Director Study

Director Study - A Fact File On James Cameron
Date Of Birth : 1954 (Age 55)
Years Active : 1978 - Present
Occupation : Director , Producer , Editor , Screenwriter , Inventor
Famous Film : The Terminator - 1984 (Co Writer and Director) - http://www.dipity.com/timetube/YouTube_TERMINATOR
Rambo First Blood Part II - 1985 (Screenplay)
Aliens - 1986 (Director and Screenplay)
The Abyss - 1989 (Director and Writer)
Terminator 2 - 1991 (Director , Writer and Producer)
True Lies - 1994 (Director , Producer and Screenplay)
Titanic - 1997 (Director , Writer and Producer)
Avatar - 2009 (Director , Writer and Producer)
Cameron had a break from films and focussed on documentaries starting in 2002 he has also helped and made lots of TV programmes for example Dark Angel which ran for 2 series between 2000 - 2002. Inventing wise he has contributed in underwater filming and remote vehicle technologies because of this he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor Of The University in 2004.

Fact :
When Cameron was directing his first film (Piranha II The Spawning - 1981) he arrived at the studio to discover the crew were mostly Italian and spoke no english. Also the project was under financed. Because of this stress Cameron says he had a dream about an invincible robot hitman sent from the future to kill him.

Written By Harry Hosking

Textual Analysis of Pulp Fiction, The Day After Tomorrow and Poseidon

Pulp Fiction (1994, Quentin Tarantino)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVpwra1TJDY

The film starts with the production company logo and then goes straight into the first scene. This gives a slightly rushed effect and adds realism. The mise en scene is realistic to the time period and social class of the two main characters in this scene. They are smoking and wear average clothes showing that might be the type of people to rob a restaurant. It starts with fairly common shots in over the shoulder shots and mid shots as the two speak to each other. They have common accents and swear a lot in their dialogue, this also adds to the effect of the fact that they are likely people to rob a restaurant. As the man starts to panic and worries about the consequences the shot changes to a mid/close up which is central to his face to show his emotions and feelings. It also zooms in on him as he tries to make his point more to show that he really doesn't want to do it. Whereas, the woman does want yo and as she tries to persuade him it gets to a more close up shot. As the man puts the gun down on the table the sound is emphasised to make the gun seem heavy. When the titles come up the music is lively like what has just happened on screen. The titles are in a distinctive font on a black background with pictures relevant to the film in it. For example, there is a white gun. Then suddenly when the list of people who are on screen stop, the music changes to a more laid back song that is relevant of the time the film is set and the list of people off screen comes up, ie director, sound.

The Day After Tomorrow (2004 Roland Emmerich) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kB6q3lu7oms

This film starts with a black screen, the first titles fade in and then move downwards until off the screen. This represents the end of the world with the titles moving down. The first shot is a master shot possibly done using a helicopter or computer graphics. When this ends there is a close up of an American flag moving in the wind. This shows the effect of the weather, and that the film is going to be about the country of America teaming together. There are lots of wobbly hand held camera shots on the 3 men as they work in the snow. This shows fear and confusion. The effect of this opening is similar to that of Pulp Fiction because it makes the audience want to watch on and acts as a kind of prologue and cliff hanger at the start of the film.

Poseidon (2006 Wolfgang Petersen) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXrcTto7mzI&feature=related

The film starts with a low angle shot under water just looking upwards in the water. This is apparant to the plot/title of the film. The titles come up with orchestral music that gives it a meaningful feeling. The titles finish and the film's title comes up as some kind of figure moves in the water. This makes the audience wonder what the figure is thus will watch on.

All three of these openings are made in a way that makes the audience want to watch on. They introduce the theme of the film and all act as a cliffhanger into the main part of the film.

Schedule For Next 2 Months

This schedule was written on our very first day of planning. So far we have been very strict with our selves by keeping directly to this schedule. We have only included finish by date because we have decided to be lenient on starting points, because if we were to finish something early we could go straight on to it rather than wasting any time.

Finish script- 15th January

Finish "Written story board" 15th January

Costumes/props list- 20th January

Drawn story board- 25th January

Filming- 25th Febraury

Editing/sound- 3rd March (we will do this on days we do not film to keep up)

We have decided to start filming this Friday in our study period, which gives us almost five weeks to complete it and about six to finish editing which i believe to be enough time to complete a good quality film.

Target Audience Questionaire

Our target audience for our film is both genders of ages 15+ as explained in previous posts. Just to clarify that we have chosen the correct target audience we will ask the public a series of simple questions. From these questions we will analyse which gender, age socio economic group audience we should aim for.

The questions we will ask are:

Do you like the thriller genre of film?

What is your preferred sub-genre of thriller?

Do you have a preferred thriller film?

If so what?

What would you expect to see in a disaster thriller and why?

Finally, do you have a favourite disaster thriller?

If so what?

We will also ask for the gender and age and how much of film they actually watch for accuracy. We will blog the answers and explain how and why they have influenced us.

Update-

From the answers from the questionnaire, most people enjoy thrillers, action or disaster is the favoured subgenre, Knowing (2009, Alex Proyas) and the Terminator group of films (James Cameron) were the most featured favourite films. Most people said that they expect to see the end of the world in some form in disaster thrillers, and 2012 (2009, Roland Emmerich) was the favoured disaster thriller of most people. (This was completed by both genders equally spanning from age 13-45.)

We have taken these answers into account and will look into the favoured films and what people expect to see in a disaster thriller to attract the audience.

First Draft of Film

When we were first asked to create this film, we came up with a few ideas and wrote down our best ones. We decided that our film will be a disaster thriller, with the main character having visions of the end of the world.

This was the first product of those ideas:

Black screen with company name

Fade in

Character walks up road towards his house. Whilst this is happening there is a monologue voiceover spoken by this character.

He goes in the front door of his house after a normal day at work.

He sits down and puts the news on.

He sees the end of the world in a vision.

His cohabitant comes into the room and clearly doesn't see what the main character sees.

As the main character turns to look at this person, he sees this man in the end of the world.

Straight cut to black screen with the film title.

These are our earliest ideas so we will analyse what we have, compare it to a few other thrillers, (professional and those done by other students) and see what needs improving. Once we have done that we will story board the whole thing whilst deciding on camera shots.

Our Thriller Film

Our thriller film is a disaster/phycological thriller which would be released in cinemas in england at the certificate of 15.
The target audience for our film would be teenagers aged 15 and up who are either male or female as it would be a good film to see on a date. However it also appeals to much older people as it is a phycological thriller which would puzzle them and encourage the audience to work things out along with the main character.
Our film follows the conventions of the thriller genre because it involves violence has a clear protaganist and a clear antagonist. The protagonist in our film is an average , ordinary person who works a normal 9-5 job 5 days a week who is thrust into a complicated situation. The film is a disaster thriller because it is quite a serious story and includes a disaster.

Written By Harry Hosking

What Is A Thriller ?

A Thriller is a genre type for literature,tv and film. In film it is often fast paced and packed with action and sometimes violence. Thrillers often make the audience confused and try to work out what is happening along with the protagonist. Devices such as suspense, red herrings and cliff hangers are often used in thrillers for effects on the audience.
Example of a Thriller : Phone Booth.

Written By Harry Hosking

Conventions And Sub-genres Of Thrillers (Sub-Genres)

The conventions of a thriller are :
Action Thriller - Often feature alot of violence , an obvious antagonist and a race against the clock. An example of an action thriller is the "James Bond" films.
Crime Thriller - A thriller film obviously based on crime , sometimes from the criminals perspective , these mainly consist of ; chases , robberies and shoot-outs. An example of this is "Resevoir Dogs" (Quentin Tarantino 1992).
Disaster Thriller - A thriller film based on disasters mainly of the natural variety. An example would be "2012" (Roland Emmerich 2009) or "The Day After Tomorrow" (Roland Emmerich 2004).
Conspiracy Thriller - A thriller based on conspiracys ,
Drama thriller- The two elements used are Thriller and Drama film. The characters are detailed and the film is generally slow. These type of films usually have plot twists. eg "The Interpreter" (Sydney Pollack 2005) "The Prestige" (Christopher Nolan 2006)
Legal Thriller- In these films the lawyer-heroes/heroines confront enemies outside, as well as inside, the courtroom and are in danger of losing not only their cases but their lives.
Medical Thriller- Usually based on medical staff working on an expaning problem. For example and "Awake" (Joby Harold 2007) are examples of this sub-genre.
Political Thriller- In these films the main character fights to save the government that employs him.
Spy Thriller - A thriller usually associated with a government spy or agent who takes violent action against his enemies. An example of this would be "Mission : Impossible". (Brian De Palma 1996)
Phychological Thriller - A thriller which often involves lots of mindgames and thinking before it comes to its ending which usually is a violent resoloution.

Written By Both Harry Hosking And Chris Stagg