A2 Advanced Portfolio - Entry 3 - Own Concepts

For a while now we have been working on three separate music videos to pitch to The Brink. I began researching for my idea by listening to the chosen song 'Can I Find You' over and over to get a feel for the song, I also listened to some of their other songs in order to try and understand the band's sound. From there I Began looking into other bands that share a similar sound, such as The script, Scouting For Girls, Coldplay, The Killers and watched music videos from each. at this point we as a group ran into a minor problem, the main trend with bands of this Genre tend to involve the band visually in the video, either taking on the part of a character within the narrative or performing live every so often. This posed a problem as it would be unlikely that we could create our video in this manner due to the fact that The Brink are a working band and would struggle to find the amount of time required. Due to this we have decided on purely narrative based ideas for the video rather than the norm of cutting back and forth from band to narrative.The next step was to discuss with the band what they wanted out of the video and to see what sort of style they'd envisaged for the song, I asked them if they were after a more traditional music video or more of an abstract, artistic video. They told me that they initially were leaning towards a more traditional video but were open to any ideas which we have for the song. After this we decided that Alec, Jack and I would work on more 'traditional' style video pitches while Ben worked on a more abstract one, keeping the balance in keeping with thoughts from the band.

Video Concept

My concept focuses on idea of the distance that can come between a couple and the journey you go through during the course of a relationship; going through the motions as it were. The point of this idea is really to emphasise the distance implied by the song title 'Can I Find You?' also implying something that's missing. The video will depict the classic idea of the final fight for love, and is based around boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy runs to get girl back. The story tells a man whose girlfriend is leaving him, so in order to catch her before she leaves he begins to run down the street, through shopping centres, down hallways, through buildings. he then gets a taxi and makes him speed through the city until he Finlay arrives at the train station, all of this up to this point it shot regularly in colour and modern day, however once he arrives at the station as a car passes in front of shot briefly blacking out the screen, this point is used to turn the video into a pre-war, noir-like film all in black and white and in period costumes. This rehashes the old romantic finale and places a twist in which instead of a dramatic romance scene ending in 'happy ever after' the girl is emotionless and callous, and leaves not caring for the feelings of the man breaking the stereotype, and when she goes to stop on the train the video switches back to full colour and modern costumes. This concept stems from my studies in postmodernist film, taking an old style genre and changing it to suit a more contempory audience, twisting a stereotype.

CD Cover Concepts

From here I also developed ideas for an CD cover for the track, I decided to take three different concepts from the track for the CD cover. I looked at numerous examples of CD covers, such as:

The first I decided to display a humorous irony using word play from the title of the song. The cover is a picture of a large crowd in which on top of numerous faces there is the face of 'Where's Wally'. I have done a quick, basic representation of the sort of look for the cover from a collection of images form the internet, the actuall one will be shot by us if the Brink choose this idea.




















The Second CD cover idea is taken from the idea of journey and distance in relationships, I have decided to create the lettering to represent magazine lettering, again this is only a makeshift image.






















The third is created using my postmodern influences and depicts a classic shot from a black and white movie, in which they reconcile before one leaves the other. I chose this imagae as it play off an irony of the content of the video, I have also decided to have an old style font in a bright colour to contrast with the black and white image. I believe this is the strongest idea for my pitch.

A2 Advanced Portfolio - Entry 2 - Redirection!

A lot has changed since my first post, and I really do mean a lot! We've changed our direction completely, initially we were going with the music producer Esion but after contact with the rock band The Brink, we decided to change and work with one of their songs due to the prospect of it becoming the actual video for the song once they release their album. Providing its good enough that is.

We've had to come up with completely new concepts for our video, and are no longer going with a post apocalyptic/revolution theme, after discussions with the band on what style video they envisage, in this case a more contemporary love-song style.

We have also decided on our roles in the group. I am taking on the role of Creative Director, molding the style and content of the Video, I am also the primary liaison with the band. Ben is the Technical Director and is responsible with the technical aspects of filming as he has the most experience with shooting and computer programmes. Alec is our Writer and Copywriter and will be constructing the script/storyline for our eventual final piece once the band has chosen which pitch to use. Alec will also be providing some of the equipment needed for shooting. Jack is the group's Coordinator and is responsible for the organisation of the group from filming to editing and is also capable to input in all areas.

I have been in frequent contact with Matt, the lead singer of the band. We have discussed which of their songs is best to chose from, and between the band and the four of us we decided on using the song 'Can I Find You' for our music video. We then had a quick discussion on what style video they want, i.e. abstract or conventional. They said that they were looking for something more traditional. We also moved on to asking the band what made them come up with the song and to tell us their interpretation, this gave us enough information to start developing our own pitches.

A2 Advanced Portfolio - Entry 1

For our A2 coursework we were asked to produce a music video pack for a local band or artist. Along with 2 further media products to add to the pack.

The Pack Must Include:
- Full length music video for a local, non-copyrighted source (Band/Artist)

+ Two of the following
- A website homepage for the band
- A CD cover for the song
- A magazine ad for the digipak

We also had to chose groups. Jack, Ben, Alec and I decided to form a group and straight away began suggesting bands/artists that we could bring to the table as possible candidates for our coursework. We explored a few opportunities and decided to use a producer from Bristol (Steve Hatfield) called Esion, leaving the band The Brink as a back up. Also out of the two other parts of the pack we decided to go with the CD cover and the Magazine Ad as we have collectively more experience with artistic based areas and aren't completely versed in web-designing.

From this we decided on a track to use for our first of three ideas, called Network. The track was inspired by the 1975 film Network so we used this concept as a spring board to construct a narrative based on the idea of social revolution and liberation from the oppressive media.
We then took further inspiration from films we've seen that we felt best suited the effect we want to achieve;

Children Of Men




1984



V For Vendetta




Our idea is based around a totalitarian society which is ruled propagandising media in which people are gormlessly glued to their TV sets, with everyone wearing masks to show the repression of individuality and the emphasis on conformity. This is then begins to fall apart after a news reporter hijacks the news and breaks from censorship and screams "I AM HUMAN GOD DAMMIT AND MY LIFE HAS VALUE". This breaks a guy watching TV free from his mask of conformity, he runs into the streets and liberates those who he encounters and leads an uprising.

Is Media Literacy Important?

"Media Literacy is the ability to create, construct and evaluate media texts and to understand the concepts put to the audience"


In order to address this question I carried out a survey asking 12 people a variety of questions in order to determine how media literate the consuming public are in today's heavily media-using society. To ensure more accurate results I asked range of people from all ages, half of which were male and the other half female.
I asked a series of questions to determine their use of different media types, their competence with media technology and the regularity of their usage.

I asked;
6 Women - 2 between 0-20 years of age
2 between 21-40 years of age
2 40 years and over

6 Men - 2 - 0-20
2 - 21-40
2 - 40 and over

I found that the results varied not only depending on age and gender but also between the different types of media that was used. For example I found that is was males up to the age of 20 that were the most competent in using gaming media.
In general, according to my results, people are generally media literate on basic levels largely depending on their need for certain types of media, fitting into their line of work or their hobbies, such as emails, accessing the Internet, watching films and music, gaming or their use of cameras and camcorders. It is largely on a basic level mainly because they only tend to have a competence for accessing and gaining information from certain media rather than being able to create media messages fluently.

I believe that Media Literacy is important as it enables us to make our own choices and judgements and allows us to express our own views effectively and creatively. It also is important to people on a daily basis, it allows us to know what is happening around us on numerous levels, be it politically, financially or artistically. It represents the freedom we are given living in a democratic society and having a market based economy. It presumes that we, the people, are smart, capable and responsible.
However Media Literacy does raise the issue of its affect on the newer generation, some people argue that media literacy is responsible for 'dumbing' down to days youth as they are being bombarded all the time by numerous sources of media. Others however say its sharpening minds rather than blunting them, making us more capable of expression and artistic and technological advancements. Personally I feel that, as with many things it is a complex mixture of both as there is always a con to every pro, therefore it is only to the extent of its effect that can be argued.

Main Task Project

Secondary access point

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=afebb5051cbc8094eb7b

Main Task Evaluation

Our Film has come along way since we first began coming up with ideas. Both changes and compromises have been made, in order to carry our piece further. I believe we have made a successful piece of work and have put considerable effort into its making.

We both did research into different genres, looking at different styles of film within each genre, we also picked out films that best represented the style we wanted for our film. initially we both picked out two completely different genres, i chose an espionage film and Emily chose a comedy, unable to decide between the two we came up with a compromise and chose a psycho-drama instead as we were both fans of that genre. We then took this and did our own personal research looking into films that best represented the style and feel to suit our expectations of our piece, i looked into films such as The Talented Mr Ripley, One Hour Photo and Natural Born Killers to get a further understanding of the genre. i found this very usefull as it displayed the pros and cons of the genre however a major factor which came to my attention is the potential commercial aspect of the film as most of the films i watched of the genre are not hugely mainstream and commercially baised. With this in mind we decided to change to a conventional horror movie as this allowed us to explore traditional media conventions of the genre and it appealed to a much larger audience.

We also decided on a rating for the film and classed it as a 15+ due to the gory and violent nature of the genre. We aimed our film to appeal to the teenage audience, also to men and women in the early to mid-twenties as they represent a significant proportion of population and film-goers, this was done by choosing a well known and commercailised movie genre. Our film would attract this audience by its use of enigmas, violence and gore, all of which are conventions in keeping with horrors. It uses classic conventions that are used throughout typical horror movies, people come for the thrill of being scared. one of the main conventions of horror is projection, this technique leaves certain things unknown to the audience, for example in a monster movie the creature itself is often unseen for the most part as it leaves the viewers imagination to fill in the gaps, and when asked to do this a person will automatically imagine the thing most terrifying to them as an individual, therefore enhancing their cinematic experience and personalising them. This is essentially what is achieved through the use of enigmas, and can often attracts audiences for this reason alone as they know what they are buying into.

The characters represent numerous social groups, the killer represents the recluse loner and relates to the audience as many people are aware of a someone who is very reclusive and of whom they know little about. Also the victims represent the everyday person (usually female) and, through the genre, often plays on the fears of young women walking alone and again establishes a direct connection to the female viewers. The main "hero" (though not seen in our movie as it is only the opening credits) is often played by male in accordance to the classic horror genre, and often represents aspects that men like to think can be seen in each of them, this again relates to the audience and increases the films popularity.

The sort of Media Institutes that would distribute our film would probably be a mid-budget production companies and would either make it to the cinema ideally or be released straight on to DVD this is because there is a lot of horror movies in production and already done as it is a popular genre and finding new stories and new ways to shock the audience can be difficult, so any production companies are skeptical when funding such movies but can still apply to huge audiences.

We also watched horror movies to study their use of camera angles and methods, we decided to use a lot of hand held camera shot, specially with POV shots in order to capture the emotion of the character.



Since the filming of my preliminary task i have learnt more about the process of the shooting of our piece using numerous shots and more efficient editing. also working with another person has been beneficial as it allows us to muse of each other in terms of development. also it teaches compromise, teamwork and organisation and gives an idea of how to work in a full production team.

Main Task Production Log #3

Since my last log we have completed our story boards and have now moved on to finding location for filming, we've decided to try and keep it on college grounds, this allows easier access for Me, Emily and cast members to meet and allows better communication between us. We've decided to film the inside shots in the boy's cloakroom as there are a series sinks with mirrors, we cna use one of these to achieve a home-like set. The outside we have found a treeline within the college grounds which is able for us to get behind and to film through the trees, also we plan to use a pathway down the side of the college, giving it a very public-looking area.

The next thing we looked into was casting, we decided to ask Mathew Beare to play the killer as he is does theatre studies and he has experience in theatre, we also decided on using Emma for the opening victim as she has the acting capability and she's very dependable and goes out of her way to help. both accepted and were willing to give up their free time to help so i believe we made a good choice.

We also developed our story boards a little by adding more use of hand held cam with the POV shots to empasise the idea of being watched and to try and convey more emotion.

We have also decided not to name the characters as, in regards to the killer, we want to continue the idea of enigmas and keep an air of mystery for the time being, also this is only the opening of a full movie and therefore as the killer is the criminal (or villan) we didnt want to reveal too much too soon, also the events in the first two minutes are only there to establish the mystery of the movie, the "Hero" later will reveal the identity of the victim and the muderer as part of a full movie plot.

*****

Post Filming

Filming went reasonably well, unfortunately due to illnes and the busy booking of the cameras, we had a very short amount of time to film and only had a couple of hours, alot less than i would've liked. On top of that we were not able to predict the weather and was stuck filming in the rain, and thought this probaly enhanced the feel of the sequence we run the risk of further decrease in diegetic sound quality as we had to use an umbrella to protect the camera.

All that is left to do is edit and post an evaluation

Main Task Production Log #2

We continued to develop our ideas stated in the last blog and began to write our story boards. We really wanted to start presenting provoking questions immediately in our piece and came with a very chilling and provoking first shot, I came with the idea of starting the film with a close-up of a sink basin with a tap running, this shot will hold with no change for about 4-5 seconds allowing the audience to get comfortable and relaxed with what they're seeing, just as this happens a drop of blood falls into the running water suddenly followed by a couple more drops of blood. My intention for this is to remove that feeling of comfort and grab the audiences attention from the off set.

One change that we've made is we've decided to change the genre slightly from a more subtle psycho-drama to a classic-style horror, we have decided to do this as it enlarges our audience and allows us to explore the classic conventions of a horror movie, also it is a very popular genre this is partly because the audience knows what they're in for. We think this is a good idea as it gives us experience in classic horror conventions and still allows us to the use of enigma codes.

We chose to have non-diegetic sound running through the sequence as there is minimal speech due to this being the engima establishing part of the movie and also it build the effect and emphasises the genre.

We also developed the plot; it starts with the opening shot described above and switches to a Point Of View shot (POV) of hands covered in blood, the killer than begins to wash his hands in the sink and then raises his head to see himself in the mirror, for this we plan to film the mirror's reflection. As he stares the edit will warp to a white flash to signify a flashback showing a woman on the phone, the camera will be shot as a POV from behind trees giving a stalker-like feel, we plan to further signify that it is a flash back by the use of different tinted lighting, giving the opening inside sequence an orange/red glow and the outside a colder blue feel. The outside sequence continues with the killer hiding in the trees, afterwards the scene flashed back to the killer inside looking at a collection of polaroids, we plan to develop our title sequence at this point with the use of polaroid pictures.

Main Task Production Log #1

For our main task we have been set to create the opening sequence of a movie lasting up to 2 minutes including a title sequence. We were then given the option whether or not to work individually or in groups, i decided to work in a pair with Emily Harnwell as its a benefit to have two perspectives and opinions when creating a task such as this, even if on occasion the opinions clash. Emily and I then decided that would split to task in half in order to give us an equal amount of work, therefore I will be creating the first half and Emily the second.

We then began the task of deciding on the Genre of the film in order to give our task a basic sense of direction, we began by making a spider diagram in which we listed various genres from comedy to serious drama, we then came up with our own suggestions on what genre our film should be, I suggested an Espionage movie along the lines of the Bourne films. Emily however opted for a comedy. So, unable to decide between the two we came up with a compromise, choosing a Genre we both were keen on and we decided on a psycho-thriller.

We decided to give our film an age rating of 15 due to the violent and gory nature of the Genre. The age rating and the genre both help it to appeal to our target audience of male and female teenagers, also the gory aspect of the film genre will also help appeal to young adults ranging from early to mid-twenties.

We then began to decide on a basic plot for the film, giving brief ideas as to what characters we intend to present and on how they will interact with each other, we were also keen on the idea of splitting the action in two incorporating the idea of flash backs in order to set up enigmas to be in keeping with the genre. Using this technique its almost like reading a book and starting from the front and the back and ending in the middle, giving you immediate questions and only some answers but but keeping those answers out of context until both paths finally meet.

We decided on the personality of the "killer" figure to represent the social group of a loner, who's jealousy and obsession manifests in through form of Polaroid photos, we also decided to keep his motive quite vague, insinuating that jealousy plays a part in his obsession but suggest that it may not be the only reason. This idea also provided us with a Title that itself is an enigma and immediatly raises curiousitly, we decided to call our film Polaroid.