Indepth Product research analysis

Black Swan

BLACK SWAN follows the story of a ballerina, named Nina. in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her retired ballerina mother who supports her daughter. When artistic director Thomas Leroy decides to replace the prima ballerina for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. 

But Nina has competition: a new dancer, Lily, who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side with a recklessness that threatens to destroy her.

Camera:

Throughout the film Black Swan, movie director Darren Arnonfsky employs a large array camera movement and visual techniques to convey his ideas and themes. Throughout the film of Black Swan hand-held camera shots are frequently used. This is evident in the opening scene of the film, conveying the theme of good versus evil. Extreme close-up shots are used throughout the film and there are many examples of close-up shots and extreme close-up shots, Overhead shots are commonly used by Aronofsky. Aronofsky uses an array of different types of camera movement and shots to convey themes in the film. in specific, the overhead shot is key in developing the viewers understanding of the theme of seeking perfection.

Sound:

Black swan used Diegetic sound meaning, sounds in the film that were not recorded live at the time are played over instead of the live sound. Non-Diegetic sound also participated in the making of black swan, this is were sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action. The effect of music has been used effectively in the night club scene. the beat tempo and song choice, emphasise how wild Nina's actions and way of life have become. The scene displays to the audience how out of control Nina is, which is why she consumes alcohol and drugs.

Mise-En-Scene:

The shift from the White Swan to the Black Swan was a success because of the exquisite costumes which truly represented angelic and demonic birds. The colour and design of the two dresses Nina wears during the final dance, have a huge impact on the power of the scene. The white dress which is covered with beautiful white feathers and small crystals demonstrate the innocence of the character while the black dress covered with long pointy black feathers and volume creates mystery and darkness. 

The make-up also identifies which swan Nina is trying to interpret. The light and glowing make-up during the White Swan performance shows how angelic and fragile she is while the strong and dramatic dark make-up during the Black Swan depicts power and evilness. Without make-up and costumes, the shift between the two swans would not be as powerful and the setting during the show would have no more meaning. 

Black swan has Three point lighting, highkey lighting, lowkey lighting.  For example, for the three point lighting, when Nina is in front of a mirror there is a reflection this emphasises the duality of Nina transforming between two different roles in the same ballet production, hence showing the audience that Nina has a split personality which gradually alters from white to black; of her accomplished role as the black swan. In one of the scenes the technique is exposed by Nina looking away or blocking out the white light, which show her change of attention towards the dark side. this contrasts with her transition between good and evil throughout the film.

Editing:

Continuity editing is used in the scene in order to give it a sense of reality and progression. The film follows a linear narrative in order to give this same effect.Additionally, juxtaposition is used by placing the antagonist and Nina together, contrasting their costumes and creating an effect of a clash between light and dark. Very few cuts are made in the scene, meaning for the most part that the camera moves continuously with the characters, creating a sense that the audience is moving with them as well.This also helps to keep the flow of the dancing without interrupting abruptly (the scene only cuts when the dancing is finished or is slowing down

Focus Group

                                        Focus Group

A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging.

The group we asked questions were mostly teenagers.We assumed that our main audience would be people from the age range of 13-19 year old, also because that is what was the most popular answer in our questionnaire.Thriller has become a popular genre for teenagers; they find it exciting and suspenseful. We have all decided that the regional identity for our movie will be urban city. Our movie is about mental illness which is not limited by regional identities.As a result this will not exclude people from other regions. Our focus group will consist of people from different age groups. This will allow us to have a wider perspective on the genre of thriller.

Draft Survey

Draft Survey

For our draft survey we came up with eight questions to ask the public. We came up with these specific questions to get an idea of what our opening scene should include and what people would enjoy seeing more. Here are our eight questions:

1)What sub-genre do you prefer with the thriller genre?

2)Would you rather have an detailed story line with a realistic plot or detailed fight scenes focused on action?

3)What is your favourite film?

4)Who is your favourite actor/actress?

5)Which director in your opinion creates good thriller movies?

6)What do you expect in the opening scene of a thriller?

7)Is thriller your preferred genre?

8)How old are you?

These questions will help us figure out what the audience want to see and will also improve our ideas on the movie we will be producing in the future. Certain questions, like "how old are you?" is to see what the average age is of our audience, as a result it can allow us to either produce something that might be PG or other age restrictions.

All of these questions contribute to the final project that we are going to be doing as a group.

Genre Analysis

 The genre we have decided as a group to do is ,psychological thriller, the reason for this is because it makes the movie more suspenseful and emphasises its characters rather than the plot which would make it more interesting for the audience and for the people taking part in the movie opening.

Psychological thriller is a good genre because it is a mix of action and psychological which both are used to add to the suspense. Elements of drama, mystery and horror can often find themselves in the psychological thriller due to the emphasis on motivation and the mind.Psychological thrillers often deal with common themes such as death, reality, perception, identity, existence or purpose and one or two of these themes should be wound through the novel.

Initial Film Ideas

My initial opening scene will be about a young boy that has a disability and is struggling with most basic things in life. he is unable to do basic stuff such as cleaning up, making his bed or even pouring water into a cup. He has a severe condition called "Dabbing" this condition does not allow the boy to participate in many things in life because he dabs too much.

The boy is 15 years old and is going to a normal secondary school, located at south west London.The boy's name is Toby, Toby lives in an average middle class family with his mum, dad and two younger brothers. Toby's has had this condition from the day he was born, not only has this created stress on his parents but Toby's siblings and friends too. The condition that Toby has does not just affect him, it affects the people around him, no one can be around Toby because he dabs too much, whoever is with Toby, usually gets hurt or embarrassed.

Toby loves to play basketball during his free time, but he always ends up with a red card, but not due to his condition he is always hitting other players losing the ball.

Editing Techniques

Editing Techniques 

Continuity editing:

Continuity editing is a sequence of shots arranged in a specific order to suggest a progression of events. As there are various amounts of shots an editor can suggest different scenarios, using only two or three shots.

Accelerating Time:

Accelerating time is just long scene shorted. For example if its meant to take someone 90 minutes to drive from London to Brighton, it will only show a few seconds of certain clips, getting dressed (3 secs) getting in the car (2 secs) driving (3 secs) quick stop (1 sec) arriving at destination (3 secs) this is good because the audience will not be bored, instead they will be more entertained, as the 90 minutes of a drive has shorted to nearly 20 seconds of footage.

Expanding Time:

Expanding time is when two separate and different shots are eventually going to emerge together while creating suspense. for example if there is a car a fast car chase happening there will be fast, suspense music in the background, while the other shot will be the opposite of what is happening, which would be a child peacefully be playing with a ball in the park or in front of their house, this scene would be having calm and relaxed music. eventually the chase will get closer and closer to the kid. After that something tragic may occur, typically this is when the kids ball gets kicked or thrown into the middle of the road, where the fast car will appear. The editor creates suspense by constantly changing shots between those two scenes back and forth, this builds suspense because it will make the audience engage about what might happen next.

Cause, Effect and Motivation:

Cause, effect and motivation are all linked as the cause can lead to the effect which then leads to the motivation. For example, if a woman was murdered and she had killed someone before, in this case, the motivation would be revenge, which had a cause

Insert Shot

An insert shot is close-up of something that exists within a scene, they also add needed information to the audience. For example, if a drug deal goes down and the buyer overdoses on the drug, a close-up shot would reveal what drug they bought.

Cutaway:

Unlike insert shots that show additional information in a close-up shot, cutaways show additional information by cutting away from the main scene.

Relational Editing:

Relational editing refers to establishing a relationship between scenes. For example, if someone is calling someone 

Thematic Editing:

In thematic editing, also referred to as montage editing, images are edited together based only on a central theme. In contrast to most types of editing, thematic editing is not designed to tell a story by developing an idea in a logical 

Parallel Editing:

When segments are cut together to follow different story lines. For example, in "The Great Train Robbery (Film)", the creator constantly cut scenes to match different story lines.

Cross-cutting:

In a cross-cut the camera will cut away from one action to another action, which can suggest the simultaneity of these two actions.

Analysis of Citizen Kane opening

In the Opening of Citizen Kane there are various of different shots being used, creating many effects. In the very beginning there was a close up shot of a sign saying "No trespassing", this is telling the audience that the place this movie is situated in, is dangerous and could also hint of the genre which could be either horror or drama.The establishing shot was of a possibly abandoned castle in a deserted cemetery emphasising the fact this movie will contain thriller and horror. The extreme close up was when Kane spoke his final words, while this was happening the camera zoomed around Kane's lips; these were his final words that Kane spoke.

The Fading transitions does also suggest that the shots will continues. The use of accelerating time was used to fast forward the time from the bottom of the cemetery until the death of Kane on his deathbed.When Kane is laying in his deathbed about to pass, hes holding a mysterious object which later turns out to be a snow globe. This snow globe falls and breaks as soon as Kane dies. The snow globe is representing Kane's life, once he died everything will be gone and vanish.

The music and sound being played in the background is very creepy and eerie, this creates suspense because the music is slowly starting to progress and build up speed as it get closer to the main part which is the death of Kane. At times the sound went silent to bring in the audience and to make them more focused into the movie. The lighting was low-key this caused intimidation and tension because the audience did not have a clue of might happen during this scene. Fog was used to emphasise the fact that it was really hard to see and it also to emphasise more the scene this was situated in was more scary.

Different type of camera angles were taken to not only make the movie better but also to emphasise the spookiness of this castle. A low angle shot was taken to make the castle seem much more bigger than it is. Pan shots were used to show us how empty the surroundings of the castle are and to also emphasise on how big the whole area is.High angle shots of boats were taken to show the inferiority compared to the castle.