the birds

The Birds is a movie directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the film is about a young couple that meet in a bird shop. The couple end up spending the weekend together when strange things begin to happen in the town, all the birds in the city begin attacking the towns people, at first no one believes them and they are called liars until the birds make a massive attack on everyone.

Hitchcock showed the birds to have minds where they could think and act like real people, planning to take over and plot against the town.

At countless parts of the film, suspense is built especially during the final bird attack in the upstairs room of Mitch's house. Melanie hear’s something and decides to investigate. When opening the door she finds the birds have peaked there way through the roof and the whole room is filled with the birds. She is spotted and attacked to the point of death; Mitch hears the screams but struggles to get in as Melanie body is propped against the door now to weak to fight back. She pulls her out and runs to the car with her his mother and sister. The final scene is the car driving away. The film ends leaving the audience in suspense and wondering if they ever got away. 

The film used sound effectively especially in the school scene.  It is silent and then there’s footsteps followed by the fluttering of wings and then when the birds notice and begin to close in on there prey there it the screaming of children. 

alfred hitchcock

 
Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most famous directors of his day, he directed many thrillers that are still known today.  He was born August 13th 1899 and he dies 29th April 1980. He had always had a love for films and regularly attend the cinema to see what was new. Hitchcock was  known for switching things up he was known as different. Compared to other directors of his time Hitchcock changed things and did things he own way instead of 'by the book'. This made he's movies memorable and are still watched today. He was very lucky and he only got the chance to direct because one of the other director fell ill, he then finished to movie. The owners of the studio where so impressed that they decided to give him a chance to direct his own movie. After this he went on to direct more and more films and produce some of todays classic.
He's most recognised movies are 'The Birds' 'Psycho' and 'North By North West' these films are known because they are not like normal thrillers, many of them contain red herrings and the audience are never certain of what will happen next. Even when Hitchcock died he's films are still known and are still recognisable today.

Introduction to thrillers

A thriller is a genre there are many different types of genres including ones such as horror, comedies and science fictions. Thrillers are a genre of movie that often has an exciting plot and usually involves a crime.The genre itself is a popular genre and many people enjoy watching. In personal opinion I believe thrillers are only god if there done well.
Some of my personal favorite thrillers 'se7en' starring Brad Pitt, 'silence of the lamb' starring Jodie foster' and 'Anthony Hopkins’,’ shutter islands' starring 'Leonardo De Carpio' and 'limitless' starring 'Bradley Copper'These movies often contain cliff hangers, this leave the audience wanting to see more they also make the reader think more about the plot and the way its been presented. What is a cliffhanger? A cliffhanger is when the director builds suspense and drops it in order to encourage the viewer to watch on. Many also involve a red herring, this is when the audience is lead to think one thing and then a twist is introduced showing an unpredicted outcome. 'Shutter islands is a good example of a thriller that has a red herring.

 Narrative.

The narrative is the way events are revealed to the audience. The narrative can be shown in linear or non-linear order.  Linear is when the events are shown in order, this is the most popular form of narrative.  Non-linear is when the sequence of events is shown out of order.  ‘pulp fiction’ is a good example of a film shown in non-linear.

effects.

Thrillers use different effects such as lighting and music this allows the audience to feel the way the director wants. For example lighting can be used to create shadows this may be used to create a spooky effect: 

 

These lighting effects are used to make the audience thing that someone is there without showing them the face or any details about the person. These are used lot.

Music is also a useful effect when making a thriller, the music is usually fast pace when danger is about, also there is usually slow music when building up to danger. Different speeds of music often represent different things to the audience. 

sound exercise plan

written assignment- as media studies, first project.

in our first assignment we was asked to film a range of different shots. for example: 

• close up 
• over the shoulder 
• high angle 
• low angle 
• pan 
• tilt 
• rolling 
• tracking 

these are just a few examples of the  many you could have. we made out shots into a shot film. our film was based around a drug deal. however, due to a lost member of the group the story line ended up a bit confusing. we decided to try our best by killing of her character all together and made it so that that character had died. within our movie we tried to use all the shots although,  not all of them where involved. for example: 

• rolling cam
• tracking shot 
• extrem close up 
• steady cam
• long shot

we didn't include these shots because we couldn't think of a effective way to put it into the film. however , we did include a rolling shot but we was unable to find this scene when editing. 

we used different shot to show different things. 

low angle shot- we used this to show power that the criminal escaped for jail. this shows power. this was a successful. 

pan- we used this to show the direction in which a person was walking. this was successful because it showed us where she was going. 

tilt- we used this to get a clear view to show the audience a person in full. this gives the watcher a idea of what type of person they are by the way they look and dress. this was successful because it shows how she does look and the way she dressed described her perosnality. 

medium shot- this was used to show something happening between too people. 

close up- we used this to shows the audience exactly hows speaking at what time. 

high angle- we used this shot to show the status in a person. this was not sucsessful as it was not entirly clear who was in charge of the two. 

medium shot- we used this to show who was talking to who. this gives us an understanding of who's in controll of who and who has  a higher status.

over the shoulder- this was used to show a conversation taking place between to people.

point of view- this was used to show where the person was going and who they was heading for.

i did most of the filming in the movie. i held my shot steady by using the tripod, this made my shot clearer and less shakey. the tripod was useful as shots where clearer. some shot could have been done better as i mistakenly cut people heads off and missed them out of the shot. the high angle shot i believe could have been put in a different place in order to show a clearer understanding of status.

my favourite shot was the tilt. this because i was clear how it was used and why. the film could have made more sense and also we could of used more shots including rolling shot a and close ups. 

camera angle practice

http://youtu.be/oLLfVxd67R8