Q4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
From the beginning to the end of the media production, the group and I thought of many different ways of using technology. Within the summer holidays we were given research homework which was to look into the concept the fall and our individual interpretations of this instantly the fall of man came to my mind where eve ate the apple from the forbidden tree and as my ideas developed i gradually learnt new concepts of the meaning of the fall with no right or wrong answer just ones interpretation. I used website such as Wikipedia, yahoo and Wikipedia which gave me in-depth useful information some examples of the interpretations of the meaning the fall was falling in love, falling out of friendship, falling out of trust with someone, falling ill which were to obvious to use and general the group and I wanted to create something new something that had not been made before.
When researching we also focused a lot more on cinematography and had the chance to take photographs which had meaning a purpose interesting photos that formed more than one opinion we also used Microsoft power point my group and I focused on natural light and shadows which display many ideal meanings. We played with levels, colour and size. Also whilst using microsoft power point it enable me to encounter music into the slide show which complimented the slide as they shared the same genre
We also used scrib’d which allowed us to publish our scripts and treatments in original document format. As we discovered new technologies i still remembered how to use the previous technologies which we learnt in year 12 such as using Canon XHA1 camera and the sound equipment and also being able to set up the tripod and adjusting the camera to the tripod which i felt confident doing. as we had some much time in year 12 practicing putting up the tripod and taking it time this work to our advantage in the main task as the focus was not focused on the equipment and how long it would take to set up but work to our advantage as this was less time consuming. Even though i felt more comfortable with the camera other challenges became obvious such as dealing with weather conditions as we filmed outside the weather is unpredictable and in the blind man scene it started to rain which created problems as we had a time limit to shoot, so my group and i worked together and grabbed a couple of umbrellas as the camera person held the camera and sound equipment was not need as this scene was accompanied by music. We were concerned with whether the rain would be obvious but luckily enough had time to add in a quick scene which was the toilet scene showing Frank, Charlie and Big Pete drying themselves in the toile.
As in year 12 AS we continued to use previous technology in editing. Adobe Premier Pro is software that i find straight forward and due to the master classes we had in year 12 enabled my skills to become more advance as we created split screens and slowed and fastened certain areas of our film up. My group and I also acquired help from the IT technician who showed us how to put our idea light bulb appearing into action but shortly realised that this could lower our production value and chose to stick to what we had previously.
To conclude, we used a wide range of new and old technologies to help us complete the work needed for the construction, research and planning stages for our A2 Media production.
Monday 23 May 2011
Monday 14 March 2011
Evaluation 2
How effective is the combination of your main task and ancillary text?
We were given a choice to pick two ancillary texts my group and I decided to do a magazine film review and 3 house-style posters which is a poster campaign that contains the same themes and also to include different target audiences spread across the three posters, also I considered the target audience for my magazine film review as certain film magazines target certain age groups thus Empire, BFI or Total film.
In my research choose to buy two magazines which showed me the format and style of a magazine this helped me to make my review look as realistic as possible. For switch our main poster featured Frank and Charlie in which are the leading characters, they are shown from profile view both hi fiving each other in the centre of the frame, I personally felt this shot held a high significance within our film as it represents success and achievement in contrast to the beginning of the film where Frank and Charlie are view as hopeless losers with very little common sense which is why i think my poster creates irony. Also I considered my characters facial expressions and body language within each poster as i still bear in mind the theme and each characters representation this help build a fan base for “switch” as the poster helps to give the audience a insight of the film and gradually people will start to ask questions leading to the people wanting to see the film.
Overall regarding the idea of three house style posters which are each individually slightly different and hold high production value looking posters as I used 3 different images which were shot in the same location but kept the tagline all the same throughout all three posters and also used the same black fade border, I viewed this as significant as the border creates a focal point which captures the audience attention.
The main product and two ancillary text promotes the institution as a brand which is why both ancillary text were equally just as important as the film, Usually film institutions usually have a representation for using famous actors or being successful when engaging its target audience as one would identify by its number of products and whether they for filled their purpose. In “Switch” case the magazine film review I created was highly important down to every little detail such as the page numbers and creating logos and film rating, this could be featured in a currently running magazine. I chose to uses the format of total film as total film includes all genres from action movie to teen romance therefore “Switch” would sit comfortably in total film.
Our film review “Switch” is the feature review and as I researched most feature reviews where positioned at the top of the page and usually the image would be larger than other reviews. The picture that I used was of a scene within “Switch” as Frank and Charlie discover the car that is for sale , this image also is extremely important as it is the cause of a number of schemes .I also included other real film which I used real images and reviews this also helped to make the review look more realistic, However the chosen position of my film magazine review was based on what intrigued me and I considered what the audience would be looking for as a film review purpose is not to give the whole entire film plot away but to work with the main product as a package which encourages the audience to want to watch the film, which I hoped to make the main task and the two ancillary text work to an advantage as a package.
We were given a choice to pick two ancillary texts my group and I decided to do a magazine film review and 3 house-style posters which is a poster campaign that contains the same themes and also to include different target audiences spread across the three posters, also I considered the target audience for my magazine film review as certain film magazines target certain age groups thus Empire, BFI or Total film.
In my research choose to buy two magazines which showed me the format and style of a magazine this helped me to make my review look as realistic as possible. For switch our main poster featured Frank and Charlie in which are the leading characters, they are shown from profile view both hi fiving each other in the centre of the frame, I personally felt this shot held a high significance within our film as it represents success and achievement in contrast to the beginning of the film where Frank and Charlie are view as hopeless losers with very little common sense which is why i think my poster creates irony. Also I considered my characters facial expressions and body language within each poster as i still bear in mind the theme and each characters representation this help build a fan base for “switch” as the poster helps to give the audience a insight of the film and gradually people will start to ask questions leading to the people wanting to see the film.
Overall regarding the idea of three house style posters which are each individually slightly different and hold high production value looking posters as I used 3 different images which were shot in the same location but kept the tagline all the same throughout all three posters and also used the same black fade border, I viewed this as significant as the border creates a focal point which captures the audience attention.
The main product and two ancillary text promotes the institution as a brand which is why both ancillary text were equally just as important as the film, Usually film institutions usually have a representation for using famous actors or being successful when engaging its target audience as one would identify by its number of products and whether they for filled their purpose. In “Switch” case the magazine film review I created was highly important down to every little detail such as the page numbers and creating logos and film rating, this could be featured in a currently running magazine. I chose to uses the format of total film as total film includes all genres from action movie to teen romance therefore “Switch” would sit comfortably in total film.
Our film review “Switch” is the feature review and as I researched most feature reviews where positioned at the top of the page and usually the image would be larger than other reviews. The picture that I used was of a scene within “Switch” as Frank and Charlie discover the car that is for sale , this image also is extremely important as it is the cause of a number of schemes .I also included other real film which I used real images and reviews this also helped to make the review look more realistic, However the chosen position of my film magazine review was based on what intrigued me and I considered what the audience would be looking for as a film review purpose is not to give the whole entire film plot away but to work with the main product as a package which encourages the audience to want to watch the film, which I hoped to make the main task and the two ancillary text work to an advantage as a package.
Evaluation 3
Audience feedback is very important throughout our main task, as we used the feedback as a prompt to guide us on how to make improvements in our present work and future work for example meeting generic expectations and if there were any improvements that needed to make.
Collecting positive and constructive feedback became challenging at some points due to a wide variety of different opinions, this was overcome by basing the decision of the majority and also deciding as a group. The feedback process started at our very first pitch as we wanted our film to be enticing and remember able, the first story pitch fell into the genre of romance which is quite simple and straight forward, as we wanted to make our film original so the idea of slapstick comedy was unusual and also by using no sound also our genre and included sub-titles. Initial feedback was given then tried to recreate our original story into something that would be straight forward to make.
The story of Switch shared similar humorous elements to “the hang over and superbad” as we tried to inflict these ideas into our film, however after the final story it seemed so flowing and simple. The positive feedback was that the Audience felt they could identify themselves with the characters, this signifies that film research in specific genres is vital. The only negative feedback which was given was that certain scenes could have been a bit more obvious and if not having restricted time could have showed scenes in different ways for example we could have included a scene of Frank and Charlie driving off in the car. In my opinion this issue was overcome by using the editing software and organising a photo shoot to take picture which we added to the credits at the end of the film which the film ‘the hangover’ influenced our film.
The main feedback that really affect us was the split screens and the timing of them as we wanted to show different images within the one frame, problems occurred when we realised that certain parts of the frame would remain when moving on the to the next scene and which was tricky to solve as whenever we would make a change to each individual shot the frame as a whole would change and the timing of each shot would be effected. We gradually manage to fix this problem over time as we focused on this issue until it was solved.
The storyboard was very important to have on hand while shooting, that is why the feedback we received for it while creating it helped us make it the best it could be. The main issue with our storyboard was certain shots were missing which interrupted with continuity as we were shooting these errors were corrected and maybe safety shots were taken just in case scenes didn’t look entirely right. Another problem we faced was there was too much repetitiveness and unnecessary shots of the same things. Instead we added cutaway shots of facial reactions this is shown in the drug swap.
I received a lot of my feedback when reaching the ancillary text stage where we could give our own create individual style in a poster and film review. The poster had many drafts before ending up with the final poster adhere to the audience’s feedbacks as the poster need to include a similar font which was used within our film or what fitted with the genre, also the language which was used had to be the same as the captions had to fit in with the film so the main task and ancillary task work as one whole project. There was also much positive feedback for my film review as it is short and to the point, which also allowed the audience to hear what the film is about, without any spoilers. The layout and the review looks like it belongs within the magazine. The image chosen was a good action shot and captures the characters personalities in that one frame. Which was exactly what I wanted my audience to gain whilst consuming the review and believe that the review is a real review with a film magazine. I learnt that receiving lots of feedback during the preproduction stages was vital, as at this stage it is not too late to make any necessary changes to your ideas. During editing the feedback we received helped us in problem solving that may have occurred or just help us to enhance our creative ability with the film. Overall Without feedback we our film would have become very narrow minded and very closed to new thing and may not have explored some of the creative influences that now exist.
Collecting positive and constructive feedback became challenging at some points due to a wide variety of different opinions, this was overcome by basing the decision of the majority and also deciding as a group. The feedback process started at our very first pitch as we wanted our film to be enticing and remember able, the first story pitch fell into the genre of romance which is quite simple and straight forward, as we wanted to make our film original so the idea of slapstick comedy was unusual and also by using no sound also our genre and included sub-titles. Initial feedback was given then tried to recreate our original story into something that would be straight forward to make.
The story of Switch shared similar humorous elements to “the hang over and superbad” as we tried to inflict these ideas into our film, however after the final story it seemed so flowing and simple. The positive feedback was that the Audience felt they could identify themselves with the characters, this signifies that film research in specific genres is vital. The only negative feedback which was given was that certain scenes could have been a bit more obvious and if not having restricted time could have showed scenes in different ways for example we could have included a scene of Frank and Charlie driving off in the car. In my opinion this issue was overcome by using the editing software and organising a photo shoot to take picture which we added to the credits at the end of the film which the film ‘the hangover’ influenced our film.
The main feedback that really affect us was the split screens and the timing of them as we wanted to show different images within the one frame, problems occurred when we realised that certain parts of the frame would remain when moving on the to the next scene and which was tricky to solve as whenever we would make a change to each individual shot the frame as a whole would change and the timing of each shot would be effected. We gradually manage to fix this problem over time as we focused on this issue until it was solved.
The storyboard was very important to have on hand while shooting, that is why the feedback we received for it while creating it helped us make it the best it could be. The main issue with our storyboard was certain shots were missing which interrupted with continuity as we were shooting these errors were corrected and maybe safety shots were taken just in case scenes didn’t look entirely right. Another problem we faced was there was too much repetitiveness and unnecessary shots of the same things. Instead we added cutaway shots of facial reactions this is shown in the drug swap.
I received a lot of my feedback when reaching the ancillary text stage where we could give our own create individual style in a poster and film review. The poster had many drafts before ending up with the final poster adhere to the audience’s feedbacks as the poster need to include a similar font which was used within our film or what fitted with the genre, also the language which was used had to be the same as the captions had to fit in with the film so the main task and ancillary task work as one whole project. There was also much positive feedback for my film review as it is short and to the point, which also allowed the audience to hear what the film is about, without any spoilers. The layout and the review looks like it belongs within the magazine. The image chosen was a good action shot and captures the characters personalities in that one frame. Which was exactly what I wanted my audience to gain whilst consuming the review and believe that the review is a real review with a film magazine. I learnt that receiving lots of feedback during the preproduction stages was vital, as at this stage it is not too late to make any necessary changes to your ideas. During editing the feedback we received helped us in problem solving that may have occurred or just help us to enhance our creative ability with the film. Overall Without feedback we our film would have become very narrow minded and very closed to new thing and may not have explored some of the creative influences that now exist.
Wednesday 15 December 2010
Evaluation 1
In what way does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions, mention real media product?
Switch falls into the genre of comedy with elements of action. The forms and conventions were thought about very carefully as forms and conventions play a huge role within the movie as our finishing product may not have followed the forms and conventions of a comedy movie. Comedy usually consist of recurring characters in a format in which there are one or more humorous story lines centred around a common environment, such as a family home or workplace in switch’s case on the street and in a hotel room, the definition gives me imagery of our film as we have two main protagonist who consists on making money and goes to extreme lengths as Frank and Charlie are not the brightest bulbs this is where the genre comedy kicks in, but the action only takes place later on in the movie when they result to selling fake drugs. Switch uses the codes and conventions in our opening sequence we have certain technical references to the movie ‘Snatch’ as we edited some of our frames to make the shots freeze for our title sequence and also by changing the speed of certain scenes this helped keep the element of comedy it starts out quick with the opening sequence of the Frank and Charlie running in the hallway and then slowly slows down with the scenes outside and fastens up again towards the climax then there mission is accomplished. But still including action which is where the sound is also similar as in the opening scene the sound is very upbeat which helps make the montage more effective. We also envisioned our split screens to be like ‘CSI’ this was challenged as usually split screens are used to show different scenes but instead chose to include the same scene but from different angles this was to signify the climax of the film when the drug deal takes place. Our film comprises of the typical duo category which reminded us of the film ‘Dumb and dumber’ as its funny for its jokes and for its visual comedy, there’s always one who’s more smart than the other in this case is frank which we viewed as the blind leading the blind. We also developed the idea of the film ‘Dumb and dumber’ by making Frank come up with all the cunning ideas for the schemes but always wants Charlie by his side taking part in these cunning schemes. In reminiscent of or film the film ‘Superbad’ had references to one of our scenes there is a change of costume Frank and Charlie are wearing suits, In ‘Superbad’ we also see the duo act changing costume. We developed this idea whilst in post-production we changed the scene from colour to black and white.
Switch uses the typical idea of girl’s scouts selling cookies to raise money which is usually for charity or for a good cause, but challenged the idea by using two grown men who are not very intelligent hence why they are selling cookies and not looking for a job and are too greedy to even consider charity. Our film also challenged technical forms and conventions by including a variety of different music which we experimented with when changing scenes e.g. making the volume louder or quieter and fading the music, this is so the scenes would run smoothly without any abrupt sounds this may have worked if we was making a horror film but as our film include comedy and action the fading worked to our advantage. The film ‘Pulp fiction’ reminds us of our non-linear editing as our film does not run in order which ‘pulp fiction’ neither does and also we include cuts to black screens and titles which would introduce the day and time which could be like ‘CSI’. However I also believe we developed forms and conventions of real media products by using things such as a text instead of dialogue throughout most of our film, the idea of using text came about when we first found out we were making silent movies but we didn’t just want to do the typical thing by adding text to the bottom of the page we developed this by adding black screens and text with a border which allowed us to capture the whole slapstick comedy idea and gave it a 1960’s feel which alone is challenging the typical forms and conventions of the genre comedy. switch challenged the comedy and action genre as i strongly believe that we used several scenes which enraptured the idea of several schemes and not conforming to the ability of Frank and Charlie but working as a strength to make our film more effective and follow, develop and challenge most aspects of our film. As a whole I am pleased with the entire film appearance and sound and was able to make similar links to the real media industry.
Switch falls into the genre of comedy with elements of action. The forms and conventions were thought about very carefully as forms and conventions play a huge role within the movie as our finishing product may not have followed the forms and conventions of a comedy movie. Comedy usually consist of recurring characters in a format in which there are one or more humorous story lines centred around a common environment, such as a family home or workplace in switch’s case on the street and in a hotel room, the definition gives me imagery of our film as we have two main protagonist who consists on making money and goes to extreme lengths as Frank and Charlie are not the brightest bulbs this is where the genre comedy kicks in, but the action only takes place later on in the movie when they result to selling fake drugs. Switch uses the codes and conventions in our opening sequence we have certain technical references to the movie ‘Snatch’ as we edited some of our frames to make the shots freeze for our title sequence and also by changing the speed of certain scenes this helped keep the element of comedy it starts out quick with the opening sequence of the Frank and Charlie running in the hallway and then slowly slows down with the scenes outside and fastens up again towards the climax then there mission is accomplished. But still including action which is where the sound is also similar as in the opening scene the sound is very upbeat which helps make the montage more effective. We also envisioned our split screens to be like ‘CSI’ this was challenged as usually split screens are used to show different scenes but instead chose to include the same scene but from different angles this was to signify the climax of the film when the drug deal takes place. Our film comprises of the typical duo category which reminded us of the film ‘Dumb and dumber’ as its funny for its jokes and for its visual comedy, there’s always one who’s more smart than the other in this case is frank which we viewed as the blind leading the blind. We also developed the idea of the film ‘Dumb and dumber’ by making Frank come up with all the cunning ideas for the schemes but always wants Charlie by his side taking part in these cunning schemes. In reminiscent of or film the film ‘Superbad’ had references to one of our scenes there is a change of costume Frank and Charlie are wearing suits, In ‘Superbad’ we also see the duo act changing costume. We developed this idea whilst in post-production we changed the scene from colour to black and white.
Switch uses the typical idea of girl’s scouts selling cookies to raise money which is usually for charity or for a good cause, but challenged the idea by using two grown men who are not very intelligent hence why they are selling cookies and not looking for a job and are too greedy to even consider charity. Our film also challenged technical forms and conventions by including a variety of different music which we experimented with when changing scenes e.g. making the volume louder or quieter and fading the music, this is so the scenes would run smoothly without any abrupt sounds this may have worked if we was making a horror film but as our film include comedy and action the fading worked to our advantage. The film ‘Pulp fiction’ reminds us of our non-linear editing as our film does not run in order which ‘pulp fiction’ neither does and also we include cuts to black screens and titles which would introduce the day and time which could be like ‘CSI’. However I also believe we developed forms and conventions of real media products by using things such as a text instead of dialogue throughout most of our film, the idea of using text came about when we first found out we were making silent movies but we didn’t just want to do the typical thing by adding text to the bottom of the page we developed this by adding black screens and text with a border which allowed us to capture the whole slapstick comedy idea and gave it a 1960’s feel which alone is challenging the typical forms and conventions of the genre comedy. switch challenged the comedy and action genre as i strongly believe that we used several scenes which enraptured the idea of several schemes and not conforming to the ability of Frank and Charlie but working as a strength to make our film more effective and follow, develop and challenge most aspects of our film. As a whole I am pleased with the entire film appearance and sound and was able to make similar links to the real media industry.
Sunday 12 December 2010
Story ideas
Story ideas
In our group we came up with different stories that we thought would make a good film. we came up with many stories however when we told the class we got feedback that they were mostly too gloomy and that it would be hard to make a scary film therefore we have to brighten them up. one of our stories was of a girl that gives a boy a pen and then the boy gets all obsessed over her, however to make it more brighter I thought that we should tell the story from the the Boys' point of view and therefore he just likes her and just follows her because he loves her, but although he scares the girl he would never hurt her and he doesn't intend to scare her.
Another story that we thought would work is a story about a suicide note. A girl starts off writing the suicide note and we see flashbacks of all the events that she is writing on the note, and she wants to kill herself because she thinks that no one likes her and she is not even noticed anywhere, its as if she doesnt even exist. But when she is writing the note and she is thinking of all the events that happened in her life she realises that she was never actually alone because although not having any friends the common factor of all the flashbacks was her mother, everytime she was upset and crying her mother always stood by her.
We also thought of a story with a pregnant teenager who goes through so much as her family and friends are against the baby. Howverer then we thought that the story was too common and it wouldn't be as good as we would want it to be
In our group we came up with different stories that we thought would make a good film. we came up with many stories however when we told the class we got feedback that they were mostly too gloomy and that it would be hard to make a scary film therefore we have to brighten them up. one of our stories was of a girl that gives a boy a pen and then the boy gets all obsessed over her, however to make it more brighter I thought that we should tell the story from the the Boys' point of view and therefore he just likes her and just follows her because he loves her, but although he scares the girl he would never hurt her and he doesn't intend to scare her.
Another story that we thought would work is a story about a suicide note. A girl starts off writing the suicide note and we see flashbacks of all the events that she is writing on the note, and she wants to kill herself because she thinks that no one likes her and she is not even noticed anywhere, its as if she doesnt even exist. But when she is writing the note and she is thinking of all the events that happened in her life she realises that she was never actually alone because although not having any friends the common factor of all the flashbacks was her mother, everytime she was upset and crying her mother always stood by her.
We also thought of a story with a pregnant teenager who goes through so much as her family and friends are against the baby. Howverer then we thought that the story was too common and it wouldn't be as good as we would want it to be
Treatment: Switch
Title: SWITCH
Tagline: How far will you go for a bit of cash?
Pitch: 20 year old Charlie and 26 year old Frank are desperate for cash after seeing a car they want for sale at a hefty £6000. Not bieng the brightest bulbs they take out quick money making schemes that fail; one after the other. Until they resort to 'The Switch'.
Treatment: The film opens on Day 3 of the SWITCH with the pair running for their lives down a corridor (angry looking gangsters in the background). Then flashing back to Day 1 we see their initial reason for their thirst for cash as the two see a car for sale that they really want. Needing to gather £6000 fast and dealing with unemployment and a lack of qualifications they soon realise they have a problem.
Standing there pondering their options, Charlie pulls out a half eaten cookie from his pocket and Frank is instantly hit by an ingenious idea. (lightbulb animation) Selling cookies!
Frank feels that selling cookies will earn them a lot of quick cash and so they go door to door attempting to sell them. However, door after door the customers are not interested and Charlie gets punched in the eye by the last potential customer! (montage of doors slamming, point of view shots from door)
Seeing Charlie clucth at his eye in pain, Frank is inspire to stage a fake charity (lightbulb animation) conning money out of people who think they are helping 'blind' Charlie. Frank grabs the attention of the only man walking down the street whilst Charlie shakes his money pot at him. However, the man is not the slightest bit interested and flashes a dirty look whilst putting his hood up. Charlie, forgetting momentarily that he is blind, shakes his fist at the passer by and Frank hits him to encourage him to stay in role. As they watch the man walk away they hear a screeching sound of a car apporaching and see it pull up next to the man they encountered. They see what SEEMS to be an inappropriate drug deal and this is where Frank is hit by his best idea yet - The Switch. Frank is convinced that if they cut a slice of a drug deal they will have more than enough money to buy the car. So they go home and gather together a bundle of drugs. Flour and sugar. Believing that this is a sure in way to make some cash, they fix themselves up to look the part (switching costumes) and go to meet 'Big Pete' the hardest gangster on the estate.
The meeting place and time is sorted and the two find themselves in a hotel room across the table from Big Pete who is willing to give them the money they need in exchange for the 'drugs'. The deal goes well, until Big Pete does a taste test and finds that the drugs taste a little sweeter than they should and their cover is blown. Frank literally blows the 'drug' in Big Pete's face and the two make a run for it. Running for their lives they get free and the film ends with both Frank and Charlie high fiving each other with the breifcase full of money in sight.
Credits roll with numerous pictures of the double act in their new car.
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