The Shawshank Redemption: my presentation.

One of our homework tasks last week was to prepare a presentation on a scene from our favourite film. I chose to research into The Shawshank Redemption, focusing on the escape scene at the end. I used a clip taken from Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCtgM1hWcUY).
I first looked into the mise-en-scene; the surroundings are dimly lit except for the one small window in the cell. This tiny window has light flooding through it, representing his slim chance of freedom Andy has. Through looking at the characters' clothing, it is possible to see the different positions of authority - the inmates are wearing worn workclothes and the highly ranked characters are dressed in smart suits. As a member of the audience, we empathise with the inmates as the majority of them regret the mistakes they have made, in the case of Andy (the protagonist) not only do we empathise with him, but we hope that he will escape as he is actually innocent and was wrongly convicted.
The camerawork was the next aspect of the scene I chose to study. My favourite use of the camera from the scene is when the camera zooms out from a medium close-up shot of the characters after they find the hole in the wall; I think that this zoom adds a sense of awe and shows the respect felt towards Andy for finally managing to escape the jail.
Throughout the film, the character of Red narrates what is happening to the audience, this is an example of a non-diegetic sound and is used in this scene to emphasise the amount of time Andy had spent in jail.
A dissolve is used from a still picture going backwards in time to show the day Andy first started trying to escape, the audience at this point are taken back to a shot seen previously in the film which creates a sense of familiarity.
At the point at which Andy actually escapes, lighting is used to add drama to the scene, it creates excitement and a sense of panic and urgency. The lightning also adds to the sense of triumph as Andy takes up the position of a cross, adding a religious aspect as if he is thanking God for finally escaping Shawshank.

A few definitions...

As the media course is completely new to our class, it is important that we learn some definitions:

MISE-EN-SCENE: this is everything in the frame

SEMIOTICS: the study of signs

SIGNIFIER: the object in the picture

SIGNIFIED: the implications of that object in the picture

SIGN: the combination of the signifier and signified that make the picture

DIEGETIC SOUNDS: sounds which are part of the world of the film

NON-DIEGETIC SOUNDS: sounds which come from 'outside' that world

POV: this is when the audience sees through the eyes of the character, this is a technique often used in thrillers.

These definitions are useful to us as we will eventually be using them in our final exam.

My First Look into Media...

Our AS Media course was soon started with our introduction to Adobe Photoshop. I was familiar with the name of the programme, but not how to use it. We were first taught the basics needed in order to edit film posters. I started off with a poster advertising The A Team, and through using the stamp tool, I was able to copy certain parts of the poster and make a replicate of it elsewhere. For example, copying Mr T's head and placing it onto someone elses body.

Our teacher, Matt, then showed us some more tools and how to use them, the lasso tool is used to make a selection and to then copy your selection to another part of the page. There are different variations of the lasso tool, for example the magnetic lasso which 'clings' to the outline of the shape you are copying.

We were soon introduced to the world of layers within photoshop. Matt explained all the complications which can arise through misunderstanding layers; yet the majority of the class (including me) managed to make a 'layers mistake' at some point during the lesson. I suppose this is when learning from your mistakes is key.

We also learnt how to edit the tone, colour and direction of the posters as well as learning how to edit an aspect of one poster onto another. I chose to combine The A Team with Alice in Wonderland which proved to be quite entertaining.

I enjoyed the hands-on lesson into the world of photoshop, and look forward to progressing in the programme as the course continues.