Monday 7th December 2009!

The Big Evaluation Part 4
Part 4 is about making meaning..oooo :)

(The picture above is of The Unborn...scary)

Our intended audience for this opening sequence would be teenagers-adults, as we felt that our film would connect with that age range, and our research proved that people do prefer thrillers/horrors overall as they like the suspense and the feeling of being scared.
We used the element of a camping trip to address the teenagers as that is something they would do, i have gone to some myself and we thought that the idea was a good one so we decided on that....a camping trip gone wrong.
We did a questionnaire to determine what our overall subject was for our chosen piece however we already knew what one we wanted to do, but we wanted to get into the mindset of our chosen audience and see what genre they preferred, and they thought the same as us...how lucky :) We found out what characters from films-such as Sweeney Todd and The Bourne Ultimatum-they liked for a thriller and what conventions they liked for the characters also. Which helped paint a picture into our heads on what the audience should be expecting.
In the filming, we made sure that we had Will (the shady character) in different spaces watching over the group, and because of this the editing was really affective as we made it really dark and grim whenever he (or an extra) was on screen, and the sound would get intense to show the audience he isn't wanted!
When we were doing the reviews of the films in our Media lesson, we had positive feedback which i was really proud of, of course there were note for improvement, such as the speech needs to be louder in one scene, and we actually had to record over the 'lost phone' scene as you couldn't hear what we were saying, but we welcomed the feedback and were proud of the results. And the opening sequence was successful as everyone enjoyed it.
As a group we had our own interpretation to the film, but wanted the audience to have their own interpretation on teenage life, that would be the cultural aspect of the film, teenagers think of themselves most of the time, and we tried showing this through the 'lost phone' scene as it really does show everyone has just had enough and can't be bothered to wait around anymore. So we left the cultural aspect for the audience to determine what they thought, and how they saw it!

Part 5 next.....!

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Friday 4th December 2009!

The Big Evaluation Part 3
Part 3 is about creative tools oooo :) !

Well the technology we used was so high tech it took a while to get used to it. However because we did all the mini projects before, i say we learnt from it and ended up editing 'The Silent Pool' really well.
What we used were digital cameras-to film the sequence and IMovieHD-which was to edit the movie. We didn't use any lighting equipment as we filmed in broad daylight, so we wanted to use that lighting even if we were going to edit it into black and white. We made sure that we did to it in broad daylight to ensure we didn't have to get caught up in the hassle of using special lighting.



I thought because of the facilities we were given such as IMovieHD, it enabled us to edit the sequence to perfection. I also think the best thing was if you made a mistake, we could dig out the original from the trash-which we needed to use a lot ;). However there was the first scene where there was Will standing and people walking around him. We wanted to make this like a really fast moving sequence with Will just standing there looking forward, we had the image in our heads but the power of IMovieHD couldn't make that vision happen! However i liked how the end result turned out and it looked like it was our own little production message like you have at a start of any film...i loved that effect.

Part 4 next :)

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Friday 4th December 2009!

The Big Evaluation Part 2!
Part 2...Is all about Professional Practice!

I would have to say that with everyone that was in the group, even if it were the actors and the directors, producers etc (well the last 2 are Jess, Ollie and Me)...anyway i would say that everyone that helped out created our film, and made it work. But that wasn't all that was done to create this piece. My media group that produced this film, worked together to meet the deadlines, producing a time sheet every media lesson to get the work done, and we also set ourselves goals to finish the film production by a certain date, and we did, so working with a group that have the same mind set as me helped, as we got along with it and it worked.

Our film wasn't majorly dangerous. So the health and safety rules were limited, just wear warm clothes. However we had to be careful for the death scene, so that i wouldn't actually be drowned in the river, so i had to explain to Will what i wanted him to do and to limit the amount of force that could be used, to what would look effective for the film, he listened and produced a very good death scene...so thank you Will for not drowning me!
The people who were in the film, i thank them so much, our film wouldn't be what it was if it wasn't for them. What we did was, we worked out when every ones free's were so we could get filming, but because some had them at different times, we did it in enrichment, they didn't moan when we needed them so I'm happy i worked with such nice people. I also thank Imogen's mum and Jess's dad for taking us to Britons Pond, as we didn't know how to get there, they took us at the last minute, so i thank them very much also.
We worked out who we wanted in the film as soon as we knew what the project was. So we wrote down their names and asked them if they wanted to be in it, they agreed and we went off to film. We used limited amount of props as we didn't want them to carry anything, so all we used were bags for the camping scene, a phone to get disconnected from the outside world (which was mine) and a laptop which was at Jess's house, for the facebook scene. So it was easy to look after them as they were our own possessions and we wouldn't want to lose them, so it was easy to keep an eye on them. Everyone wore what they did to College that day, and they were warm clothes so they didn't need to change anything. We took location shots of where we wanted to film, so we knew what parts we needed to film and where, and these helped us to set the scene in our heads.



The storyboards helped us so much, as we had the images that we had in our heads drawn in the storyboard, so we could see our ideas on paper, which made a visualised impression of 'The Silent Pool' however we had to remember what we had down as we forgot to bring it on the day of filming, but luckily we remembered most of it. It was the same with the script, as we forgot to bring that as well, however we remembered it again but changed the wording around so it wouldn't seem so staged, and some of the people dropped out so it was quite good how we didn't rely on the script, and it looked like they were being genuine in their emotions from what they were saying.
We managed our time well as we worked together. An example could be when Ollie was in a production and needed to rehearse, Jess and Me went to film my death scene and then the next lesson we showed Ollie and worked out what to edit, i think it shows good team work how we can react well with each others problems, and still co-operate together to get the right amount done. We also stayed in at lunch times and after school to work on the editing, which helped to move the progress along. All the time that we managed and spent on the production worked and i think we produced a really good opening sequence!

Part 3....nexttt!

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Wednesday 2rd December 2009!

The Big Evaluation Part 1!
Part 1 is to do with question 1 about reworking the familiar!

At a micro, technical level when we edited the film, we observed our conventions. What we did to edit our film was a fade out to show an extended period of time elapsing, this was to make continuity flow easily and to show audiences when time had passed, which was a main goal of ours. Even though this was to show continuity our plot was also non linear as it jumped from scene to scene, like in a film we watched based on our growing knowledge of the different film genres. The film that had a non linear plot was Memento and we liked the idea of that film, so we used that aspect.

What we did to create the language of the film was to use eery music to create tension and mystery, to make the audience feel out of place, we also used the element of jump cut to show the shady character looking over the group, we did this again to create mystery and an abnormal atmosphere. The structure of our film helped to make it seem real, like it would happen in real life. It followed on from what was said in the last scene such as Jess saying ''I'll send you a facebook email about it'' then the next scene cut to that facebook email, it shows a modern take on a mystifying sequence, and adds to the affect of the shady character looking over that same email! Also the death of myself in the film continues with a shot of the shady character holding onto my head about to drown me, and then a shot of just my feet dragging along and then the scene when you see the dead body lying against a tree, this shows the death and isolation of the heroine.

Throughout the production of the film, we made a few mistakes. The worst was not bringing the script to the location, so we had to make the words up as we went along. This actually helped in a way as it didn't seem staged and looked like the characters were really saying what they felt. We also forgot the scene shots, so we had to go by memory of what we wrote down, luckily we all remembered some of the sequence, and once we did one it linked onto the other, and we knew that we could edit them and put it in the right sequence so we weren't that worried about that part. I would say because of our Preliminary Task it helped us progress with our Main and final task. I say this because it helped us recognise the shot angles such as match on action and shot reverse shot, and from the errors that were produced in that, it helped us widen our knowledge on what was right, so we looked at the possibilities and stuck to the basics, to make the film feel real and easy to understand.



At a Macro level, the location of our film really set the conventions of a thriller/horror genre, as it symbolised isolation and destruction as so many bad things can happen in the woods on a camping trip. The characterisation also played a part in the sense of isolation, this was shown by the way the characters acted and how they reacted off each other such as myself being lead off to find my phone as i lost it in the film. I would say that this film does live up to the contractual nature of the film genre as it shows the suspense that draws the audience in, it does this by seeing the shady character standing behind the tree and makes the audience ponder on what is going to happen next, and the genre Thriller hybrid Horror wants to achieve that goal, as does my group.
We deliberately changed the film by editing it to make it different from the Thriller/Horror genre as we wanted to make it contrast to what you would normally see in the cinema. The difference was the editing, it didn't make it seem real as it was in black and white and some of the scenes had the earthquake effect which looked shaky and unreal, we used this effect for the shady character, to show something was not right with him/her. Again we took away the idea of a non-linear plot from Memento and put our own spin on it, but we changed the continuity of it by fading out, not cutting to a different scene, but we did jump cut the scenes for the death scenes.
I wouldn't really say there was any reference to any other films, however i would say the element of isolation was taken from the film 'The Strangers', I thought about how they could feel they are not alone in the woods and in 'The Strangers' the couple also knew they weren't alone but on a larger scale, they saw it upfront but the characters in our film knew something wasn't right by their missing friends. So i guess we did take on the idea of isolation from 'The Strangers' but on a minimum scale.
I have to say that we really wanted to please the audience and make them feel out of place when they watched the film. We weren't as such trying to make them scared, but we wanted them to realise that the people weren't going to be alone, and we gave hints out during the beginning, with the shady character looking at the facebook email, so the audience would figure out that this person isn't part of the group of friends. I feel pretty confident about the film and how people will be affected. When we got reviews from the other classmates they all said they enjoyed the film, and they thought that our editing MADE the film what it was, so i was proud it did this.

Part 2.....next!

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Wednesday 14th October 2009

Whats the Genre????

In my group, the genre of our opening sequence is THRILLER!!! Dun dun dun!!!!
We have chosen this particular genre, because it is fast paced, fun to do and most importantly the main genre most people go to watch. I say this because most people like to feel thrilled and leave the cinema with the sense of : 'Oh My God im so scared'...like i did coming out of The Happening, feeling i would die from the trees, i know sad right? But thats why we chose the idea of Thriller, we want the audience to feel spaced out and exhilerated, not knowing what the rest of the film will be like, unlike horror, thriller leaves you in suspense, and we want to create that affect with the audience.

As i have already mentioned The Happening in my blog, i will use this as an example of a Thriller Movie.
The plot: Elliot Moore is a high school science teacher who quizzes his class one day about an article in the New York Times. It's about the sudden, mysterious disappearance of bees. Yet again Nature is doing something inexplicable, and whatever science has to say about it will be, in the end, only a theory. Scientists will bring out more theories, but no explanations, when a more urgent dilemma hits the planet. It begins in Central Park. Suddenly and inexplicably, the behavior of everyone in the park changes in a most bizarre and horrible way. Soon, the strange behavior spreads throughout the city and beyond. Elliot, his wife, Alma, and Jess, the young daughter of a friend, will only have theories to guide them where to run and where to hide. But theories may not be enough Taken from the IMDB (International Movie Database) website. I would say the film is what i expected, but it was so jumpy it was unreal. When the builders were falling off the buildings, it made me jump so much. I cant think of any films that are similar to this one if i am honest. I would say this film is unique :)

The main characters in the film are : Elliot Moore (Mark Walberg) Alma Moore (Zooey Deschanel) and Julian (John Leguizamo) Elliot Moore. Obviously Elliot and Alma are married, but she went to coffee with another man and didnt tell Elliot, they both realise in the turn of events that they do love each other, and her going to coffee with another man was a silly fault of hers. Julian has a daughter callen Jess, whos mother never comes from off screen, she just calls Julian up and we never see her. Julian and Alma don't really get along as he says 'Don't take my daughter's hand unless you mean it.' He doesnt like her whereas she tries her hardest.
Mark Wahlberg has been in a film with this genre before, he was in Fear, The Substitute and many more, i thought he played the part well, he brought humour to the film, saying '[to house plant] Hello. My name is Elliot Moore. I'm just going to talk in a very positive manner, giving off good vibes. We're just here to use the bathroom, and we're just going to leave. I hope that's okay.
[Elliot touches leaf]
Plastic. I'm talking to a plastic plant. I'm still doing it.' taken from the imdb website.
Zooey Deschanel has only been involved in a couple of Thrillers, but plays the part well in The Happening, although she does seem to be spaced out quite a lot which in a way annoys me, if that was happening to me i would be amazingly scared, on the verge of death oh dear i would be screaming my head off, but apart from that she is a good actress.
John Leguizamo has also been in thrillers and is in the making of one right now, he also plays the part well in the thriller as do all the other actors. I think the actors in this film were chosen for the part as they have been in the genre before and they know what the genre is about. The director must have thought they have potential to make the film big, it may have not reached that standard, but it has had good ratings.

The themes of thrillers frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy, pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder, which i find are very interesting, i like to watch tv programmes or movies with suspense it makes it more believable.
The values of thrillers could be family values or friendship values, something to do with the environment. These themes and values put together a story and build up the suspense to make you feel out of place and edgy.

The locations you would expect in a thriller would be an isolated building or isolated town, to make the audience who are watching it to feel on edge and in suspense to what is about to happen. The locations also link together with the situations the characters are faced with, such as if the person has been driving around on a long never ending country road isolated from the other towns and the car has no petrol left, they will start to feel themselves isolated, and again creating the idea of suspense to what is happening to the character. They are typical of this genre because Thriller is leaving the characters to feel out of place and in tricky situations, whereas Horror (which is one of the hybrids to Thriller) is more gory and unrealistic, but thriller tries to take the blood and gore out (but does have elements of it)and leave suspense in, it has to make you feel thrilled!

I just cant wait to do my film, after all the planning that we will put into this i am sure we will do well :)

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Wednesday 14th October 2009 Blog 1

What's the new task?
We were set the task to get in to groups of three to produce an opening movie sequence of our choice.
My group is made up of; Oliver Byng, Jessica Norris and myself, Lucy Smith.
-Oliver or Byngy Boy :) is a very talented person and is extremely knowledgable. As he does drama he brings in the dramatic style of things and helps the group out a lot. Im happy he is in the group as he will bring a lot of good ideas to the table. I love his dance moves ;)
-Jessica or Norris as i like to call her, is also very talented. She is also a dramatist so again brings other ideas and links them to the others that Oliver and myself have produced. She is a funny one, keeps the group smiling.
Even though the group is small, we all get along well together, which will make the progress of our movie come along nice and sharply. There may be a few moments when we get distracted but we are a focused group, and i couldnt ask for a better one than mine!

I hope the opening sequences reflect how hard our group are at working, and that we can produce amazing peices of work. I know the people in my group have the potential to go far, and they are amazing people, so i know we will all strive to success :)

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Wednesday 7th October 2009

Preliminary Task!
This post will be evaluating my Preliminary Task and how I found it :) I hope you enjoy.

For the Preliminary Task we were asked to show all the shots that we learnt about and apply it into our task. The shots we were supposed to provide in the task were: match on action and shot reverse shot while maintaining the 180 degree rule. We were very prepared for the task, by watching examples from websites which also explained the shots, so the information that was provided helped my group along. We also used a storyboard which showed the task in 2D, and this had dialogue and the different shots we used for the shooting of the task, so this made the task easier than doing it off the top of our heads.

My role of this task was directing and filming. I had to make sure that I was doing the correct shots and that Jessica and Oliver were doing the right actions and saying the right speech, but they knew what they were doing so it helped the progress of the film. When we were filming this task, we made sure that we used all the shots to make it effective. When Jessica walked into the room, we made sure that we did match on action. The way we did this was to get her to walk into the room from the outside, and then repeated the action again but with the camera on the inside of the room, then we edited it to make it perfect. We also did match on action for when Jessica goes to sit opposite Oliver, we thought this would also be affective, which it was. When we did the conversation, we got them to sit facing each other at the start, and then we did shot reverse shot to show the conversation. When we did this scene, I sat in Olivers chair to get Jessica's first part of the dialogue, and then I sat in Jessica's chair to get Oliver's speech, and then i sat back in his chair to show the ending of the dialogue, this makes it seem like the audience is the other person which is effective.
The framing was very simple. We had the two main characters (Jessica and Oliver) sitting in the classroom. The classroom is very simplistic, but it does set the scene, like the characters are isolated from the rest of the school. In the background you can see the window that shows the top field. So the framing for this scene is very simplistic.
The positioning of the characters are a long shot of Jessica walking down the hall, and then a medium shot of both of them sitting opposite each other. For the shot reverse shot sequence, we have done a close up of their faces, so you can see the expressions more clearly than you would if they were far away. Then we have a medium long shot of Oliver getting up to walk away and then the ending is Jessica crying, which is a medium shot.

I have to say i was very impressed with our work and I am happy with the outcome of it. I say this because when we got rid of all the bloopers, and edited it with each of the shots and added in sound, it was really affective and seemed quite professional, so I am very pleased with the outcome of the project.
I think we were a good group and worked very hard, although my main problem was the beginning. This is because the camera worked seemed unstable and jolted at parts, which was my fault as I was working the camera, so I myself could have improved on this. However all the shots flowed when we did them and i got both characters into the shot. The dialogue was appropriate for shot reverse shot and it was very effective, you generally thought they were having an argument.
I think i worked really well in the group. As I was using the camera, I had to make sure they followed my instructions to get into the right shot. The best thing about the group I am in, is that we listen to each others views and work on them together. I really appreciated the amount of hard work we all put into this task, it has really made an impact on the final piece. I am happy i have chosen the group I am in, as we are all hard workers and are able to listen to what each other have to say, this is what team work is about and we showed this through our final peice.

I am finding it easier to use imovie and the camera as time goes on. This is because i am a physical learner, I find it better to learn while doing and because i have been using these sources, I find it easier than I did when I first started. I am grateful I have the chance to experience this, and maybe this will help me develop a future which I will enjoy.

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Friday 2nd October 09

The Film Industry!
Today we were learning about The Film Industry, and how they work with different companies to ensure they get the best out of the movies, and the best sets etc. We were learning more about the company Warner Brothers and most of the questions we answered were towards them. It was an interesting lesson and very useful to learn about companies on such a large scale and the history behind it. Here i have included the questions so it is less confusing of what i actually answered :) So enjoy!



1. Briefly explain the information provided on their homepage.

The Dark Knight Homepage on the Warner Bros website contains snaps of the film itself, the sound of the clip has a massive bang like a gun shot, making you want to see more of the trailer and it contains pictures also. It has other links titles by year, titles by cast and titles by genre, these contain other films etc, but the titles by cast contains only the cast of The Dark Knight. It also features a synopsis of the film, so if you haven’t seen it, you will be eager to anyway, and it also has downloads, which contain posters and Buddy Icons.

2. Note down five facts about this studio.
- Offering over 30 rental and service departments
- 110 acre facility home to 29 sound stages, plus 20 acre back lot.
- The Studio was originally built on a plot of farmland in 1926 by First National Pictures, which Warner Bros. acquired in 1928 following the financial success of "The Jazz Singer,,", and others
-By the late 1930s, business was booming, and Warner Bros. Studios had constructed nine new soundstages, all of which are still in use today
-In 1972, Warner Communications and Columbia Pictures joined forces to create a single production facility called The Burbank Studios

3. Find two other companies.
Warner Brother also owns a number of companies - here are two:
-Warner Brothers Construction-Sedona AZ and Mead WA
- Warner Brothers Electric-Grant City MO

4. Note down five facts about this company. (Time Warner)
- A global leader in media and entertainment with businesses in television networks, filmed entertainment, publishing and interactive services
-AOL, Time Inc., Home Box Office, Turner Broadcasting System and Warner Bros. (Categories of their work)
-Innovators in technology, products and services.
-61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, September 2009: Time Warner companies received a total of 34 Emmys. HBO received a total of 21 awards, 7 for Warner Bros. and 6 for Cartoon Network.
-Total Number of Employees - Total Worldwide: Approximately 38,000 as of March 2009

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Friday 25th September 2009

What Was Today's Lesson About??
In todays lesson we watched the opening sequences of two films; Memento and Insomnia, both films have the same genre, Thriller!

Memento is a 2000 psychological thriller film written and directed by Christopher Nolan, adapted from his brother Jonathonss short story "Memento Mori". It stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a former insurance fraud investigator searching for the man he believes raped and killed his wife during a burglary.

Insomnia is about a local 17-year-old girl named Kay Connell (Crystal Lowe)who is found murdered in a small fishing town of Alaska. Two LAPD detectives, Will Dormer (Al Pacino) and Hap Eckhart (Martin Donovan) are sent up to assist the local police with their investigation.

I will be talking about Memento.
I think Memento was succesful as it had a non linear plot. As soon as the film started it went back to where he was in the motel room, which is in black and white, symbolising his memories. The goes back to colour again to show what happens next, which i find really effective. Memento had 2 Oscar nominations, another 42 wins and 32 nominations, so other viewers thought it was effective too. (Video unavailable at present time)

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Wednesday 16th September 2009

What Are Signifiers??
Today's lesson, we were learning about signifiers. We learnt that denotation is what you see but a connotation is what you associate the image with. This image i have picked out from the film Psycho, is the shower scene, where this woman gets stabbed to death. The picture is obviously of her in fright, and you can see from the mouth shape she is screaming, which is the denotation. The connotation is the fear this woman is in, it is not a calm image as she is in distress. This scene is what we would expect in a horror film, the blood, the gore, the violence and agony.

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Monday 14th September 12:42

Introduction to.....ME :)
Hi im Lucy, and this blog will give you an insight into my school life...well my media studies project. I will be updating on here everything i do in the project, and keep you posted on anything if it changes. The project sounds very exciting, doing an opening of a film sequence is the first major project, which i cannot wait to do! It should be amazing. We have already looked at opening sequences such as Spiderman 2, Pleasantville (which was a trailor), Die Hard with A Vengence, Great Expectations and Indianna Jones Raiders of The Lost Ark :) Hopefully ours will be as good!

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