PREP: TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD, DELICATESSEN

 PREP To prepare for tomorrow's practical work of filming an opening sequence, please watch the following two title sequences which are filmed in in a similar 'table top' style. 

• Delicatessen (dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 1991)
• To Kill A Mockingbird ( dir. Robert Mulligan,1962)

• what titles and credits appear on screen?
• how is the film's genre conveyed? 
• what use is made of sound?
• what hooks the audience and makes us want to carry on watching?

Delicatessen:

The credits appear in French on items relating to the subject for example music was on a record, the costumes were on a jacket and the director was on a camera. The title comes up when a man throws his hand up while he holds a knife cutting into a persons head and as he swings the knife down the title of the film appears onto the screen with a big bang noise and an effect making it look like the title has just fallen down from somewhere and had a rough landing.

The film genre seems to be horror and quite gruesome, we can tell by the way at the start the man has a knife and is stabbing someone in the head. The objects that the credits are shown on look very worn out and ruined which shows some sort of distress which can link to the subject of horror.  

At the end of the title scene there's a slight creek sound of something swinging on a chain, this sound effect is usually heard as a creepy sound which people are automatically alarmed by when they hear it and think there's something spine shivering about to happen. The non-diegetic music in the back sounds like clown music or music that doesn't bring people joy, when i hear this music it makes me think there's going to be some sort of jump scare or surprise of something scary is about to happen. 

The beginning of the movie is what hooks the audience. We see a scene where someone is potentially getting killed, but we don't actually see if he definitely gets killed, maybe he escapes? maybe the scene is made to look like the guy is about to kill someone but really he's swinging the knife at something else? This makes us want to keep watching and find out what really happens.

To kill a mocking bird: 

The language for the title and the credit is English. The title is shown when a young child is scribbling on the paper with a crayon, we see it slowly appear so we don't know what word will be next until the word appears. The credits are shown edited on the screen, but as the credits are shown we see different objects, things like a pencil, a clock, a pen, a marble rolling along a table. We don't only see objects but we also see the child drawing on a piece of paper again.

The film genre is conveyed as sort of horror but not in the same way as the other movie was. We hear a little girl singing in a weird way, they are drawing and the items look very old. As soon as we hear a high pitched hum which we dont like the noise of, we think the film is definitley got something to do with a young child with a horror side to it. 

At first we hear the sound of the child humming which shows us that there is a child involved in the movie. As the humming carries on a non-diegetic music fades into it, the effect of this is to add a bit more sound rather than just the humming sound for the whole time of the credits, this re attracts the watcher as there's a new sound added to it. 

The different change of scenery attracts the viewer to keep watching. We keep getting a change of the box full of objects and then the child drawing. We dont know what the link of these are and we wonder why we keep getting shown them. The viewer wants to find out what the link is and keeps watching as they are intreged to find out what happens to the child, and what the objects have to do with the movie. 

CUFFS

 

• As we watch the episode, notice how the different plot lines are woven together, how the editing links them and how the characters develop. The programme is much more than a series of police cases - although the excitement, tension and drama drives the narrative along. The audience also starts to empathise with the individual police officers and in some cases the people that they are dealing with.
• Who do we start to empathise with?

I start to feel sympathy for Jake when he starts to tell us about how he has been spit on by the lady who was on the streets going crazy, he also says that he had been felt up by someone, and bled on "I've been bled on, spat on and felt up". I also begun to feel sympathy for Ryan when we see how much stress he has on him, his son doesn't follow his rules because when he was driving around he drove passed his son with his friends when he was supposed to be at home studying, he got really angry at his son and shouted at him which could be really embarrassing for him because not only was Jake watching but His sons friends were also watching and they begun to laugh about it. We see that Ryan has to do everything in his family, he has to go to work, take care of the crimes while hes at work, then come home and cook dinner for everyone, this makes me feel how much stress he takes on in his everyday life and it makes me realise why he's such a serious person. I also feel sorry for Ryan when he gets attacked by Benson, he would have been terrified inside, but he didn't show it as much as I thought someone would. 

THE AVENGERS: SOUND

PREP Watch the first 10 minutes (after the title sequence is over) of The Avengers on Clickview. Analyse how sound is used in the extract to create meaning. You can use any part of the opening scenes - both the opening scene at the seaside at Little Bazeley or the scene in Emma Peel's flat

• first identify an example - use terminology such as diegetic sound, non-diegetic sound, dialogue.
• then give the example - " Little Bazeley is constructed as a seaside village through realistic sound codes such as..."
• "One example of how sound is used is when Steed makes conversation with Emma Peel..."
• then explain what meaning is created - "In the exchange of dialogue between the fisherman and the undercover agent who arrives from the sea they talk about...... which creates suspicion and comedy because....."
• "Steed's dialogue reveals his accent and shows that he is..." "What Steed says to Emma Peel suggests that he feels in charge because...." /  "Emma's comment about the coffee and cream show that..." / "Emma's throwaway comment about having just finished a scientific article shows that..."

The connection between Emma peel and steed is presented through the relaxing non-diegetic Jazz music at the beginning of the scene. The music shows us the calm vibes of the atmosphere and the lack of tension between Emma and steed, it also shows us they like each other because if they didn’t the music would feel more uptight and dramatic. When Emma peel and steed start fencing the non-diegetic music starts to become faster pace, which shows us they are using more energy and builds up the feeling of suspense. 

In the opening scene the diegetic sound of the waves shows us that steed is located at a beach. There's also the non-diegetic sound of the music which is played as steed comes out of the sea in a black plastic bag, the music comes across as very smooth and relaxed, this shows that steed coming out of the plastic bag doesnt seem so weird as we would think it should be, the fisherman also just watches him normally as steed comes up and starts to ask him where he can find little basely. Steeds dialogue lets us hear his accent, and reveals the reason why steed is here. What steed said to the fisherman suggests he wants to go to little bazeley, and that he has never been there before as he asks the fisherman the directions to get to little bazeley.