Monday 12 December 2011

Animatic Diary Entry

The flexible learning day consisted of our group finishing our pictures on our storyboard, then we had to scan them images on to the computer and from their was had to crop each shot and also edit them in paint. When we had finish that we then had to import them into windows movie maker in which we didn't get that far due to problems and also timing as well. Our group had each job to do in which was to finish off the storyboard by colouring and also write about what camera movement and angle would be in each shot. Once we did that we had to colour the storyboard which was very time costly as it took up nearly the whole, this is why we didn't get to finish off importing the video and then add video transitions and effects. Another reason why we didn't manage to finish off was because our group was the last to use the scanner, when everyone had finish it did not leave us much time.

Their was many problems we had face before we even started which was the classroom had no power which meant that the computers would not turn on, after that was solved someone in the class had to get crayons. When we had crayons and the computers having power we had then had to get a scanner in which took about 1 hour 15 minutes up of our time as we had to wait for a IT technician. Another problem we had was when we had finish off colouring in the storyboard we had scanned all the images and we was not happy with the outcome or quality of the scanned image due to it being very light coloured, this problem was over come like many others so we had to colour it in again which then lost our place to use the scanner.

I would say that our group did well at each of our jobs as we each had a task to do and i think with the outcome we did well because we had a lot of problems much managed to over come them and get on with it.

Friday 2 December 2011

Preliminary Video



This our premlinary video consisted of lauren powell (actor) , Ryan Rheeston (actor) and Me Craig Fallows (Camera man and editor) .

This is our Preliminary video, within the video are camera techniques such as shots and angles, we had followed the 180 degree rule and also included over the shoulder shots, all of these techniques we have learnt in AS media lessons which proved effective in our preliminary video. We had recorded the preliminary video with a classroom in the school where we had used chairs and tables, we had set out the table and chairs the way we wanted so we could first practised each shot and the movement of the camera so that we had good footage to edit so we didn't have to go back and do it again. I think that the video overall was a good job we had done as a group as we had used the knowledge we learnt in lessons which was the camera angle & shots, over the shoulder shot and also the 180 degree rule.  With the video techniques being used in our video I felt that the camera movements and angles was a good aspect as when you watch the video their is no shots where it disorientate the viewer, another good aspect was the camera zooming in on props as I think this was important for the viewers to know what the object is so the choice of zooming in on objects was another good aspect of our video.Within our video we had used props, one of them was a briefcase, without this I think that the video would of been very plain and dull without that props and also the viewer watching might have lost interest if we didn't have props.


Their are a lot of things we could of improved on such as people in the background talking in which I think as a group we could have stopped that from happening. The dialogue or storyline was very hard to make out and also follow what was going on in which I think it could confuse the audience as from the noise in the background it's very hard to follow. Another improvement was the props we had made, the prop was a piece of paper which was a contract but as you could see it was just scribbled pattern to make out it was writing, we could of improved this by making a contract on a computer but with the time given we would not of had enough time to film the video. Within the video could of been more talking, more dialogue to give the storyline more structure.

Thursday 24 November 2011

Preliminary Research

Continuity Editing is the main sort of style of editing for a film, television programmes, the editing is putting scenes together. Its editing that's flows through shots smoothly without disorientating the viewer or audience so that it's smooth over the transition of the recording and that the scenes change naturally and also unnoticed. Their are two types of categories which consist of continuity editing and they are temporal and spatial cutting.  These film techniques are important as the audience can understand and follow the story, the viewers would also need to understand the concepts of the story.Temporal cutting is connecting shots to narrative development, this maybe linear progression or not.  Temporal cutting also consists of  flash back on a characters life and also the progression of time. An example of this would be a scene where there is a house party and through out the party their would need to be a progression of time passing by.

Other than temporal cutting their is also another category within continuity editing which is spatial cutting. Spatial cutting creates unified space through the editing shots from different angles and also framing. Spatial editing also includes the rule which is the 180 degree rule when filming. The 180 degree rule involves two characters, when filming you should film on one of the characters shoulder such as their left, and the other characters right shoulder. This then creates a 180 degree, if you don't follow the 180 degree rule then you disorientate the audience. The picture below explains more in a visual way
Here is an example (video) of how part of a film is keeping to the 180 degree rule



Shot and reverse shot is a filming technique, shot and reserve shot is where you film a character looking at another character and then reverses in which shows the other character facing each other, this is shown facing in opposite directions in which the audience thinks that the characters are facing each other.This film technique can also be used by having over the shoulder shots as the character is shown over one characters shoulder and then the other in which it can reverse. This technique may have two different camera's or maybe just one camera in the same height with it sticking the the 180 degree rule, one camera would be used for over the shoulder technique as if you had two camera's over the two characters shoulders then obviously you would see the other camera in the shot.

Here is a diagram (image) showing this





Match on action is a editing technique, it's where one shot is cut to another shot. Match cut is two different actions in different locations or objects, this draws parallels or contrast with two different time-space locations in which the transitions are smooth when linking the shots together. Here is a video below showing this.




I  think that continuity editing is important when filming because it is essential as the transition between shots is as smooth as possible to ensure that the audience has maximum enjoyment and interest from the film and that no attention is drawn to the change in shot or disorientation with the shots. I think without match on action films would be boring as the shots wouldn't be natural or realistic in which this wouldn't appeal to the audience.

Bibliography:
http://www.slideshare.net/leviwigglesworth/shot-reverse-shot-and-match-on-action-media
http://www.slideshare.net/stewedveg/continuity-editing-10739140
http://www.cybercollege.com/tvp050.htm
http://www.slideshare.net/tijoum/the-180-degree-rule
Filmography: Step Brothers

Friday 11 November 2011

Design Decisions

Costumes
In our film the costumes are important as the costumes will reflect the character type. An example will be the killer (adversary) as the killer character will have dark clothing to represent fear and also to put fear into the audience. The sort of costume the killer will wear is ripped, dark and blood on the clothing so that the audience know what type of character he or she is. The protagonist will have better clothing that the adversary as the audience would get confused if they both wore the same sort of clothing. The protagonist will wear more better and updated clothing as the protagonist will represent as non violent.


Props
In our film the props we are using will weapons, the weapons will be unique and will also show what kind of genre it is (example if you see guns in a fight scene then you would expect it to be action, you also don't see guns in horror). Our aim is for the character to look scary with the weapon, the weapon will be unique because it will appear to the audience as a surprise and will want to watch more because they will want to know how the character use's it.
Lighting
In our film the lighting will be low key lighting, when the adversary is in a camera shot such as a ECU (extreme close up) then the lighting will be dark however when the protagonist is in a camera shot then the lighting will be brighter than when the adversary is in the shot. When the adversary is hunting the protagonist the lighting will be dark to create tension so that there is a build to when the protagonist is nearly killed. The lighting will be mostly dark, when the camera is filming adversary character the background will be light but the adversary will be a dark figure so you can't see his face until he comes and bit closer so there will be a lot of contrast in our film, this is to create tension and also to scare the audience.


Mis-En-Scene
The mis-en-scene is the setting within a film, the settings gives the audience the type of genre the film is, an example of this would be a high built up and busy area would be a a genre of action as many action films consist of this type of mis-en-scene to escape as it's a busy area. For our film the mis-en-scene decision is the woods as of which was based on our film genre which is horror, our group decided on this as the woods can be a scary place with the lighting (dark - natural light) in the woods as this would be an uncomfortable situation as you wouldn't be able to see what is lurking around such as an unusual creature in that kind of darkness.


Tuesday 8 November 2011

Questionnaire Research Analysis (Graphics)

This question we asked what type of setting do they find scary, we asked this so that the answers we get we could us the setting that people find scary and also our opinion so that when we film we film it in a setting that an audience would find scary. As you can see we had put on option their so that people can pit their own answer instead of multiple choice ones.

Our film genre is horror, we asked people what is their favourite type of horror film. We found that people don't find crime/mystery very scary. Froim this question a type of horror film haunting was their favourite type of horror film.

Our film genre is horror, we asked people what their favourite genre was, we asked thhis question because we would find out if people like horror films which thewy did but we also found out that comedy is also a favourite genre so with this result we could add some comedy into the film as we know that the two top genre is comedy and horror and our film genre is horror.

With our film genre being horror we wanted to know what draws people to that film genre, with the result you can see that trailer is popular so this tells us that a good trailer of that partiuclar film genre draws people to watching the film.

This question i felt was the most important as this can tel us what other films lack of so that when we come to filming we as a group are strong on that aspect that lacks. The lack of story makes people dislike a film so this is a challenge for us to have a strong good story so the audience don't dislike it.

This question i felt we could improve, with having multiple choice answers we haven't had got many answers their for people to choose from, i felt we could of had more answers their so we could of got more of a result from this question.

This question like many other questions we asked was more of their opinion as their was more multiple choice questions as you can see we have five them to choose from.

This question tells us that the best type of killer to have in our film is mysterious, this is the thype of character we could have in our film knowing that most people like this sort of killer

When we film we know that what ever character or props we use that make the film have scaryness, we know that it won't affect the audeince as we asked people who like the genre horror and they don't feel affect by the film and the aspects in it such as the characters.

Many people expect in a horror film for the evil character to be killed or taken away but that can be argured by the other people who choose the answer 'the evil chcacter gets away and continues what he's doing'. This tells us that the audience likes a dertain ending to a film, we asked this question as the sotry based on our film opening we can use both of these endings so we asked what people this best of these two endings.










Friday 4 November 2011

Alien Movie video



This is our alien film video in which we used a blue screen and editing on a software that was new to us called final cut and we also used the apple macs which was also new to us. We had edited the video by using two videos which was the acting behind a blue curtain and a video of the white house getting blown up by an alien space ship in the night sky, it proved channleging for us as you can see from the video you can see dark brown lines in the video but that was because we had actors (ryan rheeston and  ) who was wearing blues jeans which effect the whole blue screen effect. In the end we had to manage with what we got and the best we could do to get the good effect. The timing of the video was not great as our acting video had been cut short due to wrong files types so it was cut out at the end.

Thursday 3 November 2011

Final Cut Introduction

Our group today had recorded our video which was using the blue screen.My group consisted of Me and Ryan Rheeston and help from Cezary. Today we recorded the video in the hall behind a blue curtain. My role in the video was me behind the camera making sure it's the right shot for our group. Ryan Rheeston was an actor and also cezary, Ryan was a protestor and cezary was a news report.

The video was 30 seconds (blue screen video) long but we had to time our videos because on the blue screen their was going to be a video behind the actors of the white house getting attacked by and alien spaceship.The 30 second video is going to be put on the blue screen. Their was a certain time we had to react as the video we had to put behind the actors had an explosion at 25 seconds so we had to time that and also get the timing right with the actors which was a bit of chalanege for us but we manage to time with a mobile phone so we get the right moment in the video to react to.

The video we recorded was about a news reporter (cezary) interviewing a protester (Ryan Rheeston) and we had cezary interviewing ryan about the aliens on top of the white house. To prepare for this short recorded video we made script lines for ryan and cezary and also had to pick what role each person had as a group.

The equipment we used was a video camera in which i was in charge of as i set up the right shot for the group and make sure that every character or actors was in the shot. We also used a video editing software called "final cut extension" and we also used the apple macs to edit the videos.

When we had finsih the video we went on to the apple macs to go on to a video editing software called "final cut extented edition" in which we had set up our project name on their and got the video ready to render but we had a problem with our videos.The video file type that the video camera recorded was not the right file type for the video editing software (final cut extened edition) so to over come this problem we will have to get the videos we recorded in the hall and convert them to the right file type so that we can edit them on the video editing software.

Our aims and objectives was to make sure we had finsh editing two videos together in our groups and also get the blue screen effect. After we had finsh that we also had to upload it to youtubne and publish it on our blog.

Monday 31 October 2011

Primary Research Task\Questionnaire

Questionnaire- Horror
(Circle the answer)

1. What type of setting do you find most scary?
A. Graveyard B. House C. Abandoned area D. Other

2. What is your favourite type of horror Film?
A. Slasher B. Haunting C. Psychological D. Crime/Mystery E. None

3. What is your favourite genre?

4. What is your favourite film in this genre and what draws you to it?
Favourite Film:
A. Advertisements B. Actors/Actresses C. Trailer

5. What do you most dislike about this genre?
A. Blood/Gore B. Lack of story C. Characters

6. What elements do you expect to witness in this genre?
A. Hero/Survivor B. Villain/Killer

7. What do you believe to be the best thing about horror movies?
A. Story line B. Blood/Gore C. Suspense D. Setting E. Acting

8. What is the best type of killer?
A. Mysterious B. Public C. Serial

9. Are you affected by horrors when you watch them?
A. Yes B. No

10. What do you expect to see at the end of a horror film?
A. The evil character is killed or taken away B. The evil character gets away and continues what he’s doing

Sunday 30 October 2011

Our Film Treatment

The main theme or idea of the film opening that my group is creating is horror, we have a different selection of conventions for our film these are: murder or cannibalism, insanity, disfigurement and displacement or being lost.

Our groups main theme or idea of our film opening is that our theme will be horror,Lauren will be filming with the camera (making sure we have the correct camera movements and angles), Me (Craig Fallows) and Ryan Rheeston will be acting out the storu of our film opening. In the plot or storyline is me and Ryan are to dis-figured characters or shown as "in-breads" will be chasing David.With this as our plot we will have four concepts in this filming opening and will try to achieve these concepts within the characters of the plot.


The main character of the opening will be the survivor (David Hutchins), him and a few other friends will be the survivors for the beginning of the film, the majority of the people who begin in the group will be the characters who die to show the four concepts of the film opening.David Hutchins -the survivor should be a believable character as he will be the one taking the lead and making most of the judgments and to make the decisions throughout the few minutes of the opening, this will show that he is the main character by making these decisions and judgements for other characters throughout our plot and theme.

The characters goal in our film opening is to escape a certain area and environment (still to be decided) which is woods or a forest with narrow space to create the theme and genre which is horror.Having narrow space is good as part of our plot is for David to escape but make this hard for David, eventually David get lost which is one of a concepts which is "displacement"with having narrow space (such as a narrow path way through the woods)this will prove a challenge as David gets chased by me and Ryan Rheeston (characters - inbred s) as part of plot is the murderers trying to stop other people and David from escaping, this is the inbred s goal.Davids goal is obviously to help others and himself to make judgements and decisions to get out of the woods or forest for survival as they become trapped within the environment.

The location of the film will be in woods or a forest outside of the city suburbs near the by countryside farms.Our filming opening will be filmed outside.

David and a few other people's (David Friends) lives will be at risk in the film, in horror genre it's normally the characters and their friends whose life is at risk.

The interesting characters we have in our film is David himself (Main charterer) as this will be a challenge to get out the woods or forest alive but by staying alive he will make judgement for other people which will be interesting as will he make the right decisions and judgements for his fiends.

Other charterers throughout our film opening is the inbred (me and Ryan) as these are the one's killing and chasing people such as David and his friends.These characters will be interesting because they will carrying on watching until they have seen what will happen,The inbred characters will a;ways be moving about around the location or environment so this is why they will be interesting characters.

Friday 28 October 2011

Film Production

Group: Me (Ryan Rheeston), Craig Fallows, Lauren Powell, David Hutchins
Genre: Horror

In our film we are using a style similar to the horror movie 'wrong turn', a group of people are going to get lost in the woods and are going to find out a nasty surprise when a few horrible characters come to visit.In the fiilm we w have four key concepts that will be in our film and these are disfigurement, cannibalism, displacement
and insanity.Lauren will be filmimg me, Ryan and David doing part of the plot in camera shots and angles. In the plot or storyline is me and Ryan are to dis-figured characters or shown as "in-breads" will be chasing David but has to find a way in which he has two ways out but does in make the right turn......

Wednesday 26 October 2011

Our Group's Mood Board, Key Concepts

Our group present you our mood board we created

This is our mood board of which our group created, In our group is Myself, Ryan Rheeston, Lauren Powell and David Hutchins.This is based on our film explaining all four of the key concepts which are; Cannibalism, Disfigurement, Displacement and Insanity.In our mood board we have picture cut out around a large piece of
paper, these images are split into sections of which our concept of genre, the concepts are pictures and other materials which have titles above them.Our groups main title is in the center of the page which tells you what the main point of the film.The four key concepts are all in different sections of our mood board.

The four key concepts are
  • Disfigurement
  • Cannibalism
  • Displacement 
  • Insanity

In the right bottom right hand corner of the mood board is a key concept which is disfigurement.In the Disfigurement section you can see is faces of which disfigured and also a mask on top of the face, in the corner of the mood board you see a person being murdered and also with a disfigured face by the person being murdered. Our group have chosen disfigurement as the disfigured characters draws them closer to the point of murdering others so we think this is a good concept for horror

In the bottom left hand corner is a key concept cannibalism.Cannibalism is shown in the mood board as you can see body parts and limbs such as arms and legs being spread out showing that they have been tore off people.Within the section of cannibalism you can also see in the corner two people or characters around a body eating some of the body parts, this shows the concept of cannibalism.The word 'cannibalism used as a sub-title for that section which draws people to look into how it is and what cannibalism is. Our group have have chosen cannibalism because it is scary the fact that people would be willing to kill other people then eat them,Our group thought this would be a great concept of horror.

Another key concept is displacement which is shown at the top of the mood board.The images showing displacement is in different places of the mood board to really show what it means.There is also a person which is blurred shows that the person is lost which also show displacement and shows that the persons can be any in a place of where they can be.This concepts of our genre shows that this person can show's emotion and feelings as if they will never be found or want don't want to be found, this drawbacks to our genre 'horror'. Around the section of displacement is signs, theirs signs represent choices or decisions which with the genre horror the right or wrong way can decide a person or characters fate within a horror movie.

The final key concept is insanity which is scattered images around our mood board.We scattered the images as we thought of insanity, our thoughts were scattered and misread. An images we have used is the joker from the batman film as the character is shown as a insane character in the film and also a character that would put fear into you.We have also used the image of autopsy on the brain at the bottom, which links to insanity, as the brain is the key cause of insanity with living creatures.In the mood board we have used a title in the middle which is "killer". We used this as we thought of killers of which are insane and also killers fits well within our genre (horror)

Thursday 20 October 2011

Audience Research Task

Audience research is important as without the audience media texts would not be created. The size and reaction of the audience measures the success of the film.The people (audience) who buy the film provide income for the production companies, it is therefore important that films are advertised.

The audience are categorized by characteristics, the characteristics of people and these criteria often used when identifying the characteristics of the target audience for particular media text.

Three Key Audience Theories

Audience theories is used to understand the relationship between the media and it's audience.Here are some key audience theories

Hypodermic needle effect


A key audience theory is the hypodermic needle effect.This theory suggests that the media is capable of mass manipulation.This is based on assumption that the audience believe what it see, People are therefore gullible. The Hypodermic Needle theory or model suggests that the information from a text passes into the mass consciouness of an audience, examples such as experience and intelligence and also the opinion of an individual are not relevant to the reception of the text. This theory suggests that the audience are manipulated by the creators of media texts.

Use's and Gratification

Another key audience theory is the uses and gratification theory.This theory suggests that the audience has a set of needs and that them needs are meet by the media.Uses and Gratifications theory places more focus on the consumer and audience, instead of the actual message itself by asking “what people do with media” rather than “what media does to people".This theory suggests that the audience watch the films to get away from their own lives.

Reception Analysis

Another key theory is the reception analysis.The reception analysis suggests that the audience interpret the meaning based on a individual cultural background or life experience.

Two-step flow Model


The two-step flow suggests that the ideas flow from mass media to opinion leaders, and from them to a wider population.

Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audience_theory
http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience

Sunday 16 October 2011

Codes and Conventions of Film Openings

There are a lot of codes and conventions to film opening which some have similarities and differences.

Production Logo & Distribution Logo

Film opening often start with a production logo or a distribution logo.The production logo and distribution logo tell the audience which film company produced the film, an example is Disney-pixar presents or 'Walt Disney pictures'. These logo's being shown at the start are important as audiences will want to know what company has produced the film, audiences might like one particular film company so it's important for these film company logo's to be shown. that work on the movie. Depending on the budget of the film or the publicity created for the film these production logo's or distribution logos will be edited in a form that relates to the movie.

Logo's

Here are some production,film company and distribution logos


Begin with establishing shot




Films often start with an establishing shot,an example of a film with an establishing shot is scary movie two.The film start off with an extreme long shot showing a big house in the dark (0:03).From the house this creates an effect which is showing the environment and surroundings before you see any characters.The technical codes in this opening scene is music, the music creates an atmosphere of elegance and also makes a mood jolly with the type of music being played.A genre convention in this film is at 3.07 when the character starts to cough, the character coughs while on the toilet and has fly's on his face .This section of the opening scene has horror in it as he has fly's on him and also coughing but they don't make the horror scary to make the audience scared so it's an hysterical way to make the audience laugh as he's on the toilet with fly's on his face, this is a genre convention as the bit i just described about has humor.



Another establishing shot at the opening scene of a movie is a film called Men In Black.The establishing shot is different to scary movie as the shot in men ib black is like a moving shot where as Scary Movie two establishing shot is a still shot. In the Scary Move Two shot you can just see a house so you don't really know the environment to well but where as in Men In Black establishing shot you can see that they are in a remote location such as a desert.A symbolic code of Men In Black is the costume the main character is wearing and also another character wearing in the background is wearing the same costume (0.11).The symbolic code can signify that they work for a organization or work for someone.

Title of the movie



The title of the film is in the opening scene, the title of the film in which it's presented can suggest the content of the film or the film genre.An example of this is Transformers Three Dark Of Moon, From the title of the movie it gives you suggestions or hints of what the genre of the film is and also the content of the film, with the way that it is presented.From the title of the movie the genre has sci fi in it as you can get it has a robotic or mechanical things happening to make the title "Transformers 3" this is a convention in the opening scene.

Tuesday 11 October 2011

Genre Research

The definition of film genre is a categorization of what the film has to offer or what films are constructed to be (example action - Killer Elite, comedy - Grown Ups ) If the film is action you would expect guns ,explosions and maybe blood.

The Advantages Of Film Genre

-It offers comforting reassurance in an uncontrollable world
-Film genre can be sen as a way of working through importance myths and fears
-Film genre was seen as a strategy used by producers to ensure audience identification and reduce the risk of film failing
-Film genre is not static but is reconised between industry and audience

The Disadvantages Of Film Genre

-Acknowledge that a film genre features will depend on audiences understanding
-Understanding how a film text functions in relation to the film genre

Our Film Genre (Horror and action)

For our film our group has chosen the genre "horror". We think that this genre will be a challenging genre to create  a film by but also have a lot of idea's of how we can make it achieve our goals and aims towards the genre and our film.The conventions of our genre is blood, tension and scary setting (woods)When watching a Horror and action film the audience ill expect to see fears of the audience and the film will also bring there reaction to a scary shot in the film.The audience will also expect to see blood,death and also weapons such as a knife.With these convention the film will be scary.With our film having action in it the convention would be weapons being fired,a hero and also fights (fist fights).Our film will mainly focusing on horror more than action but will have action conventions.

The origins and history of horror
Horror is a genre that brings fears and emotion to the audience and also their reaction.Films such as in the 1990's was not as graphic as what they are today, films today make the audience more scared than the films back in the 1990's as there is more gore and graphic involved horror films today because of technology that helps make it more graphic.More can be found here      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film

The film genre we have chosen for our film is horror.The origins and history of film genre - horror

The genre was first introduced in the late 1890s.The first film being seen as a horror genre was in 1896 , a film called Le Manoir du diable (aka "The House of the Devil")

Good examples of our genre such as Films, Directors and Producers

Films of our genre

  • Zombieland   - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZombielandZombieland is a 2009 American zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a zombie apocalypse. Together they take an extended road trip across Southwestern United States in an attempt to find a sanctuary free from zombies.

    I chosen Zombieland as this film has action in it and also has a great theme for which it is zombies so this has a similarity to what we have in our film which is disfigured characters.
    Another reason why i chosen Zombieland as the opening is one of the flashiest openings in memory. There is no subtle build up which makes the viewers/audience right in to zombieland.

  • Paranormal Activity - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranormal_Activity

    Paranormal Activity is a 2007 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Oren Peli.The film centers on a young couple, Katie and Micah, who are haunted by a supernatural presence in their home. It is presented in the style of "found footage," from a camera set up by the couple in an attempt to photograph what is haunting them.

    I had chosen Paranormal Activity as this genre is horror but is supernatural horror.I think that this genre in the terms of horror genre is good as it's "supernatural " as this has been a successful film because of the genre and it's conventions.Another reason why i chosen paranormal activity is the special effects because on a small budget, the film provides some very impacting scenery
Directors of our genre

  • Sam Raimi -  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Raimi

    Samuel Marshall "Sam" Raimi (October 23, 1959) is an American film director, producer, actor and writer. He is best known for directing cult horror films like the Evil Dead series, Darkman and Drag Me to Hell, as well as the blockbuster Spider-Man films and the producer of the successful TV series
  • Wes Craven - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Craven

    Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven (born August 2, 1939) is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, perhaps best known as the director of many horror films.
Producers of our genre

  • John Carpenter - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Carpenter
    John Howard Carpenter (born January 16, 1948) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, editor, composer, and occasional actor. Although Carpenter has worked in numerous film genres in his four-decade career, his name is most commonly associated with horror and science fiction
  • George A Romero - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_a_romero
    George Andrew Romero (born February 4, 1940) is an American film director, screenwriter and editor, best known for his gruesome and satirical horror films about a hypothetical zombie apocalypse. He is nicknamed "Godfather of all Zombies."

Wrong Turn (Particular film that fits in well with our genre) 
I think this is good Film for our genre as the setting or environment in the film will have the same environment as what we are doing in our film. The environment we are filimg in is in woods and this film has that same factor for our group. The theme of the genre is good for our film as the genre we are doing for film is horror, the film has characters that are dis-figured as this shows scariness as our genre is horror so it fits in with our genre.I think the film is good for our genre as the setting and plot in the film shows a lot of action and horror which makes you horrified at what you see in the film and that is one of our aims to make the audience feel scared and horrified.I think that the film fits well with our genre as the film has a lot of goriness which is another one of our aims to put in our film so that the audience feels scared, another reason why i think this film fits in with our genre is that the plot which is two characters make a wrong turn and get lost, i think that this is a good plot as this creates questions and also make the audience think what will happen next ? what will happen to the two characters lost? I think that part of this plot in the film makes it good for horror and also action.

Filmography
Year... Film......... .                Director
2009 - Zombieland              (Ruben Fleischer)
2007 - Paranormal Activity  (Oren Peli)

Websites
Films,directors and producers i have researched from Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page


Friday 16 September 2011

Film Openings

First Film: Saving Private Ryan Opening scene



Genre:The genre of this text is Action, Drama, History, War.
Conventions:From the genre we can tell that the conventions of this opening scene is explosions , guns and also soldiers.

The techincal code is the camera shots as it's a ECU (Extreme close up) This is to emphasis an object such as the American flag which is in the ECU camera shot.The symbolic code in this opening scene is the lighting as it's dual, this maybe to show emotion on the characters face.A symbolic code of this opening scene is the facial expressions as the man who is crying , showing his emotions which is also a connotation as he is sad and upset.Another symbolic code in the sequence is the setting as you can se by the environment it isn't very friendly as it is in a grave yard.

The key signifier's is the united states flag and also the France flag which gives you a sign that the war was about to countries.At the start of the opening scene you can hear the background music of drums and trumpets being played which can signifier's tension.Another signifier is when the man walks into the grave yard which signifier's death. The sequence of the movie tells us that the content will be graphic as there is war within the film because of the two national flags (United States and France flag)

My expectations of the movie is solders - hero's , i also expect flash backs and a lot of action with sounds of explosions but also sad emotions as the opening of the film the character in the grave yard is upset of someone's death.The audiences that are being targeted are around the age of 15 as there is a lot of swearing within the film , i would say this is targeted at people who like war films with loads of action in it.

Second Film:Step Brothers Opening Scene




Genre: The genre of this film is Comedy
Conventions:From the genre we can tell that the coventions will have jokes within the film and also funny scenes (I.E pranks)
The Symbolic codes in the opening scenes is the setting , the main two characters which is the step brothers are at home with a convention that they have nothing to do with there lives and are lazy.Another symbolic code in the opening scene is the costume , the two main characters wear casual clothing nearly the same sort of style which may show that they like the same things.A technical code is body language and the action of one the main characters , The step brother sniths some pants which is a convention of laughter to make you laugh.



Another techinical code in the opening scene is the camera shot of a ECU ( extreme close up) of the food in the microwave , this tells us that they don't have a healthy life style
A key signifier in the opening scene is at 0.54 where he's playing the guitar on the games console , this could signify that the step brothers are lazy and that they like to play games which could suggest that they aren't really grown up as adults.Another key signifer is at 1.08 , this is where one of the step brothers shouts back at his dad which could signiy to us that he is demanding and also rude.

This sequence tells us that the content of the movie will contain a lot of funny scenes with the two step brothers ,you can tell from this the opening as there are a lot of similarities between the two step brothers which suggests that the step brothers will be best friends in the film, also the movie could contain a little love/romance between the parents of the two step brothers as this can tell us that the film will be about a start of a family.

My expectations of this movie is that the step brothers become friends and do funny stuff such as pranks and also jokes.Another expectation is the parents to become a couple as they have something in common which is having a older son living at home.

The audience being targeted is people that like films with funny actors/scenes with jokes.I know this as you can see at 0.41 to 0.52 , you can see that there is a little dirty humor going on , another reason is when the step brother is playing a guitar (0.53 - 0.56)  as you wouldn't expect a old person at home playing a guitar on the playstation which is also humor to the targeted audience.

Third Film: Lords of War  Opening Scene




Genre:The genre of this film is Crime, Drama  and Thriller
Conventions:From the genre we can tell that the conventions of the opening scene will be fighting as the genre of this is crime , Another convention is scenes where you will have tension as the genre has drama in it so you would expect scenes like that.

The symbolic codes in this film is the setting.The setting is in a desert or remote place environment . The environment suggests that the type of plot or story will be prensented in a environment with crime , no law to stop people from doing something such as killing someone.Another symbolic code is the actions/body language in the opening scene , the actions of the characters (2.20 - 2.56) is that these are the bad guys as they are invole in weapons which signiers that they don't show emotion as one of the characters shoots at a young boy.

A techincal code in this opening scene is the camera angles , there are a lot of camera angles in this opening scene (0.24 to 3.01) The camera angles are in a angle in which it's in a object as you see the camera is moving from place to place which is constant - it seems there is no shot to shot it's constant filimg.From the cmaera angles and shots it's telling you whats it's like in a bullet - Life of a bullet such as how it's made and what it's like when fired.

The key signifiers in the open scene is the bullets at the start of the opening scene.The bullets signify war as this is part of a weapon to kill or harm someone.The bullet also signiers crime as the bullet kills a young boy from a character who found the bullet on the floor.Another key signifiers is the bullets being dropped on the floor , this can signify mistakes or accidents throughtout the film.

The sequence tells us that the content of the film will have a lot of death as there is weapons in this film which suggests who are the weapons and bullets for and what do they intend to do with them.Another reason is that the  sequence tells us that the movie will be about a war as the characters are in uniform and also their vehicle is an army truck .My expectations of this film is that there will be mistakes and acidents from the characters and also to be a lot of crime.

The audience being targeted is people that like a film with drama, thrill and also war.From the opening scene I know this as they have put weapons and a young boy being killed in the opening scene which will appeal to the audience as this will make them interested and will want to carry on watching the film to know why the young boy was killed and what will these weapons do.



Wednesday 14 September 2011

Denotation & Connotation - Analysing Movie Poster




Genre:Action,Thriller

The three symbolic and technical codes of the genre is violence showed in action and uses of props , as you can see from the movie poster the man is holding a gun.Another symbolic code of this genre is the Dark costumes which represents evil - the dark side of character.The Lighting and colour of the mcvie poster can tell you that that the genre is a thriller as well as strange things in the background of the movie poster.The facial expressions of the woman is scared which also can tell us it's a scary film because it's thriller.A part from thriller which is one of the genres in the movie there is also action.The technical code of gun sounds is a convention of a action genre.On the bottom of the movie poster you can see a man is holding a prop which is a gun , From that you can tell there is action in this movie.Another technical code of this genre is the music as this gives up tension.

The conventions of this genre would be blood as this is a thriller genre but as action as the man in the movie poster is holding a gun which can tell us there will be a little action within the movie.A signifier in this movie poster is the gun in which a man is holding signifier's that the man will go as far as shooting to survive. Another signifier is the woman as from her body language and her facial expressions you can tell she is scared of something within the movie.The man blurred /disfigured on this right of the poster which is in the colour red signifier's that he is a dark character in this film .

This signifies that the characters are trying to escape from the disfigured man as the the woman right next to him has a scared facial expression. One of the denotations of this movie poster is the two at the bottom of the poster is a connotation of love as they are together.Another denotation is the gun the man is holding , this is a connotation of power. And finally the communicating with the audience.From the movie poster you see that they are trying to communicate to the audience that it is a dark film as you can see from the poster the lighting is dark , also the background of the poster is dark which represents that the genre of this movie is a thriller.The name of this movie "wrong turn" communicates to the audience that the characters have made a wrong turn or maybe a mistake which tells us that they are heading for trouble.

Analysing Movie Poster

This movie poster above is a film called Cowboys and Aleins.The genre of this movie is action and sci-fi .The conventions of this genre you would expert is low key lighting as the it’s sci-fi. In the movie poster you can see that there is a backlight and also a weapon on one of the characters hand. Another technical code is the camera shot as you can see the movie poster is a close up. Another technical code is the gun sounds as this is a convention of the film genre which is action. A symbolic code is the location as you see that this is in a location where it is in like a desert. The key signifiers in the movie poster

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Hello - My first post !

Hello,
I'm Craig Fallows and i am a stundent at KESH Academy (King Edward Sheldon Heath Academy)

This blog is for A Level Media coursework , I will be updating this reguarly on a daily basis.

I am studying A Level Media and this is my AS Media Blog.I will be updating this regularly.

I love many sports but my main sport or hobby is football which i love. I am currenly studying A Level Media , A Level Business and A Level Ict.