Friday 23 April 2010
Thursday 1 April 2010
History of horror
On Wednesday 11th November 2009, the history of horror post was uploaded to the Rogue Productions blog, my contribution to this was deciding which film to research and use as an example for each decade. (See Blog)
Similar media works
On Thursday 3rd December 2009, the similar media works power point was uploaded onto the Rogue productions blog. Each slide was done by either myself or Jade, taking each slide in turn to complete. (See Blog)
Target audience profile, Film Schedule and Equipment list.
On Thursday 1st April 2010, regarding the target audience profile, as Jade typed up the post, my input was to research all the facts, figures, and statistics. The Film Schedule was decided by both of us time wise as to what was done at each time and the equipment list was merely a input from both as to what was used. (See Blog)
Final Piece Evaluation
Media evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop, challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Generic convention of all films is an institutional logo at the beginning. This identifies the film as a particular brand and the name of our institution is Rogue Productions, the word Rogue has connotations of mischief and the suggestion that the production company won’t be mainstream. This then sets in the audiences mind certain expectations which we hope that our film fulfils.
The Joker
With the character of the Joker in The Dark Knight 2008, we decided to take on the characters aspects in the sense of being twisted, evil, revenge seeking and in some respects promiscuous, this was played memorably by Heath Ledger, who sadly died after the filming of the Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan. The use of makeup used in the Dark Knight to give the antagonist characteristics of a psychotic clown. This technique is echoed in Saw.
The Eye
We were inspired to use the idea of the blind woman with a disability made obvious; Jessica Alba plays Sydney Wells in the 2008 film The Eye. The publicity poster represents her with unseeing cloudy pupils. It’s something that it very shocking to see and had a great impact on the audience. We wanted to use a contact lens to achieve the same effect when shooting Visual-Eyes. We obtained from the internet, a suitable contact lens which would give that effect. However, the prop of the contact lens was extremely soft and delicate and unfortunately ripped therefore we were not able to use it in the final product, next time we would take a lot more care handling the lens and purchase a pair rather then a single so that we would have a backup if the same thing happened again.
Saw
We took the idea for our mise-en-scene from the very popular mainstream film Saw. We wanted to achieve the atmosphere of lonely torture which the film saw does so successfully. The film puts two or three characters in a setting of post modern industrial location which can seem very forbidding and the audience will expect some really gruesome action to come out of this setting. It is the disused warehouse of Pulp Fiction where the action moves at the end of the film. In addition to this setting, Quentin Tarantino set the action against a sound track of a well known pop song, the juxtaposition of these two technical elements unsettles the audience adding to a feeling of unease and the sensation that something awful is about to occur.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our film delivers the obvious characteristics of the innocent woman as the victim and the intimidating male as the protagonist, both representing the youth of the public. This is shown by having the female as a university student (shown when the woman is waiting at the bus stop with a large bag reading a book). Both of our characters are white British therefore representing the British public. Our film takes a dialectical approach to the protagonist, antagonist relationship: The audience sees the story from both Rachel, our heroine, and also from the perspective of the antagonist. This is a generic convention of horror films we have studied. Its effect to allows the audience to create the whole story. The choice of clothing we decided on also represents the age group, filming in the middle of winter was an issue. We wanted to represent the female, being in a white strapless dress as innocent yet seductive. However due to no heating in the setting we felt that we couldn’t ask the actress who was playing Rachel as a favour to us to sit in sub zero conditions with minimal clothing. You can see in the final product that she is actually wearing a large coat. The idea of her wearing a small dress would have worked really well, as it highlights her vulnerability and also would have been effective in making her shiver both with cold and with fear.
The antagonists clothing is kept dull, drab and heavy looking. This connotes a sinister presence, almost as if he lives all the time in these same clothes, suggesting he has no home, no social relationships and no job. In this case we were lucky that the actor supplied his own costume.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our film would be an art house independent rather than a mainstream institution, as the company we have put together would be independent rather than a huge named production company such as FOX. Obviously the film is produced on a small (no) budget basis, however some similar films such as the Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity have both enjoyed huge box office success despite having tiny budgets. These films became successful through viral marketing on the internet. The internet is medium through which such art house films can be delivered to the mainstream. Visual-eyes could be a huge merchandise opportunity. Much like the Batman merchandise with its well known symbol, Visual-Eyes could be as successful with the idea of having a white eye to represent a film. This eye could appear on a belt buckle, front of a cap, on a hoody etc. The release of Visual-Eyes to the public would be via internet shops and stores, allowing customers to purchase the film from a wide range of places. When the film is released, if brought as a DVD from certain stores, as a promotional pack, for a limited time only the DVD will include a poster and the chance to win special edition merchandise, such as signed t-shirts, signed version of the CD sound track etc.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
When planning our film we decided we wanted it to be certificate 18 so that we could include as many gruesome effects as possible, and make it as disturbing as could be. Because the film is aged 18 we are therefore aiming at that older audience, as we feel to class the film as a 15, the story line is very disturbing, as well as including explicit content therefore would not appropriate for younger generation. The generic convention and the audience’s expectation is that a horror film has got to be a certificate 18. There are certain expectations from an audience about the generic conventions. A horror film that was advertised as a 15 probably wouldn’t be taken seriously as it would appeal to people who really appreciate the genre.
Regarding the age, I feel as though, it being a horror movie it will attract males more rather than females. However it will also attract couples to watch in a date. Body languages experts have analysed that horror movies do bring couples into a situation where they are more likely to be tactile with each other. This means that at scary points they are more likely to cuddle up.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
When filming Visual-Eyes it became apparent straight away that to get a high quality picture when filming, the equipment must be of a very high class meaning very expensive. Although our equipment wasn’t the most expensive, it still done us proud as me and my media partner were both very please with some shots we managed to record. When zooming in and out and tracking, it became obvious that doing this smoothly could be quite a challenge, as it at times the shots became out of focus, the camera jolted and in some cases the camera wobbled. We did use a tripod when filming to achieve a steady and professional shot, therefore using the tripod benefited us greatly. We did have a dolly as part of our equipment. However, after experimenting with this we found that the outcome wasn’t as smooth as we had hoped; therefore we decided to not use the dolly anymore and refrain from using the clip where the dolly was used.
When editing with the Adobe Premiere Elements, we had many problems. After using several different computers to edit the programme due to the limited response from the programme, the editing software finally worked on the computer which we finished the editing on. Once we had finished editing all the clips, we then had to play around with all the effects and decide which ones would be suitable for our piece. For example as a group we decided to use the brightness and contrast effect to make the setting seem darker to get the spooky, uneasy effect that we wished.
As a group I feel we worked really well, having all the tasks evened out between us so that one person didn’t have more work than the other, we both contributed to same amount and took on board the other opinion.
Regarding the Blogger, this done nothing but benefits as we was able to log on at home and see what work we could get on with outside school hours. This also was a way to see who done what work and who needed to contribute more work to the overall blog.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
After doing the preliminary task, equpitment and ICT wise I gained more knowledge of how to use the programme (Adobe Premiere Elements) roughly but not the extent that I know how to use it at present. When using Adobe Premiere Elements, we had a lot more trouble working with the programme in the sense of the amount of time it took to edit clips, as they were longer than the preliminary task ones. However, the main difference I learnt between using the programme for the main task and the preliminary was the ability to render each clip, this allowed the programme to run smoother, therefore making it easier for us to edit it to a professional standard and being able to catch any problems with the clips or camera work.
I didnt realise the amount of time we would have to put into the piece, therefore when things didnt go round and time was running out it came as a big shock to me and my partner. Idealy we both wished we could of done more to the final outcome however I can still say I am pleased with how it turned out.
In what ways does your media product use, develop, challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Generic convention of all films is an institutional logo at the beginning. This identifies the film as a particular brand and the name of our institution is Rogue Productions, the word Rogue has connotations of mischief and the suggestion that the production company won’t be mainstream. This then sets in the audiences mind certain expectations which we hope that our film fulfils.
The Joker
With the character of the Joker in The Dark Knight 2008, we decided to take on the characters aspects in the sense of being twisted, evil, revenge seeking and in some respects promiscuous, this was played memorably by Heath Ledger, who sadly died after the filming of the Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan. The use of makeup used in the Dark Knight to give the antagonist characteristics of a psychotic clown. This technique is echoed in Saw.
The Eye
We were inspired to use the idea of the blind woman with a disability made obvious; Jessica Alba plays Sydney Wells in the 2008 film The Eye. The publicity poster represents her with unseeing cloudy pupils. It’s something that it very shocking to see and had a great impact on the audience. We wanted to use a contact lens to achieve the same effect when shooting Visual-Eyes. We obtained from the internet, a suitable contact lens which would give that effect. However, the prop of the contact lens was extremely soft and delicate and unfortunately ripped therefore we were not able to use it in the final product, next time we would take a lot more care handling the lens and purchase a pair rather then a single so that we would have a backup if the same thing happened again.
Saw
We took the idea for our mise-en-scene from the very popular mainstream film Saw. We wanted to achieve the atmosphere of lonely torture which the film saw does so successfully. The film puts two or three characters in a setting of post modern industrial location which can seem very forbidding and the audience will expect some really gruesome action to come out of this setting. It is the disused warehouse of Pulp Fiction where the action moves at the end of the film. In addition to this setting, Quentin Tarantino set the action against a sound track of a well known pop song, the juxtaposition of these two technical elements unsettles the audience adding to a feeling of unease and the sensation that something awful is about to occur.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our film delivers the obvious characteristics of the innocent woman as the victim and the intimidating male as the protagonist, both representing the youth of the public. This is shown by having the female as a university student (shown when the woman is waiting at the bus stop with a large bag reading a book). Both of our characters are white British therefore representing the British public. Our film takes a dialectical approach to the protagonist, antagonist relationship: The audience sees the story from both Rachel, our heroine, and also from the perspective of the antagonist. This is a generic convention of horror films we have studied. Its effect to allows the audience to create the whole story. The choice of clothing we decided on also represents the age group, filming in the middle of winter was an issue. We wanted to represent the female, being in a white strapless dress as innocent yet seductive. However due to no heating in the setting we felt that we couldn’t ask the actress who was playing Rachel as a favour to us to sit in sub zero conditions with minimal clothing. You can see in the final product that she is actually wearing a large coat. The idea of her wearing a small dress would have worked really well, as it highlights her vulnerability and also would have been effective in making her shiver both with cold and with fear.
The antagonists clothing is kept dull, drab and heavy looking. This connotes a sinister presence, almost as if he lives all the time in these same clothes, suggesting he has no home, no social relationships and no job. In this case we were lucky that the actor supplied his own costume.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Our film would be an art house independent rather than a mainstream institution, as the company we have put together would be independent rather than a huge named production company such as FOX. Obviously the film is produced on a small (no) budget basis, however some similar films such as the Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity have both enjoyed huge box office success despite having tiny budgets. These films became successful through viral marketing on the internet. The internet is medium through which such art house films can be delivered to the mainstream. Visual-eyes could be a huge merchandise opportunity. Much like the Batman merchandise with its well known symbol, Visual-Eyes could be as successful with the idea of having a white eye to represent a film. This eye could appear on a belt buckle, front of a cap, on a hoody etc. The release of Visual-Eyes to the public would be via internet shops and stores, allowing customers to purchase the film from a wide range of places. When the film is released, if brought as a DVD from certain stores, as a promotional pack, for a limited time only the DVD will include a poster and the chance to win special edition merchandise, such as signed t-shirts, signed version of the CD sound track etc.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
When planning our film we decided we wanted it to be certificate 18 so that we could include as many gruesome effects as possible, and make it as disturbing as could be. Because the film is aged 18 we are therefore aiming at that older audience, as we feel to class the film as a 15, the story line is very disturbing, as well as including explicit content therefore would not appropriate for younger generation. The generic convention and the audience’s expectation is that a horror film has got to be a certificate 18. There are certain expectations from an audience about the generic conventions. A horror film that was advertised as a 15 probably wouldn’t be taken seriously as it would appeal to people who really appreciate the genre.
Regarding the age, I feel as though, it being a horror movie it will attract males more rather than females. However it will also attract couples to watch in a date. Body languages experts have analysed that horror movies do bring couples into a situation where they are more likely to be tactile with each other. This means that at scary points they are more likely to cuddle up.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
When filming Visual-Eyes it became apparent straight away that to get a high quality picture when filming, the equipment must be of a very high class meaning very expensive. Although our equipment wasn’t the most expensive, it still done us proud as me and my media partner were both very please with some shots we managed to record. When zooming in and out and tracking, it became obvious that doing this smoothly could be quite a challenge, as it at times the shots became out of focus, the camera jolted and in some cases the camera wobbled. We did use a tripod when filming to achieve a steady and professional shot, therefore using the tripod benefited us greatly. We did have a dolly as part of our equipment. However, after experimenting with this we found that the outcome wasn’t as smooth as we had hoped; therefore we decided to not use the dolly anymore and refrain from using the clip where the dolly was used.
When editing with the Adobe Premiere Elements, we had many problems. After using several different computers to edit the programme due to the limited response from the programme, the editing software finally worked on the computer which we finished the editing on. Once we had finished editing all the clips, we then had to play around with all the effects and decide which ones would be suitable for our piece. For example as a group we decided to use the brightness and contrast effect to make the setting seem darker to get the spooky, uneasy effect that we wished.
As a group I feel we worked really well, having all the tasks evened out between us so that one person didn’t have more work than the other, we both contributed to same amount and took on board the other opinion.
Regarding the Blogger, this done nothing but benefits as we was able to log on at home and see what work we could get on with outside school hours. This also was a way to see who done what work and who needed to contribute more work to the overall blog.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
After doing the preliminary task, equpitment and ICT wise I gained more knowledge of how to use the programme (Adobe Premiere Elements) roughly but not the extent that I know how to use it at present. When using Adobe Premiere Elements, we had a lot more trouble working with the programme in the sense of the amount of time it took to edit clips, as they were longer than the preliminary task ones. However, the main difference I learnt between using the programme for the main task and the preliminary was the ability to render each clip, this allowed the programme to run smoother, therefore making it easier for us to edit it to a professional standard and being able to catch any problems with the clips or camera work.
I didnt realise the amount of time we would have to put into the piece, therefore when things didnt go round and time was running out it came as a big shock to me and my partner. Idealy we both wished we could of done more to the final outcome however I can still say I am pleased with how it turned out.
Tuesday 23 February 2010
Experimenting with make up
Myself and Jade uploaded the experimenting with make up piece on the 28th of January 2010. This includes all the ingredients and materials used when doing the make up and shows proof of experimenting. (See blog)
Why did we make a Gantt Chart?
On Wednesday the 19th of January 2010 I typed up reasons why we created a Gantt chart on to the rogue production blog. This talks through the reasons and how it has help us stay organised. (See blog)
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