Kill Bill Vol.1 Opening Scene (2003)

Director:  Quentin Tarantino

Tarantino has very cleverly devised the opening scene to his film, Kill Bill Volume 1. As an audience we are introduced to a blank screen with diagetic sound of a woman heavily breathing in a panicky way. The first shot we then see is in black and white with chiaroscuro, noir lighting of a woman's face lying on the floor, covered in blood. The use of black and white could be a reference to the old 1950's thrillers that Tarantino respected greatly. 

The shot then cuts to a low angle, tracking shot of a man's feet as they approach the woman. The diagetic sound of the footsteps adds emphasis to how frightened the woman is as well as showing that this man is a villain. 

The shot changes back to the woman's face which shows the struggle of power over these two characters. The two different shots establish a relationship or connection between these two characters. The shot continues to stay on the woman's face as the man begins to speak, the first line said is, "Do you find me sadistic?". The line implies that the man has inflicted these injuries upon this woman. As the shot stays on the woman's panicked face we feel sympathy for her as a character, which is the classic femme-fatale.

The man then begins to wipe her face with his handkerchief, which has the writing embroided onto it, 'Bill'. She turns her head away from this action, we can tell that she is uncomfortable with his actions. We now know that the objective of this film is to kill this man, hence the title of the film- 'Kill Bill'. 

We then hear diagetic sound of a gun being loaded, as the woman looks up we can see the fear in his eyes which indicates that he is about to shoot her. She then says her first line, "Bill, it's your baby". As soon as she says her first line he shoots her, we get the impression that she said what she did to prevent him from shooting her, or maybe to panic him after she has been shot. We now know that Bill is a very powerful man and a danger to society for he is carrying a lethal weapon. We get the idea that this film is very dark.

Tinker, Tailor Marketing Techniques

RUBY Tinker, Tailor Use New Technologies to Strengthen Marketing Campaign

Shots I used in my Preliminary Task

Shots I used:

Bird's eye- for when Chelsea walks through the corridor and into the classroom.

Tracking shot- Following Chelsea's feet through the corridor

Close up- At the beginning we have a close up on Chelsea's feet putting out the cigarette and on when Chelsea opens the door.

Over the shoulder- Following Chelsea after she puts out the cigarette, into the building.

Shot reverse Shot- During the conversation between Charlie and Will.

Panning Shot- When Chelsea enters the classroom, the camera pans out and follows her to her seat. 

Thrillers I have seen

• Inglorious Bastards (2009)
  Quentin Tarantino
• Leon The Proffesional (1994)
  Luc Besson
• Seven (1995)
  David Fincher
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
  Tomas Alfredson
• Taken (2008)
  Pierre Morel
• The Others (2001)
  Alejandro Amenábar
• Phone Booth (2002)
  Joel Schumacher
• The Birds (1963)
  Alfred Hitchcock
• Jaws (1975)
  Steven Spielburg
• The Crow (1994)
  Alex Proyas
• In Bruges (2008)
  Martin McDonagh
• Man on Fire (2004)
  Tony Scott
• Rear Window (1954)
  Alfred Hitchcock
• What Lies Beneath (2000)Robert Zemeckis

My Evaluation of our Preliminary Task

What planning did you do? How was this useful, and how did you change your plans?
- Originally our plan was to have a girlfriend and boyfriend having an argument. But we couldn't work out what they should argue about. It was useful because we could brainstorm ideas and choose which one we thought would work best. We changed the boyfriend and girlfriend roles and instead had them simply as friends then we came up with the argument, which was Will being against Chelsea smoking. 


What camera skills have you developed?
- I have developed a lot in my camera skills, I have learnt how to keep a steady hand learnt what camera angles work best for the sort of film you are shooting. 


How confident are you with using the cameras, and has this confidence changed during the project?
- I am pretty confident with using the cameras now, compared to what  to when we were first given them to practice. It took me a while to work out how they worked, but now I have a good understanding. I have particularly developed on how to keep a steady hand and use abstract shooting methods. Me and Charlie wanted to get a shot following Chelsea's feet whilst walking down the character, but without making the camera shake. So we decided to put the camera on a skateboard and push it along steadily to get the right angle we needed. But in the end we did not use the shot because it wasn't very still anyway. My confidence has changed a lot during this project, I now don't worry about putting an idea forward or saying if I don't think a certain shot works. I used to worry about whether or not my shooting skills would work but in the end my confidence grew and I was no longer worried if I had to re-shoot a shot I had originally done. 


What editing skills have you developed? How confident are you with using the editing programme? 
- Before we did our preliminary task I had only edited a few home videos on Windows Movie Maker so was not aware on how to use Adobe Première. Once someone had explained how to capture the video on to the programme and edit it all, I didn't find it hard to use anymore. I learnt how to cut and mute certain clips which was needed for our prelim' which I never knew how to do before. I do need to improve on how to add effects to certain slips and merging them together so it isn't so jumpy.

Winters Bone (2010)

Winters Bone

Director: Debra Granik

Genre: Thriller, Drama, American blue collar film

Critical Review

Haunting, Grim, but somehow Optimistic, 8 August 2010

Author: Mr Impossible (enedrulesyou@yahoo.com) from United States

Winter's Bone is about a 17 year old girl name Rolly Dee set out to find her father who put their house for his bailbond and then vanishes. If she doesn't find him, her family will be turned out to the Ozarks. Challenging her outlaw kin's code of silence and risking her life, Ree hacks through the lies, evasions and threats offered up by her relatives and begins to piece together the truth.

Let me, just begin by saying this movie is perfectly acted. Jennifer Lawrence gives an Oscar Worthy performance as Rolly Dee. I was surprised how excellent she was, because I was sceptical of her in the "The Bill Engvall" show. But she turned me to a believer and boy, she can REALLY act. Her performance actually surpasses some of Meryl Streep's performances. Hopefully the Academy will recognize her and give an Oscar nomination or maybe even a win! The film is well directed by Debra Granik and is easily her best work yet. She definitely has potential to become the "new" Kathryn Bigelow. Anyways the film is really bleak and powerful, but it still has a tone of hopeful in it. Very interesting and mesmerizing movie to watch. It is a bit slow at times, but trust me it never gets boring or dull.

10/10 Highly recommended.