Summary of AS media coursework blog

It is unbelievable how much I have learnt over this whole media project. I have felt the most challenged I have ever felt during a coursework piece, also I am extremely glad I managed my time well enough to complete the project in time.
It has been a stressful and emotion course, but now that it is complete I can breathe a sigh of relief.

Now that the coursework side of the course is over, I can concentrate much more on the exam side.

If I am able to pass the course, I will DEFINITELY be coming back next year to complete my A2 in Media studies.
Thankyou, and goodbye :-)

Final version of The Delivery Boy

This is the penultimate version of our film introduction. It took us an approximate 50 hours of editing to perfect and achieve the standard of quality we wanted.
It's been an emotional ride but now that it is finally done, we're glad we soldiered on to the end and delivered our production on time.

Today we spent time in Daniel's studio reviewing and analysing our film introduction to make sure there were no errors, and to make sure we were 100% happy with it. I will embed the video in a separate post.

Evaluation

This is the evaluation we created with the 7 questions set on the year 12 practical blog.

Today we filmed our Evaluation for the whole of our media project.
Admittedly it was quite tough at first as we all got a bit camera shy, and we froze quite regularly. However, after a good 10+ takes of practicing our lines and orders, we managed to film an appropriate and professional evaluation.

Yesterday (Sunday), Me, Daniel, Georgia, and Alice all went to Daniel's studio for 12 o'clock to edit and review our roughly finished film opening.

One thing we hadn't included in the film was a production name and logo, however yesterday we spent a good hour creating one.

We decided to call our production name 'Phantom productions'. The reason being because the power source Daniel was electrocuted by was Fantom powered, and as a group we thought it was a nice little pun and something which we thought that was fitting for the film.

One thing we needed to change about our film intro was the length, we were told it 'dragged on' and that it was too long.

In the 4-5 hours we spent in the studio we managed to cut down a reasonable amount, and now we have become happy with the length, as it flows smoother, and gets to the point.

Another thing we needed to change was a few transitions and to create a music soundtrack, and yesterday we were able to do both. In Daniel's studio we used the piano and a music software program to create a jazzy riff, which we were able to make fit well with the film.

We will be going to the studio as a group one day this week to make our final changes to the film, and make sure everything is converted and ready to hand in.

Yesterday was the day of the showcase and we had to present our final draft of our film intro.
Despite the rough transitions and narration, which we already knew about, we got exceedingly positive feedback and hopefully we are aiming to achieve full marks which we are extremely happy about.
We also got told a lot of things that our class mates and teachers suggested we edit in order to have a chance at going for the full marks.

Me, Daniel, Georgia, and Alice have planned to goto Daniel's studio at about 11 on sunday, so we can spend a good 5 or 6 hours editing the film intro and so everything is perfect.

I'll make another blog update on shortly, most likely sometime next week.

I am extremely happy with the group I was assigned with, and I can comfortably say the others are happy too. The reason being is because of how well and effectively we all worked together as a team. We managed to all share ideas and give consistent constructive criticism wherever needed, which is a great help to the whole team.

This is our first working version of our film opening, The Delivery Boy.

Things I liked:

• The calm and mysterious tone of the narration.
• The black and white scene at the end, which correlates with the narration "people see in black and white".
• The 180 degrees turn when Daniel's character is putting on his tie in the mirror.

Things I feel we need to improve or change:

• Some of narration doesn't make sense, and I feel is pointless.
• There is a short period of time during the car journey where nothing happens, and I feel should be cut.
• There are some rough transitions that need to be edited.
• We need to add a film company logo somewhere during the film.

I will make another post next week with the feedback we got as a group from our class.

Rough copy completed

Our group has now completed a rough working copy of our film production, and our teacher has arranged a showcase for us next week on thursday (31/03/11), during lesson, so every can present their rough or completed media films. This will be really helpful for us personally, and everyone else in our class, because as a class we can then discuss, give, and receive feedback back to each other about each others productions, so then we all have honest opinions on what people liked, and what needs to be changed.

Admittedly, there is a lot of things that need work in our film (tweaks, cuts, effects, etc..), however it will be good to see what people don't like and what they do like.

I will make a new separate post including our film opening, along with some factors i feel we need to improve.

Today in theoretical media class we learnt about the concepts of reality, and how our sense of reality is extended when we intake information from a film, documentary, or news show. This in a way gave us a group a few tips on our production as we want our character show normality so he can relate to the audience. I feel the narrative does this very effectively, and i'm glad we decided to use narration in our production.

Today in lesson Mrs Thrasher called us over as a group and showed us a few of her favorite scenes in a couple of gangster films (Snatch and others) and elaborated on what made them so effective. We took notes on what she was saying and compared them to our media film and added a few tiny edits to give a little bit more of a dramatic effect.
We did this by re-recording a few of the narrations and made them more abrupt so it adds more of an edgy effect towards Daniel's character.

This is the Ident we made for our film intro.
It was made using one of mine and Daniel's horror still images which we created earlier in the media course. The sound was created using garage band, we used low frequency cellos and violins to create a deep bass sound, and then a jumpy phaser sound we found to add a nice little outro effect, which related well to the image slowly fading to black.
The text 'Phantom productions' was made on final cut express, and fades in and then out during the Ident sequence.

Edit #4

Today we finished our product to a basic structured level.
All that needs to be done now is to meet up as a group again and review it and add any finishing touches that we feel will be effective.

A couple days ago we requested to our media teacher, Mrs Thrasher, to kindly bring into school a few British and American style gangster films which included narration. Also, a couple of other style of genres that also included effective narration, so we could analyse them and see what point of the scene made it most effective. This research helped us a lot when structuring our production.
A couple of the films we analysed were:

• Snatch
• Lock stock and two smoking barrels
• Goodfellas
• Rocknrolla
• Fight Club

Edit #3

Today was the 3rd day we have spent editing together, and it was by far the effective session so far!
The amount we got done was phenomenal and we are becoming so much happier with our production.
We are a few sessions away from completion and we are all itching to see the final copy.

Edit #2

Today we spent another approximate 5 hours of editing in Daniel's studio and we managed to get a lot of work done.

We were able to contrast between everyones idea and decide what decisions to make as a team.

At this moment in time we've done about a third the editing and we are very happy with what we have.

Recently we had lesson we had a visitor come into our class to talk about viral videos.
He started off the lesson by having a class discussion with us on what our interpretations of 'viral videos' were, and why we think they're becoming more and more popular.
He then showed the class a collaboration video on Youtube of all the recently famed viral stars on the internet, and asked us for our views on them.

I personally really enjoyed this lesson as it was very interesting, and i was able to concentrate the whole way through by the way he made it interactive and got us to discuss the topic with him.

Edit #1

We were able to use the studio today at Daniel's house as it had now been safety checked, and was now safe for us to use.

After connecting up the studio speakers to the iMac we were able to get work.

We managed to get about 25% percent of our editing done in a total of about 5 hours, with a few 10 minute breaks.

We plan to edit again soon in no longer than 2 weeks.

Children of men essay

How effectively does the opening sequence from 'Children of Men' use the forms and conventions of film openings? What is your personal response as a member of the audience?

The movie ‘Children of men’ is a science fiction film set in London 2027, about the population of the world not being able to reproduce anymore. It was directed by Alfonso Cuarón and was released in 2006. This essay will be focusing on the opening sequence of the film and how effectively it uses forms and conventions of a film opening.

At 0:33 we hear the narration of a news story, which tells the audience important information about what is happening in the current time zone of the film. From 0:33 to 0:55 we see nothing to do with the actual plot of the film, only credits, but what we hear is what attracts the audience’s attention. The use of non-diegetic sound within those 22 seconds creates a tension effect and builds up suspense while showing a black screen. This effect is used so the audience can concentrate on the useful information being broadcasted vocally, instead of physically, so they can understand the current situation.

At 0:55 when we finally are able to see what is going on, the first thing we see is people looking up at the news story on the television. From what we see in that first frame, shows an awful lot of what emotion is being portrayed. The dark, gloomy colours from the people and coffee shop help create a miserable and dull atmosphere for the audience. Also, we can see from the ghost like and neutral facial expressions that the civilians in the coffee shop are deeply interested and mentally grasped by the news story. The director also portrays a sense of sadness and uncertainty from the faint weep at 1:29 to 1:31.

The use of mis-en-scene in this opening sequence is very crucial. In the coffee shop the lighting is kept very low key to keep the atmosphere very dark and mysterious. Even when the camera first shows outside the shop, the lighting is very dark and gloomy to help keep that atmosphere dusky whether the shot be outside or inside.

When the scene has its first cut, its cuts to the news story on the television and we hear about how the youngest person in the world, who was 18, has died today (1:17-1:30). Already the audience is faced with their first enigma, and we are left asking ourselves questions such as “why was the youngest person alive 18?”. Also, not only was the youngest person alive only 18, but he was beaten to death on the streets of London. This helps the audience question the current situation of London in the time and age of 2027.
The director’s use of an enigma is very creative and clever; it creates tension and suspense within the audience, leaving them hungry for answers and grasps their attention so they carry on watching the film.

We see the main character in the first shot of the film as he shuffles through the coffee shop crowd. After the shot has cut from the television news story, a tracking shot follows the main character out of the coffee shop. As an audience we see for the first time the outside world, and we are appointed the time and location from the small banner at 1:50. A good link to increase the familiarity is the couple of red London buses driving past, this helps creates a relationship between the audience and the film if they are from, or have visited London.
As the camera pans from 1:50 to 1:55 we are able to see a full 180 degrees of the streets of London. The use of cloudy and gloomy colours, for example the rain effect and the dirty red buses, helps the director create a dark and miserable atmosphere in the scene. This effect helps create a dark mood for the audience.

As the camera slowly tracks from the coffee shop to the green metal stand (1:31 to 2:05), nothing interesting happens, yet the audience is focused on the main character. This helps create a tension effect and keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. We see the main character pouring some sort of alcoholic beverage into his drink while at the metal stand (2:03 to 2:10), which then puts immediate statements into the audience’s head, and the audience questions his lifestyle and what his life intakes. However, as soon as the audience start to ponder on the alcohol situation, the explosion blows their trail of thought and stuns them, creating a jumping effect from the audience. This effect is good because at this point, the audience’s eyes are glued to the screen and they are ready to focus on the main plot of the film.

In conclusion, the film ‘Children of men’ uses fantastic tension devices to help keep the audience on the edge of their seat all the way up to the explosion. Also, the use of shadowy and misty light sources helps create a gloomy atmosphere which is critical to set the mood of the film. In my personal opinion, the opening to this film really impressed me and definitely made me jump when the explosion went off, and the way it made me jump is because of the way it made me pay full attention with the use of the slow pan and tracking shots.