How well does contemporary media regulation protect the public?

In the UK, both films and video games are regulated and classified before they are available to the public. The BBFC is the organisation responsible for classifying films, whilst PEGI deal with video games. Films are submitted to the BBFC where they are then viewed and either classified for cinema and DVD release or sent back for cuts.

To purchase either films or video games once they have been classified, requires getting past a physical gatekeeper. For example, ticket stands in cinemas or shop assistants when purchasing a DVD or game. These people enforce these rules because of the trust placed in both the BBFC and PEGI to classify our media. Despite these gatekeepers, there are still a number of problems with regulating the media which mean the public cannot be fully protected. Piracy means people do not have to go through gatekeepers to consume certain forms of media, a child may easily have access to a higher rated film. Lack of parental cooperation means that often parents buy their children 18 rated video games such as GTA V, which is targeted at teenage players. There are plenty of unregulated sources such as the TV and youtube, where young people can still view the same material. There is also a varying level of maturity amongst children and teenagers, making it difficult to regulate media to suit everyone.

However it is clear that the BBFC have the right intentions when it comes to regulating our media. Both ‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘The Woman in Black’ attracted younger audiences. The BBFC knew this and requested cuts for the films so that they were able to be shown in cinemas as a 12A meaning younger audiences could see the films and extreme content was cut. At the other end of the spectrum there have been films that have struggled to obtain an 18 rating, The ‘Human Centipede II’ for example that contained horrific scenes of gore and mutilation. Yet there is a view that adults should have the freedom to choose their own entertainment, therefore films such as this and ‘A Serbian Film’ have been passed 18 with cuts. On the other hand it could be argued that these films were passed because banned films tend to have a ‘forbidden fruit’ appeal, leaving uncut material available to the public.

There is little evidence to suggest that offensive or inappropriate material in films or games lead to crime. But still they commonly blamed for violent attacks. This is known as a moral panic, newspapers and magazines often use violent video games as an explanation for crime because their target readers are middle aged adults who are likely to have preconceptions about new forms of media. This can be seen in the Ann Maguire case of 2014, it was often mentioned that her murderer played violent video games such as Dark Souls II.

There is a view that video games should be more strictly regulated because they are so violent and this differs from the view of films because it can be argued that video games are more immersive and realistic. Players are active and making their own choices rather than passively taking in what is shown in film. GTA V was heavily criticised for having scenes in which the player had to decide whether to torture someone with a wrench or a car battery with wires, meaning the player was making choices much more actively.

However, it is only a small minority of people who will be negatively effected by the violence in video games and often it won’t be the game itself causing people to carry out antisocial behaviour. In the case of Anders Breivik, he planned his attack before using video game simulations on ‘Call of Duty’ to practice, showing the game did not manipulate or sway him to crime. Despite millions of copies of games sold, there are very few cases of violence and antisocial behaviour, indicating that regulation does protect the mass public as well as possible.

There should be some leeway when it comes to allowing adults freedom to choose their own entertainment. Small cuts are necessary to protect minors and vulnerable social groups, despite being unlikely to have a notable effect. The media is regulated for the man on the clapham omnibus, therefore we cannot take into consideration minorities whose choices are unlikely to be affected by the media that they consume. Criticism and complaints are inevitable because of varying maturity levels within children and teenagers, however the majority of audiences will be satisfied and the small efforts of the BBFC and PEGI will be effective.

Section A Question 1: Post Production

We may also be asked about post production and how our skills and knowledge of the software we are using has improved. Here is the fourth mind map which will be turned into a draft essay.

Plan

• Final Cut
  -Day into night – after our LAFTAs production I was more aware of how to shoot so that I could use colour corrections to make it look as if it were night time, I knew not to get the sky in shot as the shot from the boot looked odd.
  -Colour corrections and filters – I became more aware of what filters looked more cinematic, as time progressed I realised that the vignette effect didn’t work at all, so I knew not to use this in my A2 project
  -Transitions – I was more aware of the appropriate use of transitions during the A2 projects and that dissolves weren’t always the right transition to use especially in horror because it draws attention to the cut as opposed to masking it. Therefore I tried to create hidden cuts in my final project.
  -Key Framing – I was more comfortable with key framing, especially using it with sound and using it to make it smoother and less disjointed with silent parts. I also used this with a blank frame to hide the hidden cuts.
• Sound
  -Music – I found that it worked better to find this earlier in the process so that the filming and editing can be done with this in mind and the pace matches the music.
  -Sound effects – Recording sound on set was often not enough during our AS project, I found that we had to use a lot of foley effects so therefore during the A2 year I decided to use more foley effects because they often sounded better and more cinematic.
  -Rerecording – Both shots and sound, where I would have left something during AS, I realised at A2 that some things needed to be redone. For example, shaky shots. During our LAFTAs project we realised that the crowd saying “surprise” sounded like too few people to we recorded more people saying this and added the sound in. I was therefore more aware of what wasn’t at a good enough standard at A2 and went out and redid this.

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Describe a range of creative decisions you made in post-production and how these decisions made a difference to the final outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time. [25 marks]

Version 1

In our LAFTAs production, ‘Uninvited’, we created a night time effect using colour correction. We knew that we couldn’t film at night because this would mean our shot wouldn’t be as clear as it could have been and we also knew from experience that simply adding the day into night filter made the shot look a little purple and artificial. This experience taught us that we can’t rely on post production for the effects and that we had to do certain things when filming to achieve the night time look. For example, I knew that I needed to ensure that the sky wasn’t in shot because this would mean that the end result wouldn’t look right, I had this in mind when filming my A2 short film, ‘Familiar’, and the effect is therefore more realistic.

When editing my AS production of ‘Blackhaven’, I made the mistake of adding too many filters and colour corrections, such as vignette and teal and orange. As time progressed I realised that these didn’t look good and I felt more aware of what looked cinematic and what didn’t. I therefore knew for my A2 project that I needed to keep colour corrections to a minimum, I only added cool tones which was only at a low opacity. However, I did learn from AS that letterboxing my scene did make it look more cinematic, so I added this effect in to both ‘Uninvited’ and ‘Familiar’. The same applies to transitions, I knew that fancy fades and dissolves between shots didn’t look cinematic and I needed to hide them more because they often took away from the narrative I was trying to convey in my films. As a result, I kept the transitions very simple in ‘Familiar’, I used a simple cut and often masked them with shots where the camera appears to go through the floorboards or a wall which meant I had a greater effect on my audience as a horror film because the editing was less noticeable.

There were a number of things that I struggled with at AS that I struggled to solve. However throughout the course I became more comfortable with how to key frame and I soon realised that using this could  have solved many of my problems. For example, the sound often seemed disjointed and there were odd silent parts to my scenes, however I knew at A2 that I could solve this by fading sounds in and out using key framing on the volume so that they sounded smoother. I was also able to use key framing on a blank frame, which I was able to mask my hidden cut through the wall with. I have become more aware of the wide range of effects that key framing can do, I have therefore used it a lot more for my production of ‘Familiar’ in order to allow my scene to run more smoothly.

Using Final Cut Pro X also gave me the opportunity to watch through the footage that I had whenever we liked. I therefore did more screenings throughout the post-production process during A2 than I did for AS. This allowed me to get feedback from the class and therefore obtain new thoughts and ideas and change parts that I needed to change. As a result the feedback that I got from others meant that my production of ‘Familiar’ was more successful because I had a greater range of ideas and input from others.

Throughout AS, I would often leave shots or sound recordings that didn’t work. However by having screenings more regularly I realised that there were some things that needed to be redone, such as shaky shots or times when the pan wasn’t as smooth as it could have been during my first shoot of ‘Familiar’. At AS I felt that once we had filmed we needed to focus on editing, however I realised that part of successful editing means to go out and rerecord things or to create foley effects. In our LAFTAs production of ‘Uninvited’, when the party group said “surprise”, we realised that it sounded like there were too few people in the audio which gave the impression that there was a very small group. We therefore went back with a sound recorder and had more people say “surprise” so that we had more audio to put on top of what we already had existing. This gave the shot more depth to it, as a result of all of our rerecording we had a finished product that was of a higher standard that at AS.

I found music for ‘Blackhaven’ once I had completed editing together all of my shots. I found that this meant that finding music was made more difficult because it often didn’t match the pace of my editing, especially as we were only able to find and use music that was copyright free. I therefore realised that for my A2 production of ‘Familiar’, I needed to find music earlier on in the process so that I could match my editing to it rather than searching through a lot of music to find one that fits well.

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Version 2

In our LAFTAs production, ‘Uninvited’, which we made after AS and before A2, we created a night time effect using colour correction. We knew that we couldn’t film at night because this would mean our shot wouldn’t be as clear as it could have been and we also knew from experience that simply adding the day into night filter made the shot look a little purple and artificial. This experience taught us that we can’t rely on post production for the effects and that we had to do certain things when filming to achieve the night time look. For example, I knew that I needed to ensure that the sky wasn’t in shot because this would mean that the end result wouldn’t look right, I had this in mind when filming my A2 short film, ‘Familiar’, and the effect is therefore more realistic.

When editing my AS production of ‘Blackhaven’, I made the mistake of adding too many filters and colour corrections, such as vignette and teal and orange. As time progressed I realised that these didn’t look good and I felt more aware of what looked cinematic and what didn’t. I therefore knew for my A2 project that I needed to keep colour corrections to a minimum, I only added cool tones which was only at a low opacity. However, I did learn from AS that letterboxing my scene did make it look more cinematic, so I added this effect in to both ‘Uninvited’ and ‘Familiar’. The same applies to transitions, I knew that fancy fades and dissolves between shots didn’t look cinematic and I needed to hide them more because they often took away from the narrative I was trying to convey in my films. As a result, I kept the transitions very simple in ‘Familiar’, I used a simple cut and often masked them with shots where the camera appears to go through the floorboards or a wall which meant I had a greater effect on my audience as a horror film because the editing was less noticeable.

There were a number of things that I struggled with at AS that I struggled to solve. However throughout the course I became more comfortable with how to key frame and I soon realised that using this could  have solved many of my problems. For example, the sound often seemed disjointed and there were odd silent parts to my scenes, however I knew at A2 that I could solve this by fading sounds in and out using key framing on the volume so that they sounded smoother. I was also able to use key framing on a blank frame, which I was able to mask my hidden cut through the wall with. I have become more aware of the wide range of effects that key framing can do, I have therefore used it a lot more for my production of ‘Familiar’ in order to allow my scene to run more smoothly.

Using Final Cut Pro X also gave me the opportunity to watch through the footage that I had whenever we liked. I therefore did more screenings throughout the post-production process during A2 than I did for AS. This allowed me to get feedback from the class and therefore obtain new thoughts and ideas and change parts that I needed to change. As a result the feedback that I got from others meant that my production of ‘Familiar’ was more successful because I had a greater range of ideas and input from others.

Throughout AS, I would often leave shots or sound recordings that didn’t work. However by having screenings more regularly I realised that there were some things that needed to be redone, such as shaky shots or times when the pan wasn’t as smooth as it could have been during my first shoot of ‘Familiar’. At AS I felt that once we had filmed we needed to focus on editing, however I realised that part of successful editing means to go out and rerecord things or to create foley effects. In our LAFTAs production of ‘Uninvited’, when the party group said “surprise”, we realised that it sounded like there were too few people in the audio which gave the impression that there was a very small group. We therefore went back with a sound recorder and had more people say “surprise” so that we had more audio to put on top of what we already had existing. This gave the shot more depth to it, as a result of all of our rerecording we had a finished product that was of a higher standard that at AS.

I found music for ‘Blackhaven’ once I had completed editing together all of my shots. I found that this meant that finding music was made more difficult because it often didn’t match the pace of my editing, especially as we were only able to find and use music that was copyright free. I therefore realised that for my A2 production of ‘Familiar’, I needed to find music earlier on in the process so that I could match my editing to it rather than searching through a lot of music to find one that fits well.

Section A Question 1: Research and Planning

The third form of the first question asks about how our research and planning skills improved over time and how we were able to present our ideas. Here is the mind map for this question that can be turned into a draft essay.

Plan

• Research
  -Similar Products – I watched a lot more short films in preparation for the A2 project because I wanted to be more aware of the structure of the form of film I was making, where I would have just put titles in where I felt looked good at AS, I researched when they should be for A2.
  -Audience – Last year I created a survey and adapted my film opening to the responses I got, as a result I ended up with something different from what I had planned. This year I created the survey without the intention to adapt my film but to find an audience for what I already had planned. I also watched a lot of films from the genre for inspiration so that I was more aware of what my audience would expect to see from the film.
• Preparation
  –

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Explain how your research and planning skills developed over time and contributed to your media production outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer. [25 marks]

Version 1

I found it difficult to perfect the idea for my film opening because I kept finding faults in the storyline or things that I wouldn’t be able to film. Therefore in preparation for our short film we did a lot more pitching to the class, which helped us to get feedback and different ideas from others to improve on our original ideas. As a result the narrative worked really well and there were no gaps in what the audience understood from my film.

Once I had my finalised idea, the way that I carried out my research for my A2 project differed greatly from AS. I watched a lot more short films in preparation for my A2 project which I found on both Vimeo and YouTube, this was so that I was more aware of the structure and form of the media product that I was creating because I wasn’t as aware as I could have been that there were a few rules when making a film opening. For my AS project I placed the titles where I thought they looked good as opposed to finding out where they would commonly be shown, however for my short film I researched into when the title and credits would normally be shown. This has allowed my work to look more professional as it is structured correctly.

Both years I have carried out some form of audience research, mainly through surveys. For my film opening. ‘Blackhaven’, I felt that I needed to adapt my film to the responses that I got, as a result my work wasn’t how I initially planned. When we created our LAFTAs entry, ‘Uninvited’, we didn’t do any sort of audience research and the finished scene turned out really well despite not having an input from our target audience. This year I had a different approach and designed a survey without the intention to adapt my film depending on my results. I asked questions that would allow me to find an audience for my film and to make sure that it would meet their expectations of the genre. This meant that my idea was more unique and I executed it the way I first pictured it rather than changing characters and story lines to suit what my responses said they would like to see.

During the preparation of my short film, ‘Familiar’, I thought a lot more about mise-en-scene because in our LAFTAs production, we didn’t plan some aspects of the film too well, in particular the costumes. I therefore did a lot of research and preparation into what my characters should look like and what they would be wearing as I had such a short amount of time to establish character, I wanted the audience to straight away recognise my young girl as being innocent and the adult male in my film as being threatening. This has helped to improve the narrative of my work and how well the audience follows the storyline and empathises with the young girl.

I did the same with props and location, during our AS project and LAFTAs production, we often didn’t think about our location and making it look like it was supposed to on camera, I didn’t feel that our mental hospital in Blackhaven looked as cold as we first planned because we didn’t think about what the audience would be able to see in the whole frame. I decided that I needed to visit all of my locations in advance and plan how I was going to position the camera and often what I was going to move around and place in the background so that there was always something interesting in the frame even if it wasn’t the focus of the shot. This meant that my audience was able to identify my locations more easily which then allows them to follow the narrative more easily.

For my short film, I knew that I needed to prepare the sound design a lot earlier than I did for my other projects, as music is often difficult to find and is usually won’t match the pace of the filming and editing too well either. This year I found sound effects in advance so that I had a lot to work with right through the editing process. I also realised how many layers of sound there was in my AS production, this often became quite confusing and difficult to coordinate. Therefore this year I have written a blog post which tells me exactly when each of my sound effects and musical scores will be heard throughout my short film. This gave me more time to focus on key-framing my sound to make it fade in and out seamlessly without any silences.

When creating my storyboards, it helped that from experience I was more aware of what I could achieve using the different pieces of equipment and Final Cut Pro X. Therefore this allowed me to be more creative with the shots that I planned to do, the shots I used in Blackhaven were all still but we incorporated movement into our LAFTAs entry. The shots with movement looked a lot better and were a lot smoother than static shots, therefore I drew out my storyboards knowing that I wanted to use the mini dolly. This meant that my finished short film looked smoother and the cuts in between shots looked a lot better.

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Version 2

I found it difficult to perfect the idea for my film opening at AS because I kept finding faults in the storyline or things that I wouldn’t be able to film. Therefore in preparation for my short film ‘Familiar’ at A2 I did more pitching to the class, which helped me to get feedback and different ideas from others to improve on my original ideas. As a result the narrative worked really well and there were no gaps in what the audience understood from my film and my storyline worked a lot better than it did at AS.

Once I had my finalised idea, the way that I carried out my research for my A2 project differed greatly from AS. I watched a lot more short films in preparation for my A2 project which I found on both Vimeo and YouTube, this was so that I was more aware of the structure and form of the media product that I was creating because I wasn’t as aware as I could have been that there were a few rules when making a film opening. For my AS project I placed the titles where I thought they looked good as opposed to finding out where they would commonly be shown, however for my short film I researched into when the title and credits would normally be shown, what they would contain and how they would normally look like. This has allowed my work to look more professional as it is structured correctly.

Both years I have carried out some form of audience research, mainly through surveys. For my film opening. ‘Blackhaven’, I felt that I needed to adapt my film to the responses that I got, as a result my work wasn’t how I initially planned. When we created our LAFTAs entry, ‘Uninvited’, we didn’t do any sort of audience research and the finished scene turned out really well despite not having an input from our target audience. This year I had a different approach and designed a survey without the intention to adapt my film depending on my results. I asked questions that would allow me to find an audience for my film and to make sure that it would meet their expectations of the genre. This meant that my idea was more unique and I executed it the way I first pictured it rather than changing characters and story lines to suit what my responses said they would like to see.

During the preparation of my short film, ‘Familiar’, I thought a lot more about mise-en-scene because in our LAFTAs production of ‘Uninvited’ after AS, we didn’t plan some aspects of the film too well, in particular the costumes. I therefore did a lot of research and preparation into what my characters should look like and what they would be wearing as I had such a short amount of time to establish character, I wanted the audience to straight away recognise my young girl as being innocent and the adult male in my film as being threatening. This has helped to improve the narrative of my work and how well the audience follows the storyline and empathises with the young girl.

I did the same with props and location, during my AS project and LAFTAs production, I often didn’t think about the location and making it look like it was supposed to on camera, I didn’t feel that our mental hospital in Blackhaven looked as cold as we first planned because we didn’t think about what the audience would be able to see in the whole frame. I decided that I needed to visit all of my locations in advance and plan how I was going to position the camera and often what I was going to move around and place in the background so that there was always something interesting in the frame even if it wasn’t the focus of the shot. This meant that my audience was able to identify my locations more easily which then allows them to follow the narrative more easily and therefore my A2 production looked more visually interesting and more like a real location.

For my short film, I knew that I needed to prepare the sound design a lot earlier than I did for my other projects, as music is often difficult to find and is usually won’t match the pace of the filming and editing too well either. This year I found sound effects in advance so that I had a lot to work with right through the editing process. I also realised how many layers of sound there was in my AS production, this often became quite confusing and difficult to coordinate. Therefore this year I have written a blog post which tells me exactly when each of my sound effects and musical scores will be heard throughout my short film. This gave me more time to focus on key-framing my sound to make it fade in and out seamlessly without any silences.

When creating my storyboards, it helped that from experience I was more aware of what I could achieve using the different pieces of equipment and Final Cut Pro X. Therefore this allowed me to be more creative with the shots that I planned to do, the shots I used in Blackhaven were all still but we incorporated movement into our LAFTAs entry. The shots with movement looked a lot better and were a lot smoother than static shots, therefore I drew out my storyboards knowing that I wanted to use the mini dolly. This meant that my finished short film looked smoother and the cuts in between shots looked a lot better.

Section A Question 1: Creativity

The question in section A may also be worded in a way that asks how our creativity had improved and changed throughout the course, therefore we have put together a mind map from which we can gather ideas and draft answers to the question we may get in our exam.

Plan

• Pre-Production
  -Storyboards – When story boarding I was aware of which shots in my previous work looked good and what it was about them that worked. Therefore I was able to draw the shots in my storyboard with this in mind and what pieces of equipment I would use to achieve this.
  -Limitations and opportunities – Throughout the AS year I’ve become more confident using Final Cut, however I have also become more aware of it’s limitations, therefore I was able to be ambitious in planning to create a shot through walls and floorboards. On the other hand there are aspects of my planning that I knew not to include such as panning, because from experience these are very shaky with our tripods, instead I know to use a dolly shot.
• Feedback
  -Screenings – At A2 we had screenings every week or so as opposed to the one screening we had during the AS year, this helped us to improve and through class discussion we were able to solve our problems in more creative ways.
• Inspiration
  -Research – Use of vimeo and YouTube to find similar short films and ideas for shot types and especially settings.
  -Genre Features – I was more aware of what to put in my film to

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Describe how your creative skills have developed and improved over time. [25 marks]

Version 1

When storyboarding my A2 film, ‘Familiar’, I was more aware of which types of shots in my previous work looked good and what about them that worked well. Therefore I was able to draw out my storyboards more creatively with this in mind and plan for more varied shots using different pieces of equipment. I have also become more confident using Final Cut, however I have also become more aware of it’s limitations, therefore I was able to be ambitious when planning to create shots that appeared to move through walls and floorboards. On the other hand there were aspects of my planning that I knew not to include from experience, such as panning because the tripods are very shaky, instead I planned to use dolly shots.

As a result of this experience, my planning was more accurate for my short film and more parallel with my finished film. This meant that my planning was more effective and I was able to stick to it better than I did at AS because I didn’t have to find ways around things I had planned for but not known how to execute. I knew I was able to shoot and edit certain things that I planned for, which meant I had a more visually interesting and unique final scene.

Last year for AS, I worked in a pair to create our film opening of ‘Blackhaven’. This had both benefits and negatives, because I had someone else contributing ideas and noticing faults. Whilst I had someone to help me, I also had ideas in my mind that I was unable to convey to my partner. Working alone this year has meant that I am able to create a film as I picture it in my mind and how I want it to look. This has been especially beneficial as we have done more pitching and screening this year and therefore I have not lost the peer input side of planning.

During the A2 year we did more pitching and screening as opposed to the one pitch we did at AS. This helped me to gather ideas from others and use them to improve my work. Through class discussion I was able to solve problems and make things work more smoothly. This was most useful when discussing my storyline because whilst I would understand what I was trying to say, others may not think my ideas were very clear. By pitching to others I was able to perfect my narrative and produce a film that makes sense, whereas for my AS production of ‘Blackhaven’, I may have left something to my audience to try and understand.

I made much more use of Vimeo and Youtube to find existing short films to take inspiration from whilst planning for ‘Familiar’. I found out how easy it was to find similar products from different genres and directors. I made use of this much more at A2 because I started to pick out aspects of the films that I liked and incorporate them into my film. Last year I might have watched something and thought ‘I like that’ rather than picking out specific shots or props that worked well. From this I was able to develop more of a style to my work, unlike my rather generic mental asylum story I did at AS, which I felt worked really well.

I also did a lot more research into aspects of my film that would improve the mise-en-scene. For example, the costume that our murderer wore in our LAFTAs production ‘Uninvited’, after the AS year, didn’t really work at all for the colour palette of the film. Therefore, having a sinister character again in ‘Familiar’, I wanted to make sure that the costume represented his character well. I looked at existing films with similar characters such as ‘Friday 13th’, and picked out costumes that worked well. I feel that picking out more specific costumes has improved the look of my work and definitely gives the male figure in ‘Familiar’ a much stronger presence.

The way I used my survey results differed greatly from AS. For my film opening, I felt that I needed to adapt my storyline to fit the responses that I got on Surveymonkey, whereas this year I had a clear idea of what I wanted to achieve and simply used my survey to find out who my audience was. As a result I feel that my film is much more unique and creative because I wrote my own storyline, incorporated a few main horror genre features and then pitched it to my audience instead of allowing my audience to tell me what they wanted from a film.

When editing ‘Blackhaven’, I felt that I was being a little too creative with filters and transitions and that I needed to tone this down when I edited ‘Familiar’ together. I previously would have used vignette and all sorts of filters, whereas now I realise that this doesn’t necessarily make a cinematic looking film. At A2 all I used was letter boxing, a few cool tones and saturation. My experience with being a little over creative has allowed me to become aware of what works and what doesn’t and therefore how to make a cinematic looking film.

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Version 2

Section A Question 1: Using Conventions of Real Media Texts

Plan

• Form
  -Type – We produced work in a variety of different forms during AS and A2, AS didn’t go so well, therefore I realised I needed to look at more existing products and take more inspiration to incorporate into my work.
  -Ancillary Tasks – I looked at both Empire and Total film as well as film posters such as Shutter Island for my ancillary tasks so that I had a really clear layout and structure.
• Technical
  -Camera – I used a different camera as A2 which allowed my film to look more cinematic and more like a conventional short film. I was also able to adjust the shutter speed when taking stills to make my silhouetted poster look more effective.
  -Movement – I realised that most of the short films I’d been looking at in preparation for my film had a lot of movement in them, whereas my AS project mainly consisted of static shots. Therefore I decided to incorporate more movement and use the mini dolly and Steadicam to improve my shots
• Genre
  -Target Audience – Although I didn’t want to adjust my film to any responses I got in my survey, I did want to make sure that I knew where my film fit within an audience. Therefore I decided to incorporate a number of genre features…
  -Existing Products -I looked at existing short films as well as full length films to get inspiration for my film as well as making sure the shot types and music fell into the correct genre.
• Representation
  -Character and Costume – At AS and for our LAFTAs production, I didn’t plan costumes very well, we relied on people wearing something suitable. In our LAFTAs film we realised that our murderer wasn’t wearing suitable trousers at all for the colour palette of the film, therefore I decided to extensively plan my male’s costume at A2, looking at Jason’s costume in ‘Friday 13th’ in particular.
• Symbolism
  -Colours – I incorporated a lot of colour into my set, which is the opposite of what might be expected from quite a sinister short film. However my choice of colour highlight the difference between the two characters and that the male figure clearly doesn’t belong in the environment which he is shown in.

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Describe how your analysis of the conventions of real media texts informed your own creative media practice. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time. [25 marks]

Version 1

Moving from AS to A2, I did a lot more research into the form of media that I was producing to make sure it would look professional. At AS, for my production of ‘Blackhaven’ a did a little research into film openings such as ‘Children of Men’ and the Bond films to get initial ideas but not so much into the structure and conventions. However, when we made the short film in it’s entirety at A2, for ‘Familiar’, the whole thing needed to be much more structured unlike the film opening which was meant to lead onto a further hour or so of film. Therefore I researched into titles, credits and structure to make sure I showed my indents and everything at the correct point in my short film, this was important because I had a short amount of time to convey my story and I didn’t want my credits to take away from that.

I had to further this research with my ancillary tasks which we didn’t have during the AS year, this meant I was looking at a wider range of media products in different forms. I looked at film magazines such as Total Film and Empire to make sure that my work looked professional. For my poster I looked mainly at the poster for ‘Shutter Island’ and adapted the format that they used which gave my package of work look more professional because it was based on existing formats rather than just adding things where I thought they looked good as I did with the title sequence and credits for ‘Blackhaven’.

I carried out more surveys and research into the genre that I was working on to make sure that I knew who my target audience was. At AS I did a survey, however I was unsure of what I wanted to do with my results and tried to adapt my film to suit the responses I got. However, when planning for ‘Familiar’, I did more research into codes and conventions of the horror and thriller genre and produced something that was built on my findings and then I did a survey to see how my storyline would fit into an existing audience. I tried to incorporate these conventions as much as I could, for example, I had a scary and intimidating villain and an innocent protagonist.

There were also ways in which I wanted to move away from typical codes and conventions. My setting wouldn’t usually be seen as somewhere to set a horror film, ‘Familiar’ was set in a modern family home which was full of bright colours and children’s toys. I didn’t saturate the colour or make sure the set was a mixture of greys and blues because I wanted there to be a contrast between the bright environment and the villain himself.

I also focused more on how I wanted my characters to be represented when planning ‘Familiar’. At AS, I just picked something out for my characters that I thought would look right without looking into it. We did the same for our short film entry for the LAFTAs competition after AS, this is when we realised that we should have planned things like props and costume more thoroughly because the bright red trousers for our murderer didn’t really fit the dark colour palette of the film. Therefore, I made sure that I looked into similar films and noted down typical costume features for different types of characters. I looked at Jason’s costume in ‘Friday the 13th’, for inspiration for my villain in ‘Familiar’, I picked out a similar outfit which was black trousers, an old navy jumper/jacket and muddy worn out brown shoes, which looked right for the role in the end product.

‘Blackhaven’ was filmed in a beautiful garden round the back of a block of flats, despite having access to a visually impressive location, I had little control over the surroundings and mise-en-scene. Filming ‘Familiar’ in my own home gave me a better opportunity to move things around and position props so that my shots were framed well each time. Particularly in the young girl’s room as I wanted there to be toys scattered round the shot so that my film seemed more colourful and childlike. This lead to a better looking film as I didn’t have any unwanted drainpipes or street lamps in the background of my shots.

As I watched more and more short films during my planning process for my short films, I started to notice more shots and movements of the camera which looked really visually interesting. My film opening for AS consisted mainly of static shots. We incorporated a couple of dolly tracks into our LAFTAs entry and as a result I found that these worked really well. I decided to use the dolly again for my short film. Not only did this make my film look nicer but it also looked more cinematic and more like a real short film.

Another thing that made my work look more cinematic was the camera that I used at A2 which was a Canon EOS Rebel, I wasn’t sure if it was any better than the Nikon I used at AS but I did know how to operate the settings more as it was my own camera. This meant I was able to make my work look more cinematic and nicer looking and I could adjust the settings to achieve this. In particular when I was taking stills for the poster I changed the shutter speed after every couple of pictures so that I could let a certain amount of light in to achieve a dark and silhouetted photo.

Section A Question 1: Digital Technology

Recently in class we’ve been looking at the A2 exam and thinking about how we will answer the questions that we may get. The first question in section A in last year’s exam was worded “Describe the most important post-production decisions you made for your different media productions and explain why these decisions were significant. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how your skills in post-production developed over time.” The theme of this question changes every year, this may be reworded to a question that asks about creativity, digital technology, research and planning or using conventions from real media texts.

To prepare for these questions we will be creating a mind map for each topic and writing model answers that we can adapt for whatever we will need to write about in June. The first topic we are focusing on is digital technology. Here is the mind map that was produced in class:

Plan

• Software Applications
  -Final Cut Pro – Throughout the course I have become more comfortable with the software, this has made me more confident to try to create the shots that go through walls and floorboards. I have also become more aware of the limitations of post production, for example I know that lack of lighting cannot be fixed or colour corrected to look right through editing.
  -Apple’s Pages – After using writer duet once, I found that pages was easier to use because it was quicker to open and export different drafts. The only advantage of writer duet was being able to edit from different locations however I mostly worked on my script during lessons or free periods so Pages was a better application for me.
• Social Networking
  -Facebook – Used to distribute my survey, we found that this gained us a lot of responses during the planning process of ‘Blackhaven’, therefore I used this method of distribution again and posted it as soon as possible to maximise my responses.
  -Voice123 and email – Used to contact voice actors, we found that this was really successful in finding our voice over actor. Therefore I did this again for my radio announcement at A2, however I sent out less emails because I found that so many people were willing to help and as a result we had far too many actors sending their audio clip last year.
• Internet Services
  -Prezi and Slideshare – Despite being able to make really visually impressive presentations on Prezi, I found that they didn’t embed on my blog and I was a little worried that the examiner wouldn’t click the links that I posted. Therefore I made slideshows and shared them through slideshare which allowed me to embed my work more easily.
  -YouTube and Vimeo – I have become more aware of how useful these two sites are for finding similar products from the same genre, which has helped me to plan more effectively and find features to include in my coursework.
• Equipment
  -Cameras – At AS I used a Nikon DSLR D3100, however I used a canon EOS Rebel SL1, because I found that it filmed at a higher quality and as a result my film looked more cinematic.
  -Movement – During AS, we didn’t incorporate movement into many of our shots, as a result the finished film was a little too still and choppy rather than flowing too well. Therefore I decided to increasingly use the mini dolly and steadicam which meant my shots looked more visually impressive as I moved into the A2 year.

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Explain how your skills in the creative use of digital technology developed over time. Refer to a range of examples from your media productions in your answer. [25 marks]

Version 1

Throughout the course I have become more comfortable with using Final Cut Pro X, by creating my AS project, ‘Blackhaven’, I learnt where everything was and what tools to use for whatever I needed to do. Therefore at A2 for my production of ‘Familiar’, I was able to work more efficiently. I was more aware of the limitations of post production, for example I know that lack of lighting cannot be fixed or colour corrected to look right through editing. Similarly, I was more confident with what I could do with Final Cut and I therefore decided to try and create the shots that appear to go through walls and floorboards.

The other Apple application that I used at A2 was Pages for my script writing. After using writer duet once, I found that pages was easier to use because it was quicker to open and export different drafts. The only advantage of writer duet was being able to edit from different locations however I mostly worked on my script during lessons or free periods, where I had all of my planning together, so Pages was a better application for me and allowed me to work more efficiently.

I used a number of social networking sites in order to improve my own work. I made a survey with SurveyMonkey and from experience at AS, when I was trying to find actors and locations, I learned that Facebook is a good way to contact a lot of people. I therefore posted a link on my Facebook page and gained around 30 responses as a result. I used Voice123.com and email at AS to contact voice actors, I found that this was really successful for finding our voice over actor. Therefore, I did this again for my radio announcement at A2, however I sent out less emails because I found that so many people were willing to help and as a result we had far too many actors sending their audio clip last year. By trying this at AS made me more confident that I could do it again for A2 and I was able to plan for narration.

Throughout AS I used Prezi a lot to create presentations for my research and planning, however they can’t be embedded into my blog and therefore I had to simply link to the Prezi in my posts. I was a little worried that the examiner would skim over my work and miss the link. I then discovered Slideshare which meant I could embed PowerPoint presentations into my blog which meant I could share them more easily. At A2 I used this a lot more as it was a lot easier to store all of my slideshows on my laptop and display my work on my blog.

At AS I used the school cameras, which were Nikon DSLR D3100s, however I became increasingly more comfortable with the family camera following the holidays so I decided to use that. The model was a Canon EOS Rebel SL1, I was able to use it more effectively and therefore my shots looked more cinematic and my work was improved as a result.

For my production of ‘Blackhaven’ at AS, I didn’t incorporate any movement into my shots. I tried to replicate the effect of movement during post production but I found that this didn’t work too well. However, when filming our LAFTAs production, ‘Uninvited’, we borrowed a mini dolly and found that this produced some really visually interesting shots. As a result of this I decided to use it for my A2 project ‘Familiar’ too as well as the Steadicam, which I was now able to use, and found that I was able to produce some really nice shots as I moved into the A2 year.

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Version 2

Throughout the course I have become more comfortable with using Final Cut Pro X, by creating my AS project, ‘Blackhaven’, I learnt where everything was and what tools to use for whatever I needed to do such as key framing, filters and transitions. Therefore at A2 for my production of ‘Familiar’, I was able to work more efficiently because I didn’t have to spend ages learning how to use the software again. I was more aware of the limitations of post production, for example I know that lack of lighting cannot be fixed or colour corrected to look right through editing, I knew that I had to get this right during filming because I relied heavily on being able to ‘fix it later’ at AS. On the other hand, I was more confident with what I could do with Final Cut as well as what I couldn’t and I therefore decided to try and create the shots that appear to go through walls and floorboards in my short film at A2.

The other Apple application that I used at A2 was Pages for my script writing. After using writer duet once, I found that pages was easier to use because it was quicker to open and export different drafts. The only advantage of WriterDuet was being able to edit from different locations however I mostly worked on my script during lessons or free periods, where I had all of my planning together, so Pages was a better application for me and allowed me to work more efficiently than I did at AS.

I used a number of social networking sites in order to improve my own work. I made a survey with SurveyMonkey and from experience at AS, when I was trying to find actors and locations, I learned that Facebook is a good way to contact a lot of people. I therefore posted a link on my Facebook page and gained around 30 responses as a result. I used Voice123.com and email at AS to contact voice actors, I found that this was really successful for finding our voice over actor. Therefore, I did this again for my radio announcement at A2, however I sent out less emails because I found that so many people were willing to help and as a result we had far too many actors sending their audio clip last year. By trying this at AS made me more confident that I could do it again for A2 and I was able to plan for narration to be in my storyline.

Throughout AS I used Prezi a lot to create presentations for my research and planning, however they can’t be embedded into my blog and therefore I had to simply link to the Prezi in my posts. I was a little worried that the examiner would skim over my work and miss the link. I then discovered Slideshare which meant I could embed PowerPoint presentations into my blog which meant I could share them more easily. At A2 I used this a lot more as it was a lot easier to store all of my slideshows on my laptop and display my work on my blog. Although they didn’t look as visually appealing, they were more easily accessible which I felt was more important.

The other internet services that I made more use of during the planning of my A2 film were YouTube and Vimeo, I realised how easy it was to find other short films from the same genre to use for inspiration and I was able to easily find similar films and also related directors and filmmakers that I could also check out. All of this was really useful when I was carrying out my planning because I was able to pick out things that I liked and embed the videos onto my blog as references.

At AS I used the school cameras, which were Nikon DSLR D3100s, however I became increasingly more comfortable with my own camera following the holidays so I decided to use that. The model was a Canon EOS Rebel SL1, I was able to use it more effectively and therefore my shots looked more cinematic and my work was improved as a result. I was able to adjust the shutter speed on my lens when taking stills for my poster, which meant I could let different amounts of light in and create the silhouetted look that I wanted to achieve.

For my production of ‘Blackhaven’ at AS, I didn’t incorporate any movement into my shots. I tried to replicate the effect of movement during post production by using key framing but I found that this didn’t work too well. However, when filming our LAFTAs production, ‘Uninvited’, we borrowed a mini dolly and found that this produced some really visually interesting shots as well as variety to the finished film. As a result of this I decided to use it for my A2 project ‘Familiar’ too as well as the Steadicam, which I was now able to use, and found that I was able to produce some really nice shots as I moved into the A2 year.

A2 Media Course Overview

AS media is 50% of the final A2 grade and therefore A2 coursework and exam will also contribute another 50%. Coursework

• There are 100 marks available for the coursework project, which is 25% of the overall grade.
• The three aspects to this which are (1) Research and planning, which will be on my blog and is worth 20 marks. (2) Production exercise which is worth 60 marks and finally (3) Evaluations, worth another 20 marks.
• The production exercise will be a short film in it’s entirety, lasting approximately 5 minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both. A poster for the film and a film magazine review page featuring the film will also be created.

Exam

• The exam is titled ‘Critical Perspectives in Media (G325), there are 100 marks available.
• Section A is called ‘Theoretical Evaluation of Production’ and there are two questions, each worth 25 marks.
• Qa is worded – Explain how your skills in the creative use of _____ developed over time, refer to a range of examples from your media productions in your answer.
• Qb is worded – Apply the concept of _____ to one of your coursework productions. (previous questions asked about audience, genre, narrative, representation and media language).
• Section B is worth 50 marks and is called ‘Contemporary Media Issues’ there will be a choice of questions, but we will answer one focussing on the topic of contemporary media regulation.