The End

The end of all posts...

Final vlog

With our blogs closing today I thought I would upload a last vlog to summarise the year and hard work,

Final double Vlog

Due to our blogs closing tomorrow, me and Elisha decided to do a final vlog together to sum up our experience of media studies.

Evaluation-Final

Here is our complete evaluation, consisting of three videos, all in order below.




 

 Here are some outtakes of our evaluation by Me and Elisha, enjoy them, we did.
 

Outtakes for film opening

over the last few months we have accumulated tonnes of extra footage from our filming days. As a little memory we have put together some of our best bits in a little video, enjoy.

Finalised films

I thought I would share with you the entire classes film openings as all of them are great examples of the progression we've made within media studies. The genres range from psychological to indie; a good variation in the ability of our class. Here is a youtbue playlist with all the finalised films, enjoy:

Editing our Evaluation

We are still editing our current evaluation however the majority of the work needed to be done is. We have added moving images and clips to our evaluation as well as including overlapping clips and sounds to enhance the evaluations proffesional status. All that is left to do is edit the final question within our evaluation; which is the discussion question, and then we are all set to upload our finished product.

Evaluation Vlog

Our evaluation filming is complete; Elisha and I decided to give a quick vlog on the completion and pregression of our filming of and creation of evaluation.

Progress with our Evaluation

We have progressed in our planning of our evaluation, in that we have a clear understanding of what is needed to be done and we are aware of how we are setting it out. We have decided to do three questions each and discuss the last question together; this way we both get an equal say in evaluating our media progression. In order to not bore the examiner we are going to be making three evaulative videos in total; the first two including three questions and the last video incluiding the final discussion question. In doing our evaluation this way we feel that we achieve a proffesional standard as well as giving the examiner enough information to understand how we feel we have progressed within media A.S. Once we figured out the staging of our evaluation we just needed to go into depth about the previous planning points made, we each came up with answers to our allocated questions. The following document is my formal response to these questions. Media Evaluation Progression

Evaluation Planning

Here are a couple of bullet points on what we are thinking of including in each of the seven questions within our teamed evaluation. Media Evaluation

Representation of Disability

Representation of Disability on Prezi

Revision

Over the Easter holidays I have been creating a little presentation to help with my revision for Section B of our exam. I decided to create a prezi as its a simple and effective way of revision as not only do you revise whilst making them but they're easy to watch once complete.Within the prezi, I have focused on the production company "Working Title Productions" and have done a little research on several of their films including; Hot Fuzz, Four weddings and a Funeral and Bridget Jones' Diary. Providing mainly the films profit and whether or not it has won any awards. This is key to helping back up arguements i can make within the exam as with the use of facts and figures my argument will appear more realistic and knowledgeable than otherwise.

Section B on Prezi

The presentation was just personal revision and with the four practice exam questions we also had to complete, it asn't an easy load. I did find one of the question particularly tricky but after researching and plowing through all four were completed. A very happy moment i can assure you... the evidence is as shown to the left.

Update

With the film opening complete and the prelim task also complete all thats left to do is upload the outtakes from our opening, complete the evaluation and neaten up. The outtakes are almost complete and the evaluation is underway. Me and Elisha have already started planning our answers to the questions and plan on using a variety of ways in which we can present our responses to the seven question. We hope to record most of it but include various images and clip from our filming as well.
As for neatening up, you can see the labels are complete and now all that is needed is to add the top bar in which the prelim, film opening and evaluation will be shown. This will make it easier to navigate your way around my blog as well as presenting the complete videos in an orderly and accessible fashion.

Evaluation

Now that our film opening is complete we know have to concerntrate on our evaluation; which comes in the form of 7 questions. There are several ways in which the evaluations can be carried out but Eliha and I have decided to do ours together as we feel it will have a better outcome as to doing them individually, especially if it goes to plan.
Here is an example of an evaluation done in the form of two, we hope to achieve something along the lines of this.

It is Complete!

We have finally adjusted all the little tweeks in our film opening and i can happily say that this is our final product:

Disability

Here is a quick presentation, with clips, on how different disabilities are shown with several differernt T.V dramas:
Representation of Disability in TV dramas

Certificate Change

Here is a quick vlog on why we feel that the certificate previously set isn't appropriate to the new narrative development.

Inglourious Basterds

Although an American made film, I will be focusing on this film for one of my case studies as it opens up a variety of different fields in which i can dicuss. For instance the film is directed by Quentin Tarintino who also directed the films Pulp fiction and Kill Bill, the film also opens up the option to discuss how it was recieved in America as well as the U.K and out of the two which one made the most profit on the opening weekend. It is also a great film to talk about due to its contravesal content of succeeding to assasinate Hitler. However i am sure that the film encountered problems with survivors of the Holocaust due to its graphic scenes and some what commical approach throughout.

Film Evaluation

A quick video in case Imovies was to be used when doing the evaluation:



The following are the 7 evaluative questions which will be being answered about our film openings. I have also simplified the questions to make them easier to understand:

1. In what ways does your film opening use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- How does your film opening look like an actual film

2. How does your film opening represent particular social groups?
- How does it present a certain age or social group

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your film opening and why?
- Who would produce you film ie Paramount or Film four

4. Who would be the audience for your film opening?
- Who's going to watch it

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
- How does it appeal to those watching it

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this film opening?
- What have you learnt from using imovies and the cameras ect when making the film opening

7. Looking back at your prelim task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the final film opening?
- What have you learnt from the beginning of the course to the end of the course

New titles

We have added a new title sequence to our film opening and a new film name has been created. We have decided to have a title that plays on the word Heroin/Heroine. So here is the latest version of the opening:

Update...

We have finally finished filming, and i know i have said this on several occasions but we have definatley finished. Here is a quick vlog on how we re shot the "ending" to our film opening:



And here is the latest draft of our film opening. There are a few things in which we have changed since this draft was published; such as the font, the films name and a we have reduced the music at the end of the clip. Other than these small things that have been altered we are really happy with how our "ending" has turned out as well as the entire opening.

Certificate 12!

We have gone for the certificate 12 as this allows the film to fit the audience of teenagers as well as allowing moderate swearing, if wanted. We didn't want to make the certificate too high as this would limit the audience as well as reduce the over all profit.

Finally finished filming (we hope!)

So last week we thought that all our filming was done... Unfortunately the footage didn't quite fit in and we had some problems with the audio fitting the clips. We decided that we would re do the ending whilst filming today. We have got some really good footage today and hopefully all is done and we just need to finish editing. We have also sorted the problem with the audio in that Elisha takes the earphones out when she sees the wellies and the wobbles and skids. This means that the music can be easily cut at the end and we can introduce the very important skidding noise. We also have filmed a range of endings in what Elisha says to the unknown character; such as "Again?" and "bollocks!". This way we can decide how the film ends whilst editing the last few things.

Media distribution

Saw this great advert for guardian; it shows so many different types of distribution from social networks to television broadcast:

Editing

We have decided against having me running after Elisha on the bike as not only does it look too comical but it just doesn't fit in with the rest of the opening. Instead we have decided to add a bit of mystery to the new character that we include and we hoped to achieve this through not showing their face. We only show the shoes of the new character, which are wellies. This not only adds mystery to the opening but also makes the new character androgynous. The weather, although miserable to film in, creates a huge contrast to the rest of our filming as throughout its very sunny and happy and we are then confronted with a miserable day and a new suspicious and mysterious character.

Out in the Rain!

Wednesday filming

Me and Elisha went filming and for once Elisha got to film! She filmed my footsteps running after the bike; although we haven't included this footage within the film opening it still gave her a chance to see what it's like.




















We also did a vlog for how we our latest filming went, what we hoped to achieve ect

New solution?

We thought we had solved the ending to our film opening but we have found that the ending doesn't really fit with the rest of the opening. We held a little discussion to ask if any of our peers had any ideas on how to improve the last 30 seconds or so of our film opening. Here is a brainstorm of the ideas they came up with:

The latest

Here is the latest copy of our film opening, as you can see we have added a scene at the end with the girl on the bike being chased by an unknown character, this adds suspense to the opening. Therefore creating a twist to the film opening however we are thinking of re-doing this last scene as its a bit choppy and not exactly how we wanted it to be.



We also have done a sample production company that we are adding to the beginning of our film opening:

Seven Deadly Questions

Here is mine and Elisha's answer to question one of the seven deadly questions in a simple Prezi:

The issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice on Prezi

Production company

After school today we started making our film production company logo/slogan.
It's still in the making but here's what we've got so far

New Character Vlog

Section B

Here is my section B half term work done. Enjoy!

Cinema Listings on Prezi

The Truman show

I must say that the whole concept of the film is amazing. To think he is the only real thing in his entire life is ridiculous. The whole concept of the film is verging on George Orwell's novel "nineteen-eighty-four". The way that it is filmed is very clever as it's a programme within a film and therefore if you see any film set e.g a boom or a microphone nothing is taken from the verisimilitude of the film. I think one of my favourite shots is when Truman is in his car and it's as if the audience is in the radio as oppose to just being in the car generally. This not only enhances the realism of the film but also allows the audience to imagine themselves in the car with Truman. This film is also clever in the sense of how, in one scene, the audience is shown how the director sets the perfect scene to get the emotions e wants from Truman. A great film would advise all to watch.

Half term work

I'm currently doing Miss Fosters half term work and decided to vlog about my progress so far...

Blu ray... the new dvd?

I have been wondering, for some time now, about how quickly things have changed, technology wise, in the last decade. Especially in the distibution side, i remember when videos had to be re-wound to the beginning and then came the dvd which was a complete revolution, easy to use and in smaller cases when compared to the brick like videos. Now Blu-rays have been introduced and it seems that everything has to be replaced for a better quality. So, i was looking at the Guardian website and found this interesting article all about the change from blu-ray to dvd.

Flipping a Clip

We recently found that a couple of the shots in our film opening break the 180 degree rule and we decided that instead of re-filming these shots again we would try and flip the clip around. Once we figured this out we screen filmed the process of flipping a clip around in imovies:

Double Vlog

Here is a quick update vlog on how things are currently going;

Terminology

Within Section B there are several key terms that must be learnt off by heart. These are just three them, along with there definitions:

Production: Making films

Distribution: Getting the films into the cinema and onto dvds and blue rays as well as related media products

Consumption: People buying tickets for the cinema, dvds, blue rays, downloading and buying the films online.

Film Drafts

We haven't uploaded a second draft of our film opening yet and a lot has changed since our last upload:



This is our second draft and a lot has changed in between each draft such as adding a bell that is synchronous to the backing music. We then decided to cut this as it made the opening look too much like a music video.



We also have made several changes to the ordering of shots, as well as this we have changed the types of shots we have used, which therefore creating a more layered and bulked up film opening. We have also made adjustments to the sound as in the first draft non-digetic music is used with the diegtic sound of the bike going through leaves ect. We have still got the non-digetic music but cut the sounds of the bike, although this reduces the verisimilitude of the opening, it gives the audience the impression that the girl is completely blocked out from her surroundings.

TV Drama presentation

We did our presentations today and feed back was good, i think if we put in even more detail into the presentation and added more technical terminology the overall outcome would have been better. However i am happy with the overall feedback given from both peers and Mrs Fitzjohn.

Class and Status on Prezi

City of God

My first impression before watching it was very sceptical. I think what put me off was that it was in Portuguese and I didn't much like the idea of reading a film as oppose to watching it. However I was completely wrong to judge it by this and I think that if it were in English it would not have the same affect. The way in which the story is told is also really clever and unique and the way in which photography is entwined into the whole story creates a sense of verisimilitude which I really enjoyed.
I would definitely recommend it and would advise not to let the subtitles put you off. It seems strange reading them at first but after 5 minutes its hardly noticeable, a must see.

Snow!!!

Am so happy that we managed to film today, especially due to all the snow! although Sophie couldn't come it went really well, Apologies now for the squint and constant shaking of the camera it would balace on my window ledge!

Vlog

Today me and Elisha went filming and we both did vlogs on how we think we are doing:

This is England

A short prezi showing class and status within the Shane Meadows film "This is England"

This is England on Prezi

Megaupload.com

Attempted to attach the HTML to this picture about the creater of the website megaupload. I found this quite interesting as not only does it relate to section B but can also relate to how gender is represented within the media

Solution?

Recently we have been having trouble with our film opening in that it looks too much like a music video. To solve this we have had several ideas but the following vlog shows the discussion we have had and the idea in which we have settled on.

Dead End?

It seems we have hit a stand still with our film opening. It looks too much like a music video which is partly due to the bell ringing in time with the music and also due to the running of the music the whole way through. We have had several ideas such as stopping the music part way through for Elisha to look at the time and continue without any music, we also had the idea of abandoning the bike and for Elisha to continue on foot. The final idea we had was to have footsteps follow Elisha on the last shot. Other than these ideas we are quite stuck on where to go from here, hopefully we'll think of something and soon.

War Horse

In my entire life I have never cried so much within the space of two and a half hours. It the most moving film I have seen and give tonnes of praise for not only Michael Morpurgo on writing the book but to Steven Spielberg for directing a master piece!

The lighting throughout adds drama an emotion to the Joey and Albert, especially in the last scene where the sun set creates perfect silhouette that creates sheer emotion without the use of close-ups on facial expressions. I found that the music also played a huge part in creating such emotion for the audience to relate to. Overall, although I shed buckets of tears it is one of the most heart warming story that all should see.

How did he do it?!

I keep mulling over in my head how Sherlock managed to fake his death, the clear long shot shows it's Sherlock falling so I just don't understand how he survived! Will have to wait until the next series eek!!!

Frosty filming

Although the weather today is extremely chilly we braved the frost and spent a couple of hours getting some new shots for our film opening. We tried to get more shots of the bike as oppose to Elisha riding the Nike, some of which are shown below.



















 I really like the gear spoke shot as it enhances the vintage theme that is crossed with a modern girl. The only thing we have left to do is film in the rain!

Netflix

It's coming! Just seen this...

Production companies

In our latest lesson we have been looking at different production companies such as Sony, Warner Bros, Paramount and BBC. We also looked into an article about Netflix, which is the U.S equvilant of Love film. The Cheif executive of Netflix, Reed Hastings, is now attempting to break through to England after such success in the U.S and Canada, however rivals at Love film are unlikely to go down without a fight.
We have also been researching into 3 production companies for our may exam in which each production company we choose we must provide 2 films that each has produced. I decided to present my research in the folllowing prezi. I am only scratching the surface of the 3 production companies that i have chosen, but hopefully this is a good start.

Production Comany Research on Prezi

Sherlock

I have currently been watching the series "Sherlock" on BBC1 and some of the shots that were in the latest episode "Hound of the Baskervilles" which included a great two shot (shown below) where it seems that a fade effect has been used yet it is just the angle of the camera and the focus pull that create this fantastic shot!
As well as this the sound plays a major part in creating the suspense within this episode and through using high pitched music and diegetic howling sounds the scene is given an eerie feel thus creating more tension and suspense to build up within the audience.
Sherlock has not only been hitting our tv screens but recently the second film starring Robert Downey Jr (see below) has hit the screens and after seeing it I was amazed. Guy Richie stunned me with the beautifully edited slow motion fights however the third picture below was the slow motion running scene which I found a bit cheap, the fight scenes were great but I think Richie went too far with the running scene, however this is the only criticism I found throughout the film

I would find it extremely difficult to place one above the other as although great emphasis to detail is used in the film I cannot keep my mind off of the pull focus scene in the television series. I would therefore recommend that both are seen as they both contain the highest quality of shots and editing skills that neither should be missed!