Friday, 10 February 2012

Assessment of Evaluation posts Q. 4 & 6 (SJA Feb 10th)

WWW:

  • Becka, when I look over your blog, I am really pleased to see you have really invested a lot of time developing your evaluation posts. They are interesting and visual
  • I really like your idea for the mini movie for Q. 6 - It's enjoyable to watch and you have shown some lovely creativity to 'SHOW' certain techniques as you talk to us
EBI:
  • Unfortunately, it wouldn't let me view the mini movie you made for Q. 4 - content has been blocked. It must be the track you chose to use over it... have a look and change this.
  • You idea for Q. 6 is very clever, I would like to see more of the range of technology you use on a daily basis in Media lessons. You should try to add to the good work you have done already for this post by also including a screen cast (try using JING) to talk through other technologies such as how you use i-Movie, Live type, blogger, filming, equipment, etc, etc...
Overall effort for Q. 6 & 4: VG

Monday, 30 January 2012

7. Looking back on your Preliminary Task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My Preliminary Task:



My Final Product:


Since creating my Preliminary Task I believe I have improved in various areas, including a range of technologies and specializing in a specific role.

The continuity of my final product has improved a lot since my Preliminary Task.  In this section of my preliminary task the sound of the clips do not flow.  Comparing this to my final product the sounds within the clips flow together well and are not disturbed between shots.



Even though the editing in our Preliminary Task was fluent throughout the majority of our clip there were some places in which this could have been improved.  For example in one of the shots in our Preliminary Task the editing was not precise enough and this affected the continuity of our piece.  Even though this shot is not essential it is mistake made within the piece.  In our final product we worked on the editing for our piece to insure that nothing was missed and that all the shots flowed well together.



In both my Preliminary Task and my final product we follow the 180 degree rule so the audience does not get confused while watching our piece.

Between my Preliminary Task and my final product my confidence and familiarity with the program iMovie has improved a lot and I am more fluent when using the program.  Due to my improvements in iMovie my editing skills on the program have also improved.  I feel that I specialize in this role as this is the part of creating a film that I enjoy the most and therefore I have put more time into learning this and becoming more familiar with it.

Peer Assessment - Preliminary Task and Final Product


Self Assessment - Preliminary Task and Final Product


Tuesday, 24 January 2012

6. What have you learned about Technologies from the process of constructing this product?

What have you learned?  Choose 3 technologies and explain why you used them, and what effect you were able to create.



We used the black and white effect on some of our clips to create the effect of a CCTV camera.  This worked as we used a high angled camera to scan the room, similar to a CCTV camera.  Also, using Live Type we will be creating text at the bottom of the shots, to show time passing which is shown on a CCTV camera.  Also we will be adding titles with this.  On our second clip, we extracted the sound so when we used a fade through black to show the titles, the background sounds will still be heard.  This shows that even though the audience is not seeing it, they know the action is still happening.

Monday, 23 January 2012

5. How did you attract/address your audience?


We attracted our audience, by insuring that different elements of the clip were essential, and looked professional.  One of these was through the use of steadiness throughout the clip.  It is important that the camera is held steady as if it was moving constantly, the audience could get distracted and lose the tension created within the opening of our film.





We also looked at the framing of out piece, making sure that all things in the shots are relevant and need to be there.  If we had unnecessary items in our shots this could ruin the atmosphere of the film for the audience.



Within our piece, we insured that we used a variety of shot types and angles.  If only one shot type and angle was used within the entire opening, it would not be very interesting and the audience would get bored quickly.  This is important to vary as we want people to enjoy our opening, and want to know what happens in the rest of the film.





As a group, we believe that the footage we have used is appropriate to our audience, as it conveys what we want to audience to know.  With inappropriate footage within our opening, the audience would become confused, causing them to not understand what is going on and lose interest in the clip.

Sunday, 22 January 2012

Assessment 22/01/12 SJA

WWW:
  • You have made a start on the 3 posts we wanted to see completed so far
  • You have incorporated 'Prezzi' for one post - which shows an interest in using a range of media throughout your blog
EBI:
  • All 3 posts need to be 'Super Visual' - You need to include images, gif's, short films etc to enhance your posts. They should not be text only.
  • You technologies post could make use of JING (and certainly images) to SHOW your work in creating the CCTV effect your notes refer to. Think about how you can really show an examiner how you are using new technologies to create your film, edit it, and also to present your work. This post needs more work and development.
  • Your post on 'Representation of Social Groups' makes a start at using Prezzi - but you need to take it further - show images of similar 'types' of characters. If you are creating a lead character who challenges typical female stereotypes... how will you show the audience this? Will it be through a combination of certain choices in costumes, colours, facial expressions? Make up?  I suggested to Nathan that he look at the female lead in the 2011 film 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'. The character's name is  Lisbeth Salander, she is played by actress Rooney Mara. Do some research to see how this actress constructed the character of 'Lisbeth' through costume, hair, make up, expression, and attitude... She is certainly not the typical 'damsel in distress'... 

Overall, at this stage, there is 'Improvement Needed' IN for the 3 posts Becka. You need to keep working on them.

Friday, 20 January 2012

3. What kind of Media Institution might distribute your media product and why?

Within my group, we discussed many different distribution companies that would be suitable for our film, including New Line Cinema, and Momentum Pictures.  As the genre of out media product is a Psychological Thriller we looked into similar films to see what their Distribution Companies were.






As a group, we decided that the best distribution company for our product is The Weinstein Company.  This company mainly distributes low budget films, apart from a few exceptions, eg "The Kings Speech". We believe that this company is suitable for our product as they have distributed other films which are similar to ours, and are of a thriller genre, for example "Awake" an American crime / supernatural / conspiracy thriller 

Thursday, 19 January 2012

Teacher Assessment - Research

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?


1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Within our media product we used, developed and challenged many different forms and conventions.

Used Conventions/Forms
Within our opening, one convention we have used is titles. Titles are not essential for an opening sequence, however they knowledge the audience of the people who were involved not only in the film, but also behind the scenes.


Developed Conventions/Forms
We developed the theme of our product, not only discussing the genre of our film but also the sub genre of it.  As a group we decided that our genre will be a thriller, to develop this we thought that we would create a Psychological Thriller.

Challenged Conventions/Forms

Within our product, we Challenged the stereotypical 'damsel in distress' character and also the 'muscly male' character.  In our opening, even though the female character is tied up, she develops her understanding of where she is and why shes there by taking control.  This causes the audience to sympathize for this character and makes them want this character to be okay.  This also means the audience start asking questions like 'who is she?' 'why is she there?' etc.  This is similar to 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' however, their lead female character is more extreme.



We also challenged the use of equilibrium (disequilibrium).  Our product is out of the ordinary, however this is similar to other thrillers so therefore follows the typical features of our genre.