Analysis Of Film (Shaw shank Redemption)

Analysis Of Shaw shank Redemption

This entry was due to be published on 10/02/14 but dues to other work it came late. 

The film as titled in the header, Shaw Shank Redemption, is a fantastic film in my opinion. it has fantastic reviews and loved by critics... go watch it. 

For this week I will be taking on the task of uncovering the techniques and processes, along with cinematography and its key technologies. 

Firstly, editing and techniques for the film. Shawshank has a very high professional grade of editing, a large majority of the shots go into one another almost perfectly, it gives a great feel of how a prison film should be, this has been far from the amateur films that can be seen on YouTube( you know the ones made by 12 year-olds).

Our second point to be covered is the Cinematography, lighting and Mise-en-scéne. So the lighting has a dark and gloomy feel for the purpose of a jail flick. This had really helped to portray across mood so that the audience could really feel immersed into the film. When talking about the mise-en-scene for shawshank (which is what comes way before the camera get turned on)it set a fatastic realistic mood that you could really feel. The third point really crosses over with the second. so now composition, placement of props and actors in each and every scene. helped to bring the film to where it is today, in the top 10 movies of all time. 

As for the key technologies used this wasn't much as the film was made and produced in the early 1990's so the technologies for cg effects were only just in early concepts for film companies. so they were still being produced on a physical film. 

     

 

Brand Identity!

Brand Identity

Brand identification or identity, is used in the film and tv industry for the purpose of boosting the sales of a product or a company. 

This can be shown in scenes of Iron Man where you see Tony Stark, on some Apple macs, this is a kind of subliminal marketing for the people that watch the movie and could give them some sort of incentive to go out and buy the product. This of course comes at a cost as it is a popular form of advertising. This can also be known as product placement.  

Building and managing a brand does play a large part in marketing as I have mentioned. It helps to strengthen and manage the perception of your or a businesses perception. 

You can see many examples of a popular brand in most of the film or shows that you may have watched but you most likely haven't noticed. 

  

The Evolution of Visual Effects and motion graphics in TV and film.

Since the dawn of the use of card stock and painting on glass motion graphics have been around, this would let the graphic artist create the title, credits and any other text or images that would of had to been superimposed onto the film, other methods of this were the uses of a rostrum camera, but unfortunately this device wasn't introduced until mid the 1920s. this method of creating he graphics was held for a very long time almost fifty years in fact, so the Computer graphics were being implemented, although this may not have been for film and television just yet, but this was soon to come in many later years experiments with modeling in computer terms this meant that someone would sit at a desk and start creating a model to craft and shape, the most successful example of this was done in the mid 70s where a Mr Ed Catmull, had managed to craft his very own hand into the machine which of course at the time was completely texture less but it had shading and this was astounding for the time it was created this meant that the product of visual effects had much potential to come. ILM a company created by the guys at Apple Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, had really enjoyed the idea of the motion graphics in film and had taken it much further. This had made a revolution in the film industry as by the late 80s more and more company's were using the concept of motion graphics and visual effects to add more variety and magic to films and television shows. By the late 1990s films had been totally edited by digital means this also carried the motion graphics as the intro, titles and credits could all be done in the editing software.    

The rules of film and such part two

For a the movie or film you will producing you will want at least a few good shot angles and creative camera work, it will work wonders on your film it's like the cherry on the cake and everyone likes cake right...so!


Good framing and correct use of imaginative camera work will be great for not only you but more importantly your audience this will tie those binds and help you connect with your viewers and the story there is a lot of terrible camera work that just put a film to shame and makes it nearly unbearable to watch but if you apply simple methods such as rule of thirds which is a technique where you would imagine a grid of 9 boxes as the example shows to the left. 

Along with important techniques like the rule of thirds, professional shots such as the close up and over the shoulder shots (ots).These can give a film a really good feel, another important point that is vital to when filming a scene focusing on an actor/actresses eyes make a really nice effect as the eyes are the windows to the soul and this helps us to show and portray emotion and feeling into the scene this is best done with a close up shot. 

What is a really bad example is if you have a scene where you have your actor and there are things that the camera may focus on such as  a candle or a wine glass. You must zoom before you focus to gain the longest focal length which also has the smallest depth of field. 



For conditions such as outside weather which is likely to be very bright you can use a wide aperture if you are using a "neutral-density filter" which are essentially colour-neutral meaning that its just grey which does a great deal at reducing the brightness of the light.

for the foreground it can add illusion and depth to a shot also texture. Foreground object can be anything from an ornament to a living thing these are known as a dingle it is imperative that the foreground object is out of focus because if the main purpose of the scene is out of focus it just defeats the object of the whole shot. 

The rules of film and such part one

Written in stone.


Where film-making is concerned there are no set guidelines or tracks for creating and producing a film or movie, this would make the world of cinema vary from boring to dull. All the time new techniques are brought to the field of cinema such as new techniques, conventions and beautiful was of tweaking and correcting the methods of pre- production which includes the editing and the motion graphics that are placed into the production before it sent off to be approved and shipped out.

So for the rest of this blog entry I will be talking about the rules to follow if you so wish as they could help you on your way to being the next Michael Bay. 


Firstly you are going to need to be almost an expert on story telling and portraying emotion and feel to really pull your audience in for most of this part could be done by either writing an epic script for an amazing movie to shoot or hire/buy a script writer or script. Without a workable screenplay you are stuck up a creek without a paddle (no reference intended). Even your movie has got astonishing camerawork and smooth and creative editing and the best lighting money can buy but your story if a complete pile of garbage no one will be interested an example of this would be 1997 Batman & Robin, just a complete disaster this particular story was very mundane and cringe worthy, But your master piece doesn't have to be.

I was lucky enough to find this piece of work as you can see the dialogue lacks a large amount of effort (Click here to view the script). This is more of an example of what not to do. 

Onward and upward.

LIGHTING! Lighting will be a very important aspect of making your film really pop out to the audience Here is a quick example of lighting.

As you can see there is 3 points of light, this applies for most productions that aren't all Hollywood and 100 million dollar productions. You have your key light (the light which is a main light this is usually the strongest unless you decide to swap them about having a variety of different strengths) then we come to your fill light which is a lot weaker than your key, and finally the back light which if used effectively can give a really nice feel to the film which is very important when dealing with moods and emotion.   

You can see in the caption that the picture above is a shot from Schindlers list which has a very unique composition of lighting which consists of a hot/strong backlight and a soft meaning weak key or fill light. 

     

A Welcome Post

What to expect in the following blog entries 


This blog titled "seanfoxfilmschool" will be several entries about, 12 or so entries depending if some points I decide to cover. 12 will be the minimum. 

This will be a weekly occurrence that will last for 12 weeks that correspond with each entries. 

We will be covering...

Week one : Rules of film making with references and examples of use of each practise in the industry also techniques of editing and many elements of cinematography also be comprised of the evolution of visual effects and motion graphics have come since they have arrived on film and TV. 

Week two : Week three will tell us all about the importance on brand and product placement in film and TV and how they will benefit each other in the process, also more in-depth explanation of what processes go on when editing a production also more techniques will be discussed.

Week three : Cinematography, lighting and methods of placement called  miss en scene also how much these effect the film with the good and bad examples and how to differentiate from these and a whole explanation on composition and shot lists and selection again with bad and good example and how they were used in the industry. Finally this week will cover key technologies 

Week Four : The major break through of the visual effects in the film and TV industry and specific examples of the motion graphics that are used. 

Week five : This being the final week will end with the importantance of branding in the television industry Indents as a promotional tool and finally common designs themes in television marketing.