Sunday, 24 January 2010

Analysis of other media products

o help us come up with an opening for our own film we needed to look at other openings to get inspiration from.

Love me if you dare has a very distinct look and feel about it which is very original. In particular the way different aspects of the mise en scene have been incorporated, for example the bright colours, high contrast and brightness that runs throughout the film makes it almost like a cartoon, yet very realistic at the same time. This is the sort of look for my film that i had in mind although not to the extent of this film, as i do not have the experience or the talent to create something of this standard yet and i think that if i was to try and create something like this now it would look very tacky. The use of the animation at times gives the film a more childish feel and helps to express the thoughts of the child characters and their imaginations. I like how the feel is not really based around any particular storyline except the possession of a simple merry-go-round toy that enables the two main characters to create the game of dares that get more and more extreme as the film goes on. This is one of the routes i was looking into e.g. not having a specific storyline set out but focusing on a characters and then the events will just fall around that. The camera work in 'Love me if you dare' is very interesting and experimental but i think that it works really well. The opening is narrated by the main character where he sets the scene of the whole film, this is effective as it allows to connect more to the character and understand them. There is a lot of selective sound and synchronous sound to emphasise different parts of the film and again create an over-the-top dramatic effect just like the colouring and editing used throughout the film.

In comparison, 'Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind' is an equally eye catching film, although where 'Love me if you dare' is very fairytale like, this film is very realistic and 'ordinary'. I think this is very effective as it then allows the audience to relate to the situation in a far more believable way, even though the storyline may be completely fictional. The opening of the film introduces us to the main character and by the first 5 minutes we can tell alot about his life, we see his apartment and his car, the fact that the car next to him has scratched it also tells us that he's quite unlucky, most importantly we learn that he lives a very lonely and ordinary life. Unlike 'Love me if you dare', this film does not have very flashy camera work or editing although i feel that it really creates the mood that it needs to. There is not much digetic sound used in this film although there is a lot of synchronous sound which helps to set the mood and feel of the particular scene. I really like the mise en scene as although the main colours used are dull grey and brown shades the colours that is used e.g. the main girls hair colours, really emphasise a point and contrast against the background, which i feel is very effective. This film is very good at replicating one of its audiences lifestyles for example when we are first introduced to the character we see him in his messy flat where he's sleeping on his sofa bed, this is something that we use in everyday normal life which i think is better than in mainstream films where the apartments are often neat and clean, unlike those that most people own.

The use of colour in both these films is something that i will try and incorporate in our own opening of our film, and also the camera work and editing of 'Love me if you dare' is an aspect that we could use as inspriation to try and make our opening more interesting. I think in terms of mise en scene both these films have the aspects within them that i think will inspire me during my project. The things that i am not so fond of in both the pieces is the choice of music used, as i didn't think that it was very effective in my opinion although the use of narration in both was very effective, but i wouldn't use this in our project i don't think as it would be too difficult to get right and script as this is a weakness of mine.

Friday, 22 January 2010

Action plan


23rd - 29th January ( 1 week ) :

Developing our ideas for stories and deciding what one we want to do

Sorting out people to use in our filming

Getting all audience research collected
- interview with friends

- showing openings of films with feedback on them

- questionnaires / surveys
29th - 2nd February ( 5 days ) :

Developing our chosen storyline; developing our characters and their personalities
Decide what camera angles and shots we want to incorporate within our piece
Coming up with a storyboard for our opening sequence

2nd - 5th February ( 4 days ) :

Planning music to use in our piece
Scripting dialogue that we want to have

5th - 12th February ( 8 days ) :

Sorting out the mise en scene
- Lighting/Colour
- Positioning within the scene
- Facial expressions and body language
- Costumes
- Props/Settings
12th - 22nd February ( 2 weeks ) :

Filming :)

22nd - 1st March ( 1 week ) :

Importing all the filming we already have and sorting it out to see whether there are things we need to reshoot or add to give us more to work with

1st - 19th March ( 19 days ) :

Reshooting and importing all the new stuff if needed
Choosing all the parts of filming we want to work with etc getting them ready to edit
Editing into final piece

19th - 30th March ( 12 days ) :

Evaluating project and final piece


Tuesday, 19 January 2010

Ideas for pitchs

- Our film is a gritty drama. It involved a girl and a boy, that meet through the death of the boys sister. The pair then go on to try and find the murder and get revenge for the girl he killed. The film follows their journey to track him down and get him, at the same time showing the growing relationship between the two main characters.

- Our film is an indie looking drama about a group of friends that have just finished school for the summer. With both finishing school for the summer and receiving their first cars, excitement is high for the girls and especially the boys. To set their summer off to a good start, they are invited to the first party of summer 2010; the theme is fancy dress beginning with the letter of their first names. We are introduced to all the characters in the opening of the films and the costumes they choose are corresponding to their personalities. One of the boys is driving and they are all in high spirits, little did they know that this wouldn't last long. At some point over the summer the boys skills go to their head and they get a bit too cocky with their driving; resulting in a fatal accident. Afterwards the group of the friends just aren't the same and the film goes on to describe the struggle to get over the accident and rebuild the relationships between them.

- Our film is a suspense packed drama about a boy/girl that arranges to meet a a friend, who never turns up and is not seen for days. The boy/girl then goes on to try and find their friend and the film follows the journey of him piecing the puzzle together. As he/she talks to the boy/girls friends and family and learns more about them, the disappearing act seems to make more sense until he finally works our where they have gone; a happy ending.

Friday, 15 January 2010

Interviews



Types of interview:
  • Conversational interview
  • Standardised, open ended interview
  • Closed, fixed response interview (not recommended)
Different ways of finding out audience research


Filming/Audio recording interviews of you and different people
- When watching the first 5 minutes of a film, what things draw you in to carry on watching?
- What genre of film do you prefer? Horror, Comedy, Romance etc...
- Would you rather see a man or a woman as the dominant main character in a film? Why is that?
- Do you enjoy films that are standard story-lines or would you prefer to watch something totally different and uniques.


Audio/Filming of people watching different openings and saying what they enjoyed etc.
- What did you think about the mise en scene of that opening?
Lighting/Colours
Positioning of characters in the scene
Props/Settings
Costumes
Facial Expressions/Body language
- Are you drawn in and want to watch more of the film?
- Do you think the opening could've been better in any way? If so how?
- Did you like the camera angles that were used throughout the opening? Were they inventive and did that make the opening more interesting?
- Do you think that the opening is effective? What in particular would you say makes it effective?
- Do you like that you can tell alot about what will happen in the rest of the film or would you rather be left in suspense and not know what is going to happen?
- Can you pick out one part of the opening in particular that you enjoyed most?
- If you could improve something about the opening what would it be?


Surveys


Questionnaires


Facebook posts asking people / polls on some openings that they find effective and enjoy


Emailing companies to ask about their views e.g. IPC media and other film companies


Plan for research
Friday 15th January - thinking about different techniques of gathering information
16th, 17th, 18th January - writing out questions i want to ask people and planning who i want to interview and setting up a Facebook poll
22nd, 23rd, 24th January - audio recording my interviews with people about their opinions, filming me and family/friends discussing different opening scenes of films
25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th - sorting out all the information (editing it) and getting it onto my blog




As an interviewer i think that i was ok at having a conversational interview whereas at the beginning it was quite hard to get ask a good question and get it going, e.g. the question was too broad and i needed to think about something not so hard to answer for the interviewee, so instead of asking one big question need to divide it up into little parts and get the answers that way. I would definitely need more practice at giving interviews if was to do it again and maybe a bit of planning may have been a bit better, without it it just seemed to end up in a conversation.



Audience Research

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Phil is 39 years old, enjoys music from his time, has a keen interest in the music business and reading sophisticated articles about artists that have had a bit impact on the industry. He is part of the ABC1 group and works as a well-off businessman who's never left his musical interests behind.


Holly is a 17 year old who enjoys interesting dramas with a bit of comedy on the side. She uses them as an escape from her ultimately average life where no excitement is found. She finds the run of the mill easy going films too unrealistic and wants something realistic but quirky with lots of emotion that she can relax and watch on a quiet night in. She is interested in fashion and media therefore like these to be incorporated in the things she watches. §

Thursday, 14 January 2010

Brainstorming plots consequences style

  1. Pope Benedict the 3rd and The Virgin Mary, met at church where they were talking about life.
  2. Neds eyes opened, as he looked around all he could see was milkmen and it was clear that Ned was in deep shizzle. He heard a banging noise, but where was it coming from? As he set off to explore the noise, he slipped on a pool of liquid. He was getting angry and was worried about getting stabbed and mugged. Just then a huge, one million legged spider appeared and then he was knocked to the ground where they unconcious.

Characters in films


Jerry Maguire

The character of Jerry Maguire is narrated by the man himself and when we are learning about all the different sportsmen/women you really get a sense that he knows what he's talking about.
We see he's a top end sports agent who just focuses about his business.
All he seems to care about is the amount of money that they make.
Doesn't really think about the way it effects people ( the little boy who cant get his autograph on a product because it wasn't the right brand).
You start to see by the end of the scene that he is realising how corrupt the industry is and feeling bad about being part of it.

American Beauty

At the very start, we are introduced to his daughter on a home camera talking about how much she hates her father.
When the film starts Narrated by the character Lester, he tells us about his uninteresting life and seems very unenthusiastic about everything.
Learn about him and his family and that he's a bit of a loser.
When we first see the town and neighbourhood he lives in and the camera zooms in to his house, this emphasises the insignificance of the man within the world.
When he is in bed the light is shining on the other side of the bed but not his which is in shadow, this emphasises the dull mans life.
Can tell that although his life may be bad at the moment throughout the rest of the film we most likely will see how he gets it back from when he states "It's never too late to get it back".
Although it may seem that from the outside everything is perfect with the white picket fences and the roses at the front of the house things are not as they appear as things inside the house are far from perfect.


Harriet is a 21 year old girl. She is fair haired, very skinny and pale skinned. She wears barely any make up and is a very quiet, secluded person, she barely leaves the house most days. 5 years ago she suffered from an eating disorder and had to be institutionalised in a clinic. This turned her whole life upside down, her mum suffered from bitchy comments from women at work, and her dad just couldn't understand how his daughter had developed such a thing, you could say he was ashamed of her. When she gets back from the clinic she is met by a scowling neighbourhood, and we follow her struggle to get back to a 'normal' lifestyle and rebuild her relationship with her mum and dad.

Tuesday, 5 January 2010

Brainstorming for practical work


1. To learn new skills and how to make different pieces of media.
2. In pairs as then when you come up with something you both like you know that it will be preferred by people instead of doing something independently that you like which no-one else does.
3. This piece of work is effective and shows a clear knowledge of media aspects. The piece also refers well to the theme that you have chosen.


For the print option i think there would a lot of room to make it original with different designs and feels depending on the genre of music that you chose to do. From the activities we have done already i think i would find it more challenging o create an effective print media piece.

For the film option i think that it would be much more exciting to create and make it very original with my own theme coming across at the same time. But i also think that it would be quite challenging in a way to condense the piece down to two minutes, and also creating a piece that appealed to a wide audience.


Voices from the past
Level 3 - 42 marks
They used a good choice of sound to enhance to effect they were trying to create. The shots were steady and were able to show clearly that they had prepared and planned their shots well and appropriately.