Hermeneutic Code Essay

Hermeneutic Code Essay

In this essay, I will be talking about the Hermeneutic Code and the ways in which it is used in the film opening of Saw II. Hermeneutic codes are very useful in the film industry as they keep the audience occupied and interested. Some of the Hermeneutic codes which are used are snares, which deliberately avoid the truth and send the audience into believing something completely different to what actually is going to happen. Partial answers are used also, which reveal some of the final outcome but not all of it, this is mainly used to build up a suspense atmosphere. Equivocation are used as well which are a mixture of the truth and snares as well, this is used to also make the audience think completely different of what the outcome will be. There is also a code called jamming but isn't used a lot as it is a code which suggests to the audience that there is a problem which may be completely unsolvable. I will be talking about how Saw II uses these hermeneutic codes in the opening of the film and how it makes the audience want to continue watching.

The hermeneutic codes which are used in the Saw II opening are snares, as they want the audience to think they on their own how the film will develop and conclude. There is also some partial answers as the first Saw film is the one before Saw II and the audience already know some of the story and truth but actually don't know the whole story.

Learning about the hermeneutic codes it has helped us as to understand what kind of techniques and codes we have to use for our film, by watching the opening of saw, I have a good understanding of the enigma's and snares which I should or could use in our media product.

3 Peices of Textual Analysis of Similar Texts

In this post, I am speaking about three different film openings and what kind of things that they have in common. The three films in which I am going to be talking about are:

• Green Street
• Football Factory
• Cass

I picked these three films because they all have football related violence in them, making the very similar to one another. Not only that but we have decide in our group that we want to relate our media product to a violence and alcohol area and although these three films also have football violence related, there are the closest films which relate extremely well to the idea's that we are thinking about.

Green Street:

This a poster of the front cover of the Green Street DVD.

Description of Opening:

In the opening sceen of Green Street, there is an establishing shot used to show a setting of a train station. There then is a cut to show football holligians singing and coming up the steps, and from what dialogue they are using you can tell that they are westham fans. Once they have finished their singing, there is then a shot-reverse-shot showing other football holigians on the other side of the train station. Dialogue is then used and

swear words are used to show that the men are violent and dangerous. This continues for a few seconds, and then a train pulls up to the station finishing the scene and then it cuts to outside, with the football holigians fighting and beating each other, emphasising their violence. Just from watching this opening scene, the auidence can tell that the film is going to be about football violence and holligians. This film has many concepts that we want to include in our movie clip which we have to make. The main things which stood out in this opening for us was the violence that was included in the film opening, it was useful watching the kind of shots and angles and mise-en-scene that they use in this opening as it gives us some really good idea's about what we should include in our opening. The costumes that the charactes wear in the opening of green street are hoodies, jeans and jackets which hide most of the character face, this emphaise to us that they don't want people to know who they are. Also the angles and shots that they use in this opening for the violence scene is quick and fast cuts with a wide range of camera shots, making it seem fast and in your face. On a whole this opening has helped us as a group a lot with the idea that we want to generate for our media product.

 

Football Factory:

This is a poster of the Football Factory DVD.

Description of Opening:

In the first scene of The Football Factory starts off with an establishing shot of some men wearing very stereotypical hooligian clothes. Their dialogue or cockney slang and swearing just adds to the way that they are. There are a few establishing shots used just to emphaise different football hooligians, and a security camera effect is added to some shots, to emphaise that the men are being watched and are dangerous. The men all meet up near a local pub, and the violence starts off with two young adult men, going over to this other man and punching him to the ground, the violence then gets worse with them then beating and violently attacking other hooligians as they come out of the pub. Once again, like in Green Street, the auidence can tell that The Football Factory is going to be about football hooligians and violence.



Cass:

This is the front cover of the DVD of Cass.

Description of Opening:

In the opening of Cass, it shows the main character being a bouncer at night club near Millwall and a shot is then shown of two men in a car speaking about football, indicating violence to hurt the bouncer, this indicates from the start that this film is going to be about violence. The guys in the car then exit the car and approach this black man, whom is the main character and shoot him a few times. There then is a flashback showing 20 years ago, showing what the main character was like. They then follow a group of football hooligains and attack and abuse some other football hooligains. Once again from the first to main clips in this movie, the auidence can tell that the film is going to be about football hooligians and violence. 

Comparisions

• Similar storylines
• Violence and football hooligians are present in all three openings
• Cockney and swearing is used a lot in the characters dialogues which emphaises to the violence and personality of the characters.
• Settings are all very similar, in London.
• All three start of with violence to emphaise to the auidence that the film is about football violence and that this is going to be present throughout.

Research into Similar Media Text

I have picked The Dark Knight to relate to the film in which my group are going to create. I have watched the film has he contradicts very well with the kind of conventions that we want to include in our film. The genre of the Dark Knight is a Drama/Thriller and the four technical codes are used cleverly to represent a film which seems to link back to its genre.

The camera shots/angles that are used in this film opening are very broad, as there is a lot of suspense and drama throughout. More angles and camera shots makes the audience feel anxious and worried about what is going to happen next. Not only that but more camera shots/angles are used to create snares and make the audience believe something else.  Also these shots are used to make the audience have to think, to try and get what is going on to happen in the film, if there were not many camera angles and shots, it wouldn’t make the film exciting and full of drama/suspense. Many camera shots and angles are also used to give the audience a good idea of the setting of the film.

The editing used in the opening of the Dark Knight is related very well to the conventions of its genre. Fast frequent cuts are used for suspense and drama and these cuts add to the atmosphere. Not only that but there is a lot of 180 degree and 30 degree editing which makes the audience have a sense of what is happening in the opening of this film. These editing techniques are used to create a tense and suspense atmosphere.

The sound effects and music, which are used in the opening of this film, are loud and deep sounds and the tempo of the music and sounds are fast to relate to the fast frequent cuts and to add the suspense and drama. There is only a small amount of dialogue in the opening of this film as the audience have a lot to take in from the suspense of the film early on.

The mise – en – scene used in the opening of this film is good as there is a very good mixture as the costumes used are represented extremely well as most of the characters are covered up and the audience don’t know who is who. The setting is in a bank as there is a bank robbery relating to the drama and suspense atmosphere. Not only that but the acting and props are extremely good and relate very well in knowing what kind of film this is going to be.

By watching the opening of this film, it has given me a rough estimate of what I will need to include in the opening of the film that we are going to be filming. I need to take into consideration all four of these technical codes.

Initial Idea's

We have come up with a few inital idea's and will we decide on one of the idea's that we are going to use for a two minute clip for our opening of our film. Are initial idea's were:

1. A buisnessman who is a hitman, and was ordered to kill someone for a mission and then recieving a huge amount of money. This would be based around a train station, or train tracks.

2. A man who is spiked at club and cannot remember what happens the night before, in the morning, he has a few items on him that remind of what happended the night before. This would be based around a club and also someones house.

3. Would be based around our second idea, but slightly different locations, and instead of the man going to a a local club, he comes out drunk from his local pub, he then will wake up in the morning we cuts and bruises, and will wonder what has happened to him but he then has flashbacks about the night before and realises what happens.

Outline of Brief

In this post I am going to be writing about the brief which has been given to us. The brief consists of my group completing and making a two minute opening of a film, which we will need to evaluate. We will have to do research throughout the course to get the best possible outcome for the film. The research in which we will have to do is to think about some inital idea's, research into similar texts, analyse 3 pieces of similar texts, research into a potentional target auidience, file location shots with some text about mise-en-scene, a risk assesment form if needed, synopsis of idea's, casting, props and costumes list, shooting schedule, storyboards and script/screenplay. If we include the majority of these things throughout our blogs, it will show that we have planned and researched our course extremely well.

Introducing My Group

In this inital post, I will be introducing my media group in which we will be making a two minute opening of a film. There are three people, which are in my group, myself, Callan Mc and Ricardo L. Throughout our A/S media project we shall be making a preliminary task, many essays which we show the research we are doing in making our film and also adding updates and tasks throughtout the course. This is my blog and I hope that you can easily understand the updates and posts that are made.