Regulated Industry

All modern films are regulated by classification through age ratings. In Britain, this is done through the company BBFC in which each film released is given an age range made specific to who it is appropriate for. A children's film would tend to be classified as U or PG whereas something more mature that may include bad language or violence, for example, may be given a classification of a 15 or 18 as it contains concepts unsuitable for children of a younger age. This knowledge has given us the idea of aiming to make our thriller a 15 to allow us to use much more mature themes. The meaning for each age rating is shown below...

Pitching our thriller

In order to fully explain our ideas and who our target audience was, we prepared a one page pitch for our thriller explaining the key themes and ideas and who the film, as a whole, will appeal to. In this pitch we have included a brief story synopsis, audience appeal, visual realisation (which films, if any, have done similar things) and a target audience. Alongside this we included our proposed title and some rough tag lines. We had intended to share the video of me making the pitch. However, the video file was somehow corrupted and we no longer had time to film it again.

Title

Today we have begun storyboarding our thriller and creating a title that suits the plot. We have decided to use the title Mirage as it is a Psychological thriller above all else. We initially thought of calling it Constitutional Mirage but decided it gave the audience the wrong impression of the film itself.

Comparable products

We have decided to model our thriller on the film, 'The Evil Dead' and British independent film 'Symptoms.' this Is because both of these films have a woodland setting not dissimilar to the setting we are aiming to use in our thriller. We also looked into the various lighting effects used in both films and analysed how they could be used for a much darker eerie effect. We are now looking into how we could implement these lighting effects into our thriller.

Thriller Location

We have been scouting several locations around the local area that we can film in. We focussed primarily on woodland areas in order to achieve an eerie atmosphere to the thriller overall. The location highlighted below is the path we are focussing on. It is very ideal for us because it is very local to where we live and runs just outside our school, making it accessible during lessons as well as after school.

Disability in the Media

After looking through several articles on the internet I have discovered a lot about when where and how disabilities and disabled actor are used in things such as TV dramas etc.

Firstly, it was after the great war that disabled actors first came onto our screens. After newsreels recorded the rehabilitation of injured servicemen, those who had disabilities began to move into the acting business. a good example of this is disabled actor Douglas Bader who was "Immortalised on the big screen" shortly after the war. It wasn't until 1992 that a disabled actor played a disabled character on British television (on BBC soap Eldorado)

Times have changed significantly overtime as in the 21st century a wide range of disabilities, such as motor neuron disease and Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) to name a few, have been successfully portrayed in several different aspects of the Media. However, a lot of these parts are still played by able-bodied actors leaving little room for disabled actors to really make a name for themselves. (http://www.bfi.org.uk/archive-collections/introduction-bfi-collections/bfi-mediatheques/unlimited-disability-screen)

Many people also believe that women and older people have also been seriously under-represented in the media, a study has shown that the British, small-screen diversity has been far younger and androcentric than the actual population itself. It also showed gaps in the representation of the disabled, ethnic minorities and people of different sexualities. only half of the actual age make up in the country was represented with only 15% of women on major stations being aged 56 and over which, the real percentage being 30%. (http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/16/women-old-disabled-under-represented-television)

I read an article by Nicky Clarke who was praising the work of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant when they were producing 'The Office' she mentioned how they had managed to bring in so much realism that " it took me a minute to realise that it wasn't a documentary." this was not just because of the realistic setting or the Mise-en-scene, but because of the casting as well. She spoke of how they had casted disabled actress Julie Fernandez rather than have an able-bodied person play the role and praised them for being some of the few people that would do such a thing. She even mentioned her own experiences at drama school where they had to mimic disabled people from time to time for a role but believed it "was as incongruous as being asked to black up." She believes that while the representation of disabled people in the media is improving, it is happening too slowly. (http://www.theguardian.com/society/joepublic/2011/sep/22/ricky-gervais-stephen-merchant-disability)

The media do often come under scrutiny however when they represent the disabled because of the ethical issues surrounding it. For example, the language often associated with disabilities can come across as offensive or generally negative. For example words such as, "fool, barmy and struggling" which can make the disabled seem less like 'normal' people. However there are those who manage to perfectly address the issues of disabilities without offending anyone. For example, Stephen Fry created a documentary about manic depression and it's effects on a person and managed to perfectly address the issues without offend people and managed to get enough media attention that the information was spread around a large volume of people who may not have been aware of the issues of depression.

I felt this was relevant in case we decided to portray one of the characters in our thriller as being disabled and learn what an appropriate way of doing this was.

Seven Textual Analysis

Thriller Planning

We have begun planning our thriller opening and have opted for a psychological, political hybrid. This would involve a man (protagonist) who has been experimented on by the government, for reasons that do not become clear in the opening, this information will be conveyed to the audience through the use of flashbacks which will appear frequently throughout. The story follows the protagonist's escape from the facility that was holding him. He begins hallucinating a man chasing him and tries to escape.

Barthes' Narrative Codes

Barthes' Narrative code refers to different aspects of narrative which are vital to telling the story in a piece of media. The different codes in this theory are:

Action code:
This is where the audience will recognise an action code in a media text as it is used to indicate the next logical step. For example in my preliminary task we used the opening of a door to indicate a confrontation or conversation becoming imminent between two characters. Particular for my narrative a very tense and awkward conversation.

The Mystery or Enigma Code:

This code is used to explain the narrative by controlling what and how much information is given to the audience. The audience's attention is grabbed by setting up a problem that needs resolving during the course of the narrative. In my task the identity of the drug dealer remains a mystery until the end where he takes his hood down and deals.

The Semic Code:

This code is about symbolism and the hidden meanings in the piece. For example a knife could symbolise violence. My piece included the use of an old tattered bag which symbolised holding something of importance.

The Cultural Code:

This code refers to the class and social status of the characters and will make sense to an audience of a similar or identical social class. For example we used a hoodie and tattered bag for the dealer to show him as being middle or lower class as it is a general stereotype.

Code of Opposition:

This refers to binary opposites throughout the narrative. For example black vs. white, Male vs. female etc. I did not use this in my preliminary task and it is something I will consider in the future.



Titling work

After exploring the different ways to create titles for a video in after effects I managed to come up with these titles.

Preliminary task evaluation

My Preliminary task evaluation:
https://www.slideshare.net/Mattw0130/as-preliminary-evaluation-41020551

Story Board

We have decided to base our continuity task around a drug deal in which the dealer makes his way to a room, walks In to find the buyer where they negotiate a price for the purchase.     

Continuity task

We have been set a continuity task that involves filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character with whom he/she then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. The task must include examples of match on action where the editor cuts from one shot to another view that matches the first shots action, giving an impression of continuous time. 180 degree rule where two characters in the same scene should have the same opposite relationship to each other. Shot reverse shot which is a continuity editing technique used in conversations of simply characters looking at each other or objects (shows what they're looking at)

Shot Composition activity

Today we set out to do a shot composition activity in order to try out the different shot and angle types with a camera and tripod. These shots were to include, a protagonist (me), an antagonist and a basic construction of narrative.

Establishing shot (Rule of Thirds).

The results were as follows:

Extreme Close up (Rule of Thirds)

Long shot (Backgrounds)

This shot gives the audience a better look at the overall scene by including both the characters and a lot of background.

Long shot (Leading Lines)

Close Up

Close up (same subject)

Over the Shoulder (same subject)

Point of View (same subject)

Low angle

This shot is primarily used on the antagonist in a shot its purpose is to make something, or someone appear to be big and intimidating. 

Welcome to my blog!

Hello, welcome to my blogsite!
My name is Matt Wells and I will be discussing and updating my progress in my AS level media course.
I have a keen interest in the film industry and while I do watch T.V shows and films a lot, I don't know much about what goes into making them. I enjoy watching a good comedy but by far my favourite genre is horror. Any films from the 'Friday the 13th' franchise, to 'The Shining.'
My interests include, almost primarily, football and I'm a keen Liverpool F.C supporter.
I also have an interest in music both listening to a wide range of genres and playing several instruments, mostly the piano.
I look forward to letting out my creative side and attempting to make the most of my time creating my coursework and working on the theory side of the subject.