Connotation, Denotation and Semiology

• Connotation is using a name/ a label which our audience has used before we evoke a meaning for it

• Denotation is when you give a name to something with a particular meaning.

Some examples of Denotation and Connotation would be:

MICHAEL JACKSON - his name is a Denotation his name itself suggests who he is. 
Connotation: movie star, hollywood, death, fame, beauty, drugs... etc.

Michael Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009)

'Don't Look Now' opening sequence analysis

In the lesson today, we studied an  opening sequence in 'Don't Look Now', we looked at what editing techniques were used and what the techniques portrayed.

In this short clip Nicolas Roeg used a lot of match cuts. 'Match cuts' were used to link what was happening outside So in today's lesson, we looked at another opening sequence and tried to identify what editing techniques were used in it and what was the meaning behind it. 

 

First Production Meeting for Thriller

Discussing Ideas...

First we listened to each others thriller ideas; between us we decided that we wanted to use two thrillers combined:

First Idea

 

its starts off with a man who suffers with OCD (obsessive compulsive

disorders). We wanted to show this man's structured routine

and how everything is portrayed immaculate and in

an order. We wanted to include a twist to

this thriller where this man would be

a killer who kills beautiful

women, who are

all very the

same.

 

Second Idea

 



 

to

begin

there would

be an inspector who

comes to a mental health

asylum, to investigate a mysterious

death. The inspector look at an outline of

a body on the floor, he speaks to someone and

looks back and the body has gone and then a black out. 

 



Our group idea sharing worked with ease, we all agreed that we would interpret the two ideas as one.

 

Although, we were worried that the OCD idea would come across quite cliché, we are still very confident with this idea and we feel that we can film it very interestingly. The sequence will include something unique about OCD; which we are going to research.



Premilinary Task Video

Our Prelim Video

 

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

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

 

Getting divided into our Thriller Groups

Today, we were put into small groups for our Media Studies Thriller Coursework.  I am in a Group with Ellie and Daria.

Our Media teacher decided on who would work together well, and he made the groups fair by equally splitting males and females up; this was due to the stereotypical idea: that the male students strengths were that they would come up with many unique, intriguing thriller plots and ideas, that the public would most definitely go and see, but their weaker areas would be putting effort into how the set would look on the day.

Whereas the vast majority of the female students, have the strength of been very creative (not all girls), and are very capable of designing out very precisely, the design of the set, the costumes and the way they wanted the thriller to be filmed on the shoot day.

Our potential strengths in the group currently consist of three creative students. Ellie is an art student, Daria is a textiles student, and as for me I am a theatre and dance student; outside of school, in my own time, I love sketching and painting.

Our weaknesses are that Daria and Ellie are quite shy and quiet, this was a problem at first, as communication was lost a lot and I had to take the lead of the speaker and present our sketch to the class, but then as we grew as a group and bonded more, we all became equally a leader.

I am very pleased with my group, as we all get along very well in Media, and I am looking forward to working with Ellie and Daria in the near future.

Thriller Idea 4

Lake

It’s a normal night out for typical teenagers. There are a group of ordinary teenagers that love partying and going to house parties. There is this one house party, they will never forget.

    This opening sequence starts off with this one girl, Stacey, drinking a bottle of beer and singing. There is a huge garden outside of this house and Stacey, Matt, Harry, Taylor and Harriet go outside and they are all drunk. Stacey has too much to drink and drowns in the lake and it ends.

Thriller Idea 3

Basement

This woman and man are planning to get married. She works as a hairdresser and he is a policeman. They love each other so much and have a very good relationship. But being a policeman is hard work for their relationship. He gets into a lot of fights and goes through many dodgy, scary experiences and is injured quite badly. One night this policeman comes across two young lads who are taking drugs in the middle of the street during the day, and he does not like this. This policeman gets into a lot of trouble with these two lads and it does not end, as a happy ever after for him and his wife unfortunately.

     We start in a basement, of this man in a wedding suit hung upside down. He is gagging and is terribly injured and dying slowly, there are two tough guys beating him up. The camera goes from his head up his body to show his injuries and then it goes through the floor to show what’s happening upstairs. Upstairs there is a wedding part, with the bride in her wedding dress, the bridesmaids and all the family sitting on this long table and  there is one chair missing. And the bride says “Has anyone seen Steve?”, and the camera goes back to Steve dead hung in the basement, swinging.

Thriller Idea 2

Key

This film is based on a young girl, who is on her way to school and we notice this key is always close to her. We see her live her normal life, with her friends and at school. All of a sudden things start to go wrong. She thinks she seems to have a stalker who always follows her. She starts to have horrible nightmares about a figure slitting her neck with a sharp item. It turns out that this is true, she does have a stalker and he is a fifty year old bus driver. He has followed her for a couple of months now, and knows her every move.

   The opening sequence begins with a nightmare of a hand over a young girls mouth and a sharp item slitting her neck open and then it cuts straight to this young girl, who has had this nightmare waking up in shock in bed and she’s hyperventilating. This key is on her bed side table when she wakes up and she picks it up and has a shower and we still see this key on the side, as she closes her eyes in the shower, the next really short flashback of the nightmare pops up again, the girl gets out of the shower gets dressed and goes downstairs, has her breakfast and goes out the door. As she close the doors, she looks at her hand, and there is a close up shot of her hand with the key in it and her hand curls up slowly in slow motion over the key.

 

Thriller Idea 1

Media Thrillers

Tube station

This film is based on a traditional English family that are travelling up to Scotland to their holiday home for a weekend. They travel up to Scotland by tube station and then by taxi. They are running really late for the train and their youngest little boy is crying and screaming because he is tired. They run for the train and finally make it, and there seems to be a lot of technical difficulties on the train and in their house in Scotland. A main part to this film is this scary looking man, who is always smirking; he is the ticket man, he is on the same train; he is the taxi driver. Many mysterious things go on during their weekend in Scotland.

     The opening sequence starts off at the London tube station. We are introduced to an English family of four; a mum, a dad and two young boys. The youngest of the two boys is crying and screaming, and the family are running late for their train. The dad buys their train ticket and we get a shot of the ticket man’s face smiling at them.  They are now sprinting and running down the stairs for this train, tension rises, we can hear the panting of the dad, the voice at the station calls “platform 11A calling at Larbert Station”, the public are getting louder and louder. They finally get on the train, as the doors in slow motion start closing, the lights flicker and we get a shot of this familiar creepy man looking out of the train, sitting down, looking at the camera smirking and then everything goes pitch black. And the title appears with a sound effect.

 

Kill Bill- Buried Alive Scene

Beatrix's Buried Alive Scene

 

 



 

 

1
The scene starts with hammering with nails on the coffin. The hammering of the nails is much louder than it would be in real life; this is so that as an audience member it effects us too . The long notes create a sense of calmness which juxtaposes with the hammering and the heavy breathing going on in this scene. It creates a slight discomfort for the audience with the contrasting sounds.

2
At this moment in the scene, the hammering slows down which suggests that they are nearly finished. There is one final hammer , which is extra loud and has a certain edge to it which suggests that the man using the hammer puts a lot of effort into the final hit. Then the screen goes black, this tells us that the coffin has been properly sealed and her life is going to end soon.

At this point as the screen is pitch black we can hear a few things. Beatrix is breathing hysterically and whimpering heavily and deeply. There is music that plays throughout the whole thing. Having a plain black screen makes the audience focus on the sounds, and at this moment I felt almost as if I were in the coffin and it effected me as I thought, imagine if I were her in that coffin, what an earth would I do? The heaviness of Beatrix's breaths suggest that she is having a hard time getting oxygen in the small coffin.
As well as Beatrix breathing quickly you can hear shovelling of the soil being chucked on top of the coffin.

3

The sound and effects of the soil then being dropped on top of the coffin is strong and identifiable. The idea of the sound being strong is so that it implies that there is a lot of it being shovelled on and that it’s quite thick and dense. Also, it is what Beatrix would here, this makes the audience feel that they are in the coffin with her.

 

At this point, the shovelling is still going on; the noise of the soil plying on top is getting quieter and quieter but she tries to scream. Her screams are so quiet in comparison to the shovelling sounds, this shows that no one can hear her. Beatrix's screams are distressed and full frustration; not sadness in the slightest. This seems to suggest that she is more agitated about the situation than she is sad.