Film Review: The Babadook

Halloween day I plucked up the courage to watch a recent horror hit, The Babadook. Released in 2014, directed and written by Jennifer Kent and starring Essie Davis. A widowed mother is burdened with her abnormally weird, monster obsessed child and soon becomes haunted by a sinister presence. Focusing on the realistic anxiety that surrounds this mother and her disturbed child, The Babadook is thrilling and unnerving.

This film was sinister and unsettling throughout. Like The Shining, this film depicts what it may be like to be driven into insanity. Less about jump scares and more about getting deep under the skin of the audience. The Babadook walks the line between realism and surrealism, perfectly combining the realistic decent into madness brought on by a demonic creature brought out by a book. 

The cinematography of this film is absolutely brilliant and completely responsible for its greatness. The shots, editing and music is fantastic and increased the ominousness of the film.

Although this is classified as a horror film I can confidently say I will sleep fine tonight (unless I happen to find any Babadook books on my shelf) as it was unsettling and disturbing but had a very 'happy'? ending.

I really enjoyed this film and recommend it to those who enjoy being thrilled. I rate this a 9.4/10

If it's in a word. Or it's in a look. You can't get rid of ... The Babadook.

Happy Halloween.

Film Review: The Shining

In the spirit of all hallows eve I watched the famous 1980 classic The Shining. Directed by Stanley Kubrick this film is brilliantly chilling and perfectly executed. Based on the classic Stephen King book this film focuses on a small family, the Torrance's, as they maintain a large hotel over the winter. Known for a previous caretaker's murder of his entire family. The family is haunted by strange figures and visions, and we experience Jack's decent into insanity.

I absolutely loved this film, it was suspenseful and thrilling. Jack Nicholson's performance was brilliant, his pivotal turn to madness was subtle but clear. The overall the filmography of this film was great, used to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Shelley Duvall's and Danny Lloyd's performance were compelling and convincing throughout and I was truly terrified.

A fantastically constructed film that demands to be seen, I rate it 10/10.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. 
Happy Halloween...

Coursework Task and Assessment Criteria

Coursework Task:

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, 
to last a maximum of two minutes. 

And this is what we will be assessed on:

Film:

Blog/Research:

Evaluation:

Questionnaire

I asked 25 people a range of questions to do with their film preferences, here are the results:

By doing this questionnaire I learnt that the idea my group currently has will appeal to a wide audience if it done correctly as many people would enjoy flash forwards if done well and make sense in context. However some people thought that flash forwards could possible ruin the film by maybe not making sense or just ruining the end as they worked out what happened before the film is over. 

Also, I learnt that the first ten minutes are important to most people as it sets up the tone of the film and keeps them wanting to watch. Although the opening to our film is only two minutes we will try to create something interesting that will keep the audience watching. In addition I noticed that people did like thrillers, as long as they were well done and captivating but less people liked horrors which will indicate to us what kind of genre will appeal to a wider audience.

Most of the people I asked mostly watched films that were rated 15, I think this is because they are targeted towards a mature audience without all the gore, sex and swearing as films that are rated 18. Some people did prefer to watch films rated 18 as they were more hardcore but I think our film opening will appeal to a wider range of people if we keep it 15.

Some people were for a female protagonist as it gave out a positive message to young girls aspiring to work in the film industry, however most of the people I asked were impartial and felt that it did not matter if the main character was male or female.

Overall I think many people would enjoy a film that was gripping right from the start and had good editing techniques, people and good writing in it, which is the type of thing my group is aiming for with our two minute opening.

Story Board Practice

In the lesson we practised story boarding by watching an extract of Luther, here are the results:

This story boarding practice will be useful for the future as we will use loads of these for our final product. It is important to story board before filming so when you start to film you can stay on topic and know what you are doing. Obviously, I will not be the main story boarder because it is evident that I cannot draw.

Opening Ideas

This is our first idea for our two minute film opening. It was further developed in this video and we plan to develop it more. We would also like to incorporate other ideas into our final production.

There is no film that this idea directly comes from but I think my inspiration was the from the film Donnie Darko, in which Donnie meets Frank ( a  6" man in a bunny costume). The scene is ominous and deep without giving so much away as what this character has to do with the rest of the film, and I think that is what we are aiming for in our scene.

Review: The Martian

The Martian directed by Ridley Scott, and starring Matt Damon. Adapted from the book of the same name, during a manned mission to Mars, Astronaut Mark Watney is presumed dead after a fierce storm and left behind by his crew. But Watney has survived and finds himself stranded and alone on the hostile planet. With only meagre supplies, he must draw upon his ingenuity, wit and spirit to subsist and find a way to signal to Earth that he is alive.

Personally I think this film is very well done, the picture and framing of shots are beautiful and he sets are brilliantly constructed. The plot of the film is gripping, compelling and funny throughout. From the first scene there is high action and intensity, a gripping plot and fantastic acting especially on Damon's part makes you feel attached to his character rooting for him the entire way to succeed in his mission of getting home. 

Over all this movie is fantastic. The writing and directing of this film is very well done and allows a lot of character development allowing the audience to feel connected with the characters. Many of the actors do a very good job of bringing these characters to life and making us relate to them. Furthermore there is a lot of accurate science in this film so you are also learning. I really, really like this film and recommend it to everyone.

The only problem I have with this film is there are a lot of cliché moments and some moments where you think Damon is making too many jokes for a guy who is stranded on Mars, other than that everything else is really good.

I rate this film a 8.6/10

Mac 4 Prelim

This is our first cut and edited video. At the end of the year this will be used to compare to our final film opening, so it is meant to be bad:

The Use of Sound in Film

The shower scene is one of the most famous scenes in this film, the sound used in the is high pitched music along with the woman's screams build up tension in the scene and makes the audience feel scared.  It also makes the scene gripping and unsettling.

Other films go for a score that is upbeat and make the audience feel happy and upbeat throughout the film, this may be using one song for example Everything is Awesome from The Lego Movie or using an entire soundtrack for example The Awesome Mix, Vol 1 from The Guardians of the Galaxy.

However it is not just film soundtracks that are used to establish a relationship with the audience but also TV shows. The opening credit music of a show can tell you a lot about what to expect for example the well known Friends theme tune tells the viewer that this show is upbeat and relaxed however music from the opening scene from Dexter is chilling and mysterious, this sets a darker tone for the rest of the show:

However it is not just music but maybe lack there of, and also sound effects may impact the audience than actual music. An example of this is in the film drive in which The Driver proceeds to beat up a man and then stomping his head in. First there is a slow quite crescendo of the background and then the cracking and crunching side effects add a chilling factor to the scene as it feels like you are there and makes the audience unsettled.