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Characteristics and context
Auteur Theory
Francois Truffaut said:
“ A true film auteur is someone who brings something genuinely personal to his subject instead of producing a tasteful, accurate but lifeless rendering of the original material.”
What I think Francois Truffaut means by this quote is that an auteur is some one that brings their own personal style to the film and makes it their own.
Reservoir Dogs
Synopsis
In the film, there are criminals they don't know each other but they have been hired by someone to steal a bag of dimonds. The person that hired them doesn't call them by their actual name but they are called by different colours. They thought that what they were doing was going to be a success until the police show up. They all were trying to find out who was giving information to the police. They suspected that one of them was undercover so trying to figure that out they end up killing each other.
Themes:
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Violence is a theme in the film because we see them using violence against each other. The violence we see them using is shooting, kicking and punching. In the film, we see a scene where a guy is tied to a chair and that one of the criminals is torturing him. They used all this violence to find out who has been giving information to the police.
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Betrayal/Trust is another theme in the film because when they found out that that one of the guys was the undercover policeman the rest felt betrayed for them because they trusted their plans with the guy and that he wouldn't go to the police and tell them what they were planning on doing.
Tone
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Through out the film they use foul language consistently. The tone they use the foul language in is when they are having a laugh with each other. In other times they use foul language in a serious tone where they are shouting at each other or at the police.
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They used racist remarks more than once in the film . They mainly used it in a serious tone when they were shouting at each other.
The narrative structure.
The films narrative structure is that they start the film with them in a restaurant talking but then as the film goes on you see two of the criminals in the car where one is shot and one is driving to the warehouse. The structure of the film is at the point of where the guy is shot and is about to die so they show the audience how the guy ends up getting shot. They also show us how the other guy gets tied up. At the end of the film, they show us who takes the diamonds and who shoots each other at the end of the film. In the film they don't show the crime being done but they show what happens after it takes place.
Music and sound
They used music and voice-over in different parts of the film. The music was upbeat. They used the music during the title sequence and when they had a car scene and throughout the credits. The voice-over sounds like a male is doing the voice-over as it is a deep voice. The voice-over is used at different points of the film.
Mise en scene:
In the film they used a lot of different shots and angles to capture what was going on. They used a lot of two shots, close ups, medium shots and many more. The angles they used were high and low angles. The movement of the camerea depended on whether they were moving fast or slow. They used many different scenes some were set in a restaurant, a wherehouse, cars, a trunk, a bathroom, on the street and many more.
Other:
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In the film they use bathroom scenes and car scenes frequently.
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The characters wear a dark coloured suit with a white shirt and a tie while they are working.
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They use scenes of the characters talking to themselves in the mirror.
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The character has phone conversations to contact different people..
What I have noticed about the director's style is that he likes a lot of violence to be in his films because he likes there to be explosions or shooting to take place in his film. this could take place at any point in the film.
Pulp fiction
Daily Diary
9/9/2020
Today was the first day back to college I am excited to see what we are going to do this year. We had our course introduction. We set up our wix pages by linking them to new buttons. We started the first unit which is characteristic and context we went through a power point which was about the Auteur theory. We learnt the definition of the Auteur theory, what makes an auteur we also learnt the background information about the theory. We watched Reservoir dogs and took notes. Our homework is to do a write up on reservoir dogs from the notes we took.
Daily Diary
10/9/2020
Today we made sure that we were able to log into canvas. After we logged into canvas as a class we went through a power point about Quentin Tarantino. We learnt about his life, the films he wrote and directed, his signature style and more. We watched two film today the first film was called Pulp fiction and the second film was Django Unchained. Learning about Quentin Tarantino's signature style helped me to take notes about the films because I didn't know anything about the topic so I was able to learn something new.
Synopsis
There are two guys named Jules and Vincent who work for a guy named Marsellus. Jules and Vincent were sent to get a briefcase that was taken from someone they know. Marsellus told Vincent to take his wife out while he was out of town. They got back from where they were when they got back to Marsellus house Vincent went to the bathroom but while Vincent was in the bathroom Marsellus wife overdosed on some drugs which made Vincent drive to his friends. When they got there they had to give her adrenaline. Butch is a boxer he goes back to where he and his girlfriend are staying. After a couple of hours, he starts looking for his watch that was his father. He realised that was back at his apartment. He gets to his apartment and he sees a gun on the counter so he realises that Vincent was there waiting for him to turn up. Butch shoots Vincent and goes to his car while he is driving and he sees Marsellus so he runs the car over Marsellus and crashes a car and starts to run and they go into a shop. While they ran into the shop and the shop owner calls a cop who ties them up but then takes Marsellus into another room and treats Marsellus terribly. Butch was about to leave but he went back and killed the owner of the shop and the cop. Marsellus tells him to leave town. Jules and Vincent shoot someone in the head by accident and they drive to someone who Jules knows and they get someone to help them clean up what they did. They end up at a cafe where they are getting robbed by a man and women so Jules ends up giving them money so they will leave the cafe.
Themes
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Fate is a theme in the movie because Jules and Vincent doesn't get shot by a bullet when they are in the apartment.
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Violence is another theme in the film because Jules and Vincent shoot the other guys in the apartment. Also when Butch runs into Marsellus with the car and then crash in the fence. They end up stabbing the shop owner and then shooting the policeman.
Genre
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The film uses the genre dark comedy because there are things in the film that are not meant to be funny but they are funny.
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They also use the genre crime in the film because they commit different crimes in the film for example when the kill each other or when they do drugs
Tone
The language they use foul language through out the film. They use racist remarks in the film. In the film there are two characters that speak in a different language. The tone they speak in is serious. They shout at each other in the same tone while using the same language
Narrative Structure
The film is non-linear story line so where we started is where we ended up. Inbetween we had different storylines but what I noticed is that they all are connected by one person Mersellus. The film is fast paced.
Music and Sounds
The music they use in the film is upbeat and fast placed. The music is played at different times in the film for example at the beginning of the film and at the end of the film during the credits.The characters shout at each other when they are in different situations.
Mise en scene
In the film they use many different scenes. In the film they used different angles and camera shots. They move the camera at the pace the characters are moving. They keep the the camera away from the violence but you can hear what happens for example when Vincent shoots the guy in the car we hear what happens but all we see is blood splatter everywhere.
Other notes:
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The characters wear dark suits with white shirt and a tie while they are working but when they work they wear casual clothes.
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They use different scenes like that are placed restaurants, cars, apartment and many more.
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In the film they use phone conversations between the characters.
Django Unchained
Synopsis
A guy name Django is a slave who was being searched by Schultz. Schultz buys Django from two guys and kills them. They were looking for some men who they ended up killing. After looking for those men Django wanted to look for his wife after being separated for years. Schultz and Django came up with a plan for getting Django's wife back. So the heard that she would be sold to someone in Mississippi. They go to where Django's wife is and when they get there they put the plan into action but one of the guys there figured out that Django and his wife know each other so what happens is that Schultz brought Django wife. They have a shoot out where Schultz dies but Django lives and gets sold but he convinces the people who he was sold too to go back to where his wife is. He goes back and rescues his wife and kills everyone there.
Theme:
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Violence is a theme in the film because they kill each other either by shooting, hitting each other with a hammer and much more another example is when they allowed the dogs to eat the man alive.
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Revenge is another theme because Django wanted to get revenge on certain people for how they treated him and his wife in certain situations in the film.
Genre
There are many different genres in the film such as dark comedy, Slavery and western.
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They use dark comedy in the film because there are things in the film that are funny but they are not suppose to be laughed at.
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Western is another genre in the film because of the location
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Slavery is also another theme in the film because of the the storyline and when it was set.
Tone
They used foul language constantly in the film. In the film they used racist remarks constantly. They don't use racists slurs or sexist remarks often. The tone they used in the film was a serious to make deals but they were still able to make jokes and laugh with each other.
Narrative Structure
The narrative structure in the film starts out with Django being a slave and being with his wife . They get separated and then being sold to Schultz. At different points in the film They have flashbacks of what has previously happened The film is fast paced.
Music and sounds
In the film they use Western music. The music is fast paced at certain times in the film but at other times the music is slow paced. At one point in the film they used rap music. They used sound effects in the film for example when they used the whip in the film.
Mise en scene
In the film the they use different camera angles high angles, low angles and many more they also use camera shots for example they used point of view, two shots and many more. They move the camera at the same pace as the character.
Other notes:
In the film they use scenes in different locations for example forest, pub, deserts and many more. The characters wear western clothing throughout the film. The males wear western suits and females wear western dresses. They travel throughout different locations. They don't have phone conversations.
Essay plan draft
Essay plan with notes
Daily Diary
11/9/ 2020
Today I logged into Microsoft teams to get registered and we went through the power point. After that I re-read the power points so I can do the tasks properly. I started to do my write up about Pulp fiction and Django unchained with my write up I made sure that I am adding detail to my work. I wrote about the different aspects of the film like the themes, the narrative the genre and more. I made sure that I did my diaries and added detail to them. I did this because I want to make sure I can get a good grade for my work. I made sure that my buttons work so that Tracey can access my work.
Daily Diary
16/9/ 2020
Today we went through the PowerPoint that was about the essay so that I know what I am going to do . We got told more about the essay and what we need to include and how many words our essay needs to be. After going through the PowerPoint we started to the essay plan this will help me to know what I am going to do in my essay. I started to do some research where this will help me gain more knowledge about the topic. While research we had to create a bibliography this is to make sure that we are not coping. While going through the power point as a class I was unsure about some things but I went through it again and understood it more. We had a practical session where we learnt about the new cameras we are using.
Research
Non linear storylines
When writing the film the film comes alive from the writing stage rather than when they are editing the film in post-production. In his films he goes from one place in the film to another.
Quentin Tarantinos films being connected
Quentin Tarantino connects his films through different ways for example in Reservoir dogs and pulp fiction is linked by the briefcase and that Mr blond is Vincent Vagas brother. Another example is True Romance and Inglorious bastards ae connect by Mr White mentoring a girl named Alabama . Where as Pulp fiction and Kill bill is connected because Mia talks about the pilot she was in.
Themes
He uses the theme revenge in his films because revenge is a main focus for Quentin Tarantino. It is used in most of his films. Violence is also a main theme used in his movies. Gore because of all the blood and killing of people. Feet fetish Quentin has a lot of scenes where he just films feet
Genre
He liked to work with different genres like, Westerns, Scientific fiction, Crime, War and Martial Arts. The film Django Unchained falls under the genre western. Inglorious Bastards will come under war. Many of his films will fall under the different genres
Music
Quentin Tarantino doesn't choose the music at post production he starts to figure what music he is going to use form when he starts writing. He uses pop culture music. He places music where the audience less expects it. The music he uses sets the atmosphere of where the characters are and what the characters are doing. He cuts what ever is happening while the music playing to the beat of the music. He uses Music to create drama or tension in the film. The music sets the mood or adds to the mood of that particluar scene.
Camera shots
Quentin Tarantino likes to use different angles and camera shots. When he is filming violence he likes to keep a distance between what is happening and the camera. We never see them being cut but we see the characters being shot. He uses close ups especially of the characters putting lipstick on or of the characters being shot. He uses a two shot to capture both of the character talking or doing something else. We see him use POV to see what the character is seeing so we have a different view. He uses tracking shots to follow the characters around. He uses Gods POV to show a higher angle of what the character is doing..
Quentin Tarantino uses many more shots in the film. The films are fast paced.
Francois Truffaut
He worked on the the auteur theory with Andrew Sarris, Andre Bazin and Alexandre Astruc. Andre Bazin is a film critic. He was a founder and an author of Cahiers du cinema. Cahiers du cinema means notebook on cinema that. Andrew Sarris is an American film critic he also contributed to the theory. Alexandre Astruc is also a film critic. Francois Truffaut had a short film in 1955. Truffaut worked with another film critic Jean luc Godard who shared the journal cahier du cinema to the world.
Quentin Tarantino auteur styles
Daily Diary
17/09/2020
Today we came in to class we had to do our English and maths initial assessment. We started to write our first Quentin Tarantino essay. I was nervous about writing an essay because I haven't written one for a long time. We had to print it out and had to do peer feedback. After doing per feed back I read the feed back and made some of the changes as some of the feedback made no sense because it wasn't labelled to what I need to change. Tomorrow while I am working at home I will finish the draft and send my essay to Tracey so that she can give me feedback on it.
Essay Draft 1
Essay Draft 2
Final essay
Bibliography
Directors considered an Auteur
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Wes Anderson
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Spike Lee
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Woody Allen
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Tim burton
Wes Anderson
Wes Anderson is considered an auteur because of his visual styles and narrative styles. He gets a lot of attention due to his style. He likes to use vibrant colours in his films to make a scene stand out. The mise en scene the arrangement and design of everything. He uses persistent symmetrical shots that he uses in his films. The geometric framing and crafted composition adds structure and appreciation for the one-point perspective style. He centres what is in the frame. He likes to add emphasis to what is in frame. Mise en scene allows the story to be stunning visually and with emotions. Wes Anderson uses actors that he has worked with previously like Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson, Anjelica Huston, and Adrien Brody. Using the same cast and crew allows the to be more creative. His films has a hidden theme. He likes to show the importance of family. He has common themes in his films. He uses more than one genre and to mix the genres. Most of his films has the focus on family especially on dysfunctional families. His camera shots and angles creates his style.
Daily Diary
18/09/2020
Today we logged into Microsoft teams to register. Tracey explained what we need to do. Today I am going to finish my first draft of my essay. After I finished my first draft and sent it to Tracey and got feedback. After getting my feedback I made the changes that I need to making those changes improved my work. I also started to research directors that has been considered as an auteur and what there auteur styling from doing this research I gained more knowledge.
Spike Lee
Spike Lee always picks the right genre. He uses the same actors. He likes for the characters to address the camera directly. He likes to talk about issues that are taking place in the world. He knows what he wants in his films. At the end of his films he uses phrases like "by any means necessary." His music shows the mood. He explores family issues in his films
Woody Allen
Woody Allen likes his films to have a similar look. He likes to film in major seals. Reoccurring themes in his films like relationships or artist struggling with their careers. He uses Jazz music. He doesn't use happy endings. He mess around with different genres. The way he ends his films is with white text on black background.
Tim Burton
Tim Burton works with the genre fantasy. He likes to explore different concepts. He uses unusual stories. He looks at ideas of dark themes. His films look at different issues like peer pressure, social issues and many more. He uses the characters movement as a personal message. The setting has a specific meaning. He uses symbols in his films
Production meeting 1
STE-000
00:00 / 01:44
Production meeting 2
Production roles
Producer - Chloe
Director - Kayley
Camera operator - Kacper
Sound - Callum
Lighting- Esther
STE-001 (online-audio-converter.com)
00:00 / 09:05
Production meeting 3
STE-003
00:00 / 02:15
Christopher Nolan
His life
Christopher Nolan was born on the 30th July 1970 in London. As a child he was interested in creating films. His first short film was made at the age of 7. While he was growing up he traveled to many different places. He is a film director and screen writer who has created many movies like inception and The dark knight rises. He married Emma Thomas and had 4 children. His children is Called Oliver, Magnus, Rory and Flora. He made around 23 films
Directing career
His film following was a major hit. It was on a small budget. It was in black and white. It took him 14 months to complete the film. The film is about a lonely writer who likes to follows random people and then teams up with a burglar. He used a non-linear narrative. After he filmed following he went on to direct the film Memento from a short story that his brother Jonathan wrote.
In 2003 the Warner brother got Christopher Nolan to direct the Batman's films. In 2005 he created Batman begins. The film Prestige was created in 2006 . The name of the film comes from a novel that was done by Christopher Priests. He then created another batman film along side his brother. In 2008 he made The dark knight where he focused more on the morals and structure of the setting. The release of Inception took place in 2010. He started the to write the script a decade before. In 2012 he created The dark knight rises was the last film of the batman series. He helped to write the story of for a superman movie called Man of steel in 2013. He written another movie with his brother Interstellar which took place in 2014. In 2017 he created his Dunkirk which he wrote. 2020 came and he wrote and directed the film tenet.
His Auteur styling
Recurring themes:
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Dark and fantasy themes
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Psychological Themes
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He enjoys to use the same cast
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Dark knight rises and Interstellar he uses Ann Hathaway
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The dark knight rises and Interception he uses Tom Hardy
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The dark knight trilogy and the prestige he used Christian Bale and Micheal Cain.
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He is known for non-linear storytelling.
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He likes to use multiple stories happening at once.
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He uses flashbacks in his films
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His main characters start off redeeming qualities but only showing them having evil qualities.
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He tries to get the audience to see what the character is seeing without being the character.
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He has a lot creative control over his films.
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He writes his films and his brother co-writes with him
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He uses the same editor except from Memento
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He uses the same cinematography for all his feature films.
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He used the same production designer
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He uses dim lighting.
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He uses grey gloomy or soft gold filter.
His Cast and crew
He likes to use the same actors and actresses for example Ann Hathaway was in The dark knight rises and Interstellar. Tom Hardy was in The dark knight rises and interception. He has done this with many of his films. He likes to use the cinematographer, production designer and the same editor.
Colour
He use the colours blue and orange a lot in his films. The colours are meant to produce certain emotions. The blue is meant to produce different emotions like calm, cold and peaceful feeling for people where as orange is meant to be the opposite feelings like warm, aggressive and lively feeling.
Camera shots
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During his films he likes to keep the camera moving through tough dialogue.
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He likes to use Close and wide shots in his film at the same time.
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He likes to let the dialogue to play out in a medium single shot.
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He slightly pushes into the scene so that the frame gets tighter as he cuts from the characters. By him doing this it makes the audience feel drawn to the conversation.
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He uses Off kilter close ups by doing this it allows the frame to reflect the frustration of the character. Him doing this makes the audience feel like they are in the room.
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Medium Shots that are disorienting because he has his characters trying to climb and crawl their way out of danger.
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He increases the sense of panic by having the character twisting and turning.
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He uses Shallow depth of field for conversations between characters
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He uses close ups that has characters hands in the shot
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He uses aerial extreme long shots
His method
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Script writing he generally complicates the scripts and the narrative while the character keeps it simple. This keeps the audience interested in his films.
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He likes to imagine himself in that world.
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He likes to shoot on film rather than digital video
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He opposes the use of digital intermediates and digital cinematography
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he uses multi camera for stunts and single camera for dramatic action.
Themes
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The main character and the other characters they would have a psychological problems and is motivated by tragedy to claim revenge or guilt.
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Deceptions because people they are not always who they may appear to be.
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Ethics and Morality
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Reality because he wants to create something real .
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Fear because in Batman vs Superman dawn of Justice Bruce Wayne has to overcome his fear to save the city.
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Regret because Cobbs made his wife jump over a ledge by accident
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Time
Film budget
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Following - budget $6.000/ the release $48,482
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Memento- budget$ 9million
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Inception-budget $160 million
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The dark knight - budget $180 million
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Batman begins - budget $150 million
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The dark knight rises - budget $250 million
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Batman- budget $35 million
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Tenet - budget $200 million
Analysis 1
The synopsis of the film is that the people of Metropolis is trying decide whether Superman should turn into authorities or should he still be roaming freely like has been doing. However Batman sees Superman as a danger to everyone so Batman plans on taking Superman down himself. Meanwhile the Lex Luthor plans to destroy mankind.
The genre of the film Action and adventure. He uses many different angles like tracking shots, medium close ups, over the shoulder, point of view, Two shots, Low angles, high angles and many more. The sound of the clip is that at the beginning it is a guy giving a speech to the crowd of people with some music in the background. As he enters the room of people you hear clapping. You hear the conversation of when Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent meet. You hear the conversation that is happening in the earpiece. While he is walking down the stars you hear other peoples conversations and the news on the TV. When he is following the women you can hear footsteps and glasses clashing together. When the women is driving of you hear the tiers screech. In the scene where he is in the room with the crowd the lighting is quite bright but where the scene where he is going up and down the stairs it was dark where as the hall way at the bottom of the stairs wasn't that bright.
Actors
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Ben Affleck played Bruce Wayne/ Batman,
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Henry Cavill played Clark Kent/ Superman
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Amy Adams played Lois
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Jesse Eisenberg played Lex Luthor
Props and costumes
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Black and white suits
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The transfer device
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A car
What I like about the scene is the camera is moving because of how smooth it is moving but what I disliked is how Bruce didn't change
Daily Diary
23/09/2020
Today we got to see who was in out group. We had 3 production meetings. In the first one we discussed what production roles we should do. I decided to do sound as that was the only role left. I wasn't confident in doing this role because it has been a long time since I used my practical skills. In production meeting 2 we discussed our the different Auteurs that we researched because we needed to choose which auteur we are going to do. The last production meeting we talked about the Auteur styling of Christopher Nolan because we needed to know what the auteur stylings and how we are going to add those to our film. We started our research of Christopher Nolan and analysed a scene from Superman VS Batman dawn of justice. This will help me know more about Christopher Nolan
signature style. Also we had to redo our English and Maths diagnostics because we did the wrong one.
Analysis 2
Synopsis of the film is that there is a thief who has the ability to enter their dreams and steal their secrets. Then the thief is approached by a guy who wants to hire. The guy doesn't want the thief to get information but he wants the thief to implant something. The thief has children that the thief is missing but the guy that approached the thief is ready to help the thief get his children back. So the thief get his team together but the thief doesn't give his team the whole information so this could go wrong and they are trying to figure out if they should continue with the project.
The genre of the fil is Sci-fi and thriller. The film has many camera angles like medium close ups, Tracking shots, Two shots and many different camera shots. At first the characters have a conversation but then you hear a voice of a TV presenter. Throughout you hear music in the background. The lighting is bright in some scenes but then it is dark.
Actors
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Leonardo Dicaprio Plays Cobb
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Joseph Gordon -Levitt plays Arthur
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Ellen Page plays Ariadne
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Tom hardy plays Eames
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Ken Watanbe plays Saito
Props and costumes
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Scientic equipment
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Chairs
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Casual clothes
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Suits and Trousers
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Cars
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Airplane
What I like is how the lighting in the film because it goes from light to dark. What I dislike was the music in the background.
Daily diary
24/09/2020
This morning we did TPA which involved doing Ucas this will help me know to decide if I want to go to uni. We wrote our script today for our 10 minute video essay this will help me to know what I am going to say about Christopher Nolan. We started to downloaded our stock footage on to our hard drive but we had some technical difficulties so we had to finish downloading the stock footage at home. Downloading the stock footage will help Tracey to understand better. Most of the class got to record there script and started editing their video essay. I will record my essay at home as I wasn't able to record during class.
Script
Analysis 3
The synopsis of the film is that eight years after defeating the Joker. Batman took the fall for the murder that was committed by Harvey Dent. Gotham has a new enemy. Bane who is a former member of the league of shadows. Bane is planning to take over the city and tells the truth about Harvey Dent. Wayne manor has been rebuilt so Bruce Wayne rarely leaves the estate. Bane taking the over the city makes Batman comes out retirement. A Jewel thief who is called Selina Kyle who could be the key to stopping bane. They are trying to figure out who side she is on.
Daily Diary
25/09/2020
Today we logged into Microsoft teams and registered. I recorded my video essay script on my phone before we had to register I will listen over and see if I need to re-record it. We go set to write analysis 3 from the auteur we chosen this will help me to know what we could add into our film. We had to write 3 stories that is in the style of our chosen auteur because we needed to choose our narrative for our film. In the three stories we have to write about what props, characters and locations we would use.
3 stories
Video essay audio
Video essay
00:00 / 08:57
Stock footage
Video essay
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