We've reached the end of this project, and now we're saying GOODBYE!!
Thursday 28 March 2013
Thursday 21 March 2013
Question 2 Evaluation
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
What is representation?
Representation is how someone or something is shown in particular situation. The seven areas are gender, age, sexuality, disability/ability, regional identity and ethnicity. An example within our film is gender as the males possibly portray a bad role within the film opening as the young girl was crossing out only male names.
What is social groups?
A social group are people sharing a similar social relation.
Khadeeja being interviewed by Quddus on social groups
The feedback which was received from Khadeeja was mostly positive and a few negative points. She clearly gave representations that we constructed within our film opening. The main one was with gender and age, gender being a stereotypical look on girls as she looked quite girly with her necklace and bow tie. The representation on age was for both men and girls as the dead man portrayed a villain or a negative side to males whereas, for the representation of youth it was with the young girl as there were some obvious ideas such as a teddy bear and the way she was scribbling out. Also, disability was portrayed within our film opening which Khadeeja understood as of the close ups we took of the young girl with her unhinged looks. I think the feedback which was received was really good overall.
Question 7 Evaluation
I couldn't upload the presentation so i just copied the information onto blogger.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Pre production
We made a rough copy of our storyboard by hand at first so we know what scenes/shots will happen within the prelim film. After this we made a digital storyboard for the prelim project. Within this part of the project we researched match cuts but we didn't have any successful cuts. We also researched 180 degree rule and we didn't break it in the prelim project. We just planned on using natural light, we had the props which we needed and the location. The props included a wine bottle, cups, a gun and a pack of cards. The shots we used were pretty basic and we didn't get any successful match cuts.
Production
The filming didn't go too well due to numerous thing one being the framing of some shots weren't very accurate. Also, people kept passing by every few minutes so we had to reshoot a few times. We used a variety of shots but could've had more of a variety as some weren't as successful. We were very organised and had everything that we needed.
Post Production
Editing with the prelim product was okay... We realised that we didn't have any successful match cuts. Also, we forgot to add in credits and there wasn't any sound.
Analysis
The lighting in the prelim was horrible as it just made the characters come out completely blacked out due to a light source come from the back. Whereas, the mise en scene in the prelim was quite good as we had everything we needed and went quite well with the scenario. Our use of camera in the prelim was quite poor as well as the match cuts. We did add some transitions and a fade in and out on the prelim project. Also, one thing we done well was not breaking the 180 degree rule. The storyboard is below which i couldnt get into order.
Final product
Pre production
We decided to do the same as the prelim project and made a rough copy of the storyboard by hand first and then create a digital storyboard for the final product. The development was that we made the storyboard more detailed. Also, to understand how thriller openings work we researched about film openings such as Se7en and The Orphan.
Production
The use of camera angles, shots and quality was very good, we used a variety of shots and followed the 180 degree rule. The development from the prelim is tat we had very successful shots within our final product and good close ups. We decided to use a spot light within the final product as we were is a dark room, we tried to create an asylum kind of effect with the white walls. The development here was that we planned on using a spotlight as we knew natural lighting wasn't going to be good in a dark room. Also, we had the light coming from the front of the character so we could clearly see them. Mise en scene was really good in the final product as we planned it all out. The development here is that for the prelim we wore what we had came in.
Post production
We used foley and instrumental sounds within the final product to create an eerie effect, the development is that we became more creative with the sounds as we had no sounds in the prelim project. The editing went much better in the final product as we were more experienced with using the editing software (finalcut pro and soundtrack pro) we used transitions, effects such as blur, panning and match cuts. The development here was that we had successful match cuts within the final product whereas, in the prelim we didn't have any. The titles were much much better in the final product as we thought about how it will go on the film we also had them in the conventional order. Whereas, in the prelim they weren't connected in order. The development here was that we researched about the conventional order of titles.
Summing up
Throughout both the productions we learnt numerous things. Main things that I learnt was how to work the camera, to get successful shots like close ups and mid shots. Also, I learnt how to successfully record footage in the rule of thirds and focused. Other things include how to edit recorded footage with titles to make them follow the conventional order. Add effects such as blur and fade and adding transitions. Another editing software that i learnt to use was soundtrack pro which allowed us to add in sounds to add an effect.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
- Pre production
- Production
- Post production
Pre production
We made a rough copy of our storyboard by hand at first so we know what scenes/shots will happen within the prelim film. After this we made a digital storyboard for the prelim project. Within this part of the project we researched match cuts but we didn't have any successful cuts. We also researched 180 degree rule and we didn't break it in the prelim project. We just planned on using natural light, we had the props which we needed and the location. The props included a wine bottle, cups, a gun and a pack of cards. The shots we used were pretty basic and we didn't get any successful match cuts.
Production
The filming didn't go too well due to numerous thing one being the framing of some shots weren't very accurate. Also, people kept passing by every few minutes so we had to reshoot a few times. We used a variety of shots but could've had more of a variety as some weren't as successful. We were very organised and had everything that we needed.
Post Production
Editing with the prelim product was okay... We realised that we didn't have any successful match cuts. Also, we forgot to add in credits and there wasn't any sound.
Analysis
The lighting in the prelim was horrible as it just made the characters come out completely blacked out due to a light source come from the back. Whereas, the mise en scene in the prelim was quite good as we had everything we needed and went quite well with the scenario. Our use of camera in the prelim was quite poor as well as the match cuts. We did add some transitions and a fade in and out on the prelim project. Also, one thing we done well was not breaking the 180 degree rule. The storyboard is below which i couldnt get into order.
Final product
Pre production
We decided to do the same as the prelim project and made a rough copy of the storyboard by hand first and then create a digital storyboard for the final product. The development was that we made the storyboard more detailed. Also, to understand how thriller openings work we researched about film openings such as Se7en and The Orphan.
Production
The use of camera angles, shots and quality was very good, we used a variety of shots and followed the 180 degree rule. The development from the prelim is tat we had very successful shots within our final product and good close ups. We decided to use a spot light within the final product as we were is a dark room, we tried to create an asylum kind of effect with the white walls. The development here was that we planned on using a spotlight as we knew natural lighting wasn't going to be good in a dark room. Also, we had the light coming from the front of the character so we could clearly see them. Mise en scene was really good in the final product as we planned it all out. The development here is that for the prelim we wore what we had came in.
Post production
We used foley and instrumental sounds within the final product to create an eerie effect, the development is that we became more creative with the sounds as we had no sounds in the prelim project. The editing went much better in the final product as we were more experienced with using the editing software (finalcut pro and soundtrack pro) we used transitions, effects such as blur, panning and match cuts. The development here was that we had successful match cuts within the final product whereas, in the prelim we didn't have any. The titles were much much better in the final product as we thought about how it will go on the film we also had them in the conventional order. Whereas, in the prelim they weren't connected in order. The development here was that we researched about the conventional order of titles.
Summing up
Throughout both the productions we learnt numerous things. Main things that I learnt was how to work the camera, to get successful shots like close ups and mid shots. Also, I learnt how to successfully record footage in the rule of thirds and focused. Other things include how to edit recorded footage with titles to make them follow the conventional order. Add effects such as blur and fade and adding transitions. Another editing software that i learnt to use was soundtrack pro which allowed us to add in sounds to add an effect.
Monday 11 March 2013
Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When
making a film you have to think about the forms and conventions of a film opening and title sequences in order to make it successful. Before we began to create a thriller opening, we had to do
research in the way most film openings and title sequences are formed as this would help make our thriller
opening more effective and realistic. There are specific forms and conventions
you must follow; from what the audience expect to see down to whose name is
first on the screen and the following video (made in Camtasia) explains that:
Evaluation Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
What is representation?
Representation is the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature. It is the way in which people of certain social groups are characterised and recognised by. It refers to the precise reconstruction of the 'real world' in any medium aspect of reality such as people, identities, places, etc. Representation which are commonly used are: gender, age, race and disability. A popular understanding of representation is through stereotypes e.g. teenagers are rebellious and reckless, women are vulnerable and victims.
What is a social group?
People sharing some social relation.
In our thriller film, we decided to represent the younger age group through the use of the main character. We did this through the use of mise en scene; for example, the young girl wore a lot of make-up, giving the impression that all girls wear (TOO MUCH) make-up or like make-up.
Our film opening for 'Obsession' represents the social group in many ways. I would say mainly negative than positive as shown below (picture collage I created on Photoscape). The positive representation of our film is that men are the goodies in this situation, as the girl is the killer in this film! -this breaks the general representations and stereotypes. Our film doesn't have as many stereotype as majority of the film out there, this is because the plot is twisted and unique. However, this doesn't make our film is unrelatable as we still have some stereotypes/relatable representation. I think the fact that the film isn't typical makes the whole thing more interesting!
Social groups that we have represented in our opening:
GENDER:
Representation of gender is presented through the main character in our opening. She is a girl and that is revealed through the use of camerawork and shots - close up shots and other shot like wide shots clearly showed that she is a girl. The make-up and dress as part of the (mise en scene) revealed her femininity, revealing her gender. We also included stereotypes of females such as: all girls wear make up.
DISABILITY:
Representation of disability is presented through the use unsteady and shaky camerawork in certain parts of the opening. The shaky effect and flashing light effects done in the editing process reveals that she is disturbed and reflects her mind and behaviour. The setting is in asylum which suggests that she is mentally disabled. People usually associate white trapped rooms as a place where disabled people stay, and this is portrayed in our opening. We also included stereotypes of disability; for example: mad people with metal disability are always in asylums.
AGE:
Representation of age is presented through the use of close-up shots, showing her face which clearly reveals that she is of a young age as her skin is youthful and she doesn't have an wrinkles. It is clear that she is young and in her early teen years as the props (teddy bear) and costume (ribbon and short childlike dress) are associated to people of a younger age. The white room connotes her innocence which hints that she is still young. Stereotypes are also indicated in our opening; for example young people/girls always carry around a toy (teddy bear) with them everywhere.
Social groups that we have represented in our opening:
Representation of gender is presented through the main character in our opening. She is a girl and that is revealed through the use of camerawork and shots - close up shots and other shot like wide shots clearly showed that she is a girl. The make-up and dress as part of the (mise en scene) revealed her femininity, revealing her gender. We also included stereotypes of females such as: all girls wear make up.
DISABILITY:
Representation of disability is presented through the use unsteady and shaky camerawork in certain parts of the opening. The shaky effect and flashing light effects done in the editing process reveals that she is disturbed and reflects her mind and behaviour. The setting is in asylum which suggests that she is mentally disabled. People usually associate white trapped rooms as a place where disabled people stay, and this is portrayed in our opening. We also included stereotypes of disability; for example: mad people with metal disability are always in asylums.
AGE:
Representation of age is presented through the use of close-up shots, showing her face which clearly reveals that she is of a young age as her skin is youthful and she doesn't have an wrinkles. It is clear that she is young and in her early teen years as the props (teddy bear) and costume (ribbon and short childlike dress) are associated to people of a younger age. The white room connotes her innocence which hints that she is still young. Stereotypes are also indicated in our opening; for example young people/girls always carry around a toy (teddy bear) with them everywhere.
Evaluation Question 4
Evaluation Question 5
How did you attract/address your audience?
Watch these videos we created in response to this question, and watch the feedback we got from our audience after the screening in THE SCREEN ON THE GREEN!
Watch these videos we created in response to this question, and watch the feedback we got from our audience after the screening in THE SCREEN ON THE GREEN!
Evaluation Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Evaluation Question 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Here's the video we (me, Larah, Amina) created on Camtasia with our voices, in response to this question:
Here's the video we (me, Larah, Amina) created on Camtasia with our voices, in response to this question:
Question 1 Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The answer to Question 1 of the Evaluation using Camtasia.
Question 2 Evaluation
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
This wordle I created shows some negative representations from our film.
First of all, what is a representation?
Representation is either the portrayal or description of someone or something in a particular way or certain nature. It is the way people in social groups are characterised and recognised by. Representations which are used most often are: gender, race, disability and age. A way of understanding representations is through stereotypes, e.g, women are easy targets, men wearing hoodies are dangerous, etc.
What is a social group?
A social group is people sharing some social relation.
We decided to represent the younger age group through our main character in our thriller film. We did this mainly through the use of mise en scene. Our main character, a young girl,was wearing a lot of make up. This gives the impression that all girls wear too much make up.
In the collages I created on photoscape, it shows social groups represented in mainly negative ways. The positive representation is that men are innocent and good, as the killer is a female. This break general stereotypes and representations. Unlike the majority of films, ours doesn't have many stereotypes because our plot is full of twists and it is unique.
Social groups represented in our opening:
GENDER
Our main character is a girl and that is how the representation of gender comes across in our opening. Our camerawork and shots,like close ups to her face and wide shots showing what she is wearing, clearly show her gender. The make up she is wearing adds to this as it shows her femininity. This is also the stereotype I mentioned earlier.
AGE
Our main character is a young girl. We know she is young through the use of mise en scene- the props. Our main character was holding a teddy bear, associated with children. The close up of her face reveals no wrinkles and that she is quite youthful
DISABILITY
The main character is in a mental asylum and typical stereotypes here are that people who have a mental illness are always confined to a mental asylum and that these people are dark characters hell bent on causing people harm and getting revenge. The setting is a white room, like many asylums, which also gives you a clue about her mental state. An even bigger clue about her mental state is seen when she is circling the name in the book and crossing out her fathers face.
The collages below I created on photoscape show some stereotypes from our film.
Question 4 Evaluation
Who would be the audience for your media product?
WIDER AUDIENCE FOR THRILLER FILMS IN GENERAL
The wider audience for thrillers in general is around 15-25yr olds males. This is due to what the sub genres are and what they contain. Many contain violence and upsetting scenes which is why mainly have a male target audience. Some sub genres are:
- Psychological
- Crime
- Action
- Romantic
- Horror
- Comedy
- Mystery
The pie chart below shows what percentage of age groups mainly watch thrillers. With most of the thrillers being rated15+, those who are below 15 may be interested in watching them online or illegally downloading, etc.
AUDIENCE FOR OUR SUB GENRE: PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS
Usually the target audience for Psychological thrillers is around 18+ males. This is because the films may contain some disturbing characters psychological problems/scars, like ours does. This could be too much for younger viewers to handle, although some viewers may actually be under-age and watching these thrillers without permission. There will probably also be some violence, which is why psychological thrillers are usually aimed at males. Below is pie chart showing the ages that psychological thrillers are aimed at & which age group watches them most.
SPECIFIC AUDIENCE FOR OUR FILM
Our film is a Psychological Thriller so we thought, given all our research before hand, that our target audience would be around the 15-25 male bracket. You could argue that our target audience is for women as we have a female lead, however, we have disturbing shots in our film, including a dead body and self-harming scars, that we didn't feel were appropriate for viewers younger than 15, though younger viewers would probably find a way of watching it through their curiosity, and we also thought the shots might be a bit too much for young women to handle, especially as the lead is a young femal in a mental asylum. Below are a couple of the disturbing shots.
This is a GoAnimate I created for this question.
Animation Software - Powered by GoAnimate.
Question 5 Evaluation
How did you attract/address your audience?
These are some videos answering how we attracted the audience. I interviewed the cast of the film and we got audience feedback as well.
Question 6 Evaluation
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
This is a short prezi I created answering this question about the different technologies we used and how we used them.
Question 7 Evaluation
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Shireen, Amina and I created this video using Camtasia. We recorded our voices over the video.
Evaluation Question 2
How does your media Product represent particular social groups?
What is representation?
Representation is how something or someone is portrayed in a certain situation. The seven areas of representation are Gender, Age, Social Class, Sexuality, ability/disability, regional identity and Ethnicity. One of the key representations are stereotypes e.g. sixteen year olds are troublesome and moany or all asians own corner shops. Representations is the form of reality as it can be defined for one thing standing for another in the sense of representing it in a different view.
Social Groups
A social group are people sharing a similar social relation.
Age
Age is one of the social groups represented in the film opening of Obsession. A majority of physiological behaviour is linked to age in this case young adults are the main target. Age is also represented through the use of Mise en scene - Props, the main character wears a short navy dress with a ribbon on her hair she also has a bear with her. The use of these props automatically tells us that she is a young disturbed child. The fact that their is a white wall in the background connotes her innocence as well as her mental illness.
Gender
Gender is also represented in the film, the use of camera shots e.g. extreme close ups, wide shot, mid shot etc clearly shows that she is a girl. The use of make up juxtaposes with her mental illness as it portrays her femininity whereas the camera shots suggest that she is not 'normal' this is shown through her body language- Facial expressions.
Disability
Disability is another social group, in the film the use of Camera work portrays her mental state/ disability as their was flashing lights.The fact that the room was small and cramped portrays a mental asylum. Also the dark lighting also shows her mental state as she likes being in a dark room, whereas other kids may be afraid of the dark.
The use of representation of social groups have been represented in a negative aspect as in a majority of phycological films have negative elements to portray a characters mental state. There are positive representation as men are victims in this film and the girl is the murderer which contradicts as men are usually portrayed as the killers and the children as innocent.
Evaluation Question 5
Both these videos are short interviews with the Actor/Actress and
casting director. We decided to do a interview as it will help us talk
about the different aspects used in the film opening e.g. Genre, Actors,
Mise en scene etc.
These are the videos we took of audience feedback for our film opening 'Obsession':
Friday 8 March 2013
Go Animate! Barack Obama LOVES Obsession
Animation Software - Powered by GoAnimate.
Just a little something for our film & this is my first time using GoAnimate. The president of the united states LOVES IT!!!!!
Another Go Animate production for Obsession
Animated Presentations - Powered by GoAnimate.
So now that I have used this once I thought I'd give it another shot. Again it is about Obsession, but with different characters this time. I used speech bubbles instead of voices this time. Enjoy!!
WE'RE FINISHED!!!
We finished producing our thriller film Obsession today! We really enjoyed this process :) Here's the photos that I (Shireen) took of Larah ticking off our group number from the checklist board to make it clear that we are DONE & FINISHED!
Thursday 7 March 2013
Comparing title sequnces and openings
Our title sequence is as follows:
- Production company ident
- Distribution company ident
- Production company title
- Distribution company title
- Actor 1
- Actor 2
- FILM TITLE (OBSESSION)
- Actor 3
- Actor4
- Casting by:
- Music by:
- Edited by:
- Executive producer:
- Film by:
- Directed by:
- Production company ident
- Distribution company ident
- Distribution company title
- Production company title
- Actor 1 (major star)
- Actor 2 (major star)
- Film title
- Actor 3
- Actor 4
We decided to add some extra titles such as 'edited by' and 'music by' to give our opening a bit more of a realistic and professional feel. We decided to add sound effects instead of an actual musical soundtrack to create a spooky atmosphere for our film. Unlike Se7en our titles are in blood red to help add to the spooky atmosphere, however just like Se7en, our titles appear in different places on the screen, to help keep our opening interesting.
You can see here how our shots are similar to Se7en.
We found Se7en a really useful film to base our opening on, as it wasn't too complicated and was interesting to watch. They had titles that looked incredibly creepy, which we also found effective for our opening.
Titles Research and choice
Our title sequence is as follows:
- Production company ident
- Distribution company ident
- Production company title
- Distribution company title
- Actor 1
- Actor 2
- FILM TITLE (OBSESSION)
- Actor 3
- Actor4
- Casting by:
- Music by:
- Edited by:
- Executive producer:
- Film by:
- Directed by:
- Production company ident
- Distribution company ident
- Distribution company title
- Production company title
- Actor 1 (major star)
- Actor 2 (major star)
- Film title
- Actor 3
- Actor 4
Though Se7en's titles are quite simple and limited, we
decided to add some extra titles such as 'edited by' and 'music by' to
give our opening a bit more of a realistic and professional feel. Unlike Se7en our titles are in
blood red to connote blood and the killing that is going to happen in the actual film - the red symbolises danger. Just like Se7en,
our titles appear in different places on the screen, to help keep our
opening interesting. We also used a distorted font style similarly to Se7en to portray the character's disturbing thinking and mind. Here is the evidence:
Our Company idents
During the editing process we added in two company idents in the beginning of the opening; these are Candi Studio and Marsh Media (which is the company that we created):
These are both low budget companies.
Screen Grabs for the editing process
These are some screen grabs showing the editing of the soundtrack and distribution company.
Soundtrack Pro
Final Cut Pro
In Final Cut Pro we included flashing effects to make it look distorted and disturbing which reflects on the main character's (the girl) behaviour. We also made some shots faster pace to reflect the thriller genre.
We used Soundtrack Pro to find the sound effects we needed for our film (e.g eerie/dramatic noises) . Once we got the sounds we then imported them to our film using Final Cut Pro.
Another thing we did was create a Distribution ident. We did this using Motion and added a couple of effects to go with it.
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