Ok...
Ella took a camera home for the Easter break to do the things needed with her boyfriend and also to possibly redo soke shaky shots (she already said this...woops!). Anyway, editing is going well in lessons but we don't have much time left AT ALL= scary!

Drama homework is hard and impossible to do so doing anything but that at the mo, including this!

Watched 'The Fugitive' the other day, enjoyed it muchly, considering i had to watch the first minute in class about 10 gazzillion times and not the rest! So now i feel complete in that sense.

Shall update with the progress on the Easter filming when completed, plus progress on editing etc.

Lydia

Sorry!

Okay, so the first thing I want to say is sorry for not posting on here for yonks. English coursework spread its deadly roots and left little time for anything else much. So here it is. Last week before easter hols, which means we have four hours of lesson time left. FOUR HOURS!!! And we still have the last leg of our filming to go. Help! The fire alarm breaking was a bit of a blow media wise 'coz Wednesday night was the only evening our actor could make it due to work and stuff, however hopefully we will be able to get a camera over easter to make up for it. And then comes the hours or editing to go. I get the feeling I won't have many lunches or studies left. However on the plus side, we do have our soundtrack in place. Which should be okay, when i finally sync it up properly. And most of the shots we have are pretty much ok, apart form a few shanky ones that i may have to re-do. Soooo i guess things are looking up. Post more on here when I get a chance, Ella.

Tick Tock, Tick Tock, Tick Tock

With time slipping away until our final deadline (loving the day counter on the board Mr M) we have finally moved onto our editing!! Though fate was against us, (in the form of actors, daylight, shaky camerawork, costumes, DOGS!! etc etc) we heroically battled through, and against all odds actually got some shots done. And, it gets better. After many an hour fiddling with tempo, timing, tone, singers and volume we finally recorded our soundtrack to perfection. Things can only get better...Have to do some more filming in the week of the troublesome timekeeper (grandfather clock) and opening scenes. Sooo, I shall post more later, and keep you all up to date, if the dreaded english coursework doesn't continue to get in the way of everything. IN CONSTRUCTION!!

'Hard Rain' Textual Analysis

Hard Rain was directed by Mikael Salomon in 1998 (Universal and Paramount Pictures). Starring Morgan Freeman and Christian Slater

Camera
The opening shot of the film is a graphic match from the paramount mountain logo dissolving into a real mountain. This is very similar to the graphic match in the opening of ‘Indiana Jones’ that we watched in class. The camera pulls back to reveal a dam with water falling from it; is it about to break? Is this the main theme of the film? The camera then swings right into a Dutch-tilt type shot which immediately puts the audience on edge and cautious about what is to come. The shot then dissolves from a dark shot over what looks like water into a very similar helicopter tracking shot, it is very smooth and I didn’t see it until my second viewing. The dissolve creates the illusion of one long tracking shot from the beginning to the end of the title/opening sequence. This helicopter shot is incredibly long, and establishes location and what is happening at the present time. It shows the important factors; that there is a massive flood, that the people from the town are leaving in their cars on the freeway, and of course the falling water right at the beginning. This helicopter tracking shot continues till we see a road with cars travelling in the same direction as the camera. It swings down into a POV of a car type shot, and continues to travel forward at quite a fast pace until we see some men in bright yellow coats; authorities? The camera moves toward one man standing in the door of a police car, and pulls into a mid-shot/close up of the man talking into a walkie-talkie; main character?

Sound
The first background music (BGM) you hear is a fanfare type sound, it is dramatic and orchestral, it is introduces the film very well (even though sudden) and sets the tone of the whole film from the word ‘go’. When the camera shows the audience the falling water, trumpets are heard which signals danger and that there is danger to come, brass instruments are the other main sound in the BGM that can be heard throughout the opening sequence of ‘Hard Rain’. Other then the music, rain, thunder and birds can be heard in the distance. This is eerie and again sets the tone and mood for the film. The BGM behind the helicopter tracking shot showing the location of the city and the extant of the flood, has elements of a ticking clock, like time is running out, a sense of urgency (which runs throughout the whole film); till the flood breaks through the dam? The music rises when it wants to intensify a point on screen such as the flood covering the whole of the road at one point just about to come into the rest of the main town. This is possibly a point that needs to be remembered so it pointed out by the music at the beginning. When fork lightening comes across the sky at one point during the opening sequence, the BGM rose at that too, almost being lightening in the music. The accents of the men (that we don’t hear until immediately after the titles have finishes) suggest that the film is possibly set somewhere in a more southerly state of the USA.

Editing
Apart from the dissolve mentioned before from the tilted shot into the helicopter tracking shot (which is so smooth that it almost doesn’t happen), there are only straight cuts used throughout the opening sequence of the film. There is almost a fade to white when the camera goes over the hill into the town centre, but it is the sun shining straight into the camera. The titles are in white; easy to read over the darkness of the shots. They are all in capitals and are almost like they were written with a marker, the lines aren’t quite straight and they have slight holes in them.

Mise-en-Scene
The main colour scheme in the opening sequence is greys and blues which are cold colours and also reflects the wet atmosphere of the film. The bright yellow coats of the men stand out from the landscape and also the other people leaving the street. The water level; almost covering some trees and half way up a large barn, shows the extent of the damage by the water, and also how much water there is already let alone at the end of the film. The policemen (guys in yellow coats) cave plastic covers for their hats which show how wet it is and how much it ha been raining already, eve before we as the audience entered the narrative. The audience is shown during the helicopter tracking shot, that the said town is a normal one, there is even a McDonalds (which is featured later on to show the water level).

Conventions
The score keeps the audience in suspense throughout the whole of the first opening sequence, with strings putting them on edge and also some trumpets etc in there too. Foreshadowing is used when the man with the walkie-talkie says “are we all gonna die?” Also close ups, mid-shots/two shots are used when the men are talking to one another, talking room is also used when the two men are on the walkie-talkies, it suggest where the receiving end of the walkie-talkie convocation might be.