Thursday, 20 April 2017

Evaluation question seven

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Tuesday, 28 March 2017

Evaluation question three

Evaluation question two

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In media there are a wide range of social groups that can be addressed in a number of ways. These socials groups include race, age, income, disabilities, mobility (travelling), educational attainment, employment status and location. These all can be shown in a number of ways in the filming industry.
Age
Particularly in media, age can identify a social group. For example, in our film the cast members are teenagers however, the way in which we used their costumes they appear slightly older. The age in which we wanted to be was early twenties, they appear to be more mature. The clothing is more smart yet still casual. Twenty years old, still act immature and young almost like teenagers. But they are starting their life in work and industry. There are no other older characters seen in the film opening.
In the image below, you can see the character of Tim. He is wearing are long, dark black coat and plain jeans. In addition, he wears trainers. It shows a lack of effort in appearance, you get the impression from his costume that he is a very private person and usually spends days indoors alone. Mise en scene is extremely important in representing a character in a specific way. The way in which they present themselves can give the audience a real insight into the type of character they are and what social category they fit in. It can represent their personality.

Gender
Another way in which a social group can be identified is by gender. In our film, there is one girl/woman and two boys/men. The girl is overpowered by men, she can appear vulnerable in this film. The male character is the dominant character which in fact dominants anther character by murdering them. Stereo typically you would not expect a female to dominate. In our film this is clear, as she is not seen very often.
Sex/sexuality
Sex can be a very sensitive subject. There is a lot of pressure on women especially, to look sexually attractive and the same for men. There are stereotypes of men and women as well as gay. Women should be slim and naturally beautiful. Men should be muscular and strong. A gay male is usually thought as to be very camp, with a high pitch voice and into women's things such as makeup. A gay female is often thought as to be very manly, and dresses like a man. These stereotypes are a very broad view of how people are in society depending on their sexuality.
In our film the main character Tim, is gay but very uncomfortable about his sexuality. No one is aware of his sexuality as he hasn't openly said anything. He keeps himself to himself and is extremely private. He is in love with his best friend but his best friend Ben does not know. In addition, he is a heterosexual as is the female character, Rachel. These two characters are in love. Their sexuality is shown through camerawork and the characterization.
Race and ethnicity
All the characters in our film are of white British ethnicity. There are a number of stereotypes with British people. They are expected to be very posh and proper. In addition, you would expect them to be rather loud and boisterous depending on age, this applies to teenagers especially. There isn't enough footage shown to allow the audience of their ethnicity however, we could understand by the weather of the location, linking to ethnicity.
Location
The main character Tim is heard as having a British nationality. Perhaps by the cold weather and dullness in our film, you can understand that we are in England. A place which is notorious for bad weather. In our film you can see the weather is dull and the characters are seen in coats suggesting it is cold.

Language or accent
Depending on where you live, you will have an accent and some will have a much stronger accent than other. In addition, the language in which they speak tells you a lot about the character, once again fitting into a social group. For example, in out film they are all English. If they spoke in a different language, English subtitles would appear at the bottom of the screen.
Class
I have introduced class into my film slightly, the characters are seen as more middle class due to their clothing and the way in which they are presented. They are in casual clothing whereas you would expect upper class people to dress more formal. In our film you can see the characters in jeans and coats. The protagonist is dressed in jeans and a coat suggesting he perhaps cannot afford extremely expensive clothes and therefore goes for quite a casual style. The character is well kept in his presentation of himself, in comparison Tim is of a slightly lower class as he does not have as much care in his appearance suggesting lack of money.

Monday, 13 March 2017

Title inspiration

After researching different thriller title sequences these are the two that Sophie and I have chosen as the best fit for the thriller genre. There were a number of images that gave us inspiration, but these were the two that stood out to us. The font especially helped us decide what we wanted for our film.
                                              
  •   Dark background with a light object in the centre of the screen shows contrast and makes it stand out more. Opposite colours build an atmosphere. 


  • Title fades into the clouds in the sky with represents a hidden and timid character. Also you can slightly see two eyes above the male character which represents someone is always watching him.
  • The slight blurring of the font goes well with the name of the film. We hope to incorporate titles which fit with the title and narrative of our film. 



Block font is very popular with thrillers. Also the titles appear suddenly on the page or are blended into the footage being shown. We will carefully consider our titles and ensure they are perfect to fit with the conventions of a thriller. 





Health and safety- media consent

Consent is giving permission for something to happen or agreement to do something.
An informed consent can be said to have been given based upon a clear appreciation and understanding of the facts, implications, and consequences of an action. Adequate informed consent is rooted in respecting a person’s dignity. To give informed consent, the individual concerned must have adequate reasoning faculties and be in possession of all relevant facts. It is extremely important to get consent as it can protect the person and the company or the people they are working for.

Actors/actress contact
Francesca Robinson- 07786634065
Jack Morgan-07724194919
Elliot Hale- 07841380315

All the actors gave consent and understood the risks, this enabled us to film them. There verbal consent was given the day of filming and is being recorded here. They were given the opportunity to leave at any moment if they felt uncomfortable or unsafe. They were informed of where the film would go, and what the film entailed.

Titles


When editing titles into our opening we thought about the size, font type and colour of them as we wanted them to fit with the genre of our film. We made our titles, which introduced the actors and also displayed the credits on Premiere pro and decided to go with white text which had a very thin layer of black around it which made them stand out from the shots.

Before choosing our titles Sophie and I played around with a variety of other styles to make sure that the one we finalise is definitely the one we thought was best. We decided that all our titles should be basic due to that  fitting our thriller convention. We looked at a number of Thrillers in order to get an idea of what titles we wanted and what titles fit the convention of a thriller. For example, the film The girl on the train had thin white titles.
 This is our film title that is purposely shown at the end of the film as when researching thriller movies and their titles most vary of when they're shown in the film. This is because in thriller movies there is always a plot which builds up to a climax and cover ups of important information which keeps the audience on edge.


We kept the white font however placed it on a black background which contrasts well as it stands out. This represents our main character as he is obviously seen to be different to the rest of society. All of my titles fade in and out slowly and cut of as soon as a new shot appears. We put an effect of the title that makes it appear as if it is being typed out, it implies that there is a narrator in this film, or the film is from one of the characters point of view and they are typing it out. By cutting the titles of it creates tension in certain shots. All the titles are placed in the same position which is the bottom left hand corner as it doesn't distract the viewers from what is going on in the shot and creates a sense of discomfort. This is an example of this: 




Just before our final title which is 'DAZED' on a black background, we decided that our film opening would look more dramatic if we had a creepy shot of Elliot ,who plays the character of Tim, as it would be more exciting. When choosing a shot to do this we found a shot that was from Jacks, who played Ben,  point of view and it worked really well as Elliot connects with Jack with eye contact. However as by the end of the film Jack has died it makes it look as if Elliot's is now making eye contact with the audience. This builds a rapport with the audience and builds enigma, making them want to watch more.



Saturday, 4 March 2017

Draft film review/audience feedback


The basic feedback was that we needed to edit the clips to allow it to flow better. Transitions are needed and also title pages. Some of the voice overs need slight editing. We attempted to sort out the titles, but we had some issues in which it deleted the names.