Response to Gone Girl  Nick and Amy fight scene

Gone Girl is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher. This film unearths the secrets at the heart of a modern marriage. From watching the clip, the representation of the film is gender in which the overpowering of male dominance between the two has been shown through both violent, physical and verbal actions towards his wife. The clip has been made clear that the contents of the film would be aimed at ages 18 and above from the sexual and violent scenes. Personally I think viewing would side towards and attract more females due to the sympathy and relationships towards Amy who is the main character of the film.

We are introduced to the clip through an over the shoulder shot of Nick rapping Amy which gradually fades into a panning shot. From us being introduced to Nick first out of the two it highlights that he has more power. The power Nick holds within the relationship is also expressed through the different camera angles and his actions towards Amy telling us that he plays the dominant role in the relationship.
Shortly after the panning shot a voice over of a women’s calm husky voice begins in whom we assume is Amy’s.  The story of their relationship is starting to be told through Amy’s thoughts and emotions. While Amy speaks her trapped thoughts instruments which we would associate in having a depressing outlook such as violins and string instruments begin to play which defines the mood and genre being a psychological Thriller. The lighting of the scenes is made up with warm tone household lighting. As the house looks rather big and specious and the costumes of the couple are dark it shows that their relationship is unfulfilled and unsteady as we associate dark colours to be the colour of depression/death.
The most powerful moment is the fighting scene. As we follow Amy down the stairs who is following her husband, as soon as she reaches the last step there is a sudden change to a mid-shot of the two. Amy is the first one to make the move out of the two where she hits Nick. However, as Nick is the stronger and more dominant one. As we would expect he pushes Amy to the floor. Short black outs accompanied by change of camera happen every black out which is showing us how panicky she is. The most powerful sentence which gets said throughout the first scene is when Amy says the words ‘what scared me was how much he wanted to hurt me more’ The whole of this fight scene foreshadows what is going to happen further on in the film as we expect Amy to be put in more danger.

I decided to deconstruct this film scene from Gone Girl as it is very similar to what I am planning on looking at as it explores psychological thrillers, and the different impacts it can have on the mind and how we act upon it.

Response And Deconstruction Of Sky Fall Fighting Scene

From watching the opening scene of 'Skyfall' you can immediately tell the film is action from the upbeat drums within the first few seconds of the clip. The representation of the film is the stereotypical view on gender as we can see a typical man doing a hard physical job of fighting on a train. From watching the clip you can tell the film is aimed at older teenagers on wards, most being male from the film clip involving more males than females and it itself being an action film.

The colours and lighting used throughout the film are bright greens/browns this leads you to think the purpose behind the setting being bright and the fight happening within daytime makes us feel that it wasn’t planned. If the fight happened at night we would have a whole different perspective on it as we wouldn’t be able to change the light from light to dark as easily making it less tense. The narrative is being told through the men fighting and their onward actions.

Within the first few seconds of the clip we are introduced to a male in a suit, from a medium shot angle he is the focal point of that shot making the wound to the left of his shirt stand out to us, the wound is foreshadowing the danger which may happen further on in the scene. The blood on the shirt also maintains the stereotype, so for him to then carry on and act like it’s not bothering him means he is very tough and doesn’t care to what lengths he has to go for his job.  Also when he is in the train carriage there’s a flickering of the light which creates tension for the viewers.

Of the upcoming fight between the two men another long shot camera angle has been used allowing us to see the location of the scene, which looks like a fairly arid mountainous place. The other man which we are introduced to is also wearing another suit, which links backs to the representation of the film as they are both fighting each other. From them wearing suits allows us to think they have a high end jobs, which they take seriously and respond to spontaneous drastic orders. When they begin to fight with each other the music goes from a drum beat sound to a sudden change of instruments, including a violin and other string and horn instruments, from the high pitch instruments it creates tension between the characters showing us that they are on opposing teams. A close up shot is used when one man begins the strangle another, the reason behind them using a close-up  shot is that we pick up on what he is strangling him with, which is an I.D tag letting us know that the person being strangled is the typical villain.

We are introduced to another character through a rising shot, informing us that she has power and is in charge, even from her appearance she exudes control and confidence, which the audience sees as power and dominance through others. There has been a use of juxtaposition as a women has the power whereas we would normally think a male would be held responsible for making orders for fighting and shooting to happen.

The role of gender and the representation of the film is reminded again when the curly brown haired women brings out a gun to shoot. In the fighting scene between the two men no man made weapons are used only chains and them fighting with their own hands whereas she has use a gun and even hesitates to shoot proving she’s weak and indecisive however if this was a man he wouldn’t think twice about pulling the trigger.  The change of scene begins to increase with the pace of the clip making the tension rise.

To conclude, the ending of the clip as the bullet fires from the gun the music stops, the only sound which happens is the echoing of Bond falling into the river. The way he falls and the low angle shot shows lack of power and gives us the impression he is dead. When he falls the lighting is daytime making us think he’s dead whereas if it was dark we would question it. Throughout the clip genderization is used a lot to prove that fighting is a man’s job, if the role was changed it wouldn’t be as effective on the audience because it would seem abnormal and unrealistic, and I think that what the clip wanted us to make us feel.

Media Skills

Before we started the Preliminary task I didn't know much about filming and editing, however as we started using the camera and lenses more I started to get the gist of focusing and creating different shots. I also have developed the skill to use final cut pro as now i can import footage and edit it whereas i didn't know much beforehand about editing.

Analysis

From watching the clip you can immediately tell the representation is the stereotypical roles of somebody in an office and gender, as the person behind the desk in an office is normally betrayed to have more power as they are use to their bearings also the role of a receptionist is normally seen as a women. I think the main audience who would be interested in this clip would be of an older generation as there is more of a serious tone to it. The narrative starts off being told through hand gestures then moves onto the two actors speaking.

Within the first few seconds of the clip the location is set in a hallway through a long shot, the shot goes from blurry to in focus shot allowing the viewer time to question where it is. We are then introduced to Anna (receptionist) with a close up shot of her hands playing with the tape which slowly tracks up to her face so we can see her facial expressions. The tape really sticks out as we made it the focal point of the shot which may lead you to think that it's foreshadowing her mood as she seems to be acting suspiciously.

Then we meet character two (Baz) through a low medium shot making the umbrella the focal point which links to the weather outside. The two characters are wearing different clothing. Baz is wearing a dark slouchy cardigan with his hair tied back messily where as the receptionist is wearing a blazer and her hair is down which allows us to presume she has more power as shes dressed smartly and takes her job seriously.  At first  you would think Baz has more power as he is the only one standing up, however the role is reversed as the receptionist asks Baz to take a seat, this makes us think she has more power as shes giving a demand.

The music is being played continuously through the clip but beings to become quieter when the two talk showing that their conversation is important. There is a sound effect of the phone ringing and the filter of the voice when the Mr Ripley speaks on the other end to make it seem like a normal conversation between the two.

Preliminary Task 

Converting Footage
After production we converted the footage onto Final cut pro, we were all excited and interested to see what we had filmed as none of us had watched it back before.

Editing
When we first imported the footage to final cut pro it originally looked difficult to edit, but once started playing around with the tools it became much more easier than we initially thought it would be.

Because we filmed two different shots with the voice recording we had to overlap them which was new technique for us but it looked very effective once we had figured it out. When the phone rang in the clip we wanted to make it feel that somebody was on the other end of the call, as originally we filmed the scene with Molly talking normally in front of the camera. To do this we used a voice filter.

Music
Finding the music to fit was quite difficult as the music determines the mood and the way we view something. In the end we went with a piece of music called  'Donkey Kong' as it had a serious feel to it and it suited the footage quite well.

What was frustrating was that when we were editing  we had to constantly keep rendering the clips because we had to make all the different layers into one, we also found out that we had missed a scene so at one point it doesn't make much sense as one of the characters responds in an angry manor to nothing.

After editing it was time to convert what we had to YouTube. When playing it on YouTube the clip tells us that it is 3:10 minutes long however it is actually 0:45 seconds long, the mistake we made was we forgot to cut the music.

Preliminary Task

Preliminary Task

For our Preliminary Task we were given the task of creating a short movie clip to the script 'Pop Goes' while incorporating a prob which in our case was masking tape.

We started off  reading the script thoroughly through individually so we all had a clear understanding to what the script was about. In our groups we then discussed the factors of Pre-production that we needed to explore and the importance of them, we also thought about the deadline and how we would meet it.

The script:

We then began to make a storyboard so we could get an idea of what is happening in each shot ie. camera angle, scenery lighting and what to be is in focus and not.

Storyboards:

Location
Once we made the storyboard we needed to think about the location, we wanted somewhere where we could film and not get disturbed by people as we didn't want any other sounds in the background because we wanted to have just the actors voices then we were going to add in the background music later on.  So as a group we went location scouting and found out that the best place to shoot would be in the art block corridor as it fits the storyboard and we would be able to shoot the camera angles we wanted there.

Props
When thinking about props we had to incorporate a masking tape into it but we wanted other props to make the scene of a receptionist's office so we included a phone, a desk and other items you would normally find in an office.

Lighting
The lighting was quite important to us as we wanted to create a serious atmosphere to the clips, we used spot lights from the wall to make the actors be the focal point. We also used natural lighting to make it seem more realistic and to capture the dull rainy weather outside.

The next thing we needed to do was find cast members for who can play the roles and fit a schedule around it, we wanted somebody who was good at acting so we picked two AS drama students.
We gave the actors the script before hand so they could have time to learn their lines, but before we starting shooting we went over their lines again so they knew exactly what to say if they were unsure.

Overall what went well is that we instantly got all our beginning ideas noted down, so we just carried on growing from it . All the time we spent planning made it much easier for us when it came to filming as we knew from the storyboard what camera angles to use lighting, props etc. However the main problem we had was managing our time efficiently because we filmed on two different days therefore the actors were wearing different clothes and their hair and makeup was also different. To improve this we needed to make a longer slot when filming so we can get more done also we needed to warn the cast when we were about to film so they would have time to prepare and wear the same clothes, hair and makeup.

Introduction To Media Studies - Camera Shots

As our first lesson into the Media Studies course our teacher 'Mr Lucas' thought it would be a good idea for us to get to know the different camera shots and angles. He explained to us that they are very important and create different emotions.

Camera Angle Definition-
The camera angle/shot is the amount of space that is seen in one shot or frame. Camera shots are used to demonstrate different aspects of a film's setting, characters and themes. As as result, camera shots are very important in shaping meaning in a film.

Analysing Camera shots

Camera Angle	Purpose
Close Up	A shot that keeps only the face full in the frame. Perhaps the most important building block in cinematic storytelling.
Medium Shot	The shot that utilises the most common framing in movies, shows less than a long shot, more than a close-up.
Long Shot	A shot that depicts an entire character or object from head to foot. Not as long as an establishing shot. Aka a wide shot.
Establishing Shot	A shot, at the head of the scene, that clearly shows the locale the action is set in.
Low Angle Shot	A shot looking up at a character or subject often making them look bigger in the frame. It can make everyone look heroic and/or dominant.
High Angle Shot	A shot looking down on a character or subject often isolating them in the frame.
Over-The-Shoulder Shot	A shot where the camera is positioned behind one subject's shoulder, usually during a conversation. It implies a connection between the speakers as opposed to the single shot that suggests distance.
Pan	A shot where the camera moves continuously right to left or left to right.
Tilt	A shot where the camera moves continuously Up to Down or Down to Up. A vertical panning shot. A tilt to the sky is traditionally a last shot in a movie.
Tracking Shot	A shot that follows a subject be it from behind or alongside or in front of the subject.
Two Shot	A medium shot that depicts two people in the frame. Used primarily when you want to establish links between characters or people who are beside rather than facing each other.
Zoom	A shot deploying a lens with a variable focal length that allows the cinematographer to change the distance between camera and object without physically moving the camera.