Media Evaluation

FATAL INFATUATION

Untitled from Kieron Marchese on Vimeo.

THE FINAL PRODUCT!

The titles

Today me and Kieron had some spare time on our hands to do a little more on the title. It isn't the easiest thing to complete and we still need to get Jessica and Melissa's views on it. We used Photoshop to cut out the text and insert it on a blank frame (we may take a still frame from the movie). There will be some screen shots to come.

Evaluation Questions

There are many questions that I need to cover in order to complete my evaluation. These are:


1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience of your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Jack Cardiff (1914-2009)

This man was called Jack Cardiff. He was and still is deemed to be Britain's greatest camera man and cinematographer. Born on the boards – his music hall parents put him in the silent film ‘My Son, My Son’ in 1918, aged four – he progressed through runner, clapper boy and camera operator, often under Alexander Korda, until two big breaks: being taken on as the first British trainee for Technicolor and embarking on a globetrotting colour-documentary career culminating in the Oscar-winning ‘Western Approaches’ in 1944. Then, magic happened. Second unit on one masterpiece, ‘The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp’, he was invited by its director, Michael Powell, to film the whole of a second. His work on ‘A Matter of Life and Death’ (1946) – incredibly, his first complete credit – ‘Black Narcissus’ (also 1946) and ‘The Red Shoes' (1948), with Cardiff’s versatility and pioneering experimentalism dancing perfectly in tune with the Archers’ own, produced a trio of achievements of beauty, impact and emotional meaning that are unsurpassed in British film.

Through six decades it was concluded that Jack Cardiff's energy never dimmed. He worked up until he was ninety.

UPDATE

At the moment we are almost finished with our editing, we are in the final stage (woooo!) and soon our results from our questionnaire we did a while back will be posted on each of our blogs.
Kieron: Update on sounds
Jessica: Detail on styling
Melissa: Finalising editing.

Final Filming

Before half term, the girls all got together to film the beginning of our O.T.S. Unfortunately Kieron could not join us as he was on an educational trip but however, we have made sure that he was updated with every detail that we did. We filmed some establishing shots of Jessie's house and a friends house: followed by some varied shots and angles of our femme fatale. Overall, a good day of filming I reckon!

Cropping Shots

Due to one of my camera operating mistakes, there was one shot in which Jessica was sitting in the corner. At the time we were so fixed on getting the lighter drop right that we didn't notice. However, by looking at Final Cut Express HD I managed to crop the shot.

 Here I used 'Motion' above the preview of the video and I simply clicked 'Crop' and I kept moving the picture left and right and then using 'Scale' to make the picture fit. 

This is the result of cropping the shot.

After scaling it, it looks perfect as Jessica is no longer in the picture.

However, the main problem that we faced was that by cropping and scaling the shot, the lighter does not fall centrally so as a result, this method cannot be used. Also, due to scaling, most of the quality is lost. We have decided as a group that we will re-record the lighter dropping as we want the 0.T.S to be perfect.

At least the cropping was better than the original...

Camera Operator

Since I was the camera operator I decided to do some more detailed research on what a camera operator should do and whether I succeeded in that task.

"The operator is responsible for physically operating the camera and maintaining composition throughout a given scene or shot." 
I personally think that I did this well and maintained a careful shot balance. I didn't think I shook the camera too much but this wouldn't have been an issue if we didn't forget the tripod (oh dear!). 




"Important camera operator skills include choreographing and framing shots, knowledge of and the ability to select appropriate photographic lenses, and other equipment (dollies, camera cranes, etc.) to portray dramatic scenes. The principles of dramatic story telling and film editing fundamentals are important skills as well. The camera operator is required to communicate clearly and concisely on film sets where time and budget constraints are ever present."
Looking at this description makes me realise how under-equipped we were - we had no camera cranes, dollies etc. but for what we were doing I think that it came out perfect. Well, nothing is perfect but it was to the best of our abilities. Looking at the last part of the quote, I personally think I communicated very well with my group and the actors (as you can tell on some of the out-takes I like to make myself heard..)   and this did prove successful as we managed to get everything done in good time. 




Source: http://en.wikipedia.org

Copyrighting Music

It is coming up to the time where we really have to concentrate on our music. Since we cannot copy any recent music due to copyright laws I decided to do a little research for myself to understand it.


What copyright exists in music?

There are usually 2 types of copyright to consider when we talk about music copyright.

• The traditional ©, ‘C in a circle’ copyright, applies to the composition, musical score, lyrics, as well as any artwork or cover designs, as all of these are individually subject to copyright in their own rights, (though when you register, you can include them all in a single registration provided they have the same copyright owner(s)).
• The second type of copyright applies to the sound recording itself, and is signified by the ‘P in a circle’ .

I print screened some information about copyrighting from wikipedia to show in good detail what copyrighting surrounds.

Sounds

This link will take you onto Kieron's experiment of sound effects. CLICK HERE

De-constructing of 'The Killers' O.T.S

To really get a feel of what me and my group want to create ourselves, we have to see how other people do it.
I have de-constructed the O.T.S from The Killers. I have listed what is conventional and what is unconventional about this opening title sequence.

Conventional:
- Fades in at the start to show 2 people in a car driving a long.
- There is an establishing shot which shows exactly where they are 'Brentwood'.
- There is non-diegetic music to create an alarming theme. Brass instruments were used to create that power.
- Titles and credits come in within 30 seconds.

Unconventional:
- Enigma has not been established.
- No speech up until 1.33. Most likely to create an 'eerie' feel as there is some non-diegetic music played quietly throughout the O.T.S
- Hook; Who are those men and why are they there?

Sound Foley Experiment

Today, Kieron set himself the task of finding the right sound effect for a gunshot. He conducted a test of 3 different items:
A - A dictionary
B - A ruler
C - A shoe

Go to Kieron's blog to see how he conducted this test or [click here]

Logo

As a group we have decided that this will be our logo as it is not a traditional film noir specifier. This shows that we are trying to put in a modern (neo-noir) side. However, a fingerprint is associated with forensics and crime - which film noir is loosely based around. Having the fingerprint this bright green shows that we are not going for the contemporary film. This gives our film an edge and an individuality for our wider audience to experience. This impression shows what our group is going for perfectly.

Group Progress and Final Cut.

Kieron: Assessment Criteria
              Inputting Sound

Jessica: Storyboards
              Styling

Melissa: Final Cut Express screen shots

 This is an example of what Melissa is doing. We have been trying to get used to using Final Cut Express, but so far, it's not really going well. Final Cut is very hard to use. Melissa has posted more information so to see that post click here.
I think that the main reason why we are having so much trouble with Final Cut is because we are so used to using iMovie from GCSE. I do personally think that by our group using Final Cut, we will gain a lot more experience.

Assessment Criteria

This assessment criteria is to assess what each of us have done so far. Individually and as a group we need to look at what needs to be done aswell. This helps us be a lot more organised and up to date with posts. Each of us need to make sure no one out of the group is falling behind so we need to link to eachothers posts and blogs.

Orange is what we have done.
Blue is in the progress of.
Red is what needs to be done.

VIDEO This is the specification for -
Level 4 48–60 marks A*/A High B
I am aiming high as I want to achieve and do well, so I will try and meet all the criteria.
There is evidence of excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

-holding a shot steady, where appropriate;


-framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;


-using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;


-shooting material appropriate to the task set;


-selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;


-editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;


-using varied shot transitions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;


-using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;


-using titles appropriately.



Marking Criteria for the presentation of the RESEARCH AND PLANNING, specification for - Level 4 16–20 marks A*/A High B

There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.


There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.


There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.


There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning


Time management is excellent.

Our editing

PROBLEM. According to the macs we are using, there is not enough disk space resulting in some of our clips disappearing. Melissa has been trying to find ways of sorting this out and hopefully by next lesson it will be successful. We have just about finished our dummy run but NEED to sort our real o.t.s soon as the deadline is coming up. EEK.

Linking to previous questions - Task 5 and 6

As a small theory task as a group we had to answer some questions separately and all together. On my own I answered 2 questions about how society affects our views on the media. This relates to our work because we need to know what the audience want to see. As I answered in the question, some people prefer to go to a cinema to see a film because it has a bigger dynamic. However, we need to make sure we can capture the audiences eyes just with our O.T.S. Basically what we need to do is make sure that society doesn't influence our film in a bad way. They need to see it for themselves and decide whether to like it or not themselves. We won't be able to influence their views on it but we could help change that by drawing them in to watch our film. (I feel like I'm writing a campaign!)

FILMING

Today we finally got sorted and filmed for our O.T.S. I emphasise on the finally. So overall I think it was a very productive day. We re-recorded shots if we had doubts and all worked together to make sure it was great. Being camera operator I felt very pressured to make sure I held the camera straight (as we forgot the tripod ERGH), also I wanted to make sure that I recorded each shot for long enough. Personally, I think I did alright. We wouldn't have been able to do it without Lauren Newby and Thomas Wilson, they're acting was spot on. I am proud of what we achieved but now it's up to Melissa to be in charge of editing. We're on a roll if I'm honest!

Dummy Run

Untitled from Ellen Lowe on Vimeo.

This is the dummy run that we completed to get an idea of what we needed to do on the actual day of filming. This helped us get an idea of shots, angles, the lengths of shots and basically the overall mise-en-scene. There were plenty of mistakes in this and we are fully aware of it. However, this is the point of a dummy run and we are very ready to film the real thing.

15/01/2011

On Saturday Kieron, Jessie and myself went to our location (Elm Hill) to rehearse angles and shot layouts for our film noir O.T.S. Unfortunately, Melissa was unable to join us as she was at work (work ruins lives, fact?) Anyway, we found this a great way to get a clear idea of what we wanted to do and how we could run the filming quickly without few mistakes - but we all know that would be impossible. We plan on filming the real thing tomorrow morning so fingers crossed it will be a huge success!

Google Forms and Questionnaire

Jessica has made a post about how the group created the questionnaires. She got up Google Forms and from there created the questionnaire (simple!)
Here is a screenshot of Jessica starting the questionnaire..

And here is the link to the detailed post she made.

[CLICK HERE]

RESULTS

Here are the results to our questionnaire. After lots of feedback from our chosen target audience: 18 - 25 we were are now able to conduct the project even further. Jessica has all the details of our results on her blog.

Questionnaire

FACEBOOK questionnaire has been posted and the results have been taken. Jessie has posted this so on her blog you will see this.

Here is the link to the hand outs we did -  Initial Hand-outs.

Mise-en-scene while filming. How do I do that?

Basically my two roles are camera operating and sorting out the mise-en-scene. Camera operator is pretty simple, I'm doing what it says in the name. But mise-en-scene seems slightly more confusing. But to make sure that I do my job right I have done some research on it. Basically, I will be making sure everything in the shot is okay. If something is out of place then I will sort that out. It stands for 'placing on stage' Mise-en-scene consists of everything in the shot, lighting, props, clothing etc. Obviously as Melissa is doing lighting I will work fairly closely with her on that one.

Questionnaires and Research on Audiences

As a group we thought it would be best to do a few questionnaires to really get a feel of what our audiences would like. Look on Kieron's blog to see the results of our hand out questionnaire.
Facebook questionnaire will be done soon. Watch this space.

Task 6

Think about this honestly - are your opinions about television, films or groups ever influenced by other people?


Ask a family member on their views about how media has been influenced by other people.


Do you think a friend's ideas about a media text could ever effect your behaviour in a way? This is what some people have suggested happened in the James Bulger case - that one of the two children talked about a film he had seen and influenced the other's behaviour. How could you present these findings in your blog?


Answering the first part of the question in my own opinion, yes I do think that sometimes I am influenced by the views of other people. For example, if there was a film at the cinema that I wanted to see but someone had told me it wasn't very good, I wouldn't risk going to see that film. Our thoughts about media are based around critics and reviews. We wouldn't buy a book if a critic has said it was rubbish. I know I wouldn't.

As the task said, I was to ask a family member on what they thought about a certain media text. So I asked my Dad what he thought about people influencing each other e.g. television. His answer surprised me as he said that people don't necessarily influence each other about what we watch on television, television influences us. "What we see on the news really happens. Yes people can sometimes influence what you want to watch but that would be contradicting what I'm saying. What we see influences us." This was a very helpful answer because not only does it widen the range of answers but it is also so relevant to the James Bulger case referred to in this question. One of the boys had seen a film, as a result he acted out what he saw. In conclusion, I think that we are influenced by what we see and hear around us. Society and the World in general influences us.

Task 5

So as a group we have designated some tasks from a booklet to each other. Some we have even done as a group. I have been signed task 5 and task 6.

Task 5: Think about this for yourself - are there any forms of media that you think society gives greater status to. For example which do people see as "better": films or television, soaps or detective dramas, opera or britpop. Do you have any feelings about the kind of audience these different forms of media attract - are some likely to be more thoughtful and more intelligent than others? 


This is a hard question to answer, as it relies on my opinion and assumption as to what kind of people like what. It's like stereotyping. Personally, I like films and television, I prefer soaps and I hate opera so I would have to prefer britpop. But these are just my opinions. Everyone is different and likes different things. Society may give greater status to films because they can be viewed on super sized screens - and anyway, film actors seem to be more famous than tv actors. Soaps and detective dramas are both in television so it's whether people prefer to be stuck in the reality side of a soap (passive) or be thrown in to a mystery in a detective drama (active). Truthfully, I have never seen opera on a popular music channel like MTV or 4Music. In my opinion, I know of no opera singers, but that might just be me. Britpop is widely known by everyone so I think it's not society's fault there. It's the media. It depends what and how a media text gets broadcast. The best way to find out what people like is a questionnaire. This way we find out exactly what people like and don't like. There's no point in assuming.

Roles

As a group we need to designate certain roles. However, we have decided it would be best not to sign a role just to one person. The main 4 roles that we should concentrate on are lighting sound cast and editing. We would also need a director - organises the whole film schedule. A producer - the person who makes the film, technically. The mechanics - responsibilty of cast (co - producer). Also we will need someone to look at mise-en-scene, sound, lighting and location. Furthermore, who is the camera operator? Who will concentrate on cinematography? These are all roles in which we need to designate and really think about.

...

After a lot of thinking and talking we have come to a rough conclusion that I will be camera operater and I will concentrate on mise-en-scene. This means that I will be mainly filming (simple), and I will be focusing on what looks good in the shot. If something or someone looks out of place I will be able to decide whether to change it. Being in the roles that I am, I will be working very closely with Jessica as we will both be focusing on what looks good.
Kieron - Director and Sound
Jessica - Styling and Cinematography
Melissa - Editor and Lighting

Detailed Costume Idea

Femme Fatale:

Our female lead (Lauren Newby) will be seductive, mysterious and glamorous. She will have a dangerous class to her in which will show in the way she presents herself. Make-up will be based around the classic red lip and smokey eyes. We want to emphasise on the lash as there will be a lot of significance about her eyes. Clothing will be mainly black. We want to have a simple black dress with some fishnet tights, heavy and expensive looking jewellery and hopefully we will get hold of a fur coat (fake of course). Heels are also an essential for any girl. We have got hold of a cigarette holder so this will had the old fashioned class to our femme fatale. Also, we have got a small zippo lighter which will be dropped from a high height. This lighter doesn't have much relevance to the femme fatale but it does show the era very vaguely.

Anti-Hero:

This character (played by Thomas Wilson) will also be mysterious aswell as the femme fatale. He will come across as slightly common but he has a certain light to him. His clothing will be very simple as we want him to be wearing baggy jeans, a vest top and possibly a flat cap with some ragged boots. As a male character make-up would not be needed but he will be covered in patches of oil. Every girl falls for a bad guy. His hair will preferably be messy. There will be a significance to class aswell as while the femme fatale will be smoking with the cigarette holder and the anti-hero will be smoking without it. He doesn't really care about much but when it comes to meeting the femme fatale, you see his soft and polite side.

Location

Location from Kieron Marchese on Vimeo.

During the holidays, Kieron and Melissa went out and filmed around our location to get an idea of lighting and where our characters would look good. Also, we could get a clear idea of our angles.

Our Continuity Task

Continuity from Kieron Marchese on Vimeo.

Evaluation of Continuity Task

So looking at our continuity task, I felt that for our first time of filming as a group, we did pretty well. We each had a chance of operating the camera and watching the short film, we did very well. Shots and angles were varied and personally I think that they were used appropriately - especially at 00.58 seconds. We thought about angles very well and I think we were very creative. We had a mixture of close ups, long shots and over-the-shoulder shots. As for the editing, I think that we did very well in terms of making the black and white picture look old and used. We added the letterbox effect on iMovie so that it would create that effect of an old camera. At the end of the short film we added a hint of neo-noir as Jessie walks out of the room. This was a way of rehearsing for our real O.T.S in the future (now in editing process). The only problems that we faced was the sound. We filmed on the sixth form site and as we could not help the fact that children were walking around, you can occasionally hear them in the speaking parts. Also, as we wanted a mostly silent film, when some sound for voices was needed, there was an annoying buzzing in the background. We were aware of this and made sure that in future filming we will find a way to prevent this.

Continuity Task Script

This is the final script for our continuity task. We created this so that we knew exactly what we were filming, what the actors were doing and if the shots and angles were correct.

Our Plot Anamatic

This is a storyboard to our film noir. Each member of our group did 8 different shots each so we could all be part of it.