Film Making Conventions and Cultural Codes (American Psycho)

I chose a scene from American Psycho, from the middle of the film. The genre of the film is drama/crime.

Film making conventions:

• ECUs of each business card, and when each character takes out their business card - shows the importance of the cards to the businessmen.
• As the scene goes on, the framing on Patrick Bateman gets tighter and tighter - making the scene more tense as we read the anger and jealousy in his facial expressions.
• Voice over of Patrick's inner thoughts - although he is not outwardly expressing his jealousy we see into his mind like none of the other characters get to.
• Sound of the clicking when the other businessmen open their business card holders is enhanced and isolated - get the sense of building tension - as Patrick focuses more and more on the business cards, he gets increasingly jealous.
• Other characters are shot with MCUs or CUs, but only ECUs on Patrick and the business card, so we focus more on Patrick and his emotional response to the cards.

Cultural codes:

• A room of very well dressed businessmen - all very rich and highly thought of in the business world.
• Comparing their business cards - competitive nature of their work place - Patrick becomes furious when he learns that they all consider Paul Allen's business card to be better than his, but a large percentage of the audience would not understand his jealousy, which makes Patrick's reactions and emotions even stranger to us.
• Their clothing and the room that they are in have fairly muted colours - nothing too bright - shows the seriousness of their environment

Reflections on shots

Genre:

We chose horror as our genre and we decided to represent this by having dull colours and a tilted LS to convey the strangeness of our main character, and to make her look sinister. The hair on one side of her face and the intense look makes her look like a villain.

Achieving the effect:

We achieved the effect by putting a sepia setting on the camera and shining a pag light directly on Ella and tilting the camera.

What is successful:

I think the genre is being conveyed successfully and our decision on changing the setting on the camera and tilting the frame was a good idea, because it conveys the darkness of our character.

Improvements:

I would probably make the shot tighter, an MCU or CU so we could control more in the shot and get rid of the background. The lighting is good, but I would change it by putting the light underneath Ella's face to give harsh shadows on her face to make the shot even stranger.

Analysis of film still

I chose a still from the romantic drama, Atonement (2007). I chose this still because although it is quite a standard shot, the composition and mise-en-scene says a lot about the film just from this single image.

Camera:

• MLS of Cecilia (Keira Knightley) and Robbie (James McAvoy), with a sharp focus on Cecilia and Robbie softly out of focus. Cecilia is in the foreground and Robbie is in the background, in a slightly high angle shot, from the point of view of a window.

Mise-en-scene:

• The vivid green colour of Cecilia's dress stands out against the mainly brown background.
• The large bookcase & brown walls makes it looks as though it is in the interior of a library.
• The light at the side of the shot to make the Cecilia's dress stand out more, with light on Robbie - possibly from a window - so it looks as though it is natural light.

People:

• Cecilia is looking off screen and Robbie is looking at her, so we can guess that Robbie is in love with her but because Cecilia is unable to look at him, she may not love him/her love for him is not allowed.
• Cecilia and Robbie both formally dressed, so they are attending an event, possibly a dinner party.

Composition:

• The shot is off center, in order to show both of the characters and both of their facial expressions. 
• They are standing far away from each other to show the friction in their relationship.