Wednesday 27 April 2011

Evalutation of Final Media Coursework

Who would be the audience for your media product?I feel that my media coursework is targeted towards teenagers and generally the 'cool' group. I feel this way because in my media project there’s a bunch of girls going past an alleyway, two of them are dressed very femininely and the other one is wearing branded sports wear clothes (Nike). This shows that fashion and looking good matters a lot to them. One of the girls (Aneesah) is wearing a handbag and her hair is pushed back with a bold head band. She is conveying the general trend through her clothes and also stands out as she is wearing vivid bright colours. Her hair is also curled; this shows the importance and pride she takes in looking as good as she possibly can. I feel my opening scene is aimed for outgoing and adventurous teenagers, as the location is very scary and only adventurous people would take the risk in going down scary places.

In what way does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?My media product use's conventions from many different opening scene all merged together. The one that had inspired us the most was Black Swan, however, it was challenging conveying the similar shots and effects of Black Swan through the equipment we were given. We had also analysed the shots of Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg, which was also very effective and motivating for us. On the other hand our plot was very different to jaws, however, our aim was not to use the plot but the effective camera angles and shots. There's an over the shoulder shot of the villain in my media product which is inspired by Paranormal Activity. In Paranormal Activity the psycho female character just stares at her husband towards the end of the film, this shot was very famous as it created suspense and tension. Therefore inspired by this shot in Paranormal activity we in interpreted it into ours.
However it was very hard challenging such renowned films, we tried to use their effective techniques and import them in our media project.

What kind of media products would distribute your media product and why?I feel that working title two films would distribute our media product. I feel in this way as working title two films distribute the low budget films which are aimed at a particular audience. I feel that my media product is very different from other films and is aimed at 'cool' teenagers. As we are aware working title two films generally produce films that appeal a particular audience and could also attract other audience too, however, generally they appeal only a specific audience, for example; Billy Elliot, Love Guru and Ali G In Da house etc.


How did you attract/address your audience?We attracted and addressed our audience by making the characters clothing’s attractive and suitable. We had used bright colours and branded names for the characters clothes. This was appealing to our target audience (teenager) as the youth tend to like wearing branded and fashionable clothes. Through research of famous franchise, we had found that long coats made from a fabric material are in fashion; therefore we had decided to get one of our main characters to wear a colour coat. The colour of the coat was pink and this represents danger. We purposely the protagonist character blue clothing yet again bright but not as bright as the other character. As the music starts at the beginning the audience will be aware that it’s a suspense thriller. By making the second main character that is not being attacked wear the bright colours diverges the audience attention to her, whereas it is the main character wearing blue (Aneesah) who is the victim. The music is another key element in attracting the audience, especially the thunder claps. I feel that the camera angles and shots itself can have a huge impact on the audience and by having point of view shots from the villain (madihah) is very effective and this allows the audience to see from both point of views. This is also attracts the audience by making them feel prioritised as they are aware that something is going to happen however, the characters are not, therefore, they are in anticipation to see the characters reaction.
 
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing product?I have learnt a huge amount about technologies from the process of constructing my product. I have learnt how to use an iMac. This was one of my biggest challenges as I am not very food with technology and find it very difficult to use other programmes. I was quite amazed at how fast I operated the iMacs towards the end of my project. I had also learnt how to insert videos on YouTube and most of all I was astonished at how we were able to insert music from garage band on to iMovies. After a bit of a struggle I had successfully inserted the correct music at the correct points and was happy with my final product.
One of the main technologies which I had never com across was blog spotter. I was never aware of this website and I had learnt how to use it which was essential for showing the analysis and research I had done to reach my final product.
Were there any problems in creating your media product?There were many problems whilst creating our media product as on the day we had done majority of our shooting it was a windy day and there were grey clouds in the sky. Unfortunately after that day the weather was sunny and despite there being clouds the sun was bright and vivid. This was a major issue as we wanted to record some other bits on the following next day, however, we were unable to due to mismatch of the weather therefore we had to postpone our shooting schedule.
Another problem occurred was during the editing of our final product we were unable to take our media product home as everyone in my group did not have a apple computer. Therefore, we were only able to edit in school and during school time. The same problem occurred whilst making our sound for our media product. In this case the music was saved on a programme named Garage Band and we were unable to access that software at home as well.
One of the major issues which had occurred whilst processing my media product was publishing it on YouTube. I had accidently gone to the setting of my YouTube videos and changed the sound to a completely different sound and was unable to change it back as once the video has been audio swapped it’s unable to go back to the original sound. This created a hassle as I had to go back and re-upload it.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?I feel that I have progressed a lot from my preliminary task. My preliminary task did not show various shots. On the other hand my main product showed various shots and camera techniques such as; over the shoulder, pan, reverse shot, point of view shot, medium shot, close up and extreme close up shots. The techniques we had used whilst editing were also very advance. The preliminary task was yet not as bad as it portrayed the 180 degree rule and showed a match on action on the phone.
At the time of my preliminary task I was only able to portray basic shots keeping in mind basic rules. I was also finding it hard to have stable hands on the camera and felt that at times it was wobbly. To insure this did not occur in my final product I practised walking with the camera and taking numerous shots.
I have also learnt how to search for relevant sound for my final product and increase the time length or shorten it so that it fits the timeslot and specific part of my shot.
During preliminary task I had also struggled in which shots were best for the specific shot. However for my final product I researched camera and angles and shots of films that inspired my final product.

 

My final media video

Friday 8 April 2011

Analysis of sound

In our opening scene we analysed sound from other thriller and horror films like black swan and blair witch. Considering the sound from Black swan we realised they had used piano's and violins. This is very effective for thriller/horror films as it builds up suspense and keep the audience anticipated of when the sound is going to finish and something will happen. The music is starts of calm and suddenly the violins come in and the pitch begins to get higher. The fluctuation of sound shows there are ups and downs and it's very unpredictable. The Black Swan original sound track is very effective and melodious to listen to. 


We had also decided to use the piano to build up suspense. Whilst exploring on garage band we had found wind sounds, screeches and heart beat sounds. The heart beat sound I felt was one of the most effective as the audience can empathise with the heart beat. 

Location Shots

As we changed our plot we decided to change our location too. So these images are of our first location. This is apart of our development stage as it was our initial idea.
































Thursday 7 April 2011

Part 2) Shooting Schedule -- FINAL

 After changing our plot a new schedule had to be made.



<>
Date/Time
Scene
Int/Ext
Day/Night
Shot descriptions/
Summary
Location
Characters
SHOOT DAY 1 
12:00-
12:50
First insight to kidnapper



Location shots
Ext/Evening





N/A
Match on action on kidnappers feet and his route
N/A
Alleyway/field




N/A
1 individual




N/A


SHOOT DAY 2

12:00-

12.50


Girls walking into alley



Ext/evening

Girls walking into alley. Camera switches to point of view shot of kidnapper. Girls argue . One gets kidnapped. Other girls acknowledged that they've lost their friend. Tension built up through fast pace shooting and suspense filled music.




Alley/Field



3 girls
1 boy

Research on the genre THRILLER

Thriller is a genre of literature, film, video gaming and television that uses suspense, tension, and excitement as the main elements. The primary subgenre is psychological thrillers. After the assassination of President Kennedy, political thriller and paranoid thriller films became very popular. The brightest examples of thrillers are the films of Alfred Hitchcock. The cover-up of important information from the viewer and fight/chase scenes are common methods in all of the thriller subgenres, although each subgenre has its own characteristics and methods.
Common methods in crime thrillers are mainly:
·         Ransoms
·         Captivities
·         Heists
·         Revenge
·         Kidnappings

More common in mystery thrillers are:
·          Investigations
·         Whodunit technique

Common elements in psychological thrillers are:
·         Mind games
·         Psychological themes
·          Stalking
·          Confinement/death-traps
·         Horror-of-personality
·         Obsession


The genre thriller can include the following sub-genres which may include elements of other genres:
  • Conspiracy thriller
  • Crime thriller
  • Disaster thriller
  • Erotic thriller
  • Legal thriller
  •  Medical thriller
  • Mystery thriller
  • Political thriller
  • Psychological thriller
  • Rape and Revenge films
  • Religious thriller
  • Supernatural
  • Techno thriller

Part 1) Shooting Schedule -- FINAL

About Me

I am a very confident and driven individual with a unique personality and a good sense of humour. I am a very enthusiastic person and I love working with different people. As an employee, I would consider myself to be hardworking, trustworthy, dedicated to any tasks needed to conduct and a responsible individual. In the future I would see myself working as a sales manager with a well established company, as I feel I have incredible persuasive skills in selling products and I am able to communicate well with others. Throughout my school experience I have taken part in many assemblies and public speaking events, which has made me a confident person. I had also been given the opportunity to visit a private school and take part in a debating event which gave me an opportunity to interact with different people; this helped me develop my personality further. I believe I am very friendly and I’m able to merge with people easily. In addition, I am very keen about going to University and getting my degree, along with developing my personal skills and qualities further.