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| Jack |
We ensured that we complied to continuity methods such as 'eyeline match' and 'match on actions' to create a seemless narrative structure.
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| Continuity example |
There was one key continuity error when one thugs mask is not up, but this could also be interrupted as a natural change that it fell when he was running but he put it back up to conceal his idenity when he catches Jack.
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| Possible continuity error |
Film genre
The Witness is the action thriller genre. One signifier of this genre comes in the form the gritty themes of gang violence and kidnapping. Our film contains a lot of emotional and powerful scenes which produces action and thrills our audience as well as numerous POV shots that allow them to empathise with him. The film Taken shares some of the conventions of our film due to its emotional, powerful scenes which would feature in our film, as well as its back-story of human trafficking; what our antagonists were doing to their victims before murdering them. The story line is somewhat similar one man is left alone having to track and bring down the antagonists and the victims are women. This film trailer is displayed below.
Taken
The kidnapping themes, reflects the victimization of woman that we present in our film, whereas the negligence shown by the antagonist on when he says ‘Good luck with that’ reflects the evil nature that we try to present with our antagonists. Both our film and Taken use close ups that last for several seconds to help the viewers see the emotion within our characters.
This chase scene from Casino Royale (Campbell 2006) it features lots of quick cuts which jump from close ups to extreme wide shots disorientating the viewer reflecting the frantic mood of the scene a mood we tried to emulate in our sequence.
Narrative Structure
We studied the theories of Tztetan Todorov, a narrative theorist who examined hundreds of Russian folk tales to try to find similarities between them, and came up with a theory that he believes can be applied to every story ever written. He proposed that each story is broken down into these 5 basic steps:
Our sequence very much matches this theory; although the equilibrium of Jack being a loner and undisturbed is not perfect, this is the disruption when Jack spots the murderers. During our sequence this is not resolved, however, the film in its entirety would follow this theory. After the disruption, Jack’s escape would lead to him exposing the criminal ring and order would be restored with him becoming a hero after stopping the murders and trafficking.
Narrative continued
The Witness follows a dual narrative, cross cutting between Jack smoking and the antognists dragging the body before the real time sequence progresses to a point where both narratives join together. We have also used many binary opposites, as in Levi Strauss’ narrative theory, which says that important parts of the story always appear in pairs.
For example:
Our protagonist wears his hood down suggesting that he has nothing to hide while the antagonists wear balaclavas to show how they are desperate to conceal their identities.The running styles of the two contrasting sides are different, Jack runs wildly, arms flailing and leaping through bushes and trees to evade his chasers, but they run with their arms by their sides to maximise their speed showing their professionalism in this situation.
The lonlyness, isolation and vast location (shown by extreme long shots to establish scene at the beginning) highlight the danger of the event. Our film features Enigma codes and action codes, these keep the audience engaged as they asks questions such as 'Why does the boy look behind him, is he running away?' and 'Why is he going into the forest?' The main action code is when Jack sees the villains dragging the bodies which sets up the confrontation and chase.
Form & Function
The main purpose of a title sequence is to introduce character and narrative. We decided that superimposing our titles was the best option as this allowed the audience to focus on the action and connect with our protagonist Jack. The slow fade in and out reflects the undisturbed equilibrium that we create, titles do not appear in the chase sequence as we did not want to disrupt the fast, quick cutting nature. Superimposing the titles was inspire by the TV show heroes in which the titles are very subtle allowing viewers to focus on the action.
Style
In the opening part of the sequence, we use slow editing which obeys the 30 degree rule to create a calm atmosphere and a false sense of safety with underlying senses of danger from the dark music that accompanies the footage. The second half of our sequence explodes into life with lots of camera movement, rapid cuts, and fast paced music to create a sense of excitement, adrenaline and danger in an otherwise normal and unexciting setting of a forest. Please take a moment to listen to the music of our sequence:
The fast pace and high BPM connotes our action genre where as the sirens at the end represent the gang culture, crime and gritty themes of our film.
Within the chase, apart from the POV shots, each shot is edited to about a second or less to create this fast paced, and are collectively matched to obey continuity principals creating our sequence.
We establish the chase with some long and medium shots, but use a variety of angles such as close ups and floor level shots to engage the viewer in the chase. To further engage them we have used lots of POV shots as this helps the audience connect and understand the characters and makes them feel much more involved with the action as it as if they were there.
This chase scene from Casino Royale (Campbell 2006) it features lots of quick cuts which jump from close ups to extreme wide shots disorientating the viewer reflecting the frantic mood of the scene a mood we tried to emulate in our sequence.
Narrative Structure
We studied the theories of Tztetan Todorov, a narrative theorist who examined hundreds of Russian folk tales to try to find similarities between them, and came up with a theory that he believes can be applied to every story ever written. He proposed that each story is broken down into these 5 basic steps:
Narrative continued
The Witness follows a dual narrative, cross cutting between Jack smoking and the antognists dragging the body before the real time sequence progresses to a point where both narratives join together. We have also used many binary opposites, as in Levi Strauss’ narrative theory, which says that important parts of the story always appear in pairs.
For example:
Our protagonist wears his hood down suggesting that he has nothing to hide while the antagonists wear balaclavas to show how they are desperate to conceal their identities.The running styles of the two contrasting sides are different, Jack runs wildly, arms flailing and leaping through bushes and trees to evade his chasers, but they run with their arms by their sides to maximise their speed showing their professionalism in this situation.
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| Contrasting Running styles |
The lonlyness, isolation and vast location (shown by extreme long shots to establish scene at the beginning) highlight the danger of the event. Our film features Enigma codes and action codes, these keep the audience engaged as they asks questions such as 'Why does the boy look behind him, is he running away?' and 'Why is he going into the forest?' The main action code is when Jack sees the villains dragging the bodies which sets up the confrontation and chase.
Form & Function
The main purpose of a title sequence is to introduce character and narrative. We decided that superimposing our titles was the best option as this allowed the audience to focus on the action and connect with our protagonist Jack. The slow fade in and out reflects the undisturbed equilibrium that we create, titles do not appear in the chase sequence as we did not want to disrupt the fast, quick cutting nature. Superimposing the titles was inspire by the TV show heroes in which the titles are very subtle allowing viewers to focus on the action.
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| Inspired by the subtle Heroes titles |
The opening of Black Hawk Down (Scott)also uses superimposed titles, although this is to tell a story; this is the style that we tried to emulate.
Style
In the opening part of the sequence, we use slow editing which obeys the 30 degree rule to create a calm atmosphere and a false sense of safety with underlying senses of danger from the dark music that accompanies the footage. The second half of our sequence explodes into life with lots of camera movement, rapid cuts, and fast paced music to create a sense of excitement, adrenaline and danger in an otherwise normal and unexciting setting of a forest. Please take a moment to listen to the music of our sequence:
The fast pace and high BPM connotes our action genre where as the sirens at the end represent the gang culture, crime and gritty themes of our film.
Within the chase, apart from the POV shots, each shot is edited to about a second or less to create this fast paced, and are collectively matched to obey continuity principals creating our sequence.
 |
| Note the lengths of the running shots |
We establish the chase with some long and medium shots, but use a variety of angles such as close ups and floor level shots to engage the viewer in the chase. To further engage them we have used lots of POV shots as this helps the audience connect and understand the characters and makes them feel much more involved with the action as it as if they were there.
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