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. 

Do Generic Conventions Helpor Restrict Film Makers?

Group 6 2012 AS from Media @ CCC on Vimeo.

Doing this research with my group helped me learn more about how the conventions help and restrict film makers and taught me that they can both help and restrict. The information that Oscar and Beth found was useful for me and it wasgood working in the group because we all shared our ideas and knowledge.

RESEARCH- What's allowed in films rated 15 and 18?

For my part of the research I had to find out what content was allowed in films rated 15, and films rated 18. To find this information out I went on to the BBFC Classification Guidelines for films. We needed to know this information so that we could see what we would be allowed in our own film, and so that we could find out the difference between a film rated 15 and a film rated 18. We also needed this information to help us with our survey, so we knew which type of questions needed to be asked. 

Some examples of the regulations for Films rated 15...

Discrimination-  "The film may not endorse discriminatory language or behavior"
                                This means that we will need to make sure that our film doesn't promote    
                               discrimination, or include any language that does.

Drugs-               "Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole may not promote or               
                             encourage 
                             drug use. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous 
                             substances isn't                                                                                                                
                             acceptable."
                              If we are going to include any drugs in the film, then we can't be promoting 
                              them or endorsing them. Many thrillers do include drugs and drug misuse so 
                              this is something we will need to think about when planning.

Horror-             "Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised"
                            Many thrillers include threats and violence, and our film will most likely include 
                            this so as long as ours doesn't include threats that are easily imitable then it 
                            should be fine to include this content.

Imitable behavior- "Dangerous behavior, e.g hanging, suicide and self harming shouldn't
                                   dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons 
                                   shouldn't be glamourised."
                                   As a group we will have to make sure that we don't glamourise behavior
                                   that can be copied, although it's likely the film will include weapons of

                                   some sort.         

Images taken from the BBFC website:
                     






                                   

From finding out this information I was able to see what the differences are between films rated 15 and films rated 18. 

Differences...

• films rated 18 have no limit on the amount of swearing used, whereas films rated 15 have restricted rules on swearing; although it is allowed it has to be justified and used in appropriate context.
• full nudity is allowed in films rated 18; 15's are only allowed partial nudity and it can't be shown for long.
• 15's can't include any discrimination, 18's are allowed to show discrimination as long as it isn't being endorsed.
• films rated 18 are allowed to include more violence and more graphical images of violence.

When it comes down to making the decision of the rating of our film we will be able to refer back to this research and chose the rating based on all of these classifications.

Target Audiences for Thrillers-

For the next part of my research I looked at the target audience for thrillers. We need this information so that we can compare it to the answers we receive from our survey.

I looked on many different websites in order to find out this information and each page I went on suggested a different answer and a different age, this shows me that the target audience varies depending on which type of thriller it is, for example I found out that legal thrillers are aimed at audiences aged 25-50 and usually men, whereas medical thrillers are aimed at anyone aged 16-25.
After researching I've discovered that most websites and forums agree that the majority of thrillers are aimed at audiences aged 16-30.




Overall, I think that all of this research will help both me and my group when we begin the planning and making of our film. Knowing the criteria for films rated 15 and films rated 18 will help us know what we can and can't include in our film, as well as helping us to determine what our film will be rated. As well as this it is helpful that we know the differences between 15's and 18's as it will be easy to see where ours fits in that rating. The information that we now have on target audience is useful as we can compare it to the results we get from the survey, and use it to help make our own film suitable for people in this age group. 

GENRE RESEARCH- Thriller Examples- Frozen

In order to understand the different types of thriller films and what the conventions of thrillers were, my group (Charlee, Beth and Oscar) decided that we would each analyse two different openings of thrillers each, and then share notes about what we've learned and to get ideas for what to include in our own film.

The first film that I analysed was Frozen. I watched the opening 3 minutes of film and took notes on the important parts of the opening.

This film is about three young people, two boys and a girl, who go on a skiing holiday, only to find that they are stuck on a ski lift and have to decide whether to fight for their lives to get down from the lift, or to stay on the lift and freeze to death. I have discussed how lighting, sound and mise en scene is used to create a gripping thriller film. Frozen is a 2010 American Thriller, Horror film which was written and directed by Adam Green, starring Kevin Zegers, Shawn Ashmore and Emma Bell. 

- The first shot I saw of the film was of the engine works for a ski lift, this was ominous because it shows it's very relevant to the film as it was the first part of the film that was shown. This created an ominous and dangerous tone as it was dark and there were loud noises coming from the lift, this created a negative tone. The diagetic sound in this scene creates a sinister tone as the grinding noises from the engines and the thunder create a suspense and keep the audience guessing about what is going to happen. 

- After this there was a long shot of the  mountains in the background which established the location, letting viewers know that they were skiing in the mountains, it also adds to the ominous tone as it links in with the danger of the control room. 

- Straight after this was shown the setting changed to a bright, open spaced setting of one of the ski slopes, which then created a happier more positive tone as the bright colours and seeing loads of happy people in the background stepped away from the darkness and ominous tone. This has been done to grab the audiences attention and keep them interested and guessing about what will happen, the build up of danger and anticipation keeps viewers guessing and then when the scene changes it becomes more mysterious and viewers will be wondering what will happen.

- The characters were then introduced each with a close up; this shows viewers who the lead characters are and shows their facial expressions which are happy, reinforcing the positive, hopeful tone. Straight after the characters have been introduced they have a problem as they can't afford to buy tickets, this juxtaposes with positive tone which has just been created and creates another ominous tone as it suggests they will continue to have problems throughout the film. 

- The beginning focus' on the fact that the characters can't afford to pay for the ski lift, this also adds to the ominous tone as it could be thought of as a warning as the characters end up getting stuck on the lift, and that is what the film is about. It's showing that the lift will always cause problems for them, and for viewers who know the  story line or who have seen the trailer, they will know that the lift is dangerous.

- The mise en scene allows different moods and tones to be created throughout the film. For example, the dark lighting in the opening shot creates a sinister atmosphere, this contrasts with the bright sun light which is shown in the next scene which creates a more neutral tone. The costumes used allow viewers to understand what is happening, it works alongside establishing the setting- it makes the film look more realistic as the costumes are iconic as people associate the big coats, hats, goggles and skis with skiing.



- The title sequence in Frozen  has been kept simple which is very similar to the film itself as there aren't many settings or many characters in the film. The colours are all cool and neutral which is what the audience would expect from a film like this because it's set in a natural, and cold environment. The colours used also suggest that the movie will be depressing as they are mainly black and white which are dull, boring colours. A serif font has been used which makes the sequence look elegant and professional. 










Researching this film has given me ideas about how the editing can keep viewers interested, as the  beginning of the film cuts from the control room to the slope, changing from a negative tone to positive. I've also learned how sound and different settings can create different tones and add to viewers ideas about the film  and their feelings.