Wednesday 1 May 2013

How is ethnicity represented in the clip?






In the clip, there are only 4 characters in the scene; 3 of which that have different ethnicities, white, black and Asian. The other character's identity is hidden as he is wearing a balaclava. He experiences the effects of the power of authority from the Asian who is the antagonist. They are all in a room with low key lighting, the only light source coming from the windows.

There is a white woman and black man bound to chairs directly opposite each other. They are in smart, what seems to be, business clothing. This was shown using a medium long shot also to emphasise their physical state and contrast in ethnicity. During the scene of the woman being filmed, her colleague is threatened. He gets a knife held to his neck by the man in a balaclava as directed by the Asian man. The black man is discriminated against as his life is immediately threatened rather than the woman. He speaks very little and only says a sentence throughout the clip; we gather his other thoughts and feelings through his body language being still, anger shown my frowning and eye contact. He is mostly shown with a medium close up to emphasise these feelings.

During conversation, the camera goes into a medium close up/close up of the characters faces to show their facial expression, which were neutral and expressionless. During these shots, the camera is very unstable and tends to move a lot suggesting it is hand held. There is scene where the antagonist is filming the white woman while she read her ‘lines’ off a piece of paper. This scene used focus well by switching from being in-focus video camera showing her being recorded to making the video camera out focus and have her actual face in the background in focus. A slight high angle is used to make the woman look vulnerable and inferior to the antagonist.

The voices of the black man and white woman were low pitched connoting sadness, whereas the Asian man was very loud and assertive. Due to the setting, being a large room- there is little sound. Diegetic sound involves the dialogue of the characters and the sounds of the noises made on scene such as door slamming and footsteps. Non- diegetic sound includes the sound effects such as the blast when a photo of ‘butterfly’ was laid sharply on the table, there is also droning, low pitched, slow music played throughout.

The editing has simple and quick cuts to increase the tension in the room. The tension is not only between the characters as different social statuses but different ethnicities too.

Sunday 3 March 2013

Tuesday 19th February: First day of filming

WWW: We filmed most of our scenes: walking campers 'finding their camp'; one camper walking off and hearing a boy in agony; the campers POV of the boy and runs to him, the boy crashed out on the floor; and his transition to vampire.
- The weather was dry and bright, slightly windy but didn't affect our filming.
- We found a suitable location.
- We had all our equipment and main characters

EBI: - Incomplete filming
- Some actors dropped out last minute (last 2 hours), but we got replacments.
- Our 'injured boy' was 3 hours late, this wasted time.
- We had quite a few other people (dog walkers) in our scenes.

Sunday 3rd March  



WWW: Re-filmed ALL scenes
- All actors turned up on time and correctly dressed.
- Weather was bright and dry
- Found a better and new location with less, if any, 'dog-walkers'
- Came up with a better story/ shots
- Filmed extra shots (even if they were not needed)
- Recorded sound well

EBI:  I BROKE MY CAMERA :'(
- Camera died, used another camera though.
- Lost a contact lense
- Was extremely cold
- Had a few children near our scene and created noise
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Sunday 27 January 2013

I have just completed the character profiles and the company logo. The logo should be completed this week on photoshop depending when I get my laptop back from repairs.

Wednesday 9 January 2013

Development

Our locations must link to the genre of horror and our theme of a camping trip in the woods. Finding a local wood is difficult so we decided on a big, spacious park. Suggestions were: Richmond, Feltham or even Hyde Park. However, due to them being a major public attraction, it will be difficult to film without background noises and pedestrians. Also, low key lighting for night time is needed, making these places unsafe after 6pm. 



To create a more realistic opening, I researched actual woods/forests nearby, in order of convenience: Wimbledon Common (top), Highgate Wood (left), Epping Forest (right).













Characters:
- 5 campers
- 1 vampire

Monday 17 December 2012

True Blood analysis on gender and sexuality.

I don't watch True Blood or any vampire TV programmes so I analysed the clip above and extracted any information on the representation of sexuality and gender.

We first see a man on the phone, and a man in the background cleaning up. I/we don't know why he is in such a rush to clean but it may refer to the car pulling up infront of the house. Cleaning is usually seen as woman's role, however a man is doing it when usually they'd be seen doing nothing or something more manly. We then see a woman walking into the kitchen, her costume is very laid back and approaches more of a 'relaxed, house-wife' look. The kitchen is the first room we see her in which could possibly relate to the stereotypical thoughts of 'women belong in the kitchen' therefore are given a lack of power, however, this is then contrasted with another woman walking into the kitchen who pulls the hammer back on the gun and points it at the woman. This is a contrast  because Debbie (gun holder) shows power and dominance over the other woman who is scared. It then zooms to the 2 men who were seen at the beginning cleaning, they speak about Sookie (scared victim), the man on the left is worried as he says "Sookie!"in which the other replies "F*ck Sookie!"  and reassures him of her actions. However, the other runs out as soon as a gun shot is heard and gets captured.

1.27 onwards I find interesting as a woman enters the house, she is dressed in a tight, black outfit with red lipstick and hair tied back which is 'men seducing'. She is presented as a very sexy, sophisticated person which is supported by her accent and her posture which is hands on hips and leant to one side. Her comments are also very sarcastic, possibly adding to her dominant, bitchy attitude: "I can't be the only one whose noticed she's missing half her head now can I?"

 Her ignorance when Sookie asks to change the dead girl also supports her bitchy and her 'hard to get' sexual attitude. When Sookie says "I'll owe you one" the woman immediately changes her mind, giving women of her kind a selfish personality. As she compromises her, the previously captured man is put into the car boot which shows the masculinity of men whereas stereotypically it would be women who are weaker.The woman is shown again this time sitting on a chair with her leg up to the wall. This is a superior and sexual posture.
The retrieval of blood is extracted from her wrist that she bits into, she then pours her own blood into the dead girls mouth. This is done differently/less sexually to how it would be done if it was a man; supposedly including a lot of physical contact.


From 5:20, injured men are shown on the floor in pain in which another ma/vampire approaches them with a gun and says "who wants to die first" at this point the men are too weak to retaliate and are saved a female vampire who stabs the other guy in a back. This suggests that the women has more power in this scene as usually women are seen the victims.
The man and woman then walk towards each other and kiss passionately. Her hair is scrunched up by the man.  The man physically treats her as a sexual object as they continue kissing.