Film Research - Dog Soldiers

Dog Soldiers - Neil Marshall

The opening of the scene of any film has to be interesting and entertaining. In this extract of Dog Soldiers it creates tension for the rest of the film as something big happens which makes you want to find out more about what's going to happen. We are shown an establishing shot, which sets the scene of where the film is going to take place and we get to know some of the characters.  This film opening is mysterious, as we are left confused as we don't completely know what's happening. Then after the dramatic opening it cuts to a different group of people so we are left with a cliff-hanger of what’s happened, this is a good technique to use as it makes people intrigued to keep watching. There is also a eerie music playing which makes us feel unsure of how the film is going to continue and adds more mystery.

I think that in any opening it needs to have a scene that draws the audience in and makes them wonder but also doesn't tell them exactly what's happening so the audience want to find out more. I also think that it has to have shots to establish where its going to take place and to meet some of the main characters e.g. if they are very popular people will want to see them throughout and also if they are a famous popular actor the audience will then want to continue watching as they will see the actors.

Continuity Exercise

Continuity Exercise


For my continuity exercise, we created a short clip of someone walking through a door, we needed to include certain things for this piece which included a 180 degrees angle rule, match on match action and to include shot reverse shot. 

I booked a camera and a tripod from my schools media room and tried different locations and found a good location that would make this shot be perfect for my film. I then picked two classmates that could be used in my film. I used the 180 degrees rule which is a rule in cinematography that states that two character in a scene should maintain the same left/right relation to one another. I then included a shot reverse shot which lets us see more into the conversation and makes us feel more involved, we are also able to see the people who are having the conversation and their facial expressions. I made sure that we used match on match action which is a technique that connects two different views of the same action at the same moment. they match the movements across two shots.

I enjoyed this task as it enabled me to learn about the rules in the film industry which I did not know about before which will help me in the future when I create my own film. I also got to try out the camera and learn about how it works.