Hotel Babylon Clip

Race/Class

• Other races: audience empathises for the, as they are discriminated against
• White people are clearly the dominant race
• High angle: looks down upon immigrants shows authority/superior person
• Eye level: the audience sees eye to eye with the white people
• All of the immigrants are put into one very small room like they are insignificant

Sound

• Non-diegetic sound builds tension
• Music throughout the whole clip
• Diegetic: the shouting of the workers highlights their worry
• Knock on door then a long pause- creates tension for the audience
• Music is much slower at the end of the clip to portray emotion: sadness because a family member has been lost
• Music throughout reflects how you are supposed to be feeling

Mise-en-Scene

• Where the immigration workers lockers are situated looks very dirty/scruffy as if they arent looked after.
• Immigrants costumes contrast with those of a higher class
  High class: suits, royal blues, very smart etc.
  Immigrants: Ratty overalls
• Owner/manager of hotel is wearing a very smart/posh suit to emphasise her role
• Those working for the immigration patrol were wearing blazers to emphasise their higher role and higher class
• Police uniform: well known, authority, looked up too

Camera

• Panning shots
• Low angle when woman is on the floor for sympathy
• Pan up from hoover
• Tracking Shots
• Zoom into receptionist, we know the focus is on her

Editing

• Sharp, short cuts from each cut
• Constant change of angle

Paranormal Activity 4 Review

A battle between horror conventions and innovations has been steadily brewing over the course of the "Paranormal Activity" franchise, and in the fourth film, the conventional finally wins. Less reliant on slow-burn suspense and larded with fake-out jump scares, this is the first sequel in the series that fails to advance the overall mythology in any meaningful way. Whether the faster pace and less inventive thrills will matter to hardcore fans, there's little indication the "Paranormal" brand has worn out its commercial appeal just yet. B.O. should be positively frightful (in a good way) through the Halloween season.
Small children chatting with spirits. A virginal teenage protagonist fending off her horny boyfriend. Creepy neighbors dabbling in the occult. Auds have seen it all before, which would be less of a concern if this "Paranormal" followed in its predecessors' footsteps and found fresh ways to spin familiar tropes. Instead, directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman and screenwriter Christopher Landon (all returning from "Paranormal Activity 3") seem to be suffering from creative malaise, settling for a few too many shots of doors ominously opening on their own, and multiple instances of the family cat scampering past the camera to deliver a sudden jolt. "Paranormal Activity 3" circled back to the past to explore the childhood of the first two movies' sibling protagonists, Katie and Kristi. The fourth film picks up five years after the end of part two, when Katie disappeared into the night with her infant nephew, Hunter, after murdering her sister. Using their whereabouts as a lingering question, the film introduces two 6-year-old boys. Robbie (Brady Allen), a loner with a proclivity for menacing asides, lives across the street from Wyatt (Aiden Lovekamp), a rambunctious lad with a lovely teenage sister, Alex (Kathryn Newton), and two stable parents, Doug (Stephen Dunham) and Holly (Alexondra Lee). A mysterious accident at Robbie's house forces the neighbors to become his temporary caretakers; Alex is the only one who notices all the unsettling things that coincide with Robbie's arrival. Even before Alex and her wisecracking b.f., Ben (Matt Shively), rig the home with cameras to provide the series' trademark nighttime video recording, the film plays fast and loose with the requisite found-footage style. Viewers are rarely clued in as to what's being used to film the action or why it's being recorded at all, other than what seems like Alex's obsessive need to carry around her computer and engage in frequent videochats with Ben. Eventually, the creepy notion emerges that various webcams in the house are permanently recording, whether their users know it or not, but the filmmakers never really follow through on the paranoid potential inherent in such an invasion of privacy. The pic's sole visual novelty comes from the use of the Xbox Kinect gaming accessory, which blankets the family living room with tiny green projection dots, visible only when captured by an infrared camera. The gimmick adds an otherworldly quality to select nighttime sequences, while doubling as a quirky bit of product placement. At least it's more original than the multitude of setpieces blurring the line between ripoff and homage in the pic's use of a Big Wheel tricycle ("The Shining"), levitating body ("The Exorcist") and bathtub ("A Nightmare on Elm Street"). Performances are fairly routine for the genre, though young leading lady Newton summons agreeable echoes of Dakota Fanning and Evan Rachel Wood. Tech credits are also in line with expectations, but the creeping intrusion of flashy visual effects and prosthetic makeup into what started as a low-tech series may not be to everyone's liking. Gregory Plotkin's editing further violates unwritten franchise rules by breaking up the "found footage" with jarring cuts, occasionally utilized for quick shocks. The film is dedicated to the memory of Dunham, who died of a heart attack last month. In addition to playing his onscreen wife here, Lee was Dunham's spouse offscreen as well.

BFI London Film Festival

The 56th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express started this week under the new creative leadership of BFI’s Head of Exhibition and Festival Director, Clare Stewart, bringing a rich and diverse programme of international films and events from both established and upcoming talent over a 12 day celebration of cinema. The Festival will screen a total of 225 fiction and documentary features, including 14 World Premieres, 15 International Premieres and 34 European Premieres. There will also be screenings of 111 live action and animated shorts. A stellar line-up of directors, cast and crew are expected to take part in career interviews, master classes, and other special events. The 56th BFI London Film Festival will run from 10-21 October 2012.

Sinister - Total Film Review

Like most struggling writers, true-crime novellist Ellison (Ethan Hawke) spends far too much time in his room watching films.
What's harder to swallow is that none of them are Insidious, with which Scott Derrickson's slick horror shares much of its DNA (not to mention its producers).
Both movies feature young families uncovering old secrets in new houses; both have child-snatching demons glimpsed only in passing; and both aim for that tricky combination of spooky and funny.
Happily, both mainly hit the mark. In terms of spooky, one of Ellison’s films (found, naturally, in the attic) shows a family hanging from the tree in his backyard, while another reveals a face that moves eerily audience-wards behind his back. Though a little less scary, Sinister tackles its comedy scenes better than the earlier film, particularly those featuring fanboy cop Deputy So-And-So (the brilliantly awkward James Ransone) who’s all too eager to help Ellison with his investigations. “That is a conversation I would not want to be around,” he offers when Ellison decides to tell wife Tracy (Juliet Rylance) they’ve moved into a murder house. Frankly, she might have guessed something was up by how much time hubby spends wandering around the attic swinging his baseball bat at shadows. Thanks to a dependably driven performance from Hawke, Chris Norr’s gorgeously glassy cinematography and several shiversome reveals, Sinister manages to be both an opportunistic Insidious clone and a much more consistent watch. It may be as subtle as Ellison’s trusty slugger, but there’s no denying it gets the job done. Verdict: An enjoyable, if boilerplate, boo-flick that maintains an enviable rate of scares per minute by throwing everything – demons, ghosts, snakes, loud noises – at the screen.

Hegemony: Leadership/an idea of dominance within people e.g. one social class over another.
Hegemonic: Having power

Waterloo Road - Replication Analysis

In this clip from the British TV school based drama, Waterloo Road, there is a very wide range of different camera shots, to explain the representational issue of teenagers, which is exactly why my group chose to replicate this specific clip. We decided this would be a good idea as having a range of different camera shots shows our skills as a group and it wouldn’t be boring. The clip starts with mid-shots of two male characters, one walking towards the other (who we do not see as clearly), followed by a gunshot sound, so even though we do not see the event so clearly on screen, we know what has happened due to the sound effects. After this main event in the clip, the editing is very much cut at a quick pace from scene to scene, and especially from character to character to show their feelings of fear, building up a feeling of tension amongst the audience. Following this we see a wide and high angle shot of all of the students outside of the school, having previously been evacuated, screaming and panicking. This birds-eye-view shot makes the audience feel as though they are seeing the effects of the tragedy from all angles, as you can see everyone in this shot. This cuts to a slow motion pan around the headteacher – who stands straight and emotionless, staring into space; rather than running around and screaming like the other, much younger characters. This illustrates to the audience that she has some importance as she stands out amongst everyone else – controlled and still amongst the storm. Also this could suggest that she is much older and wiser than the other clueless, panicking school children surrounding her. Straight away after viewing this character it cuts back to the screaming school teenagers to impact on the viewer the levels of panic and distraught brought upon these young people. After this we see Donte, the victim of the shooting, burst out of the building in no calm way at all, confirming that everyone has good reason to be panicked – it is unsafe to be in the building as he stumbles straight out of it and doesn’t look back. We then see a midshot of a girl running towards the character Donte, shouting his name and looking incredibly worried. She is held back by her father and told to run no further, creating a sense of suspense for the audience – the kind of scene that will make an audience sit on the edge of their seats, feeling empathy towards the young girl, despite her young age and stereotypical representation of a not very classy teenager, as she must watch her loved one suffer from afar and is unable to help him. The headteacher remains standing straight and almost emotionless, as she stares at all the commotion going on around her. The camera again pans around her but this time from a much lower angle, looking up at her, suggesting that she is about to gain the audience’s respect as she appears to come up with an idea. The teacher snaps out of her trance and the camera cuts to a midshot of the back of the character’s body as she turns around to run inside the building that victim Donte had previously burst out of in panic. This could suggest that she is about to be seen as the hero of the situation.

Verisimilitude

The appearance of being true or real.

Waterloo Road Analysis

This clip from Waterloo Road deals with several issues such as drug abuse, peer pressure and age. From the beginning of the clip we can tell as the audience that we are in an environment for younger people - the camera focuses on toilet cubicles covered in graffiti and litter, which we instantly associate with a secondary school. Next, the audience can tell that we are encouraged to look down upon the characters featured on screen as the camera starts at a very high angle and pans across the tops of the toilet cubicles, to where two girls are standing, handling and discussing drugs. As the third character cuts in, she is looking over the toilet cubicle wall, down at the two girls. As she stresses to them that they shouldn't be dealing with drugs, the camera cuts to the point of view of the two girls, looking up at her, as though she has more authority than them as she is the 'wise one' - she is giving them sensible advice that they both know they should listen to. The high angle in comparison to the low angle shooting may also be linked to age - perhaps the third girl is older than the other two, as she is looked up at in a way which represents her as old and wise, as well as speaking sense. Also towards the beginning, the camera pans from character to character as they question each other, creating a sense of confusion amongst the two girls.

Mode of address - how the text speaks to the audience, and involves them. It also involves how a text influences an audience to respond to a text in a certain way.