Q7 planning

Planning:

Prelim: only had 15 minutes to come up with a narrative, a stick person storyboard and find a place to film. 

Real: A few weeks to complete all preparations including, storyboard, 3drafts of the script, test shooting etc. 

What others said:

"Its alright, not what i expected.." -Our very own actor -.-

Brief planning: Evaluation Point 5, 6 and 7

Question 5- How did you attract/address your audience?

Titling

The animation of the titling grabs the audiences attention even though its very simple. 

Discovering the 'hut' 

This interests the audience as this is the next scene of the narrative. A new location is an fundamental of attracting the audience. 

Hearing things

The tense starts to rise when the main character starts hearing sticks breaking and foots steps outside of the hut. At this point the audience knows that something is going to go wrong so they are bound to pay more attention.

Leaving the hut

When David leaves the hut, the tension rises even more. David is now by himself so anything could happen to him or the rest of the group. This is a typical scene of a horror movie; where the main character wanders off to see what is wrong. 

The screams 

The audience is engaged in what is going on in the picture after hearing the groans than sound as the they automatically try to focus and try to spot who or what is making the noise. 

Running

When David starts to run towards the groan the tension rises as the audience will be confused about what or who he's running for as David could also be in danger. 

Unknown character on the floor 

This scene 

The blood 

One of the most important signifiers in the opening. The colour and gore easily attracts the viewers attention. 

The group arriving

The audience gain a sense of security as there are more people involved in the scene and danger is less likely to strike them all. 

Question 6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

• Green screen: Using Keynote to create text with a green background, exporting via Quicktime, importing into iMovie and inserting it on top of our footage using 'Green screen'.
• Garageband: Mixing and editing music, making it a longer piece and correcting or assembling sound effects together.
• Camera: The use of another camera to record sound/dialogue and converting it into mp3. 

Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

• ALOT of planning is needed to create a successful piece of work. 
• The simplest things are most effective.
• Lighting is much more difficult to perfect outdoors without the professional equipment.
• 
  

Essay; Ms Patel

Discuss the ways in which media products are produced, and distributed to audiences, within a media area, which you have studied.

A film idea has to go through a lot of stages to become a 'media product'. These stages include finance, pre-production, production, post-production, marketing and exhibition. During the first stages which are the financial stages, producers try to 'borrow' as much money possible for the production of the movie.They do this by getting wealthy companies, individuals or even banks to invest in the movie. However this means that depending on the success of the product in the media industry those who invested get a percentage of the revenues.  Financing is one of the important stages in the process of turning an idea into a movie, it determines if the idea will make it anywhere near the pre-production stage.

The process of bringing a movie out to the public is quite similar in America and in the UK. Some of the most successful companies involved in film production are BBC Film, Working Title and Film 4. Working title is a British production company, partly owned by BBC Films which has made a lot of popular and successful films shown in cinemas around the country. Movies such as Four weddings and a funeral, Les Miserables, Shaun of the dead, Mr. Beans holiday and many other. The films are marketed and distributed by distribution companies in partnership with the production companies. For working title, from 2007 all their movies have been distributed by Universal Picture. This means that any movie made by working title is brought to the attention of its consumers by Universal. 

During and/or after the marketing period, the film will be exhibited in cinemas for an average of 3-5 weeks depending on the estimated gross of the film. The first weekend of the release of the film determines how successful the film is. Once the film finishes its screening period in cinemas, rentals shops and stores are permitted to rent or sell the movie to its audience. Also, the movie can be shown of certain channels such as Sky Movies, Film 4, BBC and many others. 

There are a a few differences between the way this is done in America. In American companies that produce media texts, the 'Blockbuster' genre is more widely used. This means that the movie is created by one or more of the six major Hollywood production companies, compared to movies made in the UK, this gives them a larger chance of success as conglomerates like Sony, Time Warner... are more likely to attract audiences. 

In addition, financially, American compares are used huge sums of money for their media products. The average amount spent on the making of a Blockbuster movie is $200 million and blockbusters are considered to be the type of movies who make or should make the most success.  

True Blood title sequence analysis.

1st Shot
The first image shows a close up of the side of an alligators face. The background reveals the location of a swamp The attention is drawn to its eye as it is in the middle of the shot. The connotations of this imagines could be the idea of cruelty as the animal is a predator and it will hurt and kill anyone or anything. Also, secrecy and being watched as the alligator is able to hide underwater yet had its eyes out of the water; watching.
2nd Shot
This shot shows a snake facing away from the camera with its mouth wide open as it just about to bite something. This links to vampirism as connotations include being bite, venom and danger.
3rd Shot
The image shows a long shot of a rusty car which appears to have broken down and abandoned. The car is is covered with leaves from its surround trees which shows that the car has been there for quite a long time. Also judging from the make and year of the car, we can tell that the series is set in the older times. The connotations; abandonment, broken (physically and emotionally), useless... could be foreshadowing certain situations in the series.
4th Shot
This image shows a extreme close up of a young boy eating/biting berries. The shot size may have been used to hide the identity of the character.The berry juice is all over his mouth which indicates the level of freedom and youth. This is a big link between the the series and its theme of vampirism. The use of a young boy connotes a corrupted youth and a loss of innocence.
5th Shot
The shot of the moon behind a cloud relates to the fact that vampires come out at night. But the full moon could also connect werewolves to the series, adding different themes.
6th Shot
The medium close up of the two women praying shows that the series also includes religion even though the main theme and genre says different. 
7th Shot
The image of the Venus Fly Trap eating an insect again brings up the concept of cruelty as the Fly Trap would kill anything if it was beneficial to itself; the idea that the plant is a predator. The teeth in the image relate to vampires and fangs.
8th Shot
The title is on a red background which connotes blood and danger which again relates to vampirism.
9th Shot
The final shot shows two people wearing white standing in water at night with a third person bent over into the water in the middle as if being 'washed' or cleansed. This could do with the religious theme and 'wahing their sins away'.

Director: Sheida
Producer: Humaira
Camera-person: Rafia
The roles of costume and makeup designer and editor will be split between the three.

Synopsis:
A group of friends go on the a camping trip and discover a man in need.

Opening Scene: A blank scene, sounds of a coach pulling over then driving off. The group are shown to walking through the forest when one of them start to hear groans of a man from nearby. The find him rolling around on the floor in excruciating pain. Eyes red, pale skin, bloodless lips.
The group try to call for help but are not able to contact anyone.
They come to check on the 'sick' man but he had disappeared.

A group of friends go on a camping trip. Once there, they start to disappear one by one, leaving Angel, the main character, alone with the creature lurking in the distance.

Simple idea but different conventions can be added to the opening scene. 

Opening scene: A girl walking alone in the forest. Her name is called a few times but she shows no reaction. The audience are then shown that she is not by herself as her group of friends are shown walking slowly behind the girl who is revealed to be Angel. Angel see's a dark figure between the trees every now and again before her group catch up to her.

Examples of Vampire conventions that can added into the opening are:

-Costume; cross necklaces or vampire themed jewellery or 'Batman' t-shirts, which are quite ironic, are worn by some characters.

-Actions; Angel sees the figure in multiple places suggesting that it's a vampire with the typical super-speed superpower.  

-Mise en scene; filmed in a space with a limited amount of sunlight/sun rays. 

-Dialogue; Talk from other characters about 'monsters' in the forest.

-Narrative; The group fail to catch up with Angel as another character, Lori, has a nose bleed. 

Other idea can be added or changed by people in the filming group.
The ending is left as a cliffhanger in the written plot so groups can change the ending to their own idea. 

Representation of gender and sexuality in The Vampire Diaries.

All vampires in The Vampire Diaries possess the same sort of powers so gender in vampirism isn’t as significant as it might be in other shows.

There is no major difference between the male and female vampires as they are all represented as strong and equal characters in terms of vampirism. However, when it comes to scenes showing social events i.e. parties, the girls still have the ‘sexy attitude’, vampire or not. So we see that even with the idea of immortality, women are still shown as used as ‘sex objects’.

The victims, humans the vampires feed on, of this TV show 90% of the time are women in their 20’s; Implying that young women are the weakest and the more acceptable target for a ‘drink’. The use of male victims is quite rare as the we normally see the male as the stronger character both physically and emotionally as opposed to women.

In the most recent season of The Vampire Diaries, one of the three main characters, who is a female, turns into a vampire. With this her emotions are heightened and sense of morality is weakened. As the main audience for the TV show are young females, the main character being a capable, attractive girl presents her as the perfect role model.

Throughout the narrative, there is only one gay character. Bill Forbes isn't a main or popular character which could be one of the reasons why he was the one chosen to be gay. This is because of the concept of ‘The male gaze’; the male audience would much rather see a male character who’s in charge and is the typical heroic muscly alpha-male surrounded by action. This makes them feel more confident and ensures them that that’s what men are supposed to be like. However, by having a gay male character, most men would feel offended as it’s going against their stereotype. Also, homosexuals are put at the bottom of the hierarchy for men as they go against all the traditional norms of a man.