General notes on the butterfly effect

Notes

The drawing 

- The language of when the mother and teacher are talking they use a hushed worried tone, i think they do this to not upset any of the other children but this also gives the scene emotion.

House scene 

- When it gets to the scene of the mum and son in the house it shows the audience that it looks like a normal house resulting in a normal family but it is an illusion to make the audience think that it is normal.

- The mother in this scene is very worried and jumpy so when Evan is standing in front of her holding a knife it freaks her out and makes the audience think this is not normal for a seven year old.
- The music in this scene goes jumpy and loud as its to effect the audiences psychological approach to the scene, so the audience is on edge and jumpy as a result of the music.
- Evan doesn't remember anything bad as that's when he has a black out so when he sees hes holding a knife and the scared look on his mothers face he drops it as if it burns him and he knows that whatever he did was wrong even though he doesn't remember what he did.

In front of George's house 
-When his mother drops him off with George (Tommy and Kayleigh's dad) she doesn't tell him what had just happened with Evan as she is desperate for him to be looked after as she is a single mother, and she is also in self denial as she doesn't want to admit what her son does to anyone let alone herself.

 - George shows dominance over both Evan and Evan's mother, this is shown by the low to high angle and the long shot because it makes him seem nigger and that they are small.





- George looks like one of the guys in the drawing Evan drew so this makes people think that maybe something will happen, so the suspense and mystery rises.




The Garden scene

- The scene moves onto the kids playing in the garden talking about their dads new camera and when George says he wants to make a film and for Evan to be the star the audience knows that it is a bit strange.

- George comes down the Evan's level to gain his trust and to appeal to him, basically grooming him and when he says 'our little secrete' the audience knows that there is something strange going on as you don't ask kids to keep a secrete of you filming them. This creates mystery but makes you feel that there is something bad going to happen.

The house scene

- The shot fades to black to symbolize Evan having a black out and when he comes to he is naked in front of George and a Camera with Kayleigh the same standing next to him. 

- Kayleigh is traumatized but is used to it so she avoids talking and looking at anyone, while Evan is freaking out as he doesn't remember whats happened to him.





- The camera shows us that Tommy is sat on the stairs, using a low to high angle it shows us that he has power over his sister Kayleigh and Evan at the moment because he knows whats happened and Evan doesn't. Tommy is used to it but he is beaten so a close up of his body language and face shows that he is radiating anger off, and the camera shows us ripping a dolls head off which makes the audience think that is how he gets his anger out. 

- As Tommy and Kayleigh have no mum they had to choose who to live with, Kayleigh chose to live with her dad to be closer to Evan and her brother Tommy to be with his dad.
- Both George and Tommy take everything out on Kayleigh.


The doctor and mum scene

- They use over the shoulder shots.
- The doctor sits down to be at the same level as the mother = equals, as they discuss Evan seeing his father.

Evan and mother in the car

- Journal is very important , voice over of what he is writing and feeling.
(Knife when he was holding it + what George is doing to Kayleigh = the picture he drew and maybe Evan killing George).

In the hospital

- High shot to show barred windows, one entrance and exit, not clean and isolated.

- When Evan sits in the big chair it shows how small he is.

- Blacks out and wakes up to his farther trying to kill him and repeating that he needs to die. This shocks the audience and that the things you wanted to know you cant because its

being shown from Evans point of view.

- The dad can see something about him = dad is saving others 'needs to die' is what the dad repeats this and doesn't stop trying to kill Evan.

- The music at this point gets faster then stops and changes as the dad is hit round the head and die. 

- No more information because the dad is dead.
- The dad knows Evan may be like him and if the dad has hurt people then he knows Evan will too.

- Only people were mum, Evan and Kayleigh at the dads funeral.
- 7 year old Kayleigh knows how Evan feels as they are both alone = no dads as hers doesn't act like a dad and Evans if dead.
- Editing goes faster = time speeding up.

Six years later

- Little house zooms out to show the big house behind it = blow the small one up to symbolize blowing people up e.g.: Tommy's dad.
- Evan blacks out again.

- Point of view shot = Evan and the others watching Lennie putting dinomite in the letter box.
- Different sounds = mystery.

- Evan blacks out to wake up to Lennie dying and he doesn't know whats happening again.

- Mum don't believe him till he starts to cry.
- Evan surrounded by dark, old things which shows doom. 
- He was focused more on Kayleigh than the letterbox blowing up.
- He finds his dad's box and in it he finds a birth certificate for his granddad which shows he was mental like his dad and so he thinks he may turn out like them. 

Doctor 










- High angled shot to make Evan seem small.
- Convulsing = seeing a women they may have killed.
- Light flickers to show how it effects stuff and sets the scene, its a sense of how much power the doctor or Evan has.      

Note to go with the butterfly effect analysis

Notes

• Dad can’t come out as too dangerous, makes the audience think is he mental or in prison.
• -          ‘Late again’ makes you think there may be family issues, poor and it’s a mid-shot of the boy.        

• School shot = Bell rings just as he gets there – to show how close he is to getting there.

•   Banging on the window and the clothing this woman is wearing shows an authority, not sure if she is important yet so it’s a mystery as the camera doesn’t show her face straight away as she talks to the mother.

• Class room scene = Tommy – naughty, aggressive, trouble maker, has problems at home, parent problems, child abuse, he’s a bully, and he is the first one to get talked to in the scene as the teacher walks in with Evans mother which shows he is all these things.

• Drawing = suggests he has problems, smart, wants to kill when he is older though he is only 7 = the tattooed sign on one of the guys arm may have some meaning = the guys are bigger but dead and the murder looks very young and is standing ontop of the bodies which may show a sense of power = strange to show drawing so early on in the movie.
•  Can’t remember drawing it – music slows down, piano, becomes uncomfortable.
•   Makes parents who see this go what if my child drew something like that and how they would react.
•   Mother scared, worried, almost scared as she looks at her son playing.

•   Institute bit = Lighting, shadows, normally you take a kid to an appointment in the day so this scene shows how desperate the mother is. The boy has been there before as he begs his mother that he won’t draw any ‘bad drawings’ again, ‘sunnyville’ is ironic. Because the son hasn’t been exposed to those sorts of images before you think how would he know that.
•  He’s frightened = knows it’s bad, didn’t know why or how he did that drawing and that he doesn’t remember.
•  Camera = actors slightly to the right of the shot = mid-shot so you can see where they are going.

• Inside the institute = knows the doctor = link between the boy and the father.
• Brain scan from the start is shown so you know the one from the start is his brain from when he was 7, journal.
•  Frightened = no explanation from his mother why he is in an MRI scan.
• Son trusts his mother = good relationship.  

The butterfly effect analysis

The butterfly effect

Genre - Thriller	Conventional (Typical)	Unconventional (Not Typical)
Mise en scene (what is put in the scene) Lighting Costumes Props	-Dim lighting is used for dramatic effect, so you know something is going to happen – suspense, mystery, only character, tension, Audience is jumpy. The blind distorts the light which makes the scene distorted, don’t know anything about the character, and only see an outline – uncomfortable. -Casual clothing. -Everyday person. - Office stuff. -Desk, sofa etc… -All the stuff is dark which makes the room seem dark and mysterious but also creepy and almost scary as well like you know something is going to happen in that office or it’s important in the film.	The Journal is a very important prop in this film, its not normally in a typical thriller as it would give to much away about the character but in this film it actually helps us understand him better.
Characters Evan – Ashton Kutcher Lenny – Elden Henson Kayleigh – Amy Scott   Tommy – William lee Scott	Evan is a quite boy who doesnt talk much and has black outs when bad things happen so he doesnt remember what happens. Lenny is a follower he does what Evan and Tommy says. Kayleigh is a sexually abused child who only lives with her dad to be closer to Evan. And Tommy is a troubled abused child who is horrible and gets in trouble lots and is Kayleigh's brother.
Plot		Putting text at the start which is a quotation of a chaos theory isn’t what you normally see in a typical Thriller as normally it would be a shot of the scenery of where the first either action or opening scene will start. The scene with Evan holding a knife is no common as you dont normally see a seven year old with a knife.
Setting	Opening shot – nice place, typical American suburb, this shows that it has gone back in time as it is going back to the start, sense of reality, realistic settings so the audience thinks a normal life.
Sound - Diegetic Non-diegetic	Creepy music which gets faster to symbolise a heart rate going faster or someone rushing around, this makes the scene more tense as the music, sound effects, lighting and props all go together to give off an overall feeling which is suspense. The music on the scene where you see the drawing becomes scary and creepy and it doesn't stop till mid shot of the institute shot. The music then picks up again when the doctor talks.	In the opening scene while ‘Evan’ is writing a note he says what he is writing, which isn’t normally what a typical thriller has as the opening scene, but he talks about ‘saving her’ which makes the audience think that something has happened to a girl. There also sound effects which matched to the pace of the music build suspense. Evan does a voice over when he is writing in his journal, this is so we know what he is writing and feeling at the time.
Representations Of death Of mystery Of gender	Already know  there has been a death as ‘Evan’ talks about it in the opening scene, which makes the audience know the mood of film and that something is going to happen, and they want to know what happens to the girl he talks about. In the opening shot, the mother is in overalls which shows there is no male role in the family, its a representation of gender and of not following the rules of a stereo typical womanly role in normal society.
Editing	Time, understanding the time for 13 years later, playing with a dog, young, carefree 7 years old.	The butterflies over the brain scan to show that something psychological is going to happen.
Camera shots/angles	Camera travels with him like a human following him, in the opening scene.	Not typical cutting.

Conventions of a thriller

Conventions of a thriller

 

 

The protagonist/s (main character) deals with death, their own or someone else's.

 

The main storyline for the protagonist is usually some sort of quest.

 

The main plotline focuses on a mystery that must be solved.

 

The film's narrative construction is dominated by the protagonist's point of view.

 

All action and characters must be credibly realistic/natural in their representation on screen.

 

The two major themes that underpin the Thriller are the desire for justice and the morality of individuals.

One small but significant aspect of a great thriller is the presence of innocence in what is seen as an essentially corrupt world( Binary opposition).



Audiences

Audiences

Audiences on Prezi

Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese

 

Facts about Martin

Martin Charles Scorsese born November 17, 1942 is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation. He is a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema, and has won an Academy Award, a Palme d'Or, Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and DGA Awards. Scorsese's body of work addresses such themes as Italian American identity, Roman Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, machismo, modern crime, and violence. Scorsese is hailed as one of the most significant and influential filmmakers of all time, directing landmark films such as Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), and Goodfellas (1990) – all of which he collaborated on with actor and close friend Robert De Niro. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed (2006), having been nominated a previous five times. 

His early life

Martin grew up in New York with his mother, Catherine Scorsese and father, Charles Scorsese. His mother was a seamstress and actress and his father was a clothes presser and an actor. His father was originally from Polizzi Generosa, Sicily and his mother is descended from Italy. As a boy, he had asthma and couldn't play sports or do any activities with other kids and so his parents and his older brother would often take him to movie theaters; it was at this stage in his life that he developed passion for cinema. Enamored of historical epics in his adolescence, at least two films of the genre, Land of the Pharaohs and El Cid, appear to have had a deep and lasting impact on his cinematic psyche. Scorsese also developed an admiration for neorealist cinema at this time.
 

Family

Scorsese has been married five times. His first wife was Laraine Marie Brennan; they have a daughter, Catherine. He married the writer Julia Cameron in 1976; they have a daughter, Domenica Cameron-Scorsese, who is an actress and appeared in The Age of Innocence, but the marriage lasted only a year. The divorce was acrimonious and served as the basis of Cameron's first feature, the dark comedy, God's Will, which also starred their daughter, Domenica. Their daughter also had a small role in Cape Fear using the name Domenica Scorsese and has continued to act, write, direct and produce. He was married to actress Isabella Rossellini from 1979 to their divorce in 1983. He then married producer Barbara De Fina in 1985; their marriage ended in divorce as well, in 1991. He has been married to Helen Morris since 1999; they have a daughter, Francesca, who appeared in The Departed and The Aviator.

Career
Early career
Scorsese attended New York University's film school (B.A., English, 1964; M.F.A., film, 1966) making the short films What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963) and It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964). His most famous short of the period is the darkly comic The Big Shave (1967), which features Peter Bernuth. The film is an indictment of America's involvement in Vietnam, suggested by its alternative title Viet '67. Scorsese has mentioned on several occasions that he was greatly inspired in his early days at New York University by his Armenian-American film professor Haig P. Manoogian.

Films

In 1967, Scorsese made his first feature-length film, the black and white I Call First, which was later retitled Who's That Knocking at My Door with his fellow students actor Harvey Keitel and editor Thelma Schoonmaker, both of whom were to become long-term collaborators. This film was intended to be the first of Scorsese's semi-autobiographical 'J.R. Trilogy', which also would have included his later film, Mean Streets.
 
Some of his films
1970s
Who's That Knocking at My Door (1968), Boxcar Bertha (1972), Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), After Hours (1985), The Color of Money (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995), Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010), Hugo (2011).

Thrillers

Films

 

Thrillers on Prezi

Shutter Island Analysis 2

Shutter Island

1 .Who is target audience? – 

15 and over 

2. Is this film following the traditions of a typical thriller? – 

Yes it does from the starting shot which indicates mystery to flashbacks and the music. 

3. How do you feel when you are watching it? –

Opening shot is of smoke which shows mystery it makes you feel on edge as you don’t know what is going to happen. The flashbacks show the differences between when he was at home when he was happy and the boat which is sad and gloomy. The music adds to the suspense and makes you know that there is something bad or dangerous about the island. The dark and gloomy shot of the institute surrounded by the barbed wire and high stones walls makes you feel that no one wants these criminals out and this adds to the mystery of why these people are so bad this makes the audience on edge and jumpy. When they talk it is very blunt so they don’t give anything away it builds on the suspense of the film. They use point of view shots so you can see what they see. There are three different blocks, the two male and female ones are newer and don’t look like a prison where as the third is like a prison where the worst criminals are which the characters are banned from. The main character Leonardo is the boss as he is the first character you meet and the other character always looks to him before he does anything and the officers talk to him. 

4. What you like about the film?-

I like how the colours are different for the different emotions like in the flashbacks they are bright and colourful as it is a happy time whereas when he is on the boat the colours are dull as it is a sad and depression time. I like how the different props and how the shots are set up to make the scene more mysterious which builds the suspension and suspense. I like how the film plays on the psych of our brains by using music, lighting, props, different camera angles and shots, framing ,different locations, and effects to make us feel the different emotions that a typical thriller film includes.

5. How could improvements be made?- 

the improvements i would is to use lots more camera shots and angles as there are only basic ones where in some of the scenes it could be made more intense by using another shot eg: when teddy and his partner first arrive and are told to give up their fire arms the shot between the officers and the two characters are basic where as if they had used a low to high angle looking slightly u at the officer i would show that he has more authority.

6. Can you relate to the protagonist?-

Yes people can as some people are police officers, or have lost someone or has to deal with mental paitents etc... but because of all the different characters people have more to appeal to and as the main character he relates to almost everyone.  

 



Shutter Island Analysis

Shutter Island Analysis 

What is the film?
Shutter Island is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese. The film is based on Dennis Lehane's 2003 novel of the same name. Production started in March 2008. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels, who is investigating a psychiatric facility on the titular island.

The analysis




•The police officers uniforms shows how important and the authority they have it makes the audience look up to them and makes the audience feel like they are there to protect them. 

•The shots of the officer’s faces show that he is serious and not thrilled and not impressed when Leonardo makes a joke about the mental state of the third building. 

•The shots used always makes the officers more important but they always show the reactions of the faces. The removal of the gun makes the audience on edge as now they have no protection now and they have to put their trust and lives in their hands.

•The shot of the creepy lady makes the audience get goose bumps and get creped out as the way she looks is strange it makes you want to know what’s wrong with her, why has she got no hair? Has she ripped it out? , as she is in the side of the shot it makes her look even more crazy and the way she is telling him to sh with her finger it makes you feel uncomfortable and makes you think why is she doing that. 

•The shots also show Leonardo’s face to show hi reaction which he is freaked out by her. The talking and everything else but some cricket noises are only heard to make the scene even more creepy and uncomfortable, the shot also slows down. 

•The close up on her face shows the way she looks, the creepy smile with the black teeth the cut along her neck, her pale skin and crazy eyes, and her few strands of hair which is left makes people feel very scared and know that she is crazy. You can also see that her hands are cuffed together and that her doctor is standing very close to her.   

•The shot of the door handle shows the security, it also shows the claustrophobic feel of being locked in, which also relates to the shot of Leonardo on the boat surround by the water but this time it’s by walls.

•  The strange pictures on the wall of the doctor’s office makes the audience think what is actually happening in this prison.

• The shot was framed to only show their faces to show what he is saying and that there is no sympathy and that he only wants to get on with the investigation. 

 

•When the doctor talks about one of the women who was a war widower and that she had killed her own children and then Leonardo has a flashback of the concentration camps and of dead frozen children and women. But the audience doesn’t know if it’s the characters flashback or just someone else’s.

•The close up on the little piece of paper. 

•The doctors are always standing close to the patients. 

•The shot moves onto the creepy shore and rocks with the black water with the men all looking out. The doctor is doing a voice over as it’s the end of the conversation of the pervious shot.

•The officers don’t care if the prisoner is dead as they say bluntly to the investigators ‘her body would wash up there if she drowned’. 
•The clock is framed in the shot to show reality as they have been so isolated. 

•The people laughing makes it known that none of them care and they think that it is all funny, they seem crazy themselves as they are almost mocking the marshals as they aren’t used to strangers or anything not different happening as they have been so isolated from the real world.

•The lighting in this shot of the doctor and a guy trying to make a call makes it eerie and creepy and because the call doesn’t work it really shows how isolated the island is. 

•The thunder and lightning with the music makes the audience know something is going to happen and it makes the suspense raise more.

•As he is in a posher building then before he has a flashback again of the war. 

•The pan of the old guy going from hidden in the chair to seeing his face instead of him moving to show his importance. 

•Teddy has another flashback of the war shows that he has been there before. And that he was a soldier. 

•The flashbacks with the war and blood make the audience uncomfortable. 

•All the things in the room, the weather, and even the music makes you feel uncomfortable. 

•The psychiatrist analyses teddy. 

•The music increased in tempo as the flashback makes you know it’s a flashback and as it speeds up it shows how teddy lets a guy bleed to death. The flashbacks shows all the soldiers and then it looks up at teddy to show what the dying guy sees which is teddy. This makes the audience look at teddy in a different way as they know what he has done and seen.

•Teddy speaks German and he knows that the boss is German and he is illegally in the country. 

Media

 

           Media Studies

                  This picture has all the words associated with the media world.

 

This video shows media as the filmer shows his skills with using a camera, knowing how to compose a shot and how to edit smoothly so that the different locations change in a flowing movement.
Sky from Philip Bloom on Vimeo.