Welcome To My Blog

Welcome to my AS Media Studies blog!

On this blog I have made posts reflecting conventions, institution, media language and audience research.

It is a journey of how my group formed and all the struggles we have had over the months trying to get the best finalised cut for out 2 minute film opening task.

I have formatted the blog so that you can easily access my YouTube account and my partners' blogs (top). Take note of the amount of links lists I have created so you can easily navigate through my blog finding specific posts very easily. All the pink highlighted terms is media vocabulary I have used throughout this blog to help me and you, to easier grasp what is being said in each post.

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FINAL CUT Christmas Sleigher Movie Opening

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What we have improved:

• The texting scene has been removed
• Editing on when santa comes on screen is cut up to keep the audience engaged 
• The editing pace for the killing scene has been sped up to hold the effect of action/slashing
• Establishing shots are put in with music
• Sound effects put into places (Girl screaming for Michael)

EVAL: Q1a Conventions

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Question 1 of the evaluation for conventions used in our film opening, we talk about how we have challenged and used conventions and represented social groups and issues. The style is based on James Cordons carpool karaoke and sees us driving around Luxembourg while talking about our film opening.

EVAL: Q1b Representations

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Disclaimer *Christians microphone was having trouble picking up his voice so it is very quiet*.
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We have taken a YouTuber / Gaming channel approach to make a small interview about how we used representations in our film opening.

We covered:

• Age
• Stereotyping
• Gender
• Sexuality
• Ethnicity 
• Disability

EVAL: Q2 Audiences and Distribution

*Disclaimer for reasons of having a very old and slow laptop as the only use of media for this. I apologise for the poor image quality but the audio should be working excellently*

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A Skype interview where the interviewee asks me questions based on my knowledge and past experiences to see if I am eligible to receive a placement at a newly founded Indie movie company

EVAL: Q3 Development

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This talk show goes over how a member of one of the production companies of the film Christmas Sleigher experienced it and how the whole company progressed and developed throughout the months, to the point where they have a fully complete film opening.

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PRELIM POST

PRELIM VIDEO:

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PRACTICE SHOOT VIDEO:

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EVAL: Q4 Technologies

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A keynote speech of all the main technologies we have used and progressed with as a group. It reminds me a bit of the Apple iPhone launch events ... hmmm (Part of AS Evaluation)

Over this past year I have used many different types of technologies. All are in a list below:

Hardware:

• Smartphone 
• DSLR
• Camera
• Wide lenses
• Tripods
• Monopods
• Dollys
• Gimbal
• Gorilla-pods
• Stabilisation
• Macbook 
• PC
• Microphone 
• Action Camera
• Keyboard for music

Software/ Websites:

• Final Cut Pro X 

• Titles
• Transitions
• Keyframing
• Colour correction
• Greenscreen
• Animations
• Special FX
• Cutting 
• Freeze framing
• Voiceovers
• Adobe Premiere (when no access to mac)
• Basic tools
• Adding voiceovers
• Audacity
• Blogger
• Soundcloud
• Slideshare
• Office 365 Pack
• YouTube
• Uploading
• Embedding 
• Playlists

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A small vodcast going over the basic websites and how to briefly use them, as a means of planning for my blog!

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Here is the Adobe Premiere Pro tutorial where I talk about how to use the effects and tools in more depth

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Here is a tutorial about how we used Final Cut Pro X, Our main editing program

ROUGH CUT Playlist

This is a playlist with all our rough cuts and sample scenes so they are easy to find and look through to see the improvemnet from the beginning. We ordered it by date so the latest cuts are on top and the oldest are at the bottom.

ROUGH CUT 4 (With titles)

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We have changed the colour correction on a lot of the shots, made the sequence walking down the stairs shorter. We have tried to add more shot variety in the false scare but aren't sure if this works. We also re-filmed the whole first sequence up until the couple see Santa on the t.v as we thought this needed a lot of work.

Feedback

We got a lot of feedback on this cut both verbally and writen.

 Some verbal feedback we got was from a male within the target audience say that the texting scene ruined the continuity and killed the effect of tension, he also said that the killing scene was quite gory and that he would have faster paced editing to "hit the sweat spot". 

Some written feedback we got from a previous rough cut from a female who is in the age range 15-24 which we took into account for this one. 

To sum it up:

• Need to imply sex in a better way
• Facial expressions and feeling aren't very scarred 
• Narrative quite unclear in garage scene 
• Santa on TV footage was good 
• She noted some of the good shots 

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK Analysis

Over the course of our AS Media Studies year we have received countless amounts of audience feedback varying from verbal, written and online feedback.

Overall they were positive, they liked a few things here and there however, the feedback we have received has been more than appreciative. I mean just look at our first few sample scenes, they are 100% different to our final cut. A recurring problem for us was trying to increase the pacing in the film opening but in the end I think we managed pretty well. From the first rough cut to the last, the whole group thought "oh we can cut a second or two there," but had it not been for feedback saying, "This pace needs to increase dramatically," our film opening would not have been as good as it is now.

We have received feedback from ages ranging from 14-22 and have also received a bit of feedback from older adults. I admit, some of the feedback we received was vague and we couldn't really use it. However this gave us an insight as to how these people of these ages were analyzing our "media" and we could build upon that instead. This also links into Stuart Hall's preferred reading theory as, especially for the title feedback, we received a lot stating which one looked "most horror" or "most cool." when we as creators wanted the most fitting for the genre. This means the audience who analysed the title fonts applied it to the knowledge they had on slashers to choose their preferred ones. This came from our target audience meaning we had to take a lot of it into account when choosing the final fonts for our titles. They would not have been what they are now, if it weren't for this feedback as our group had a slight discussion about this too.

EVAL SCRIPT: Q3 Talk Show

Key:
H: Host
C: Contestant

H: Welcome back to our talk show.  Tonight we have a very special gust. He is the director and editor of Lugnut Productions and has been part of making a film which will be coming out soon next year.

H: *name of C* how are you.

C: Hello, I'm good thanks.

H:As I understand you are a brand new company and this is your first movie. You have had help  from both Clinnick Media and Gingerbread Films to create this new horror movie called Christmas Sleigher.

C: Yes this is true.

H: I have a surprise for you during the course of this talk show by the way and after the ad breaks it will become very clear *takes a long weird look at C*

C: *laughs awkwardly* does this have anything to do with the fact I handed in my phone before the show?

H: *Stares into distance not saying anything*

H: Anyways... first of all tell me, how was it to get to grasps on things. For example, had you ever used a camera before this movie?

C: It was quite difficult at times but I think we overall managed very well. I have used a camera before, I used to have a youtube channel when I was in my pre-teens and I have done both GCSE and AS Level Media Studies. For this film however there were some new things and I could use a lot of information and skills learnt from my school life. Some things that were easy was the use of cameras and tri-pods and setting them up. However I have only recently started using the 180 degree rule. This was something new and it really helped me in trying to create continuous editing in the film.

H: That's pretty neat, if any of the audience has any more of a clue what the 180 degree rule or what continuous editing is... I applaud.

C: Oh! well its basically when....

H: Yeah thats ok, everyone has google nowadays.. So tell me, is this final cut what you originally planned?

C: Oh no it wasn't, we originally planned for it to be be a zombie/slasher hybrid but decided to discard that idea completely. We were relying on too many people to come help us for free as we are such a small company.. This ended up with a very select few ever turning up and the ones we needed the most, never came. Our lead role literally never showed up. Since all of our actors were teens she was also the only person with a car, which was a crucial part of it... So we scrapped it!

H: Oh that doesn't sound nice at all .. pretty rude if you ask me.

C: Yeah well, struggles of having no money.

H: So this new idea, how did it develop.. Now just bare with me here audience but I have seen the opening of this film and I just want your opinion on this very small clip.

*"Youuu lieeee.... come down to the garage" plays* * small silence, audience cheers*

H: How .. Why on earth did you think of a creepy santa like that!

C: Well it basically came from the fact that it was in december when we finally had gotten an idea,that firstly, had very limited actors/ actresses, meaning reliability wasn't an issue, an original idea with links to previous horror movies, creating intertextuality to widen the audience appeal, had a recurring theme, and most importantly scared the s*** out of u.

*quickly covers mouth and looks in embarrassment, audience cheers.*

C: But yeah .. we needed a scary figure and since christmas was in our mind we thought, "Hey why not a killing santa?" It has also been done before in black christmas and christmas evil, so we knew it would work well.

H: Amazing, we'll be right back after this small ad break!

*ad about a gimble*

H: Hello and welcome back, now we will go through some of the struggles throughout the development of this film. Now as said before people might be wandering why I asked for Oliver's phone. Well here is the reason. I will be reading some texts between the team.

*audience cheers*

*text sequence plays out, Oliver is visually embarrassed and reacts accordingly*

H: Well, its time to move on, the channel wants to air some weird drone race now.. Hope it doesn't end up like the one you planned to use!

H: Thanks for stopping by and talking to us today about the new film Christmas Sleigher.

H: Ladies and gentlemen give it up for Oliver!

*audience cheers*

*fade, cameras pan put as oliver leaves the scene*

EVAL SCRIPT: Q2 INTERVIEW

Interview:
I - Interviewer
PE - Possible Employee

I: Hello, and welcome to this Skype interview, I have reviewed your profile and you are a possible candidate for this positions. So tell me a little about who you are.

PE: I am a current member of the Christmas Sleigher movie coming out next year. I am in charge of finding a distributor and getting audience feedback to improve our movie.

So far we have only created a movie opening, however we have spent hours, researching and engaging with the target, secondary and on some occasions, people we wouldn't even consider as a audience.

I: Wonderful, now tell me, on your CV it says how you are actively using something called "Microsoft Teams" to communicate and release rough cuts of your film to an audience, tell me more about this.

PE: Yes, I have used this program many times for feedback and possible help from another film production group, where we have shared opinions about each others movies. We have also received feedback from an older audience and younger. We have used this program to interact with ages ranging from 14 - 40+ years. This has helped us immensely and has shown us just how important it is to engage with an audience. It's how we will sell our product after all.

*person walks in and starts messing about trying to "steal" the show. Messes about and is overall silly, PE ignores everything going on behind him*

I: I think someone has walked in..

PE: Don't worry about him/her s/he always does this..

I: ok... Anyways, you mention how social media is a great way to market your film, there surely must be other opportunities you can offer us.

PE: Yes, generating hype is one thing however, it is useless if no one knows about the film. For this we would need a professional company who are willing to take the financial risk to market our movie, henceforth the distributor comes into play. As this is an indie company I am applying to, therefore we would have to be realistic and try to find a distributor who not only specialises in our genre, but also one who is willing to take that risk as said before. This could be very hard for this company at times as we would most likely make micro-budget movies with a more social realist genre than your typical americanised, over stereotyped hollywood movie. I mean we don't want the same to happen like our competitors warp and their movie Tyrannosaur haha.

I: That's quite good, i'm impressed, however how would we even get noticed? What happens if wouldn't get any distribution?

*person gets bored and walks out*

PE: This can happen too but that only means we have to work harder to get our movie to the right company.. no biggie. First we would need to try and get screenings everywhere and we would most definitely want to screen in London, TIFF, Sundance and other famous film festivals. A simple screening in London could show our movie to lots of distributors who might be interested in taking us. However, if this fails we would try and distribute onto Amazon, Netflix and even Hulu. Getting onto Amazon and Hulu isn't as difficult as Netflix. On Netflix we need to be nominated onto the "Queue demand" list, meaning we will already have needed to market our film. Amazon and Hulu we can use an aggregator, where we pay a small fee and they will immensely help our chances to getting onto both services.

I: And if all else fails, then what?

*Person returns with cutting board and starts cutting cucumbers in the background, the proceeds to eat them very loudly*

PE: I would try getting financing from financing companies such as FILM4 or even get government grants. This has been used in the past and would benefit us. *under breath* excuse me could you plese be quiet!

I: (Awkardly waits a few seconds) Alright, I'm very impressed with you so far, you seem like a valid candidate. I will get back to you within 4 weeks and we will create a contract. Thank you for your time!

PE: Thank you, look forward to see what happens! Goodbye!

I: Bye!

*0.5 seconds before the call ends PE turns around violently and is in a threatening stance*

CS MUSIC: How it was produced

MUSIC How it was produced

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Here I have made a podcast explaining how music was created and how we ran into a problem.

I was influenced from Psycho which had this sinister non - diegetic background music during the establishing shots which gave a creey feeling to the music.

Here is the music we are using:
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The above video is me showing the keyboard setup with notes to guide me since I am a beginner.

VODCAST 7: Deconstruction of Tess of D'Urbevilles

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A deconstruction of the opening of Tess of D'Urbevilles, we analyse the cinematography (Camera/ lighting), Mise-en-scene and sound.

EVAL Proposed Deadlines

Comprehensive convention research:
11th March

Industry research (Technology, distribution, budgets, box office, production strategy):
14th March

Q3: Carpooling (Shared) - film 13th March
15th March

Planning for all shoots, (tagging, links lists, flaws like small text, lack of illustration, lack of sub-headings):
17th March

Q2: Job Interview
21st March

Full rough cut with titles + sound/music:
24th March

Q4: Launch event for new product
24th March

Audience research (Feedback and response):
28th March

Q1: Game show
30th March

Final cut:
31st March

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK Titles

Here is some audience feedback from teenagers aged 14-15 on the titles we have used in our rough cut. Most of them have mixed opinions but each are backed up with reasons that we will consider.


We have chosen to use the font HAUNT and for general titles and WHO ASKS SATAN as the main titles. Having taken all audience feedback, both written and oral, into account, these were the two obvious choices and it was also the personal preference for the majority of our group. A rough cut will be uploaded soon with all the titles present.

EVAL Reflecting on Creative Approaches

CIE AS EVALUATION QUESTIONS

Q1a: how you used or challenged CONVENTIONS
Q1b: REPRESENTATIONS of social groups/issues
Q2a: how you engaged with AUDIENCES
Q2b: how might it achieve DISTRIBUTION
Q3: DEVELOPMENT of production skills throughout the entire process
Q4: how you integrated TECHNOLOGIES (software, hardware, online) in the project

Creative Approaches for the questions:

Q1: CONVENTIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS

    Game show/ Quiz show 

• Who wants to be a millionaire 
• Can be for all questions but would need a duration of 5 - 10 mins 
• Would contain ad breaks which would answer Q4 

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Q2: AUDIENCES AND DISTRIBUTION

    Job Interview 

• Over Skype for a position at a distribution company. 
• Can be used for all of question 1 and 2 
• Can include funny situations from other interviews (e.g. children walking in) 
• Covers Q1 and Q2

     Chat show 

• Ellen show type 
• Will have some different activities e.g. "funny texts" or apps on the phone" 
• Can be a lot of social media interaction, good for audience and distribution 

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Q3: DEVELOPMENT

    YouTube vlogger 

• behind the scenes
• some information on problems and how we've dealt.

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     Carpooling interview 

• Picked up by a friend who will drive around and ask us questions while there will sometimes be music and singing 

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Q4: TECHNOLOGIES

    Drama skit 

• Make actors become tools in Final Cut and do a skit on someone editing using the actors to do their tools. 

    Advert 

• Mockery ads 
• Simple ad for software we used 
• detailed ad for how "amazing" the screenshot tool is 
• etc. 

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    Launch event 

• Premiere release of a new tech 
• New final cut or "blogger 2.0" 
• Parody of the tech used, a bit like the advert

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AUDIENCE FEEDBACK Title Fonts for Movie Opening

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We have created a short sequence of clips of the fonts we narrowed down from previous research to prototype them in our opening. After receiving audience feedback we will analyse them and pick an overall "winner" for both general titles and the main movie title.

DENOTATION 10 Second Clip From Film Opening

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Denotation of a 10 second clip from our Film Opening from OliStr

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PODCAST 10: Recent Activities:

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This is the 10th podcast, in this podcast we talk about the titles we are going to use, how we are going to make multiple and choose based off of audience feedback, how the drone we wished to use for our establishing shots is broken and the rough cut we have finished

TiITLES The Ones We Will Use

1. LugNut Productions and Clinnick Media
2.  A Gingerbread Films production
3. In association with Twisted Films 
4. An Oliver Stricker film
5. Ailsa Sarah 
6. Co -starring Christian Stricker
7. With Aiden Rigby
8. Introducing Julie Bek
9. Casting by James Clinnick
10. Music composed by Nathan Guth  
11. Costumes designed by Christian Stricker
12. Editor Oliver Stricker 
13. Director of photography Michael Goi
14. Production designer Marek Dobrowolski
15. Screenplay by James Clinnick 
16. Executive producers James Wong Jason Blum
17. Directed by Oliver Stricker

ROUGH CUT 3

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Our newest rough cut where we have 90% of all the clips included. We have identified the clips we need to add and will have a new rough cut produced very soon after. We have to include our own made sound effects but these will mostly outline the final product.

TITLES Slasher Main Titles

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Slasher Main Titles from OliStr

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VODCAST 6: Slasher Titles and the Titles we will use

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In this vodcast we go over the titles used in 6 different slasher movies and we talk about how they are effective. We go over the way the titles are designed to connote the horror genre. We also go over the fonts we will be using for our own titles and personal preferences along with audience feedback.

SAMPLE SCENE Killing scene (SOUND EDITING NOT DONE)

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Here is a rough-cut without sound effects of how the killing scene is going to play out. It is a base design and needs improvement. This needs to be refined and added to the newest rough cut which will be uploaded soon.

What we have filmed / what we need

To Film:

• Establishing shots
• More realistic opening of door during garage scene
• Better false scare

Have Filmed:

• Bedroom scene
• Jigsaw like Santa on t.v
• Stabbing
• Getting dressed

CS SLASHER Research on Cherry Falls

Verdict

The film opening of Cherry falls(Geoffrey Wright)(2000) is of a couple who are being intimate and showing obvious sexual attraction between the two. The cuts are mostly close up and are short. The editing is fast paced with sinister music in the background which makes the audience hold their breath. The couple have a small argument and the shot goes from inside the car to the outside from a stalkers POV. There is non- diegetic  sound in the background to achieve verisimilitude. This is created using crickets and wind. There is another car that pulls up and the male gets out of the car to play the role of the strong hero, while the girl stays and watis for him to return. The actress holds her fright and sadness throughout the film opening and never 'recovers'.

To sum it up

• Fast paced editing.
• Large variety of different shots.
• Use of close ups (with hand placement, to show more emotion).
• The characters are frightened throughout. 
• Use of diegetic and non - diegetic sound achieve verisimlitude.

How will we apply this to our film opening?

1. We will use a variety of shots and shorten our takes from our previous rough cut.
2. There wil be close ups of hand placements to signify more emotion.
3. To achieve verisimilitude the actor/actress will need to seem frightened even after the scare.
4. Have fast paced editing to keep the audience engaged.