Monarch of the Glen review

Monarch of the glen is a televison drama which was broadcasted on BBC one, it was created by Michael Chaplin and produced by Nick Pitt, Paddy Higson, Jeremy Gwilt, Stephen Garwood and Rob Bullock. The series started being broadcasted on television in february 2000 and concluded with its seventh series in october 2005, in total over the five years that it was broadcasted 64 episodes were produced. Monarch of the glen, is partly based on comptons mackenzie novels, which were set in the same location, however they were set in the 1930s and 1940s. The first novel in the series is called monarch of the glen. The television drama Monarch of the Glen, is set in the modern day, in scotland we can tell this because of the accent, the backgrounds; loch, mountains and a castle which is where the monarch lives, we can also tell that the setting is scotland, because of the instrumental celtic soundtrack that we hear throughout the series. Monarch of the glen is predominatly a family drama, because it was broadcasted before the 9pm watershed and does not include any bad language, sex or any actions or connotations that would cause offense to any viewers.

The director uses a vast amount of diegetic sounds for example; dialouge, the moving of furniture, people moving around, the use of these diegetic sounds creates a more realistic feel to the drama, however non diegetic sounds are used, just not as frequently, the soundtracks that we hear are mainly instrumental celtic music, which sets the scene because of the scottish location around the loch and the setting of the castle. In the drama we can see a strong difference between the working class and the upper class residents of the village. The colour palette plays a strong part in the differentiation between working and upper class residents, for example the use of dull and drab coloured clothing worn by the young boy and girl and also the use of this colour palette on the tea towels the young boy is hanging up and the colour of the courtyard they are standing in, the use of this dull and drab colour palette gives connotations that they are working class.

In the drama, there is an intertexual reference to the soap opera; Hollyoaks, the use of this reference makes the drama more appealing to the younger generation; who are predominatly the audience of Hollyoaks. The use of the younger charcters, also makes it more appealing to the younger generation.

The use of a variety of shots shows the status and wealth of the charcters, for example a low angle shot is used to introduce the monarch, the shot has connotations of importance, wealth and an upper class status, also the postioning of the shot makes him look taller than the other charcters around him, which has a reference to the his position in society. The use of props inside the monarchs home, also shows us that he is upper class because of the use of the glassware,wooden panelling and the old books. The positioning of the characters shows their importance and status.

In conclusion to my review, i believe that monarch of the glen, is a well constructed family drama, because of the split in status amoungst the charcters and the intertextual refrences.

Shot list.

1).Long shot of the main character and her two friends getting ready.
2). Two person shot/panning shot, fades into black
3).Long shot of the three girls drinking at the same time, laughing, smiling. Cut to shot 4.
4).Close up of the main character drinking, laughs, cuts to next shot.
5).Panning shot/medium shot, focus on one girl dancing.
6).Medium shot/tracking shot of main character dancing and stumbling through the crowd.
7).Close up of main character and the young man, go in for a drunken kiss.
8).Mid shot of the girl and young man, of her arms around his neck, his arms touch her back.
9).Close up of the drunken kiss
10).Mid shot of the man pulling away and she stumbles backwards, she looks confused.
11).Reverse shot/medium shot looking onto the young man, pushes his arm forward.
12).Extreme close up/reverse shot of his hand
13).Reverse shot/mid of her looking at hime and looking down at their hands, then she goes to grab his hand.
14).Extreme close up/medium of his and her hand meeting
15).Close up of the girl, smerks,smiles and looks down.
16).Close up of the young man, laughs behind his teeth , looks up then down
17).Medium shot of him, he pulls her into him "common let me buy you a drink", smiles and nods, he walks backwards out of the camera.
18).Tracking shot, he turns around and both are walking through crowd, laughing and stumbling
19).Sides shot of small bar, walks into the scene, still holds her hand until she manages to sit on the stool.
20).Two person shot behind bar, she slumps on the bar, he looks shifty, orders drinks
21).Close up of his pocket and his hand going into the pocket, pulls white powder from the pocket.
22).Two person shot, pulls his hand onto the bar and takes her drink
23).extreme close up of the drink and powder being poured into it
24).Two person shot, she lifts her head and he looks and smiles, she grabs her drink
25).Tracking/close up of her holding the drink and her drinking it, she stops, presses her lips together
26).Two person shot put her drink down, looks over at the young man and smiles.
27).Two person/close up shot of the faces talking, her touching her hair, him talking she listens.
28).Close up shot of the young girls face, starts to squint eyes, music becomes slurred/quieter.
29). Extreme close up of her hands to her head, like she has a headache, still hear the man talking, music becomes quieter.
30).Medium close up of her looking distressed and unwell, things seem abit blurred.
31).Two person shot she grabs his hand "are you alright" things are blurred looking ill she runs then yells while she has her hand over her mouth.
32).Panning shot of her running out of the club, turns left and throws up in a corner.
33).medium shot of her gasping her breath, spits and wipes her mouth, leaning with her arm on the wall.
34).Long shot of her slumping to the ground, wipes her face and moves her legs like she is cold, she looks up.
35).Close up still looking up, presses her lips and looks down, wipes her eyes and starts to get up.
36).Long shot of her getting up using her hands, wipes her dress down, walks out of the scene.
37).Tracking shot of her walking down the street, sound of cars, people, traffic. She sniffs, wipes her eyes, sorts out her hair.
38).Tracking shot (part 2) camera focuses on the young man before following in the distance he turns his head left and nods, he leaves the scene.
39).Long shot as she trips and falls on her hands and knees, the contents of her bag spilling onto the floor.
40).High angle shot of her picking up her belongings, sound of footsteps gets louder and then stops, she look up.
41).Low angle shot of a tall dark man we are unable to see his face.
42).High angle shot reverse shot, she stops picking up her bag and looks at the man, puts her hair behind her ears.
43).Low angle shot of the dark man, he pulls his hand out of his pocket "need a hand up"?
44).High angle shot, she nods, grabs her bag and grabs his hand.
45)Long shot, she gets up struggles a bit, he grabs the side of her chest. "looks like you`ve had a bit too much to drink"
46).Close up/two person shot, she nods "yeah me too" they look at each other. "did you want me to walk you home"?
47).Close up, she looks at him, but onlyshowing her face not his. "erm, im okay i thikn i`ll be fine"
48).Panning shot, she walks away and he follows behind her.
49).Tracking shot, she walks and he follows behind her, she covers her mouth again and moves to the left.
50).Panning shot/high angles shot, she hunches and throws up again. She gasps for breath and wipes her mouth, she unhunches and spits.
51).Low angle shot, he asks her again if he wants him to walk her home
52).Medium shot "okay,okay"
53).Medium shot reverse shot, "good, give me your hand show me the way"
54).Panning shot/mid shot, she grabs his hand, gets up again and walks off the scene.
55).Tracking shot/long shot, we can see them walking behind hand-in-hand. She pushes/pulls him out of the scene to the left.
56).Panning shot of them two turning into a dark street, camera follows them.
57).Tracking shot/two person shot can see them walking in front of the camera she stumbles and hold onto him, club music fades and you can hear a car/van driving close.
58).Medium shot, they stop walking and turn to each other, they start talking, car/van becomes louder.
59).Cut shot/extreme close up of the moving wheel of the van.
60).Midshot, he hold onto her waist and she pulls away. He keeps trying to touch her, she starts screaming and he puts his head over his mouth.
61).Close up/sideshot, he pushes her into a wall with his hands covering her mouth. She tries and gets out, but is unable. Noise of the van stops and are able to hear doors opening and clsoing. 62).Wide shot, includes girl and young girl, van and two other men dresses in black, he tries to puch her into the van but she struggles.
63).Cuts to a long shot on the van door, the men throwing her in. A loud bang of the body going into the door, closing and cuts into black.

When myself and my production group started the filming process of our film, we decided to cut out some of our shots that we had previosuly decided to inlcude, we cut out the scene of the girl and her friends getting ready to go out and the kidnapping scene in the van, we decided towards cutting out these two scenes because; the time limit to our film is two minutes and it would not be possibe to include all of our shots and scenes within our two minute time limit. We also felt that these scene would not particularly have added anything to the film, that would help create suspense and ambiguity, however we decided to keep wih the main scene, of the girl walking home and the boy offering thw walk her home and making the auidence believe that he is the protector, however he changes into the villian and the girl becomes the victim. After our first shoot, we uploaded our footage onto the computer and watched it, we then realised the lighting was wrong and it was too dark, this stopped us from being able to see the characters faces, therefore creating no relation between the audience and the characters, however we took this on board and decided to shoot the footage again, at an earlier time, when the lighting would be right, because the only lighting we had was the natural light and the line of street lamps that are by the river, which created a soft lighting, therefore making the film more indepentdant because of the limited lighting. In the re-shoot of the film, we created more ambiguity and used more close up shots of the characters. The decision to re-shoot the film, helped us as a production team to create more ambiguity, through a variety of shots and actions.

By Louise McGee

Thriller film treatment

Treatment for my thriller film


In the opening shot, we are first introduced to the main character; a typical 18-year-old girl who is getting ready to go out for the night clubbing in Norwich with her friends. We are introduced to her in the setting of her bedroom; in her home, which she lives in with her parents and younger brother and sister. The use of this setting creates a feeling of normality and innocence, which later on in the film helps the audience to feel sorry for her, because of the incident that occurs, because of the normality and realistic setting that she has been introduced in.

The storyline is that of an ordinary 18-year-old girl who is going out clubbing with her friends on a Saturday night in Norwich on Prince Of Wales Street. The main focus is on the end of the night when the girl leaves the club drunk, this is where we are introduced to another main character; a man in his late twenties, who at we first we believe he is being the girls protector when he asks if he can walk her home, however our opinion changes when she refuses to let him walk her home and he attempts to force her into his white van, which is parked on a nearby street. When he finally succeeds in forcing the young girl into the van, we are introduced to two other men; one of whom is the driver and the other is a friend. In the opening shot we decided to have a diegetic sound, so we can hear the sounds of her moving around her bedroom and the diegetic sounds of the hairdryer and the sounds of her family walking up and down the stairs. We have decided to also use a non-diegetic soundtrack in the opening shot; we have decided to use a song from the genre of dance or R&B, because this is what is mainly played in clubs, so it would set the scene well. When she is in the club there will be a non-diegetic sound of music and in the street there will be the diegetic sound of other people walking and cars passing and the diegetic sounds of music from the other clubs on the street. The lighting will be artificially lit, in the opening shots in the young girls bedroom, in the club the background light will be black and will be artificially lit by bright or neon lighting. When the girl leaves the club the setting is in the street, so the lighting will be dark, with the artificial lighting of the street lamps. The girl and her friends will wear high heels and dresses or mini skirts and tops; this type of costumes will be appropriate because of the setting. The men in the white van will wear black trousers or tracksuit bottoms and dark coloured hoodies, because these type of clothes are always what the stereotypical `thug` would wear, also the use of dark clothes represents evil.
I think my thriller film will attract the type of audience that would watch films like; London to Brighton, because of the realism of the setting and characters, which I am going to use in my thriller film. My film also relates to the film The strangers even thought it is predominantly a horror film, however there are elements of thriller within the film, it relates to my film because of the use of dark clothing worn by the men, and the way they lurk in the shadows, which is what the men in my film do at the end.

By Louise McGee

Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of gender in episode 1 of `North & South`

At the beginning of episode one, a shot reverse shot is used when Margret is looking at the clock then out of the window, the use of this shot shows the passage of time which represents women as people who have to wait a long time for things, on a larger scale this could represent that in the time period that `North & South` is set in women were not seen as very important and had to wait a long time to be given the same privileges that men were given a very long time before women for example the right to vote. The rule of thirds is used to show Margret looking out of the window, where she occupies two thirds of the shot. In the same shot, a close up has also been used to show Margret this shows emotion. Margret’s stance in this shot is Haughty, her gaze is firm which suggests that she is assertive, this shot shows women as powerful and assertive, which is not how they were viewed by society in this period. Margret also stands up straight which connotes confidence; she also shows style and prettiness, we can also see she does not rely on her clothes to make her look pretty. When Margret enters the factory, we see a `look of wonder` appear on her face, because she has entered this `foreign` world, there is a similarity between the `look of wonder` on Margret’s face and the `look of wonder` on the children’s faces in Narnia when they open the wardrobe and enter a different world.

A shot reverse shot is used between Thornton and Margret this connotes that a relationship may start between them. We can also tell that a relationship may start between them because of the non-diagetic romantic music, the way she has been positioned to look up at him and the misty effect that has been used. The use of the misty effect across the factory creates a mystical feel, which also creates a sense of mystery in the sense of that we do not know what will happen next, weather or not a relationship may start.

An orchestral soundtrack is used during episode one of `North & South`. When Margret enters the factory we start to hear the diagetic sound of the factory workers coughing, this suggests they are unhealthy however they are hardworking.

The use of non ambient lighting creates a darker setting and because you can control non ambient lighting, you can create the tone of lighting that is suitable to the production. The different accents that are used define the characters in their status’s. The factory owner, Thornton is portrayed as a harsh and violent man, we see this in a shot of him looking down from a height at the factory workers, a low angle shot is used in this shot, the use of this shot makes Thornton appear very important and bigger than everyone else. The use of violence displayed by Thornton shows masculinity. The way that Thornton has been placed looking down from a height, also represents his status in society as a male and as a factory owner, both of which give him more power of others in society. A close up shot is used of the fight Thornton has with a worker, this shows his violence. Whilst Thornton and the worker are fighting Margret shouts `stop` at them, this was very unheard of in this period for a women to speak up, this shows that Margret is assertive and was also not scared to speak out. Thornton asks Margret who she is and she reply’s giving him her full name, this shows she has a strong sense of identity.

In the scene in the factory, after the fight we start to understand that Thornton does not like people invading his space, we understand this because of the way he speaks to Margret, however he does not talk to her directly. Thornton says “get her out of here”, which is aimed at Margret, he then says “get that women out of here”, which shows that he has no respect for women and suggests that he believes women do not deserve to be spoken to in a polite manner, because women were seen as inferior in this period. After this the camera cuts to some female factory workers some of whom are very young, this tells us the factory is not an entirely male world, although women worked in the factories, they were entirely under the owners control, in this case the women were entirely under Thornton’s control. The use of children, who are as young as seven or eight, shows that children were not valued and no respect was given to them, this also suggests people did not have a sense of danger.

In conclusion to this question i think that in this extract of North and South; Male characters are represented as being violent and believing that they are superior in society, this shown in the way Thornton speaks to Margret. Female characters are represented as being characters who are seen as being inferior in society, however they are assertive.

Perfume advert - Florence

perfume.psd
Originally uploaded by louisemcgee-asmedia

Who is your target audience?
My target audience for my perfume is females in the 16-21 age range. I think my advert will appeal to this audience because of the use of the image at the beach and encorporating the beach hut into the image. I think the use of these images will appeal to my target audience because of the summer lifestyle that they want, the summer lifestyle being a very relaxed way of life, being at the beach,surfing,beach partys. I also think that my advert will appeal to the target audience because of the fashion associated with the beach that appeal to this age range. My advert would probably been printed in magazines such as; Glamour and Look, it would also be shown mainly in summer becuase of its association as an advert with the summer season. The audience that i am aiming to target will be intelligent, have high aspirations for themselves, aspire to have a well respected career, however they will be fun loving, happy and the type of people who enjoy life to the full. My advert appeals to my target audiences values by using the beach setting and the bright contrast to represent happiness,enjoyment and having fun. My audience will view the advert from a female perspective because of the font that has been used which is very feminine because of the butterfly that has been drawn on the side of the `F`, the advert would also be viewed from a female perspective becuase of the perfume bottle, this would be because the bottle has a mirrored effect and the use and possesion of mirrors is usually associated with females.

How did the technologies help in the process of constructing the advert, and how comfortable are you using the technologies?
I used digital photography to take my photograph of the beach landscape. I used the website dafont to create a suitable font for my advert, which used the same theme as my perfume. I also used Flickr and Blogger, which enabled me to annotate my advert and post both my advert and analysis questions. I used photoshop to enhance my image, I increased the brightness and contrast, in order to brighten the image and create a summery look to the advert. I used the burn tool on the sand dunes and part of the sea, in order to enhance this part of the image, to make it look brighter and to create a reflection effect on the sea. I used the sharpen tool to bring out the black in the font more and i also used the colour recognition tool, which helped me find the exact colour of the background so i could use the fill tool to fill in the background of my font in order for the font and image to blend together better.

How does your advert represent particular social groups?
My advert represents women by using an informal, pretty and feminine font, my advert also represents women by the use of the perfume bottle, because of the elegance of the bottle. The advert represents women as; fun loving,happy,succesfull and fashionable. The advert implies to us that a womens place in society is somewhere fashionable,fun,exotic and happy. The advert also shows that women are represented in this advert as being people who want to be succesful,fashionable,happy and enjoy their lives.

Assessment sheet

The opening narrative shots and title length of thrillers.

Taxi Driver


Taxi Driver was directed by Martin Scorsese in 1976.

We watched the first two minutes of Taxi Driver and we are first introduced to the character by the use of an extreme close up of the man,a shot reverse shot is used to show the man then the city then it cuts back to an extreme close up of the man which focuses on his eyes. A low angle shot is used to show the taxi, this shows the audience the importance of the taxi in the film. A diagetic sound is not heard until almost the end of the two minutes; when we hear the ringing of a phone, before this we hear a non-diagetic instrumental soundtrack. Editing would have been used to show the red and oragne lights of the city.
In Taxi driver, it takes 10 seconds for the diagetic sound to appear after the non-diagetic sound disappears.

Identity

Identity was directed by James Mangold in 2003.

In the two minute opening of Identity, that i watched the director; James Mangold uses a vast amount of extreme close up and close up shots. He uses these close up shots to show us various tapes with a the same mans name written on all of the tapes. The use of the close up shots make it very clear to the audience who the film will focus on. Mangold uses the rule of thirds on the title, which holds for 5 seconds, the use of the rule of thirds in the title creates an instant point at which are attention is drawn to. In the title shot, the word `Identity` slowing dissapears, one letter at a time, this technique is used with all of the words that appear on the screen, this technique would have been added in the editing process of making the film. At the beginning of the opening we hear a diagetic sound of thunder, this sets the scene for a thriller film, as it creates a dark feel and creates a sense of the unknown. The use of the tapes which show just one mans name, and the very dark lighting creates a question to the audience of weather this man is mentally unstable.

Heat

Heat was directed by Michael Mann in 1995.

The the first shot of the opening of Heat, Micheal Mann uses a long shot of a train and the diagetic sound of the train is introduced and becomes louder as the train draws closer. The shot then cuts to an over the shoulder shot from behind of someone travelling down the escalator, the use of this shot creates a sense of mystery. In the beginning of the opening Heat is set in a trin station, however towards the end of the two minutes the setting changes and we enter a hospital.
The title shot, is held for 3 seconds and each credit is held for 4 seconds until it cuts to the next.

London to Brighton

London to Brighton was directed by Paul Andrew Williams in 2006.

The two minute opening i watched of London to Brighton, did not give me a great insight into what was going happen or what the film would be like, however the first shot when we are first introduced to the characters, Paul Andrew Williams uses a close up shot of the women and the girl. The setting where the two characters which we are introduced too are; a toliet cubicle in London, gives us an idea of what the characters backgrounds and lives may be like, Williams focus`s on the grime of this setting. The use of the mirror in the toliet creates an illusion that it is bigger than it appears to be. The opening of London to Birghton, although it does not give us a great idea of what will happen, we can start to understand the basic storyline, the language and settings help us to understand this. We can start to understand that the film is about the women and the girl who are the first characters we are introduced and towards the end of the two minutes we start to understand that they need to get away from someone and are going to get the trin to Brighton, however they need the money to pay for the train tickets and this is when the topic of prostitution is introduced.

Red Road

Red road was directed by Andrea Arnold in 2006.

Red road opens with a black screen, where the word `Glasgow` appears in white, this instanstly tells us where we are. The shot then cuts to a blur of colours which then pans out to reveal CCTV screens. Arnold uses a medium close up of the CCTV operators face, by using this shot we can see the emotion that she feels from the CCTV cameras. In this two minute opening it does not tell us as an audience much about what is going to happen during the film.

Storyboard, Shooting map and Shot list for preliminary task.

Storyboard for my preliminary task.

















My shooting map for my preliminary task




















Shot list

• Close up of feet
• Extreme long shot from behind
• Tracking shot
• Panning shot
• Close up of hand on the door handle
• Over the shoulder shot walking into the room
• Extreme close up of the face
• Extreme close up of the eyes
• Tracking shot to table and chairs
• Over the shoulder shot, showing the new character
• Two person shot
• Side shot of the tow characters talking
• Over the shoulder shot, character leaves