Welcome, this is our AS media Coursework blog.

In our group there is Becky Wholley and Hannah Ferreira. Our media coursework is a two minute opening to a horror film, our production is called Sleep Tight.
Our Youtube accounts are
My YouTube account is:
http://www.youtube.com/user/88Beckyjo

Sunday 12 December 2010

My Coursework Pitch

My idea for the 2 minute opening coursework task was a horror, the film When A Stranger Calls and the book The Babysitter gave me inspiration for my idea.
There have been two versions of When A Stranger Calls, one in 1979, Directed by Fred Walton.














And the re-make made in 2006













I would like to open the film with a throwback to the black and white hammer horror classics, with a twist of emphasizing the gore in colour to show reality and to create a dramatic effect on the audience, this means the last shot will be in colour.
In the opening 2 minutes we see a babysitter finishing a bed time story to a child.
Later we see her on the phone to her boyfriend as she invites him over, saying the parents won't be back till much later. A reference is made signifying the girl is sexually active.
After the call she starts to hear noises upstairs. Interposed shots used of the girl downstairs as you hear a scream from upstairs.
The babysitter goes to the girls room and finds the bed empty and blood on the bed and floor, this shot will be in colour.

Complete Pre-lim Task

I worked on this task with Maddy,
The first edit of our video....



However after completing the first edit, we agreed to edit several things.
We realised that the clips didn't run smoothly and the cut between shots were very obvious, we then edited some of our clips to make the transition smoother. We also decided that we would get rid of a clip of Maddy coming through the door as we were unable to make the transition from her entrance to her sitting down perfect, therefore we used a clip not shown in the first edit, from a different angle to show a perspective of her sitting down without the concern of the clips not fitting together.

Final Edit...



If I could change my final edit I would have made the story line more interesting instead of the simplicity used in this one and would have also tried to use a shot that broke away from the 180 degree rule to show the contrast in the type of shots.
Overall I was happy with my final edit, it had completed the task given but with more time I would have liked to have made it more original and creative.

Monday 6 December 2010

Pre-Lim Task.

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule. 

Match on Action- connects two shots cut together by having a character finish an action in the second shot begun in the first shot. For instance, if a character lights a match in the first shot, the same character will draw it up to a cigarette in the second.

Shot/Reverse Shot- After an establishing shot, the shot-reverse shot refers to the close-ups used when two characters are in conversation. (Because we have already used an establishing shot, we now know where the characters are in relation to one another.) First both of the actors engaged in a conversation are shown in a two-shot then the camera cuts in to mid shots and close-ups of one actor and then the other, usually from a position 'over the shoulder' of the other actor.

180-degree rule-The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line.
 

Friday 26 November 2010

Bridget Jones - Edge Of Reason, Conventions

In the begining credits a romantic fairy tale music is used to signify romantic.
It then opens in the same way as the previous film, voiceover - internal monologue, similar shot of the town - an establishing shot is used, this shows to the audience to those who have watched the previous film that it is a sequel, to also emphasize this they use similar shots and moments from the previous film such as her mother opens the door, 'uncle' taps her bottom, same fairy tale noise used when Mark is introduced, however the one difference is there together this time.
We then see the classic romantic run towards each other on a hill - slow motion, both dressed in old fashioned clothes. This signifies that there together and their relationship is perfect.
Handwriting credits is used as like the previous film, which
As a romantic comedy is mainly conversation, many shot to shots are used to portray the conversation creating versimilutde.
Bright lighting and panning cameras create versimulitude

Thursday 18 November 2010

My 5 Fave Films

My favourite 5 films are...

Director: Edgar Wright
Budget: $ 16,000,000
US Box Takings: $21,682
UK Box Takings: £107,454

I like this film because not only do i find the story amusing but I feel the characters fit the parts to perfection and enjoy its light hearted stereotypical view of small town people.


Director: Mark Waters
Budget: $17,000,000
US Box Takings: $86,049,418
UK Box Takings: £5,411,323

I enjoy the film Mean Girls because its exaggerated stereotypical story of American High school and 'plastic girls' is a typical teenage girl film aimed for my enjoyment. 

Director: Nick Cassavetes
Budget: $27,500,00
US Box Takings: $49,185,998
UK Box Takings: £6,043,360

My Sister's Keeper has to be the film which has had the biggest impact on me, the realism of the tale of one girl's life fighting cancer touches all ages and really made me appreciate my life, for a film to portray such an emotion on someone it is beyond brilliant.


Director: Richard Curtis
Budget: £30,000,000
US Box Takings: $59,365,105
UK Box Takings: £36,238,777

The  classic christmas film that I always watch every christmas fills me with joy and laughter of the coming season, the way the film intertwines so many people's life's is very clever.

Director: Lee Unkrich
Budget: $200,000,000
US Box Takings: $411,412,427
UK Box Takings: £72,411,225

The way the 3 films have followed a young boys life and his toys means a lot to my age, as at the time the first film came out we were of a similar age to him, so the 3 films have moved with his life as ours does, the way in which the film can entertain teenagers is impressive.

Friday 5 November 2010

Deconstruction Another Groups Micro-Drama

Deconstructing another groups Micro-Drama - The Magical Apple by Sam B and Alex M

Aspects of narrative
They have applied a number of Propps 8 recurring character types in their film. Some of the characters can engage in acts as more than one role. They have included; a magical person/hero, a prize/ victim, a magical object (the apple), villain and a magical helper. The film also follows Todorov's 5-part narrative formula.
1. A state of equilibrium at the outset - Sam reading a book
2. A disruption of the equilibrium by some action - Sam gets beaten up by Alex
3. A recognition that there has been a disruption - Rob finds him and eats the magical apple
4. An attempt to repair the disruption - Rob goes after villain and victim
5. A reinstatement of the equilibrium - Rob beats Alex ( villain) and saves Sam P (victim)
In the film they use the aspect of binary opposites created by Levi-Strauss, they use the basic evil and good through the hero and villain. No narrative enigma is used in this production.

Mise-en-scene
Objects/Props: Magical apple
Location: England
Setting: They use park bench, tunnel building
Costume: The use of putting a hood up on a jacket of the hero to symbolise a change in character after consuming the magical apple. Its also used to show the villain as evil and mysterious. The characters wear average clothing to blend in, to go un-noticed in the otherwise undisturbed setting.

Audience
Target audience is for teenagers, mainly concentrating on males, who have had a middle or lower social class upbringing but its not excluding other audiences. Regional identity is not an issue in the film.

Sound
There is intense music used in the introduction which continues in following scenes, sound effects have been added during the editing using footsteps, birds and rainforest effect to increase versimilutude. When the character eats the apple all music stops which emphasizes. Very little dialogue has been included and  a lightening noise has also been added. Whilst the chase is going on, the music gets louder and the tempo increases, following the action. Romantic music is used for comical effect once the victim has been saved, between the hero and the victim.

Representations
The evil villain is dressed in black with the hood pulled up hiding the face making it more mysterious. Males have been used for the villain being fairly aggressive and normally a blonde female is used as the victim/princess but here Sam was a blonde male.

Wednesday 3 November 2010

Ten Top Tips For A Micro-Drama

Ten tips i recommend for a micro-drama are...
- Create plenty of time to prepare a story board and filming of the micro drama.
- Spend more time on editing noise of the production to avoid background noise effecting the film.
- Create a call sheet and use it when filming.
- Learn how to use a camera, and how to use a range of angles, shots and movements.
- Try use a range of mise-en-scene to create more realism to the micro-drama.
- Consider what the micro-drama entails and whether you should consider using a range of settings to give variation.
- Consider taking a range of shots during one scene to create a shot verse shot effect, and a range of angles of characters to show the range of emotion.
- Make sure the scenery fits in with the scene, for example the time of the day fits in with the micro-drama.
- That there is no noticeable difference between the shot and the previous shot, i.e. one shot hair up, next shot hair down...
- When editing film run through the whole film to check that no noise or dialogue has been missed through the micro drama or that the music fades out not stopping abruptly.

Saturday 30 October 2010

Deconstructing Our Micro-Drama

Deconstructing Our Micro-Drama                                                            

Monday 11 October 2010

My Coursework Task

THE BRIEF, EVALUATION + HOW ITS ALL MARKED

THE BRIEF
Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.
All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.

The coursework is worth 50% of the AS (same at A2) and the marking (detailed later) is divided into 3 sections:
RESEARCH AND PLANNING: 20%
PRODUCTION: 60%
EVALUATION: 20%








EVALUATION
My media project is evaluated on certain things such as the 7 questions below...

  • In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 
  • How does your media product represent particular social groups?
  • What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 
  • Who would be the audience for your media product? 
  • How did you attract/address your audience? 
  • What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 
  • Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
The evaluation is marked on how my media project presents itself to its audience and whether I express my knowledge of the media industry. Then a personal reflection on my progress.

 HOW ITS ALL MARKED
The media course is marked by my teacher and by the examination board, for each section I am marked on my work being either the following...
Minimal
Basic
Proficient
Excellent.

My work is marked partially on my teachers observations of my approach and level of organization, but fundamentally its a DVD and my blog that is marked.
G321 - Simplified Marking Criteria as 1 Sheet