Wednesday 14 March 2012
Wednesday 7 March 2012
Evaluation 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the prgoression from it to the full product?
During my media coursework and lessons of media, I have learnt many new skills that I had lacked prior to taking up AS media. Below is a prezi that presents all that I have learnt from my preliminary task to the full product:
Evaluation 6 - What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Cannons camcorder: We used this camera to records all of our shots in our opening. The use of this camcorder was simple and the quality was high definition.
Light reflector: Used to reflect light on to our characters during filming. It was hassle free; all you had to do was adjust the position of the reflector.
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Tripod: This was essential for stability and consistency whilst filming. The lengths of the tripod can also be adjusted to our desire, which was also key when filming certain shots e.g. the policeman walking up the stairs.
Dolly: This helped when filming tracking shots to keep the camera stable whilst moving it simultaneously.
Apple Mac: The apple mac was a key area of the whole production of our thriller opening. We used the apple mac for the final cut programme for the editing mainly. We also did most of our research on the internet on the mac too.
Blogger: Blogger was used to publish posts of the work I did, upload videos and pictures and to view my teachers blog for advise and links to help me with my research.
Youtube: One of the best sites to view clips of various media products. I used this website for research (soundtracks), viewing current thriller openings (silence of the lambs) and to upload our final cut of our thriller opening.
Photoshop: Editing the logo and cropping out images was the main use of adobe photoshop. I really enjoy using photoshop because of the effects and options that are available when editing.
Livetype: A programme on the apple mac that I used to create titles for our thriller opening. The programme was very easy to use; you just had to type what a credit in and add an effect to it. This was particularly helpful for our juno recreation and thriller opening.
Light reflector: Used to reflect light on to our characters during filming. It was hassle free; all you had to do was adjust the position of the reflector.
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Tripod: This was essential for stability and consistency whilst filming. The lengths of the tripod can also be adjusted to our desire, which was also key when filming certain shots e.g. the policeman walking up the stairs.
Dolly: This helped when filming tracking shots to keep the camera stable whilst moving it simultaneously.
Apple Mac: The apple mac was a key area of the whole production of our thriller opening. We used the apple mac for the final cut programme for the editing mainly. We also did most of our research on the internet on the mac too.
Blogger: Blogger was used to publish posts of the work I did, upload videos and pictures and to view my teachers blog for advise and links to help me with my research.
Final cut express: The whole editing of the tasks that we had to do, such as filming our opening or preliminary task, was put on to this programme and took place here. Final cut was difficult and complicated when I first started using it but as time went on I became more familiar with it and it made it so easy for me to edit my thriller opening.
Youtube: One of the best sites to view clips of various media products. I used this website for research (soundtracks), viewing current thriller openings (silence of the lambs) and to upload our final cut of our thriller opening.
Photoshop: Editing the logo and cropping out images was the main use of adobe photoshop. I really enjoy using photoshop because of the effects and options that are available when editing.
Livetype: A programme on the apple mac that I used to create titles for our thriller opening. The programme was very easy to use; you just had to type what a credit in and add an effect to it. This was particularly helpful for our juno recreation and thriller opening.
Evaluation 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Distribution is a key process when considering making a film. A distributer is a company that promotes the film to the audience and trys to increase the popularity of the film by advertising, for example. Distrubtors may be part of the same parent company as the production company. They also may even have a long term arrangement with a production company and provide financial assistance for many of their productions. A Prodcution company are the people who produce a film, including the pre-production, production and post-production. A production company might also even help with funds for the film. In our media product, 'crossfire production' produced our film, which was promoted in the opening of our crime thriller. The people that worked with the prodcution company are also included in our titles. They were Alex O'neil, the production designer, Philip Bloom, the cinematographor and the executive producer, Andrew Hall.
Due to our film being an independent company, as well as low budget, we would not be aiming to distributors of high standards such as Warner Brothers or Walt Disney. The media institutions that may distribute our film would possibly be independent companies such as Hammer. The reason for this is because they produce and distribute films of a range of genres and our thrille may appeal to them. Another distrubting company may be momentum pictures. They are another independent british company which tend not to use big name actors due to the lower budget they have compared to larger companies such as Walt Disney. Also, in 'mind games', we do not have any famous or well known actors and casts, meaning that it would be better suited for momentum pictures. I came to this conclusion due to the research I had previously done during the pre-production stage.
The money needed for our film would be partly provided by crossfire productions and partly from a government grant to help with pay for the costumes and mise-en-scene. The location wouldnt be a problem as it is one of our group members flat. Also, equipments such as the camera, tripod, light, light reflector etc. are all borrowed from the school.
The titles in my film begin to appear on screen about 20 seconds into the film and continues until the end of the opening. It is shown just before the main character, the natagonist, is shown and immediately the audience may link the two together because of this. The titles are shown mainly during a scene taking place as it would continue the flow of the film rather than having gaps between scenes. It would be on screen long enough for the audience to read them so this was not a problem. Some titles were shown in black screens to make the audience aware of the variety of people who were part of the production of the film. Me and my group had watched several film openings to observe the titles and see how they are presented, what the different type of effects were used and the timing of them being shown. We realised that the main characters are present near the start and the director would be the final title shown due to there importance in the making of the film. Therefore, we took time in making the titles and edited them well to fit in with our thriller opening.
Evaluation 1 : In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
During the whole production of our film, we managed to use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media. The following 9 frame sequence are shots of our actual thriller opening, where we had used,develop or challenged forms and conventions of real media products.
Shot 1
This screengrab is supposed to set the opening of the story, with a line of crack cocaine and an unrolled roll up of a cigarette. This shot was intended to create dark eeire mood of the opening which would continue on in the film, which is a thriller convention we used to help indicate the genre of the film. The extreme close up is the first shot of our film and we began by a fade in of this shot followed by a pan to the left to an extreme close up of the drugs and tobacco. This shot also could create assumptions for the audience watching, for example, who the drugs and tobacco belongs to, which creates a stereotypical view of the character. The audience may assume that the film could be related to drugs due to this shot. The choice of an extreme close up was because of the importance that the drugs and tobacco contains (negative conotations). We wanted to create a link of the drugs and tobacco to our antagonist to make the audience realise he is a wicked character. Overall, the shot uses conventions well especially the darkness of the shot and also sets the opening of the story well.
Shot 2
The shot used here demonstrates the camera work and editing. The antagonist is the character being revealed here through a faint lighting showing his silouette in a close up shot. We challenged a thriller convention here, to let the audience know who the main character is and the role they would play in the film. This shot also tells the audience what character the film will evole around and as we challenged this convention, we thought this would attract the audience as it is dfifferent to the usual narative and convention of showing the protagonist first. Furthmore, we also would expect this to have an impact on the audience too. The shot is presented in darkness to create an uncomfortable mood, which creates tension due to the evil look of the character conveying to the audience that he will be influential on the plot of the thriller film. Furthermore, the situation of the antagonist also reflects his role in the film; he is in a dark room potraying a dark and sinical person and seems to show no emotion to the darkness as though he likes evil. The shot also includes a title of our film and is presented in the top right of the frame. The font of the title is worned out and damaged which we intended it to be as it feeds in well with our opening and the frame.
Shot 3
This shot shows a clock ticking away on the wall. We adjusted the lighting to reveal the seconds ticking alsmot to show that the film could be time related. It could also show that time is a key aspect of the film say, for example, the antagonist may be up to something wicked or has a time limited to escape. The focus whilst we were filming was to show the dial ticking away making the audience link shots together to create a storyline in their head. We also intended this shot to create questions for the audience to be considering. The mise-en-scene was key here and focus was heavily put here to construct the slight low angled shot.
Shot 4
In this slightly high angled shot, the setting and location of the opening is presented here, with the antagonist staring at a fuzzy tv. Again, the use of lighting was minimal; we only used the tv's lighting and closed the blinds in the room to create a tense mood, with the light from the tv being able to show the characters facial expressions. We can tell the setting is in a bedroom, with a bed with no duvet and pillow. Just by seeing this, the audience can guess the type of person he is and intentially, we had done this to enchance the thriller genre. It would also confuse the audience as there is no pillow and duvet, which is not a usual aspect of sleeping. The darkness in the room traps the antagonist and it seems as though he is looking into the tv's light in order to seek some help. On the other hand, the antagonist could have his room as a sort of hideout which is common in thrillers in particular, crime thrillers. The reason for this is becaues its dark and it seems as though he wants to be seperate to others.
Shot 5
The title of our film is called 'mind games' which is the next shot in the 9 frame. The effect used is a flying motion when the film title is presented forcefully which was purposefully done to put across to the audience the seriousness of the film. Another point is that the title is in bold and in a red and black colour which is contrasting to the white colour to the other titles. The colour red denotes violence, danger and fear and these are aspects of our film which links to the title and is reflected too. Furthermore, the titles also seem as though they have been battered and bruised, representing our film, creating tension again and mirrors the thriller genre we have used, a crime thriller. We took time to select carefully the font of our titles as we wanted it to suit well with our thriller sub-genre which I believe does fit in well.
Shot 6
This frame of an extreme close up shows the products used by our antagonist in our film. You can clearly see there is a rizzla, some sort of drugs prescribed for him and a wristband from a hospital stating the antagonists details. We managed to use an extreme close up by putting the camera inside the drawer and the stability was not effected due to the straight surface of a drawer. The shot again was to emphasise the importance of the antagonist and helped with the prgoression of the characters identity. The audience may assume that he is a controversial character due to the use of medicine and a wristband from a hospital. Moreover, we can assume that the antagonist may have been involved with a scenario where he ended up in a mental hospital and has now escaped, just by looking at the medicine and wristband. The rizzla indicates to the viewers that the character smokes and may be addicted to it, revealing the type of lifestyle he may live. The conventions of a thriller is used here as the products in the drawer shown here can imply to the audience that it belongs to the antagonist which was shown earlier.
Shot 7
In this shot, the antagonist is holding a knife as he looks to hear whether the protagonist, who is the policeman, is approaching his door. He acknowledges this because he hears a car door slam shut and looks outside the window to see the protagonist. Here we create suspense during the opening by the facial reaction of the character, who is looking serious portraying a main character. This medium shot was purposefully used as it would show the antagonist with the knife looking to create havoc as he prepares to kill the protagonist. The knife is a prop we used which generates tension as the audience would want to know whether he will use the knife or whether he gets caputred. All sorts of question would be running through the head of our audience just by looking at this shot. This leaves the audience on a cliffhanger as they would be restless to find out what will happen as the scene continues with a cross cutting of the policeman walking up the flat towards the door of the antagonist. The use of editing was also effective as suspense as well as tension was built up from the cross cutting between the policeman walking up the stairs and the antagonist in his room.
Shot 8
Here is another inroduction of a chracter. This is the first time the audience sees the protagonist and may feel a sense of relief as the 'hero' is here to save the day. We used a police hat to represent the protagonist as a policeman and gradually brought him into the scene by first showing him looking into the mirror in the car. This was purposefully done as it is a sort of sneak peak to slowly break the tension created previously by the shots and actions.
Shot 9
In this shot, we can clearly see the antagonist in the middle of the frame, showing his dominanc and intimidating presence he has. A long shot was used here as it shows the setting of the film too. The policeman has his back to the camera which may make the audience feel as though he is determined to solve any problem and catch the antagonist. The protagonist is also wearing a white t-shirt which is what protagonists or good chracters where as it prtotrays a sense of purity and cleanliness.
Shot 1
This screengrab is supposed to set the opening of the story, with a line of crack cocaine and an unrolled roll up of a cigarette. This shot was intended to create dark eeire mood of the opening which would continue on in the film, which is a thriller convention we used to help indicate the genre of the film. The extreme close up is the first shot of our film and we began by a fade in of this shot followed by a pan to the left to an extreme close up of the drugs and tobacco. This shot also could create assumptions for the audience watching, for example, who the drugs and tobacco belongs to, which creates a stereotypical view of the character. The audience may assume that the film could be related to drugs due to this shot. The choice of an extreme close up was because of the importance that the drugs and tobacco contains (negative conotations). We wanted to create a link of the drugs and tobacco to our antagonist to make the audience realise he is a wicked character. Overall, the shot uses conventions well especially the darkness of the shot and also sets the opening of the story well.
Shot 2
The shot used here demonstrates the camera work and editing. The antagonist is the character being revealed here through a faint lighting showing his silouette in a close up shot. We challenged a thriller convention here, to let the audience know who the main character is and the role they would play in the film. This shot also tells the audience what character the film will evole around and as we challenged this convention, we thought this would attract the audience as it is dfifferent to the usual narative and convention of showing the protagonist first. Furthmore, we also would expect this to have an impact on the audience too. The shot is presented in darkness to create an uncomfortable mood, which creates tension due to the evil look of the character conveying to the audience that he will be influential on the plot of the thriller film. Furthermore, the situation of the antagonist also reflects his role in the film; he is in a dark room potraying a dark and sinical person and seems to show no emotion to the darkness as though he likes evil. The shot also includes a title of our film and is presented in the top right of the frame. The font of the title is worned out and damaged which we intended it to be as it feeds in well with our opening and the frame.
Shot 3
This shot shows a clock ticking away on the wall. We adjusted the lighting to reveal the seconds ticking alsmot to show that the film could be time related. It could also show that time is a key aspect of the film say, for example, the antagonist may be up to something wicked or has a time limited to escape. The focus whilst we were filming was to show the dial ticking away making the audience link shots together to create a storyline in their head. We also intended this shot to create questions for the audience to be considering. The mise-en-scene was key here and focus was heavily put here to construct the slight low angled shot.
Shot 4
In this slightly high angled shot, the setting and location of the opening is presented here, with the antagonist staring at a fuzzy tv. Again, the use of lighting was minimal; we only used the tv's lighting and closed the blinds in the room to create a tense mood, with the light from the tv being able to show the characters facial expressions. We can tell the setting is in a bedroom, with a bed with no duvet and pillow. Just by seeing this, the audience can guess the type of person he is and intentially, we had done this to enchance the thriller genre. It would also confuse the audience as there is no pillow and duvet, which is not a usual aspect of sleeping. The darkness in the room traps the antagonist and it seems as though he is looking into the tv's light in order to seek some help. On the other hand, the antagonist could have his room as a sort of hideout which is common in thrillers in particular, crime thrillers. The reason for this is becaues its dark and it seems as though he wants to be seperate to others.
Shot 5
The title of our film is called 'mind games' which is the next shot in the 9 frame. The effect used is a flying motion when the film title is presented forcefully which was purposefully done to put across to the audience the seriousness of the film. Another point is that the title is in bold and in a red and black colour which is contrasting to the white colour to the other titles. The colour red denotes violence, danger and fear and these are aspects of our film which links to the title and is reflected too. Furthermore, the titles also seem as though they have been battered and bruised, representing our film, creating tension again and mirrors the thriller genre we have used, a crime thriller. We took time to select carefully the font of our titles as we wanted it to suit well with our thriller sub-genre which I believe does fit in well.
Shot 6
This frame of an extreme close up shows the products used by our antagonist in our film. You can clearly see there is a rizzla, some sort of drugs prescribed for him and a wristband from a hospital stating the antagonists details. We managed to use an extreme close up by putting the camera inside the drawer and the stability was not effected due to the straight surface of a drawer. The shot again was to emphasise the importance of the antagonist and helped with the prgoression of the characters identity. The audience may assume that he is a controversial character due to the use of medicine and a wristband from a hospital. Moreover, we can assume that the antagonist may have been involved with a scenario where he ended up in a mental hospital and has now escaped, just by looking at the medicine and wristband. The rizzla indicates to the viewers that the character smokes and may be addicted to it, revealing the type of lifestyle he may live. The conventions of a thriller is used here as the products in the drawer shown here can imply to the audience that it belongs to the antagonist which was shown earlier.
Shot 7
In this shot, the antagonist is holding a knife as he looks to hear whether the protagonist, who is the policeman, is approaching his door. He acknowledges this because he hears a car door slam shut and looks outside the window to see the protagonist. Here we create suspense during the opening by the facial reaction of the character, who is looking serious portraying a main character. This medium shot was purposefully used as it would show the antagonist with the knife looking to create havoc as he prepares to kill the protagonist. The knife is a prop we used which generates tension as the audience would want to know whether he will use the knife or whether he gets caputred. All sorts of question would be running through the head of our audience just by looking at this shot. This leaves the audience on a cliffhanger as they would be restless to find out what will happen as the scene continues with a cross cutting of the policeman walking up the flat towards the door of the antagonist. The use of editing was also effective as suspense as well as tension was built up from the cross cutting between the policeman walking up the stairs and the antagonist in his room.
Shot 8
Here is another inroduction of a chracter. This is the first time the audience sees the protagonist and may feel a sense of relief as the 'hero' is here to save the day. We used a police hat to represent the protagonist as a policeman and gradually brought him into the scene by first showing him looking into the mirror in the car. This was purposefully done as it is a sort of sneak peak to slowly break the tension created previously by the shots and actions.
Shot 9
In this shot, we can clearly see the antagonist in the middle of the frame, showing his dominanc and intimidating presence he has. A long shot was used here as it shows the setting of the film too. The policeman has his back to the camera which may make the audience feel as though he is determined to solve any problem and catch the antagonist. The protagonist is also wearing a white t-shirt which is what protagonists or good chracters where as it prtotrays a sense of purity and cleanliness.
Tuesday 6 March 2012
Soundtrack
To begin with, I went on to youtube to search for some inspirational soundtracks or sound tracks I think would complement our thriller opening. I searched errie soundtrack and listen to some clips. This soundtrack is one I was fond of as I believe the simplicity at the start would suit well with our thriller opening, creating suspense. The one intrsument used creates an eerie and nervy mood which fits in well with a crime thriller as it makes the audience feel as though something is about to happen. On the other hand, the soundtrack may seem abit too dramatic for an opening in particular when the sound peeks at a high note. This soundtrack may be used in the middle of the film.
David Lynch - Successful director
David has won 39 awards during his career in the film industry and is known for many films, such as, mulholland drive, twin peaks: fire walk with me, the elphant man and blue velvet. Blue velvet is about a man who returns to his home town after being away and discovers a severed human ear in a field. Not satisfied with the police's pace, he and the police detective's daughter carry out their own investigation. The object of his investigation turns out to be a beautiful and mysterious woman involved with a violent and perversely evil man. In the box office, the film budgeted at and estimated $6,000,000 (estimated) and in the opening weekend, the film made $789,409 in 21 September 1986 on 98 Screens. The gross of the film was $8,551,228.
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