Reasearch- Is Everyone on the Autistic Spectrum?

Are You On It? <<Click the link

Additional Research

The Asperger’s effect

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  Professor Simon Baron Cohen and patient Jon AdamsJohn Angerson

One company hires out people with Asperger’s as technology consultants

We investigate the changing attitudes to autism

First, take the AQ test
Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge’s Autism Research Centre have created the Autism Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. The test is not a means for making a diagnosis, and many who score above 32 and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger’s report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives. A high score on the AQ test is not by itself diagnostic.

Louis Theroux - Extreme Love, Autism

We are aware that we have to represent Autistic people accuratley, so, as well as researching characteristics, we have watched some clips from Louis Theroux's documentary on Autism.
The documentary isn't available on YouTube, however, this link will take you to BBC 2's page where you can watch clips from the programme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00r97tf

Also, here is a documentary about Aspergers which I found on YouTube.

Characteristics of Autism

Uneven Motor Skills
Autistic children exhibit uneven motor skills. Some may not be able to perform even the simplest of tasks, such as hop or stand still on one leg, use a spoon or fork, or dress themselves. However, the same children may exhibit other gifted characteristics, such as drawing, playing music or arranging toys in a complicated manner. Their motor skills follow no set developmental pattern, and while they may perform exceptionally well in certain areas, their performance in other, more common areas is often grossly inadequate.

Many people with autism, and their carers, suffer from sleep problems, such as insomnia.
Problems with sleep issues:

Problems falling asleep

Frequent waking during the night

Early morning waking

Short duration sleep

Irregular sleep patterns

Bed-wetting or soiling

Daytime sleepiness

Causes and other sleep issues:

the neurochemical make up of children with autism. For example, it is possible children with autism may have an irregular pattern of melatonin secretion

the physical make up of some children with autism. For example children with Rett syndrome have breathing problems, which may affect their ability to sleep

the inability of children with autism to use social cues to synchronize their sleep/wake cycle. They may simply not understand that it is time for bed or when it is time to get up.

underlying problems such as anxiety or behavioural difficulties. They may be frightened of the dark or of being left alone by their carers.

sensory sensitivities. Some children are extremely sensitive to things in their immediate environment, such as fluorescent lights

allergies and food sensitivities. Children with autism may be especially sensitive to foodstuffs like sugar, caffeine and additives which can keep them awake.

Repetitive Behaviour and Routines
Children with autism often show issues in the area of routines or repetitive behaviors. Many children demonstrate an obsessive need for sameness. They may have great difficulty when home or classroom routines are changed, possibly throwing huge tantrums. They may insist upon having everything in the same place all the time and get very upset if anything is moved. Sometimes a verbal child may show this desire for sameness in a preoccupation with a certain subject or area of interest to the exclusion of all others.

Physical Characteristics
Many children with autism exhibit what is called self-stimulatory behavior: rapid, repetitive motor movements such as flapping hands, flicking fingers, or spinning things.

Analysis of Opening Sequences 2

The Andromeda Strain



This classic sequence of opening titles is one which we draw inspiration from for our own opening sequence. The black background denotes dark and sinister themes and the use of white writing not only highlights the contrast between good and bad but also suggests a glimmer of hope. The red writing insinuates blood, death and danger, themes which are prominant in the film as it's about a deadly alien epidemic which must be destroyed quickly.

The use of lots of writing and the institutional-style font, suggests that the film involves issues with medicine and documenting progress; we especially see this from this frame: "WORK IN PROGRESS". The use of blue writing not only suggests something cold and negative is going to occur but also links with the idea of hospitals and medicine.

 

A common theme which our film shares with The Andromeda Strain is the idea that higher powers are decieving the public and keeping secrets from them; in this case, the government is keeping the epidemic secret to avoid wide spread panic. The word "SECRET" repeatedly moves along the screen and the blocks of text moving in a linear ways have a technological feel so them- they're numerical and therefore relate to the techno theme. Furthermore, because of this, we've drawn inspiration from this sequence and intend on using linear movement paths for our credits in order to keep the techno feel. Also, the slow movement is a feature we're going to use as it suggests slyness and therefore secrecy: themes which are prominant in our film. 

 

Analysis of Opening Sequences

AUDITION



In the trailer for the film Audition, we can tell it's a horror due to to nature of the images we see; needles, sharp instruments, screaming people, a body bag, hacking, scratches on legs, a girl waiting for a man to call and the same girl hiding behind a tree.
The taster of the film is that it's a gory one and we get this through the, previously listed, mise-en-scene. The ideas of waiting and hiding are ones which are characteristic of thriller/horror films so we can therefore assume the film fits into these genres. The colouring is dark and the use of red connotes blood, death and gore which are very prominent themes in horror films. This connotation of blood is further reinforced by the black and white splattering and dripping effects used to show the titles. The use of the contrasting colours, black and white, clearly show conflict and foreshadow the events in the film and all these things are how we can tell the film is either a horror or a thriller. Plus, at the beginning, there is an establishing shot of a deserted location - a telltale sign of a thriller film.

THE SKIN I LIVE IN



This trailer is also very obviously for a thriller/horror film and we can see this through a variety of pointers. The initial idea of watching/surveillance is shown, which is a characteristic of a thriller, as is the idea of obsession, which is shown by the man licking the screen and his clear obsession with science and testing. The science area of this trailer tilts the film in to the horror genre, however it's predominantly a thriller. The visual of a hostage being sprayed with a water canon and the abduction of the girl all catagorise the film as a thriller, as well as the section of running and catching - predator and prey. Guns are shown at least 6 times, which further shows that violence is a key theme in the film, as do the images of fighting.
In the way of colouring, the trailer doesn't have much to connote the genre, although the bulk of the trailer is dimly lit. Overall, from, mainly, the mise-en-scene of the trailer, we can see the film is a thriller, with aspects of horror.

Voice Over for Thriller

I suggested we use this quote of Gary McKinnon's message which he left on the systems he hacked as the voice over for our thriller sequence. I think it gives a good impression of the film but doesn't give too much away so that the film could either be about the story of what happened when the boy hacks the computers or what happened afterwards.
Here is the quote:

"US foreign policy is akin to Government-sponsored terrorism these days … It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand down on September 11 last year … I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels … "

It is from this we derived the title "SOLO".

Also, the use of a voice over may set up an enigma at the beginning of the film, which will increase interest, curiosity and draw in an audience.

The Original SOLO

Our inspiration for our thriller comes from the actions and events surrounding a Scottish man, Gary McKinnon.
 

Gary McKinnon (born 10 February 1966) is a Scottish Systems Administrator and hacker who was accused in 2002 of perpetrating the "biggest military computer hack of all time," although McKinnon himself – who has a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrom  – states that he was merely looking for evidence of free energy suppression and a cover-up of UFO activity and other technologies potentially useful to the public. On 16 October 2012, after a series of legal proceedings in Britain, Home Secretary Theresa May withdrew his extradation order to the United States.

McKinnon is accused of hacking into 97 United States military and NASA computers over a 13-month period between February 2001 and March 2002, at his girlfriend's aunt's house in London, using the name 'Solo'.

The US authorities claim he deleted critical files from operating systems, which shut down the US Army’s Military District of Washington network of 2,000 computers for 24 hours. McKinnon also posted a notice on the military's website: "Your security is crap". After the September 11 attacks in 2001, he deleted weapons logs at the Earle Naval Weapons Station rendering its network of 300 computers inoperable and paralyzing munitions supply deliveries for the US Navy's Atlantic Fleet. McKinnon is also accused of copying data, account files and passwords onto his own computer. US authorities claim the cost of tracking and correcting the problems he caused was over $700,000.

While not admitting that it constituted evidence of destruction, McKinnon did admit leaving a threat on one computer:

"US foreign policy is akin to Government-sponsored terrorism these days … It was not a mistake that there was a huge security stand down on September 11 last year … I am SOLO. I will continue to disrupt at the highest levels … "

US authorities claim that McKinnon is trying to downplay his own actions. A senior military officer at the Pentagon told The Sunday Telegraph: "US policy is to fight these attacks as strongly as possible. As a result of Mr McKinnon's actions, we suffered serious damage. This was not some harmless incident. He did very serious and deliberate damage to military and Nasa computers and left silly and anti-America messages. All the evidence was that someone was staging a very serious attack on US computer systems.

Preliminary Rough Cut

This is a rough cut of our thriller; we filmed it in my bedroom, however it's only the first half. In the real thing, the second half of the sequence would show the boy sitting down at his computer and would then lead into the hacking sequence.

Shot by Shot Guide

1.First we see a bird’s eye view of the tidy boys room, with the boy in bed asleep. The room is covered in posters of aeroplanes and Air fix models neatly placed on a desk next to his computer. This aeroplane theme runs throughout the room and is an occurring feature to the boys persona.

2.Next we see a medium shot of the boy sat on the bed, looking wide awake. The abrupt movement of him sitting up connoting he had a troubling dream.

3.We then see a close up of the boy leaning over and turning the bed side light on. He flicks the switch, then the shot changes too….

4.A close up of the filament in the light bulb. The filament then exposes to a bright white colour which feels the screen.

5.The white screen then zooms out to reveal a poster and continues to zoom out until we are back to the previous shot of his profile.

6.The camera then rotates around the back of the boys head, using the back of his head as the rotation point.

7.  The camera zooms into the Rubik’s cube to show he has focused his attention onto it. Then the camera zooms into a single square.

8.The colour that is focused on the Rubik’s cube fills the screen, the colour then changes, sliding on a colour scale.

8. a) After the screen has gone through the colour scale and the titles have been shown, the final colour will be light grey.

9. From this shot of the whole, grey, screen, we slowly zoom out to reveal that the grey is the colour of a cartoon plane on the boy’s pyjama bottoms. The camera keeps zooming out until the boy’s feet and calves are in view.

10. This shot continues into tracking shot of the boy walking across the room until he is in the left of the frame.  The camera follows his feet and, to do so, rotates 90 degrees and also reverses under a table and we see the table leg come slightly into view – out of focus. The tracking shot is from an inferior level so when he walks to the other side of the room to the computer and desk, the perspective makes him look smaller than the table leg. From this view we also his hand reach to the left.

10. a) Here will be a match on action shot of his hand picking up the unfinished Rubik’s Cube and his hand moving back towards his body.

10. b) We then return to the previous shot and see the rest of this movement.

11. The camera then tilts/pans up the table leg to reveal a model plane on the table. Here, because of the perspective, the plane looks life-size compared to the boy.

11. b) The camera then pans along the table and as it looks through a magnifying glass, the boy’s head is warped and magnified – signifying his intelligence. The pan finishes with him on the right of the frame. We see his arm start to reach out…

12. Match on action of his hand putting the completed Rubik’s cube down and moving his hand away – we don’t see the surface the puzzle is placed on… (the colour we see from the front of the cube is red, to signify danger.)

12. a) until the camera zooms out to reveal that the completed Rubik’s cube has been placed on top of an organised pile of around 8 other Rubik’s cubes. The screen then snaps into black.

13. Then, with the black background, a green ‘1’ is typed on to the screen. Then slowly, a ‘0’ and then, with increasing speed, green binary code fills the screen. The black background is then replaced by the image of the out of focus silhouette of the boy typing.

14. Then, the camera rotates 90 degrees and, through editing, will go through the layers of the computer and come out the other side to show…

14 a) a medium close up of the boy’s profile, lit by the light of the computer. The camera then tracks behind his head, suspends for a moment and then appears to fly into the screen and delves into a world of numbers.

SE7EN TITLE SEQUENCE- text appearances

I've logged all the appearances of text in the title sequence of Se7en to note the way the text has been ordered and, in this case, it's in order of importance.

 

From researching which names appear and it what order, I now know the titles which should appear in our credits. For example, I know that the producer, director and lead actors should come first and then the other actors, casting director, musical director, costume designer, editor, director of photography and writer(s) come afterwards, in that order. The director can either be at the start, the beginning or both as they are regarded as the most important role in the creation of the film.