A2: Summer work - Ettie Greenwood

1) 'BLACK HOLE' - MEDIA LANGUAGE

Sound: In this short film, only minimal non-diegetic sound is used, where the only use of this is in the foleys, where a 'whooshing' sound is heard to intimate the 'black hole' in action. By not using a music soundtrack, a sense of realism may be added to the short film and connote to the audience that this could happen in real-life (even though this is highly impossible). Also the lack of a soundtrack/ amount of foleys mirrors the setting and situation of the film - in an office-. This is seemed as a more bland profession, as hinted by the facial expression of the man and lighting choices, so if there were to many foleys and soundtracks the film could start to seem slightly unrealistic and unrepresentative. 

In this short film there is also a lack of dialogue where the protagonist does not use speech throughout. This helps the audience to focus on his facial expressions/emotions more closely. But also adds to the sense of realism as he is the only character in scene and it is rare for people to talk to themselves frequently. 

Finally, throughout the film the diegetic noise of the photocopier is repeated throughout as a background ambient noise to fill quiet spaces at times. However it could add to the sense of realism and remind the audience of the realistic setting. This could also remind the character that he is still in the 'real world' even though he tries to use the 'black hole' as escapism from his everyday life eg. stealing chocolate and money.

Mise en Scene: In the short film, a variety of concepts are used to communicate meaning to the piece: Firstly, the lighting in the film is unsaturated, dark and has a slight blue tint to it. A stronger 'key light' has also been used to create shadows on the characters face. By doing this the lighting creates a dull and realistic atmosphere which is synchronous to the setting, an office. The office setting is denoted by the use of props: computers, desks, photocopiers etc. and as the protagonist is wearing a shirt and tie, it is obvious that he is working in the office.

From looking at the protagonists' facial expressions and body language as first he connotes that he is feeling 'fed up' and tired, from what seems like a long day at work. His tie is slightly loose which also connotes how he is tired and his appearance is not a main priority. When he uses the photocopier his movements are lethargic and 'floppy' which also connotes his fatigue. However once the man has discovered the 'black hole' his facial expressions start to change to excitement, especially when he starts to steal the chocolate and money.

Camerawork: In the short film, a variety of different shot sizes are used to give the audience an omniscience view on the scene. Short sizes vary from close ups to long shots to allow the audience to see what the protagonist is doing at all times. The close ups are used at first to denote the audience of the protagonists feelings -fed up and tiredness.

POV shots are also denoted to give a different view to the film. This shot shown is the POV of the 'black hole' as the composition and framing has a black circular edge to it which is suggested to be the outline of the black circle. This also could create a life-like feel to the black hole and make it seem personified to the audience. This shot is also a high angle which may foreshadow the protagonists later power to steal money and chocolate from within the office.

There are also a few shots where forward and backwards tracking is used. An example of this is where the camera slowly tracks in slightly where the frame denotes the protagonist walking towards the vending machine. By slightly tracking in, this draws attention to the vending machine and highlights its' importance in the shot to come. It can also add some atmosphere to the shot. 

Editing: The only shot transitions used in this short film are cuts. This is the most common type of shot transition in film and is used to connote realism - which mirrors what other concepts that are also implying realism. However the editing frequency increases as the action progresses to show how the man is getting more excited about the new ability of the photocopy. 

But at the start of the short film, there is post-production editing where a text is shown displaying the name of the short film 'The Black Hole'. Then a circular wipe transition is used to reveal the footage. This circular shape imitates the photocopy of the black hole and could hint plot features, along with the title of the film.

2) 'SILENT THINGS' - REPRESENTATION OF DISABILITY 

This short film, displays the disabilities of the two characters positively. I think this done by spectator positioning whereby the two characters thoughts and feelings are shown through dialogue and close-ups. However even though that the character without the disability does use dialogue, it is less focussed on and this is shown through a lack of close-ups to reveal her facial expressions and feelings.

But firstly, the characters disabilities are first revealed to the audience through their actions: both protagonists are denoted to be flying a kite in silence then when disassembling it, they take it apart in a very organised and mirrored way as they do it together. The womens' disability is also highlighted through her body positioning where by she folds her arms upwards often and strokes her face -this could also connote a shy character as she has a 'closed' body position and has limited dialogue.

However when the male protagonist meets the teenage girl, a binary opposition is created between disability and non-disability. This is connoted by the difference in character and the protagonists lack of knowledge about 'white lies'. The binary opposition is also highlighted when the three characters are all together: the female protagonist asks the male protagonist who the teenage girl is (it can be argued that she is the antagonist). He then reports that "(he) met her this morning and she is (his) new friend", which then the female protagonist then questions "how can she be (his) friend already" and that "you can't just decide to be with friends with somebody... it's not that simple". This implies that she feels uncomfortable with the mans 'new friend' and this may be foreshadowing further negative events in the short film.

The mans disability is also more understanding to the audience where the female antagonist asks him whether he would like to go on the ferry with her, after he shows a great knowledge on how a ferry works. Because he is acting so naive about the decision and does not take into account the possible dangers, this connotes his disability on how he does not always think about dangers in life.

Once he is on the ferry his bad decision is then realised for him where he then starts to feel very uncomfortable and a series of closeups reveal this. Shots of surrounding characters are also denoted to create a binary opposition of the mans uncomfortable-ness and the other characters relaxed attitude to the ferry. A non-diegetic voice is also faintly heard to connote voices in his head and adds to the feeing that he is uncomfortable. The ferry staff then see this and when escorting the man off the ferry the antagonist denotes that he "was a man (she) met this morning and he wanted (her) to go on the ferry with him". This statement is false and may make the audience have negative views now on the girl as she is telling a 'white lie' which now makes the man in trouble. This also positions the audience to feel sympathy for the man. This also connotes how there is a status difference between disability and non-disability as the police/ferry staff listened and believed the female antagonists' false acquisitions.

3) 'MIX TAPE' - AUDIENCE

I think the target audience for this short film would be British adults aged 35-50 in social classes B-C2. I think that if the audience was British this would be an advantage to them as they would be able to relate more to the British culture displayed in the film. I also think that the age of the desired audience is suitable as the audience would have been growing up in the 1970's/1980's when mixtapes were very popular, this could bring a sense escapism (Uses and Gratifications theory - Blumer & Katz) as the audience remember their childhood romances. This therefore may make the film difficult for modern 10 year old children as they may not understand what a mix tape is, however it could be argued that by watching this short film, young children could be educated about the culture of the 1970/80's. Then I think the audience would be in social classes B-C2 as they would have access to technology to view the film on, meaning they would have the 'leisure pound' to spend, but also they would have some free time as they would be able to afford child care/ cleaners to give more time to have free. This is unlike the working class (class D-E) where they would not be able to afford this. 

I think this film would have a similar audience to the film PRIDE (click to open) as they have similar audiences -displayed on the website- This film also features Margret thatcher and is based in the year 1984 which is a similar time period as when Mixtape was based in. 

Finally the film Mixtape was mainly exhibited online as this is where most short films. This description is from a BAFTA meeting where Luke Snellin's (the director of the short film) work is displayed: "Since graduating from the prestigious screenwriting degree at Bournemouth University, Luke has written and directed several short films, commercials and music videos that have been broadcast on TV and cinema screens across the globe. His short film Mixtape was nominated for a BAFTA in 2010 and won The Grand Prize in the Virgin Media Shorts Competition. He has since gone on to work with brands such as Wrigleys, LG Home Entertainment and Actimel, and used online tools to successfully promote his work. Here from Luke how he has developed these relationships and entrepreneurial skills to forge a successful career." This text denoted how he became successful over publishing his work online  but also showed his work in cinemas and on TV to catch the attention of a wide audience. 

4) 'LOVEFIELD' - NARRATIVE

Lovefield uses restricted narration cleverly to position the audience to believe that something else is happening. By doing this the audience's attention is 'grabbed' as they search in their minds for clues on the event. This is a form of enigma (Roland Barthes) where by the props and camerawork create questions in the audiences minds and this makes them an active audience. Here are some of the 'clues' in the film that may hint to the audience that a murder/rape event has happened:

Even though restricted narration is used in the short film, making it hard for the audience to have a omniscience view on the story, the narrative structure is linear. This is because there are no jump cuts or flashbacks and the plot is in the same order of the intended story (Bordwell and Thompson).

Because the narrative structure is linear, Todorov's 5 stage process can be applied:

1. EQUILIBRIUM: I think this is when the establishing shots are present in the opening of the film, they denote corn fields, and then a crow on a sign comes into shot. Even though the crow may foreshadow negative events further on, I still think it is part of the equilibrium stage as nothing is shown yet to have caused a 'disruption'.
2. DISRUPTION: I think this is where the props come in to shot (the mobile phone, money, knickers and knife). These all suggest that a disruption has occurred, especially with the non-diegetic soundtrack which is suspending and eerie. 
3. CONFRONTATION: This part of the narrative order is harder to decide as it is usually done by a protagonist. However in Lovefield the audience are lead to believe that the man is an antagonist at first as restricted narration is present at first. So, the confrontation stage I believe is when the man runs to his car and looks for objects to wrap the baby in, even though the audience do not know this yet.
4. RESOLUTION: This is where the man comes back to the women and hands her the towel, this is also when the audience are revealed that the women was actually in labour and that the man is actually a protagonist. This could also be where the ambulance arrives for the women.
5. NEW EQUILIBRIUM: I think this is where the camera tracks out and pans across the corn fields once again. However this time the non-diegetic soundtrack has changed to a more light-hearted track as the audience are now omniscience about the events in the film. 

Binary oppositions (Claiude Levi-Strauss) are present in Lovefield: One is between protagonists and antagonists where the audience is positioned to believe that that the man is an antagonist at first, then changes to a protagonist after the real events are revealed. Another binary opposition is between life and death: this is where the audience are first lead to believe that a death has occurred, where actually a baby had been born.

5) 'THIS IS ME' - GENRE

As Rick Altmann suggests, a 'semantic code' is a visual code that communicates meaning for the spectator, and sees them as building blocks for any genre.

Semantic codes in 'This is me':

The toy plane: as this is a main part of the film after the man narrates how he is in hospital, so this could foreshadow its significance in the film later. This is told through a sarcastic tone which connotes comedy and how the man has now accepted his unfortunate injuries.

The wife: The mans wife connotes the comedy genre as she is represented in a comical way. She has a very unique style, and then seems to boss her husband around. Then when the man is in hospital he narrates how she only visits him monthly and sets a timer for her visit when she does, this highlights her neglect for her husband, even though he descried her in a comical way.


The man outside sunbathing: The way he sunbathes in his garden is seen as a comical stereotype in film .He sits right in the middle of the garden and is seated in a sun chair.

Syntatic codes in 'This Is Me':

Rick Altmann also said that specific 'syntatic codes' helped to reveal genre in a piece: Syntatic codes are typical conventions that fit into a certain genre. Therefore syntatic codes for any genre include

• typical themes
• typical character relations
• typical binary oppositions
• typical narrative endings
• typical narrative narrative disruptions

Therefore in 'This Is Me' syntatic codes include: comedy, sarcasm, the bossy wife, the incident, the ill husband and healthy wife, and the circular narrative structure. So all these elements added created create a comedy genre, but there is also a hint of drama in the film making it maybe a hybrid film. 

Steve Neale (1990) said that "each genre repeats conventions of the genre formula, whilst also creating new variations" and this is because "media producers need to meet the expectations of consumers whilst also offering something fresh and different". Therefore, the conventions that make the short film a comedy are:

• sarcastic narration
• very eccentric characters
• an unusual accident
• colourful lighting (at the flashback)

But the short film created variations by including new story lines: the man in hospital creates a more serious tone to the comical genre which is not common to see at the start of a film of this genre. This therefore offers "something fresh and different" to audiences. 

A2: Lovefield Genre Theory Application - Ettie Greenwood

Summary synopsis:
Lovefield is a short film by Mathieu Ratthe. The film leads the audience to believe that a women has been raped and mudered (through all parts of mise en scene) and restricted narration. However in fact a women is having a baby and this is dentoed at the end when a new born babies cry is heard. This obviously shocks the viewer and is a good example of how a film can promote different thoughts and feelings through spectator positioning.

Rick Altmann - Semantic and syntatic codes

As Rick Altmann suggests, a 'semantic code' is a visual code that communicates meaning for the spectator, and sees them as building blocks for any genre. Therefore in 'Lovefield', the semantic codes are:

The blood on what seems like knickers: This may lead the audience to believe that rape has happened because it seems synchronous to the non-diagetic soundtrack -a gloomy style piece which connotes negative events-

The knife: This also hints to the audience that murder has happened and leads the audience to believe that the short film is more from a thriller genre. Also as the knife is shoved into the ground forcefully, this connotes anger to audience impying a negative event.

A crow is usually seen in horror and thriller movies therefore this may persuade the audience to think that the film belongs to one of these genres. Its dark colour also hints negativley.

The bin bag: This almost confirms to the audience that the women is dead as in conventional murder enriched films, a bin bag is usally a significant prop to hide a dead body in. This continues to lead the audience to believe that negative events have happened and that the man denoted is an antagonist.


The baby: The denotation of the new born baby is the turning point in the film as this is where the audience's guess on the plot get changed dramatically. The audiences views on the previous semantic codes become positive instead of negative and this my incline shock as they werent expecting it.


These semantic codes manipulate the audience to have certain views on what is happening. This connotes how by using restricted narration, certain perspectives on a film can be created, whether they are actually true or not.

Rick Altmann also said that specific 'syntatic codes' helped to reveal genre in a piece: Syntatic codes are typical conventions that fit into a certain genre. Therefore syntatic codes for any genre include

• typical themes
• typical character relations
• typical binary oppositions
• typical narrative endings
• typical narrative narrative disruptions

So, in the short film Lovefield, the syntatic codes include death, newborn baby, male antagonist - female protagonist, and a narritive disruption from the revealing of the baby. These codes all fit into the thriller genre at first due to all conveying typical themes, character relations etc. at first, then these codes switch through a narrative disruption to change the genre to drama with love elements (a hybrid film)

Steve Neale - Repetition and Variation

 Neale (1990) studied a range of film genres in depth and found that each genre repeats conventions of the genre formula whilst also making new variations.

For example, the first part of the short film fits into a thriller genre: it denotes, dark lighting, crescending music, a male antagonist/ female protagonist, and props to suits the genre like a knife and the presence of blood. These aspects fit into Neale's theory where he says that 'each genre repeats conventions of the genre formula'. However in the case of Lovefield, the 'new variations' part of his theory is where there is a plot twist to reveal a new born baby. Because of this event the short film changes genre to more of a drama/romantic style. By using this variation, Neale suggests that this helps films to become more unique and makes sure that the film 'will succeed in a competitive media world'.

A2: Evaluating Skills Development in AS - Ettie Greenwood

A2: 'About a Girl' Analysis of representation (Class and Age) - Ettie Greenwood

• The first scene denotes a young girl singing and dancing in a field. Here she is represented as young and possibly lonely because she is alone, and she is doing an activities which as usually associated with children. She is also thought as innocent as she is in no danger, and because the audience can not yet see what she looks like (costume/hair/makeup) she seems as if she is the stereotypical child. However a binary opposition is created when she sings and the lyrics that she sings denote: "I've had enough, I'm not that innocent" and "I'm lonely". This may foreshadow a negative experience in her life and how that she wants to feel more grown up.

• When the girls costume is revealed, the audience may hold assumptions about her personality. The girl wears a white oversized puffer coat, tracksuit bottoms and large hoop earrings. This is the stereotypical of what some people think that a 'CHAV' would wear. As this type of person usually has negative assumptions, it may lead the audience to believe that she has had a troubled upbringing; especially as this personality is associated with the working class.

• The setting also connoted the working class environment: As the girl walks through the neighbour hood, a lot of run down neighbourhoods are denoted along with frequent graffiti and rubbish littered. This highlights the poverty influenced area and with the post-production effect: destaturated colour, the setting seems to be a negative place to be.

• Cuts are used throughout the piece to reinforce realism: It also allows continuity to be achieved as the sequence can flow without any obvious changes.

• The lighting in the sequence is dull and realist. This makes the setting seem real but unpleasant and adds to the working class environment. It may also foreshadow negative events later (getting rid of the baby).

• Throughout the piece, the camera is kept mostly at eye-level. This is so the audience can feel like the girl is talking to them as if they were her friend, and it also allows the audience to sympathize with her. However after the girl drops the bag in the river (the audience do not yet know what is in it), the camera moves away from the girl and raises up to a birds-eye view shot. This creates a sense of the relationship between the audience and the girl ending. This may foreshadow the audiences' reaction in the next shot whereby the dead baby is denoted to sink to the bottom of the reader, therefore the audiences reaction -whether sympathy or anger- may connote a change in the relationship/view that they had on the girl before.

• The girls accent: Slang and northern may also indicate to the audience about her background. These accents are stereotypically joined with those who are poverty stricken so  the audience may assume that she comes from a similar class.

• The girls' age is connoted throughout the whole piece. At one point she says: "I'm not 5...I'm 13" which may connote her desire to grow up quickly. She also talks about her future and how when shes older she will be rich. famous and "drink Bacardi breezers". This highlights her youth as most children have unrealistic dreams. It is also therefore a binary opposition from realism and her dreams, but also from poverty and wealth.

A2: 'Never Forget' Analysis of Representation (Gender) - Ettie Greenwood

• The first scene denotes parallel cuts of two people getting ready to go out. A non-diegetic soundtrack accompanies this (a piano instrumental piece) which gives a romantic feel to the piece. Both characters are stereotypical of their gender: the women is wearing a dress and heels, and the man is wearing a formal suit. The are then seen to be traveling, then when the man picks up his phone to call the women the audience can immediately tell that they are a couple. This is because the mans' 'lock screen' picture (shown through a CU) is an image of both of them together. This sets up the expectation for the reader that it will be a positive and loving night. 

• When the women gets questioned about what she did the previous night she seems uneasy and it is obvious to the audience that she is lying. This is confirmed when flashbacks are shown of the night before where she had gone out and the audience then assume that she slept with a guy even though she was married (she is shown taking off her ring discretely). As she talk on the phone about her night the camera tilts down slightly to form a low angle shot. This connotes that she has more power than the man at this time as she has lied to him and cheated on their relationship. This is shown with CU's of the man to emphasize his grief and emotions towards her actions (this is because he saw her going off with the new man).

• When the man ends the phone call after saying: "I want you to remember for the rest of your life, this is all your fault.." this could foreshadow bad events. This turns out to happen as moments later the man jumps of the building that he was in before and lands just in front of the women who was walking to the building. This part of the film is very shocking but could also be argued that it is a little over-exaggerated. However this may suggest that the man had very strong reactions and emotions towards the event as his reaction was fairly extreme. But it may also suggest that he is not your typical male character as the assumed reaction to this event would be anger with the women and not death. However the audience do not see the man cry, which means he holds with the stereotypical view that 'men don't cry'. 

• Femininity is shown in the clip when the girl screams: her scream is high pitched and long which denotes a stereotypical female scream. It is also very piercing and shocking which connotes that the event was unexpected for the women. In this shot, a low angle is also denoted which suggests power to the women (maybe unwanted power) as she has just caused the death, but it also allows the audience to see her facial expressions as she looks down at the dead man- it could also be argued as a slight POV shot- Also, be angling the camera up, this could foreshadow the event as the man jumps from the building.

A2 - 'Never Forget' Represenation of Gender - Olivia Farren

• In the first scene of this short film, we can hear the diegetic sound of music playing - the music is classical and could be described as 'swarve' - we also think this because whilst we hear the music playing, we see a males' hand unzipping the suit cover, therefore from the first scene the audience can link these two parts of the shots and make an assumption that the male character is being represented as smart and swarve (something that is often used to describe men, not women).
• The suit that we see the male character getting ready in; fixing his cufflinks and bow tie, the act of this clearly important as it's being shown to us in a CU shot; is an outfit that is stereotypically related to men - an item that only smart men wear - not women, and so can see that he is being represented as a stereotypical, smart male, therefore the audience can easily recognise the gender of the first character that appears in this short film.
• There is then a jump cut from the man getting ready, to a woman walking - straight away we notice differences as there is calming, classical music playing whilst the man gets ready, and then there is the noise of cars and the street when we then cut to see the women - the fact the jump cut shows us two completely different things can reflect how both characters are completely different (noticeably in gender).
• When we cut to first see the women, we straight away hear the diegetic sound of her footsteps - notably the sound of high heels clipping, a sound that we automatically relate to women.
• The fact that the female character is wearing heels, tights and a dress, shows us that she's being portrayed as very feminine - as this choice of costume is typically of what women are expected to wear and look like. So although we can see that she is being represented as feminine, it's also fairly stereotypically as this doesn't represent the female gender as a whole.
• Even though the female character isn't wearing much make up, the fact that the little make up she is wearing is emphasised by her checking it in the mirror tells us that the way she looks is very important to her - the assumption that look is very important and cared about it related to being feminine and female, which is contrasted to the fact that we don't see the male character checking himself in the mirror whilst he's getting ready at all.
• Along with the fact that we see the female character checking her hair and make up in the compact mirror, this CU shot gives us an view of what she's doing - checking her hair and make up, clearly showing us her feminine features and therefore also representing her as being feminine due to her actions.
• This CU shot also allows us to see that the compact mirror is in the shape of a heart - a shape that is very commonly associated with love, which is stereotypically what women are more obsessed and care about, as well as representing that women are the caring and nurturing gender, and so this heart-shaped compact mirror represents this character as being kind and loving - reflecting typical attributes of a women.
• In the short film, there is cross-cutting between the male and female characters as they're on the phone to each other, when the female answers the phone, she immediately says "I'm literally one minute away" in a stressed tone - the dialogue and the tone of voice that is used tells us that she is in a hurry as she's running late, and being late is a typical characteristic of females, usually to do with them taking time to get themselves ready, the fact she seems to be late suggests that she has taken too much time on worrying about her appearance - giving us the impression the impression that she's vein, yet another stereotypical aspect of the female gender, the idea that she is vein is again backed up in the previous shot of her looking in her compact mirror, maybe the reason she is running late?

A2 - 'About a Girl' Representation of Class and Age - Olivia Farren

• In the first scene we see the girl alone in a field - this could portray her innocence to us as we see her singing/dancing, something that most young girls stereotypically love. Although in this scene we could tell her as being young due to her being alone and singing (having nothing to worry about), we could also say she's being portrayed as unimportant - due to her being in the shadows and not shown fully, which could be telling us that she's unimportant due to her social background/class, although at this point we are yet to find that out.
• Throughout the short film, we see the girl talking to the camera whilst walking along the canal - here, age could be presented to us through the use of eye line match with the camera, which could be because are being made to sympathise with her whilst she's talking (almost patriotic), therefore we see her as being young.
• Along with the camera angle in these shots along the canal, there is also a very dull/dingy lighting - which we could connote with unhappiness and uncleanliness (both of which we could also relate to poverty), therefore this lighting tells us of the low class she is a part of/ living amongst.
• Not only is this dull/ cloudy lighting used in the scenes walking along the canal but also in the other scenes that we cut to; for example; when she's sitting in a café with her dad; - telling us that she's always been in this unhappy situation (possibly due to her class).
• When she's talking to the camera, we can clearly notice that she has a strong accent - we could collectively recognise this accent and dialect that she uses as being North West - which is an area that is, sometimes stereotypically, known to be an area with a lot of poverty and a lot of families living below the breadline, and so therefore we relate this accent that she is using to a low class.
• When the short film cuts to a scene of the girl with her dad, we see a father and daughter together - we often think that this relationship is mostly about a dad caring for a daughter, and therefore we think of the daughter being young, therefore this presents her age to us.
• Another scene in which she is presented to us as being fairly young, is that when she is sitting outside the pub whilst her dad is inside - the fact that she is outside, and not inside shows us that she is too young to contribute to this social practise. 
• The parallel cutting between the shots of the girl walking along the canal and the narrative shots of the girl in a small scene, could reflect how she's constantly in the same position - due to always being brought back to the same shot of her walking by the canal, possibly meaning that she has limited opportunities and therefore is seen in the same place again and again to show to the audience that her wealth is little to none and therefore so are her opportunities - representing her class to us.
• When we see the young girl walking along the canal, we notice that the surrounding area is run down, full of rubbish and dull-looking - these houses along the canal look a lot like stereotypical council houses, and so the audience can recognise that and then make a link between these houses and lower class that she is a part of. This aspect of mise en scene is important as it's clear to the audience to make connections between the run-down area and the characters class.
• As well as aspects of mise en scene, editing and camera angles; the dialogue also gives us a clear representation of her age, as she says; "like I'm 5...but hello, I'm 13"; here this states her age, but also clearly shows us that she is 13 by the sarcastic tone she says this in and the way that she almost wants to be recognised as an adult (what many teenagers want). She also says "my mum says..." a number of times; the fact that she listens and repeats what her mum says shows us that she still lives under her mums rules, and therefore again reflects her age as being fairly young.
• When the film cuts to the scene of the girl and her friends singing on the bus, this gives us an easily recognisable representation of young girls - giggling and having fun together, as well as this, the fact that they are travelling on a bus shows that they have little money and are too young to drive themselves.
• In many shots, she is wearing the same silver puffa coat - the fact that she is persisitantly wearing the same coat shows us that she has little money to have more than one coat - therefore reflecting her class to us again.

A2: Evaluation of Skills Development in AS year - Olivia Farren

Evaluating my Foundation Portfolio Thriller Opening - Olivia Farren

Further Evaluation into our 'Attention to Framing'

When filming our Preliminary task at the start of our Foundation Portfolio, we noticed that we didn't pay attention to framing in one shot as our notes are still layed on the desk, and this was not part of our storyline and so we made the mistake of not focusing on the framing of the shot, here is our mistake:

 

After realising we made this mistake, however, we soon re-filmed that scene, correcting our mistake and making sure the notes weren't on the desk and all aspects of mise en scene in that shot were exactly what we wanted, for example, we took down posters that were already in the room that didn't relate to our storyline. Here is our correction:





 

 

Through making this mistake in our Preliminary task, it meant that we knew what we needed to take more care of when filming our thriller opening and so this mistake that we made came as quite helpful as it taught us our weakness when creating our films; 'attention to framing'. After this happened, we took as much care as possible when filming our thriller opening to the composition of each shot; ensuring that the character and the dog were the focus of the shots, making sure in each shot all aspects of mise en scene were considered and also making sure that there were no unnecessary objects/passers by in the shots. 

Even though, after making the mistake in our preliminary task, and after carefully thinking about each shot in our thriller opening, we weren't quite perfect with every single shot as there was one shot in the beginning that we thought our equipment bag was far enough out of the shot, but however, was in the shot after all. Here is it, circled in red:

 

Rather annoyingly, we noticed the bag in the shot too late and we didn't have the chance to re-film this shot, and we couldn't crop it out of the shot in editing because it would have distorted the rest of the shot, and so we had to leave it in our final thriller opening.

I am disappointed that we didn't notice this in time or take more consideration of where we'd put the equipment bag each time we filmed a shot, especially as we made the same mistake in our preliminary task, and therefore I have overall learnt that there are many many things to take into consideration whilst filming, and that attention to framing is my weakness during filming and a lot more thought than previously needs to be put into it than before.

However, I am also pleased with our final thriller opening, despite the mistake we made, because for me it was the first time I had created and edited a media product, and so I think I have learnt a lot during this time.

Evaluation of AS Work - Ettie Greenwood

Detailed Evaluation of One Element- Editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer.

I believe that this part of the assessment criteria was a little weak as when doing audience feedback, some of our audience were confused with what happened to the dog.

Here is one respondents' answer:

This highlights that without knowing the rest of the plot line, it may be confusing for some of the viewers. However this was harder to spot ourselves as we knew the context of the opening so everything for us made sense. 

Therefore, to overcome this, I think we should have asked people though out the editing process whether the piece made sense. This meant that we would be able to get an outside view and ensure that the editing made the meaning of the piece apparent to the viewer. However we could have also made the meaning clearer by editing our piece better: we decided not to show the object that the girl found in the opening, but this could have been the source of the confusion as instead this lead to people thinking that the dog had disappeared.Therefore, when we create our A2 piece, we need to ensure that we carefully edit our work to make the meaning easy to understand.

Also, now watching back our opening whilst knowing about the confusion, I am able to see what people think. This means that I am more likely to not make this mistake again which will hopefully make my A2 product more successful. 

Here is the part of the piece that people were getting confused about: 

Thriller Evaluation - Olivia Farren

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In our thriller opening, we used Todorov's theory of narrative (link to wiki or something) to create the narrative to our thriller story. Our thriller opening starts with an equilibrium; where everything seems completely fine; this is when the girl is walking the dog through the lanes and into the woods. This is a normal situation and therefore seems like nothing is going wrong, however, later on in the opening, the shocking event occurs. Although what is happening; the girl walking her dog; seems normal, the music soundtrack foreshadows the disruption of the equilibrium, as it doesn't include any crescendos but this non-diegetic sound comes across as creepy as it doesn't go with what the audience is seeing. Following Todorov's theory like this means that our thriller story fits the usual conventions of a thriller as everything looks normal, but then we find out it's clearly not.

Left: here is a point in our opening where there is an equilibrium. Right: this is an example of our thriller after the shocking event in its opening.

 - then from another, similar, thriller)

We also used restricted narration in our thriller opening so that the audience couldn't anticipate what would happen, and therefore they feel the tension rising as they don't know about all that's going on. We did this in our thriller by showing that the girl is clearly looking at something and then shocked and scared by what she sees, but we hid what the object is from the audience so they're left wondering.

The restricted narration technique that we used is very commonly used in thrillers as this creates an elements of enigma, which then engages the audience to want to keep watching so they can find out more.
(youtube link to example of this being used)

Example from 'Silence of the Lambs'

After experimenting with lighting, and also looking at what lighting affects are used in thrillers that we also wanted to create; we decided that we wanted the lighting in our thriller to be quite dark and eery:

The lighting in our thriller opening.

We then did this by desaturising the colour during post-production editing, so that although what was first happening was a normal situation, as well as the music, the lighting also foreshadowed that something was about to happen that compromises the normality of the situation and turn the story into something thrilling.

We thought that our characters costume and make up would be an important aspect of representing their age and their innocence, and so we decided to have the young girl wearing no make up and her blonde hair down, this is so that the audience can recognise her as being young, and a girl. This also follows the stereotype image of what little girls look like, which is also seen in the opening of The lovely Bones (link to blog post):


In our thriller opening of 'Rediscovered', we looked at what the conventions and codes of thrillers with similar affects that we wanted to create were, and tired to follow them so that this would appeal to our thriller audience,

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In our thriller, we decided to focus on how the innocence that is portrayed of this young girl is challenged as she encounters something that launches her into a world of mysterious questions she wants answering.

Gender
Our character follows some stereotypical female features through her outfit choice of a jumper and leggings, and her long blonde hair, both of these parts of mise en scene are common characteristics of what girls look like, meaning that the audience can identify her as being female.

There is a stereotypical assumption that all females are 'vulnerable', which can come across as a negative thing. When the girl walks the dog through the lanes and into the woods on her own, this doesn't follow this assumption and challenges it as she is clearly capable of walking her dog on her own, however, our thriller opening does contrast this at the end when the girl is clearly vulnerable. This is shown through the composition of the shot of her on the floor as she is lower down than the audience, the fact that she is crying, and the close up shot of this, which portrays her vulnerability to the audience as they are close to her, as if entering her personal space as she is clearly upset. However, even though vulnerability can be seen as a negative stereotype of girls, I don't think our thriller opening represents this to be negative as the purpose of showing her crying isn't to portray this, but to shock the audience as much as she is shocked, to emphasis on the fact that something unexpected has occurred. This is shown through the editing we did on the diegetic sound of her crying, echoing it make to it noticeable and confusing.

Here, our character clearly doesn't look vulnerable as she is happily doing her own thing, this is contrasted to what the next two images portray.

Age
We wanted our character to come across as innocent, and how we did this represents her youth. The girls blonde hair and the fact we chose for her to wear no make up are aspects of mise en scene that we thought portrayed her age as being fairly young, about 11 years of age, as this shows she's care free to not want to be bothering abut make up, and again, the blonde hair is recognised as being quite 'angelic', which also shows that she is innocent, and therefore young. To build on the angelic look of her, we used LED lights during filming to create that slight 'halo' around her head as the light reflects of her blonde hair, this adds to the portrayal of her being innocent, and therefore her innocence shows that she is fairly young.

When looking at how age is represented in the opening of the lovely bones, the little girl also has blonde hair that had a light reflected and brightening her blonde hair, which also shows her young age through clear ignorance to anything negative as she, again, looks almost angelic.




Class and Ethnicity
The ethnicity of our character is a White-British female; this is due to the circumstances of finding an actress who could work with us when we needed, however, our thriller doesn't focus on the representation of ethnicity and so we feel this isn't important as we feel we haven't portrayed this as being a positive or negative factor.
The class of our character is shown through the setting, an aspect of mise en scene; the normal looking family home represents the fact that our character belongs to a similar class to our target audience, social groups B to D, which is mostly middle and working class, and as the characters class is similar to that of our target audience, this means that they can elate to her as she's in a class they can identify with.

Power
The power our character has, dramatically changes during our thriller opening, and therefore we had to show this change clearly to our audience.
At the start, when the girl is walking the dog, it's clear she has power as she is leading the dog, and when he jumps into the river, she calls his name with clear authority, however the second time she calls the dog back it's clear something has happened that compromises the power she has. When she calls 'Dylan' the second time, her voice is trembling and the audience can understand that she is now scared, after discovering something under the bridge, along with this, the contrast of her power at the beginning then again to the end of the opening is also shown through the fact that she is then crying on the floor. The power is gone and this is visible to the audience as she is on the floor and the camera is at a high angle, looking down at her, clearly this shows that she no longer has power.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Obviously after creating our thriller film opening, we needed to look at how this would then be distributed to be viewed.
As we created our media product independently, we'd have low funds and therefore distribution and advertising can't be anywhere near the scale of that of Hollywood movies.
When looking into a distribution company suitable for our thriller film, we decided that a company who has already distributed many films of the same genre and target audience, therefore an indie distributor would be best suited to distribute our film.




We looked into a few companies, such as Artificial Eye who are part of Curzon World which is a group of film entertainment companies that also include video on demand services and a horror film distributor, they also specialise in art house films for cinema and films, which would be good for us as our media product is an independent film. Along with looking at Artifiicial Eye as a potential distributor, we also looked at Momentum Pictures, who is one of the leading independent motion picture distributor in the UK and Ireland.

However, we decided that BBC Films would be best suited to distribute out thriller film. This is because it's a well-know British company that releases independent and smaller films, like ours. It has also distributed many other thrillers, therefore they are aware of the type of audience to target. They also already have an audience from their BBC Three channel that is aimed at our target audience; young adults over the age of 15, so they would know what audience to target as well as our thriller film being
broadcasted on that channel after it's release in cinemas, this would mean it would hit our target audience straight away and therefore could potentially cause them to go and buy their own copy of our film.

We'd show our film, 'Rediscovered', in Art House Cinemas, such as the Duke of Yorks Picture House Cinema in Brighton, this is because they are smaller and ticket prices are cheaper than that of the big cinema companies, therefore ticket would be more affordable so our film would be easier to see by our target audience who are young adults and so they may not be earning excessable amounts of money. As well as the fact that showing our film in an art house cinema means that it would be easier for our target audience to spend their leisure pound on seeing our film, it would also be cheaper for us to release our film in smaller, art house cinemas due to limited funding.
Our film would be screened in cinemas through digital copies of the film. This is down to many factors, but

Film reels like these are now outdated.

mainly it would be more cost affective then renting the film to cinemas in print form as it that could cost up £2000 per film print that is rented to cinemas, which would cost twice as much if the film is subtitled, and each film is 5-6 reels weighing about 25Kg each, this is clearly not cost effective. Digital copies are cheaper. But also, nearly all film distribution is digital now, as there are new methods of film production, it means there are also new methods of film distribution. This is also because more and more indie films are being made independently as the equipment in this day in age is very easily accessible and easy to use, along with it being easier to distribute films, for example, our smartphones can do all of this.
Films can now also be distributed digitally to the home and portable devices, there are many companies which people can download films from including Netflix, Lovefilm, Virgin, Sky, iTunes, YouTube and games consoles. An example of how much the film distribution has changed from heavy reels of film, is the film Pulp, a film released in 2013 that was the first film to only be distributed on a console, it was available to Xbox 360 Live customer at first and is about a comic book reader, therefore it targeted the typical audience of console users; 14+ males. Although it's not hugely successful, it is a great example of how technology is affecting the film industry, and therefore we should take this example as a good reason to also distribute online.

Here's the 'Pulp' move trailer:

As well as that films are now targeting online audiences with the above example, in our group we also considered the recent TV habits of viewers to help us make a decision whether to distribute online aswell:

• 27% of smartphone owners watch live TV on it.
• 5million Apple TV boxes were sold in 2012.
• 63% of tablet owners use it to watch live TV.
• In 1950 350,000 homes had a TV
• Then in 2003 there were 2.03 TVs per household
• Now, in 2012 there were 1.83 TV sets per house - however, there are now many other devices to watch TV on; smartphones, tablets, computers, games consoles.

After these statistics, we decided it would be best to also distribute the film on an online platform, as for example, there are nearly 30 million Netflix subscribers, and having our film on this site would mean it is available to even more people. And so distributing to LoveFilm means that our film could be seen more than if it just went from cinema to DVD, even though LoveFilm doesn't have as many subscribers as Netflix, Lovefilm is being renamed Amazon Prime Instant Video, and therefore the fact that Amazon is globally a well-known company this will still be popular, possibly even more now.

We can't forget advertising our thriller film. As advertising is key. And so we would target our target audience by advertsising on social media sites, such as Facebook, with the column at the side of ads, as well as advertise on social media, we will create scoial media pages for our film on Twitter and Facebook, the most used social sites in the world, and promote our film by getting recognisition through social media, this could then cause word of mouth to spread, and our film being wanted to be seen more and more people.

Along with social media, we will use adverts. TV adverts and posters are common forms of advertising. We could play the trailer of our film in ad breaks on channels such as Channel 4, but we could also play our thriller film trailer on YouTube ads before viewers the video they have selected, and on ad breaks on online catch up services on Channel 4oD and ITV player. As tablets, laptops and smartphones are being used more and more, and the number of TV sets in a household is decreasing due to this, ignoring online advertising oppurtunites would seem stupid as it could help increase sales of our thriller film.




4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

We decided on our target audience, as a group, because we started storyboarding and filming our own thriller.
Our target audience consists of social classes B, C1, C2 and D, this is due to the fact they'd have disposable income, even if only a little, but enough to spend their leisure pound on the cinema, and therefore we decided as they would be the typical classes going to the cinema, we'd target and try to appeal to them in our film. As well as these social classes, we decided to aim to appeal to the audience of an age between 15 and 24, as we thought that this was the age group most interested in the thriller film genre, and therefore, the audience who would be more interested in our film. After deciding on the age group of our target audience, we decided our thriller would have a 15 rating, after we also looked at the British Board of Film Classification's website.
Obviously, we wanted to appeal to our target audience, and suit them with our thriller film, and so we always considered them when designing our story board, because we wanted them to be able to relate to the character as being similar to them. I believe we did this through our characters costume, as it was very plain but nothing expensive or designer as leggings and a jumper is something everyone owns and so they could recognise the character as being similar to them in class, as well as the costume, the setting also reflects the similarities between our audience and our character, as this family home looks very typical to that of a working or middle class family home, and therefore the audience can see that our character isn't any different to them, hopefully this then appeals to the target audience as they see something unexpected happen to someone just like them.













As a group, we then looked on the Pearl & Dean website to find any other movies that were similar to ours that our target audience might also enjoy. We looked at a film called 'Magic Magic' and felt this was the best comparison to our own film. As well as it also being a thriller, the storyline follows a similar line to ours, as in 'Magic Magic' the characters mental well being is changing and in our thriller, the characters mentality is put on strain, therefore I believe that both films follow the typical conventions of a thriller as something dramatic happens to a normal person who the audience can relate to.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I answered this question by creating a Prezi presentation. To view that, just click the link below the image:

 

http://prezi.com/wxu5g9bns75e/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy 

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?

Before the preliminary task, I had very little knowledge of filming to create a film, and even less knowledge of  editing, therefore, the preliminary task meant that I was able to learn new skills and develop my knowledge on filming and editing before I created my thriller film opening.

In the preliminary task, we had to present our ability to use continuity rules when filming so that our film would be successful and as professional as possible, in doing this I learnt continuity techniques used in filming that I didn't know before:

• match on action
• shot/reverse shot
• 180 degree rule

After learning what these techniques invloved, I felt confident that I knew how to use them all correctly in my own filming. 

In the preliminary task, my group decided to use the scenario of a police interview, and during the filming of this, we used all continuity techniques that we learnt in this short clip.

To show we that we learnt how to use match on action effectively, in the preliminary task we filmed her opening the door from a long shot, then cut to a close up of her doing the same action. I think we successfully showed this technique in the preliminary task, and therefore we decided we would film the same action as match on action in our final thriller opening product. To do this, we filmed the long shot of our character opening the door then the close up of her opening the door, and in editing we cut them together where the door was in the same position in the last shot so the action matches. i think in both tasks it looks very professionally done and we made sure we were as precises as possible. The result of this technique is effortless to watch and it's easy to see the close up shot is continuing from the long shot. Although we filmed both shots for this, we wouldn't have been able to create this match on action without knowing how to cut in Final Cut Pro, we learnt how to do this in the preliminary task by just making ourselves familiar with software, when it cam to making the thriller opening, we knew how to do this and we were able to cut shots quicker and better, therefore I feel I learnt the software well thanks to doing the preliminary task.

Here is the match on action we did in the preliminary task (above)

 And here is the match on action we used in our thriller opening (above)

In the preliminary task, we were taught that we should film a 'sandwich' (rolling, speed, action), before the shot, however, I think we didn't do this effectively in our preliminary task as after cutting shots, our footage came up too short in length because we didn't create enough of a sandwich in the shots. However, we did learn from this, and so when filming our final product we made sure we always made a sandwich before hand and cut after a few seconds of the action finishing, as well as filming extra shots that we hadn't out in our animatic, so that when it came to editing the film, it wouldn't be too short like in the preliminary task, and it worked. We had more than enough footage for our final thriller opening and we didn't need to use the extra shots we took. Although our shots, when edited, came to the length on two minutes, we hadn't considered that adding titles would add more time and we had to to cut a few bits off of shots so that the clip now wouldn't be too long. I think this happened because we didn't include titles in our preliminary task so we didn't think about the added time it would be until we edited all the shots, but we came across this and our final product was the right length pf time, with all shots and all titles.

Although we learnt that composition of the shot in mise en scene was important to the the finished product and in our preliminary task we took all the posters down from walls, we did, however, leave our post it notes on the desk when we first filmed, they were in the frame and unfortunately we only noticed when we came to editing. And so we went back and filmed that shot again, with the post it notes not the desk, and we took the bad shot out and replaced it with the new one. after this happened, we were very when filming our final product  to be aware of what it is the shot, and this mistake didn't happen again.

Here is the mistake shot.

And here is the correct shot we re-filmed.

 

 

 

 

 

 I think the most important knowledge I learnt from doing the preliminary task was how to use the software. Knowing this meant that we were successfully able to edit all shots very well, including desaturising colour, as well as editing the sound so it all flowed. Without knowing this the editing of our final product would have taken alot longer and possibly woulnd't have beeen so good as we wouldn't have been able to practise in the first place. 

Overall, the preliminary task was very helpful in teaching us all we needed to know to edit and create our successful thriller opening, I'm also glad that we made mistakes before making our final product so we learnt from this and knew what to do when it came to making our film opening.