The Shining 'Are you concerned about me'

The sequence starts with Wendy being tracked by the camera as she sneaks around in fear, with a bat in her hand; a typical weapon used in horror, trying to find Jack but he doesn't seem to be around. Still being tracked, Wendy continues to walk and call Jacks name. At this point you can only here the diegetic sounds of a low, volume rumble, which sounds like the wind outside and generators in the hotel, these are also accompanied by the sound of  Wendy's footsteps. These sounds creates a tense atmosphere and also a sense that something bad or jumpy is about to happen. This is a key convention of horror that builds tension , which is a popular theme amongst  horror films. This first part has all been taken in one shot which varies between mid and long shots. The shot finally changes to a mid shot of Wendy from the front, her facial expression suggests she is scared as her eyes are wide and she looks worried. Her whole body is tense, her fists are tightly wrapped around the bat and she is constantly looking around. In the same shot she walks towards Jacks type writer. The scene then cuts and the camera is positioned at a low angle, below the front of the type writer, allowing us to see Wendy's facial expression as she approaches the type writer, a tense non-diegetic soundtrack builds up and her face begins to drop. To the audience it becomes apparent there is something wrong with what she is seeing.  The shot then changes to a close up of the sheet of paper in the type writer, this shot is from Wendy's point of view, revealing what she discovered. Jack has written the line 'All work but no play makes jack a dull boy' over and over again.  The sequence then cuts back to a shot of Wendy who has a look of horror on her face. She then looks to the left of the type writer and as she does so, we get an eye-match shot of what she was looking at. On the table is a pile of papers with the same line written again and again. After the camera focuses on the papers, it then zooms in fast to show what is written. This zoom technique is also used in the 'RED RUM' scene when Wendy realises the word 'Murder' written on the door in the mirror. This could be a relation between the two parts that are showing Wendy's realisation. Wendy then starts looking through the mountainous pile of the type written pages. While she does so, the sequence cuts multiple times between a low angled mid shot of Wendy's face and a birds eye  close up of her hands flicking through the papers. As she flicks through frantically, the length of each shot gets shorter and Wendy's breathing becomes heavier as she shakes her head, in denial of what she is seeing. Also there is a non-diegetic screeching sound building up and creating more and more tension. As the audience I feel tense and keep expecting Jack to turn up. This kind of sound track is typical in the horror genre. The sound is now picking up in pace and volume and Wendy continues to look through the paper, the shot changes to a different point of view. For a start you see just a wall with pictures on it. The camera then pans to the left showing a long shot of Wendy from behind.  When the camera stops moving, half of  Jack's silhouette slowly comes into the shot as he is approaching Wendy. At this point the screeching  gets louder and a strong feeling of anxious tension builds and I, as the audience feel my heart picking up in pace as I am not quite sure what is going to happen. This kind of shot is a typical horror convention, showing the audience what is going on before the character knows themselves or  revealing to the audience things the characters do not notice or see. Still in the same shot, the music becomes quitter and almost silent.  Jack then  asks Wendy if she likes what he has written; In doing so he makes Wendy jump and scream. The non-diegetic  sound then begins to get louder again as Jack and Wendy are now just staring at each other and nothing is being said. From that point on you can tell that Wendy is uncomfortable, scared,  tense just from her facial expressions and body language, she also begins to cry.

The camera is now tracking jack as he walks towards his type writer  as if we are looking from Wendy's point of view. The camera stops moving  as Jack asks Wendy what she wanted, however she claims can't remember but is struggling to get her words out. At this point there are non-diegetic sounds that are really loud at some points and just random bursts of shrieking. This makes me feel really on edge and creates an uncomfortable and tense atmosphere, which is likely to be how Wendy is feeling. There is now a parallel edit to Danny who is sat with a shocked look on his face , he has another vision of blood rushing out the elevator doors and it seems he can hear what his farther is saying even though he isn't anywhere near where his farther and Wendy are.  We now return back to Jack and Wendy. The sequence cuts back to an, eye-level mid shot of Jack and as he walks towards Wendy, the camera is tracking backwards as if we, the audience are stood where Wendy is.  As Jack becomes angry and more  intimidating, Wendy keeps her bat at the ready and slowly tries to back her way out of the room but jack continues to walk towards her. Wendy comes to the bottom of the stairs and slowly begins to walk up the stairs but still facing jack as he continues to walk towards her. Wendy makes her  way up the stairs, jack follows and his angry and somewhat psychotic mood escalates. Throughout this entire section, the shots are constantly changing between Jack and Wendy and the camera is continuously back tracking Jack as he walks forward and also tracking Wendy as she walks backwards. The pair get almost to the top of the stairs and Jack is asking Wendy to give him the bat but she won't so, he attempts to grab it from her as she swings the bat trying to get Jack to back off. As Jack again tries to grab Wendy, she smacks his hand with the bat and then smacks him around the head with it. The camera is now at a low angled long shot as Jack stumbles back and falls down the entire flight of stairs which knocks him out, leaving him lay at the bottom of the stairs unconscious. There is then a cut to a final, over the shoulder shot of Wendy looking down the stairs at Jack who is just lay there. 

The Quick and The Dead

Within the first shot you can establish the film is a western. This is because of the mis-en-scene of the musky desert and horse ridden by a long ranger. At this point the diegetic sound of a horse galloping and naying, along side the non-diegetic sound of a Mexican guitar. These also show the genre of the film. The camera then backtracks and zooms, at a fast pace, to reveal the vast landscape in the distance.

The Camera then pans to the right and there is an old, wheel-less, western wagon that's clearly been there for a number of years and has been abandoned. This could show how far away the characters in the scene are away from civilisation. in the next shot we see a second horse, fully saddled with supplies. Again this could be suggesting how far away from civilisation this place is.

 As the camera pans across the set, the sound of a man performing some sort of strenuous activity is heard. The camera is still panning as it passes a dug hole with a shovel next to it this gives us a clue to what the man is doing which is digging holes. However the fact the shovel is on the floor suggest the man is digging with his hands and from the sound, very frantically. The camera continues to pan to the right revealing more dug holes and more shovels.The fact there are so many shovels suggests the man digging was well prepared when he came to this place which means he is digging for something in particular.the amount of holes may also show how long the man has been at it for.

The camera finally stops panning and the scene cuts back to the lone ranger closing in on this digging man. The digging man then pops his head up showing he knows there is somebody approaching and we get a close up of the characters face, which has the expression of realisation. The man stops completely and go's for his gun.

Here we have a long shot from the character point of view, looking down the barrel of his gun and aiming at the lone ranger. The man then approaches the long ranger, who appears to be dead and then. pokes the still body to check if the lone ranger is dead. As the man pulls away the lone rangers hat to see what they look like, you discover that the the lone ranger is in fact a women which isn't a typical western convention but, puts a twist on the story.

The women then hits the man sending him flying and stands to her feet. When she is stood there, the women appears as a silhouette in front of the bright, light sun. The array of light could symbolise that she is the main character in the film and also that she could be a hero and not a villain. After standing up the women ties up the man with a chain and rides off leaving him stranded. 

The next shot is long shot of the women riding on her horse through, a grave yard full of tomb stones. This may be for shadowing the amount of deaths that will occur through out the rest of the film.

The camera then pans to the left but slowing down to a low angle shot of a fence painted with the word, 'REDEMPTION'. This could suggest religious themes throughout the film and also characters being saved from various situations. Religion and belief in god is a popular theme in western movies.

Next there is a mid shot of the women with a contemplating look on her face as she appears to be looking at something a head of her. The shot then cuts to an eye-line shot to reveal what she is looking at...

...which is, a vast, god-like but barren land scape. the women then rides her horse towards the small town which is seen in the distance.

 A new scene begins as the women is entering the town. As she approaches, a group of loud mean on horse back come from behind her and ride past shouting and all appear to be happy.

As she continues to ride further into the town, the women looks down and the camera again shows what she is looking at with a close up. The close up is of a sign or something of that nature that reads 'MARSHALL' which is covered in dust a cast down amongst the rubble. The imagery could suggest this is a lawless town and there is no real order or regulations to follow. 

The women then rides past a man plaining the lid of a coffin which then becomes the main focus of the shot. On the lid of coffin is a cross, this could be more imagery to suggest some theme of religion.

Film Genre Features and Conventions

Hybrid Sci-Fi Thriller
- Dystopian
- Extraterrestrial life
- Alternative possible worlds or futures
- Aliens with advanced technology 
- High levels of anticipation 
- Unsure of the outcome
- Fast Paced
- Tense, Dramatic music
- Lighting to create a sense of surrealism 
- Families being separated and brought back together

why ‘The Lone Ranger’ was considered to be a box-office failure

‘The Lone Ranger’, directed by Gore Verbinski, starring Johnny Depp, was destined to be a ‘box-office bomb’ in the UK, due to its low ratings and bad reviews from USA film critics. Depp blames the failure of the film, on the ‘poor reviews’, which he thinks were written seven to eight months before the film was released. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer says “I think they were reviewing the budget, not reviewing the movie.” So could the failure of ‘The Lone Ranger’ be down to America’s harsh critics scaring the public viewers away?

According to TheIndependent.co.uk ‘The film is regarded as the come-uppance for director Gore Verbinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer after their run of success with ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies.’ With them saying this it provides us with another reason why ‘The Lone Ranger’ was said to be ‘a flop’. Due to the public and critics viewing of the highly rated ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’ films, their expectations were set way to high and left them disappointed when ‘The Lone Ranger’ didn’t reflect the same standards as the phenomenal ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies.

Despite all the bad critique and poor reviews, ’The Lone Ranger’ still gave many viewers and critics something to rave about.  From multiple reviews and ratings posted on the website, RottenTomatoes.com gives ‘The Lone Ranger’ an average rating of ‘3.5/5’ and states that ‘60%’ of audiences said they liked the film. However there are just as many good reviews as there are bad. According to MaryAnn Johanson, a critic who posted on RottenTomatoes.com, ‘The Lone Ranger’ was ‘Limp, lifeless, overlong and undercooked’. Here Johanson brings to light another reason why the film may have flopped.

Summer 2013 has brought some great movies and blockbuster hits to our screens. ‘Despicable me 2’, ‘Iron man 3’ and ‘Monsters university’ are just 3 of many feature length films that have been released this summer. Most have left a very high standard for the following film releases to live up to. However, ‘The Lone Ranger’, which was one of those following movies, doesn’t seem to have reached that mark. According to screenrant.com ‘the heavily subscribed release schedule has left a few casualties in its wake.’ These casualties include ‘The Lone Ranger’ amongst other movies released in summer 2013. Due to the amount of great movies released in such a tight period of time some movies got pushed aside and knocked under the shadows of other higher rated films. Timing of release seems to have contributed to the lack of interest when it came to the public viewings of ‘The Lone Ranger’.

The team behind Disney’s ‘The Lone Ranger’ was given a budget of $250million to bring the film back to life after the movie was shut down for the first time in 2011. The studio decided to ‘revive’ the project; however they only managed to re-coop a small fraction of the Money they spent when it was released in July 2013. It seems the lack of returns and profits put people off going to watch the movie.

Screenrant.com claims that ‘The reasons behind The Lone Ranger‘s drastic under-performance are difficult to pin down.’ And they are right. It is hard to just lay the entire blame on one factor. However there are so many factors that add to the harsh but realistic fact that ‘The Lone Ranger’ flopped.

My favourite film of summer 2013

In 2001, Disney released Monsters Inc. The film at the time was said to be one of Disney’s greatest achievements. After watching the film for the first time, I can always remember thinking that I wanted more. Every time I watched it I didn’t want it to end. I was so engrossed in the movie; I just wanted it to carry on. Twelve years later, in 2013, the long awaited prequel; Monsters University came to the big screen. Although Monsters University wasn’t a follow-on story from the first movie, the prequel tells how Sully and Mike became such good friends and also why Randle despised of the pair so much. I think that’s what gave the film the ‘must see’ factor for me.

The main reason why I really liked this film was because of its pure, clean-cut quality! From the animation it’s self to the vibrancy and colours that made the film so appealing. I really can’t fault it. Every detail had been thought out so deeply, the film wasn’t too long or too short, the storyline was constantly entertaining and the mood of the film changed so frequently, from highs to lows that it kept me on the edge of my seat. I can honestly say I did not take my eyes of the screen for a single second!

Closely followed by DreamWorks, Disney’s animations are my favourite. The reason why is because, Disney produce so many high quality, animated films, that never fall short of peoples expectations, just like Monsters University which was destined for success. There’s just something magical about every movie that Disney produce and that’s why I loved Monsters University so much. It’s all about that ‘warm fuzzy’ magical feeling and wanting to be apart of the movie.

When watching any film I always look for the subliminal messages and the morals behind the storylines. Monsters University teaches you that everybody is equal and even if you are just the ‘Out cast’ you shouldn’t let anybody stand in your way just like mike didn’t. Another Moral to the ‘Monsters University’ story is, even though everybody around you seems to be some what better than you, don’t ever stop being yourself.

Another aspect of Monsters University that I liked was the little elements carried through from the first film into this one. For example, Mike always gets his face cut out of photos in the first movie, which he doesn’t seem to be bothered about, in fact he’s so ecstatic, I don’t think he really cares. They carried that through into the next movie with mikes photo on his student card. Also in the first movie, the warm up mike does with sully every morning is actually what mike used to train his ‘O.K’ team back in University for ‘The Scare Games’.

All in all, Monsters University has been my favourite film of summer 2013. It made me laugh, it had me on the edge of my seat, I had been waiting for the film for twelve years and it was so much better than I expected it to be, even though I had already set my standards high anyway. In my opinion, Monsters University is an A-class, five star movie.