foundation portfolio - video production

Audience Responses!

2010-05-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

At tuesday lunchtime, my media class and I set up a showcase of all our opening sequences in the school's drama studio. A range of age groups turned up to the event, including pupils from years 7 - 13 and a range of teachers. The event was a great success and we managed to gain a lot of positive feedback. A lot of the members of the audience commented on the use of red lighting in my groups opening sequence, saying that it was very effective because it connoted danger. Most people also said that the music was very dramatic and made the film seem more frigtening. Some of the teachers and older students also recognised the deliberate canted angle at the start of the sequence to create uncertainty. One of the teachers also commented on the film saying "it's unbeliavable that students of such a young age could create such a complex and extraordinary piece of work." Overall the majority of the feedback from the showcase was very positive, however we discovered a few areas in which we could improve if we were given the change to do the task again. A few people said that the storyline seemed slightly confusing, which was originally our intention because we wanted to keep the audience guessing about who the 'murderer' was. Therefore if my group and I were given the chance to re-do the film we would try to improve this and therefore make the storyline a bit clearer and easier for the audience to follow. Another change i would have liked to have made would be makeing the voice over slightly louder and clearer so that it would be easier for the audience to understand, because a few people mentioned that the current voiceovers were slightly unclear.

BULLSEYE

2010-03-25T09:51:00.000-07:00

Continuity Excercise

2010-03-25T09:48:00.000-07:00

Evaluation

2010-03-25T09:47:00.000-07:00

Media Studies - Video Production Evaluation

The Brief
Our brief was to produce a two minute long opening sequence of a new thriller. Producing our opening sequence took a lot of research and planning and we were all set different pre-production, production and post-production tasks to ensure that we met the deadline for our opening sequence.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In some ways my video production has similar conventions of a real thriller because we have used a murderer and a victim as the characters. However, in most thrillers the character of the murderer is usually a man; therefore we challenged this stereotype by leaving the decision of who the murderer is up to the audience. The purpose of this is so that the audience has more control over the film and more involvement. Another way that we challenged the codes and conventions of a typical thriller is by using different lighting. We decided to film our opening sequence using red lighting to connote blood and danger and from my research and planning I know that this is not a typical feature of a thriller. However we were inspired by the film ‘Catch me if you can’ which was directed by Steven Spielberg. We noticed that in the opening sequence for this film there was a use of blue lighting, we found this very effective. However we decided that using red lights would make the film more thrilling because it would connote danger. Therefore this film inspired us when it came to choosing our lighting.I also think that my group and I challenged the codes and conventions of a thriller through our storyline. The plot we followed was using a game of darts to show how a murderer is stalking girls and killing them. From my research and planning I know that this is not a typical storyline used in thrillers. Therefore me and my group have not followed all the codes and conventions of typical thrillers and have also tried to challenge them in some way or another.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In our opening sequence there are only two characters involved. The first character is the ‘murderer.’ When we were creating this character we decided that we would try and make this character quite stereotypical. In other thrillers that we watched we noticed that the murderer would often be in dark clothing to make them seem more frightening and mysterious. Therefore, we decided that we would give the murderer the same stereotypical image as murderers in other films. We decided to dress the murderer in big black boots and dark clothing to make the character seem more fearsome. However we did try to challenge the stereotypical image of the murderer because we noticed that in most thrillers this character is usually a man. We decided that we would try to cover up the identity and gender of the murderer to let the audience decide for themselves who the murderer should be. Also with the feedback from our media class we found out that most people think that not knowing who the murderer is makes the film feel more disturbing. The second character in our opening sequence is the victim. Our main aim for this character was to represent her as being very vulnerable. We wanted to represent her as a stereotype so therefore we decided to dress her in very girly clothing and heels. The use of the heels is significant because it makes it difficult for the victim to run away. We noticed that in a lot of other thrillers the victims are usually women. We decided not to challenge this stereotype because using a girl as the victim seems more effective than using a man, because it is easier to represent a woman as being vulnerable than it is with a man. We did this by using the four key concepts of mise-en-scene, editing, camera and sound to effectively make the character seem more vulnerable. The sound used was the choir music which was very atmospheric and makes the audience feel like something bad is going to happen. We also used the editing and camera shots to emphasise to the audience that the protagonist is being followed by the antagonist. We also used the mise-en-scene and location to make the film seem more frightening and to make the audience feel on edge and worried.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
When creating the film my group and I didn’t think much about what film company we would use to distribute our film. However we decided that we would want the film to make as much money as possible. Therefore, after completing the rest our out film we would most likely use a popular and well known British film company such as Film Four to distribute the film so that it would become very successful. When distributing our film we would also have to consider the studio type. We would make sure that we worked with professionals and a well know company to ensure that the film would be successful. Another way that we could distribute our film would be by getting the film onto Youtube or Facebook before using a successful film company, so that we could get some audience responses and possibly find ways to improve the film.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
When we first had the brief my group and I discussed who would be the target audience for our film. We spent a lot of time researching into other films with similar scenes and storylines to work out who their target audience would be and why. Obviously the target audience for our film would simply be people that enjoy thriller movies. Originally, we decided that we would target the film at ages eighteen and above because we wanted to make our production as frightening as possible. However, after filming and editing our opening sequence we realised that it could be watched by ages fifteen and above. Therefore we decided that we would lower the age of the target audience to fifteen and above because targeting the film at eighteen and above meant that we would not be reaching out to the widest audience possible. When my group and I had finished the production piece we showed it to the rest of the class and other teachers from around the school to see their responses and got a lot of positive feedback. Most people seemed to like the idea that the murderer could be absolutely anyone and that not knowing who it was makes the audience want to watch the rest of the film to find out. There are a lot of different possible interpretations in the opening sequence when it comes to who the murderer is because it could be a man or a woman and we decided that this should be left for the audience to decide, but then obviously the audience would find out more as the rest of the film begins. Lots of the viewers told us that they liked the use of the red lighting because it makes the film more eerie. As a group we thought that the use of red lighting was a very important aspect in our film because the red connotes blood and danger, making the viewers feel that something bad is about to happen. The audience also commented on the use of voiceovers being very effective. The voice over we chose says that “Life is just a game, it’s the way you play that counts.” This relates back to the plot of the film and the use of the game of darts.
As a class we also discussed how we would show the film to a wider audience in order to get their responses and have decided we will be show casing the film in school so that we can hopefully get some positive feedback from the audience. This should hopefully be very successful because we will be targeting the correct age group for our target audience.

How did you attract/address your audience?
As our film would be classified as a fifteen we tried to think of ways to attract our audience. We realised that the use of teenage actors in our film would help the audience relate to the characters because the film would mainly be a teen thriller so that the audience can relate to the film better. Also the victim in the film would be quite easy for teenage girls to relate to because the character is represented as an attractive young girl. In the opening sequence she is wearing dressed up clothes with heels. We decided to dress the actor in these clothes because it would look to the audience like she was leaving or on her way to a party. Therefore the target audience of 15+ should be able to relate to this character, as members of the audience may have a similar lifestyle to the character of the victim. We also wanted to address the audience by making the thriller as frightening as possible. Therefore we made sure that the music, lighting, locations, mise-en-scene and camera shots were all used effectively to make the film appeal to the audience. The most important thing we thought about when trying to do this was the lighting. We decided that we would use red lighting to connote signs of danger. Hopefully, this would then startle the audience. We also had a use of contrast in our film when it came to lighting because we had the silhouette against the red background we decided to do this because we wanted to use a mixture of dark tones and bright red to make the audience feel on edge and to make the silhouette stand out more. It also makes the character looks more mysterious and makes the film feel more atmospheric
The editing was also very important when trying to make our thriller effective. The most important edits we used were the flashbacks from the girl being followed to the photographs on the dartboard. These were very important because they help to tell the audience the story and remind them of the name of the film.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
When creating our video production my group and I used lots of types of technology that we had never used before such as blogger.com and imovie 09. Therefore this project has taught me a lot about using and understanding technology. I have learnt that technology is not always reliable because our group faced a few problems when trying to film. To create our video production the first time we had to use technology was when we went out to take some location and character shots, we used a digital still camera to do this. The photographs that we took were of five young girls, these were set out to look as if the girls were being stalked. These photographs were used to place on the dartboard and then they are showed in the opening sequence as flashback images. Another piece of technology that we used was the video camera and tripod. We also used blogger.com to carry out all our research and planning and to upload our film and continuity exercise. This was a whole new experience and was a bit of a struggle to being with, however over time I became a lot more experienced and found simple ways of uploading and changing information. The first time that we went out to begin filming was a bit of a struggle as nobody in my group had used video cameras before; therefore we were not very familiar with them. However as we did more filming our skills with the cameras became more advanced and we found it a lot easier to get the right angles and the right shots. We then got to use the Apple Mac computers provided in school to upload and edit our films. The programme that we used to do this was Imovie 09, again nobody in our group was familiar with this type of technology so we had to learn from scratch. At the start we found it very difficult and editing our clips was taking us a very long time. However, the more we used the software the better we got and we managed to edit the length of our clips, the brightness of the clips and add music, titles and transitions to the opening sequence. Throughout this process we also became more familiar with Adobe Photoshop because we had to use it to create the picture for our production company ‘moonshine.’ We learnt how to add titles to the picture, how to the crop the picture and how to brighten the colours. Therefore the process of constructing our opening sequence has taught me and my group a lot about using technology and has widened my skills with lots of different types of hardware and software.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Before beginning our video production we first made a continuity exercise to give us a little bit of practise, although this was a much more simpler task than our actual video production. The continuity exercise was only 45 seconds long and didn’t include and music or transitions. It was a very simple task made up of only cut edits. However it did help me a little bit with creating the video production because I developed a few skills from it. Looking back at my preliminary task I feel like I have learnt a lot about producing an opening sequence. At the beginning of the course I didn’t have much knowledge about how to create a video production and I had hardly any skills when it came to using technology because of a lack of experience. However, this task has taught me a lot about the different things you have to think about when it comes to filming an opening sequence. I now know that the research and planning plays a very important part, because you need to know a lot about who the production piece is going to target and you need to make sure that the idea is fully planned out before filming. The research and planning that I carried out helped me to make a lot of important decisions when it came to making my film. I found that watching other thrillers provided me with ideas to help me improve my opening sequence. Another thing I have realised from creating this production is that making a video production can’t be rushed and that it takes a lot of time, effort and patience. When I first had this task I was quite naïve and thought it would be simple, I didn’t take into consideration all the things that could go wrong. Creating this project has taught me about all the problems you face from working in the media industry. My group and I faced a lot of problems including technical difficulties and struggling to manage time properly. Therefore I feel as though I have learnt a lot in the progression from the preliminary task to producing the full product. I have learnt from my mistakes and found ways to improve my knowledge on video productions and using technology.

The film is complete!

2010-02-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

Now that we have completely finished our film, including the music and the editing, the only thing left to do is upload our film and contintuity excercise onto our blogs. Then my blog will be complete :)

Although me and my group have faced a lot of problems when trying to create our film, i have really enjoyed this project and i think that our finishing product pays off for all our hard work.
Hopefully, everyone else that watches our opening sequence will feel the same :)
thanks for reading.
Samantha xox

Logline!

2010-02-21T11:54:00.000-08:00

Here is a brief outline of my groups film.

The film starts with the image of a garage and a close up of the dartboard with the 5 pictures of the girls on it. Then the first character(the murderer) walks into the shot. The camera then focuses on the first character picking up a dart and getting ready to throw the dart through the picture of the girl in the middle of the dartboard. We then used different transitions to get from the shots inside the garage to the 'following' shots we filmed outside. These shots consist of a girl being stalked and then the pictures of the girls on the dartboard flash onto the screen inbetween the different outside shots. The film then ends back in the garage with the dart landing in the last picture of the girls.
In our film we tried to use a wide majority of different shots including an establishing shot of the garage, a mixture of long shots, medium close ups and close ups and we also filmed a panning shot. However when we went to edit our film the panning shot was not very effective so we didnt end up using it.

That's the basic story of our film :)

When editing the film we also had to try and think about what would happen after the opening sequence so that we could decide how to end our opening sequence. As a group we decided that in the rest of the film it would show how the murderer met the five girls and the killings of each of them. This helped us to plan the end of our film :D

Influences...

2010-02-21T11:48:00.000-08:00

In our film we have decided to use voice overs to make our film seem more thrilling. We spent time researching the film 'phonebooth' because we knew there were a few voiceovers in this film. The use of voice overs in our film also makes us differentiate from the other groups in our class, because none of these have used voice overs.

These are some of the things we wrote down when trying to think of what to say:
Life is one big game
you have to lie, cheat and steal to win
how would you play the game
its how you play the game that counts
one life, one game, one winner
there are no rules

We ended up using...
Life is just a game, its how you play that counts.

FILMING!

2010-02-09T10:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday me,cerys and natasha managed to get together and go out to film the final scenes for our opening sequence. Its finally complete, now all we have to do is edit and add the music. hopefully, we wont face any more problems. xox

Characters.

2010-02-09T10:19:00.000-08:00

Although we decided what the roles of our characters would be a long time ago i have forgotten to type it up on my blog. In our opening sequence we will only be using 2 characters, the murderer and the victim.

The first character will be the murderer, we have decided that in the opening sequence you will never get to see the murderers face to add some mystery to the film. We have also decided for this character to be a woman. This is a conscious choice that we have made as we want our sequence to be different and do not want our murderer to be the typical stereotype. This character will be dressed in dark clothing with maybe a long black coat and clumpy boots.

Our second character will be the victim. This character will be stereotyped. It will be a young, attracive woman walking home. She is vulnerable as alone. She would be wearing casual clothing, jeans, and heels (hard to run in).

Audience

2010-02-09T10:16:00.000-08:00

I have carried out some research into which audience i think my groups thriller should target. I feel that it should be targeted at ages 15 and above, the reason for this is that most of the films i have watched for research have been targeted at this age group if not higher. Although i would not like to target our film at 18+ because we want our film to reach out to the widest audience possible.

FINAL STORYBOARD!

2010-02-09T10:02:00.000-08:00

I would like to point out that throughout our group we all had different tasks to do to begin the planning for our film. Cerys drew this storyboard, however we all helped to input our ideas.

'Pay it forward' - research into other opening sequences

2010-02-09T09:57:00.001-08:00

Whilst trying to come up with the idea for our film and how we were going to film it, our media teacher set us a research task to watch the opening sequences of some thrillers. As a group me,cerys,natasha and lauren watched the opening sequence of 'pay it forward' starring kevin spacey,helen hunt and haley joel osment. This film was directed by Mimi Leder. In the opening sequence there is a scene with a hostage victim and there is a use of blue lighting. Me and my group decided that we thought this looked very effective, this then gave us the idea to use red lighting in our production. We thought that by doing this the film would look more effective and thrilling. Other thrillers have also participated to some of the ideas in our production and have helped us to make some very successful decisions.

Problems with our filming...

2010-02-08T01:34:00.000-08:00

In december, me and my group decided that we would start our filming. To do this we took a day off school because we have been struggling to find the time to film. We took time preparing our location and props and then we discovered that there was a problem with the tape so we couldn't film. This was very annoying and meant that the day was wasted.
We then set a date in January that we would all get together and try to film again, but we faced some more problems due to the snow. When we finally got together we managed to film and the results were brilliant. We have now edited these scenes on imovie, but still have a few scenes left to do in the dark. We have planned to do these scenes tonight, hopefully there will be no more problems because we desperately need to get our editing done and finish our film.

Our thriller :)

2009-11-27T08:18:00.000-08:00

In our most recent media lesson me and my group went round school with the digital photo camera's to take the photo's that will be on the dartboard. These turned out to be a great success and looked very proffessional. We wanted them to look as if the five girls were being followed/stalked. Once we had taken the five photo's we went back to the apple mac room, where me,cerys and tasha edited the photo's. We decided to put them all in black and white to add to the thriller genre of the film. These are the five photo's we took....hope you enjoy :)

samantha xx

Coursework - Analysis of a thriller.

2009-11-18T02:34:00.000-08:00

Recently in media we were set a piece of coursework to analyse a thriller of our choice. The film i chose was the secret window starring Johnny Depp. The five main sections we had to discuss were the music, the titles and text, the individual camera shots, the characters and locations & the effects. This is my essay :-

The purpose of an opening sequence is mainly to build up tension and atmosphere and to give clues to the audience of what will happen. In the open sequence for 'The Secret Window' there are lots of important key feautures used to create a frightening atmosphere. These main features are the music, titles & text, characters & location, individual camera shots and effects.

The music used in the opening sequence is very effective because it adds to the eerie feel of the film and makes the thriller seem more frightening. The sound you hear in the opening sequence is very simple but very effective. There is the use of a piana and the music is very slow and repetative. The music doesn't change in the opening seqeunce, it has the same speed and the same level of sound throughout. Therefore it is very simple. The use of the piano makes the music sound very mysterious and creepy and almost as if something unexpected in about to happen.

The titles and text is another very important key factor throughout the sequence. This is because all of the titles are shown in a simple white font, including the title of the film. However, the title of the film then changes from white into red, this is very important because it adds to the horror of the film. The use of the red font connotes blood and danger which makes the film seem more thrilling. I also think it is important how all of the other titles remain in a white font; therefore the title of the film is the only part that is red making it stand out and create more tension.

Another very important key factor is the individual camera shots. the opening sequence starts of with the image of the car with the one door open. This helps create an eerie atmosphere becdause it makes the audiencewhat has happened and makes them want to carry on watching the film to find out. This image then changes into the picture of a river and then you see a long shot of the house. The camera then slowly begins to zoom up into the house, and then slowly goes through the window. Then there is a long shot of the room and the camera spins around the room and zooms into the laptop where there is writing on the screen. The camera then leads downstairs and into the other room where you see the character lying on the sofa.

The characters and locations are also important in the opening seqeuence because they help add to the horror of the film and create the thriller genre. The main location of the house is set in a wide open space; you can only see the one house which is surronded by the forrest. This helps create a frightening atmosphere because there is nothing else around, therefore it is scarier because it helps to create tension. In the opening sequence for 'The Secret Window' the audience don't get a chance to get to know any of the characters. The only character the audience get to see is the man lying on the sofa, but we don't see enough of him in the opening sequence to understand about his character.

There are also a lot of effects used to add to the thriller genre of the film, for example the use of the fading effect when the image of the car slowly fades into the image of the lake and the fading from a long shot of the house to a close up. These effects helpto create the idea of someone getting closer to the house.

All of these key factors help to create a frightening atmosphere and add to the tension; therefore they are important in making the film more of a successful thriller and can help to keep the audience entertained and want to carry on watching. Therefore I think that the opening sequence for 'The Secret Window' is very effective and thrilling.

Samantha :) xx

Recent Media lessons...

2009-11-05T01:30:00.000-08:00

We looked in more detail at codes and conventions and we discussed them as a class. The codes and conventions we looked at were technical codes, verbal codes and symbolic codes. We learnt that the technical codes involved camera angles, lighting, frames and typography. We learn that the verbal codes involve everything to do with language, this includes everything in the scene that is written or said. The symbolic codes are everything that is linked with our cultural reference or experience.
We also learnt more about equilibrium, disequilibrium and equilibrium restored. Equilibrium is the atmosphere or mood at the beggining of the film. Disequilibrium is when the atmosphere or mood gets disturbed, when something goes wrong and there is a twist in the story. Equilibrium restored means when the problem has been solved and happiness/equilibrium has been restored.
Recently, We have also learnt about Todorov's theory and Propp's theory. Todorov's theory is the basic structure for all narrative sequences. He states how most films usually involve equilibrium, disequilibrium and equilibium being restored. This is often reffered to as 'The Hollywood Sequence.' Propp's theory was formed in the 20th century. His main studies consist of russian fairytales. He discovered that in these studies there are usually 8 types of characters. Once the character has been identified, it is easy to guess what they will do in the narrative.
The final thing we learnt was Levi - Strauss' Binary Oposition. This is when narrative tension is based on opposition or conflict, this usually occurs in a movie ideological level, e.g westerns.

Thats all for now,
Samantha xx

Film Idea...

2009-11-03T04:09:00.000-08:00

In a recent media lesson we were put into our film production groups and the aim of the lesson was to decide upon a few ideas for our narrative. We came up with three ideas but after a lot of discussing we all agreed on one idea that we thought was the best. This idea was that there would be the image of a dartboard with lots of different womens faces on it and there would be darts through all of their faces excpet for one, then we would film the woman being followed and then the woman screaming. The film would then go back to the darboard with a dart through the final womans face. We also set everyone in the group with pre-production, production and post production tasks. I am in charge of the list of camera shots, Directing and special effects. I am really excited to start filming :)

Samantha xx

Media workshop

2009-10-17T03:16:00.000-07:00

On the 9th of october we had our re-scheduled(because of fire alarms) media workshop. The day was an incredible experience and a lot of fun! By the end of the day me and my group had completed our continuity excercise. The sequence of our film was a person walking up to a room, opening a door, walking through a door and sitting down opposite someone.
The two people then had a quick conservation and then maybe exchange something. Before we started the excercise we had to make sure that our planning was completed. The planning included thinking about what shots we would use, the dialogue and then creating a storyboard. On the storyboard we included things like camera shot, sound and the shot duration. We included a variety of different shots because we thought it would make the sequence more interesting. After we filmed all of our shots we went onto the apple macs and started to edit our work using a program called imovie, we then put all the different shots in order so the sequence made sense and then we had to cut and edit the shots. Finally we added some effects, credits and music to complete our sequence. Then we had the completed sequence, this day was a lot of fun as well as being educational. I really enjoyed it!!

samantha xx

Media for schools filming day!!

2009-10-17T03:06:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago me and three other people from my media class attented a media filming day at the vale. It was a charity event organised by sony and we were accomponied by media for schools. We took part in fliming the golfers taking there first shot!! another thing we did was two of us were filming the other two of our group interviewing some famous people. We had the chance to interview neil jenkins, ieuan evans and nicky piper!!! Throughout the day we learned how to use and set up the video camera and also how to set up the tri-pod. We also learned more about different camera shots and angles and we all had the chance to ride the golf buggy's. I really enjoyed the day and think that the film will end up looking very proffesional. I would love to have the opportunity to do something similar to this in the future as it has really improved my knowledge and understanding of filming.

Samantha xx

storyboards...

2009-09-30T02:34:00.000-07:00

Today in media we worked in small groups and began to create a storyboard for our continuity excercise. I learnt that a storyboard is a graphical representation of camera shots for a film sequence. After the script for the film has been written the next step is to draw up the storyboard, the storyboard tells the story of the film panel by panel. A storyboard is created to give the director something to follow when filming begins. We also learnt that a storyboard should have information about which characters are in the frame, whether or not there is any dialogue, how long each shot should be, camera shots and whether or not there is any music or sound. As a class we also looked at an example of a storyboard called "P is for Psycho" so that we could have something to help us with the process of creating our storyboards.

Saul Bass opening sequence

2009-09-29T09:24:00.000-07:00

In the opening sequence for catch me if you can the music connotes a chase or an adventure, it is quite mysterious and there is the use of trumpets to try and create the theme of an adventure. The music is quite repetative but there are some slight variations in it for example when the stairs appear the music gets higher and then an the taxi's appear it gets slower, it sometimes gets lower in parts aswell, to give the idea that the chase is still going on. The colours used are all very bright, mainly made up of blues and yellows to show that the film is not a horror or thriller genre it is more of an adventure theme. The images are of animated characters mainly a man being followed and trying to hide. The mans appearance keeps changing so that he can sneak off and disappear from the person that it trying to catch up with him. The graphics used for the films title "catch me if you can" are all in black apart from the word me which resembles a white cloud which then begins to float of, this connotes that the man in the film is always 'floating away' and dissapearing. The graphics make up many different scenes e.g the swimming pool, the taxi's and the plane to show the different ways in which the character keeps excaping in the title sequence. The title sequence is very good at showing the audience what the film is going to be like and what it is about e.g the chase. The audience are also able to tell from the title sequence what type of genre it is due to the images and music, in effect the title sequence is short preview of what is to come in the film.

Media lesson

2009-09-29T09:11:00.001-07:00

During one of our recent media lessons we watched the opening sequences of two Saul Bass title sequences and analysed them, these films were Vertigo and Psycho. The things we were asked to comment on were Image, use of camera, colour, graphics and music.

In the opening sequence for Psycho the music is very dramatic and discordent. The type of instruments used are the strings and orchestrals. This fits is very well with the graphics which are quite plain but fast. The font is also quite plain but stands out very well against the backround.

In the opening sequence for vertigo the music is very slow and mysterious but it is also very dramatic. The graphics used are graphics that resemble an eye. The camera does a close up of the womans face and then goes into a big close up of her eyes. This image fits in very well with the mysterious atmosphere given off from the music.

Psycho shower scene

2009-09-27T11:16:00.029-07:00

During our most recent media lesson, as a class we watched the very famous shower scene from psycho. Whilst watching this we were also asked to make notes on things such as the creation of suspense, use of music, camera work and editing.
There were about 40 - 45 cut edits in the scene, the edits start off quite slow with the woman getting into the shower and then become faster and faster as the music begins when the curtain is pulled open.
The music used in this scene is very dramatic and high pitched with the use of violins to create a frightening and tense atmosphere. There is also a use of diegetic and non-diegetic sounds.
The most important uses of camera are when the woman is in the shower and the camera does a long shot of the woman so that you can see the killer coming closer towards the shower, another important use of camera is when the camera zooms into the plughole and then zooms out of the womans eye.

In media so far...

2009-09-16T08:14:00.000-07:00

During our media lessons so far we have been studying some film productions by students from different comprehensive schools and some of the students work from local colleges.
We have been looking at the different camera movements and positions and discussing how each shot would have been created.
We have also learnt about a lot of different principles used when filming including :-
1) Match on action - This is used to create the impression of continuity throughout the filming. It is basically cutting and editing the shots and putting them back together.
2) Shot reverse shot - This is when two characters are having a conversation. One character would be facing left and the other would face right. This means that you are able to edit between a character talking and a character listening.
3) 180 degree rule - When using this rule you are taught to imagine that there is a line drawn across the room cutting the room in half.

The work of Saul Bass!

2009-09-16T02:35:00.000-07:00

Saul Bass was an incredible graphical designer born in 1920. He was very famous because of the work he did with Alfred Hitchcock, Otto Preminger and Martin Scorsese. He created a lot of famous sequences, the first of which was the title sequence for "The Man With The Golden Arm" in 1955. His other well known title sequences include Psycho, Goodfellas, Vertigo, Casino Royal and The Age Of Innocence. He is also well known for designing logo's and film posters in America.

My first post!

2009-09-15T04:13:00.001-07:00

Hi im samantha and this is my first ever blog.
Im really excited to be starting my A Level media course.
It is a whole new experience doing my work through a blog and so far i am really enjoying it....I am really looking forward to completing this blog :)