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.
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.
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'.
Thursday, 20 December 2012
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.
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.
The media conference was very fun! Even though we did sit in an uncomfortable chair for half the day, it was very useful in terms of what media is all about next year. Since we're doing music videos next year, they showed us a music video created by students who won a media award, or something and Corin Hardy, a music video director, was there!
He directed:
AND MORE!
There was also talk about media related research, media competitions and Heydon Prowse and Jolyon Rubinstein; www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00vqgx3 where there for Q & A!
Chloe - 17
I think Chloe's idea is very unique. The storyline makes sense. In terms of filming, casting will be easier to find compared to other ideas and locations that are needed can be found. For this narrative, there are a lot of ways to film the opening.
Alice - 14
Quite a simple idea which makes it easier to alter and add more scenes. I think the making of the opening will be quite interesting as there are loads of possible ways to do it. Again, casting and suitable locations will be easy to find.
Role
I rather be BEHIND the camera so roles like being the director, cameraman, producer etc..
Mostly director as its such a big and challenging role to take.
The Layout of all scripts are the same. descriptions are aligned left and are written with space between lines stating an action or description or dialogue. Any dialogue is aligned in the centre, separating it from the rest. The font is also very simplistic and spaced out to make it clear enough to be read quickly.
Any location, time or character names are written in capitals to make it more noticeable.
If a description or dialogue has not finished it is continued onto the next page; writing "(CONTINUED)" at the bottom of the page.
Conventions
The names of the characters who have newly entered the scene are in capitals after that there's no need.
Location is expanded on using "INT." for indoor shooting or "EXT." for outdoor filming, followed by the specific location; E.g. "HUTTER'S HOUSE" in Shadow of the Vampire then ending with whether it is "DAY" or "NIGHT" to specify the time of day. E.g. "INT. ANTHONY'S HOUSE - NIGHT"
Any camera movements or transitions are stated in capitals; E.g. "FADE IN:" in Interview with the Vampire.
Directions for the actors are always written in present tense, this tells the actor what they should be doing or feeling in that scene. E.g. "Reed laughs self consciously as he turns the shower off." in Sucker: The Vampire.
Dialogue is the most important part of the script, the dialogue is typed in the centre of the page with spacing before and after to make it clear.
A group of friends are sponsored to do a camping event. Once
there, one by one they start to disappear, leaving Angel behind alone with the
ghostly figure lurking in the distance.
Synopsis: A group of young adults go camping in a jungle park just outside
the city. During their 4 nights there, they start to disappear one by one
during the first 2 nights.
This starts when Angel and Lori play fight and Angel accidently
hits Lori in the face causing her nose to bleed. Angry, Lori goes away from the
camp site to clean up but does not return.
The rest of the
group go to find her leaving Caroline and Jamie behind to take care of
everyone's belongings. While looking for Lori, Angel spots a dark shadowy
figure in the distance; she looks away when Connor calls her to tell her they
found the Lori's water bottle and tissue roll covered in blood on the floor. When Angel
comes to look back the distorted figure, it had disappeared.
Returning to the camp site, worried, Caroline tells the group that
Jamie went to find a spot that has signal. After an hour, he does not return.
Convincing themselves that this is a joke, the group continue with what they were
doing.
Realising that it’s been 4 hours since the disappearance of both
Jamie and Lori, the group becomes scared and paranoid and start to accuse each other
of being psychopaths. All hope for return to the city is also impossible as
there is no signal to call the coach or anyone else to pick them up.
Meanwhile, Angels continues seeing the ghostly figure between the
trees but doesn't mention anything to the group, in case they accuse her of
being the ‘mysterious killer’.
However, as time goes on, they disappear one by one until Angel is
the only one left. She zips herself into her tent, when she’s comes to pop head
out to have a look around, her head hits a hard object, she looks up and see’s
what appears to be a vampire looking back at her.
The
stereotype entails that woman are spineless and more delicate than men, so when
presented in horror movies they are put in the role of the emotionally and
physically weaker character who surrender to the darker force, also known as
the victims. Horror movies have become famous for representing woman as damsels
in distress who are eventually murdered as a punishment for their mistakes
witnessed by the audience within the beginning of the film. This relates
to how the media, in general, interprets females as sex objects; showing them
wearing revealing clothes and being completely incompetent. The same level of
respect for women is shown in horror movies.
The
age of female characters in horror movies are always likely to be within a
close range. We either normally see young females who are good looking and of
the white race. An example of these is of ‘Sorority Row’ where the entire main cast
are beautiful young adults or we see preteens, whereas we see male characters
of different ages, different state of minds and physical strengths; for example:
Ryan Reynolds in ‘The Amityville Horror’ and Patrick Wilson in ‘Insidious’.
However,
in more recent horror films, there tends to be that one final girl who manages
to ‘take down’ the killer/antagonist. But it appears as though this one girl needs
at least a small amount of masculinity such as a unisex name, masculine
clothing or even may be less attractive than the other female characters. A
character example of this is Wendy Christensen from ‘Final Destination 3’.
Wendy tries to save everyone from their death and even though the film ends
with a cliff hanger, she is one of the people who survive.
On
the other hand, some horrors present the antagonist to be a female. This is due
to the development in feminism; woman can be portrayed as strong and powerful
characters. Jennifer in ‘Jennifer’s Body’ breaks the convention completely as
she is a young, pretty and popular girl who is possessed and strong enough to
kill her male classmates. The typical storyline of a horror movie is that the
killer goes after the victim, however in Jennifer’s Body; Jennifer uses her
looks to manipulate the male’s sexual neediness and then feeds on them.
Although,
when a female is used as the villain, it seems as if the female has to be a
supernatural being or has to be possessed to be able to put aside emotions and
gain physical power to kill; suggesting that a ‘normal’ female being cannot
commit such deeds. For example: Little
Regan from ‘The Exorcist’, Samara from ‘The Ring' or again Jennifer from ‘Jennifer’s
body’.
Comparing horror movies from 1970’s to horror
movies created in 2000+, the idea that females can also be the heroes who try
to figure out what to do to stop or physically do stop the killer or they can
be the villain is completely valid, yet not widely used as males are still
thought to have natural masculine characteristics.
Mise en scene + Camera + Editing
After the last titling at the beginning of the opening, all writing is wiped, leaving a blank black screen. The screen fades to reveal a cloudy sky. As the camera pans down to ground level, the brightness slightly increases. When the camera reaches ground level, a white mansion, a tree and a young girl is facing and knocking on the tree trunk singing something in Spanish and then turning around to look the opposite way, can be seen.The idea that young girl is the first person seen in the movie makes her important to narrative. The camera is placed under the shadow of the tree, making everything that is placed under it darker than the rest of the shot, meaning the girls face, features or the colour of her clothes can hardly be seen. However, in the background of the same shot, the white mansion is clear and exposed using high key lighting; natural lighting coming from the sun, also making it an important part to the narrative.
After a few lines of the girl singing, other young children start to enter the shot, walking towards the girl. The girl by the tree continues singing and knocking on the tree which makes it clear to the audience that the children are playing a game. As the other children get closer, the camera cuts to a medium close up of the girl and an arm of another child reaching out for her. This could be foreshadowing an event that may happen later on in the film. When they reach the tree, the girl who was originally standing by the tree starts to run after then.The camera follows them running round and making faces at the girl cutting between long shots, medium long shots and medium close ups and tracking from behind various other trees, creating a sense of being followed. Before cutting to what seems to be inside of the mansion, the camera tracks from behind the trees to show a medium close up of a scare crow with an enigmatic facial expression.
Sound
While panning from the sky downwards, the young girls voice is heard saying "Un, dos, Tres, Toca la pared" which translates to "One, Two, Three, Knock on the wall!" As the genre is Horror, the audience can associate this with physical conventions of a scary scene. For example, random knocking on doors/walls, smashing together of objects or glass breaking.
As the scene is set outside chirping and singing of birds can also be heard creating a naturalistic setting.
The faded footsteps of the other children are heard as soon as the enter the shot.
When the camera cuts to a medium close up of the girl, her voice becomes slightly louder. This makes the audience feel as though they are the camera. After the girl starts to run after them, the children start to laugh and squeal, indicating that they are happy and having fun.
The sound of the telephone ringing from the next scene is overlapped into the previous which is the shot of the scare crow.
28 Days Later
Mise en scene + Editing + Camera
The opening of 28 days later shows different clips which are associated with the theme; zombies and narrative of the film. It starts of with titling saying 'Fox searchlight pictures presents' then cuts the back of the head of a monkey with wires attached to its head surrounded by TV boxes each showing different CCTV footage of areas around London. The camera then pans from the side of the tied down monkey to a TV showing footage of several man with blacks masks covering the security cameras at "Cam 3 - - - Cambridge Primate Research Centre" when the screen goes blank. This was to give the audience an insight of the causation to the zombie apocalypse narrative. The movie title '28 days later' appears in the middle of the black background in white and within it red fluid is released. This connotes the theme of evil, murder and blood that appear in the movie. The title than fades with a burning effect expressing the idea of destruction and massacre. From the black screen it cuts to fast cuts of several scene of riots and anarchy and the police who are wearing British police uniforms to add to the fact that the film is set in England. The camera then cuts to and stops on a long shot of a man wearing a blue cliche hospital patient uniform, holding a white plastic bag, walking over a bridge towards the camera. It is obvious to the audience that the scene is part of the film as the background and the actions of the man are different to the scenes of riot. This scene and the next are separated by a black screen and titling saying 'Produced by Andrew MacDonald'. This is meaningful as the producer is important to the creation there put in between scenes that need to be most payed attention to.
The opening continues to show scenes where the man, who now clearly is the main character, walking passed the empty streets and areas in central London.
Sound
All though out the opening title sequence the song 'East Hastings' by GYBE is played.
However, during the scenes shown on TV, the sounds of screams, crashing, radio and distortions play over the music and when the montage ends, the music becomes even louder.
How do they establish genre, narrative, character, ideology
through technical and symbolic codes?
8 Mile.
Genre-Technical & Symbolic
The facial expressions show seriousness, anger or sadness - giving an idea of the Drama genre.
The rap music throughout the opening sequence - giving an idea of the Music genre.
The hip-hop hand gestures and the imitation of holding a microphone to the mouth show that the film is within the Music genre.
The low key lighting of the set a serious mood to show a dark side emphasising the Drama genre.
Narrative-Technical & Symbolic
The setting of the scene is a unclean and vandalised and the character has no reactions towards it therefore it tells the audience the type of lifestyle the character has. Also relating to the Drama genre.
The fact that the main character has locked himself into an entire restroom could mean that the character keeps any feelings or emotions to himself and locks out the world during the movie.
The cross-cutting used in the opening shows nearly all the actors action, the idea that he is doing some many things/movements at one time, gives the audience an idea of the multiple things the character has to go through or experience within the narrative.
Character-Technical & Symbolic
The character and his reflection can be seen with the shot, meaning that there is another side of life/personality as opposed to his potential rap/music life.
The character is wearing a hoodie, beanie hat, tracksuit bottoms and trainers, making him appear like a stereotypical thug.
Eminem being used as the main character is a powerful iconic representation as it emphasises the goals and dreams of the character in relation to Eminem.
Ideology-Technical & Symbolic
Eminem being used as the main character is such a powerful iconic representation of someone who goes through a lot in life but doesn't give up what the really want to do because of anything.
-British-American -Film Director -Producer -Screen writer Movies include:The Dark Knight Trilogy
Inception
Insomnia
The Prestige Style: Psychological, With non-linear narratives and Neo-noir. Tactics: Uses multi-camera for stunt and single-camera for
dramatic scenes. Uses rapid cutting. He likes to hide truth
behind scenes,e.g. Makeup, costumes.
Chris Weitz
-Film Director -Producer -Screen writer -Actor Films: Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Golden Compass
American Pie
About a Boy Style: ?
George A Romero -Film Director -Editor -Screen Writer -'Godfather of Zombies' Movies: Dawn Of The Dead
Land Of The Dead
The Crazies
Night Of The Living Dead Style: Horror, Zombie, Gruesome, Dark
We were easily able to put together a rough edit of the scenes we wanted and well recorded. This was to fix the order of the scenes so that when edited accurately it flows smoothly.
We still need to record a shot of our main character walking up the stairs as without it, the continuity of the edit doesn't work.
We were not able to re-record the scenes with errors but we cut and shorten some clips by using the precision editor to put together the clips the we cut, allowing the video to play in a smooth way. We approached a problem with a clip as the acting wasn't complete before the camera stopped recording. we overcame this by adding titling and this helped cover up a jump cut.
Some camera movement wasn't as stable as is should have been so we cut it out and had a POV shot by the same character.
Towards the end of the video we noticed that we crossed the 180 line. However, it worked as the character looks in the same direction.
We also detached the audio as part of the sound editing. during, we overlapped audios to make the background sound and any additional sound continuous.
We worked together and evened out roles to complete the task and were happy with the end result.
We worked as a group to film our story for the preliminary exercise. By taking different roles and helping each other out, we managed to work together sufficiently. This will help us with our own real production work. We managed to put together an idea to film about and created a rough storyboard to find out what shot types would go best with the scenes. We did not write a script as we decided to have no dialogue in production to make the acting and storyline stand out.
Me, Elle and Muna were actors and Chanelle was the Director/Cameraman. However we all had a chance to place the camera in a certain place that we wanted or fix a particular shot to familiarize ourselves with the tripod and camera.
Within the filming, a task was include the 180 degree rule. We did this successfully by filming from different levels and angles on one side of the line so that when edited together it flows smoothly while obeying the rule.
On the other hand, a difficulty we came across was filming in the location we wanted. As it was on the school grounds, not every room was accessible. In the end we found a suitable classroom to film in and we were happy with it.
Christopher Nolan 
George A Romero