Media flowchart

Mediating Sen Nit second, considerably shorter version. Had PC troubles.

Magazine Blog

http://samcookmagazineblog.blogspot.com/

Skins!

Skins starts off by showing the daily ritual that Tony Stonem goes through each morning, the first scene starts with Tony lying in bed with an extreme close up of his eyes as they sharply snap open following his alarm. It zooms out showing a close up of his face. The camera zooms out to a long shot where we see his room which goes against the teenage stereotype of messy, especially for a boy because it very orderly and tidy. It also shows his duvet which he is lying smack bang in the middle of, its design is a naked man and woman this could be subtle reference to his sexuality as he may not know if hes straight or gay.

Numerous jump shots are then utilised as it shows daily routine of excericse which is extremely regimented indicating that is an often repeated task. Another alarm then goes off at this point he goes to his window and looks at his female neighbour who is getting dressed. His remains in this position even though his neighbour notices him which cements the fact he is probably straight because of how obvious it is, it also shows he is a bit perverse and voyeuristic.

Tony then helps his younger sister, Effy, sneak back into house showing that they have a strong relationship. He creates a diversion by turning his music up really loud and his dad is angered by it and says “every fucking morning” which implies Effy is often out all night.

Avatar Notes

Avatar had some pretty big actors cast in it, these included, Sam Worthington (Terminator Salvation), Zoe Saldana (Pirates of the Carribean), Michelle Rodriguez (Lost) Giovanni Ribisib (Saving Private Ryan) and Sigourney Weaver (Alien).

Avatar can be classed as an action film as well as adventure and fantasy.

The production companies who produced the movie were Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Ingenious Film Partners ,Dune Entertainment, and Lightstorm Entertainment.

The films estimated production budget was $310,000,000. Avatars gross budget was roughly $2,778,527,559. gaining  $760,505,847 from the US market.

 

The film had a few distribution companies, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, HBO and FX Network were some.

Ethnicity Representation in media

Ethnicity means an ethnic quality or affiliation resulting from racial or cultural ties; "ethnicity has a strong influence on community status relations"
The media often represents different ethnicitys in a generalised way so they are more easily identifiable to a wide audience. For example, British people are often shown in the media as posh, drinking tea and very snobbish. I'd even go as far as to say we're self depricating in the sense that we don't actively deny it and play on the stereotypes in British made movies.



In scott pilgrim The character Matthew Patel plays on the stereotype of an asian character but in some aspects varys from the generalised view. For example, the fight scene he is in (above) is very reminiscant of a bollywood style movie. I say this because its very over dramatic (although that is the tone of the entire film, this scene is even more so) in the style and that at some points he ennunciates words with the syllables (1:29) and moves his head as well as dancing and singing over bollywood-esque music (3:39). This scen uses a lot of mid shots and long shots as to show the uppet body when the two opponents are talking and when hes dancing there are some long shots as to make sure that the action is in shot. The editing within the movie is a lot of two shots when they are circling each other.

Disability

Disability is represented in the film "Forest Gump" by the main character Forest who has learning difficulties which is a mental disability. Throughout the film he is shown as happy and never seems to let his disability hinder him but towards the end he shows awareness that he is handicapped and asks if his son is. 

Casualty No place like Home

For the episode of casualty entitled no place like home i used Vladimir Propps' theory of how there is many different types of characters with the programmes story they include characters such as the hero, villain , anti hero, princess etc. there are 32 different character types which are applicable to most storylines.

There are hero(s) in casualty as the doctors, nurses helpers ect are deemed heroes due to the fact they are helping people and saving lives yet if explored deeper its easy to differentiate what type of characters they are despite the outward appearance.

The princess character would be the nurse who in the episode is seen struggling with insomnia and as a result takes sleeping tablets, she is then unable to function at work and is unable to do her nurses duties. She is initially saved when told by a superior to take a shower to help wake her up and when she collapses he then saves her by getting her out of the shower, fixing her role as princess.

The donor of the show would be the head nurse, she doesn't have a highly regarded position in the hospital from a medical standpoint but she helps the doctors so without her the hospital would be in a state of anomie thus cementing my idea that she is the Donor.

Kick Ass

How it was produced?

Mark Miller produced it after producing "Wanted"  but decided to take a more "hands on" approach this time as he was simply asked questions and answered them about how he wanted "wanted" to be made. He chose  the cast, the script was then drafted, he also chose the costumes as well as the sets and where the film took place, for how long and how many hours a day.

What it was based on?

The film "Kick Ass" was based on a Comic of the same name. The first episode of the comic was released in 2008 and the last one was written in time with the film which is an odd thing to do. Miller said "With Kick-Ass, the book's just out and now the movie's out six weeks later. And I think that's the way things are going to go now, because to go to Marvel's B and C-list characters and try to get movies out of them – what's the point of that?".

Problems in making the film?

One of the main problems in the film was swearing. Even after having the distibutors (Sony) ask him to attempt to "tone down" the langauge he ignored them and carried on regardless. Another problem with the film was the difference of opinions on the ending of the movie, in the comic the "hero" never got the girl and was outrightly rejected, whereas the film has the happy ending of them getting it together.

The directors view on Britsh industry?

He thinks "The UK film industry is the most paradoxical industry we have, were literally world class leaders in making films but have no film industry. We'd self finanaced the Bond and Potter films , the two biggest franchise of all time, yet we cant get films off the ground in England. We should stop being service providers and instead build an industry where we have the best directors, writers, crew, actors ect. He thinks the people who cant get work in america come back and create arthouse and indie movies in the UK"

How they saved money?


They tried to keep the budget down by shooting in London regardless of the Manhattan setting in the film,  to make it look like Manhattan they built a studio  and used green screen with stills of Manhattan on and made it look real in the editing stages.

The technology used?

How the films rating affected it’s performance?


Seeing as the film was rated a 15 by the BBFC,it limited its audience excluding many young people who are fans of the superhero genre (maybe for the best). In France it was a PG, this surprised Vaughn


Controversy surrounding the film?


The main controversy was that the script had a 12 year old girl using somewhat "foul" language throughout the entire film and even at one point referencing to a group of thugs as "Cunts". That, and the violence portrayed throughout the entire film.

Promotion


As the film was adapted from a comic book this could count as promotion along with the later issues that were written alongside the production of the film. The soundtrack was released to the public along with posters and some games for the iphone which made their way onto the playstation market.

The soundtrack


(as it appears on amazon Mp3 market)


1. "Stand Up" The Prodigy
2. "Kick Ass (Radio Edit)" Mika vs. RedOne
3. "Can't Go Back" Primal Scream
4. "There's a Pot a Brewin'" The Little Ones
5. "Omen" The Prodigy
6. "Make Me Wanna Die" The Pretty Reckless
7. "Banana Splits (Kick-Ass Film Version)" The Dickies 
8. "Starry Eyed" Ellie Goulding
9. "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us" Sparks
10. "We're All In Love" The New York Dolls
11. "Bongo Song" Zongamin 
12. "Per Qualche Dollaro in Più (For a Few Dollars More)" Ennio Morricone
13. "Bad Reputation" The Hit Girls
14. "An American Trilogy" Elvis Presley

THEORISTS.

Todorov

• born on the 1st of March 1939
• main influences were from the 1960's forward
• published 21 books

 theories:

• the story starts with an equal balance of opposing forces
• balance is then disrupted by an event
• thus creating a problem that needs to be solved
• in life on mars Sam gets transported to the past through by car crash and then    to resolve problems to return to the current day.

Roland Barthe

• born on the 12th of November 1915
• died in the 80's
• He was a French theorist, philosopher and critic
• In 1953 he wrote his first full length work in writing degree zero

theories:

• cultural, action, symbolic and enigma

Levi-Strauss

• Was a French theorist
• died when he was 100

theory:

• theres always binary opposites in films
• life on mars: the contrast between the 70's and the present day

Moon.

The film was created by Duncan Jones (son of David Bowie) and stars Sam Rockwell (hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy) and has Gerty, a robot voiced by Kevin Spacey (american beauty) who was only actually on set for half a day but obtained the highest pay. Originally Jones wanted Rockwell for another film but the role didn't suit him so they went their separate way until Jones came back to him with the script for moon

Moon had a relatively small budget of $5,000,000 (roughly £2,500,000) and in and effort to cut costs Jones cast very few actors as well as the whole thing being filmed in only 33 days In a london studio. The editing phase he cut corners to save money, He did this by using effects companies such as Cinesite who are notorious for their costs being cheaper than major effects companies, the film was independent so its small budget this was the only financially viable option. They also avoided sending any copies of the movie to the oscars as it costs money to print the dvds and they werent sure of the critical response from the judges.

Overall the film made  $9,747,108 worldwide with the  UK making a 5th of that. despite making a proit of £4.5 million, Jones is still attempting to pay his investors back because they want interest on the money they put in. 

Scott Pilgrim VS The World Animoto

"Britishness"

British films often adhere to certain stereotyped settings and styles so they are easily identifiable as British, these include: countryside/ rural setting, council estate and cities with easily recognisable landmarks. There's references to british cultural experiences and phenomena. These are often self depricating allowing others a clichéd view of Britain or the opportunity to laugh at us.

The hints of "Britishness" in the film start before it the films even begins to run, the Universal logo is backed with a meddly of whistles and sirens that are getting more and more recent in a sense showing the evolution of the police force as well as making it identifiable as a british film before it begins. The opening scene is set  in London. This is easy to identify because of the Thames river in the background, there is also derelict factories as well as a quintessentially british type of crime, knife crime.  Then you see Constable Angel dressed in modern police uniform, He also identifies himself as a constable which is a british rank of officer as well as seeing the Queens crown on his badge. Throughout the entire first scene the music in the background is the british 80's band adam and the ants.

The following chapter is when Angel moves to a countryside village arriving is stereotypical english weather, rain. The hotel he stays in is outdated and a "classic" style hotel as well as the surrounding area being cobbled and a stereotypical british pub containing things like oak beams and brass saddles. All of these you would expect to see in a country side village.

Generally i liked hot fuzz and think it did a good job of representing britishness with the soundtrack and mise en scene. It made it easily recognisable to british people as well as a wider world audience.

Film Companies

Founded by Carl Laemmle in 1912 and is one of the the six major movie studios in the world. They made their first film in 1914 and are still doing so today. The first film they made was called By The Suns Rays was a silent, black and white western movie.

A London based film company and was founded In 1983 by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe. They produce feature films (Johnny English, love actually) and quite a few television shows.







A France based film production and distribution company founded by Pierre Lescure in 1988. It owns one of the largest film libary in the world with films such as Rambo and Terminator 2. They also own the rights to lots of films internationally.

Another London based film and television production company. Founded by Nira Park in 1995. It directed hot fuzz and shaun of the dead and tv programs like spaced. People like Nick Frost and Simon Pegg have become famous following their starring in their productions.

Prezi

We were told to do a prezi presentation on a given director. Me and Lydia were given Anton Corbijin to find out information on and then present the info to the class in a presentation. Here is the Prezi:

Anton Corbijn on Prezi

Tv Dramas

This week I watched

• The inbetweeners
• Coronation street
• eastenders
• Emmerdale
• Hollyoaks
• Waterloo road
• skins
• This is england '86

All in all i prefered the programs with a deeper story, less throw away story lines like This Is England '86 which is well developed whereas Waterloo road has an indeterminate amount of time between each episode which could have passed.

Directorz

Wes Anderson

An American director, went to uni with Owen Wilson and wrote three scripts with him, he casts many of the same actors/ actresses in his films, for example, recurring faces would be that of Owen Wilson, Bill Murray and Ben Stiller. He often uses the music of the rolling stones within his film along with many other british "classic rock" bands. He likes to use symetry within his films and often has things that are near to symetrical on either side of the actor in a shot.

Michel Gondry

A french director who is somewhat unique and has sometimes been described as "weird". Originally set out to be an artist but soon expanded into more diverse areas of media, making music videos for the likes of Kanye West. He has also dabbled in feature films creating titles like "Be kind Rewind" and the widely unreleased "The Science of sleep".He likes to use bright, bold colours within his videos.

Spike Jonze

40 year old American director, born in Maryland America. He made the very popular film Jackass and the recent smash hit "where the wild things are" an adaptation of a 25 word childrens book. His audience is generally male teens but for where the wild things are, a more child orientated market. He has won oscars, a golden globe and a MTV movie award.

Shynola

4 men make up the collective shynola. They are Gideon Baws, Richard Kenworthy, Chris Harding and Jason Groves. They make music videos for bands like Blur, Coldplay and Queens of the stone age. Due to the wide range of people they cover in their videos i think they have a large audience generally for whoever likes the music of the band. For example, Coldplay would be middle age, middle class people. They generally do it for the cash.

Hammer & Tongs

Two guys, Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith, they've directed music videos for the likes of Vampire Weekend. They also directed Hitch Hikers guide to the galaxy and son of rambow, their audience is anywhere from teens to the older market. There is a strong British influence within their work like Vampire Weekend could be classed as English prep style and son of Rambow is based in a private English school.

Post Production of magazine

I enjoyed making the magazine overall as it tested my previous photoshop knowledge. Im relatively pleased with the outcome as the front cover, i feel, looks good. The contents page seems a bit plain but its keeping with the colour scheme of the magazine and makes the articles seem more poignont, in all honesty i believe this is the part that lets it down, if i were to re-do this exercise i would definitely invest more time in the contents page because it was a bit of a rushed job. I believe i used photoshop adequately and to an extent that i deem reasonable, in the sense that its semi professional looking, and in that way suits the whole "school magazine" idea because they, generally, tend to be a bit rough round the edges. I used many basic tools like the lasso tool and magi eraser tool but the part im most proud of is the front cover, here i used the brightness and contrast sliders to create a sort of painting style front cover. I did this by accident but I stuck with it because i felt it gave the magazine a sense of uniqueness.

                                            Front cover                                       contents

Magazine Production

To create the front cover and contents page of our magazine we used adobe photoshop elements. Firstly we had to take photos of our models for the front cover of our magazine, we borrowed a camera and went to take our photos, we also took some scenic shots of the 6th form cafe and the theatre cafe for use within our magazine. We then imported them into photoshop to start editing for use within our magazine. I used the polygonal lasso tool to cut around my model and then used the select inverse tool to delete the area around her. I then accidentally managed to make it look like a vintage photo by playing with the contrast and brightness settings, originally i was attempting to change the hair colour. I then searched for some fonts that were fitting and eventually changed them to a more masculine font so it stood out more. I finished it by adding a barcode. I then started on my contents page, which, in comparison, was a lot easier. I just used the paint bucket tool to fill it with the same colour blue as my font on the front page, i also used the same font to mantain the style of the magazine. I then imported the scenic photos and shrunk them to size to fit in my magazine.

Magazine Pre production

For preproduction of our magazine cover and contents page we had to first draw up a plan on an A3 piece of papier. We firstly, had to name our magazine but the name had to have something to do with school life and then make up some sub headers and articles. We also had to plan every aspect of the magazine including text types and the colour scheme, we were allowed 3 of each, we also had to decide the pose of the model.

 I took some inspiration for the layout of my magazine from this copy of  "The Face"

We then had to design the contents page of our magazine, indicating how it would be layed out with our text and pictures, we also had to use the same colours and fonts from the front page. The bits i found hard about this was thinking of articles for the magazine and justification of certain aspects, the model for example. I look forward to the photoshoppin'.

Doors are boring to film

This is the final piece after our editing. We finished filming last lesson and so this lesson we had to edit the film in the mac suite. We hired the cameras and firewire back from the library and uploaded the footage onto the eMacs. After it finished uploading we used iMovie to edit it. Having used the software before the crash course we received was a reminder for me and made it easy to edit it. I finished it relatively quickly with the help of my group. All in all, i think the task went well but we had to take some creative licence on the storyboard part simply because some of it didn't make any sense. But apart from that it went off without any major hitches.

Production

Following creating our storyboard within our group we were told we then had to exchange said storyboard with another group within the class and then go and film the scene they had written up. The first page of the storyboard was good with decent directions and some rather strange camera angles, the second page was good, clear concise and easy to understand. The third page repeated two of the shots from page two which confused us and we assumed it was a mistake and ignored it as they both stated the same thing. The forth page was hard to read and make sense of but we did what we thought was meant from the storyboard we'd been given. Generally our group did well, I was the camera man within the group and Meg and Becky did the acting. We all chipped in our ideas for the direction of the piece and overall I think the filming went off without much of a hitch, sans a few re-shoots due to giggling. We got on well with the tech due to my previous experience and the demonstration that Mr Smith gave us, shame about the costs of the tapes, £2.50 is a bit much for a dead technology. Anyway, most of the shots used were over the shoulder, mid shots, and one very low angle one. All in all, I think the task did went well and hope that we do some more filming soon!

Hot Fuzz

The opening shot of Hot Fuzz is a long shot. Nicholas Angel is seen purposefully striding into the lobby of a building whilst surrounded by a ethereal light which could be interpereted as a sign that he is an angel, backed up by his name, Nick Angel. The cutting is choppy, this is purposeful to keep the speed of the film up and to also show that Angel is generally a quick person with no time for much else but his job. A lot of the shots dissolve or fade into each other. This is usually accompanied by a non-diegetic loud sound or  flash meaning the action keeps pace. The mise-en-scene of the opening is based quite a lot around what we assume to be the police station he works. The composition of the scene features lots of straight lines that could be construed as bars, like that in a prison cell. The fact that at all times Angel is situated in front of them could mean he's not corrupt and that the law is always behind him in his work. During the opening  there's a close-up of his police ID. His facial expression is very stern and almost angry, you then see a close-up of this face again straight and his facial expression is exactly the same implying he's constantly stern or angry. His shoulder number is also a joke as its 777. This is playing on the number of the beast being 666 and therefore 777 must be the polar opposite and partnered with his name it paints the picture of the perfect police officer.

5 C's

Camera angles

There are lots of different camera angles these include: long shots, medium shots, close ups, extreme close ups, high shots, low shots to name a few. The use of these different angles allows the audience to focus on perticular things or see panoramic areas.

Continuity

This is to make sure everything runs smoothly and there's no errors such as characters switching costume mid scene.

Cutting (editing)

This is essential to the film, if it was shown in real time it never end and any errors couldn't be rectified. Editing also allows the director to change location.

Close ups


Close ups show facial expressions and emotions. These allows the viewer an insight because they are allowed to see something that might not be observed had it been a medium shot long shot.

Composition

This is the mise en scene and allows different elements like backdrops and props to complete a scene.

pre-production

For todays lesson we were assigned the task of storyboarding a basic scene. The brief we had was to have a person walking down a corridor opening a door and sitting down with another character. we were each allocated 4 shots to storyboard and i drew the dorr opening scene, we also had to think about the digetic and nono digetic sound within the scene.
I found it fairly easy to due to previous experience but i was a bit rusty on the camera angles.

Hello

My names Sam Cook.
Im doing media because i enjoy all aspects of the subjects. I love music and films.
I dont have one particular favourite band but i have a few that i love, Biffy Clyro, Foals, NWA, basically any music that doesnt make me heave is alright by me.



God and Satan by Biffy Clyro

I want to carry on with media at university and do film studies and maybe one day become a film critic or something like that. According to some people i've seen every film ever and as much as id like to believe that i havent. But one day i will, well at least all the ones worth watching, for example, "insert genre here" Movies, like "date movie". The reason i hate these films are they use the same, tired, overused jokes again and again until what may have initially have been relatively funny is now something that makes me angry.