What Have I Learnt So Far in Media Studies? (Spoiler: A Lot)

Media Studies has been a steady learning curve since the beginning of the course. I've learnt about media terminology that was previously alien to me (Binary Opposition, anyone?) and I've understood the significance of the concept of genre and the various sub-genres/ hybridisations that all originate from genre. Moreover, I've practisced essay writing, from gender portrayal to binary opposition, and I genuinely feel more confident with my essay writing skills, developing my ideas and explaining myself in a more sophisticated, succint way. These skills tie into our cousework task, a task in which we ultimately have to create a two minute thriller opening. This task has covered the entire spectrum of the film-making process (research, planning, story-boarding, scriptwork, casting, the whole lot) and this task has put into practice the theory work we have been doing, analysing various clips with Mr. Michie, from Jane Eyre to Merlin. I suppose Media has given me a new perspective on the way film and television is produced; I'm now analysing the effects of editing, lighting, sound and mise-en-scene when I go to my local cinema, something that I never truely appreciated before. I've definitely improved, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the course, further developing my skills as I continue further into the world of Media Studies...

Genre is such a broad concept; within our first lessons we grasped a fundamental understanding of genre before delving deeper, exploring the numerous sub-genres and hybridisations. We discussed why genre codes and conventions define the genre of a media text as a whole, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of genre conventions: whilst conventions fulfill audience expectations and are easier to market, it's important to note the need to break away from cliched values and avoid the trap of following genre conventions to the extent where it becomes dull. We filmed this discussion within my coursework group. Also, I absorbed a lot of words I had previously never used (connoting, singnifies, the list goes on...) and from this I then found that I could use these words within the apprpriate context in my notes and essays. We also looked at thrillers and took the first steps towards creating our thriller films. The research was initially about looking other openings (and other clips) to thriller films. I was able to analyse a lot of these, including the unorthodox ending to Requiem for a Dream as well as the title sequences to political thriller Homeland and Casino Royale. I also evaluated the work of my peers, including Jacob's analysis of the opening of Taken as well as making a Vlog of my reaction to the opening of The Beach:



As well as this, we've been doing a lot of clip analysis to futher develop our exam-based skills. For instance, we worked within our class to look at various clips (Merlin, Doctor Who and Jane Eyre amongst others). We then took notes in relation to the question (the portrayal of gender, how editing/sound had been used). I took notes covering all bases including editing, sound, mise-en-scene and camera angles. These types of lessons helped me to understand the importance of all of these aspects and how they had been used to contribute to the sub-text of the clip, ie. the weakness of males within the Primeval clip. I then had to use this understanding to complete exam-style essay questions. This helped me to prepare myself for the 'real thing', using my notes as well as media terminology and the advice of my teachers to produce work that I was pleased with. Although I was pleased with my results (including a B in my 'Titanic Binary Opposition' essay) I acknowledge the targets that I was given and since then I've endeavoured to work on those targets to improve my essay-writing ability. By continuing to complete and practisce essay questions (which have been previously used in actual exams) I feel more hopeful for the written exam which once seemed a  fairly daunting prospect.

Practising Our Storyboarding...

Storyboarding is undoubtedly of paramount importance within the film-making industry; with this in mind, we were put into pairs and assigned the task of creating a short plan of a chase sequence within a fictional horror film entitled: 'Terror In The Night'. Working alongside Jess Mockler, we considered carefully what we were going to include our storyboard (which was to have a maximum of ten frames). This practice task developed my understanding of storyboarding; also, it awakened me to the many subtle decisions that need to be made from shot to shot. For instance, camera angles, mise-en-scene, editing, shot length, the sound (diegetic and non-diegetic), as well as the dialogue we are to include. In short: there was a lot to decide upon. The results can be found in the images below:-

Opening Shots: Introducing the premise of the story, as well as protagonist/s and antagonist/s

Notching up the Intense Atmosphere... Use of close-ups, panning shots

The storyboard covered three factors: a rough visualization of the shot, the type of shot and it's duration, and finally an analysis of sound and dialogue. Myself and Jess wanted to cover the codes and conventions of a horror: clichéd characters (see screaming damsel in distress), shrieking violins (straight out of The Exorcist), extreme close-ups of a crazed psychopath as well as corny dialogue such as 'I found you...' in a rasping voice. Essentially, the task was trying to acquit us with the practice of using storyboarding and understanding first-hand just how important this very visual style of planning is. We can apply this task to our actual storyboards for our final-piece, and we can adopt this film-making form of planning to understand (completely) the shots we are aiming for as a group, as well as giving us an idea of what shots/sounds we are planning to use. Overall, I found this task very helpful, and gave me a more complete understanding of the significance of story-boarding with film-making. Got to practice my drawing skills though I think...

Analysis of Melissa's 'Art of The Title Sequence'...

Our group have been discussing the importance of the opening titles themselves; one must create an opening titles sequence that is engaging, intruiging the audience yet still giving out little information, luring the viewer in. With this in mind, member of our group Melissa Kerrison has been analysing titles sequences, in particular the political thriller Vantage Point, relevant given that our opening is to follow a similar sub-genre of thriller. Here is what she studied:-

 *Following paragraph is work of Melissa Kerrison http://melissakerrison.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-art-of-title-sequences.html*



Poduction Company Logo



''I've been researching the art of title sequences. One of the title sequences I looked at is called 'Vantage Point.'  I chose this as it's a political thriller and I noticed that the first credit's transition lasted 5 seconds and when it was completely on screen, it stayed for around 4 seconds. The second one was a faster transition but stayed for the same amount of time as the last one- 4 seconds. The font is white and silver over a black background, making the credits stand out. A transparent red circle moves across the second title, looking as if it's a laser from a gun. The font for the first picture is big and bold making it clear to the viewer, whereas the second font has two different fonts- 'columbia pictures' in block capitals, and 'presents' in a smaller font, making the name of the company seem more important. The credits are spread out in the opening, and come up seperately. The name of the film is completely different to the other credits, below you can see the transition is made up of different lines and blocks of black shapes, and they all come together to form 'vantage point' the font colour is black and it has a yellow/gold background. The transition takes about 8 seconds and once it's completely shown, it's on screen for about 3/4 seconds.''

 

Intense, Bold Titles

 



 

You have payed to see 'Vantage Point'. Hint: the title of your film is kinda important



 

''Looking at this has helped me understand that the credits actually take up quite alot of time, and realise the lack of time we have to include our opening on top of the credits. It's also given me an insight into how long the credits are usually displayed for and the time the transitions take etc.''

What Can I Learn From This? :-

-Length of Titles/Transitions: Two minutes is a relatively short ime and the length the titles were up on the screen for (eg. four seconds) emphasised the importance of our groups new-found mantra: 'Less definitely is more...' The opening doesn't need to be plot heavy, it simply needs to entice the audience. Thats it, really.

- Gimmicks: The circle of red (which is presumably a laser on the top of a gun) reinforces to the audience that they have payed to watch a thriller. Also, it links into the title of the film as well as perhaps foreshadowing an event that is to happen later in the film. Clever stuff.

-The difference between colour/font of the actors/directors names as opposed to that of the films title: The title of your film is pretty important; it's significance in this case is shown through the titles centralised position, the length of time on screen as well as it's font and bold colours. 

Finally, Meilissa found a piece on the title designer's inspiration for the opening. It's interesting to find out the thought process for it. Flashing up names can seem tedious, but it's the various ideas he has (eg the red motif) that make it such a brilliant opening sequence:-

Lets hope our group can emulate his success by making a thrilling opening to our film...

Teacher Gone Mad...

Our group's ideas have changed drastically over the past few days; attempting to make our work more original, we wanted to include a Political element to the opening of our thriller, creating something beyond the limits of typical thriller codes and conventions. The idea of a psychological thriller has always been something I pushed for in the group, but only now with our current ideas do I think we can include psychological elements whilst still maintaining something that is suitably fresh and unique. Our concept for our opening explores the idea of supposedly 'normal' members of our society losing their sanity; this is something I believe is topical at the moment, what with the shootings in Norway as well as the 'Batman' cinema killer, and I believe that grounding our opening within the confines of reality will make our short more horrifyin and, of course, more thrilling. The opening follows a teacher at a local school plotting to assasinate the Prime Minister as he visits the school that our psycho- teacher works at. The opening will essentially be made up of a montage sequence as our teacher readies himself for what is to come. It's important to me explore that the mental illness aspect of things is dealt with seriously and not in a stereotyped fashion; also, we'd like the audience to gauge the fact that our protagonist is leading this double life, trying to hide his demons behind the facade of teacher/family man/ respectable member of the community that hides an altogether more frightening truth. Below are our developed ideas in regards to what we are planning on:

* Worked on this plan with Hannah Dunsdon*
1)The name of our production will appear and over the top will be diegetic sound of the interviewer asking the Prime Minister why he is deciding to visit the Chalfonts Community College; this image will then fade out menacingly.

2)We then open to a mid shot of the Prime Minister from waist upwards. There is a seconds pause to give the audience some time to understand the context of the shot (ie. news programme interview) then begins to speak with blood dripping down his face. However, neither interviewer nor interviewee react to this at all. 

3)Jump cut to a extreme close up of teacher with a sly creepy smile, although in the background the Prime Minister is still talking from within the television that our teacher is watching. 

4)Jump cut back to news frame, there is no trace of blood on him which comes to the end of the interview, shocking the audience as we realise the cruel intentions of our aspiring teacher. 

5)Pan out to teachers room which will be messy, strewn with newspaper articles, surveillance photos, alcohol, prescription drugs etc. and then cut away to the title sequence. The screen will display 'Directed By...' ; a distant husky laugh can be heard as this is displayed.

6)We will then have a montage sequence of him preparing for the assasination, intercut with the titles.

7)The scene will end with the teacher's oblivious wife calling from downstairs 'Dinners Ready!', reminding the audience of the double personality of the teacher. He then shuts the door, the camera zooming in on a dartboard attached to the back of the door, the Prime Ministers face stuck to the datboard, a dart stuck in the middle of the Prime Ministers proverbial 'head', acting as a metaphor for what the teacher wants to achieve. We then cut to black, displaying the title of the film.

Characters and Casting:-

We decided on the characters costume as well as colour palette.

Prime Minister- Sharp suit and haircut, white shirt and blue tie (professional and smart)

Interviewer- Smart/ Casual suit, preferably smart hair.

Teacher- bedraggled/wasted look, suit, messy hair, round glasses which sit on the edge of his nose, maybe the colour green- has connotations of illness, lack of sanity.

Teacher's Wife's voice in background- won't need a costume as we only need the voice of her.

Hannah has her friend to help her with the makeup that is needed for our Prime Minister. In terms of casting, I feel that we can get away with having our fellow students play the interviewer and the teacher's wifes' voice. However, I feel as though the more adult roles (especially the teacher) should be played adults to make our film look more professtional, and less student-ish. We are actively looking to cast these roles relatively soon, and find people who can play the roles within the short itself.

Props Ideas:

-Alcohol.
-Orange tinted pill cases.
-Newspaper cuttings about relevant events (i.e. 7/7 attacks) 
- Surveillance Pictures.
-Pinboards strewn with highlighted newspaper articles/ documents.
-Map of local vicinity.
-Small TV.
-Picture frame of family.
-Desk. 
-Lamp (red lightbulb).

I've also had ideas for the non-diegetic music to be played over the top of the montage sequence, and I feel this piece encapsulates the intenity, sadness of our scene. Obviously we would have to find a non-copyrighted version of the song itself:-



Overall, I'm really happy with our ideas and our group dynamic, everyone contributing ideas and accepting the various roles and responsibilities that are required to be successful. I love it when a plan comes together..

I Can See Dead People... The Sixth Sense Scene Analysis

As you've read in previous posts, our group has been thinking of developing a psychological-supernatural thriller; and so, for strictly research purposes, I've chosen to take a look at the Daddy of all supernatural thrillers , M. Night Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense. It's the script that makes the film here, following Bruce Willis' child psychologist as he encounters a creepy kid, Cole, who can 'see dead people'. Not only is it defined by that shock twist, but it's message about accepting death and rebuilding family relationships makes it so much more intelligent than your bog-standard B-Movie thriller. Entertaining, horrifying, yet not reckless. My kinda movie... take note Hollywood. It's this scene that really encapsulates why this film is so thrilling, whilst also portraying the supernatural elements that our group is planning on emulating in our own supernatural-thriller. At this point in the film, the audience has been told that he can supposedly 'see dead people', although the connotations of this haven't really been explained to this point. Until now. And it's disturbing, shocking and jump-out of your seat scary. A truly effective scene demonstrates why this film has become a modern classic. Take a look at the scene below:-

* I don't own this clip. It is being used for educational purposes*


The scene opens with our protagonist Cole (his centralised position highlights his importance within the scene, asking the audience to empathise with him) ; his withdrawn body language and infantile pyjamas symbolic of childhood naivety and fear; the audience sympathises with him at this point, able to relate to that childlike fear of monsters and ghouls in the dark, unknowing that Cole can actually see these bedtime creatures. The darkness of the room has metaphorical connotations of the fear that plagues him. We then cut to a shot of the AC monitor,emphasising that the temperature is decreasing rapidly, in line with Cole's words in previous scenes, making the audience question whether Cole was telling the truth. The menacing non-diegetic music foreshadows the protagonists subsequent danger, heightening the intensity of the scene as a whole. Moreover, the longshot that includes the doorframe within the shot reinforces the fact that Cole is helpless, ostracised from any care or attention, lonely within this world of ghosts. Shyamalan uses this shot effectively, suddenly revealing the silhouette of a ghost passing by the door quickly, shocking the audience, steadily increasing the danger of Cole's predicament. A close up of the protagonist turning around reveals to the audience Cole's emotions, the fear on his face reinforcing the danger he finds himself in as the ghost inhabits his safe haven: his mother's own home, conveying to the audience that the threat is always present, racheting up the horror of the scene. He then turns, walking towards the camera (re-establishing his characters prevalence) as he peers around the doorframe reluctantly, empahsising how much he fears what is hidden in the darkness.

The scene then moves to a point-of-view shot from the protagonist's perspective, reinforcing to the audience where our allegiances should lie. The camera slowly approaches the narrow doorway, connoting Cole's frightened emotions as he approaches his darkest nightmares. This lengthy shot's running time heightens the tension, the audience anticipating when the the creature is  about to appear.

Improving Essay Writing Skills...

Writing cogently and eloquently is a key component to AS Media: the ability to write technically and yet maintain the examiner's interest is, essentially, the key to success within this subject. With that in mind, our last lesson's objective was solely to improve our technical writing ability, working within groups to create a paragraph focusing on the Doctor Who clip we had used in previous lessons. The clip can be found below:



The focus of the question was how sound and editing have been used to influence the portrayal of gender within the context of the clip; the class went through the clip several times, making the following notes:-
`
Sound:
-Slow, mournful tone.
-Minor chords makes it seem sombre, melancholy.
-Guitar- Western, duel, Genre Hybridity.
-Intertextuality, molding of genre.
-No diegetic music, adds to tension.

Editing:
-Prevalence of the Master.
-Cutaway from Martha to the people she loves: good side.
-Jumpcut creates continuity.
-Attention turns to friends but is interspersed with her looking towards the Master.

We were then split up into groups, and worked together to create paragraphs addressing the question, as you can see in the images below:-

My Group



Harriet's Group




Immy's Group




Beth A-C's Group




Beth Eley's Group

After this, as a class we were able to reflect and evaluate upon what we did well and what was not so good. I felt this chance to be reflective helped me as I learned what to include and made me feel more confident about my ability, as well as using other's ideas to improve my own work. Exams and Essay's, here I come...

Idea Developments....

Our group has been discussing further about ideas regarding the opening of our thriller; we have since felt that physchological thriller lends itself to too many cliches, unable to accomodate the conventions of this sub-genre whilst being original and unique. Since then, we feel that a 'terrorism' thriller is topical at the moment, an omni-present threat that has touched many lives. Therefore, we believe that this would remain relevant to our audience, whilst still having an adequate amount of threat and intensity, making our thriller equally (if not more so) effective as our initially-proposed physchological thriller. In addition to this, we wanted to include elements of a 'western' thriller, making our opening more of a hybridisation; combing the conventions within a modern-day setting, the idea of an 'internal duel' with a terrorist could be interesting to explore. The battle between religion and family from the perspective of a terrorist could be effective, whilst still intense and engaging. This type of thriller, like 'Homeland', '24' and the 'Bourne' films, are extremely popular and I think this would still be original, yet exciting and the most important ingredient of all: 'thrilling'....

Discussing Probable Ideas For Our Movie Woop Woop!

Our group thought a discussion was in order: what were we going to do regards the type of genre of our thriller was going to follow the conventions of (whilst still staying unique)? Without further ado, here is the clip that answers those questions and more...

Bond is Back! Skyfall Opening Sequence Analysis...

Skyfall's opening prologue is undoubtedly the best opening sequence of the year; after the disappointment of 'Quantum of Solace', Daniel Craig's 007 returns with a explosive chase along the rooftops of Istanbul. Hunting down a suspected terrorist, the scene intercuts between Bond, MI6 agent-on-the-ground Miss Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) and M calling the shots a world away in the rainswept MI6 Headquarters. The opening is symbolic of what one has come to expect of a Bond film in recent years; a euro-villain, glamorous, exotic locations as well as weapons and ever-present danger. The use of this fast-editing technique ensures a fast paced opening, engrossing the audience into the glamorous world of Bond. The sequence ends on a thrilling cliffhanger, preceding Adele's animated theme tune, marking the best opening to a Bond film in recent memory. Although the action lacks realism (it is a James Bond film after all), Skyfall is Jmes Bond at it's most grittiest, darkest best...

The opening begins with 007 emerging from the darkness, searching a house. The juxtaposition of light and dark on Bond's face indexically connotes how dangerous Bond can be, a flawed, imperfect character. We then see his fellow agent strewn dead on the floor; the blood contradicting with the otherwise dark setting, emphasising to the audience the danger associated with Bond's job. Intense close-ups highlight Bond's lack of emotion, shot-reverse-shot revealing how Bond has acknowledged his death. Bond then phones M, the rain streaming down the walls of MI6 contrasting the intensity of colours at Bond's location. Her central positioning emphasises how she is a prominent character (indeed, she has an important role in the rest of the film). He then runs out of the room, trying to locate his fellow MI6 agent in her car. The non-diegetic now begins to heighten the intensity of the scene, empahsising the action that is to come. Bond reaches her car, stepping in to the vehicle without hesitation, denoting his intent on finding the baddie. Consequently, Moneypenny drives off erratically, following someone up ahead. The reckless yet calm Moneypenny goes against the female stereotype of the audience; a strong female heroine, her stony-faced reaction to the chaos around her connotes her experience, and her similarity to Bond in the sense that they are both troubled characters, embroiled within their jobs, which perhaps foreshadows the end of the prologue sequence, when Moneypenny accidentally shoots Bond himself. The colours of the various stalls provide a sense of irony, how daily life resumes amongst the prominent threat of the terrorists. The diegetic noises of screams from the Istanbul citizens further reiterate this sense of chaos.

The action then resumes when the baddie gets away on a motorcycle; in a rush, Bond gets on an unused police motorcycle, revealing to the audience his experience and fearless nature. Thus begins an action-packed motor-cross chase amon the rooftops, fast paced editing highlighting the sense of danger that Bond is under, and his undying longing to capture the bad guy. The ever-continuing discussion between Bond and M connotes the importance of the mission, that the mission is of such significance that M must know what is going on. Alternatively, it also suggests how close the pair are, again foreshadowing what is to happen during the rest of the film. The crashing of windows and racing at high-speeds through highly-populated areas further emphasises the danger accompanied with Bond's job; there is a constsant threat of death that is a part of Bonds job. The intense yellow colours of the setting creates an omnipresent atmosphere, pathetic fallacy that reflects the pressure Bond is under. The bad guy then jumps onto a train; the gradual increase in intensity now coming to its climax. Bond's irrational behaviour (jumping from bike to train) connotes his fearless nature. The way in which he doesn't share the screen symbolically connotes his loneliness, how he lives for his job, a vigilante with no fear for a family, or anyone particularly close to him.