Die hard with a vengeance

Die Hard with a vengeance is the third movie in the die hard franchise. it was made in 1995 and includes actors such as bruce willis and Samuel L. Jackson.

The movie's plot involves John McClaine, a new York police officer, trying to work against the clock to stop a German Soldier who has named himself as 'Simon'.  Simon has put fake bombs around New York and to stop them McClane has to solve incredibly hard riddles.  However, he is not alone and is accompanied by Zeus Carver, who saved John from nearly getting stabbed by a gang of black youths.  By chance they realise that they are being distracted by these bombs as Simon has something bigger planned.  After finding that the germans are going to take all of the gold from the Bank of New York.  After finding where the gold is being moved to McClane and Carver end up in a Chase to find Simon.  They find him on a ship which contains one big bomb.  After being captured by the Germans the two are cuffed to the bomb.  They hastily escape just as the bomb explodes and are taken to safety.  All the while, Simon has told the police department that bombs have been placed in local schools and will soon explode. However, it is soon found that those bombs are also fake.  At the end of the film the police surprise the Germans with an attack and McClane ends up bringing down the helicopter that Simon is in, which ends up in his death.

The movie was a great success and ended up being the highest grossing film of 1995.

Throughout the movie the audience are on the edge of their seat.  The movie as constant action and tension that the audience is always hooked.  It makes the public shocked and terrified as they want to ind out if the kids will survive or if Simon will finally be caught.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is everything that is in the frame.

This includes:

• Settings and props

• Costume, hair and make-up- it shows what the characters are eg. a superhero or villain

• Facial expressions and body language- We all communicate through facial expressions and body 

• language and this is particularly important in media texts with the close-up and extreme close up.
• Lighting and colour
• Positioning of characters and objects in the frame- where characters and props are positioned is very important because this can emphasise the relative importance of the object or character.

Continuity editing

Continuity gives a sense of realistic chronology and makes it seems as if time is moving forward.  There may be the use of flashbacks or flash forwards, however the narrative will still be seen to be progressing forward in an expected or realistic way.

Continuity editing includes things such as eye-line match, match-on-action and graphic match.

• Eye-line match is when we see a character look at something off screen and then it is cut to a shot of what they are looking at.

• Match-on-action is when we see a character start a action in one shot and then seeing them finish it in the next shot.

• Graphic match is when two shots are linked with a similar shape or composition of an image.

Source Code

Source Code is an action thriller, staring Jake Gyllenhaal, about a fallen soldier who wakes up in another man's body.  He soon founds out that he is part of mission to find a bomber who was on the train that he had earlier woke up on.  He has the chance to save many peoples lives even though his has ended.  However, at the end of the movie he stays in the source code and lives a new life.
Throughout the film there is added humour to keep the movie enjoyable.  It also adds romance, suspense and mystery.



There are also scenes that are quite emotional such as the phone call to Jake's dad. This could have been added so that the audience will feel sorry for the character as family is very important.  

No country for old men

No country for old men is an American crime thriller which tells the story of of an ordinary man whom chance delivers a fortune that is not his.

It shows a cat and mouse chase where three men cross each others paths in the landscape of 1980 West Texas.  The film shows themes such as fate while still following the villain driven plot.

The villain known as Anton Chigurh is a hired hitman who has no compassion for other human beings.  He gets pleasure and enjoyment out of killing people and we see this when he flips a coin to decide the fate of the innocent shop owner.  The weapon that he chooses to use is a bolt pistol which he also uses to blow locks on doors.The audience know little about him due to his lack of speech, which makes him a very mysterious character.

Everything in the film is very dark, such as the costumes, the settings and the lighting.  This makes the film very frighting.  Also the short and sudden action scenes add a lot of tension to the film.

Also the fact that we see the villain in the opening scene shows the audience that the film will revolve around him or that he is a big part of the film.  We also see what he is capable of.

The Manchurian candidate

                                                       
The Manchurian Candidate is about the son of a US political family who was brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for the Communist party.  The film includes stars such as Frank Sinatra and Janet Leigh.

In the opening scene in the more recent version of the film, it goes straight to the battle in Kuwait which makes it more appropriate and immediate for the audience.  Also the flashback is a lot more sophisticated than the original.  Also, as the 2004 version is more modern, it was able to have explosions and night vision to make the whole scene more believable.  It contains non-diagetic sound such as the blood pumping in the flashback scene.

The brainwashing scenes in the movies are also very different.  In the original we see that the editing changes between communist soldiers showing a hypnosis affect, but in the modern version there were horrific images of drills and brain implants.

The original film was very cheap as they used one room for the press, however the 2004 version used real footage from party conventions and imitated real Fox news, making the whole thing seem more realistic.

A key scene would be the murder of Senator Jordan, as it differs from the original.  Drowning in the water creates a dream like state, which was to symbolise the main characters drowning.

Psycho

Psycho is a thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960, which includes stars such as Anthony Perkins and Janet leigh.  The story in the thriller is about Marion Crane who is an office worker who is fed up with her life.  She is unable to marry her lover Sam as he has to give his money away for alimony.  One day she is trusted to bank $40,000, however, she sees the opportunity and takes the money and starts to head towards Sams californian store to start a new life.  After a long drive and getting caught up in a huge storm she gets tired and decides t rest at The Bates motel.  The motel is managed by a quiet man named Norman who seems to be controlled by his mother.

At the start of the film the audience believes that the film is about the money that Marion stole, so when she is murdered everyone was in shock, which makes the audience apprehensive for the rest of the film  as anything could happen.  The audience now knows there is a murderer in the house, however, they do not know when they will strike again.  This means to be suspenseful they know that it could happen again at any minute.  Hitchcock stresses that as the apprehension increases there is less and less violence.  

The shower scene:

The most famous part of the whole film is the scene where Janet Leigh is murdered in the shower, it is so famous that people know of it even if they haven't seen the film.  The music has also been used in other films or television shows to denote the appearance of a 'psycho'.  Also, if you go frame by frame you can see that there is a lot left to the imagination of the audience.  We only see the knife, blood and part of the body, with only a couple of shots of the knife penetrating the body.  

The Birds

The Birds is a thriller about a wealthy woman from San Francisco who pursues a man to a small Northern Californian town that takes a horrible turn when birds start to attack the public with extreme violence.

In the movie dramatic irony is used as the audience knows something the character does not.For example, in the school yard Tippi Hendren has no clue that behind her a flock of birds is gathering, however, the audience is able to watch the build up.  Also in this scene the innocent children's song playing in the background is in contrast with the evil nature of the birds making it more terrifying.

In the cafe scene, Hitchcock used a high angle shot to make it as if it is the gaze of a pitiless God who has no intention of intervening.


The movie features 370 effects shots and the final shot is a composite of 32 separately filmed elements.

There were also many different endings thought of for the film, one was the Golden Gate Bridge covered in birds.  The film does not end normally as Hitchcock wanted it to be an unending horror.

Lighting

Lighting also plays a big part in films.  There are also many different types.

The key light is the brightest and most influential.

The back light helps to counteract the effect of the key light or creates an outline or silhouette.








The filler light helps to soften the harsh shadows that the use of key and back lights create.

Under lighting is when the main source comes from below he subject.  Used in thrillers and horrors films.

Top lighting is when the main source of lighting comes from above highlighting the features and is used to create a glamorous look.











Low key lighting is created by using only the key and back lights.  This will produce a sharp contrast of light and dark areas on the screen as very deep, distinct shadows are formed.








High key lighting is when more filler lights are used so the lighting appears more realistic.

 

Sounds

Sound is a big part of making different atmospheres and moods through out films.  They can create tension and suspense but also create happy and peaceful moods.

There are different types of sound.  One kind would be if the sound is diegetic or non-diegetic.  If it is diegetic then the sound refers to the world of text, which means it could be dialogue, or sound effects.  However, if it is not diegetic then it refers to everything outside of the world of text, which means it could be a voice-over or a soundtrack.

The sound could also e on screen or off screen.  On screen sound is when the audience can see the source of sound, however, off screen sound is when the audience are not able to see the source of the sound which means it enables the extension of the diegetic world.

Also, sound can either be parallel or contrapuntal.  If the sound is parallel then it will match with the actions shown in the film.  However if it is contrapuntal then the sound does not match to the action in the film.  For example, in Jaws when the woman is swimming in the ocean she seems happy and peaceful even though the sound is very intense.

Finally sound can contain bridges which are called sound bridges.  They help to create a smooth transition between one scene to another.

Camera shots

In films there are many different types of camera shots that are used to create different moods and atmospheres during a movie of short film.

Ones that I have studied however include the mid shot, the close up, extreme close up, over the shoulder shot, point of view shot and also a panning shot.

A mid shot is when the subject takes up the frame or as much as possible.

The close ups are when the camera shows a specific part of a subject and it fits the whole frame,  in an extreme close up the feature is in full detail.

An over the shoulder shot is when you are looking from behind a person at the subject, this is manly used when conversations are being held.

A point of view shot is when the perspective of the subject is shown as if you are looking through their eyes.

A panning shot is when the camera follows the subject for example when they are walking.