Trombone Shot Experiment

In this lesson, we set up a camera on a dolly to experiment with trombone shots.

First, we set up the track. This consisted of slotting the track together so that the camera could move backwards and forwards easily. 

Next, we put the dolly on the track and placed the tripod on the dolly. 

We then set up the camera on the tripod and began filming. 

After the equipment was set up, we created a background of people so that the effect of the shot would be easier to see. We put a subject a few feet in front of the background and moved the dolly backwards. When we were ready, we moved the dolly towards the subject and zoomed out. We repeated the process when we were moving the dolly backwards again, but this time we zoomed in. This created the Trombone Shot. 

The Trombone Shot could be used to create fear, confusion and an illusion of distance.

Here is a clip from the movie 'Jaws'. An example of a Trombone Shot is at 2:00. 

Here is a clip, from my class, where we used the Trombone Shot.

Black Swan

The thriller Black Swan starts with a black fade in. It reveals a piece of black oil pastel being slowly and gently dragged across the page. This matches the tempo of the music - slow and quiet piano playing. This is non diegetic sound.

The lighting is dim, the edges of the screen are faded black, leaving a clear centre of the shot. Shadows fall on the paper from the hand and the pastel, obvious to the audience. This continues through out the sequence.

The camera is close to the action, creating a close up of where the pastel touches the paper. This is giving an intimate feel to the opening. This too, continues through out the sequence.

The music builds slightly and in consequence, the oil pastel moves faster, superimposing over the older strokes of pastel. They elegantly curve around the credits.

The music dies down and so does the image. It fades out into black. A second later, the pastel appears again. It's broken and abandoned, lying in it's mess. This is a clue to the storyline. It shows how the character's life becomes broken and her mental state slowly deteriorates.

The music's pace picks up and the pastel is being used again. This time, the pastel is moving faster, more franticly. The lines become thicker and the hand starts to scribble on the paper, not caring for the careful lines that were earlier created.

The camera breifly pans over the black scribble left over from the pastel. The pastels are being broken and abandoned for new pastels, which are also being broken. The pastel marks are building up on the paper and causing the paper to get more and more covered in black.

The music is more menacing now, deeper notes are being used.

One of the final shots is of the opening is where the camera tilts upwards to finally give the audience a glimpse of what was being created. It's just black. The depth of feild shifts its focus from shallow to deep. This is to show that there is nothing of the paper left. 

When the title fades in, there is a shatter of what sounds like glass. As soon as the shatter is heard, the chorus starts to play. This is the most well known part of the song 'Swan Lake' and the fact that the title says 'Black Swan' shoots fear and excitement through the audience as they know that the Black Swan has bad connotations. 

Titles

Seven is the title of a thriller film. It has texture to make it look worn and faded. Kerning has been used to make the gap between E and 7 larger. This is so that it looks broken and untidy. The V has been replaced with 7 and the positioning of the title creates negative space.

I think that the font 'Telegraphem' is close to the font that is used for Seven. They both are typewriter style fonts that have texture.

This thriller is called The Final Destination. Leading has been used to make the 'The' and 'Final Destination' closer together. Tracking has been used to make the letters of 'The' further apart to make the title seem epic. The size of 'The' is smaller than 'Final Destination' so that the audience's attention is drawn to 'Final Destination'. The font of the words 'Final Destination' is serif and this creates a serious feel to the film.

I think that the font 'Timeless' matches the title well. They are both quite plain and serif.

The film Manhunt has a textured, sans-serif font for the title. The colour of the dark red works well against the faded white. It makes the title bold and eye-catching. The letters have had kerning used on them to create space between them, getting further away as the word comes to an end. The letters being spaced out hint at the storyline, possibly a chase or loss is involved in the plot. 

The font 'Bebas Neue' closely matches the Manhunt title font. The only thing that does not match the Manhunt font is that it is not textured. 

Irreversible's font is plain, sans-serif but many of the letters have been flipped. This makes the title hard to read and makes the audience confused because it is unusual. The colour is buff but flashes red. This creates shock. The tracking of the letters makes them very close together and the title is placed in the centre of the screen. 

 This font is very similar to the previous font. It's sans-serif and has the same thickness to the letters. If the letters were flipped, the resemblance would be greater.

Hostage has a sans-serif, textured, red title font. It has a slight 3D effect and two lines that frame the text. It stands out against the brown and black background to create a sense of depth within the shot. The title is, again, in the centre of the screen. This draws the audiences attention straight to the title. 

Most of the letters in this font are closely matched to the letters in Hostage. The texture and the lines above and below are not present in the typeface 'Ash'.

Continuity Exercise

This video is my work for the continuity exercise. We had to film a scene that included a character walking into a room, sit down on a chair and have a short conversation with another character.

I think that the camera angles worked well. They were positioned so that they didn't break the 180 degree rule and that the character was in the right place in each shot. The length of the clips are also good, they weren't too long and they weren't too short.

The audio could have been louder and there could have been more shots out in the hallway. I would improve these points next time.

The Woman in Black

 

In the first scene the audience see a close-up of a tea pot being poured, nothing comes out of it. This gives the immediate impression that it is a children's tea set being played with. This brings an innocent and normal feel to the start of the film and relaxes the audience. 

The music is quiet but slightly disturbing. It creates a faint feel of fear to the scene, it is there to suggest that something bad is going to happen.

Next, there is a shot of the children playing with the toys. This introduces the audience to the setting and the characters. The lighting in this scene seems to be natural sunlight and re-enforces the feeling of calm. This scene is quite pleasant.

The music begins to build and it starts to sound like a music box, still innocent but a little bit creepy.

 

Suddenly the atmosphere changes. The long shot of the girls reveals more of the room. The room is darker nearer the audience's perspective and is lighter further away. This creates the feeling of danger. The children stop playing and turn to look slightly to the right of the camera. An uneasy atmosphere emerges because they almost break the 4th wall.

The music stops briefly, before the children turn. This creates a divide between the innocence and the horror. 

The children now move towards the window, destroying toys as they go. This shows that their innocence has gone and their actions are unexpected. The close up of the doll's head being crushed gives a hint to what is about to happen. This is juxtaposition from playing with the toys to crushing them.

The music now includes the sound of church bells. This has connotations of death, funerals and sadness.

The children move unnaturally, synchronized. The room is now quite dark and this mirrors the atmosphere. It also shows the audience that they should be scared.  

The bells have stopped and now you can hear a choir that sounds deep and menacing. After the children have jumped, the music stops and you hear a scream of a mother.

The last shot is zoomed out slowly from the window. In the last few seconds, it reveals a glimpse of a silhouette of a woman in black. This woman is an enigma because the audience don't know who she is, what she's doing and if it was her who made the children jump.

Marnie

Marnie's title sequence displays actor's names, the title and the production company. The transitions are made to look like pages turning over and the background is made to look like a book. This is because the story 'Marnie' was first a novel written by Winston Graham.

Orchestral music is played over the title sequence. When the name of the actors and production company are on screen, the music becomes intense. When the title of the film is displayed, the music becomes romantic. This hints at the plot of the film by using the music to display characteristics.

The first scene of the film is a close-up shot of a yellow handbag. The bag stands out against the dull clothing and the dull train station. This is so that it draws the audiences' attention to the bag and creates an enigma. It makes them wonder who is carrying the bag and what is in the bag.

The camera slowly moves the focus away from the bag and reveals what else is going on in the scene. It introduces the character (a mysterious woman) and the setting.

The quiet scene of the woman and the bag suddenly cuts to a man saying "roles." This is juxtaposition because the scene changes dramatically. This new scene is indoors, the sound is sharp and loud and there is more variation in colour within the shot. The previous scene was outdoors, quiet and gray in colour.

The man starts his dialogue and within this he names a female employee who stole money from him. He repeats the name twice for emphasis to make sure the audience know the characters name.

While the man talks about the employee who stole the money, there is a cut away to a woman who rolls her eyes. This cut away is used so that you can see her opinion on the matter, you can tell that she is annoyed and bored. It also shows which other characters are in the room.

This scene highlights who the more important character is. The man in the gray suit is taller than the man in the black suit. He looks down on the smaller man and the smaller man looks up at the taller man. This clearly indicates that the man in gray is the more significant character in the film.

The last scene of the introduction begins when it cuts to the mysterious woman with the yellow bag. She walks down a hallway and into a hotel room. The audience still can't see her face but can see her actions. Next to her is the yellow bag, open and showing the contents, which contains a lot of money. The woman reveals her identity from a close-up of her ID card. It shows that she has the name of the employee who stole the money.

Definition of 'Thriller'

A thriller is a genre of film that typically uses excitement and suspense that triggers emotions in the viewer. This is a technique that is used to keep the audience interested and engaged. Sub genres of thrillers include horror, crime, si-fi, psychological and action.