Key Concepts

Media Forms

Media comes in a variety of different forms, this includes magazines, newspapers (tabloids), films, advertisements, posters and social networking provides a tonne of media with videos and pictures galore.

Institutions 

There are two types of institution regarding forms of media, they are conglomerate and independent. Conglomerate is a multinational corporate company which controls several variations of subordinates that focus on independent areas of media. Whereas for independent companies they revolve around one name, have no subordianates and only represent a few artists usually set up to do collaborations with other artists under different labels.

Genre

Genre is the type of film which is being represented to the audience for example, horror (The Omen), comedy (Happy Gilmore), action (Fast and Furious), thriller (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and romance (The Fault In Our Stars). These are the main types of genres however these can split into sub-genres like rom-com (50 Days Of Summer) or a thriller/horror (You're Next).

Representation

Representation is how the movie's meaning is displayed through the use of shots (different angles), composition, props, lighting, and sound to bring a specific atmosphere into the film and make it immersive. For example in a horror movie the lighting is darker than what the lighting would be in a comedy because the atmosheres are completely different in how they represent the story.

Audience

Audience is who the film is aimed at, this can be absolutely anyone or any type of person but specifically to a certain group or set standard of people. In terms of marvel movies they are aimed at parents who have young kids whereas a drug-fuelled ethically wrong business film like The Wolf of Wall Street is aimed at the middle and working class people because it represents both sides of living.

Ideology

An ideology is in orthodox, a way of thinking. The ideology behind a film represents the worldview it is supposed to give, the message it sends you. Whether that be on morales, philosophy, humour, religion, therefore any number of things can be an ideology. 

Narrative

The narritive is how the story is told, through a third person perspective, chronologically, in depth or with a certain way of doing things such as describing characters or setting.

Using Final Cut Pro: Edit

Reflection On Edit

Using the camera with a tripod we were able to assertain still framed shots, before each shot we balanced out the focus and used white balance to control the lighting of the exposure. We worked well in our group but considering there was only two of us it wasn't that difficult, my role was to act in front of the camera (I say act, i stood or walked in the position of how the shot should be composed) whereas my partner angled the camera and told me where to stand for the shot, she also was involved in the two shot because we needed two people in the frame.

All the shots have been named according to their layouts on Final Cut Pro, the 10 shot types include a variety of angles and distance which we tested out to give our shots more meaning and depth to convey whatever we want. Since this was just a test for the shots it wasn't entirely specfic on anything really apart from my stature, but just filming that isn't exactly movie-worthy. Knowing what the shots are called correctly and what they suggest in film makes all the difference.

The music works well with the edit, makes it comical and adds a nice atmoshpere to it. The lighting was fixed on a natural setting so white balance sorted out the exposure. The ISO, shutter speed and aperature didn't need changing because the natural lighting outside was good enough to show the subject clearly, the lighting was effective and fit the scene without any problems.

To improve my edit I could have added some more effects such as transitions, sound effects and motion effects. The organisation of the clips was done well along with the colour correction, but this only accounts for so much. In my next project i will be using all the tools at my disposal to make all the improvements things i did well instead.

 

Lighting and Camera Setup

Camera Overview

We messed around with the lighting today and got a few nice pictures demonstrating the use of exposure, shutter speed and aperature.  The following are examples of using ISO and the settings above to produce images of different in lighting.

One of the pictures uses a low fstop measure which gives the image a darker tone around the image, completely blacking out the background but still keeping the actors illuminated.

Whereas the other picture uses a high fstop measure to preview the background and to add to the whites changing the mood to a lighter atmoshpere.

 

 

The camera that was used for this is known as a Canon 700D. This has all the settings including white balance (adjusts the image of the shot to suit the lighting and tones), focus (clears up the picture depending on what needs to be focused on so that it isn't blurry), exposure and ISO (how sensitive the camera is to light).

Audience Types

Audience Types

1. The Birds (1963) is a horror made by Alfred Hitchcock. The specified target audience this film is aimed at is American/British, males and female adults either working class or middle class. It would be aimed more at working classs due to the low key characters in the film, this horrific situation happening in the lives of everyday people makes it relatable to the working class. The one reason for it being aimed at adults is because of the frightening scenes that occur which include quite a lot of gore, for example when the birds start attacking school children. This is a shocking scene especially when a child falls and the other kids start trampling over her while the birds peck away at her face. There is a romantic aspect to the plot but that does not challenge the genre of the film, in fact it only makes the film appeal to females who might enjoy the hopeless romance.

2. It has a lot of American characters in it but there is one British elderly lady which people in the UK can identify with because of her accent mainly, she differs from everyone else and her intelligence concerning agriculture. She is seen as knowledgeable and upper class compared to the Americans who reside in this part of the countryside as working/middleclass, however the rural area is similar to the scenery usually associated with Britain as an island.

In terms of imagery and style, there is foreshadowing at the beginning of the movie because the main character works in a bird shop and the second main character uses audacious language referencing to her background. Shocking moments when the birds attack have really close up shots of the violence and erratic movements of the birds convey some fantastic imagery to show how powerful the birds are in numbers. This indicates the danger and power of the birds, also this is emphasised by the art style as it's done in 16mm film, this means no special effects were used.

Unfriended is a horror movie, except this is a modern take on paranormal attacks through the use of Skype. The target audience is suburban teens, the focus is on technology and how it has the capability to destroy a person's life through cyber bullying. Focus is on modern age teens.

Final Cut Pro; What I Learnt

Today, I learnt how to use final cut pro with the basics, like how to use transitions, and add colour corrections to tint the whole of the movie. I learnt how to add music into my movie on final cut pro and fade it in and out as well as the video itself to give a better effect over the film. I learnt how to cut certain parts of clips out to have better editing continuity, also i did this by using the rolling toll. I also learnt how to put text in for the intro and credits.

Film Clips

Film Clips

1.  X-Men 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLOMdddg11A 

I like this scene because the editing portrays nightcrawler's rapid movements and teleportation through panning at a particular moment demonstrating how he moves so fast the human eye cannot fathom it. Nightcrawler is breaking and entering, there's a lot of symbolism for this suggested through the use of doors in the shots.

      2. Judge Dredd 1995 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qolk_rDA9xU

In my eyes I see this as the best example for use of sound, mainly because the film was made in 1995 yet set way into the future, there's all these technical sounds like the hoverbike Dredd rides in on humming, or the microphone which extends out of his helmet, they have this technical sound. You also have the badly animated explosions, but shown from Dredd's point of view, and with excellent sound still feels real.

      3. The Babadook https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhM4X3cozdI  

Honestly, this movie speaks for itself in terms of lighting, what i love about this scene is when she hugs her husband with two white lights coming from the outside almost pointing at him in his direction illuminating him from back. When she is actually hugging him there is no longer any light on her and well it builds a tonne of suspense, very dark and terrifying.