Winters Bone

Winter’s Bone

We start with a shot of Dolly washing her face in the sink and her brother and sister playing on the sofa. We then get a shot of Dolly cooking some food by cutting up some potatoes and putting them in the pan. The room that they are in is very cluttered and dimly lit, The only source of light is coming out of the window which has a red curtain over it. All of the things that Dolly is doing are something that we would expect a mother to do. This isn’t the case because Dolly is doing it. From the start of the film we can clearly see that Dolly will be doing all of the work and is the main mother and or father figure to her brother and sister. Dolly then opens the fridge and pulls out a tub of food that is for the dog . She then opens it and sniffs inside it and says “Better than nothing”. This is food for the dog, later on in the film we find out that they haven't fed their horse for 4 days. There is a clear pattern of lack of food. Even the food that Dolly is putting on is very plain and sparse, only potatoes. Dollys sister then takes the dog food outside and the dog is chained to a pole outside their house. The dogs tail is wagging and the dog looks to be very excited to be eating, this may be the case with the horse. This may be the dogs only source of food for a while. The dog's rib cage is clearly visible which is another indicator that the dog doesn’t get fed as often as he should.

One of the next shots is through a mirror showing Dolly brushing her mum’s hair. The mirror has a large hairline crack in the middle of it. The line is cutting through Dolly. I think that this represents the split personality that she has. She aspires to be a part of the army and be a mother and or father figure for her brother and sister. In this shot we see that Dolly is brushing her mom's hair. This backs up my point that she wants to be a mother and a caring figure because she is doing something that a mother would do to their child. We then get a mid shot of her brother walking in with a dog in his hands. Dolly asks “who’s this?” Her brother responds with “peanut butter” Dolly says back “where did you find peanut butter?” The brother responds with “in the woods” Dolly strokes it in his hands. This shot is the same shot that we left off at. It clearly looks like Dolly is the image of a mother figure, she is taller than everyone else in the room and doing things motherly while her Mum is in the room. We then get a tracking shot of Dolly with her brother and her sister walking down a path. Dolly is helping her sister spell house. Her sister is struggling and Dolly is helped her. Her sister at this age should know how to spell. This shows that she isn’t educated and that it’s hard to teach when Dolly has lots of things to do as well as teach her brother and sister.

Followed Evaluation

Followed Evaluation

Our plan for the film had changed lots over the course of 3 weeks. We originally wanted the film to have a boy and a girl coming home from a party with the boy acting more manly and wanting to show off to the girl. This changed to two girls coming home from the party and seeing a doll everywhere they go and that they can’t escape it. We have a cyclical story so that it makes the viewer feel more engaged and into the film. It was ambitious because we didn’t know if the story would feel too repeated in a way that the audience would get bored and not enjoy it. We stuck with the cyclical storyline but we mixed up different shot types so that the beginning and the end didn’t feel the exact same. We made sure that the main part of the setting was visible so that the audience knew that the story was cyclical. The reason that we changes from a boy and a girl was because the two actors couldn't make the shoot so we had to improvise and change up to story. The editing was very fun to do because it was all of our first times doing it and I feel like we used most of the features that it offered us. Using a range of music and effects to make the film work as we intended.

Followed story board

Followed horror story synopsis and ideas

Followed

Synopsis:  We start how we end with the girl or guy on the floor and we zoom out from this shot out of the girls eyes. What triggers this is the guy snapping his fingers in the girls face to get her to come back after drifting away. (Still in thought in names for the characters) Two people walking from a party a Guy and a Girl the Girl a little drunk and the Guy slightly sober. The Guy wanting to impress parents in not bing too drunk. They are talking too each other and the talks are full of giggles and laughs. They are walking to get home and the Guy want to get home quickly to impress his parents that he is on time and not drunk. They end up walking the fastest route home. Along the way home they see a doll around them at different parts of town. They don't take much notice especially the girl since she is drunk. They go through a tunnel to go home and they encounter the doll again. (Still in thought of how they encounter and or deal with the situation. We end ho we start making the film a cyclic narraitve 

Cinematic ideas:

Birds eye view shot
Using a drone for establishing shots
Voice over narrative for some back story at the start of the sequence
Only voice over at start not a lot of exposition
Low angle shot to show the object
Low key lighting
No names established
Heels for the girl to add noise and suspense
Boy: Jeans, polo and trainers

Pan's Labyrinth essay

Pan’s Labyrinth

With close reference to two scenes from ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ explore how cinematography and mise-en-scene is used to create meaning.

The first shot is of Ofilia looking into the book that tells her the next quest for her to do. The image in the book is of the pale man with the steps of how to get into where he lives and what to do. The steps are shown through a circle in his left arm, right arm and his legs. The entire image of the pale man looks like a mouth and eyes. This is a recurring motif of the eyes and open mouths, it is to represent how what you see in this world is sometimes best to not be told. In the little image on the bottom we see the girl (Ofilia) go to the middle key hole out of the three. This is something that I will talk about later because she keeps on breaking rules and keeps on not obeying the right commands. There are lots of props used in the film that are related to fantasy. The big opening book, an hourglass, chalk drawings leading into a secret area. These are all typical things used in fantasy films, but Del Toro uses this specific mise-en-scene to trick us into thinking that this will be a normal fantasy film and tricks us into feeling like we know what is going to happen next. “Let the fairies guide you.” This is something that Ofelia doesn’t do which is what consequently is another reason for her death at the end of the film her not obeying simple rules and being reckless. “Don’t eat or drink anything during your stay” Everything that the book is telling her not to do she does. This is all leading up to the scene with the pale man and we have been told strict rules on what to do and not do. If this were a normal fairy tale film then she would just follow these rules and do the quest. “Come back before the last grain of sand falls” This backs up my point that these specific rules that have been set out for her to follow have been disobeyed by her during this scene. Del Toro has used the stereotypes of fairy tale movies and completely flipped them and making the main character someone who doesn’t follow rules.

Once the door has been opened we get music which is very dark and mysterious. Traditionally this would be the opposite in a normal film but Del Toro has decided to do this to make the viewer feel unsettled and unsure about what Ofelia is going up against. We get an establishing shot of the narrow hallway and the main colour in this particular scene is red. Red is linked to blood in this scene because the Pale man is shown to have eaten many little children. Once Ofelia enters the room we get a medium shot of her looking down the table with this amazing looking feast which she has been warned about. The fire behind the pale man resembles danger because how how dangerous he is towards children since he eats them. This set up of the table has been done on purpose because the pale man in this instance is supposed to resemble The Capitan. We get the same shot of The Captain in the same seat as the pale man and Ofelia may see the Captain in the pale man from this imagery. We then get a tracking shot of Ofelia walking alongside of the table while the camera is going through the table of food. This is trying to make the viewer want to try the food too because the food is dangerous and Del Toro wants us to realise that not everything that you see that looks nice may not be nice. The main colour in the food on the table is red. Red in this case is shown to be used for a sign of danger to emphasise that the food is bad and you shouldn’t go near it. Once we get the the end of the tracking shot we are met with the pale man. This is a metaphor for if you touch this food this is what you will be faced with. We get voice overs of baby’s crying and as Ofelia looks up we see ancient images of the pale man eating them. We have had only negative and dangerous signs towards the pale man so Ofelia should do as she is told to avoid him. We then get a pull focus on the pile of shoes on the floor to her looking at the floor. The pile of shoes on the floor is shown to be a representation of the holocaust. Millions of people died in the holocaust and this is reflecting upon this but also giving it the link to the pale man and that he has eaten lots of people.

Ofelia then opens the cage to her fairies and lets them go to look around. They go to the key holes like in the image that she saw in the book and the book shows that the girl goes to the middle key hold and the fairies all fly to it pointing at it saying to put the key here. She pulls out the key from her pocket and we hear a sound when she pulls it out and it's the sound of a sword being pulled out of a case. This shows that a key has a lot of power and it very dangerous because you may not know what you unlock and it may be dangerous. We then get Ofelia raise her hand up and put the key in the middle hole. We then get a close up of Ofelia’s face and she says “no, this other one” she is breaking the rule to one listen to the fairies and also do as the book says by opening the left door. She then opens up the hatch and finds a dagger inside it she then takes it out and pears over her shoulder to look over at the pale man. She walks over the the table and looks at the table of food. A harp plays in the background which implies that she is being convinced to eat something or take something. When we hear a harp we think of something divine and nice. This reflects Ofelia’s mood and that she wants to eat regardless of the consequences. The fairies all fly over the her knowingly that she wants to eat the food on the table. The food through mise-en-scene is shown to be divine and elegant so we can understand why Ofelia wants to eat it. She is disobeying yet another rule by eating the food on the table which she was warned about. Also another rule was broken in the fact that she is told to follow the fairies orders and follow what they say. The fairies warn her not to eat and yet she does anyway.

She continues to eat the food on the table even when the pale man is getting up to come for her. She doesn’t care at this point and is not regarding her actions in the fact that she could get hurt of killed by not following the orders. The pale man has his eyes on his hands which is a metaphor for what you see is in your hands and what you say about what you see is in your hands. All three of the fairies go after the pale man trying to buy some time for Ofelia to escape yet the fairies could be risking their lives in doing so. If the fairies are willing to risk their own lives to save Ofelia then she must be important even though she did break all of the rules that have been put in place for her own safety. The pale man eats two fairies and gives Ofelia time to run away. The colour white on the pale man really shows all of the red that has been stained on him from everything that he has eaten and the colour white really shows all of the reds that are on him. Ofelia runs down the hallway getting to the way out. We get a shot from the real world where the hourglass is and we see that the door shuts between the real world and the fantasy world. This a metaphor for that Ofelia’s fate has been set that she will forever be kept in the dream world and left from the real world. Ofelia climbs the chair that she has brought with her and stands on it to make a hatch above her to get out. She is working side to side on top of this chair and this is to represent that she is on the edge in both real world and dreamworld. She then makes a hole and climbs up it to escape the pale man and only just makes it out. Another rule has been broken here too because she is told to come back before the hourglass runs out and she escapes after. She has broken all of the rules that have been put in place for her and this has secured her fate in the dreamworld and the real world.   

Place Beyond The Pines Analysis

Place Beyond The Pines Analysis Notes:

Barren, low key lighting, washed out, juxtaposition because a fayer is supposed to be happy and loud but here it looks empty and abandoned. equal height shots of two people to show that they have the same amount of power or that they are equal. Ryan Gosling's character is lighting a cigarette in front of his boss this implies that he is relaxed and doesn’t really care about what people think of him. Ryan Gosling’s body is covered in tattoos, could show that he doesn’t care about his appearance and that he has given up on himself. Holy Bible is on his hand. Maybe a Christian On his cheek he has a knife with blood dripping down the blade. This could show his dark and evil side. “I’m quitting” “You can’t quit” “I just did” This shows that he is rebellious. Gosling’s white bike has lots of black marker drawings on it, this is almost resembling himself through his bike. Gosling also has a red jacket which may show he bad or violent He also doesn’t wear a helmet while riding his bike, this shows that he is rebellious and doesn’t really care about his safety. We get a shot of him looking around as he parks in front of a house as if he feels like he is being watched. We then get a over the shoulder shot of Gosling and we can clearly see that his shirt is inside out. This shows that he doesn’t have any spare clothes and that he hasn’t got much money to spend on clothing. Maybe clothing isn’t his maiy priority. We see to start off this segment a desolate and deserted fairground. This is a clear representation of juxtaposition. How fairgrounds should be happy and lively but in this scenario it shows the opposite. These two contrasting things really emphasise the stale atmosphere that the film is in. We get a shot reverse shot between Ryan Gosling and his boss. Ryan is talking to him about him leaving his job. The first shot is of his boss. We are at eye level and it is a close of of his head, neck and shoulders. “Just pay me for half the week alright?” Gosling says this to him and we then cut to Gosling as he finishes his line. He is lighting a cigarette inside his bosses office. This shows that he is rebellious and or careless. Both of the shots between the two people are the same distance from each other and the same height. This shows that these two are at the same status. We then cut to him on a motor bike biking towards the camera while the camera is slightly higher than it. (on the porch of the house) The bike is white and full of black stickers. He has lots of tattoos on his body. His bike could represent himself as he has marked his body like he has marked his bike. Gosling also has a red coloured jacket, this shows that he may have a violent side to him red representing blood. Also to back up this point there is a tattoo on his cheek of a knife with blood dripping down it. This could also have another meaning which I’ll go on to later. While Gosling is riding his bike he doesn’t wear a helmet. This shows that he doesn’t care for his safety and doesn’t follow the laws. While Gosling pulls up to the side of the house he looks around the houses around him implying that he may have to watch over his shoulder all the time. Maybe he has messed with the wrong people and owes them. This also shows that he is not a safe man and is dangerous. The lighting is low high key. It’s not high key or low key it’s in the middle with normal daylight. While Ryan goes up the stairs to go to the house we get a over the shoulder shot of Gosling and we can clearly see that his shirt is inside out. This shows that he doesn’t have many clothes and not particularly cares about his appearance and that clothing isn’t his main priority. He must have money because he has lots of tattoos. Still with the camera being over Goslings shoulder we hear a woman’s voice in a different language. Gosling knocks with his 2 middle fingers. This shows that he is different and not like everyone else. The woman opens the door and Ryan is talking to her. Gosling is taking to her and she seems to want him to leave and not come to her house. Gosling wants to see a child and play with him. “Maybe I could sit on the porch with him?” He gives other things that he could do with the kid. “Maybe we could go to the park?” This shows that Gosling's character isn’t just someone who is disturbed and unreliable he actually has some sort of sane side to him. She then says”now's not a good time, we’re going to church” Gosling's character then looks up and sees her husband come out the door we get a close up of Gosling's face. And we get a shot reverse shot of his face and the husbands face. They have a convocation and the shot is at the same eye level to show that they are equal. Goslings facial expression changes from looking some what happy to how he was with his boss. The man says to Gosling “what are you doing?” He responds with”what did you say?” We then cut to the husbands face as he walks out of the door. We then cut to the same close up of Gosling but not he has a cigarette in his mouth. His emotion has drastically changed back to rock bottom like he was at the start of the clip. Gosling has the cigarette hanging out of his mouth as he watched him walk into the car with his family. The family all of into the car and we cut to a shot from Goslings perspective of them leaving the house. We then cut to inside the church we get a shot of down the aisle and in the distance we see the baby getting baptised. The lighting is high key to show that this place is a place of peace and holiness. The priest gives his speech over this entire segment. We then cut to a shot of Ryan Gosling coming through the door. The shot is from inside the Church the shot is a mid shot. We see him slowly walk to some of benches away from everyone else. The Church is full of family members on the top left side but Gosling decides to sit on the top right side away from everyone else. This shows that Gosling's character is an outside to this family and doesn’t really belong with everyone else. We get s close up of Ryan sitting down looking at the christening. We then cut to a shot of the baby being christened. We get a close up of the water being poured over the baby. We then cut to Gosling and he is starting to tear up while watching. There is also a shot of the window out of focus. There is very high key lighting from outside and it's blurry. This could show that Gosling had some light to his life but it's starting to blur away. Gosling looks away to cry as if he doesn’t want to let anyone see that he is crying. This shows that Gosling is ashamed that he is crying or the face that he didn’t realise that he had it in him. Once the priest’s say is over we then get a shot of Gosling's face as a guitar string gets played. This could show that Ryan Gosling has completely broke and changed. The tattoo on his cheek could now represent that face that he is crying. The dagger and the blood looks like a tear. This could mean that he has two sides a more caring side and a more violent side. Harry Harling

Crimson Peak Analysis

Crimson Peak Analysis

At first we have a shot pulling out from the main character, she seems to be groaning ad holding her stomach. During this shot we can hear the dietetic sound of the dog barking at something. The shot cuts to her turning around to the other side of the bed and saying “dog?” She places her hand where the dog would be and it isn’t there. The dog continues to bark and she gets up to investigate the noise. The blue tint of the screen tells the audience that it is cold and gloomy, since this is what we represent the colour blue with. She then gets up and we get a medium distance shot from her feet up towards her face. The camera hasn’t tilted it has stayed stationary but moved up. We can clearly see the dog running into the frame going towards her but her face shows that she has something else on her mind and that the dog is no longer the main focus of attention. She then walks forward to a door which creaks open. This is one of the conventions of a horror movie. We get a low angle shot showing that the dog runs through the door out of our sight. We get a tracking shot of her walking down the corridor towards the creaking door. Throughout this entire scene the lighting is low key. As she enters the room the camera pans up to her level and we see her back as we follow her. The camera tracks right as she looks over a balcony. There seems to be leaves falling through the ceiling. This shows that there is a hole in the roof and maybe that there is no roof. This backs up my point that the colour blue is used to show that it is cold. This is mise-en-scene and the significance of the setting that she is in. She says “Thomas?” over the balcony and gets no response. She then looks right and the camera tracks her, keeping the same distance as before. She turns a corner and hears a door shut and her dog squeak. We get a shot of a narrow hallway with green wall paper. Green is a colour that is represented as someone being ill. This could be why she is hearing all of these sounds maybe she is ill? This could reinforce the fact that she is ill and all of the things that are happening are illusions. As she walks toward the door that was slammed shut she can hear scratching on the other side as if it was her dog. The camera then slowly zooms in on her hand as she goes to grab the door knob. As she turns it the camera zooms in closer at what is inside the door keeping its original position. As she opens the door the frame shot changes to her close up of her face and we hear the dog barking next to her at the start of the hallway. We then cut to the dog on the floor barking at her. The next shot is a reaction shot from a close up to a medium shot of the girl. Her reaction is shocked and scared we can tell this because of her facial expression. Then we get a zombie that we can see that slams the door shut in front of her. We then get a crescendo in the music and it becomes thinker. This music is non-dietetic because the actors can not hear it the music slowly gets louder to the point where she opens the door and the music stops. We then get a shot of inside the cabinet and there is nothing in genre apart from some shelves and some jars. The camera is placed on on the shelf to show that what is on the self has some importance to the scene. We then get a over the shoulder shot of her grabbing a jar from the shelf. She grabs out wax cylinders, these would be used further in the plot to develop the story. We then get a long shot of the hall she is in from the dog's perspective with the camera slowly tracking in while she shuts the cabinet shut. We then get a close up of her face as she shuts the cabinet door, the camera then pans left and focuses on the floor, a zombie then pulls itself out of the floor while screaming and crawling. Once the zombie has come out of the floor we then get a tracking shot of the zombie crawling toward the girl. The shot is a over the shoulder shot of the zombie crawling towards the girl. The zombie is crawling towards the girl yet she still sprints away from it like it’s going to catch up to her. This backs up my point that the girl is ill or potentially dreaming, in dreams everything is over exaggerated so this could be why she is sprinting away from it. Another reason why she might be dreaming or hallucinating is because the zombie looks to be see through and ghost like. This could be the director saying to the audience that it’s all a dream. The green wall paper also backs up my point. We then cut to a shot of the dog squealing and running away. The shot is on a low angle looking up so that we can see the girl run away too. We then cut to a tracking shot of her and the dog getting into the elevator, this then shuts by itself and sends them down to the bottom floor of the house. We get still shots from other floors watching them going down past the camera. There are also shots from inside the elevator so that we know what it feels like to be in their situation. The camera is pulling back at the bottom of the room when the lift reaches the bottom, this shows the size of the room, this is called a establishing shot. (to show where the scene will be taking place) The gate then opens up and we get a low angle shot of the dog running towards the camera. We then get a close up to the girl as she pulls a lever down to turn on some power. We then get a shot from the opposite angle (where the switch is) of the lights coming on. We then cut to a close up of a large container with the initials ‘E.S.’ She rubs her hand on it after we know what it says. We then get a medium shot of her kneeling down to look at the container. We no know how big the container is compared to her. She places down the candles so she can see the padlock. We then get a shot reverse shot of her looking at the padlock. We then get a close up of the padlock and it says ‘Enola’ enola backwards is alone backwards. This will help toward the plot later on in the story. We get a reaction shot of her saying it, she looks confused and as if she has heard of it before.