Media Essay Hollywood and Film4 Working Title Comparison

How is regional identity represented in "The Rotters Club"

The clip begins with the camera panning across a table of food and drink, and then a close up of a character’s head. The characters eating are bosses and employees of a company; we can see that the food is stereotypical to their occupation. The men in the clip are "Northern" and the food they eat is filling and “easy to eat” northern food, chips, beer which is bitter and a big steak. We see individual specific shots of each character, effectively introducing them into the scene. The bosses are situated next to each other. The shots let us inspect their faces and it looks like the bosses are wary and the workers angry. One boss in particular, he looks frightened and cowardly while the other could be described as “one of the lads”. The cowardly boss keeps on getting “digs” at being gay, even when his son is the topic of conversation the boy gets also called homosexual. Stereotypical again of northern people as they are represented as being very homophobic. The camera moves to a shot which shows all of them sitting on the table. Giving us an insight into where they are eating. It would seem to be in a pub, implying that the north doesn't have restaurants or if it has they are pretty much pubs.
The sound plays a vital role in this clip. Mainly because there is no soundtrack making the music seem to becoming from the pub and the clink of knives and forks diegetic and natural within the scene. This has been used because it is highly effective at making social realism inside a scene. The cutlery is also an action code that suggests eating is taking place.
Most of the clip centres on the characters and it is intriguing to see how they are portrayed. The two manual employees are situated opposite their bosses, becoming an obvious example of their lower roles; we can also see this as the workers drink beer meanwhile their bosses sip on wine. There is tension in the scene with clear mistrust between the two sides. The northern trade unions seem to be on the agenda and are a point of humour to the bosses. The only time the group rallies together is when stereotypically the Northern sexists watch the waitress walk away, with the character we learn to be Roy, joking with a rather "suggestive" comment, which even the bosses laugh at. The scene is edited to clearly express the mistrust between the employee Roy, a man who looks most out of place in his oversized suit and the grey old man, his boss. The tension between the two is shown by the how stubborn Roy is; his character is being portrayed in a way that lets us understand the friction between the workers and the bosses.
Later when the cowardly boss’s son gets thrown into the conversation everyone is involved in a discussion about education. Using terms such as "poncy toffs academy" we can imply how the workers are sitting below the bosses. One of the employee’s sons happens to go to the same school but the worker gets a free grant. Suggesting that without it, it would be near impossible for his son to attend.
Regional identity is presented in the clip through the use of stereotypes, this being the easiest way to present a society as stereotypical and infamous as the "North." Obviously these stereotypes are highly unfair but they increase regional awareness in the clip, and therefore making viewing easier.

Regional Identity Notes

Northern Stereotype
- Flat cap wearing
- Pigeon racers
- Friendly but 'bloody minded'
- Stubborn and argumentative
- Whippet owning
- Manual jobs
- Very little education
- Sexist
- Thick accent
- Bitter drinkers
- Hot pot
- Miserable weather
- Cobbled streets

Country Stereotype
- Scrumpy addeled yokels
- Inbred
- Happy
- Stupid
- Livestock bothering
- Farm hand yokel
- Hunting toff
- Lord of the manor
- Slow pace of life
- Owners of animals
- Landrover/Tractor owners

How editing is used in Memento

In Memento editing is very important to our understanding of how the film works and what stories are being shown. In the first few seconds the credits are projected over a hand and a close up of the picture. We can see in the picture there is a gory image. First a character that was holding the picture was guilty of a crime because the picture contains what looks like a blooded corpse; we can infer that the character was a serial killer. The first noticeable bit of editing is the picture and how it fades out and disappears. The scene is in fact reversing back time we can see how the picture is being shaken back. Everything is placed back into its starting position, gun returning to killer and glasses flying back onto the face of victim. This is done to help us understand what has happened and establishes a path for us to be able to see how this murdered man was finished.
The whole of the next scene is edited. It begins with a close up of the characters eye and then to a close up of the keys. This is a sequence of shots because instead of panning down from eyes to keys the decision has been made to edit and jump the shot down. This is done with a commentary from who we assume to be the man the scene is focused on. He talks of his "amnesia" and the editing is done to mirror his mind. Editing is used in this film to help us understand the complex base to it.
The following scene starts on a close up of a totally different picture on the same Polaroid film as before, the shots are then edited to help us understand the conservation that starts between the first character and a new one who has entered. A close up of a pair of glasses in the first scene help us understand that the new character was the dead one beforehand. Throughout the following scene we begin to learn the first character seems to be a detective. In the scene there are wide angle shots, firstly of a city and then of a lone house in the middle of no-where it give us an idea of the environment our characters are operating in. One hugely important area to this scene is the close up of the man’s gun. This infers there is going to be killing and murdering soon to come. There is a close up of a picture with "Kill him" written on it. During the next sequential shots a fight arises and I can take notes of editing called "invisible cuts" this is where each edited moment runs so smoothly it appears that it hasn't changed. This has been done so as not to distract the audience so they don't think "This isn’t realistic at all." We see this in the sequence we saw at the beginning, but this time not in the eyes of an “amnesia” ridden detective. Close ups are essential in a film, especially one as confusing as Memento. But they are important parts of editing because without individual close ups. For instance when our character is conversing with a man behind a counter, who we assume to be the hotel owner, we see a close up of the Polaroid picture. Edited shots are put into films to help us understand them. We learn in this scene, through editing that our character from the start is guilty of the murder we saw at the beginning.
Each new monochrome scene links on from the last monochrome scene. Whereas the colours ones don't connect with each other until points overlap. The black and white scenes move forward throughout the film and the colour scenes move backwards until they meet somewhere in the middle of the plot. Editing in Memento is used to let people understand what is happening and is continued to be used like that throughout the rest of the film. Memento is a very confusing film so therefore editing is vital to enjoyment of an audience, without editing in the film the audience would struggle to understand the plot.

Sexuality in Skins - Episode 1 Season 1

During the 10 second clip, the only character is represented as being bisexual. There are many different items and positioning that point us to this evaluation. To start off with the camera is only on his eyes, they snap open as soon as some church bells ring close by. The curtains are open and as the camera zooms out you can see that the character hasn’t had a very good night sleep, if any sleep at all. When the camera is fully zoomed out you can see that he is just lying in the middle of his bed.  His bed sheets consist of a naked man and woman sleeping but without a head, this is so a person sleeping will have their head on a body. The character though is lying in-between these pictures, this shows that he is confused about his sexuality and that he is single. One reason for him not getting a lot of sleep is that he has been troubled by something, and it has kept him awake. This maybe that he is troubled by his sexuality, his curtains are open so he might not have wanted to get any sleep. The day is Sunday as church bells are ringing; he must have woken up early. The church bells are a ‘cultural code’ for people in England, the church bells ringing automatically gives the idea that it is Sunday to an Englishman. The stereotypical teenager lays in on the weekend because they have been out the night before. This character is up early, this shows that he is not tired and hasn’t been up to much on the Saturday night. This gives out an ‘enigma code’ where questions have been asked but there have been no answers. This encourages the audience to keep on watching as they want to get the answers to these questions. When the camera is fully zoomed out you can see most of his bedroom from the ceiling. There is a white wooden floor, expensive rug, an office chair and a trolley found in most supermarkets. This infers that he most likely have stolen this, stealing such a big object would be impossible for normal teenagers as it would be impossible to carry upstairs and sneak it past parents. You still would have to stop them noticing it as well.

Hotel Babylon

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During the clip on Hotel Babylon you can see many different ethnic stereotypes. Starting with looking at the ethnicity of Afro-Caribbean people. The setting is the hotel's swimming pool; it begins with a pan of the pool, and then moves into a close up. The lights are dim and the music is calm, this creates a relaxed feel to the scene. Soon two characters are introduced and straight away we are able to see that they are in fact complete opposites. Both are men and one is presented as a casual laid back character, we can gather this because of his use of slang and colloquial language. This character has just emerged from the pool in trunks; this shows us that he cares more about his recreational time then work. He also refers to parties, girls, drugs and alcohol. The other character is smart and is acting anxious and nervous. The more casual character seems happy to meet up again while the other character looks unsure of himself and is worrying with the conversation topic. This looks at the two different sides that blacks are tend to be stereotyped as.

Next is a scene containing two French maids who are about to clean a Japanese man room. The camera closes up onto the room service card which reveals two stars which is a code for him 'paying double for double'. The maids have heavy French accents and seem to only be able to use French-Latinate vocabulary.  The maids enter the room we begin to understand of what the term 'he pays double for double means' the maids begin to dance for extra money. This is very stereotypical as it seems a foreign worker will do anything to make any extra cash. The music at this point is a very cheesy pop song that also appears to have French lyrics which are in relation to the maids themselves. Whilst they are dancing the camera enters a mid shot and switches from this to a close up of the Japanese characters eyes which are watching them.

The Japanese character is portrayed as a very typical ethnic stereotype. First is a mid shot of the Japanese man sitting on his bed in a dressing gown. This automatically assumes he may be slightly 'pervy'. The camera then moves into a close up on to the two piles of money for each maid on the table. The stereotype that the Japanese are extremely wealthy met quickly and made very clear by this shot. He is paying workers extra cash for them to strip and dance, which follows a clear stereotype of him being dirty and perverted his room also, appears to be extremely tidy and clean, either the maids do a very good job or he lives up to. The Japanese are renowned for keeping their belongings very tidy and clean so we are shown another stereotypical view of this particular ethnicity. The camera focuses on the characters eyes which are in turn focused on the maids body’s whilst they undress, this uses a close up. This represents perfectly that he is a character fascinated and thoroughly enjoying something that he should not be looking at.

In the next part of the scene the setting is the hotel kitchen, which focuses on two main characters which appear to be the head chefs, they are surrounded by many other chefs, and they are of no importance to the scene though. The ethnic of one head chef is Italian. The stereotype of this ethnicity is a strong accent, overly friendly and well dressed. Next we get a mid shot with the two chefs standing next to each other being friendly which an act is clearly. The British chef is overweight, tall, has much paler skin and dressed in white in comparison to this the Italian chef is skinny,  small, has a dark complexion, and dressed in black. The two characters dressed in black and white may be signifying good and bad between the two ethnics. Later on, after we have been introduced to the characters an argument breaks out, during this the background music gets faster which builds even more tension between the two characters. The English chef seems rather pathetic and hopeless at this point in time which represents what a typical overweight British would be stereotyped as. On the other hand the Italian has picked up a knife, and at this point we see a close up from the camera which puts emphasis on the fact that the character is dangerous. This is following the stereotype which plays on men from foreign countries being very sneaky and unreliable.

Overall, ethnicity is clearly represented in the clip by using stereotypes which are usually associated with a certain type of ethnic. The clip does not explore any contrasts which may go against a typical stereotype and instead sticks to making each characters role very predictable due to their ethnic.

Select one character from a British TV drama and explain how they are a 'stereotypical' representation of your area of study (Age in The Inbetweeners).

Age is a portrayed hugely in a stereotypical way in British TV. Children are shown to annoying and will get upset if they don’t get their own way. Teenagers are shown to be mischievous and troublesome. Middle aged members of society are shown to be very boring, monotonous people who don’t really get up to much. While the elderly are portrayed as being old, crazy, weak and cranky. They Television programme I chose to analysis was The Inbetweeners, this programme is based on a teen from private schooling has got moved to a public school. The Inbetweeners is a story of his mission getting new friends and the four of them have adventures, trips and spend all their time going after girls which always ends badly.

Children in this programme are defiantly shown as being annoying, one of the main characters Simon has a little brother. His little brother sucks up to his parents, informs them when Simon has done something wrong. When he is out of view of his parents he uses vulgar language and tries to get Simon into trouble. The reason for the media portraying children in this way is that the programme is aimed at teenagers, who most of them can relate to having an annoying little sibling.

Teenagers are never shown to be ‘normal teenagers’, the media tend to exaggerate teens problems for the sake of comedy. Viewing teenagers will such bad fortune will make the viewer feel good about their life and because their teenager will laugh at the others misfortune. In The Inbetweeners the main characters who are teenagers are represented as basically being losers, who are desperate to have sexual intercourse with girls. They go to school, go round each other’s houses and get drunk and go to the rare party. There would normally be not a lot of good viewing in their lives but being very very unfortunate really makes the viewing so much better. Anything that can go wrong will, this is quite different to normal teenagers as not every day is a train wreck of misfortune. If they aired a programme that consisted of four teens sitting around drinking it would be quite boring. Throw in hilarious language, a lot of vomit, urinating on each other, cars in lakes and erection problems then the programme is bound to be hilarious. Not a lot of people can relate to the lives lived in The Inbetweeners that’s what makes it so popular. It shows how unlucky your life could be so you have to laugh at a continuing luckless streak.

Adults who are middle aged are represented in the Television programme as being the opposite of the stereotypical adult. Instead of being boring and workaholics, they are a main source of embarrassment for their children. For instance Simon’s dad tells many a tale about sexual experiences with Simon’s mum, these tales are usually told in front of Simon and his friends. The main character Will has a mum that is known among his friends as being very good looking. But she also reveals many of Wills secrets in front of his friends e.g. crying on rollercoaster’s in the past and having to take suppositories for illnesses. The reason why middle aged adults are represented this way is because of the viewing audience again. Most teenagers is embarrassed about their parents or parent, they can relate to the characters and know that it is quite normal to have embarrassing parents.

Elderly people are portrayed in The Inbetweeners as being weak, boring and ill. In one of the episodes they volunteer at a retirement home for the elderly. All of the old people are just sitting around sleeping or watching rubbish mid-day T.V. The home is smelly and the elderly even need help going to the toilet. This episode is funny because the audience can laugh at how the teenagers have to create their own entertainment. Later on another character Jay brings out the non-stereotypical side of the elderly. He gets caught masturbating by a group of people; little did he know there was an old woman in the room. This old woman blurts of “He did that over me!” we can infer from this that not all elderly people are boring and sapped of all humour. The reason why the elderly are represented in this way is that we don’t really know what old people are like when you’re not around. This goes strongly against the stereotypical view and brings to our attention that we don’t really know the elderly. For all we know they could all be party animals who always get drunk and cause trouble when we’re not around.

How does Calvin Klein represent females in the advert? Are they objectified or sexually empowered?

How does Calvin Klein represent females in the below advert?

The advert above represent s the females as being objectified and sexually empowered, but on the other hand she is a role model for women and makes them look and feel better. The pose appeals to both males and females who look at it. There are many reasons why it will appeal to men; one is that they would like their wives/ girlfriends to look like the woman above. They think that if they buy the underwear for their female friends then they will look like Eva Mendes. This advert appeals to men because they like to look at the model and think their wife will look like this. She has been oiled up, but looks as if she has just came out the shower and is ready to go on a night out. Suspenders also appeal to the male audience as the item of clothing itself is an enjoyable sight for the male gaze. There is no ring on her fingers, this shows that she is single and available. Many women will think that Mendes has been objectified and ‘put down’. The reason for this is that they will see men ‘gauping’ at the picture and feel as if all men want all women to look like this. They have a right to think this but Mendes is proving that she is in control and she wants the attention of both men and women. Her head is tilted back so it makes her look venerable and innocent; she is portraying herself in many different ways. The way she is positioned is showing off her undergarments, her hands are pointing towards her ‘knickers’ this appeals to the men, and women get a good picture of what the item of clothing looks like.

The first impressions of this photo are that it makes women out to be sex objects, but if you look deeper you can find reasons for it appealing to women. She has a very powerful and manly stance about her, she has been positioned like this so that women don’t just feel hard done to and that every woman doesn’t look like Eva Mendes. The advert had the same effect on women as it does men, women think ‘I could look like this as well’, they might aspire to look like Mendes. Seeing men look at this advert and ‘drooling’ over Eva Mendes might be make the women feel that they have to look like the to gain a mans full attention.

Overall Calvin Klein has marketed this is briefs very well here; by positioning the woman in such a way that it appals to both sexes is very clever. Personally I think that the picture mainly appeals to men, but it puts forward the idea that a woman can be shown just in her underwear without people complaining and saying that she is ‘easy’. It gives out the impression that women are just as independent as men and can dress how they like and shouldn’t care about what kind of attention they will draw.

The Male Gaze - Trevor Millum

Seductive -

• Similar to cool/ level
• Eyes less wide open
• Expression is less reserved but still self-confident
• Milder

Carefree -

• Nymph like
• Active
• Healthy
• Vibrant
• Outdoor girl
• Often smiling/ grinning

Practical -

• Concentrating
• Mouth closed and the eyes are directed at an object
• Hair tied back or short cut

Comic -

• Laughing
• Big cheesy smile
• Fun
• Head sideways

Catalogue -

• Neutral
• Articficial
• Wax like 
• Wide eyes
• Smiling
• No personality

The Male Gaze - Majorie Ferguson

The Chocolate Box -

• Half/Full Smile
• Lips Together/ Slightly Parted
• Teeth Barely Visible
• Full/ Three- Quarters of Face to the Camera

Invitational -

• Emphasis on the Eyes
• Mouth Shut with Hint of Smile
• Head to one Side or Looking Back to the Camera

Super Smiler-

• Full Face
• Wide Open, Toothy Smile
• Head Thrusts, Forward or Chin Thrown Back
• Hair often wind blown

Sexual -

• Includes male/ female 'two-somes'
• Dreamy
• Heavy lidded
• Overtly sensual/ sexual

Roland Barthes Lesson

Being a semiologist Roland Barthes was being paid to look at texts.

Texts may be:
Open-unravelled, in many threads E.g soaps
Closed-only one obvious thread to pull on E.g Children programmes
Barthes decided that these "threads" are called narrative codes,there are five codes:
Action codes:
Any action that implies a further narrative action E.g a gun fight
Enigma codes:
Refers to any element in a story that is not explained and therefore exists as an enigma for the audience, raising questions that demand explication.
The semantic code:
Any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation.
The culture code:
Any element in a narrative that refers "to a science or a body of knowledge." In other words, the cultural codes tend to point our shared knowledge of how the world works.

Film Habits Questionaire

Film Habits Questionnaire

Is Max a Stereotypical Teenager?

I disagree with this statement as I don’t think Max partakes in the activities a stereotypical teenager does. The stereotypical teenager is portrayed as hanging around in hoodies at night causing trouble and anti-social behaviour. This kind of teenager usually is part of a big group of friends or ‘gang’ which he/she will most of the time is with. Pretty much all of their time will be ‘up to no good’ or generally doing nothing at all. This image thrust upon teenagers usually also incorporates skiving school, drinking, smoking and the usage of drugs which ultimately end in the youths becoming a hazard to society.

Max obviously comes from a wealthy upper-class background as his parents can afford nicer clothes than the rest of the students. This to start off with might have built a bit on his ego as he is also very good at maths, he might think that he is better than the rest of the students and look down upon them. Max dislikes his school but craves to be liked by his fellow classmates as you see at the start of the YouTube clip as he is dreaming of winning their praise. In fact it might be his ego that has left him friendless, although other factors might have affected his unpopularity such as jealousy from other students.  Camera angles show that he is always in the middle of everyone; this infers that he is the leader without even reading any information; he is also dressed differently making him stand out.

Max partakes in activities which many people would label ‘Geeky’. He runs a lot of clubs and societies out of school. Clubs and societies such as stand and coin collecting, Lacrosse management, piloting, bee keeping club, karate club and the school paper publisher. All of these clubs he is founder or president, this power might have built on his ego again. He is very heavily involved in activities such as these; it is obvious that max likes to keep himself busy, maybe to keep his mind off something? Max also loves other cultures especially the French culture and the Russian, I believe this is because he feels unwelcomed and out of place in his own American culture. Props throughout this montage show that he is the leader, from sashes to hats; you can just see he is the leader without hearing any dialogue. Props help again as in most pictures he is holding something to assert his dominance of the rest of the students e.g. a conductors stick a gun or a ball. If he is not holding anything there is usually someone else doing the work, by the look of him he dreams of being a controlling figure as he is never doing to dirty work for example Lacrosse manager.  Lighting represents how powerful he is as when the lighting is bright then he is dressed dark, and when the lighting is dark he is dressed light. This makes him stand out and catches our attention.

Media Studies Lesson 28/09/10

Re-presentation-

The way the media present ‘something’ as though it were real, merely a copy of something.

Signs and Signifiers-

Something which communicates a piece of information = Sign. Multiple ‘ideas’ or ‘feelings’ behind a sign= Signifies.

All Signs belong to cultures for instance is someone said draw a tree, in this country most people would draw the same cloudy tree. In other cultures though when you ask someone to draw a tree they might draw a palm tree or a tree without any leaves.

Gate Keepers-

The people in charge of what you see e.g. editors, producers etc.

Ideology-

 A belief system.

Mise-En-Scene
Camera Angles, Props, Setting, Lighting, Acting

 

Q- Where is the film set?

A- The film is set in a classroom and then in a church, all boys school, America, private and christian

Q- Describe the main character’s personality.

A- He dreams of being liked, not many friends, smug, upper-class and hangs around with younger students.

Q- What is he excellent at?

A- Maths, solving equations

Q- How do others view him?

A- In his dream they view him as a hero but the opposite in real life.

Q- How was he dressed?

A- In school uniform, blazer, shirt, tie, glasses. Wears blazer when every other student doesn’t.

Preliminary Magazine Task - Production

For the first part in the production stage of the magazine cover and contents page was taking the pictures that would be included in our task. I had to pair up with another student and we set around the school taking pictures of what we drew inspiration from and would work on our magazines. We had to take quite fair amount of photographs as it would have wasted our time going around the school taking pictures when we didn’t like the few that had been taken, by taking a lot we had plenty to choose from. The picture that would go onto the front of my magazine is a photo of me with a plain white background so it was easy to cut out in Photoshop.

The next part of the production process was the editing of the pictures by using Photoshop. When I uploaded my pictures on Photoshop I began to cut around the picture of me by using the Magnetic Lasso. After the picture of me was fully cut out I inverted the cut and deleted the background leaving just the image of me. With just the image I began to edit the picture itself, I decided to play around with the contrast and brightness and ended up with a faded picture that I thought looked very professional. I then started to create layer and built on these to add detail and information to my cover.

The next task I did was to fill in my background, of which I chose a light dark green, I chose this colour because it stood out and worded really well with my edited photo. I now had to add the details on the front cover e.g. the stories, these were a simple black. I then added a darker green box around the writing and sent it behind the writing. The reason why I did this is, is because it made each piece of text stand out individually and drew in your attention. We were only allowed to use a three colour scheme; the colours I chose were a light dark green, a darker green and black. This colour scheme went very as no colours clashed and they also emphasised the picture on the cover. Another way to grasp attention is the font I had to pick, in the end I picked a very simple font; I also decided not to have any capital letters on the front cover as it made it more informal. Finally I had to add the date, price, barcode and website details to make it look as professional as possible.

 When using Photoshop something I struggled with was the cutting out of the photo, it took me a while to get used to the cutting tool as I have had no experience with the programme before. Overall the main skill I learnt was using Photoshop in general, after watching other classmates and getting help when needed I quickly picked up the essentials on how to use the programme. I am certain that these new skills will be put to use again later on in the course and am happy that I have picked them up as quickly as I could.  

Preliminary Magazine Task - Pre Production

For our task we had to design and create a front cover and a contents page of a magazine using Photoshop and our creative skill. I had to create a magazine cover and contents that was both eye catching and provided the reader with information about our school. I had to include a mid-shot of ourselves or a model that I had taken; any other picture included in the magazine front cover or contents had to be taken by us personally as well.

First of all I had to design our magazine cover which consisted of drawing up a rough sketch including a masthead, a photo and any other details on the front cover. I annotated my sketch, this included the expression the person was using on the front, the background, any font and colours used. When I sketched the front cover I had to take into account whom would be my target audience and what colours and fonts would attract their attention.

 After a long deliberation on what I should call my magazine I finally thought of Sticky. The main reason I decided upon this name is that it has many meanings including hot, informal and awkwardly difficult. All of these meanings represent the stories inside the magazine as they address the issues no one else asks. Also the concept of when you pick up the magazine you won’t be able to put it down, as if it was covered in glue.

The skills that I had learnt in the pre-production part of this process is that to make a successful magazine front cover and contents page is that you need to pay deep attention to the audience its produced for. For example if you include too much information on the front of the magazine then no student is going to be bothered to pick it up and read through it. Instead you need to include short stories that are going to interest the students, a good colour scheme and fonts. The most important has to be an eye catching picture that the reader can relate to and genuinely be interested in.  

Magazine Cover Ideas

Preliminary Task - Post Production

Overall our group worked exceptionally well together and after our production process was complete we only had one more phase to go through. This consisted of editing the newly filmed footage. I was really out of my depth in this area as I have had no experience at all. Surprisingly though I seemed to pick it up quite quickly, with help from my other group members I was at home and with my new basic editing skills felt less confused.. Soon members of the group started to notice little mistakes that had been made during the filming process such as dead space. We had also zoomed in too much on certain shots producing poor quality shots where characters were suddenly missing parts.  

Most stages in our group were equally shared such as the creation of the story boards, filming and editing as well as any planning that went of behind the scenes.Now that I know my strengths and weaknesses I can work on improving my faults and using my best areas to my advantage. I think that each member of our group has learned from the mistakes made during the processes. Indeed we let a few mistakes slip through our fingers but now we know how best to avoid that from happening again. Now we have seen the effects of little errors, in our next piece we will do our best to prevent them. With our new found knowledge, skills and confidence I think that when presented with our next task, we will find it a walk in the park.

Our Final Piece . . .

Preliminary Task - Production

During the production process we had to pay heed to 3 key factors. The camera angles, continuity and finally the character placing.

After we had received another groups story board we set about filming, one major problem we picked up on was that no one throughout our group had any experience when it came down to useing the camera. Soon we realised that the only way we become more confident with the camera was to get as much experience with it as we could in the time given. No one was really sure where the camera would give us the best shots and we had to rely on the clear story board and trial and elimination. To start off with we had the camera zoomed in way too far to provide a clear shot that encorporated both characters with parts being cut out. To get around this problem next time we will have to keep the character in the exact spot where we filmed them and avoid any knock or movement towards the camera.

Continuity looked like a hard one to keep tabs on from the very start, I thought that we had done a good job on keeping eveything the same when we filmed. As we found out after watching our clip during editing there were scenes where the lighting had changed and objects in the background had been rearranged. Our lighting issue was that in our first scenes there was an open blind in the corner, next time we see this blind it has been rolled up. We had done this to create a lighter enviroment in the room, little did we realise it would affect our continuity.

In general i think that our group perfomed very good, we voted on who would be the best actor would be to represent our group in the filming. We also took it in turns to film, we all took part in some sort of directing whether it be deciding where the camera would be placed to helping actors perform to their full potential. One major fault was getting the shots correct, we didn't get accustomed to the camera zooming in and out at the start and end of the shots, therefore we ended up with shots growing darker in our film. We will need to take little things like these in consideration for when we do our final piece.

Next time I believe each member of our group will remeber the mistakes made in the production process and this will benefit each of us in the future to create a perfect final piece.

Preliminary Task - Pre Production

For our task we had to work in groups of four. The task consisted of a short film being made, we had to include a character walking down a corridor, opening and walking through a door, and then swapping a few lines of dialogue with another character.

First of all our group had to create a story board which we planned and drew out. Camera angles were always a worry dyring the creation of the story board as we had to take into consideration what angles we would use and what angles were clear. Along side camera angles we had to include continuity, and character postions.

I had learned that next time when we create a story board we must make it a lot more detailed and clearer. We weren't as clear as we needed to be, we missed out on too many details, our drawings were too simple and we didn't explain our process enough which implicated the group who recieved our story board. We must learn from these mistakes so we can produce better pieces of work in the future.

Above are my groups story boards. As I have explained they aren't clear enough and are not at all easily legible, we are not surprised that the other groups short film was quite a way off what we had intended. When it comes for us to draw story boards for our final piece, I will have to use all my newly learnt skills from the Pre Production for example clearer and more detailed story boards. 

The 5 C's

Camera Angles - Different places that cameras are positioned to give the audience a variety of views.

Continuity - Generally refers to visual errors. In very basic terms if a man was wearing a red shirt one second then the next a blue one.

Close-Ups - Something/Someone important to show the audience detail or emphasis something, Zoomed in.

Cutting (Editing) - It allows the director to change locations. Main use is to either add pace to a scene to make it more exciting or slow down pace for dramatic emphasis.

Composition - Taking into account the arrangements of elements while producing a film. E.g. light, shadow and arrangement of equiptment.

Me

Hello my name is Tom Simpson. I currently study Media Studies, English Language, History and Sociology for my A levels at Lutterworth College.

I like playing and watching football, my favourite team is Leicester City who I go to watch reguarly. My favourite all time player would either have to be Emile Heskey or Micheal Owen, Heskey might just get top spot being a Leicester boy.

I chose Media Studies AS because I enjoy listening to music and watching films and T.V. I listen to any music really, just not the heavy metal and classical type, I try and keep my options open as I enjoy electro to indie, one of my favourite bands are Kasabian, I also like artists such as Foals, Daft Punk, Brandon Flowers, The xx, Calvin Harris, Empire of the Sun and The Black Keys. 

Two of my favourite T.V programmes are The Inbetweeners and This is England 86'. One of my favourite films is Anchorman starring Will Ferrell, I think this film is hilarious.  I also like the film City of God, although it is not in English the film is an in depth, action packed rollercoaster ride that leads you through a Portugese speaking favela in Rio De Janeiro. I think if you are a real film fan then you won't mind what language the film is in. Not all good films are in Enlgish. My favourite genre would have to comedy as it entertains you for the full length of the movie.
I thought that Media Studies was for me as I'm interested in writing and if I'm lucky will one day be a sports journalist or along those lines. If not I'll just settle on winning the lottery or something.