Textual Analysis Jurassic Park

During Jurassic Park the audience is instantly engaged by the low angle shot camera angle of something moving around behind the trees which, the audience cannot see much of other than a large object that appears to be taller than the surrounding trees.  This suggests that what ever is behind the trees is not only much larger then all of the men and the trees but can be seen as a dangerous and powerful figure. The next shot we see is a medium close up of someone who appears to be working on the site as he is wearing bright clothes and a hard hat, he is looking upwards towards this large object and he looks concerned and fearful. This grabs the audiences attention in the first few seconds of the film. Furthermore, this also adds to the idea that this character is seen as threatening towards others. Shortly after we see a long shot of another character in the middle of the crowd, the camera begins zooming in on him, suggesting that he could be a main focus or character and allows the audience to see his reaction by his body language and facial expressions as this figure is making its way towards them. The effect of this is to hopefully create more drama and tension between what is going on in the scene and the audience watching, waiting for something to happen and to finally see what this thing is. The zooming in stops with a close up of his face and by his facial expression he appears to be almost concerned as if he has seen something like it before or has a gut feeling towards what it is. This helps support the view of the figure being dangerous as even though he may appear to know to an extent what it appears to be coming their way and is also armed with a powerful gun and multiple men, his body language displays him and feeling uneasy and afraid. The object finally come through the trees and is a mysterious crate. As the crate comes through there is another low angle shot of this craft displayed from and long shot angle showing a group of men looking up towards the crate. This does not only present the height of the crate in the air but again creates the effect that there is something extremely dangerous and powerful and even though it is in isolation, they should still fear what awaits them. The mise-en-scene of a steel crate which in theory should be unbreakable and hard to escape from also add to the perception being that because it is in not only isolation and a big box but it also needs a strong steel crate to be keep inside. This indicated further that it’s not just powerful but vigorous and vicious. Following this is a long take of the crate being placed down alongside the group of men. Due to the long take we get a sense of importance and as we watch the men walk and surround the box, we want them to revel more of this thing which they all seem cautious and attentive of. Due to all of the associations and ideas made for this creature, we as an audience assume that is a big deal for these men who may be less powerful and unable to contain this creature as it arrives of the ground. Furthermore, it will appear as a big deal for these men having to cope with something like this creature and therefore importance is being shown again. We receive a point of view shot from the creature as it sounded frightened after a man opens a locked door, the creature let out a shriek and as close up this man is shown looking alarmed with almost bulging eyes. This can indicate both terror of this creature and shock due to the sudden spook of the shriek. In addition to this, the weird some which was inhumane is engaging the audience more keeping them guessing what it is exactly that is inside this crate being contained and having all of these men scared at the same time.

The very last part we see if an extreme close up of a man mouth shouting “shout her”, this is repeated twice and used to indicate how important these instructions are to be completed on that command. The audience is able to get the sense of panic, fear and anger they have towards the dinosaur and think of the men inferior to the dinosaur when it starts attacking. The last close up is of a man’s hand no longer being able to hold on. This allows the audience to sympathise with the character as it suggests that the character has just passed.  The idea that there was a death was shortly symbolised further as the shot of the hand began to fade into a new scene with silence. 

Genre Research

Horror is a film genre that aims to create a sense of fear, panic and dread for the audience. These usually rely on scaring the audience and using their worst fears against them. Many horror movies include mythical creatures such as ghosts and zombies. Horror films incorporate a large amount of violence and they usually centre on the arrival of an evil force or person.

1. Insidious




















2. Sinister


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A large component in a horror film is fear, the aim of a horror story is to scare people, it is by far the most important factor of a great horror film. Constructing a a story based on fear is making sure you can scare people with fears they may not have.

Having the ability to surprise the audience is an eye catcher, making people fear things which they don't is difficult but with a flow of surprises you can make the audience consider their fears.
Suspense helps with the audience wanting to know what is about to happen next, this is a great opportunity to surprise the audience at the end of a suspense because they will be on the edge of their seats.

The Dark is a great element for a horror movie, ever since we were young, we have always been afraid of the dark because we are afraid of the unknown, we don't know what the dark may hide and walking into a dark room creates suspense, fear and then with a surprise, this can frighten and scare the audience which is what you are aiming to do. I could include in my film some scenes where it is dark and my main character has to go through these dark areas, it creates a lot of suspense but it also intensifies the situation as people are afraid of the dark and they can expect something to happen, but I can leave them waiting for this to happen keeping them on the edge.

The audience would want to see lots of "Jump scares", this is where things will jump out at you all of a sudden giving you a shock, blood is something in a lot of horror movies, this can show that something terrible has happened. Lots of Dark areas are common in films so they can help with creating suspense, this doesn't mean add a surprise in after but it creates tension in the audience.

A stereotypical representation in a horror film would be that people die, this is a classic, if a horror film doesn't include some sort of death or a tragedy it probably won't be as successful as any other horror film. Another would be that there needs to be dark areas which a main character will explore.
"Jump scares" are very popular in horrors.

Other then darkness and "Jump scares" there are more factors of a horror, one frightening factor is being alone, being isolated from everybody else is daunting and most people can relate to it as it is likely that it has occurred in their lifetime. A great example of this is "28 Days Later", this is where a man is on his own in London, which is usually crowded with people, so then to go from lots of people to just one man is different. Also small communities that have isolated themselves away from the rest of the city or world can be very scary, people from cities who are comfortable where they live and are familiar with lots of people being in one place will find small communities like this freaky, as it isn't what they are used to seeing.

Primal fears, these are fears that everybody shares, everyone can relate to these, isolation, the unknown, death, there are many more but these are the main fears everybody has in common. Using primal fears works well because they effect everybody, the unknown is a very useful fear factor because when watching a horror movie and some mythical or sinister being shows up, it is unsettling and uncomfortable to watch as we aren't familiar with it, therefore if its used in the right hands it can be very frightening. Seeing death is what you would expect from a horror film, but it is still disturbing now to see somebody lose a limb or a decapitation, including all of the blood it can make the audience feel sick and it definitely makes the audience remember what happened making it more scary. The audience usually avoid thinking about death because it is the end, its haunting, so to see the end of a life is awful.

I will need to include some sort of monsters, main characters and I will need to create a lot of tension and suspense to get the audience on the edge of their seats. I will definitely need to think of different ways to scare the audience so they do not it coming, so I need to find a way of catching the audience off guard.

Prelim Task Refelction

Overall my Preliminary Task went great because I didn't come across any problems, drawing up my story board was easy to do because it was very basic and I only had to show over the shoulder shots and stay in the 180-degree rule.

Filming my prelim went smoothly as I had chosen trust worthy actors to get it done and to a good standard. After filming my prelim, I now have a better understanding of these camera shots and any small problems like seeing the camera in a reflection I now know to look more carefully before using the footage because it looks unprofessional.

This was my first time using Premiere Pro but I was able to use my recorded footage and edit them easily, nothing was too difficult as it was mostly straight forward and everything I needed was easy to access so now in future I can use Premiere Pro more efficiently and make my film look more professional.

Overall I got on with Premiere Pro very well as I hadn't come across any problems.

Blogging my prelim was easy because I understood what I had to do but putting it up on YouTube I needed some help as I have never done this before.

Preliminary Task Video

Preliminary Task

Video Prelim

Shot reverse Shot, this is a film technique where a character is shown looking at another but the other character is usually off-screen, then this character is shown looking back at the first character they were talking to.

Match on Action, this refers to film editing, this is where the editor cuts from one shot to another view which matches the original shots action. One example can be a person walking up to a door and reaching for the door knob.

The 180 degree rule, this is a guideline which states that two characters in a scene should maintain a left or right relationship to each other. An imaginary line called the axis connects the characters, by keeping the camera on one side of this axis. By keeping the camera on one side, every shot in the scene the first person is always on the right of the second person.

Continuity editing, this is the style of film editing and video editing in the post production process of making a film, the purpose of this is to smooth over the inherent discontinuity of the editing stage and to establish a logical coherence between each shots.

Chosen Brief

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/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

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

All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.