Monday 13 April 2015

Location

The main filming location in our opening sequence is the therapy room. From research we found out that therapy room they are mainly using coming-of-age films, we decided to used a therapy room in our opening sequence as it attracts our audience of adolescence by intriguing them as adolescence like to learn and acquire knowledge. Being a therapy room gives the sense of the illness as there are visual connections (iconography) between illness and therapy, for example the books and the figure of the head and the hand, he created a sense of realism and that they were actually in a therapy room.

The rest of our opening sequence is set in Isleworth the reason being is it's a well-known area, it's a working class area so it won't alienate anyone from a lower class society as well as being the area that the actor lives in so would've made him feel comfortable going around the area and made him feel safe. 

As it's a British film are we used locations in England, this will appeal to British people as they can relate to it more. It also appeal to other countries as they may like the Country and/ or accent, but then again we also thought about how it would alienate the other countries watching the film and we added an ethnically diverse cast. As we too are British we are addressing and attracting a British audience to come watch the film.

We also found in parks, parks are known as a calm environment, A place of relaxation and a place where sanity is formed, it's also a place of simplicity and a natural state. We thought that it might represent one of his states of minds or emotions, because of his bipolar he has his manic moods (happy stage) which can be represented by the park. This will attract the audience as everyone has been to a park in the past and us as a group enjoy going to the park to escape from the real world and enjoy the scenery. We also thought of filming in a park to address our audience as we as well are in our adolescence we would understand how they would feel and by setting it in a park we are trying to relate to the audience.

I'm one of the parks we found and had a river the river could also create a sense of calmness and relaxation. It could also symbolise time and how time stops for no one. We also thought of using the river and the park for opening sequence as our production name is fourth element production and water and earth are two of the elements in the four elements.

we also found in a pharmacy (outside of fancy) for visual effects and to create the realism of the illness and Lucas's bipolar, it also creates a sense of him moving forward and excepting his illness, him trying to help himself.

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Cross-media convergence is the combination of various media outputs in to a single platform (E.G. an Xbox can be used to not only play video games but to watch movies as well, a phone can be used to view different types of media , communicate, play games, listen to music, take photos/ videos etc...). Cross-media convergence is an efficient approach for the future of technology and media as it is a portable source of information, it's less hassle as all media sources/ communication facilities etc.. are all in one place, which means you don't have to have an IPod, phone, newspaper etc.. to consume the media. It also means films can be viewed in a digital format instead of using film.
 
Synergy is a product/ products or technologies working together to create a greater impacted entity that will proliferate in to a blockbuster (within the film industry) or accumulate more viewers (E.G. The Avengers Assemble franchise or collaborations on You Tube.) Synergy is a way a wide variety of people can view one type of media (film) as both relate to it, for example The Avengers Assemble, different well known and liked marvel heroes are together in a film, this can relate to their fans as Iron man, Thor, Captain America fans will be able to view The Avengers Assemble franchise due to synergy. 
 
Nearly all the characters in The Avengers franchise have been very successful in the box office and
 
A way that both synergy and cross-media convergence have coincide to advertise/ produce a 'hype' for a film franchise (the first film of the franchise) was The Dark Knight. The marketers of The Dark Knight invented a viral marketing campaign (websites : www.whysoserious.com & www.ibelieveinharveydent.com) these contrasting sites were made for both the fans in support of the joker and Harvey bent to inspire and involve the audience of The Dark Knight. 42 Entertainment created a virtual reality 15 months before the release of the film for the viewers to become real citizens of Gotham city, it spread over 75 countries to promote/ create a 'hype' they also had events and websites, the joker was in The Dark Knight film which is a form of synergy as the joker was in the batman comics before The Dark Knight franchise.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Thursday 19 March 2015

silver linings playbook opening sequence (case study)






Scene opens with non- diegetic music in the back ground with black screen which creates a sense of mystery and confusion, it follows with voice over of a male speaking this creates enigma as we don't know who it is yet suggest its the protagonist, there is written text on screen saying 'karel psychiatric facility- Baltimore' which gives the audience a bit of hint of where the first scene or may be even the whole movie is set, it also states where it takes place. Black screen fades to a medium shot of man with his back facing towards us, voice over turns into dialogue, dialogue suggests he is going through relationship problems, the man is disrupted by another voice in the background telling his that 'the doctor is waiting' which connotes he is seeking medical attention plus going back to the text written on screen backs it up further, we only see half of the protagonists face. There are a few shots of the protagonists room, in one of the shots the camera tracks into a piece of paper stuck to the wall with the word excelsior written on it, the track suggests it's an important part of his life maybe a word he lives by, non- diegetic music starts again this time the music is more up beat which may mean it give him motivation. The camera creeps around the right hand side of the protagonist and we finally fully see him, camera pans away from protagonists face giving us only a short amount of time to have an emotional connection with him, this connotes that may be we shouldn't get too attached to him and creates a sense of foreboding.

High angle shot of protagonist, tempo of the non-diegetic music changes. Mid shot of medication denoting he is on medication for some sort of illness/ disorder. Close up of medication that had been spat out by the protagonist connoting he cannot be trusted. Camera tracks towards a group of people sitting in a circle, the fact that the group are sitting quiet close to each other suggests a personal relation and emotional attachment. The sound bridge that occurs as the camera is panning around the inside of the circle denotes that are talking about their problems and as we saw in the previous scenes (the doctor and medication) we connote that it's a support group. The tilt, pan and low angle medium close up of the protagonist as he is exercising creates a sense of focus and determination of some kind. A shadow appears over him as someone walks over to him suggesting that it may stop him achieving what he wants to.

The camera cuts to a high angle shot of protagonist looking up at the camera/ shadow horrified, the lady is seen through a low angle connoting she is superior to him. The non- diegetic music deepens almost mimicking the actors feelings.

Things that we could use for our opening sequence...


  • The creep (hand held to show emotional state).
  • movement of the camera linking to protagonists feelings. 
  • tempo of the music changing depending on the intensity of the moment.









Wednesday 4 March 2015

Lesson on Marc commode

Marc commode:
 • Development hell: when something is put back into development.
• The black list is a list of 900 good screenplays that haven’t been made yet.
• Out of the 970 screen plays in the black list only 200 of them will be made.
• Casts sell pictures to directors
 • Directors usually select actors due the look they are looking for and then based on the acting. E.g. Girl with blonde hair, blue eyes.
• The finance crew makes the list of actors.
• Producers bid from movies after having viewed the pitch.
• Polygram> owned music and made films + a German company that doesn’t exist anymore.

 FACT FILE MATTEW VAUGHN
 Matthew Allard Robert Vaughn Born: 7 March 1971 (age 43)
London, England
UK Nationality: British
 Occupation: Film producer, director, screenwriter .

He traveled with the hard rock cafe tour and ended up landing a job in Los angeles as an assistant to a director. . He went to the university college London to study anthropology and ancient history, then dropped out of university for a few weeks. . He was the producer of kick ass, lock, stock and two smoking barrels and x men: first class.

Thursday 5 February 2015

evaluation question 1)

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

we first started the research and planning stage by watching the openning sequences of the coming of age genre, it being the one we picked. The opening sequence I analysed was 'silver linings playbook', other openning sequences that were analysed within my group were 'submirine' and 'It's kind of a funny story'. As I have watched quite a lot of coming of age films such as 'boyhood', 'silver linings playbook' and 'the spectacular now' some of the connventions of a coming of age films are


  • a main protagonist with their age approching sixteen or eighteen. 
  • theme and story lines such as, drugs, alcohol, sex, relationships, disorders the protagonists face
  • usually targeted at adolescents (young adults)
  • camera creating character (person unstable, camera hand held and a bit shakey)
  • real life situations/ scenarios   etc...
we developed many of these connventions by researching the different disorders mainly bipolar in the pre-production stage and using them in our openning sequence (M&D edits) our narrative conveyed the protagonist to be at the age of sixteen and have a disorder (bipolar) in which he has to face. 

we challenged the forms and coventions by not using titling apart from the films title and thr protagonist instead of the three main character, we also broke the fourth wall between the audience and actor.

our group made a trailer and a film poster which is common in the pre-production stage to premote our movie.

Friday 16 January 2015

one shot evaluation



mise-en-scene
camera
editing
sound

preliminary exercise




Clip opens with black screen (for the first four seconds) with non-diegetic gun shot the breathing, this creates a sense of enigma as the audience doesn't know what is going on, it makes audience ask questions like 'What happened?, Did someone get murdered? or Who did it?'. You can tell that its a thriller by the darkness of the scenes and the gun shot at the beginning of the clip. Non-diegetic erie music starts, it then cuts to a medium close up of someone running down the stairs the foot steps are diegetic, the footage is in black and white to create a horror look this makes the audience instantly assume that the person running . Camera tilts down to a close up of feet the protagonist still not established at this point furthermore creating enigma, the shots happen at normal speed creating a sense of reality.

 Cuts to a low angle shot but we still don't see the protagonist, diegetic breathing continues. Camera is shaky again connoting a sense of horror, and tension. match on action though door, the match on action happens quite fast connoting an urgency may be to get away from her acts or someone else. we for the first time see the protagonist, her facial expressions seem distressed and in shock, this may be because she is just committed a crime or is running away from a murder. long shot of the door closing after the protagonist falls this creates a sense of mystery and anticipation.

close up of the back of the protagonists head, we hear another voice, and second character appears in dirty single the fact we don't see the second character fully create suspicion. The protagonist breaks the fourth wall at the end creating a sense of paranoia for the audience.

Some of the scenes in the preliminary exercise were either too light or too dark, so you couldn't see what was happening, this extinguished the tension at some points in the clip.












Thursday 8 January 2015

Silver linings playbook: case study

Notes:
. Support groups (in circles talking about how they feel).
. The protagonist (pat positive for bipolar) talks to himself.
. Everyone from the psychiatric hospital had to take medicime infront of the nurses and show them their mouths
↑shows lack of trust + medicine because of disorder.
. The protagonist (pat) seems to be alert/cautious.
. Pat jumps to conclusions.
things I noticed watching the film/ opening sequence:
  •  They had written the hospital to show authentification
  • there's a voice over of protaganist during opening sequence whilst screen is black which creates a sense of mystery and confusion
  • fading transition from black screen to the back of person taking to himself, creates enigma code
  • deigetic knocking- another person speaking sugests he isn't alone and that he may not be as mental as we think
  • over lapping speech, the protagonist wants to change
  • when's he is speaking about a topic he has to make his point (let's out physical and verbal anger) get into subjects (the ending of the book, and how happiness can be an ending), yet blames everyone else for his actions
  • still attends theraphy sessions whilst at home 
  • believes in excelsior; in latin meaning; ever upwards
  • doen't take medication as he believes he's fine
  • changes moods regularly, when frustrated has a menal breakdown 
  • straight up, doesn't have a guilty conscience and has poor social skills 
  • people are scared of him due to his mental illness, they're scared of the unknown and because of his past 

Media languages..

Visual:

  • pictures/ images 
  • camera shots 
  • iconography 
  • mise-en-scene: lights, props, costumes, actors etc.
Aural:
  • mood music (non diegetic)
  • diegetic
  • music
  • sound fx 
  • foley 
  • sound bridge
Verbal;

  • dialogue
  • voice over 
Non- verbal;
  • body language (mes)
  • facial expressions 
  • actions & reactions
Written;

Text on screen;
  • tittling
  • newsprint/ books 
  • text: from mobile or computer (the fault in our stars)
  • subtittles
  • sign writting/ billboards/ adverts
  • credits






The four things to consider when analysing a piece of media.

Camera:  
  • The types of shots (mc, ls, ci, es etc.)
  • Angles 
  • Lenses (size of lense)
  • Focasing
  • Frames
  • Camera movement ( hand held, crane, vehicals, tilt, pan, tracking, pov)
Mise-en-scene:

Everything that is put on the set/ scene with in the cameras view.
For example:
  • design: location, props, set, special fx, costumes, make-up
  • lighting 
  • colours
  • texture
  • action, expressions, body language (movement of actor/ actress)
Sound:
  • sound effects (could also be in sound); spot fx, foot steps, explosions, atmospheric sound
  • diegetic; (sounds heard by characters in the scene) radio, head phones, door slams
  • non-diegetic; (sounds that the character can't hear) not in the scene, narator: voice over, incedental music
Editing:

Esembling together different shotq to get a meaning then the shot 

how do you make meaning/ convey a message?

Transitions: fades, cuts, dissolves, rhythm, pace, brightness, 180° rule