Extracting an Image with Photoshop

Extracting an Image with Photoshop



 

Original Image

 

 

Cropped using 'Snipping Tool'

 

 

'Quick selection Tool' (Photoshop)





 





 

'Masking tool' (Photoshop)

 

 

 

'Refine Mask' (Photoshop)

 



Essay: CSI One Hit Wonder

How does the opening sequence of CSI: One Hit Wonder attract the audience.

CSI: One Hit Wonder shows us how the detectives solve the mystery of a killer who torture, abuses and rapes women but never actually kill them. The whole episode leaves the audience wondering why?

All the episodes of CSI start in a similar fashion so, the regular audience are expecting something like a murder or a torture scene to happen in the opening sequence which makes them wonder about who’s the killer and who’s the victim. It leaves them in anticipation making them watch the rest of the episode.

The opening shot of CSI One Hit Wonder shows us all the city lights and buildings of Las Vegas giving a hint that people are still awake and active in the city. The sound used in the scene is both diegetic and non-diegetic. We can here the creepy, high pitched music in the background as well as the noise of traffic and sirens. It’s a high angle shot of the city implying that someone down there in the city is the victim. There is a jump cut using a quick fade to white and fade up between the shots. It is used to unnerve the audience as it’s the last thing that you would expect to happen while watching the first shot. The second quick fade to white is a graphic match with the buildings, now they look like bottles placed on a shelf. The camera tracks along the shelf (which can also be seen as buildings) slowly and quickly fades to black. After that we can see inside a room.

The camera panning through the room shows us a few objects that refer to something i.e. the red towel placed on the side of the sofa symbolises blood and violence. We can see one pair of trainers placed on the floor as well which tells us that there’s a single person living inside that house. The room’s dark implying that something strange is about to happen. The sound used in the scene is atonal, eary and high pitched giving the scene a creepier affect.  The camera then takes us inside the victim’s room which is dark and quiet. We can see a female sleeping. It’s a high angle shot implying that the women is weak and might be the victim. There’s a crescendo of sound still playing in the background creating tension within the audience. There is a dissolve then the camera tracks towards the bed where the female is sleeping and we can see that she looks quite peaceful in her sleep.  The shot fades into blackness.

The next shot opens up on a close up of a young female. It’s an extreme close up. We can hear some sort of noises in the background which sound like either a door creaking or someone talking outside. The audience cannot see any more of the scene except the women’s face that is because they are supposed to be kept in suspense. They are not supposed to see any clues of what’s going to happen and they’re not allowed to see the face of whoever might be the killer as well. This leaves them anticipating and makes them watch the rest of the episode. The women wakes up and turns and there’s a crescendo of the soundtrack again to build up tension. There’s a sudden cut in the shots and you can see the front/main room of the house. There’s bar shadows on the walls implying that the female’s trapped inside. The camera’s placed behind the lady and the angle is like someone’s looking down on her. The background sound is changed to a low string sound. The women turn on the lights and looks around. It tells the audience that something’s not right.

The image of the women is shown as a stereotypical female victim dressed in her underwear making her look sexually attractive. She looks around the room trying to figure out what’s wrong. She sees a magazine placed on a table under a fan and the pages of it are turning by themselves. There’s an element of security. There’s a cut to the close up of the magazine. The camera tracks out, the woman looks up and sees that the fan is on and assume that it’s causing the pages to turn over. She has an element of shock on her face implying that she hasn’t done it. As the fan turns, she turns and the camera closes in on the woman’s face and is placed on top of the fan. You can see the fan’s wings moving as she looks up on it. The camera angle is high and the shot is medium.  The camera then cuts back to the woman in medium shot in the middle of the frame. There’s crescendo of sound in the background as the camera pans through the room and zooms in on a switch board showing bloody finger prints on it. The female is shown panicking and frightened. The director has made it really clear that the lady is alone in the house by a single pair of shoes in the starting scene of the episode and also by the elements of shock and fear on her face when she sees the magazine turning.

In the very next shot, the camera zooms into the woman’s face. As she looks down the focus of the camera changes and the director uses focus pull and shows the audience a glass on a table. We can see the woman in the background looking at it from a low angle. The camera’s placed under the transparent glass table.  The same crescendo of sound is used in this shot to build up tension and excitement within the audience. There is a cut to the woman’s reaction, she’s shown scared. We can see the female, a lamp and a door in the background in the frame of this shot. There’s a jump cut/quick zoom to the door handle. We can hear a woman screaming and asking for help on the soundtrack (diegetic sound). Another jump cut and sfx shot is used to zoom through the lock in the door. The camera takes us through the lock of a few more doors and reaches a room where the audience can finally see the killer.

The camera leads the audience to a bedroom after taking them through a few door locks to create suspense and tension. In the bedroom, the audience can finally see the killer who is sitting on top of another woman (victim) and she’s screaming and asking for help. In the final shot of this scene the woman is being held down on her bed by the killer in an unreal blue light. In the next shot there’s a cut to sole of the killer’s shoe in close up as he leaps off the bed in slow motion. The audience can see his shoe sole as he runs away which might be a clue of who he is, as the killer’s face is not shown to the audience, later on in the episode. In this shot we can hear the diegetic sound of the woman screaming and the crescendo of non-diegetic sound is also heard in the background. They are slowly mixing together creating a tense and thrilling sound track.  

The Wilhelm Scream

THE WILHELM SCREAM

The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect (a pre recorded sound effect to be used for several different entertainment purposes) that has been used in more than 200 films, beginning in a 1951 film "Distant Drums". The scream is often used when someone is shot, falls from a great height or is thrown in/from an explosion.
It's most likely voiced by singer/actor Sheb Wooley. The sound is named after a character Private Wilhelm in a 1953's western film "The Charge at Feather River" in which he gets shot with an arrow.

This sound effect became really popular and is featured in many cartoons, films, tv programmes and video games.

Sound

Editing

Editing helps construct a narrative. We are so used to editing that we barely recognize it. Editing can be used to condense long boring activities into quick bursts of visual information.
Edits and transitions come in many forms. The simplest and the most common one is the 'cut'. People actually use it to cut the film.

• Transitions: Apart from cuts; there are some visually interesting transitions.
• Dissolve:- One scene dissolve into another, overlapping for a moment.

• Fade out/Fade in:- One scene fades out to black completely, then another fades in.
• Wipes:- One scene wipes across the screen, revealing or replacing the next one. This can happen in any direction.
• Iris:- The next scene replaces the last by appearing from the centre like the iris of an eye.
• Jump cut:- Two scenes that feature a common element right after one another, so something stays the same but the rest changes. This is used for disorienting or comedy effect.

In the film North by Northwest, the scene in the United Nations building have 27 cuts in between shots/scenes. The most frequent ones are during conversations so we can see the reaction on the characters faces. The cuts in the scene can help contain excitement and tension.

 

 

 

 

Sinister Movie Trailer:  It has fade in and fade out scenes, contain dissolves and have straight cuts in between scenes to create tension and excitement.

 

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Basic Camera Shots

 

 Extreme close up

 

 Close up

 

 Medium Close up

 



 Medium shot

 

Medium Long shot

 

Long shot

 

Extreme Long shot

Mise-en-Scene

'Mise-en-Scene' means Everything that's happening within the scene/frame. That'll include Costumes, colour, facial expressions, composition, lighting, sound etc.

 

Opening scene: Jaws (film)

As the scene opens we can see that there's Low lighting- darkness suggests that it's the night time in the current scene. The Source of light in the opening scene is the camp fire which suggests that it's safe and warm there. A group of people sat around the fire. We can hear a couple of different sounds from that scene like music, people talking (conversations), laughter etc. The couple is sitting away from the group. (Away from the camp fire)

 

 

They move to the sea, further away. Isolating themselves. They run alongside the fence/bars/cage. (trap). The sound that we here during this shot ^ is of the waves, running and the sound of the couple's conversation. As they've isolated themselves from the group suggests that something's bad going to happen.