Pixlr!

I've been playing around with Pixlr in my free period and created this "screenshot-like" image of a woman walking home being followed by a mystery man.
It shares some similarities with how I want my film to be, but most of mine will, I think, be shot in the day time, and the house will not be as isolated as this small cottage. I think it will scare my audience more if they think that anyone can follow them, at any time, in any place.

What do you think?

Week Three Plan..

Apart from making my institutional logo, I am going to spend this week researching different thriller openings and making notes of ideas I like that have been taken and used in different openings. I am also going to focus on sitting down and thinking of my own ideas for my opening; I have a few ideas already, but I feel that now is the time to get them down on paper so I can make my final decisions before I get back to school after Half Term and begin really creating my opening.

I treated myself to London To Brighton (Paul Andrew Williams), with the intention of analysing an old thriller opening (Psycho), a modern thriller opening (Black Swan) and a British thriller opening (London To Brighton). Hopefully, it'lll be waiting for me on my doorstep when I get home!

I am also going to do a lot of music research to certify whether or not I'm going to use my own music for my film or whether or not I will find somebody else's music. If I did do the latter, I will contact the composer's over the Half Term to ask their permission.

Should be a good week :D

On The Third Week...

This week, we're getting used to the different programs availble to us, and I have been spending a lot of time on Pixlr, aiming to create a logo for my own film institution. From the start, I've had an image of a distorted dancer in my head (perhaps I've been watching Black Swan too much?) and so my first task was finding a picture of a ballet dancer to distort. That took me the most time, perhaps because I had such high hopes for it, but it wasn't until after I had finished my dancer that the hard stuff began. I had to think of a name...
I wanted my name to include illiteration and the letter, "D", was calling me, but I couldn't find any name to go with it, particularly because I wanted to have "films", "movies", "productions", "studios", or another similar word, in my title and I couldn't find one that began with 'D'. That was when I decided that my 'word' was going to be "movies" and I spent quite a time researching words that begin with "m", and decided on "mortal". It doesn't have quite the effect I wanted; I wanted a name that suggested distortion but couldn't find one that felt quite right, and 'Mortal Movies' sounded right in comparison to other titles floating round my head.

Here is my first draft:
                             
I really love the bloody effect!

Preliminary Continuity Exercise!

Today, we worked on out first practical task: Getting to Know the Cameras (or you could call it the Preliminary Continuity Exercise, if you really wanted...)
I worked in a group with Nicola (http://www.nicolaastleyasmedia.blogspot.com/), Conor (http://thatone-conorwastleyasmedia.blogspot.com/) and Jon (http://www.jonasmediacoursework.blogspot.com/).
Last lesson, we worked on creating storyboards for the exercise and today had to get into groups of a minimum of three people to film one or more of the storyboards. Mostly, everybody wanted to do my storyboard so we went round to the classroom we wanted and asked permission to use it. We were given it, so we began filming.
I had tried to create an original idea that still featured the basics of the exercise: somebody opening a door, walking through it, closing it, sitting and having a conversation with somebody else. My idea was to have somebody run down the stairs to a door, open the door, walk through into a lobby, then to have somebody in a room behind her call out to her, she turns, walks towards them, stands in the doorway, has a brief conversation with the person in the room to then be asked to leave. She leaves the room by grabbing the door handle and pulling it shut as she backs out of the room.
We started off well, using different angles for the shot, but then had a problem with the focus of the camera and had to start again. This meant that we didn't have a lot of time and then we were not allowed to film where we had been told we could, so had to find another room in the area that would mean that we wouldn't have to start over again. Luckily, we found one and began to film, but I feel that the time we had remaining meant that it didn't turn out how I wanted it to at all. The change in location didn't help either!

We filmed the stairs scene again, but had to completely change the direction Nicola walked because of our change of location; this meant we had to put some hard thinking into it and eventually added an extra part to the scene, meaning we could show Nicola turning around and walking to a different room, rather than the one we had initially planned on using. We filmed the rest of the scene very quickly because it was already the end of the lesson, and later on, we watched it back.

It wasn't the best feeling, watching back the scene. It didn't look at all how I had planned, and we had a bit of a continuity "error" where we had accidentally recorded something without intending to. It didn't feature the energy I would have liked it to, and so, with Mr Mayers' guidance in where we went wrong, we filmed again, this time basing our scene on Jon's storyboard.

It was a much quicker process the second time round. We had a fixed, vacated location at our disposal, and enough people to have two "creating" the scene and two people in the scene. Jon had a clear idea of how he wanted the scene to go and so we practised once and then began filming.
It only took us about fifteen minutes to film this time, and when we watched it back with Mr Mayers, he said it was a much better start to the task. We used a good use of camera angles, and it was a lot more "traditional" preliminary-exercise-wise, than our original scene.

I will upload it when possible! :)

 Just some photos of us filming and rehearsing for our Preliminary Continuity Exercise; my evaluation will be up shortly! 

The Opening to Black Swan

The Opening to Black Swan

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Independence Day

It may be clear already, but I have decided to work alone on this piece of coursework. I made the decision purely based on the fact that I am, to put it (not-so) lightly, a pushover. I know that I would be unhappy with my final result if I worked with somebody else, because I do let other people get their way and I would let them do whatever they wanted even if I thought that their idea could be improved upon. Fortunately for me, I have a number of good friends studying Media in Year 13 at my school who have already done this coursework and a friend who is in her second year of studying Media at Chichester University, and  I will be able to ask all of them for help, if needed.
Already, I am pretty certain of how I will start my opening, but it's the rest of the opening I'm worried about. I have ideas but I want them to stand out. I want my film to be original, to have never been done before, and I'm not certain, as of now, that my ideas are original and have "never been done before".


I am 99.9% sure of where I'm certain of where I am going to film my opening, so in the next few days, I'm going to go there and take some photos. I'll take a friend along with me and take my camcorder to take some practise shots and see if it has the effect I wanted. If not, there are some other places that could work for me, and I'll try those as well.
I'll be sure to post my pictures, and possibly the filming, on here.

I was going to try some tricky shots, hanging upside down from somewhere, but I've pulled some muscles in my back, so maybe I'll wait until next week!

Textual Analysis: Film Logos

The mountain in the logo infers that the films produced by Summit are the “top of the top”. Mountains are, of course, the tallest things on Earth and the image suggests that Summit’s film overpower all over films, for they are “higher” than the rest of them. Also, the “summit” of a mountain is the very top of the mountain; this suggests that the films really do power over every film company in the world: Summit is on top, and they are, and will always be, below them.
The colour ‘blue’ in the logo suggests royalty. This is another way of suggesting that the institution of the most over-powering film company around and is the most controlling. A monarchy traditionally had all power over their country/countries and though that may not be the case anymore, it is still remembered and the royal colour is used in a way that tells other institutions to “back off” because Summit will always be in charge. The colour also represents the earth, for the sea and the sky are typically blue; this helps infer that Summit is “taking over the world” film-wise, for the sea is incredibly vast and overpowering and the sky is, of course, everywhere!
The font used to title the institution is very mature and clear and suggests that all of Summit’s films are well-established and created by mature, responsible professionals who are experts in film making.

The title for Lionsgate is very bold, suggesting that it is a fierce and powerful institution for people think of boldness as something very strong and gallant almost. The title breaks through clouds, suggesting that the institution is “sky-high” and makes all other institutions ineffective, for it is very high up in the world... literally!

            The colours used in the logo’s are always varying shades of greys and whites, suggesting that Lionsgate shows very mysterious and eerie films that are not for the faint hearted. Grey clouds usually suggest bad weather and typically bad weather is associated with the coming of a bad event, whether that be rain, a cancelling of an important event or something much more drastic and dramatic which could become the story to a film (a film created by Lionsgate).

            Of course, in itself, the name of the institution is enough to suggest that it is a very powerful company. Not only is the lion one of the strongest and most feared animals on Earth, but the prospect of having to pass through a gate guarded by a lion would surely terrify most people. Lions are fierce, strong and brave, and to pass through one would be a very nerve-wracking and worrisome experience. The name suggests that, like its animal namesake, the institution is fierce, brave, strong and willing to do its best to protect its livelihood. Everybody knows how protective lions get over the families; imagine how they’d feel if you tried to pass through their gate?!

Week Two: Fancy Answering My Questions? Comment Below...

This week will be used as my research week. Above, you can see my Voki, and feel free to answer its questions. I also have a lot of time this week dedicated to catching up with some old friends who have moved on to college, and I will ask them about their favourite thriller films and what they like about them. Not only will I ask my friends and family, I'm also going to research the "best thriller films" to see what has been voted and why they have been.
I want to know what everybody expects from a good thriller before I create my own.

We're Not In Kansas Anymore....

Or, at least, we're not in Year Ten any more. Our GCSE's are out of the way, and now it's time to, in the words of dear old Olivia Newton John, "get physical". For the first time, we're creating a physical product, but that doesn't mean we're not going to have to plan everything we do!

The main difference, however, is the use of humans. (Hmm..)

I remember clearly the process of creating my "Thriller film" in Year Ten, or rather I designed a poster, created a synopsis, and drew a storyboard for the opening of the film and that. was. it. I remember how long it took me to decide on which actors I should use for each role; I thought so carefully and it didn't matter, so long as I could justify my choices, because I knew we wouldn't make the opening anyway.

Now, however, I am going to have to do all of those things (Do I make a poster?) but I'm going to have to find people to be in my film.

This was the first draft of my Year Ten poster...

I suppose it's probably about time I decided on the synopsis, and the general idea of my film, because once I have a taste of the characters I need, I can choose the best actors for the roles.

I'm slightly terrified, to say the least...

May the film... commence.

Week One!

Week One!!

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The Beginning of It All....

So! I've created this blog with the sole purpose of submitting my Media AS Level coursework. Here I will be uploading PowerPoint's, videos, images and all of my research and planning for my Media coursework! I am currently in "pre-production" for my making of a two-minute thriller film opening, so hopefully you'll enjoy the end result!
My first submission will be my Action Plan! Can I hear a, "Hell yeah?!"
I'm really looking forward to this whole process, and hopefully it'll go well! Keep your fingers crossed for me (please)!

Abi