Lately this has been my all time favourite advert, it's just so funny, I love the lyrics especially, and just the whole idea of the snowman flying threw the sky. Everytime it comes on I make everyone be quiet just so I can watch it and hear the song! I love it. It sounds silly but I think it's worked really well advertising the drink, I know a lot of people who have bought an Irn Bru just because of this advert..."I'm falling through the air... I wonder where i'm going to land... He nicked my irn brew and let go of my hand..." It's Brilliant!

Seen as it's Christmas Eve me and my family have pretty much spent the day watching films and eating lots of food! Its tradition for us every year to watch The Grinch, definitely one of my favourite films.

It's directed by Ron Howard, produced by Howard and Brian Grazer, and starring Jim Carrey, it is the first Dr. Seuss story made into a feature film. DreamWorks Pictures was originally planning to co-produce the film, but dropped out at the last minute. The Grinch is the highest-grossing Christmas film of all-time with $345,141,403 worldwide.


The film is based on the book by the famous Dr. Seuss. Inside a snowflake exists the magical land of Whoville. In Whoville, live the Who's, an almost mutated sort of munchkin like people. All the Who's love Christmas, yet just outside of their beloved Whoville lives the Grinch. The Grinch is a nasty creature that hates Christmas, and plots to steal it away from the Whos which he equally abhors. Yet a small child, Cindy Lou Who, decides to try befriend the Grinch.


It really is a beautiful film, funny and entertaining. I especially love Jim Carrey who plays the Grinch, he is one of my favourite actors, I just find him hilarious. I think the film in general really highlights the importance of Christmas, as it sends out a lovely message to everyone that Christmas is not about presents and lights and all the materialistic things, but its about love with friends and family and being grateful for the things that we do have. Definitely adds to the Christmas spirit.

Seen as it's coming up to Christmas there has been lots of Christmas films being shown on TV and one I saw recently saw was 'Elf'. It's a 2003 comedy film directed by Jon Favreau, written by David Berenbaum and starring Will Ferrell, James Caan, and Zooey Deschanel. It was released in the United States on November 7, 2003 and grossed over $220,400,000 worldwide.

The story is about...
After inadvertently wreaking havoc on the elf community due to his ungainly size, a man raised as an elf at the North Pole is sent to the U.S. in search of his true identity. It's a funny, bright, cheerful Christmas film that definitely captures the Christmas spirit. Me and my family find our selves watching it every year, we love it.

I recently watched Toy Story 3. I have just three words to say...I LOVED IT!



The film speaks for itself, its funny (spanish buzz), adorable (the little girl Molly who takes care of Andy's toys), scary (the monkey which freaked me out!) and sad at times especially the ending.I think that although it is an animated film it still appeals to a wide range of people however it is likey that it is aimed at a younger audience of both male and female. It ended the three part series of Toy Story perfectly and I am so glad that it met the standard of the first two Toy Story films. It was brilliant!

I recently went to the cinema and watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, a 2010/2011 two-part epic fantasy film directed by David Yates, written by Steve Kloves and based on the novel of the same name by J. K. Rowling. The film is produced by Rowling along with David Heyman and David Barron. The two parts form the seventh and final instalment in the Harry Potter film series, with the story following Harry Potter on a quest to find and destroy Lord Voldemort's secret to immortality – the Horcruxes. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe in his final performance as Harry Potter, alongside Rupert Grint and Emma Watson as Harry's best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The film also features Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman.

I continue to be impressed with the maturing changes in the story, characters and look of the films. My hope is that the last in the series will bring the battle between Harry and Voldemort that fans have been waiting nearly a decade to see. If the tone stays as dark as the last few films and the directing stays as interesting in the film to come, then I’ll be plenty entertained regardless. I really loved all the enchanted looking locations they shot at, it really helped to capture that sense of adventure and magic. Also they had some amazing special effects and very clever ideas, for example when all the characters changed into Harry Potter yet all remained in the scene at the same time. There were however a couple of things that I thought perhaps slightly ruined the film, for example Ron's hallucination of Harry kissing Hermione. The fact that they were naked and were sprayed silver seemed to take away that childlike innocence the film has always in the past portrayed. Another thing I didn't like was when the little cheery creature of Dobby was killed, it was very sad and I think that it wasn't particularly needed, it seemed like they just wanted to rid of his character and therefore killed him off. I think it's a real shame, he was my favourite character.

Other than that however i did really enjoy the film and am looking forward to seeing the very last Harry Potter film.

Close proximity between the characters showing a close relationship between them, there seems to be a lot of chemistry between with the two characters.

I really loved this camera shot, it managed to capture the importance of the water yet still show the expression of his face. It was a clever, symbolic way of showing that Harry and the water are connected.

I thought this seen was so funny and really cleverly edited. It definitely stands as one of my favourite scenes.

Again amazing editing, it really captured that sense of enchantment as the little creatures looked very realistic.

Cannot wait to see what becomes of the two main characters in the next and last release of the film!

On Thursday our media class went on a trip to the BFI in order to learn some new skills and take away some new, exciting ideas.

In the first session we looked at a variety of different film openings including 'Catch Me if You Can' directed by Steven Spielberg. We analysed it in detail and we came to realise the importance of the actual credits (the text). Throughout this opening we were shown large number of different names including the actors Leonardo Dicaprio, Tom Hanks etc. However we know that this title sequence is of a very high standard, something not quite within our reach, as it uses mostly graphics and we do not have the appropriate software to do so. It is very sophisticated and cleverly made. It almost told us the story and introduced the characters to us despite it merely being the opening. It is a very inspirational film to learn from.

We also watched the opening of Dawn Of The Dead which was very gruesome and jumpy fitting with the genre really well. Johnny Cash's song worked really effectively contrasting against all of the other, quite disturbing sounds effects, again adding to the genre of horror. This was another rather inspirational film opening.

Another film opening we were shown was Napoleon Dynamite's opening which showed us that something simple like using food can be just as effective as using dialogue and actors just as long as it fits with the genre. I especially like it's quirky style, obviously directed at a younger perhaps teenage audience.

In the next session we listened to some professionals from the industry, such as Daniel Kleinman creator of the Bond title sequences. It was really interesting to hear how he found inspiration for some very creative ideas. Kleinman said he really liked the idea of the patterns usually found on the back of cards, and so he decided to use this idea of unusual patterns throughout the opening sequence of the James Bond movie Casino Royale. I thought his use of symbols from the cards was done really cleverly and i really enjoyed watching it. He told us that he never creates anything without reading the script through first in order to gain a full understanding of the film. He not only incorporated the idea of the casino but he also used some of the main themes, typical of a James Bond movie, such as the guns, the fights, the women etc. This helped remind us the importance of knowing what the rest of the film would be about if we were to make that too.

Simon Frame was also an inspiration to us. He gave us an insight into the tricks that can be used when editing, for example the importance of sound, and how a film is built up using lots of different layers that have been recorded separately. This was useful to us as it is something we will be able to do in our film opening. He told us that filming the back of someone's head in a shot whilst their talking is a great idea because it allows the editor to add in a voice over to change the dialogue if need be.

In the afternoon session we were given top tips for making our film openings on no budget. We were shown examples of good and bad student work to illustrate some of the things to aim for and some of the pitfalls to avoid.

Here is a particularly successful piece..



Here are some picture I took on our our journey to and from the BFI..

On our way home..

Heather thought I was filming so she waved..

Mrs Routledge took us here by accident..

Throughout our journey a few of us filmed on the flip camera including me and Lana..

Everyone was very tired..

Trying to warm my face whilst waiting for the train in the snow..

Overall the trip to the BFI was not only a good day out but it was also really helpful, providing us all with some real inspiration!

Over the last few lessons we've been discussing how we can improve our film opening, suggesting ideas on what we will need to re film. We listened to some suggestions from the rest of the class, as Mark Remey believes 'listening' is one of the main ingredients we need in order to create a successful piece of work. He also says that A grades are virtually unachievable without 'organisation' and 'creativity', which I think our group is slowly achieving. Our day of filming was planned very carefully in order to maintain continuity, however there are still some things that we will need to do again despite our efforts. We really tried to be creative all coming up with some nice ideas like for example Valentina's idea of putting the camera in the fridge and my idea of throwing something over the camera to create a black out for a credit or title. Remey says "If I have to watch one more hooded psychopath chasing a victim around college corridors I am going to go mad", which is why we decided to do something a bit different and slightly more challenging.

Here is a video taken on the flip cam showing you our day of filming and our thought process behind certain ideas..

Here is what we've been working on in the last couple of lessons, as well as continuing with editing our film. Unfortunately the actual footage from the Sony camera got deleted which we were all really gutted about, however luckily we still had some footage taken on the flip camera and we managed to put together the clips in order to make a short film. We experimented with effects on imovie, such as using freeze frames, reversing the clips, speeding up and slowing down the clips and also we had a go at playing with the brightness and contrast of the clips, which we did right at the end for the credits.

Here's our second draft.



We spent Monday's lesson piecing together the rest of our film opening. Now that we have most of the shots put together we can start to look at things in more detail like audio and the credits. We are most likely going to have to shoot some more footage perhaps using a snorricam, which will be a good effect to use when I get out of bed, showing that I am still half asleep. As a group we discussed this idea, we would really like to try it, however we are worried about continuity, getting my hair and makeup the same, which will be difficult. Also we have to think about how we would make the snorricam, which we are hoping to do as a class. If I think of any idea's I'll post them on here.

A SnorriCam (also chestcam, bodymount camera, bodycam or bodymount) is a camera device used in film making that is rigged to the body of the actor, facing the actor directly, so when he walks, he does not appear to move, but everything around him does. A SnorriCam presents a dynamic point of view from the actor's perspective, providing an unusual sense of vertigo for the viewer.



Here are some pictures to help us think of ways to build one, although we wont be able to make anything quite as technical.

This one (above) looks quite strange however it is something more along the lines of what we are capable of making.

Friday's Lesson

In this lesson we went to the CLC centre where we learnt how to use the imovie software. Most of what we were shown we already knew like selecting clips and adding in credits. However there where some new tools which we didn't know about that we might like to use in our film opening.

We continued editing our film here is what we have done so far, however it is no where near finished yet.



There is still lots of work to be done. Eventually almost all of the clips will be muted with recorded sounds placed over the top, (like with the alarm clock which we've already done) this will cut out any background noise like the wind. Already our film is over 2 minutes long and this is not including the other filming we have done. We will have to trim a lot of the clips down, like for example the wardrobe shot, which is at the moment quite long. I really like how the music ended at the moment where I walk out of the house, the door closing behind me. This was not planned however we will probably keep this idea as it worked really nicely. We will also have to perhaps re film the very first shot of the alarm clock because the camera seems to be shaky. This is most likely down to the fact that we could not connect the camera to the tripod, due to leaving the attachment clip on the bus. This shouldn't be very difficult though, so we aren't at all worried. 

Monday's Lesson

In this lesson we began piecing together all the different shots we took while filming. We're all starting to get the hang of using imovie now, which is helpful as were able to work a lot quicker. There were still however a few things we were unsure about, for example how to create a freeze frame. Me and Charlotte decided to take a look on YouTube in order to find a tutorial showing us how to do it.


Here is the video we used to help us..

In today's lesson we watched the film Se7en, a crime, drama, mystery  and thriller, directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Kevin Walker. The film stars Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt and Kevin Spacey.

I thought the film was very cleverly written and I really enjoyed watching it despite the fact that I get scared really easily. As a class we decided that we thought it was much better that the film didn't show much violence or gore, for example at the end it doesn't show the woman's head in the box. There have been debates as to whether this is a good thing or not, however we seemed to have more respect for the film because of this. We felt that there was no need for it, it seemed to have much more effect by keeping us, as viewers, in suspense. We discussed how people's interests in a particular genre always changes. This year it seems that people are more into comedies rather than thriller's or horror's which seemed to be more popular last year.

Watching the film seemed to be inspiration for us despite our genre being completely different. I found myself really looking at the camera angles and different shots. I particularly liked the scene where the officers eventually find where the killer lives and they see him with his groceries at the end of the corridor. The long shot of him down the corridor was really effective as when he pulls out the gun and shoots, it looks as though he is shooting at us, it certainly made me jump!

I also really liked the use of non-diegetic sound- the music. It created a very intense atmosphere especially when the music builds up, you automatically expect something scary or jumpy to happen.

Overall I really liked watching the film, particularly because it starred two of my favourite actors, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. Although the ending was really sad and quite disturbing I still thought it was a clever twist, it wasn't one of those annoying endings that has no conclusion or an anticlimax, it was written really well. I feel as though it will help me and my group with creating our film opening especially with the editing process.

Here are some pictures from the film, some more gory than others.

  

I thought that it was quite symbolic having the barrier in front of both the killers face and also sometimes in front of Brad Pitt's. However the barrier was never shown on Morgan Freeman's face. Perhaps this was done to show that the killer and brad pit will have more of a connection further on the film, which they did.