Editing re-creation task

In media, we had to re-create a short extract from raw files using adobe premier pro, this allowed us to develop our skills on the programme and understand how to use it for when we start editing our opening title sequence.

We got given  1 hour and 40 minutes to re-create this, putting in the video, sound and title sequence exactly the same as the original. I found this task really interesting as I knew the basics of using adobe premier pro, but it allowed me to improve on my skills. Unfortunately Jacob and I forgot to save and most of our work got deleted, so now there's only half of the extract without sound and title sequences.

We had to write down our strengths and weaknesses...

Overall I'm happy with our progess and our editing although it got deleted, I thought this was a very productive task and will help us in future.

Storyboarding

We had a lesson on the importance of storyboarding and how to storyboard. We watched a 15 minute video of directors talking about how important storyboards are to the making of the film. I found out that throughout the making of a film, the storyboard is thoroughly refered back to and used to cancel out mistakes aswell as saving time and money because everything is already decided. These are my notes on the importance of storyboarding.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwqL5_825rI This is the video that we watched.

After this, we got given a template and had to make up a chase scene and produce a short storyboard with the title 'terror in the night' I hadn't done anything on storyboarding before so this was really interesting and helped me understand what's involved in storyboarding and what to include. We had to include the camera angle/movement/position, how long the shot lasts and the sound/dialogue included.

 

The art of title sequences

I've been researching the art of title sequences. One of the title sequences I looked at is called 'Vantage Point.'  I chose this as it's a political thriller and I noticed that the first credit's transition lasted 5 seconds and when it was completely on screen, it stayed for around 4 seconds. The second one was a faster transition but stayed for the same amount of time as the last one- 4 seconds. The font is white and silver over a black background, making the credits stand out. A transparent red circle moves across the second title, looking as if it's a laser from a gun. The font for the first picture is big and bold making it clear to the viewer, whereas the second font has two different fonts- 'columbia pictures' in block capitals, and 'presents' in a smaller font, making the name of the company seem more important. The credits are spread out in the opening, and come up seperately. The name of the film is completely different to the other credits, below you can see the transition is made up of different lines and blocks of black shapes, and they all come together to form 'vantage point' the font colour is black and it has a yellow/gold background. The transition takes about 8 seconds and once it's completely shown, it's on screen for about 3/4 seconds.

Looking at this has helped me understand that the credits actually take up quite alot of time, and realise the lack of time we have to include our opening on top of the credits. It's also given me an insight into how long the credits are usually displayed for and the time the transitions take etc.

Below this opening was a paragraph written by the title designee, which I thought was very interesting to read as they said why they chose to create the title sequence the way they did.



Changing and Developing

 We have been writing and drawing our developed ideas for our thriller opening title sequence. Some ideas have changed although the plot is still the same. We have cut out some bits that we felt were irrelevant as we came to the realisation that we aren't actually telling a story as it's impossible to fit a whole story into two seconds. But we are just introducing the audience to the film and dropping in hints towards the plot and the events to come. Our plot is a teacher, wanting to kill the prime minister. We feel this is really relevant in todays society as it explores the thought of completely normal people hiding their insanity.

*Finley and Hannah's ideas*
"1)The name of our production will appear and over the top will be diegetic sound of the interviewer asking the Prime Minister why he is deciding to visit the Chalfonts Community College; this image will then fade out menacingly.

2)We then open to a mid shot of the Prime Minister from waist upwards. There is a seconds pause to give the audience some time to understand the context of the shot (ie. news programme interview) then begins to speak with blood dripping down his face. However, neither interviewer nor interviewee react to this at all. 

3)Jump cut to a extreme close up of teacher with a sly creepy smile, although in the background the Prime Minister is still talking from within the television that our teacher is watching. 

4)Jump cut back to news frame, there is no trace of blood on him which comes to the end of the interview, shocking the audience as we realise the cruel intentions of our aspiring teacher. 

5)Pan out to teachers room which will be messy, strewn with newspaper articles, surveillance photos, alcohol, prescription drugs etc. and then cut away to the title sequence. The screen will display 'Directed By...' ; a distant husky laugh can be heard as this is displayed.

6)We will then have a montage sequence of him preparing for the assasination, intercut with the titles.

7)The scene will end with the teacher's oblivious wife calling from downstairs 'Dinners Ready!', reminding the audience of the double personality of the teacher. He then shuts the door, the camera zooming in on a dartboard attached to the back of the door, the Prime Ministers face stuck to the dartboard, a dart stuck in the middle of the Prime Ministers proverbial 'head', acting as a metaphor for what the teacher wants to achieve. We then cut to black, displaying the title of the film."

Characters and Casting:-

We decided on the characters costume as well as colour palette.

Prime Minister- Sharp suit and haircut, white shirt and blue tie (professional and smart)

Interviewer- Smart/ Casual suit, preferably smart hair.

Teacher- bedraggled/wasted look, suit, messy hair, round glasses which sit on the edge of his nose, maybe the colour green- has connotations of illness, lack of sanity.

Teacher's Wife's voice in background- won't need a costume as we only need the voice of her."
The writing within the quotation marks, I've taken from Finley Harnetts blog: http://finleyharnett.blogspot.co.uk/
 

At the moment this is our plan for our opening title sequence of our political thriller.
I'm relieved we finally have an idea, that we can develop and elaborate on. Our group are currently doing ongoing research and creating the scripting and storyboards.

Development of ideas

Original Idea

• Starts off with an establishing shot of the houses of parliament and a silhouette staring at it
• Cuts to an extreme close up shot of the mans glasses and in the reflection we can see big ben
• Cuts to a black screen. The credits come up.. *directed by ...* etc.
• The ambient diegetic sound of a whirring of a video tape, and then cuts to a VCR recording of the man speaking into the camera, saying things such as "By the time you have all watched this, I would have killed the prime minister."
• Cuts to the man drinking vodka in his bathroom and a close-up of a box of pills indicates he is on medication, not mentally stable etc.
• Bright lighting juxtaposing with his gloomy, miserable expression.
• Establishing shot of the school and it quickly cuts to the staff room, you hear the diegetic sound of the chatter of the other teachers whilst you see a teacher assemble a gun together and clean it, which foreshadows what is to come.
• Long shot of him walking down the corridor with the sound of his heavy breathing.
• Applause heard in the background, inferring the prime minister has just been welcomed to the stage.
• Over the shoulder shot of the man entering the assembly.
• Quick close up of prime minister and the screen blacks out as the title comes up.

We liked this idea very much, however we realised the difficulty of fitting it all in to a 2 minutes opening and felt it revealed a bit too much for an opening. So we came up with another idea, it's still the same story line but we've improved on it and changed a few things.

Second Idea

• Begins with TV interview with interviewer and the prime minister, the prime minister is saying why he's going to schools to give talks about government.
• Zooms out, slightly. Tv turns off.
• Close up of protagonist, angry facial expression, dark lighting, dressed in a suit or shirt and tie
• Cuts, to over the shoulder shot of him walking down the hallway
• Sound of heavy breathing and sound of shoes.
• Diagetic sound of audience's applause and welcoming prime minister
• Protagonist opens doors of where the speech is being held
• Cuts to black screen, titles come up
• Non diegetic slow music and diegetic sound of a gun being loaded.

I think this development is really good and will look much better for our opening of our political thriller. The heavy breathing and the handling of a gun really creates tension for the viewer and keeps the audience on the edge of their seats which is a typical convention of a thriller.

Initial Ideas

Ideas...

As a group we are trying to branch out and get away from the cliche's. We're thinking of doing something very different and have therefore come up with the initial idea of a political thriller, we have been thinking of this because we originally wanted to add themes of a western into our opening title sequence, however were finding it very hard to research because we found very few films that are western thrillers. We then tried to think of different ideas and something that is out of our comfort zone, so we are now thinking of a political thriller as we feel this will be a challenge for us.

There are two paths we can go down, one features terrorism, and one is based on political scandals. So therefore, we will need to research both and see which one we all prefer. This is only an initial idea and research for thrillers is still ongoing, so we are aware that our idea may change.

Essay on the representation of social status in Merlin

Discuss the way social status is represented in this extract from Merlin. Make specific reference to the following technical areas: Camera, editing, sound, mise-en-scene.

The extract begins with the camera panning around the inside of a castle, establishing higher status and symbolising royalty. Immediately Merlin is centralised with a mid shot on him, this combined with the fact that he is the first character we see, connotes that he is the protagonist within this extract. However, he is wearing old ragged clothing with dull colours such as browns and greens that symbolise low status. There is ambient non-diegetic sound like whispering, setting a dark sinister tone and connoting that he shouldn't be in the castle. Through the use of close ups on him, it could be inferred that he is a significant character. The extract intercuts to the protagonists point of view and we see him look back at the door reinforcing how he's not meant to be there and re-establishing him as lower social status than those who live in the castle. The extract cuts to outside of the room and there's a long shot of a woman walking towards the room Merlin is in, creating suspense for the viewer. It cuts back to a close up of Merlin to reveal his awareness that someone is coming. The camera pans around to look at the woman, the camera is over the shoulder looking towards her. Her purple dress and gold belt establish her higher social status and are symbolic for wealth. The dialogue also makes it apparent to the audience that she is of higher status as she is patronising towards him and reminds the viewer that Merlin doesn't belong there. Although the eyeline match between them both, indicates equality.

Additionaly, the non-diegetic music ends as Merlin leaves the castle grounds. Immediately we see the contrast between the dim lit castle and the bright light outside, connoting that the castle is home to bad people, although they are upper class. As Merlin walks out into the street, there is a total difference in setting and the combination of the sound of people hustling in the street and people dressed similar to him, indicates that Merlin is amongst his peers and people of the same class. There is then a long shot of Merlin walking past Arthur and his guards, who are wearing armour, establishing their role and status in society as courageous fighters. Although it is clear they are of higher social status, the camera is still focused on Merlin as he walks towards it. This reinforces his significance. As Merlin turns around,  we see his facial expression which reveals his anger. Arthur is also centralised and the camera is at eye-level, expressing that they are of equal importance, even though Arthur is the antagonist in this extract. Arthur gets less prevelance than Merlin which also represents his significance. The input of the dialogue makes it evident to the audience that Arthur is talking down to Merlin and bullying him backed up by his friends- his fellow knights. Aswell as being dressed in armour, they are also wearing the colour red symbolising high status, however the camera remains on Merlin. The camera is on a close up on him whilst he bends down as if to bow to Arthur, mocking him slightly. Merlin doesn't act lower class and it's clear that Athur is surprised through the dialogue when he says "you can't address me like that" and his guards laugh mockingly at Merlin, which signifies to the viewer that Merlin is cheeky and doesn't take notice of his social status.

 As the fight starts, the non-diegetic music enters, it's upbeat and increases the intensity. Jump cuts are included here to make the fight seem more action packed and more dramatic. It then cuts to a mid shot of an old man in a room causing the viewer curiosity as we don't know who he is. It then cuts back to the fight, and although Arthur is winning, Merlin is getting equal prevelance, which again represents his relevance and makes the reader empathise with Merlin as he is losing. The use of shot reverse shot allows the audience to see both Merlin and Arthurs reactions and also allows the viewer to see that Arthur is still winning. The camera changes to a high angle of Merlin as he falls into the hay, making him appear weaker and inferior to Arthur. However, the camera changes to an extreme close up of Merlin's eye which changes colour. This and the non-diegetic sound are indexical for the use of magic. The continous close ups of the protagonists face and his smug facial expression denotes that he is doing well. The extreme close up of the cabbage being squashed emphasises the danger Merlin is in. Another close up of a box moving over Arthurs feet reveals his reaction, to this which is angry as he's just been hurt. This indicates that the dominance has changed to Merlin. Next there is a close up of rope and the camera pans around to Arthur who falls onto the floor. The next shot is a high angle shot looking down on Arthur signifying that he has lost importance due to losing. It cuts to a mid shot of the old man we saw in the room at the beginning of the fight. His costume also denotes his low status, but Merlin seeing his disappointment and that being his distraction, indicates that the man is important. The shot cuts back to Arthur as he hits Merlin with a broom. With each hit, the foley, non-diegetic sound is added to exaggerate how hard he is being hit. Arthur then wins over the prevelance and puts Merlin back in his place, which is below him.

In addition to this, after hitting Merlin, Arthur sweeps the floor with the broom, which is symbolic of brushing him off. Again, foley sound is added in to emphasise the sweeping. The dialogue of  Arthur saying "let him go" infers that he respects Merlin a bit more now and the fact Arthur has his own guards to hold Merlin, reinforces his high status in society.  Although the eyeline match connotes equality between them. The shot cuts to a shot of the room where Merlin walks in, followed by the old man who he assume is his teacher. There is a shot reverse shot whilst they are arguing, allowing the viewer to see their facial expressions and from this we realise that the teacher is angry at Merlin, which indicates he is in control of him. The dialogue of Merlin when he says "I'm just a nobody and I always will be" reinforces his lower class status and denotes that he thinks he is worthless because of it. The close up of his facial expressions of Merlin and the teacher express Merlins sadness and the teachers sympathy towards him. The end shot it on the teacher, which reveals to the viewer that he is infact important as he is in charge of the protagonist Merlin,  even though he is lower class.

Our discussion of ideas

This is our group discussion on what genre we would like to do. We established that we didn't want anything cliche or something that everyone does, we also said that we didn't want to go into hybrid genres, which I now think was a mistake to cross out because I don't think we should restrict ourselves yet, and I think we should keep an open mind. Coming up with ideas is harder than I thought and I've realised we just need to keep thinking and coming up with new original ideas. Since this discussion we have had a few other ideas, we did want to do a comination of supernatural and psychological, thinking that we could change it and make it original with new twists but we have realised that may be too challenging and we are now staying away from the cliches and are thinking of a modern western thriller.

Having a discussion and listening to it back has helped me reflect on our old ideas and how we can improve and create original ideas for our thriller opening title sequence.

Todays lesson...

In class today, we were given the task to analyse in depth one shot. We were told that one shot could produce paragraphs of analysis, by looking at the different aspects of mise en scene and camera techniques.

The shot we were given was...

This meant that we had to consider, costume, lighting, facial expression, colours, positioning, camera angle etc... all based on the question: Discuss the way gender is represented in this extract from Dr Who.

This was my groups analytical paragraph, after writing this we all had to go round and write on the post it notes one good thing and one thing they could improve on. I was very happy with the feedback we got. One target was too mention mise-en-scene more throughout.

This has really helped me with analysing other people's work and seeing what is good and what isn't in a paragraph. It has also helped me understand how much you can write about just one shot, and I feel will really help me when writing future essays.

Brainstorming ideas...

In media, we sat down as a group and brainstormed ideas about our thriller opening title sequence.

We thought of a variety of different ideas for characters, sub-genres, location etc. This has given us a vague idea of the options, although most of the suggestions we could think of were very cliche and we want to make our thriller opening new and unique. When brainstorming the different genres, I've realised we didn't include hybrid genres, therefore we will have to put more thought into it as we are currently thinking about hybrid genres we could make.

We all like the idea of supernatural thriller combined with psychological thriller. However, we feel that it's done far too often and there would be too much repetition of ideas and events. If we were too go down this route, then a good film too look at for ideas is 'the ward' which is a mix of both psychological and supernatural thriller.

If you zoom into the picture you will be able to see our ideas.

I think this has allowed us to make a brief start on planning our opening of our thriller title sequence, and research of thrillers is still ongoing so new ideas will be upcoming soon.

Evaluation of Hannah's analysis of Bourne Ultimatum

From reading Hannah's analysis, it is clear that she has understood the purpose of everything included in the title sequence and why it's relevant. I have learnt that dark colours add to the mystery of a film, before this I just thought dark colours were used to help set a mood in the scene and to signify things, but I now know other reasons for them being included. Her analysis has also helped me understand the average time for credits to be on screen, which is around 3 seconds, this allows the reader to clearly read them before they fade off.  She has used her knowledge of camera techniques to analyse this extract closely and present implied meanings. One thing she could improve on when analysing title sequences is to mention the sound used and maybe what effect it creates.

This will help our group build on our knowledge of title sequences and how they are formed.

Media Evaluation

So far in Media, I have learnt alot about the technical side of media, for example, camera, mise-en-scence, editing and sound, I have learnt about the different genres and I have also got a greater understanding of how things are represented and chosen for effect by the media to be shown on TV, in films or magazines.
I have learnt about semiology and signs eg. indexical, iconical and symbolic (Indexical is when the audience see something and immediately link it to something else, for example, if there was smoke coming out of a building, the audience would assume there was a fire. Symbolic is when a picture or object represents something else, it is something that is learnt as a 'symbol.' And finally an iconical sign is something that the audience recognises in the media, for example, Jennifer Aniston is iconic, and usually stars in rom-coms.) I have also learnt what binary opposites are and now understand that without an opposite, certain words wouldn't have a meaning, for example, how would we know what hot is if we've never experienced cold? We had to write an essay on Binary Opposites in the titanic, which really helped me to understand and remember what they were. We have been learning constantly about genre, especially thriller as this is what our coursework will be based on. I have learnt that the boundaries between genres are very blurred which is why we get hybrid genres. Hybrid genres are a mix of two or more genres in one film and are very common these days, infact it is rare to find a film with only one genre in and not one feature of another genre. I have found all of this very interesting to learn about. My strengths in media so far, are probably camera techniques, such as movement, shots, positioning etc, as we have gone over it alot in lessons and I feel like it's very easy to pick up. My weakness in media so far is probably semiology as I feel like it's very confusing and I haven't read through my notes much which would have helped me, I'm also not very good at the editing side of media because there's alot you can say about it and we haven't got over it much.  To improve, my targets are:

-When writing an essay, try to personalise your response, making your analysis perceptive and originial
-When writing an essay, make sure your notes are clear, structured and detailed.
-To gain a better understanding of signs and semiology