Tuesday, 27 June 2017

An Introduction to the News

Part 1 
On the 27th of June I watched the BBC News which was first broadcast the day before (26th). The broadcast was mainly centered around the special correspondent Lucy Manning who was talking to Sabah Abdullah who lost his wife Khadija Khalloufi in the Grenfell Tower fire. The Grenfell fire took place on the 14th of June where at least 79 fatalities and 70 injuries occurred. The Metropolitan Police has said that 18 victims have been identified with a further 61 still missing and presumed dead. The new report starts with Lucy clarifying that the body of Sabah's wife will be flown back to Morocco (where the couple originated from). His wife's body was planned to fly back today. Lucy then proceeds to ask Mr Abdullah what his plans are in which he replies with "I've got no passport". The piece continues on with Mr Abdullah saying how his passport and identification was lost in the fire which is why he can not travel back with his wife's coffin. Once he finishes what he needs to say, there is a still of Mr Abdullah with a caption that states "The BBC contacted the Home Office. It said it would try to help if Sabah went to the passport office". This is followed by a clip of Mr Abdullah leaving the passport office with his new passport with the caption "Later that day, Sabah got his passport". The final clip of the piece is of what can be presumed to be friends of Mr Abdullah and his late wife helping the coffin into the back of a hearse with the caption "Now he and his wife can make one last journey together" I think captions were used as well as audio and visual components in this piece because sometimes you don't need a voice over when trying to convey a message across, especially one such as this piece.

Part 2
The only presenter in this piece is the special correspondent Lucy Manning. In this broadcast, her role is to ask Mr Abdullah questions about the incident without seeming too invasive. She is trying to get as much information about the situation he is in whilst being careful with her words as it is clear in the broadcast it is still a heavily sensitive subject. Being careful with words is a very important skill to have as you have to ensure that the questions you ask do not come across as invasive or demanding. You must also need a lot of confidence to be put in a multitude of different scenarios and still be well prepared.

Part 3 
The term News Ordering is used to describe the other that different reports are shown. The order news reports are shown in is due to the importance and urgency of the report. A news report that comes first in a broadcast could be because it was a recent event or it is a very important event which affects a large amount of people. Most news broadcasts start with the most negative and urgent piece and usually end on a happy not so the audience do not feel as if everything is bad.
The term for the list of stories that appear in a broadcast is called the Story Line. It is used to decide the order reports are shown in due to their importance.
The story that is most likely to be shown first would be the one that has the biggest impact on people. For example, the DUP and Tory coalition that occurred yesterday with the Conservative and DUP's pact to support Theresa May's government. The story that has the most impact is given the most detailed report whereas the other stories are shorted and do not go into all the details as the first report does.
A Slow News Day is when not many serious events that would normally be broadcast occur and so every other report is stretched out and reported in detail.
The final story in a news report is called the Kicker and its purpose is to conclude the news report on a happy and a positive tone.
News Values are guidelines that are used in the media to determine how much visibility a news story gets.

Immediacy: How recently something has happened. For example, a large event that has effected many in the early hours of the morning which would be broadcast on the morning news.
Familiarity: How culturally close is it to Britain. For example, terrorist attacks that are occurring in cities around Britain (Manchester and London).
Amplitude: The size of the event and how many people have been impacted. For example, the Greenfell tower fire.
Frequency: How often an event occurs. For example, elections that occur every 4 years.
Unambiguity: How clear and definite it is.
Predictability: Was it an expected event.
Surpise: Is it rare or unexpected. For example, random terrorist attacks (London Bridge Attack)
Continuity: If its already been defined by the news.
Elite Nations/ People: If it is about a large country or a celebrity. For example, the Presidential elections with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Personalisation: Is it an event that will affect people with certain beliefs or views or opinions.
Negativity: If the news is good or bad.
Balance: The positive ending to a news story.

Part 4 

Bias through selection and omission
Bias can be expressed by showing news stories in a certain light with more detail on certain facts whilst also glossing over other details. By doing this, the editor can express their personal opinion and press it onto viewers. An example of this would be the 2017 Election as certain news stations would favour certain parties, much like newspaper companies.

Bias through placement and order 
Newspapers use the more current and important story in the front cover to draw in an audience which is essentially what news reports do. The first story is seen as the most important and any after are less significant.

Bias through headlines
Headlines are the parts that draw in an audience. In newspapers, the headlines usually cover up the whole page to draw in the audience. They can be quite misleading to try and convey something as shocking and scandalous when in reality the story has nothing to do with scandals or shock.

Bias through shot selection and camera angles
The camera has the most power as it can focus on certain things whilst cutting out other things from frame. The camera can portray a person in a negative or positive light and can heavily influence an audiences opinions on a person or an event.

Bias through names and captions 
Newspapers often give people labels when referencing them in headlines rather than using their names. This can make the audience have a negative or positive view on that person.

Bias through use of language
People can be drawn in and influenced by the choice of language a news report or newspaper use. the tone a news reporter uses can also effect a person view on a situation. If the reporter presents a story using a dull, bored tone then the audience can be influenced by this.

3MW Recces

3MW Research

Secondary Research

Thursday, 22 June 2017

Documentary Mini-Task

A documentary is a non-fictional piece of footage with an intended purpose to inform the audience on certain topics or to enlighten the audience on different aspects of reality. A documentary can be made up of a number of elements whilst still remaining non-fictional. 

An Expository documentary is when a documentary speaks to the audience with the purpose to express a point of view or an opinion The documentaries are persuasive in the sense they are trying to convince the viewer to think, agree or believe with a certain thing or idea. They often contain footage, interviews and pictures that are exclusive to the documentary. 

Observational documentaries are sometimes referred to as 'Fly on the wall' documentaries because there is no intervention by any of the film crew and there are usually no interviews with any of the participants, however there is narration. The main aim of observational documentaries is to explore an intimacy that no other type of documentary can as none of the participants are being disturbed. 

An Interactive documentary is the complete opposite of Observational. It is where the director and the film crew take part in the documentary with the intended purpose to get the exact view and angle they want to get. An example of Interactive documentaries is the BBC3 series 'Stacey Dooley Investigates' in watch the host (Stacey) travels around the world with her crew to explore and interview people in areas where child abuse is an apparent problem. In the December of 2016, Stacey was stopped by police in Tokyo whilst filming 'Young Sex For Sale in Japan' which was a documentary about the sexual exploitation of underage children in Japan. She was held by police for two hours after initially being confronted by two men who demanded "no movies"



Reflexive Documentaries are where the film maker acknowledges their presence in front of the camera and the provide a narrative for the documentary. This style of documentary can be sometimes associated with experimental documentaries. This is where the viewer is just as interested in how the film is made as well as the actual documentary content. An example of this is the documentaries made by Louis Theroux. There is a running theme through all of his documentaries of being detached and partially distant, although there are moments where he does get involved. For example, the 'Under the Knife' episode in which Louis explores why plastic surgery is such a big thing in America, by the end he decides to get liposuction himself. In this style of documentary, there is an emphasis on the encounter between film maker and viewer rather than film maker and subject.





A Performative Documentary is the direct opposite of the Observational as it emphasizes the film makers own involvement with the subject. During this style, the film maker gives a strong ' what it is like to be there' perspective on the world where the filmmaker becomes a personal guide throughout the documentary. In the 1989 documentary 'Tongues Untied' the African-American filmmaker Marlon Riggs combines re-enactments, actuality and his personal accounts to shine a light on the black gay American identity.


Image result for tongues untied






Thursday, 15 June 2017

TV Advert Analysis

TV Advert Analysis


For this project we had to re-brand an already existing Unilever product and advertise it to a new audience with a new advert for that product. To begin with, I chose the Solero ice cream brand and I planned to change the target audience to one that was aimed towards teenagers/young adults rather than being targeted for adults. We then had to present our re imagined idea in front of Carl and a small group (mine consisted of Rhianna Payne, Ruth Manalo and Helen Webster). After this, we all came together to discuss as a group what we would rebrand. We decided to choose Magnum as our product and we chose my re-branding idea for the project. After we all discussed the idea, we began to plan how our advert would go.

We asked some people in our class to give us feedback on our concept (this can be shown in our questionnaire). The majority were able to understand our concept and work out what it was about and why we were doing it. Several of the people we asked believed it was not an effective way to advertise the product. Personally, I believe our advert was appropriate for our target audience for the main reason that the only people in our advert were those who fitted in our target audience. Overall, i think we managed to convey the message we created across in our advert and from our questionnaire, the majority believed so as well. When we began filming, we were faced with a few difficulties such as the lighting. We were only using natural lighting which made the overall footage look quite dark and in turn possibly effected how our advert was received as this caused continuity errors. For our advert we used several different filming techniques such as over the shoulder shots, close up, wide angle and panning. I feel as if our finished product was rather effective despite the few errors that occurred during the process. I believe we could have gone with a simpler route in getting our message across and i also believe we could have used some advertising techniques that would have made it more interesting and effective. The message we were trying to send across was that Magnums can brighten any dull moment and bring an element of fun to any situation.
I feel as if our advert could have been better, although we did manage to get the overall message we created across, we could have done it in a more professional manner. During pre-production we made sure that our idea complied with the ASA/BCAP. As our product was an unhealthy food item, we did not make any false nutritional claims about the product.

I believe that our final advert was different from our original idea but this is not necessarily a bad thing. Although it was harder to film due to the continuity errors, we managed to get our pre-production work done relatively quickly as we had a strong idea of what we wanted to produce and film. I am rather satisfied with how everything turned out, although if we were to redo this project i would recommend filming somewhere with no natural lighting and using artificial lighting (e.g.: soft boxes) as it would be easier to manage in case of errors that occurred. We shared the work equally between us as a group which is the main reason we finished our pre-production work quickly. 

Wednesday, 17 May 2017

Plan/Content


First shot: (DONE)
-Introduction to 3MW with a brief overview of concept
-For decades, horror films have had us hiding behind our hands in fear but lately, they seem to be lacking in the fear factor and well…being horror films. The thrill nowadays seems to come from jumpscares and oddly contorted demons that are created mainly through cgi rather than the ‘horror’ aspect that makes the genre so loved.

Second shot: (DONE)
-Modern horrors, why don’t they do well?
- It is harder to be creative/different – almost every idea has been made. This is one of the reasons why sequels and prequels are so common; they are guaranteed to do well at box office because the original parent film did. Film companies continue to do remakes that are guaranteed to do well at box office (Ring, Blair Witch, Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th- hired new actor to play Freddy- loses connection with audiences that grew up with the franchise- draw in a new modern audience with updated version?)
- The horror genre is one of the easiest ways to break into the filming industry and it will always (show examples from box office) do well – horror fans are just simply happy to see horror films at the cinema. “So many filmmakers see the horror genre as a cheap and easy way to break into the business.”- http://www.horror-movies.ca/modern-horror-whats-wrong/#
-Clichés are far too common nowadays. Quite a lot of modern horrors rely heavily on the ‘something scary happens to the young child/children’ idea. In addition, found footage and possession are common concepts that a lot of modern horror films are about.
-“New stuff, good. Remakes, bad. That’s all you need for that”- http://www.horror-movies.ca/modern-horror-whats-wrong/
-
Third Shot:
-Tailoring classics towards a modern audience
-Television companies are being more creative, turning old horror films into revamped modern tv shows. E.g: Exorcist, Scream, Pyscho/Bates Motel.
-Bates Motel received mostly positive reviews with its first season. The premiere episode broke rating records for an original drama series on A&E (original network), drawing in a total of 3.04 million views which included 1.6 million viewers in the 18-49 demographic.
Fourth Shot:
-Box Office and Budgets. Does a bigger budget equal a better film?
E.g: Nightmare on elm street 1984 budget = $1.8 million in 1984 (nowadays that’s around $4.2 million) earned $25 million at box office (around $65 million) VS Nightmare on elm street 2010 budget = $35 million, earned $155 million at box office despite receiving mainly negative reviews from critics and audiences – highest earning film in franchise.
E.g: Blair Witch Project 1999 budget = $60,000 and earned $248.6 million at box office VS Blair Witch 2016 budget = $ 5 million and earned $45.2 million at box office. (direct sequel to the original film-ignores Book Of Shadows, it was considered a box office disappointment and received mixed to negative reviews)
E.g: Annabelle 2014 (spinoff from The Conjuring) budget = $6.5 million and earned $256 million. Received mixed reviews, mainly negative.
Rotten Tomatoes: “borrows unabashedly from better horror films, content to leave viewers with a string of cheap jolts that fail to build on the far more effective The Conjuring”.  
Tim Robey (Telegraph) “She’s just a glorified prop, an excuse for bad things to happen to uninteresting people”
 The Conjuring was a huge hit in 2013 and it was no surprise Hollywood took advantage (Conjuring 2) and are still taking advantage of its success (Annabelle: Creation, The Nun , possible third Conjuring film)
Final Shot:

-Bring up the idea that horror is a dying genre

Wednesday, 10 May 2017

Research and Ideas

What happened to the horror genre?
Information:
Chas Balun –  Horror Holocaust
It’s harder to be creative/different – almost everything has been done.
Rely heavily on cgi/jumpscares – trying too hard to be scary. There’s something endearing seeing puppets being used.
Continue to do remakes that are guaranteed to do well at box office (Ring, Blair Witch, Nightmare on Elm Street- hired new actor to play Freddy- loses connection with audiences that grew up with the franchise etc)
The horror genre is one of the easiest ways to break into the filming industry and it will always (show examples from box office) do well – horror fans are just simply happy to see horror films at the cinema.
Discuss the idea that it is a dying genre!
Chas Balun- “It seems as though no one has had made such of an original idea regarding new wave scares since Wes Cravens electrifying 1983 entry”
NOTM 2010- is it a sequel or a remake of the original 1984?
Quite a lot of modern horrors rely heavily on the ‘something scary happens to the young child/children’ idea. Also found footage and possession are common concepts.
Older trailers- voiceover explaining everything
Newer trailers- barely any have a voiceover- no explanation, rely on captions.
NO CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT IN MODERN FILMS! You’re meant to connect with the characters and be upset when they are killed. Nowadays there is barely any context and no character depth = do not miss/care for the characters that are killed.
Finally, we can also observe the overwhelming saturation of the horror market with the countless direct to video slasher flicks made during the mid ‘80s, as well as the horror renaissance of the ‘90s heralded by Scream (Wes Craven, 1996). (http://www.popmatters.com/column/horror-cinema-by-the-numbers/)

Music:
Modern horror trailers/films – heavy bass style, tempo quickens during jumpscare moments = predictable, overdone = no suspense.


Get people’s opinions on modern horror and pre-millennium horror 

Proposal

Proposal
For my documentary, I will be focusing on the concept of the horror genre and the changes that have occurred over the years. This will involve multiple people sharing their views on modern horror, the differences the genre has gone through over the years and my own personal opinions on the matter including why I like many others, struggle to enjoy modern horror films.

The target audience for my documentary will be for long time horror fans but also for people who want to learn more about horror genre as a whole. I do not want to specifically aim my documentary towards a certain age group, as I want to create something that can be watched by anyone who wants to learn more about the genre. I will present my documentary as expository as I will be explaining the history of the genre and the changes that have been made over the years.

For my documentary, I will be talking to several people. I will be discussing with them their own opinions on the horror genre; what they like and dislike; their personal favourite films and whether they believe the classic horror genre is dying out and being replaced with subgenres (slasher, splatter, found footage etc.) The aim for my documentary is inform and educate others on the horror genre and to also express personal views on the matter.


The typical target audience for horror films is the group of 15-24 year olds with the gender being mostly male (http://trends.cmf-fmc.ca/blog/know-thy-audience-marketing-the-horror-film-it-follows). Most horror films are targeted towards young adults, films that are less gory are more popular with female audiences. Women made up 51% of the Annabelle premiere audience, 53% of the opening crowd for ‘The Conjuring’, 56% of ‘The Purge’ and half of the premiere audience for ‘As Above, So Below’ and ‘Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones’ (http://variety.com/2014/film/news/gone-girl-annabelle-female-audiences-1201321880/)

Tuesday, 3 January 2017

Pre-Production Process

Type of Production
In short, there are about 3 types of moving image production. These are factual, fictional and promotional.

A factual production would be anything from a media product such as a film based on real events (however this also may not be true to some extent because it would be the script writers and directors own interpretation of those events) to an unscripted documentary. A fictional production would be anything pretty much where a story has been invented to entertain an audience with either none of very little truth behind it. Two example of this would be the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan which is a fictional production centered around the true events of World War II and the 1988 film Beetlejuice which is a completely fictional production with no true events that influenced it. A promotional production would be a media product used promote a brand, convince a target audience and to influence people to do or buy what the promotional production is telling the receivers to do.

Our moving image production is a completely fictional piece that is used to entertain an audience. We distributed our product by uploading it to YouTube where it can be freely viewed by anyone anywhere in the world. There are many other methods of  distribution such as DVDS/CDS/VHS, cinema and television.

Finance and Sources of Funding
There are multiple ways to source funding for moving image productions. An example of this would be Crowd Funding (using websites such as GoFundMe) which is where you ask a large number of people each for a small amount of money. Some people invest in projects simply because they want to do a nice thing and help someone and there are other people who invest because there are rewards available if they donate specific amounts of money such as having their name in the credits of a production or even being an extra.
Another example would be using Public Money. This is money that has been generated by the government and used to provide goods and services for the general public which essentially come from taxes. A final example would be having a TV License. A TV License is a legal permission to install or use television receiving equipment to watch or record shows as they are being shown. The popular American show The Walking Dead has a budget of approximately £2-£2.3 million per episode . In 2013 The Walking Dead became the most expensive scripted series to buy 30-second ad spaces for, with the series earning about $326,000 per spot. Ad spots are a popular method to build up money to finance a show, film etc.

Requirements
-Props                                      -Producers, directors etc               -Accommodation (for actors, extras etc)
-Camera Equipment                  - Extras                                         -Sets
-Costume                                  -Lighting                                        -Editors
-Actors                                     -Catering                                       -Script Writers
-CGI and Special Effects          -Make Up Artists                           -Camera Men
-Music Composers                   -Stunt Doubles

Requirements (con'td)
Personally I had to obtain new special effects makeup products as I was the main zombie in our project. As a group we borrowed the camera equipment from the college. This involved a DSLR camera, tripod and an SD card.We also used the software on the computers to edit our footage. We provided our own wardrobe for our production as well as the props.

Personnel
For a low budget short film, the make up of the team would be essentially quite basic as there would not be a surplus of money to spend on hiring people and buying props, equipment etc. The team would mainly consist of the camerman, actors, director, editor and possibly a script writer.
For a television programme, the team would be far more extensive than a low budget film as there would be plenty more money to spend. The makeup of the team would include extensive job roles such as lighting crew, composers for soundtracks and theme songs, editors etc. There would be a large amount of money invested into the show and therefore it would be made to the highest quality. The highest quality of props and equipment would also be bought.For example, The Walking Dead involves an immensely large amount of people from special effects artists to the actors themselves. When the show first started back in 2010 there was a small budget and therefore the budget and team makeup was rather small. As the show has grown, the team makeup has increased and now the show budget is approximately £2 million per episode. Their crew involves stuntmen, production management, transportation department etc.


Time As a group, we had a time frame of approximately 3 weeks to do the filming with another extra couple of weeks to finish the complex task of editing our footage to a standard us as a group found acceptable. We managed to meet the deadline of the filming/editing quite easily. In the film industry, there are major consequences that can happen if deadlines are not met. These consequences can involve job and money loses. Luckily our team were there for the majority of lessons which mean we did not run into editing time or over the deadline. Facilities For our short film, our facilities mainly involved the college. For example, the benches outside Poulson block and the toilets in the downstairs of Poulson. Our facilities also involved the park opposite the college. Whilst filming in the college, we needed to obtain permission and so we had to have a release form. For the park we did not require a release form due to the fact it was a public space. These spaces were perfect as they all involved natural lighting one way or another however did have trouble with the audio whilst filming outside due to the weather and so we probably could have done with a microphone. Gathering Materials For our short film we had a budget of £10 that was covered by the college, luckily we did not need to use the money due to the fact we didn't need to buy anything. The special effects makeup was provided by myself, the sandwich was bought by a member of our group. When it came to editing, we used software that the college provided (Premier Pro). For the music and sound effects we sourced them from free music/sound file websites. Locations The locations for our short film involved the college and the park opposite the college. We had to have a signed release form to allow us to film in the college but due to the park being a public area, no release form was required. Before we filmed, we took pictures of the areas we would plan to film in. In the professional filming industry, people are sent out to different locations in different countries to take pictures of areas in which scenes could be filmed. Codes of Practise and Regulations When creating productions, copyright can stand in the way. For example, music copyright is one of the main limitations. We managed to avoid this by using free copyright sounds and music. When someone wants to use copyrighted music in films, they have to buy the rights to use the song which can be very expensive. In some situations, "fair use" allows copyrighted music to be used for free. As an example, if someone was to use copyrighted music without buying the rights to it then this would be under the "fair use" rule and they would be breaking the copyright law. When filming productions, before any actual filming can take place, the locations must be found or built if making a set. In some cases, permission to film will be needed as the land could be private property. Places like malls and theme parks have been seen in films multiples times and permission was needed. Regulatory bodies are the public sector organisations that oversee and govern a number of areas a number of areas where film making can be affected. Local authorities can permit filming in specific areas, health and safety which can e sure a safe set to film on. The BBFC is an example determines a films age release certificate. OFCOM is another example that has control over things that companies and crew can do when filming.