Phantom of the Opera

Mise en scene is a key part of any film opening as it creates a sense of setting for the rest of the film. The mise en scene in the opening to the phantom of the opera is particularly important as the film is not in chronological order. The opening is set at the end of the “disaster”.

The biggest part of mise en scene is the change in setting, in the beginning the film is in black and white it also starts of a very still; painting like image which upon a close up shows the audience that really it is a black and white setting of an Opera House. The choice of colour could also be used to show the time period it is set in. It can also gives some relevance to themes as the lack of colour could mean that the film is very dark, grimy and possibly even scary. As we see inside, we are given an overhead shot which gives a view of the entire Opera House, this could be outline the damaged that has been done and also to show that this has caused the “death” of the opera house.  The scenery is very bleak and dull with a continued lack of colour. The Opera house is shown as worn out and derelict. The props from former productions are being auctioned off to a select few who have chosen to attend this auction.

As the props are being auctioned off, we see the select few are all very well dressed and look like very wealthy people, they are also very aged suggesting that the “disaster” has been going on for a long time. Going to an opera is usually a given sign of wealth but because the film is still in black and white there clothing can be seen as only black this could signify “mourning” it also make it seem as if they are there for a funeral not an auction. There are a lot of random props but when a monkey with symbols is shown there is a certain amount of interest taken in it, because the film begins at the end I believe that particular prop must have had a important part in the story. When the auctioneer gets the lot “666” the broken chandelier we are aware automatically that this must have connotations. The number 666 is the number of the devil therefore this connotes the danger and sin that the object has been through.

Once the chandelier is unveiled the opera house begins to restore itself to it former glory as well as starting the story from the beginning. The chandelier is a very extravagant design that shows eccentric the opera/theatre can be. Whilst the chandelier is being hosted up to the ceiling we see the dust and blackness removed from all over the building. The dust reveals luscious red velvet chairs, the finely crafted golden statues that line the walls, the roaring flames that light up the stage. All of which shown how the opera at that time was mainly for upper class especially as at this time class was of very big importance. The roaring flames also show how the stage is the heart of the opera house by showing off its heat and fiery presence. As well as the building itself being reborn, the life inside it also returns. The bustling of actor and dancers is shown with a range of very colourful and vivid costumes that light up the back stage. The costumes also look like no expense was spared on them and that they were the best of the best for a good show to be put on.Finally the views of the stairs and back stage show the effort that was put into the creation of the building; this also mirrors the amount of work that is put into a production. Therefore showing a production is like a moving organism, it needs all elements to function.  The use of music could also suggest its within the heart of the opera.

Representation in romantic films

There is no typical stereotypes for women in film. Every genre portrays women differently, in the romantic genre women are usually depicted as needing a man. The typical waiting for a 'knight in shining armour' is often used to describe how the women is seen.

This isn't to say that there aren't films that challenge this stereotype. For example the princess diaries 2, when told she needs a husband to be the successor to the throne she tries to find a husband but in the end decides she is strong enough on her own. Therefore showing the male her dominance. This challenges the stereotype as it sees the woman as not only putting love second to her job but also it shows her as independant. This is sometimes preferred to the typical male dominace in romantic films.

But most women find the 'knight in shining armour' romantic and also find the ideological setting nice and relatable as every woman wishes to fall in love like they do it the movies. The typical representation is also another reason that the target audience is women. As for males being represented in the romantic genre they are typically seen as 'perfect' through the eyes of the woman and tend not to match the way men are represented in every other genre. Males are usually seen as strong, aggravated and tough, where as in.romantic films they are seen as emotional and sensitive.

Editing

Today we started editing our film and during the process we realised that we will need to re-film some shots as there were some continuity and lighting issues.

Progress

We are filming the main part of our opening sequence this weekend, hopefully we will manage to get all the shots we need to create a variety of effects and show they filming skills we have acquired.

The film date has proved to be an issue down to lack of participants that are willing to take part in film. There have also been problems trying to get a male main role.

Analyzing opening sequences

Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium 


The opening sequence tell you a lot about not only the content of the film but also in this case the target audience.The beginning when the ball bounces into a black background, creates the effect that this is an uplifting, colourful and happy film.

The titles are completely animated and are suited to a younger audience indicating that the film is based on childlike themes.  The credits themselves are bold and change style in each frame to accommodate the images the are placed with. This is cleverly done when the actors names are given that there are images that relate to the type of character they are portraying. For example Along side the name Jason Bateman shows a business man from the neck down, his foot is tapping impatiently and the credits are seen as handwritten in the form of a signature. Also when the credits for the production team are shown each member has an animation according to their job, for example photography the name was placed on an animated version of a Polaroid.

The animations are once the Emporium is lifted away by a hand seen as toys and although the style is not childlike it does convey the vibrancy of a child's imagination. It also conveys the magic that children see within their toys. The M that is seen on the Emporium is also important, the first impression it will create in the audience's mind is that Mr Magorium is on the inside still a child, an adult that has not fully grown up.

The sound that complements the bright and exciting imagery is creates a lot of curiosity in the audience as the music is fast paced and has both periods of high and low notes. This makes the titles a lot more mysterious as well as withholding the characters it also doesn't clearly define whether or not the film has a happy or sad tone. Throughout the title sequence music notes are seen to appear in all places, this could indicate the significance of music to the plot.

The end of the opening title sees the animations disappear into the emporium, but with a bit of a twist the emporium is a small building in between large skyscrapers. This not only makes the audience more aware of the setting, but also showcases the films unique selling point. The frame closes as a circle getting smaller and the last thing seen in the M on the front of the emporium, it creates a nice enigma for the rest of the film as well as giving the audience some idea of what to expect.

Genre

                                       Romantic films
The conventions of a romantic film are:

• Girl meets boy typically this is an accident
• Argument that splits the couple for them to later be reunited 
• "Happily ever after" ending
• Symbols that relate to love (hearts, flowers, rings)
• Targeted at a female audience rather than a male audience
• Emotion renching (pain, love)
• Sometimes there is a struggle in choice i.e two men fighting for a female 

Good Examples of Typical Coventional films are:

• The Notebook - 2004 

Based on a novel. A couple fall in love from very different backgrounds, the male comes from a poor background where as the female does not. They are separated by social difference but eventually end up together.

• The Vow- 2012

A happy married couple end up in an accident the female loses her memory and her husband has to work to regain her love.




There are also films that dont abide by these coventions to create a twist in the story:

• Titanic -1997 

A couple who fall in love although it is frowned upon due to their social difference. They eventually end up together but when the titanic sinks the male dies therefore ruining the happily ever after convention.

Analysis of an Opening Sequence - Juno

The opening sequence of Juno is very unique due to its "cartoon" style it includes in the titles.

The cartoon style includes:

• Handwritten style of writing to introduce the time period as well as the titles.
• A sketching sound when the time period appears on screen.
• A limited use of colour mainly orange and blue.
• Adds both a childlike feel to the scene.
• Helps add emphasis to the sharp reality the character is meet by.

The sequence also includes a flashback which sets the story as well as giving the audience a chance to get know what the characters narrative voice is like. The sequence also introduces the key features:

1. Location - American suburbs
2. Introduction of characters - The pregnant young lady (Juno) and also the father to the child.
3. Genre - The tone of voice the narrative uses and also the cartoon like style gives us the impression of a comedy
4. Establishes iconography - The issue of teenage pregnancy in a less serious light 
5. Captivating the audience - Who is the father, as we dont see his face

There is also a lot of other things included such as

• Juxtaposition - A tom boy teenage mum 
• Sound - An upbeat love song included in the titles
• Institiution - Big opening (music and visual) Fox Search light Pictures

What is an opening sequence?

An opening sequence is the key to setting the storyline/plot of the rest of the film. The opening sequence also includes the titles, sometimes these are subtly within the sequence other times they are not.

The key parts of the opening sequence are:

• Introducing the characters
• Establish location/setting
• Establish genre
• Captivate the audience
• Establish core iconography

Feed the Fish Self Evaluation

After working on The Feed the fish preliminary sequence there were many improvement that we became aware of that we would need to think more carefully when it came to our actual coursework.

There were good points:

• All of our cuts were smooth
• The close up shot on the chair worked really well
• The high and low angels we used to create status looked good
• The ending was as humorous as we intended

There were criticisms:                  

• The zoom in the hallway didn't work 
• The dialogue used needed to be longer
• We could have experimented with shots more

Overall we did really well with our preliminary sequence, we did well with the continuity making sure that the shots went together smoothly and didn't overlap or not match. We did have a problem with the filming as it got quite dark quite quickly it made some shots darker or less visible than others, it also meant that some shots had to be binned due to that. If we had more time we would have gone back and re filmed to improve continuity. 

When we were filming inside this didn't present any issue we managed to get quite a few good shots and though that for the dialogue the angles used would help portray status. We did also try to do a tilt to show that the thinking about the fish put the character off balance but that didn't work as well as we would have liked it to. The shots we did use were very basic and we didn't really use a variety whilst filming and this is something we will try to improve upon in the actual coursework as the shots didn't really help convey the urgency of the situation.

The main issue we encountered was the dialogue being to brief, this wouldn't have been an issue but unfortunately somewhere along the line we lost a piece of footage and therefore that limited how long we could make the dialogue. I think otherwise we would have used to dialogue to create more of an effect. Other than this most of out editing was very smooth and all of the cuts lead on to each other quite well. We tried to do a range of different cuts but I would like to use more experimental editing like inter-cutting during the actual coursework.

The shot that worked best was the close up we did of the chair as it showed we were thinking about more technical aspects of our editing and how it could help the end product look more effective. The close up also showed how well we used continuity in this sequence.

Narrative

The difference between a story and narrative is:

• Story - account of events
• Narrative - the way the story is told

Narrative includes:

• Characters 
• Genre 
• Form 
• Time

Two Key Theorists in Narrative: 

 Todorov - came up with the idea that all stories go through the same process, this process being:

• Equilibrium
• Disruption 
• Recognition 
• Repair
• Equilibrium 

This simply states that it will start in a content manner where nothing has happened, but as it goes on the story will break down something will disrupt the contentment. From there on it will try to be repaired leading to getting the story back on track and back to contentment. Although the equilibrium after the disruption will never be the same as the first equilibrium. 

Propp -  He stated that all characters within a narrative could fit into 8 different character types: 

1. The Villian
2. The Hero/Victim 
3. The Donor
4. The Helper
5. The Princess or Prize
6. The Dispatcher
7. The False Hero 

The Lovely Bones

The story is told through a narrative voice that has a tendency to speak in the past tense. The narrative is not in chronological order and starts at the end therefore retelling the story of the main character Susie's murder.  The genre of this narrative is drama. The  narrative also condenses time as we see the search for the murder we are unaware this is actually spread over a couple of years. 

A key part of narrative is enigma and although we are aware of who the murderer is there is an enigma presented in the way that the"in- between" is presented. 

The Lovely Bones follows the narrative pattern of Todorov and also contains many of the Propp character types.

Narrative Structure 

Equilibrium - Normal family life

Disruption - Susie's murder

Recognition - The grief that hits the family causing the mother to go into a depression and abandon the family and the father to become obesessed with finding Susie's killer

Repair - The mother in law coming to stay to help the family over depression and mother returning to family

Equilibrium - More adjusted to life without Susie

Character types 

Villain / Fake Hero - Susie's murderer

The Helper - The mother in law

The Donor - Susie's friend in the "In between"

The Hero/Victim - Susie

Institution

Distribution 

The process of creating a film is:

1. Pre Production
2. Production
3. Post Production
4. Distribution

Distribution is the final stage of the process. Distributing is the job of getting the film to its audience, they find the unique selling point of the film and sell it off that. Distribution is simply marketing a film to an audience.

A well know distributor is Disney, they are an american company that was founded in 1928 (as Walt Disney productions) and in 1983 (as Walt Disney Pictures)



They are famous for such films as Who framed Roger Rabbit, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Pirates of the Carribbean: At Worlds End.

Group Work - Pitch 

The work we did into the film industry and distribution was used in our first pitches we gave as groups. The genre we were given was a high budget comedy therefore we researched a lot into the most well known distribution companies.

We managed to create a well rounded idea that fitted the stereotypes of the genre but when it came to choosing the well known actors that would have been in a high budget film, we could have chosen better.

As for the distribution company we chose Entertainment Film Distributors:

We chose it as it was well known for the most recent Inbetweeners film as well as previous comedy films such as over her dead body. The company is also well known for promoting films of various genres the biggest film it has been involved in is The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. As well as this it is also a British company which was essential.