Institutions

Opening Scene of The Conjuring

Enigma Code - What questions are you asking yourself?

 

• Where are they?
• What are they talking about?
• Who's doll is it?
• Who are they two girls talking too?
• Why did he sound so surprised when they said they gave the doll permission?
• Why is the doll on the floor?
• How did they doll get back into the house?

Sound - The sound at the very beginning of this film is a high pitched violin playing. I think they used this music because it comes across quite scary and high pitched noises are usually associated with horror films of which this is. This is non- diegetic as the characters cannot hear this, but it tells us that it is going to be a horror film because of the distinctive sound. Hearing this music already makes you feel slightly scared and its only the very start of the film. Also, whilst the scene of the two girls coming home from work is playing, there's talking in the background of the two girls speaking to the man and woman about the doll, this is non-diegetic as the two characters can't hear them speaking. The music plays again but this time its not the high pitched violins but a sudden piano sound, this is also a distinctive sound from a typical horror movie.

 

Editing - There is not much editing in this opening scene, it just flips from shot to shot. This carries out smoothly and changes each shot from each other and carries them on. The camera is concentrating on certain characters, and is showing you different incites to each persons view.

 

Camera - Frames

This is an extreme close up and its used to show the damaged, scary detail in the possessed doll. If this frame was maybe just a close up, it would have the same impact on the extreme close up that this is showing. It does zoom out slightly but you don't see the full face of the doll until a different frame.

 

 

This is a close up of the doll. They've used this frame as well as the other one to show the true look of the doll. After seeing the first frame of the doll (extreme close up) the audience wonder what the doll looks like, how big it is, what its wearing ect. After showing the audience this frame, its clearly showing them the true identity of the doll.

 

Movement -  At first the movement of this opening scene is zoom out. This is then drawing your attention to the focus and the main point, which in this case is the doll. It draws attention and builds tension to look of the doll. In the next scene it also zooms out giving the audience a full perspective of the surroundings in the scene.

 

Angle - The angles on most shots are neutral and quite focal, to draw your attention to specific props in the scene, for example the doll at the beginning.

 

Mise en Scene

 

 

Costumes - The costume in this opening scene varies as each character is wearing different things. The doll is wearing a little girls dress which has been torn and stained. Normally when there is a little girl in a horror film, they tend to be wearing a disturbing outfit to scare the audience. Whilst in the interview between the two girls and the man and women, the two girls are just wearing everyday clothed to show that they are still going about their everyday lives however, when the two girls come home from work, they are wearing the nurses uniform to clearly show what they do for a living.

 

 

Lighting - The lighting in this opening scene is very dark. In the interview, it seems as if they've purposely darkened the room too make it seem that little bit more scary. Its quite hard to see the characters face because of the facial shadows.When the woman goes into the spare room, a light appears on her face just like when a torch is held underneath a face when someone is telling a horror story. The light flashing in the room also adds a scary effect to the film. Throughout most of the opening the lighting is very dull and dark to add the scary effect.


Characters - The only visible characters at the start of this opening scene are the two girls and the boy. From right at the beginning the boy is in the scene but has no relevance to the film from what we know. The two girls are the main vocal point of this. We hear a male talking but we cant see him. At the very end we are shown the males face from a side angle. The camera pans around and we are shown his identity and then shown his partner.


Props - There aren't a great deal of props in the opening of 'The Conjuring' but a main prop in this opening scene is the doll. The doll is a major part of it as she is what they're talking about and is the main topic of conversation. Another small prop in this scene is the smashed photo frame. They use this to show that the 'Demon' has done this to the picture of the two girls.



Preliminary Task - 'Fug life'

Here is a photograph of George drawing and annotating the storyboard for our Preliminary Task. When drawing up the storyboard, we took into consideration the various different frames, camera angles and movements we wanted to capture throughout.

Here is a photograph of Becky writing up a list of all the props and items of costume we needed for the task

Here is a photograph of Megan reading and evaluating the script for the task, which we all discussed and came to an agreement on, deciding that it was appropriate for the Comedy genre.

  



Evaluation

We have now completed out final preliminary task for our final outcome being the short comedy 'fug life'. We managed the task by setting individual roles between us. As George is quite artist he did the story board and also did some of the editing for the final draft. Becky wrote up all the costume ideas and props and i evaluated the ideas and brought my own ideas to the table.

We planned our sequence by coming up with a rough idea of a story line then story boarding it. However, we didn't take into account all of the different frames and angles which we needed such as high angle shot and a tracking shot, so the story was re-drafted.

Very little technology was used in the making of this task, just a simple camera and tri-pod which was used for the still shots and a wheelchair for the tracking shot. The only technology used was the mobile phone for the music that played and the computer when using the editing software (adobe premier).

When filming the shot we had to keep referring to the storyboard to make sure we were following it exactly how we had wrote it down. We also had to make sure the classrooms we wanted to use were available, for example, the classroom (l9) was not available when we needed it so we had to use the drama room.

Overall, im pleased with the final outcome of our task. i think we managed to ull of the genre for our task but i do not think it was as funny as we maybe imagined it to be. We have learnt a lot for this task for example its vital to have your story board when filming and when filming certain shots a decent amount of time should be left.

Peer analysis of Juno worksheet

 

Group	How was the use of camera shots?	Use of editing?	Use of lighting?	Overall success of video
Sarah, George and Kaitlyn.	They have used long shots to show the surroundings of the scene but you can stil see the actor clearly. They have used all of the correct camera shots in this scene just like the original opening. The have also used medium shots to show the expressions and gestures.	The use of editing was used very widely. Every different shot seemed to have a different transition. They did all work smoothly however some of the transitions maybe weren't needed for the opening scene but they have definaltly proved that they are confident when using premier.	As they only had the use of lighting outside, it worked well which shows the setting of the scene. This is just like the original and that was the task, and it was successfully completed	In my opinion, i feel this is the best video. although they may have gone over the top on the transitions, it showed they were confident with using premier and it was very similar to the opening of the real Juno openeing.
James and Emma.	The camera shots are very similar to the original Juno openeing scene. Their tracking shot is very steady and look professional. They've also shown medium shots and this helps us see the expressions on the characters face.	Whilst editing its clear they've used a different lighting in the beggining and in the middle. The effect is brighter in the beggining and darker in the middle. Also, they didnt use any transitions which was key feature in this task.	The only natural lighting in this opening is the sun however it does change due to the fact that they used effects on the lighting. In my opinion i dont feel like this works because the sun on its own would have made it look more effective.	I do not think the editing is very successful because they have not used transitions and used lighting effects when the light should have been natural. However the timing of each of their clips was very natural to the original and looks very much like the real Juno opening scene.
Charlotte, Ben and Ben	they've used a variety of different shots; long shots too show the surrounding and close up too show the shoes which was a key shot in the opening scene. They have also ued medium shots to show the expressions on the characters face.	They've used an effect to make the scenes look animated just like in the original opening and also used a few transitions from each different shot thisdramatically changes each shot and carries it out to the next one.	The use of lighting in this scene is just daylight, this is the same as the original clip. This is good as the task that we was given is to remake the Juno opening scene as similar to the original as possible, and in the original the lighting was just the daytime light to show the setting.	This clip was successful. I feel that the big error was having the title page before the clip started, however the transitions ran smoothly and they have used a sort of animated effect on each clip to make it as animated as they could to make it look like the same as the real Juno opening scene.
Dom and Lara	The use of the camera was very effective. They paned left and right, also tilted the camera up and down when needed. If there was one negative it would be the camera being a shaky at the start.	The use of transitions in their opening of juno were really successful. The music also was in time to the original opening scene as well as this they've proved they are confident with using premier.	The lighting when it was filmed was overcast, however they used an effect that made it look more cartoon like to fit the Juno clip. This also made the lighting a lot brighter, possibly a bit too bright.	Overall, i feel like this was a succesful opening video and was very well thought out as the transitions ran smoothly and the timing was perfect to the second.

Juno Experience Reflection

What did you learn about filming and editing?

After watching the official 'Juno' opening scene many times and planning the shots, camera angles on a storyboard, we went out and filmed the scenes as best as we could. We filmed free hand because neither of us owned a tripod or anything thats similar
I also learnt that using Adobe Premier,  can shorten certain parts of the video, speed it up, you can use different video transitions. We shortened the video slightly to fit better to the original.

Did you find/use any premiere effects? If so, which ones and what was the effect?

We spent a lot of time trying different transitions to get it as close to the original as possible, the only effect we found was called 'push' which was used to transit to the foot scene. We tried the different video effects however no one of them produced the result we were looking for so decided to use the video how it was.

What went well in the filming and editing? How does it look compared with the original opening sequence?

Its very true to the original opening sequence, and looks pretty good, but it is missing the animated part of the original. the sound track fits the video well and starts at the same place as the original..

What could have gone better with the filming and editing?

The timing of the opening sequence was well planned and the music fits well, however the camera was slightly shaky on the hand held parts.