Monday 25 January 2010

My Filmic Tastes

Last five films I've seen.

1. Daybreakers
2. Die Hard 4
3. The Proposal
4. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
5. 2012

The last film I paid to go and see at the cinema was Daybreakers.
My two favourite film genres are action/adventure and horror.

My all time top 5 favourite films are:

1. Jaws
2. Jurassic Park
3. The Great Escape
4. Misery
5. The Shawshank Redemption

I would probably have to say that my absolute favourite of all time was Jurassic Park probably due to the fact that I know almost the entire script of by heart, I love the original storyline and concept, and I much prefer the film to the book by far!
It stars some of my favourite actors, Sam Neill and Lord Attenborough, and think it was also one of the first good graphic dinosaur blockbusters made to date.
I think it also has a fantastic soundtrack and really sets the tone and mood of the film, and I think it is just generally a good fun, timeless classic!

So in this case I am going to do the opening scene of Jurassic Park for my presentation as there is so much detail in the opening scene and signifiers and aspects of theme, genre, representation, etc!

Friday 15 January 2010

My Sweded Film/ Narrative Theory

Sweding means to re-make something completely from scratch using anything available to you, the term comes from the 2008 comedy film  Be Kind Rewind starring Jack Black and Mos Def.

Possible films to Swede:


1. Jurassic Park
2. 28 Days Later
3. Shawshank Redempetion
4. Daybreakers
5. The Shining

I think Daybreakers could be quite a good film to swede as it is a good fun action/horror film and there are plenty of elements that we could make obvious or make fun of in a sweded version of it.


a. Costume- Just normal clothes, modern outfits. Possibly may need vampire teeth and make-up for pale skin pigment and even red coloured contact lenses but but this is not overly essential, especially not for a swede as we could poke fun at the aspects of it.

b. Location- First scene needs to start indoors by a desk then follow girl outside into open with trees in the background. The rest can be shot indoors with desks, tables and a few shots in the hallway.

c. Special Effects- Added in on i-movie, other than that I don't think there is anything else, other than soundtrack which is the song "Running Up That Hill" by Placebo, Kate Bush cover song.

d. Props- One prop being the bottle the man holds when he asks for more blood.

Brief Synopsis:

Our swede starts with a girl sitting at a desk looking the suicide note she has just written, she does not want to carry on being a vampire and never growing old so she decides to expose herself to the sunlight to kill herself. We follow her as she goes outside with a few shots flashing back to words on the note to gradually tell the story as she walks down the stairs. She stands outside and looks up to the sun and lets out a giant scream, we then go straight into the title sequence saying "Daybreakers".
We then do a few sweded scenes from the film, where the characters say why they like being vampires and that they are going to run out of blood as humans are dying out. We then have a sweded scene where a hungry vampire is standing holding up a sign saying "Starving Need Blood" and then he growls at a passer-by. Then we have two characters talking about the bonuses about being vampires, and then we go into the next scene where they are discussing a cure to being a vampire. Then we have a quick scene where a vampire bites a human being and infects her.
The final scene is where a vampire is asking for more blood in his drink and the woman refuses so he hits her and she falls to the ground. Then we go to the end credits.

Cast:
(In order of appearence)
Hannah: Kiera Benson
Shirley Shop Assistant: Megan Claydon
Audrey: Jess Owen
Vampire Tramp: Alex Jowett
Charles Bromley: Hamish Yewdall
Frankie Dalton: Peter Clark
Edward Dalton: George Scaife
Dracula: Ashley Caton
Alison Bromley: Lucy Smith

Script:
(Soundtrack- Running Up That Hill- Placebo [Kate Bush Cover])

Scene 1: [Hannah's Death]
(Sitting at desk crying, reading suicide note. Walks down stairs when she comes outside screams)
[Note reads: I can't stand this any longer... Living but never growing old!!! What are we blessed for...? I'm already dead!]

Scene 2: [Board Room]
Shirley: I like being a vampire
Jack: Immortality is the key
Audrey: Are you talking about the extinction of the human race?

Scene 3: [Alley way] (Tramp lunges and growls at Audrey as she walks past)
Vampire Tramp: *Growl*
Audrey: Oh my god!

Scene 4: [Bromley's office] (Bromley standing over Dalton)
Charles Bromley: So do you like being a vampire?
Frankie Dalton: I'm good at this, I was never very good at being human.

(Edward Dalton walks in)

Edward Dalton: I have a cure!
Charles Bromley: What's to cure?

Scene 5: [Allison's Cell]
Dracula: Join us or die...
Allison Bromley: Oh please...
(Screams as bitten and taken down the ground)

Scene 6: [Blood Cafe]
Dracula: Please may I have a little bit of blood in my sprite?
Shirley: No Sir you cannot.
Dracula: I really want some more blood woman!
Shirley: No!
Dracula: Well that really burns my cannoli!
(Hits her with bottle, she falls and yelps.)
Dracula: Very exciting day it was lovely.

  • I think that the first scene of the swede is quite serious, however we could have done with perhaps a better costume/props for her to look like a vampire, ie. pale skin, teeth, eyes.
  • It would also have been more effective if filmed at dawn to show the sun coming up rather than just using special effects added in.
  • Less shaky camera shots in parts and a much better close up of her face before she opens the door it looked too amateur and again the camera wobbled.
  • No background noise/sound when characters are speaking as it made it harder to hear their dialogue. Also when the vampire tramp lunges at Audrey we cannot hear her dialogue afterwards well at all due to the wind so this would maybe have to be re-recorded or dubbed, etc.
  • Also we would not have filmed this in the school if we wanted it look like the film itself. The first scene would have to be done in a country/remote location and the girl coming out of a country house. Also rather than the 6th form centre the other scenes should have been done in an office/board room looking set and the final scene at a bar or a counter set up.
  • Clearly we wouldn't have been able to use the copyrighted music either if we has taken this more seriously so there is another point we need to address.