Titanic Essay Planning

RESEARCH

TITLE OF FILM: Titanic

DIRECTOR: James Cameron

INFORMATION ON DIRECTOR: James Francis Cameron (born August 16, 1954) is a Canadian film director, film producer, screenwriter, visual artist, editor, environmentalist and inventor. His writing and directing work includes Piranha II: The Spawning (1981), The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), True Lies (1994), Titanic (1997), and Dark Angel (2000–2002). In the time between making Titanic and his return to feature films with Avatar (2009),

GENRE RESEARCH:

The Epic Genre

“An epic is a type of film sometimes described as a genre and at other times thought of as simply a category of films with a large scale, sweeping scope and with much spectacle, usually transporting viewers to other settings or eras. Like classical epics it is often focused on a heroic character. An epic's ambitious nature helps to set it apart from other types of film such as the period piece or adventure film.”

The Disaster Genre

“A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster (such as a damaged airliner, fire, shipwreck, disease, an asteroid collision or natural calamities) as its subject. Along with showing the spectacular disaster, these films concentrate on the chaotic events surrounding the disaster, including efforts for survival, the effects upon individuals and families, and 'what-if' scenarios.”

GENRE SPECIFIC CONVENTIONS IN THE USE OF:

 MISE EN SCENE:

-       real ice on the dock is used to make it realistic.

-       Used olden day clothing to suit the period of time.

-       Used blues outside and reds inside to show contrast and danger warning

-       The props stay in the theme of the rest of the film, with the deck cluttered with ice and objects accurate of the time.

-       Frantic acting, panic spread amongst crew and passengers who witnessed the scene

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CINEMATOGRAPHY

`- Lots of cuts

  - Feels like your running through the engine room with the workers.

  - Cuts are smooth and steady when it is calm

  - When it gets intense, camera shakes making it more intense

SOUND AND EDITING

Used real horn sound for when the ship was sinking

Used CGI to re-enact the ships impact and damage to the stern.

Intense music – fast drumbeat, suspenseful once iceburg is sited

Music grows and goes higher as the scene gets more hectic

People yelling, engine sounds help make you panic.

Music grows with heavy drumbeat and lots of people yelling

This scene in titanic is mainly suspense because the mise en scene, cinematography and sound and editing are captured in such a way that makes the scene more suspenseful and intriguing

The film successfully uses all of the filming elements so that it grabs the audience’s attention