Using Technology

How have I used technology in my coursework?

Technology played such an important role in the success of our whole film opening project and throughout the whole duration of the creating process, we had to learn how to use the technical equipment to our advantage, eventhough we faced some problems.
The video camera was of course the most important piece of technology, because we had to use it to film all of our opening. We used the camera to capture scenes, including specific shots such as over the shoulder and match on action shots, which, when edited, made our opening more edgy and impressive.
After capturing all of the required shots, we used the computer programme, 'Pinnacle,' which enabled us to upload and edit our film. Pinnacle was an editing programme that my group and I were quite new to and it was something that we all had to experiment with. There were many features of the programme that benifited us, especially when we had to cut certain scenes and add typical thriller conventions, such as spooky music and titles. However, at times it could be rather temperamental and as a result, hindered our progression.



We used the computer a lot throughout our film making, taking advantage of video uploading websites and programmes such as powerpoint to present our work on slides in preparation for our group presentation. We also used the computer to view popular thriller films and to research the certification of films and collect pictures of costumes and various elements that would enhance our film.

How had this helped my Director's commentary?

With our project complete, it was now time to record our Director's commentary. We achieved this by using an 'Edirol,' a recording device that allowed us to reflect on the overall project. This certain type of technology helped greatly when it came to explaining what we had done to our audience.



Overall, we used a wide range of technology to form and enhance our film opening. At times there were problems we faced because the technology could be quite temperamental, however, it was all part of the creating process and the technical problems we had were things that we could reflect on during out commentary. For me, the project was all about experimenting with different types of technology and learning how they all play an important part in the media industry.

Audience Feedback

My group and I felt it was time to get some feedback from our target audience in order to see what they thought about our film opening overall. To acheive this, we decided to put together a series of questions that we thought would be extremely useful when finding out our audience's opinions on the different aspects of our opening, including the thriller conventions and the overall storyline. We then summarised the answers to our questions so we gained an overview of what the majority of our audience thought.
Our first set of questions asked our audience what they thought was happening and what thriller conventions were used in the film so that we could see how much they understood. Our audience seemed to be aware that a stranger was following the two girls in our film, although it wasn't clear why and because of this, many people were intrigued. Our viewers managed to pick out the main conventions that made our opening a successful thriller, such as darkness, close camera shots and black and white titles. From our questionnaire, they all agreed that the black and white titles suited the genre and consequently showed my group and I that we didn't have to make things extremely fancy. Another question we asked concerned the music and what atmosphere it created to the viewer. After analysing all the different comments we found that most people thought an eerie and tense atmosphere was created and in some cases made our audience nervous, which is what my group and I wanted. We also wanted to know what the costumes told our audience about the characters and most of them noticed that the girls were what you would call average teenagers from the clothes they wore, whilst the person playing the 'stalker' appeared rather sinisterly dressed in dark, black clothes.
Another way we tried to show our characters were typical teenage girls was by mise- en-scene. Some of the people who took the questionnaire noticed how homely and comfortable the setting appeared with the character snuggled up whilst watching tv and the use of props, such as make up, fairy lights and mirrors in the girl's bedroom, gave the impression that that particular room belonged to a girl.
The main purpose of our questionaire was to ask our target audience if they had notcied any mistakes in the opening and if so, what could my group and I do in order to improve it. In general, there were no major mistakes that became apparent, however, our audience did notice certain aspects of the opening that could have been better, especially the brightness of the shots. When projected onto a screen and after the lights were dimmed, it was too dark to see what was happening and it was quite disappointing when the audience missed an impotant climax in the film. Although the lighting was a slight let down, the problem still taught my group and I to make sure that the brightness was just right when filming and editing projects in the future.
When asked if they would consider watching the rest of the film, the majority of our audience said that they would like to see what would happen next and the response to our opening was overall, very positive.

Using Copyright Free Music & Targeting Our Audience

Using Copyright Free Music

For my group and I, the sound and music in our film opening was hugely important, because it made such a big impact and made the overall piece seem even more professional. We had to find a piece of music that suited our thriller theme perfectly, but that was also uncopyrighted and after browsing different websites, we used audio.lgfl.org.uk, a copyright free website, to find the music we wanted. The music consisted of sharp, edgy sound effects and after applying the chosen sound, we then had the task of editing the music so that it was cut to the action of the film. We were amazed at how perfectly the edited version of the music fitted with our opening and we all noticed how much of a difference the convention of sound made.



Targeting Our Specific Audience

Another aspect we had to think about was our target audience and what certification would be appropriate for our opening. Our research of the possible certifications led us to label our own opening as a '15', due to the mild forms of horror presented without a strong amount of violence or graphic detail. We used http://www.screenonline.org.uk/ to understand how suitable our film was for our audience and because we had teenagers starring in our film, we decided to target 15 to 17 year olds. We thought that the opening would appeal mostly to teenagers of this age range because they could relate to their own particular social group whilst also enjoying the elements of danger and excitement. We would expect our opening to make them an attentive and engaged audience, consequently making our film opening one that was hugely successful.

Using Titles and Fonts

Throughout the whole of our film opening, my group and I used titles to not only present the names of the people who were apart of the formation, but to also use them as a way of creating the sinister atmosphere that we were aiming for. We made the titles very plain with a simple white font and a black background. After some discussion, we decided that we wanted to break the typical convention of applying a jagged, distorted type font and instead, use a plain, but bold font. My group and I searched the web for different font styles and after browsing on http://www.dafont.com/, we found a variety of rather scary, effective fonts. However, we stuck to our decision of using a simple font and came across a font style we all really liked.

We all agreed that this particular font was the one that we would have as our main font because of the simplicity of it. Another advantage of this type font was the fact that it resembles the exact font of the 'Hotel Road' roadsign and the fact that it related to our roadside theme was perfect. The font really stood out to us giving the impression of a rather daunting feeling, eventhough it appears quite basic. To us, less was more.

We also used institution at the start of our opening in order to make it look more effective a professional. We discussed as a group what institution we would add and again broke the usual convention of including one that was well known for being presented in thrillers. Instead we used the 'Paramount' institution. At first we weren't sure whether to include it as we might have been accused of copyright, however it turned out we we allowed to use it.

Overall I think the titles, fonts and institutions we used made our film opening seem all the more professional and realistic to the audience.

The Filming Process

Using Thriller Conventions
After much contemplation of what made typical film opening successful, we had to then decide what conventions we would include to make our own opening one that told our target audience that they were watching a thriller.
The first thing we had to think about was the time it would be filmed and by filming it at nightime, my group and I thought the dark atmosphere would make our opening evenmore chilling. We all knew from films we had previously watched that an eerie surrounding is something commonly associated with a thriller or horror and because of this we thought a night setting would present a great deal of suspense.
We also tried to use specific camera angles in order to create a tense feeling as well by contrasting quick, sharp cuts with slow zooms, consequently making the audience feel uneasy whilst adding a hint of confusion too. We also blurred some shots to present ditortion and abmornailty as well as including high and low camera shots to create a sense of dominance and intimidation. In my opinion, this was ideal in showing how much control the mysterious person had over the girls and therefore also gave the impression the figure was a man.
The dark, black clothes worn by the hoodie presented a feeling of danger and the unknown, therefore showing how the convention of costume, in this case, increased the mental torment for the character.
Another thriller convention we added was sound, that in my opinion, made all the difference to our opening. The non-diegetic sound we used enhanced the sequence greatly, presenting a rather edgy and uncomfortable atmosphere. One thing my group and I noticed about the sound was the way that it all fitted in so perfectly with our whole film opening. We managed to edit it so that the loud and scary parts of the sound occured at the exact moments of a tense climax and as a result, made the opening evenmore sinister.
The type of font we used during the opening credits also made our thriller opening slightly spooky, because we used plain, black and white titles, showing a contrast of light and dark. The font may have been rather simple, but my group and I thought it would be slightly unusual to include a normal element.
We also altered the brightness of the shots, making them darker in order to make the whole film seem as if it was set at night. This again added to the many frightening elements of our film and the mise-en-scene showing a normal, cosy house containing furniture and other hoursehold items contrasted from the horrific side to the opening. The clothes worn by the girls in the film also broke the convention of a thriller, however we all felt that the difference between the two atmospheres worked well in creating confusion and fear.

Overcoming Difficulties
There were quite a few difficulties we faced throughout the filming process, however part of the process was also to overcome the struggle.
A common problem we had was the continuity errors that appeared. We noticed how easy it was to make a continuity error and eventhough it made parts of the film jump and the process slower, we took the time to film the scene again or place another shot in between the sudden jumps so the error wasn't as noticeable. These type of errors appeared especially when we had to stop and start scenes or had to finish filming the rest of a scene on a different day, at a different time of day. To overcome these problems, we found ourselves filming specific secenes again or just darkening some to make it seem like they were all filmed around the same time.
We also had a problem with brightness when it came to filming the ending where we originally planned to have the mysterious figure presenting a knife to the girl. We found that it was far too dark to film that part, however we all agreed it would be better if we didn't as this created more mystery and intrigue.
There were times where unwanted background sound ruined the tense feeling and because of this we had to mute this before we added the scary sound. One of our scenes that we filmed outside was disturbed by the wind and we it was therefore hard for us to hear the girl's conversation. We refilmed this scene to overcome this problem and throughout the filming process we found ourselves often filming other scenes again, sometimes because the actor looked at the camera. However this wasn't too much of a problem and we soon achieved some relatively good scenes.
There was also periods where technology made progressing through the task quite hard, especially when the camera was running on a low battery or when we were uploading our film to the computer programme, Pinnacle. We found that Pinnacle could sometimes be temperamental when uploading, however we didn' let this bother us too much because the programme still uploaded what we wanted.
At times there was also the difficulty of arranging times when we would film, and eventhough it was a struggle to find out when everybody was able to film, we managed to organise a filming schedule that suited us. Some of the filming we did was in school which therefore made the filming process easier for us because we were already ready to film and could access the camera equipment quite easily, however when we filmed outside of the school environment, we were all required to commit ourselves and book the equipment before hand. We had discussions about when we were all available to film and because of this we have so far managed to continue filming at a steady pace and we could therefore proceed to editing as soon as possible.

Representing social groups in my film opening

To represent social groups in our film, my group had to think about costumes, location and props.

The location was an ideal way of representing the social group of a typical family and by presenting a house in a street for our establishing shot, we were therefore trying to make things look as normal and as believable as possible for the audience.

We also used certain props to again represent a family and as a result the use of these gave the scene a more realistic and homely feel. We filmed specific objects including a sofa and a television and at one point, we thought it would be ideal to even have one of the actors hugging a cushion to present a comfortable and cosy atmosphere.

Costumes were definitely an effective way of representing social groups in our film. Both of the girls that acted throughout the film wore girly, fashionable clothes to highlight their age and therefore place them in a typical teenage group. The clothes they wore also helped us learn more about their characters and we tended to associate them with a younger age group because they were preparing to go out, something teenagers would usually do to have fun. By having the figure disguised throughout our film in dark clothes, we consequently presented him as a ‘hoodie,’ therefore making him more threatening and mysterious. Again, teenagers would be able to relate this particular stereotypical group with danger and trouble, and as a result would attract our target audience.

The Benifits From Our Animated Storyboard...

After my group and I discussed the plot and what would happen during our 2 minute film opening, we put together an animated storyboard so that we could visualise each shot clearly and perfect different aspects that made the film successful. The storyboard encouraged my group and I to converse with eachother, discussing issues such as timing and sound effects. Timing was something we had to consider carefully, as it was vital that we didn't run over 2 minutes and to prevent this from happening, we all discussed how long we thought each camera shot should last for and wrote it down on the storyboard. We all agreed that most of our shots would be quite quick and jumpy because our film was a horror and we wanted to build as much tension as possible. The storyboard also helped us decide where we wanted to place our chosen uncopyrighted sound effects and we thought that by having some form of eerie, non diegetic music playing constantly in the background, it would therefore keep the audience in suspense. When filming our storyboard, we tried to film each picture the way we would when we filmed it properly. For example, if the shot included a zoom, we moved the camera in towards the animation we drew so that when we looked back on it, we would know what type of effect to apply. Our storyboard also helped us with editing when we uploaded the animations onto pinnacle, allowing us to gain more knowledge of the computer programme and experiment with different effects and slide transitions as well. In my opinion, the storyboard we created helped us immensely as a group, showing us that if you put something down on paper, you can consequently see the bigger picture so you understand exactly what you want to achieve and to help you think about how you can make your work evenmore successful.

Amityville 2: The Possession (opening credits)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA_QDQnLDsI

When comparing the opening title credits and film sequence of Amityville 2 to my own media group's horror film opening, I noticed some similarities between the way both openings were presented. For example, the start of Amityville 2 begins with the noise of a gust of wind, a sound effect my group and I were planning to add at some point during our 2 minute video. When the setting of the scene first appears, we instantly see a sign saying 'For Sale.' It was very similar to our idea of showing a street sign with the name of our film 'Hotel Road' displayed across it and as a group we all agreed that by showing the sign, it would therefore help the audience picture the setting and immediately give them some idea of the atmosphere around. The beginning of Amityville 2 includes an eerie, non diegetic piano type sound in the background, creating tension and suspense and sound was definitely something that my group wanted to apply to our short clip, whether it be actual music or just a range of scary sound effects. The camera tends to pan across the house and forest rather slowly throughout the entire opening of Amityville 2 as well, creating some anticipation. We all decided to make our camera slowly pan across the street houses before gradually zooming in onto the house's door. I noticed how Amityville 2 also used the effect of zooming in onto a small window at the top of the house and as it did, the music suddenly became deeper and more threatening because of this. The font used for the credits was also quite similar to ours, as we also used bold, block writing that would stand out and be recognised. By watching this opening, it made me reflect on how my group and I could experiment with different techniques to create a scary atmosphere and therefore make our opening even more successful as a horror.

What have I learnt about Institution?

What do we mean by ‘Institution’ in Media? Well, after analysing this new concept with closer detail and the effect it has on us, I’ve consequently discovered how frequently we are confronted with it everyday. Many people would describe Institution in Media as a ‘set of rules or codes that constrain and control our daily lives’ and prime types of media introducing such values would include that of the Internet, Newspapers, and unsurprisingly, television. I also learnt that, even though Institution offers many advantages for prospering businesses, there is also a danger to us the public, being somewhat influenced by only one particular opinion of a certain successful organisation, leaving other businesses and their values very little chance of being acknowledged. I learnt that Institution is basically about understanding who produces media texts, what their relationship is to us as individuals and finally, what their set of values are.
A good example of a massively successful company in the Institution of media would be Walt Disney. Like many well known companies, Walt Disney have a set of values that they stick by, telling us the public, what we can expect. Walt Disney promise innovation, offering something new and refreshing for their audience. They appreciate quality, striving to follow a high standard of excellence. They care about the community, constantly attempting to provide entertainment for all families and generations. They also aim to maintain optimism and honour the trust people place in them.
Walt Disney initially began as a producer of short-subject motion pictures, however, has since then expanded and now becoming part of radio, television, publishing and travel. Among these mediums there is the Disney Interactive Media Group that promotes their products, the Disneyland Resort and even the Disney Cruise Line. Disney also owns 80% of the ESPN channel and 25% of the GMTV channel.
After my research on companies such as Walt Disney, I was amazed by how much they owned and profited from. I soon realised that in theory, it is practically impossible to escape the influence of these companies, because of the amount of control they have on what we are exposed to. These facts surprised me greatly and as a result, made me reflect on how Institution really is a massive part of our lives, even though most of us still may not even realise it.

"Life With Mikey" Opening Title Sequence Review

As an audience, it is only natural for us to try and establish the characters, location, plot, genre and theme of a film instantly, after viewing it’s opening title sequence. The 1993 film “Life With Mikey” is a Scott Rudin Production and is directed by James Lapine. This light-hearted comedy is distributed by Touchstone Pictures and includes many effective film techniques and specific camera angles to make it engaging whilst also introducing the type and style of the film.
Among the cast, Michael J Fox and Christina Vidal are introduced as the main characters of the movie, even if it isn‘t until a little later on in the story. Fox plays Mikey, a child’s talent agent, and although a former child star himself, struggles to maintain the success of his agency due to the increasing numbers of wannabe stars leaving the company to find stardom somewhere else. However, when bumping into Angie Vega, a young and spirited pick pocket with impressive acting ability, the pair soon embark on a heart warming journey to make it big.
The opening titles of the film begin with diegetic sound of a piano arrangement in the background, immediately introducing us to a jazzy tone with a showbiz theme to the movie. The titles and credits are presented in a Broadway style font that gradually fades and is accompanied by flashing gold stars, therefore also giving a certain showbiz feel to the movie.
The opening scene of the movie switches from the titles to a stage in a small audition room, in which different children are performing, trying to impress agent, Ed Chapman, Mikey’s brother, played by Nathan Lane. The setting instantly pulls us into the performing world, giving us an idea of what the film is about.
There is no voiceover or particular choice of narrative in the opening sequence of the film. Instead, we are thrown right into the story with the actors interacting and speaking, leaving us to discover the plot of the film for ourselves.
The camera angles vary throughout the opening, depending on the amount of characters in the actual shot and what is happening. For example, at one point when a young girl dances on the stage in the audition room, the camera is set to a wide shot so we can see the whole of her body and therefore everything she is doing. However, when the scene switches to a child pulling a funny face, the camera moves from starting as a mid shot, then gradually zooms in to catch a close up of his face. After the close up, there is an over the shoulder shot from the view of the young boy and this is where we are introduced to Ed Chapman, speaking directly to him and telling him what he thought of the performance. The over the shoulder shot was rather effective, as we the audience felt that we were the ones being judged on the stage, again communicating the theme of show business. It also gives us a sense that the film somewhat revolves around the topics of success, determination and inspiration, making the film overall, a light-hearted and entertaining comedy, including music and fun for all the family.

My Evaluation Blog Of Preliminary Task

To start developing my knowledge of media, I took part in a preliminary task which involved creating a short, thirty second clip with my group that included the three main camera shots. Our short film had to have a shot reverse shot, match on action shot and the 180 degree rule, making the clip interesting and more professional. Firstly, we decided to set our film outside the school diner as the story revolved around one person offering another person some of their lunch whilst also being a place that was available for the group to use at that specific time. As a group we planned when and where we would apply the three main camera shots as well as others to the clip to add effect.
For the match on action shot we all agreed to use the door leading out from the diner, so we could make the actor look like they were walking straight through the door in one movement. This shot was extremely successful, as it looked very natural and effortless.
The shot reverse shot was applied during the conversation of the two characters being filmed and created much more impact than filming both characters at the same time in one shot, due to the fact that it looked as if we were seeing everything from the other character’s view. It was also very fluent, however, this type of shot unfortunately affected our next type of shot, the 180 degree rule.
We attempted to keep the entire film within a 180 degree radius throughout our recording, although when looking back at the video, my group noticed that the shot reverse shot we had included went slightly over the 180 radius, breaking the rule altogether. Even though it was wasn’t a major mistake, my group and I still felt the need to learn from the error so that we would not repeat the same thing in the future with other projects.
To recognise our mistakes my group also made a commentary, reviewing errors and explaining to the viewers of our video what we did, what was successful and what wasn’t. The commentary appeared to help my us as a group evaluate what we had done and what could possibly be improved, therefore making the video an ideal example of something to learn from and furthermore encouraging us to continue improving our future projects.
To conclude, I would say that overall my group and I worked rather well together, discussing the most effective way to put the video together and when it would be the most appropriate time to apply each of the three main camera shots in the video. Even though my group’s video may not have been the most exciting or spectacular, our main focus was to include the shots where appropriate and experiment with different types of technology like the camera and the recorder for our commentary. The task also managed to increase our knowledge of different types of media and computer programmes, such as pinnacle in the process.

Why I took Media Studies for A Level

When choosing my A Level subjects, I wanted to study subjects that could help me in my future career and seeing as I would like to work in the peforming arts/drama industry, I thought that by taking Media Studies, I could learn more about the world and the things that affect us in everyday life because of what we are exposed to. Media Studies can open up so many doors and could enable me to see things from many different perspectives, something that is useful and ideal for the drama industry.