PHOTO-Days are numbered...

There are days where we are all happy and thinking life is perfect...though.. the bad days comes in such a rush that you don't expect it. That's when most people think their life is rubbish...
Alot of problems tends to be caused because of social network such as Facebook, where people can pretty much find out anything. Its a wonderful and useful social network but it does have it bad side....where people can find out what you've been doing or who you been socialising with. which can lead to gossips and rumours to be spread around and maybe even exaggerated...to the point where it becomes serious and affects you mentally and psychically....
But... Heyy Ho! "What doesn't kill you make you stronger" right?? :)
Simply look in the bright side or another side to your problem, as it can show you that your problem isn't actually that bad. Or simply when your down and don't have much energy, eat some chocolate or cake. Sweet things tend to lighten your mood up... Such as these Thornton Smiley chocolate.
I personally been having a blast with some of my friends lately, haven't seen them in ages,it really does brings back memories. Though.... "if there is ups there is downs" my down side was the fact that problems occurred with others. It was to the point where I was at the edge of turning cold hearted.... as it brought my mood right down and it affected my other friends... which made my mood worse :')
I started to eat these chocolate and had some alone time, it made me think a hell alot... now Wa La!  I now finally know what im doing and set myself straight again, so back to my old self. Yay!=)
...Just saying really.. there nothing wrong having alone time and keeping chocolate to yourself or eating chocolate, It's there for you to enjoy.... plus....friends are always there for you if you need a chat, do not forget that...

Its all in the  pass now.. So move on to the present.. =)

                                                      Take it easy people.. *hugs for all*<(=^_^=)>

Research-thriller idea 2

Some the planning idea we have so far...

Research-thriller ideas

Working with Hannah, Sophie and Ben.

Sophie idea-

1- Where a guy gets involved with drugs when he was younger, when he gets older he gains flashback and it haunts him.

2-A game board style- where things comes out of the board and the characters are on a mission such as find out the murder for so and so it is abit like Jumanji.
             DEVELOPED-
 1-A group of people go round someone house, dress up party. A member see another person and recognise them, creating questions. Some one roles a dice light goes off and someone is found dead. But can be faking the death, the mystery.
             
2-A group of people playing with legends/myths about conspiracy.Where one member dies at a time. Silent death.

Sedtin idea-

1-One day a person gets a doll, they love it to peices for a peirod of time. Until one day they got bored of it and the doll gets forgotten, then during one night the doll comes alive and creates illusion where another member kills. At the end they manage to get rid of the doll and the doll ends up with another family.

2-A guy had a accident and end up in a coma. Within the coma he has a dream but he believes it is the real world. A seires of event goes on and if he gets hurt, such as a cut on the arm, he real body gets a cut on the arm. Such as a test within the dream and will he ever wake up again.

Ben idea-




Hannah idea-

1-A person gets given an item and it becomes a life and death issue. The person goes out and find information about the item, figuring out what it is and what it do. Like memento or abduction.

Children drama editing-Evaluation

Within the children drama editing, we used Adobe Premiere Pro. Under the setting of DV-PAL, Widescreen 48 KHz, as it is the U.K format along it gives out the best sound quality. Due to video clips takes up a lot of memory; we had to either save it on a mini hard drive or on the Z drive. We saved it on the Z drive at first, we made a folder with our name so people would know it is our work, along it would be easier for us to find it. But sadly later on, the computer did not work our file for a while as it kept on crashing our work, to the point where we could not save it. so we had to transfer our work into a mini hard drive and work on different computers.

When we imported our work into the new project in Premiere Pro (go to File, then down that row there is “Import” click on it to bring up a box and then you find your footage to put in to the project), it took a while. However we went through the footages and deleted the faulty, unneeded footage that we did not want. Such as there was a footage where Hannah accidently swear, it was amusing and funny at that moment but we did not need it, therefore we deleted it. That way we it would be easier to find the footage we need and save some space.

At first we drag one footage clip at a time, to the timeline, so we can watch one by one and cut out the unneeded bits, and then we put it in order. That way it would look better and we can actually see which part of the clips we need and edit. Instead of us putting all the footage clips on the timeline and keep on scrolling or dragging, to put all the footage together. As that way it would create a mess on the timeline, making you confuse which part of the footage you cut out that you need, and end up making you rewatch all of it again.

However I mainly did the rough cuts and small snippets, along putting some clips in order, but I did not really do the final cuts. This is because I cannot make the scene’s blend together well and make it flow. This is where I need to improve and hopefully do abit more of it within the Thriller project.

But within the children drama I stuck to doing the rough and block cuts, cutting out the unwanted parts within the clips. Using the cut tool then highlighted the unwanted scenes then press delete. I decided to play around with the lighting and sound level, as some clips was either brighter than other or louder than other. In order to try to make the footage link, as it would be odd if some footage was brighter than other or louder than other when necessary. The brightness of the footage was dealt by the fact that on the editing box the video footage has a line over it, where the editor can move it around. While the audio, on the audio track it is the same as on the video track, however if we want the footage to either fade in or fade out, it can be done by pressing Ctrl and press the left button on the mouse, over the audio you want to change and a little yellow diamond appear on the line.  

 However I did do one final cut which was where Hannah was on the slide, that clip was the longest. It took me a while to cut as I was not sure whether some parts were needed.

When we first did our block cuts our children drama went over five minute, so we had to cut out a lot of scenes. That’s where I kept watching it and trying to pick out the unnecessary parts within some scenes. Such as the scene where Hannah is playing in the park on her own, while Ann-Marie and Bambi where sitting on swings. At first we thought it was needed to show the audience that Hannah character is childish. But when we saw the time limit, I cut it out, as the scene was too long and seemed pointless as it did not pass on the message well. Nevertheless the shot was not filmed well, as the sound was fuzzy due to the bad weather on that day. Therefore we got rid of it and just made Hannah characters seem like a happy, hyper, person.

Nevertheless I also added some effects to make the scene flow together better. Using fade to black or white, this effects and other can be found on the transition folder. However that effect was not always used as it would be boring and not look that great, so to make it feel more of a children drama. We used the Flip effect, where it gives a light switch affect. Giving a cheesy feel like, so it makes the drama look less serious. Nevertheless for some footage I had to zoom in quite deeply to cut out only few second of the scene. Even though it is only few second, it does make a big difference when watching it.

However after dealing with the scenes we got out music tracks, I only got us a few tracks but none where used. But due to the deadline we ended up rushing other member’s tracks, however I did move some of the tracks. This is because it did not sound right, where it was originally placed. So I did most of the sound volume part and cutting it, such as which part of the song starts and where, For example the introduction track, I made it fade in to create a build up, leading it to the animation intro, where the track gradually got louder then slowly faded out towards the end. Also building up the intro, it will alert the audience that the theme song and journey is about to start.  

Though when our children drama was shown, some people did not get the story, we so added on more After Affects. I suggested we have thought bubbles with an icon inside, such as World of Warcraft to make Bambi character too into the game world. Along showing he is a nerd, as people count World Of Warcraft is a nerd game. So the audience would understand his character more and why the thing he says is more dramatic and does not make much sense.

Overall, most of the things I done, I asked the other group members opinion. To see if they agreed with what I done, I mainly asked Hannah, as she is good at editing. Though some of the things I did such as sound level and brightness, I did not ask them as I personally believe they did not notice. This is good as it makes the footage brightness and volume seem like it was natural. But to improve, on the next project, the thriller I would personally like to edit it more, in a more detail way so I can create a good final cut and make it flow with the following scene. Along I should ask Hannah less, for her opinions and advice about some shots and editing.

Notes-Thriller Code and Convention 2

Notes-Thriller Code and Convention

Notes-Terms 2

Mystery 


Close mystery- "Who dunnit", where the audience does not know what is going on, but slowly get information as the film goes on.

Open mystery-Where the audience start of knowing how the crime is done and by who.

Who dunnit-Where it creates one question through the story.

Dramatic irony- Where the audience possess more information than the characters.


Theatre of the mind-Where it keeps the audience thinking and guessing, creating questions.

Making it personal-Where the protagonist family member gets involved or bring back memories.


Mcguffin-An important item where people may not know what it is. Yet still fight for it.
               (A term created by Alfred Hitchcock)

Unit 3 Research Techniques-Qualitative

Qualitative is where something is being measured by the quality than quantity. It is used when companies or groups of people want to find out about other people opinions on certain things. To find out the information they collect information in depth, using all types of methods such as questionnaires. In another word it is gaining information about something through people view and opinion instead of statics and figures.

 For example in Super-Size Me Morgan Spurlock used himself as a test subject. Testing if junk food is bad for you and what could happen within a month, such as if it would turn you obese or it being quite dangerous for your organs.

Within Supersize Me Morgan Spurlock said that eating Mc Donald 3 times a day had caused him to lose sex drive and gave him mood swings, along giving him several headaches. In the documentary this information was presented to audience by them seeing how Morgan Spurlock was in the beginning, by doctors analysing his fitness. From there it leads on to the audience seeing him eating Mc Donald 3 times a day. Then towards the end where the audience see his outcome, the doctors explain to him and the audience again on how much his body has changed. Such as how his liver became fat and his cholesterol shot up high. All this information was presented to the audience by showing Morgan Spurlock going to the doctors to do the test. Also the audience can see the difference themselves when they saw Morgan Spurlock stomach. In the beginning of the documentary Morgan Spurlock mention about two girls and their problem with their weight. Instead of showing the audience the real girls face they used the paper saying what happen, on how they lost.  Which lead to Morgan Spurlock find it funny on how they lost, considering what happen to him within a month of eating Mc Donald. To show the information they used diagrams of Morgan Spurlock, one of him before eating Mc Donald’s and one of him after eating Mc Donald’s. From there the diagram goes on, showing the body of Morgan Spurlock after he eaten a whole month worth of Mc Donald’s. I personally think this was done to show people clearly and in details on how much it has affected him. Nevertheless I do believe that this way works well, as people can actually see the difference and compare it, along the information was told in colloquial language/simple terms where everyone can understand clearly. Also when some people spend every day with someone, they tend to be not able to see the difference within them. In a way it works for the audience in this documentary as they are watching his journey. So showing the audience at the end, of Morgan Spurlock previous and present body will shock them. In generally it would be just a recap of what have happen.

While in March Of The Penguins they spent months with the penguins, analysing what they are doing. Such as how each year at the same time, the penguins gather up to do the march. But they form the line while waiting for all the members to be there before they start the march. This information was presented to us by Morgan Freeman doing the voice over, over real footage of how graceful the penguins are and what they are doing. Within the footage they used a variety of shots such as long shot, extreme close up, bird eye view etc. It is useful information as people would never know that, it also shows that animals do know what they are doing and that they generally don’t need human help as they have done this for centuries. Though to make people understand that when the penguins reached their destination and goes back to their original place to get food is tough, they used animation and real footage on how thick the ice is and what types of sea creatures live under it, along telling the audience the temperature. I personally think this method in showing people information about penguin’s works. As they use real footage it proves to the audience that the information they are giving are true. Also its quite common sense that using a voice over is better than Morgan Freeman saying his line in the location, as the weather is not that great there so it be hard or gain feedbacks and other background sound will be picked up. Nevertheless the language that Morgan Freeman used, it is not very colloquial, as they used some scientific words which some audience may not understand. Though Morgan Freeman use connotation, as in the beginning he said that the documentary is not about survival it is about love. From there on he refers to the penguins actions like humans, for example in the mating section, he was talking about females fighting over a male, how they strut and stroll.  Sending a message across to the audience, that penguins are no different to human beings. 

Overall the advantages of Qualitative is that it provides a wide variety of detailed data on people’s opinions as there is less restriction, as it would mainly be open questions. While the disadvantage of it is that there would be a lot to analyse and all the information may not be relevant. Along it may be bias and it may lack background information about the person, such as they may be lying. 

Unit 3 Research Techniques-Quantitative

Quantitative is when information is measured by quantity which provided statistics.  Companies tend to use it to figure out their target audience as it provides a percentage on how popular it is for certain age groups. To gain information companies may produce close questions surveys, as it gives specific answers. To create data and figures, along they would be able to work out the percentages, such as within one hundred of people this amount of people prefers this product. Nevertheless it may also help the companies look better, such as if companies decide to publish this, the product may look better and give people false information on how exactly good the product is. As companies tends to not tell the buyers on how many people they have asked about the product or what specific questions they have asked, it will make the buyers assume it is good in all ways and the companies have asked a wide variety and quantity of people. Nevertheless quantitative information can also be gained through observing.

For example in Super-Size Me, where Morgan Spurlock used himself as a test subject for a month, testing out if junk food is bad for you. From a healthy fit body Morgan Spurlock found out that eating 3 Mc Donald’s per day for a month made his Cholesterol rise to 230 and from 1% body fat to 18% body. The information is presented the audience by using diagrams of Morgan Spurlock body, the before and after body. Along by side of the after body they used captions to show what has changed, giving people full on details on what has been affected, so even if they missed what the voice over said they would still know. The information is done well as people would understand it more as it was given in a very blunt way. Nevertheless it also teaches people on how much junk food can affect you within a month, as Morgan Spurlock gained 24.5 pound within the month. This means Morgan Spurlock had eaten 30 pound of sugar and 12 pound of fat per day. Which is an outrage, I personally think they decided to tell the audience all these affects, in hoping it would give people a scare, so people would reconsider on how much junk food they eat and should eat. Though there aim is not to get people to stop eating it or make people sue fast food companies for some easy money, it is just making people wary of it. But to show some mercy/niceness towards fast food companies, Morgan Spurlock introduced the Cheeseburger bill that came in March 2007 to the audience. The Cheeseburger bill protects fast food companies from people suing them, for it making people obese. As there can be many reasons and way for people to become obese.

However while in March Of The Penguins the quantitative information is gained by observing. As they are penguins it is not really possible for humans to talk to penguins and ask it questions. So to gain information they would have had to be patient and observe. For example in the beginning of the documentary Morgan Freeman voice over said that the penguins had to march for 20 days and 20 night. To find this information out they would of need to be there and witness it.  It is useful information as the documentary is about it and information which most people do not know. It creates questions for the audience, such as how do they do it and why. It leads the audience to carry on watching, as it teaches them more facts that may shock them or things they never thought off. The information was shown by real footage of penguins being graceful, such as using long/close up shot when the penguin come up from the water. Along shots of the penguins lining up to be ready to do the march, the information was told over voice over of Morgan Freeman.

Another example would be that when the egg is given to the male to protect. The male penguins survives for 125 days without food or anything, by then it would be 80 degree below zero while the wind is strong as 100 mile per hour. While that time it allows the females to go back to the sea to get food for herself and the chick. The information tells the audience that the father endures the harsh weather while protecting the chick/egg. This information is told by voice over and actions, using real footage from the mother passing the egg to the father to footage of the northern light above the penguins. When the male penguins gather up tight together to keep warm, there you see a layer of snow covering them up along an old penguin died from the cold. Along a cross cut scene where the audience see the females travelling back to the sea and in the sea getting food. It is useful information as it shows that the male penguins go through a harder time than the females and how amazing they can survive through all that. In a way it shows male penguins in a whole new way for some people. Also for other people who would like to witness this they would know when and how long the penguins would be there. Such as if they would like to do further more research on them.  Nevertheless the documentary is simply about penguins reproducing and how the journey is, in a factual detailed way.

Overall the advantage of quantitative is that it provides statics, figures and data. As it provides detailed information, which would be extremely helpful for people when they want to know about certain sections in something, so they would know what to target. While the disadvantage of quantitative is that it does not provide a percentage. Along it is restricted information, such as in a questionnaire it would mainly be close questions. So people would be limited in their views. 

Thriller assignment Codes and Convention

The film Children Of Men is about the human race going extinct in 2027, as the female race has become infertile. The world is dying as each country is facing problems such as terrorism or the riots and immigration has become a crime (this was told in the scene where Theo was on the train heading to Jasper's house, there was a close up shot of the TV screen showing countries in crisis). However the plot is that Kee, a young pregnant woman, is the last person on earth to have a child. She is on a journey to a sanctuary at sea to the Human Project. Where scientists will use Kee's baby to save the humankind from going extinct, the baby is the only hope.

Children Of Men is a close mystery, where the audience have limited information about what is going on. Alfonso Cuaron filmed Children Of Men in the style where the audience follows Theo in his journey. Moreover the film is made personal to Theo as they have used a variety of shots such as panning, where the audience can see old photos and newspapers. Along Kee said to Theo she knows about his child Dylan that died from the flu. From there the audience would know that Theo would understand what kee is going through and how much the baby means to her from personal experience. Which turns Kee child as the McGuffin within the story, as Baby Diego was the last person to be born and he was born in 2009, 18 years ago.  His death affected everyone as his death was on the news and everyone was crying, it shows how much his age value to everyone as the may see him as a remaining hope to humanity. So the existent of Kee child is strongly valuable and it makes the child like god. Nevertheless in the film most people have not seen a baby in years, forgetting how beautiful it is, so when they saw Kee baby everyone was touched, giving them hope and a nostalgic feeling. For example when Kee and Theo leave the building, everyone stopped the shooting and the running; everyone just stopped whatever they were doing. That scene was in slow motion, exaggerating the feel of hope, making it dramatic so the audience can see how much the baby appearance affect the humankind. Nevertheless within the film they made the product “Quietus” appear few times, even has its own scene (When Theo in Jasper house, on the sofa leg on the table. Theo was out of focus and Quietus was on the right hand corner in full focus). Quietus is a suicidal kit that was advertised, as in 2027 most people was depressed or there no more meaning to live on. So Quietus comes in to their life, as they can use it as an easy way out. It was seen again in a touching moment where Jasper uses Quietus on his wife and dog, where he knew clearly he would die when Luke the antagonist trespassed into his house in searching for Theo and Kee.  

It is an interesting story as the twist and turn is it creates Theatre of the mind for the audience, for example the human project does not sound very convincing, seems like a government organization idea which may cause bad things to happen. Along whether there is hope for the human kind as at the end Kee thought they were too late but at the very last second of the film the ship came and the humankind was able to have children’s once again. Though in the story some characters played mind trick on Kee the protagonist, she is protected by a group of people who want to use her for something else. They decided to keep Kee pregnancy as a secret to the world by creating fear for Kee during that group meeting especially that fact that they are all immigrants. Yet near the end where her baby was public, she was treated like a god where her nationality did not matter. However she does not know who to trust within the story except Theo the unaware Hero. He got involved in protecting Kee by Julian his former lover (who worked as a Donor within the story), by giving him a sum of money in which he needed. Though when Julian died he generally has no reason to continue in helping Kee as he was only told to get her a pass, yet he continue to help Kee to the end which lead him to sacrifice his own life. However when Theo and Kee was in Bexhill the helper Marichka, they did not understand her nor does she really understand them yet she helped them through their remaining journey to the sea. It is quite interesting how she manage to communicate with them that Syd the false hero is actually bad considering how they cannot really understand each other.         

To make the world seem grim in 2027 they filmed the film in mainly dull colours, such as grey. To give out an atmosphere that the world is dying and there not much happiness is going around, even the costumes was mainly dull colours. To add on to the atmosphere the dialogue is also mainly spoken negatively, such as when Jasper asked Theo what he did for his birthday and he replied with he did nothing and felt like crap like usually. Also to capture the audience emotion, they made countless scene where Theo see tons of immigrant locked in cages, treated badly, calling for mercy in their native language or get shot, a wide range of age, no mercy being shown. Showing how brutal the world has become, especially the scene where Theo sat next to an old lady on the bus to Bexhill. She try to communicate with him asking for food and the old man behind did the same, from there it shows that these people was not treated well and is generally left to die. It is a depressing moment as they do not even care for the elderly no more. In away it is not much different to the way the Nazi once treated the Jews in concentration camp.  Nevertheless the music chosen for this film fits well with the scenes and moments as they choose orchestral and choir/ church music, which made the scene even more emotional. I believe church music/choir music was chosen to make it seem religious in away. Such as the fact that Jesus died on the cross as sacrifice in hoping god will forgive the humankind, showing mercy and a shine of hope. So when the sorrowful music played it would make it the audience think in Theo place that think what are people doing to the world and why, along reminding them. Such as when Kee and Theo walked out of the building with the baby and everyone froze, seeing the baby made people once again remember and on the line rethink what they are doing along feeling nostalgic. Showing that there is hope for the human kind, as the music works both ways. Such as in the end where the ship came for Kee the music play again, representing there is hope, there is future and that god is watching. As the film ended in a black out but you can hear children’s laughter, from there everybody will know that the world is in peace again and there was hope. This creates a sigh of relief and happiness at the end.    

 However Alfonso Cuaron builds up suspense in an unexpected way, which catches the audience full attention. For example the scene where Julian and Theo was playing about in the car with the ping pong ball, it made the scene emotional and happy as they were having fun. Until the sudden appearance of a car on fire came down from the hill and a rage of people rushing out from the forest, in attempt to kill them but they only managed to kill Julian. It was a sudden rushing scene, where the audience had little time to adjust to it. Making it a tense moment, where it left the audience shocked and speechless. Within the film they mainly used long shots and close up along point of view shot. I personally think they used these shots the most to show the audience the surrounding of the area on how beaten down it is and how Theo see things. Giving the audience an understanding of the current situation he is in, putting the audience in his shoes.  Such as the scene where Theo in Bexhill where he and Kee got separated, he chases after her to the building that was under attack, that scene was the longest long shot scene. That part gave out a strong feeling of life or death situation, making the audience on the edge of their seat, thinking if Theo would live to the end. Along showing to the audience in detail of how run down the area is and what people have to live through. In a way that feeling they produced is quite similar to the film Shutter Island where Teddy goes into a ward where it was dark and he had to lit up matchsticks to see. It builds up tension on whether he would die or live through it and what may happen next.

According to the BBFC Children Of Men is categorised as a 15. As generation moves on swearing and bloody violence becomes nothing, though back in the olden days the swearing would have been a huge deal. Adding bloody violence to it may have made the film to be rated as an 18 back then. Though since it is a 15 I personally think that the film is suitable for young 15 where they just turned 15. I personally think it is aimed around older 15 year olds and older, as they would be more mature around that period, where they would understand the outside world more. Such as the scene where the audience can actually see Kee giving birth, quite a graphic scene. This scene is allowed as by the age of 15 kids will have learnt about sex education and should be mature enough about it. Such as nudity, they saw Kee breast when she shows Theo that she is pregnant. It is ok as it does not reveal more than her breast or else it would be counted at pornography. Also by the age of 15 kids will be mature enough to think wisely as they will be at the stage where they choose what they want to do in life, whether going to college and what course to do or going to work.

Moreover the scene where Theo uses a brick to smash Syd face when trying to escape shows imitable behaviour. I personally think it is an 18 rated scene even if there is only one scene. As anyone can accomplish that and kids around age 15 is the year where they learn a lot about the adult world, so this scene may cause them to copy and do it themselves. Even though there is a lot of violence within this film, the audience don’t exactly see all of it, the audience will know from the situation they see and the stuff they hear such as the cry and scream.  Though the main thing the audience sees the most, are people military people with guns or normal citizens/immigrants with guns, fighting for survival (abit like the riots that happen in 2011). Which is not too bad as most action films are like that and people with common sense knows that it is not easy to gain a gun. 

 As for discrimination within this film there not much to say, as this film is about illegal immigrant living in the UK. So it does make this film is discriminating but the audience know the reason why therefore it is not offending along it is also based on the future. Therefore most people would not believe it or take it seriously.  Moreover this film would most likely to be broadcast around 9pm onwards, where most young children would be asleep. Due to the violence and storyline, it is not suitable for them to watch at all as it may scare children's and it may make them cry or affect them deeply.  

Overall Children Of Men is an dystopia thriller, where the future is only filled with negativity. Such as how they have famous artist piece of art there, for example Banksy gay police one and the statue of David. This was seen where Theo meet his cousin. It shows that the countries icon does not matter anymore to people, like it is worthless and has no meaning. Alfonso Cuaron must have got copyright for it as it is real life art and for year’s people try to protect it and preserve it for the next generation. It is quite sad how the made the art end up in Theo cousin house and slightly broken.  However the target audience would be people who generally like disaster movies and realistic films. This film came out in 2006 and back in 2005 BBC news broadcasted a news about females in the UK is turning infertile, where one out of seven women will have problems but it can rise up to one in three women. Which happens the film was also set in the UK and females became more infertile as the years goes on, Alfonso Cuaron may have based the film through this information. Which makes the film realistic and people may believe it. Such as from personal experience, I have a friend who really wants children’s so when she watched this film she burst out in tears and got ridiculously scared. Therefore I do not really recommend this film to people who want children’s a lot. As it may create fear for them and may lead them to do something stupid. 

For more information about the BBC infertility article- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4112450.stm

The BBFC information- http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/15-2/

Notes-X File

The  Duane Barry episode, part 1. 


-Dark, dull lighting in the beginning
-Tracking/Panning about-creates question for the audience
-Dramatic music
-Intro introduce main characters identity and what may be involved in this episode-work as a tease like
-Protagonist hand is cuffed when seeing the doctor
                    -Theatre of the mind is created
-Protagonist tells that something is about to happen
-Question on existent of aliens
-Protagonist known as crazy
-Mind tricks
-Sudden stop of electricity and water
              -Goes dark for a while
              -Sudden bright white light
-Builds up fear
             -Protagonist shoots aimlessly
-Use voice over
-Problem is bigger than expected
          -Abit like resident evil
-Attempt to save injured person-succeed

                  -Shows ways to get in

-Flashbacks

-Mention of time stop

-Creating suspense by pushing questions further

-Mystery of aliens

-Rely on communication through head piece

             -Only way to gain information

-Tense/sensitive moment of teeth

-Found new identity of protagonist-unknown to the audience yet

                -Creates theatre of the mind

-Loads of quick bright light and black scene

          -not suitable for epileptic people

-Leads the audience to guess what's true and false

-Government involved

       -Make audience not sure what's going on

-Moment where audience think protagonist is going to kill or snap into mentality

-History of protagonist

-Facts about protagonist body is all true

              -Shocks audience

              -Make audience think they know what is going on

-Caption to show location

-piece of metal is a Barcode chip

              -Creates code

              -Unknown to what it do or how it works

-Alien returns but unclear of their look

                -Unfocused camera shot

-Danger to the female investigator

-Empty moment

-Close up shot of protagonist face going crazy

-Close up of phone

            -Showing dramatic moment when female investigator shouts for help

-Left episode as a cliff hanger

         -End dramatically to catch the audience

                           -Make them wanting more, like a tease

Notes-Spooks

One of the many episode we watched in class...

-Recap of the storyline
         -To catch viewers
         -Like a trailer
-Start the episode blurry, with a man on a mission
-Voice over
-Panning, Zooming, tracking
-Point of view, birds eyes view, over shoulder
-Suspense music, cheesy music
       -Building up and volume rises
-Quick action scene
     -Cant see clearly what is going on
     -But audience can figure it out
     -Audience get a walk passer view
-Build up tension
-Cheesy sound effects-"Whoosh" sound when spotting for people scene (Point of View)
-Cross cut
-Not much colour-gritty and grey colour within the film
-Information given through by news report
-Communication
-Location
      -Busy place
      -Easy to blend in
-Taking newspaper to disguise
-Animation/technology used
-Intimidation
-Politic matter
-Blond girl gains after effects still after being in a terrorist bombing area.
-Flashbacks 

Notes-Misery

Things I noticed from the BEGINNING to MIDDLE ish.

-Font-type writer
         -refers to the fact that's their a writer involved.
-Typing sound in the beginning-refers to the fact normal day and life.
-Paul Sheldon smoking, drinks wine-enjoying daily life,
-Snow on car- weather issue (clue)
-Close up shot
-Point of view
-Mixture of shots in the beginning to show credits.
-Quick scene of Paul holding his bag (clue).
-Unfocused screen shot to represent weather-leading to accident.
-Annachronic
-Sound effects to make it sound dramatic and eerie.
-Illusion scene
-Get rescued, build up to make it seem harmless, nothing special.
-Film creator produce false image of Annie-how she nice yet creepy.
-Gruesome leg scene
-Cross cut
-A person think Paul gone missing-question created (clue and Theatre of the mind)
-Tense scene of investigator thinking-creates fear.
-Slowly gaining more information about Annie each time the audience see her.
                                       -Crazy Paul Sheldon fan
                                       -Cross necklace-religious?
                                       -Nurse
                                       -Swearing issue, mental?
-Other civilian think Paul Sheldon missing is nothing, does not acknowledge he gone missing.
-Audience gaining more information about Paul Sheldon.
-Tense music often-creates suspense. 
-Paul Sheldon does not know what is going on or day or time- no idea about outside world.
-Scene of Broken tree-Clue for investigator.
-Odd humour
      -investigator get stuck in snow
      -what investigator wife says
-Tense moment-Investigator was really close to accident scene but missed it.
                        -Annie drives pass investigator.
-Annie avoids Paul questions
                    -Does not allow him to contact people.
-Other shots used
     -Panning
     -Tracking
     -Birds eyes view
     -worms eyes view
-Annie mentalnist snaps
          -Paul tense up as he is scared and he may die.
          -Dramatic music volume goes up.
-Fearful moment when door opens and no Annie, Paul tense up.
              -Build up tension for the pig to come in, to put Paul and audience at ease.
-Paul starts to be creeped out.
-Flashback of history of her life.
-Odd woman
      -Wavering a Urine bottle.
-Atmoshpheretic music
-Annie is a crazy fan
         -Way too into the story of the character.
-Annie tells Paul the truth, fear shows up.
           -Psychological
-Pick right moment to do stuff
             -at night, when its dark and vision is reduced.
-Tense/suspenseful moment
            -Paul trying to get out bed
            -Broken legs
-Paul trying to get to the door to escape, dramatic moment keeping audience on the edge of their seats.
-Realise he been locked in
-Investigator gives up
-black fade in with a point of view start
              -Paul wakes up on the floor, looking up at Annie
              -Slient moment of her staring, Paul gets scared as she may do something crazy.
              -makes audience think what happens next
-Annie makes him burn the book as she does not like the ending
          -Forcful, no choice.
-Paul has no control of himself
-She starts to spread oil on his bed, fearful moment.
-Annie hears helicopter, suspect house how the car she owns is not the one that is registed.
                       -Something up
-Close up of the pills
-Annie daily life-enjoying TV and food on the bed.
-Paul hiding the pills (Clue)
-Wheel chair comes into the scene, where things begins.
-Annie expects Paul to write
-Paul tells Annie the paper smudges (clue)
-Annie freaks out when she gets told its the wrong paper
              -Te silent moment
-The volume changes
-Mid shot of the hair clip
           -Paul trys to get rid of Annie
-Extreme close up of Paul trying to unlock the door
-Paul has not been around the house, does not know any rooms
-Dramatic music starts when he starts to move-trying to escape.
-He stops when he realise doors are locked.
-Phone is dead (clue)
-Close up of the pengiun-creates Theatre of the mind.
              -Paul knocks it over. Makes audience panic/on edge of their seats.
-Main room is filled with photos of him
                    -Audience and Paul knows she is not something simple.
-Shocking moment of storage of pills and other medical equipments
-Cross cut, building tension
        -Annie on the way home
        -Paul exploring the house, finding a way to escape.
-Challenges is created for the protagonist
-All doors are locked, Paul see no hope in escape.
-Paul hears Annie coming home- Panic
-Panic for the protagonist and the audience
-Annie has no idea, she thinks everything is still the same and fine.
-Annie dropping paper and using the wrong key to create more time for the protagonist.
-Paul want his pills to make her leave the room
-The awkward moment, Annie staring at him creating suspense.
               -The silent creates question
-Annie expects Paul to write FOR her
                -Like her lover
-Locked in for life
-Car been found, people think Paul is dead
              -Investigator find marks on car
                           -believes Paul is not dead but been rescued.
-Close up shot of Paul dealing with the pills powder (clue)
-Making it personal
       -Paul write whats on his mind
-Annie does not like the story and make Paul redo it
         -Dominate
         -Wants story to be based on her
-Annie mental issue comes up when she thinks of her pass  or when something she doesnt like happens.
-Paul satisfield her by bringing story character back alive.
-Paul ask Annie to have dinner with him to get on her good side
           -Something been planned
-Another long shot of the penguin
          -Showing that Annie did not notice
-Paul gets Annie to drink
             -Something has been planned
-Paul get rid of Annie so he can drug her drink with the pills powder
            -Plan fails
-Cheerie music is being played to show time gone by
-Paul lift typewriter
      -Showing recovery and gaining strength
-Change of dramatic weather-Thunder
                -Annie goes depressed, she confess she loves Paul
-Annie slowly losing her mind
          -Also notice Paul is recovering
-Annie has a gun
       -eyes widen and walks out of the house with it
-Dramaic music speeds up when Paul gets a hold of a knife
-Investigator picks up clue by reading Paul Sheldon books
-Paul goes into the other room and finds Annie memory scrap book
         -Finds out about her and her crazy pass
-Paul finds out she killes babies
-Paul goes into shockness as he does not know what he got himself into.

Notes Characters Archetypes

Protagonist-Good person
                 -They are not aware on who is on their side.

Characters archetypes-
       Both Protagonist and Antagonist can be False Hero

Handicapped Protagonist-Paul Sheldon 
                                                  -Broken legs
                                      -Bone Collector
                                      -Rear Window

You can get Physical handicapped and Mental handicapped.


Antagonist- Bad Person

Antagonist types-Manipulative
                         -False Villain
                         -False Hero
                         -Government/Agencies-Conspiracy thriller
                         -Companies-Conglomerates/Organisation  
                         -Criminal-Murderers
                                       -Kidnappers
                                       -Assassins
                          -Absent Villain
                          -Supernatural
                          -The Protagonist is the Antagonist

Handicapped-Deformed
                     -Mental
      
Picaresque Hero-Use wits and charms to escape problems.

Unaware Hero-Mistaken identity
                      -Becomes involved in the problem by mistake.

Unreliable Narrator-Tells the story in their point of view, bias.

Dramatic Irony-Where the viewers knows more than the characters.

                             
 

Notes Types of thrillers

Within thrillers their is few types of them such as (there is more!):

-Psychological thriller
-Paranoid/Conspiracy thrillers
-Supernatural thrillers
-Crime thrillers
-Political thrillers




Psychological Thrillers-
In a psychological thriller you would expect confusion for the protagonist and the audience itself, as the story plays with people minds. It does not require blood and gore to create a thrill.

Example: Memento-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/
              Inception-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/



Paranoid/Conspiracy Thrillers-
Within this type of thriller the protagonist tend to be a lack of experience investigator or a journalist, who starts off finding out about something small but somehow it leads to something big and unexpected. Which builds up to the fact that their life is in risk.

Example: The Adjustment Bureau-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1385826/
               Enemy Of The Sate-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120660/


Supernatural Thrillers-
Supernatural thriller refers to the fact that the protagonist has special powers and is in conflict with another person who does not have any special ability. Occasionally the protagonist will be in a tough situation where there is no easy way out, which creates alot of tension. Though supernatural thrillers can also show other ability or creatures such as aliens, where people can choose for themselves if they exist or not or if it can actually happen.

Example: Dorian Gray -http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1235124/
              What Lies Beneath - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161081/

Crime Thrillers-
The role of the protagonist tends to be a criminal, focusing on their life and how the problem end up happening. Crime thriller tends to have alot of suspense scene and thrill as it makes people wonder who is actually good and bad. Along the crime that is happening, tends to have other smaller crimes linked to it, like a chain of event.

Example: Se7en-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114369/
              Reservoir Dogs-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105236/
           
Political Thriller-
Political thrillers is the kind that has one large problem but have many small ones within it, like a network. Showing from politic struggle to how they succeed and what methods they used to gain it. Which leads to the protagonist to be the person who is there to stop some political matter or make some political matter happen.

Example:The Manchurians Candidate (2004 film)-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0368008/
              The Ghost-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139328/

The power of Google

We all love Google. We use it all the time when we need to find something out or go to certain websites. As it literally has everything we need on it,like many people say"I don't know what I'll do without Google!". It is a true fact in some ways hahaha....
 Though its funny how there is so many other search engine like Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Bing etc, yet the first one people think of is Google so they say "Google it!".

Google keeps on improving, as they now have their own social place like Facebook. However the thing I like most about Google (part from searching) is that when you go on the main page. As they tend to have different designs on the word Google, relating it with history. Its interesting as it's different and it also teaches people some facts at the same time. That is for sure "you learn something new everyday"! The designs are quite smart, must be hard to think of it though as they have to relate it to the history AND using it to spell out Google. I remember awhile ago they had a robot one where people can actually play with it.


This print screen one (sorry for my many tabs!) is celebrating the 100 birthday of  Charles Addams.

 The creator of The Addams Family *click* *click*. A famous cartoon that everyone watched back in the old days, it is a childhood memory for many people.
Also I love the fact that in this Google Doodle they have all the main characters of The Addams Family and at the same time it can spell out the word Google.
To be quite honest I personally doubt that many people will know this if it wasn't for Google...

Ahhhh...at the end it probably is just me that find these little doodles interesting and amusing along inspiring....
But overall we should be thankful to Google for their efforts and their greatness. Without Google most of us will be lost or we know less stuff. Soo... Thank You Google! =D

The Phantom Of The Opera-Theatre version Review

I went to see The Phantom Of The Opera in west end. It was amazing!!!!
Though sadly from what i heard before, they changed the chandelier, to a smaller one due to health and safety reason. The chandelier still crash down to the stage but done slowly, so it does not hit the audience nor scare them. So the thrill there is abit gone, but hey if you don't know it wouldnt hurt.

Comparing to the film, the film is not as good. As in the theatre you can feel the Phantom love for Christine Daae quite deeply. Especially when he sings "All I Ask Of  You", where the phantom is standing on a gargoyle at the top and then slowly coming down, that scene was filled with so much emotion. It was a complete unexpected scene! As no one would of expect the gargoyle on the top of the stage to come down. Also in the theatre you can feel the fear Christine Daae have towards the Phantom. While in the film, Christine did not show much fear towards the Phantom but seem interest in him like she partly in love with him. But within the whole story, in the beginning Christine believes that the Phantom is the angle of music sent by her father until the moment he starts to control her. That's when it hit her that he is not the angle of music sent by her father, he simply is just another man but not known to life as he is always hidden, away from people.

If  you watch the film first then theatre, you may not like the person who played the character as much. As Emmy Rossum and Gerard Butler shall ever be known to you as the Phantom and Christine. It will also be the same if you watched theatre first then film, just different people, as they portray the character in that way.

Though what i notice within the film is that it tells the audience about the Phantom life more, while in theatre it does not, instead it brings out the evil side of the Phantom more. Which is quite interesting and some of the songs are in different order or does not exist in one another. For example when Christine got told to play the main character for the last show, in theatre they sung that part and Christine snapped back to Carlotta. While in the film they didn't and Carlotta did not have much role. Along Christine seemed like she had no back bone, she didn't defend herself at all, it was always people defending her while in theatre Christine seemed more brave.


Well I can be here forever comparing the two together, so I shall stop here and let you decide for yourself.
Though in 2011 it was The Phantom Of the Opera 25 anniversary. The show was performed in The Royal Albert Hall. In my opinion it was filmed badly and made the show not as good, but it seemed like if you were there to watch it, the show would of been spectacular!
The ending of the show was eyes opening, where Andrew Lloyd Webber came out and thanked people. He invited 4 of the previous Phantoms to sing with Sarah Brightman. Amazing scene, seeing all those phantoms and how they all portrayed the Phantom quite differently.

I even wrote a review on it, on the Amazon.co.uk. Amazon even listed my review as most critical review, which was interesting and quite pleasing. =D