Synopsis For 'Hood'

The hooded man; with no identity. Nothing to identify him but a tag on his wrist from an Institution for Mental Health located far north of his tragic and savage rampage. His name; long lost by the insanity that shrouds his mind.

Detective John Smith is put on an unusual case; a string of scarce and brutal murders throughout the city of Bristol. The only thing that links the murders is the angelic insignia carved into the each of the victim’s chest. When Detective Smith makes the link and digs deeper into the mystery of the hooded killer; his life begins to spiral out of control as he becomes one of the targets chosen by the unidentified hooded escapee.

With everything to lose and his inquisitive mind as his only weapon, John Smith begins to look into the history of each of the Hood’s killings, trying to figure out the identity of the serial killer before he threatens the people he cares for most – his family.

9 Shot Analysis

Preliminary Task

Codes and Conventions Of Thiller Movies

Information On Sound

Diegetic Sound - Sound that is part of the film, for example talking, weather and major events happening in the film.

Non-Diegetic - Sound we do recognise as part of the film world.

Sound Bridges - A sound bridge is a sound from one scene that will often continue onto the next scene.

Parallel - Compliments the image the viewer sees.

Contrapuntal - Sound that does not not fit the image.

Sting - Musical punctuation.

Theme - A key passage of music linked to the subject.

Incidental Music - "Background" adds atmosphere to the action.

Ambient Sound - Providing audio continuity between shots.

Sound Motif - Repeated sound that comes to be identified with a particular character, place or thing, we hear the sound and it adds axpectation.

Narative Theory Information: Key Figures

Vladimir Propp

was a soviet formalist scholar who analyzed the basic plot components of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible narrative elements.Vladimir Propp broke up fairy tales into sections. Through these sections he was able to define the tale into a series of sequences that occurred within the Russian fairytale.

Vladimir Propp suggested that every narrative has eight different character types, these character types were:

The Villain - fights the hero in some way.

The Dispatcher - makes the villain's evil known and sends the hero off.

The Helper - helps the hero in their quest.

The Princess - acts as a prize for the hero.

Princess' Father - gives task to hero then gives the hero the reward.

The Donor - prepares the hero.

The Hero - reacts to the donor and gets the prize.

False Hero - tries to take credit for the hero's actions.

Claude Levi Strauss

Levi Strauss was a french anthropologist and ethnologist who studied hundreds of myths and legends all around the world, from that he found out that we as humans make sense of the world, people and events by seeing and using binary opposites.

Some examples of binary opposites:

Good v Evil

Black v White

Boy v Girl

Peace v War

Civilized v Savage

Democracy v Dictatorship

Equilibrium Theory

The equilibrium is a theory that the story is about a normal state being disrupted but then resolved to reinstate normality.

Age Certification Information

AGE RATE



We have decided to rate our movie a 15 as this allows us to use violence but we also need to consider that teengaers are at risk of copying what they see.

What does the 15 symbol mean?

No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a ‘15’ rated DVD. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.

Are there any limits on what sort of theme a work can have at 15?

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

What can a 15 contain?

strong violence
frequent strong language
discriminatory language or behaviour
drug taking

Can there be strong violence?

Yes, at 15 violence may be strong. It should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury, however, and the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.
Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.
Easily accessible weapons may not be glamorised.

What about horror works?

Many horror films are rated 15. At 15 there can be strong threat and menace (as long as it is not sadistic or sexualised), although the strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable.

Can you see drugs in a 15 rated film or video?

At 15 drug taking may be shown but the work as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse.
The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances like aerosols or solvents is unlikely to be acceptable at 15.

What about dangerous behaviour or things teens might copy?

We consider the risk of potential harm to impressionable teenagers. For example, dangerous behaviour such as hanging, suicide and self-harming should not dwell on detail which could be copied.

Narrative Theories

this is the most common and simple layout for a narrative theory. Starting from the Beginning/Exposition, then the protagonist is met with some sort of Complication, which then move on to a Climax/Crisis, which is finalised by the main character Resolving the problem.

this is the layout to the Will Smith film; I, Robot.

Beginning/Exposition: The 3 Laws of Robotics come onto scene with a watery/bubbling dark background. suddenly a young girl in seen screaming from inside a car which has been plunged into a lake. then somebody is seen climbing across the debris of metal and car carcass' and smashes the window of the car of Del Spooner's Car (Will Smith) leaving the young girl to disappear into the dark waters. the scene changes to see Spooner wake up in bed sweating from the horrible nightmare he just had of his past.

 

Complication: Del Spooner is led on a case (as he is a Detective of the CPD in the year 2035) of the death of a character in the film (Dr. Alfred Lanning) which Spooner has some sort of Friendship with but this unknown until later in the story. Upon investigating the strange and unexplainable death of Lanning,  Del finds a Robot hiding in the crime scene. Sonny , appears to be implicated, even though that would mean the robot had violated the Three Laws of Robotics, which is apparently impossible. It seems impossible because.. if robots can break those laws, there's nothing to stop them from taking over the world, as humans have grown to become completely dependent upon their robots. Spooner now needs to work out the riddles that Lanning has left him in his Hologram and to also figure out how Sonny managed to violate the Laws of robotics even though the laws are hardwired into every existing robot created by USR. Sonny tells Spooner that her has dreams, which is theoretically impossible as dreams cannot exist within the programmed mind of the artifical beings. He draws a picture to show the repeating image in his head and explains it to the Detective what is shown. it shows a picture of a bridge which was one Michigan Lake, with thousands of robots gathered round with the silohette of a Jesus-type figure stood on the hill while they all look up to him. Sonny tells Del that he's sure that Spooner is the man on the hill; which shocks Spooner as he has a raw hatred for robots since the crash at the beginning.

Climax/Crisis: all of a sudden every single one of the new NS-5 robots created by USR (Except Sonny) start to overtake the city of Chicago with red lights beaming from their translucent torso's. They are also programed with a secondary plan, to eliminate Detective Spooner; as he knows to much and has almost figured out who the main culpret is. 

Alfred Hitchcock Research

Non-Diagetic Music for Effective Scene

I have found a piece of music that would be excellent in a scene I would liked to produce in my Media Studies work. 'Muse - Supremacy' is the piece of music, I will soon upload a demonstration chip showing the scene I would like to shoot.

Ardman Trip

Oasis Academy: John Williams organised a 6th form trip for the media studies students to visit the Ardman Studio where projects such as 'Wallace and Gromit', the movie 'Flushed Away' and the short children's show 'Shaun The Sheep'. The trip was very productive as it allowed us to see the frame by frame animation used to create the movies and shows that they produce. We were able to see the plaster-scene and silicon made characters and the sets created for the projects that Ardman work on, which allowed us to have a very good look at the specifics needed in this type of animation. 

Reverse Zoom Dolly

This is a camera shot named "Reverse Zoom Dolly" and it is very effective for capturing the fear and horror on somebody's face as they witness something. This is a scene from the film "Jaws".