I-Robot Waking up scene ( 1 min 41 - 3 min 11)

We are filming our opening series in a similar way to how the opening of I-Robot is filmed, in that a series of quick shots that seam unconnected to build a plot line. The fast editing builds tension and create suspense.

(analysed from 1 min 41 - 3 min 11)

The establishing shot of him in a bed uses the Rule of 3, placing his face in the centre of the screen, using the third lines as his side of his head. The eye line if in the top third and chin is in the bottom, so it’s appealing to the audiences’ eye, and watchable. The diagetic off screen alarm clock noise allows the audience to understand that the beginning sequences were a dream or not in the same reality. As he rolls over to reveal the time the mid shot reveals he has a gun showing the opposite side to his character. The lighting used shows the lighting on half his face, showing he has a double personality and has good and bad sides. The next shot uses lighting to show the dark side of the room, and the open door adds suspense and tension. He is on the left side of the screen, using the rule of 3 and his facial expression lets the audience know he’s in pain. The pie in the shot n the side of his bed suggest to the audience his characteristics and tells a story, showing the disorganized personality. It then zooms in and the jump cut to the mid shot, from the back which zooms back out, allowing the audience to appreciate the context, and shows his room and its contents zooming out to a long shot. This shows his everyday lifestyle and what his normality is. The eerie parallel non-diagetic soundscape creates tension and suspense and keeps the audience watching. There is then a straight cut to a low angle of him and also using the lighting to place him above the audience. His right shoulder is highlighted evoking how the story has a dark and light side, zooming in and stressing his strength and muscular tone. The straight cut to the stereo exposes it playing ‘superstitious,’ which is contrapuntal to go with the ‘tension’ building aspects of the film and makes the audience question. The song suggests faith in magic and chance and links to irrational thoughts, evoking the tone of the film and how the storyline is twisted and illogical. The rule of thirds allows is again used to position the stereo in the centre if the shot and the lighting cast a shadow, linking to the ‘superstitious’ and peculiar choice of song.  The next shot is a high angled swooping shot tilting to a low angle to show him eating and to show his power. it then cuts to him doing weights, showing his power and masculinity. The empty look on his face suggests he is stuck in a rut in his life and that the storyline will take him out of his normality and into as the narrative theory states, out of normality into ‘disequilibrium.’ His straight arm horizontally abducting shows his strength and power, reinforced by the low and age of the mid shot. The tracking shot across the apartment goes across the pole in the room, showing how it’s cutting into a different situation. His strong pose in the shower shows his masculinity and the lighting behind evokes his almost angelic and god-like, showing his superior. The gun on the shower rail shows he’s threatening and how he lacks trust. It zooms to a low angled close up, showing him singing along with water dripping off his face. The fact he’s singing on shows his normality but still appears threatening. The next shot is a bird’s eye view of his room shows he lives alone from the single armchair and suggests he might feel lonely at times but can’t show it due to the fact he must put on a ‘tough guy’ front. The next shot shows his converses, an expensive brand of shoes, mainly worn by younger people, evoking his youth that he cares about his style and appearance. There is a straight cut to a mid shot of him admiring the converses. The grey plain jumper demonstrates his simple style and grey suggests a dark or sinister side to him. Then there’s a slow zoom, cutting to a close up of his foot, whilst he neatly ties his shoe.  The tilting shot then goes t his face, from a low angle where he says ‘thing of beauty’ which is the only dialogue in the whole intro. The final shot is of him walking down the stairs. It pans round to reveal him with a long coat and that on showing his business like character.

We are using a similar filming style for our introduction to introduce the character and set the scene. This allows the audience to establish the setting and understand the context of the film, whilst getting to know the main character as a whole.  Before watching I-Robot, we had the idea to film a series of quick shots of him getting up in the morning, using quick editing to building tension. The first shot is of the alarm clock, showing him waking up, similar to in I-Robot. The rule of thirds is used, with the clock at a slight tilt making it appealing to the eye and easy to watch. The red table in the shot shows danger and evokes panic. In I-Robot, the alarm clock was red, also showing the danger and panic. Next we have a series of waking up shots, none of which show our actors face to create a sense of mystery. In initial ideas, we had the thought of having a digital alarm, coming on to the radio, and an upbeat parallel upbeat song, showing how the mood drastically changes. We decided we would refer an analogue clock, to evoke the type of old-fashioned, slightly dim, bit-of-a-loser, unlucky type of character, which is very different o the character portrayed by will smith. And by using a similar style of shots it allows the audience to establish the characteristics he possesses and what makes him who he is. We didn’t want his to be turning on a stereo and so decided the song playing would be better to be non-diageticly, and he would get ready in silence. When we filmed it we only had a few clips, showing him waking up to the alarm, taking his feet out of bed, and then a shot of the shower. We then had him pouring breakfast when the letter comes through the post. From watching I-Robot, it was evident we needed more clips of longer clips to make it more effective, filming in a similar style to that. The entire wake up scenario from I-Robot lasts approximately 90 seconds, whereas ours was only about 30 seconds long. We decided to add in more clips, also allowing us to re-film the letter part.

Ellie