Lighting Analysis

Lighting

When it comes to lighting, the smallest detail can change how the audience interpret the media text. As a result, lighting is set into the 3 major categories that define how the lighting is and what effect this has on the reader:

-   Low key Lighting: is created by using only back lights, it is usually used to hide parts of the scene that may give spoilers to what’s about to occur - as a result, this type of lighting is usually used to raise tension in films. However, it can also be used to

-   High Key Lighting: uses filler lights to create a brighter scene, it’s often used in the between tense scenes, this type of lighting is quite calming and therefore lowers tension, in order to raise it again in later scenes. Furthermore, a lack of vision in the background, creates a sense of mystery and further.

 


-   Contrast: is the balance of light and dark, and can be created by the use, or lack of, high-key lighting and low-key lighting, it is often used to add atmosphere and can (on occasion) conceal elements of a scene for them to be later revealed (in this sense, contrast is similar to low-key lighting). as seen in the image, there is a bright bat emblem, above a dark figure (which we know to Batman) which draws attention to the Batman.

3 POINT LIGHTING

Also, here's a little extra, something I found about lighting, and how it works

Location Analysis

I'm back guys.  Today's just a rough overview of what locations we have, what they need, and a few pictures of one of our settings.

Location Needs: Needs have been achieved


(SETTING NO.1 - Office)

·   spacious

·   well-lit / fully controllable lighting

·   table

(SETTING 2 NO.2 - Forest)

·   dark / obscure lighting (can be controlled in the edit)

·   narrow paths

·   clearings

·   plant life

Currently, site number 1 is within our school, meaning we have a lot of access, furthermore, the fact its well-lit means that we get a wide range of shots.

However, site number 2 is harder. Located near Harris City Academy Crystal Palace, the forest-like area is open to the elements, meaning that - due to English weather - the ground is sometimes too muddy/slippery to film. Furthermore, the lighting is also difficult, as in Britain, currently we're in winter so it's darker at earlier times in the day, however, we need some of this darkness to get

This is an example of our forest scene. Furthermore, you can see some of the practical elements that help with film's ambience. The lighting - slanted, and half lit - will allow some aspects of the opening to remain hidden, especially due to the fact, this part of the scene will feature the killer (who remains anonymous), as well as the plant life, which gives the impression of an imposing presence.

Treatment: In-depth

Hey guys, what you’re about to read is a treatment:  a piece of text that provides a step-by-step layout of a film. So here’s my film treatment; camera angles, directions and script included, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it cos I truly put in WORK on this.

But before we begin I’ve gotta put a disclaimer out there - WARNING: Some of the stuff you may see may not actually be in my later film.

ENJOY!

Film Treatment

Black background, institution - KMA PRODUCTIONS - appears in bold lettering in Silver with a golden outline. The logo then fades out into a protagonist’s eyes (very close up shot). As the camera pans, we hear our character’s voice “This wasn’t how things were supposed to turn out, we’d meant to be having a laugh,” and we see our character’s (Jayden Yusuf) features and surroundings: he’s in a police interviewing room, he’s clothes are shredded and covered in mud, he has a gash to his cheek, and his curly hair is saturated / soaked in blood. There is also screaming and a heartbeat as non-diegetic, incidental audio. Cut to (high angle / eagle-eye shot - camera is grainy / poor quality, symbolising CCTV at a police station) our protagonist, there is little / no audio as we are emphasising to the audience that the protagonist is on his own. Audience hears screams even though we see that the protagonist is alone (establishing shot - colour is now present, quality is good - we have incidental audio getting louder; we also see cuts of POV shots from the protagonist viewpoint, we see a view of his feet running, brief look over his shoulder, the audience also hear heavy breathing as non-diegetic sound). The incidental audio - screams and heartbeat - grows louder and louder until the protagonist screams “ENOUGH!!” - in a slightly higher / deeper voice - and he slams his fist against the table

At that moment, a police detective - DI Walker - enters… (Continue from script)


And that's a movie treatment guys. Same time next week right? :)

#1T4TS

Alex

Se7en 1 Minute Reshoot vs. The Original Se7en Opening Scene

Original Se7en Opening Scene

When we first looked at Se7en, I wasn't quite sure about it. The opening scene doesn't reveal much about the film, and there a several simplistic techniques used. The use of Over-The-Shoulder (OTS) and Point Of View (POV) shots give the audience a sense of presence - they feel as if this is happening to them whilst raising questions about what's going on.
Anyway, there's not really much I can do but say enjoy, and if you have any feedback, leave it in the comments.

Se7en 1 Minute Reshoot

I can’t say much about this, after all, especially since I helped make it, but I’d like to say we did well. The use of light and camera angles helped create a disorientated, slightly sinister atmosphere to the scene. We also used. Using the scene's original soundtrack, we (myself, Khaleem, Mateusz, and Tariq) were able to create a similar (if not better) opening scene.

And that's all for this week, see you at the same time same place in a week.

#1T4TS

Alex

Target Audience Questionnaire

They're are a lot of questions that you COULD ask you're target audience to get a feel for their likes, and dislike, but it's hard to discern which questions are the MOST relevant...

(I asked a random stranger - from our target audience demographic and wrote their response)

ITALICS is the interviewees views / opinions.

Favourite thriller film - why?
Don't Breathe. It's angles, unpredictability, audio added to the film's atmosphere to make the indie film stand out from the competition

Favourite part of thriller films?
Build up to big events. The tension created in a film is always a favourite among audiences. Whilst the drama usually occurs at the end of the build up

Possible ideas that haven't been done that you think should be?
Protagonist dies. This is rarely seen in films of any kind, regardless of genre. However, you could see the protagonist die in a sacrifice, saving others by ultimately sacrificing themselves to save others.







Anyway, that's what we've learnt: the tension is ALL about the build-up, people want something new from thriller films (perhaps a twist where the protagonist dies), and the atmosphere to a film is dependent on camera angles, audio and creative plot.

#1T4TS

Alex 

Target Audience Profile

If you're here once again then thanks, hopefully you've followed my blogs from the beginning - from humble, very sketchy beginnings, to the weekly service you've come to know and love. And if you're new, then tune in every week and see what you can learn about A-Level Media.

Target Audience Profile

Anyway folks, back to the matter at hand, if you saw my post last week about target audience then you'll know that film's also have an ideal audience profile - a perfect person that they see watching AND/OR buying their film

For my film, which has the working title "Forest Horror," there is also target audience profile:

IDEAL CANDIDATE
NAME: James Lloyd
AGE: 17
OCCUPATION: Student / Part-Time  
GENDER: Male
ETHNICITY: White (western - UK/USA)
INTERESTS: Rugby, Football, Social Media


Anyway, it's been a long day, put check in again next week if you wanna see more about A Level Media.

#1T4TS

Alex

Target Audience

Before we start, I've got to show you the Socio-Economic Scale (a classification device used to determine demographics):

A - higher managerial administrative professionals

B - intermediate administrative professionals

C1 - supervisory, clerical, junior administrative professionals

C2 - skilled manual workers

D - semi / unskilled workers

E - state pensioners with little / no income, widows, minimum pay earners, and the unemployed

Target Audience Profile

As I've said in previous posts, thrillers are quite hard to define. and reason SHOULD tells us that if they're hard to define, then they're audience should be the same. However, thrillers, due to their wide range of traits, probably have one of the easiest audiences to define.

Everyone loves a thriller, where they're good old fashioned thriller-mystery hybrids like Sixth Sense or the modern action thrillers like The Dark Knight Rises - my point is, it's easier to find a group of people that DON'T like thriller films. However, after close study it is easy to see a thriller film's target audience. In general, thriller films often target the lower end of the Socio-Economic Scale. They typically target those who are often less successful AND/OR poorer, and use such films as escapism - according to the Uses and Gratification Theory (the theory that suggest why audiences use a piece of media). As a result, my film Forest Horror targets males aged 13-21 who are situated on the C1 - E, as ... Moreover Forest Horror also has a secondary  audience of females aged 14-22 as women are shown (in some research) to be enjoy thriller films more than male counterparts, and they (in most market research) watch more commercial television and are therefore more likely to interact with our film's TV marketing campaign.

To summarise, the primary audience of Forest Horror is males aged 13-21, and the secondary audience is females aged 14 - 22.

Now it's time for me to sign off, but more next week, tune in folks!

#1T4TS

Alex

Opening Analysis

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES: Opening Scene Analysis

Hey guys, firstly I gotta. say that this is one of my favourite films of all time, I mean Christian Bale's Batman was without-a-doubt, the BEST that there's been, The Dark Knight franchise in general was brilliant, the key figures of Alfred (Michael Caine), James Gordon (Gary Oldman), Lucious Fox (Morgan Freeman), even the villains - Bane, Ra's Al Ghul, Two Face, The Joker - were so three-dimensional, that it immersed the audience for 2 and a half hours in the DC Universe

Throughout the entire scene, there is little / no extra audio, as a result, the audience has to focus on the main types of audio (such as speech). Even the brief use of non-diegetic sound such as the plane's engines - when we can only see the plane's silhouette is so subtle, that it subliminally urges the audience the focus and try and understand what's goin on. Furthermore, the use of the chanting during Bane's speech suggests that there is something mysterious about him

Anyway, the opening scene of the Dark Knight Rises quite mysterious, the audience may see a lot, but the scene actually says very little about the film through the use (and one could argue OVER-use) hermeneutic codes. We see a car driving to an unknown location, and through the use of camera angles, the audience becomes distanced from the characters - through the use of establishing long shots; although we do see some close ups of characters, they are hooded or silent - this raises ask several questions: who they are? Why they're being held captive?

Moreover we see an unknown man meeting for a handover, this raises questions of: who both parties are? What is so important about this handover? As a result the audience is left thinking, what is happening next? And what is to come? Then we see a man known as "Dr Pavel" and we find out that the hooded figures what trying to "grab" him, which, again, raises the questions (another use of hermeneutic code) of who are these people? And why is "Dr Pavel" so important?

Skipping ahead, we change setting, from a desolate countryside, to an airplane interior, we see a CIA officer demanding these hood figures to answer his questions, screaming, "Tell me about Bane, why does he wear the mask?" (those that are DC fans know of Bane, but to the average viewer, this is very captivating). Furthermore, the CIA officer threatens to throw people of the plane. The scene reaches a climax when one of the figures speaks in a Vader-like tone and once unmasked, he's revealed (by deduction) to be "the Masked Man" - also know as Bane. Bane is asked "was getting caught part of your plan" to which he replies "Of course," and the audience is left stunned, his tone sounds victorious and yet he's the one being held captive. Also we see an plane flying overhead, the CIA officer then says "Well congratulations, you got yourself caught, now what's the next step of your master plan" to which Bane replies - with apparent pleasure - "Crashing this plane, with no survivors." What follows is a gun fight scene that sees a plane fall out of the sky, with intermittent scenes of Bane and Dr Pavel fake their deaths, by leaving two bodies in the plane.

This scene is full of hermeneutic codes. It raises several questions that, are answered throughout the film.

And that's all on the opening scene analysis, see you at the same time next week.

#1T4TS

Alex

Mood Board

Hey guys, just a quick summary of my ideas

#1T4TS

Alex 

Movie Ideas, Proposals, and the Finalised Idea: Something New...

Hey everyone, today I'm bringing you a SlideShare presentation  and it's all my partners movie ideas, and our eventual combination of ideas.

To start with this was quite hard, we all had ideas that made compromise difficult, but we all came together to make something that I believe we can be proud of. Anyway, take a look at the PowerPoint and you'll see what we had to do for our coursework.

'Nuff said, I'll speak to you later.

#1T4TS

Alex 

Barthes' Codes

Ok sorry guys…

When it comes to consistency, I'm not the greatest, and I hold my hands up, but I'm back now, so let’s get back to business.

 

Thriller Films: Genres, Barthes' Codes and How They're Used For Effect

Anyway, during my time away I’ve learnt something about thriller movies, particularly the techniques they use.When it comes to thriller movies writers try and get the film to play on audiences’ emotions, their innermost thought and fears. They also utilise codes to keep the audience thinking about the plot, which simultaneously keeps them engaged in the film. These codes are: the Hermeneutic (HER), and the Proairetic (PRO) codes.

These two codes are part of Barthes' Codes:

HER - also known as the "Enigma Code" codes that lead to DO raise questions, they are mysteries within a text and although they give clues / hints of what's going on, these clues are often unanswered within the film (until much later) and they engage and frustrate the audience, who want to know more and try to piece together such clues

   ·   PRO -  also known as the "action code" codes, they're the main components of the film. They add context to Hermeneutic Codes. They DON’T raise any questions, they are actions that lead to an event OR they are the result of an event.

     

  What have I learnt from these definitions? PRO codes make up 90% of most films, they add context and pretext to HER codes - which ask questions and drop clues to extra information within the film / franchise.


Also when I learnt about Bathes' Codes I learnt about 3 other - which I may do an extra video on:
Semantic Codes
Symbolic Codes
Referential Codes

   And that's time up for this week, sorry it's been a bit wordy, but after a while away the content has to resume; if you wanna know more be here next week.

#1T4TS

Alex 

Media Prelim

This is our first film. My directing debut. It's a rough cut, but this our first film. The basic camera angles and shots such as Over-The-Shoulder shots, Long shots and Establishing shots shows the basic level of film understanding that we as a group had. Although there are a few mistakes, but hopefully you can see the progress in later reshoots.

Thriller Subgenres

Thriller Sub-genres

During my media course I’ve learnt quite a lot about thriller movies, particularly their sub-genres, their wide variety, and the

When it comes to thriller movies, writers try and get the film to play on audiences’ emotions, their innermost thoughts and fears; this gives the thriller genre a wide range of subgenres, that show why the "Thriller" genre is so diverse:

 - Action                        - Disaster

- Conspiracy                 - Spy

- Crime                          - Horror

- Legal                           - Supernatural

- Political                        - Mystery

- Psychological

An example one of a popular action/thriller film series is Taken. It's dark lighting, tense music, and serious plot (yet relatable plot - a father determined to look after his family / daughter no matter what), makes it qualify as a thriller (as well as many other conventions of thriller films. However the high-paced gun fights, fist fights and car chases make the film qualify as a hybrid, an action-thriller. Furthermore, an example of a mystery/thriller is the Borne series - not one film, but a series, which over the course of three films, has a box office profit of over $300 mil.

Another thriller hybrid - and a personal favourite of mine - is The Imitation Game. Being a thriller-biography, the Imitation Game is based on a true story - the story of WWII code-breaker Alan Turing. Much like Taken, this film contains numerous conventions of the thriller genre: a relatable plot (the race against time to solve a major problem - the puzzle of the "Enigma" code), the character's suppressed and hidden side / past (in this case Turing's homosexuality), and the dark lighting and tense music. The film is also a biography as it is largely (if not entirely) based on fact / the story someone's life. One can also argue that this film has three, or maybe four sub-genres that make up this hybrid film. IMDB acknowledges 3: Thriller, Drama and Biography. The idea of a "drama" film is quite simple, it revolves around a specific subject, however, I think that there is an extra sub-genre, one that plays on the ideas of the mind. A psychological, biography thriller / drama. The psychological element is quite justified, Cumberbatch's presentation of Turing is quite sociopathic, quite alien, and it raises several questions about Turing's mental state - which is a defining convention of psychological films. Even the film's title "The Imitation Game" revolves around Turing's own theory on emotion, he uses this theory to categorise people - are they human? Are they machine? Or are they something else entirely? 


Overall, there are many types of hybrid thrillers, and they can contain a wide variety of thriller conventions, and when mixed with another genre (usually horror, action, or mystery) they usually create a brilliant film.
Anyway, more next week... onwards and upwards

Thriller films: Codes & Conventions

It’s me again... My first real post about media. Well today I've got to talk about the codes and conventions of a thriller film. This may be a little off-piste but I can't deny that at first I had no idea what I was doing, but a little research never hear anyone. Anyway, I really must get on to the subject itself (I hope you enjoy it more than I did writing it) and maybe it will give you some insight into what it is to make a thriller movie.

Enjoy!

Thriller Films: Codes and Conventions

To summarise the codes and conventions of a thriller are:

-   Dark lighting

-   Tense music

-   A saturation of non-diegetic sounds (such as narration and breathing)

-   Montage shots/Flashbacks

-   Various changes of camera angles (such as close ups and extreme close ups to highlight emotion)

-   The protagonist is often shrouded in darkness from their past

-   Mise-en-scene is essential - it character (especially the antagonist) are usually depicted in dark clothes, whereas the protagonist is often dressed in normal clothes (to make audiences identify with them)

- The storylines are generally designed to relatable for the audiences, which makes it scarier for the viewer, who can relate to the protagonists emotions, and his struggles.

To conclude, most thriller films are quite psychological. They play on the relationships and emotions of the audience to create tension. The use of mise-en-scene to create empathy with the protagonist is quite common, and is something that is utilised in thrillers such as Taken; furthermore, the use of non-diegetic sound adds to the film's atmosphere.

#1T4TS

Alex 

A Little Bit About Me

Welcome!

Hi, my name is Alex. And this is my blog... or it will be soon, when I start posting.

To me, media is something that controls and influences the world that I and may others live in. A writer can change a reader's opinion by changing a single word in their article. And it’s that power, the power of words and pictures that fascinates me, the power that certain companies, that certain individuals have, people such as: Rupert Murdoch, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Gates.

Well, enough about me and my ideas - things to do, ideas to create.

#1T4TS

Alex