The begining of the extract zooms in on the man speaking to draw focus but then slowly moves down towards the fire, the fire is representative of chaos and war so it gives a good effect considering the man is speaking about a murderer. Throughout the sequence the only face that can be seen clearly is the hessian horseman in order to show his ferocity, by not showing the faces of the other people in close up it shows how insignifigant they are and that they are not important characters. Unlike in older films, where the convention is to not show the violence and make the viewer think they saw it, the violence is the main part that is shown in fast shots so it is hardly noticed with all the carnage around it. The shots are fast but have little movement during the battle scene, there is some movement in following the movements of the horseman which, again, is effective in giving him focus. The end of the battle scene is a close up showing his sharpened teeth in detail as the man is talking about them. After the battle the shots are longer and slower giving an eery calmness to the scene, and also helps show how the horseman is slowly reaching his end. As the people move through the forest the camera follows them through the trees which helps show that the characters are somewhat lost in this forest as it all looks the same. Despite the intensity of him bieng chased the movement is still quite slow. As the camera spins around the horseman, the audience can see essentially what he sees without a point of view shot, this is effective in showing the two girls as the viewer doesn't see them until he does. Before the flashback cuts away the audience can see the man about to cut of his head which is effective as we can see it but the character can't see it. The way it cuts at the end is effective as it doesn't show his death, in comparison it always showed the death of the others. The final shot of Ichabod shows his cup shaking which shows how scared he really is but when the camera moves up it shows the front he's putting on in pretending not to be afraid.
The first shot moves fluently and shows the drink before showing the man drinking it, this gives us a quick impression of that character. The next shot almost looks like somebody is watching him and shows how empty the bar is. The shot through the mirror is effective, it is an over the shoulder shot so it seems like Jude is facing the man in the mirror. All the shots are quite long and move slowly, if at all, which helps fit with he music which (at this point) is slow. The slow zoom on both of them keeps the focus on the two characters and as Jude is looking away and it zooms towards his head it gives the impression of him thinking. As Jude starts to leave the bar the camera follows his every movement, when he sits up slightly it moves up and when he stands up and leaves it goes with him. As he is packing the camera moves up and the audience starts to see the woman in shot whom that hadn't seen before making her introduction almost a surprise. There are a couple of shots themed around looking down streets that recede far into the distance, this is effective in showing him walking away from his home as the distance seems greater. A particularily good shot is when the camera moves backwards as Jude moves away from the screen making it seem like he travels faster as the music speeds up. With the man drinking the camera moves with his bottle which puts the focus on what he is doing and gives a quick idea of the man. The whole extract contains alot of camera movement all on moving around the character in focus, the man playing the garbage bins, Jude, whoever is important at that point the camera will follow them.
For our mood board we used images that were dark and some that were strange and surreal. There are some pictures of the northern lights as they are a naturally strange occurance. Most of the pictures are characters reminiscent of the mad hatter, as this is a character similar to a character in our film idea, there is a significance of the hat in the film so there were quite a few hats. The girl on the roof is similar to a shot that could be done in a part of the film. There were also some shots from Donnie darko and pans labyrinth (inspirations for the film) and quite a few evil looking women from other films.
The music is slow and meant to be creepy to fit the mood of the film and images.
Frank the rabbit in this sequence has a strange distorted voice, this is a useful effect in making him seem less real, creepier and is the sort of thing that would be a useful effect in our sequence. The dark lighting and the very still camera makes the whole scene stranger. The still camera makes it seem calm but the voice and the monstrosity of the rabbit contrasts greatly giving a more eery effect to the scene. The way that the character of Donnie doesn't seem bothered by this is also unnerving and shows alot about his character. Narrative wise, the way Donnie follows Franks voice is reminiscent of how the white rabbit in alice in wonderland or the bug in pans labyrinth leads the characters away from home. The following of a voice without seeing where it comes from adds some tension to the scene at wanting to know where it came from.
Initial ideas: The story starts with a young girl with apparent mental health problems. The girl follows a man she thinks she sees in her mind and starts to retreat into this fantasy world more and more, however as the film goes on the line between fantasy and reality becomes thinner until it becomes obvious that there was never fantasy only reality. Because of this the girl turns more insane and ends with her in a prison imagining her family in a normal setting as it once was. The film is focusing on fantasy and reality and how people can never understand what is real and what isn't. The scene that we could do would be the beginning which shows the first switches between reality and fantasy when she goes to wonderland or possibly the end where she is sitting in a prison alone.
The main character: Young and female, between 15 and 20. She lives in an ordinary home. A male character refers to her as 'rabbit'
Inspirations: Donnie Darko - Surreal events Pans labyrinth - strong influence Alice in wonderland - white rabbit type figure, wonderland Kubla khan (poem) - poem that doesn't make sense, creepy
