The Proposal 2009

The Proposal

This story is about a push boss who forces her assistant to marry her in order to keep her visa in U.S. and around departure to Canada.

Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance
Director: Anne Hletcher
Starts: Sandra Bullock, Ryan Reynolds, Mary Steenburger,etc
Motion Picture Rating:
Rated PG - 13 for sexual content, nudity and language.
Country: USA
Release Date: 19 June 2009

Budget: $40m
Gross: $163,947,053

Company Credits: Production Co: Touchstone Pictures, Mandeville Films, etc.
Sound Mix: DTS, Dolby Digital, SDDS

Idents: 

• Touchstone Pictures (non-diegetic, no sound was used) 11 sec
• Mandeville Films (non-diegetic, piano) 14 sec long

Title:

• They are in bold and white 
• All in capital letters
• They include the names of directors and producers
• Each last the same length of time and fade in and out
• The colour stays the same throughout the opening
• The job of producers are in small almost not visible.

Narrative Expositions: 

At the start we don't get much about the movie however, there are already some binary oppositions, at the beginning they compare the man and the women. She is neat and and sporty compared to the man who is messy and lazy.While she was reading a book and doing exercises he was sleeping. She walks normally and it gives the impression that she is the boss. By the way he is running and having two coffees in his hand may suggest that he is an assistant.

The Movie starts withe the Production Co.

The shot then changes to establishing shot of the woods and the white bold letters appear to show the Production Co. Dissolve transition used to replace the Production Co. this was made to make the text sold and balanced. The image moves as if someone was riding a bike. The sound is non-diegetic and it is a song "Relax" by Peter Gill, Holly Johnson and Mark O'Toole.

The shot then changes again it zooms out of the TV to show the audience that no one is actually cycling in there it is only a video on TV, camera zooms out of the TV and turns into over the shoulder shot to show that the main character is reading a book, this shot was used to show the audience her view. On the bottom right the name of the director appears. This shows that she is the USP as she appears first and it is visible.

Those two shots were used to show the main character in different angles. As well as it introduce two main characters. Her name appears next to her and then it watches and the camera slowly pans to the right. Another name appears as the first one vanishes after reaching the window and another appearing from it. This is the name of the other male character who has not been introduced yet to the audience. The name then dissolves, no other names are introduced after. This shows that they are the USP.

The long shot then is used to show the setting, where she is and what she was doing. This makes the audience understand why the TV was on and why she was wearing sports cloths.
On the bottom right the name of the movie appears in Capital letters, bold and bigger then the ones were used before, however the same colouring scheme is used.

After the name of the movie is introduced the place changes and panning is used to show how another male character is sleeping. The camera moves from his alarm clock to the loft to himself sleeping. When a new scene appears the names of the other characters appear and they dissolve, they change places from left to right and right to left, nine names were introduced overall. This was made to make the name stand out and avoid confusion in audience. The sound is non-diegetic as well as diegetic. This because a music is playing as well as the alarm clock buzzing.

 The scene then changes from one place to another, this shows to the audience that those two characters are related or at least would be related in some time. Along shot is used to show the setting and the movements of the character.

The music is non-diegetic all the way through, however all the moments and their talk is diegetic. The opening seemed as if it was about to end, because the music if getting quite. However, the names of producers still appear. as soon as the conversation between ends between the two the music goes back to loud and fast.

The dolly track is used here to show the movement of the male character. By using dolly track the audience now know that he is in a rush. The mise en scene of whims that he is wearing a suit and has two coffee cups in his hand. The connotation of his costume suggest that he is an assistant and those cups are for his boss. Also he is running that he is late to work. 

Long shot was used to show the setting to the audience. This shot shows the audience the faces of the people in the elevator, how uncomfortable they felt and how unexpected. The Director of photography appears and when the lift doors close the title closes with it. The music that was used before ends as well.

The music stops and cuts to another one as well as the scene. The camera now is making a long show on an eye level and her in the middle to show that she is the main character. The eye level was used to show they she is the one who you should be focusing on as well as that you are there and you can actually see her there. The long shot was used to show the setting were she is and what she is doing. On the bottom in the centre the producers names appear. 

The shot then changes and the character now moves towards the camera but not straight at her as she did before. The producers names still appear and sound is diegetic as well as non- diegetic as you could still hear the music at the same time people talking her shoes, her walk, traffic and her talking on the phone.

This scene is the last one from the film opening. The camera cut to the male actor character again, him leaving the elevator and the director name leaving it with him and following up to the corridor behind his back. The sound is diegetic as you could hear the elevator opening the door and piping sound, followed up with the non-diegetic music. The camera is panning to the left/dolly track to follow the character.

Continuity Task

Continuity Task

Creating a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down on a clear opposite another character, with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. The task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

This is a long shot with a panning to the left, this was used to show Bronwen walking towards the door.

This an over the shoulder shot, this gives the audience the feeling that they are doing this movement along with Bronwen.

A low angle shot was used to show the movement and show that she is the manic character here.

To suggest that she is a child/student.

Long shot was used on an eye level to show how those two characters stop to have a conversation.

Another long shot was used to show how a student calls a teacher.

An over the shoulder shot was used again to represent that point of view of a teacher.

Over the shoulder was used again to represent the student.

A long shot was used with a hight angle to show the student going towards the stairs and finishing the conversation.

I think that the continuity editing turned up to be great and the voices are easily recognisable compared to out micro drama. This is because the video was filmed in a quite and closed area where aren't that many distractions. Also the lighting was great except at the end when Bronwen was going up the stairs, this is because the light was coming from the other direction. Next time we could improve the lighting as the lighting in the building and outside are completely contrasting. 

Micro Drama Group Analysis

Micro Drama group Analysis

Micro Drama started out with a mind map which included ideas in general over the the story line. What genre it would be and how we will present in to make it obvious for viewers recognize it.

Our drama is about 4 minutes long and we needed to make sure that the audience are able to understand and catch up very quickly. At the end we decided to use costumes to represent each character relying on Propp's theory. 
The hero (main charter) will wear super hero costume, a princess (the price for the hero, usually unable to get her because of villain) would wear a dress and make it as much as possible to look like a princess, the villain (a person who is going to cause the equilibrium break and stands against hero) would wear horns and pitchfork. 
We have decided that dispatcher (a person who sent the hero on to the way) and the donor (who gives the hero some magical objects) are going to be the same people as well as evil and false hero (a character who takes credits of the hero). 

We have also decided the place where we would film. We decided to start the scene by the fire and look like a group of friends who are just spending a great time together.
Another place is an abandoned house in the forest, this would highlight the fact that the drama's genre is horror as it is the connotation of the horror genre.

We have also thought of what kind of camera shots and angles we are going to use, sound effects and how we should plan our storyboard.

Storyboard:

This is the storyboard that we made and used to make all the scenes. There are the shots and angles of each scene as well as the sound whether it is diegetic or non-diegetic.  

There is a Hero played by: Kristian, 

Villain played by: Jonathan, Princess played by: Bronwen, False hero played by me(Adel), 

Donor/Dispatcher: Sophie and Helper played by Riona.

Overall our story line was following the Todorov's Narrative Formula there was the equilibrium when everything was great and the characters were just having a talk next to a fire, after there was the disruption of that equilibrium by dispatcher who suggests to go to the forest and see that abandoned house. 

After there was a recognition that there was a disruption when all the characters realise that the princess and the villain are gone, after there is an attempt of repairing the disruption when the hero goes off to save the princess and finally there is a reinstatement of the equilibrium as the hero saves the princess the villain loses and everyone is happy.

We also had a few Levi-Strauss Binary Opposites & Dramatic Conflict for example we had hero and a villain, dark and light, piece/calm and horror, balance and unbalance, the list could just go on.

Roland Barthes:

• The Hermeneutic Code: The villain used it to make drama more mysterious as he pretends to be a friends at first.
• The Enigma Code: This code was used in order to build up tension in the drama, this happened when we moved from fire place to the abandoned house.
• The Semantic Code: The costumes are the part of this as they represent each of the characters.
• The Symbolic Code: The lighting was higher than at the end as it suggested that there was no problem at the beginning and when the scene moved to the house the lighting was dark and the sound was suggesting that it is a house full of mystery and unknown as you would be able to hear a thunderstorm when the house appears in the scene. At the end the lighting on the hero goes bright and this shows that he is the main character and he is the light in the darkness which means that he is the hero and he finally achieved his goal.

The Script:

EXT.
Dusk, 6 students huddled around bonfire.

Sophie - So did you hear about the party ehh on this Friday Bronnie?

Bronnie - Yeah. Ehmm, what are you guys dressing up as?

Sophie - I don't really know... What about you Riona do you know?

Riona - Ehmm, I'm going to be an elf.

Sophie - Yeah? Nice!
(Laughter)

Riona - You guys?
(Riona looking at Bronnie and Kristian)

Bronnie- Ehh, I am going as a princess.

John – Suits you.

Sophie - I think I’m actually going to go as an ehh, as a fairy. Like with all fairy dust and everything
(Laughter)

John - Going to make someone disappear?

Sophie - Yeah, pretty much.

John – I was going to go as the devil.

Sophie - Yeah?

John - Yeah.

Sophie - With horns and everything?

John - With the horns and everything.

Sophie - Ohh Nice!
(Leaning to the left)

John - That was the idea.

Sophie - I am already looking forward to seeing that.
(John laughs)
2
John - What about you Kristian?

Kristian - Ehh, I think it's kind of obvious... Superman!

Sophie - He is going to take it to the next level. Definitely.
(Short pause everyone looking at the fire)


Sophie - What about you Adel?

Adel - Ohh, I am not going

Sophie - No? Shame... You'll join in the next time then!
(Adel chuckles)
(Everyone stays silent for a moment and eats their marshmallows)

Sophie - Did you guys ever hear the story about the scary Haunted House? In the woods?

Riona and Adel - No

John - Where is it?

Sophie - It's ehmm... argh. I can't remember what the town is called but it's in the woods and I think, like, we should go there once because it is so scary.

John - Yeah, we should!

Sophie - It's ehmm it's this huge mansion.

John - Yeah, but what's the story though?

Sophie - Well I was first going to tell you.
(Everyone laughing, laughing even more, when Sophie drops her marshmallow on the floor)


Sophie - Ok anyway back to the story.

So it is actually this really, really old mansion and ehmm, there used to live these two old people there and ehmm it was really scare cause then this one night in the winter, they ehh, they were at their house and it was so cold that they had to get firewood from the woods. So they just went outside, and they took their car to drive a bit further inside the wood. Basically what happened was that eh, the husband he left his wife in the car and said "I'll be right back" and then he actually never came back and she froze to death in the car. So now the house it's still standing there all by itself and it's all old and it's really...
I don't know it's kind of scary. I went around it last time and it was just so creepy, just the feeling of it and thinking of that story...
(Sophie shivers)

Sophie - Uhh, it actually does give me shivers quite a bit.
(Riona chuckles in the background)

John - We should go!

Sophie - We should definitely go to this haunted house!


EXT.

NIGHT, 5 students standing in front of an ominous house.

(Diegetic sound of owl and wind in the trees)

Sophie - Oh my god, this house looks so abandoned

Kristian - It's creepy

Riona - Yeah...

Sophie - It is right? I told you guys it would be. 
(Diegetic sound of Bronnie screaming)

Sophie - What happened?

Kristian - The princess is gone!
(John evil laugh)

John - Hahahahah! You’ll never get your princess back!

Sophie - Here! Take this leaf! It will help you save the princess!

Bronnie - Help me!

Hero - I'll save you!
(Christian punches John)

John - Arghh!
(Kristian helps Bronnie down)

Bronnie - Thank you so much!
(Non-diegetic sound of heroic music in the background) 

We used Pinnacle Studio 17 for the editing our video and I think it turned up to be great even thought we had a little problem of using it at fist and we watched a few videos on how to use it, some of us knew how to use it as they used it last year. However, most of us were not quite sure how to use it. we also used Adobe to set everything in place as the sound in first place wasn't that good.

Overall, I think that our micro drama went very well and it was easily recognised in a horror genre because of all that mystery, people disappearing and getting the frightening stories as we wanted it to be on the first place. The drama was short and included all 4 of the Narrative aspects. The sound effects were great and matched the scene as well as the shots were continues. We have used two cameras to alternate between each other and to make it more balanced.The angles were made in a right way so the audience feel like they are at that place. 

When the low angle was used to show Sophie's face when she was telling the story of a house the angle made the scene really powerful and the lighting was used to make the scene look like a connotation of a narrator which are usually used in a horror movie to describe the scene and atmosphere. The way she was telling the story was mysterious as the audience would not expect what would happen after. 

However, there were some drawbacks in the drama as the cameras were not ables to catch the voices of every character and that made it very hard for us to edit as the voice was blend with the noises surrounding the camera, so to get the part with a character talking was a difficulty. 

 Also the lighting for the scene in the woods was dull as the camera could not focus properly and couldn't take in the light. It was dark so we had to use our touches on out phones to make some sort of lighting. Because of that some scenes may be too dark to see any characters. 

I think for the next time we should check the lighting and bring some lights in case we will face that sort of problem again. Another thing we should do i think is to make sure that we could hear the voices in the camera and incase bring a microphone to make the voice more stable. I think we should also use more angles and  shots as they make the scene more interesting, for example at the begging we should've made an establishing shot to show where the characters were in that way the scene would've been less confusing, where as on the second part with a house we used establishing shot which made it all clear from the start to the audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=207&v=KgT7cLrB_kc

Aspects of Narrative

Aspects of Narrative

Propp's 7 Recurring Character Types

1) The villain - struggles against the hero.

2) The donor - prepared the hero or gives the hero some magical objects.

3) The (magical) helper - helpers to hero in the quest.

4) The princess or prize - the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished. 

5) The dispatcher - character who makes the back known as sends the hero off.

7) The false hero - takes credits of the hero's actions or tries to marry the princess.

7) The hero - reacts to the donor, weds the princess.

Todorovs's 5- part Narrative Formula

1. A state of equilibrium at the outset

2. A disruption of the equilibrium by some action

3. A recognition that has been a disruption

4. An attempt to repair the disruption 

5. A reinstatement of the equilibrium

Levi- Strauss: Binary Opposites & Dramatic Conflict

Brainy opposites is a pair of related terms or concepts that are opposite in meaning. Binary opposition is the system by which, in language and thought, two theoretical oppositesare strictly defined and set off against one another.

Roland Barthes

The Hermeneutic Code = is the way the story avoids telling the truth, in order to drop clues in through out to help create mystery.

The Enigma/ Proairetic Code = The way the tension is built up and the audience is left guessing what happens next.

The Semantic Code = Suggests a particular, often additional meaning by what of connotation which the story suggests. Connotation =  cultural/underlining meaning, what it symbolises.

The Symbolic Code = Similar to Semantic Code, but acts at a wider level organising semantic meaning into broader and deeper sets of meanings. This is typically done in the use of opposing and conflict ideas.

The Cultural Code = Looks at the audience wider cultural knowledge morality and ideology. 

Bridget Jones's Diary

Bridget Jones's Diary

Genre: Comedy, drama, romance.

Country: USA, UK, France, Ireland

Release Date: 13 April 2001

Budget: $26m

Production Co: Miramax,

Universal Studios, StudioCanal, etc.

Sound mix: SDDS, Dolby Digital, DTS.

The story is about a British women whose name is Bridget, she is aiming to improve herself while she is looking for love in a year in which she keeps a personal diary.

The film starts by introducing their production co, which are Universal Studios, Miramax, StudioCanal and Working title.

Universal Studios is in a partnership with Working title and StudioCanal. 

  

The Scene starts after the Production companies fade to black. This is when the potential central protagonist is being introduced because she does the voice over from a first person narrative followed up with a quite Christmassy and mysterious music. She tells the audience who she is, where she is going and what will happen to her.

The scene starts with the long shot with a tracking after followed up to the mid-shot. At the beginning audience could see a couple passing behind her when she starts a voice over and tells the audience that she is single.



The mid-shot of her then dissolves to another establishing shot of the village, the camera also tilts upwards, this was made to show the village in more details and to show the taxi where the main character was in. We could hear a diegetic sound of her slamming the taxi door, the camera pans to the left following the character going into the house. The camera then goes into overt the shoulder shot.

The lighting changes when her mother appears as well as atmosphere changes from dark and mysterious into warm and playful. The music changes into "Magical Moments" this soundtrack was used in a chocolate advert "Quality Street" in 1980's.

The house has a vintage decorated this suggests that the house is her parent's.

The camera was closed up to her mother, this shot allows audience to see her emotions and understand that her mother is a very interesting character as she has this very serious as well as sarcastic look.



The camera then goes to the main character Bridget, this camera shot allows audience to see how confused is she. Since her mother is making a blind date as Bridget expected, however she was not confused because her mother mentioned her blind date she was confused because she was trying to convince Bridget that she knows him. Her mother then tells Bridget to change because she looks like she has just escaped from Auschwitz, sarcastically . This tells us that the movie is targeted at a specific group of audience. The non-diegetic sound disappears when Bridget changes to another clothing and enters the living room.




Bridget then goes up stars to change to the dress that her mother chose for her. When she returns the voice over starts again, she was telling that this dress is like a carpet and it looks hideous. The camera zooms out from a mid shot to the long shot to show the whole dress in details, she is in the middle and it is tightly framed this was made to focus the audience to her rather than to any other people. She fixes her dress to show the audience how uncomfortable she feels in it and she would rather wear her own old clothes.




The camera then cuts to the man who Bridget tends to call uncle, because he likes to be called like that. By the way he is acting, holding a chaplain glass and walking wobbly we could assume that he has taken too much alcohol. The camera stays but the man moves towards it, making the audience feel like they are in her place. The camera then does over the shoulder shot when they are hugging which allows audience to see Bridget's face and how uncomfortable she feels towards that hug.

The camera then follows his hand to the medium shot and allows audience see how he grabs her bum. Afterward making a mid shot of Bridget and her discussed face. With a voiceover still continuing to tell the audience how she feels and what happens.






After talking to her "uncle" we get a mid shot, that makes us see the relationship between her and her father. The way they kissed on a chick may suggest that they are very close, compared to her mother. They talk about how her mother is trying to put Bridget with some guy called Mark. When they talk people behind them smoke as well as her dad. When the camera cuts to Mark audience are not able to see but Bridget took her dad's cigarette, while the audience were focusing on the voice over and Mike. When her mother appears Bridget is smoking cigarette already and her fathers hand is in his pocket and the other hand is till holding the bottle.

When she sees Mark her blind date from behind a voice over appears again and there she tells us how she feels towards him, she starts to believe that this time all of this might work and she has finally found her prince charming.

Bridget's mother calls Mark and when he turns to look up a slow motion was used to make him look like he is the one she was looking for and he is that prince, a non-diegetic sound was used at the same time as well, at that point Bridget couldn't take her eyes off him because she was so excited. A song called "can't take my eyes off you" played when he turned around to look up to who called him.
When she finally gets to Mark, the camera tilts down to make the point of view of Bridget so the audience see that Christmas jumper. The camera then cut to Bridget and her mother. The mid-shot is used to show Bridget's embarrassed face.Another mid shot is used but with a different angle to show another character entering the scene and calling Bridget's mother, to leave those two alone. Then the close up was made to show Marks face, the audience could now see the awkward face of both as the camera cuts to Bridget and does that to continue the dialogue. When we listen to Bridget and see her, we feel the same as she does, we feel how awkward it is for both of them.

Love Actually

Love Actualy

Genres: Drama, Romance.

Country: UK, USA, France
Release date: 14 November 2003
Budget: $45,000,000
Production Co: Universal Studios, Studio canal, Working title, etc.
Sound Mix: DTS, Dolby Digital, SDDS.

 
First 50 sec are those Production companies.
These are the three companies that are shown in title sequence. Universal is one of the well known ones as a conglomerate, it also owns Working Title, however, Working Title also owns WT2 and various others.


The scene starts on 52 sec. It fades from black and straight away we could see a backpacker going towards her boyfriend or husband. The camera used pan to track the backpacker. The camera focus was soft on the people surrounding them and had a sharp focus on the couple. She is a backpacker so that might tell the audience that she is just came from somewhere. Since we haven't been given the location we could suggest that they are at the train-station or airport.
The camera at the same time was on the eye level so it gave the audience the feeling that they are at that place. The camera focus allows us to see the emotions on his face, he had a relief face.

Then the camera cuts to the the family, to two girls who are hugging their aunt or mother perhaps.  Denotation of girls having a huge smile on and they gave her a hug which may suggest that they are very close.
The camera cuts from the couple to that family however, the camera zooms out of the homers arms which connotations are they are open and that tells the audience that she wants to give a hug, the camera then goes to the long shot to show other characters. After in zooms in to the little girls and pans to the right to show their motion.

Camera then cuts to the other older people. The connotation of them hugging might suggest that they are very close, they might be sisters or cousins or just old friends. The scene goes in slow motion.
This might be made to show how love is like, it can be not only around young couples, it could be also around old friends and families.

After camera cuts to the family and midst is used. A women hugging a little girl. The way that the women hugs the little girl may suggest that she hasn't seen her for a long time. The women may be little girls mother or aunt or someone very close. The scene goes in slow motion again. This happens when you could see older people and children. This may suggest that love is everywhere in youth as well as in adulthood.

The camera then cuts to two teenagers who have arrived from somewhere and they are hugging older people which may suggest that they are their grandparents. The camera then cuts in every 4 sec to different people. Mid shot is used overtime.
The camera continues to take shots of different people with different races and ages, with a man voice overing the scenes. His voice appears at 1.14 his descriptions match with one screen. He describes the atmosphere and because of him we know that all those actions happened in Heathrow airport. At 1.53 his words match the words which appeared on the screen "love actually is all around", at 1.58 words "is all around" disappear and only "Love actually" stays, the word "love changes to red colour. The transition happens the screen fades to black at 2.02.

A new scene appears at 2.08 at a radio station. Connotation of this scene is that there is an old man who is wearing headphones, he background is plain and made out of wood. This may suggest that this  man is in a studio. He is also making different hand gestures with may suggest to the audience that he knows this song very well and he is about to sing. At 2.10 the man starts to sing. The song is from 'Wet wet wet' called "love is all around". The mid shot is used to show to the audience that he is the main character. long shot is then used to show the setting. After at 2.20 long shot is used to show the other site of the studio outside of it. at 2.22 the camera returns to the main character and then back to the produces to show his face and emotions mid shot is used. at 2.27 the camera returns to the main character however, with a different angle, at 2.28 it returns back to the producer however he gets closer to the glass to tell the main character that he messed up the song. The mid shot is used again to show the impression of producer and his worker. At 2.29 it returns to the main character and he explains why he got it wrong. At 2.44 the character takes another chance and starts singing and now the audience could see the background artists singing to his song. The establishing shot is used. At 2.46 the names of artists appear and their first letter appears in red to relate to the movie. At 3.34 a hight angle shot is used. Eight names appeared in the screen that shows that they are famous and would be the main characters in this movie. The opening finishes with a mid shot of the singer.