My name is CP and welcome to my blog. It is a record of the work undertaken as part of the G321 AS Foundation Portfolio within the OCR GCE cause in Media Studies. I worked independently to produce a film opening in the science fiction and dystopian genre. The project lasted four months, commencing in September 2015 and finishing in March 2016. I hope you enjoy my work and find it both successful and interesting. Please use the navigation bar to access my work as organised into labels Audience Research, Black Sands, Case Study: Disney, Characters & Casting, Evaluation, Film Experience, Film Research, Filming Techniques, Media Trips and Preliminary Task. There is also a link to the St Mary's School Blog Hub.
Yours faithfully,
CP
Friday, 25 March 2016
Thursday, 24 March 2016
Monday, 21 March 2016
Evaluation Question One || In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My film opening, Black Sands starts with an establishing shot which is a typical film opening convention. It also follows a lot of dystopian film conventions such as being set in a chaotic world where genetics have created a new rampant disease, citizens are under surveillance and humanity dividing into smaller groups to survive.
However, I have not followed the stereotypical idea of setting 'Black Sands' in the future but have actually set it in the past. Although it could be argued that it would make the audience think more if it were set in the future, I think it is different because it is like an alternate universe where this happened in our past and would make the audience think about where they would be if this had happened.
The first frame in the Black Sands nine frame analysis is my establishing shot. It is a long shot that shows the land across from the river and the pavement is overgrown, as well as the land across the river looks barren and deserted. This follows the ideal conventions of a dystopian film with world being in ruin.
The second frame, is plain which is a common convention for film titles. I tried to follow typical dystopian conventions with the font of the text being modern or ultramodern. The font that I finally decided on fitted into the convention of it being ultramodern and also looks like it is crumbling which links it to the idea of being dystopian and in ruins.
The third frame sets up three of the main characters: Alys, Rowena and Skadi. It is a mid shot and sets up the plot of the film, making the audience believe that something will happen between these three characters or that they are vital for an upcoming event within the storyline.
The fourth frame shows my makeup skills and use of lighting within the film opening. Skadi's makeup is easy to focus on due to the black and blue veins streaking down her forehead. This was another mid shot that I used to establish Skadi's character. I wanted to give the audience a hint as to how mad Skadi was before the film has even really started to form. The fifth frame shows a close up of Skadi which I also used to emphasise on her character's madness.
The sixth frame is a mid shot of the main character, Rowena. Compared to the fourth frame where I portrayed Skadi's character in the shade to emphasise on her maddening, dark character, I have portrayed Rowena's character in the light to try and exaggerate how Rowena is the main character and the most important character within the plot of the film.
The seventh frame is a point of view shot from Rowena's point of view when she has approached Skadi. I managed to make the camera focus on the brightness of the windows instead of Skadi herself which emphasises on Skadi's dark character. The use of the darkness is also effective because the light catches in the actress's blonde hair which I think shows how Skadi's past self is slowly slipping away and that she can't hold on to who she is anymore.
My eighth frame is an over the shoulder shot from behind Skadi. Again, the use of lighting in this shot was used to make Alys and Rowena's character seem light and good whereas all that you can see of Skadi's character is her dark silhouette making her character seem dark and hostile.
Finally, in the ninth frame is a mid shot that shows Alys turning towards the camera and Rowena. It's at this point which I made Rowena seem dark. This is because Alys seems unaware and is naive over where or what has happened to her brother unlike Rowena who has been trying to keep Alys thinking that her brother will be returning...when he will not.
However, I have not followed the stereotypical idea of setting 'Black Sands' in the future but have actually set it in the past. Although it could be argued that it would make the audience think more if it were set in the future, I think it is different because it is like an alternate universe where this happened in our past and would make the audience think about where they would be if this had happened.
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| © Filmography by CP |
The first frame in the Black Sands nine frame analysis is my establishing shot. It is a long shot that shows the land across from the river and the pavement is overgrown, as well as the land across the river looks barren and deserted. This follows the ideal conventions of a dystopian film with world being in ruin.
The second frame, is plain which is a common convention for film titles. I tried to follow typical dystopian conventions with the font of the text being modern or ultramodern. The font that I finally decided on fitted into the convention of it being ultramodern and also looks like it is crumbling which links it to the idea of being dystopian and in ruins.
The third frame sets up three of the main characters: Alys, Rowena and Skadi. It is a mid shot and sets up the plot of the film, making the audience believe that something will happen between these three characters or that they are vital for an upcoming event within the storyline.
The fourth frame shows my makeup skills and use of lighting within the film opening. Skadi's makeup is easy to focus on due to the black and blue veins streaking down her forehead. This was another mid shot that I used to establish Skadi's character. I wanted to give the audience a hint as to how mad Skadi was before the film has even really started to form. The fifth frame shows a close up of Skadi which I also used to emphasise on her character's madness.
The sixth frame is a mid shot of the main character, Rowena. Compared to the fourth frame where I portrayed Skadi's character in the shade to emphasise on her maddening, dark character, I have portrayed Rowena's character in the light to try and exaggerate how Rowena is the main character and the most important character within the plot of the film.
The seventh frame is a point of view shot from Rowena's point of view when she has approached Skadi. I managed to make the camera focus on the brightness of the windows instead of Skadi herself which emphasises on Skadi's dark character. The use of the darkness is also effective because the light catches in the actress's blonde hair which I think shows how Skadi's past self is slowly slipping away and that she can't hold on to who she is anymore.
My eighth frame is an over the shoulder shot from behind Skadi. Again, the use of lighting in this shot was used to make Alys and Rowena's character seem light and good whereas all that you can see of Skadi's character is her dark silhouette making her character seem dark and hostile.
Finally, in the ninth frame is a mid shot that shows Alys turning towards the camera and Rowena. It's at this point which I made Rowena seem dark. This is because Alys seems unaware and is naive over where or what has happened to her brother unlike Rowena who has been trying to keep Alys thinking that her brother will be returning...when he will not.
Sunday, 20 March 2016
Evaluation Question Two || How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My film opening is supposed to portray a group of teenage girls. I decided to do this as stereotypically a dystopian survival film will have strong male characters who tend to protect female characters who are often portrayed as weak and emotional. I wanted to defy this stereotype as we need to see female characters portrayed as strong characters as well. My main inspiration came from Group B in 'The Scorch Trials' who are a group of girls who fought their way out of the maze similar to Group A in the Glade.
The main character in 'Black Sands': Rowena Hemlock is a key character within my film opening and I tried to characterise her as a leader as well as someone who girls could relate to - which is key to any character in a film. I wanted her to be strong and someone who didn't seem to need to be rescued and independent.
I firstly linked Rowena's character to Clarke from 'The 100'. Both are natural leaders and have a strong free spirit as well as a strong sense of loyalty. Alike to Clarke (in the book 'The 100'), Rowena has lost her mother which seems to dawn on her and adds to hasty maturity. However, unlike Clarke, Rowena is set on surviving and in what she believes in. In terms of costume, Rowena and Clarke are very different. Although Clarke originally came down in normal clothing, she soon turned to lots of leathers and other grounder clothing in Season 2. Rowena is characterised as wearing something that a teenage girl would wear. I didn't want it to look like she had planned for an event like this or had time to return and change her clothes when she felt like it. I wanted it to look like Rowena had been stuck in the same clothing for a long time, being covered in dirt, grime and blood (which I attempted to cover the clothing with via some methods I learnt from on YouTube).
I then went on to compare Rowena's character with Octavia from 'The 100'. I chose to compare Rowena and Octavia's characters as I imagine that, before the disaster, Rowena was once a typical teenage girl and only after her mother died and her family died that she had to pull herself together. This is very much the same as Octavia after she was locked up after being discovered under the floorboards in her mother's flat. I saw more similarity, costume wise, between Octavia and Rowena as neither of them change their clothes - Octavia does but only marginally. I wanted Rowena to seem as if she had accepted who she had now become and knew that she could not escape from it - unlike what Clarke does in 'The 100'.
Finally, I compared Rowena's character with two characters from 'The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials': Harriet and Sonya. Harriet and Sonya are part of a group of girls who fought their way out of the maze similar to Group A in the Glade. They are the leaders of Group B and both compliment each others character traits. Harriet is the harsh leader who will fight to protect what she loves whilst Sonya is her second-in-command and is far less brutal but none the less willing to fight for what she believes in. I like to think that Rowena is a combination of both of these characters put into one. Similarly to Harriet and Sonya, I made sure that Rowena was in something that a teenager would wear and something that you would be comfortable in if trapped in an eternal winter like the characters are.
The main character in 'Black Sands': Rowena Hemlock is a key character within my film opening and I tried to characterise her as a leader as well as someone who girls could relate to - which is key to any character in a film. I wanted her to be strong and someone who didn't seem to need to be rescued and independent.
I then went on to compare Rowena's character with Octavia from 'The 100'. I chose to compare Rowena and Octavia's characters as I imagine that, before the disaster, Rowena was once a typical teenage girl and only after her mother died and her family died that she had to pull herself together. This is very much the same as Octavia after she was locked up after being discovered under the floorboards in her mother's flat. I saw more similarity, costume wise, between Octavia and Rowena as neither of them change their clothes - Octavia does but only marginally. I wanted Rowena to seem as if she had accepted who she had now become and knew that she could not escape from it - unlike what Clarke does in 'The 100'.
Finally, I compared Rowena's character with two characters from 'The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials': Harriet and Sonya. Harriet and Sonya are part of a group of girls who fought their way out of the maze similar to Group A in the Glade. They are the leaders of Group B and both compliment each others character traits. Harriet is the harsh leader who will fight to protect what she loves whilst Sonya is her second-in-command and is far less brutal but none the less willing to fight for what she believes in. I like to think that Rowena is a combination of both of these characters put into one. Similarly to Harriet and Sonya, I made sure that Rowena was in something that a teenager would wear and something that you would be comfortable in if trapped in an eternal winter like the characters are.
Saturday, 19 March 2016
Evaluation Question Three || What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? - Part One
Firstly, I took a look at dystopian films and their distributers. Film distributers that I noted that would be most likely to distribute my film where: Entertainment One, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros.
I first looked at Entertainment One after having started to watch The Walking Dead. I noticed similarities between them - even though I have only watched the first episode - due to their modern dystopian setting and the content of the film: horror, sci-fi, action. I researched the distribution company and discovered that Entertainment One distribute the series. After researching them further, I learnt that they have also distributes/produced other dystopian films such as the Divergent films and Enders Game. However, Entertainment One is not a very well known company and therefore would not attract a wide audience.
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| [Walking Dead] |
I then researched 20th Century Fox. 20th Century Fox have done many dystopian films such as the Maze Runner films, the Planet of the Apes films and X-Men: Days of Future Past. The Maze Runner films were a large part of my inspiration for Black Sands. Due to the similarities between the Maze Runner films and Black Sands I think that 20th Century Fox would possibly distribute my film. Unlike Entertainment One, 20th Century Fox is a well known film distribution company and would attract a wider audience. This would mean greater profits for the film as well as greater word of mouth, which could lead to large amounts of people discovering the film.
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| [The Scorch Trials] |
Finally, I researched one of the most famous film distributors: Warner Bros. Warner Bros have distributed many famous dystopian films such as The Book of Eli, Cloud Atlas, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Matrix, Transcendence and V for Vendetta. I think that Warner Bros would be a likely candidate to distribute Black Sands due to the amount of dystopian films that they have distributed. Alike to 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros are a widely known film distribution company and this would attract a large audience as well as the audience of fans of dystopian literature and filmography.
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| [The Book of Eli] |
Friday, 18 March 2016
Evaluation Question Four || Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience for my media product was teens and young adults. I rated my film as a 15 due to having taken my inspiration from films and television programs that were rated 15 or even higher. Although, I can see a lot of elements from a 12A rated film due to it's similarities to The Maze Runner and The Scorch Trials.
I interviewed a number of people at the start of my course and asked them a series of questions about what sort of films they watched and what attracts them to these sort of films. I used this to make sure that 'Black Sands' reached a wider audience.
I interviewed a number of people at the start of my course and asked them a series of questions about what sort of films they watched and what attracts them to these sort of films. I used this to make sure that 'Black Sands' reached a wider audience.
A U D I E N C E E V A L U A T I O N F O R
F I L M O P E N I N G
F I L M O P E N I N G
- On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being excellent and 1 being not at all, how much did you enjoy the film as a whole?
- What do you think the film is aimed at?
- On a scale of 1-10, how effective do you think the music is?
- On a scale of 1-10, how much effective are the actors and setting?
- On a scale of 1-10, how likely would you be to watch this film?
- If you could change anything about the film, what would it be?
I have compiled my results into a video below:
Thursday, 17 March 2016
Evaluation Question Five || How did you attract/address your audience?
For Evaluation Five, I have annotated my film opening to show how I have attracted my audience and what film techniques I used to do so.
Wednesday, 16 March 2016
Evaluation Question Six || What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
When I started this project I only had vague knowledge about the technology I would be using. I had never used an Apple laptop or any of the software that I have been using such as Final Cut Pro and Motion.
I have been filming school events since I was in year 7 and therefore had reasonable experience with using the camera. The tripod was more of an issue, having never really used it due to having always filmed handheld. This meant that I learnt a lot more about using the tripod due to filming 'Black Sands' as well as still doing filming for school events such as the production of Bugsy Malone and the year 10 coursework.
At the beginning of the course I purchased an Apple Macbook and I was amazed at how different an Apple laptop is to a normal laptop. After a couple of weeks, I finally started to get the hang of it. After getting to grips with iMovie I decided that I wanted to expand my editing ability further and purchased both Final Cut Pro and Motion. I had no idea how advanced Final Cut Pro actually was and it took me a while to get to grips on how to actually use it to the extent that I needed. When I designed my film ident on Motion it similarly took me a little while to figure out how to use it. I had been told that it was a lot like using Photoshop - which I am useless at using. However, I didn't let this get me down. Embarrassingly, after taking a couple of days to actually figure out how to just add text, I started to properly start designing my ident. Within a couple of days it was finished and I was happy with how it had turned out.
Also, I had never actually blogged before. I had been part of the media team on Makewav.es at school however I had always written proper articles and posts instead of using Makewav.es as a form of blogging. Blogger was a completely new website for me to use and it was completely new for me.
Alike to never having had a Blogger account, I had never actually had an account on YouTube either. I had been wanting to set up an account on YouTube for a couple of years and now I have one I can actually show YouTube my film editing skills as well as post my coursework online.
St Mary's Coursework Premiere
Today we did a screening of our media coursework for year 10 and upwards during a lunchtime screening. During this handed out a small sheet for the audience to fill in containing these questions
- On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being excellent and 1 being not at all, how much did you enjoy the film as a whole?
- What do you think the film is aimed at?
- On a scale of 1-10, how effective do you think the music is?
- On a scale of 1-10, how much effective are the actors and setting?
- On a scale of 1-10, how likely would you be to watch this film?
- If you could change anything about the film, what would it be?
This will help me with my audience research as well as my overall evaluation (evaluation question four)
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