Media Filming:Friday 28Th January 2012

Today we filmed our very first shots, in order to have material to edit in Monday's lesson- these shots were the basis of what would result in the Amiee and Chris contrasting montage with themes of passion and lust.Primarily what we should have done was take a picture of both their costumes as well as taking pictures of the shots obtained.However this is something which we can do another time and upload to this post when done so.There costume was carefully to enhance their social characteristics.Amiee had on: black leggings,black vest top, white tie crop top over the top and a black crop cardigan

chris: monster t shirt, green hoodie, black skinny jeans 

+

As we were trying to portray their passionate relationship we had a series of shots to evoke this. 

Here below I have included a range of shots that were taken today and have analysed them in detail.I have not included all of the shots  because some of them are the same but from different angles.

This is a mid/2 shot that deliberately obscures the two peoples faces in order to make it seem more 'exciting' and 'risqué'.The angling of the camera appears over Amiee's shoulder so its her point of view but is transformed into a two shot when a glimpse of Chris's face is apparent.As you can see from this shot, there is a sense of erotica as Chris undoes Amiee's top, his head buried in her chest.This gives the audience the impression of passion and lust between two without being overly dramatic.

Another two shot , where this time Chris's face is revealed; although Amiee's has been deliberately hidden to keep the audience guessing.The prominent use of lighting has been specifically altered to enhance Chris's features. Here you can see a bit of his eyes and it's noticeable that all his attention is focused on her suggesting that she has got him under a spell.Another important detail to notice is that their hair isn't messed up so when I catch them towards the end of the teaser trailer, their hair should be very messed up. What is also interesting about this shot is the bed in the background which implies to the audience that their passion will develop more intensely.

Although this shot is blurry( Because I print screened it in mid movement), it clearly highlights  what is going to happen next.This shot was also blurry because we were experimenting with a shot we had never done before- birds eye view which allows us to capture from all angles.

In this two shot Amiee and Chris are caressing each other's hair in unbridled passion before Chris slowly goes in for a lingering kiss.His hand is clasped possessively over her hair depicting that she is his ' property' and his mouth is tilted in a smile.

2 shot/midshot of amiee and chris on the bed as she smiles slyly.His head is buried in her neck caressing her with kisses fiercly suggesting this is not about love it is all about the lust between them.The unmade bed is another symbolism depicting what is going to happen next.

This shows the correlation between the two shots and I have chosen this part because Amiee is looking away from him,. her arms clasped around him showing him that she is in control  now.The covers are strewn clumsily again a symbol of passion.

research into film magazines

Firstly I looked at several film magazine websites including the following: Empire,Total films,Bright Lights,Cineaste, Moviemaker.

Empire

 



Total film

 
cineaste

 Moviemaker


I then created a powerpoint outlining various film magazines with a summary of background information as well as analysis of the magazine itself.

Research into film magazines

View more presentations from analuisadejesus.
From this I have decided that we should keep the conventional layout that Empire has used as it looks effective and concise , with the use of the following features:

• Mixture of neutral and bold colours e.g. blue and red to symbolise passion and sadness
• making something similar to our film poster so they interlink and the audience can relate to that.
• Other film features e.g. new films coming out
• Tagline- sometimes the people you love the most are your betrayers 

Research into film posters

 In this lesson, as I was unsure on what to do( since I had written about all the topics that needed to be discussed) Miss Martin suggested that I should do some research into film posters and magazines; since we cant film at this present moment in time.The first website that I researched for film posters was Empire, as this is a renowned site for all aspects of the film industry.Firstly I looked at conventional film posters, to see how the presentation, layout as well as other contributing factors made the poster stand out, targeting its specific audience( whatever that may be). To look at conventional posters allowed me to go into more depth and just generally get an overview before finally moving on to romantic drama posters and see how this differentiates or conforms to traditional conventions.

Below I have included a poster for upcoming film 'The Hunger Games' based on the novel series, a series of televised death matches where Katniss the protagonist must endure cruel obstacles and eventually she falls in love with another character- but only one can survive.This is a very intriguing yet unusual poster, in which I will explain reasons as to why this is below:

• It's interesting to note that actors photos have not been included -as well as cast names -which suggests that they have used unknown characters.This may have been done to not only introduce new acting talent but also for the effect of ambiguity which this whole film is about.In my research I found that most film posters tend to include photos of the protagonist cast members and only occasionally do they not include the names of the actors.This poster therefore subverts the conventions of a film poster, so you must ask yourself the question- why do they do this? What effect does it give? I like this element of ambiguity and not using cast photos because of its uniqueness- but I don't think that we will use this technique, but it's just something to bear in mind.
• 'May the odds be ever in your favour' there is a lot that you can deduce from this tag line, each thought can bring a new connotation.For example my first thought when I read this was that it was quite sardonic in its tone, almost mocking in a sense.This interpretation I feel would probably fit the overall theme of the film the most, but there are other inferences you could make.This could also be viewed in a positive manner, the connotation being that despite the hardships that the characters will face, there is still hope for them.
• The poster in itself is mainly simplistic, the presentation is fairly straightforward.However in the center of the poster is a burning eagle emblem.To me an eagle represents brave/warrior like characteristics, suggesting that this is a time when courage is destroyed and all that is left in its place is a reeking sense of fear.This infers to the audience the narrative without depicting actual events and I really like how they have done this.Again they are using different techniques to appeal to its target audience.The fact that they have used the burning eagle suggests that there will be a great deal of graphics and special effects being used within the film adding to the genre of an action/thriller genred film. Also it is at a canted angle which suggests that there is a sense of the unnatural within the film, they wont know what to expect because there is no guidelines telling them what to do.
• Another good use of effects that they implement here is the brown expanding from the fire which is patchy and jagged in its format.The use of the brown to me conveys gloom, inferring that days of struggle leave a loss of faith but the fact that it is jagged shows that it is irregular- they try to restrain it as they know they have to keep optimistic but occasionally there are periods where they succumb to the 'darkness'
• The title is quite small for a film poster, as quite often it is the fundamental focus and here it has been placed significantly enough so that you will notice what the film is but insignificant in the sense that the emblem is the predominant focus

In contrast to ' The Hunger Games' is this poster below, another upcoming release ' The woman in black' based on the award winning West End play.This is another intriguing poster for the following reasons:

• This poster has used a cast photo of the leading protagonist, in this case Daniel Radcliffe, where his name is of course on the poster suggesting that it is its unique selling point- they feel they will generate financial income this way judging by the success of the 'Harry Potter' franchise. The use of the white font depicts the theme of the story- the supernatural so that all the items on the poster interlink together in order to be appropriate for the subject title in question.
• My favourite part of the poster is the picture that they have used of Daniel , which creates a sense of ambiguity and obscurity.This is due to the positioning of his face which is off-centre cutting off half his face.This makes the audience think as to why the creators have used this effect and makes them want to go see it.Evident use of airbrushing  has also been used here and certain features such as his eye have been enhanced whereas other parts of him are dark in shadow and I really like this effect.Although we are not doing a horror, our film is essentially the sub- genre of drama( romance) so we can use effects such as dark lighting to convey the overall  mood of the film.

Below I have included ' The Inbetweeners' film poster as it is completely  different in comparison to the other two posters which I have selected   for the following reasons:

• The first item on the poster that grabs my attention is the use of the slogan' THIS YEAR FOUR BOYS BECOME MEN' which suggests that this is a film about growing up, where they learn to become adults in their own right.However if you have watched the Inbetweener movies then you will have the pragmatical comprehension of this being a comedy series, so you would think that the film synopsis entails the ' lads' trying but failing to become ' men'
• The background shot behind the cast, suggests a sense of nightlife, further emphasised by the colours of purple and blue as well as the LEDS being used for 'The inbetweeners'.This adds to the effect of a party atmosphere and suggests that perhaps they are going abroad to party, considering the buildings behind them appear to be foreign.
• The use of a varied coloured scheme makes the poster stand out and makes the audience want to watch the film.In fact the film must have been a good source of advertising revenue, due to the film generating £45,028,695 million in the U.K despite being on a 3.5 million budget.This resulted in the film being number one at the Box office.

I then decided to look at Romantic drama genred posters to see the differences.However it proved difficult trying to find romantic dramas that were at least remotely linked to what we were doing based on narrative and themes ect.This suggests that Romantic genres such as the one we are doing are very infrequent and perhaps financially unstable e.g. not high grossing.This may be similar to the conceptualisation of postmodernism- the audience are wary watching films that go against traditional conventions.Their ideal film consists of traditional conventional films or those that reflect an artificial reality.

Marriage is a crazy thing

Although this is a foreign film I think it is a very good example of the passion and lust that we should depict in our own film.Here are examples:

• The sexualisation of the two characters is shown through positioning, e.g. she has her leg draped over his, costume - she is wearing a black leather slit dress designed to appeal to a male audience and facial expressions.For example he has his eyes closed in desire but appears to be looking straight at her whereas she is looking to the side as though she is hiding something.This may be an indication of her being secretive as a character. This is a common feature in romance films, of images that connote sexuality and is something I feel we should contain in our own film.For example we could have Amiee and Chris clenched in a tight embrace, kissing each other passionately and have similar shots in a montage format in comparison to unpassionate shots between me and Chris.However from my extensive research I have found that most film posters tend to use one full picture so we will have to see what happens when it comes to lit

• An interesting point to make, is the casting choice- an older man is coupled with a younger women suggesting that perhaps she is using him for his money.However it may of course be a mutual coupling so in this case, it may be a love which needs to be concealed and kept under cover.

This is probably my favourite poster out of all the ones that I have chosen  due to the following reasons:

• The feature that stands out the most to me is the use of a juxtaposed screen, suggesting that is an affair between three people e.g. a love triangle.The fact that appears as though it is a ripped page from a book suggests that the person has been cut out of his or her  life and they want to forget all about them.Or perhaps it could initially be the tale of a secret affair, where the third party is unaware of the occurrences that are taking place.
• The contrast between the two colours used is another interesting aspect of the poster for example the juxtaposition between black and sepia.To me black represents desolation and despair whereas the use of the sepia is unique and thus makes it seem more exciting, symbolising the passion between the two people in this particular shot. Another aspect of using these colours is that the Black and white effect is more artistic- every feature is defined whereas the sepia  highlights key features e.g. positioning of characters.What I especially like about the sepia effect is how it resembles the passionate lust between the two characters.This is also particularly shown through the yellow that is immersed within it- it appears as though a flame is being ignited and I think this is a very clever technique.
• As famous characters are being used, the names have been included on the poster to promote to the audience who is going to be in the film.This of course will attract financial revenue proven by its earnings of $266,614,059 despite being on a 38 million budget.
• The title ' Indecent proposal connotes denotations of an irregular love affair which defies the conventions of a traditional matrimony.

The notebook is a film which does not conform to the narrative conventions that we are entailing.However I have merely chosen this poster for the imagery being used:

• The use of calligraphy within the poster adds to the element of it being ' a notebook' an account of someones life, so that all the details interlink with each other in an appropriate manner.
• What I especially like is the use of rain to convey a sense of desperation and a passion between the two characters, they seem very much in love with each other and this is clearly conveyed in this poster.This indicates to the audience that this is a true love story which is further emphasised by the tag line' behind every great love is a great story'.This connotes that there may be obstacles that they have to overcome but they will do anything to remain together.The rain seems to be drenching the two characters suggesting that they are in oblivion because of their love for each other. 

This is another interesting poster, particularly for the photoshop effects used here e.g. watercolour background.Here are some interesting findings:

• The title ' up close and personal' has been used in appropriation with the image of two people hugging each other in the middle of the ocean.It is very intriguing as to the use of location.why have they chosen a beach it makes you think.Perhaps it is because the beach is a place personal to them where they can get away from it all and just spend time with each other, without any unwanted company.
• The same shot appears to be replicated at the top of the poster however through a canted angle closeup.To me this gives the impression of angelic tendencies suggesting that perhaps there will be a death? The use of watercolour ties in with the ocean theme, making the poster very colour co-ordinated as well as seemingly artistic looking.

Here I have also included a good film poster analysis that I found on slideshare, in order to give us ideas about our own film poster.

Film Poster Analysis

View more PowerPoint from kymberlyjadet

film poster moodboard

Here I have included a mixed genred poster moodboard ranging from action to kids films , in order to analyse a wide variety of different film posters as well as the romance genre, so that I get a general overview.

Todays lesson- experimenting with Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator

In today's lesson we looked at an article on how to use illustrator.Being very new to the concept of illustrator- since we have not used this programme before-there was a step by step guide . First of all you compose the subject against a suitably contrasting background.Copy that file to the computer.

Print screen of the Page where I obtained my picture from- my search was 'Picture of a woman crying'

This is the picture which I chose from the search results because I wanted to create something that would evoke emotions from the audience and I really like the use of the black and white effect which gives the picture an artistic feel.

Step two- open that file in photoshop.Before doing anything else, save the file with a new name by using save as from the file menu.This means that your original photo is untouched and safe should you need it later.Remember to set the quality to maximum in the save dialog.

Step 3- make any adjustments to the the image.It can help to increase brightness and contrast- in our example this gives a greater definition of the subject against the pale background.You can apply effects and crop the image at this point too if required.

Step 4- select the magic eraser tool from the toolbar- its the same button as the standard eraser, so you may need to click and hold on to the eraser for it to appear.With magic eraser selected , click anywhere on your background and watch as it magically vanishes leaving your character intact.As you can see here it creates a dotted background behind her, but this disappears when you come to step 6.

Step 5- save the file as a photoshop- psd-- this will retain the transparent background when we take the photo into illustrator, allowing us to place other images, designs and texts behind our character.

Illustrator- when launched consider the orientation of your design whether it is portrait or landscape.If your working on a magazine cover you may need to set a custom size at this stage, or use one of the installed pre-sets e.g. templates, or the free templates available online with custom dimensions for a variety of print products.

Step one- choose a background colour click on the rectangle icon and drag over your page.Making the rectangle slightly larger than the page dimensions ensures that colour will continue all the way to the edge ( a bleed) click on the fill colour drop down in the top left of the menu bar and pick a background colour.The right hand of the two colour swatches is the stroke colour- this is the outline colour of your shape or object.Choose the white square with the red line through the respective swatches if you want no fill or outline colour.You can adjust the width of the stroke in the stroke drop down just to the right of the two colour drop downs.

Adobe home screen- gives you the choice of opening an existing file or creating a new one ect

As you can see here when the file has been uploaded the picture has reduced dramatically in size so all you do is go to transform and the increase the scale of the object e.g. imputing 500%

As you can see here i have changed the scale size

This is known as a ' bleed' and allows you to create a background colour

You then select a background colour which I have done here but you have to figure out how to put the background colour behind the text, especially is it keeps selecting random pathways.

The next step is the inside colour e.g. black and red as the outline colour

Step 2-Placing the photo image.Select file-place and navigate to your edited image.Hopefully your image will cover much of your A4 page.To reduce its size,click and drag the corner of the object whilst holding the shift key-this will ensure it retains its correct proportions and doesn't become squashed or distorted.

Here you can see that I have managed to successfully imprint the photo onto the page

I then decide that I want to make the background seem more interesting so i decide to search blood to give it that creepy Gothic feel.

I decide to use this blood effect, which seems artistic in a sense due to positioning ect.Next I go back to adobe photoshop and repeat previous steps that I did with the main picture e.g. magic eraser.I then save it as a psd and go back to adobe illustrator.

Here you can see that I have successfully managed to put the blood behind the predominant picture.When stretched the picture seems distorted which is why i have only taken up half the page, however i have decided to do the same photo again except alot smaller and less blood.It is shown below.

As you can see here the magic eraser has been used.

Again another successful conversion.However I am not happy with blood effects so perhaps I may keep the 2nd one and clone it again. I then cloned it using copy and paste, so that the 'fiery blood' was each side of the predominant focus.

step 3-adding text, select tool from the toolbar and click where you'd like to start typing.Once you've finished typing, ensure the text object is selected and choose your font and font size from the drop down buttons.

Here is the finished piece, which was done roughly just to illustrate all the different steps in order to create a poster or any other media text.I have chosen the title sacrifice as it clearly expresses the theme of the poster as well as being appropriate in terms of the background e.g. the blood that looks like flames and the woman crying in front of the 'flames'

film magazine moodboard

Here I have included a mood board compiled of film magazines so that I can look at them as a whole before I look at them individually and analyse them in greater detail.To give a wider overview I looked at internation film magazines as well as U.K only.

different angle shot ideas

Today I thought of some angle ideas that I feel would go well in our film. Here is the list of ideas:
- I was researching some new angles to create an element of originality within our film, as I want to stray away from the conventional angles used in Romance genre films.
Birds eye view camera angle- this is taken from an unusually high  as well as strange angle so this may be hard to replicate although has the effect of making certain characters look insignificant e.g. in the scene where Chris and Amiee are together in the woods we can use this angle though I am not sure how we would go about this, perhaps we can film on top of a bridge which overlooks there scene and then add the dialogue later on in the projects process.The fact that we are trying to make them appear important is for the effect of expressing how noone else matters to them, they are in a world where they only have eyes for each other.

An example of a Birds Eye shot

A canted angle shot- I would really like to use a canted angle shot of an eye as I think this would be a really eerie jarring yet effective method.Focusing on a one object gives it a sense of importance and we can use this to portray a great array of emotions.For example we could do a montage of everyone's eyes and add them together.I would also like to use Photoshop to edit frames such as these, perhaps enhance certain features, ,increase contrast ect.Below I have included a shot of  a canted angle.



Perhaps we could mix elements of different angles together to create  a new angle e.g. a high canted close up would make an interesting combination.

Why we chose our characters

Chris
Why is he suitable for the characterisation of Tom?
We have chosen Chris for this character for the following reasons:

• As one of our closest male friends we decided that  it would be easier to contact him and thus use him in our film, whereas our other male friends tend to have more commitments than Chris does.
• Chris has many attributes which are similar to that of our lead protagonist.This includes the following:
• ' A ladies man' Chris is often labelled in this manner as he has a lot of female friends so therefore he can  realistically play the part of Tom.
•  sexualised  identity, denoting that he is very promiscuous in his actions
• smartly dressed 
• Fragmented identity- there are many different sides to his personality which differ depending on who he is with 
• self- reliant- as  all teenagers rely on their parents we will take this to adulthood side of Chris within the film so therefore he will be totally dependent on Jasmine to keep house, including chores ect

What similarities can be found between his character and movie stars in the industry with similar roles?
Warren Beatty- this character plays Mike in the film 'Love Affair'( which I have detailed below) and both ' Tom' and 'Mike' share the following characteristics:

• they are both cheating on their wives and sneak behind their backs in order to do so
• enjoy the attention of other women 
• have a guilty concious at the thought they are cheating on their wives 

Maurice Bendrix 

• They are both chasing after an inequitable woman that they shouldn't harass but continue to do so despite the consequences and barriers that come as a result of it- they will do their up most to achieve their goal

Warren Beatty


what are the differences?

• Mike seems more compassionate than Tom
• He is more willing to give up his pleasures than Tom e.g. when Mike finds Terry's address whereas Tom expects everyone to follows his commands and wishes 
• Maurice seems consumed with jealousy, whereas Tom is not a jealous person

Romantic drama love affair films 

1. Love Affair 1994

       Plot summary

Ex-football star Mike Gambril meets Terry McKay on a flight to Sydney, which is forced to land on a small atoll. Both engaged to others, they become romantic on board the ship sent to take the 'plane passengers to a larger island. They agree to meet in New York three months later to see if the attraction is real. One shows up, the other doesn't, but they run into each other afterwards. 

Elements of this we will be borrowing in our film- as a form of pastiche conforming to elements of a post-modern film.However in our case we are using a different storyline narrative, even if we are following the generic conventions of this film.

2. The End Of The Affair

Plot summary
On a rainy London night in 1946, novelist Maurice Bendrix has a chance meeting with Henry Miles, husband of his ex-mistress Sarah, who abruptly ended their affair two years before. Bendrix's obsession with Sarah is rekindled; he succumbs to his own jealousy and arranges to have her followed.
Elements that will be particularly taking note of here is the jealousy and obsession which I will need to portray in my characterisation when I find out that Chris has cheated on me.


Aimee
Why was she suitable for the character of Scarlett?

• her outgoing, flirty nature means that she can play the promiscius part of Scarlett authentically
• she enjoys attention which can be portrayed in our film in contrast to my drab character
• Her style of dress is often labelled as promiscious which is similar to how we will portray her in the film, except more so.

What similarities can be found between her character and similar actresses in the industry
Geneva from 'The dilemma'

•       they are both renowned liars who will say anything to acheive their goal or ambition
• they think nothing of betraying those they love in order to once again fufil their target
• they are both quite selfish as they are made to feel slightly guilty but then again they argue that as long as they get what they want then the consequences are inconsequential

 Winona Ryder

what are the differences

• Geneva seems more conniving than Scarlett as although she is caught by Nick( her brother she continues to deny it and when she finally admits it and says that she will stop the affair- she dosent.

Me
Why am I suitable for the character of Jasmine?

• If  people was asked to describe me, friends often use words such as 'friendly' ' 'chatty', 'eager to please' ' tries to find the best in people' 'nice' ' fun' all of which are characteristics that can be associated with the characterization of Jasmine which is why I am suitable for her character

what are similarities between my character and similar actresses 
Jennifer Grey from Dirty Dancing

• she is a character who is passionate about her hobbies and her love interest, but in a way that pales in comparison to amy who is solely focused on the passion of a relationship rather than the love and bond between a couple

what are the differences?