No Country For Old Man

No Country For Old Men






The opening scene is when a mysterious man has got arrested and is taken in. He then commits murder and escapes. Also he has a mysterious gas canister what he uses to escape and uses it and kills a civilian to steal there car.

This is the start of the film, later a drug deal has gone wrong, with a lot of money gone missing, a man comes and find it, he is then on the run from the mystery man who's looking for this stolen money, it later gets crucial, and intense of who will survive at the end of it.

Mise en scene:
In the opening scene the location is in a deserted area in the desert. There is a sheriff is a sheriff costume, and a mysterious man who is handcuffed with a gas canister. Sheriff drives car to the station. Sheriff on phone. Mysterious man uses handcuff to strangle sheriff and blood is everywhere.
Mysterious man uses sheriff car and pulls over a innocent man. Uses gas canister to murder innocent man and steals the car.

Sound:
- 

Camera:
- steady cam (sheriff takes the man  to the car)
- long shot ( when car drives away)
- steady cam (sheriff is on the phone)
- low angle (to show man i powerful over the sheriff)
- high angle shot (man washes hands)
- point of view (man driving sheriff car)

Editing:
At the start of the opening scene, the editing is slow, its around average of 10 seconds per scene. But at the part where the man strangles the sheriff to death the pace of editing gets faster and faster and creates tension. The average at this scene is an average of 2 seconds. After the murder then pace begins to get slower again at ab average o 6-7 seconds. throughout the scene the style is straight cut. Theirs no fade, wipe and dissolve shot in the scene.

History of violence

History Of Violence

The History of violence is a 2005 american thriller directed by David Cronenberg. The film is about a man who runs a bar and it gets robbed by two thief's. In self defense the man killed them to keep him and his family safe. However this leads his violent history to strike back at him.

This is the director of the film, he was born March 15th 1943 and is aged 41. He is most interested in science fiction films and horrors.

                                                                                    

Camera Analysis  

During the opening scene theirs only two shots in the first three minutes, the theme of the setting is in the western. Through out the opening scene, it is steady cam, this is a slow start. When the man gets out of the car leaves a tracking shot of him walking in the motel. A girl come out and shows a low angle shot to show she is powerless. There is then a close up on the gun, to show tension and something dangerous is going to happen.    

Editing
During the opening scene the editing is really slow, later it starts to get more dramatic and editing starts to get quicker. Their was about 11 or 12 cuts in total in the opening scene.

Sound
- sound in background /Digetic
- sound of radio / Diegtic
- sound o the track music /Digetic
- sound of the car door / Dialog
- sound of the bell /Digetic
- sound of fridge door /Digetic
- sound of water /Digetic
- sound of girl scared /Dialog
- sound of gun shot /Dialog

Mise en scene
At the start of the scene, it takes place out side of a motel, theirs two male actors, one using a car and one packing, during the scene we see outside the motel and then inside where we see a little girl little. This is when the gun is used to kill her. We then see a next scene where it takes place in a cafe. where the two male actors enter. In the cafe there are props like drinks, table chairs and bar.

Unknown

Unknown 

A man awakens from a coma, only to discover that someone has taken on his identity and that no on, (not even his wife), believes him. With the help of a young woman. he sets out to prove who he is.  

The director of the film is called Jaume Collet-Serra, he was born march 1974 in Spain and has directed many films such as Orphan, Unknown and Non-stop. 




The main actors of the film are Liam Nelson, Diane Kruger, and January Jones. Liam Nelson was born June 1952, Ballymena. Has stared in films such as Taken 1 and 2, Non-stop, Unknown and more.




The film made around $120,00,000 gross profit world wide, the budget was $30,000,000 estimated, so it made a huge profit.  

During the film it excites the audience and makes them thrilled and wanting to watch it for longer. throughout the film there is always tension. An example of this is the hospital scene.

The Hospital Scene 
In this scene its very tense, exciting and life threatening. If Martin Harris (Liam Nelson) does not reach the scissors, he will be murdered. The sound track and fast editing leading to his escape. The camera uses close up to show how important that object is and the audience to focus on it. The editing is fast to show tension, playing digetic music to show the audience something bad is happening and to build tension.    

The Car Chase

At the start of the scene, tension builds up slows with editing speed starting to get faster and faster, when the car crashes and spins, the chase starts. Speed editing is really fast, and sound musics starts to play to attract the audience and keep them thrilled. There are many shots used to keep the audience thrilled and not bored, the faster the editing and more shots, the more thrilled and interested the audience is. At the end of the scene, both cars battle it out and creates tension when one of the cars are about to crash into a tram but luckily escape.

The Birds

The birds

This is a thriller what Alfred Hitchcock directed in 1963. The writer of the film is called Daphne Du Maurier and Evan Hunter did the screen play. The stars of the film are called Rod Taylor, Tippi Hendren and Suzanne Pleshette.

Thriller conventions

In birds, instead of having a villain, the external threat is nature what is the birds. In a scene in the film, mitch's mother goes into the farmers house and finds it to be very quiet with cups smashed in the kitchen, then she looks in his room where she finds the room torn apart and smashed windows with birds dead, in the angle of her eye she sees a foot with blood and finds the body without eyes. she leave the house with shock. This builds up tension because she has slowly entered the home and see a shocking event. This then makes the audience thrilled because nature is attacking because ?? no one knows why and it is very unusual. This makes the audience to watch and find out.

In this film, there is always suspense used extensively. An example of this is that in the film there no non-digetic sounding. all the sounds are nature, eg the sound of the birds.

Dramatic irony is used in the film. This is when character does not know what is happening but the audience does. An example of this is when, Tippi Hendren is out side the school on the bench, where she has no clue that the birds are gathering behind her, however we the audience know this.

Hitchcocks technique in the film  is that he uses nature as an external threat. An example of Hitchcocks technique is when at the school yard scene, you can hear the innocent childrens voices sing whilst you can see the nature of the birds gathering to attack. Throughout the whole film theres no non-digetic sound, just digetic sound of the birds its self. The wind and screeching show shock and horror to what the birds are doing.

North by North West

North By North Wests   one of the best thrillers...

This film is about an innocent New York advertising executive is mistaken for a governmental agent by a group of foreign spies. His life is changed as he is mistaken for Mr. Kaplin. As this he has also been framed for murder, so that the spies are after him also the police are. This film is a long adventure to see who Mr Kaplin and how the get out of this mess.



The director of this film is called Alfred Hitchcock, he's a very famous film director or producing one of the best thriller films of all time. When filming the scenes, he always planned every scene before filming the real scene. This is because in this time period, you didn't have computer for stunt scenes, all the scenes where real. these scene where so crucial that if they failed, it would cost a lot of money to redo.





The main actor in this film is called Carry Grant (Mr Thornhil/Mr. Kaplin)






Representation of women in North by North West

In North by North West men are seen as active and women are seen as passive. This is because Laura Mulveys theory is introduced with the male gaze. This is because in films, women viewed as the objects of male erotic desire in film and audience. She shows that he audience is forced to identify with male gaze.

Laura Mulvey said that in North By North West, the camera man is a male, she knows this because of how the camera is angled, it s like an males eye. In the cinema, the films reflects patriarchal society. Patriarchy and phallocentrism are linked to phallus (penis) what is a symbol of men having power. Example: In cinema, a film has gun what is phallus what is power. 

An example of Laura Mulveys theory is in a scence of North by North west is near to the end of the film where Mr Kaplin finds out that the woman who has been helping him has been working for the people who are wanting to capture him. In this scene Eve Kendal is being controlled by the villains and has not got one bit of control. Even when Mr Kaplin is disrespecting her. She is shown at high angle shot in this scene to look small and weak.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl0JcK4-Dx0

Media Theory - Barthes and stream

Media Theory - Barthes and stream

Engima ( mystery ) - "enigma codes" Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes was born on the 12th November 1915 and died at the age of 64 on the 25th March 1980. He was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. He explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools.

Barthes said "all text are 'complex'" bundles of meaning. He also said that texts may be "OPEN" or "CLOSED".

Barthes has created five codes for enigma, these codes are:
1. The Hermeneutic Code
Is the way the story avoids telling the truth or revealing all the facts, in ordr to drop clues in   through out to help create mystery.

2. The Proairetic code
The way the tension is built up and the audience is left guessing what happens next.

3. The Semantic code
The semantic cod points to any element in a text that suggest a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation which the story suggest.

4. The Symbolic code
This is very similar to the semantic code, but acts at a wider level, organizing semantic meanings into broader and deeper sets of meaning. This is typically done in the use of antithesis, where new meaning arises out of opposing and conflict ideas.


5. The Cultural code
Looks at the audiences wider cultural knowledge, morality and ideology.




Heroes and villains - "Binary opposite" Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss was born on the 28th November 1908 in Belgium and died at the age of 100 on the 30th October 2009 in France. He was a French anthropologist and ethnologist.

He said narratives can be organised through binary opposition - two thing opposite

Vladimir Propp
Vladumir Propp was born on the 17th April 1895 and died at the age of 75 on the 22nd August 1970. Propp was a literary critic and a scholar who founded the idea that a certain type of character was to be used in every narrative structure. He analysed traditional stones and invented the 8 character rule.



1. Villian 
Fights the hero in some way. This is the character who struggles against the hero. Typically, with some sort of scarring. The villain usually wears dark and mysterious colours and not very attractive. This is to juxtapose between the hero and the villain to show difference. An example of this can be The Joker from Batman.

2. The Princess 
The hero saves them and marries them. This character needs to be rescued from the villain. An example of this can be Gwen Stacy from The Amazing Spider-Man. Shes taken from the villain and rescued.

3. Helper 
Helps the hero in the quest. The helper is ho helps the hero fight against the villain. An example of a helper can be Robin from Batman.

4. Provider 
Prepares the hero and gives him advice and equipment. This Character offers some sort of help to th hero. An example o this character can be Lucius Fox in Batman.

5. Farther 
Gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero

6. Dispatcher
Character who invites the hero to eliminate the evil. An example of this can b Nick Fury from Avengers who collects heroes in order to send them off to fight evil.

7. Hero 
Reacts to the donor. Its the most common type of character type. This is the character who eliminates th villain and win the woman. An example is Spider-Man

8. False hero 
Takes credit for  the heroes action.

Laura Mulvey said that in North By North West, the camera man is a male, she knows this because of how the camera is angled, it s like an males eye. In the cinema, the films reflects patriarchal society. Patriarchy and phallocentrism are linked to phallus (penis) what is a symbol of men having power. Example: In cinema, a film has gun what is phallus what is power. 

An example of Laura Mulveys theory is in a scence of North by North west is near to the end of the film where Mr Kaplin finds out that the woman who has been helping him has been working for the people who are wanting to capture him. In this scene Eve Kendal is being controlled by the villains and has not got one bit of control. Even when Mr Kaplin is disrespecting her. She is shown at high angle shot in this scene to look small and weak.

Rope

This blogg is about a film called "Rope" 1948, it is directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The main actors are James Stewart, John Dale and Farley Granger.

The film is about two men, who have committed a murder and have a little gathering whilst the body is still in their apartment. so during the film, they notice something has happened to David and are suspicious whilst both Brandon and Phillip are nervous. Rupert then notice that something has happened to David and detects that Brandon and Phillip has done something.

The trailer what was released for the film has been made old fashion because there was no technology like there is today. The trailer is so effective because it isn't like a normal trailer, its different and original. This is because it attracts viewers to the screen. The trailer also leaves the viewers suspicious about what has happened and whats next.

In the opening scene, Hitchcock goes straight into the film to  murder, this creates tension because a man has been murdered by two men, we don't know who he is and why he got murdered. After, the body is then placed in an empty box, both characters then different responses to it. one is shocked that what has happened and the other is calm and relaxed.

Rope is based on a play directed from Patrick Hamilton's 1929 play. This play was also based on a  real life event based on Leopold and Loeb case 1924. Leopold and Loeb were upper-class Chicago law students who murdered a teenage boy.
In comparison to Rope, Philip and Brandon are real life murderers in the film.

Hitchcock uses devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliff hangers. Suspense is a main device what Hitchcock has used in Rope. He has done this from the start of the film when Phillip and Brandon trying to prevent the body to been seen. Hitchcock creates scenes when characters come closer and closer to the body, what build tension and then relaxes to keep the audience entertained and excited for whats next.

Dramatic irony is used as well, for example, us the audience know theirs a body hidden. But the characters do not know this. It wouldn't be effective if the audience didn't know about the body because there will be no suspicion and tension  to the audience and they wouldn't be entertained.

The film was made very smartly, because the film looks like it is continuous, however it isn't. The film is made in 10 minutes wheels. this is because there was never a wheel long enough to record. so to do this there are scene where the camera man has zoomed into an object or a character to change the wheel and to carry it on to look like a continuous play.

Thriller Introduction

Thrillers also often take place in exotic settings such as foreign cities, for example James Bond, is always in different locations to thrill the audience and see whats next. The heroes in most thrillers are frequently "hard men" accustomed to danger eg. policemen. However, they may also be ordinary citizens drawn into danger by accident. While such heroes have traditionally been men, women lead characters have become increasingly common; for an early example is seeing Sigourney Weavers character, in the movie Alien, 1979.     `

Thrillers have, fast pacing , frequent action and resourceful heroes who must thwart the plans of more powerful and better equipped villains. A thriller is a villain driven plot. the villain presents obstacles the hero must over come.

Thriller uses devices such as suspense, this creates excitement for the audience. Red herring, this leads the audience to a false conclusion. Also cliff hangers, what excites and confuses the audience and leave them excited for the following sequence. 

Thriller often overlap with mystery stories, but are distinguished by the structure by the structure of their plots. it occurs on a much greater scale than mystery films; the crimes that must be prevented are serial or mass murder, terrorism, assassination or to over throw the government. 

Thrillers can be defined by the primary mood that they create fear full excitement; "if it thrills you, its a thriller"

There are all kinds of thrillers:

Legal thriller. Spy thriller, Action Adventure thriller, Medical thriller, Police thriller, Romantic thriller, Historical thriller, Political thriller, Religious thriller, High tech thriller and Military thriller.