Balancing colour

Music for Coursework

Initial Ideas:

• slow to start
• gradually building up tension and tempo

Arcade fire - Keep The Car Running

- Song begins with on instrument then builds in the strings.

- would changed it by building the tempo and adding drums and bass to make an effective tempo.

MGMT - Time To Pretend

- starts with strings.

- brings in stronger strings.

- then some accompanied electric sounds and drums giving it a beat.

Queen - Bohemian Rhaposody

- slow singing to begin with - accopella.

- builds in piano.

- some bass to add a beat.

-Drums are added to the sound of his voice.

- then the drums take control of the beat.

- calms down back to piano then back to drums.

Arcade Fire - Crown Of Love

- Someone singing with piano in the background - simple drumming in the background.

- Piano builds up tempo - guitar adds some movement and increases the tempo. 

- then strings enters - sometimes stops the drums continue.

Rough cut - three

• I have now added some testing titles. 
• Not too sure where to put them in comparison to the rest of the opening.
• We still need to shoot one more scene. Should be done by the end of the week.
• Reading of letter - over voice
• walking out of houses - showing they are neighbours.

Feedback:

• The testing titles don't fit the genre of the film 
• too many transitions 
• The title "Neighbours" doesn't work by being on is own. Needs to use the backgrounds - not what you would usually see on this genre of film.

What is in this cut:

• testing titles 
• transition of titles
• "Neighbours" title 
• All the scenes apart from scene three

What isn't in this cut:

• scene three - walking out of houses showing the antagonists are neighbours 
• not sure on the definite titles
• Non-diegetic music created on garageband by Rian

Section B past paper

“Evaluate the role of digital technologies in the marketing and consumption of products in the media area you have studied.”

In this essay I will be discussing the ways digital technology affects the marketing and consumption of films; for film companies such as working title and warp.

  Digital technologies have had a major impact on the film industry in the past 15 years. Warp and Working title been effected by the use of digital technologies in different ways. Working title produced a film in 2005 called ‘Nanny Mcphee’, directed by Susanna Wright. Working title used digital technologies to distribute the film to the public. Nanny Mcphee had a budget of $25 million. Which in comparison to ‘Four Lions’ (£2.5 million) by warp is a considerable amount. Because of working titles larger budget the marketing was on a far bigger scale. Nanny Mcphee had digital billboards posted in various places in the US, and in the UK they spent money marketing the film on television adverts. The box office in the US was $14.5M and in the UK £2.6M. Whereas the box office for Four Lions; was $4200 in the US and £610000 in the UK. This played a key role in the consumption of the film. The more people that see it in various places the more likely they are to go and see the film. Working title played their TV advert on children’s channels, such as Disney Channel. This would be targeting the mass audience. Generally the more money you put into the film the more money you are going to get out of the film. Both Nanny Mcphee and Four Lions made a large profit, even with the different marketing techniques. Digital technology is more affective now than it has ever been; due the amount of people that have computer based devices. An example of digital marketing would be social media. Social media is a great example of marketing, especially for indie films; such as Four Lions. Social media is an effective way of marketing because it is free and is open to a large range of people. If one person likes it they may pass it on to their friends. Examples of social medias would be; Facebook, twitter and rotten tomatoes. However there can be some disadvantages; it is available for the whole world to see, therefore people may leave negative comments. This wouldn’t have a good impact on the marketing of Four Lions. Working title use large electric billboards; in large cities around the world to market their films. Nanny Mcphee was posted in Times Square for three days. You can only imagine the amount of people that saw this as they were walking through the city centre. Most often indie films will not use this form of digital marketing due to the cost of using the billboards. These are just two ways in which the role of digital marketing has developed in the recent years.

  Digital technologies have also effected the consumption of films in the film industries. There used to be about two ways of watching films. Either video players or going to the cinema. Now we are able to watch new and old films whenever and where ever we want. A role of digital technology would be programs such as; Netflix, downloading films illegally (putlocker and coke and popcorn) and sky movies. All of which give the audience the option to watch any films without having to leave their house. Before the use of Love film and Netflix you would have to go to the cinema to watch upcoming films. These digital technologies have changed the way we watch films forever. Programs like Netflix have actually put some businesses out of business. For example blockbuster; you could go and purchase or rent a film for a certain amount of time. However over time and with the use of Netflix, you can pay £5 a month and have access to a variety of films, which is far more convenient. People tend to use the most convenient way of watching films. As phones have progressed, we are able to simply have an app and start watching a film whenever. Companies such as warp and working title are aware of this and have some of their films on Netflix. Companies often share their films with Netflix and get an upfront payment. However the downside would be that there is no grossing payment.

  In conclusion, digital technologies play a vital role in the marketing and consumption of films; both in mainstream and independent films.

Production diary five

Production Diary four

Rough cut two

Feedback -

• Less transition shots is more. 
• Voiceover will be effective in the real shoot, giving the audience information of what is happening in the first two minutes; reading a letter from Isabelle too Sarah.
• Jumping edit doesn't work - scene one - shots in bed; need to see more of the protagonist at first sight.

What is on this cut:

• Scene one
• Scene four
• diegetic music
• overlapping 

What isn't on this cut:

• Scene two
• Scene three
• scene five
• non-diegtic music
• overvoice - reading of letter

Production Diary three

Rough cut one

Feedback -

• The overlapping scenes look very good and are effective. 
• The last scene builds tension well and works.
• Try keep the camera still for a more polished look.

- Teacher

What is on this edit:

• All the shots from scene four
• shots of Niamhs cousins 
• Diegetic music

What isn't on this edit:

• Scene one
• Scene two
• Scene three
• Scene four
• Titles
• Idents
• overlap over letter reading
• Voice over
• Non-diegtic music

Editing:

• Transitions
• Overlap of scenes - opacity of over lap 33%
• Speed up of the tracking shot
• Slow motion of panning shot - graveyard - overlap - opacity 30%

Production Diary two

Terminology

Anchorage - a way of ‘tying down meaning’, without anchorage meaning could be polysemic – open to various interpretations, EG. a caption anchors meaning to a photo, music anchors mood in a film

Audience - a key aspect of Media Studies – how audiences are identified, created and addressed and how audiences access, interpret and respond to texts

Auteur - a film director whose films show a personal vision or style

Avant gardeA- innovative, experimental work which breaks main stream conventions

Binary oppositions - the theory that you cannot understand good if you don’t understand evil, eg heroes and villains

Cliff hanger - an ending that creates suspense, often used in a ‘soap’ to make the audience watch the next episode

Climax - the point in the narrative where conflicts/enigmas are resolved

Closure - the completion of a narrative in a classic narrative, eg the happy ending in which the hero defeats the villain

Connotation - the meaning associated with a sign, eg a red rose could be associated with love

Denotation - he description of a sign, eg the dictionary definition

Convention - established ways of treating genre, codes, narrative or representations

Decoding - the processes by which media audiences interpret meaning in a media text

Dietetic sound - the sound that actually comes from the set or studio like dialogue, not added later like music to set mood

Non-Diegetic sound - sound that does not come from the set/location, usually added in editing , eg theme music, voice-over

Encoding - the process by which media producers construct meanings in a text

Enigma - a question posed in a text

Film noir - type of film made in the 1940s and 1950s which used low- key lighting, shadows etc to reflect the dark side of human nature

Genre - a set of conventions or common practices which guide the production, marketing, identification and interpretation of texts 

Ideologies - shared beliefs and values in any social group (see dominant and oppositional ideologies)

Intertextuality - links between texts, eg genre, stars, subject matter, spin- offs

Mise-en-scene - whatever happens in the frame, ie characters, set, props etc

Narrative inigma - Leaving something out to give a sense of Mystery

Preferred reading - the idea that texts contain messages which support mainstream ideology, ie how the maker wants the audience to read the text

Propaganda - texts which use emphasis and selection to try to persuade the audience of a particular view point

Resolution - the outcome of a narrative conflict

Serif font - typeface whose characters have short strokes at the ends, eg Times (used to connote tradition and to aid readability)

 Sans-serif font- typeface whose characters do not have strokes at the end, eg Arial (used to connote modernity)

Semantics - the study of the meanings of signs and codes (as is studied in Language)

Signifier - the physical form of the sign, eg BBC

Stereotype - representations of people, places or events in an instantly recognisable way, eg Scots with red hair wearing kilts

Target audience - the main group or groups of individuals at whom the product is aimed

Semiotics - What make a film, EG. music, camera shots, lighting 

My Ident research

A TV ident is the little bit of video that plays a few seconds before a programme starts, informing the viewer of which channel they're watching. A promotional sequence, it's a critical part of a TV stations brand identity.



This is an example from Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network is a channel that shows cartoons and children's TV shows. This ident shows the classic CN cubes starting to slowly tear apart then spread up, this builds suspense and brings the watcher in. The black and white is contrasting. The then pink background helps us connote the children's showings. Pink is a fun bright colour.




This is Astros ident. It gives a horror feel to it. This is the effect i want to give in my ident, due to mine and Niamhs film being a dark comedy. The black background with the white words, give the impression of a serious production. The flashing blurring out the words into the other gives me inspiration to use fog or smoke over powering the words fading them out. Giving a sense of mystery.

Plan for filming 4th-11th January

Wednesday - Niamh filming Sarah in her room getting ready for school
Saturday - Rian Filming Izzy getting ready in her room
Friday - In school filming - walking down corridor

Donnie darko opening scene analysis

Donnie Darko is a sifi and fantisy film relased in 2002 , which is about a A troubled teenager plagued by visions of a large bunny rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes, after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.

The opening scene however seems peaceful in comparison to the rest of the movie, the opening lasts 4 minutes 18 seconds and focuses primarily on him alone , although other characters are shown toward the end of the opening. 

The first shot shows an extreme long shot of a road surrounded by trees and the protagonist laying in the centre of the road. The shot is very framed around him and the road acts as a lead in line directing out eyes straight to him , it is also simple and doesn't include anything that could distract us from him.

 These two shots pan toward the protagonist but up until this point we have still not seen his face , this creates narrative enigma and builds up suspense. The angles are also quite high and we slightly look down on him , this creates a sense of power for the audience and makes him seem weak and targeted. 

 The camera pans around him showing the back of his head and also his bike , we then learn how we got to where he is, this shot also put us slightly in his perspective as we can see what he is looking at. 

We are then finally shown his face through a media long shot.

we are shown an extreme long shot of what the protagonist is looking which not only sets the scene but also helps us again understand and we what he is looking at this also buts the audience in him shoes and we see things from his perspective. 

  

After seeing the back of him against the view then see him turn towards the camera and for the second time we see his face. He smiled which is the first emotion we see from him , this may indicate that this is a place that he enjoys coming or that he likes. 

We then see the title " Donnie Darko " .

We see the protagonist cycling down a hill away rom the pace we perversely was shown. A mix of extreme close ups and long shots shown his journey down the hill.

The poster is shown as he cycles past it. This helps or the audience to denote the time of year and the setting he is surrounded by. It could show that there is a small and active community.

The two images above show the type of neighbourhood he lives in , the dress of the women jogging helps us to understand the time period and the time the film is set in , the houses in the background show that he lives in a wealthy , upper class house and family.

The camera then pans from the road onto a drive inn which Porsche is parked and a man is blowing the leave off of the grass , along with the car showing that the family have money it also shows that the family take pride the house and the grades and that they have respect for the areas they live in.

The protagonist then cycles onto the grass and dumps his bike on top of it. The contrasts between the care and attention the man was paying to the garden , it shows that the protagonist has little respect for the garden and it could also show he is in a rush for something. 

Through these three shots we see a girl which we can presume to be his little sister jumping on a trampoline , his mother sat on a sun lounger reading and then him walking psst the both over to the  fridge that has a sign saying " where is Donnie" . The fact that the mother is sat on the sun lounger when donnie is clearly missing could show that there is a lack of worry and panic towards him being missing alternatively it could show that it happens regally and that they don't need to worry because we will eventually come back.