Research Into Similar Products - 1970s

The Crazies – 1973

Director: George A Romero

Genre: Horror

 Cover:   See Right
Certificate: 18

This establishing shot of this movie starts with a 5 second extreme long shot, showing a stereotypical farm house. It is in a field all alone, surrounded by countryside and grass. The dirt road at the foreground of the shot looks unused, which furthers the impression of the house being completely alone. It makes the house seem distant from the rest of the world. This tells the audience that maybe the people in this farmhouse are very private or secretive, creating mystery about them already. There is diagetic sound in the background of general nature, but it is all very still and quiet, giving a deserted feel.

The film then jump cuts to a shot of a cuddly toy sheep being placed down, which then becomes part of a match-on-action sequence of a young girl getting ready for bed. The camera angles are all from about waist height, showing things in a point-of-view (POV) shot of the little girl. The noise is again diagetic, setting the scene as completely normal and usual. A cuckoo clock can be heard chiming nine times, telling the audience the time, connoting that it is too late for a young girl to be awake anyway. It is likely that she has woken in the night, as the audience sees her getting a drink of water.
The clock chime is followed by a creepy, childlike giggle. The camera jump cuts to a close-up of the girl, which shows her scared expression. There is continuity editing with match-on-action to show the boy playing his prank, with jump cuts to the girl’s face again showing her reaction to these things. The girl is represented stereotypically as easily scared or naive and innocent, showing the male dominance in the film. The tension or suspense is lessened, as the audience can see why the ‘spooky’ happenings are occurring, and though the girl is calling out, it is not seen as too scary. 

When the boy ventures to the basement and is scaring the girl, the midshot shows the shadow creeping behind the girl on the wall. This gives the audience a new reason to be apprehensive, as the camera then jump cuts to a shot of the boy’s face, changing from amusement to fear, connoting that this new shadow was not planned by him.
This shadow is focused on by the camera and is seen to be flailing aimlessly, shown first from where the girl was stood and then from the doorway of another room. The furniture onscreen is all quite old, and is soon smashed up by a tall grown man with a crowbar. We watch the man from more POV shots of the children, with a close up two shot of them to show their reactions to this too. The young girl finding kerosene on the floor forewarns the reader that there could be a fire, as kerosene is a form of fuel and fuel often signifies fire.
The young boy getting left alone finds discovers his father through using his torch to view the face of the attacker, the diagetic sound of smashing temporarily halted as he speaks. Meanwhile, the parallel editing allows the audience to see where the girl has run off to, to awaken her mother. Upon
doing so, we see another POV shot of a midshot of a white sheet on a bed, a lump underneath signifying her mother. When rolled over, the woman is discovered dead and we see a closeup shot of her to show the wounds. There is also blood on the white sheet which contrasts and denotes what is about to happen.

Overall this film uses it’s opening two minutes to establish the character of the two children, one as a brave yet playful young boy and the other as a scared little girl. It also introduces mystery to the film as to how the mother died, and why the father is now smashing up his own house, etc. This withholding of information is seen as expected now with horror films.

Planning: Preliminary Decisions

Who are you working with and why?

I am working with Ella Drake for my coursework. This is because we have been long-term friends and know each other's positive and negative behaviours. We both work well as a team and can cooperate, whilst still staying on task and dedicating ourselves to our work.
We also have the ability to spend time together outside of school hours to work on things without too much difficulty, which means that everything will be completely easier to film.
She has an extensive film knowledge and works excellently with a camera, and I can use the Macs and editing suite with developed ability, as well as working well with a camera.
We can both act reasonably well and make informed decisions on actors for our piece.

What genre of movie will you be producing?

Our movie will be under the horror genre, because we both love this genre and feel we can effectively make an exciting piece for the coursework. It gives us the ability to focus on the important features of the genre and after years of watching horror films we are both informed on the types of film to look for.

CONSTRUCTION: Preliminary

This is our preliminary task, that demonstrates match-on-action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. It was filmed, edited and acted in by Katie Nicholls & Ella Drake.

PLANNING: Storyboard

These are the storyboards for our preliminary task, showing what we are going to film. The duration slots are blank due to the fact that we are unsure of the length we will be making each shot, and they will be filled in as we become more aware of techniques.

RESEARCH: The 180-Degree Rule

What Is It?
The 180-Degree rule is a little more complicated than the previous techniques. Rather than being an editing technique, it is in fact a continuity technique. It is best demonstrated by this diagram, showing where the camera can and can't shoot from.

It basically means that if the camera breaches the "line" across the shot, then the characters or objects will switch sides, which can confuse and disorientate the viewer. It also ruins any attempt at verisimilitude, as you can see in the video at the bottom of this entry.

How Is It Done?
Through imagining a line across the two characters, then a semi-circle doming towards you from that line, the filmer can see the areas that they are allowed to shoot from. The camera can be positioned in any area within this semicircle without ruining the continuity of their shot.
However, as the video below illustrates, if the line is crossed, everything seems to reverse and the characters will miraculously jump sides. This means that the audience will lose their grip on the storyline, to focus on the error. The correct way to film it can be seen below.

The only time that the camera can cross the line is when it is all in one take. If the camera moves round the two characters without cutting the shot, the effect will be that the camera has simply moved to show the characters, therefore the audience will not be confused as to why they are on different sides.

Why Is It Done?
The 180-Degree rule is used for continuity, because without it the verisimilitude is ruined. Filmmakers would not want this to happen, as it would disorientate the audience and this will then mean that they are drawn away from the plot and action, instead feeling that the film is perhaps badly made.

Here we can see a video on examples of correct, incorrect and one-take shots.

RESEARCH: Shot/Reverse Shot

What Is It?
Shot/Reverse shot is a classic way to shoot a conversation between two people. It is when a conversation is showing each character from over the other's shoulder, before switching to the other character. It is done to show facial expression and is often shot in midshot to give a full shot of each character's upper half.
The video below shows how shot/reverse shot is used, through showing two characters having a very short conversation.



How Is It Done?
The sequence is shot in a very simple way, but requires good timing. Usually, both characters will sit down and the camera will be set up behind one of them, looking over the shoulder as is traditional for this type of shot. This character will then say all of his or her lines, with gaps in between. For example:
"Hey!...How are you?...Yeah, me too...Well, I'll see you later...Good luck!".
The same will then happen with the other character, with the camera viewing from the opposite character's shoulder.
"Hello!...Tired! You?...Oh shoot, I gotta go!...See you after the competition!".
Then, in editing, the conversations will be split up into separate clips and organised into chronological order, so that each gap has a response to the previous statement in it.
These clips are then merged again into making the clip flow properly, showing a conversational twoshot from over each shoulder.

Why Is It Done?
This type of shot is typical of twoshot conversations, as it allows the audience to see the full facial expression of the character, and gives the impression of looking at each character as though they are talking to him or her. It also allows the viewer to see the upper torso, meaning they can grasp the character a little better through clothing choices or distinctive body types.
Therefore, this shot is done to best portray conversation without looking foolish or clumsy.

RESEARCH: Match-On-Action

What Is It?
Match-On-Action is the ability to stitch several shots together to create the illusion of verisimilitude. This is most commonly used when trying to make something seem like one continuous action, such as walking down a corridor, reading a book or making a drink.
For example, the video below shows an example of match-on-action, where our character is filmed making a cup of tea.



How Is It Done?
A sequence is shot through a number of different ways. For example, for the above video, all of the midshots were filmed first, to minimalise non-continuity. The close-ups of the tea were filmed afterwards, then were stitched together in post-production.
It can also be done thorugh cut-editing. A shot of a character walking towards the camera would be done, followed by one of the character still walking the same way, this time shot from behind.
The actor would have to stop at the right point, just before walking past the camera, and then the shot would cut. The action at the end of the first shot would have to also be the same action at the beginning of the next shot, to create continuity. The camera can be moved around as long as there is the golden rule applying:
If a character is walking towards the camera on the left, they must walk away from it on the right. Otherwise, the shots do not stitch continuously and the effect is ruined.
They also use jump-cuts - where there is no transition between each shot. Otherwise, the scene would not be continuous.

Why Is It Done?
Match-On-Action is used to film continuous scenes, such as chases or walking down a corridor. It also be used in fight scenes, to make a scene seem more realistic, therefore creating verisimilitude. This therefore means nobody gets hurt and the film does not lose any quality in filming.