Louise`s AS Media Blog

Thriller film - MISSING.

2010-05-10T09:02:00.000-07:00

Revised location shots.

2010-04-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

As we decided to change the location from Prince of wales street to underneath the bridge on prince of wales street near the river, we have taken new location shots to comply with our location in our film.

This is behind the steps where the boy hides, whilst the girl is walking down the steps in the first shot.

These are the steps that the girl walks down in the first shot and feature in the background of some of the following shots.

This is the overall location the line of lamposts along the path provide us with the lighting that we needed and also helped us to have a limited and pastel colour palette within the film.

This is the bridge that the boy and girl walk over just before the boy tried to attack the girl, the bridge reinforces the sense of insecurity on the girls behalf.

The gate that features in a shot in the film, this shows an escape for the girl.

Images by; Lexie Ferguson

Jane Eyre Notes - Construction of class and status.

2010-04-20T12:02:00.000-07:00

Mise-en-scene

The colour red is used connoting; passion, exotic, fairytale or dream like world, intertexual reference to red riding hood.
Pink glow/filter on Jane; daydream, memory, unrealistic.
Creative, vivid imagination, looking at books - showing Jane is secluded.
Red room
Inferior status - "Jane is the youngest, so they hold an attitude of we dont care about her"
John Need (Janes cousin) - bully, see his feet first, trying to fins Jane hidden behind a curtain; showing she is not intergrated into the family as he is.
Status; family portrait, the act of having an artist to paint a family portrait in your home and the costumes connote wealth, jane is not included " shes not part of our family", says one of her cousins - her status is lower than her aunts and cousins.
Janes mum and dad died, left in care of her auntie and uncle, her uncle died and was therefore left in the care of her auntie who dispises her, she treats Jane as an outsider, her uncle haunts the red room.
Non ambient- inside scene, candle is used to light a dark outside scene.
Epidemic ofm typhoid hit the school in reality and is documented in the programme - themes are based on reality within the programme
Helen- Janes only close friend dies of typoid; preliferites art preiod shown as the background, represents helen as spiritual, angel - is always on Janes mind
Changes at the house; lighting, ambient, outside
Non ambient lighting ; chiarascuro
Music; birds connotes house may be haunted
Horse; belongs to rochestor refelcts his personality in the way the horse is behaving, violent, passionate, jane is scared of the horse and rochestor; never had a lot to do with men
Has control of the realtionship; he needs her pychsical support as he has injured himself by falling off his horse.
Mist; curious, dream like, fantasy, spooky, illusionary, eery
She had to change her clothes; not good enough for rochestor; status - higher class
Moral high ground; jane eyre; standing up on stairs - has to walk down the stairs to be at his level although he is has a higher social status thna jane, she has a higher moral status than rochestor.

Editing

Cuts from Jane to Mr Brokelhurst
Blue filter - sadness, depression, Brokelhurst ; cold character - represent school as a whole

Sound

Diegetic and non-diegetic; more realistic and authenticity
Soundtrack; Fantasy
Sounds of the jungle; connecting to the book Jane is reading

Camera Shots

Extreme close up of Jane; connotes vulnerabilty, brings the audience closer to her, feeling sorry for her - high angle shows her inferiority.
Brokelhurst; school teacher, high status; low angle shots, high angle shot of the children connoting their inferiority and lack of importance
Panning shot of the graveyard
Eclipse; cutting to the future Jane is an adult
Zoom out; gives the audience more information, reveals more characters and objects.
Establishing shots; desert and young girl; high angle, importance of the girl medium/long shot, wide anlge shot of the girl. Jane has her back to the audinece; hidden identity, turing away from something in a `protest`.
Pans upto thes sky, gril looks up; dreamworld, daydreaming, fantasising
Wide angle pan of empty desert state; lonliness, passion and exotic
Close up of Jane; importance
Cross disolve; in and out of her dream
Zoom in and out; breaks distinction between dream and reality.
Close up fo fight between John and Jane - violence
Red room- high angle, long shot, connotes her inferioty, vulnerabilty, sslightly tilted/canted anlge, confusion, disorentation.
Handheld camera; shaky - scared
Shot reverse shot; high angle of Jane, low angle of aunt, re-enforeces status.
Rule of thrids- importance of the man and the paintings, status draws attention to himself.
Eclipse - changing of time - day and night.

Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of gender in an extract from eastenders.

2010-04-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

In the live episode from Eastenders gender is representated through the mise-en-scene, sound, camera shots and editing.

Within the mise-en-scene; Janine, the women who everyone hates is wearing very plain rather masculine casual clothing, which excludes her from everybody else who is wearing smart, formal clothing, this also creates a void between her and all the smartly dresses glamourous wedding guests, her costume also shows how isolated she is. The colours of the costumes also connotes their status as, Peggy; an older women, who runs the pub, is wearing a very glamorous costumewhich is purple, the use of this colour connotes royality and upper class, this also shows the strength of older women in society. The young girl, Lucy is wearing a very revealing top, which represents her as a `sex object` and perhaps shows her inferiority to men; this is particularly apparant when her fathers enemy, Phil acts very violently towards the teenager. Many of the males are wearing suits which are darker colours, which represent them as being smartly dressed, however the use of dark colours represents their true characters and the way they act violently towards women.

The lighting is mainly non-ambient lighting as it is set at night time.

The camera shots that are used show the reactions between characters in conversations. Close up shots are used, however not very frequently they were mainly used to show stacey in a heated argument with her husband, his father and uncle, within the argument two person shots and over the shoulder shots are frequently used, they empahsise the way that Bradley, Max and Jack are crowding around Stacey and being very dominant within the argument. The males body language in this argument is very aggresive and dominant towards the women. The males in the extract are shown as typical white british, working class, males; although they are fairly violent towards the women. As far as the extract goes, all the men are hetrosexual, which represents their macho-like and masculinity.

The sound in the extract is mainly diegetic; in the streets outside scenes; people walking in the street, movements, shutting of doors, at bianca and rickys wedding in the pub the sound also consists of mainly diegetic sounds; movement, dialouge, glasses tapping together, however there is non-diegetic sounds in the background that being music, the non-diegetic soundtrack is particularly apparant in the scene in the pub cellar, where Janine and Peggy are having an argument, the use of putting these two women together for an arugment, creates differences and opposites because of their costumes; being glamourous and unglamourous, and the women being; young and old.

In conclusion, the extract represents gender in a way that men are superior to women, and men act in a violent or portective manner towards women.

Discuss the ways in which media products are distributed to audiences relating to the british film industry.

2010-04-08T05:18:00.000-07:00

Media products are produced and distributed in institutions that are related to the audience that predominantly uses the institutions, for example Picturehouse cinemas, predominantly show independent or specialist films, whereas Vue cinema show predominantly mainstream films, they also show a wide variety of films, however picturehouse cinema only show a small selection of films.

Picturehouse and Vue cinemas may both face issues. Picturehouse cinemas may be faced with issues such as; they do not provide enough variety of films which appeal to a wide audience, therefore restricting the amount of people who use the picturehouse cinemas, therefore decreasing the cinemas profits. Picturehouse cinemas, may also face issues regarding the technology and number of screens within the cinema, for example cinema city, a picturehouse cinema in Norwich has three screens, therefore limiting the amount of films that can be shown at one time, however the cinema does have digital technology, which enables the cinema to show more films, because it is cheaper than the previous 35mm film that was used in the cinema and is still used in some cinemas.

Vue cinemas, may also be faced with issues, however picturehouse cinemas, because they are independent are more likely to be faced with more issues than Vue cinemas will be faced with. On the other hand, Vue cinemas may be faced with issues such as; competition between other mainstream cinemas [amount of showing times + their convenience, prices, location], only show mainstream, conventional films, which may not appeal to all of the target audience.

Technology has a vast impact on how media products are produced and distributed, mainly applying to the last ten years, because of the rapid growth and advancements in technology. Technology helps films to be produced and distributed by using the internet, television, mobile phones, mp3s, iPods, social networking sites, film rental, downloading, HD television, Blu-ray, 3D technology and proliferation of technology. These different types of technology allow the audience to be able to watch or download films from a larger variety of sources. The growth of technology, and expansion in the ways that we can watch films, widens the audience for films, however this will also have an effect on the amount of people who go to the cinema to watch a film, because of the growth in technology, therefore decreasing cinemas profits and stopping the cinemas from being able to expand or invest within the existing cinema complex.

Although technology, has had a positive impact of the film industry and helped it to rapidly expand, it has also let piracy happen, because of the technology that is now available, it has allowed people to either record films in the cinema and post it on the internet or record them to DVD, it also allows people to illegally download films from the internet before they have been released on to DVD, technology has also allowed people to burn DVDs for friends and family, which is against copyright laws as you are copying a DVD that you do not have any rights for. Piracy has a large impact on the film industry; it is responsible for loosing £700 million at the box office last year, just because people buy or illegally download films rather than seeing them at the cinema. Technology has a big impact of piracy, because the internet especially is the main source to pirate films. Piracy has an affect on not just cinemas but; the film industry as a whole, actors and actresses, people who work on the sets of films, DVD sales.

Piracy also decreases the amount of jobs in the film industry, which will have the biggest effect on current school and college students and their future careers. Piracy has a huge impact on independent film companies because they do not have large budgets, if their box office and DVD sales decrease, they can not afford to make other films, therefore minimising the independent film industry. It also has an affect on the amount of films that are made, because of the lack of money within the film industry, therefore leading to less producers and consequently a decrease the type and variety of films that are being made. Mainstream film companies are not badly affected by piracy, however independent film companies are, this is not economically viable, therefore creating an imbalance in the British film industry. It also gives audience less choice of films.

The increase in the investment of digital screens within cinemas has enhanced screenings in cinemas and enables cinemas to show a larger variety of films and a larger amount of films, because it is cheaper to show and get hold of digital films, as opposed to 35mm film, which is very expensive to buy. Vue and picturehouse cinemas all have digital screens within their cinemas. Although with the use of digital screens it is cheaper to show films, it also allows cinemas to stream live events from the cinemas such as live concerts and sporting events, it also allows cinemas to invite their audiences to play video games on the big screen, with other players around the world.

Location shots.

2010-03-31T07:11:00.000-07:00

These are the location shots from our original storyboard.

This is a shot of the corner of prince of wales road where our thriller is set, the pub in the shot is at the top of the steps that the girl stumbles down in our thriller.

This is a shot of the bridge, overlooking the river and pathway were our thriller is film.

This is another shot of prince of wales road.

This is a shot of the nightclub that the girl has been in, in the original plans we were going to show the scenes in the nightclub.

Location shots by; Lexie Ferguson

Commentary by; Louise McGee

Storyboard.

2010-03-31T05:28:00.000-07:00

This is the original storyboard that we created during the planning of our thriller, however in the final product of our thriller, we have changed the shots that we have used, because of the timing of our thriller and the fact that we were only allowed the to have a total time of two minutes of footage, in our final product we cut out the scenes of the girl and her friends, because we did not think these were very important in creating suspense and ambiguity. We also cut the club scene and the kidnapping scene involving the van, because using these we would not be able to adhere to the time limit. So we decided to just use the scenes when the girl is walking home by the river and the boy and girl meet.

Music for our thriller film.

2010-03-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

The soundtrack to our thriller will be eerie and futuristic, as music to many thrillers, especially film noir thrillers is new and different (insomnia and third man soundtracks are both good examples of this). It should also be drone like, with slow changes, with strange out of world effects, reflecting the dreamlike, drunk effect created within the thriller. I also want a second piece of music to be used in the climax of the opening, when the girl is attacked by the girl. It should be sharp quite scary music, like the famous music in the shower scene in psycho. This music should contrast heavily to thesoundtrack for the rest of the piece, taking the audience by surprise, and throwing them off balance.

By Sam Hudson.

Casting - character sketches.

2010-03-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

The girl; A seventeen year old girl, brown hair, sixth form student, enjoys going out; the story shows the girl after a night out on prince of wales street in norwich after she is very drunk and is being followed by a man, whilst she is walking home by the river in riverside, norwich. Firstly, we believe that the man, is acting as her protector; offering to walk her home and giving her hand when she falls over by the river, however we see how he turns and becomes the villain not the protector. This portrays the girl as being; vulnerable and perhaps adhering to the stereotypes of an eighteen year old girl. We have portrayed the boy as being the protector to start with in our film; by portraying him as kind and caring towards the girl, we acheived this by; the close up shots of both their hands coming together, where the boy helps the girl up, after she falls over by the river, however when the audience realise that the boy is the actually the villian and the girl is the victim; we show this to the audience by showing shots of the boy at the start of our film, standing behind the girl, looking very suspect, which creates ambiguity, however when the boy and girl meet the audience is led to believe that the boy is the protector, because of the dialouge and close up camera shots, which help the audience to feel more envolved in the story.

The boy; A 20 year old boy, therefore is slightly older than the girl, which in theory makes him more mature, he is also a student at university, which although the audience do not know this, if they did it would create connotations that he should be responsible, as an intelligent university student. He is walking by the river, when the girl is walking down the steps to go home and we see him lurking behind the steps looking at the girl, when she falls over, he then takes on the role as the `protector`, however slightly later in the film, we see him being aggressive and violent towards the girl, this is where the audiences view of him change, because of his actions. We have portrayed the boy as the villian and as being of a violent nature, by showing the chnage in his personality, which is very like that of `jeckyll and hyde`. His personality change is portrayed to the audience through; the use of close up camera shots that are used when the boy is being violent towards the girl and pushing her against the lampost, which creates connotations of violent and threatning behaviour that the boy is using towards the girl.

Overall, we have acheived the ambiguity that we wanted to acheive within our film, by using close up shots of the characters and their actions to create suspense and a sense of what will happen next.

By Louise McGee

Thriller film evaluation.

2010-03-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

1).In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Within the planning stages of our thriller film, we looked at other thriller films for influence which we could apply to our own production. When we first started researching; we concentrated on Alfred Hitchcock’s, `Psycho` and within the film we concentrated on the close up shots of the characters to create suspense and ambiguity. We also looked at Carol Reed`s, `The Third Man` and concentrated on the film noire aspect to the film, that helped to create the very stylised mise-en-scene and the shadows of the characters on the wet cobbled streets and the tilt shots, which create a sense of disorientation. However when we had filmed a section of our film and reviewed the section, we then decided that our film related more to Andrea Arnold's, Red Road which is an independent British film. We made this decision because of the colour palette of Red road, being very soft and using a limited amount of colour, which creates a very independent and gritty feel

to the film. The lighting in our film, is very similar to Red Road, because of the natural lighting that has been created, because of our location next to a river, where there are aline of streetlamps, which all have a pink and red tint to them, therefore creating a natural and soft colour palette to our film, that similar of the colour palette in Red Road. We also related Red Road to our own film because of the locations of both the films; our film, Missing; is located in a busy city, therefore the location is urban and the scenes of the everyday life of the city, relates to Red Road, which is set in Glasgow. The theme of Red Road, relates to our own film also because Red Road follows, a security camera operator, who sees someone on the camera with whom she has perhaps previously been in a relationship, she then finds out where he lives and invites herself into his party he is hosting at his flat. Whilst she is at the man`s flat, the man tries to seduce her, this relates to our own film, because of the theme of stalking, however in our film the boy is stalking the girl, but they still both have connotations of vulnerability and they both create ambiguity. The costumes that were used are modern and fairly plain, which are the same in Red Road because it is a contemporary film, being produced in 2006 rather than the 1940s and 60s like Psycho and The Third Man. The camera angles that have been used in our thriller, have been created with influence from Psycho, because of the close up shots of the two characters; a male and female, just like in Psycho, which creates ambiguity and suspense, it also helps the audience to feel more involved, because they can see the characters expressions, thoughts and feelings.

2).How does your media product represent particular social groups? Our film represents women in society as vulnerable. The woman in our film is represented in this manner, because she is being taken advantage of by a man in the street after getting drunk on a night out. It also represents women as being out of control. It shows the vulnerability of women in society, because within the film she is put into a vulnerable position, after she get very drunk after a night out and on her way home a man starts stalking her. However her firstly acts like the protector, but this changes and he turns into the criminal and the women becomes the victim. The villain has been represented in the film as someone with a split personality as, when we first meet the man; we get the impression that the girl sees him as her protector and makes her less vulnerable, however i think the majority of the audience can see that he is the villain, from the beginning when he is lurking behind the girl, which instantly makes him look suspicious, especially as he is dressed almost entirely in black, which connotes evil. The gender of the villain and victim is very important within our film, as the villain is male and the victim is female, this is therefore very stereotypical and not challenging stereotypes in anyway way. The use of a female to play the victim is very representative of women as a whole in film noir as this is usually what we hear in the media rather than males being the victims. The choice of a male being the villain is equally stereotypical, because men are usually branded villains within modern day society and are the first point of blame when these type of incidents happen in society.

3).What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Our film would be distributed in a picturehouse cinema, for example cinema city, because cinema city shows independent films and specialist short films. Our film could be part of a British film season on the television channel Film 4, which has an alliance with warp productions, which produce independent films, short films and music videos. Our film would not be shown in a mainstream multi screen cinema, such as Vue or Odeon. Our film would not be shown in either of these two cinemas, because they both show mainstream, conventional films that will appeal to a wider audience, rather than a very specific audience such as the films that are shown in Cinema City. The references we made to Red Road in our film, would affect what cinemas it would be shown in, because it is an independent, British film, it would reach a smaller and more specific audience than a mainstream film, because of aspects such as; the location, mise-en-scene, lighting and camera angles.

4).Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience for my film would be; people who have an interest in the crime thriller genre. My audience would watch programmes such as; CSI, Waking the Dead and New Tricks. I think that the demographics of my audience would be; people from the age of around 16, any gender and generally people who enjoy watching programmes with suspense and mystery. People of either gender, would watch these types of programmes or films, as they do not appeal to one gender more than the other. The age of audience could be any age, as it does not hold any specific aspects that would appeal to a particular age group, however this type of genre would not be suitable for the very young, because of its content can be disturbing. I carried out some research on a group of around fifteen 16-17 year olds and they said that in a thriller film they prefer; a recognisable locations, instrumental only music, psychological thrillers, to be set in the present, to find out the location of the thriller within the first two minute of the film and the characters to be wearing clothing that is relevant to their personality. I have applied my research to the film by using a recognizable location; riverside in Norwich, which all of my respondents would recognise and so would the majority of its residents, within the thriller film we have also concentrated on using instrumental music, our thriller also comes under the sub genre of psychological, because of the theme of stalking, the costumes that the characters are dressed in are relevant to their personalities because; the female character is dressed in fashionable clothing which shows her youth and that she is outgoing, the male character is dressed relevant to his personality, because he is mainly dressed in black clothing, which represents his dark and evil personality, it also shows that he is mysterious and hard to read, because of his role in the film, changing from the protector to the villain.

5).How did you attract/address your audience? We attracted our audience, by taking on board the answers we gained from the auidence research questionaire that we individually carried out. We tried to make sure that the audiences preferences were included in our film, in order to attract our target audience. Within the mise-en-scene of the film we included the conventions of typical british independant films such as; Red Road. We asked people what they thought of our thriller film and they replied; they thought the music was powerful within the film, because of the way it reinforces the urgency and danger that is present in the film, people also commented on the location, the limited pastel lighting and the ambiguity that is present in our film.

6).What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Within the construction of our thriller we have had to use different technologies such as; a video camera, a digital camera, tripod, dv tape and editing software; Adobe Premiere Elements . Throughout the editing process, I have learnt about the transition of the shots, special effects that can be added, sequencing the shots and adding credits and titles to the shots. We used a digital camera, in order to take the location shots within the planning stages. We used a dv tape to record the film, this allows us the capture the video onto the video editing software and delete scenes and create a sequence, which makes sense in the order that it has been put into. The video camera and tripod allowed us to capture a vast variety of shot types and the tripod allowed us the move the camera to different heights in order to capture different things at different angles, the tripod also made sure that the image we were filming was steady, which creates a more professional look to the finished product. The use of a tripod, also enabled us to create establishing shots, which introduce the audience to the surroundings and get an understanding of the location. Within the construction of our thriller, it was we needed to re shoot the footage we took on our first shoot, because of the lack of lighting and the fact that we could not see that characters` faces, however we filmed these parts again and took onboard our mistakes from our first shoot and made sure that we had the correct lighting in order to see the characters` faces and concentrated on getting a greater amount of close ups of the characters faces, in order for the audience to understand what the characters are thinking and to create ambiguity. The use of the tripod, enabled us to shoot specific shots such as; the shot of the girl walking down the stairs, because it enabled us to keep the camera steady and to create a high angle shot to show the girls importance in the film, it also enabled us to get low angle shots of the girl when she fell over, which helps to show the audience the girls` vulnerability.

7).Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? The preliminary task helped us as a group, to identify each individuals strengths and weaknesses and establish what each production team member would do, in terms of their contribution towards the final production. We then made the decision that; we would all help in all aspects of the filming, however myself and Lexie would take a more directorial role and Sam would film for the majority of the time. We then decided that Lexie would complete the storyboard and locations shots. Sam would complete the casting, costumes and music. I would complete the treatment, shot list and shooting schedule. The preliminary task helped us to understand what the filming and production process entailed, it also helped us as a group to delegate roles. The shooting of the preliminary film, helped us to understand what impressions different camera angles would make and how we could represent the characters and their actions through using various shot types to show them in different lights.

How is digital cinema production affecting the british film industry?

2010-03-23T05:43:00.000-07:00

Cinema production if affecting the british film industry in the way of technological convergence, the issue of technological convergence is that; as other technologies are discovered and being used more frequently, this then decreases the amount of people that will use the cinema as a place to view films, and will therefore use alternative ways such as; HD dvd players, blu-ray players, ipods, mobile phones, iphones and various other ways to watch films. The introduction of new technologies that allow people to watch films, affects the british film industry because of the new technolgies people will no longer want to go out and watch films at the cinema, when they could download it or watch it on sky+ or another televsion provider that allows you to watch films and record them, to playback t anytime of your choice.

I have studied vue and cinema city cinemas. They are both of importance, because both cinemas, have digital technology which enables live event such as concerts and sports matches to be streamed live to the cinema, you can also connect with other players around the world on games consoles and play them on the big cinema screen. Cinema city is important as although it targets a smaller audience than vue cinemas and only has three screens, it offers a wider vairety of films such as; foreign language, specialist, films that are relevent to the location of the cinema, they also offer a variety of specialised event at the cinema such as; kids club, slackers club etc, which widens the audience. The use of these event and the films they screen help to diversify content, therefore widening the audience and increasing profits. Cinema city is also part of the digital screen ntework, which enabled them to have more digital technology within their cinema. Vue is also important, because of its technology that allows 3D films to be screened at their cinema, although 3D technology has been around for a vast amount of years, it has only become popular in recent years because of proliferation of 3D and the amount of conventional mainstream films that are know being released, it also acts as a unique selling point.

New digital cinema production affects the films and other products that cinema city and vue produce and distribute, because digital technology enables the cinemas to screen more films, because it is cheaper to use digital technology as opposed to a 35mm films reel, which is extremly costly and difficult to use. Digital technology also enables the cinema to screen 3D films, which widens the audience and gives them a unique selling point. The use of digital technology, enable the cinemas to exhibit a wider vairety and more screenings of each films, therefore increasing the audience and increasing profits that the cinemas and the films make. It affects how the audience consumes the product because it offers the audience a wider variety of films to watch and the experience of 3D and watching live streaming concerts and sporting matches at the cinema.

The advantages of technological convergence is that it has helped media technology to evolve and offers a variety of ways in which to be able to watch the films such as; hd, blue-ray, downloading, film rental, online, youtube etc. This enable us to increase our individual consumption of films, because of the increasing ways in which we can access them, however this also has its disadvantages because it will decrease the conventional ways to watch a film and will decrease profits made by cinemas and film companies, therefore leading to a decrease in film making within the film industry. Piracy is has an effect on our consumption of films, because although it is exploiting the film company, directors and actors, however it increases people film consumption. Although it increases the amount of people who watch the film, it does not increase the profits that are made, because people are getting it on dvd or downloading the film illegally.

From my own personal viewpoint i believe that the digital cinema production is effecting the british film industry, in both good and bad ways. I think that the introduction of digital technology into cinemas, is a good point as it increases the amount of films and screenings you can show at a cinema, because they are cheap and easy to use as opposed to 35 mm film, which is expensive and was difficult to use. I also think that digital technology is better, because of the diversity and advancements that it has, which diversifies what the cinema has to offer to its audiences. Although, i think that the advancements in the media, could possibly decrease the amount of people who go to the cinema and also increase piracy, because of the variety of ways that you can play films.

Review of the televsion drama hollyoaks.

2010-03-22T12:35:00.000-07:00

Review from www.imdb.co.uk

Hollyoak's is the brainchild of Phil Redmond. Redmond has provided the British public with some of the best cutting edge drama in the last 30 years. Beginning with Grange Hill in 1978 he established what has now become a legendary national treasure depicting the trials and tribulations of teenagers in their G.C.S.E and A-Levels. He then created Brookside, which changed the story lines of British Soaps forever with its continuous devotion to depict gritty, real suburban live. A programme set in Redmond's native Liverpool that revolved around a community of adults. Then in the 1990's came Hollyoaks. This was Redmond's project to depict live of the twenty something's in Chester.

On its release in 1995 it was considered typical Redmond's style. Its depiction of real live issues was sometimes relentlessly hard to watch but in other areas it was terrifically funny. It's cast were wonderful with the emphasis was on a naturalistic performance. The writing was crisp and fresh and very inventive. It dealt in a very mature fashion with the issues depicted and its sensitive approach meant that the soap was held very high in both the public and industries eyes. But as the old cast began to move on and replacements were drafting in it became clear that the previous hard work was being replaced by glamour and over the top story lines. The new actors were looks friendly and not very talented and the acting descended from well thought out characterizations to populist acting. This consists of over the top performances throughout the episode. It is quite frustrating to see this considering whatever went before them were genuine actors and actresses. This is not helped by the over the top story lines. Since January 2006 there has been a kidnapping, incarceration of a rapist who then escapes and commits mass murder. It is now Sept 2006 and the big action packed story lines are still coming. This is not helped by the cheesy camera direction that is employed in some of the scripts. One particular sequence involved a tomato ketchup mustard shoot out involving two girls. This was shot to the style of a John Woo. Some people say this is inspirational but to me its just rubbish and it quite clearly pisses upon what Phil Redmond set out to achieve in 1995. What was a good British Soap full of characters that you would genuinely care for have now been forsaken for a more Americanised product full of whining wannabes.

In it's time it has tread some ground that has met Phil Redmond's brief of Realism. The most powerful storyline to date was the male rape of Luke Morgan. This was the last time that Hollyoaks generated such a response from the public. Many of whom welcomed such a topic that had until then been swept under the carpet as a taboo issue. Since then the cheese has been processed weekly and distributed on a daily basis. In the film The Insider the Christopher Plummer character says in relation to media " You will only be remembered for what you did last night ". If this statement is true I really hope Phil Redmond has another ace up his sleeve because at the moment it looks like Hollyoaks current mediocrity will be remembered. 4 out of 10

Construction of gender within a extract from hollyoaks.

2010-03-22T12:33:00.000-07:00

Write about the construction of gender in an extract from a British television drama.

I chose to write about Hollyoaks for this piece of writing, I watched and took notes from a five minute clip of Hollyoaks which was aired on channel 4 on the twelfth of March 2010.

In an extract from an episode of Hollyoaks, the mise-en-scene is vastly used to construct the representation of gender. Within the mise-en-scene, the costumes are very representative of gender as the majority of males are wearing dark clothing connoting; mystery and hidden identity, however the majority of the female characters are wearing brightly coloured clothing mainly of a pink colour tone this represent females as being; girly and represents them in a very stereotypical fashion, however there are three female characters who challenge this particular convention used within this episode, by wearing dark clothing which have connotations of; mystery and represents them as being different and an individual within the frame.

The three female characters who challenge this representation commonly used towards females within society are; Cindy; a women who is in her mid thirties and is being featured in the main storyline in Hollyoaks at present, which involves her on-screen daughter, Holly going missing after she feels that her mother, Cindy is neglecting her because of her current business convention; her vintage clothing shop in the Hollyoaks village. Cindy is wearing a black long coat with a fur trim, black trousers and black boots, this connotes sadness, death and funerals; because of the use of an entire costume using the black colour palette, which is associated with the dress code of a funeral. Although her costume holds these particular connotations, the fur trim around her black coat represent the glamorous side to Cindy, which is better known to the residents of Hollyoaks, than her current state of mind. Sasha, a nineteen year old girl, who runs her own club within the village of Hollyoaks, is wearing dark clothing, connoting mystery, however in a subtle way her outfit shows glamour and youth, which is reinforced by her large brightly coloured earrings. Her dark clothing represents the way in which she hides herself from her past involving drugs. Amy, a young unemployed mother of two, who is also 19 and is best friends with Sasha is also wearing dark clothing, however they are baggy and casual as opposed to the subtle glamour of Cindy and Sasha outfits. Amy’s laid back clothing, reinforces her current mood of feeling upset, depressed and lonely which stems from her lifestyle of being a young mum with two young children, being unemployed, dropping out of school with qualifications, her costume also represents her as being very different to a typical nineteen year old and wanting to merge into the background. All of Cindy, Sasha and Amy’s outfits represent their moods and feeling of the present and their hidden pasts.

The lighting is mainly ambient throughout the clip; however in some of the scenes that are inside, mainly within the pub they are non-ambient, however this is only a small degree. The use of ambient lighting makes it more realistic and less staged, which enables the audience to feel more involved and connected with the storyline and characters. Within the extract there are not many props that are used, although of course the characters own individual props which are part of their costume and objects within their homes, however newspaper are a very prominent prop within the extract, which shows the emphasis on the villages current story’s which are; the disappearance of Cindy’s daughter Holly and the looming court hearing of Josh, a 19 year old university student whose parents own the pub in the village. He was faced with a court hearing after his older brother Rees, spiked his non-alcoholic drink, which resulted in him crashing his car on the way home and one of his passengers ended up being hospitalized with serious injuries.

The camera shots within the extract from Hollyoaks consist of mainly close up shots; however there are also shot reverse shot, panning shot, two person shot, long shot and a group shot within the five minute clip of Hollyoaks. Within the opening shots of the extract, flash backs are used to give the audience an idea of what has been happening over the past episode and giving a very brief overview, in the form of a video with flashbacks and a well known piece of music as the soundtrack, it is used at the beginning of every hollyoaks episode and lasts around one minute, this then fades into the actual episode. Close up shots are used to show the characters emotions for example; a close up shot is used to show Cindy holding a paper looking at a mothers day advert within the newspaper; which shows her anxiety and worry towards her daughter, Holly’s disappearance. A close up shot is also used to show Steph, looking at a mother’s day card that her late husbands younger brother gave her, it shows her thoughts towards what is happening with Cindy and Holly, as Steph can relate to this as Tom, her late husbands brother is the same age and she has brought him up. The use of these close up shots, represents women as being caring, vulnerable and emotional. Close up shots are also used to show the various article on the newspaper; the story of Holly going missing and the story of Josh’s car crash, because of his brother, Rees spiking his drink during a night out, this then pans out into a shot of Rees face.

Although a vast number of close up shots are used, a shot reverse shot is used to show a conversation between Steph and her brother Darren in Mobbs, stephs smoothie business in the village. The use of this shot type, show the differences and diversity between the two characters and their different thoughts and feelings toward the subjects of their conversation. The use of panning shots within the extract are in order to help the audience to establish where they are, it also helps the audience to get an understanding of the surroundings, location and the demographics of the residents.

Within the episode, not a vast amount of visible editing is used, the editing that has taken place is fairly subtle, however in the title sequence, the word hollyoaks appear on the screen and the O`s, zoom out to overlap with one another and then has a fast cut to the episode. Within the title both O`s, have the male and female symbols on them, showing that men and women are equal and when both the O`s come together to reveal the frame it represents unity. The credits are shown over the shots at the beginning of the episode; however this only states the crew members and the cast credits are at the end of the episode. The cuts between each frame are fast, which creates a very fast paced storyline and more evolvement for the audience. The soundtrack that is put over the shots at the beginning of the episode is always a well known music soundtrack, which is therefore non-diegetic.

The fact that Hollyoaks is a soap opera, there is a vast amount of diegetic sounds that are heard throughout the episode, however a non diegetic soundtrack is played during the first minute of the episode, this fades out as the episode starts. Within this particular extract the diegetic sounds were; crying, opening of a newspaper, dialogue, people walking, birds, movement of people and things, air horn, ringing of a phone, rustling of paper especially newspapers within this episode. Diegetic sound is used to make the episode seem more realistic and give the audience a focus and it helps them to relate the storyline to their daily lives, because there is not a constant soundtrack over the dialogue and shots.

Costumes

2010-03-19T09:32:00.000-07:00

Within the planning of our thriller, we needed to consider the clothing carefully of what our characters would wear, as the costumes create different ways in which the character is perceived.

We chose for the girl to wear; a short flowery skirt, a beige/white vest top, a beige cropped cardigan and white canvas shoes. We gave the girl the costume of a short flowery skirt, because the flowery pattern shows the girl is feminine and innocent, however by the skirt being short this shows a different side to her, the whole colour palette of her costume consists of pastel colours, this shows that she is girly and it does not represent a dark or bad side to the girl, therefore reinterpreting the fact that the girl is incredibly vulnerable within the story. The costume, also represents the girl a fashion concious and shows her youth, which re-enforces her occupation as a second year sixth form student.

We chose for the boy to wear; a black jacket, dark jeans and white trainers. We gave the boy the costume of a black jacket, because this represents the boy as being a dark and evil character to the audience. The dark jeans reinforces the boys characteristics of being dark and evil that are protrayed within the film, however the use of the light coloured trainers challenges these characteristics, as white is usually a colour that represents innocence, however in this case it does ont, they create mystery because they are of a different colour palette to the rest of his costume. Although the trainers are white and in this case do not represent innocence, they are showing the audience that there is perhaps a nice side to the boy, that we as an audience do not see. The costume, is also very casual and a very ordinary outfit, which will make the audience believe that he is just an ordinary boy, when he first appears within the mise-en-scene. The boys costume, also re-enforces the fact that he is a university student, because of his smart, but casual dress code and the fact that his costume consisits of mainly all black clothing, creates mystery and ambiguity, therefore leaving the audience to decide the personality of the boy.

This is the girls costume;

This is the boys costume;

By Louise McGee

Digital screen network

2010-03-16T10:01:00.000-07:00

1). What is the digital screen network?

It is a £12 million investment, a national lottery investment which equips 240 screens in 210 cinemas across the uk with digital projection technology which gives the audiences a greater choice of film.

2). How can it help independent producers and exhibitors like picture house?

It will help independent producers and exhibitors like picture house because it enables them to distribute a vaster amount of films across their screens, which will therefore increase their audience numbers. It also increases the amount of times that one film is shown and enables them to show a greater selection of films which appeals to a wide variety of people and specialized films that are not generic hollywood films.

3). What will it mean for audiences?

It will mean that audiences get the chance to watch a wider variety of films, such as critically acclaimed films. It also means that film distribution can be increased as it is cheaper to reproduce the films as they are digital as opposed to 35 mm film, which is very expensive to reproduce.

4). How does your local area benefit?

My local area benefits from this as two out of the three cinemas in the city have one digital screen each. One of the cinemas is independent and one is mainstream. This benefits my local area, because it enables local people to be able to watch specialized films, which are of interest to the local people it also will increase the number of people who use those particular cinemas, because films are shown more often, therefore helping the entertainment industry and the local economy.

5). How does it impact on your film consumption?

The use of digital screen technology impacts my individual film consumption, as it offers a wider variety of times for me to watch the film, it also allows me to be able to see independent films that i may not have otherwise been able to watch.

6). What will this technology also provide to cinemas?

The technology will increase the amount of people who use the cinema, therefore increasing its profits, it will also bring the cinema a wider audience base and have a more varied audience.

7). What can you suggest this might mean for other technologies?

This may mean that other technologies are not used as often as they had been previously before digital screening came around, therefore people may not use the non-digital screening cinemas anymore, because of the lack of films and amount of times each individual film is screened.

Other technologies will benefit from the use of digital because; of the way in which we can watch films because of digital technology such as; HD dvd players, 3D technology, Blu-ray dvds and dvd players. You can also download films off websites such as itunes and you can directly put them on to your computer, ipod or iphone, you can also watch films televsion on your mobile phone because of the internet and iplayers and on-demand services from televsion broadcasters.

Film distribution in norwich

2010-03-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

I collected cinema listings for the weekend of the 13th and 14th of march at both; vue and cinema city and answered these questions about the listings.

1). How many films in total are being exhibited?

Cinema city; 5

Vue; 13

2).Select a range of three different films for each cinema. How many times is each film screened? What does this mean for audiences?

Cinema city

The girl with the dragon tattoo - 6

Fantastic Mr fox - 2

The floods of east anglia 1912-1953 - 1

The amount of times that each film is screened affects the audience, because the films are only on at limited times this may affect the amount of people that watch the films as they may not be convinent for everyone, however at a mainstream cinema, films are screened many more times than at an independant cinema which creates more felxability for the audience.

Vue

Alice in wonderland 3D - 7

Green zone - 6

Hachi;A dogs tale - 7

This affects the amount of people that watch the films, as they are on many times, people are more likely to use a mainstream cinema such as vue rather than an independant cinema like cinema city, because of the large variety of times that films are shown.

3).Identify the total number of films in relation to the total number of screenings.

Cinema city

On the weekend there are five films that are being shown and sixteen screenings.

Vue

On the weekend there are thirteen films that are being shown and eighty-nine screenings.

4).Identify the % of hollywood films vs british films for each cinema that weekend.

Cinema city

The girl with the dragon tattoo - swedish

Fantastic mr fox - american

Floods of east anglia 1912-1953 - british

Shutter island - American

The 39 steps (re-release) - American

Vue

Alice in wonderland - American

Alice in wonderland 3D - American

Avatar 2D - American

Green zone -British

Hachi;a dogs tale - American

Leap year - American

Percy jackson and the lightening theif - American

Shutter island -American

St trinians 2 - British

The crazies - American

The lovely bones - American

The princess and the frog - American

5).What conclusions can you draw about how different audiences are catered for in your local area?

From the research, i have learnt that different audiences are catered for in norwich by the wide range of films that are being shown across both of the cinemas; mainstream and independant. The vue cinema, a mainstream cinema caters mainly for people who want to see hollywood mainstream films, however they do show some british films, however they are all mainstream and very well known and heavily advertised films. I have also learnt that independant cinemas cater for a variety of different people however the screening are very limited which may not suit all people, however they cater for children, the elderly, people who are interested in specialised documentary films and foreign language films.

How does ownership impact upon a film companies working practices?

2010-03-07T02:35:00.000-08:00

Ownership has an impact upon a film companies working practices in the way of what control the ownership allows them to have over the production of the films that they make, for example working title are allowed to make any film up to the cost of $25 million, however if the film is over $25 million they must ask permission of universal. This practice gives working title productions more freedom in their film making, this practice is allowed, because they know their films do not hold a high risk.

The ownership also has an impact on the genre of films that an individual film company produce, due to the type of companys they are linked to. Working title are linked with universal; this enables them to have well known soundtracks within their films, many of working titles films are of a sort of `rom-com` genre, many of their films also use similar actors and actresses, working title films are designed to be strong exports due to the way britain is represented in them. The representation of britain in richard curtis films is reffered to as `curtisland`, however warp film company are not designed to be strong exports, due to the opposite way that britain is represented from working title films. In warp films britain is mainly represented as gritty, run down and violent, whereas working title mainly represent britain as wealthy, well educated and polite.

Another way that ownership has an impact on a film companys working practices, is their target audience,as the type of genre will determine the particular films target audience. For example warp films, predominatly make indepentdant `gritty` films starring unknown actors and actress, these type of films have a very narrow and restricted audience and they are not conventional films, wheras working title mainly make romantic comedies, starring high class actors and actresses and are very often set in london, these type of films have a wider audience because the films are very conventional, `safe` films.

Ownership also impacts film companies working practices, because of the different links that each film company has, for example working title are likned with universal which gives them a link to soundtracks, warp films have a link with film 4 which helps their films to be broadcasted on television, which widens the audience.

Warp film production company.

2010-02-22T06:09:00.000-08:00

I researched four warp films and found out the cost of the film, the amount they took at the box office, investors and the distributor.

This is england
Distributor; Optimum (united kingdom)
IFC films (united states of america)
Investor; Film four, warp films
Cost; £1,500,000
Revenue; $8,069,240

Dead mans shoes
Distributor:Optimum releasing
Investor;
Cost;£723,000
Revenue;$198,081 (america;$6,408) (other;$191,673)

Bunny and the bull
Distributor;Optimum releasing
Investor;warp x productions,wild bunch,film 4, screen yorkshire,UK film council.
Cost; less than £1million
Revenue;

My Wrongs 8245–8249 & 117
Distributor;warp films
Investor;
Cost;
Revenue;

UK film council
Was created in 2000 and employes around 90 people, it has funded most of the big cultural films in britain,they have backed around 900 films; shorts and features,they haev entertained over 200 million people and helped to generate around £700 million in box office takings. Co-founder of working title film; tim bevan is the chairman and john woodward is the chief executive. They predominatly fund work with different partners across the UK, which includes regional and national screen agencies. Overall the uk film council have an aim to help make the UK a global centre for film in the digital age. The support that the film ouncil provide, helps to develop new filmmakers, funds new british films and brings a wider choice of films to the british audience. The lottery money that they distribute, plays a key role in keeping the british film creativity running well. The film council has a board of 15 directors, it has been established as a private company limited by guarantee.

New cinema fund
The new cinema fund, part of the the uk film council, was set up in order to encourage unquie and innovative ideas, they aim to produce films with passion that connects to the audience. The objectives of the new cinema fund are; support creative excellence, discover and develop new film talent, attract established film talent working outside mainstream industury, encourage use of technology, develop infrastructure in the regions and nations of the uk, ensure there is equality of oppurtunity, promote social inclusion and cultural differences within britain, challenge auidiences, widen the range of films that are on offer for the uk audience.

Warp X
Warp X, is based in sheffield and london, it specialises in cutting egde digital technology and producing low budget films, that reach audiences around the world. Warp X, was given a government grant of £150,000 that helped them to start their production company. They were backed by film 4, the uk film council and the new cinema fund, which all specialise in low budget and short films.

How do `The third man`, director Carol Reed and `Insomnia`, director Erik Skjoldbjaerg use the conventions of a thriller.

2010-02-11T03:23:00.000-08:00

Stills from the third man.

This is an image of anna on stage, anna is the femme fatile in the third man.
This image is from the chase in the sewers, it show the stylized mise-en-scene, that the third man has, because of film noir and the shadows and the vanishing point that appear in the image.
This is Holly martins, in the sewer chase scene, when he escapes onto the street from the sewer, this is an extreme close up of his face, the black background makes his face more dominant of the mise-en-scene.
This shot is featured within the opening of the third man and shows the ruins, which have been created by the war in vienna.
This is a shot of the graveyard, which has connotations of death and danger, it also creates an eerie feeling to the audience. This also represents the theme of death.
This is a shot of the holly martins walking down the street, this shot is very well composed because of the lighting, the shadows, tilt shot and the reflections off the road.

This is a close up shot of holly martins, the black back ground makes his face more prominent within the mise-en-scene.

Extreme long shot.

Big wheel ride. ^Harry lime and anna, after her show.

Stills from Insomnia.

The theme of death; use of an investigation room, investigating the murder of Tanya, bleak, limited colour palette.
Tanya being strangles leading to her death, the black background connotes evil, the image of her face is very grainy, suggesting insomnia is an independent film because of the colour palette, not being a stylized as the third man.
Tanya, being filmed by her lover before her death, this is shown within the opening sequence, dominates two thirds of the mise-en-scene, she is smiling and looks happy and content.
Chase scene, underground, silhouette of jonas.
Where jonas shoots his colleague by accident, set in norway, overlooking the lake.
Jonas attempts to keep out the light by putting cardboard at his window, this represents that he is trying to keep people out and stop them from knowing the truth, it represents that he is hiding his true identity from people.
Murder investigation being carried out on Tanya, very bleak, limited colour palette, representing the effect death can have on people feeling cold and upset, which the blue represents.
Cable car scene.
Investigation map

Jonas has murdered his colleague, as he could not see through the mist, he is faced with a moral dilemma.

Close up of jonas, dominating the mise-en-scene, shot at an angle.
Insomnia title, dark background fades into Tanyas death.

The third man, directed by Carol Reed in 1949 is set in Vienna. It involves a man called Holly Martin, who plan to meet his old school friend, Harry Lime in post-war Vienna, because he has offered him a job, however when he gets there he finds out Harry has died. It also tells the story of how Harry lime, forged Anna Schmidt’s passport, because she is Czechoslovakian and if the Russians found out they would throw her out of this part of Vienna because she is not Austrian.

Insomnia, directed by Erik Skjoldbjaerg in 1997 is set in Norway and is a Norwegian film, with English subtitles. Jonas Engstorm and his police colleague, help another police squad, to investigate the murder of a young girl named Tanya Lorentzen, however whilst they are both out at the crime scene, Jonas engstrom shoots his gun and it accidently is fired at his police colleague, because of the misty setting which makes it hard to see in the distance therefore resulting in his colleagues death at the scene, this creates a second murder to be investigated, Engstrom does not own up to the crime he has committed.

Both, in the third man and insomnia, the main characters are faced with a moral dilemma, in the third man, Holly is faced with a dilemma involving Anna and her passport that his school friend harry lime had previously forged for his lover, Anna Schmidt. In Insomnia, Jonas is faced with the dilemma, of owning up to the crime he has committed even though it was by accident. This represents the vast change in their characters during the film as they change from having connotations of being good, innocent and justice to being bad, guilty and injustice.

In both films, a femme fatile is used, in the Third man, Anna is the femme fatile; she is portrayed as being vulnerable and as having a lost identity, because Harry lime has forged her passport so she can stay in Vienna, because she is Czechoslovakian and otherwise she would be deported out of the country by the Russians. She is deemed on as a femme fatile because of her presence in the film and her attitudes towards Harry lime and Holly martins. In Insomnia, the femme fatile is less obvious as it could be Tanya, the young girl who was murdered, however it could be the young girls friend, Froya selmar who Jonas seduces in the car, whilst driving to the scene where her friend was murdered. Jonas uses Froya, as a way into the investigation of Tanyas death. The femme fatile is very often used in thriller films, in order to portray the victim and portraying connotations of vulnerability and romance.

The use of lighting is a key element in a thriller film, as it creates different moods in order to help produce various atmospheres within the film. Lighting is also used to create a strong key light; showing a light and dark contrast on a scene or on a particular characters face, this creates connotations of good and evil. In the third man, carol reed used lighting to create a strong key light and shadows, which have connotations of stalking. Carol reed also uses back lighting to create silhouettes. Reed particularly uses the lighting effects in the scene, in the underground sewer, because of the back lighting this created silhouettes and shadows, which connoted that the character is being stalked. The use of the strong key light which is used in close up shots of the characters shows dark and light shadows on the characters face; these shots that have been used by Reed in the third man and have connotations of good and evil and represents that there are good and evil sides to everyone, however it also shows a side to the characters that the audience do not necessarily see, because of it only being subtly represented by the director. In Insomnia, the lighting is more subtle because it is in colour, rather than black and white like the third man, however Erik Skjoldbjaerg uses a strong key light, like Reed does in the third man, which shows the two sides to each character; good and evil, which represents the film well, especially Jonas, because of the two very different sides of him that we see.

In both films, a mortuary is used, in the third man we see it in the form of a graveyard and in Insomnia we see the mortuary in the form of the investigation room, where Tanya lays and is being investigated on, to find the person who killed her. The mortuary is used in a thriller film, because of the theme of death that is largely present within all thriller films, although the two types of portray are different, they both represent death, they also represent crime.

Another convention typically used in thriller films is the uses of extreme close ups, extreme long shots, tilt and pan shots. These shots are typically used within the mise-en-scene of thriller films because they represent the characters from different viewpoints and angles. The use of extreme close ups, enables the audience to engage with the character and see exactly who they are, extreme long shots, also enable this aspect of being able to see exactly who the person is, but from a distance, the use of a long shot also creates a mystery of who it is, it also helps to create suspense, because we are wondering who the character is and what they will do within the film. Tilt shots, create different angles as to how we look at the characters, however this has tow meaning as it create a different angles in the way of how we visually look at the person and another angle of how look at someone, is that of how we view them in a sense of their characteristics and what role we think they are going to play in the film. Pan shots are used in order for the audience to establish what is around them; the location, characters, props, it also creates a sense of mystery and suspense. In the third man, Carol Reed uses a variety of all these shots; she uses extreme close ups to show the characters faces, this technique helps the audience to connect with the characters and to understand what is going on in the mind of the character. Reed also uses extreme long shots, she uses these shots, in the underground sewer scene, along with the strong key light this creates mystery and shows the good and evil sides of a character, she also uses tilt shots within this scene, the use of these shot types creates a feeling a being disorientated. Carol Reed uses the pan shots to enable us to view the mise-en-scene. In Insomnia, Erik Skjoldbjaerg also uses a mixture of all these shots types, Skjoldbjaerg uses extreme close ups when Tanya is being killed, this effect makes the audience feel as if they are present at the murder of Tanya, this makes the audience feel more involved with the film. Extreme long shots are used when Jonas accidently shoots his fellow colleague, because of the mist in the field and Jonas mistakes him for someone else. The use of these long shots makes the audience feel as if they are not so involved with the scene; it also creates a mystery for the audience and adds suspense because we are unsure of what exactly has happened in the first instance. The use of long shots, in the scene where Jonas takes Froya, to the scene of Tanyas murder, to try and attempt to find out what happened, for the majority of this scene, long shots are used, which is enabling the audience to see the characters and the scenery, it also differentiates from the previous scene in the car, where extreme close ups are used, which is very suitable for the scene because of the suspense it adds, because we are unsure as to what is going to happen. Skjoldbjaerg, also uses shot reverse shot in the car scene, which also helps to add suspense, because of the constant reversing of characters and their changing expressions, which helps us to understand what is going on within the mise-en-scene.

A theme that is present within both films is isolation and the characters feeling isolated. In the third man, isolation is represented in the way of the big wheel in the fun fair; this represents isolation because you are trapped in a cart, high in the air. In the third man, Holly martins, could be said as being represented as an isolated character, because he is looked at as a being foreign when he goes to Vienna to meet Harry Lime. In Insomnia, Skjoldbjaerg shows isolation in the form of the cabin in the mountains.

Although both films are thrillers, they have a different colour palette. The third man, being a black and white film has a very minimal colour palette, with a stylised environment, on the other hand Insomnia, is a colour film although it is a colour film; Erik Skjoldbjaerg has made the colour palette very dull and bleak. The third man, because of it being a black and white film, it relies heavily on the lighting, to give different moods to the scenes. Insomnia, being a colour film can change its colour palette to fit with the mood and theme of the film, as Erik Skjoldbjaerg has done with Insomnia. He has made the colour palette, to be very dull and bleak; this is fitting to the theme of the film, because of its theme of murder. Although the colour palette is fairly limited in Insomnia, grain and light has been added using editing techniques to show the contrast.

In both films a repetitive soundtrack has been used, both of which are entirely instrumental. Both of which add to the suspense, because of their repetitive nature.

Insomnia and the third man were set and filmed in different periods of time, this is made very evident, by the colour palette and also the technologies that are present within the film. In insomnia, we see forensics being used, to indentify who the young girl’s killer is, we see the killer washing Tanyas hair whilst wearing rubber gloves, so there will be no traces of evidence or her murderer, this is showing new technologies, that are not evident in the third man. The use of new technologies, also shows the progression of technology from the 1940s when the third man was made, to the 1990s when Insomnia was made. The use of the props in Insomnia in particular the locket, has a deep meaning of love, however most importantly it holds forensics that tell us who the murderer is.

In conclusion to the question, how do the directors of The third man and Insomnia, use the codes and conventions of a thriller film, I have discovered that the directors use the conventions of a thriller film, in order to create an interesting storyline, by using various shot types, lighting, locations and themes of isolation.

Working title films.

2010-02-08T05:36:00.000-08:00

I researched `curtisland`, a name that has been given to the way that Richard Curtis represents britain, in very similar idealistic ways throughout all of his films. In a report by the guardian, `curtisland` is described as being "A shiny, happy place, relaxed about the filthy rich, insatiable in its optimism, in love with happy endings, and very New Labour." Richard curtis`s first film was four weddings and a funeral, the storyline of a sudden heart attack and love, are both very unrealistic and as the article stated `unlikely`. The article describes thet way that richard curtis represents britain in his films as; It was an apolitical place, full of can-do possibility, obsessed with the educated middle class, perfectly relaxed about the filthy rich, much more in love with sentiment than ideas, and insatiable in its optimism; it was also in thrall to the idea of happy endings. This mixing of realities seemed like a two-way process. The article also states that as richards films became more popular, he started to look at different ways of representing britain for example; Britain became the broken-home and teenage-pregnancy capital of Europe; looked at another, it was the subject of ever more feel-good, confetti-strewn, loved-up films. If they were not always from Curtis's pen, then at least they followed his winning formula. The article also stated that;Curtisland was among the least "cool" products of Cool Britannia, but it was always perfect for export; Britain was suddenly a sunny, witty, self-deprecating, charming kind of place.

Research of five working title films;

Notting hill

Gross revenue; $363,889,678

Domestic gross total; $116,089,678

Foreign gross total;$247,800,000

Cost; $42 million

Bridget jones diary

Box office; $281,929,795

Domestic gross total; $71,543,427

Foreign gross total;$210,386,368
Cost; $25 million

Fargo

Box office; $24,611,975

Domestic gross total; $24,611,975

Foreign gross total; $36,000,000

Cost;$7 million

Atonement

Box office; $50,927,067

Domestic gross total;$50,927,067

Foreign gross total;$78,338,994

Cost;

Love actually

Box office; $59,696,144

Domestic gross total;$59,696,144

Foreign gross total;$187,245,873
Cost;$40 million

Shooting schedule

2010-01-22T05:13:00.000-08:00

1st February:
5pm/7pm, at Riverside in Norwich (we’ll meet at the bridge)/ to film all the opening shots of the opening, from the girl going down the stairs, up till her walking away with the male. All cast and crew will be needed (Megan Purdy, William Durham, Sam Hudson, Lexie Ferguson and Louise McGee). The equipment need will be a tripod, digital camera and tape. The costumes we will need are a black hoodie, jeans, and trainers for the male; and a skirt, t-shirt, cardigan and plain shoes for the female.

15th February:
5pm/7pm, at Riverside in Norwich (we’ll meet at the bridge). To film the second half of the opening, from the girl and male walking along, up till the male grasping the girl by the throat. All cast and crew will be needed (Megan Purdy, William Durham, Sam Hudson, Lexie Ferguson and Louise McGee). The equipment need will be a tripod, digital camera and tape. The costumes we will need are a black hoodie, jeans, and trainers for the male; and a skirt, t-shirt, cardigan and plain shoes for the female.

2nd March:
5pm/7pm, at Riverside in Norwich (we’ll meet at the bridge). To refilm the shots which were to dark, because you couldn’t make out facial expressions, and also film establishing shots at the start and end of the opening. All cast and crew will be needed (Megan Purdy, William Durham, Sam Hudson, Lexie Ferguson and Louise McGee). The equipment need will be a tripod, digital camera and tape. The costumes we will need are a black hoodie, jeans, and trainers for the male; and a skirt, t-shirt, cardigan and plain shoes for the female.

Audience profile.

2010-01-18T06:50:00.000-08:00

This is my audience profile that i have created for my thriller film and have used my audience research questionnaire to help me, my audience profile also acts like a kind of symmary of my questionnaire.

Age: 16 - 25 years of age
Gender: Female and male
Mainstream/Independent: my questionnaire implies that mainstream is preffered, however the storyline of my thriller suggests that is an Independant film.

What they look for in a thriller; My target audience look for the thriller to be set in a location that they recognise,a film set in the present period; the period it was filmed in. My target audience also look for good actors to play the characters; they look for them to be believable and well at acting out any actions that the character may have to perform. They also look to have found out key elements of the film, within the first two minutes of the film for example; the location of the film. They also want the characters to look believe because of their costumes, so they want them to be wearing costumes that represent their personality and role in the film.

Other films they like(genre,events,cinematography,mise-en-scene,themes); pyschological, film noire, unexpected events, the criminal to be a character who is portrayed as innocnent throughout the film, good lighting; creating shadows and highlights, to represent a sense of stalking and following.

How are you going to appeal to the audience; I am going to appeal to my audience by creating characters who are believable, have a good acting ability, are dressed to fit their personality and role in the film, have a good well lit stage, which creates strong highlights and shadows.

Audience quotations from mainstream and independant thriller.

2010-01-18T02:17:00.000-08:00

I researched thriller films that had relevance to my own and found that; Pyscho and The third man had the most relevance to my own film. I used IMDB, to research reviews and extract quotations from Pyscho and The third man that people have written about them.

These are quotations i found from reviews on Pyscho;

If you have not seen this movie, do yourself a favor. Stop reading thse comments, get up, take a shower, then GO GET THIS MOVIE. Buy it, don't rent. You will not regret it.

"Psycho" is easily the best horror-thriller of all time

"Psycho" has one of the best scripts you'll ever find in a movie

this movie is probably the best directorial effort by film history's best director

Perkins who gives what remains the single best performance by an actor in a horror movie.

Anthony Perkins' skillfully crafts his performance as Norman Bates, avoiding a ranting, raving, drooling, murder-happy, manic characterization; instead his performance as Norman is subtle, creepy, cool, and unsettling.

The movie set a new and very high standard in horror movies which I don't believe has ever been equaled. The characters were great, the direction perfect and the music, which I thought was absolutely fantastic, made this a classic.

These are quotations i found from reviews on The third man;

The Third Man is a movie that looks and feels not like a movie of the 40s, but like a neo-noir of the late 60s/early 70s

combines amazing visuals, sounds, dialogue, and acting to tell a thrilling story and comment about the atmosphere after WWII.

So The Third Man is not only a wonderful film noir, but a unique look at the brief time between WWII and the height of the Cold War.

stunning camera angles and back-lighting

The eerie shadows around the deserted streets and of course the unforgettable first glimpse of Harry Lime (Welles) himself as he skulks like the rat he is, in the corner of the building, lit in close-up suddenly from the light in an adjacent apartment

The story is quite straight forward and can be perceived more complicated than it is

The film is given a great mood of shadows throughout

This is a rare film that is flawless in every respect. It combines great acting and memorable characters with a fascinating story, taking place in an interesting setting and adding a creative musical score.

My research on pyscho tells me that the audience focused on the performances of the characters, the storyline, script and the directorial effort made by Alfred Hitchcock. This tells me that in my film i need to focus on creating a good and intriging storyline and make sure that the people i get to play the characters in my thriller, represent their personality well and in a very believable manner. I also need to make sure that the planning is done to a high standard, in order to get a high quality finish to the film, like alfred hitchcock has in pyscho.

My research on The third man tells me that the audience focused on the visuals, sounds, memorable characters,camera angles, back lighting including shadows and its focus on WWII and the cold war. This tells me that i need to work on creating very striking visual images within my thriller which will interest the audience. I also need to make my characters memorable to the audience,in order for them the believe the character and in some way feel connected to the character. I also need to focus on the camera angles and lighting that i use, as i am filming my thriller at night, which is why i have related my film to the third man, because the third man is predominatly filmed at night. I think that the camera angles and lighting are deemed so important by the audience, because of the moods that different lighting can have in a film, the camera angles are very important, because it helps you to see from the characters point of view. The shadows in the third man, give a sense of stalking and that someone mysterious is following the character, i need to try and apply this technique to my own thriller, as it is predominatly about stalking. Although my thriller is not related to WWII or the cold war, i need to make sure i focus entirely on the subject, as they do in the third man.

Costumes, characters, music and location for our thriller film.

2010-01-17T03:33:00.000-08:00

The Characters:

The Girl;
The girl should be not too tall, so she should in a way quite weak and powerless compared to the man. She should be good at being drunk, and also have good facial expressions. She should be wearing lots of make up, and a lot of lipstick.

The Man;
The man should be quite tall, taller than the girl and also quite kind and warmly looking. But he most also be able to look extremely intimidating and mad.

The Locations:

We are going to film our first film at one of our groups houses, as it is an in club scene. WE will use darkness with in stage lighting, and about 5 supporting actors, to make it seem like there are a lot more people.
In the second scene we are going to shoot at riverside, because it is quite a lonely place at night, and the river is also a great place to film in terms of a thriller film, it is a place where things could be hidden, which send a message to the audience.

The Music:

We are going to incorporate music into our thriller. For the first scene within the club we our going to use loud dance music. We are going to find music by an unsigned band that people could dance to. Then in the second scene we aren’t going to use any music to begin with, the silence of the characters walking and just Diegetic sound will make a great contrast with the loud music, and will therefore make the second location fell a lot more lonely and in a way intimidating.

Costume:

The man in the thriller should be wearing plain trousers, a shirt and good shoes. This will make him seem like a ‘safe’ character, he doesn’t look like the stereotypical stalker murderer character of thrillers, and so when he flips on the girl it will take the audience by surprise and throw them off balance, which is what we want to achieve in our opening.

The girl in our thriller film will be wearing a costume that would be expected on a night out. So she will be wearing a dress, it should be quite short. It will be red, this will be a signifier that she is the main character, and it is also a colour that is often seen as going well with thriller films.
As the scene progresses and she becomes more drunk, her costume will become more ‘messed up’ showing she is drunk, their could even be small tears, and creases, showing her vulnerability.

By Sam Hudson

In what way does `white girl` challenge stereotypical representations of ethnic minorities.

2010-01-13T13:45:00.000-08:00

How does `white girl`, challenge stereotypical representations of ethnic minorities?

One particular stereotype that white British class make about the Asian community, is that they try and brainwash other cultures and religions to become part of their religion, however `white girl`, challenges this stereotypical belief by portraying the Asian community as caring, non-violent and kind. The director shows the relationship between Leah and the Asian family as that of unconditional, the director shows the audience that the Asian family accept Leah for who she is and are in no way trying to brainwash or convert her into their own religion; however Leah chooses to do so as her own individual decision.

Another stereotype that we have as a culture about the Asian community is that; they are prejudice of the white British culture, however `white girl` challenges this in a way that they reverse the stereotype. In white girl the Asian family and community are shown as being caring towards those that are of a different culture to themselves, however Leah’s family; a white British family are shown as being extremely prejudice towards the Asian culture within the community they live in, as it is highly populated by `ethnic minorities`, this is typical of a northern city in England. The prejudice that Leah’s family have against the Asian community is shown very strongly when Debbie, Leah’s mother sees Leah wearing a headscarf, we understand here that Leah’s mother is prejudice towards ethnic minorities, because of the way in which she responds to Leah wearing the headscarf; she responds in way which portrays her as a working class less educated women because shows her dislike for her daughter wearing the headscarf by; swearing aggressively at Leah and acting very violently towards her because of the decision her daughter Leah has made to wear a headscarf and to follow the Muslim faith. As well as the mother being portrayed as being prejudice, the grandmother is also portrayed as being prejudice, this is shown particularly well in the scene at the wedding when Leah has taken the decision to wear her headscarf at the British wedding and her grandmother says to Debbie, her daughter “she’s embarrassing us”, talking about Leah wearing the headscarf. We believe that Leah has decided to follow the Muslim faith because she sees it as an escape from her own life of her mothers drinking, her fathers abusive behaviour, her parents separation and mother being illiterate. We are also lead to believe that Leah has joined the Muslim faith, to feel part of something and to feel that she belongs to a `family`, as she throughout the programme we get a feeling that Leah does not feel as if she belongs to her family and they resent her.

A common stereotype of ethnic minorities, is that they use frequent acts of violence towards those from other cultures due to their cultural differences, however `white girl` portrays ethnic minorities in a totally opposite way to the stereotype, by showing the Muslim community as that of; very caring and kind people who want to bring out the best in people; who are of their own religion and those who are not. We see an act of kindness at the very beginning of the programme when the white family move into the area and a nearby Muslim family offer them milk, which is refused by Debbie; the mother of the white family, this also shows prejudice towards the Muslim family as well as showing a reverse in the stereotype; the ethnic minority family being kind and caring and the white British family being prejudice and violent. Throughout the programme we do not see any Muslims show any violence towards other cultures, however although it is very ironic we see a vast amount of violent behaviour from the white family.

In conclusion to the question `white girl`, challenges the stereotypical representations of ethnic minorities, by reversing the stereotype and representing the white British characters as you would the ethnic minority characters, if you were representing them true to their stereotype.

`White girl` notes

2010-01-13T11:27:00.000-08:00

We watched White girl in class which was produced by the BBC and was broad casted in 2008. The genre of white girl is social realism.

The television drama, white girl is about; a young white girl; Leah who lives in a predominately Muslim community in the north of England. Leah attends a school which is also predominately Muslim and they practise the Muslim faith at school. Leah becomes friends with a Muslim girl, this represents the difference in culture and that two different cultures can be civil with one another. Leah's family; the white British family are associated with; violence, drinking, separation, breaking down in relationships,washing lines; which are typically shown in social realism dramas to represent the British culture. We believe that Leah wants to be part of the Muslim community because it is; peaceful, caring, kind, theres no violence and she sees it as an escape form her own life.

White girl is set mainly in terraced housing and the alleys behind the houses this is because they are typically British, the use of the terraced housing and back alleys reference the film Billy Elliot; which is also set in the north of england, it reminded me of a articular scene in billy elliot when he dances down the street, showing the terraced houses in the background. The mosque is shown several times during the drama, which has different meanings of; religion,refuge,calming and emotion to Leah. We think Leah is so desperate to become part of the Muslim community, to have a sense of belonging and feeling needed.

The drama focuses on different aspects throughout the programme which emphasise both british and muslim culture. Its main focuses are the representation of; gender,working class culture and ethnic minorites. One event that happened was a wedding that the british family attended, weddings are typically british including the costumes,food and drink at the wedding reiterated the british culture. The wedding is where Debbie, Leah`s mother shows her resentment very strongly against Leah wearing a headscarf, her grandmother says "shes embarassing us", talking about leah wearing her headscarf, this showed that perhaps her grandmother is not very well educated about other cultures or is resentful towards other cultures. The remarks that both Leah`s parents and her grandmother say to her and about her whilst she is wearing the headscarf, shows that perhaps they are racist, this also shows that they are predujice against the muslim religion and culture.

The blue headscarf that leah wears signifies; religious differences, protest, declaration of faith and identity and a weapon that is aimed at the parents. The fence represents a barrier between the two houses, this also represents the difference in their culture and attitudes and their differences in the lives that they lead and the way in which they lead them.

The drama shows britain as `multi-ethnic`, this is mainly in the north of england. In a particular scene Debbie and Leah are talking over a fence, which represents the separation between mother and daughter, it also represents the break down in the mother and aughter realationship, however the pink and purple scarfs that we see whilst they are having the conversation could represent love between them, although it could also represent the muslim community, because it is a very colourful culture. Leahs mother, Debbie is illitarate, this shows that perhaps she did not have a very good upbringing and also tells us that she was raised in a working class environment.

Representation of british culture in television dramas.

2010-01-10T03:15:00.000-08:00

I was given the task to research British television dramas in order to find a drama that represented British culture in an interesting way. I watched several clips of television dramas including; Hollyoaks and eastenders both of which are soap operas, a sub genre of British television drama. I then watched an episode of coronation street which was broad casted on Christmas day 2009, i think that this represented British culture best out of them all.

http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=114306

Above is the link to the particular episode of coronation street, that i think represents British culture well.

Firstly the location is typical of British culture because of the terraced houses with the back alleyways, this suggests it is set in the north of England, this is later confirmed by the northern accent of the characters,that we are introduced to. We are firstly introduced to families opening their presents in their homes which represents the British culture as being very family orientated, which is how the culture is portrayed, this also shows the togetherness of british families. Another aspect of the drama, that strikes me as being very typical of the British culture was the emphasis on the date; being Christmas, which is the most celebrated date in Britain. The timing of the drama; Christmas day shows even more of the British culture because of the meaning of Christmas and the religion behind it. Religion plays a big part in showing the British culture in this episode although it is not directly mentioned at all through the episode the meaning is still present because of the religious link to Christmas being Christianity which is predominately the main religion in Britain, meaning it is a large part of British culture.

Being christmas food and drink play a large part in british christmas`s, in all the different families homes that we see during the episode they are all centered around the cooking and eating of the christmas dinner.Another part of british culture that we see and that is talked alot about during the episode is the pub; which in many british towns and villages the pub is the heart of the community and most villages and towns have at least one pub. Later on in the episode we are introduced to the corner shop, which is also typically british which most villages and towns have in the cntre of them. All these aspects represent togetherness because they bring the community together.

The main storyline in this episode is that of the two characters who are having an affair and plan to tell their families on chrsitmas day, however when kevins wife reveals that she has cancer everything changes, he then tells molly that everything is over, affairs are now very typical in british culture and becoming very common for couples to divorce over an affair in britain, this part of the episode showed modern british culture. We also see family feuds, which is very common at christmas time and we hear alot about it on the news in the running up to christmas about family feuds causing stress in families. In a particular scene the reuniting of the platt family with nick the eldest child, is also a factor of british culture and christmas, many people emphasise to importance of being with your family and reuniting, the importance of this is mainly stressed at christmas.

In the episode secrets,lies ands guilt play a large part of the episode; with kevin and molly lying about their affiar, sally keeping a secret about having cancer. This factor shows british culture in a modern way and perhaps represents the working class. The whole episode does not focus on one particular story, it cuts from house to house showing the different families christmas days. This makes the whole episode more realistic because we can familiarise with an aspect of each families day in some form. The episode also shows families breaking down; this represents the extended family going home and the breaking down in faith and the breaking down in realationships, however at the end of the episode all the problems seem to have been resolved. The sound is mainly natural for example the movement of the characters and dialouge, however at the end when all the problems presented in the programme are resolved a well known christmas song is introduced. The music that is used has been produced by british artists, which relates to the british culture and music play a large part is our culture.

Overall coranation street shows british culture in the way of; the location, food, drink and the storyline, however although it represents britain as a whole it also represents parts of britian for the example this programme has a strong emphasis on the northern culture of england, becuase of its location in manchester.

Concluding my audience research.

2009-12-28T03:05:00.000-08:00

I carried out my questionnaire on fifteen members of my respondent group who were all of 16 and 17 years of age.

In question one, I asked what is your preferred location of a thriller film?
Seven respondents answered a unrecognisable location and eight answered a recognisable location and no-one answered an exotic location.

In question two, I asked what music if any do you prefer to hear in a thriller?
Six respondents answered vocal and instrumental, nine answered instrumental only and no-one answered none, vocal only or a well-known soundtrack.

In question three, I asked what is your favourite sub genre of thriller.
Five respondents answered horror, ten answered psychological, one answered action and no-one answered crime or drama.

In question four, I asked what is your preferred time period for a thriller to be set in.
Eleven respondents answered present, four answered 2000-present, and one said they were not worried about the time period and no-one answered 1900-1950s, 1960 – 1990s or future.

In question five, I asked what aspect of a thriller do you think is most important.
Eleven respondents answered characters, four answered sound and no-one answered costume/props, lighting or location.

In question six, I asked what do you expect to see/find out whilst watching the first two minutes of a thriller film.
Eight respondents answered location, four answered a basic introduction to the rest if the film, three answered introduction to the characters and No-one answered the storyline.

In question seven, I asked what costumes do you prefer for a character in a thriller film to wear.
Two respondents answered Dark, mysterious clothing, ten answered clothing relevant to the characters, setting and storyline, three answered costumes relevant to the period it is set in.

In conclusion to my research I have concluded that; an audience prefer a thriller film to be set in a recognisable location somewhere were they have been a famous landmark or the place where they lived. Audiences also prefer to have an instrumental only soundtrack rather than a vocal, instrumental and vocal or a well known soundtrack. Audiences also prefer to watch psychological sub genres of thriller.Audiences also prefer to watch thriller that are set in the present. The vast majority of people think that the characters are the most important aspect of a thriller film. I also found out in my research that audiences most expect to see/find out in the first two minutes of a thriller film the location. In my research I also found out that they also prefer the character in thriller films to wear a costume that is relevant to the character, setting and storyline.

My audience research will help me with the construction of my thriller because i can use what i found out in my research and apply it to my film. My research has helped me to decide a location for my thriller and i have decided to use a recognisable location which is what the audience prefer. It has also helped me in deciding what sound audiences prefer, i discovered that audiences prefer instrumental only, this will help add suspense. It also helped me with finding out what costumes audiences prefer the characters to wear, this has helped me because the costume holds a large part in representing the character and their personality. Overall the audience research has helped me in constructing my thriller film because it has told me what my target audience prefer and expect to see in a film.

Questionnaire.

2009-12-22T07:02:00.000-08:00

This is my questionnaire that i will ask approximatly 15 people who are all of the same age.

1).What is your preferred location for a thriller film?
· Faraway exotic country
· Recognisable location (either you have visited there, live there or its a famous landmark)
· Unrecognisable location

2).What music, if any do you prefer to hear in a thriller?
· None
· Instrumental only
· Vocal
· Vocal and Instrumental
· A well known soundtrack/song

3).What is your favourite sub-genre of thriller?
· Crime
· Psychological
· Action
· Horror
· Drama

4).What is your preferred time period for a thriller to be set in?
· 1900-1950`s
· 1960-1990`s
· 2000- present
· Present
· Future

5).What aspect of a thriller, do you think is the most important?
· Characters
· Costume and props
· Sound
· Lighting
· Location

6).What do you expect to see/find out when watching the first 2 minutes of a thriller?
· Location
· Introduction to the characters
· Storyline
· A very basic introduction to the rest of the film

7).What costumes do you like the characters in a thriller to wear? (please write a short description of a costume)

Audience research.

2009-12-22T04:09:00.000-08:00

When creating any type of media production, it is always best to start with carrying out audience research because you can get to know you target audience. It also helps because you know what to include in your film, that will get your target audiences attention.

In order to create a thriller film, which attracts a vast amount of people, I need to create and carry out research that will tell me exactly what audiences expect of a thriller film and what preferences in relation to a thriller film they have. I am going to ask around fifteen people who are all of the same age, a questionnaire, in order to have fair and equal results.

What I want to find out about audiences.
In the task of carrying out my audience research in order to find out what people like and what are peoples preferences in thriller films, I want to achieve the following;

Find out preferred locations
Find out at what pace people like to thriller to be
Find out what soundtrack people like
Find out what is the audiences favourite sub-genres of thriller
Find out what costumes the audience prefer to see characters in thrillers wear.
Find out what aspects do the audience consider to be of most importance.

How I am going to find out the required information

I am going to conduct a questionnaire; Iam going to ask around fifteen people who are all of the same age. I am going to ask them all the same seven questions, in order for the research to be fair and reliable.

What I expect to find out from my research

I expect to find out in my research the following;
That the audience’s preferred location is recognisable to them.
That instrumental music is the audiences favourite.
That psychological- thriller will be the audiences favourite sub-genre.
That the 1960s-1990s will be the audiences preferred time period for a thriller to be set in.
That the characters are the thought of by the audience as the most important aspect of a thriller.
That the audience expect to see a basic introduction of the storyline within the first two minutes of a thriller film.
The audience would like the characters to wear costumes which compliment their personality in the film, for example; wear black if they are the criminal and a pale colour if they are the victim in the film.

References to our thriller film.

2009-12-15T02:13:00.000-08:00

In the planning stage of our thriller film, we needed to find films that had a reference to our own, when thinking about this we needed to consider; setting, lighting, shot types, storyline, sound, costume, age/gender of characters, social class/background of characters in order to find a film that we had seen or heard of that held a reference in any of these ways to our own thriller film.

We made two references they are; `psycho` and ` the third man`. Psycho, by Hitchcock, has a reference to our own because of the use of long shots to show the criminal and the way in which Norman Bates is portrayed as being a caring and kind man towards Marion and then towards the end of the film he becomes the criminal when he kills her, this has a reference to our thriller film, because the man who is portrayed to look like a caring young man towards the girl making sure she got home okay, however towards the end of the film just like in psycho he becomes he criminal when he begins by stalking her out of the club and attempts to kidnap her.

the famous shower scene;when norman bates becomes the criminal

The other reference we made was to `The third man`, by Carol reed, has a reference to our thriller film because of the stalking scene, which is the main issue in the storyline in our film. Another reference that we made was the lighting that is used in the third man, that is very dominant in the mise-en-scene, because it has been filmed at night on a wet cobbled street and the only light is a street lamp which creates a very a typically thriller lighting, we are also filming in the evening and the only light will be the light from the surrounding streetlamps and clubs, we are going to try to schedule to film on a evening when it has been raining during the day, so the light will reflect off the pavements like in the third man.

this image from the third man shows the different lights and the reflection from the light on the wet pavements.

This image is from the third man, and shows the dark and light well and the light from the streetlamps and the way that the man looks like a silhouette in the distance.

By Louise McGee

Discuss the ways in which age and gender are constructed in an extract from Blackpool

2009-12-09T09:56:00.000-08:00

Camera shot and movement
Editing
Sound
Mise-en-scene

Costume

Father - very colourful shirt; bright pink this suggests the 70s era, connotes he might be stuck in his ways or looks to the past, he has a 70s haristyle and sideburns this reinforces the look of the 70s era.
Mother and Father are wearing the same colour this unites them both.
The daughter and her boyfriend are also wearing the same colour palette of grey and navy blue this unites them both and shows that they are of a different age to the parents.

Mise-en-scene

Father is more dominant; does most of the talking, vast amount of close ups of him, dominates the mise-en-scene, we can see he is a traditionalist.
There is a sense of recognition betweent he father and the boyfriend, as if they somehow know each other.
Father is jealous of his daughters boyfriend becuase he cannot control her anymore and he may be upset because she is not her `daddys little girl` anymore. This is paternal jealousy.
Father has an aggresive attitude; he pushes the glass firmly onto the table, he also has a rascist and homephobic attitude as he says "lesbian refugees"
Binary opposites between the two couples is signified using costume.
When the two couples stand up and the coffee table to inbetween them, there is a divide between them, which represents the divide between there generations and values in life.

Monarch of the glen - class notes

2009-12-09T09:31:00.000-08:00

Monarch of the glen is set in the present day, in the location of Scotland in the setting of; a loch, mountains and a castle. The genre of the programme is predominately a family drama, because of its placement before the 9pm watershed. In the extract that i watched in class, i heard mainly diegatic sound; dialogue, furniture clattering and the movement of people, however there was a non diegetic soundtrack, that i heard during the opening of the extract, it helped to set the theme for the rest of the programme because of its Celtic style, which related to the location of the programme. The colour palette that is used on the characters costumes, differs between age and social class as the younger characters are dresses in pale colours and the older characters are dressed in darker bolder colours, this represents their authority in society. In Monarch of the glen there is an intertexual reference to the soap opera; Hollyoaks.

The shots that are used helped us to create opinions about the characters for example; a low angle shot is used to show the Monarch, this tells us that he is the boss, is superior to others and is upper class, the way that is has been shot makes him look taller than the other characters around him, which shows him as being higher than the others, this relates to the social structure; that he is at the top and has more authority than others. The mise-en-scene of the monarchs house tells us that he is upper class becuase of the props that have been used. The way in which the Monarch dresses, does not tells us much about his social class, as we see him dresses in dark, casual/smart and practical clothes, however this choice of modest dress, indicates old money and his confidence. The positioning of the characters of the screen and how much of the mise-en-scene the character occupies shows us their importance within the drama. When we are shown both the monarch and the teacher, both upper class and of high importance, a shot reverse shot is used and they occupy the whole of the mise-en-scene.

Questions in response to my preliminary film.

2009-12-07T02:42:00.000-08:00

1). What planning did you do for your filming task, and how did this planning aid in the filming?

I created a storyboard,shooting map and shot list which helped me in my planning for my film. The storyboard helped us when filming because we knew which shots needed to be filmed and in which order, it also helped the characters, becuase it told them what they needed to do and in what order and location. The shooting map and shot list were referred to alot during the filiming, they both helped us in the filming of our preliminary task because they told us were we needed to position the camera. Our storyboard,shooting map and shot list, all helped aid the filming of our preliminary task and resulted in the filming of our task running smoothly, becuase of this planning we had done beforehand.

2). What camera and editing techniques and codes did you use in your film and how do they influence the audiences understanding of the film? (eg. camera and shot types etc; match on action, shot reverse shot, 180 degree rule)

In the filming of our task we used the zoom on the camera, in order to film close up shots of the characters, when we had finished the filming we imported the film onto the computer and edited the film using adobe elements, a video editing programme. We used the 180 degree rule throughout the film, the use of this rule helped the audience to understand the position of the chracters and when they enter or leave a scene. A shot reverse shot is used when the two characters are talking, this means that each character dominates the mise-en-scene, when they are talking, the use of this shot reverse shot shows their importance. The use of the editing programme creates a more finished and professional look to the auidence.

3). How did you use new technologies in your construction, planning and evaluation (eg. digital camera; non-linear editing software; youtube, blogger) and what skills do you have at using this technology? (strengths and weaknesses eg. steady/shaky camera; variety of shot types; smooth/clumsy; independence when using technologies...)

We used new technologies in each of the three aspects of the film. In the planning stage we used a scanner and blogger, in order to display the shooting map, storyboard and shot list. In the construction stage we used a video camera and tripod, the use of a tripod, made sure that the film was still when filming and the finished film was steady, as opposed to an unsteady and shaky image. When the filming was complete, we uploaded our film onto the computer and used an adobe video editing software which enabled us to cut parts out of the film we did not want, add titles and add effects to the transition of the shots for example fading. When the editing stage was completed, we uploaded it onto youtube and created a link on blogger so that the video could be viewed on blogger to along with the evaluation questions about the film. I think that I could work quite well independently with the technology that we used, however if I was to perform this task again, I would try the filming aspect of task rather than the acting, however I believe that I can work well and independently on all the other aspects of the film.

Preliminary task Video

2009-12-07T02:29:00.000-08:00

Monarch of the Glen review

2009-12-03T08:28:00.000-08:00

Monarch of the glen is a televison drama which was broadcasted on BBC one, it was created by Michael Chaplin and produced by Nick Pitt, Paddy Higson, Jeremy Gwilt, Stephen Garwood and Rob Bullock. The series started being broadcasted on television in february 2000 and concluded with its seventh series in october 2005, in total over the five years that it was broadcasted 64 episodes were produced. Monarch of the glen, is partly based on comptons mackenzie novels, which were set in the same location, however they were set in the 1930s and 1940s. The first novel in the series is called monarch of the glen. The television drama Monarch of the Glen, is set in the modern day, in scotland we can tell this because of the accent, the backgrounds; loch, mountains and a castle which is where the monarch lives, we can also tell that the setting is scotland, because of the instrumental celtic soundtrack that we hear throughout the series. Monarch of the glen is predominatly a family drama, because it was broadcasted before the 9pm watershed and does not include any bad language, sex or any actions or connotations that would cause offense to any viewers.

The director uses a vast amount of diegetic sounds for example; dialouge, the moving of furniture, people moving around, the use of these diegetic sounds creates a more realistic feel to the drama, however non diegetic sounds are used, just not as frequently, the soundtracks that we hear are mainly instrumental celtic music, which sets the scene because of the scottish location around the loch and the setting of the castle. In the drama we can see a strong difference between the working class and the upper class residents of the village. The colour palette plays a strong part in the differentiation between working and upper class residents, for example the use of dull and drab coloured clothing worn by the young boy and girl and also the use of this colour palette on the tea towels the young boy is hanging up and the colour of the courtyard they are standing in, the use of this dull and drab colour palette gives connotations that they are working class.

In the drama, there is an intertexual reference to the soap opera; Hollyoaks, the use of this reference makes the drama more appealing to the younger generation; who are predominatly the audience of Hollyoaks. The use of the younger charcters, also makes it more appealing to the younger generation.

The use of a variety of shots shows the status and wealth of the charcters, for example a low angle shot is used to introduce the monarch, the shot has connotations of importance, wealth and an upper class status, also the postioning of the shot makes him look taller than the other charcters around him, which has a reference to the his position in society. The use of props inside the monarchs home, also shows us that he is upper class because of the use of the glassware,wooden panelling and the old books. The positioning of the characters shows their importance and status.

In conclusion to my review, i believe that monarch of the glen, is a well constructed family drama, because of the split in status amoungst the charcters and the intertextual refrences.

Shot list.

2009-12-02T07:28:00.000-08:00

1).Long shot of the main character and her two friends getting ready.
2). Two person shot/panning shot, fades into black
3).Long shot of the three girls drinking at the same time, laughing, smiling. Cut to shot 4.
4).Close up of the main character drinking, laughs, cuts to next shot.
5).Panning shot/medium shot, focus on one girl dancing.
6).Medium shot/tracking shot of main character dancing and stumbling through the crowd.
7).Close up of main character and the young man, go in for a drunken kiss.
8).Mid shot of the girl and young man, of her arms around his neck, his arms touch her back.
9).Close up of the drunken kiss
10).Mid shot of the man pulling away and she stumbles backwards, she looks confused.
11).Reverse shot/medium shot looking onto the young man, pushes his arm forward.
12).Extreme close up/reverse shot of his hand
13).Reverse shot/mid of her looking at hime and looking down at their hands, then she goes to grab his hand.
14).Extreme close up/medium of his and her hand meeting
15).Close up of the girl, smerks,smiles and looks down.
16).Close up of the young man, laughs behind his teeth , looks up then down
17).Medium shot of him, he pulls her into him "common let me buy you a drink", smiles and nods, he walks backwards out of the camera.
18).Tracking shot, he turns around and both are walking through crowd, laughing and stumbling
19).Sides shot of small bar, walks into the scene, still holds her hand until she manages to sit on the stool.
20).Two person shot behind bar, she slumps on the bar, he looks shifty, orders drinks
21).Close up of his pocket and his hand going into the pocket, pulls white powder from the pocket.
22).Two person shot, pulls his hand onto the bar and takes her drink
23).extreme close up of the drink and powder being poured into it
24).Two person shot, she lifts her head and he looks and smiles, she grabs her drink
25).Tracking/close up of her holding the drink and her drinking it, she stops, presses her lips together
26).Two person shot put her drink down, looks over at the young man and smiles.
27).Two person/close up shot of the faces talking, her touching her hair, him talking she listens.
28).Close up shot of the young girls face, starts to squint eyes, music becomes slurred/quieter.
29). Extreme close up of her hands to her head, like she has a headache, still hear the man talking, music becomes quieter.
30).Medium close up of her looking distressed and unwell, things seem abit blurred.
31).Two person shot she grabs his hand "are you alright" things are blurred looking ill she runs then yells while she has her hand over her mouth.
32).Panning shot of her running out of the club, turns left and throws up in a corner.
33).medium shot of her gasping her breath, spits and wipes her mouth, leaning with her arm on the wall.
34).Long shot of her slumping to the ground, wipes her face and moves her legs like she is cold, she looks up.
35).Close up still looking up, presses her lips and looks down, wipes her eyes and starts to get up.
36).Long shot of her getting up using her hands, wipes her dress down, walks out of the scene.
37).Tracking shot of her walking down the street, sound of cars, people, traffic. She sniffs, wipes her eyes, sorts out her hair.
38).Tracking shot (part 2) camera focuses on the young man before following in the distance he turns his head left and nods, he leaves the scene.
39).Long shot as she trips and falls on her hands and knees, the contents of her bag spilling onto the floor.
40).High angle shot of her picking up her belongings, sound of footsteps gets louder and then stops, she look up.
41).Low angle shot of a tall dark man we are unable to see his face.
42).High angle shot reverse shot, she stops picking up her bag and looks at the man, puts her hair behind her ears.
43).Low angle shot of the dark man, he pulls his hand out of his pocket "need a hand up"?
44).High angle shot, she nods, grabs her bag and grabs his hand.
45)Long shot, she gets up struggles a bit, he grabs the side of her chest. "looks like you`ve had a bit too much to drink"
46).Close up/two person shot, she nods "yeah me too" they look at each other. "did you want me to walk you home"?
47).Close up, she looks at him, but onlyshowing her face not his. "erm, im okay i thikn i`ll be fine"
48).Panning shot, she walks away and he follows behind her.
49).Tracking shot, she walks and he follows behind her, she covers her mouth again and moves to the left.
50).Panning shot/high angles shot, she hunches and throws up again. She gasps for breath and wipes her mouth, she unhunches and spits.
51).Low angle shot, he asks her again if he wants him to walk her home
52).Medium shot "okay,okay"
53).Medium shot reverse shot, "good, give me your hand show me the way"
54).Panning shot/mid shot, she grabs his hand, gets up again and walks off the scene.
55).Tracking shot/long shot, we can see them walking behind hand-in-hand. She pushes/pulls him out of the scene to the left.
56).Panning shot of them two turning into a dark street, camera follows them.
57).Tracking shot/two person shot can see them walking in front of the camera she stumbles and hold onto him, club music fades and you can hear a car/van driving close.
58).Medium shot, they stop walking and turn to each other, they start talking, car/van becomes louder.
59).Cut shot/extreme close up of the moving wheel of the van.
60).Midshot, he hold onto her waist and she pulls away. He keeps trying to touch her, she starts screaming and he puts his head over his mouth.
61).Close up/sideshot, he pushes her into a wall with his hands covering her mouth. She tries and gets out, but is unable. Noise of the van stops and are able to hear doors opening and clsoing. 62).Wide shot, includes girl and young girl, van and two other men dresses in black, he tries to puch her into the van but she struggles.
63).Cuts to a long shot on the van door, the men throwing her in. A loud bang of the body going into the door, closing and cuts into black.

When myself and my production group started the filming process of our film, we decided to cut out some of our shots that we had previosuly decided to inlcude, we cut out the scene of the girl and her friends getting ready to go out and the kidnapping scene in the van, we decided towards cutting out these two scenes because; the time limit to our film is two minutes and it would not be possibe to include all of our shots and scenes within our two minute time limit. We also felt that these scene would not particularly have added anything to the film, that would help create suspense and ambiguity, however we decided to keep wih the main scene, of the girl walking home and the boy offering thw walk her home and making the auidence believe that he is the protector, however he changes into the villian and the girl becomes the victim. After our first shoot, we uploaded our footage onto the computer and watched it, we then realised the lighting was wrong and it was too dark, this stopped us from being able to see the characters faces, therefore creating no relation between the audience and the characters, however we took this on board and decided to shoot the footage again, at an earlier time, when the lighting would be right, because the only lighting we had was the natural light and the line of street lamps that are by the river, which created a soft lighting, therefore making the film more indepentdant because of the limited lighting. In the re-shoot of the film, we created more ambiguity and used more close up shots of the characters. The decision to re-shoot the film, helped us as a production team to create more ambiguity, through a variety of shots and actions.

By Louise McGee

Thriller film treatment

2009-12-01T02:42:00.000-08:00

Treatment for my thriller film

In the opening shot, we are first introduced to the main character; a typical 18-year-old girl who is getting ready to go out for the night clubbing in Norwich with her friends. We are introduced to her in the setting of her bedroom; in her home, which she lives in with her parents and younger brother and sister. The use of this setting creates a feeling of normality and innocence, which later on in the film helps the audience to feel sorry for her, because of the incident that occurs, because of the normality and realistic setting that she has been introduced in.

The storyline is that of an ordinary 18-year-old girl who is going out clubbing with her friends on a Saturday night in Norwich on Prince Of Wales Street. The main focus is on the end of the night when the girl leaves the club drunk, this is where we are introduced to another main character; a man in his late twenties, who at we first we believe he is being the girls protector when he asks if he can walk her home, however our opinion changes when she refuses to let him walk her home and he attempts to force her into his white van, which is parked on a nearby street. When he finally succeeds in forcing the young girl into the van, we are introduced to two other men; one of whom is the driver and the other is a friend. In the opening shot we decided to have a diegetic sound, so we can hear the sounds of her moving around her bedroom and the diegetic sounds of the hairdryer and the sounds of her family walking up and down the stairs. We have decided to also use a non-diegetic soundtrack in the opening shot; we have decided to use a song from the genre of dance or R&B, because this is what is mainly played in clubs, so it would set the scene well. When she is in the club there will be a non-diegetic sound of music and in the street there will be the diegetic sound of other people walking and cars passing and the diegetic sounds of music from the other clubs on the street. The lighting will be artificially lit, in the opening shots in the young girls bedroom, in the club the background light will be black and will be artificially lit by bright or neon lighting. When the girl leaves the club the setting is in the street, so the lighting will be dark, with the artificial lighting of the street lamps. The girl and her friends will wear high heels and dresses or mini skirts and tops; this type of costumes will be appropriate because of the setting. The men in the white van will wear black trousers or tracksuit bottoms and dark coloured hoodies, because these type of clothes are always what the stereotypical `thug` would wear, also the use of dark clothes represents evil.
I think my thriller film will attract the type of audience that would watch films like; London to Brighton, because of the realism of the setting and characters, which I am going to use in my thriller film. My film also relates to the film The strangers even thought it is predominantly a horror film, however there are elements of thriller within the film, it relates to my film because of the use of dark clothing worn by the men, and the way they lurk in the shadows, which is what the men in my film do at the end.

By Louise McGee

Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of gender in episode 1 of `North & South`

2009-11-18T14:07:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of episode one, a shot reverse shot is used when Margret is looking at the clock then out of the window, the use of this shot shows the passage of time which represents women as people who have to wait a long time for things, on a larger scale this could represent that in the time period that `North & South` is set in women were not seen as very important and had to wait a long time to be given the same privileges that men were given a very long time before women for example the right to vote. The rule of thirds is used to show Margret looking out of the window, where she occupies two thirds of the shot. In the same shot, a close up has also been used to show Margret this shows emotion. Margret’s stance in this shot is Haughty, her gaze is firm which suggests that she is assertive, this shot shows women as powerful and assertive, which is not how they were viewed by society in this period. Margret also stands up straight which connotes confidence; she also shows style and prettiness, we can also see she does not rely on her clothes to make her look pretty. When Margret enters the factory, we see a `look of wonder` appear on her face, because she has entered this `foreign` world, there is a similarity between the `look of wonder` on Margret’s face and the `look of wonder` on the children’s faces in Narnia when they open the wardrobe and enter a different world.

A shot reverse shot is used between Thornton and Margret this connotes that a relationship may start between them. We can also tell that a relationship may start between them because of the non-diagetic romantic music, the way she has been positioned to look up at him and the misty effect that has been used. The use of the misty effect across the factory creates a mystical feel, which also creates a sense of mystery in the sense of that we do not know what will happen next, weather or not a relationship may start.

An orchestral soundtrack is used during episode one of `North & South`. When Margret enters the factory we start to hear the diagetic sound of the factory workers coughing, this suggests they are unhealthy however they are hardworking.

The use of non ambient lighting creates a darker setting and because you can control non ambient lighting, you can create the tone of lighting that is suitable to the production. The different accents that are used define the characters in their status’s. The factory owner, Thornton is portrayed as a harsh and violent man, we see this in a shot of him looking down from a height at the factory workers, a low angle shot is used in this shot, the use of this shot makes Thornton appear very important and bigger than everyone else. The use of violence displayed by Thornton shows masculinity. The way that Thornton has been placed looking down from a height, also represents his status in society as a male and as a factory owner, both of which give him more power of others in society. A close up shot is used of the fight Thornton has with a worker, this shows his violence. Whilst Thornton and the worker are fighting Margret shouts `stop` at them, this was very unheard of in this period for a women to speak up, this shows that Margret is assertive and was also not scared to speak out. Thornton asks Margret who she is and she reply’s giving him her full name, this shows she has a strong sense of identity.

In the scene in the factory, after the fight we start to understand that Thornton does not like people invading his space, we understand this because of the way he speaks to Margret, however he does not talk to her directly. Thornton says “get her out of here”, which is aimed at Margret, he then says “get that women out of here”, which shows that he has no respect for women and suggests that he believes women do not deserve to be spoken to in a polite manner, because women were seen as inferior in this period. After this the camera cuts to some female factory workers some of whom are very young, this tells us the factory is not an entirely male world, although women worked in the factories, they were entirely under the owners control, in this case the women were entirely under Thornton’s control. The use of children, who are as young as seven or eight, shows that children were not valued and no respect was given to them, this also suggests people did not have a sense of danger.

In conclusion to this question i think that in this extract of North and South; Male characters are represented as being violent and believing that they are superior in society, this shown in the way Thornton speaks to Margret. Female characters are represented as being characters who are seen as being inferior in society, however they are assertive.

Perfume advert - Florence

2009-11-18T05:57:00.001-08:00

perfume.psd
Originally uploaded by louisemcgee-asmedia

Who is your target audience?
My target audience for my perfume is females in the 16-21 age range. I think my advert will appeal to this audience because of the use of the image at the beach and encorporating the beach hut into the image. I think the use of these images will appeal to my target audience because of the summer lifestyle that they want, the summer lifestyle being a very relaxed way of life, being at the beach,surfing,beach partys. I also think that my advert will appeal to the target audience because of the fashion associated with the beach that appeal to this age range. My advert would probably been printed in magazines such as; Glamour and Look, it would also be shown mainly in summer becuase of its association as an advert with the summer season. The audience that i am aiming to target will be intelligent, have high aspirations for themselves, aspire to have a well respected career, however they will be fun loving, happy and the type of people who enjoy life to the full. My advert appeals to my target audiences values by using the beach setting and the bright contrast to represent happiness,enjoyment and having fun. My audience will view the advert from a female perspective because of the font that has been used which is very feminine because of the butterfly that has been drawn on the side of the `F`, the advert would also be viewed from a female perspective becuase of the perfume bottle, this would be because the bottle has a mirrored effect and the use and possesion of mirrors is usually associated with females.

How did the technologies help in the process of constructing the advert, and how comfortable are you using the technologies?
I used digital photography to take my photograph of the beach landscape. I used the website dafont to create a suitable font for my advert, which used the same theme as my perfume. I also used Flickr and Blogger, which enabled me to annotate my advert and post both my advert and analysis questions. I used photoshop to enhance my image, I increased the brightness and contrast, in order to brighten the image and create a summery look to the advert. I used the burn tool on the sand dunes and part of the sea, in order to enhance this part of the image, to make it look brighter and to create a reflection effect on the sea. I used the sharpen tool to bring out the black in the font more and i also used the colour recognition tool, which helped me find the exact colour of the background so i could use the fill tool to fill in the background of my font in order for the font and image to blend together better.

How does your advert represent particular social groups?
My advert represents women by using an informal, pretty and feminine font, my advert also represents women by the use of the perfume bottle, because of the elegance of the bottle. The advert represents women as; fun loving,happy,succesfull and fashionable. The advert implies to us that a womens place in society is somewhere fashionable,fun,exotic and happy. The advert also shows that women are represented in this advert as being people who want to be succesful,fashionable,happy and enjoy their lives.

Assessment sheet

The opening narrative shots and title length of thrillers.

2009-11-16T02:10:00.000-08:00

Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver was directed by Martin Scorsese in 1976.

We watched the first two minutes of Taxi Driver and we are first introduced to the character by the use of an extreme close up of the man,a shot reverse shot is used to show the man then the city then it cuts back to an extreme close up of the man which focuses on his eyes. A low angle shot is used to show the taxi, this shows the audience the importance of the taxi in the film. A diagetic sound is not heard until almost the end of the two minutes; when we hear the ringing of a phone, before this we hear a non-diagetic instrumental soundtrack. Editing would have been used to show the red and oragne lights of the city.
In Taxi driver, it takes 10 seconds for the diagetic sound to appear after the non-diagetic sound disappears.

Identity

Identity was directed by James Mangold in 2003.

In the two minute opening of Identity, that i watched the director; James Mangold uses a vast amount of extreme close up and close up shots. He uses these close up shots to show us various tapes with a the same mans name written on all of the tapes. The use of the close up shots make it very clear to the audience who the film will focus on. Mangold uses the rule of thirds on the title, which holds for 5 seconds, the use of the rule of thirds in the title creates an instant point at which are attention is drawn to. In the title shot, the word `Identity` slowing dissapears, one letter at a time, this technique is used with all of the words that appear on the screen, this technique would have been added in the editing process of making the film. At the beginning of the opening we hear a diagetic sound of thunder, this sets the scene for a thriller film, as it creates a dark feel and creates a sense of the unknown. The use of the tapes which show just one mans name, and the very dark lighting creates a question to the audience of weather this man is mentally unstable.

Heat

Heat was directed by Michael Mann in 1995.

The the first shot of the opening of Heat, Micheal Mann uses a long shot of a train and the diagetic sound of the train is introduced and becomes louder as the train draws closer. The shot then cuts to an over the shoulder shot from behind of someone travelling down the escalator, the use of this shot creates a sense of mystery. In the beginning of the opening Heat is set in a trin station, however towards the end of the two minutes the setting changes and we enter a hospital.
The title shot, is held for 3 seconds and each credit is held for 4 seconds until it cuts to the next.

London to Brighton

London to Brighton was directed by Paul Andrew Williams in 2006.

The two minute opening i watched of London to Brighton, did not give me a great insight into what was going happen or what the film would be like, however the first shot when we are first introduced to the characters, Paul Andrew Williams uses a close up shot of the women and the girl. The setting where the two characters which we are introduced too are; a toliet cubicle in London, gives us an idea of what the characters backgrounds and lives may be like, Williams focus`s on the grime of this setting. The use of the mirror in the toliet creates an illusion that it is bigger than it appears to be. The opening of London to Birghton, although it does not give us a great idea of what will happen, we can start to understand the basic storyline, the language and settings help us to understand this. We can start to understand that the film is about the women and the girl who are the first characters we are introduced and towards the end of the two minutes we start to understand that they need to get away from someone and are going to get the trin to Brighton, however they need the money to pay for the train tickets and this is when the topic of prostitution is introduced.

Red Road

Red road was directed by Andrea Arnold in 2006.

Red road opens with a black screen, where the word `Glasgow` appears in white, this instanstly tells us where we are. The shot then cuts to a blur of colours which then pans out to reveal CCTV screens. Arnold uses a medium close up of the CCTV operators face, by using this shot we can see the emotion that she feels from the CCTV cameras. In this two minute opening it does not tell us as an audience much about what is going to happen during the film.

Storyboard, Shooting map and Shot list for preliminary task.

2009-11-16T01:41:00.001-08:00

Storyboard for my preliminary task.

My shooting map for my preliminary task

Shot list

Close up of feet
Extreme long shot from behind
Tracking shot
Panning shot
Close up of hand on the door handle
Over the shoulder shot walking into the room
Extreme close up of the face
Extreme close up of the eyes
Tracking shot to table and chairs
Over the shoulder shot, showing the new character
Two person shot
Side shot of the tow characters talking
Over the shoulder shot, character leaves

Understanding the concept of binary opposites as a source for conflict of the drama.

2009-10-24T09:27:00.000-07:00

Objective

To understand the concept of binary opposites as a source for conflict of this drama.

Life on Mars

Gene Hunt(1973) - Politically incorrect - Past
Sam Tyler (2006) - Politically correct - Present

Sound

Diegtic - sound within the mise-en-scene, what the characters can hear in the scene.
Non diegtic - Special effects, soundtracks (often added in editing) , sounds the characters can not hear in the scene.

Lighting

Ambient - Natural lighting
Non Ambient - Artificial light, a spotlight/lamp is used

North & South By Elizabeth Gaskell 2004

North and South is by Elizabeth Gaskell and was made into a four part televsion series for the BBC in 2004. The programme represents the divide between the North and South of England which still exists today, it is a period drama. North and South is based about a wealthy family who live in the South, the father is a vicar however he looses his faith in God and gets chucked out of the church. This meant the family was forced to move, the father decided to move the whole family including their servant which implies they are wealthy to Milton ( Manchester). The time period in which the programme has been set is the same in both the north and the south, both worlds are real, however the difference is that it is set in two different places, to show the difference and diversity of the north and the south.

I have copy and pasted the HTML for North and South - Episode 1 Part 1, the part that we focused on in class is up until 2.56 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN58WAmuuqI&feature=PlayList&p=EEC2305B0FD88423&index=0&playnext=1

In Episode 1 Part 1, it begins with an aerial panning shot travelling over the top of the trees, this is in the North, we also hear a diegtic sound which is the train, we also hear non diegtic sound. We are first introduced to the main character on the train, a close up shot is used to show her, this shows her importance in the storyline. The train which we see within the first minute represents industrilism. A tracking shot is used looking out from the train window onto the trees. A fade and cross dissolve editing technique is used when the camera cuts from the train in the North to the South. There are certain very distinctive colours that have been used with the North and the South, in the North mainly Greens and browns have been used and in the South warm and glowing colours have been used. When the camera cuts to the party scene in the South, we are introduced to the diegetic sound of the band.

I have copy and pasted the HTMl for North and south Episode 1 part 2, the part we focused on in class is up until 4.17 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp2YHNs_P5E&feature=PlayList&p=EEC2305B0FD88423&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=1

Part two of episode one shows the daughter of the family going into a cotton mill. In part two we are introduced to a busy part of Milton, a very industrilised area , we are also shown the grime around this part of Milton, which implies it is dirty and unhealthy. As soon as the camera cuts to the girl entering the industrilised area of Milton, we hear shouting, this is a diagetic sound. We are shown the North in comparison to the South, the south is portrayed as; quiet,peaceful and pretty, however the North is protrayed as; busy and dirty. When the worker was smoking in the mill and the factory owner spotted him, he was beaten because it was highly dangerous to smoke in the cotton mill factory, the girl was very disturbed because of the way he addressed her.

Textual analysis and representation.

2009-10-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

Verisimilitude means that the world/characters is made believable/authentic.

Whilst watching Life on mars we made note of all the activities that took place that would be considered inappropriate or illegal in the present day, we categorised each activity in to one of three sections; Political,technological and Cultural.

Political would be an activity/action that you would class as being `Politically incorrect`
Technological would be an activity/action that uses gadgets which have been replaced by another piece of technology which is more high tech in the present day.
Cultural context would be an activity/actions that were acceptable in 1973 (the year Tyler travels back to), but these actions would not be considered acceptable in the present day in 2009.

Technological

The vast use of files around the police office, this is because in 1973 there would not have been computers to store all the files/documents on. In the present day you would not see many folders if any at all, however you would see many computer as all the files/documents would be on the computer.
The use of a typewriter in the office, which in the present day be replaced by a computer
The Izal toilet paper which is shown was used in all workplace and public toilets, Izal toilet paper was very uncomfortable and felt like plastic, technology has changed this and allowed us to make better toilet paper.
The old phones that are shown in the office, have been replaced by cordless phones in the present day.
The black and white television that is shown in the female workers house, have been replaced by digital colour televisions in the present day.
A switch board operator is shown in the office in 1973, a switch board operator would usually be female and it would be a very low paid job, hence it was mainly a job that females had, as females were to be lower in society. They have been replaced with internal telephones and technology.

Cultural

When Tyler arrives in the police office, because of his startled look one of the other members of staff makes comment about him being drunk , this tells us that it would have been acceptable to drink during work time, however in present day it would be highly unacceptable to drink during work time.
Some of the men in the office used quotes such as "As white as a gingerbirds arse" , "She will kiss it better", which are being sexist towards women one of the men also referred to the woman working upstairs as if they are nothing and as if they were worthless.
Sam Tyler gets beaten up by the boss in the police office in 1973, he is later punched in the stomach by the same man, this would now be considered to be highly unacceptable.
The meeting that a member of staff had with the press about a case was in the pub, which would now be considered an inappropriate place to have a formal meeting.
One man in the office is eating his sandwhich over the evidence for a case and his sandwich filling is falling onto the evidence, which would be considered very inappropriate in the present because the sandwhich filling would distort the fingerprints, which would be needed to find out who the criminal was.

Political

The first scene in the police office in 1973 we see the room is filled with smoke from the men that are smoking in the work place, this would be considered disrespectful and is also against the law to smoke in enclosed areas and work places.
We notice during the first scene that there are no women present in the detectives office, this means that there were all male detectives, this would have been because society in the 1970s was very mlae dominated and women were seen to be lower in society and were not regarded of as very important people in society. In the present there would more than likely be an even spread of male and female in a work place, some work places will be very male dominated, however some work places will be very female dominated.
A male worker in the office made another sexist quote saying "I wouldn`t give a tarts furry cup".
The male workers referred to the women who worked upstairs in the lower paid jobs as `birds`, although this term is heard sometimes in the present , it is not as commonly used as it was then.
When the two detectives from 1973 and Sam Tyler are in the mortuary the two detectives are laughing about the young woman who was a prostitute, who was murdered the two detectives believed that anyone in her position;working as a prostiute deserved to be murdered. In this small section of the programme we see the difference between the men from 1973 and Sam Tyler who is from the present and the difference in their values and sensitivity towards others.
Throughout the time when Tyler travels back to 1973, the male workers in the office make sexual inuendos towards women,this was another way that women were looked at as a lower class in society.

Focuses for British Television drama

2009-10-13T01:19:00.000-07:00

The course focuses on extracts from British TV drama the focus is as follows:

Camera angle,shot,movement,composition
Mise-en-scene (all within the frame) including: characters,location,setting,costumes,lighting,props,CGI (computer generated images), objects,sound,dialogue
Editing (different types)
Aspects of representation within the sequence
Areas of focus need to be analysed with their purpose and effect explained
Forms and conventions - all aspects of mise-en-scene including lighting,sound,editing,narrative structure
Representation - Social groups, for example: age,gender,social class, disability,cultures,attitudes,values,ideology
Audiences
Institutes
Technology

Medium

Print (newspapers and magazines)
Film
Television
Radio
Newspapers
Music
Magazines
Internet
Video games
Adevertising
Marketing
New technologies (Mobiles phones,MP3s,gadgets)

Fonts.

2009-10-09T04:24:00.001-07:00

These are some fonts that Yvonne and I created in class, using the website http://www.dafonts.com/, we also used photoshop to add colour and show tone to the fonts. Whilst creating these fonts we wanted to create the connotations; Celtic and Medieval, we also used the name of the perfume to create the connotation; Mystical. We created these fonts to show how different styles of fonts can make us think about the product in different ways.

Description of a character typical of a thriller film.

2009-10-09T03:40:00.000-07:00

My character, Rose who is forty four years old lives in Miami, on the sea front , she lives in a large house with five bedrooms ,a swimming pool, tennis courts, three cars and all the luxuries you could want. She works from home as a shoe designer and owns a shoe shop in the nearby shopping mall. She has a sixteen year old daughter named Lillie who she lives with, until just a few months ago she was happily married to a man called Sam who was forty six years old, who owned a very high class restaurant in the town, he worked a few days a week there, the other days he would spend at home with Rose, they spent a lot of time together and were a very close couple, they had been happily married for twenty years and built up both their business`s together. Sam died just a few months ago of cancer which had been fighting against for just over a year, when he sadly lost his battle, his death hit Rose and Lillie very badly as they were such a close family.

Although everyone; family, friends, all Sam's customers in his restaurant knew he was battling with cancer, one man suspected his death was caused by Rose and has accused Rose of murdering him because she wanted all the money from his restaurant and his previous business ventures to set up a life somewhere else for her and her daughter and significantly expand her shoe designing business. The characteristics that are significant to my character are that she has recently lost her husband this shows connotations of loneliness and vulnerability .

How textual elements of mise-en-scene create representation of the past and present in "Life on Mars"

2009-10-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

Representation of place
British Television - Life on mars
Date - 2006
Place filmed - Manchester

Sound

Drum,drum machine,synth (computer)

Tense music when we see the shot of the moving police cars

Costumes and colour palette

Criminal wearing a hoody represents anti-social behaviour.

The police officer who is chasing the criminal is wearing cold coloured clothing the same as the criminal, this shows that they are all part of the same society and they are all part of one organism/machine.

The grey colour scheme shows new technology and connotes bleakness and post-modern buildings.

Grey steel is a reference to technology, unforgiving textures, washed out colours.

Blue and Navy are typical police colours, which are the colours that are mainly used in the programme.

The use of white in the police headquarters office: a uniformity of colour. Ths image shows that it has been shot in the present day because of the technology with is shown in the shot; the mobile phone and computers.

The colour palette changes when the time period changes (after Sam is ran over), the colour palette changes to sepia: sepia is a cinematic technique device to connote a different time period. In this time period alot of brown has been used which tells us that we are in the 1970`s as this was a very popular colour in this time period.

The buildings and surroundings are all of a blue or grey colour palette.

Shots and camera angles

Close up shot of the car wheels, emphasise on the wheels creates a rule of thirds in the image. This close up shot of the front of the moving car has been used in the opening squence of episode one which cuts between this shot and the credits, the road is in the present day.

Medium close up shot is used to show the terraced houses.

Low angle shot is used of the Police Headquarters, which tells us it is an important building, grey and metallic.
The rule of diagonals creates a sense of movement and the dimension of perspective, eg. the lighting above the clouds creates a perspective.

Other observations

The shot of the terraced houses and the tower block in the background creates feeling of hostile and comforting, it feels hostile becuase of the crime and feels comforting because it is modern and gives a community feel to the image. The tower block shows reality and the `mars` is showing another dimension which is represented by the terraced housing.

Represents that police are quite frequently critisised for not caring about the criminal just about the victim, life on mars represents this.

"Look around, what use of feelings"

The present is represented as a Distopia when there is a close up of a childs swing in the park with Mia`s shirt laying across the seat with blood on it suggesting she has been murdered or kidnapped, a tower block is shown in the background, the modern building is associated with violence.

Sam is upset because when he visits the crime scene he finds out that his girlfriend has been kidnapped/murdered, we can see he has regrets because his last words to her were very cold, this is shown by the close up shot of him in his car.

Analysis of openings of Thriller films - Leon.

2009-10-07T05:06:00.000-07:00

Film - Leon

Year - 1994

Director - Luc Besson

The director opens Leon, by using a wide tracking shot of the city, firstly you see a mass of trees then it zooms closer to the skyscrapers,this shows the diversity between city and country, the director zooms close up to a sign that says `Little Italy` when they get into the city, which implicates that perhaps The director uses an extreme close up of the two gangsters at the table. The director uses a wide variety of shots, which creates diversity.

The director creates suspense very well, by using false alarms leading up to the real things, for instance when they use a dummy model in the lift, so the enemies will shot it thikning it is a real person. Leon is set in America in `Little Italy`. The music that has been used; Drums and kettle drums, create a build up to the event and creates suspense and tension. The music is stopped suddenly when the officer has a knife held to his throat. The officer is portrayed with this tough guy exterior when actually we can see how scared he really is.

The director used one particular shot of all the bullet holes in the blackout blind, which created spots of lights from the holes in the blind, this showed the transistion from dark to light, this could also represent how people can change from bad (dark) to good (light).

The conventions of Thriller films that are shown in Leon are; the accents,dark glasses,guns,knifes,through the key hole shots, prostitue and trap doors.

Another convention of Thriller films is spiral staircases becuase although you can hear who is coming up or down them, you can not see around them, these are most commonly used in chase and murder scenes, it is used in Leon in the chase scene and also when we are introduced to the girl.

Analysis of openings of Thriller films - Dont look now.

2009-10-07T04:09:00.000-07:00

Film - Don't look now

Year -1973

Director - Nicholas Roeg

Don't look now has been set in the 1970s, and is about a family who live in a large house in the country, and starts off by showing the brother and sister playing in their garden, in the woods and around the pond, the director makes it seem very idyllic with the weather and the surroundings, this creates a sense that something is bad is going to happen.

In the opening of don't look know it is raining and the camera is focused on the rain splashing on the ground it then starts thundering and the faint sound of someone humming appears this creates a mystical feel and give us the sense that something bad is going to happen later in the film. We are first introduced to the brother and sister who are playing in the woods, the director also focus`s on a shot of the big house they live in, this tells us that their parents are wealthy and have a good upbringing. The other focus point that the director focus`s on is the large pond situated in their garden which is frozen, the director also puts in a false alarm, when the brother is playing with the football and he drops it in the pond, we think that he is going to fall in to the pond however he does not. The setting at the beginning is very domestic and portrays this family to have the perfect parents, children , large house in an idyllic setting which is disturbed by the sad event of the daughter drowning.

The father seems to be on-edge, this shows that perhaps he can sense that something bad is going to happen. The film has been shot in time shift, between the children playing outside and the parents working inside. The music starts outside and is used in the time shift. The music that is used is soft piano music, this is one of the main conventions of a Thriller. When the girl falls into the pond and drowns, her father sees it first and comes running out and pulls her out of pond, the music changes into a harsh violin sound which is very empowering. When the girl drowns a red and blue liquid appears over the screen,red could symbolise the blood from the girl and the blue could symbolise ink from inside that the parents are using in their art work, this could also represent bringing together and uniting the parents and the children. The girls red coat could symbolise blood and danger. After the girl has been rescued the director uses time shift and shows the father in Italy.

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Analysis of openings of Thriller films - Flightplan.

2009-10-06T02:35:00.000-07:00

Film - Flightplan

Year - 2005

Director - Brian Grazer

Flightplan was directed by Brain Grazer in 2005, it follows a mother played by Jodie Foster and her young daughter of whom have lost their father/husband, who live in Berlin and are going to visit the mothers parents in America. the film is mainly set on the plane going to america and how her daughter has disappeared from the plane however no-one ever recalls seeing her or her being registered on that flight.

In the opening to Flightplan the first thing we see is a black screen with the fliashing light of a tube, which creates a feeling a panic and hectic-ness to us. The first we see of the main character, Kyle is a full length shot of the back of her, which creates a sense of mystery for the audience. The film starts off in Germany,berlin, we can tell this at the train station in the opening; by the language that was being spoken and from the signs around her. The backgrouns music starts off as soft piano music in the background however this then changes to be quite loud and harsh, which ties in with the sound of crowes which apears in the background, the crowes create a sense of horror and evil, which leads us to believe that something sinister is going to happen later on in the film.

The director uses a wide range of shots to create different illusions and feels to the film for example: when the mother and daughter are coming out of the house at night to go to the airport, he uses an extreme long shot of them both, they are both wearing black clothes and the setting is on a very cold wintery dark night, all of these elements that have been used create a dark and sad feel for the audience, the use of black across the whole picture relates to a funeral and the image of death. The dark clothing contrasts with the bright white snow outside, this could show the good and evil side of the characters. The director also uses a close up shot and hold this hot of their luggage, the director also uses a close up shot of the mothers wedding ring, which obviously signifies that she is married and at this stage in the film makes us wonder where her husband is, later for us to find out he had died a few days previosuly.

In the film, when the air hostess is counting the amount of people on board the plane, the daughter Julia is hiding underneath the seat which means she is not counted so when she later goes missing and her mother, Kyle ,reports it because she had not been counted the air hostess`s try to dismiss the disaperance of Julia. The air hostess also tried to make Kyle believe that Julia had never boarded the flight. The director uses flash backs to show what had happened prior to Julias disappearance, however it does not give us any clue to how or why Julia disappeared.

The director creates suspense when Julia has gone mising, by using cloe up shots on peoples faces, he also portrays one air-hostess to be more concerned than the others this leads us to believe that perhaps the lady either has children of her own or has experienced this before. The director creates more suspense by making the other characters on the plane seem very unwilling to help, i think he may have portrayed the characters as unwilling to create a sense of anger towards these people. The Director uses Kyles husbands death to create a sense of sensitivity and reality towards Kyle, this also creates even more suspense becuase she has already lost her husband, so it would mkae it even harded for her then to loose her only child, the death ofher husband would also make her feel very upset and uneasy, this sense of feelinf uneasy was shown in the first scene.

As the audience we are made to guess what has happened to Julia and one guess that i made and the director lead me to believe was that perhaps Julia had felt very upset and disturbed by her fathers recent death, also becuase of the strain that would have caused julia she may be feeling very vunerable, this leads us to believe she may have been kidnapped. we are shown the vunerability of Julia in the first scene when her mother hides her underneath her coat when they are walking to the taxi.

Welcome to my Blog.

2009-09-25T05:03:00.000-07:00

Hello.
I`m Louise McGee, Iam currently studying media studies at CNS.
The purpose of this Blog is to be able to share my work with my teachers and somewhere to collect any films/images, notes i have taken and my homework.