1. Internet/Fears Over Pro-suicide Web Pages
This article discusses the issues with explict content avalible on the internet http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7341024.stm. Researchers have used four search engines to look at suicide related sites.
2. The Apple I Phone
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6260904.stm
Monday 14 April 2008
Friday 4 April 2008
Media Group Assesment
Overall I feel myself and Luke worked very hard and creatively together. I feel that we did as much as we possibly could to help out one another and that we worked well as a team. I feel that Luke has been 100% reliable and has been easy to work with his ideas have been creative and he has worked extremely hard to help make the project possible. I believe that I have also worked extremely hard to get the work done throughout this project and have made myself available when ever needed. I feel I have had a creative input and have put all my efforts into this project. I believe that I have made myself available when ever needed and I feel that I have contributed as much as I can towards the project. Overall I feel that mine and Luke’s partnership has been very successful and positive, I believe that this will not be the last time we work together and I am very happy with the overall outcome of our finished film.
The table that goes with this is on paper!!!
The table that goes with this is on paper!!!
Film Studies Synopsis
Synopsis
Reaper (2008)
Written and Directed by Chris Poon and Luke Baker
Thriller/Horror
James has been haunted by the terrifying visions of ‘Reapers’, dark deadly figures with faces wrapped in blood covered bandages. James attempts to lead a normal life until the dreams become real and he comes face to face with his darkest fear The Reaper. Stalked within the place of his local college, James’ is violently attacked to death by the very person who haunts his nightmares. The demise of James takes place within the toilets of his college. James was unaware that that day would be his last.
10 years later, James’ best friend Chris begins to have the same vivid and disturbing Nightmares. Desperate not to end up with the same fate as his former friend, Chris embarks on a testing and terrifying journey into the mysteries surrounding The Reaper discovering no one can escape his evil clutches.
Accepting his fate, Chris distances himself from worried friends and family, giving himself up to the reapers. As the day comes to an end, Chris prepares for the inevitable. As the reapers begin to appear, he discovers they are just as vulnerable in the real world as him and embarks on a battle to save his life.
Reaper (2008)
Written and Directed by Chris Poon and Luke Baker
Thriller/Horror
James has been haunted by the terrifying visions of ‘Reapers’, dark deadly figures with faces wrapped in blood covered bandages. James attempts to lead a normal life until the dreams become real and he comes face to face with his darkest fear The Reaper. Stalked within the place of his local college, James’ is violently attacked to death by the very person who haunts his nightmares. The demise of James takes place within the toilets of his college. James was unaware that that day would be his last.
10 years later, James’ best friend Chris begins to have the same vivid and disturbing Nightmares. Desperate not to end up with the same fate as his former friend, Chris embarks on a testing and terrifying journey into the mysteries surrounding The Reaper discovering no one can escape his evil clutches.
Accepting his fate, Chris distances himself from worried friends and family, giving himself up to the reapers. As the day comes to an end, Chris prepares for the inevitable. As the reapers begin to appear, he discovers they are just as vulnerable in the real world as him and embarks on a battle to save his life.
Fim Studies Macro Essay
Analysis of a 10-minute sequence from Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1993)
Narrative within a film creates the structure and organization that a story needs so that it can be told. The narrative organizes events within a film into an order which helps to create meaning for the audience. Within the film industry, narrative conventions are very much what the audience expects to see in certain genres. For example an audience that went to see an action adventure film would be very disappointed if the story did not involve a hero and show their struggle to overcome the villain. The conventions of genre work in a similar ways to the conventions of narrative and create an expectation of what the audience is going to see. For a director to ensure that there film’s make a financial profit, they must ensure that the narrative and genre conventions engage and meet the every expectation of the viewer. In this essay I will consider both Genre and Narrative conventions within the opening sequence of Reservoir Dogs.
Reservoir Dogs is very much an example of a gangster film. This powerful and controversial film uses many conventions of the gangster genre including criminal acts, men who believe they are above society’s rules, violence, betrayal within the gangster’s circle, corruption, the false united front (family) which gradually crumbles throughout the film making each gangster increasingly isolated, the lust for more wealth and the eventual demise of the gangsters. Reservoir Dogs was Quentin Tarantino’s debut movie he has since made other great gangster movies such as: Jackie Brown and Pulp fiction. His gangster films tend not to hold anything back with great story lines and brilliant cinematography.
This opening sequence introduces the problematic within the narrative and the main characters involved. The opening sequence of Reservoir Dogs immediately establishes the main characters and it is already evident that there a cracks within the group each man showing little respect towards one another butting into each others conversation. Also within seconds there is confrontation between Mr. White and Joe over a book, this indicates conflict between the two characters and that they may lead to each others eventual demise. The conflict between these two characters will very much build up tension and suspense within the narrative. The first few minutes already highlight the convention of the false united front showing the coarse of there eventual demise.
I believe that the sequence that I have taken is a classic example of the gangster genre I believe this because it has all the conventional aspects of a Gangster film and does not go of into other sub-genres. The convention of costume is what first catches my eye, all of the gangsters wear the traditional sharp suits and ties and this use of costume is seen in most gangster films. Quentin Tarantino uses the same costumes to portray the gangsters in his film Pulp Fiction. There are many conventions within this film that stick with the classic traits of the gangster genre such as the theme of organized crime, violence, murder and betrayal.
The pre-credit sequence of this film has similar generic conventions of the gangster genre but this film has slight differences for insistences we usually see the opening of the film with a murder and we immediately know that they are gangsters weather we are told or weather we see it, but in this film we are not immediately told or see that the bunch of men are gangster. We first see them having breakfast in a diner with the camera panning around them introducing each of them and at this point they seem pretty normal although there conversations may not be the most civilized and it is not apparent that they are involved in organized crime. The opening sequence of this film is completely different to the opening sequence of other gangster films, such as Goodfellas; within the opening sequence of Goodfellas the audience immediately knows that the group of men are gangsters. The audience can immediately tell that they are gangster because we see them brutally killing a man that is stuffed in the back of a boot and the first non diajetic words the main character are “ever since I can remember I’ve always wanted to be a gangster”.
After the opening credits we jump straight to a shot of the back seat of a blood stained car, I feel that after seeing this shot the audience would immediately see what they would have expected from a gangster film which is the convention of graphic material. The use of the white interior of the car helps to make the blood stand out and makes the picture that more graphical, I feel that if they were to have used another color such as black then the effect on the audience would not have been as big. I feel that this shot immediately makes the audience aware that these men are criminals due to the fact that instead of being in an ambulance Mr. Orange is in the back of a car bleeding to death, whilst Mr. White is driving him to a warehouse so that Joe can get him medical attention. I feel that this highlights the convention of the false united front (family), I feel this because instead of taking his friend to a hospital he takes him to a warehouse this tells me that Mr. White would risk Mr. Oranges life to save the skin of his own back
The convention of the eventual demise of the gangster starts to begin as Mr. White carries the blood soaked body of Mr. Orange into the warehouse, at this point the audience can see that they have no where to go and are now backed into a corner with Mr. Orange bleeding to death on the floor and non of the other gangsters to be seen which marks the beginning of the end for the gangsters.
When going to see a gangster film audiences have a high expectation of seeing violence and gore. In opening ten minutes of Reservoir Dogs it is apparent that throughout there is going to be a high content of explicit violence; I feel that this will draw the audience in immediately hitting all the right buttons. The opening ten minutes gives everything that you would look for in a gangster films with the conventions of costume, violence and organized crime. I feel that the opening ten minutes is very good at setting a tone for the rest of the film.
I feel that the opening ten minutes of Reservoir Dogs helps create great tension by using time effectively. The beginning of the film is quite slow in pace and at first not much is happing but after the opening credits we are immediately drawn into the action with a bloody scene in the back of a car this then immediately raises the question to the audience of what has happened. I feel that in not telling the audience what has happened straight it creates great suspense and tension within the audience. This use of timing is also seen within Goodfellas when the audience is immediately confronted with a bloody body in the back of a boot, raising questions of why, when and how.
The opening ten minutes of Reservoir Dogs clearly uses the genre and narrative conventions of a gangster film. This film can attract audiences from past gangster films that have come before this film. I feel that this film will help bring in further audiences to the future films of Quentin Tarantino. This film is a perfect example of a cult film.
Narrative within a film creates the structure and organization that a story needs so that it can be told. The narrative organizes events within a film into an order which helps to create meaning for the audience. Within the film industry, narrative conventions are very much what the audience expects to see in certain genres. For example an audience that went to see an action adventure film would be very disappointed if the story did not involve a hero and show their struggle to overcome the villain. The conventions of genre work in a similar ways to the conventions of narrative and create an expectation of what the audience is going to see. For a director to ensure that there film’s make a financial profit, they must ensure that the narrative and genre conventions engage and meet the every expectation of the viewer. In this essay I will consider both Genre and Narrative conventions within the opening sequence of Reservoir Dogs.
Reservoir Dogs is very much an example of a gangster film. This powerful and controversial film uses many conventions of the gangster genre including criminal acts, men who believe they are above society’s rules, violence, betrayal within the gangster’s circle, corruption, the false united front (family) which gradually crumbles throughout the film making each gangster increasingly isolated, the lust for more wealth and the eventual demise of the gangsters. Reservoir Dogs was Quentin Tarantino’s debut movie he has since made other great gangster movies such as: Jackie Brown and Pulp fiction. His gangster films tend not to hold anything back with great story lines and brilliant cinematography.
This opening sequence introduces the problematic within the narrative and the main characters involved. The opening sequence of Reservoir Dogs immediately establishes the main characters and it is already evident that there a cracks within the group each man showing little respect towards one another butting into each others conversation. Also within seconds there is confrontation between Mr. White and Joe over a book, this indicates conflict between the two characters and that they may lead to each others eventual demise. The conflict between these two characters will very much build up tension and suspense within the narrative. The first few minutes already highlight the convention of the false united front showing the coarse of there eventual demise.
I believe that the sequence that I have taken is a classic example of the gangster genre I believe this because it has all the conventional aspects of a Gangster film and does not go of into other sub-genres. The convention of costume is what first catches my eye, all of the gangsters wear the traditional sharp suits and ties and this use of costume is seen in most gangster films. Quentin Tarantino uses the same costumes to portray the gangsters in his film Pulp Fiction. There are many conventions within this film that stick with the classic traits of the gangster genre such as the theme of organized crime, violence, murder and betrayal.
The pre-credit sequence of this film has similar generic conventions of the gangster genre but this film has slight differences for insistences we usually see the opening of the film with a murder and we immediately know that they are gangsters weather we are told or weather we see it, but in this film we are not immediately told or see that the bunch of men are gangster. We first see them having breakfast in a diner with the camera panning around them introducing each of them and at this point they seem pretty normal although there conversations may not be the most civilized and it is not apparent that they are involved in organized crime. The opening sequence of this film is completely different to the opening sequence of other gangster films, such as Goodfellas; within the opening sequence of Goodfellas the audience immediately knows that the group of men are gangsters. The audience can immediately tell that they are gangster because we see them brutally killing a man that is stuffed in the back of a boot and the first non diajetic words the main character are “ever since I can remember I’ve always wanted to be a gangster”.
After the opening credits we jump straight to a shot of the back seat of a blood stained car, I feel that after seeing this shot the audience would immediately see what they would have expected from a gangster film which is the convention of graphic material. The use of the white interior of the car helps to make the blood stand out and makes the picture that more graphical, I feel that if they were to have used another color such as black then the effect on the audience would not have been as big. I feel that this shot immediately makes the audience aware that these men are criminals due to the fact that instead of being in an ambulance Mr. Orange is in the back of a car bleeding to death, whilst Mr. White is driving him to a warehouse so that Joe can get him medical attention. I feel that this highlights the convention of the false united front (family), I feel this because instead of taking his friend to a hospital he takes him to a warehouse this tells me that Mr. White would risk Mr. Oranges life to save the skin of his own back
The convention of the eventual demise of the gangster starts to begin as Mr. White carries the blood soaked body of Mr. Orange into the warehouse, at this point the audience can see that they have no where to go and are now backed into a corner with Mr. Orange bleeding to death on the floor and non of the other gangsters to be seen which marks the beginning of the end for the gangsters.
When going to see a gangster film audiences have a high expectation of seeing violence and gore. In opening ten minutes of Reservoir Dogs it is apparent that throughout there is going to be a high content of explicit violence; I feel that this will draw the audience in immediately hitting all the right buttons. The opening ten minutes gives everything that you would look for in a gangster films with the conventions of costume, violence and organized crime. I feel that the opening ten minutes is very good at setting a tone for the rest of the film.
I feel that the opening ten minutes of Reservoir Dogs helps create great tension by using time effectively. The beginning of the film is quite slow in pace and at first not much is happing but after the opening credits we are immediately drawn into the action with a bloody scene in the back of a car this then immediately raises the question to the audience of what has happened. I feel that in not telling the audience what has happened straight it creates great suspense and tension within the audience. This use of timing is also seen within Goodfellas when the audience is immediately confronted with a bloody body in the back of a boot, raising questions of why, when and how.
The opening ten minutes of Reservoir Dogs clearly uses the genre and narrative conventions of a gangster film. This film can attract audiences from past gangster films that have come before this film. I feel that this film will help bring in further audiences to the future films of Quentin Tarantino. This film is a perfect example of a cult film.
Film Studies Cinimatic Ideas
“Reaper” Cinematic Ideas
The cinematic idea behind our film ‘Reaper’ was to create an atmosphere suitable for the thriller genre. To achieve the atmosphere that we wished to create, we used conventions seen within the horror genre. We used still shots to emphasis time to generate suspense and extreme close ups to throw the audience straight in.In post-production we researched a number of films within the horror genre we looked at films such as both Hostel films and the Saw franchise, after looking at all these films we got an idea of the lighting that we wished to use and also decided how we wanted our set to look like. Using the software “Adobe Premiere Elements”, we adjusted the contrast of the picture to give the footage a darker tone which darkened some areas making it completely black such as the plughole. We wanted to very much exaggerate the darkness in our sequence and make it very uneasy on the eye. The darkness slightly distorts this symbolizes the darkness that our character ha walked into. The music also added to the atmosphere by creating tension with its slow, gradual, build up and then hitting the audience with loud sound effects to gain a reaction of shock and fear.The idea behind the killers look was to completely dehumanize him, giving him no features. Our inspiration very much cam from the character of Michael Myers from the Halloween franchise. The white emotionless face was very good at creating fear because the audience was completely unaware who or what he was. For our killer we wanted to have the same effect as Michael Myers and create the question of who and what our killer is. To do this we decided to cover our killer in bloodstained bandages, we also did this to suggest that underneath the bandages was a ugly deformed figure.
When it came to selecting the weapon for our film we felt that it would have been very cheesy to go with the conventional knife. We felt that the audience would have expected this due to its popularity within the slasher genre (Myers’ Knife, Freddy’s fingers, Jason’s machete) so instead we decided to go with a completely different weapon. Firstly, the killer uses his hands to displaying his pure strength and power over his victims. To finish his victim off, we believed the most effective way would be one huge single blow from a sledgehammer instead of multiple hits to the body. We didn’t want to glorify or use gore but instead exaggerate the power of the killer.
Overall we feel very happy with our cinematic ideas and we believe we have planned all possible to create a great thriller film.
The cinematic idea behind our film ‘Reaper’ was to create an atmosphere suitable for the thriller genre. To achieve the atmosphere that we wished to create, we used conventions seen within the horror genre. We used still shots to emphasis time to generate suspense and extreme close ups to throw the audience straight in.In post-production we researched a number of films within the horror genre we looked at films such as both Hostel films and the Saw franchise, after looking at all these films we got an idea of the lighting that we wished to use and also decided how we wanted our set to look like. Using the software “Adobe Premiere Elements”, we adjusted the contrast of the picture to give the footage a darker tone which darkened some areas making it completely black such as the plughole. We wanted to very much exaggerate the darkness in our sequence and make it very uneasy on the eye. The darkness slightly distorts this symbolizes the darkness that our character ha walked into. The music also added to the atmosphere by creating tension with its slow, gradual, build up and then hitting the audience with loud sound effects to gain a reaction of shock and fear.The idea behind the killers look was to completely dehumanize him, giving him no features. Our inspiration very much cam from the character of Michael Myers from the Halloween franchise. The white emotionless face was very good at creating fear because the audience was completely unaware who or what he was. For our killer we wanted to have the same effect as Michael Myers and create the question of who and what our killer is. To do this we decided to cover our killer in bloodstained bandages, we also did this to suggest that underneath the bandages was a ugly deformed figure.
When it came to selecting the weapon for our film we felt that it would have been very cheesy to go with the conventional knife. We felt that the audience would have expected this due to its popularity within the slasher genre (Myers’ Knife, Freddy’s fingers, Jason’s machete) so instead we decided to go with a completely different weapon. Firstly, the killer uses his hands to displaying his pure strength and power over his victims. To finish his victim off, we believed the most effective way would be one huge single blow from a sledgehammer instead of multiple hits to the body. We didn’t want to glorify or use gore but instead exaggerate the power of the killer.
Overall we feel very happy with our cinematic ideas and we believe we have planned all possible to create a great thriller film.
Film Studies Script
REAPER SCRIPT
Written by Chris Poon & Luke Baker
EXT. COLLEGE RESTROOM – EVENING
An extremely grimy, rundown restroom, with no one to be seen and everything is chillingly still.
Immediate CLOSE UP to a single droplet falling from a tap. A quick cut to the door as it creeks open. JAMES enters the room in dark black boots. The door slams sharply behind him with a load bang.
Close up of JAMES washing his hands and face. A high shot, looking down at JAMES as he checks himself in the mirror. As JAMES bends to wash his face THE REAPER glides behind him, shown in the reflection in the mirror. JAMES rises without any clue of what was behind him.
INT. COLLEGE RESTROOM CUBICLE - INSIDE
JAMES enters the toilet cubicle. Close up to his hand locking the door, signifying a sense of security.
EXT. COLLEGE RESTROOM CUBICLE - OUTSIDE
Still shot of the lower half of the occupied cubicle. THE REAPER walks into shot with a slow pace, his right leg and heavy sledgehammer in view. The hammer hanging from his hand rocks slowly backwards and forwards.
INT. COLLEGE RESTROOM – INSIDE
JAMES is sitting on the toilet seat. His head is facing down towards the floor. A LOUD BANG against the toilet cubical startles JAMES striking fear into his eyes. JAMES gets up from the toilet. CLOSE UP to JAMES unlocking the door symbolizing that he is no longer safe. JAMES looks outside the door and looks from side to side. Suddenly THE REAPER fly’s out from behind JAMES slamming him hard against the door and then back towards him pulling him out of shot. The door slams shut as JAMES is pulled out of shot.
FADE IN: EXT. COLLEGE RESTROOM OUTSIDE
JAMES’S bloody hand drags against the toilet floor. JAMES attempts to pull himself along the ground, moving in agonizing pain, blood dripping down his skull and other parts of his body. With complete fear in his eyes he tries everything in his power to escape. JAMES slowly turns his head round as he hears the steps of THE REAPER edging towards him, with a look of complete terror in his eyes. THE REAPER appears in shot and stares at JAMES through his blood bandaged face. THE REAPER tilts his head before slamming his hammer into the skull of JAMES.
Written by Chris Poon & Luke Baker
EXT. COLLEGE RESTROOM – EVENING
An extremely grimy, rundown restroom, with no one to be seen and everything is chillingly still.
Immediate CLOSE UP to a single droplet falling from a tap. A quick cut to the door as it creeks open. JAMES enters the room in dark black boots. The door slams sharply behind him with a load bang.
Close up of JAMES washing his hands and face. A high shot, looking down at JAMES as he checks himself in the mirror. As JAMES bends to wash his face THE REAPER glides behind him, shown in the reflection in the mirror. JAMES rises without any clue of what was behind him.
INT. COLLEGE RESTROOM CUBICLE - INSIDE
JAMES enters the toilet cubicle. Close up to his hand locking the door, signifying a sense of security.
EXT. COLLEGE RESTROOM CUBICLE - OUTSIDE
Still shot of the lower half of the occupied cubicle. THE REAPER walks into shot with a slow pace, his right leg and heavy sledgehammer in view. The hammer hanging from his hand rocks slowly backwards and forwards.
INT. COLLEGE RESTROOM – INSIDE
JAMES is sitting on the toilet seat. His head is facing down towards the floor. A LOUD BANG against the toilet cubical startles JAMES striking fear into his eyes. JAMES gets up from the toilet. CLOSE UP to JAMES unlocking the door symbolizing that he is no longer safe. JAMES looks outside the door and looks from side to side. Suddenly THE REAPER fly’s out from behind JAMES slamming him hard against the door and then back towards him pulling him out of shot. The door slams shut as JAMES is pulled out of shot.
FADE IN: EXT. COLLEGE RESTROOM OUTSIDE
JAMES’S bloody hand drags against the toilet floor. JAMES attempts to pull himself along the ground, moving in agonizing pain, blood dripping down his skull and other parts of his body. With complete fear in his eyes he tries everything in his power to escape. JAMES slowly turns his head round as he hears the steps of THE REAPER edging towards him, with a look of complete terror in his eyes. THE REAPER appears in shot and stares at JAMES through his blood bandaged face. THE REAPER tilts his head before slamming his hammer into the skull of JAMES.
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