NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

No Country For Old Men

The opening for No Country For Old Men begins with a voice over, with a man stating his opinion on life. We the get to see a beautiful sunset or sunrise, which makes the audience think that everything is calm and humble. We then notice that there's not that many people within this place, meaning if anything was to happening the no body will no about it. The man talking then begins to talk about the appalling crimes which takes place there, at first the beautiful scenery got the audience believing that everything was calm but it actually a bad place. Afterwards we see a Sheriff put someone in the car, we don't know who he is and what his part is in the movie. Which then takes us to jail, where the man placed in the police vehicle murders another man. He then escapes, and gets into the police car, takes off and kills another man.

Editing

In the beginning the moving had a very slow pace to it, introducing the beautiful scenery however its also showing us how deserted the place is.It then begins to pick up pace when the man gets arrested and put into the police car. When we get to the bit where he's in prison, the editing then gets faster, this is to show that there is a sense of trouble, which there was when the man was killing the officer. There was especially a fast editing when the officer was struggling because he man had to put in a lot of strength to try kill him. It then began to slow down when he got into the car, all of a sudden he stopped this man, then he pulls out this gas pipe and we get to see it in a different angle him placing it on the mans forehead and all of a sudden the man get killed.
Mise En Scene
The Mise En Scene concludes of a beautiful scenery to begin the movie. It then goes onto showing a police car with a man being placed into the car. It then changed and went into the police cell with the man being killed. The killer then leaves the police office and then gets into the car and then begins driving away and then stops at a whole different scenery. Then the scenery changes again to the near a farm, where a man is hunting a couple of deers, the he walks away after missing and then walks to another area where there is all dead bodies on the floor.
Sound
At the beginning there isn't as much sound as we should normally expect. It begins with a bit of dialogue, with the man speaking about his life. Whilst he's talking it cuts to a different image each time. We then see the police car and we can hear the police radio trying to bring through some information. Then the man enters the police car and then drives away, to the police office, where we can hear the diegetic sound of the police man talking on the phone. When the man then begins to strangle the officer, we can hear the officer struggling and little and the sound of his boots hitting the floor. 

OPENING SCENE OF THE HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

The opening Scene of The history of Violence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WokcHt5UQ-M

 

The opening scene of this movie is very important because we know who the main characters of the movie are, and we also get a sense of the character they will play. In this movie the opening starts with two men walking out of a restaurant and the surroundings of the area is very quiet. They get into the car and they realize they had run out of water, so the young man went back into the restaurant to get water. Then we notice the blood on the counter, and the two people shot dead on the floor. 

This then brings us to the conclusion that these two men were murders. 

Editing

The Editing of the movie starts off very slow in the beginning. introducing the neighborhood of their area and the two characters Leland Jones and Billy Orser. It then started to speed up when the young man went into the room to get water. It speed up whilst showing the surrounding of the motel and all the belongings that they own. 

Mise en Scene

The Mise en Scene concludes of a blue car, in which they use to drive them to their locations. There was a smartly dressed man and another man who was just wearing casual clothing, this shows to us that the man in the dressed in a smart suit is in charge of the man in the casual clothes. The settings of the opening is at a motel, they may have used this setting because a lot of killings usually happen at motels. Also the area of the motel was very quiet which makes the audience feel on edge, it also creates a sort of mysterious atmosphere.There was also a gun used in the opening showing that there is going to be violence in this movie as well as the title, it also shows to us that there is danger. Then we see the little girls doll, this is a comfort toy for the little girl seeing as her parents have just been murdered. This makes the audience feel more sympathy for the child, because there is nothing that she can do excepts cling onto her doll. 

Sound 

At first we are introduced with a drilling sound this is a non-diegetic sound seeing as we cannot see the drilling but we can hear it. Then there is the dialogue which goes on between the two males for a little while. Then there's the diegetic sound of the radio, we can see the source of sound which is why it is the diegetic sound, and also the sound of the car counts as a non diegetic sound as we can see that the sound it coming from the car. The man enters the restaurant, then as soon as we see the blood all of a sudden here is a backing track to show the suspense and tension of whats happening in that precise moment. Then there were little sounds being picked up for example the sound of the fly when the body were shown, this is a non-diegetic sound because we can hear the sound of the fly but we cant see the fly, and then the sound of him pouring water into the bottle, this is a diegetic sound because we can see him poring the water into the bottle. And lastly there's the diegetic sound of the gun being let off. 

Camera

At the beginning he used the tracking shot to show the surrounding of the neighborhood, it shows that the country that they are in is hot and mild. Then there's a steady shot when the two men are in conversation, this is to show that there's no drama happening at this moment. But then he goes into a Pan Shot when he is showing the whole of the restaurant, he scans around the whole room to show all of the contents in the room. Then there is a low angle to make the man look bigger and more powerful and in control, this was shown when the little girl appeared out of no where. He then used a point of view shot as he walked toward the little girl, then there was a extreme close up of him handling the gun. 

EDITING INTRODUCTION

Editing - Introduction 

Editing is the process of looking at all the footage shot during the making of a film/ TV programme and placing it in the desired order. 

There are two key areas to concentrate on when editing:

1. The Speed of Editing, so this means how long will each shot last. 
2. The Style of Editing, so how each shot is joined together to the next. 

Speed of Editing

The Speed of Editing will help to determine the mood of whats taking place on screen. So for example if the audience is feeling anxiety and suspense, this means that the editing will be quick, the scenes and shots would be changing very quickly in order to keep up the suspense the audience will be feeling. As the film progresses the scenes may become shorter as the editing cuts between telling two or more story-lines at the same time.   

When it comes to the Speed of Editing there are two things you will need to consider:

1. How quickly or slow the shot appears or a sequence. 
2. How long they will appear on the screen if used. 

Style of Editing 

The style of Editing is how each shot are linked together to form the scene. Its also the movement form one shot to the next, in other words this can be called a Transition. 

There are five ways in which you can link to shots together, these consists of:

Straight Cut

• This is the most common and "invisible" way of forming a transition 
• it works when one shot moves instantaneously to the next without attracting the audiences attention. 
• The Straight Cuts help to retain reality, they do not break the viewers suspension of disbelief.

Hers's an example of a Straight Cut:

Dissolves

• This happens when you fade one shot off the screen whilst another shot is fading in.
• The audience will then be able to see both shots on the screen at the mid-point of the dissolve.
• Its used if the film maker wants to show a connection between two characters, places or objects. 

Here's an example of the Dissolve Shot by Citizen Kane:

Fades

• This is where there is a gradual darkening or lightening image until it becomes black or white.
• One shot will fade until only a black or white screen will be seen. 
• Its used to indicate the end of a particular section of time within the narrative. 
• And it shows the passing of time. 

Here's an example of a Fade Edit:

Wipe Cuts

• This is when one image is pushed off the screen by another image
• This style of cut is normally used in science- fiction films such as Star Wars. 

Here's an example of a Wipe Cut:

Jump Cut

• This is used when the audience's attention it brought to focus on something which has just all of a sudden happened. This occurs when the continuity editing is broken, also known as discontinuity. It makes it come across as the scene has been removed. So for example in the movie Breathless it gets used quite often. 

Here's an example of a Jump Cut:

UNKNOWN (2011)

Unknown (2011) 

Facts:

• Director Jaume Collet- Serra
• Writers Oliver Butcher (screenplay), Steven Cornwell (screenplay)
• Stars Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger and January Jones. 

• Budget: $30,000,000(estimated)
• Opening Weekend: $21,856,389 (USA) (20 February)
• Gross: $130,786,397 (Worldwide)(12 May 2011)

This film is very recent, meaning that the quality of the film will be more improved then the other movies which I have posted. You can tell by the poster that its a recent film because of  the moderate editing of the poster. It looks like they have put in a lot of thought into editing the poster. In some way just looking at the poster you can tell that the movie is going to include some sort of action, especially with the actor Liam Neeson being involved.

 The movie is about a man who has forgotten his suitcase at the airport, as he returns back to go get it, it resulted in him being in a accident and being placed int a coma for 4 days. When he wakes up he tries to get his life back together but he cant, because another man has stolen his identity nobody recognizes who he is not even his own wife. With the help of a young women and old man he hopes to prove who he is.

The film has the essential characteristics of a good thriller, it includes so many different moments of tension. For example when he was in the hospital, and he had just come out of the MRI Scan. There was a person who tied him to the hospital and was trying to kill him. He was trying to reach for the scissors whilst the guy was in another room. This created a lot of suspense because everyone was wondering whether or not he was going to get the scissors in time to set himself free before the man came back into the room. The soundtrack had also caused a build up of tension, especially with the use of disoriented sounds.

There's also the scene they're in the Club trying to escape from the person who's trying to kill him. But this time he wasn't alone, he was accompanied by the young omen who had saved his life in the accident. This scene was effective because they had the use of loud booming soundtrack, disorientating the music causing a threatening atmosphere. The screen is also blacked out, the only thing we can mainly see is the shadows of other people. The viewer feels as confused as the main character does, because the don't understand how this man has lost his identity and why there are other men trying to kill him.

The movie definitely does include the Vladimir Propp, it includes the Hero, Villain, Helper, Princess and you could say it includes the False Hero. So in this case you could say that that the Hero is the first Martin Harris to star in the film, and the villain is Professor Rodney Cole who was the person who set up the whole thing, when he found out that Martin had forgotten his identity he put someone in replacement and tried to kill Martin off so that he wouldn't interfere.You could also say the Rodney Cole is also a false hero as he pretends to be Martins friend at first but then he tries to kill him. And you could say that the Helper is the old man before he died, he tried to help Martin identity  who he was but unfortunately he died which left Martin having find out who he was by himself. And the Princess in this movie will be the Eastern European girl Gina who Martin was very protective over.

PSYCHO

Psycho

THE BIRDS

The Birds (1963)
Down below is the trailer of another on of Hitchcock's Thriller movies:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPC_Mp0Y9WM

In the trailer, you can see that everything starts off all calm and humble with the actress Tippi Hedren in the store and also visiting the primary school. But the all of a sudden see these birds and you find out that the hundreds birds are going to be attacking the public. The movie contains typical thriller aspects such as suspense, tension and excitement. When you see the title you wouldn't think that the movie will turn out to be a thriller movie, you would think that it would been any ordinary film. Even the poster doesn't reveal a lot about what the movie will contain.

 
You can only see the main actress Tippi Hedren, with a lot of birds surrounding her, you wouldn't be able to make out exactly what the movie will be about.

The Birds is a movie created in 1963 its a Horror/ Thriller which goes on for about 119 minutes. the film is directed by Alfred Hitchcock and was written by Daphne Du Maurier (Story) and Evan Hunter (Screenplay). It contains films stars such as Rod Taylor who played Mitch Brenner, Tippi Hedren played Melanie Daniels and Suzanne Pleshette who played a local school teacher Annie Hayworth.

This film contains an external threat which is coming from nature, this being the birds. Usually in Hitchcock's movie there's no where to hide, for example in Bodega Bay, when Melanie goes to visit the local restaurant and the birds begin attacking , when all the people in the restaurant ran out they had nowhere to hide, meaning they were attacked by the birds.





"Thrillers are characterized by fast pacing, frequent action" they say, this is shown in the scene from the movie birds when Melanie Daniels is in the children's playground and she sees the birds, so she runs in to the tell the children. they then have to go and find a way to escape, so the run out of the school and they run to the hotel. But along the way the birds begin to attack, this creates a sense of suspense and confusion towards the audience, because they will be thinking what is causing the birds to behave in such a way.







In this movie you could say that Mitch Brenner is the hero as he does try and make sure that everyone is safe, especially in the house when he boarded up all the windows and doors to protect his family from the birds getting into the house. And the villain of course would be the birds, there is hundreds of birds and there's fewer people making the birds more equipped and ready to attack the people.

Suspense is used extensively within the movie, especially right at the beginning  when Melanie is on the boat on her way to Bodega Bay on her way to visit Mitch and then all of a sudden out of nowhere this seagull appears and begins to physically attack Miss Daniels, this leaves the audience startled and confused as to why this happened as birds don't usually do this.

Dramatic Irony is when the audience knows something that the characters within the movie don't know. So for example in the school yard scene, Tippi doesn't know that the birds have gathered behind her, bus us the audience when the turns away from her we see that the is a lot of birds at the back of her that she doesn't know about.




In the Schoolyard scene the underlying score of the innocent child's song is in contrast to the evil in the nature. Tippi Hendren's character is only guilty of being taken for granted. In The Birds scene outside the cafe the high camera angle is like the gaze of pitiless God who cannot be bothered to intervene.
In the movie there isn't really a villain or a hero, the movie is mainly about these birds attacking the humans for no reasonable reason. I guess you could say that Mitch is presented as a hero towards the end, when he helped him and his family escape from the birds and get them to the hospital after Miss Daniels had been attacked.

Did You Know? 

The scene where Tippi Hedren is ravaged by birds near the end of the movie too a week to film?

And also the birds were attached to her clothes by long nylon threads so they couldn't get away?

Interesting!

The film features about 370 effect shots. The final shot is a composite of 32 separately filmed elements. A number of endings were being considered for this film. One that was considered would have showed the Golden Gate Bridge completely covered by birds.
The film does not finish with the usual "THE END" title because Alfred Hitchcock wanted to give the impression of unending terror. At the end we never found out what it was which caused the birds to attack the humans, it was an unsolved mystery.

When the audience left the film's UK premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square, London, they were greeted by the sounds of screeching and flapping of the birds from loudspeakers hidden in the trees to scare them further.It will give them a bit of suspense, and leave them wondering what this film could be about.

The actress Tippi Hedren was actually cut in the face by a bird in one of the shots. People thought that Alfred Hitchcock had a thing for blondes, because in most of the films he made the women who were blonde were either killed or harmed.
There is no musical score for the film except for a short electronic music sequence and the children singing in the school. The fact that there was a lack of Non- Diegetic sound it helped the audience to suspend the disbelief of it being unreal and leaving them to become more scared.

Hitchcock's Thoughts

Mankind has abused birds throughout history. Deliberate irony in the cafe scene with the elderly 'bird loving' lady. She is interrupted by an order for three southen fried chickens. In addition one of the other character's initial reaction is to shoot the birds. 

Hitchcock said that in "The Birds" the usual 'safety nets' such as (science/ religion) are denied to us. We are on our own. 

Hitchcock said thrillers allow audience "to put their toes in the cold water of fear to see what its like"

In this clip you can see how Hitchcock feels:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZjaVdJt59U

The Bird matches the Roland Barthes theory that all texts are 'complex' bundles of meaning. The Bird is a Open film, this is because the film did not have an actually proper ending, usually at the end of a film the problem is resolved but not in this case. This making the movie not to be a closed text, seeing as the threat is not yet explained or resolved at the end.