Monday, 29 March 2010
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
good film openings, Harry Potter
The scene opens with a slow fade effect onto a sign with an owl sitting on it, its night time and the sign says “Privet Drive” giving us a vague idea of the location. The camera pans to the right and not a lot can be seen clearly through the dark and mist but a few trees and an old man walks out of the mist like a ghost. He walks onto the street and takes out a lighter and holds it out above his head, with a slight movement of his wrist the light from the lamp posts is sucked into the lighter, he does this to all light on the drive. When this is done we hear a cat meow, he looks down at it and addresses it by name as if he were talking to a human, “I should have known you would be here, Professor McGonagall.” The camera pans left off the cat and focuses on its shadow, which stands and transforms into a shadow of a human and a middle aged woman steps into the shot and greets Dumbledore.
The two of them start walking down the street side-by-side, their conversation is very enigmatic and listening to their talk of rumours good and bad makes the audience feel they are eaves-dropping, McGonagall speaks with a Scottish accent and Dumbledore an English accent. A new character is mentioned, Hagrid, who is bringing a boy to them. McGonagall questions Dumbledore’s decision to trust Hagrid to do something so important and the audience can’t help but wonder why and Dumbledore reassures her that he would trust him with his life showing he is well acquainted with him. Immediately after Dumbledore’s line about trusting Hagrid a loud engine noise is heard and the next shot shows a bright light in the sky above the two professors, the shot changes to show a huge hairy man in a long coat riding a flying motor bike and it’s bright head-light shines in the professor’s faces. We gather that this giant man is who Dumbledore and McGonagall were talking about, a zooming close-up on his body and face as he greets the professors shows he is carrying a baby in a sling.
Hagrid hands the baby boy to Dumbledore and he and McGonagall walk further down the street together. As they walk McGonagall is once again doubting Dumbledore’s decisions, “are you sure it’s safe leaving him with these people?” she seems to be very concerned for the baby’s wellbeing, she goes on: “I’ve watched them all day, they’re the worst sort of muggles imaginable…” she tries to continue but Dumbledore interrupts saying they are the only family he has as they walk into a driveway, they are standing at the front door of the house when McGonagall gives us the most tantalising clue as to the importance of this meeting “this boy will be famous, there wont be a child in our world who doesn’t know his name”. This line of dialogues is designed to really grip the audience and have us all wondering what has happened to this baby and why Dumbledore, McGonagall and Hagrid are involved. As Dumbledore puts the baby on the doorstep a short close up on Hagrid shows him teary eyed and sniffing and Dumbledore turns to him and says, “there there Hagrid, it’s not really good-bye after all” does this mean they intend on seeing him again? The scene ends with Dumbledore putting a small envelope on the wrapped baby with the address clearly indicating the location and Dumbledore saying good luck harry potter and a close up on the baby’s face and a cut on his fore-head that looks like a lightning bolt.
Representations of the characters in the scene are in keeping with the genre of adventure fantasy and they are all clearly wizards and witches. Professor Albus Dumbledore is represented as an elderly man possibly in his 70s, he wears wizardly robes and a pointed hat and he had grown his beard and hair long. His entrance into the scene is eerie and mystical; stepping out of the fog and dark like a ghost and putting the street lights out with his magic lighter, it all makes a big impact on the audience. Professor McGonagall is very similar to Dumbledore, he also wears strange robes and seems quite old, but not quite as old as him. Her entrance onto the scene is even more dramatic than Dumbledore’s she seems to have the ability to turn into a cat, showing she has great power at her disposal. Hagrid is somewhat different from the two professors, he is younger than both of them but not by much, he calls Dumbledore sir so he is clearly respectful of him. His looks are quite shocking he looks to be about nine feet tall and wild long hair and beard but from what little we see of him it is clear he’s a bit soft as he weeps a bit when they leave baby harry on the doorstep. His entrance onto the scene isn’t as mystical as the professors on his flying motor bike but it’s very memorable and quite funny to think of that huge man delivering a baby to a doorstep like a stork.
Audience
Children and teenagers
Genre
Fantasy/adventure
Editing:
Real-time editing
Cinematography:
Single source lighting
Moonlight
Mist
We see McGonagall’s shadow/silhouette transform
Mise-en-scene
Location is a typical English suburban street with nice houses
Costumes are unusual but attractive
Sound
Mostly diagetic
Classical sound track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snHOoruwDwA
The two of them start walking down the street side-by-side, their conversation is very enigmatic and listening to their talk of rumours good and bad makes the audience feel they are eaves-dropping, McGonagall speaks with a Scottish accent and Dumbledore an English accent. A new character is mentioned, Hagrid, who is bringing a boy to them. McGonagall questions Dumbledore’s decision to trust Hagrid to do something so important and the audience can’t help but wonder why and Dumbledore reassures her that he would trust him with his life showing he is well acquainted with him. Immediately after Dumbledore’s line about trusting Hagrid a loud engine noise is heard and the next shot shows a bright light in the sky above the two professors, the shot changes to show a huge hairy man in a long coat riding a flying motor bike and it’s bright head-light shines in the professor’s faces. We gather that this giant man is who Dumbledore and McGonagall were talking about, a zooming close-up on his body and face as he greets the professors shows he is carrying a baby in a sling.
Hagrid hands the baby boy to Dumbledore and he and McGonagall walk further down the street together. As they walk McGonagall is once again doubting Dumbledore’s decisions, “are you sure it’s safe leaving him with these people?” she seems to be very concerned for the baby’s wellbeing, she goes on: “I’ve watched them all day, they’re the worst sort of muggles imaginable…” she tries to continue but Dumbledore interrupts saying they are the only family he has as they walk into a driveway, they are standing at the front door of the house when McGonagall gives us the most tantalising clue as to the importance of this meeting “this boy will be famous, there wont be a child in our world who doesn’t know his name”. This line of dialogues is designed to really grip the audience and have us all wondering what has happened to this baby and why Dumbledore, McGonagall and Hagrid are involved. As Dumbledore puts the baby on the doorstep a short close up on Hagrid shows him teary eyed and sniffing and Dumbledore turns to him and says, “there there Hagrid, it’s not really good-bye after all” does this mean they intend on seeing him again? The scene ends with Dumbledore putting a small envelope on the wrapped baby with the address clearly indicating the location and Dumbledore saying good luck harry potter and a close up on the baby’s face and a cut on his fore-head that looks like a lightning bolt.
Representations of the characters in the scene are in keeping with the genre of adventure fantasy and they are all clearly wizards and witches. Professor Albus Dumbledore is represented as an elderly man possibly in his 70s, he wears wizardly robes and a pointed hat and he had grown his beard and hair long. His entrance into the scene is eerie and mystical; stepping out of the fog and dark like a ghost and putting the street lights out with his magic lighter, it all makes a big impact on the audience. Professor McGonagall is very similar to Dumbledore, he also wears strange robes and seems quite old, but not quite as old as him. Her entrance onto the scene is even more dramatic than Dumbledore’s she seems to have the ability to turn into a cat, showing she has great power at her disposal. Hagrid is somewhat different from the two professors, he is younger than both of them but not by much, he calls Dumbledore sir so he is clearly respectful of him. His looks are quite shocking he looks to be about nine feet tall and wild long hair and beard but from what little we see of him it is clear he’s a bit soft as he weeps a bit when they leave baby harry on the doorstep. His entrance onto the scene isn’t as mystical as the professors on his flying motor bike but it’s very memorable and quite funny to think of that huge man delivering a baby to a doorstep like a stork.
Audience
Children and teenagers
Genre
Fantasy/adventure
Editing:
Real-time editing
Cinematography:
Single source lighting
Moonlight
Mist
We see McGonagall’s shadow/silhouette transform
Mise-en-scene
Location is a typical English suburban street with nice houses
Costumes are unusual but attractive
Sound
Mostly diagetic
Classical sound track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snHOoruwDwA
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
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