filming in the forge Interigation scene

This scene is where the protagonist is torchered by a masked figure. This was filmed in a smithery in my local town.
There were some technical problems with our camera equaipment when we arrived at our filming location as the camera had run out of film, this meant that we had to improvise and use something else to film this ended up with me using a Iphone to film the scene. In retrospective I think that the Iphone gave the scene a sense of grainyness which was needed for that scene due to its violent nature. To get a good take it took about an hour due to camera shake and getting the right sort of lighting.

Evaluation Activity 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challange forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of teaser trailers/ posters/ magazines)

My Teaser trailer which I made for my A2 media coursework follows some of the conventional forms of real media products but also breaks some of these conventions. From some of the following screen grabs I will talk about if they follow or break the normal conventions of real life media products.

In my media production the mise-en-scene of the characters is a crucial aspect of the audience understanding the different roles of the characters and what they will do. In my teaser trailer the antagonist and his henchmen follow the convention of action and fantasy films by wearing dark clothing, looking ominous, carrying large weapons and wearing black makeup which makes them look evil. In most action films this is the general trend but due to the henchmen wearing gas masks this could make it seem like it was a horror film which was not what we wanted the audience to believe. This could have lead to the confusion of the audience and make the teaser trailer less useful.

The end credits of a trailer are very common in most teasers as this is a way of advertising the producing companies. In our end credits they follow the conventions of normal real life teaser trailers due to there being real companies being advertised at the bottom of the screen, this makes it seem more like a real teaser trailer making it more realistic.

This part of my trailer where the logo of a production company appears is very common in most teaser trailers as it advertises the producer of the film which enables the company to build a better brand image. My video though does doesn't follow some of the conventions usually associated with this type of promotion, as the music in the scene is changing due to the appearance of the Universal symbol. This was due to My Co-worker and I Designing the music for the film to emphasise the appearance of different scenes and events. This makes it more apparent that something has happened which will gain the audiences attention. Also due to using this type of image that is well known to the target audience it makes it seem more professional and real.

This scene is one of our more unconventional scenes where the main protagonist drops his weapons and his bullet belt. In all of the action teaser trailers that I have studied, the protagonist never drops their weapons. This was meant to differentiate the protagonist from the antagonist due to the henchmen wearing black clothing and carrying black assault riffles. The protagonist is meant to be shown shedding his evil looking items onto the floor and using a weapon that portrays the forces of good by using the white katana (samurai sword). The way that this happens is very different to conventional action protagonists for example The film "Rambo" where for the most part of the film he is wearing a bullet belt which looks very masculine but could be mistaken for a antagonist if no prior knowledge was known.

The love scene in my teaser trailer isn't usually common in teaser trailers, as it it seen as something that is more to do with full length trailers of films that come out at a later date. This allows us to improve upon current conventions for teaser trailers and allows the story to develop and give the teaser trailer depth and a Unique Selling Point over all the other ones as it is more able to entice the target audience.

Throughout my teaser trailer I have tried to use a variety of locations which has made the video more enticing to the audience and this has made it more enjoyable. But for example in some teaser trailers the location doesn't change, which could mean that my teaser trailer doesn't follow the conventions of teaser trailers for example, the teaser trailer for the film "Super 8" where the entire video is shot around one location, which is the train line and the crash. But in other teaser trailers like the "Iron man" trailer there is a variety of locations which could show that the conventions for location for trailers varies from film to film and that there is no set convention that an audience is expecting to see.

Throughout my Teaser trailer I have tried to keep the identity of the genre in the video clear, which is a action and fantasy genre. I have done this by having an action packed video which has got scenes of violence and weapons being on display for most of the video. But it also in my video I do have scenes that would detract away from the stereotypical action film teaser trailer, which could be the love scene which are not usually associated with the action genre. This could show that it is not a pure genre but maybe be a hybrid genre which is trying to reach a multiple different audiences. The music within the video also helps to identify the genre due to it being fast paced and not in the background but in the foreground. This helps the audience to identify the film and its genre which enables the producers to target their target market more easily.  

This is the title of my Film which is shown at the end of my Video. This is always shown in teaser trailers at the end which means that this is following that convention fully. The only difference that my title has to other teaser trailers is that it is not as visible to the audience due to the font colour. This is different to other teaser trailers because they are usually very bold and colourful. I have tried to make it seem more subtle and discreet. This may have to make the audience look more intensely but this will also intensify their attention more at the teaser trailer.

The camera shots angles and times of my teaser trailer both follow some of the conventions of normal teaser trailers but also dont follow some of them. during my teaser trailer I have used a variaty of camera shots for example in the photo above I have got a long shot of a room with a person firewelding. In action film teaser trailers, for example the film "Super 8" a varrity of shot types, angles and lenths are used. But mostly in action based films the shots used are long shot which gives the audience the best view of the action. In my teaser trailer I have mostly used Mid range shots and long range shots or establishing shots within my video. This is becuase this will give the audience the best view of the action that is going on. I have tried to use these different shot types to make the current scene as interesting as possible.

Evaluation activity 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

This is a video of my final version of my teaser trailer and both of my ancillary tasks; I have recorded a commentary on top of the video to talk about how the different media texts complement each other and the similarities and also the differences between them

Evaluation Activity 3: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

For the third task my class filmed my co-worker and I talking about our media texts and then got back feedback from the class on what was good and what could have been improved from looking at the different media texts.

Another comment that I received from a person on facebook about my teaser trailer was:

"My only criticism is that at the very end the swords do not appear to hit properly. apart from that, everything was great. I especially liked the bits where George was blacksmithing and the section where Joe is being stuck, it made it feel more like a real media text."

This feedback could show many different strengths and also weaknesses in my media studies video. The major points that people have picked up on are:

Positives:

• That the use of different locations is very interesting which makes it more entertaining. 
• That the music fits well with the video that is being shown. 
• The use of sound to create a mood at a certain point during the video.
• The cross cutting between the different scenes is good and builds the story up.
• There is a good match on action throughout the teaser trailer.

Negatives:

• That the sound of the anvil being hit was out of time with the music.
• The swords at the end do not appear to hit properly.
• That the cutting could have been made faster to give a faster pace to the video.
• The church scene filming was uneven as camera shake occured.

Evaluation Activity 4: How did you use new media technoligies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stages?

Computer

For the majority of my I.T. work I used one of the dedicated media studies desktop computers in our classroom. This computer had most of the software that was useful in uploading and editing all three of the media texts that I have made for my coursework. Some of the programs that I used were Adobe Premiere elements and Photoshop.  

Filming Camera

This was a DV based camera that used miniature tapes to record onto. Each tape had enough space to hold around an hours worth of footage. These cameras were relatively easy to handle and use, as they were of a basic design which is meant for armature filmers. It had both a fold out LCD screen but you could also use the eye lense. The cameras had a variety of effects that could be applied to the footage whilst filming was done but I choose not to use them as they did not look as professional as the ones available from Premiere elements.

Mike

Through out filming our teaser trailer we used a electronic mike to capture the diagetic sound that was created by the actors in our video. This mike gave the video a much better sound quality than the film camera could, this meant that we did not have to use further methods of improving the sound quality in the editing faze of our production, or to recreate the sounds or find them on the Internet.

Tripod

This piece of equipment was used to steady the DV camera which we filmed with and was also used to elevate the position of the camera which was useful in filming static shots. In one of our scenes it was also used to get a low angle shot by holding the tripod by its feet and moving along a corridor. But for most of the filming using this piece of equipment we were in the Forrest's for the running scene. The use of the tripod is invaluable as it allowed us to vary the shot types and made them seem stable and controlled. This made it look more professional.

Sony H9 camera

This still frame camera was used mostly for our poster and for our magazine front cover. This camera has a 15 megapixel resilution, which makes it very suitable for getting high quality photos for both of the ancilory tasks. This camera has many built in features which would allow the photo to be edited or modified, for example you could put a septa filter on a picture or black and white. There was no trouble in storing the photos on the camera as there was a large memory card which was installed, so this meant that I could take as many photos as I wanted when photographing the characters for the ancilory tasks. Also the interface for uploading them onto the computers was relitively simple so this again shows it is suitable for novices.

Adobe Premiere elements

Adobe Premiere Elements is the programme that I used to edit and put together my coursework piece. This programme is not as novice friendly as some other programmes like windows movie  maker, this meant that it took a longer time to get used to the programme, but this programme has much more in the way of advanced editing tools such as time stretch and visual effects. This meant that I could make it seem very professional as I could edit both the visual and the audible sides of the video.

Adobe Photoshop

This programme was used primarily to edit the still photos that were taken for the ancillary tasks. This programme was useful in editing the different layers of the magazine and the poster together. It is not very novice friendly again as it is main mostly for professionals or for people with good I.T. knowledge. This means that it took a significant amount of time to find out how to edit photos and learn the fundamental apects of how to use it. But once you have learnt how to use it, it is very effective and you can create very artistic creations. The most useful tool that I used in the making of our ancilory tasks in photoshop was the magic wand tool which allowed me to cut away the background behind the characters, and then move them onto another layer to show the text above. 

SIBELIUS 6

This programme was used to write the music for our teaser trailer. This programme was very useful due to being able to hear the music you are writing as you create it, this means that you can create it and also hear it from the computer and not just have to imagine what it will sound like.

LOGIC 8

We used Logic to create a digital orchestra as it would have been difficult to get a real life one to play our music. This programme allows you to put together a group of instruments and the notes you want them to play. This allowed me to change the instruments characteristics throughout the piece of music.

Youtube

I used this programe to upload my videos and voiceover onto the internet. The site is very easy to use as it is meant for novice internet users, but at times can be tempermental as the upload process can fail or take hours depending on the computer that you use.

A2 Media Studies final video

This is my final A2 media studies teaser trailer for my coursework. This video is based around the genre of fantasy and action. For some aspects of our teaser trailer we got Inspiration from multiple different films which could include "Final Fantacy Advent Children",  or From the "doctor who series". This teaser trailer took about 3 months to make. This was due to the many different locations being used. This meant that we had to constantly change location to film which lenthened the time it took to finish filming my video. After we had finished filming I started editing the raw footage and narrowed 40minutes of footage down to one and a half minutes. After this I used both Logic and Silebius to create the music for the video which needed to be made after the video was edited to make sure that the music fitted to the different scenes for the video.

A2 finished Magazine cover for coursework

This is the Magazine front cover for our teaser trailer. It is mostly based around the popular mainstream magazine called Empire. This allowed me to get the basic template for the design of a magazine front cover and allowed me to make it seem more professional and real. The magazine front cover was made in photoshop and paint.net. I used different layers to put the figure on top of the forest background, and then put the different text boxes on with the different headings on them. Then after all of that found a bar code on google images and pasted that onto the various layers. Then finally I Edited out the empire writing from one of their previous magazines and pasted it into the photoshop, and layering it behind the main protagonist.  

A2 Finished poster for our treaser trailer

This is my finished teaser poster, it was again made in photoshop where the different layers where combined to allow the background to not obscure the video characters. The two main characters were taken out of a photo that was taken at a photo shoot. And then I cut the background out to only leave just the figures there. I then used a background that I found on google images to use for the background, which encapsulates the two characters. I then added the title and due date, I though tthat it would look more profetional if the due date overlapped the title as it is seen in many different posters for famous Holywood films. Finally I added the names of the actors and the Director. Then at the bottom I have put a internet link so that the target audince can access the movie in detail (link doesnt work :) sorry).  

Film Magazines that I have got inspiration from.

Editing my final video

When I had assembled all of my raw footage from my filming I then had to upload it to a computer so that I could start to edit the footage down to the desired ammount. To do this I used a specialised cable to slot into the camera and then into the computer. I then used a programme called Adobe premiere elements and uploaded the footage onto the progamme so that I could edit it. Once I had uploaded the footage onto the programme I started to cut away the unessacarry footage which was not needed and started to work away at the 40 minutes of raw footage that had been taken. When I had finished cutting the scenes down to size I then put the scenes in order which took a wile as they needed to be slotted together precisely.
Then After I had finished editing the video I edited the sound by uploading the music that My co-worker and I had wrote and fitted the music to the video precisely by cutting the footage make the certain beats fit. Then I get rid of some of the sound that was unessacary on the main video that was left over from the original foootage. That was the final stage and The video was finished.

Costume and props: Interigation scene

Costume for Antagonist lackey:
The antagonist in this scene is dressed in appropriate wear for this dark scene. He is wearing a matt black coat that is relatively tight and is not baggy. He is also wearing a gas mask that is used in an earlier scene and this could give the audience a sense of continuity which would make it less jarring and erratic. This allows the audience to start to build up a representation of these people even before the film has come out.

Costume for Protagonist:
The protagonist will be wearing a pair of black trousers and black boots, but he will not be wearing any form of clothing on his upper body this is due to the convention of the protagonist when being beaten being seen as very masculine and showing off his or her muscles. Also to make him look more tired and exhausted I will pour water and earth onto his body to give the effect of him being sweaty and dirty.

Props that were used:
The props that were used in this scene were:

• A black gas mask
• A simple swivel chair
• machinery in the background

starting our research for our Film magazines

Examples of professional Film magazine front covers.

 

This magazine is done by Empire and is a well known for its evaluation and reviews of films.

Research for Posters 1

For my media studies course work I have to create a poster for my teaser trailer. To find out what I should include in my new poster I am going to look at posters that other producers have made for their films.

The poster above was made for the film Final fantasy Advent Children which was a anime based film. The film's genre is a action and fantasy based movie. This means that it is the same form of genre that my film is. So I have taken great amounts of inspiration from this poster to put ideas forward for my own poster.

In the poster there are the two main characters which attract the target audience due to their striking figures and looks. This allows the audience to look more closely at the poster and recognise the name of the film.

Due to the white background the the two main characters in black stand out from the background which allows the audience to notice them more easily. Also because of the poster being simple the target audience don't have to look at the poster for more than 5 seconds to realise that it is a poster and then what film it is. This technique could be described as a minimalist approach. This convention seems to be popular with lots of current films as it allows the cost of the poster to be kept low whilst being able to attract the highest amount of attention from the audience. Also due to the special effects that are being used it again attracts the attention towards the characters in the centre of the screen.

Some of the the techniques used in this poster make it very appealing to the audience which I hope I can replecate and use to make my poster as profesional as possible.

Research for Posters 2

This is the second poster that I am going to evaluate and use to get ideas for my teaser trailer poster.

This is a poster for the film Iron man 2 and was released on may 7 in 2010. This poster makes use of the conventions of minimalistic designs as the poster is mostly just the picture of just the two iron man soldiers. This is due to the franchise of ironman being a famous blockbuster release, this means that it doesn't need the same sort of introduction to tell the audience what the film is and what its about. The title for the film is only the number 2 which is both symbolic of there only being two characters on the screen and also that it is the second film in the iron man series. The only form of writing on the screen is the number and the release date which adds to the simplicity of the poster. The pose that the two main characters are standing in would look good in my poster to use as the stance for positioning the protagonist and the antagonist.

Other videos that will be simular to our main video

To help my partner and I film a better video we looked online, mostly on youtube.com to see what other people had created, this lead us to the video above. This video has many of the same themes and props as our own video that we are going to create, some of these include:
1. The use of BB guns is prominant in this video as all of the characters have them. This is simular to our film as most of the characters have them with the execption of the lover of the main protagonist. The other difference is that in this video they use the BB guns to point at each other and kill one-another, in our film we do not do this as they are more for decrative purposes and to add to Mise-en-scene.

2. The use of Katana's is used in this video by a ninja type person to take out a guard in the first minute of the video. We will be using different types of fake swords in our film as well but they will have a more active role in the fight scene of our film as they will be the focus of the battle. Also the katana in their film has a white handle but a black sheeth, which is different to our fake katana due to it being completly white. This could give off conitations of their person with the katana having a darker side to him/her, but with our sword being totally white having conitations of having a good side and words for the forces of good.

3. The clothing in this video is very simular to that of our video, as it is based round military wear. This is shown by the main characters wearing apaeral that is usually worn by special opps units. In our film we have the protagonist wearing a old world war 2 army uniform. Also the bad guys in this film wear dark coloured clothing (mostly black) and is based round either a t-shirt and cargo trousers or with a black shirt with cargo trousers. Round  the middle of the video a ninja assasin takes out a armed guard, he is wearing again army clothing and also is wearing a balaclava with a  airsofting mask in black. In our video we are going to be using two black gas masks which will be covering the two bad guy's acomplaces faces. Also the eye holes for the gas masks are blacked out so the camera cannot see into them, which gives a ominous feel.

Is our video post modern

mix of genres ?

Practice takes of running scene

For a scene in our video my partner and I were uncertain on how to film a scene and make it seem profesional so we decided to practice on filming this scene beforehand to get the desired shots that we wanted. So we went to the forrest were we are filming for the actual video and took a couple of shots, which are in the videos below.

In these two videos we got our main Protagonist to drop his coat exposing a samuria sword. We did this from both the front and the back, and then in the editing stages of filming we would edit them together and get a smooth continueous movement of him taking his coat off from both the front and the back. In the main video we intend to do this but also for him to have a fake/toy gun on his back to add to the effect of the scene. This could be classed as a homage to the rambo films as he wears guns on his back.

The two swords for our main characters

For the main Protagonist and the Antagonist my partner and I have sourced and acquired two fake swords. The mise-en-scene for these swords was crucial so we took much time and effort searching and researching into the appropriate type and colour that would be best suited to each character.
In the end we found both swords from picture 1 and picture 2. These swords were perfect for both of the roles of our characters due to many charatistics that they had, these being:
That the Protagonists sword was a samurai sword or formally know as a Katana. This sword was used by 16th century Samurai and ceased to be used around the 1900's. The samurai that used them were seen as a force of good as they were the ones that protected the lands of Japan. The sword we have in bright white which gives off connotations of pureness.

Picture 1 Protagonists sword

Picture 2 Antagonists sword

The Antagonists sword is perfect for his role is due to it looking like a tribal weapon. This is because it has teeth stitched onto the sheeth for the sword this gives out conitations of evil, that along with the tribal looking paterns on the sheeth as well make it look more old and treasured. Also the handle is made out of deer antler which is pointed and makes it seem more dangerous.

Location Change

After much consideration my partner and I wish to change the location of the forest scene as we have found a more aesthetically pleasing area to film rather than that of the Oxshot area of forest and is more in keeping with our original idea of what the forest should look like. So instead we have decided to use a area of forest near the town of Headley. This forest is more suited to our desired mise-en-scene due to it being used as a local shooting ground for clay shooting. This means that the local area looks damaged due to a war or battle. This makes it more realistic and looks more like a real war has occured. This is due to the trees having chunks taken out of them due to pellit fire. Also we could sprinkle empty shotgun cartrages on the floor to add to the feel and realness.

Mood board for the Protagonist

Mood Board for our Antagonist

Locations for our main video

For our main  video I have selected a large variety of set locations which we can film in. These locations include:

The St Mary's church in Leatherhead
This is a perfect place to do multiple scences for our video due to there being church style chairs inside the church that we can use to film with and also that the main church itsself which we will use as the protagonist kneels before the ulter. Also the graveyard outside is the perfect place to film our Protagonist meets Antagonist scene, due to the headstones looking old and damaged. Also the chruch itsself was built in the 1100 AD so has a very gothic feel to the building so looks like a hive where evil can form or hide.

Forrests near Oxshot
These forrests are very dense birch tree areas which are very tall and are very close and packed together, this makes the protagonist as he runs through it seem more segmented and almost like stop motion picture footage.

filming in the church

For this scene My co-worker and I were filming in a medievil church.
This scene was interesting to film as some obstibles emerged. These inlcuded that we did not bring a steady cam to use wilst moving with the camera which resulted in some camera shake. To counter this I decided to use a old wheel chair that was not being used in the church. This acted as a form of steady cam and lead to a much steadier shot being taken. Also as a more inovative idea that we had wilst filming was that we could use a tripod to steady a low shot shot wilst the camera was upsidedown to get the low angle that we wanted and then turn the image round to normal in the editing. This church scene fits in well with my mise-en-scene for my film due to it meanting to be a more gothic styled film where the protagonist is of a slightly darker nature.