Omama’s Blog

  Different genres have different film openings to set the mood of the film right at the beginning. This helps the viewer understand what the movie is going to be about and what will be the main characters involved.  For instance, the film "Child's Play" starts with the main character, Charles Lee Ray or chucky, being chased by the police at night and he ends up in a toy store where he is shot and is beside a bunch of creepy dolls. This, along with the creepy audio used, creates a sense of thriller or horror. Another example is from the movie, "Home Alone". It starts with shots from a house where everyone is busy packing for the holidays and introduces the main character, Kevin who is a very young boy, being helpless as he cannot pack a suitcase on his own. This shows how the boy is very innocent but due to the tones of the movie and as the name of the movie suggests, the viewers assume that Kevin will be put in different situations for the sake of humor. Hence,...

     Signs are everywhere. When analyzing films, these signs need to be interpreted in order to understand them and this is done by the study of semiotics, the study of signs. The work of many people has led to further understanding of this topic.  Ferdinand de Saussure argued that a sign has a “signifier” (word, sound, image, etc.) and the “signified” (the concept or meaning). Many relationships can exist between the signifier and the signified. For example, if outside the shop, a sign says "open", it means that the shop is open. In this case, the word, "open" is the signifier and the signified concept is that the shop is open for business.  Roland Barthes stated that signs are represented in two ways:    a denotative meaning (which is the literal meaning of the sign) and the connotative meaning (which is the implied or suggested meaning of the sign). For example, when watching a movie, we can denote that a man is holding a knife with blood on it. H...

  Editing is very important as it decides whether the film will be continuous or non continuous. It makes the audience understand the film better because it is part of editing to decide which shot comes after which shot or what sequence the film follows. I am now going to discuss the common types of editing. Standard Cut : It is used to connect two shots and happens in the blink of an eye. Match Cut : It is used to link two shots that share a common visual element ; whether it is colours, action or shape. Cutting on Action : It is used to change the camera angle as the subject performs a movement or activity. It makes the cuts more smooth. Jump Cut : It is used to make noticeable cuts by leaving out an action between two shots. This indicates the quick passage of time or makes the audience sense something missing. Fade : This is a transition effect and the shot may fade to black or to white. Fading to black suggests that time has passed or a situation has ended. Fading to white sug...

Team work is crucial in order to produce an exceptional product. It was for this reason we had distributed different roles between us so we could work smoothly.  I was the director, the head of lighting and the actor. The acting and lighting did not concern me as much as being a director did. I did not focus on my acting because I am not trying to show my acting skills, rather the skills used for the production of our film. I also did not focus on the lighting because we had to borrow the LED lights from a class fellow on the day of shooting. This meant I did not have time to practice taking shots with different lighting. Hence, my main focus was to work on being a director. Everything that has to be on the set including props, equipment and crew is to be directed by the director. As the name suggests the job of the director is to direct everything that goes on from the pre production stage to the production and post production stage. This includes taking on set decisions. This is ...

  There are various camera techniques that are used to make a scene in a film look more interesting. These may include camera movements, shot sizes, camera angles and composition. Camera Movements This is a technique that causes a change in frame or perspective through the movement of the camera.   Specific types of camera movements in a film can create a psychological and emotional effect on the audience. These effects can be used to make a film more engaging. The most common camera movements are : pan dolly truck pedestal tracking shot Shot Sizes Shot size is how much of the setting or subject is displayed within a given frame. The most common ones are : extreme long shot (XLS) long shot (LS) medium long shot (MLS) mid shot (MS) medium closeup (MCU) closeup (CU) Camera Angles Camera angles enable the characters to appear the way the director wants them to appear ; whether powerful, vulnerable or intimate. Some are listed below : shoulder angle eye level canted/dutch angle hi...

  A film opening always represents social groups along with the social issues associated. The social groups in films are as follows : ethnicity disability sexuality gender class and status age regional identity There are many stereotypes associated with such social groups and they are usually shown as such in films. For instance, teenagers are shown as violent and hard to deal with in most films while adults are shown as careless and exhausted.  There are also the social issues like gender discrimination, poverty, racism, unemployment and more. These issues are sometimes represented in media as such and there are solutions given to improve  from such situations, although not as a whole nation. Such movies are usually inspirational as they show the good after every issue. For example, in the movie, "A Street Cat Named Bob" the main character is shown as an addict who is in debt and plays his guitar in the streets to earn. The issue in this movie is resolved when the main c...

  Film genre refers to a specific film category, based on some set of stylistic criteria. There are numerous film genres and even subgenres, which are basically subdivisions of genres. These genres help viewers decide the type of film they enjoy and would like to watch. A genre is identified using four main elements of the film. These include : story plot character setting For instance, a film may show two characters with different backgrounds encountering each other and may revolve around their encounter's tiny details. This, along with the warm tones of the movie, close up camera shots to show emotions and more, helps the viewer assume the genre of the film as being romantic. A few of the main genres are listed below. horror action romance drama comedy thriller science fiction western fantasy These are two film posters of different genres.