Filming!

I started by filming at 'Harry Ramsdens at The Wingerworth' taking lots of different shots so I had a vary of shots to choose from. I tried to find the best place to film the victim, I finally shot it in the basement store room. Then I filmed at my house in my kitchen, to make sure the mise-en-scene was correct for the film I cleaned the whole kitchen so it would show Owen as being a very neat person. When filming I wanted to get across the idea that Owen Matthews had mental issues so I tried to get across that he has OCD. I did this by making the actor (Mick Wyldbore-Wood) to wash his hands several times so I had a lot of shots to choose from. I then made sure he was ok with using bleach on his hands, which he was, I then proceeded to film this. When filming in my house, I tried to get that the film was British, I did this by mise-en-scene, E.g British cleaning brands and making tea. I chose making tea as its a universal stereotype for British people.
When deciding for the film, I chose to stick with the stereotype of a male kidnapper/villain and a female victim. I felt that this got across to the audience the whole story in a short space of time.

Location shots: New Plan

Below are some new location shots for my new idea!

New Plan

Due to complications with filming, the old thriller idea of filming in a kitchen and then a fire smoke house, is no longer possible. With a limited time and a limited area to film I have chosen to film at a local restaurant/bar called 'Harry Ramsdens at The Wingerworth'. I took two of my ideas and put them together to create my new plan called 'Local Secrets'. Local Secrets is about a young girl who was taken as a child, being filmed ten years after her disappearance in a pub less then 10 minutes away from her parents home, the story is about this young girl being stolen by the pubs owner Owen Matthews. I chose to do this as I have read many books and watched many films about kidnappings and disappearances, e.g. Cellar by Natasha Preston and the Taken trilogy directed by Pierre Morel.
When we were given the task of a thriller opening I automatically chose to do a psychological thriller as its my favourite genre.

moodboard/locations

These photos are the locations that I am trying to recreate in my thriller task. The clean kitchens are trying to get the impression that the man (kidnapper) is OCD with his cleanliness, I got this idea from the book The Cellar by Natasha Preston. The dirty and dark rooms are going to be shot in either an abandoned building or a fire stations smoke house. I have access to both but will go and visit the locations in advance to decide which one will work best. The dark room is going to have a dirty mattress in it and I will make sure that the mise en scene helps to create the impression that its an unpleasant place to be and that it has been abandoned for years. A young girl, the victim will be in there.

Story board

I created this storyboard with a website called Storyboardthat.com, its free to use but you can only use 6 boxes, you will need to pay to use more. I created this storyboard to help me when filming my thriller opening. I added notes to follow when filming to help me keep to the camera shots and locations.

Uses and gratification theory in my preliminary task

The uses and gratification theory, Blumler and Katz 1974, suggests that people watch the media to gain various things. There are 5 things Blumler and Katz came up with, these are:

Diversion (Escapism)
The need to escape from everyday life.
E.g. Listening to music to block out everything around you.

Personal relationships (Social interaction)
Use the media text for emotional and other interaction, e.g. substituting soap operas for family life.

Personal identity
Create their own identity from characters/celebrities in media texts. and learning behaviour and values. E.g. reading a fashion magazine to try and look like celebrities.

Entertainment
As a mean of relaxation enjoyment and emotional release. Purely for the 'fun' experience. E.g. playing video games to relax and enjoy yourself.

Surveillance (information)
To gain information and knowledge. E.g. Watching a documentary.

I think that Diversion, Entertainment and Surveillance apply to my preliminary task of a thriller.
Diversion (Escapism) to escape from the boring everyday life most of the population have to seek a thrill.
I think that Entertainment applies as its a form of relaxing and it gives the audience a thrill which they can enjoy.
Surveillance applies as the audience can gain information about what happens around the world and that things like this happen all the time.

Representation of sexuality

In the theory side of media, we are currently looking at the representation of sexuality. We are doing this to get an idea of how different peoples sexuality is presented on screen, this will help when filming and directing our own film/thriller openings. The definition of sexuality is: A persons sexual preference or orientation. There is a long list of sexuality's but the most common ones are: homosexual, heterosexual, bi-sexual and asexual. When looking at a 'Representation of sexuality' clip, I found that heterosexual people are shown more widely in media. In this clip from 'Glee', heterosexual people are presented through a drama queen, a shy and recluse girl, a disabled boy, a black diva and a calm and collect teacher. Whereas the homosexual (the only homosexual) guy is presented as a high pitched, camp gay guy who loves musical theatre and attention. This is conforming to society's stereotypical views on homosexual males.
Kurt (Homosexual male character) goes to speak to a heterosexual male named Finn, who's them assumes that Kurt is asking him to prom. Kurt shows a pained expression on his faced and adamantly says "I'm not gay". This suggests that Kurt feels embarrassed and scared to admit his sexual orientation. This could be because of the heteronormative society we live in today which intimidates Kurt.

Kurt, the only homosexual guy in this Glee season.

Representation of disability

Media Theory

In the other side of the AS Media course, the theory side, we are currently looking at the different areas of study that we could get asked about in our final exam, we are currently on the area of
representations of disability through the media. We watched a short exam clip in lesson from 'Secret diary of a call girl' and we were then asked for homework to explain how disability was presented in the clip. This was my final response. The clip is also attached.

 

 

 

Conventions of a thriller film

                                      Nerve - Textual Analysis

In this opening, they try to imitate a computer screen to show that the film involves the internet.
In this one, an online computer app is shown. This could show how technology has taken over, we used to read books on paper and now we read them on our phones or the computer.
 

In this shot, it shows an editing screen.

In this one a shoe emoji is shown to show that this is modern.

They use a music site to show the music producer.

This one shows a popular app called 'Snapchat'.
This could be to show how we feel the need to record our lives and share them. As the film is about this.

Preliminary task evaluation

Eutopia Opening Response

In the theory side of media A level we have been watching a few episodes of a series called Utopia. We have now been given our first exam style question to answer, we practise with exam questions so that we get a feel of what we will be asked in the final exam. For this question we had 45 minutes and a short clip from the opening to an episode. The question we were asked was: What is effective about the opening to series 2 episode 6 of utopia? This is my final response. I will use the feedback from the teacher to try and improve my next written response.

Story board

This is my storyboard in preparation for the preliminary task. I can now use this as a direction of what to film and when to film.

~ Beth

Preliminary task video

Hello,


This is our final video for the preliminary task described earlier,
 


                        ~Beth

Preliminary task

Hello,

So we have been set our first proper task. It is to film a continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. I am in a group with Jack Geary and Spencer Graham. We must correctly use the 180 degree rule which is shown in the diagram below:

 

The 180° rule is a cinematography guideline that states that two characters in a scene should maintain the same left/right relationship to one another . When the camera passes over the invisible axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line and the shot becomes what is called a reverse angle.
                                              ~Beth

First/ Inferance task

Hello, So the other day we got set a practise task; which was to use inferences in film making to make it look like someone is being stabbed. I worked with Dominic Bramley, Kasey Stanley and Mr Welch. As a group we came up with the plot of a over exaggerated teacher and a student with attitude about a set assignment. The pupil didn't hand in the set work and the teacher had had enough with students like this. The teacher then stabs the student. We did this so that we can show our understanding of using inference within media. We do this so that we can practise different skills so that we can use some of the stuff we learn in our final thriller opening.
~Beth

More camera shots

Hello again,

I went out today to get a few more shots and here they are:

Two shot

Close up

Low angle

Mid shot

                                                                        ~ Beth

Camera angles

So today I went outside of school with a friend to shoot a few camera angles to show you what some look like. Here they are:

Low Angle

Close-up



Establishing shot

Extreme close-up

High angle

Long shot

over the shoulder shot

Tilt angle

Wide shot with background

                                                                        ~ Beth

Welcome to my blog!

I'm currently studying media for A Levels and to be honest, it's a little daunting! The reason I chose to study media is because I love to analyse things, books, people, films and pretty much anything. It's always why? Why do people do this? Why did the author use that technique? And why did the director use that particular angle? It could be to create an effect, or to show a hidden meaning or anything else really, I just like to know why so hopefully I will enjoy media. I love photography so hopefully this will help when recording clips for coursework. The daunting part is the speaking to people and doing group work.  Our task is to create a 2.5 minute trailer for a thriller film which will be interesting to say the least. On this blog I will be posting "the evolution of our film" or whatever you will call it, so I hope whoever is reading this enjoys!       ~ Beth