AS Media Studies

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Of course, technology was a very significant factor in the construction of this product. However, I learnt a lot about the Adobe software Premiere Pro when putting the shots together. Before AS Media Studies I had no prior experience with this software, so I had to learn everything about it from scratch. Before the creation of my film opening I only knew how to insert and cut shots. Therefore, my rough cut only consisted of simple editing. However, I wanted my two minute opening to look professional and finished, so I added indents, the titles of the production companies & the film title, music/sound effects, transition effects and special effects. In order to include and create these assets successfully, I had to experiment with different options in Premier pro and see what they did.

First of all, I added indents of the actors' names in different areas of my opening. I did this by clicking on 'Add item' in the bottom left corner of the screen and then 'Title'. I wrote in the name of one of my actors and chose the font to be Bangla Sagnam in the size 42 pt. I positioned the text in the bottom right hand corner so it will not get in the way of the content in the centre of the screen. Finally, I duplicated the show a few times and changed the text of each one individually so the indents for each actor name were aligned in the same position.

It was very simple to add music and sound effects to my film opening. I went on Youtube.com/audiolibary/music and downloaded some songs from there. All its content was copyright free. Once the chosen files were downloaded onto my computer, they came up on iTunes. Then, all I did was drag the songs from iTunes into the shots tab of my opening in Premiere Pro. I cropped the music in the same way you would crop the filmed shots.

Adding transition effects is a less complex procedure than the other two techniques above. To add a faded out effect, all I did was that I went on "Effects" > "Video Transitions" > "Dissolve" and then "Cross Dissolve". I held my cursor on it and dragged it to the shot I wanted the effect to be on. Double clicking on the transition enabled me to alter the duration of the effect.

As shown in my film opening, a text message box arises in a shot of Polly on the phone. I searched tutorials on how to add a text message in a video yet all of the templates used in them were brought. I took inspiration from a video I discovered of someone simply deleting the background of a screen shotted text message in Photoshop and saved it as a PNG. Therefore, I texted myself the message notification from my character 'Liam Chapman', took a screenshot and emailed it to myself. I opened it in photoshop, used the quick selection took around the text message and hit delete. The file was then saved as a PNG so the space around the text box would be transparent. Then, on Premier Pro, I went on 'Title' > 'Graphic' > 'Insert Graphic' to transform the image into my film opening sequence.

Therefore, I have learnt quite a lot about technologies and how to construct a video in Premier Pro. I have also learnt that Premiere Pro was not an easy piece of software to use as it many of its components are not very clear. However, I think that I have learnt plenty of useful techniques from constructing my product in Premiere Pro that I will certainly take on board for future media projects. Apart from this, I do not think that I have learnt about other technologies through creating my film opening as I already knew how to film on my SLR camera.

Thursday, May 12, 2016

'Deluded' Final Cut

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Evaluation Question 1

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As a whole, my media products represents male and female teenagers who are part of the technological generation. This is because that the storyline behind my opening/film begins with Millie and Liam talking through a dating app called Tinder. However, this is a very broad social group, so my three characters behold different personas - some personality traits being more relatable to the teens of the real world than others. It is difficult to analyse how the characters clearly represent particular social groups within the space of two minutes, yet I thought that their costumes and what they do within the time frame can give a strong indication.

There are a variety of social groups within the age range of my characters. Polly, for instance, represents the shy, introverted and naive traits that many girls her age possess. She is presented in my media product of representing this specific social group by what she wears. For example, her large glasses and bold coloured jumper in the phone call scene highlights a sense of happiness and righteousness, which also relates to the trait of being innocent. The fact that she also left her keys behind a plant pot just outside her front door (shown in the burglar scene) reveals the character's unawareness, obliviousness and also carelessness about how easy they were for someone (Millie) to find, possibly resulting in ruination within her own household.

Millie, as described in my 'Characters' blog post, is someone who has two sides to her personality. She comes across as being engaging and kind, but her friendliness and assertive tone of her voice can be perceived in a manipulative manner. This reflects her other aspect of her personality, which involves the traits of being vengeful and against morals. Therefore, Milie represents the stereotypical social group of popular teenage girls who possess a high ego and cause drama if they do not get their own way, e.g. Regina George in 'Mean Girls'. The contrast of Millie acting sweet and friendly towards Polly on her phone, and then breaking into her house, strongly represents her overall personality and spiteful teenage girls in the modern world. Although the act of burglary does not represent the common actions of teenage social groups, it is something that can happen and has happened in the past from people of Millie's age. It still represents the similar malicious level in which some teenagers go to, as well as the hostility and retaliation they feel.

Liam is not shown in my media opening as much as my other characters, therefore his more pleasant and caring side is not easily highlighted. This is because his contribution to Polly's burglary distracts the audience from these aspects of his personality, resulting in him being perceived as a sly, untrustworthy and betraying person. Therefore, this represents a proportion of everyday teenagers who have exposed someone (e.g. a friend) to danger or grief by treacherously giving information to someone else, e.g. an enemy.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Evaluation Question 4 and 5

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Evaluation Question 3

Saturday, April 16, 2016

2 minute Film Opening analysis (Professionally-made)

Clueless (1995)

The Opening sequence of Clueless begins with various shots & scenes of a girl (Cher)'s everyday life, one of which including walking out of a store with a large Tiffany & Co. bag - suggesting that she is a typical teenage girl who enjoys shopping, but is also upper class. The first minute also focuses on the people who surround Cher and who she hangs around with. The song 'Kids in America' also plays, which forecasts an overall perception of where these teenagers are from and what typical American kids do. Narration/dialogue is highly featured in this opening, as Cher informs the viewers of how she usually starts her day - getting out of bed and choosing an outfit. This implies that the backbone of the plot is introduced in the opening 2 minutes - that the whole film relates to happenings in Cher's life. Her father can also be seen as an another key character in Clueless, as Cher introduces the audience to him and what he does. There are no credits in the first two minutes but the key locations are Cher's house and by a swimming pool.

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

The opening instantly begins with upbeat music and a male character with a stripy suit (Austin Powers) dancing into the clearing. Everyday people begin to join him and dance, which shows that the film begins with a cheerful and positive atmosphere. At the start of the opening, there is no direct dialogue, but there are voices and laughs from people in the background. Towards the first minute of the film, dialogue is expressed through Austin Powers. This is then followed by a scene of a groups of girls screaming "It's Austin Powers!" and chasing after him down a pavement. This suggests that Austin Powers holds a very significant title in this film, as the opening sequence focuses entirely on him. Comedy is also depicted in the second minute of the movie, as Austin Powers is disguised twice to hide from the large crowds, yet fails when they come running back in his direction. The Opening then ends with Austin powers leading/in front of a large group of everyday people and a
marching band, thus illustrating that he is the main character. The opening's setting focuses on an urban atmosphere. Colour is also a noticeable aspect of the first two minutes, as the majority of actors are dressed with bright and vibrant clothing. Each credit is a different colour to the others, suggesting that each person is unique in themselves.

Divergent (2014)

Divergent begins with an establishing shot of a city in the distance. The camera begins to zoom in and the audience can establish that the city is damaged - a road bridge has collapsed and many skyscrapers have subsided at the top. An indent appears, saying 'Chicago'. This partly reveals the film's plot - that it's set in the futuristic era. There is also a noticeable contrast between the countryside/setting outside the city, and the city itself. This implies that the city's population are isolated and only have each other. The fact that the camera pans over the wall suggests that they are far away from the rest of the world. Narration is also featured in the opening sequence of Divergent, which consists of a female voice talking about the people in the area and what happened to make things the way they are. It is an excellent overview of what everyday life is like in her world. Therefore, this could also suggest that she is the main character in the film.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Audience feedback of rough cut

My rough cut was shown to my media class. Overall, people responded well to my rough cut and mentioned how they were pleased with the outcome. They all agreed that I could make the shots focusing on the phone screens darker so the text would be easier to read. It also worried me whether the audience could understand the storyline of my plot but I gathered from their responses that they did.
In order to receive feedback on how to improve me rough cut further for my final cut, I showed my rough cut to individual people.

Some feedback I received for one of the viewers, was that the sound proved to be a slight issue towards the end of the rough cut. I was aware of this problem to begin with and I know I will aim to sort it out for my final cut. They also mentioned how the end scenes after Millie unlocks the front door were not needed. I can see how doing this would give me more time to include idents and such. The last piece of feedback I received from this person was to perhaps include a transition effect after the scene of Poly putting down her phone and before the long shot of Polly and Liam sitting in the restaurant.

I asked my good friend Abbey what they thought about my rough cut. Abbey did not give me much feedback apart from sorting out the errors I already noticed e.g. the difference of lighting/contrast between the shots of Polly on the phone and her looking down at a notification from Liam. Apart from that, Abbey really liked my opening and thought it was very good.

Similar to Abbey's feedback, my teacher said that my opening was very good and it did not need to be altered to a great extent. He disagreed with the suggestion of inserting a transition effect, as he liked how it abruptly jumped from one scene to the other because he thinks its good to challenge typical film conventions. The only thing he mentioned what I should have done whilst filming the burglary scene, was to only reveal Millie's identity when she unlocked the front door. However, I mentioned how I attempted to create a sense of astonishment after the few-seconds shot of Polly's address when Millie turned on the light in the car. My teacher forgot about the phone shot and then understood what it was attempting to achieve.

Thursday, March 03, 2016

Film opening rough cut

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Character Profile task

Name: Emma Grenier

Age: Sixteen

Nationality: It is unknown where Clara really is from, but her adopted parents raised her in Québec, Canada

Profession: Student

Marital Status: Single

Emma is an introverted person. She rarely socialises with anyone outside of school as she prefers her own company. She lives in a forest so she often spends time sitting on a tree branch and drawing her surroundings/reading. Emma is fascinated about nature and is always keen to explore the rural environment in which she has access to. This makes her environmentally conscious as she believes she is connected to the forest and its species. Emma does not have many friends as it takes a while for her to feel comfortable opening up to someone. Emma is usually a content person as she believes in spirituality & shows an interest towards intellectual spirituality theories. Therefore, she is always treats others with respect, yet many people see her as being rude/moody because she prefers not speaking to anyone. Emma's greatest fear is the forest that she lives in being cut down for habilitation.

How do they speak?

The occasional times Emma decides to speak, her voice is very tranquil and delicate. It is quiet and medium-high pitch. Emma does not swear as she was brought up to speak in an educated manner - her classmates often take advantage of this and tease her for acting so mature. Due to her shyness, Emma looks down at the floor when being spoken to as she feels uncomfortable when making eye contact. Emma does not use long, fancy words, as she usually replied with short yet significant sentences. Emma also has a Québecois accent.

What does the character like/dislike?

My character likes chill-out music, including electronica, ambient and classical genres. Emma does not eat much and is vegetarian, therefore she would prefer to go with an healthy option in a restaurant. Emma is not very sporty but she loves going on adventures and spends an excessive amount of her time walking, cycling and climbing trees. She is fascinated about the world around her so she could certainly prefer to go on a sightseeing holiday where she can discover the history of a place. Emma is also fond of both modern and traditional art as she is able to see the beauty in both the world and human creations - apart from when they destroy the planet. Her most treasured possession is a pair of earrings she was wearing when she was adopted - they are the only objects she still has from her real parents.

What do they do?

Emma is a student at her local high school. She is currently unemployed yet she is searching for recruitment. However, it is very hard for her to get a job as she struggles with talking at interviews. Emma is very talented at writing fantasy stories and often gets ideas from the surroundings around her house. She loves the fact that she can express her inner emotions through characters and dialogue. She aspires to become an author one day.

Where do they live?

Emma and her adopted parents live in a 19th century country house in a forest in Québec, Canada. Emma loves where she lives and the area its based in, but her adopted parents desperately want to move house to somewhere more urban.

Who do they know?

Emma does not really know a lot of people as she does not have many friends/family members. She does not know who her real parens are and she hopes to look for them one day when she is older. Emma has never had a relationship, nor do they really appeal to her. Emma is close to her adopted parents, yet she still finds it hard to believe that 2 years ago they told her they were not her real parents. The person Emma is closest to is a girl called Lea, who both hold very similar values in terms of socialising.

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Submarine Recreation Task

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Images Whilst filming

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Character Costumes

Saturday, February 20, 2016

Character Casting

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Audience Research Video & Feedback

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Characters

Characters featuring in my 2 minute opening

Polly Edwards

Age: 18

Profession: Year 13 A Level Student

Likes: Polly loves music and often attends many concerts. Recently, she began having guitar lessons. She also has an eye for creativity and has an interest for all styles of art. Polly is determined to achieve good grades in school and reach her future goals of becoming an album cover artist.

Dislikes: Polly hates being lied to and disrespected, therefore she strives to treat people nicely in the first place. She hates social stereotypes and feels strongly about feminism and injustice.

History: Polly has a dark and troublesome family history as lives with her mum. She moved from Manchester to Norfolk with her to have a fresh start. Apart from this, Polly does not behold too much significant history as she aims to be on good terms with everyone and everything.

Personality Traits: Polly is rather gullible and is easily convinced. This made her an easy target for Millie's and Liam's concept. At times she is influenced by her friends to be rather rebellious but Polly is eventually guided by her long term motivations.

Friendship Groups: Polly is part of a close unit friendship group and prefers not to associate herself in larger crowds. Polly and her friends often go on adventures and are not afraid to get into trouble. Polly goes to the same school as Millie but they are not in the same friendship groups.

Influences: Polly's friends provide a strong influence to her as she hates feeling left out of opportunities.

3 Words to Describe them: Compassionate, naïve, reflective

Millie Prescott

Age: 17

Profession: Year 13 A Level Student

Likes: Millie enjoys listening to rock music and watching anime. Despite having an active social life, Millie likes to stay indoors and laze about.

Dislikes: Millie hates not getting her own way, as well as disappointment and failure in what she does.

History: Millie moved over to England from Asia when she was 3. Millie has history with both Polly and Liam. Millie is close friends with Polly and has always been jealous of her expensive possessions. This convinced her to rob her house. Millie has also known of Liam for a long time yet she has only spoken to him a few times. However, she is also jealous that Polly and Liam are talking to each other and knows that if Polly finds out that Liam was part of the robbery, Polly will end things between them.

Personality Traits: Millie can easily be perceived as someone who is kind, sweet and understandable. She is aware that she is like that and deliberately tries to be liked. However, Millie transforms into a manipulative and malicious person if someone does something she does not agree with. She is sly and she knows exactly how to change people's perception of someone.

Friendship Groups: Millie is in a different friendship group to Polly, which means that they are not as close as they used to be. Millie hangs around with a large group of girls who are seen as the bitchy and popular group in their friendship school.

Influences: Millie is highly influenced by her parents and older sister, who also have a tendency to be deceitful. Apart from that, Millie is not really influenced by other things except dramatic films and television shows. Her friendly side influences other people around her.

3 Words to Describe them: Mysterious, emotional, duplicitous

Liam Chapman

Age:18

Profession: Year 13 A Level Student

Likes: Liam is quite optimistic so he likes a lot of things in general. However, he has similar preferences and interests to Polly. He likes seeing live bands, abstract art and marvel films. He is not like other everyday teenage boys who like football/sports and video games.

Dislikes: Similar to his interests, Liam does not have any strong, negative feelings towards things. However, if there is something or someone that irritates Liam, he gets very angry, argumentative, impatient and sulky.

History: In some ways, Liam is someone who has a very basic history. He has lived in the same house throughout his entire life, and he is close to his parents and siblings. Nothing crucial/serious has happened to him and his family in a long time. On the other hand, Liam has a tedious and promiscuous history with girls online. He has never committed anything outrageous but he is not someone who can be trusted. This is because he is easily influenced by opportunities/rewards that convince him to do bad things. For example, Liam was sucked into Millie's plan that targets Polly as she promised him that she will give him a significant amount of money, which she aims to receive from selling Polly's possessions.

Personality traits: In general, Liam is someone who is known to be kind and loyal to his friends. However, as stated above, Liam can easily get carried away and can be perceived as someone who cannot manage a serious relationship. This is because he enjoys the satisfaction he gets from girls, and finds using dating apps an easy way to talk to them. Liam looks rather innocent but he appears to be quite the opposite.

Friendship groups: Liam is the most sensible member of his friendship group, who are known to be the 'lads' of his year group. They are called this as they often get drunk, go to parties and mess around.

Influences: Liam's friends and Millie are huge influences to him and his actions. His ego and appearance also influence him to feel over confident when speaking to girls and to assure that he can get what he wants.

3 Words to describe them: Flirtatious, cunning, charming

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Final Locations

For my final locations, It is conducted that I will be using the inside and outside of my friend Charlotte's house (who plays Polly in my film opening) and at the Bird in Hand restaurant in Wreningham.

After I gathered my location research of different pubs/restaurants, I narrowed my options down to 1 location which I would contact first - the others would be back ups. I thought about the pro's and con's of each location for my film opening. I like the atmosphere of the Robert Kett Pub, but I feel as though it is aimed more towards families than couples. The Railway station cafe serves great food and allows customers to experience a unique train carriage setting, but I feel as though it is not realistically suited for a first date and somewhere to have dinner. The Green Dragon and The Feathers both portray historical character, but I feel as though my characters would prefer to eat somewhere more modern and romantic. Therefore, this leads to the Bird in Hand to be my first Choice. It is one of my favourite restaurants, implying that my personal experiences of its service and ambience reflects my suggestion of it suiting my desired purpose.

I will also be using the inside and the outside of Charlotte's house. It will be used for filming the phone call between Polly and Millie, Liam knocking on Polly's door, and Millie breaking into her house. I feel as though Charlotte's house would be a good location to film in because each of the rooms in her house look different. They need to look this way so my opening will look as though Millie and Polly are in different houses/their own homes. I also feel as though Charlotte's bedroom represents Polly's character well.

How does the setting you are planning on using help construct a mise-en-scene?

The Bird in hand helps to construct a mise-en-scene I am aiming to address in my opening. It's artificial and low-intensity lightning creates a sense of intimacy, and as if the date is happening at night time. The location of a restaurant also helps to create a theme of romance between the two characters. However, as the audience will eventually find out, this will not be the case.

The setting of using Charlotte's house to capture a phone call between two characters also helps to construct a thriller mise-en-scene. This is because I am aiming for my opening to look as realistic as possible, therefore the majority of phone calls between two teenagers usually occur within their bedrooms/homes. Thrillers are usually based around serious occurrences/narratives, therefore I think that using these locations suit their purposes well.

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Storyboards

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

AS Media Studies

About Me

Blog Archive

Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt in the progression from it to your main product?

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

'Deluded' Final Cut

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 4 and 5

Evaluation Question 3

2 minute Film Opening analysis (Professionally-made)

Clueless (1995)

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997)

Divergent (2014)

Audience feedback of rough cut

Film opening rough cut

Character Profile task

Submarine Recreation Task

Images Whilst filming

Filming day 1: Monday 15th February 2015

Filming Day 2: Thursday 25th February

Character Costumes

Character Casting

Character casting

Audience Research Video & Feedback

Characters

Characters featuring in my 2 minute opening

Final Locations

Final Locations

Storyboards

Story Board draft

Final Script

Scene 1: On the Phone

Next Scene: Liam rings her doorbell and Polly opens the front door.

Next scene: The pair are sitting opposite each other in the restaurant, accompanied with drinks.

Flickr Images