Textual Analysis

From doing my Textural Analysis I have learned many things. I have learned:

• That the opening 2 minutes of a film should get you hooked to the movie and not give too much away. This can be done through mystery or anticipation. The Bourne Identity uses mystery to get you hooked because you don't know anything about the main protagonist and you want to find out more about him. American Psycho uses anticipation to get you hooked because you know, from watching the first 2 minutes of the film, that Patrick is a psychopath and this makes you anxious to find out what he is going to do later in the movie.

• I have learned that the use of music can help to manipulate the mind of the viewer to believing that what they are watching is true. Music also reflects the characters mood or personality. For example, In The Bourne Identity the use of mysterious music reflects how the viewers and other characters feel about our main protagonist. American Psycho uses calm music played on the piano to reflect his masked personality as a psychopath because through the use of the calm music, we are fooled into believing that Patrick is normal.

All in all i have learned that the opening 2 minutes of a film should hook the viewer to the movie and should fill the viewer mind with questions that they desperately want to know the answer to. Also the opening 2 minutes should trick the viewers mind into believing that what they are watching is real.

  

   

Practicing To Use Software: Prezi

One of the tasks that we were given in media studies was to produce a Prezi on our favorite movie. I chose to produce a Prezi on American Psycho because this will link to my Textural Analysis ,that I am yet to do, because I will be analyzing the opening 2 minutes of American Psycho.

Our Practice Film

This is my practice film that I produced with Tobias to build my knowledge of film making. From making this film I have learned:

•  The importance of the 180 degree rule
•  The importance of match on action
•  The importance of taking various shots of the thing

After gaining knowledge of the above, I now feel confident about film making and editing and I feel that I now have the knowledge and skills to produce my own film.

With the 180 degree rule, I have learned that this is an extremely important tool for film making and not breaking the continuity of the film. On our first attempt of making this practice film I discovered that we broke the 180 degree rule and this made the film look unnatural. After this we were forced to go back out to shoot that practice film again.

Also, I have discovered that match on action is equally as important as the 180 degree rule for keeping the continuity of a film. Whilst editing this film, I discovered that one of our actors, Ben, had opened the door with his hand upside down which did not match the close up of him pulling down that handle of the door to open the door as he did this with his hand right side up. This taught me that I should have should have taken more shots of him opening the door so that this issue could have been avoided. Nether the less I had to use match on action and editing to get around this issue, as you can see from withing the film above, to avoid having to go out for a third time to shoot it again.   

   

Codes and Conventions of the Genre

After doing my Codes and Conventions of the Genre i have learned many things and also gained a better understanding about many things. I have learned:

• What a makes a good thriller movie
• What effect a thriller movie has on the viewer
• All of the different sub-genres to a thriller movie
• What type of characters you can typically expect to see in a thriller movie
• What type of setting a thriller movie is usually set in

Through doing my codes and conventions I have learned the ins and outs of a thriller movie and now I know exactly what a thriller movies needs to be successful which I can now take on board and now I can apply my knowledge to our thriller movie when we make it.