Film Classification

Audience Research

Below is the top two that were ranked under the genre of 'Comedy'. By looking at this you can see that How the Grinch Stole Christmas' total gross isn't as much as Meet the Fockers, which that being $279,167,575 and The Grinch being just $260,044,835, however when it comes to the Inflation-Adjusted Gross How the Grinch Stole Christmas is ahead. Also looking at this table you can see the films' release dates, distributor and their MPAA Rating. 

This table shows the market share of each genre, showing how popular the films are in each genre by the percentage of market share. By looking at this you can instantly see what genre is doing the best due to the market share and what genre's are not doing so well. You can see that comedy, adventure and drama are doing best with the highest total gross and market share, making up a total of over half of all of the genre's market share. This makes them the most popular genres from the years of 1995 - 2012. Within a total of 17 years, you can see how many film have been created in each genre, showing how many are very popular to be made and also seeing their total gross and average gross over the full 17 years. Comedy has made the highest gross total with it being $44,792,158,044 with Genre Unknown being the lowest with just 5 films being made and a total gross of $1,685,983. Although comedy has the largest total gross, adventure has the largest average gross.

This table below shows the top two ranked films in the genre 'Adventure'. You can see that 'Star Wars Ep. I: The Phantom Menace' being ranked #1 followed by 'Marvel's The Avengers'. 'Marvel's The Avengers' has a higher total gross being $623,279,547 but Star Wars Ep. I: The Phantom Menace' having a higher Inflation-Adjusted Gross being $712,529,607. Also by looking at the table you can see their release dates, distributor, MPAA Rating. 

Dinner for Schmucks Title Sequence

Codes and Conventions of The Notebook

In the opening of The Notebook an elder woman is show standing by a window looking out at the sunset as doves are flying towards her. Behind the technical codes and convention of the scene and the woman, a piano is playing a soft song almost to say that there's a story behind this woman's eyes, and this is the hook and makes the viewers want to continue to see the story that lies beneath. 

The scene of the film opening shows a lake, so show that this may be by a countryside, or somewhere beautiful yet very quiet and abandoned. The film looks like its set slightly in the past although still quite present. 

The characters of this film are shown in written codes of conventions, with the characters not being shown visually, although a woman who is seen at the end of the opening. 

The genre is quite easily seen as a romantic, this is clearly presented through the soft, sweet music of the piano that plays throughout the whole opening, and the calm atmosphere of a person rowing their boat through the lake. The sunset also adds to the idea of romance with the ending showing doves flying towards the woman, with doves being a symbol of love.

The credits were very basic, and were written codes of convention. They were very a very small font, and were white which may add to the suggestion of romance to show the story's love as innocent and pure. 

Codes and Conventions of 'Se7en'

The hook is what film needs to have because this is what should attract the viewers attention and keep them watching. In 'Se7en' the hook is a person writing a book in a very mysterious way however you do not see who is writing the book, therefore this is the hook as viewers will carry on watching to see who is writing it, and why they have done it how they have. The hook is still technical (visual) although you cannot see the person writing the book you can see what he is doing and putting in it. 

From the opening scene, the code of convention is technical, I can assume that the setting of the film is in America because of the high sky scrapers that are shown through the video, that are usually known to be in places like New York. At the end of the clip 'Monday' appears through a written code which will suggest the film starting on a Monday. 

The characters are introduced in both technical and written codes of convention. They are introduced by showing the characters in the clip, like Morgan Freeman is introduced with him in a bed looking quite restless, not being able to sleep and this is shown through a number of things he does that are usually known to help people sleep. Whilst this clip of the video is playing his name will come up in a written form introducing who he is. Another is that Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Pitt are also shown in written by their names appearing on screen but it also gives away through the technical codes of convention that there is some kind of romance after seeing both of them together, sleeping in a bed, cuddling, showing they have a relationship.

The genre of the film are shown that there is a bit of romance because of the technical codes and conventions of Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow, but it mostly shows the film is mysterious because of the mystery of who's behind the writing of the book and the titles are written in a jumpy and uneasy way, putting the viewers on edge. The technical codes and conventions in this is showing the genre through the scenes of the book making the person behind the book look a bit odd with maybe behaviour of a 'psycho' which i showing that the genre may be like this.

The last conventions of the film opening is the credits. The credits show you all of the people who will be in the film or have took part in the making of the film. The credits make you feel very uneasy and on edge because of the way they are written and how they are shown on the screen. 

British Board of Film Classifications

Film Classification on Prezi

Research of film Titles - Dinner for Schmucks

Main Exercise

The main titles and openings of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of 2 minutes. 

Conventions of an Opening Scene

The purpose
A film openings purpose is to begin with showing action so it grabs the viewers interest and will make them continue to watch and get hooked into the film. The opening of the film should also state the genre of the film so the viewers can see what genre it is easily and clearly. Usually, you will most likely see either antagonist or protagonist. 

Timing convention
Usually, film openings will be around just 2 minutes but however other films like major blockbusters may lead up to being 5 minutes long.

Set the scene
In the first few minutes of the film opening the scene should be set. This should include showing the setting of the year that the film is set in and the location of the film etc, for example, past, present, future. If it's past it could be black and white, if its the future it may be very grey with a lot of high quality gadgets and futuristic technology, and if its the present then it'll look more or like the day and age we are in.

Introduce the key characters
The main characters are then introduced to the viewers in the opening scene these will usually include the Protagonist (good guy), the Antagonist (bad guy) and their sidekicks. This will sometimes keep the viewers watching it if their are actors or actresses in their that they like and enjoy watching. 

Introduce pre plot or beginning of the narrative
This is introducing what the film is going to be about by giving away a bit of the film plot so keep viewers know what's going to happen to keep them watching.

Key Credits
This is an important thing to include in a film opening, it tells the viewers what company has produced and been part of the film, the film director and show logos of the film makers.


Usually starts with equilibrium
The opening of  film will usually start with an opening scene, this will show a little bit of the film and it should be good so it'll keep the viewers watching.

Codes and Conventions of an opening scene

One of the first conventions is the establishing shots, this is when it shows where you are, what time they are in e.g. past, present, future. 

Technical codes - these will include things like framing, camera techniques, mise-en-scene, lighting, sounds, editing and depth of field. 

Symbolic codes - This refers to things such as; body language, objects, setting, colour and clothing.

Written codes - are in the form of captions, language style, speech bubbles and headlines. 

Conventions are ways that are accepted of doing something, and in the case of media, they are accepted patterns of codes which help to communicate a particular message. 

In the opening scene it starts off with loads of scenes and pictures out of the Marvel comics books about Spiderman being flicked through almost like someone is flicking through each of the pages and that's when you get the idea that it's about a superhero and villians like a typical comic book. It then goes into showing the main characters names which will tell the viewers who will be playing in it and this will usually decide on whether they carry on watching it or not. Their names are introduced on a background of a spider's web which add to the Title of Spider Man, and then an image of Peter Parker (Spider Man) with a spider on his hand, which adds to the idea of a regular boy and what will probably happen to him and the viewers knowing already that he is most likely to be Spider Man. Mary-Jane is another main character who is introduced by writing and an image so the viewers know who she is and whether they want to carry on watching. Basically, the whole opening is showing important scenes of the film in still images of what's going to happen to give the viewers an idea of what to expect. It then goes into Spider Man swinging from his web from building to building showing a bit of what he can do.

Preliminary

This is our preliminary exercise. I have used all three; match on action, 180 degree rule and reverse shot in this video also adding in lots of different camera angles and shots. I think the video went well as a first edit. There are good variety of shots. The video could improve by using the 180 degree rule a little better as it looks like we have gone a little bit out of the 180 degrees.