Media A2 Coursework Blog

Created using Visme . The Free Online Presentation Tool. Transcript: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? For my short film, I chose a social realist inspired by films directors such as Ken Loach, Andrea Arnold. I watched a range of films, including many from the Short Of The Week website, to glean information for my own production. In terms of camera work, I was inspired by shots in films such as ‘Fish Tank’, ‘I, Daniel Blake’, ‘ Augusta, Gone’ and also music videos such as Hozier’s ‘Take Me To Church’ and Sia’s ‘Chandelier’ as my film is about a dancer. In the social realist genre, editing tends to focus very much on continuity and creating verisimilitude through long-held shots, often stabilized hand-held shots, sometimes similar to a documentary style. Therefore I emulated these techniques in my own work. For social realism, it was vital that I established a credible mise-en-scene with costum

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Audience feedback has been crucial to the overall effectiveness of my short film. Throughout the whole process I have adapted and changed my ideas from what my audience had to say. In order to receive the most effective feedback I targeted an audience of the same age range and demographic that I was aiming my film at, which was males and females between 16 - 29. Pre-Production My first major part of audience feedback was during the planning stages of my film, where I was able to skype with a professional film director. He first suggested to always be filming, and catch the mistakes made on set. This allowed me to watch inspirational movies and appreciate the shots that were not meant to be. Furthermore, Terry Hall also contributed feedback to my idea about effortless filming her dancing from multiple angles. He suggested using Match on Action shots, and to film her hundreds of times. For Example, I watched 'Take Me To Church - Sergei Polunin" - Where they have captured h

For my Advanced Portfolio I made a short film in the social realist genre . I've learned a host of new skills relating to digital technology which helped me create a very successful media product, along with synergous ancillary tasks – a film poster and a magazine review. At A2 I was much more comfortable with using a wide range of digital technology and so was able to incorporate more advanced ideas into my research and planning. I also acquired a new Canon 5D camera to better the quality of my shots. So for this task, I created two ancillary tasks of a website and a film poster . This meant researching existing magazine review pages from magazines such as, Empire Magazine and film posters from Movies such as Fish Tank. After analyzing them, as well as watching YouTube videos to help me learn about the different software I was using: photoshop elements 11. I generated a poster and a magazine advertisement to develop my skills in using the software. I used my own pictures from

There are many conventions surrounding the genre of social realism. I thought I’d best be aware of them if I’m to make a social realism film! In my opinion, titles are perhaps the aspect of social realism which is easy to find conventions for. Other conventions rely heavily on content and context of the film. So let’s start with titles. Font The font of social realism is nearly always sans serif. Social realism deals with the working class, and a serif font would be far too professional and middle class. Serif fonts are also usually used because it looks like less effort has gone into it, and laziness is a stereotype of the working class, especially in films. Some films will take this a step further, and add their own style to a sans serif font. For example, ‘This is England’ has titles which are made to look like graffiti, an issue which is shown in the film. This also matches the stereotype that the lower classes take part in vandalism. Positioning The positioning of titles

So here is the first rough cut of my movie At the moment, It is missing it's final scene and also the colouring off the dance sequence is a bit off. Therefore, It is not quite finished yet.

I wanted to create a magazine that would have the appeal to my audience demographics but also fitted with other social realist reviews. So I chose to name my magazine 'Standard' as the 'Evening Standard' is frequently used to analyze social realist films.  However after audience feed back, I went and changed it to three columns:

Film Magazine Review Finding a magazine: Find a Publisher - EMPIRE http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/ Genre of the Magazine Reviews - ALL Audience Profile of the Magazine  Monthly reach of Empire magazine in Great Britain from July 2015 to June 2016, by demographic group (in 1,000s)  Purpose of Magazine  "We collaborate with the biggest film studios and distributors and world-class filmmakers and actors to create content that no other brand could pull off. From interviewing Tom Cruise to being on set with Quentin Tarantino to shooting videos with Ryan Reynolds, our access is unparalleled. With world-class writers, critics, photographers and illustrators, every piece of Empire content is considered, premium, polished and connects with the audience, who trust us implicitly and come back to Empire every day, every week and every month." Stylistic Conventions for the Review page: For Example: Included in the Review Page in 'Empire' Magazi

There are many conventions surrounding the genre of social realism. I thought I’d best be aware of them if I’m to make a social realism film! In my opinion, titles are perhaps the aspect of social realism which is easy to find conventions for. Other conventions rely heavily on content and context of the film. So let’s start with titles. Font The font of social realism is nearly always sans serif. Social realism deals with the working class, and a serif font would be far too professional and middle class. Serif fonts are also usually used because it looks like less effort has gone into it, and laziness is a stereotype of the working class, especially in films. Some films will take this a step further, and add their own style to a sans serif font. For example, ‘This is England’ has titles which are made to look like graffiti, an issue which is shown in the film. This also matches the stereotype that the lower classes take part in vandalism. Positioning The positioning of titles

Social realism openings are very different from mainstream film openings as they focus on getting straight into the themes and issues in the film. They do this by showing small pieces of video in between the opening credits, so that the audience get a feel for the setting and understand what is going on around the characters. This also helps to hint toward what the film is about. On the other hand, mainstream films concentrate on the displaying who is in the film and who produced it as the do not have any video before or during the opening sequence. Non-Diagetic music is often used as well, which distracts the viewer from thinking about what the film is about and the themes and issues in it. Conventions of Social Realism Opening Sequences In social realism films, there are opening credits that last for a maximum of 3 minutes. This is where everyone that worked on the film is credited but not as in depth as the credits at the end of the film. Most social realism film producers t

Using Photoshop Elements 11, and the research I had gathered. I set out to design my poster. I took my original photo: and using inspiration from Fish Tank and This is England - I 'comicized' the location. By removing the protagonist. Then I looked at a portrait photo placemeent as I needed to concert it into  FILM POSTER: I then added the critical information, such as star ratings, movie credits and director: Then I put it all together to Create:

Looking at Film Poster in the social realist genre. They are very simplistic and direct. They don't look like they are graphically edited too much but maintain a simple look, to reflect the film's simple storyline. Social Realist Film Poster Research from Lizzy Marshall

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products? - Film Directors - Ken Loach, Andrea Arnold Conventions of the Genre - challenge or conform - Conform through - Camera Work, Editing, Mise en Scene, Sound Camera Work - Inspired by shots from films like Fish Tank and the dance shots from Chandelier and 'Take me to Church'  Editing - In the social realist genre, editing tend to focus vary much on continuity and creating verisimiliture through long-held shots, often stabilised hand held shots, sometimes similar to documentary style. Therefore I emulate there techniques in my own work. Mise En Scene - Fish Tank and I, Daniel Blake. It was vital that I established mise-en-scene with costumes, props, and setting exactly as they would be in 'real life'. Therefore, on location, I identified some boys who were riding their bikes and doing tricks in their coordinated Adidas tracksuits and side satchels and

Here was day two, and rememberinghow easy it is to make rookie errors!

After filming quite a bit of my film I've started edited! However, I need to find uncopyrighted music. Looking on websites such as: -   freeplaymusic.com   I couldn't find anything fitted to my social realist theme. - AudioNetwork.com  I found some background music that could potentially be fitted to my film named Intrepie Hi by Kevin Macloud and Bitter Sweet by Kevin Macloud. - EpidemicSound.com  I looked at songs with lyrics that could be fitting to my storyline, they were called 'Youth is Wasted On The Young', 'Won't You Save Me' and some without lyrics like 'Sad Drama 4' and 'Chasing Peace 03'. Also However I looked at recording my own sounds as some are easier to get hold off, like a clock for my waiting room. I recorded my own clock and imported to sound into the movie. All to be seen below:

So after doing my research I looked into Magazine Film review pages: these were the top searches on google images, for generic film reviews: However looking into social realisms:  This was - I, Daniel Blake in the 'EVENING STANDARD' Very bold colours, but black and while symbolizing how life is simply black and white. However no pictures? Also with film ratings of 3 stars. This is I, Daniel Blake in 'PASTE': Opposite colour scheme, still black and white. However with a covering photo displaying the main characters. Also the social media tabs and ratings of 8.0.  This is Fish Tank in 'SLANT' Magazine: Simplistic fonts and colouring with a deep emotional photograph. Also a ratings chart and social media tabs. Also cookies with advertisements. This is Fish Tank in 'THE GUARDIAN' Again with a covering photo more about the story than emotions, followed by simple text. Also with a rating of 5 stars.

For our A2 short film we have to compose two ancillary tasks along side. One of which being a film magazine review page and the other a movie poster. Starting with film magazine research, I need to look at my demographics and psychographics for my film audience to decide what magazine they would read. Looking at a range of magazines from Cosmopolitan to Teen Magazines searching for what those interested in social realism would look at. - Prior to this I researched the demographics for my audience to be: Areas of which high graffiti is a common artistic expression as it's in a place of low-income watching a creative film piece that they can relate too. Indigenous audience members overall are the main people to which can relate to the movie. However, there is also the other side to the argument which is that the audience are high brow audience such as Ken Loach audiences, who buy tickets to his cinema productions interested in the looking down on the lower class with a social

So throughout shooting on day one, it was discovered after I had made some errors. Here is a video to show you them:

I skyped a man named Terry to ask questions on how we are going to accomplish certian difficulties we faced within our movie. So I asked him my questions: - How to I set up my two sets of sequences identically? Well, I think unless you have monitors and are able to layer it perfectly, your very limited in idenitically matching but a better more effective look would be Match on Action. This is an idea I will encorperate into my dancing scene. Plus he said the match of sounds at the end is better not to happen, but to build up the drop and then have the clap as a seperate sound on the end to and a sense of realism to the scene. - How to make social realism look real and not stages? Film the mistakes, the rough cuts. Film what the natural is, as usually you find there is great stuff in there, making the movie seem less staged. Like for exmaple if shes practing her dancing, film her practices as this will then lead on to show how her past empowers her dance routine.