Continuity Task- Our Final Film

 This is my groups finished video for the continuity task, I will be evaluating the video in a follow post.

Draft- Ethnicity essay

Discuss the ways ethnicity has been represented in the extract from ‘Hotel Babylon’.

The extract begins with a long shot of a black man serving one of the guests at the hotel, the camera pans right and tracks the black man as he is walking. Quick cuts are used to introduce an extreme long shot of the man walking, denoting the pool in the foreground so the audience can focus on another man getting out of the pool. The two men begin talking and the audience automatically see a difference between the two men, both men are black however one of the men is a stereotypical black man and the other is presented as atypical. The use of mise en scene connotes that one character is stereotypical as his hair is worn in dreadlocks and he is dressed in vibrant swimming shorts, this representation is reinforced by the diagetic sound as he is speaking in a traditional Caribbean accent which denotes he’s from a Jamaican background. The other man is also black however he is portrayed as atypical as he’s wearing a smart suit which signifies that he is a business man and has a high-paid job. The use of camera and editing connotes that there’s a sense of tension and awkwardness as quick cuts and shot reverse shots are used to create pace and to denote both men’s facial expressions. The man dressed in the suit looks uncomfortable, which is reinforced by the diagetic sound as he is slow when replying to the other man and comes across as blunt and slightly worried.  This, therefore suggests that the man dressed in the suit doesn’t want to be associated with the other man because of his background and perhaps doesn’t want to be stereotyped. Although both men are presented very differently, they have equal prevalence during the dialogue and are both shot at a medium angle, connoting that they are equal in the scene.

The extract then continues to a scene with two stereotypical  Eastern European maids who are being paid to strip for one of the guests in the hotel. Similarly to the previous scene, both women although they are from the same ethnical background, are presented differently. Minimal cuts are used in the beginning of this extract which allows the audience to focus on one of the maids, medium shots are used to denote one of the maids facial expression which signifies worry and sadness. The shot cuts from a medium shot of the women to a close up of a sign which one woman’s holding, on the sign there are two red crosses which signify danger, this implies that the women are about to be doing something which they shouldn’t be, however the red could also signify passion and love which could be because of what they are about to do. The non diagetic sound of the music creates a faster pace and connotes that something is about to happen as the music gradually speeds up, when the women enter the room the music slows down and the stereotypical Chinese man in the room starts playing diagetic music which is associated with sex. The fact that the man instigates the music connotes that he is more dominant in the scene and has more importance, however the mise en scene juxtaposes with this as he is positioned lower down on the bed in a position of weakness and the two women are at a higher level than him standing up. However, all of the characters are filmed at a medium shot at the same angle; therefore the camera also contrasts, suggesting that all characters are of equal importance in the scene. Although both women are stereotyped, one of the maids runs out and refuses to strip  for the man, therefore she’s presented as atypical as she’s disobeying the man and the other maid that she’s with. As her character conforms against the stereotype it connotes that her ethnicity is different which is similar to the two men in the previous scene as although there are stereotypes, some characters conform to expectations therefore suggesting that not all people of the same ethnicity are the same. The scene then cuts to a darker setting of a hotel room with a Chinese woman passing a guest toilet roll, she’s presented to be stereotypical as the fact that she has a high powered job connotes that she is smart, and she’s presented to be sneaky though the diagetic sound as she lies to one of the guests. The characters in this extract are heavily stereotyped as each character is stereotypical for their ethnicity, which suggests that the director wants audiences to understand the stereotype, as well as seeing how some characters aren’t stereotyped such as one of the maids.

Additionally, the extract continues and focus’ on two white managers, one male and one female. Similarly to the previous scene there is a lack of editing in the beginning when they are walking down a hallway. Both characters are presented to be high powered and of equal status; they are shot at a medium shot to begin  with, then jump cutting to a long shot, establishing the busy surroundings as they are walking; the audience is able to see people who have lower powered jobs walking around them and moving out of their way, connoting that white, English people are more important and dominant in this scene. The diagetic dialogue reinforces this representation as they both speak in traditional English accents; this is also supported by the mise en scene as they are dressed in smart business suits, signifying business and high power. Towards the end of the extract the managers enter a kitchen where there are British chefs working on one half, and Eastern European chefs working in the other half. The non diagetic music creates a sense of suspicion and foreboding as it creates a fast pace, creating anticipation for what’s about to happen. The Eastern European chefs are dressed in black which signifies danger, evilness and dirt, this juxtaposes with the costumes of the British chefs who are dressed in white which signifies purity, kindness and cleanliness. The binary opposition between the two colours creates an automatic divide between the two ethnicities and connotes that the British chefs are better than the others. When the two head chefs are talking to the managers, quick cuts and shot reverse shots are used to create tension and denote each characters facial expression, which is anger from the two chefs and confusion from the male manager. Both characters are filmed at the same angle which connotes that they are of equal power and are equally as important within the text, this is reinforced by the editing as both characters have equivalent prevalence. Both of the chefs are stereotyped as the diagetic sound of the dialogue denotes the Eastern European chefs accent, this stereotype is reinforced when he gets angry as he picks up a knife and threatens the British chef. The british chef is also stereotyped as he has a traditional british accent and is presented to be angry and rude, similar to the representation of the other chef. 

Continuity Task- Editing

As Oscar and I previously did the editing task together it was good that we could do another editing task as a group as Beth and Charlee also did their task together. As Oscar was the best at editing in our group he was giving us advice when editing it, we all gave our own suggestions and the Oscar did the actual editing on the computer as he was the best at using Adobe Premire Pro

. I was really glad that we had previously edited a video because I knew how to use some of the tools, I'm hoping that when it comes to editing our actual coursework then I will know how to edit a lot better and be able to use the skills I've learned from the previous editing tasks. I'm pleased with our final edit, we managed to complete all of the requirements for the task including sound effects, continuity and not breaking the 180 degree rule; this task has given me a lot of confidence for when it comes to editing our coursework video. 

Continuity- Filming

Last Wednesday we filmed out continuity task. I was only there for the beginning of the filming but we were filming the end. We set up in our location which was in the Chikara centre in the school, we set up the camera and sorted out where we were filming. Although I didnt' do any filming myself, I was behind the camera giving my opinions about how the camera should be angled and reading from the storyboard of which shots we needed to film. I think that the filming was really successful considering it was our first ever time filming as a group. I found it really useful to have the storyboard with me when we filmed as we could look at that so we knew exactly which camera angles to use. We filmed each shot roughly about 3 or 4 times and then afterwards we chose one of them to use for our final shot. The rest of my group filmed the rest of it together.

Practice Storyboard

This is the storyboard which Oscar and I made before we began the continuity task and before we had learned anything about story boarding. We came up with the idea of the story line quite quickly but we didn't make a shot list we made the storyboard straight from our ideas. I think it's interesting to compare this storyboard to our finished storyboard now and see how much we've improved.


 

The story board is quite basic and not very detailed but considering it's the first storyboard I had attempted I think that it's quite good. For the story board for our continuity task and our coursework I think we will need to think a lot more about timings and the shot transitions. In this story board most of the shots are long shots so I think we will need to make sure there's a variety of different shots included. Overall I think that this will help my group a lot when it comes to our coursework storyboard and our continuity task storyboard as it's made me realise that we need to think about and plan the shots before drawing them. 

Continuity Task- Rules to follow

After we filmed I looked back at the list of things which we had to consider when we filmed;

- Not breaking the 180 degree rule
- Using different types of shots and angles
- Using non diegetic and diegetic audio
- Using a Shot Reverse Shot
- Using dialogue between 2 or more characters
- Keeping a sense of Continuity throughout the film
Something which I'd only recently learned before we filmed was about the 180 degrees rule. This is when you can only film something which is around 180 degrees of the camera, it's so that the audience aren't confused by a change of setting and it fits in with the realism.

I believe that we have achieved all of these things as we made sure that we kept thinking about them when we filmed, we will also make sure we follow these rules we're filming our film for our coursework. Overall I think that having these rules helped us because it's taught me a lot more about what we need to be thinking about when we're filming.

Continuity Task- Storyboard

These are images of my groups storyboard for the continuity task. We created the shot list and then began to storyboard, I found it a lot easier to do this because of the lessons which we've recently been having on stroy boarding.

Storyline:
A man is sat in a cafe, he recives a text from his partner which wasn't meant to be sent to him telling someone to meet them in the 'usual place'. He then storms out and drops his food on the floor walking from the cafe to the place where his partner is meeting someone. He then enters a new location and sees his partner kissing someone else. The person then leaves and there is an argument between the protagonist and his partner, which then ends with the protagonist storming out.

Myself an Oscar created the storyboard together whilst Charlee and Beth came up with the locations and the script.

PLANNING- Shot List First Draft

This is our first edit of the shot list, we all came up with the ideas for the shots together, discussing which shots we thought would work best and how we would be able to film them. I think that we did well coming up with the shots together as we could all share our ideas and change any ideas of shots which wouldn't work. Now that the shot list is complete we will be able to start story boarding. After we have finished story boarding then we may need to change the shot list depending on if the shots work well or not. 

First Draft of Shot List

1.close up of the tv
2.over the shoulder shot of the man
3. birds eye canted shot of table with religious paraphenalia and polaroids
4.extreme close up polaroid TITLES(all polaroid shots are)
5.medium shot little boy playing
6.close up of polaroid
7.medium shot empty sofa and tv
8.medium shot of door
9.extreme close up door knob.
10.close up on pile of polaroids
11.medium colse up man walking sideways
12.close up of tv priests face
13.exteme close up sliding down stairs
14.close up polaroid
15.long shot child
16.medium shot walking down stairs
17.exteme close up hands dripping blood
18.close up polaroid
19.extreme close up lock
20.medium shot to the right
21.extreme close up mans eye

Essay feedback (Merlin)

I recently received feedback from an essay question on an extract from the television show 'Merlin'.

'Discuss the way social status is represented in this extract from Merlin.'

- I found this essay slightly easier to write about than the other essays which I had previously written as I felt like I had learnt a lot more about what I needed to include in the essays such as the technical language and more analysis.

- My targets from my previous essay was to avoid descriptions and emphasis the technical aspects and to revise semiotics, particularly indexical and iconography.

- I had got C's on all of my previous essays which I had been very happy with as my target grade for Media is a B so I didn't have that much to improve on in order to achieve this.

- In this essay I achieved a C again. I was happy with this grade but I do think that I could improve as my grade has stayed the same since my first essay which suggests that I haven't improved.

Targets:

- Use the appropriate terminology

- Respond to the question, addressing the question at the opening of each paragraph.

- Be more detailed in the analysis of editing

From the feedback I can see that I have achieved the target to avoid descriptions  however I still need to revise the terminology and address the question. These are things which I will be focusing on in my next essay.

Today we filmed our work for the continuity task. We decided to film at school using two different locations, the Cafe 2000 and the Chikara, as well as the corridor leading from the cafe.

We started firstly by filming the ending, the storyboard was really useful as we didn't have to worry about which shot angles to film at or where the characters would be standing 

Continuity Task- 2

Today we talked about ideas of what the story line could be for our continuity task, as it's only 90 seconds long it wasn't hard for us to come up with ideas. We decided to have it featuring a boy discovering that his boyfriend was cheating on him, this involved a change of locations, dialogue and shot reverse shots which were all required. We then went ahead and started story boarding our film; the story boarding was a lot easier compared to our attempts at story boarding before we had been taught about it, we discussed actors that could be in it as we needed three, we decided that Charlee and Oscar would be in the film and then we needed another boy so we chose someone who isn't in our group, Giles. 

Continuity Task

As part of our exam work, we are required to complete a continuity task, which involves storyboard, script and create a shot list, which we will then film ourselves. I think that this will be really good practice for our coursework as this task is basically a shorter version of what needs to be done for the coursework.

I'm doing this task with my coursework group, Charlee, Oscar and Beth; I think this will be a really good opportunity to see what we can each do and how we can all contribute to our actual coursework.

PLANNING- Storyboarding and Anamatic

As we are moving on to story boarding in our coursework, I think it's important that we learned more about story boarding and how to go about making our storyboard. A professional story boarder, Sophie came in to our lesson to talk to us more about story boarding and anamatic and she showed us some examples of anamatics. This has helped me with the continuity task as we have to storyboard our work before we film, it will also help me when we start doing the final storyboard for the coursework, by this time we will have already made one storyboard and had several lessons about story boarding so I think we will find it quite easy. 

Sophie showed us some of her own work, a storyboard which had been made in to an anamatic, I found it helpful to see this as I wasn't sure what an anamatic was until Sophie explained that it was a timed storyboard which basically showed everything that will be happening in the film, how long it will be happening for, and the order that it will be happening in but shown by drawings. We aren't required to make an anamatic for our continuity task but we are for our coursework so this was very useful to see and to have explained as it will be easier to make our anamatic when the time comes. 

As well as Sophie's own work, she also showed us the anamatic for the title sequence of the Disney show 'Gravity Falls', after we watched this we were shown the actual title sequence. I found it very interesting to see the contrast between the anamatic and the actual title sequence, obviously our piece wont be as detailed or advanced as this one but it was very useful to see what an anamatic looked like and how it helped make the real title sequence. 

This is our anamatic; I didn't find it as hard to make as I thought that it would be. As we had already completed our story board we just took pictures and filmed some of the shots. Then we put it all together and edited it so that the image that appeared at the time was shown for the amount of time as we planned it to be for in our final film. If we were to make this again I would change some parts of the story board and consider making the story board again as I don't think that some parts are as clear as they should be. Additionally I would add in some non diagetic sound, some sound effects and music to give ourselves and everyone else a better picture of what our opening will actually be like. Also, some of the separate pictures on the story board have been photographed side ways, which shouldn't have been done, however we struggled to get it finished in time as we made the anamatic twice as it went wrong the first time.

PLANNING- Editing Practice

Recently in our media lessons we started practicing editing. I was paired with Oscar from my coursework group and he was very experienced with editing as he did it last year. We were given the task to use Adobe Premiere Pro to edit a past video so that we could practice for when we edit our own video.

We had to look at the finished video and try and make our video as similar to that as we possibly could, which meant cutting the video, adding titles, and adding diagetic and non diagetic sound. I found this quite hard as I had never used this software before so I didn't know how to use any of the tools or what anything was, however Oscar did so it was really helpful having him to help me and explain what everything was and how to use the software properly.

I found cutting the video quite easy as it was obvious where everything had to be cut. I will be able to cut our video successfully as it wasn't very hard and it was easy to remember how to do it.

Adding in the titles was also a lot easier than I thought as it was the same every time and we just had to add the titles where they were on the original video.

Adding the non diagetic sound, the music was slightly harder because it had to be in an exact place and it was quite hard to do this, I found it hard to remember how to get it in the right place so I will probably need more practice before edit our own film.

The diagetic sound was the noise of a mobile phone and it was at a certain time; this was slightly easier than the other sound but I still struggled so I may also need more practice.


Strenghs of my finished video:

• the timing was good and was exactly the same as the original
• the cuts were clean and smooth, there wasn't any black in between cuts
• the music was at the right time and so was the sound effects
• the titles were at the right time

Weaknesses:

• the fonts weren't the same, we used serif when the font was sans serif
• the music cut off at the end

PLANNING- Storyboarding 2

After our lesson on storyboarding we had to make our own storyboard based on the title 'Terror in the Night'. We were given a sheet which we had to design the story and draw out the different shots and then write about the sound and camera angles used in the shots.

I found this really helpful as I hadn't ever storyboarded before so it gave me good practice for when my group start making our storyboard; I made my storyboard with Oscar which is good because we are in the same coursework group so we both learned a lot and will be able to use our new skills in our own work.

PLANNING- Storyboarding

As we are now moving on  with our planning, we have to start storyboarding.This is something which I haven't done before and didn't really understand how to do; so I found yesterday's lesson very helpful as I learned how to storyboard and why it was important.

I found it helpful and interesting to learn why storyboarding was important:

• it's pitching an idea to someone and helping them actually visualise what youintend to create rather than just imagining it from descriptions.
• it links the planning and filming process together
• we can visualiselinks between the shots,graphics and action
• timings, continuity and pace
• helps you gain technical awareness and understanding
• revise narrative sequencing
• it's a chance to make last minute decisions and make any changes

We also watched a video in the lesson of the director of 'The Sixth Sense' talking about storyboarding and how it helps him; I saw shots of his storyboards for the films which have helped me as I now know what they look like and how they should be designed. From watching this video I gained more of an understanding about storyboards. They allow you to think ahead and plan things which might be hard to film at one time; they stop people who watch the film from getting wrong interperetations if the shots are misleading and haven't been planned. It saves time on set  as the shots are pre planned; making films easier as well as saving money as it literally doesn't require anything except drawing, whereas some directors choose to plan it on a computer which costs a lot of money. 

PLANNING- What needs to be done

Now that we've decided on the majoirty of our planning for what's happening; we need to strart planning timing and the different shots, we have started making our storyboard which has come from the shot list which we created last lesson.

I also need to write up the full narrative on my blog and blog my research and some of the brainstorms which we've been creating in class.

So far I think that our planning is going well, we've got everything that needs to be done so far and I think that our ideas are successful so far.

PLANNING- Mise en scene, what's happening ect..

Today we planned our whole opening sequence and started creating our shot list.

We decided that instead of having a radio broadcast it should be a television broadcast, so the film begins with a shot of the television broadcast and then jump cuts to a shot of the protagonist, then jump cuts to a shot of the polaroid pictures with the titles handwritten on the pictures. We thought that this wa sa good idea as it gives us an oppertunity to use some complicated editing as well as establishing the settings and creating an ambiguous tone.

What's happening in our opening sequence:

The film begins in black and white; with a shot of the televison denoting the broadcast from a priest or a Bishop; the non diagetic dialouge continues however there's a jump cut to an over the shoulder shot of the protagonist watching the TV, there's then a cut to the polaroid pictures focusing on a man and a woman, however there are other pictures around but aren't in focus; the pictures are denoting the titles for the film. This then repeats a few times, changing picture and name every time. There is then a shot of the protagonists child playing in another room near where the protagonist is; he then walks to a door and there's a close up of the door handle and the protagonists hands with will be dirty or have blood on. It then cuts to the man on the other side of the door walking down a hallway; colour is then introduced to the scene as he walks down the hallway, then denoting a door with a close up of a lock. The protagonist then walks into the room where the people who are being torutred have been, they aren't in focus and the protagonists face hasn't been shown yet.

This is the idea we have at the moment however we may have to change some things depending on the location we film it at as we may not be able to find soemwhere with a basement. We decided to start planning some of the mise en scene; lighting, makeup, costumes and the location, as well as this we have started to think about actors who could play the parts.

Characters:
male protagonist- religious man, appear to look innocent (not sinister), young man in between 20-30
woman- young woman, in her late teens (18), heavy makeup and provocative clothing, torure victim
man- young man, (18-25) small, weak, torure victim
young child (in between 5-10 years old) protagonists son 

Location:
family home, fairly wealth, quite large house, living room connected to another room where the child plays.
dark, empty room (basement?) space for 3 characters and desk.
coridoor leading from living room/stairs to basement.

Make up:
we will be getting an art student to help us with this as the male torture victim has burns on his torso, we will also need makeup for the protagonists hands and fake blood, the female victim will also need facial makeup and blood.

Sound:
non diagetic: Charlee and Oscar will be making some original music to suit the tone of the film, some hymn music possibly.
Diagetic: Dialouge, sounds of chains and doors slamming, noise coming from the TV.

Editing:
quite slow paced in the beiginning, pace picks up when he walks downstairs into the basement, jump cuts from the pictures, to the TV to the protagonist, editing and sound parallel.

Props:
chains, TV, bibles, crosses, table, pollaroid pictures.

PLANNING- Sharing ideas

Today we started to talk more about our ideas and how we could develp the idea of a religious man who tortures people who have sinned. We all shared ideas and we agreed that we should include images of what the pople who are being tortured have actually done, we thought that it would be clever if the pictures were polaroid and the titles were shown on the polaroid pictures. We decided that in the beginning of the opening the man should be listening to a radio broadcast about a man who has been kidnapping people; however to the viewers it would be ambiguos as it isn't clear that he is the man being referred to until he goes downstairs to the basement.

PLANNING- Religious Thriller Brainstorming

After we decided to chance our whole idea and start brasinstorming ideas for a religious thriller, we decided that we would each do an aspect of researh in order to learn more about religious thrillers.
We decided that:
Charlee would research the codes and conventions,
Oscar would research the history of title sequences
I would look up and analyse the opening seuqences to some religious thrillers
and Beth would look up some of the plots for religious thrillers.

We started brainstorming ideas and talked about religious thrillers that we had all watched, we came up with the idea of a religious man toruring people who had sinned. We all agreed that this would be a good idea and would be different to anything seen before as religiuous thrillers are quite rare. The fact that relgious thrillers aren't made very often was a factor that we had to think about as it could effect the likeablity of the film; however we checked some of the ratings and how popular some current relgious thrillers were and the majoiorty of them were popular and had high ratings.

After we decided that we liked the idea of a religious torturer, we brainstormed all of the ideas and anything that we thought we could include. We came up with the idea of the protagonist living in a family home, perhaps with a family member in the scene at some point, then going downstairs or outside into a garage or a basement, where he is keeping two people hostage. We talked about how long each scene would take and what we would need for the planning and the making of the film. I think that this is a good idea so far, we just need to work on the plot and think about how all of our ideas will fit together.

PLANNING- Brainstorming

If we continue with the idea of a religious thriller then we will need to do more research on this as none of us have researched or analysed religious thrillers so far in our research. 

PLANNING- Brainstorming Ideas

This week my group and I have started the planning stage for our film, we've been having discussions about what sub genre or hybrid genre we think our film should be and we've discussed all of the ideas that we've come up with. At first we came up with the idea of a crime-thriller with some phycological elements, we recorded out conversation and came uo with several different ideas of what we could include if we did do this particular sub genre. We also discussed other aslects such as the filming and what the style of the film would be like, we all agreed that we liked the particular stlings of films like Sin City and how it was very arty and clever in the way it had been animated. We kept with this idea and based mire ideas around this, we also talked about having a hand-held camera and having some of the film on this, as if from the aspect of the protagonist. We brainstormed and talked about ideas for the crime thriller, however after further discussions we decided that we wanted to do something more original as the ideas that we were coming up with we're very clice. As we ended our discussion we started thinking of more ideas and came up with the possible idea of a religious thriller, we will be continuing to discuss this idea.



I think that our planning is going well so far, I'm happy with our decision to not continue planning for a crime thriller as this is something that wont be original and I think that we should do something unusual and not expected, I think that we should go down the unconventional route and go for some unexpected ideas but still keep the main elements of the conventions for whatever sub genre or hybrid that we choose. I'm think that our ideas about camera and editing are good ideas and will hopefully be useful to us further on in our planning, but for now we need to make a definite decision on our genre and then work from there with the planning. 

Media Evaluation- Media So Far

So far as an A Level media student I feel as though I have added a lot more to my knowledge of what I already learned in media GCSE; I feel a lot more confident with the technical language used when I'm writing, for example  I feel a lot more confident when including semiotics in my essays however I do think that this is my main weakness as I often find the technical language confusing as the words and definitions are very similar. Ive also learned a lot about camera and the different camera angles used in films and television shows and the reasons why they are used and how it affects the audience. Something which I'm still not very confident with is sound, before A Level media I didn't know much about sound in media texts and how or why it's used, I'm beginning to learn more about it however I do need to look back on my notes on sound, or research more about it. Something else who  I didn't know much about before A Level Media was editing. In GCSE we didn't learn much about editing as the majority of our work was writing and text based, whereas most of the work we are doing now is on film and TV, I've learned about different types of editing for example how quick editing cuts are used in action and fighting scenes to create fast fast pace and make it seem more dramatic. Although I have been learning more I still feel like I need to develop on my knowledge of editing, and obviously I will be leaning more when it comes to editing our title sequences as I haven't yet had any experience of editing myself. I was already fairly familiar with mise en scene from GCSE media and my research for the title sequences has helped me learn a lot more about mise en scene and the codes and conventions. My research has also taught me a lot about genre, sub genres and hybrid genre, I wasn't confiident with genre at all before we learned about it, but now I am and I can tell which genre most films are and the sub genre/hybrid genre, is has also taught me about the codes and conventions in each genre of film.

My targets will be to revise semiotics- specifically work on indexical signs and signifiers. I also think that I need to learn some more about sound and editing. 
I need to be more detailed in my writing, and be less descriptive and instead emphasise the technical aspects. 

RESEARCH- EVALUATING BETH'S RESEARCH

Beth's research of title sequences throughout time has helped me learn about how title sequesnces have changed. As she's added in links to the title sequcnes she's looked it, it helped me see the change and then see what Beth's opinions on the title sequences were. It was interesting to find out what title sequences used to be like, and what they are like now. To improve her research Beth could have made it more detailed, maybe saying about why they have changed and made more specific descriptions on how they have changed.

Beth's work links into the lessons we learned on genre previously as we have recently been learning about sub genre. Firstly, before I looked at Beth's research I didn't know a lot about what made a thriller into different sub genres, so I personally now know the difference between a techno thriller and a super natural thriller for example. I think that it's really good how Beth has named the different types of sub thrillers and then made detailed descriptions of what makes that thriller a sub genre. It was useful that Beth gave examples of films which were each type of thriller as I have watched many of the films that Beth gave examples of, so I can link them to the sub genres. This will be useful for the later stages of our work when we need to see what we need to include in our work if we chose to make our thriller one of these. Beth's work is really detailed and has some really good analysis and some good points for each of the descriptions, I found it very interesting and helpful; I now know more about sub genres.



RESEARCH- EVALUATING CHARLEE'S RESEARCH

This research was really important for us to know as the codes and conventions of a thriller film is one of the most important things to know before we do any planning. Charlee's talked about all of the basic conventions and things which are always in thrillers, e.g. good vs evil, she's also talked about the narrative and how it can be used to create different tones and feelingws within the film. In addition to this, Charlee has included information on the protagonist and antagonist, and the main four conventions of a thriller film. If Charlee was to improve this research then I think that she could have gone into more detail about the four main conventions, and she could have made her explantions more detailed and said how this will help us when it comes to the planning and filming.

RESEARCH- EVALUATION OF OSCAR'S RESEARCH

Oscars part of the research was to make the questions for the survey and then get the survey filled out, in order to analyse the answers so that we know what type of things people want in a thriller film. 

I think that the questions Oscar chose to ask were suitable for the questionnaire and were really good in terms of what needed to be asked and what we needed to know. 

  

Oscar has evaluated the questionnaire results really well, it's helpful that he's gone through the results of each question and said what we've learned from the answers and how they will affect our decisions. From reading Oscar's answers I've found out that most of the answers from the survey were split, which will be helpful for us as it gives us a more diverse range of choices of what to include in our film. Oscar mentions that more than half of the poeple who answered our survey were over 16, and that they had watched both 18 and 15 rated films, this is useful to know as it means that our film can be an 18 or a 15; there isn't one specific age rating that's come out on top. Although this is good analysis, I think that Oscar could have gone into more detail about some of the more important questions and said how it will help our choices, for example he could have mentioned that the results we have for question 6 means that we shouldn't include too much violence. Oscar's analysis is also successful as he gives his own opinion and mentions what some of our predictions were, this is good as it reminds us of what we originally thought when we answered the questions, so we can compare our opinions to the answers in which we recieved from the survey.

RESEARCH- MID RESEARCH REFLECTION

At the moment my group are quite far along with our research and don't have much left to complete. We all sat down and talked about what we all needed to complete, and what we had completed already. 

                           

We worked out that we'd completed the online survey  the age ratings, the analysing of the opening titles, the codes and conventions and the hybrid films.




                            


The work that we still need to complete is the evaluations of each others research. We need to go onto each others blogs and evaluate the work that they have done, saying what we've learned and how it helped us. We also need to research the history of title sequences. 

Editing and Representation

I found it very helpful learning about editing and representation as it's useful to know what to look for in an extract so that I can take accurate notes about it and write about the right parts. These are the notes that I took about editing and representation on the extract we analysed in class from Dr Who.

We were given this sheet about editing and representation which I found really useful as it describes everything that needs to be considered when creating a film or TV show; it gives definitions of the parts of filming and editing and explains how they are used and what the effects are. 




























These are examples of the pages on editing and representation that we were given.
One of the things that I found most interesting learning about was motivation (which is when any transition is 'forced' on the editor by a characters action or the narrative) . I didn't know what this was before; so I found it very useful to know about motivated edits. I was also interested to learn about prevalence- which is about how much screen time a character gets, showing the importance of their role in the scene. Before I knew about these terms I wouldn't have been able to include the names of them in my work, therefore learning this will help me improve my writing in essays as I'll be able to use more technical language. 

Looking at Previous Students' Films

In todays lesson we were shown some examples of last years films. We were given a mark scheme for the films and after each one we had to decide what we thought their marks would have been. This has really helped me as it's given me more of an understanding of what needs to be in our film and how it gets marked, now that I have a mark scheme this also means that I can refer to it for help if I need it throughout the planning to see whatw e need to include. Watching the films gave me ideas about what we can have in our own film, and how we can use sound, editing and camera to create a successful Thriller.

 Watching these films made me realise how much work would have to be put in to the actual making of the film, which means that we need to make sure that all of our work is detailed and complete before we move on to the planning. It was really good to see the openings of previous work and to compare them to the films which we analysed for our research, and see if they were similar or different to eachother; seeing if they fitted the conventions of  a Thriller.

Primeval

In recent lessons we have been analysing a scene from 'Primeval' and making notes on how gender is represented. I have got used to analysing scenes and picking out things that present gender, for example how the camera can be used to portay a certain gender as weak and helpless by filming them from a high angle so that they appear small. We made notes on how camera, sound and editing can mould audiences opinions on characters and situations. Completing this has helped me with my coursework research as it's given me practice on how to analyse texts, as well as giving me ideas about how camera, editing and sound can be used to present situations and characters.

Binary Opposition Essay Targets

Today I recieved my essay on Binary Opposition in Titanic back, overall I found this essay quite hard as binary opposition was something that as very new to me and that I didn't know much about at the time, although we had been learning about it. I was very happy with my grade which was a C-; this was my first essay for AS Media so I am pleased with this grade.

In order to achieve a higher grade next time I need to avoid making too many descriptions as they aren't needed. I also need to revise semiotics, especially indexical signs and iconography as I am still struggeling to understand what they mean and how to use them in context.

RESEARCH- EVALUATING MY GROUPS RESEARCH

These are the opening sequences to thrillers that the rest of my group looked at, we put all of our notes on Thrillers together so that we could all understand and find out what we each did and how it helped us.

Oscar's Research- Opening Sequence

Firstly I think it was really useful that each person in our group looked at two opening sequences each as we've all swapped ideas and learned different things from what the others wrote.

Oscars research has taught me a lot about framing and shadowing, this was something that I didn't focus on in my analysis so it was good to learn more about how it's used in films to create different  reactions and interpretations from the  audience. Oscars analysis was very detailed and thorough when explaining the different films he watched, I think it was good that we all did different films, and as Oscar analysed two action films I found out how they were different from the horror thrillers that I looked at. One thing that I found useful and interesting to know was about how the speed of the shots can create pace and how editing can be used to show when someone is dreaming or when someone's having a flash back. Oscar wrote about how costumes are symbolic which is something that I wasn't very detailed about in my analysis so I learned a lot from this information. This research also taught me about how music and sound can create a different pace and different feelings from the audience; music and sound is something which I wasn't very confident with when I wrote about Frozen and Abandoned so it was really useful to see how Oscar felt about music and sound and how it was used in the films he watched. Overall I think that Oscars research was really detailed and analytical, it's definitely helped me understand more about opening sequences and it was interesting to see the differences between the films he analysed and the films that I analysed. 

Charlee's Research- Opening Sequence

Charlee's research on opening sequences taught me a lot about the actual credits and how they're used. She wrote about how the order of what's in the opening sequence is used for effect and how it allows viewers to understand what's happening. Her information on camera was interesting to read as she's written about how t makes the audience feel. 

Bethany's Research- Opening Sequence

Beth's research was interesting as I haven't watched the films she analysed and I didn't know much about the type of films she'd written abut. She's written quite detailed about sound and how the music makes the viewers feel, which allows us to see how the characters are feeling. She's also written a lot about camera shots and the effect of these. Overall Beth's  research has been very helpful and has helped me learn more about phycological thrillers, her research was detailed and had some really good analysis.

RESEARCH- QUESTIONNAIRE

This is the link to my groups questionnaire, made by Oscar. We have all posted the questionnaire on Twitter and Facebook in order to get answers to help us with our research, we've also gone round and asked people individually.

 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZXTWVWL

GENRE RESEARCH- THRILLER EXAMPLES: ABANDONED

 The second thriller that I analysed was Abandoned, a film made in 2010 directed and produced by Michael Feifer, starring Britany Murphy, Dean Cain.

In the opening sequence to Abandoned it shows the female protagonist running away fromsomeone,in the beginning she is running down hospital corridoors and then we see her running down stairs, into a car park- then to be chased by a car. The film as a whole is about a woman who's boyfriend went missing during surgery and is blamedfor his dissapearance; she is then classed as mental and has to stay in hospital, she tries to prove her innocence throughout the film.


- The title sequence is keep plain using only the colours black and the writing is kept simple. The screen then goes on to show three different screens all showing different things- different parts of the hospital with different people in each shot. This shows how the editing can be used to make the film look more interesting and to keep viewers engaged. This also gives a sense of mystery as we don't yet know who the characters are or what the location in each shot is.

- We see a girl running around the hospital corridoors, who appears to be running away- the lighting is dark and the location is confined which gives an ominous tone as viewers can tell that something bad is about to happen. The girl then runs into a room and looks back which also connotes that she's running away or trying to hide from someone. Editing is used to make it seem like she is being filmed as the quality of the filming decreases and changes colour and says 'recording' at the top of the screen which denotes to the audience that she is being filmed and being watched. This creates a suspicious tone as we donh't yet know who is watching her or why, this also keeps the viewers guessing which is engaging and something that is vital for a successful film opening. In the scene where the girl runs down stairs she is filmed at eye levelwhich helps the viewers engage with the character and have sympathy for her, it also shows us that she is in a position of equality and that she isn't weak nor strong. Camera angles and editing have been used in this scene to create drama as there are lots cuts when she's running and a variety of camera angles helps establish the location and what the girl is doing.

- The music througout the opening is classicail and iconic for a thriller film as it's what we would associate with the thriller genre. It's scary and gives a sense of danger which is important for a thriller to include. The music changes when different things happen throughout the opening, for example- when she is in the car park and the car suddenly comes, the music becomes more dramamtic and upbeat which adds to the dramatic situation that she's in. There is no dialouge in the opening to this film as there is only one character introduced, this reinforces the mysterious tone, adding to the excitment and anticipation.

- The costumes used in this are kept simple just like that the credits, the girl is wearing a simple white t-shirt and jeans which is mysterious as they don't tell us a lot about her personality or who she is.

- The film is edited so that it jumps from the action and then back to the titles, which creates a contrast between the simple, plain title sequence and the dramatic action from the film itself. Throughout the opening it's very dark and gloomy which creates a mysterious and gloomy tone, however lighting sometimes changes and becomes bright in order to show the girlsfacial expressions at certain points.


- When the woman is running through the coridoors it's shot at a high angle which portrays the woman to be weak and vulnerable, this then changes when she is in the car park as it's shot at eye level to convey her emotions, allowing the viewers to connect with her. Most of the time the woman is filmed at a long shot to show her surroundings and to show how far away she is from the car when she's being chased. Some close ups are used to show facial expression, for example when she's frightened a close up is usedso the audience can see and sympathise.


Researching and analyising Abandoned has helped me learn the main conventions of a phycological thriller. This will help me and my group when we start planning for our own film, if we decide to make a phycological thriller then I will know what we need to include in it. watching this opening has given me ideas.

Representation

Representation

Today we learned about representation, representation is the way in which the media presents an idea, and how we see it being presented by society. Each representation is different to the way an idea is originally presented because everyone has different opinions and interperetations of it, the idea is presented how society or the media want it to be seen.

Learning about this has made me realise that everything that's reppresented in the media is presented in that way for a reason, stereotypes and ideas come from the media and this therefore influences society and their opinions.

Camera

I've recently been learning about camera techniques, learning about the different types of camera angles and camera shots.

Camera techniques consist of movement, angles and positioning. 

Examples of distance shots-

Long shot- When you can see all of the person or object which is being filmed, you can also see the surrounding, this shot is usually used to establish the setting. 

This is the same as an establishing long shot, which is used when a new setting is being introduced, so that it can be viewed and established. 

A medium or mid shot is when you can see the majority of the person or object being filmed, usually the upper body, this shot's used to show body language, as well as facial expression.

A close up is when the camera is focused closely on a particular part of something, this is usually a face and it's used to show facial expressions in detail to convey emotion.

Similar to this, an extreme close up is even closer and more focused than a close up and it's when the camera is focusing on one part of something, for example is common thing for an extreme close up to focus on is a persons eyes.

Shot angles- 

Low shot, Eye Level, High Shot, Worms Eye, Birds Eye, Point of View.

A low shot is when the camera is shot at a low angle, so it gives the effect of looking up at someone, this is usually made so that the person being filmed looks authorstitive and powerful.

 Eye level is when the camera is angled so that the character is in eye level with the viewer.

A high shot is when the camera is at a high angle, creating the illusion of looking down at someone, this is usually done to make the character look weak and helpless.

A worms eye is when the camera is at a very low angle, Canted is when the camera is shot at an unusual angle to make the shot look more interesting, and a birds eye is when the camera is st a very high angle looking directly down at something. 

Camera movements-

Panning left and right- when the camera moves sideways,  the camera stays in the same p,ace, it only moves around at different angles.

Crabbing left and right- when the camera doesn't move angle, but it moves sideways.

Track in track out- when the camera moves with the character, following the, around.

Tilting up and down- the camera stays in the same position however it moves angle, moving either up or down.