Film Research: Death RACE

The opening scene of Death Race opens up with a black screen and a quick description of the current time period.  It then cuts to a camera rolling through an animated car engine. Their use of special effects and incidental music heighten the intensity of what is going to happen. It suddenly makes you aware that a lot of blood, sweat, and tire tread will be shed during this movie. The first two minutes don't ruin the movie for you but instead takes its time to explain to you how America has crumbled economically. It then explains that due to this economic decline the prisons were now having to make their own money to support themselves. in order to do this they hosted fights to the death. But this new death race idea on terminal island has struck the minds of many police officers taking place in this movie. The opening consists of no camera shots instead it consists of special effects of an car engine. The camera starts on the outside of the engine with the pulleys and then works its way deeper into the heart of the growling engine to unveil the true power of a car. No opening credits were given only background information on the actual story was given. the budget of Death Race was 45 million USD in the box office it made 75.7 Million USD.  nominated for Academy of science fiction, fantasy & horror films for best actress. It won DGC Craft award for sound editing. At the world stunt awards the movie was nominated for best fire stunt.

Film Research: Point Break

In the opening of Point Break it starts off with a closeup of the water moving into shore. It then cuts to different scenes of  a man out in the waves surfing. Using non continuity editing they also add in shots of a guy shooting multiple guns at targets. hes practicing very intensely based on his quick movements and sweat all over his body. Within the first two minutes not much of the story is told. it kinda gives you a background. As if you have seen the movie you would know its about a gang of surfers, which can possibly be inferred from the opening scene. One point to highlight in terms of film making techniques was the opening credits. they did an amazing job at blending the credits into the waves in the scene. as the water came in one name would flow with the water into shore. then when the water recited a new name popped up and started moving that way. Then point break pops up but backwards and mixed up with each other. As the water comes from the beach back to the ocean it mixes with the other wave that's coming in, unveiling the title of the movie. The dim color design and incidental music do a great job a setting a sense of a suspicious and up to no good mood. The opening credits include the producer, who castes the film, the co-producer, the music supervisor, editor, production designer, director of photography, executive producer, and some main characters. The budget of the film was 24 million USD, in the box office it made 83 million USD worldwide. It was nominated for 2 awards at the MTV Movie awards. Most desirable male and best action sequence.

Research: Fast and Furious 5

The opening of Fast and Furious 5 starts with a long shot of a bus traveling down an empty road in the desert. Suddenly it cuts to another long shot this time from behind the prison bus. This gives the views the setting and time of the scene. While the camera is still focusing on the the bus from nowhere 3 black cars come from behind the camera and the focus changes to the black cars. The incidental music then starts a something big is going to happen. It then cuts to many interior closeups on the drivers faces and also the faces of the prison inmates in the bus. This creates a sense of intensity coming from the drivers and a sense of confusion of the prisoners as they have no clue what is even happening. lots of digetic sound of engine noises and tires screeching are played throughout the entire scene. This emphasizes the power that these cars are putting down and the speed they are travelling in order to pursue the bus. A tracking shot of one of the cars occurs as it moves up way in front of the bus. It then cuts to a point of view shot from the bus drivers perspective, as the car stops in front and cause the bus to ram into the back of it, it flips over. as the bus is continuously flipping it switches to an aerial shot from a drone that pans around the crash. Not much of the story is produced in the opening scene at all. it looks to me that the whole purpose of the first scene is just to catch the eye of the viewer. I mean who doesn't like to watch a bunch of fast cars cause a huge bus to flip over 5 plus times. Fast and furious 5 had a budget of 125 million dollars in order to shoot it perfectly. it made a total of 626.1 million in the box office. They met and exceeded all of the goals they set in terms of revenue from the movie.

Project Selection- My Decision

The decision has been made....
I have decided to go with the  film project. I chose the film project because i have a greater interest into the film process and how to gets to the end product. Also the affect the film can have on someone inspires me to create one of my own. I have experience using cameras for filming and also the whole editing process. these skills will be very valuable when heading into the film project. Personally i have a huge passion with cars and filming/photography of them. In our particular  project my group is deciding to do a sort of Fast and Furious inspired film. This intrigues me more as my personal passion of cars will find this project more fun than work which will work out in the long run. My personal experience with cars includes filming and making edits which will directly show on my filming especially when the film is orientated around cars. The film will be an action film with small hints of fast and  within it. For this project i will be working in a group.  Jane- i see her having a big part within the acting of the film as she is good at on screen acting. Cierra- I see her being more of a directors assistant as she is proficient in all skills needed to film this. Trey- has skills with editing so i see trey doing more of the editing for the project.

Project selection-Film

After viewing many examples of film production, out of the two different choices the film project has my interest. The film project composes of planning, filming, editing, and many other skills that i have some sort of experience doing. Also i have a real passion for cars and taking pictures and filming and making edits. The camera skills and the editing skills are already there in order for me to take an advantage of it and confidently succeed at this project. The way a short video can portray a message or meaning and personally affect someone on how they think about something has me intrigued to dive further into the film project. Some challenges i might face are the adaption to this different editing software. Plus the whole process of finding a shooting location and so on. But all of these things can be over come with persistence.

Project Selection-Magazine

For our aice project we were given the decision of a video project or creating a newspaper. Recently we have been viewing material like all the presidents men and the news room in order to further investigate our interests between the two. For the magazine project, printed journalism has some aspects that interest me. the interviewing of people would fascinate me due to the fact that if they are worth interviewing then there is some valuable knowledge you can gain from the subject. I also like the aspect of diving deep into a story just as the magazine project would entitle you to do. On the other hand this project wouldn't be the best fit as i am not one who enjoys writing and typing a huge explanation on a story. I'm more of a visually orientated person. Also not very proficient in graphic design and would have trouble making the final product perfect. Although i have those quirks it still doesn't completely turn this side of the project away.