Diary
Friday 16th October - EP (Ella Ponting)
For this lesson I worked on a post based on our Staging Exercise discussing the different techniques used and to what effect they created. This allowed me to gain more experience with filming and learn techniques which could be directly applied to our final piece. Although some mistakes were made during this filming process this provided us valuable filming experience and allowed us to learn from these errors which will be compensated for in our final project.
Both Sara and Monisha continued to work on the editing of two different videos (Thriller Conventions Film and Filming Techniques Video). Whilst Monisha's film still needs to be posted, Sara's can be found on our post Genre, Codes and Conventions.
For the second half of the lesson we began to watch one of the most widely regarded early psychological thriller films 'Psycho' directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. This film
12th October 2015 -SA (took the pictures for the post) and EP
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| 1. Ella (EP) - Developing the Locations |
Different tasks were carried out by each member of our group - mine being working on our film locations backed up by a brief explanation into why I used a certain shot-type and angle and how this relates to our genre and the impact this may have on the audience. We decided to carry out a lot of the filming at my house where we can shoot scenes in the Protagonist's Bedroom and the
Kitchen/Dining/Living Room area thus I felt as though it would be best for me to take these shots and discuss them in more depth as I am more familiar with these locations than my other group members. I also discussed the misé-en-scene in the shot locations and how this is indicative of our film's genre and it's codes and conventions. My finished result can be viewed on our Research - Locations page.
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| 2. Sara (SA) - Editing our Genre Conventions Film |
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| 3. Monisha (MR) - Editing our Filming Techniques Video |
Monisha continued to work on editing the video herself and Sara created to illustrate the different sorts of camera techniques we can include in our final project. This gave us all a better idea of the typical camera movements used, such as a tracking to capture the essence of a character or location. Putting these techniques into practice gave them more practical experience into filming which will be extremely useful for our final project. The video editing also gave the other two members in my group more experience with this process, this means that they can feel more confident when it comes to editing our final project as they would've already done similar things
For the second lesson we all went to try and discover a possible location for the 'Counselor's Office' for our film set. We decided to film this scene at school as we will be closer to filming equipment and resources as well as finding an adult who will be willing to play the role of the Counselor. After walking around school and viewing all the possible locations we all agreed on using a small area in the library as the set for the Counselor's Office, provided that we can book it and make sure that the room is silent and empty apart from the film crew and actors.
Here are a few of our location shots Monisha took of the possible Counselor's Office location. The rest of the shots can be found in our post: http://saramonishaella.blogspot.co.uk/p/research-locations.htmlwhich also discusses as to what effect these shots produce and how they are indicative of our genre and audience.
Monday 19th October - Ella Ponting (EP)
Today, I produced a blog post on the Staging Exercise we did with another group in which I discussed the techniques we used to film these scenes as well as how this may be applied to our psychological thriller genre.
For the second lesson our teacher was absent so we watched the film 'Psycho' produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock which allowed us to pick up on some of the conventions used in psychological thrillers. This film is one of the highest regarded psychological thrillers in film history and is a film that we may potentially do a film review of as well as a modern day thriller in which we may discuss how thrillers have evolved and the similarities and differences between them both.
For the second lesson our teacher was absent so we watched the film 'Psycho' produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock which allowed us to pick up on some of the conventions used in psychological thrillers. This film is one of the highest regarded psychological thrillers in film history and is a film that we may potentially do a film review of as well as a modern day thriller in which we may discuss how thrillers have evolved and the similarities and differences between them both.Wednesday 4th November - Ella Ponting (EP)
Today our media class went on a school trip to see the documentary 'He Named Me Malala' - an insightful documentary based around Nobel Peace Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai and her upbringing in a world that oppresses her and her female classmates. It centres around her childhood and transition from her home in the Swat Valley to wear she now lives with her family in Birmingham. After the documentary had finished we were fortunate enough to view an exclusive interview between herself and Emma Watson where she discussed her future plans and campaigns.
A review I wrote based on this documentary can be viewed here:
http://saramonishaella.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/he-named-me-malala-review.html
Wednesday 4th November - Sara Avramovska (SA)
Today as EP has previously stated, our A2 Media class had the wonderful opportunity to now only see the biographical, brilliant documentary of ''He Named Me Malala'' by Davis Guggenheim, however we also got to view extra footage of Malala Youzafai answering questions submitted by students just like myself from all around the UK along with the brilliant Emma Watson interviewing her. I found this experience truly motivational and the extra footage made this experience extra special as many of the questions I had in my mind that I would mind ask Malala if I had the opportunity to, have been asked by some of the students from the UK and answered directly to me also. The true story of Malala Youzafai''An ordinary teenage girl with an uplifting tribute to place the Taliban in shame, and thankfully survived to reveal a tale of her own. ''(quote from my review) was so amaizing that I could not resist but review the film,
You can find my full review on:
http://saramonishaella.blogspot.co.uk/
Scroll Down, its just after Ella's ! Hope you enjoy! :)
You can find my full review on:
http://saramonishaella.blogspot.co.uk/
Scroll Down, its just after Ella's ! Hope you enjoy! :)
Friday 6th November - Ella Ponting (EP)
For this lesson we worked on our film script. over the half term I had constructed a first draft of the script and together with Sara and Monisha we went through the script discussing which bits we thought worked well and which bits that may need to be altered/ erased. We used a scriptwriting programme called 'celtx' which has helped us to lay out the script in a similar format to a real film script. The programme was effective in laying out which fonts to use for dialogue, actions, shots etc which gave us a solid basis for our film's layout. We are currently in the process of editing drafts and adding more to our script, all which can be viewed here:
http://saramonishaella.blogspot.co.uk/p/construction_10.html or under our 'Construction - Script' page on our blog.
Monday 9th November - Ella Ponting (EP)
For this lesson I constructed a third draft of the script based on some of the changes Sara and Monisha had made to the script. I made a slight change to the plot line (after discussing it through with my group) and made minor changes to the spelling, punctuation and grammar to ensure that our film is fluent and as similar to a real film script as possible. These changes and different drafts of our script can be viewed under our Construction - Script and Treatment page on our blog.
Monisha similarly spent the lesson working on the script and script-based research on psychological thriller film scripts. After doing this she gained more of an insight into the structure and layout of scripts which she will be applying to another draft of the script. Gaining this knowledge also allowed her to understand more about the lexicon choice used in thrillers to reflect the genre and to add to the build up in suspense in the film.
Sara worked on the pages about props, lighting and sound and researched the typical props used in the psychological thriller genre and whether this would fit into our genre. She also looked into the different forms of sound used and how this may be applied to our film as well as different lighting to consider using in our filming both in the filming and editing process. This work can be viewed here:
http://saramonishaella.blogspot.co.uk/p/research_11.html or under our 'Research - Sound and Lighting' page on our blog.
http://saramonishaella.blogspot.co.uk/p/research_11.html or under our 'Research - Sound and Lighting' page on our blog.
Friday 13th November - Ella Ponting (EP)
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| Example of a Foley Studio. A screen is hung up on the far end of the wall where the visual is projected, to ensure that the sound they're creating matches the action displayed in the film. |
For period 1 of our Media Lesson we viewed several presentations two people in our class had constructed as part of the BFI Film Academy workshop they are participating in. Through this we learnt more about Editing, VFX and Sound (from the first powerpoint) and how visual effects can be inserted into a film both pre-production and post-production by using software such as Final Cut Pro. We discovered that the most effective visual effects you can generate in the editing process (post-production) are 'After Effects' and 'Cinema 3D' to create fascinating visuals. Through this presentation we also learned some of the key goals of editing: removing unwanted video and sound, and reinforcing continuity.
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| 1. Sara working on her Foley Research |
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| 3. Myself, working on Diary & updating blog posts |
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| 2. Monish working on her PowerPoint |
After we had viewed these presentations, Sara updated her page on Sound Research to include her Foley research.
For the second lesson Monisha worked on her research into Psychological Thriller Movie Posters as well as adding to her PowerPoint about Costumes, Makeup and Props which will be uploaded to the blog shortly.
We have also made a list of poster we will be reviewing/ analysing therefore we don't end up reviewing the same ones, so..
Monisha Roy's movie analysis: Black Swan, The Resident, Final Destination.
Ella Ponting's movie poster analysis: The Butterfly Effect, Psycho, Seven.
My movie poster analysis (Sara Avramovska): The Silence of the Lambs, The Game, The Box.
Today, I have personally
Today myself, Sara, Monisha and our actors Han-Sun and Joelina decided to do a test-run in terms of make-up, timing, lighting and organisation. As our actors didn't have time to stay and shoot for very long we decided to see how long it would take to apply make-up and organise the lighting for our film's shooting day so we make sure to leave enough time to film. As the vast majority of our film needs to be shot between 3 o'clock - 9 o'clock when it is dark we had to make sure that our crew and actors arrived at mid-day leaving a lot of time for setting-up and applying makeup. The application of the contact lenses did prove slightly problematic in terms of placing them in the eye and taking them out so we also had to factor this in for out timing as well. Both Sara and I were in charge or applying the makeup and we had to make sure that the makeup we were applying was approximately similar as to make it clear in our film who the demons are.
We both used white face paint as we recognised this would show up best in a dimly lit room and created a pale, dead appearance for our actors. For the dress rehearsal we only managed to attain one pair of lenses, however Sara and Monisha have decided to buy another pair each which both of them will wear. After we decided this, I had to keep in mind that I would therefore be directing and shooting this scene, with the advice and contribution of Sara and Monisha also. We decided to use white/grey contact lenses and dark eye-makeup with shadows around the eyes once again to draw the audience's attention towards the demons and to make them appear more striking and other-worldly. Sara also created fake-blood which she took along to the set which was effective at creating fake wounds which we applied on the neck and faces of our demon actors. Our dress rehearsal allowed us to test out the fake-blood which revealed to us that it was very quick to dry. This added a new dimension to the wound but also meant that it was very quick to come off; after knowing this we will make sure to apply the fake blood just before shooting and make sure to do touch-ups when needs be. We also decided to both use black lipstick which will reinforce the deadly, unsettling appearances of our actors.
These photos enabled us to have a pictures to work from when we next film so as to see what special make-up effects were the most effective, as well as changes that could be made to enhance the demon-like characters we have created. For the demon who I was putting makeup on I decided that next time I would make her eyebrows darker and more striking by creating more if an arched brow to give a more menacing edge to the demon as well as using a darker eye pencil to make the facial features stand out more.
Rather than creating an eyeshadow effect with winged eyeliner, I have decided that next time I will make the eyes more defined by using more eyeliner around the eyes to create dark unearthly shadows to enhance the dead appearance of this character. I have decided not to include eyeshadow in this format as it resembles too similarly to the makeup a lot of teenagers would wear. I have decided to use less fake-blood next time too as to shine the focus on the demon's eyes and pale skin. Instead I have decided to replace the blood with bruises which I will create using an array of different lipsticks and face paints to create a deep purple bruise.
Next time we film, Monisha will be applying most of her own make-up, with the help of Sara who has decided to be demon 1 for our demon-scene. She will be using make-up similar to before but also will be using slightly less fake blood and has decided to invest in some coloured contact lenses to match the dead- look of our other demons.
Today we managed to shoot the demon scene, despite encountering a few difficulties whilst filming. The make-up took a long time, as expected yet the filming process also took longer than anticipated. I made the changes to demon 2's makeup as I stated before in the previous entry which I feel helped reinforce the dead, otherworldly appearance of the character. After everyone had completed the demon's make-up we encountered a new problem: the video-recorder was low in charge. Despite this, we learned that we could still film whilst the video camera was still charging which allowed us to save a lot of time had we of had to wait for it. We learned from this experience that we should always check the video camera's battery before filming. We also had to be mindful of the space in which we were filming in. For example, for one of our shots we have a close-up of the digital clock turning 12 o'clock as symbolic of the time of the haunting. Therefore in the rest of our shots where the clock was in the frame we had to make sure that the time was relatively similar in all of the shots.
Previously, Sara decided she wanted to be a demon in our film thus she researched the make-up and bought some coloured contact lenses as to suit her new role. She bought the same coloured lenses as demon 2 which is useful in indicating that the two characters are of the same supernatural entity. After watching various make-up tutorials, Sara decided she wanted to create the effect of the veins popping out of the face. This creates a chilling, unusual effect and also indicates a sense of decay as the veins appear almost like cracks in the skin on her face.
Monisha decided to use similar make-up to what was applied by Sara previously. However she decided to blend in the white face-paint more thoroughly to create a grey tinge, to evoke a sense of decay and archaism. She used a black eye-shadow to create the appearance of dark circles underneath the eyes which was also used to contour her cheeks to create a hollow, sunken look. Fewer wounds were created using makeup as to not distract the audience away from the dead, eerie look of these dark figures.
Whilst shooting I mainly used a series of jump-cuts showing the figure(s) to be positioned in one demonic stance, only for the light to dim and as the light appears the demon has shifted forward into a different pose and position. I used to this to reflect a sense of chaos and disorder and to use a similar effect with the lights that are used as conventions in psychological thrillers and horror films. As both other members of my group were demons in this scene, I was in charge of filming this scene which I constructed based on the storyboard I made for the scenes filmed at my house. However, I would consult with the rest of my group whether they thought the shot worked or not and made constructive comments and suggestions based on this. I used torches to create the effect of a spotlight appearing on the demons, this allowed us to target a specific character rather than a whole area of our shot and the use of this hand-held device added to the disarray of the scene. I used a series of bird-eye close-ups of the protagonist to allow the audience to feel as if they are overlooking the scene and to reflect the motions of the scene in closer detail e.g. the shot in which the protagonist's eyes are drooping shut.
Today we planned to start shooting the scene in which our protagonist, Hayle is getting ready to go to sleep. However, due to difficulties in time arrangements our actor couldn't stay long enough to shoot very much footage. For our film, the majority of the footage needs to be shot when it is dark, however our actor could only stay until 3 o'clock, just as it started to get dark. This meant that the shots we did manage to capture could only be the scenes in the bedroom where the curtains blocked out most of the light. We also approached a difficulty in which we borrowed all of the camera equipment from school, yet didn't take the video-camera which led us to being forced to use my Canon 100D DSLR which was notoriously difficult to focus. This led to us having to re-record the short scene numerous times as it wouldn't focus very well, we discovered later that these cameras are a lot more difficult to use than video-cameras when it comes to shooting a film as they are hyper-sensitive to movement and take a long time to focus, which is why they are primarily used for photographic purposes. Despite this we hope that the small amount of footage we captured was substantial enough to include in our film, and if not we will have to re-shoot it. However, this is a learning curve and allowed us to develop our filming skills and brought us together as a team to brainstorm resolutions to this problem. The pictures shown below show our filming process on the day:
Today as a class we looked at the different topics we can choose from in our exam to answer questions based on. For Section A we are looking at the Theoretical Evaluation of Production which consists of selecting one production, for us being our AS coursework from last year, and evaluating it in relation to a media concept. In contrast, Section B covers Contemporary Media Issues such as Media and Collective Identity. We looked at each of these themes and how they relate to the key theorists we have looked at so far as well as the different documentaries we have watched and how our notes can be useful for answering these questions. A document on the shared drive (which I have uploaded to this blogpost) was made by our teacher for recision purposes and to clearly demonstrate how the themes link to our work so far. Once we have chosen a Contemporary Media Issue to evaluate, we have to answer 4 questions based on it. He also talked through the term 'We Media' which was foreign to most of us. This issue alongside democracy refers to media in the modern age, in which media can be produced by any individual (e.g through a YouTube video). This juxtaposes with traditional media which was seen to be produced primarily through large institutions.
For the second lesson I updated the Diary for the work we did yesterday and started my research on Film Review Magazines and learned more about 'Sight & Sound' magazine. I discovered that the magazine is published by the BFI and that the magazine produces a range of different reviews on both large Hollywood blockbusters and low-budget independent art house films. They are also unique as they list the entire credits of the film underneath their review which shows true appreciation from the film and everyone's individual involvement - however it does take up a lot of space which would be something to consider whilst doing my final film review piece. A more detailed in-depth research of this magazine can be found on the page 'Research - Movie Poster Analysis + History of Photography and Construction and Film Review' ( http://saramonishaella.blogspot.co.uk/p/movie-posters.html ). Sara and Monisha were absent for a sports-related event however over break they managed to find the teacher who was in charge of the room we want to use for shooting at school and discovered that they had found the key to the room (which had previously been lost) allowing us to have access to shooting in this place.
After this both Sara and I filmed the downstairs scene in which our protagonist is watching television. I used a shot similar to the image displayed to the right of this text to capture the scene from the protagonist's perspective. We needed to include the diegetic sound for this scene to match the visuals that are displayed which proved slightly difficult whilst filming, however we decided to just have the sound in one of the shots as it would be more difficult to sync the sound to the previous frame. The corresponding scene included myself filming a series of shots in which the protagonist shifts between different poses mirroring her distressed, panicked state. I have done this to enhance the sense of chaos and to add to the sense of foreboding that something horrifying is near approaching. These shots will be cut down to become jump-cuts, a technique I have also incorporated during the filming and editing of my AS Media project.
Today myself, Sara and Monisha started the editing process for our final piece, this consisted of organising the clips that we wish to use based on the definition of the image, the quality of sound, and amount of lighting used to highlight the key features of the demon(s) and protagonist. There were a lot of seemingly repetitive clips, however we later discovered that the reason for this was that we had shot a lot of the same scene without remembering to change the time on the clock which was prominent in a lot of the scenes from the 'Demon Sequence'. The protagonist's sleep paralysis episode was meant to begin at '12:00', this specific time is meant to represent the period in which time becomes disjoined and there's a sense of being trapped in between a time capsule. We had filmed a scene where the clock turns '12:00' yet the best footage we gained from the scene we shot with the demons was where the clock appears to be '12:09' this may mean we will have to re-film the shot we took of the clock turning '12:00' to adjust it to a later time. However, after discussing this as a group, we concluded that in our sequence the sense of chaos and disturbance may in-fact be enhanced by the fragmented time-zone in which we are shooting. Sara organised the clips into different folders during this process to ensure that we had separated the clips from the shots we do want to use, the shots we don't want to use, and the ones we aren't sure about. This means that none of the clips have been permanently deleted and we don't have to worry about losing anything in-case we need to go back and re-evaluate the footage that we have obtained. She also organised the folders in terms of the different sequences in our film, such as the scene in which our protagonist is reading a book and the scene in which the demons are floating around the room as if in a trance. Monisha and I helped advise her on the clips that are best to use and reminded her of the shots we referred to as being the most successful on the days we filmed.
We also had assistance from Iona Fabian, our media assistant who has had lots of experience in filming and editing who gave us a brief overview on the technicalities of 'Final Cut Pro' and gave us a demonstration on how to import clips, save your files and adjust sound and lighting. This was extremely useful as I had never used this editing software before and it gave me greater confidence in understanding the editing process. During this demonstration, Iona pointed out the similarities between 'Final Cut Pro' and 'iMovie' and discussed how we could incorporate similar techniques into 'Final Cut Pro'. She also highlighted the differences in terms of having a greater range of options in terms of filters, lighting and sound adjustments and other systematic tools. She also pointed out the graininess of the clips and we realised just how dark the clips appeared, which had altogether affected the overall quality of some of the footage. She helpfully pointed out the clips we would need to re-shoot and suggested adjusting the setting to manual on our video camera and changing the exposure whilst incorporating more lighting into the scene. After watching back on our clips, I found out that the clip where the protagonist is reading in bed is of the perfect lighting for the shot; we managed to achieve this lighting through using two sets of fairy lights to create a glowy ambiance, that would be subtle enough to be used for a night time scene. After learning more about video camera settings from Iona I have decided to research more into the practicalities of using a video camera and learning more about the model we are using (Panasonic Video Camera) and how we can use things like shutter speed to our advantage.
For today's lesson I focused on my film review research in terms of producing a short summary to back-up my 'Empire' powerpoint which displayed my research into this magazine. The powerpoint discussed a brief overview of the magazine as to give the examiner some background into the magazine, followed by the media company which produces this magazine (Bauer Media Group). I then analysed the typically occurring features in the magazine such as the 'How Much Is A Pint Of Milk?' column. To display how this international magazine has an impact on celebrity culture I also delved into discussing their annual 'Empire Awards' whose readers of the magazine act as the voters for the awards distributed. Another aspect of the magazine I discussed were the genres typically analysed for their film reviews as well as the target audience for the magazine that the magazine typically appeals to. The end slide of my 'Empire magazine' powerpoint sums up Empire's aims and the purpose of the magazine. I also started my research on 'Little White Lies' a bimonthly film magazine published under TCOLondon, a London-based media marketing company.
Whilst I continued with this work, Sara researched more into black and white photography as part of her Film Poster research. She analysed a series of different film posters such as 'The Number 23' which included certain conventions that we can apply to our film poster such as the dark circles around the protagonist's eyes and the use of monochromatic colours. She also analysed the connotations of the colours black and white and how these colours would impact the audience's perception of the film. Monisha analysed two of the shots we needed to re-shoot including the shot where the protagonist emerges from her sleep and sits up hastily with a close-up of her bloodied hands. She hasn't currently uploaded this to the blog but it should be under Construction - Editing Final Pieces (Movie Poster, Film Review and Short Film Scenes).
Today we re-shot the scenes that turned out grainy and blurred this includes the shots in which the protagonist is falling asleep which filmed using a close-up of her eyes closing as well as a shot of her eyes darting side to side when the demons begin their 'haunting' in her episode of sleep paralysis. To ensure that our film's quality is as crisp and defined as possible, we set the videocamera to 'manual focus' and changed it to the 'IRIS' setting. This setting adjusts the lighting of the picture within the actual camera, without externally changing the lighting, we upped the amount of light and exposure for the darker scenes using this setting to make sure that our protagonist stands out amongst the dark, foreboding background. For the scenes where the protagonist's eyes are closing we used two different spotlights, one from an eye level angle placed in front of the protagonist and another at a low angle from a side perspective to the protagonist. This created a glowy effect and created intense shadows surrounding the protagonist's face and a warm light circling around the protagonist's face and facial features.
We then re-shot the scene in which the protagonist is channel flicking; we had to reshoot this scene because it was too long and would have been difficult to cut down since diegetic sound is included and the television is both turned on and off in the same shot. Thus, we had to include a shorter shot, cutting it down to under 20 seconds so as to not bore the audience through lingering on the same shot but also giving them enough time to view the task being carried out whilst continuing to engage them in our production. The television took a while to turn on in the shot, therefore as a group we decided it would be best to speed up the first 5 seconds where the television appears to be warming up and taking a long while to reach the opening television channel. For this shot we used the same picture as seen on our story board: a mid-shot with a shallow depth of field, with the camera focusing primarily on the object closest to the camera, which in this circumstance is the television remote with the television appearing slightly blurred. We decided to film it in this way as to add to the chaos and sense of distractedness from the protagonist who doesn't seem to be able to be restful, the lack of focus of the protagonist's persona thus is mirrored through this shot with the lack of focus in terms of our camera technique being on the television.
One of our final re-shoots of today was of the scene in which the protagonist opens the door and scans her surroundings after thinking she's seen something unsettling outside. Our shots before weren't very continuous and appeared slightly rushed thus I thought it would make sense to re-shoot this section to ensure our film appears as sophisticated and continuous as possible. We managed to re-shoot the protagonist opening the door from an over the shoulder perspective, to connect the audience to the film and watch the film play out through her eyes. We had to use a hand-held technique for this shot because the reflection from the windows made it that ourselves and the tripod (as well as the small red light on the videocamera) appeared in a lot of the shots if we didn't choose our angles and camera techniques wisely. Thus we had to make sure we had a steady hand for this shot to make the motion of the protagonist opening the door appear as smooth as possible. The shot following this of the protagonist scanning her surroundings was shot using a pan technique, I also used a hand-held technique for this as the tripod is difficult for using faster swift shots whilst incorporating camera techniques like tracking and panning. I also wanted to mirror the ways in which the protagonist head and eyes would be moving and using the hand-held technique allowed me to mirror the protagonist's movements to the camera technique used.
After we had finished our re-shoots for this certain section of the film, we finished the transition from the room the protagonist is currently in (The kitchen/living space/dining room area) to the upstairs bathroom. To do this we used a tracking shot of the protagonist from the door that leads to the garden, walking towards the door exiting the living space area. This shot successfully captures the transition without including anyone's reflections in the shot, however after watching this shot back, there is a clock in the shot with the wrong time on it so it may be a possibility that we will have to re-shoot this specific shot. After this Monisha was in charge of shooting the scene where the protagonist heads upstairs; she used a variety of different techniques, ranging from a tracking shot of the protagonist heading down the hallway towards the stairs, a shot taken at a side angle through the railings in the staircase adding a unique angle to the scene, followed by a front-view shot of the protagonist heading closer towards the top of the stairs. We also shot the transition of the protagonist from the top of the stairs to the bathroom, setting us up for the scene where the protagonist washes her face. We also may need to re-shoot this scene as our filming had to come to an end after this, thus for the bathroom scene to appear continuous we will need to have each shot continuous from the previous.
Today I re-shot the time-lapse sequence where the clock is changing from 11:59 - 12:08, this was due to our first attempt at shooting this the camera shifted mid-way filming. First, I shot this progression uninterrupted for approximately ten minutes, then I filmed separately ten seconds of each minute on the clock. I did this to ensure that if one of the filming sequences was to not work during the editing sequence then we would have a back up. Unfortunately I did not have the tripod with me as it was too heavy to carry back to my house, thus I managed to place it on a table-top and used books and other hard objects to change the level of the camera and the clock. I was responsible for filming this sequence as the other two members of my group could not, since we are doing the majority of filming at my house.
At my Digital Youth group later on in the day I began creating a website titled 'Beyond the Vision' which I may change depending on whether or not I find a more unique and unusual name. I used the website: wix.com for this as I have used this program before and it offers an array of different templates for different organisations and businesses. In my circumstance, I will be using it to upload my film review and the images to go along with it as well, Sara and Monisha's film poster(s) may also be uploaded on this website, however this is yet to be confirmed.
For today's lesson we primarily focused on updating our terms list with the key units we will cover in our media course, and potential units to include in our examination as well. This included definitions of: Contemporary Media Regulation, Media and Collective Identity, Global Media, Post-Modern Media, 'We Media' and Democracy, and Media in the Online Age. It was important to discover more about these units as well as examples of the topics we may learn about within this to gain a better understanding of the work these units entail and to provide inspiration for future learning of media issues. Whilst I added to my list on the Word Document, Sara and Monisha jotted theirs down in their media exercise books as future reference for revision purposes. My version of these definitions can be seen below:
We also read and annotated a section from our OCR Media Studies book, our teacher discussed the different units we will potentially address (seen in the terms list above) and introduced us to some new key concepts linking to media language and theology. He first explained 'Semiotics' which he defined as language which is coded through our culture and experiences. This is then divided into the signifier, which is something interpreted as the material form (i.e. something which can be seen, heard, tasted, smelled and touched) and the signified which is a mental concept. We discovered that we see on-screen has a code that can read into something else which can change from person to person. In media often you can have the same signifier but it is in the eye of the beholder and can have a different signified effect, with the same object providing different meanings from person to person. We also learned about Simulacra and Simulation (Baudrillard, 1981). Baudrillard says that the simulation (i.e. what we see on-screen) has become our 'hyper-reality' as the gap between fantasy and reality narrows. Whilst the simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real world system over time , the simulacra is an image or representation of something. Baudrillard states that as the grasp we have on reality becomes more tenuous, the hyper reality of the virtual world becomes more attractive, thus making us spend more time on it.
We then watched part of the film 'Look Back In Anger (1959)' and had a class group discussion about the gender roles and the huge sense of class-consciousness that the film emanates. This contrasts with the audience who would've been viewing the film, which primarily would've been middle/upper class individuals. The focus on characters from a working-class background was relatively new in film, possibly due to the post World War II ideals, where the strong working-class patriotic man was glorified, returning from war as heroes, equal amongst their army peers. We also discussed the gender roles in the film, where the woman has very little dialogue, does not work, yet despite this is still the wealthiest member of the household. She is depicted as the object of male domination in the household, where her partner yields his strength and power over her through physical violence and verbal rudeness.
INSERT COUNSELOR SCENE PICS HERE
Thursday 26 November - Sara Avramovska (SA)
Today I have made a start on my research based on Psychological Thriller Movie Poster's codes and conventions. I believe this task I have set myself is absolutely fundamental as it will massivly benefit the construction of our own movie poster.
Monday 23rd November - Monisha Roy (MR) & (SA) Sara Avramovska
For this task, myself (Sara Avramovska) and Monisha Roy have had the opportunity to practise and set up the equipment for our auditions such as lighting, camera, sound etc. We have furthermore analysed in detail our resigning onto the blog. The link to this is shown below:
Monday November - SA (Sara Avramovska)
For this lesson, we have read though and analysed our entire blog ourselves, I personally made a list of tasks along with the help of EP, of what we individually intend to achieve withing the next month therefore we can begin filming. Even though most of our work was completed, we simply had to upload it onto the blog however due to myself and Monisha's poor laptop conditions it has taken us a while longer. Although we found this incredibly useful and stress alleviating as it provided our group guidance.
We have also made a list of poster we will be reviewing/ analysing therefore we don't end up reviewing the same ones, so..
Monisha Roy's movie analysis: Black Swan, The Resident, Final Destination.
Ella Ponting's movie poster analysis: The Butterfly Effect, Psycho, Seven.
My movie poster analysis (Sara Avramovska): The Silence of the Lambs, The Game, The Box.
Friday 4th December - Ella Ponting (EP) & Pictures taken by Sara Avramovska (SA)
Today's lesson consisted of us filming and
editing audition videos to show the process of finding the characters who will
best suit our roles in the film. We used professional lighting equipment and a
CGI screen to place the spotlight on our actors and to draw the audience's
attention to this individual. For some of the people we auditioned we had a
clear idea of which character we wanted them to audition for. For example, we
knew that Mr Budd and Mr Bayliss would best suit the role of the counsellor and
that Marwa would best suit auditioning for the protagonist. However we also
auditioned Han-San who we were unsure whether she would be best suited to the
protagonist of the counsellor so consequently she auditioned for both parts. We
still have several more people we want to audition for these roles, however we
have gained a better understanding about acting and drama in terms of the tone
of the actor and the way in which the annunciate and how this can effect the
portrayal of a character. Whilst Monisha and Sara filmed and set up the
audition room's setting, I read through the other parts when filming the
auditions. Although originally we wished to have a female counsellor, we
decided to audition men also for this role to evaluate the differences between
the actors and the way in which they acted according to our script. We found
that the people auditioning for the role of the male counsellor, especially Mr
Bayliss, provided a unique take on this role and were very expressive and
confident auditioning. Stereotypically counsellors are assumed to be female as
traditionally women are socialised into caring and nurturing roles in society.
We want to avoid gender bias in our film and as our protagonist is going to be
female, we want to include characters of other genders to ensure that we
include accurate portrayals of different social groups.
(SARA - INSERT PICS YOU TOOK FOR THE AUDITION PROCESS HERE!!)
The second lesson consisted of watching Episode
2 of John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’ (1972) series and participating in a group
discussion about gender representation based on what we had watched. He
discusses how representation isn’t that innocent and that whilst ‘men dream of
women, women dreamt of themselves being dreamed about’. He compares renaissance
‘nudes’ to photographs of women and the visual and representational
similarities and differences. As this series was set in the 70s some of the
comments were out-dated, but the concept of vanity and objectivity is still
very much prominent in modern day society. He relates the origin of women’s
misrepresentation back to the story of the creation of the world. In the story,
Eve is punished for eating the forbidden fruit by being made to be subservient
to her husband whilst Adam becomes the agent of God. According to Berger, this
sparked the humanist idealism of beauty and led to the hyper-sexualisation of the naked body and the self-awareness around our physical image.
(SARA - INSERT PICS YOU TOOK FOR THE AUDITION PROCESS HERE!!)
Monday 7th December 2015 - By Sara Avramovska - John Peter Berger
Today our A2 Media Studies Lesson consisted of the documentary on John Berger and his theory based on art and media. Who is John Peter Berger? - (SA)John Peter Berger, born on the 5th November 1926, was an English poet, painter, art critic, novelist PAINTING VS TELEVISION - (SA)Meaning of work of art ambiguous Music goya
EPISODE 1
EPISODE 2
EPISODE 3
EPISODE 4
Friday 11th December – Ella Ponting (EP)
For the first lesson Sara and I worked on
re-structuring the blog to make it appear clearer and more organised to the
examiner. I changed the size of the blog’s menu bar so that the pages appear
more spread out rather than having a lot of pages in a small menu bar –
appearing cramped and disorganised. I also deleted the page ‘Brief’ and decided
that this page wasn’t essential to our media project and is something we can
upload as a post once our film and work has been cemented. I also changed the
layout of the pages so that the Research, Construction, Final Pieces and
Evaluation are structured in a chronological order. I also worked on the
Storyboard, for the section I am responsible for which is the flashback
sequence. Both Sara and Monisha are working on the other scenes set in the
Counsellor’s Office – this is due to the flashback sequence being filmed in my
house, thus I have a better feel for the environment and shot types and techniques
that would best use the space and lighting. The layout I have used for the
storyboard is a reconstituted image(s) of the shots used in our film followed
by the section of the script which will be used as the voiceover to match the
visual. I have also included a brief description of the shot type, technique
and angle and an explanation of why I have chosen to film it in this way. So
far I am halfway through it and should have it completed by the weekend. Sara
also worked on organising the pages and the content within them, for this
lesson she focused on the page: ‘Construction: Audition, Mood Boards, Costumes
and Props’. This involved her completing half-finished uploads to the page as
well going through our cast list and organising who will be working on the
make-up and mood-boards for each character. This provided a strong framework to
our project and gave us a better idea of the time needed for the remaining
tasks and exercises. Monisha continued to work on the audition videos and
uploaded them to YouTube, which she will then embed into the blog once
completed.
Monday 14th December - Sara Avramovska (SA)
For today's lesson myself and Monisha Roy have taken the time to go to Oxford City Cenre as well as Cowly Centre in order to by all the props and costume's needed in regards to our demon scenes.Saturday 19th December 2015 - By Sara Avramovska (SA)
Monday 28th December 2015 - Ella Ponting (EP)
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| Sara and Monisha setting up lighting |
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| Sara applying face-paint to Monisha for a test-run of the demon scene. |
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| Finished product for demon 2's make-up |
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| Myself applying demon 3's make-up |
In total the make-up and set-up of our film did take longer than anticipated, however after having a quick run-through on everything that needs to be done and taken into precaution prior to filming, I am confident that we will be able to achieve a similar result in less time now we have had time to practice. Sara has also left most of the media equipment (i.e. the lighting, tripod and camera) at my house, meaning that it should be quicker to set up and will involve less transportation. We have organised to shoot our demon scene on the 2nd of January, which shall be one of the most challenging scenes, in terms of props, actors and directing yet I have done a storyboard to give us a brief outline of how the scene may map out.
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| 1. Progression of demon 3's make-up |
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| 2. Progression of demon 3's make-up |
These photos enabled us to have a pictures to work from when we next film so as to see what special make-up effects were the most effective, as well as changes that could be made to enhance the demon-like characters we have created. For the demon who I was putting makeup on I decided that next time I would make her eyebrows darker and more striking by creating more if an arched brow to give a more menacing edge to the demon as well as using a darker eye pencil to make the facial features stand out more.
Rather than creating an eyeshadow effect with winged eyeliner, I have decided that next time I will make the eyes more defined by using more eyeliner around the eyes to create dark unearthly shadows to enhance the dead appearance of this character. I have decided not to include eyeshadow in this format as it resembles too similarly to the makeup a lot of teenagers would wear. I have decided to use less fake-blood next time too as to shine the focus on the demon's eyes and pale skin. Instead I have decided to replace the blood with bruises which I will create using an array of different lipsticks and face paints to create a deep purple bruise.
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| 3. Finished product of demon 3's make-up |
Saturday 2nd December 2016 - Ella Ponting (EP)
Today we managed to shoot the demon scene, despite encountering a few difficulties whilst filming. The make-up took a long time, as expected yet the filming process also took longer than anticipated. I made the changes to demon 2's makeup as I stated before in the previous entry which I feel helped reinforce the dead, otherworldly appearance of the character. After everyone had completed the demon's make-up we encountered a new problem: the video-recorder was low in charge. Despite this, we learned that we could still film whilst the video camera was still charging which allowed us to save a lot of time had we of had to wait for it. We learned from this experience that we should always check the video camera's battery before filming. We also had to be mindful of the space in which we were filming in. For example, for one of our shots we have a close-up of the digital clock turning 12 o'clock as symbolic of the time of the haunting. Therefore in the rest of our shots where the clock was in the frame we had to make sure that the time was relatively similar in all of the shots.  |
| Sara's demon make-up |
Previously, Sara decided she wanted to be a demon in our film thus she researched the make-up and bought some coloured contact lenses as to suit her new role. She bought the same coloured lenses as demon 2 which is useful in indicating that the two characters are of the same supernatural entity. After watching various make-up tutorials, Sara decided she wanted to create the effect of the veins popping out of the face. This creates a chilling, unusual effect and also indicates a sense of decay as the veins appear almost like cracks in the skin on her face.
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| Monisha's demon make-up |
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| 1. Sara and Monisha setting up the tripod |
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| 2. Sara and Monisha setting up the camera |
Monisha decided to use similar make-up to what was applied by Sara previously. However she decided to blend in the white face-paint more thoroughly to create a grey tinge, to evoke a sense of decay and archaism. She used a black eye-shadow to create the appearance of dark circles underneath the eyes which was also used to contour her cheeks to create a hollow, sunken look. Fewer wounds were created using makeup as to not distract the audience away from the dead, eerie look of these dark figures.
Whilst shooting I mainly used a series of jump-cuts showing the figure(s) to be positioned in one demonic stance, only for the light to dim and as the light appears the demon has shifted forward into a different pose and position. I used to this to reflect a sense of chaos and disorder and to use a similar effect with the lights that are used as conventions in psychological thrillers and horror films. As both other members of my group were demons in this scene, I was in charge of filming this scene which I constructed based on the storyboard I made for the scenes filmed at my house. However, I would consult with the rest of my group whether they thought the shot worked or not and made constructive comments and suggestions based on this. I used torches to create the effect of a spotlight appearing on the demons, this allowed us to target a specific character rather than a whole area of our shot and the use of this hand-held device added to the disarray of the scene. I used a series of bird-eye close-ups of the protagonist to allow the audience to feel as if they are overlooking the scene and to reflect the motions of the scene in closer detail e.g. the shot in which the protagonist's eyes are drooping shut.
The images below have been taken to make sure that the room looks the same for the next time we film. I made sure to take pictures of the objects/areas that may be in some of our shots to enforce continuity in our film and make sure that the film's plot and visual story is consistent throughout our film.
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Sunday 24th January 2016 - Ella Ponting (EP)
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| Pictures on the blog that we took previously, to ensure that the room's layout and arrangement was as accurate as possible. (to ensure continuity) |
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| Monisha setting up the tripod |
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| 1. Sara taking an OTS shot of our protagonist flicking through a book. She is using the headboard of the bed to steady her grip whilst getting as close to the protagonist as possible to indicate the story being told through her perspective. |
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| 2. Sara taking an OTS shot of our protagonist flicking through a book. (from a different angle) |
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| 3. Monisha setting up the tripod whilst Sara captures an OTS of our protagonist. |
Monday 25th January 2016 - Ella Ponting (EP)
Today as a class we looked at the different topics we can choose from in our exam to answer questions based on. For Section A we are looking at the Theoretical Evaluation of Production which consists of selecting one production, for us being our AS coursework from last year, and evaluating it in relation to a media concept. In contrast, Section B covers Contemporary Media Issues such as Media and Collective Identity. We looked at each of these themes and how they relate to the key theorists we have looked at so far as well as the different documentaries we have watched and how our notes can be useful for answering these questions. A document on the shared drive (which I have uploaded to this blogpost) was made by our teacher for recision purposes and to clearly demonstrate how the themes link to our work so far. Once we have chosen a Contemporary Media Issue to evaluate, we have to answer 4 questions based on it. He also talked through the term 'We Media' which was foreign to most of us. This issue alongside democracy refers to media in the modern age, in which media can be produced by any individual (e.g through a YouTube video). This juxtaposes with traditional media which was seen to be produced primarily through large institutions.For the second lesson I updated the Diary for the work we did yesterday and started my research on Film Review Magazines and learned more about 'Sight & Sound' magazine. I discovered that the magazine is published by the BFI and that the magazine produces a range of different reviews on both large Hollywood blockbusters and low-budget independent art house films. They are also unique as they list the entire credits of the film underneath their review which shows true appreciation from the film and everyone's individual involvement - however it does take up a lot of space which would be something to consider whilst doing my final film review piece. A more detailed in-depth research of this magazine can be found on the page 'Research - Movie Poster Analysis + History of Photography and Construction and Film Review' ( http://saramonishaella.blogspot.co.uk/p/movie-posters.html ). Sara and Monisha were absent for a sports-related event however over break they managed to find the teacher who was in charge of the room we want to use for shooting at school and discovered that they had found the key to the room (which had previously been lost) allowing us to have access to shooting in this place.Tuesday 26th January 2016 - Ella Ponting (EP)
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| Re-shooting the scene where our protagonist is reading a book. |
Today we managed to complete the majority of filming we had left to do, leaving us just a few more scenes at my house to shoot as well as the 'Counselor's Office' scene. The first scene we shot was the re-shooting of the scene we had shot in the previous diary entry, as to ensure our image was as clear as possible. This was the scene in which our protagonist is flicking through a book and will be the first scene displayed in our flashback sequence. We opened the scene with a LS of our protagonist, as to establish her location and where she is in relation to it, we then had the protagonist flick through her book in a bored, disinterested manner which continues over to the next shot in an OTS shot of Hayle. Another technique we incorporated into this scene was the use of a panning shot as to follow the movement of the protagonist as she steps out of bed. I had to re-shoot this shot several times after discussing with the rest of my group how we can use this shot the most effectively whilst enforcing continuity yet still making sure our character is in frame throughout this transition.
Monisha shot the following scene in which the character makes her way downstairs, pauses for a moment, mirroring her paranoia before continuing downstairs and flopping onto the sofa. Monisha used a variety of different shots for this scene including an OTS tracking shot used as the protagonist makes her way downstairs. She then filmed the character through the banisters at a separate angle to create the illusion of the protagonist being watched from an outsiders perspective, allowing the audience to feel more connected towards the character and the paranoia she is experiencing. The corresponding shot to this included Monisha filming the protagonist from the front giving a whole new perspective to the scene creating a chaotic, distorted appeal.
After this both Sara and I filmed the downstairs scene in which our protagonist is watching television. I used a shot similar to the image displayed to the right of this text to capture the scene from the protagonist's perspective. We needed to include the diegetic sound for this scene to match the visuals that are displayed which proved slightly difficult whilst filming, however we decided to just have the sound in one of the shots as it would be more difficult to sync the sound to the previous frame. The corresponding scene included myself filming a series of shots in which the protagonist shifts between different poses mirroring her distressed, panicked state. I have done this to enhance the sense of chaos and to add to the sense of foreboding that something horrifying is near approaching. These shots will be cut down to become jump-cuts, a technique I have also incorporated during the filming and editing of my AS Media project.
Sara then filmed the scene in which the lights start dimming in the room and the protagonist fears that there is something outside and moves toward the door to check. Sara had the idea of placing the camera on the floor to capture the footsteps of the protagonist as she moves closer towards the back door. This was very effective as it allowed us to move the rocking-chair to make it appear as if it was moving by itself, adding to the ominous, chilling atmosphere. She also made sure whilst filming that our reflections in the glass windows in the room we were filming in were not visible and adjusted the camera angle and our positioning accordingly. We used a combination of an OTS shot to show the protagonist swinging open the door and a full frontal shot of our protagonist to show this movement. We also used a panning technique to show the protagonist scouring her locations in attempt to find a source for this sound.
The images below are pictures I took of the space in which we shot most of the scenes as to ensure that next time we film, the room appears identical to how we left it.
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Wednesday 27th January 2016 - Ella Ponting (EP)
Today at Digital Youth at Film Oxford I sorted through the clips we have filmed so far and organised them in terms of the ones we are most likely to use (the shots displayed below) and the amount of time from start to finish that we will extract from the clip. I have also included a shot description in case I need to reference to the clip when discussing the shots used and to what effect they create. A brief audio description was also recorded to possibly refer to in the editing process to know which sounds to amplify, and which background sounds to be cut out. So far I haven't deleted any clips as I want to go through them with the rest of my group to make sure we are all in agreement about the decisions made. The scene I logged was Part 1 of the flashback, and since then Sara has decided to do the same for the demon scene. By sorting through the clips I discovered a complication in one of the clips where the clock is in the shot and displayed as being '4:37' when the time in the storyboard is meant to be late into the evening. This means we will have to re-shoot this short sequence when the protagonist is emerging out of bed, or somehow trim the frame so that the edge of the shot (including the clock) is not in the frame. I also discovered that the sequence in which the protagonist is watching TV needs to be shorter, this scene cannot be shortened as it includes a long period of time where the protagonist turns the TV on and off. This means we will have to re-shoot the scene to make it slightly shorter as to ensure the audience is following the plot-line without feeling bored or disinterested. The last few shots I filmed were also slightly shaky, thus may need to be re-shot to make sure all the clips we used are as polished and refined as possible.
Friday 29th January 2016 - Ella Ponting (EP)
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| 1. Shot we may possibly use from our 'Demon Sequence' - clock turning 12:00 |
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| 2. Shot we may possibly use from the 'Demon Sequence' - demons floating around the room |
We also had assistance from Iona Fabian, our media assistant who has had lots of experience in filming and editing who gave us a brief overview on the technicalities of 'Final Cut Pro' and gave us a demonstration on how to import clips, save your files and adjust sound and lighting. This was extremely useful as I had never used this editing software before and it gave me greater confidence in understanding the editing process. During this demonstration, Iona pointed out the similarities between 'Final Cut Pro' and 'iMovie' and discussed how we could incorporate similar techniques into 'Final Cut Pro'. She also highlighted the differences in terms of having a greater range of options in terms of filters, lighting and sound adjustments and other systematic tools. She also pointed out the graininess of the clips and we realised just how dark the clips appeared, which had altogether affected the overall quality of some of the footage. She helpfully pointed out the clips we would need to re-shoot and suggested adjusting the setting to manual on our video camera and changing the exposure whilst incorporating more lighting into the scene. After watching back on our clips, I found out that the clip where the protagonist is reading in bed is of the perfect lighting for the shot; we managed to achieve this lighting through using two sets of fairy lights to create a glowy ambiance, that would be subtle enough to be used for a night time scene. After learning more about video camera settings from Iona I have decided to research more into the practicalities of using a video camera and learning more about the model we are using (Panasonic Video Camera) and how we can use things like shutter speed to our advantage.Monday 1st February 2016 - Ella Ponting (EP)
For today's lesson I focused on my film review research in terms of producing a short summary to back-up my 'Empire' powerpoint which displayed my research into this magazine. The powerpoint discussed a brief overview of the magazine as to give the examiner some background into the magazine, followed by the media company which produces this magazine (Bauer Media Group). I then analysed the typically occurring features in the magazine such as the 'How Much Is A Pint Of Milk?' column. To display how this international magazine has an impact on celebrity culture I also delved into discussing their annual 'Empire Awards' whose readers of the magazine act as the voters for the awards distributed. Another aspect of the magazine I discussed were the genres typically analysed for their film reviews as well as the target audience for the magazine that the magazine typically appeals to. The end slide of my 'Empire magazine' powerpoint sums up Empire's aims and the purpose of the magazine. I also started my research on 'Little White Lies' a bimonthly film magazine published under TCOLondon, a London-based media marketing company.
Whilst I continued with this work, Sara researched more into black and white photography as part of her Film Poster research. She analysed a series of different film posters such as 'The Number 23' which included certain conventions that we can apply to our film poster such as the dark circles around the protagonist's eyes and the use of monochromatic colours. She also analysed the connotations of the colours black and white and how these colours would impact the audience's perception of the film. Monisha analysed two of the shots we needed to re-shoot including the shot where the protagonist emerges from her sleep and sits up hastily with a close-up of her bloodied hands. She hasn't currently uploaded this to the blog but it should be under Construction - Editing Final Pieces (Movie Poster, Film Review and Short Film Scenes).Wednesday 3rd February 2016 - Ella Ponting (EP)
Today we re-shot the scenes that turned out grainy and blurred this includes the shots in which the protagonist is falling asleep which filmed using a close-up of her eyes closing as well as a shot of her eyes darting side to side when the demons begin their 'haunting' in her episode of sleep paralysis. To ensure that our film's quality is as crisp and defined as possible, we set the videocamera to 'manual focus' and changed it to the 'IRIS' setting. This setting adjusts the lighting of the picture within the actual camera, without externally changing the lighting, we upped the amount of light and exposure for the darker scenes using this setting to make sure that our protagonist stands out amongst the dark, foreboding background. For the scenes where the protagonist's eyes are closing we used two different spotlights, one from an eye level angle placed in front of the protagonist and another at a low angle from a side perspective to the protagonist. This created a glowy effect and created intense shadows surrounding the protagonist's face and a warm light circling around the protagonist's face and facial features.
We then re-shot the scene in which the protagonist is channel flicking; we had to reshoot this scene because it was too long and would have been difficult to cut down since diegetic sound is included and the television is both turned on and off in the same shot. Thus, we had to include a shorter shot, cutting it down to under 20 seconds so as to not bore the audience through lingering on the same shot but also giving them enough time to view the task being carried out whilst continuing to engage them in our production. The television took a while to turn on in the shot, therefore as a group we decided it would be best to speed up the first 5 seconds where the television appears to be warming up and taking a long while to reach the opening television channel. For this shot we used the same picture as seen on our story board: a mid-shot with a shallow depth of field, with the camera focusing primarily on the object closest to the camera, which in this circumstance is the television remote with the television appearing slightly blurred. We decided to film it in this way as to add to the chaos and sense of distractedness from the protagonist who doesn't seem to be able to be restful, the lack of focus of the protagonist's persona thus is mirrored through this shot with the lack of focus in terms of our camera technique being on the television.
One of our final re-shoots of today was of the scene in which the protagonist opens the door and scans her surroundings after thinking she's seen something unsettling outside. Our shots before weren't very continuous and appeared slightly rushed thus I thought it would make sense to re-shoot this section to ensure our film appears as sophisticated and continuous as possible. We managed to re-shoot the protagonist opening the door from an over the shoulder perspective, to connect the audience to the film and watch the film play out through her eyes. We had to use a hand-held technique for this shot because the reflection from the windows made it that ourselves and the tripod (as well as the small red light on the videocamera) appeared in a lot of the shots if we didn't choose our angles and camera techniques wisely. Thus we had to make sure we had a steady hand for this shot to make the motion of the protagonist opening the door appear as smooth as possible. The shot following this of the protagonist scanning her surroundings was shot using a pan technique, I also used a hand-held technique for this as the tripod is difficult for using faster swift shots whilst incorporating camera techniques like tracking and panning. I also wanted to mirror the ways in which the protagonist head and eyes would be moving and using the hand-held technique allowed me to mirror the protagonist's movements to the camera technique used.After we had finished our re-shoots for this certain section of the film, we finished the transition from the room the protagonist is currently in (The kitchen/living space/dining room area) to the upstairs bathroom. To do this we used a tracking shot of the protagonist from the door that leads to the garden, walking towards the door exiting the living space area. This shot successfully captures the transition without including anyone's reflections in the shot, however after watching this shot back, there is a clock in the shot with the wrong time on it so it may be a possibility that we will have to re-shoot this specific shot. After this Monisha was in charge of shooting the scene where the protagonist heads upstairs; she used a variety of different techniques, ranging from a tracking shot of the protagonist heading down the hallway towards the stairs, a shot taken at a side angle through the railings in the staircase adding a unique angle to the scene, followed by a front-view shot of the protagonist heading closer towards the top of the stairs. We also shot the transition of the protagonist from the top of the stairs to the bathroom, setting us up for the scene where the protagonist washes her face. We also may need to re-shoot this scene as our filming had to come to an end after this, thus for the bathroom scene to appear continuous we will need to have each shot continuous from the previous.
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Friday 5th February 2016 - Ella Ponting (EP)
After school, Sara and I planned to start our editing process, however Monisha wasn't able to come in today thus we decided instead to spend our time organising the clips. We uploaded the clips we had reshot on Wednesday and watched them to see whether they would fit in, in relation to the scenes we shot previously. We then saw that the clip which came out the best for the scene where the protagonist's eyes are closing was the scene where the lighting was slightly glowy and framed the protagonists face in a way that made her stand out amongst her surroundings. However we hit a complication when we saw that another similar shot of the protagonist's eyes darting does not match the lighting used in the previous shot. Thus to achieve this same lighting we will have to have the same lighting set up for both shots and film them both in succession to one another so that the lighting does not alter between the other shots filmed.
Sara created a file called 'IN ORDER' and we organised the clips we had so far that we definitely want to use into a cohesive, ordered file. We inserted folders in-between the clips that we either haven't filmed so far or the scenes we need to re-shoot, so that once we have re-shot, we know where to insert the clips. This included the start of the flashback sequence where the protagonist is reading a book, up until the last scene we managed to film who is the protagonist back upstairs and into the bathroom. For the demon scene, we placed folders titled 'black screen' that we will be placing in between the jump-cuts in the sequence where the demons are emerging out of the darkness. This has allowed us to feel more secure and happy with our clips and made us feel less stressed about the shots we need to re-film. We will make sure to upload our future shots into this folder and in the meantime will start the editing process once Monisha returns back to school. Both Sara and I made sure that this folder was backed up both on our memory cards, on the Mac's (that we are using for our editing) desktop, Sara's school account and the media memory card just incase one of these storing options deletes our footage.
Monday 8th February 2016 - Ella Ponting (EP)
Today I have spent the lesson making sure that the previous couple of diary entries were updated so as to track our group progress over the last week. I also looked at the OCR A2 GCE Media Studies past paper from June 2014 titled 'Critical Perspectives in Media' and looked at the possible types of questions that may arise in our real media exam paper. This included answering questions possibly to do with either Contemporary Media Regulation, Global Media, Media and Collective Identity, Media in the Online Age and Postmodern Media. I also looked at the Theoretical Evaluation of Production in this paper which told me that we will be discussing one of our coursework productions, explaining post-production issues and the concept of genre. This was useful as it allowed me to prepare for future examination papers and what content it endeavors - this in turn will allow me to select areas I need to focus on to revise and means that once I fully start my media revision and attempt some past papers, I will be able to see where my knowledge is secure in media and which areas I should be focusing on to obtain as high of a level as possible. Monisha unfortunately wasn't in today so we couldn't progress with editing, however Sara completed her sound construction and uploaded some audio bites from sound effects she discovered online for things such as a heartbeat and a door closing. She also constructed a mind-map where she noted down all the sound effects and other forms of diegetic and non-diegetic sound that we need to incorporate into our film, including techniques such as foley that we can use as means of achieving these sounds.
Wednesday 10th February 2016 - Ella Ponting (EP)
Monday 22nd February 2016 - Ella Ponting (EP)
We also read and annotated a section from our OCR Media Studies book, our teacher discussed the different units we will potentially address (seen in the terms list above) and introduced us to some new key concepts linking to media language and theology. He first explained 'Semiotics' which he defined as language which is coded through our culture and experiences. This is then divided into the signifier, which is something interpreted as the material form (i.e. something which can be seen, heard, tasted, smelled and touched) and the signified which is a mental concept. We discovered that we see on-screen has a code that can read into something else which can change from person to person. In media often you can have the same signifier but it is in the eye of the beholder and can have a different signified effect, with the same object providing different meanings from person to person. We also learned about Simulacra and Simulation (Baudrillard, 1981). Baudrillard says that the simulation (i.e. what we see on-screen) has become our 'hyper-reality' as the gap between fantasy and reality narrows. Whilst the simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real world system over time , the simulacra is an image or representation of something. Baudrillard states that as the grasp we have on reality becomes more tenuous, the hyper reality of the virtual world becomes more attractive, thus making us spend more time on it.
Friday 26th February 2016 - Ella Ponting (EP)
Today, for our first lesson we all worked on completing the media work based on the table of contents (as seen below) for our media folders. this included work based on media language, narrative, genre, representations, contemporary media issues, organisations, exam practice and resources. Whilst some of these areas we hadn't covered we attempted to cover as many topics as possible, filling in the work we hadn't done. For some of us this included reorganising our work and placing it in a format that was readable, coherent and structured.
We then watched part of the film 'Look Back In Anger (1959)' and had a class group discussion about the gender roles and the huge sense of class-consciousness that the film emanates. This contrasts with the audience who would've been viewing the film, which primarily would've been middle/upper class individuals. The focus on characters from a working-class background was relatively new in film, possibly due to the post World War II ideals, where the strong working-class patriotic man was glorified, returning from war as heroes, equal amongst their army peers. We also discussed the gender roles in the film, where the woman has very little dialogue, does not work, yet despite this is still the wealthiest member of the household. She is depicted as the object of male domination in the household, where her partner yields his strength and power over her through physical violence and verbal rudeness.
We also watched a short clip on the British Film Retrospective, citing famous British films over the years. We were set the task to name as many British films we can see in our notebooks and then compare them to other people's results. Whilst most of us hadn't seen the older films displayed, a lot of the newer films such as 'Slumdog Millionaire' (2008) and 'Hot Fuzz' (2007) had been viewed by the majority of out class.
Thursday 3rd March - Ella Ponting (EP)
Today we planned and filmed our Counselor's Scene in Ms Croft's office. This involved setting up the two different videocameras we needed to use for our over-the-shoulder shots in our shot-reverse-shot sequence. In order for this to work we had to incorporate the 180° rule, so as to make sure that our footage is continuous both with sound and the visuals. We also had to set up the sound equipment; this included the boom pole which was connected to an audio recorder. As I was in charge of sound, Sara and Monisha directed me, based on the camera shot, to avoid the boom pole showing up in the footage. I had to stay in the same position so that the sound quality was consistent - thus, I placed myself in the centre of the two protagonists so that the volume and sound quality will be the same with each character. Before shooting we had an hour where we looked at the storyboard Sara had constructed and made changes to it based on what would work with the space we have. Sara had constructed the storyboard before we changed the room, therefore we needed to adjust a few of the shots and camera techniques due to working in a smaller space than anticipated. In the end, we decided to use mainly over-the-shoulder shots incorporated into a shot-reverse-shot technique. This helped reflect a continuous conversation between our two protagonists. We decided to use this technique throughout most of the scene to keep it very simple and minimum, unlike our flashback sequence. We also used an establishing shot at the start of our scene as our protagonist Hayle enters the office, this was done to demonstrate the settings of this sequence. Another shot we may include in our film is a close-up of Hayle fidgeting and twiddling her thumbs. We also filmed an extreme close-up of our protagonist's eyes welling up with tears after the counselor explains her condition. I took some pictures before this process showing the room before the film shoot in case we need to re-shoot, thus we will need to know how the room was organised. We moved a lot of the chairs and objects that were in the space we wanted to film to keep the room as simple and minimalistic as possible. Below are some pictures I took of the set, showing the room before the shoot, the equipment we used, and pictures of Sara and Monisha setting up and moving equipment.INSERT COUNSELOR SCENE PICS HERE
Friday 11th March - Ella Ponting (EP)
Today I worked on organising my work on the blog in terms of the things I still need to complete. This includes:-
- Camera Movements
- Video Camera Research
- Vertigo Mise en scene analysis
- Saving Private Ryan (insert YouTube video)
- Film Review A2 Media example analysis
- Film Review Analysis of font/layout etc.
- Group treatment and update film script
Whilst I did this, Sara worked on her poster for our ancillary task(s). She took a still from our film that includes a close-up of her in her demon attire and used photoshop to adjust the colour and background to make the image appear more unsettling and ghastly. She adjusted the exposure too, and darkened the background so that the demon's face stands out and appears more ghostly and unearthly. She used a black and white effect on this image to give the poster an archaic and rustic appeal. I also updated the Diary/Gallery posts and discussed the counselor's film-shoot we completed last week. Once Monisha is in we plan to continue with the sound and editing process and hopefully have finished the filming in the next few weeks.
Monday 14th March - Ella Ponting (EP)
Today our group decided to edit the film we have so far, this included the newly filmed 'Counsellor's Scene' for the start and end of our film. We sorted through the clips that we wanted to use for our film and the clips that weren't, which may be salvaged for a blooper reel once our film has been finished being constructed. As we had filmed the Counsellor's Scene from two different Over-The-Shoulder perspectives, we had to use the 'blade' tool on 'Final Cut Pro X' to cut the clip based on the dialogue we wanted to use for that specific shot. This meant that the final product mirrored the Shot-Reverse-Shot technique and created a continuous piece of dialogue between our protagonist, Hayle and the Counsellor, Mrs Audrey. We encountered a few problems whilst editing - one of these was that the conversation between Hayle and Mrs Audrey differed each time we filmed it. The dialogue spoken was slightly different from each perspective, thus we had to ensure to cut the elements out that were not similar for the two shots. We also had trouble fitting in the two shots we filmed of the protagonist fidgeting and her eyes welling with tears. One possibility is that we use one of these shots for our titl-screen, however at this point we are unsure where to place these shots. We also learned how to use the 'Cross Dissolve' effect to create a smooth transition between the Counsellor's Scene
Wednesday 16th March - Ella Ponting (EP)
Today we finished filming our film about sleep paralysis, this involved filming the transition between the bathroom where our protagonist washes her face and moves into her bedroom and climbs into bed. This involved three different shots. Our first shot followed on from the previous frame where the protagonist's hand lingers on the tap. We then filmed a Mid-Shot of the protagonist turning on the tap and rinsing her hands from a side-angle. After this we switched to a Close-Up of the protagonist rinsing the water through her hands and onto her face from an eye-level perspective. We kept the same angle as the protagonist walks away and into her bedroom. This was due to us wanting to keep it as simplistic as possible and also we decided not to use the tripod for the last few scenes as it is very heavy and there was very little that still needed to be shot. Our final shot occurs in the bedroom showing Hayle (Han-Sun Nkumu) move into her room, close the door, turn of the light and climb into bed. We filmed this as a long-shot to capture all of the action and used a tracking shot to mirror the actions of our character.
Friday 18th March - Ella Ponting and Sara Avramovska (EP & SA)
Today our group worked on our final group Film Treatment. This involved taking the original treatment, including our initial ideas as well as taking away the elements we didn't use and adding improvements. We also uploaded and edited our last 3 shots for our rough edit of 'INCUBUS'.
Monday 21st March - Ella Ponting and Sara Avramovska (EP & SA)
For our double lesson, our group organised a plan for the construction of our Evaluation. This involved dividing up the work, equally for each question and discussing different methods of presenting our information. We have decided to use emaze, wix, prezi and video-recorded feedback (in order of our questions). For our first evaluation question we have chosen emaze, as a website-based presentation maker that each of us will contribute to. For our second question, we are using wix, a website maker that we are using to upload our ancillary tasks including the film review, poster and final production. Furthermore, for our third question we are using prezi, as website-based presentation maker to present our ideas in a unique, engaging way, that each of us can contribute to. For our last evaluation question we are filming audience feedback and reactions to both our film and ancillary tasks. We have also created group logins for each of these website so they can be easily accessed by every member of our group.
We also showed our rough cut of our film to our media teacher who gave us verbal feedback about it. This included advice about where to cut some of the clips and feedback on the sound and how we can alter/enhance the sound for dramatic effect. We are planning to spend another hour or two to make changes to our film based on the feedback given.
Thursday 21st April - Ella Ponting (EP) and Sara Avramovska (EP & SA)
Due to very intensive months leading up to our exams, we haven't managed to keep up with our media diary as much as we would have liked. Currently our group are working on the 'Evaluation' stage, we have finally managed to finish our film and upload it to 'YouTube' and several audience feedback videos. Today, we polished off our blog by organising the pages in a well-structured way. This allowed us to discover tasks that we still need to complete and made our blog appear more coherent. We also bullet pointed ideas for Evaluation Questions '3' and '4'.
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