Tuesday, 14 May 2013
Tuesday, 7 May 2013
Fan Study (Star Wars/Twilight)
How do people consume star wars/twilight?
Star Wars and Twilight both have cult fan bases which are still running now even after the end of the films and books. Large groups of their fans have been known to camp outside movie theaters this just shows their dedication to these films not treating them as 'just' a film but as a huge part of their lives.
The way organisations market theses films is extremely important they aim all their promotion etc, at their fan-base, this is because these fan-bases are influentially very powerful bringing more people into them through word of mouth etc...
Twilights targeted audience was for, pre-teen to middle aged girls and women. Twilight certainly has got a high percentage of teenage girl fans and because their the main fans there parent or guardian would probably watch it with them. In saying this there going to be a variety of fans from all walks of life, its just the young female dominates this particular fan-base. Marketers for the film have done a great job attracting that target audience because it seems to have been successful. In my opinion the young female is one of the best audiences you can attract because they are very good at spread the word between their friends and it making something grow rapidly with the help of social networking sites etc...Star Wars targeted audience was directed at the male teenage market, being sci-fi dubbed as a 'epic space opera', it created another fantasy world for viewers to go into and this appeals to a wide audience this is because it has significant help with them forget about problems in their own lives, and lets them go into this dream world. Star Wars is known all over the world, Lucasfilm and AtomFillms holds a annual contest called 'The official Star Wars fan film awards' which showcase the growing genre of 'fan films' which are made for and by the fans about the fans of the Star Wars Saga.
Why do people become fans?
People become fans of these films because the films obviously mentally give them something that they crave for. With Star Wars I've got a screenshot of a couple of the fan base websites that have been created by fans, these fan bases are mostly all specific for a certain style of the fan to join e.g. Rebelscum and Jedi News. As you can see these fan bases are like cults where a member will have a large portion of there lives devoted to the Star Wars Saga.
The fans of Twilight don't have as many specific fan sites as Star Wars, but Twilight is still relatively very new to the world, nevertheless Twilight does have a mass following, I have got a screen shot of my search results for, 'Twilight fan club'. As you can see here there is a variety of fan sites for Twilight, where devoted fans can discuss anything Twilight.
This screenshot is of a website that links all of the twilight fan clubs together you can only see the, 'A and B', section and this goes all the way down to 'Z' so there is ALOT of fan clubs, this shows that there is a huge following for the saga.
People become fans of these films because the films obviously mentally give them something that they crave for. With Star Wars I've got a screenshot of a couple of the fan base websites that have been created by fans, these fan bases are mostly all specific for a certain style of the fan to join e.g. Rebelscum and Jedi News. As you can see these fan bases are like cults where a member will have a large portion of there lives devoted to the Star Wars Saga.
The fans of Twilight don't have as many specific fan sites as Star Wars, but Twilight is still relatively very new to the world, nevertheless Twilight does have a mass following, I have got a screen shot of my search results for, 'Twilight fan club'. As you can see here there is a variety of fan sites for Twilight, where devoted fans can discuss anything Twilight.
Friday, 3 May 2013
Issues In Documentary & film
Accuracy
Accuracy in documentaries is to see is the information on the subject is precise. This is a very important component of a documentary because you don't want to present false inaccurate information to the audience. A good example is a BBC documentary called 'Turner's Thames', it is about the life of William Turner and his 'Relationship', with painting The River Thames, this is a accurate documentary because it refers to past events and people that knew the painter, that present facts about him to inform and entertain its audience.
Balance
Balance in a documentary is to show equal sides to a story or argument. If the documentary's views were very one sided it would be classed as being bias, so it is very important to have balance in a documentary, this is because it shows lots of different views on the topic/subject in hand, and this lets the audience make their decision on the subject. A good example of this is a graphic documentary called, 'Lake of Fire', it is about abortion and it follows both sides to the debate.
Impartiality
Impartiality means if the documentary is neither for or against whatever the subject may be, it shows equal amounts for both sides for or against. Fahrenheit 9/11 is more against the subject than for it, they show how war affects Iraq and also it shows how it affects America, which gives even sides, nevertheless Michael Moore slightly shows a view that puts America under the spot light, this expresses that they are doing wrong and are the enemy.
Objectivity
Objectivity is when a documentary places facts and information to point the subject into one perspective for the audience to believe, this is to persuade the audience to look to one side of the story. In Dark Days there are legal facts about getting the homeless out of the New York Subway System, these were to bring balance to the subject but the homeless shown there views on these facts and you were drawn back to there 'side'.
Subjectivity
Subjectivity is when facts, information and opinions are presented in a way to let the audience decide for their own opinion. In Fahrenheit 9/11 it shown different sides to the story, but it always left the audience open for their opinion.
Opinion
Opinion is when individuals watching the documentary may have their own views on the subject at hand or just the documentary itself. In Dark Days all the homeless had similar opinions on the subject of them getting evicted from the subway system tunnels.
Bias
Bias is when the subject matter within a documentary can be one sided towards the subject/topic or argument in hand. This could possibly be to make someone or something look bad and another thing look good in comparison. Dark Days was on the Homeless People of New York's side for most of the documentary and this was to show the government in a bad light.
Representation
Representation is when the filmmaker has his own representation of the subject matter; this might be shown in the documentary. Fahrenheit 9/11's maker Michael Moore had his own representation on the subject and this was shown in the film but it wasn't a full on 'extreme' influence on the documentary, it still let the audience decide there own opinion on the topic in hand.
Privacy
Privacy is how private the filmmaker will keep the subject if it goes into someone's personal life. In Dark Days the filmmaker went into the selected homeless peoples homes and their lives, where there was scenes of drug use, which obviously is a very serious and personal life choice.
Issues in Film
Accuracy in documentaries is to see is the information on the subject is precise. This is a very important component of a documentary because you don't want to present false inaccurate information to the audience. A good example is a BBC documentary called 'Turner's Thames', it is about the life of William Turner and his 'Relationship', with painting The River Thames, this is a accurate documentary because it refers to past events and people that knew the painter, that present facts about him to inform and entertain its audience.
Balance
Balance in a documentary is to show equal sides to a story or argument. If the documentary's views were very one sided it would be classed as being bias, so it is very important to have balance in a documentary, this is because it shows lots of different views on the topic/subject in hand, and this lets the audience make their decision on the subject. A good example of this is a graphic documentary called, 'Lake of Fire', it is about abortion and it follows both sides to the debate.
Impartiality
Impartiality means if the documentary is neither for or against whatever the subject may be, it shows equal amounts for both sides for or against. Fahrenheit 9/11 is more against the subject than for it, they show how war affects Iraq and also it shows how it affects America, which gives even sides, nevertheless Michael Moore slightly shows a view that puts America under the spot light, this expresses that they are doing wrong and are the enemy.
Objectivity
Objectivity is when a documentary places facts and information to point the subject into one perspective for the audience to believe, this is to persuade the audience to look to one side of the story. In Dark Days there are legal facts about getting the homeless out of the New York Subway System, these were to bring balance to the subject but the homeless shown there views on these facts and you were drawn back to there 'side'.
Subjectivity
Subjectivity is when facts, information and opinions are presented in a way to let the audience decide for their own opinion. In Fahrenheit 9/11 it shown different sides to the story, but it always left the audience open for their opinion.
Opinion
Opinion is when individuals watching the documentary may have their own views on the subject at hand or just the documentary itself. In Dark Days all the homeless had similar opinions on the subject of them getting evicted from the subway system tunnels.
Bias
Bias is when the subject matter within a documentary can be one sided towards the subject/topic or argument in hand. This could possibly be to make someone or something look bad and another thing look good in comparison. Dark Days was on the Homeless People of New York's side for most of the documentary and this was to show the government in a bad light.
Representation
Representation is when the filmmaker has his own representation of the subject matter; this might be shown in the documentary. Fahrenheit 9/11's maker Michael Moore had his own representation on the subject and this was shown in the film but it wasn't a full on 'extreme' influence on the documentary, it still let the audience decide there own opinion on the topic in hand.
Privacy
Privacy is how private the filmmaker will keep the subject if it goes into someone's personal life. In Dark Days the filmmaker went into the selected homeless peoples homes and their lives, where there was scenes of drug use, which obviously is a very serious and personal life choice.
Issues in Film
Film can also be convicted in using biased opinions as well as documentaries. Often with many of the true story based films, there will usually be a small element of inaccuracy on the subject that is being filmed, this is most likely to give the film an edge and make it more appealing exagerating certain scenarios. In most cases with film issues, it shows only one side of the story as it stereotypically follows a main character, so you will only be exposed to this opinion. Also in some situations it is hard to portray certain events through film and the director sometimes takes the easy way out and might take out sections of the story and adapt it to a similar scenario.
Or it can just be the directors decision to just simply portray a story in one specific way as they feel it could add anticipation or even lead onto a following film. Some may argue that it is not true to the story line with directors interpreting films like this, which is true, this is the negative side of this, but the directors will mostly have a very valid reason for these cuts, but in all honesty the film industry is a business and they will add and subtract in a original story line, just to appeal to the biggest audience possible for the optimum amount of box office sales. An example of a film being biased is the new Zero Dark Thirty, the story line is based on the build up and story behind the killing of Bin Laden. The main reason for it being supposedly biased is because it ignore the fact that the CIA, FBI, Homeland security of America, George W.Bush and Obama didn't have much input when they put the most hard work into capturing the suspect. The director has made the film very one-sided showing objectivity by them placing all this attention on just one female CIA agent who was the only reason why the suspect Bin Laden was killed. The director has allowed and only touched on the Navy Seals within the film who carried out this operation to kill Bin Laden.
Within Zero Dark Thirty there is another controversial example where nearly every Muslim women in the Pakistan scenes are wearing some sort of head covering. This has as you can expect caused uproar as it looks like this film seems to portray all Muslim women wearing head coverings as terrorists. This is something the director should have thought about a lot more as its not the Burka that portrays them as terrorists obviously as thats racist, but its the way the films shot that makes them look on the wrong side of the law, nevertheless within Muslim culture, Islamic Women are expected to were traditional clothes that over them.
Thursday, 25 April 2013
Team Meeting Minutes
Group members: Robert Welland & Oscar Artini
Items discussed: Our animation storyboard ideas.
Meeting 1 Date:April 5th 2013
During our first team meeting we discussed our different opinions and feelings towards the storyboards that were generated for our animation, we decided that the first two generated were 'okay' in terms of their standards and how a good message could be developed from them, we then went onto discuss how technical it would be to generate them. Unfortunately for the first two storyboards that were developed we decided that it would be too time consuming and extremely hard to create.
The next section of the meeting we decided to discuss different soundtracks that could be placed into the project. We both agreed on using a track that emulates a sad style to it however, combining it with a voice over at the end to give a brief description of what the charity (Crisis) do for the homeless 'by giving them a home etc'
Meeting 2 Date: April 20th
This meeting was to assure our group that all was agreed on. This was because we had finished our drafting stage of generating ideas for the project, another reason for this meeting being held was because our group had decided that we were ready to film and needed to start as soon as possible.
This last meeting also made a slight two changes to the animation, this was in the part when the homeless person heard a voice from the sky saying to turn around and look at the wall. In the storyboard on the left you can see that there is now another lego character who shall put money into the homeless persons pot and asks him to turn around a look at the 'Crisis wall' This decision was made by both of the group members (Robert Welland and Oz Artini) We decided that the previous idea was too unrealistic and the new idea made the animation seem a lot more realistic and a situation that seemed like it would actually occur.
Items discussed: Our animation storyboard ideas.
Meeting 1 Date:April 5th 2013
During our first team meeting we discussed our different opinions and feelings towards the storyboards that were generated for our animation, we decided that the first two generated were 'okay' in terms of their standards and how a good message could be developed from them, we then went onto discuss how technical it would be to generate them. Unfortunately for the first two storyboards that were developed we decided that it would be too time consuming and extremely hard to create.
The next section of the meeting we decided to discuss different soundtracks that could be placed into the project. We both agreed on using a track that emulates a sad style to it however, combining it with a voice over at the end to give a brief description of what the charity (Crisis) do for the homeless 'by giving them a home etc'
Meeting 2 Date: April 20th
This meeting was to assure our group that all was agreed on. This was because we had finished our drafting stage of generating ideas for the project, another reason for this meeting being held was because our group had decided that we were ready to film and needed to start as soon as possible.
This last meeting also made a slight two changes to the animation, this was in the part when the homeless person heard a voice from the sky saying to turn around and look at the wall. In the storyboard on the left you can see that there is now another lego character who shall put money into the homeless persons pot and asks him to turn around a look at the 'Crisis wall' This decision was made by both of the group members (Robert Welland and Oz Artini) We decided that the previous idea was too unrealistic and the new idea made the animation seem a lot more realistic and a situation that seemed like it would actually occur.
Production Schedule
Production Schedule
Film title: Crisis Animation
Client: Crisis
Producers: Robert Welland & Oscar Artini
Date: 25th April 2013
Planning started: January 2nd 2013 Date completed: January 30th 2013
Proposal started: February 4th 2013 Date completed: February 18th 2013
Agreement from client: February 27th 2013 Date completed: March 1st 2013
Audience Research started: March 15th 2013 Date completed: March 18th 2013
Audience research analyzed: March 20th 2013 Date completed: March 28th 2013
Drafting started: April 1st 2013 Date completed: 20th April 2013
Production started: 29th April 2013 Date completed: May 20th 2013
Rough cut supplied to client: May 29th 2013 Date completed: June 8th 2013
Final version to client: June 10th 2013 Date completed: June 25th 2013
Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Shot List - Interview
Shot list for interview
Shot no.1
This shot was on the subject Tim playing his bass guitar to show his skill and possibly revealing what the interview shall be about, this shot lasts for around 4-6 seconds. The camera then zooms into his hands playing the guitar. The following shots are also to generate the same feel of setting the scene, or letting the audience in on what the subject will be about.
Shot no.2
Shot number 2 links in with the intro section of the interview, as aforementioned the shot above this was Tim playing his guitar and our group decided to link in another musical object into this intro. The shot only lasts for around 2 seconds this was the shot of the amplifier. Whilst this shot is taking place the audio is still playing as it was in the previous shot, it is one continuous audio piece along with another 3 shots relating to the intro from this shot (Shot no.2)
Shot no.3
Next, our group decided to place another shot of a musical item that was found within the room the interview was conducted. This was the shot of the electric guitar in the corner of the room, this shot also lasts for around the same time as the previous amplifier shot, these shots are very flash like in the way they are presented.
Shot no.4
After number 3 it then goes back to the amplifier however this time the shot lasts for around 5 seconds, our group felt that we needed to show another shot of this piece of equipment as it is very important to many musicians in the current music scene like (Tim)
Shot no.5
This was our final intro shot to the interview, our group decided to showcase his own skill on the bass guitar to almost introduce himself to the audience by showing what his hobby or possibly what his life is based around. This shot lasts for around 8-10 seconds, we decided this was a sufficient amount of time as we wanted the audience to take in what they were being shown.
Shot no.6
Shot number 6 is where the main body of the interview starts to take place and also finishes. This is one angle throughout the entire shot. The image below shows its simplicity however it doesn't have much in the shot to distract the viewer from the subject matter (Tim) Our group decided to use this one angle throughout because of this reason and we feel it was what information Tim was giving us was the most important element of the interview.
Production Log - Interview
Production Log
Interview no.1
Week 1
This was the first session of filming our interview which seemed rather rushed as Tim had a music lesson to attend to with a student. So there wasn't much time for our group to set up a professional looking miss-en-scene however the interview was still conducted and continued on. For this we decided to only use 2 shots with no introduction shots taken. These shots were of Tim and one shot of the interviewers hands with the question paper (Rob) in this session our questions were asked and awnswerd and the interview filming was finished.
Week 2
At the start of week 2 we then began to upload the clips to the program final cut on one of the mac computer in the media department at school. Our group then began to place the clips into order and begin the editing process.
Week 3
At this point we unfortunantly ran into a very large problem regarding the mise-en-scene. We sat through our interview with our media teacher (Mr Southworth) who gave a small rapid review on the interview, immediately there was a large issue with the mise-en-scene which we agreed on. We claimed that our interview would have a professional sense of musical mise en scene within it however in this was not evident and a decision was made to continue editing the interview in the next week, and re-arrange another time to re-conduct the interview, this time in a much more professional way.
Week 4
Week 1
This was the first session of filming our interview which seemed rather rushed as Tim had a music lesson to attend to with a student. So there wasn't much time for our group to set up a professional looking miss-en-scene however the interview was still conducted and continued on. For this we decided to only use 2 shots with no introduction shots taken. These shots were of Tim and one shot of the interviewers hands with the question paper (Rob) in this session our questions were asked and awnswerd and the interview filming was finished.
Week 2
At the start of week 2 we then began to upload the clips to the program final cut on one of the mac computer in the media department at school. Our group then began to place the clips into order and begin the editing process.
Week 3
At this point we unfortunantly ran into a very large problem regarding the mise-en-scene. We sat through our interview with our media teacher (Mr Southworth) who gave a small rapid review on the interview, immediately there was a large issue with the mise-en-scene which we agreed on. We claimed that our interview would have a professional sense of musical mise en scene within it however in this was not evident and a decision was made to continue editing the interview in the next week, and re-arrange another time to re-conduct the interview, this time in a much more professional way.
Week 4
This was the last session of editing for the poor interview however we still finish it by placing it in order. We thought that by finishing it and placing it on our blogs we could compare the difference between the old and the new and how much better it would look visually. At this point we then began to contact our interviewee once again to remarriage a time to conduct the interview again from our faults.
Re-filmed interview
Week 1
Filming
When filming the interview we decided to use a number of different shots to generate a good story-like intro to our interview (our shot list shows an in detail description of each shot) We decided to use these different angles for the introduction as we thought it could make a good introduction to our subject. The filming was conducted in one of the rehearsal rooms in the Music section of the school again. However this time when filming, our group made sure that the mise-en-scene was of a much more professional standard due to the first time the interview conducted, the mise-en-scene was very poor. This area of RavensWood school suited the subject very well. As well as generating a good introduction when filming the interview in this session, we also shot one angle for the main body of the interview where the questions were asked towards Tim.
Week 2
Editing
This session is the first of the editing process, our group have imported the filmed clips from the camera onto one of the media departments Mac computers. We have uploaded the clips into Final Cut (editing program) we have now also started to splice the clips into order (starting with the introduction to the interview giving it a title and placing all of the intro shots together in a professional order.
Week 3
This week of editing we started to add different effects to the interview such as shortening some of the clips within the introduction to the interview. A good example of this being shown is when there is a shot of an amplifier for a few seconds then shoots straight to another guitar within the music room shoots quickly back to the amplifier. At this point of editing we also added the audio of the clips to suit each part of the introduction, we had to make sure the audio fitted when Tim's fingers were playing the strings of the bass guitar otherwise we would've faced another problem of a continuity error.
Week 4
This was the last week of editing for the re-filmed interview and not much of a variety of editing occurred within this week. However this was the most important piece of editing that had to be conducted for the interview. At the end of each question our group decided to show a cut to transition from question to question to show that the subject had changed or moved onto another question being directed at Tim. We thought this would make the interview look much more professional and clear to follow.
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