Final Destination 3 Analysis

I have chosen to study the cinematography and sound from the rollercoaster premonition in the beginning of Final Destination 3. This film was released on 10^th February 2006 and was written and directed by James Wong and Glen Morgan.

The two main characters, Kevin and Wendy,
board the rollercoaster before the crash.

  The scene opens with a point of view shot as the rollercoaster starts its journey on a 200 foot incline. In these moments, the audience is introduced to the characters on each carriage; the shots used to establish each pair of passengers are side shots and mid-shots. I think the side shots have been used to reflect our own emotions towards roller coasters. For example, in one frame, the shot highlights two high school students; the person in shot looks excited whilst the other student looks terrified. This is suggesting that, even though some people love rollercoasters, they’re still worried that something bad is going to happen. The audience is then shown the overall track which looks like a toddlers scribble. This scene was shot at night which makes the blood red track look dark and haunting. I think the shot used to display the track is an establishing shot because it’s showing the location of the scene.
 

  The slow and tense music accompanying the diegetic sound of excited people shouting and cheering makes the audience unsure of the situation; this uncertainty increases as we’re shown a low angle shot of the apparently flimsy and delicate construction of the incline. As the music grows louder, the audience are shown a mid-shot of the back of the rollercoaster. This is telling the audience that the people on the ride can’t get off; it could also be telling us that the passengers’ fate has been sealed, in dramatic terms.

  At the top of the incline, just as the train is about to descend, the camera shoots a 180 degree pan to show the audience how high the ride has travelled. This ends in a mid-shot, displaying the people at the front of the train. We are then shown an oil leakage from underneath the train; this oil lubricates the rollercoaster wheels for the track. Just as the rollercoaster descends, the music and sounds suddenly stop to a deadly silence. This is to create a moment of suspense and drama to increase the audiences’ tension as they wait for something bad to happen.

  As the rollercoaster travels across the tracks, point of view shots are used to place the audience in the situation. I think this would make the audience feel tense as they’re familiarized with the speed of the ride; I think this particular shot can be described as a stable shot because the audience can see the action clearly. The only sounds we can hear are the delighted screams from the passengers on the train. Parallel editing is used to display the passengers’ reactions on the ride and to show the leakage that’s still occurring underneath the tracks.

Panning shots are normally used to follow specific character in a straight line. For example, if someone was walking down a corridor, the camera would film this person from the side and follow him/her down this location. This type of shot is used in Final Destination; however, the difference between the typical shot and the way this was filmed for the scene is that the character the camera’s following, in this case the rollercoaster, is out of shot as it has run up another incline. I think this technique is used so the audience can hear how weakened the construction has become; its weakness is portrayed by its loud whining. A tracking shot is also used as the rollercoaster travels around its first loop in the track: One of the passengers is holding a video camera and, as the train goes around the loop, the device slips out of his hand. The shot is filmed to follow the object as it falls and a close-up is used as it wraps itself around part of the track. A low angle shot is then filmed to show the train running over the machine which causes the mechanism connecting the wheels to the track to break. This would create suspense with the audience.

  The difference in the point of view shots become clear as the rollercoaster falls apart. At the beginning of the premonition, the point of view shot is filmed from the front of the train and is fixed onto the ride, meaning the audience can clearly see what is happening as they become part of the action. However, once the train starts to malfunction, the point of view shots become distorted as if they’re being filmed from a hand held camera which makes the ride seem uncontrollable. The sounds the audience can hear are howling and scraping of the wheels heating up, causing friction, on the track; this is due to the lubricant oil emptying. The audience can also hear the terrified screams from the people on the ride. This whole situation would make the audience feel terrified yet sympathetic towards the characters because they’re forced into the incident due to the shots used. I also think the absence of the diagenic music makes the situation frightening for the audience because it suggests that they’re suddenly involved in the movie.

  The leaking of the lubricant oil causes the wheels to loosen and scrape against the tracks, creating sparks from the front of the rollercoaster. It also keeps the handlebars in the carriages secured while the ride is moving so, because of the malfunction, these safety features are unlocked to the horror of the passengers on the train. The shots used to portray this are a high angle and panning shot. These shots were chosen so the audience could see that the incident was affecting the whole train and not just one or two carriages. A close-up is then used to show the wheels breaking off and a low angle shot is chosen to display the front carriage and its two passengers being thrown off the tracks. The lack of music only serves to heighten the dramatic impetus. The non-diegetic music then returns after this shot; it’s quite dramatic and fast-paced, which shows the audience that the accident is happening quickly.

   As the rollercoaster is about to travel around two loops, one person on the train falls out and tries to hold onto the side of his carriage as the ride continues its journey. Tracking shot are used to follow the train round this part of the track and point of view shots are used to show the audience the section of the track the ride is travelling through. I think these shots are used to create a kind of tension because the audience want to know if this person is going to be able to hold on to the train while it’s going around a double loop. Just before the loop ends, another carriage breaks off the train and smacks into him. A close-up is used to show the look of horror on this person’s face before he dies. At this point, the lack of music creates a tension as the audience hold their breath, the music enabling the audience in the next scene to breath again. The broken carriage smashes into a section of the track and supports, splitting them both in two. The rollercoaster then starts hurtling towards a giant loop and slows to a halt at the top, leaving the passengers upside down. Low angle and high angle shots are used to portray how high the loop is. These shots are also used to display the ‘victims’ of the accident that has just taken place. The last two survivors on the train decide to sway the ride backwards to get it moving again. Close-ups are used to show the wheels of the rollercoaster moving slowly. I think this could be a moment of suspense because the audience don’t know if the rollercoaster is going to move or if the survivors are going to let go of the carriage before it starts moving. This section of the scene could also be tense because the music is absent, creating a deadly silence. The same dramatic sounds return once the ride starts moving again. This could suggest that the deaths are not yet over.

  A tracking shot follows the rollercoaster as it travels backwards along the tracks. The camera then zooms out to focus on a part of the construction that had split due to one of the carriage previously crashing into it. The tracking shot is filmed at the side of the carriage as one of the last passengers get cut in half by this piece of mechanism. A close-up is then used to focus on the victim’s torn and bloody upper body. I think this shot is shown so people watching this film can see how gory it’s going to be. The rollercoaster then continues to travel across the track until it’s thrown off by the split track. A low angle shot is shown to display the last passenger falling to her death. The last shot we see is a travelling point of view shot towards the ground below before we’re hurtled back two minutes before the rollercoaster starts, and before the camera hits the ground, which would imply the death of the cameraman.

  I think, because this film has an exciting and memorable beginning, this keeps the audience interested. There are a number of reasons for this; the first reason is that the film writers chose a catastrophe that is possible, and has indeed occurred a number of times in the past. I chose this scene because of its cinematography; this is an action-packed scene and uses a lot of shots to imply that it’s also fast-paced. This way of filming creates a sense of fear in the audience because the cinematography is suggesting that the incident is happening quickly. This scene also uses a lot of point of view shots to illustrate the event from the eyes of the people on the ride and how the accident looks to them. I also think the lack of non-diegetic music is important to the scene because it tells the audience when something is about to go wrong, e.g.: the beginning of the scene has no non-diegetic music but when the rollercoaster starts to break, the music comes into the scene; this music then disappears when the ride has reached the top of the loop but returns again just before the penultimate passenger dies. The use of music and its absence through this important section of the film both increases and relieves the tension in the audience.    

Unfortunetly, I am unable to find a video link to this scene.

Post Production at Staffordshire Uni

SEMESTER 2

Conspiracy Theory Edit 

The last assignment we were given was to create a three-minute documentary based on a conspiracy theory. It had to be opinionated and only contain existing footage from YouTube. This assignment was to see if we could create a new narrative using existing clips. The part of the assignment that took the longest time was finding a conspiracy to do; the three most famous ones couldn't be used. This was to make the assignment more challenging. Once we decided on a conspiracy, we then had to find the footage. My group decided to make a documentary based on MK Ultra. MK Ultra was a secret government-led organization dealing in mind control experiments, which ran for 30 years and wasn't discovered until the late 1970's/1980's. Because it was secret, not many people know of it so we decided this would be a good conspiracy to do. 

We did the film around the victim's experiences' rather than the doctors. The reason for this was so the audience were told exactly what the experiments were and how they were treated; if we'd done the film from the other point of view, we wouldn't be given all of the information that the victim's tell us. The background music we used was taken from one of the YouTube clips we used. We decided to use this piece of music and loop it throughout the film because it sounded calming yet eerie whereas the images and dialogue are shocking, therefore making the film seem disturbing. We chose to do the editing to the beat of the music to make the film fast-paced. This meant we could include as much information as possible in the three-minute timeframe. As well as this, we had a lot of cut aways consisting of phychological imagery. This was so the audience could engage more with the film. As of writing, I am still awaiting my results for this piece of work. 
MK Ultra from Megan DeLonge Williams on Vimeo.
 


Any news is Good News: 

A look at Russell Howard's Good News

Russell Howard is a stand-up comedian, who originally appeared as a regular panel guest on Mock The Week. He was given his own show in 2009 and 'Good News first aired on BBC Three on 22nd October 2009. The show focuses on different topics in the news including headline news, weird news and a 'I didn't know that' section, as well as a 'Mystery Guest' segment, where someone is invited on the show and Russell Howard has to guess why that person was in that week's news. 

This programme and 'Harry's Hill's TV Burp' are very similar because they both use existing footage from TV to get their jokes across to their audience. However, Russell Howard's humour is more mature and adult-themed than 'TV Burp. Howard also talks about specific news articles whereas Harry Hill talks about TV programmes.

Russell Howard's Good News: promotional poster for series 7

The editing isn't very fast-paced; it doesn't need to be: This is because there's no action or quick gags involved. Another reason why the editing isn't quick is so the viewers can concentrate on listening to each joke. If the editing was fast, then the viewers would find it difficult to concentrate on the jokes because they're paying more attention on the different shots being displayed. Russell Howard uses existing footage taken from news report to portray his jokes. The way each joke is started is he'll introduce his joke by saying 'Have you noticed.....' or 'Is it me or.....' and he'll show a news clip to back up his joke. This means the clips have been cut at a specific point, and are taken out of context, to be displayed in a comical way. Colour grading is also used in a couple of examples throughout the programmes, to display specific members of the public in a different light.  

SEMESTER 1:

Online tutorials and exercises

The editing software I have been taught to use at Staffordshire is Final Cut X, which is the latest version. When learning to use it during the tutorials in weeks 2-5, I haven’t found much of a difference between this version and version 8. The only difference in Final Cut X is it automatically saves, which I have had to adjust to because of the older version I have used at college. The other difference is the change in location for most of the commands. Apart from this, I haven’t found the program any different from the earlier versions. However, I have turned to Premiere Pro to edit because Final Cut X does not take MTS files, which are the video files that are on the Panosonic HMC 151 cameras. Premiere Pro does import these files so I have decided to edit using this piece of software.

For the editing exercises, I had to edit the sound in Scene 34 and Scene 38 (On Blackboard, this scene is called Scene 37 but the footage tells us that it is actually Scene 38). I didn’t find Scene 34 too difficult, mainly because the sound quality was quite poor to begin with, so effects like hum reduction and background noise reduction were ineffective. I wanted the scene to feel calm and relaxing because of the location and the dialogue included. Because of this, the shots have been edited into long shots, mainly focusing on the male actor. I have made most of the reaction shots from the actress short so the audience are focused on the male actor. I have also used cut aways so the scene has more variety of shots; therefore, the audience will not get bored and will continue to watch the scene. 

The other problem I had with this exercise was saving it. Saving the footage was easy but, whenever I went back to it, the footage would be wiped off of Final Cut. I found out recently that this is because you can’t save work to your user space at Staffordshire. Instead you have to save it to the Macs Data drive. In the future, I will save my footage to a hard drive instead of the computer so I know that I definitely have it when continuing with work. After a third attempt of editing Scene 34, I saved it to the Data drive which seemed to open the video file when I went back to it. However, when I uploaded it to Vimeo, it said that the file was an unknown file so could not be uploaded. I then decided to export it to a mov. file and the file became too small to be uploaded. I found out that Vimeo only accepts MP4. files and, because I have never used the website before, I did not know this. Realising my mistake, I went back to the Mac to upload my footage again and Final Cut X couldn't retrieve my work because the clips were 'missing'. In the future, I will choose Premiere Pro to edit.

Scene 38 wasn't too difficult to edit because there wasn't a variety of shots to use, and it was just one conversation. Once again, I wanted this scene to have long shots. At the beginning, I wanted the two female characters to share a rivalry between each other. To show the audience this, I used the high angle and close up of the two females. The continuity of this scene was simple to keep because it was mainly one conversation between two characters and the main bit of dialogue came from the male actor. The sound quality was also of good quality so I didn't need to change a lot, apart from turning down the volume on a couple of shots. Unlike Scene 34, I didn't have any problems uploading the footage to Vimeo.

Scene 38 from Megan DeLonge Williams on Vimeo.

Ghostbusters

Another exercise I had to do was to recreate a scene from Ghostbusters, which was a group exercise. We mostly filmed this scene in order to make editing easier. However, we did have to re-shoot this scene because our work got wiped off the camera and SD card. We were not able to figure out why this had happened. The second time we filmed, we filmed in the same process to make the editing easier. We were also editing the film for See Green at the same time, so this form of filming made the Post Production stage easier. When we went to edit, we realized that we had missed out two shots, so we had to re-use some existing footage for it to make sense. However, there are a couple of jump cuts in the scene, so more filming needs to be done next time. We also need to film longer shots because the pacing of the scene was disorganized.  

Ghostbusters from Megan DeLonge Williams on Vimeo.

Analysis: Music Video for ‘Always’ by Blink-182

This video was released in 2004 and was the last single to be released from their self-titled album. The song is about a relationship falling apart and the singer is trying to make it work. The video reflects the lyrics in the song. For the video, the screen is split into three sections, with the three band members being portrayed as one person; the girl is only displayed as herself. This is telling the audience two things. The split screen is telling us that the relationship is breaking apart. The use of the band members portraying one person is saying that he has different personalities and is unpredictable, possibly leading to the downfall of the relationship. The girl is involved with the type of video display but no other girl is portraying her at the same time. Therefore, she is displayed as the victim and is damaged because of the broken relationship. Apart from the way the video is displayed, it looks as if it was filmed in one take. I personally think seamless editing was involved in the making of this video. The editing is done to the beat of the song with the pacing being quick, so the actions/ shots are short. During the bridge near the end, the pace slows down because the bridge is quiet and slow. The characters actions are also in time with the music. For example, from 2:11-2:29, the camera turns to each band member by the drumbeat that's being played. 

I would assume this was edited using either Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro HD (v. 4.5); a few TV companies were using Final Cut yet Avid and Premiere Pro were still the preferred choice around this time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Cut_Pro). Each shot would be filmed three times (one shot for each band member), then each shot would be cropped down and placed on top of each other, therefore creating the effect featured in the video.

Literature Read:  

-H.R.Giger and Mia Bonzanigo-Giger's Alien. Titan Books ISBN-9781852862190

- Murch Walter-In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing. Silman-James Press ISBN-13: 978-1879505629
  -Lori Jane Coleman and Diana Friedberg-Make the Cut: a guide to becoming a successful assistant editor in Film & TV. Focal Press ISBN-978-0-240-81398-1

 

-David Sonnenschein-Sound Design. Michael Wiese Productions ISBN-0-941188-26-4

-Danny Draven-The Filmmaker's Book of the Dead. Focal Press ISBN-978-0240812069