Thursday 1 April 2010
Friday 18 December 2009
Wednesday 9 December 2009
Review Feedback
We have shown our draft Review to a number of people, and made an evaluation of this review, from here it has allowed us to make a few changes to our review, to make it appear more realistic.
- We Removed the second page, as the review appeared more like a poster.
- We closed up the gaps between the text.
- We changed the fonts on the review, as the main title of the review used the title for the film (the logo), which would not be used in a film review.
- The review text itself was inported, as before it was just the Quark "Jabber" to show where the text would be.
- Added star ratings.
Poster Feedback
After looking at our poster we have concluded some key areas we need to change for our poster to look more real, and help project the image of the film we are wanting the audience to decode.
The things we need to change are:
- Font change; as the current font is seen as looking slightly comical, so it will help if we give the title a more gritty, edgy font to create a serious feel to the film.
- Give larger gaps between the title, as our title doesn't leave much space around itself.
- Change the film company logo's, as we currently have corporations such as paramount and new line cinema, which wouldn't be producing a short film.
- Correct the production text as it is slightly unsymmetrical and uneven.
Wednesday 18 November 2009
Wednesday 4 November 2009
Group Discussion 3
After our group discussion, we have concluded that these areas of work are what we need to do to complete our project.
Need to refilm most of the scenes
Some are usable but need editing
Lighting in particular needs work
Need to create call sheets
Do a voiceover pointing out why we are changing the footage
Tuesday 3 November 2009
Rushes Filming
This is a rush draft of our short film. We have identified a few problems which require is to re film.
Learner Feedback Sheet
Here is the feedback sheet i have got, this will give me an idea on what i can improve on.
Wednesday 21 October 2009
Wednesday 14 October 2009
Independent Film Festival Reaserch
After reading through the treatment i realised it may be advantagous to research some independant film festivals that our product could be shown at.
http://www.leedsfilm.com/
http://www.filmstock.co.uk/home.html
http://www.londonindependent.org/
Group Discussion 14/10/09
Group discussion
Today we talked about the various camera shots and angles that we were going to use for different parts of our short film, the story board and possible locations.
Story board
After completing the story board we are going to scan the pictures, cut them out using photo-shop and then produce an anima tic, after making some changes to the story board we are also going to be altering the screen play in order to match the story board.
Possible locations
We discussed possible locations to film certain scenes for our short film
Scene
1. House at night with woods near by – Andrew’s house or Joe’s house
2. View from eye’s of the stalker – same locations as above.
3. Transaction.
4. Arm of stalker with watch – on a street near college – Moorgate road.
5. Tilt up to see prey – same location as above.
6. Zoom closer to the prey – same location as above.
7. Pan left to follow the prey – same location but as the “prey” moves we walk around the corner of Moorgate road.
8. Medium shot of prey getting on the bus – Moorgate road so we can show it’s the same road but next to a bus stop.
9. Transaction.
10. establishing shot of the house – Andrew’s or Joe’s house
11. the front door - same house
12. plant pot on floor – same house
13. transaction
14. key being placed behind the pot – same house
15. close up of key – same house
16. transaction
17. shot of stalker picking up the key – same house
18. tilt to the door – same house
19. close up of key being used – same house
20. track back and forward into dark room – room in college, Andrew or Joe’s house
21. Shot of stalker seeing paper faces and weapons – Andrew’s garage.
22. Close up of mans foot after blow – same garage floor.
23. camera picked up – same garage
24. transaction
25. shot of stalker trapped – same garage
26. close up of face – same garage
27. insert shot of paper faces – same garage
28. medium shot of stalker shouting help – same garage
29. transaction
30. Credits.
Tuesday 13 October 2009
Treatment
Treatment
Synopsis: A Stalker follows a killer and gets his comeuppance.
Details of target audience:
18-40 years old.
Predominately male, but some female.
They both going out to the cinema, and take interest in niche sub cultures, such as independent films.
They will also be involved with online interaction and online culture.
Plot Summary
A stalker regularly follows a normal community figure. The stalking has been going on for sometime so the stalker knows where the prey will be each time of day. However on the 6th of June 2006 something goes terribly wrong for the stalker. The stalker decides to break in to the preys house where his carefully planned scheme goes horribly wrong.
Shortly after entering the garage the stalker is shocked to see what lies within; knifes, hammers and chains, along with pictures of people with eyes cut out on the picture, these are not what someone would expect to find within the garage of such a person, but before the stalker can escape, he is knocked unconscious.
He awakes to find himself belted to a chair, where he looks up and sees his own image with the eyes cut out, like many of the other pictures he witnessed when entering the garage, the scream then acts as a sound barrier into both the theme song, and sound effects that play over the credits rolling.
Characters:
Stalker - Unseen until the later sections of the film, aiming to look quite menacing.
Murderer - Appearing as a friendly community figure. Dressed Casually.
Extras - Richard Taylor, Ruby Harman, George Brailsford and Chris Beevers will all be dressed casuals as background characters.
Recce
Health and safety notes: Health and safety will be taken into account; the nearest first aider in collage is Maxine In room reception.
The main health and safety issues will be wires/ camera’s and some setting up some props for the mise en scene such as the angle grinder and knife.
Friday 9 October 2009
Pre Filming Research
We did some pre-filming research on camera angles/shot types/soundtracks etc, using this example text.
Wednesday 7 October 2009
Group Idea Progression
- Dispute in the group between using either Saw music or Classical music. Asked in the questionnaire to solve it.
- Saw music was decided after receiving 60% of votes
Location discussion to which street to use for the street sequence, and to either use a garage or a basement. - Decided on Garage.
- Prop list slowly developed over time. Ideas of lists published.
- Story Line basically solved from beginning. Adding additional twist e.g eyes cut out.
Exchange ideas. Film Festivals, YouTube, any other short film website. Possibility of online viral. - Type of weather, day/night and time the film will take place.
- Which extras will be best to use and how many needed.
- How the murder is going to appear to the stalker.
Costumes which maybe used during production. - What angles would be best for a particular shot.
what type of camera will be used. Either handheld or still. poster and double page spread layout. - Pictures that need to be taken for the poster and double page spread.
The theme of the film. choosing between horror, thriller and slasher. - The types of lighting which may be used. Low key, natural and high key.
Friday 2 October 2009
Evaluation of our presentation
In evaluation to our presentation i found it useful as the questionnaire has helped us finalise our descision of making a horror themed short film, and also decided the soundtrack; we where choosing between either the Saw theme or a classical piece, the result being the Saw theme, here are the results for the questionnaire presented in a pie chart, 
Tuesday 29 September 2009
Monday 28 September 2009
KTA2: Content analysis
For an example of video text, I have chosen a short film called the “the black hole”, the clip is especially short, even for a short film, only being roughly 2 minutes long. I have chosen this because it follows media conventions which may be applicable to the short film I hope to make for my project.
Due to the film being a short film, it does not have a clear genre distinction, which could make it difficult to compare with other similar conventions, but it does use many techniques which are found in other more mainstream conventional genre’s.
The mise en scene throughout the clip works well to create verisimilitude in the digesis, and we can expect this for any short film, what is interesting about the clip is that the lighting used in the clip helps create a dark and lonely feel, which works well in conjunction with the narrative (the character being on his own and attempting to steal money), this type of lighting is also found a lot in horror films (which our group hope to produce), and helps make a character appear evil or cold hearted.
In relation to the generic conventions of horror films, the sound used in the clip also works in horror films too; when the man puts his hand inside the black hole a strange sound is used, and could be used anywhere in sci-fi or horror, this sound again works towards an uneasy feeling on the audience, and creates a surreal affect on whatever the character is doing at that particular moment.
The special effects used in the clip work well towards making the clip creepy and appear real, they are not especially difficult to create, they are low budget, but would probably require quite a lot of skill to produce.
Like most sci-fi/horror films, the acting is not particularly amazing, but simply does the job, as the clip would not be impaired if the acting was bad, as the special affects and narrative are what create the films impact.
The narrative follows a conventional plot style for a short 5 minutes and under online film, as it only involves one character, one prop and one twist to the story line, leaving the audience with lots of questions; what is the black hole? how does it work? Does he get caught? Does he get out? Etc, this could all be used in our groups project of a short film.
Friday 18 September 2009
Documentary analysis
Documentary Textual Analysis
The clip I have chosen to textually analyse is a clip from the documentary “Hidden Lives - The man who’s arms exploded”, the story of Greg Valentino and fellow bodybuilders who pushed steroid abuse to disgusting levels.
The clip begins with both zooms in and out of Valentino showing his arms, before a narrator comes in, this clip is used first most likely to shock the audience to make them want to watch more, and show how extreme the content of the documentary, also by showing Valentino from a video camera’s video this helps create a secured feeling to the audience that what they are witnessing is reality, as it would be less likely to be hoaxed if it was filmed on what we presume is a hand held camera (this is indicated by the date in the bottom right hand corner of the screen).
A narrator is then introduced with non digetic music, the narration helps explain what the content of the documentary will be and the music is tense which creates a dark feel, possibly due to the documentary being about freak body morphing and the scary side effects that can take place.
As the characters are introduced fade’s are used whilst the music plays, so the music not only works towards creating a dark feeling, but as a sound bridge, so the audience knows that as these different characters associated with the world of steroids are only being introduced and not begging their own section of the documentary.
Along with music, and commentary from not only the narrator, but those who use, have used and plan on using steroids, sound effects are also used in conjunction with the juxtaposed males on the screen, these sound effects can be the bubbling of blood in a needle to the shaking of tablets that are in a bottle, thus all creating verisimilitude and an understanding of what drugs these men are associated with.
The clip represents gender too, as these characters are introduced, not only are they all male, but also juxtaposed with one another on their masculinity, Valentino being introduced first announcing himself as having the biggest arms in the world, thus in an extremely hegemonic masculine fashion of boasting, this concept of masculinity being linked into muscle size links in with the theme of male body modification and the changing in male body image over time, which the documentary is about.
The choice of props and set (Mise en scene) work well with what he is proposing when boasting, having him being filmed in a gym, surrounded by weights and wearing a gym t-shirt all help work towards his image of being a muscle freak.
Close ups are used quite frequently in the clip of the documentary I have chosen, the close ups generally of the interviewees face, to show emotion and possibly even to make the character look bigger, when looking at the topic of the documentary.
A feature of editing used throughout the clip is using a transition which uses a sound bridge also and quickly showing images of drugs, this helps cut from one clip to another and create the uneasy feel that surrounds the topic of interest.
The later interview with Valentino at what we presume is in his house has possibly had the setting purposely set out the way it has been (Mediated), in the background clothes are left messily with weights on the floor, almost in the style of what a teenage boys (I.e. the one featured earlier in the clip who aspires to be like Greg) would be; this could be to help represent Greg as a typical hegemonic male, who’s interests would be mainly focused on male things (muscles in this case) and not on whether or not his house is tidy.
Before the 5 minute section of the clip I have chosen ends a second bodybuilder is introduced who talks about his training regime, the use of the narrator and anchorage helps us understand that he is a bodybuilder and how intense his lifestyle is, as the audience may not know without this due to him wearing a tracksuit which covers most of his body, a location is used, due to it being a documentary a set obviously cant be used.
Overall, I think the clip represents 2 things quite critically and extreme; the first being the sport of bodybuilding which is presented to the audience as a very intense lifestyle, rather than a sport, and also that competitors are seemingly unable to compete without the help of performance enhancing drugs, and the second thing being masculinity and the body image that comes with it; that muscles are crucial to being male and gaining the respect of other males.
Music Video Analysis
Textual Analysis of a Music Video.
The Music video I have chosen to semiotically analyse is “White and Nerdy” Weird Al Yankovic because it features multiple stereotypes for both ethnic identity and genres of music as it is a parody of chamillionaire’s “Ridin’”.
This text appeals to a wide audience due to the fact it is humorous, it will appeal to people who listened to the original song and therefore will find it funny to juxtapose this video to the original and also people who can relate to the main character in the video a while middle aged male.
The Media Text’s audience will already have assumptions of the video due to the title of the video. The audience will most likely view the text on the internet as I did, this is probably because the artist is not featured on television a lot and also due to it being comical people are more likely to paste links of the video to people they know, this also affects the age of the audience to some degree, as generally the older a person is the less likely they are to go searching around on you tube for videos and showing them to their friends.
I will now look at how components create this representation, i.e. a text that has a meaning encoded by the creator of the text (In this case Weird Al) for the viewer to decode (Stuart Hall 1980).
Mise En Scene plays a large role in creating representation for both the “Gangster” and “Nerd” stereotypes featured, clothing such as tucked in polo shirts, loud colours and glasses connote both intelligence and in some cases social deprivation which can be juxtaposed very quickly with Dark Colours, “Bling” and baseball hats.
A good example to use within the video of how much mise en scene can show these stereotypes is how the white male clearly presented as the nerd but weird al is presented as the gangster figure because of his clothing despite he is still a white middle aged male.
The props used throughout the clip help connote a stereotype also such as cars and alcohol being associated with the gangsters.
Throughout the video non verbal connotations also appear to help explain what is happening, such as facial expression and positional communication.
Sound in the clip is the most prominent feature, due to it being a music video, this is relevant to the narrative, because the music itself is rap - music popular with the gangster image portrayed in parts of the clip, but the lyrics are all about nerdy interests, such as dungeons and dragons, maths, star wars and a lack of sporting ability.
The editing throughout the clip is used predominately to aid the understanding of the lyrics due to the speed they are sung, so most of the time images are shown in the background behind the singer so that the audience can work out what the song is about, also the transitions are quick, this helps aid the music that is relatively fast, and give a quick general representation of “nerd” culture in a 3 minute video.
A fade is used at the end of the video to clearly show the end, where Yankovic uses a “Vulcan Salute” a hand gesture commonly associated with star trek.
The camera angles featured did not play a particularly connoting role in the music video apart from scenes where the nerd character was positioned higher than the gangsters, to make him appear bigger than him; this is used due to link in with the narrative of the gangsters being scared away because of his geeky mannerisms.
in music video’s non verbal connotations run throughout the video, in the form of gesture and facial expression, this can help reveal the narrative as there is no speaking in the video and therefore would be difficult to work out what is happening between the characters if not, in the case of a music video these are usually exaggerated considerably to make sure this is possible, such as when the gangsters flip him off there expressions are probably quite different to if they had done the same action in a television show or film.
Overall I find the clips representation of ethnicity is quite inaccurate, due to the music video being a parody the representations have to work on stereotypes and for us to recognise these stereotypes mediation must take place.
Friday 26 June 2009
Evaluation So Far, Need of completion
Evaluation:
In evaluation to my preliminary task I will look at the 5 following questions I have been asked:
1) What shots have you used? Why have you used them? What meaning do they create?
I have used a number of shots, the first being the establishing shot, to help show the audience the world, and create a verisimilitude within the digesis.
The following shot is a medium shot, this helps us introduce the character and begin to use Representation (Stuart Hall).
From the point of introduction of the character, up to any action taking place, medium close ups are used; once the ball is dropped within the scene different shot types are used to help create the sense that the ball has been dropped and is moving.
An eye line match of the ball being dropped, then followed by an extreme close up of the reaction to the ball being dropped helps create this.
Throughout the clip occasional close ups are used to help outline importance to what the close up is of, and finally a series of two shots are used to show the finalised deal of giving the ball back.
2) What is good about your video, and why do you think it is good?
I think our video is good because it uses a variety of shot types and that the transitions are very smooth and follow on well from one another despite the change in camera location.
I think this is good because it makes the clip appear much more professional and keeps the audience interested; instead of keeping the camera in one spot for a shot.
3) What is bad about your video, and why do you think it is bad?
The faults with the video are
Objective Review
I completed the objectives today of finishing the editing, and the film will be uploaded onto the blog shortly
Thursday 25 June 2009
Objectives Feedback
I did not reach todays objectives because of a fault with windows movie maker on the computer, therefore editing could not take place.
Instead i have done the first few questions of my evaluation, and tomorow i will start my editing.
Tuesday 23 June 2009
Thursday 18 June 2009
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