Skills Reflection

 Research & Planning

In Year 12 our task was to create an opening sequence for a British Social Realism Film. This was a genre of film I did not regularly watch so doing research for this was vital. For some research into what the conventions of British Social Realism Film are we found YouTube clips of British Social Realism films and looked at the technical aspects of it and found some conventions within the genre for it. To understand what the exam board required of us we looked at past students work and evaluated it looking at the positives, the negatives and how we could improve on it. The institution we were creating the film for was film 4 and so we had to research them heavily to find what kind of films they generally produce so we looked at their ethos and history and examples of their films.

 We also needed to know who our target audience was so we created vox pops and asked them various questions. Some of the questions we asked were if they were watched BSR films and whether or not they thought our idea was good. We also created a theoretical audience for our film in a PowerPoint slide and said what kind of films our audience watch and what they do in their free time.

 We also had to do a lot of planning to make sure the production process went smoothly and during this we made; call sheets, location recces, cast list and location lists. All these things helped us during the production phase as it gave us a clear guide.



From this I became much better at understanding what my audience is like through research as we can see from my original 'Meet the Audience' blog to the more recent one which included much more detail.

Another example of how I improved my research and planning skills is my planning for when, where and what I will film during production. An example of this is my shooting scripts for my BSR film and the Music Video Mashup


If we compare these two shooting scripts we can see that the first one which is the one for the mash-up has much more detail. As well as that during production we actually followed it better meaning it was less of a disaster and made the editing process much easier on us as we didn't have to salvage a mess.

Conventions

Camera and Editing

To make a BSR film you have to use the conventions of BSR. Using the research I found out the conventions of all the technical aspects of BSR films.  Here is an example of a blog post looking at camera and editing in a BSR film and what about it is conventional in a BSR film. Some conventions of camera typically was that there was an establishing shot in the opening sequence for most of the films. We also noticed that the editing in these films is generally very basic and consist of mainly cuts to add to the sense of realism created. One way I improved was that I learned how to use continuity editing better as when we compare my opening sequence with my continuity editing exercise it was a much better piece. My editing in general improved to as it looked smoother and more refined than previous pieces of work.

Themes and Narrative

The theme of our film was racism and from researching we found that this was a very common theme in BSR and we saw that BSR films normally have a negative theme like poverty or abuse so our was keeping with these which was good. This is England is a film which has some similar elements to ours as we both had scenes of racism where a man betas another man due to his race and we see the corruption of youth too as Shaun in This is England witnesses the abuse so does Joe in our film. For narrative we looked at Mckee's theory and tried to follow it as best we could. McKee's narrative involves an; exposition, agents of change, conflict, elaboration and a climax. I felt I improved with narrative over the year as my BSR opening told a much clearer story than my continuity editing exercise. 

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene is a big part in all films an encompasses very key elements including; location, actors, costume, era and props. When we were planning our BSR production we kept all these things in mind and wanted all these things to match what they would be in a BSR films. This is why in our shooting script we paid such detail into the mise-en-scene so detailing who our actors were where we were filming and what equipment we needed as props. We saw that in BSR films most of the character live in poverty or run down areas, this is why in our film we used mise en scene to match this. For example in my opening sequence we set the largest scene the fight scene in a run down alleyway and had the characters wearing very cheap clothing.

Sound

In order to keep the idea of realism many BSR films have only diegetic sounds meaning what we hear is what the characters are hearing with the odd exception for a voice over or soundtrack. We kept the same style in our film and keep most of the sound diegetic mainly being dialogue.

Creativity

The definition for creativity given by Csikszentmihalyi was "creativity occurs when a person, using the symbols of a given domain has a new idea or sees a new pattern, and when this novelty is selected by the appropriate field for inclusion into the relevant domain. This means that when someone comes up for a new idea for something within the restriction of a genre and the conventions within it and is approved by the teacher and deemed worthy by the exam board then it is creative. I showed this when I came up for my idea about a BSR film as it stuck to the conventions and was a new idea which was approved by my teachers. When we compare this task to the continuity editing exercise I showed a lot more creativity with the story and the the editing techniques I used as in the continuity editing exercise I just used simple cuts that told a story in chronological order but for the BSR opening I used the idea of parallel editing which added another level of depth to the piece.

Post Production

Video
I think the biggest improvement of mine over the year has been my editing. I learned many new techniques such as; match on action, continuity editing, parallel editing , fades, dissolves and many  more. These techniques allowed me to improve upon my work and saw a drastic change in the quality of my continuity editing exercise to my BSR opening. For example in the editing exercise the clips jump around and there is very little continuity but in the opening there was much more continuity and it flowed much better.

Sounds
Most BSR films consist of mainly diegetic sound meaning what we hear is what the characters hear with the exception of some voice overs or music. In my film most of the sound was through the dialogue exchanged by the characters. I used the dialogue recorded by the camera which made my job easier but the quality of the sound was not as high as it could have been if I used a mic. Sometimes when a character was speaking when off-screen I had to separate  the sound from the video and place it over the clip I wanted it to play under.

Graphics
For graphics I learned that the graphics in BSR films are played over the video which differs from other types of films where the graphics are shown on the screen by themselves. In order to do this we imported the clips and the graphics into final cut and placed the graphics on a higher layer than the video of the film. This helped me imitate a BSR film opening even more as I followed one of the conventions.

Digital Technology

Hardware (Digital Equipment)

For the course the digital equipment we used were the Cameras and the Macs. I have developed my understanding how different camera angle and shots can convey different meanings. For example in this shot in my opening I used a low angle of the bully to connote his authority over the other character.

Software Digital Programs

When making my BSR piece I became proficient with iMovie an editing software, something within iMovie that I never did before was adding in external audio into the movie and editing it. I did this with the music for the film and also recorded basic background noise that I put into the film. As well as iMovie I used final cut to add in the graphics. Final cut is something I have never used before so everything was new to me but I learned how to add in images and place them into the timeline.

Online (Web Base Technologies)

At the beginning of the year when I made blog posts t on blogger and not use any other form of digital technology. As  the year went on however I began using other technologies such as E-maze in my evaluation.

Week One Reflection

In this week we were asked to decide between making a short film and music video. At first our class unanimously decided to make a short film but then after some thinking we realized that we know the ins and outs of music videos much better than we do short films. Many of us have only watched very few short films but have watched a lot more music videos in comparison, meaning our attempt at a music video is more likely to be a better imitation than out attempt at a short film which is very new territory for us. Also during the end of year 12 we made a segment for Thrift Shop which gave us some experience with it. So as a class we got together and decided that the best thing for us would be to make a Music Video as we feel we can get more marks for it. Other had an idea they had for a short film which they're really keen on and so will continue with a short film.

My initial idea for a music video is to make a video for 'Can't Stand Losing You by The Police'. In the music video I will have a cold opening of a Girl breaking up and closing the door on him. Then when the music starts playing we see him walking home and all of a sudden a guy in Rabbit costume starts following him and wherever he goes the Rabbit is waiting for him. He eventually makes it home locking the Rabbit out until he feels bad for him and lets him inside then we see a montage of them playing video games getting drunk and just having a good time. The man wakes up the next morning and can't see the Rabbit anywhere until he sees a Rabbit Teddy Bear on the floor and gets an idea. He leaves the rabbit on the girls front door with a note reading "I can't stand losing you".

My idea for a short film came from the idea that a twist occurs that offsets the persons normal day. This is where I got the idea to make the lead character found a million dollars on the street and we see how he deals with it in a comedic sense so instead of buying Toasted Flakes he may buy Corn Flakes instead and feel proper fancy. This in until he sees a very flustered single mother in the street who drops her bags of shopping and as he helps her pick it up he places the money in one of the bags. The final shot will be a close up of him walking away pleased with himself and suddenly say "nah can't do it" and begin to run back to it.

I was hoping to work with one of my best friends San for the project. I feel she would make a good partner as she works hard and is as passionate about the project as me. We're close friends which means working as a team will be easier. 

My hopes for the project is that I manage to make a piece I can be proud of and get a good grade for. My worries for this project is that it all goes wrong and our work will be a mess.

Short Film Conventions

Duration

A short film is defined as being any film that is under 35 minutes long but is usually between 5 and 10 minutes

This film follows the general trend of most films by being on 8 minutes long it does this by having a short simple story and not giving the characters any backstory. The impact this has on the audience is that it does not require as much concentration and effort to watch as a feature length film would be meaning they can just watch the film without needing to free up 3 hours of free time. I could use this by making my film short and would do this by giving it a simple narrative where a guy is running away from an angry duck.

Budget

Short films are usually very low budget which we can see in their use of mise en scene, equipment and cast.

We can see in this film they are using a small budget as they actors are not very well known and so would work for cheaper. The locations are real and not sets which saves costs, the mise en scene is very basic and thereis nothing too extravagant for example she wears a hoodie for most of the film.The quality is quite good but high quality digital cameras are not that expensive especially if rented. They would use a small budget simply because they did not have access to large funds. The impact a small budget film like this has is that it could take away from the verisimilitude of the story but a small budget performed well can avoid this like this film does and you don't really notice the small budget unless you're looking for it. In my film I'm going to have to use a small budget and will only be given the equipment, everything else like mise-en-scene and actors I will have to find myself most likely for free. I would do this by making a film set in this area with actors who are around the ga eof myself and my friends so I could include them in my film, to do this I could make a film about a student failing at school.

Storyline

The storylines of short films are usually basic as they only have a short time to establish it but it can still be quite hard to interpret. Some can follow the traditional todorov narrative, a more unconventional storyline.

This film is an example of how short films normally have a very simple narrative as this film is about 3 boys waiting for their friend to get ready while they talk about tight jeans. The characters backstories are not established and it doesn't even tell us where they are waiting to go to. The effect this has on the audience is that it makes watching the film a lot easier and don't have to think too much when watching and can just enjoy. I would definitely use this style in my film as our film has to be 5 minutes long so a complex storyline would not work a film with a story like this would be perfect. For my short film I would create a film where two groups of boys in a park fight over which football is there as they look the exact same.

Characters

There are usually between one and three key characters and little background is given.

https://vimeo.com/117849018 (full film)

Skyborn is a short film about a father and son set in a post apocalyptic world and these are the only 2 characters in the film. We don't know what happened to the mother or where the fog came from. The impact this has on the audience is that may find it harder to relate to the characters as the reason for their motives aren't always clear but I think Skyborn still gets it across very well and we can understand why they do what they do. For instance you don't need any backstory to get across how much the Dad loves his Son in this film. I would only use a maximum of 3 main characters in this film who would get most of the screen time but not give any of their background and just show them as who they are now. The story would centre around these characters and any interaction with another character would be brief.

Twist

Short films usually contain an unexpected turn of events which breaks up the normal day which begins the film

In this film we see that a man finds out he has a terminal illness which forces him out of his normal mundane day to day life which is the twist of the film.Why short films do this is because firstly a twist sets up a story really well and like this film him finding out he has cancer creates an realistic reason for him to go as crazy as he did which was more entertaining than his normal life. .The effect this has on the audience is that it keeps them interested and is the hook that makes them follow the film throughout. I would use a twist early on in my film to set up the story that will follow for instance I will have someone find a million pounds in the street.

Abstract Creativity

Ideas, themes and ideology in short film are often abstract, even controversial.

https://vimeo.com/37463920 (full film)

The Park is a film which deals with abuse and homosexuality two very controversial topics in today's society. It also creates a twist in that one of the boys is being abused by their mother not their father which is what is stereotypically seen in film. One of the boys who brags about the amount of girls he gets is actually homosexual but is trying to hide that fact about him. Short films tend to do this a lot more than feature length films as films that deal with controversial topics don't get a large audience and so won't get the money back that it cost to make, however short films are generally cheaper so can deal with controversy without worrying about money .Dealing with controversial topics in films impact the audience in many different ways. The creator may have chosen to make the film so controversial as to sway people's opinions about certain topics like abuse or homosexuality. I would use this in my film and a controversial topic I might feature is abortion and have a girl who becomes pregnant when she is teenager face the choice of aborting it or not.

Niche

Short films often tell stories with little to no mainstream appeal, lacking traditional film sellability.

Spirit Stones is a film that looks at and explorers Aboriginal Culture which is not that apparent globally and only has a small society in Australia, so to most people this film would not appeal to them especially when we don't fully understand the ritual that is taking place and what the people are saying. Like with a controversial film and niche one would exist as a short film and not a feature length film as money is not as much of an issue and so not getting it back is not as problematic. The impact a niche film like this is that it could bore them as they do not understand what is going on and they don't relate to it or it could teach them about it like the Aboriginal culture. I could use a Niche style of making my film about a relatively unknown character from history that would not hold much appeal as not many people would know about it.

Emotional

Some short films usually convey a very clear singular strong emotion to the audience

This film you wanna get pizza has one constant emotion running through and that is being high and the typical conventions of it as 'having the muchies' as the entire film is about the dilemma of ordering a pizza. Short films normally only get across one emotion like this and have it as a main drive to the story as it allows the audience to relate to the characters quicker and understand their motives if they can see what emotion they are feeling easily. The impact this has on the audience is that it makes the film more enjoyable for them and easier to follow as if in a 5 minute film there was many emotions it would be too complicated for the audience. If I was to make a short film the focus I might choose to focus on is happy as I think in order to do a sad emotion in a film is hard enough and it being limited to 5 minutes make its harder whereas happiness and putting the audience in a better mood is much easier. I could do this by making a film about someone finding a million pounds in the streets.

Sound

Some shport films often have very little dialogue and a lot use voice overs to convey the story quicker. Music is a large part of most short films as it helps establish the mood in a way dialogue can't

This film has no dialogue and the story is told by the characters actions and facial expressions. The repetition we see everyday means that when the repetition is broken we know something is wrong like when we think the kid has died but then in reality we see that he just got better and is out of hospital. Having no dialogue is a short film is used because sometimes dialogue can take too long to explain what is happening in the film and just seeing it happen is a much quicker and better way. Sometimes however the story is just set up so that it works better without dialogue and I think the bond made between these two characters is much stronger because they don't talk. The impact this has on the audience is that they feel more involved in the film as they have to carefully watch it to understand what the characters are feeling.  A short film I could produce where there is no dialogue is where two people working in a office only communicate by exchanging post it notes to each other and are love interests to each other.

Shot by Shot Thrift Shop Remake

Mashup Task

The Task

For this preliminary task our class was each given a section of Thrift Shop and were asked to design a music video for it using a different style of music video each for example one group did a Homage to Charlie Chaplin. The style my group chose was a shot by shot recreation of the first 45 seconds of the music video.

The Process

This task was my first time using Final Cut to edit a video together. Firstly we had to import all our footage into the clip bank.

Then we had to choose the clips we wanted and we placed them on the timeline and using the razor and select tool choose how long we wanted to clip to be choosing where the clip starts and ends and placed it on the timeline where we wanted.

Cutting at the right time is a lot more important with music videos than any other type of media text. You have to pay close attention to the music as you have to 'cut to the beat'. This is where you choose one particular element of the music for example the drums and you cut every time at specific times matching the beat. 

Many music videos adjust the filter of the visuals which can add another level of depth to it, so if the music video is depressing they would dampen the colours to match this. Thrift shop is a music video with high key lighting and colours and so we attempted to recreate this in production and post production as best we could. However this was difficult as we had to use natural lighting and so what we were given is what we had to roll with. In post production we tried to change the filters but as a team decided that it looked better with what we had already recorded.

Shooting script for music video

Style and Conventions of Music Videos

Performance, Concert and as-live

This style of music video is very common and involves a performance by the artist to the camera and an audience be it set up or real footage from a performance they did. It will involve the artist singing to the camera and singing to an audience.

The institution would use this style to make the audience at home feel like they are being sang to and also make them want to buy tickets for their next concert as they have gotten a feel for what it would be like they now want the real thing. I could potentially use this for my music video with the artist singing to an audience or if I chose to use the Narrative style I could throw in segments of the artist singing.

Narrative

Narrative is a type of music video that aims to tell a story with a similar feel and tone to the music and commonly features the artist in some way that could either be the star of the story, have a short appearance or not appear at all depending on the type of band for instance an Indie band would not be in the video but a more mainstream star like Rihanna would be as the institution are trying to sell the image of Rihanna not necessarily the music.

An institution would use this style to keep the audience interested while watching the video and sometimes a particularly interesting music video can generate publicity for the artist and it's song creating more YouTube hits and downloads. The impact this would have on the audience is that it keeps them engaged and may allow for more re-playablility if they really enjoy the video and possibly share it to friends. I could use a Narrative style in my Music Video by telling a story about a duck who cannot swim and so gets left behind then meets a magical fairy that lets him swim faster than any other duck in the pond so he becomes popular.

Interpretive

Interpretive is a style of music video where the visuals match directly to what the lyrics are saying for example if the lyrics said "doing my media work" you will see a someone doing their media work.

An institution would use this type of music video if the music video was of a comedy style where the visuals matching the lyrics would elevate the humour further. The impact this could have on the audience is that it allows them to enjoy the humour further. I could use this style if I chose the song The Police-Message in a Bottle and match the visuals to the lyrics where the sing "send out an SOS to the world" we could see on screen them actually doing that.

Impressionist

Impressionist is a style where the visuals of the music video matches the feel of the song but not the lyrics.

An example of an impressionistic music video is Sia's Elastic Heart. An institution may use this style of music video if the genre of the music is quite abstract meaning the music video helps anchor the genre of music. The impact this has on the audience is that due to the abstract style they may re-watch the music video many times over to understand what it means which of course for the institution is good as it provides more income through ad revenue. For my music video I could create a music video of a woman in a blank room with paint and a paint brush and it the music video will watch as she paints based on her emotion so when she's angry she might use red and use violent brush strokes or even throw the bucket at the wall.

Parody

A Parody is a type of music video which mocks other pieces of media text in a comedic fashion.

An example of this is Eminem's Just Lose It where he mocks Michael Jackson, Madonna, MC Hammer to even himself where he recreates a scene from 8 Mile. An institution would use this style if the song itself was a parody or just meant to be funny which Just Lose It is. Fans of whatever is being mocked will want to watch this and laugh and Parody videos like this one will get a lot of publicity through word of mouth as people talk about it. The effect this has on the fans is that they may enjoy it more if it makes fun out of something they know and fans of whatever is being mocked will come and watch it whereas they might not have before. If I was to do a Parody I would parody Breaking Bad and dress my characters in the typical clothing of the characters and recreate famous scenes.

Animation

Animation is a style which does not use live action video but stop motion or digital animation instead. 

An example of this is Stuck In Sound's Lets Go, an institution may use this style if the idea for the music video would be too costly or difficult to do in a live action style for example a interpretive music video for a song that had lyrics which were about being lost in space. The impact this has on the audience is that it may attract younger audiences to watch and become familiarised with the artist's music which they may never have done unless it was an animated music video which is great for the institution as they get more sales. An idea for an animated music video I could do is a stop motion video of a man walking along and then aliens invade and destroy building etc. until he climbs the wreckage to the spaceships and destroys it from the inside.

Surrealism

These music videos are very abstract, and may or may not have a relation to the music itself, these videos are very artistic and creative and usually contain a mixture of live footage and animation to add surreal effects or distortion. They appear to be influence by visions or dreams. An example is Rihanna's Disturbia with uses a mix of performance and surrealism as Rihanna's mainstream audience may not like a pure Surrealistic music video.

Institutions would use this style of music video if they genre of the music matched a surrealistic music video an example would be alternative metal. So people who enjoy that type of video may also enjoy that type of music and be drawn to it which provides awareness for the artist. As a knock on effect a video as strange as Rihanna's would get people talking about it which will provide publicity for the artist. The effect this will have on the audience is that as stated before it will get them talking about with their friends due to the abnormal style of the video, as well as that the audience would play the video many times over to try and understand it and the more they listen to it the more they may like as which happens with many songs in my personal experience which gives the artist some loyal fans. If I was to do a Surrealistic Video I would dress people up in strange clothing and animal masks and use Noir type lighting. In the video I would have them at a tea party using non conventional camera angles and types.

Homage

A homage is a music video which imitates another creator's style. It differs a parody as a parody mocks what they are imitating but a Homage is respecting it.

Thriller by Micheal Jackson is an example of this and in the music video we see many similarities to Night of the Living Dead and also West Side Story. We see in this video it has many similarities to these films as there are some dance moves used in both media texts and the jacket worn by Micheal Jackson is similar to the Jacket worn by George Chakiris in the film. It is similar to Night of The Living Dead as they both have a zombie theme and the scene where they break into the room has some similar shots to when zombies break into the room in Night of the Living Dead. Institutions may use a Homage as a way of reaching audiences who were already fans of the original media text so they will come and watch this, the effect this has on the audience is that they are more likely to listen to it if they were a fan of the original piece. If I were to do a Homage piece it would be to ET because it's a very well known film and I could dress someone up like ET and fit in the famous flying bikes scene.