Semiotics- Beyonce magasine advert

In class we looked at semiotics and what the difference between denotations and connotations are. I then looked at this Beyonce advert to see what things are denoted and connoted from this advert.

Orange- Warmth, heat,desert
Perfume bottle- Nice smells
"heat"-Hot, Desert
Beyonce- Popular,attractive, Icon
Light from behind- importance, high status.

Practicing camera shots

In class we'r looking at different types of camera shots and the effects of them, so we  got into groups of 3 to go out and practice using the video camera and how to get different camera shots. As a group we got a long shot, and medium shot and a extreme close up.
Long shot
Long shots ar usually used to establish the situation and to see everything that is going on. In our long shot you can see the whole of Roxane's body, so if this was in a movie it would let the audience establish Roxane's mood by the way she's stood.
here is another example of a long shot:

This shot lets us get a view of what is going on, yet it isnt that distant from the subject of the shot, so we still as an audience feel quite involved. And also we can see everything that is going on so we're not losing any information about the film.

Medium shot
Medium shots are usually used for diolouge because they are closer to the subject matter so you get more of a feel to the convastion. In our long shot we didnt use it for diolouge, but it gave us a better understanding of Roxane's emothion because it's closer to her.
Here is another example of a medium shot:

This shot is from the shining, because the shot its quite close the the subject we can as an audience understand his emotion more, for example from the way he's lied down we can tell he is very tired. but the short isnt too close.  And also the shot doesnt cut through this elbows, which they shouldnt because it makes the shot look scruffy.

Extreme close up
extreme close up's are used to catch the emotion of the characters, theses shots are almost invading personal space so we as an audience get more emotion and feel closer to the character. In our extreme close up we didnt get as close as we could have, but still we get more emotion from the face in the shot.
Here's another example of an extreme close up:

In this extreme close up, as an audience i feel very close to this character because it feels like we are invading his personal space, which helps us understand his emothion more. The eyes can tell us alot about how he's feeling, the man in this shot looks very frustrated, and i can understand this just by looking at his eyes.

TV drama- The chase

In class we watched the opening scene to an episode of the tv drama 'The chase'. We analysed it using mise-en-scene, looking at CLAMPS, which stands for Costume, Lighting, Actors, Movement, Props and Setting.
Costume
The first character that came on was dressed very formally but, in very dark colours, to represent her mood, and she was wearing sunglasses to try to hide her emotions.
Most of the people at the church were wearing formal clothes to set the scene of the wedding and make it realistic and the vicar was wearing the tradtional vicar robe.
Lighting
In the vet surgery, it was very bright i think this was because it made it realistic so they could see wen opperatng, and also it set  happy mood.
In the church the lighting was very natural, which made the church fell more traditional, instead of very fake and dramatic, which wouldn't suit a church or wedding.
Actors
Most of the actors were female, with very few male characters. I'm not sure hy is was done, but there was a clear difference in numbers.
Movement
The pregnant lady moved very fast, this showed that she was in a rush and feeling very anxious.
The old vet man, moved quite slowly, i think tey did ths to emphasis that he was distracted.
Props
The first character came on drove a convertable car, this showed that she was quite well of and had a bit of money.

American Gangster

As a class we looked at the opening scene of American Gangster. The costumes said alot about the film, they backed up the time period in which the film was set, 1968. The two main characters of this film which we met in the opening scene, were gangsters, as an audience we knew this because of what they were doing and how they reacted but also because of what they were wearing. This was a very good use of costume in the film because it backed up the characters and the date the film was set. I could tell straight away the genre of the film because of the dark and creepy atmosphere aswell as the actions carried out by the 2 main characters. And the genre is a crime-thiriller.

Collateral

In class, me and two others looked at the loaction of the opening scene 'Collateral' staring Tom Cruise and Jamie fox. There was two locations in the clip we watch, the first was an airport ad the second was a taxi garage. The two different locations shoed the contrast between the two main characters. The Tom Cruise character looked very smart and important and was located in he airport which was clean, well organised and also it was very grey with not much colour to the location. Where as the Jamie Fox character looked very scruffy, and he was located in the taxi garage which was very hectic and colouful.

The picture links you to the wikipedia collateral page, which explains the basic plot of the film and the cast and soundtrack ot the film.