Friday 10 May 2013
Monday 29 April 2013
Evaluation
Evaluation
1.
In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product ‘Pyrophobia’ is a horror/thriller which
follows many original codes and conventions however challenges a few. The opening
of the film is a series of various angle shots of Tamworth joined by a stylized
transition called film burn. These establishing shots are not scary or alarming
in any shape or form. In fact the film burn makes the footage more fluid and
calm which is not what the film is always about. Despite this opposite in codes
and conventions our media product instantly changes by combining the
establishing shots into a chase scene which has been heavily edited and
manipulated to create a darker atmosphere. The harsh colour correct has been
used to create the gritty dark effect that many thrillers have been known to
create and Pyrophobia has been edited to create the same effect.
The titles come in one at a time at a slow pace which was also visible in the opening of Candy man as the titles would each come in individually and was a generally long opening using a Birdseye shot of a city as an establishing shot. The font used in the title is purposely bold and block-like to further adapt to the urban street atmosphere thrillers have and Pyrophobia will certainly have this.
A common convention is the use of one main antagonist which our media product definitely follows as there is one main villain (pyro) who will be terrorizing the other cast within the film. This is very common and all though directly not a Thriller convention, it is definitely following the generic style of a horror.
We also challenged the conventions of eerie music being used within certain scenes.
Our opening consists of videos of Fire to match the title “Pyrophobia” with the simple sounds of fire flickering with a slow creepy sound. It creates an uneasy atmosphere which is common in horrors however you have to develop the sound in your head for it to actually be creepy. This scene gets cut to static which is a loud harsh noise and can leave you pretty shocked And will then suddenly change into a fast-paced song as the chase after the opening begins. The surprise is a common method used in horrors and thrillers and in joint with a chase scene is a very common sight within horror and thriller films alike.
The titles come in one at a time at a slow pace which was also visible in the opening of Candy man as the titles would each come in individually and was a generally long opening using a Birdseye shot of a city as an establishing shot. The font used in the title is purposely bold and block-like to further adapt to the urban street atmosphere thrillers have and Pyrophobia will certainly have this.
A common convention is the use of one main antagonist which our media product definitely follows as there is one main villain (pyro) who will be terrorizing the other cast within the film. This is very common and all though directly not a Thriller convention, it is definitely following the generic style of a horror.
We also challenged the conventions of eerie music being used within certain scenes.
Our opening consists of videos of Fire to match the title “Pyrophobia” with the simple sounds of fire flickering with a slow creepy sound. It creates an uneasy atmosphere which is common in horrors however you have to develop the sound in your head for it to actually be creepy. This scene gets cut to static which is a loud harsh noise and can leave you pretty shocked And will then suddenly change into a fast-paced song as the chase after the opening begins. The surprise is a common method used in horrors and thrillers and in joint with a chase scene is a very common sight within horror and thriller films alike.
2.
How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
Our media product “Pyrophobia” will certainly represent the
teenage ‘rebel’ population that all places have. The characters David & James
are your typical teenage boys you expect to see. They are quirky, cocky and
funny which will appeal to the teenage population we have now. The product
shows the friendship teenage boys have and the friendly jokes and conflicts best
friends have which I believe would appeal to the teenage crowd. Also the title
and villain would appeal to Young adults and teenagers as Horrors are
incredibly popular between these people and the use of Fire effects will
increase the enjoy ability of the film as some young people resemble Fire with
Anarchy and rebelling represents the teenage boy state of causing trouble which
is common in today’s society.
The two characters also come from lower-middle class families. With James’s room being very messy and living in a derelict environment (where the film was filmed) the film represents these type of people which increases the target audience in turn. So our media products represents your average middle class 16 year old which enables this group of people to further enjoy our media product.
The two characters also come from lower-middle class families. With James’s room being very messy and living in a derelict environment (where the film was filmed) the film represents these type of people which increases the target audience in turn. So our media products represents your average middle class 16 year old which enables this group of people to further enjoy our media product.
3.
What kind of media institution might distribute
your media product and why?
Pyrophobia is a small lower budget film with horror in mind. This makes it unsuitable for Media institutions such as Warner Bros who create one massive budget film which is then followed by still expensive budget films but not with the publicity.
After looking at a few institutions I think Lions Gate Films would distribute Pyrophobia as they have distributed many horrors such as “Alone in the dark”, “The Last Exorcism” And “Saw”. Judging by the movies Lions gate films have distributed I believe Pyrophobia would fit in as it contains scenes of gore and mystery which keeps the audience on suspense. You could say Pyrophobia is a horror flick and I cannot see it being a massive film which everyone will know about it. I can see it being more of a cheap film which is underrated but still enjoyable.
4.
Who would be the audience for your media
product?
As stated before in question 2, the films main characters are two 16 year old boys who think they are rebels and act cocky. For this reason I believe it would appeal to young adults and teenagers into horrors which aren’t popular and well known. The Horror aspects and Fire Effects would appeal very much to teenagers as Cool effects and interest sfx are very common points which teenagers wish to see and Pyrophobia involves a lot of Fire as the name would suggest, Pyrophobia which is the Fear of fire and ultimately being burnt to death. Mainly however I think the main characters and the villain which is only seen when fire is around would appeal to Males between the age of 15-25 as some of the scenes involve pretty bad gore and boys between this age come across horror and gore as Cool and interesting which is why I believe this would be the key audience.
5.
How did you attract/address your audience?
Before we started developing the actual
film we created a questionnaire to create an idea of what people enjoyed within
the thriller & Horror genre. My partner Anthony researched about specific
phobias and created a question on phobias and fears people may have. The
initial research of phobias is where the title Pyrophobia came from. We also
asked questions such as what scenery to find more creepy in a horror situation
and what time of the day is more efficient at creating a horror atmosphere.
When filming we could not address all the popular opinions and included scenes
which weren’t based on the audiences idea.
I also researched into methods films use
to create a fast paced tension scene. First person shots of the actual villain
and high advanced editing were popular choices which made a film more
interesting. I tried to incorporate this into our film. The villain is never
seen and when a killing is committed you see it through the eyes of the
murderer. The flame overlays were to show how the villain is something to do
with the fire and that has a meaning to the film.
(Flame scenes to be placed here)
If the title wasent an obvious give away fire is a common sight in the film.
We tried to use sounds which were realistic in all parts of the film. A lot of editing went into the scene in which James was knocked out in his sleep and faded back in reality. Sound Phasers and a lot of Pitch change was changed via Premiere Pro Cs5.5 and Cs6.
(Dream scene ending to be placed here)
The product was heavily edited and we used the information we researched to make it appealing to our audience after we addressed them.
(Flame scenes to be placed here)
If the title wasent an obvious give away fire is a common sight in the film.
We tried to use sounds which were realistic in all parts of the film. A lot of editing went into the scene in which James was knocked out in his sleep and faded back in reality. Sound Phasers and a lot of Pitch change was changed via Premiere Pro Cs5.5 and Cs6.
(Dream scene ending to be placed here)
The product was heavily edited and we used the information we researched to make it appealing to our audience after we addressed them.
- What have you learnt about technologies from
the process of constructing this product?
To create our media product we used a Nikon D3100 with an
18-55 VR (Vibration Reduction) lens which is a suitable standard lens for close
to medium shots. For scenes in tight spaces we used an Opteka Fisheye lens
which gave the camera a wider field of
view to film which was a great help in the bedroom scene.
(Bedroom scene placed here)
We filmed in a format of 720p which is HD and 30fps which made slow motion scenes more fluid and smoother when the clip was played at 40 % of its original speed. Any % lower and the frames became jumpy and very noticeable and I learnt that to slow down clips I should avoid %40 and lower. If I filmed with a Canon 550d which can film in 50fps then it would be possible as it has higher frames per second to a Nikon D3100.
We edited the clips we gathered using adobe premiere pro Cs 5.5 and Cs 6. The reason we used two versions is because I edited the last of the product at home and I have Adobe premiere pro CS 6. We used a lot of Colour Corrector both in Production and Editing. White balance on the Nikon was set manually as was Aperture And ISO to get the best settings, colour and brightness when filming. I further refined the colouring via APP (Adobe Premiere Pro) using the 3-way colour correcting to have more control over the video and the colours in parts which needed a lot of correcting due to shadows, sunlight and focus points interfering with the cameras white balance and the 3-way colour correcting allowed us to manually change each point within the video. While in the editing of this image I learnt even more about colour correcting and the broadcasting of colour. I also experiment with the Leave colour effect which makes every other colour apart from the one you chose into black and white. This is hard to use and has best effects when used on an object of bright colouring such as a Bright t-shirt or Prop. We didn’t actually use this effect as none of the scenes demanded it and looked much better without it involved. However I did learn how to use this effect. Being involved in videography and editing for 4 years I was able to use this knowledge into this product and was also able to help my partner Anthony a lot to.
I used an Apple iMac and a Packard Bell laptop which both had the required software I needed so editing was not a problem it was just tedious and long-winded process.
We filmed in a format of 720p which is HD and 30fps which made slow motion scenes more fluid and smoother when the clip was played at 40 % of its original speed. Any % lower and the frames became jumpy and very noticeable and I learnt that to slow down clips I should avoid %40 and lower. If I filmed with a Canon 550d which can film in 50fps then it would be possible as it has higher frames per second to a Nikon D3100.
We edited the clips we gathered using adobe premiere pro Cs 5.5 and Cs 6. The reason we used two versions is because I edited the last of the product at home and I have Adobe premiere pro CS 6. We used a lot of Colour Corrector both in Production and Editing. White balance on the Nikon was set manually as was Aperture And ISO to get the best settings, colour and brightness when filming. I further refined the colouring via APP (Adobe Premiere Pro) using the 3-way colour correcting to have more control over the video and the colours in parts which needed a lot of correcting due to shadows, sunlight and focus points interfering with the cameras white balance and the 3-way colour correcting allowed us to manually change each point within the video. While in the editing of this image I learnt even more about colour correcting and the broadcasting of colour. I also experiment with the Leave colour effect which makes every other colour apart from the one you chose into black and white. This is hard to use and has best effects when used on an object of bright colouring such as a Bright t-shirt or Prop. We didn’t actually use this effect as none of the scenes demanded it and looked much better without it involved. However I did learn how to use this effect. Being involved in videography and editing for 4 years I was able to use this knowledge into this product and was also able to help my partner Anthony a lot to.
I used an Apple iMac and a Packard Bell laptop which both had the required software I needed so editing was not a problem it was just tedious and long-winded process.
7.
Looking
back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
Judging by my preliminary task I
much prefer working in a pair or by myself. I find it is easy to sort out dates
and events and choices are easy to settle as there are only 2 of you. Editing was also easy being as there was more
space around our working space as there was only I and my partner.
I
am not able to say a great deal about what I have learnt as I used my own
equipment within this production and within the preliminary task we used
college equipment. In product ion however I find using your own equipment is much
more efficient if you know a great deal about your camera and software. Learning Camera Angles were also very
important and was able to incorporate what I had learnt much more within my own
product. From what we learnt from the preliminary task we really tried to have
a fluid continuity in the film. We carefully changed and planned the shots so
the viewer understands where the characters were without being confused. Also
all uniform and lighting were maintained in the best of our ability to maintain
continuity and made a fluid effect throughout the whole film. Not all of the
photos follow the 180-rule. We challenged and broke the 180 rule a couple of
times however the tempo of the film is in a slow state to avoid confusion and
location of the characters which would decrease the continuity of the film. So
using the knowledge from our preliminary task I was able to incorporate what I had
learnt such as the 180-rule into my final project and we effectively used our knowledge
within Media.
Thursday 7 February 2013
Pitch
Comedy Horror Pitch.
A Masked Antagonist:- Obsession With Fire
- A Scavenger. Uses anything available to him.
- Masked because of burns on his face. - Bullied in his childhood due to the burns on
his face.
- Kills people in the wrong. (Drug dealers & Animal abusers etc.)
- Could work for a secret organisation or could have more than one murderer.
- Could Murder other murderers.
Storyline Ideas:- - An increase has crime has caused him to hunt and kill bad people despite
him murdering them. He could be a corrupted character.
- There could be a movie which has a villain similar to him and people do not believe
he truly exists.
- Due to his childhood burns and bullying experience he has a distrust and genuine
hate towards humans. He is frightened and kills people to feel safe.
Characters: - Pyro- Murderer (Actor: Connor)
- James- Addicted to drugs, Intelligent & respected. Skater. ( Actor: Ryan)
- Dave- A Thief, Lazy and not very smart. (Actor: Anthony)
- Pete - Alcoholic ,Very Slow and incredibly stupid. (Actor: Roman)
Ideas for James: - Lives with his friends whom he skates with. - Was forced into drugs at a young age and now dependent on them. - Treats society very unfairly and is only respected by a few people. - Addicted To Drugs and causes life for some people a misery.
Ideas for Dave: - Lives with his mother, who he treats badly. - Obtains most of his clothes and food via stealing. Costs many people money. - Never obtained good grades at school.
Ideas for Pete: - Lives with his mom and dad and is an under-age alcoholic. - Due to wanting vodka all the time he spends all his money on drink and is tearing his family's life apart. - He is incredibly stupid and slow.
A Masked Antagonist:- Obsession With Fire
- A Scavenger. Uses anything available to him.
- Masked because of burns on his face. - Bullied in his childhood due to the burns on
his face.
- Kills people in the wrong. (Drug dealers & Animal abusers etc.)
- Could work for a secret organisation or could have more than one murderer.
- Could Murder other murderers.
Storyline Ideas:- - An increase has crime has caused him to hunt and kill bad people despite
him murdering them. He could be a corrupted character.
- There could be a movie which has a villain similar to him and people do not believe
he truly exists.
- Due to his childhood burns and bullying experience he has a distrust and genuine
hate towards humans. He is frightened and kills people to feel safe.
Characters: - Pyro- Murderer (Actor: Connor)
- James- Addicted to drugs, Intelligent & respected. Skater. ( Actor: Ryan)
- Dave- A Thief, Lazy and not very smart. (Actor: Anthony)
- Pete - Alcoholic ,Very Slow and incredibly stupid. (Actor: Roman)
Ideas for James: - Lives with his friends whom he skates with. - Was forced into drugs at a young age and now dependent on them. - Treats society very unfairly and is only respected by a few people. - Addicted To Drugs and causes life for some people a misery.
Ideas for Dave: - Lives with his mother, who he treats badly. - Obtains most of his clothes and food via stealing. Costs many people money. - Never obtained good grades at school.
Ideas for Pete: - Lives with his mom and dad and is an under-age alcoholic. - Due to wanting vodka all the time he spends all his money on drink and is tearing his family's life apart. - He is incredibly stupid and slow.
Monday 4 February 2013
Task 2: Research into existing products. The Dark Knight Rises
Analyse how the film’s opening
establishes genre conventions and reaches target audiences through technical
codes, narrative and characterisation.
The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark
Knight Rises is a super hero film that was released in 2012 and was directed by
Christopher Nolan. The film has the super hero Batman in and the film was the
third of its trilogy produced by Christopher Nolan. The film includes stars
such as Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine
and Gary Oldman. The film has grossed over £1 billion within the box office and
is still growing up to this date.
The movie starts off with a very dramatic start. 3 people who seem to be captured by the CIA who are looking for a person named ‘Bane’. Whilst a man is being threatened one of the hostages speaks. The Agent takes the bag of his head to reveal a bald man with a mask. This is Bane. A Overhead plane suddenly flies over and attacks the plane which bane is within. Bane starts to fight the CIA in hand to hand combat and is rescued by the overhead place. This Action packed intro sets the mood for the film perfectly and shows how the film will be of action nature.
The props used for the film also set its action genre. The Aeroplanes and Guns make it obvious that some sort of fight is going to happen and the props show that the scene is fit for an action movie. In comparison to the outfits they are very similar. Banes mask looks very sinister and deadly which makes his character very fit for an action movie, Even an horror movie.
The Fights between Bane & Batman ultimately show the movies action nature as there is more than one fight. It is packed with scenes of Batman & Bane fighting and Bane appears to be more physically stronger. The fight scenes between the two always have quick changing camera angles which makes the scenes flow quicker and with a much faster-pace. The speeds in which the angles change create the action-packed feel to the movie.
In Conclusion The Dark Knight Rises is seen widely as an action genre film and its easy to see why, The costumes and army atmosphere give the movie an action look straight away and the fight scenes in joint with the fast paced camera angles make the movie appear very fast and action packed. This is how the audience can see the film as an Action movie.
The movie starts off with a very dramatic start. 3 people who seem to be captured by the CIA who are looking for a person named ‘Bane’. Whilst a man is being threatened one of the hostages speaks. The Agent takes the bag of his head to reveal a bald man with a mask. This is Bane. A Overhead plane suddenly flies over and attacks the plane which bane is within. Bane starts to fight the CIA in hand to hand combat and is rescued by the overhead place. This Action packed intro sets the mood for the film perfectly and shows how the film will be of action nature.
The props used for the film also set its action genre. The Aeroplanes and Guns make it obvious that some sort of fight is going to happen and the props show that the scene is fit for an action movie. In comparison to the outfits they are very similar. Banes mask looks very sinister and deadly which makes his character very fit for an action movie, Even an horror movie.
The Fights between Bane & Batman ultimately show the movies action nature as there is more than one fight. It is packed with scenes of Batman & Bane fighting and Bane appears to be more physically stronger. The fight scenes between the two always have quick changing camera angles which makes the scenes flow quicker and with a much faster-pace. The speeds in which the angles change create the action-packed feel to the movie.
In Conclusion The Dark Knight Rises is seen widely as an action genre film and its easy to see why, The costumes and army atmosphere give the movie an action look straight away and the fight scenes in joint with the fast paced camera angles make the movie appear very fast and action packed. This is how the audience can see the film as an Action movie.
Task 2: Research into existing products. SE7EN
Analyse how the film’s opening
establishes genre conventions and reaches target audiences through technical
codes, narrative and characterization.
Se7en.
Seven is an American thriller film released in 1995. It was
directed by David Fincher and written by Andrew Walker. It went under production with a budget of $30
million and grossed $327,311,859 at the Box office.
The Film Se7en is about a rookie and professional investigators calls David Mills & William Somerset. They discover a string of deaths which is linked to the 7 sins, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Envy, Wrath, Pride and Lust. They are forced to address the murders and track down the murderer.
I will be seeing how the Movie shows its genre of thriller using the analysis of M.E.S, Camera Angles, and Sound and Editing.
The Film Se7en is about a rookie and professional investigators calls David Mills & William Somerset. They discover a string of deaths which is linked to the 7 sins, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Envy, Wrath, Pride and Lust. They are forced to address the murders and track down the murderer.
I will be seeing how the Movie shows its genre of thriller using the analysis of M.E.S, Camera Angles, and Sound and Editing.
Throughout the opening of the film the lighting is always
musky and dark. I think this makes the film more effective being a Thriller genre.
The lighting makes the atmosphere of the film to be Realistic and ‘Formal’. The
realistic nature of the film makes it appear more believable which Thrillers
sometimes can be. In addition to the realistic lighting the costumes are not
completely out of proportion. The suits and clothes which each individual
character wears seem to be realistic within se7en and the atmosphere of realism
allows the audience to engage with the Events and characters.
Overall I think the Realistic atmosphere of Se7en is a way in which the audience can decipher how Se7en is classed as a sensible thriller.
A close up shot of names being crossed out is a clever shot in creating an atmosphere of mystery and tension which is an iconic thriller effect. The way the names are being crossed out make the atmosphere to appear quite sinister and eerie as you quickly think people are being murdered as they are being crossed out.
In Conclusion the clever shots of the names being crossed out, in with the realism of the movie separate it from horror genre as its realistic and can be seen as a today situation. This is what makes it appear as a thriller.
Overall I think the Realistic atmosphere of Se7en is a way in which the audience can decipher how Se7en is classed as a sensible thriller.
A close up shot of names being crossed out is a clever shot in creating an atmosphere of mystery and tension which is an iconic thriller effect. The way the names are being crossed out make the atmosphere to appear quite sinister and eerie as you quickly think people are being murdered as they are being crossed out.
In Conclusion the clever shots of the names being crossed out, in with the realism of the movie separate it from horror genre as its realistic and can be seen as a today situation. This is what makes it appear as a thriller.
Thursday 31 January 2013
180 Degree Rule.
The 180-degree rule is a method that it used to orient
the viewer on a scene.
The camera should always be kept on one side of the line so the people are always in the same position no matter what angle the camera is.
It is possible to cross the 180 line however, this must be shown with the camera recording to orient the viewer on the New 180 degree angle where the people has switched sides. This gives the scene continuity.
However if people do switch sides between scenes a re-establishing scene is usually followed after to allow the viewer to re-establish where the characters are.
The camera should always be kept on one side of the line so the people are always in the same position no matter what angle the camera is.
It is possible to cross the 180 line however, this must be shown with the camera recording to orient the viewer on the New 180 degree angle where the people has switched sides. This gives the scene continuity.
However if people do switch sides between scenes a re-establishing scene is usually followed after to allow the viewer to re-establish where the characters are.
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