Media Studies Resources

6) How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project? 

Presentation style is completely up to you! (perhaps Prezi, direct to the camera, voice over on youtube)

What the examiner wants to see from you is your understanding how you USED and COMBINED the various resources at your disposal. Talk about what worked well together and what didn't. Talk about the work flow of the project - for instance to do visual effects you first need to research a tutorial - plan to get the correct footage - use a camera to get the footage - then use software actually execute the effects.

Think about what you used:
Hardware: Mac, Camera, microphone, tripod, lights
Software: Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere, Final Cut Pro
Online: Blogger, freesound.org, Youtube, tutorials, music, downloads
Then think how you combined them for the following.

Research
Online to research, blogger to record your findings, cameras and Premiere to demonstrate your understanding (Sub-genre film)

Planning
The interesting thing is a lot of the planning was done on paper - scout locations, storyboards, shot lists, mood boards.
However some tech was used - photos, panoramics, videos for locations, online communication and collaboration.

Filming
Mainly hardware - camera, likes, props etc.

Post production (everything you did on Premiere and After Effect)
Mainly software using a series of digital files (.mov, .mp4, mp3, AE assets, textures etc.) taken from the hardware or online.

5) How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

Create TWO Top Trumps: One rating your production skills at the start of the project (October 2014)
And one rating your production skills at the end of the project (Feb 2015)

Both will have the identical criteria on them.

Codes and Conventions

Planning & Organisation

Camera Work

Visual FX

Editing

Creative confidence

For each criteria give yourself a score out of 10.

Load both these Top Trump cards to the blog and underneath write why you feel your skills have improve or not. GIVE SPECIFIC EXAMPLES FROM YOUR WORK/BLOG THAT CAN BACK-UP YOUR STATEMENT.

Codes and Conventions - understanding of thriller conventions, credit structure and what to expect from a film opening.
Planning & Organisation - ability to organise actors, locations, props for a efficient and effective film shoot. Ability to hit deadlines.
Camera Work - confidence in building composition and using different shot types.
Visual effects - realising ideas using digital software, using credits in an interesting way.
Editing - making meaning through editing. Making the narrative sense for the audience
Creative confidence - thinking of interesting ideas and making them happen.

Example of student top trumps

3) How does your product engage with audiences? (GROUP ACTIVITY)

To answer this question you must do the following.

a) Identify who your target audience is. Use YouGov profiler to help you searching for films or TV shows that are similar. Look for patterns in your searches. Write up your findings.

b) Once you have identified your audience - create an illustrated profile of them, something like this use of video. Or use animoto.

c) Find someone who fits your audience profile, show them your opening and get them to give feedback on what they might be interesting in watching it.

e) Lastly you will use YOUTUBE's annotation tools to add NOTES, SPEECH BUBBLES, and LINKS to your video:

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=92710

These annotations will highlight the ways in which your Film Opening links to other similiar films in order to attract the particular Audience you have previously identified.

Your annotations will refer to genre conventions, use of music, similiarities with other movies and what you have identified as the Unique Selling Point of your imaginary film.

It should look a bit like this

2) How does your opening represent social groups or issues?

1) How does your product use or challenge conventions?

Take 6 or more screenshots from your opening sequence that will allow you to answer the question.

Upload them to thinglink.com (username and password are the same as for blogger). Use thinglink to annotate the images explaining how you used existing conventions.

IF YOU CAN MAKE REFERENCE TO EXISTING MEDIA PRODUCTS THAT BACK UP YOUR ASSERTION THAT WHAT YOU CREATED IS CONVENTIONAL/UNCONVENTIONAL - PLEASE DO.

Things to consider.

You have made film opening to a thriller – what do you usually expect to find in a Thriller opening. You should have done a least one analysis of a Thriller opening in your planning and research. You have also would have watched other media products that influenced your construction. How does it compare with them.

It's the opening to a film - is it what you think an audience would expect?

Aspects to focus upon - 6 suggestions, but feel free to use your own and add more

Narrative (so what happens in your clip) compared to what you expect in see in a Thriller opening.
(Conventions: an enigma is created, a crime is committed, a crime is prepared for, a victim is identified, a fear/problem is identified/created etc.)

Character – who do we see in your opening, what do we learn about them, what role do we expect them to play. (Conventional thriller characters – weak vulnerable victim, flawed hero, anti-hero, antagonist/bad guy)

Font and titles – how are they used? How are they presented? What order do they come in? What font was used? What about the name of the film?

Location – what is the location for your opening? How has it been represented (what do we see, what does it look like)? Is this typical for a thriller?

Sub-genre – are the characters, mise-en-scene, narrative, location all conventional in terms of the sub-genre you’re working in?

Techniques used – talk about you camera angles and effects used and talk about why you used them, sound, music (e.g. close up on hand to disguise identity of characters, handheld to suggest POV, black and white to give it timeless quality) etc.

FOR EXAMPLE

For everyone

The impact FREE has had on Media and why Google and Apple don't want to change it
Iggy Azalea tells it like it is 

Lizzy Potter/Movies

Amazon to make films - it's tech and retail that are making the moves in the internet age
Online networks are at heart of Secret Cinema - online communities can save cinema
Good 'ol wikipedia - history of Potter fan culture
Interesting article on transmedia storytelling - relationship between audience and producers
Speilberg talks about the movie industry and how Lincoln was nearly a HBO production
Wired Pottermore articles
A book on the Potter Phenomenon - go to page 27
Film to be release on bit torrent

Liana TV
Oooh - future trends in TV watching
A similar trend article but more condescending and another (it's always nice to get things confirmed)
The internet is not disrupting TV, the TV is disrupting the internet
Watch the vid - it's about social media and how it shapes TV news agendas
Ads used to the revenue source behind TV - now TV's golden era doesn't need ads
Here's an article reporting a report about on how Netflix sees the future of TV and here's the actual report and here's some news on HBO's new streaming site (there's an interesting footnote on a potential Comcast merger because of this)
Interesting Wired article 
Woody Allen is to make a TV series for Amazon Studios 
We still watch telly but it's combined with other activities - Ofcom

Field Games
http://www.pixelprospector.com/
http://institutionsandaudiences.posthaven.com/
Twitter the choose your adventure game
Twitter is a game
The future of the games industry - from the industry dudes
Twine and democracy
Indie games and diversity
Urban black and latino game devs
LGBT games
A game "being made in the open"


Have a read of these

Soundtrack
You are marked on how you have used an appropriate soundtrack creatively. So don't just slap your favourite song on top of your footage at the last minute.

1) Think about the tone of music you want to help create meaning in your opening.

2) Find a license free soundtrack - DO NOT USE COPYRIGHTED music, so anything from recording artist or an existing film.
Here is a list of sites where you can find music to use.

3) Edit the music to fit the action and flow of your production.

OR

1) Use Garageband to create your own soundtrack.

Sound FX
The microphones on the cameras are not the best at recording sound - but do the best you can OR use the external microphone available.

To really create a good soundscape use and mix of foley sounds and sound FX in POST PRODUCTION. Freesound.org and www.freesfx.co.uk are both very useful.

Listen and watch this student opening to discover what can be achieved with effective use of sound FX and a simple but effective soundtrack.

Psycho Shower scene