Monday, 9 May 2016

questionnaire

1. What did you like out of my opening sequence e.g camerawork, editing etc?
2. What were some areas of my opening sequence that you thought I could've improved on?
3. Do you feel my opening sequence followed some drama conventions?
4. Would you as a viewer continue watching my film past the opening?
5. based on this opening sequence where would you see the rest of the film plot going?
6. If I was to create a film poster for the movie what would you expect to see in it?

Friday, 29 April 2016

Note to examiner

Dear examiner,
This is my blog for OCR's Media Studies AS qualification. My blog has the work and tasks that we have covered over the past year from planning to final products. To look through my posts you visit my main page and scroll down clicking on which ever post you wish to view, once you reach the bottom of the page you can click on the older posts option to see the page below.

Thank you,
Max Cochrane


Monday, 18 April 2016

proliferation of hardware and content

https://www.slideshare.net/secret/LlhcendNcblwBG

How is ethnicity represented in the clip from ‘Hotel Babylon’

The representation in the clip from tv show ‘Hotel Babylon is presented to the audience through the uses of camera angles, editing, sound and mise en scene. In general the immigrants who are all workers at the hotel are shown to all stay in their ethnic groups as social groups. When the immigration officers come in they are all shown from quick cuts to panic and express lots of fear. The shot reverse shot of them getting into the room shows their support to each over and also shows the main woman’s stress and worrying to get them all in as soon as possible. The close up panning shot of all the immigrants inside the room show their facial expressions showing fear and anxiousness. The close up shot of the main woman also shows her stress rise when she realises there is still one person missing in the room. During the entire shots of the immigrants in the room they are all presented as vulnerable but they all support one another as they work like a team not leaving others behind showing they all have a connection. The close ups with the immigration officer show him to keep a serious and slightly angry facial expression representing him as the crueller character audiences are supposed to dislike. The quick cuts of the immigration officers capturing the immigrant who never made it present his panic in the situation and creates more tension and represents him as a victim. The final shot of the clip panning across the immigrants having lunch show them as very ethnically dependant as they do not mix when eating they all sit in their own ethnic groups and are represented as very stereotypical. The shot of the black people stays for longer as they are shown to be the only ones genuinely saddened by the immigration officers deporting one of them.

The characters are also represented as vulnerable by the editing of the clip the fast pace as the tension builds presents them as weak and in need of support and help. The pace changes between the immigrant cleaner being found and captured and the people standing in the room, it builds again when one of the diabetic immigrants pass out and they are all represented as supportive as they all go to her.

The mise-en-scene in the clip helps present the immigrants as hard working and attempt to present themselves well as they make sure they dress smartly and neat unlike the immigration officer who show to be dressed in an uneaten scruffy way representing him as crueller and rougher than the immigrants.

The sound used in the clip is also very vital in how the characters are represented, as the immigrants are moving into the room in fear and panic the non diegetic sound is louder and more fast pace to create more tension and drama and a gripping feel. Once in the room and during shots of the immigrant still outside the non diegetic sound is much quitter much like the immigrants trying to remain silent. Some of the dialogue also represents the immigrants as underrated in their abilities and talents as the man who helped the diabetic lady showed great knowledge of medicine and biology and says “I wasn’t always a cleaner” representing him as a victim of society for when he could be a doctor he is instead in a much worse job due to his ethnicity. The phrase “rules of the game” said by the immigration officer shows how little he cares about the very serious matter and represents him as cold and unnecessarily harsh and selfish further presenting the immigrants as unfortunate and vulnerable.


In general these four areas manage to represent the immigrants as supportive team players but very vulnerable and underrated, they share some stereotypes but are presented to be more likable by audiences unlike the immigration officers who are presented as cruel characters who we want to lose in what they consider “the game”.

“Cross-media convergence and synergy are vital processes in the successful marketing of media products to audiences.” To what extent do you agree with this statement in relation to your chosen media area?


I think cross-media convergence and synergy are a vital process in having a successful market of different media products, it creates opportunities to increase the awareness of the products and then increase profits. Synergy allows a certain product e.g a movie to take advantage of another type of media such as video games and soundtracks like the movie ‘Star Wars The Force Awakens’ then went on to be released around the same time as the video game ‘Star Wars Battlefront’ which would appeal to a wide range of audiences which could be possible fans of the film series or not. Since both the game and movie are obviously related to each over and being released at around the same time, it allowed a wider audience to become aware of both and would then cause the appeal of the movie to broaden as the people playing the game will know something about it and vice versa with people watching the film will then be more interested to play the game. Another example of this same area would be the soundtrack of the movie in which people may download music that is used within the film. Before the films release there was the release of also a cartoon series aimed at a younger demographic called ‘Star Wars Rebels’. Being aimed at younger audiences and also a cartoon it was easier to understand and would cause younger audiences to be more appealed to the coming movie of the same franchise. Also with this being done if audiences of one of the certain media areas enjoyed the game or movie depending which one they used, they could then inform others who do not know about them and then could increase the size of the audiences for the products which could lead to more popularity and eventual profits. Also action figures of the characters within the film were made aimed at younger audiences but then the younger audiences who see the film would have lots of appeal and a want to purchase these products.

Another way in which synergy worked with Star Wars The Force Awakens was on Sky a month before the release of the film they had a channel called ‘Sky Star Wars’ which only played the six star wars films on repeat as to increase the excitement for the new instalment and also bring extra awareness to the old movies while also then increasing the amount of people using Sky in order to watch them benefitting both the new film and Sky.

A disadvantage of this could however could then be that if some audience were to play the game or watch the movie or just listen to the soundtrack and were dissatisfied with the product they listened to/played/watched then the other media types would become less appealing to those audiences, of course the market would have made some money from the audience using the specific type of media, but they miss out on a chance to make so much more because of this. Also dissatisfied audiences could tell others about it and talk about how they felt it was not worth it and so it reduces the amount of target audience as the general appeal to see the movie or play the game is reduced.

Convergence is when combining two or more mediums in the media for example TV/ computer graphics / radios and websites. Difference between convergence and synergy is that while both involve media products synergy can involve non media products like action figures, books. Star Wars The force awakens was in many magazines and news papers to increase awareness of the film. All these in full strongly benefit the market of the media products for audiences with a wide variety of options for them. I feel even with the risks and possible backfire in general synergy and cross media convergence are very vital for a successful market in the media.

Wednesday, 23 March 2016

opening sequence final draft

After further editing my video trimming down shots and also adding in the integrated titles I labelled this as my final draft and uploaded it to youtube.

Thursday, 17 March 2016

Location



I chose to use Hammersmith as the location for my movie as I needed somewhere which the character could live but also very importantly has a bridge within it which Hammersmith does so I found it a suitable location for me as in the full film the bridge would need to be a key part in the story.

Integrated titles in my opening sequence

As one of the last changes I wanted to make for my final draft of the opening sequence I decided to integrate the opening titles through the use of adobe after effects, I felt this would look a lot better and would also allow me to improve in a another area of editing.


In order to do this I took several of the opening shots I had used and got their unedited versions and put them all onto after effects, from there I had rough sketches of where I wanted the titles to go and what they would do, already in my video I had titles but only simple ones that were offered on Final Cut Pro. I would have the shots put up on after effects the cut them down to the size that they are in my actual video and then type in what I wanted the title to be. After this I changed the size of them and managed to activate the 3D option which gave me options of rotation which made the titles pop out more. For moving shots it would be more difficult and would mean I would have to put a tracking option on so the title would remain locked with the item that It was tracked onto, also to further keep it as stationary as possible I could go through the clip shot by shot and move the title back into place.



The shots above show how I would place the titles somewhere move, rotate them slightly so that they would look more 3D and well fitted into the place then the shot on the left shows me moving them shot by shot to remain stationary in the place I wanted them in the photos case in-between the small gap above the door as it looks like they are just resting in-between the walls so it fit well in my opinion.



In this shot the character is preparing to hit the golf ball so I could lock the titles onto his club which would make the titles follow the action of it. By also tilting it slightly as the shot goes on so it properly follows the action of the club.



Once I had managed to transfer over the finished and edited shots with the titles I put them over the original shots on Final Cut Pro. Once I had finished editing the new clips into my film I then labelled it as Final draft and uploaded it to youtube.