Production Meeting 3

Media - production pitch


This is our production pitch, showing our opening sequence ideas and how we are going approach filming it. We presented this to the class and got some really good feedback back. We got postive and focus points of feedback; our postitive points are that we have a really clear idea on what we are going to base our opening sequence on and that it seems as if we know what we are talking about and how we go about filming it. However, our focus points are that we need to focus on where we are filming our sequence, who our cast is going to be and what props we are going to use. We also need to focus on getting the message across to our target audience in order for them to understand what would happen in the film.

We then discussed our action points for our next meeting, these were:

• To discover a suitable location
• Put together a shot list
• Produce a final copy of a storyboard

Production Meeting 2

In our next meeting on the 13th December, we spoke about our action points, so where we could film our opening sequence, heard the soundtrack and the sound effects we could used and looked at the storyboard in which Bryony created.

We then, spoke about our ideas and decided as a group to produce an opening sequence on our first idea; the action sequence. This idea is where a person is asleep and is dreaming, as the action starts we will have a black screen with titles on it and then go back to the action. The sequence will end with the character waking up by the sound of a gun-shot and their alarm going off. By doing this we don't reveal the whole film throught the opening sequenece, it builds tension for the audience watching, making them want to carry on watching.


After this, we looked at various soundtracks and sound effect I had chosen. We narrowed them down to one soundtrack and two sound effects. Click on the links below to hear them.

Soundtrack

Sound effect - Alarm clock

Sound effect - Gun shot

We spoke about our action points. By our next meeting we wanted to have:

• A mood board created
• A powerpoint finished in order to make a production pitching
• Discussed cast and locations  

Production Meeting 1

Our first meeting as a group (myself, Dionne and Bryony W) was held on the 6th December. We put some ideas together and we came up with 3 opening sequences we could do. These are:

An action sequence: where a person is asleep and is dreaming, this is when the action comes in, as the action starts we will have a black screen with titles on it and then go back to the action. The sequence will end with the character waking up by the sound of a gun-shot and their alarm going off.

Miracle drug: we came up with this idea because we were speaking about the film "Limitless"; we thought we could reinact the opening sequence but thought we would give to much of the film away if we did.

Psychological sequence: We thought we could do an psychological horror/thriller and link the

protagonist to the drama which unfolds within the film. However, we thought that this idea may be too common within our class and that it may have been too common in the past as well.

As a group we had to come up with action points. These allow each of us to go away and focus on one aspect of the opening sequence then bring back our ideas to the group and discuss in our next meeting together.

• My action point was to find a location in which we could film our opening sequence
• The sound we left to Dionne e.g. soundtrack, non diagetic and diagetic sounds
• The storyboard/screen shots Bryony had to focus on e.g. how we would film our opening sequence. 

How to make a video?

In our lesson today, we watched a DVD how to make our own video for when we film our opening sequence. From this I wrote notes on what we need to include and what we need to take into consideration before and after filming our sequence.

Pre-production

We need to work out the roles of each person. In the making of films a lot of people are involved including: 

•  Executive Producer
• Director
• Writer
• Production manager
• Camera Operator
•  Lighting Director
• Sound Technician
• Actors
• Editor

All of the people above have different roles in the production of any film.

We also need to make a shot list. This is made up of the following things:

• Where we should shoot our sequence
• The time needed to shoot it
• The different camera angles
• The date we need to film by  

Post Production

 We also need to take into consideration of the purpose of our opening sequence, our target audience and our limitations of what we can and can't do. Here are a list of points we need to remember when filming our opening sequence.

• Shooting of the project
• Time Management
• Quality control (image, sound, performance)
• Potential conflict between limitations

Clip analysis

In our lesson on Thursday, Mr. Buckmaster gave us a list of things to include in our opening sequence. There are five main areas which we have to take into consideration when filming our opening sequence, these are: Genre, Setting, Atmosphere, Character and Narrative (enigma). We then had to analyse 3 different opening sequences and write our take on them, we were split into groups and were given a different area each, for example Narrative.

The first we analysed was Martin Scorsese's "Cape Fear", our group was given Narrative. My first impression was that it was a tragic story and it had an element of threat in it, I thought this was established through the camera shots used throughout the opening sequence because they are all close-up shot, causing the audience to get closer to what's happening and give them a sense of fear. I also that it was established through the dialogue at the end of the sequence, the character sounds so solemn and she has no emotion in her voice, this makes the audience want to know more and know what happened at Cape Fear. 

The next clip we analysed was "Hellboy 2" directed by Guillermo del Toro, for this clip we were given Setting to analyse. When we watched it, we firstly analysed the different places it was filmed in, we saw it started off in the bedroom and then quickly changed to what looked like a metal workshop. We came to the conclusion, that the metal workshop represented Hell. I think this is good because it gets the audience thinking before the film has even started. The opening sequence is inter-dimensional, showing the audience that the place where it is set, is more advanced than the world we live in. We also came up with the conclusion that the film is set in the past, we know this due to the Di Vinchi elements placed in the clip, this means the film has a historical element or connection to it. Click the link below to watch the titles. 

Opening Titles: Hellboy 2

The final film we analysed was the 1994 classic, directed by Robert Zemeckis "Forrest Gump", for this clip we were given Atmosphere. For this we looked at the weather, it seems as if its cold and there's hardly any wind, this gives the audience a sense that this film is going to be relaxing and a film where everyone leads a normal life. The music makes the opening sequence seem realistic making the audience think that something will happen to the character we are introduced too, in this case the protagonist Forrest Gump. 

Preliminary Task

For our preliminary task we had to storyboard what we wanted to have as our preliminary, this is to get a rough idea of what we are going to film and how we would film it. The storyboard shows each shot and the camera angles in it. We then had to take into consideration the 180 degree rule; a rule which the director has to ensure the camera he uses during a conversation do not cross the invisible line between the actors, it allows the audience to be connected with the actors during the scene, Match on Action; this is where the angle of the camera changes during a scene, this comes across to the audience as if it hasn't happened and the seems flows normally, Reverse Angle Shot; this is shot behind each characters in the scene, it allows the audience to see things from the same perpective as the characters. Below is examples of the rules we had to take into consideration:

Below left - 180 degree rule
Below right - Reverse angle shot
Below centre - Match on action

 

British Film Institution Visit

On Tuesday, my class went to London to visit the BFI (British Film Institution). I couldn't go on the trip due to an exam, but my classmates took notes so that I could understand what they were experiencing and how I should go about doing my coursework.They were given information by various amounts of people such as Pete Fraser, the Chief Examiner of OCR Media Studies, Simon Frame, and the writer and director of "Attack the Block" Joe Cornish. 

First of all Pete Fraser gave them information on how to improve and enhance out coursework. 

The key features in opening sequences are as followed:

• Genre
• Narrative (enigma)
• Character
• Atmosphere
• Setting

This allows us to create an opening sequence which will attract the audience straight away, and hopefully keep them watching. Every creator of an opening sequence thinks of things in general first and then elaborates on them more specifically, doing research at the same time as well. 

After speaking about opening sequences, my class watched numerous of past opening sequences in order to see what makes a good and bad opening sequence, taking into consideration the key features. The opening sequence is there for the audience to make a judgement on what they think the film is going to be about. My class were then given a list of six opening sequence that were common in which we should avoid doing for out final piece, these included:

• Saw - character/victim in a shed
• Scream - mysterious stalker 
• Se7en
• Lock, stock
• Someone waking up
• Flash back and forwards

They were then given information on problems which occur in an opening sequence:

• Making it look like a trailer
• Making it look like a short film
• Not many opening titles
• Poor lighting and sound quality
• Actors which were not directed correctly
• Making it complicated for the audience

Pete then told them about the steps we should take when filming our own opening sequence. 

Step 1: Take stock

- Building on skills, research and planning

- Time - giving yourself enough time to shoot and edit

Step 2: Setting up blog

Step 3: Build up skills

Step 4: Investigate

Step 5: Brainstorm Ideas

- Mood board

- Realism 

- Feedback

- Pitched

Step 6: Planning

- Experiment 

- Storyboard

Step 7: Shooting

- Costume, lightening, actors, movement, props and setting (CLAMPS)

- Rehearsing

- Keeping track or record of processing

Step 8: Editing 

- Screen grabs

- Audio and titles

- Foley

- Peer feedback and set a deadline

Step 9: Evaluation

- Evaluation of everything which has been filmed

Overall, I've learnt a lot from what the class has told me, the steps we have to make, to make our final piece realistic and what I should and shouldn't do whilst filming my opening sequence. I've also learnt that I should plan, learn from what others have done, avoiding creating an opening which is common, pay attention to detail and vary my blog. 

"Tell" by Ryan Connolly

For our homework we had to watch Ryan Connolly's "Tell". We had to comment on the clip, on what we thought about the camera shot and angles, and the sound. "Tell" is a short psychological film about a man called Taylor who is psychologically disturbed after he murders his girlfriend Jenny. Watch the 32 minute short film below by clicking on the video. 

My view on "Tell" was that I thought the clip of the film was really good and the camera angles were great. I especially liked the reverse angles at the start, it really draws in the audience because Connolly wants us to keep watching. The sound made it even better, it made me want to know what was coming up next, it was so tense.  For a short film, with a low budget and without using professional actors, I thought it was very well put together and it was very effective in order to attract the audience's attention. 

Types of Lighting

There are several types of lighting used on set of a TV drama, for example in classs we looked at the lighting in Hunted. We then analysed it through a point evidence explain paragraph whilst looking at the CLAMPS of the scence too.

The following types of lighting are:

Key: this is the main light on a subject, e.g. focusing on  a character in a difficult situation.
Low Key: this is soft light on a subject, e.g. candles in a room by a subject.
High Key: this is hard/direct on a subject, e.g. the sun, lamps or spotlight.

Full: light placed to the side of the subject to fill out shadows and balance light, e.g. half the light on a character.
Backlight: a light placed at the rear of a subject to give light from behind, e.g. to focus/highlight the character.
Ambient/Naturalistic: light available before artificial light is added, e.g. lightening from windows or lights already there.
Chiaroscuro: strong contrasts between light and dark light, e.g. to show the higher class and personality between characters.
Accent light/spotlight: a controlled, narrowly focused beam of light e.g. focused light on a character.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is everything you see in the shot and scene. It is used to create a feeling of "realism" about the plot to the audience, this therefore makes it believable for the audience. It makes the characters seem real, helps the audience to understand who is who in the scene and it creates representations of different groups.  

Mise-en-scene is made up of six different elements: CLAMPS. 

C- costume 

L - lighting

A - actors

M - movement

P - props

S - setting

 Mise-en-scene links to realism. There are several steps to what makes up realism. 

The first level of realism means selecting the right actors, props/objects, locations, voices of the actors and the diagetic sound (noises on set.)

The second level of realism means how the drama is filmed. This will be done by the lighting, use of camera, choice of shot, non-diagetic sound (music) and the editing. 

Finally, the third level of realism is the finished "product" on television. This is when the actual TV Drama is viewed by the audience and then, the opinions of the drama, for example is it believable. 

Love Actually Trailer: Storyboard and Clips

In our lesson we had to storyboard a film of our own choice in groups. A storyboard is a sequence of drawings; they are used in order to show the shots planned for a movie or television programme. For example the film the group and I used to create my storyboard was the trailer for "Love Actually " We chose "Love Actually" because the camera shots are quite simple and easier to create again with in a storyboard. The clip below shows the trailer we used. 

The template below is a similar template to what producers use in order to plan a scene for their film or television programme. 

This is our recreation of the trailer, it contains the clips in which we thought had good camera angles and shots.

Camera Shots, Angles and Movement

In this lesson we looked at camera shots, angles and movement all used on a film set, TV programme or a viral video. The following screen grabs are the camera shots we looked at during the lesson:

 Zoom in shot on Edward's eyes. We can tell this by how close Edward is to the camera, and we can see his eyes clearly.

                                                

Low angle shot on Jacob's transformation from human to wolf. We can tell this by how high the wolf is in the air, this allows the audience to get a sense of fear whilst watching this scene.

                                            

​​​​   Medium long shot of Edward and Bella, we know this because they are not too close to the camera and not too far away, so that we (as an audience) can see them properly and clearly.

  Reverse angle shot from behind Edward's shoulder, we can tell this by the way in which the camera has been postitioned. The camera is just over the shoulder of Edward, so it gives the audience a view from Edward's point of view and the angle in which he is looking.

            Dutch angle shot of Jasper in the baseball scene. A dutch angle is an angle where  the character or protagonist is differently alligned to the camera. In this screen shot, Jasper is at a slight angle in comparison to the camera; the camera is straight.  



Semiotics

What are Semiotics? 
Semiotics are the study of signs. It helps us to understand how humans 'read' or make meaning of the images, pictures and visual signs that they see.


There are three individuals who developed semiotics: 

• Ferdinand de Saussure
• Charlie Pierce
• Roland Barthles 

A sign refers to a meaning other than itself; it works as a pointer to think in a certain way. This meaning depends on the culture of the individual reading the sign. Most of our communication is via signs, such as grunting, hand gestures, sounds or drawn symbols. 

During our lesson with Mrs Griffiths, we had a task to complete to see what we could connote from different signs and words, these signs could have more than one meaning. We could connote different meaning's from the sign depending on our interpretations of the sign. 

Sign What is denoted?	The meaning (s) what is connoted?
£	Pounds, money
$	Dollars, money
!	exaggeration
©	Plagerism
☺	Happiness
♥	Love, romance, relationships
♫	Musical, music
A rose	Love, romance
The moon	Night time
A cross	Religion
A teardrop	Unhappiness or happiness
A bead of sweat	Hot
white	Light, purity
black	darkness
Green	Freshness, jealousy, natural
blue	Cool, water, calm
Red	Danger, hot

The table above is what I have connoted from each of the signs given, some people within my class may have different connotations to what I have, this is because each individual interprets things differently. 

TV Drama

Denotation - the first and simple level of meaning of an image
Connotation - a meaning attributal to an image beyond the obvious denotational level 

Different genre's of TV drama's: 

• Romance
• Soap opera
• Murder Mystery 
• Tragedy
• Science fiction
• Action
• Comedy
• Period Drama 

Media Representation

Media means being in the middle or beneath things. People and places you see on television or in film are representations of a real person or event if it is a documentary or imagined in a particular way if it is fictional like a feature film or TV drama. 

Representation of: 

Age

Disability 

Ethnicity

Gender

Regional identity

Sexuality

Social Class

The Four Television Theories

In our lesson with Mrs Griffiths we learnt about the different television theories which were created before the television we have today. The four theories were as followed in chronological order: The Hyperdermic Needle, Two Step Flow, Uses and Gratification and The Reception Theory.

1. The Hyperdermic Needle theory was a theory created in the 1920's. The theory suggested that people were passively receiving information through a media text or propaganda without challenging it, it didn't take into account people's individual opinions but they assumed everyone liked the same information. 

2. The next theory we looked at was the Two Step Flow theory. This theory was created in the 1930's/1940's by Paul Lezerfeld, Bernard Berelsdam and Hazel Gaudet. They all realised after interviewing a number of people that different people process different information according to what they enjoy hearing about the most. For example some people would like to hear about the football or rugby so therefore they would only filter information on that other than something they wouldn't like to hear about. 

3. The third theory was produced in the 1970's by two people called Blulmer and Katz, this was the theory of Uses and Gratification. They came up with four reasons why people watch television these were:
Diversion: escaping everyday activities or routine
Personal Relationships: using the media for emotional support
Personal Identity: finding yourself in a particular show/series in order to connect to it  
Surveillance: to find out information 
They believed that if media expanded these reasons would expand too.

4. The final theory was created in the 1980's/1990's, it was devised by Stuart Hall. He thought that we could produce different media to suit different gender, age, class, ethnicity, this is known as preferred reading. He also thought that an audience received text by encoding and decoding.

The Orphanage: Regression Scene

Last lesson our class watched the Regression Scene of The Orphanage. Click on the link at the bottom of the page in order to watch this scene. In class we analysed the sound with in the scene, we made notes on soundtrack, sound effects, dialogue, diagetic and non-diagetic sounds. The notes below are the notes in which I made, the first time I watched the scene. 

Soundtrack (non-diagetic): Violin start playing in order to create an "unknown" feeling/environment for the audience, the violin's suddenly stop and a high pitched sound takes over making the audience feel as if something bad is going to happen and then it changes to a lower deeper sound. 

Sound Effects (non-diagetic): 3 minutes 10 seconds into the Regression Scene, Aurora starts walking along the landing, her footsteps are emphasised in order to give the audience a sense of mystery, make them feel uncomfortable and also for the tension to build up. The camera constantly is zooming in and out, whilst Aurora is walking around. There are also children screaming and shouting in the cupboard, their voices seem to get louder and then quieter when Aurora is near them. This gives the impression to the audience that Aurora is unsafe. 

Dialogue: The writer of the Orphanage gives Aurora a quiet voice in order to portray to the audience that she is scared, uncomfortable with the situation in which she is in and that she is vulnerable whilst she is alone upstairs. 

Diagetic sounds: The man is following Aurora's moves as she travels around the house by using a pencil and a piece of paper. The noise of the pencil increases in order to build up and create tension. The radio sound starts to get louder, the lights start to flicker and the TV's suddenly go off. 

The Orphanage: Regression Scene link

The Orphanage: Opening Scene

The Orphanage
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Writer: Sergio G. Sánchez

We watched the opening scene of The Orphanage in order to analyse the characters, their relationships, genre and location to try and work out what the film would be about. Click on the link to watch the Opening Scene.

Characters: Laura

• A young girl
• Alone
• Singled out
• Innocent 
• Wearing old clothing (1940's)

Characters: Old Lady 

• Hiding emotions
• In charge of orphanage
• Don't see her face
• Mysterious

Relationships between Characters

• All interact with eachother e.g. playing 
• All socially friendly towards one another 
• Old Lady seems to care for Laura 

Genre

• Psychological horror film

Location/Setting

• Old historical Orphanage 
• Spanish countryside, middle of no-where
• Garden was surrounded by trees, giving the impression it was closed off to the outside world
• A scarecrow, didn't look like the average scarecrow
• Tell by the costumes and props that the film is set in the past (1940's) 

Useful Websites

In our first lesson with Mr Buckmaster, he gave us a list of websites in which will be helpful for our AS media studies, the following websites are the ones which I think will help me the most. 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/

http://www.artofthetitle.com/

http://www.marlboroughmediastudies.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/