympathetic character as we occasionally hear his voiceover in the first person. Escaping to London Renton's old life catches up to him as "friends" get back in touch. The movie closes with Renton departing after stealing the proceeds of a drug deal from his associates.


All of the character above are iconic because they are memorable characters from legendary film that everyone knows because of their extorindary acting and the fact that each of these characters creates a relationship with the viewer even if they are a 'villan'.  They add excitement and the thrill factor to each film and 







Tuesday, 15 November 2016

2 minute film open


For our two minute film opening, we were given the task of filming a film opening at a beach along the pier. It had to include older people, an apple and fancy dress.
However when we got to the beach we managed to film a 15 second clip and then the camera's battery died. We where under the impression that we were not allowed to film on our phones so we didn't.
From this we have learned that for the real thing we need to be a lot more organised and professional as we spent money on getting to the coast but where unable to complete the task.
Due to this task failing, we have improvised on a new film opening.
Monday 31st of October (Halloween), we are going into the city centre, filming in the dark and using Amelia as the main character. The plot is a girl (Amelia Gilbert) will walk down the city centre with headphones in listening to the song 'scary' by Stomrzy and the people in fancy dress and masks will be walking past and some get in her face. Parts of the opening will be shot showing Amelia walking, however other parts will use the camera shown as Amelia's eye shot. She will act nervous as she is being a young girl walking in a city centre at night on Halloween with people in masks popping up to her. This idea is a lot more accessible for everyone to do and I personally think this idea will be more successful.

The filming took 2 hours to complete, and the next day we cam back to sixth form and transferred it onto the computer and started to edit it. This idea was more accessible however I still think the other initial idea would of looked better, however we have learned from our last mistake and our actual task we will be a lot more prepared and organised.

Film openings

What do we expect to see in the opening of a film?


PulpFiction

In a cafe/restaurant 
Dialog between the two characters 
Fast pace music- comparable with events taking place (burglary of the cafe)
Bold 'pulp fiction' in yellow and red
Flash up of titles-white font and quick 
Just a focused on a couple who are in love and commit a robbery together



10 Things i hate about you 

Young girl listening to pop music in a convertible car, older girl listening to rock in her older car.
-Then goes onto a school and the characters listening to rock music in their cars 
The next scene goes onto a school and the character we were initially introduced too in the previous scene pullying down a poster of the school prom (aggression)
Titles - bold font- flashing different colours - fast pace which is comparable to the music and fast pace school scene. 
-no dialog apart from someone complaining when the poster is ripped down 


The dark knight 

-tense music (ticking time bomb)
-in a city 
-initially see someone robbing a bank 
-masks and weapons 
-no titles 
-negotiating on bank deals is the only dialog 
-non diegetic music (the music is not being heard by the world of the film)
-the props used in the opening scene(the masks and the weapons) billed up tension for the idea of the genre thriller.
-next scene in the opening two minutes diegetic sound is used for the smashing off the window.