Blue Velvet

The opening scene of 'Blue Velvet' starts with a scene showing dark red roses in front of a white picket fence in front of a lush blue sky. This is notable as it shows the colors of the American flag. In the opening scene of 'Blue Velvet' is seen as a utopia. - there are children crossing the road led by a lollipop lady protecting them from the upcoming cars. There is also a fire engine slowly driving past. All of these add an element of safety to the neighborhood the audience is viewing however, when looked into more clearly, there are several subtle hints into the idea that this neighborhood isn't as perfect as it seems. For example: there is a lot of red. There is red on the schools pupils clothes, the lady's lamp, the fire engine and of course the roses. David Lynch would have purposely implemented these colors into his film to show danger. This is expanded on when a TV show showing a crime drama being watched by the supposed wife of the man watering his plants. This is showing everything is okay but people still watch crime dramas, interested almost in that lifestyle. It could also give a sense of foreboding threat there are darker elements in the film your yet to see.

Throughout the whole first two minutes a joyful happy non diegetic 1950's sec song is playing over all of the following scenes. This expands onto the utopia esc American lifestyle building on the theme of the American dream. When the man gets bitten by the beetles the sounds goes through a low pass filter into an atmoss effect showing and proving that the hook has just been implemented into the film. This changes the tone instantly as now audiences start to notice the dog playing with the water is actually useless to the situation, so is the toddler. All of these things the man has put so much time and effort into isn't helping at all in his final moment of desperate need.

Blue velvet's opening scene is almost a metaphor of 1950's America - that when everything is fine and happy above, below things are much more real and gritty. This adds a theme of reality and fantasy.

The opening scene is below.

MR JUDGE FEEDBACK

AS MEDIA - THINGS TO DO LIST (NOV 15)

Complete the following tasks ASAP

1.   NO BLOG posts whatsoever L at this stage is at risk of not passing the whole course 

3.   NO PRELIMINARY TASK EVALUATION EVIDENT

4.   NO BLUE VELVET TEXTUAL ANALYSIS (COULD USE BOND: SPECTRE INSTEAD)

5.   NO BLUE VELVET SCREEN GRABS IN PLACE

6.   NO BLUE VELVET VIDEO EMBEDDING IN PLACE

7.   TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF THE OPENING OF SE7EN WITH IMAGES AND VIDEO EMBED FOR SE7EN - MORE DETAIL REQUIRED

9.   FILM NOIR & HISTORY OF GENRE (HSR) + IMAGES/VIDEO EMBEDS

10.                 STEREOTYPICAL REPRESENTATIONS OF THRILLER/HORROR GENRES/CHARACTERS

11.                 TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF OPENING OF A HORROR FILM – WOMEN IN BLACK/SCREAM etc.

Se7en Opening titles

This film meets Hollywood thriller expectations as the two detectives are opposites who struggle to establish a positive relationship.

Brad Pitt is a young white male, who is inexperienced and of scruffy appearance. However, an experienced Morgan Freeman is a black male with characteristics of  OCD. These  two opposites develop a strong relationship throughout the duration of the film with the same aim of catching a sinister serial killer at large.

The opening titles use lots of dark effects both visual and audio. Visual effects which could be seen to represent the personality of the killer and nature of killings. The camera uses close up of the killer's books, pictures and what looks like written plans. This could be seen to represent the meticulous planning by the killer. There are also images of implements for example what looks like a scalpel and razor blade, perhaps used for killing? These images lead viewer to imagine the horror that victims may face. From these close up the viewer also  get a clear indication of the detail involved in the killings and what may follow in the film.

The music used is intense and disturbing, again helping to depict the intensity of the killer and many of the sounds could be interpreted as victims screams. The tempo and loudness of the music also increases during the titles suggesting urgency or even suggesting that each killer is worse than the one before? The title scenes mostly in black and white also use effective flashes of red film, the red potentially linked to the bloodiness of the killings.

The opening title also uses close ups of different words for example, the word GOD, this gives a hint that there maybe some kind of religious link to the murders.

The whole opening titles completely set the scene, there is nothing nice about them - even the writing is suggestive of the macabre and grisly murders that follow in the film .

Analysing the opening of a horror movie-Scream 1996

In this clip the horror movie lives up to expectation of traditional values in horror movies. This dates back to the traditional Dracula movie which the orignal ideas have passed on to modern day horror movies. Such as the psychopathic killer is talking down the phone to the victim, He sounds like a mature man, this shows stereotypes as usually the character is middle ages and male. The character sounds like this and we can presume this from stereotypes and the voice we here in the clip. Also the women who Is in trouble of dying in this clip is a white young female. This is stereotypical as original horror movies like Dracula which began the Hollywood stereotype's. Also the first victim is is a white male who is involved with the female originally but is the first to die off. This movie clip shows the traditional values being used in scream.

Preliminary task

The task that we were assigned was to create a short film clip. The scenario was,  two people exchanging an object. Therefore, our original idea was that two rival gangs would pass over a key from one member to the other. This key had been stolen by an unknown source from a rival gang. In this film we attempted to challenge original codes and conventions from a coming of age 1980s gang film such as The Outsiders. However, we also tried to adopt some codes and conventions in order keep to original ideas from Gang Films.


In this scene featuring Ethan and Josh , we used higher camera angles to emphasis that their characters are not important people in the gang compared to Alfie who is the Gang Leader. This is an original code and convention as there is always a hierarchy and  gang leader for example, in films such as the Godfather.

Throughout our production we used a 180 degree rule. This did not challenge any codes and conventions as this camera rule is used in all films without exception. This 180 degree rule is  usually used during scenes featuring a standoff between two people or a gang. A standoff is a common feature of a gang film, as exemplified in our film where Alfie and Matthew have a standoff towards the end.   However,  the 180 degree rule can be changed if the camera moves from side to side but apart from this it cannot be broken.


Mise en scene were also used through our film, for example,  we used  black and white in preference to colour as we wanted to create 1920s atmosphere. For example, The Peaky Blinders, a Birmingham Gang were at their peak in the 1920s. We thought that black and white would creates a realistic effect. The music that we used throughout this film, was chosen for it's heavy impact as throughout the film clip the music helps to creates tension between the two gangs. Incidental music is also used, for example, silence is used to highlight when Alfie realises he's key is missing! This silence creates tension and illustrates Alfie's Gang's desperation to find the missing key.

We also challenge the conventions of Mise en scene, for example, usually gang films will be set in a large neighbourhood or city such as Birmingham, London, Chicago or New York. However, our film chose the location of a school to challenge this convention. We also challenged the idea of general Gang costume, as our characters are in school uniform and do not look like conventional gang members who may otherwise be know for their expensive suits or leather jackets.

Mr Judge Feedback

MAJOR ISSUES IDENTIFIED WITH ALL/SOME BLOGS

Complete the following tasks ASAP

1.    NO BLOG posts whatsoever L at this stage is at risk of not passing the whole course 

2.    NO PRELIM TASK VIDEO EMBEDDED FROM YOUTUBE

3.    NO PRELIMINARY TASK EVALUATION EVIDENT

4.    NO BLUE VELVET TEXTUAL ANALYSIS (COULD USE BOND: SPECTRE INSTEAD)

5.    NO BLUE VELVET SCREEN GRABS IN PLACE

6.    NO BLUE VELVET VIDEO EMBEDDING IN PLACE