Antonio Gransci

Antonio Gransci was Italian philosopher, writer, politician and political theorist and he was the leader of the Communist Party of Italy and he was imprisoned by the orders of Mussolini. What Gransci writing was about culture and political leadership. He was inspiried by working on Marxism theory. His main believes were

The capitalist state to remain.

To get the best out of the working class by developing them and educating them.

The difference between political society and a civil society where leadership is excepted through ideology or my the majority of the people.

"Absolute historicism". Which is a theory that events are determined or influenced by conditions and inherent processes beyond the control of humans.

"economic determinism" is associated with Kaul Marx's work. The theory works likes this primacy to the economic structure over politics in the development of human history.

In our teaser trailer we could make it into a political theme terror attack. M15 and MI6 work is very secretive and an attack to the UK is an attack to the top of society of well as the bottom. Also we could link some countries wanting to bomb the UK because of its capitalist system. I am not sure if we will be going down this area in our teaser trailer but I feel we definitely should consider an attack on certains groups, like the upper class or some ethnic group etc.

Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell's theory was to try and "unlock human responses to narrative patterns". Campbell had a passion for mythology he even went as far as seeing the patterns of his own thinking and getting into the minds of people around him.

He wrote famous books like "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" where he thought some of his students at University and he used popular thinking and he started to comparative mythology where he used the study of the human impulse to create stories and images to try and build a picture of them. This sort of work is frequently used as police work is all about building a picture of what happened to try and get to a successful conclusion to there investigations.

Unsurprisingly some of his work also links in with psychology as he really wants to get to mind of how effectively the brain works. He also looked at the sides of religion and how that effects in how we look they look at things differently. He brings all of his work together in his book or "The Power Of Myths" where it looks at all the areas he had worked on mythological, religion, and metal states of people.

We will need to use Joseph Campbell’s theory in our teaser trailer in how we portray each character. What sort of links and believe they have which may tie in with religion and the audience needs to know what sort of metal state and pressures which make them do what they do. It is all key to build this teaser trailer.

Research - (Pete Fraser's Blog)

I was doing some research on the back of my post yesterday about openings. I had a look at Pete Fraizer's blog to have a look at what he says about how to show opening credits effectively. I couldn't find anything specific which directly goes into that but what I did find was an interesting video, he had put up, about how much detail has to be thought about.



What he has done is explain and justify everything that is put into this video. What he does is talk about the significance of putting in effect and shot. What I learnt from watching this is that everything we film we have to justify it to an audience. We cannot put in a part because we want to we have to ask why did we put that part. We have to be able to answer that every single time. He even goes as far as justifying the colour choices he uses and the background music.

I know he put this up for Year 12s for their trailers but I feel that this will help us make a successful teaser trailer as we become more analytical and critics of our own work. As we are moving onto our story boards I can show this video off to my group and we can use the skills from that into our story board.

Openings to shows and films

Spooks



Spooks opens with many spilt screens and has many different images of iconic images of London. It introduces all the main character. To show this is a more mysterious and serious show they have every character looking serious and worried. The introduction shows clips of their day to day struggle they have to deal with and the dangers as MI5 agents. The only piece of text that we see is at the end when it is telling us what show we are watching at the end of the introduction.

Serenity



Middle of the screen white coloured writing with a black background. Size 14-15. Easy to see no distraction from the background. Some of the writing comes in at you to emphasizing the audience to read the text. The only Dietetic sound is the music which goes with the action on the film.

Hustle



The opening title in Hustle coincides with the music they play. The opening credits are cleverly put in when the music tunes. The writing is all in white and always near the centre of the screen so your eyes are pealed to the credits and the music fits in as a background noise. Another thing which makes this opening so good is that you do not have to chase around to look for the credits as all the credits are around the middle of the screen.

New Tricks


The opening is a bit different in how they show the opening credits. The text is still on the middle part of the rule of thirds but the writing is more to the bottom than the top. Also the colour of the text is a mixture of white a yellow but we the audience can still read what is on the screen as it matches the actors to the credits.

The Usual Suspects


The credits which are shown here is interesting as it shows the actors name right at the end of the trailer. It comes after the footage of the trailer and after the showing of the title of the film. They also post the names of the actors in different places but they show the names one by one. You also get a good 2 seconds to read the names off so the brain isn't being challenged to follow the credits.


What I have noticed in these introductions and trailers follow the same type of pattern. The credits are written in white because it is the clearest colour. When they show the written credits they normally have very minimal things in the background so that the audience is focusing only on the text. The majority of the time the text is in the middle of the screen as it makes the audience aware of the text which is in front of them. We can use a lot of these basic, but effective, techniques to grab the audiences attention to something specific. I will be doing some futher investigation into this and have a look at different blogs to see what they saying about Credits and how to present them.

Motion picture Logo

^ ^ I think, I have finally discovered the name of the production titles at the start of teaser trailers. Although trying to find a definition of is harder than, finding the name. Motion Picture logo ( I hope) are the company's involved animated logos, at the beginning of the films/trailers and teasers. These are normally only a few seconds long ( roughly 10 secs at max), normally consisting with an image, name of the film and a music. These are important to the companies involved as it symbolizes the company and audiences can identify the company by it.

Some famous motion picture logos are Pixar, 20th century fox, Paramount pictures and Walt Disney.

I feel at the moment our idea isn't challenging my media skills. So Rather than just filming random shots and putting them together ( Even though Teaser trailers aren't meant to include much real footage, so our teaser idea is resembling that of a trailer at the moment) with titles. I Feel making a few of these titles will professionalize the look of the teaser and challenge my skills personally, as this is more my field of editing.

I think the best way to come up with a logo is to do a still image first, then animate it..

* Update after looking at some motion picture logos.. they are inface much longer than I thought.. more in the 20sec range. Amazed.

Gah MS

OFVM Week 4

This week we all sat down and voted on the 2 ideas we liked the most. Once we had decided we were split into 2 groups. One group doing one idea and the other doing the other. My group were doing a comedy style piece about a man who was wearing an unhappy mask, he feels very rejected and the audience sees this by birds flying away when he tries to feed them etc. At the end of the piece he meets the female equivalent and he becomes happy again.

We sat down as a group and started bulding up on the idea. We then agreed that we needed to find suitable masks for the piece before planning the whole storyline out, therefore we agreed to contact each other to agree a time to go and look at masks.

PG

Teaser trailer research

As I was thinking about other action/thriller films I remembered the Bourne trilogy. This is a very good example for us to look at as it includes similar scenes to the ones we were wanting to include.

They show the build up of tension very well. The storyline also follows the lines of trying to find someone urgently from the two different perspectives (Bourne and the government). I also like how in the second clip they start with Bourne warning the government to stay away which is similar to how we wanted to start our piece. There are a lot of shots of the government computers showing them tracking his movements which is something we could use aswell. The last clip also uses a heartbeat sound effect to create tension, this could be very effective within our piece as the main aim of our teaser I feel is to create tension.

PG

Making the bomb - ideas

After the last whiteboard we created where we sequenced our ideas we now wanted to think in more detail about each individual scene.

The first idea we had was for people to be putting a bomb together.

PG, Say wahhh?! MS, PM

Running through a busy area

This was the whiteboard for what we thought we could include in our possible chase scene

PG and  legendary MS

Interrogation scene

What we thought we could include in an interrogation scene.

PG and the incredibleMS

Government trying to find out who the bomber is

This is the board about what we were thinking around the government trying to find the bomber.

The name Sergio Leone was a directors name given to us by our teacher who thought we should look at his work.

PG and a cycling duck -MS

Bomb being put together

This was our discussion about what we may include in the "bomb being put together" shot

PG and multi oscar award winning MS

OFVM Week 3

This week at my course our main focus was on lighting. We were looking at the effect of lighting whilst doing an interview situation. It was unclear to me before this lesson just how much lighting could change the look of each shot. If you only had lighting from the front you could make the person look very flat and by making the lighting dark from the front and back you could create a very atmospheric setting which looked like a scene from a horror film.

We may be able to take some of the things I have learnt about the lighting and encorporate these into our final piece, however we may not be able to get the proffesional style lamps I used at my course.

PG

Leaving breifcase in building - ideas

The fourth scene we had planned was for the bomber to place the bomb somewhere inside a building.



This video is a brief outline of what we may include when filming this scene. Not exactly top class acting by myself!

PG and cheeky MS

Walking with brief case

The third scene we had planned was the bomber walking into the building.

PG MS

Person on the phone - ideas

The second scene we had planned was for the person who is responsible for the bomb to be on the phone, stating the situation.

PG and minor MS

Media Representation

Today I went to see Slumdog Millionaire and what interested me was how they represented each character in this story. What was interesting was that they didn't go with convention in easily portraying each character. What they did with some of the characters they made them switch from being a bad character to a good character and vis verser. Normally in films the characters are established very quickly but by confusing the audience it added something extra to the film which might have not been the case if it went down the conventional route.

What I thought was that we used some elements of that in our trailer. Admittedly they shown this through a whole film not through a trailer but we could snippets of how we could portray the characters which would be gripping and exciting. By not going down the conventional route it would challenge the audience to follow the story line and make them want to watch the film as they would be having question in there heads which would need answering. The only way it could be answered is by watching the film. That is the sort of line we could go down.




On the back of watching Slumdog Millionaire I decided to do some research into Media Representation. I feel that this diagram is the thing that we need to focus on when we are looking at the representation of the characters in our teaser trailer. We always need to be answering these question to justify what we will be filming.

The text which is above the diagram talks about the representation of different people. It talks about the "cage" concept and the "gaze" concept and how that influences an audience and how they see each other which links to the work Mr Gray was doing with us last lesson about Representation and the different concepts.

PM

Vladimir Propp sequence of events

I found this on Wikipedia, now as Patrick has drafted (at the moment) the Character theory, I thought I would expand on the research. To the sequence of events what happens in films.

1.ABSENTATION: A member of a family leaves the security of the home environment. This may be the hero or some other member of the family that the hero will later need to rescue. This division of the cohesive family injects initial tension into the storyline. The hero may also be introduced here, often being shown as an ordinary person.


2.INTERDICTION: An interdiction is addressed to the hero ('don't go there', 'don't do this'). The hero is warned against some action (given an 'interdiction').

3.VIOLATION of INTERDICTION. The interdiction is violated (villain enters the tale). This generally proves to be a bad move and the villain enters the story, although not necessarily confronting the hero. Perhaps they are just a lurking presence or perhaps they attack the family whilst the hero is away.

4.RECONNAISSANCE: The villain makes an attempt at reconnaissance (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc.; or intended victim questions the villain). The villain (often in disguise) makes an active attempt at seeking information, for example searching for something valuable or trying to actively capture someone. They may speak with a member of the family who innocently divulges information. They may also seek to meet the hero, perhaps knowing already the hero is special in some way.

5.DELIVERY: The villain gains information about the victim. The villain's seeking now pays off and he or she now acquires some form of information, often about the hero or victim. Other information can be gained, for example about a map or treasure location.

6.TRICKERY: The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim). The villain now presses further, often using the information gained in seeking to deceive the hero or victim in some way, perhaps appearing in disguise. This may include capture of the victim, getting the hero to give the villain something or persuading them that the villain is actually a friend and thereby gaining collaboration.

7.COMPLICITY: Victim taken in by deception, unwittingly helping the enemy. The trickery of the villain now works and the hero or victim naively acts in a way that helps the villain. This may range from providing the villain with something (perhaps a map or magical weapon) to actively working against good people (perhaps the villain has persuaded the hero that these other people are actually bad).

8.VILLAINY or LACK: Villain causes harm/injury to family member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc., comits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc.). There are two options for this function, either or both of which may appear in the story. In the first option, the villain causes some kind of harm, for example carrying away a victim or the desired magical object (which must be then be retrieved). In the second option, a sense of lack is identified, for example in the hero's family or within a community, whereby something is identified as lost or something becomes desirable for some reason, for example a magical object that will save people in some way.

9.MEDIATION: Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc./ alternative is that victimized hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment). The hero now discovers the act of villainy or lack, perhaps finding their family or community devastated or caught up in a state of anguish and woe.

10.BEGINNING COUNTER-ACTION: Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action. The hero now decides to act in a way that will resolve the lack, for example finding a needed magical item, rescuing those who are captured or otherwise defeating the villain. This is a defining moment for the hero as this is the decision that sets the course of future actions and by which a previously ordinary person takes on the mantle of heroism.

11.DEPARTURE: Hero leaves home;

12.FIRST FUNCTION OF THE DONOR: Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc., preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);

13.HERO'S REACTION: Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against him);

14.RECEIPT OF A MAGICAL AGENT: Hero acquires use of a magical agent (directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, eaten/drunk, help offered by other characters);

15.GUIDANCE: Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;

16.STRUGGLE: Hero and villain join in direct combat;

17.BRANDING: Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);

18.VICTORY: Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);

19.LIQUIDATION: Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revived, captive freed);

20.RETURN: Hero returns;

21.PURSUIT: Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);

22.RESCUE: Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);

23.UNRECOGNIZED ARRIVAL: Hero unrecognized, arrives home or in another country;

24.UNFOUNDED CLAIMS: False hero presents unfounded claims;

25.DIFFICULT TASK: Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance, other tasks);

26.SOLUTION: Task is resolved;

27.RECOGNITION: Hero is recognized (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);

28.EXPOSURE: False hero or villain is exposed;

29.TRANSFIGURATION: Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc.);

30.PUNISHMENT: Villain is punished;

31.WEDDING: Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).#
 

5ft 7 - MS

synopsis

To my earlier post about my bomb idea I had last month. The background to the story would go like this An M15 agent has been told she is being relieved of her duty. They feel she isn't up to the standards of an M15 agent would have to be. She feels angry and betrayed as this was her life long dream working for them. Before she left she had to sign a piece of paper saying she will not tell anyone the secrets that M15 have. But she is so angry that she wants to take action against M15. What will she do to get her revenge?

PM

Ideas

We have come to a stage in the planning where we are now starting to fix together all of our ideas into one storyboard. Even though I cant be at all of meetings (as I have lessons at a different location) the meetings I have been in have shown we are making progression towards a final idea to shoot for our teaser trailer. We have been putting all of our meetings onto our blog and taking pictures of the work we have done during these meetings. We are hopeful that we will have a complete story board soon and maybe be ready to film. Our difficulty at the moment is trying to build a story which is realistic for us to do. We are having good ideas but it isn't quite fitting together yet. But we are slowly fitting them together to make a story which we can do and make really well. What I think last meting (which I was not there for as I had a lesson) they were fitting together a story board. I will find out on Wednesday's lesson on how far that has gone and what we still need to do.

PM

representation

Representation is a key part of how we will be filming our characters. It builds up the characters in films and the label of how they portrayed by the audience through out. Representation on the one hand, as we are doing a teaser trailer, we don't want to give all of the film away through the teaser trailer but on the other hand we need to portray some of the main characters and give the audience a clear understanding of who is who and what sort of lines they will go down or just inclins of what they coul do in the film. I was reading a blog just now about http://davesmediablog.posterous.com/ (half way down on June the second 2010) what implication different social media representations of people have on society. The things they see in the media influence how we portray certain groups in society. As we are going towards an bomb idea we have to think about how we portray each character and what parts we show of them to best fit there role.

PM

Films

I was looking at a couple of trailers last night and thought we could use some aspects of how they have shown their trailer's into our teaser trailer. The first film is Serenity.



What I like about this trailer is way they show the credits. They show it in such a way that it looks like someone is typing this onto the screen as we watch the trailer. It caught my attention straight away and made me interested in what this film is going to be about. It shows all the credits and all these small messages through out the trailer. It made me want to know what the next action they were going to show and what sort of messages were they going to write. It grabbed me throughout the whole trailer and made me want to go and watch this film.



The second trailer I was watching was "The Usual Suspects". What really caught me about this trailer was the way they used the many pictures to build up an atmosphere of fear. This happens at 1.46-1.54. I believe that was the most effective part of the trailer and we may be able to incorporate that into our filming.

PM

Roland Barthes

Another theorist I have been looking at is Roland Barthes. He studied the meanings behind signs and what different signs could signify. For our project we could think about the main signs we are using and think about the signifiers they have. At the moment the key signs we have in our film are the "bomb" and "money".

The main signifiers behind a bomb are:

- Explosions that can kill mass amounts of people
- Terrorists often use them
- They are made using lots of different chemicals
- Homemade boms
- Revenge
- Coloured wires

The main signifiers behind money are:

- Greed
- Power
- Status
- Recession
- Luxury lifestyle
- Stockmarket

PG

Eisenstein - argued that montage was the essence of the cinema

Eisenstein was a pioneer in the use of montage, a specific use of film editing. He and his contemporary, Lev Kuleshov, two of the earliest film theorists, argued that montage was the essence of the cinema. His articles and books — particularly Film Form and The Film Sense — explain the significance of montage in detail.

His writings and films have continued to have a major impact on subsequent filmmakers. Eisenstein believed that editing could be used for more than just expounding a scene or moment, through a "linkage" of related images. Eisenstein felt the "collision" of shots could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors. He believed that an idea should be derived from the juxtaposition of two independent shots, bringing an element of collage into film. He developed what he called "methods of montage":

1.Metric
2.Rhythmic
3.Tonal
4.Overtonal
5.Intellectual

I also found this PDF document explaining further, but there are quite a few pages too look through, from what I read seems quite interesting.
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dgillett/ENGL_411/pdf/DP_Chapter_2_selection_I.pdf

User MS

Vladimir Propp

We could try to use Propps character theory when we are creating our media text. It might be easier to incorporate his theory into the whole story behind the film rather than necessarily trying to fit all the characters into the teaser trailer.

Propps theory says there were 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed, these were:

1) The Villain - The person who struggles against the hero

2) The Donor - The person who prepares the hero

3) The Helper - The person who helps the hero in the quest

4) The Princess or Prize - The person the hero marries often marries the princess as an award for beating the villain.

5) Her Father - The person who gives the task to the hero

6) The Dispatcher - The person who sends the hero off

7) The Hero or Victim - The person who reacts to the donor and goes on the quest

8) The False hero - The person who tries to take credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess

As we start to produce our teaser trailer we are going to need to think about how we are going to portray the characters. For example the bomber would usually be shown as the villain but we could put him in the position of being the hero by making the audience side his/her beliefs.

PG

Stuart Hall

After seeing Matty's earlier post about theorists I remembered my teacher (Mr Wroe) mentioning Stuart Hall in one of our previous lessons. I looked up his work and found that he was one of the main theorists to come up with the idea of "reception theory".

His Reception Theory is about how different readers interpret texts in different ways due to their cultural backgrounds and life experiences.

Hall also developed his own theory ("Hall's Theory") of encoding and decoding. This stated that audiences have 3 different reactions to a media text

1)Dominant/Preferred Reading - How the director/creator wants the audience to view the media text

2)Opposition Reading - When the audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own reading of the text

3)Negotiated Reading - A compromise between the dominant and the opposition readings, where the audience accepts the directors views but has their own views aswell

We cannot incorporate this theory into the building of our teaser, though we can analyse our text afterwards and see how people react to it.

PG

Breif Media theories

Ok when researching for theories, I came across www.alevelmedia.co.uk. Which had a breif  discription of media theories. However not all of them are to  do with film. So here is a breif outline of them, in further posts I will expand in more detail the relevant theories.

Coates - Examined that there are 4 ways to understand a society (linked to ideology)

Cohen, S - Coined the term moral panic in 1972 - Media was often seen as the trigger for a decline in moral standards in society

Corner, John - Examined the process of realism within media texts

Defleur - Development of the hypodermic needle effect - he stated that it was dependent on the psychology of the individual (psychodynamic)

Dutton - Developed an extension of Galtung & Ruge's news values - 12 most significant

Eisenstein - Developed the form of film with his use of montage

Fiske - Stated that there are 5 factors that determine the social position of an audience

Galtung & Ruge - Process of gate keeping and news values - to define how editorial choices are made

Gauntlett - He challenged the effects model on audiences and has investigated the impact of web 2.0 on identity and audiences. Media Studies 2.0

Gillmor - The notion of audience revolution in the construction of their own media products (we media)

Gramsci - That dominant ideologies can change over time, moving away from heritage and tradition if enough audiences/groups enforce their own discourse (we media)

Grossman - Examined the effect of video games on audiences

Hall, Stuart - Mediation is the process by which all media products are read by audiences. Theories of representation linked to encoding and decoding. Types of readings

Hartley, John -The idea that there is a 360 degree consumption. Saturation of the media for modern audiences. An advocate for media literacy. 7 Factors can affect audience interpretation of a text.

Kaplan - Feminism - defined women as a distinct group in two approaches - essentialist approach and anti-essentialist approach (women constructed by male society)

Kutner & Olsen - Conducted research into the effects of video

Leiss, Kline & Jhally - Developed 4 formats for advertising

Lyotard, JF - Developed concept of postmodernism - Media texts are self aware, independent from modernism and able to pick and mix meaning from real life and vice versa.

Marshall - Examined the changing relationship between games and movies (2004)

Marxist - The idea that Media and mass communication supports the ruling class/governments by reinforcing their ideology. Ideals and cultures can be enforced upon the masses.

Maslow - Created a hierarchy of needs (pyramid with 5 descriptors originally although developed), useful when examing advertising.

Mayers, R - Author of Robohog and shameless promoter of his work on his own websites, including this one.

McLennon - Developed theory of ideology and that 3 conditions needed to be present.

McQuail - examined models of communication - including modes through the media and how processes have changed. Developed models of society out of Marxist theory. Claimed there are 4 methods for measuring audiences.

McShane - Highlighted 5 points/methods that journalists follow

Meehan - Study of feminist representation in the 1970s - useful to contrast to modern day studies.

Morley - Stated that the position and interpellation of media groups affects how texts are decoded

Mulvey -Feminist Theory - the concept of women as objects in media and men as subjects. Contested in some modern films/adverts of today

Neale - Identified genres by their use of audience expectations and common conventions

O'Brien, W - Conducted a study into the development of 3rd generation gaming through historical commentary

Parkin - Examined audience positioning when looking at readings of media texts - dominant, negotiated, oppositional.

Perkins - Representation - Gave argument that the use of stereotypes can be good, that stereotypes can change and even be positive (1979)

Propp, V - Examined the importance of character within narrative after studying classic folk tales - 32 character profiles

Saussure - Concept of semiotics and language (linguistics) 1974 - the extended connotations of within a cultural system

Tapscott & Williams - Linked Web 2.0 to a new strand of economics (wikinomics, 2006)

Todorov, T - Identified 5 stages of narrative/story and the notion that plots have a circular narrative. Equilibrium and Disequilibrium. (film)

Tudor -Defined and categorised the types of montage used by Eisenstein

Williams - Identified 3 core characteristics in Drama and also categorised 9 forms of the TV programme.

Researcher MS

Adding to the storyline

As we were thinking of a motive for our bomber and we currently didnt have one I thought we should keep it simple and have our bomber asking for money. This would allow us not to over complicate the storyline and also allow us to think of the myths and meanings behind money.

PG

The Bomb

As Matty and I were planning the storyboard today we realised we were probably going to need to show the bomb, especially since we werent going to be able to produce a realistic explosion. Therefore I decided to look at other films and see how bombs and detinators looked in their pieces.

Hurt Locker:









I think this is a different type of bomb to the type we are looking to use in our film, though I do like how they have shown the wires.

Speed:







This is much closer to the bomb we will be looking to create a copy of. The red analog countdown, the wires and the detanator all look realistic and also look as though they were home made.

Speed 2



Not the best shot but it shows another home-made device with red analog numbers attached to coloured wires.

Rush Hour



I think this is the best shot of a bomb out of the selection I have pulled out. It is also one that we could quite easily make.

Don't Mess with the Zohan



Although this is showing someone holding a bomb it shows C4 with coloured wires attached.

I feel I have now looked at enough images of bombs for us to create a look alike for our own piece.

PG

Ordering ideas for storyboard

After our media lesson today Matty and I stayed behind to start ordering our ideas for the storyboard. This allowed us to think of how the ideas were all going to fit together and also made us think about other ideas we could include. The next stage after this is to think individually about each of these shots and what exactly we are going to have in each.

Note: The boxes all link together and have numbers in them to put them in order. The boxes that are not linked by lines are shots that we will do but that we are unsure of where to place until we do the editing

Actually MS and PG

Teaser Trailer Idea

As we have been struggling to come up with a decent storyline behind our teaser trailer and also due to the fact that we have had lots of interesting ideas for our piece we decided today to start building our storyboard. We then hope after developing this for a while that a storyline should start to develop naturally and we will then be able to create a pitch for our film which we will then put up on our blog (probably in video form).

PG, rev-MS, PM

OFVM Week 2

This week on my course we were filming a spaghetti western. We were given a pre-made storyboard made up of 10 shots. Each of us were given a chance to take on the different roles (Director, Camera, Sound, Clapper and Asst Director)except the actors who stayed the same throughout. The Director was in charge of setting up the scene, giving instructions to the actors, checking all components of the filming were set up correctly and telling the crew "action" and "cut". The Camera-man after being told what to do by the director would then make sure the shot was in focus and that there was nothing in the shot that wasn't meant to be. The Sound-man is in charge of making sure there is no irrelevant background noise that could distract from the filming and reporting these to the director, however we were told unless there was a disturbance near the beginning of the shot then we should not stop the filming to tell the director as it may be possible to edit it out. The Clapper-man had to keep track of the shot number and the amount of takes and put this on the clapper before every clip. This helps when editing the piece as you do not have to view the whole clip to see what piece of action you are seeing.

As I was not an actor I got a chance to have a go at all of these roles. I am very keen on being camera-man as I already knew from my previous filming experience, however I enjoyed being a sound-man as I have never done this before and it felt like a different world listening into the headphones as I could hear in much more detail.

I feel the whole class learnt how long it can take to film even the shortest of pieces and also how important it is to make the storyboard as detailed as possible trying to think of all possible problems and then sticking to it.

I now have to come up with an idea for a short film for next week.

PG

Drive Angry teaser trailer

OK so I found this trailer, not my taste. But it has good, similar aspects to what we kind of want to do its an action thriller, it manages to build up tension through out, it gives a hint of a story line and incorporates explosions, what my group seems to want to do.. which I dont think will look effective, it would be more realistic for us to suggest that an explosion has taken place like when they dont show someone getting punched, not actually showing a 'stage punch' but have before and after with a sound to represent a punch.. adds more effect than actually showing it.



MBE MS

the room mate teaser trailer

Another soo called teaser trailer but seems to fit more the conventions of a trailer, with the amount of actual footage used, it also seems to give a lot of the plot away, like you now know that the girls 'psycho' and stabs the people, so audiences will now know this will happen.
But it does use titles well, like using the tag lines to enhance the plot. Also the title of the film isnt just on a solid background, but instead add an effect/ animation to it, which I think what ever our film turns out to be we should make use of that, to show media skills.


My name: MS

The Smurfs 2011

So I've been finding it hard to find actual teaser trailers from recent films, alot of them seem to fit the criteria more of a trailer, rather than a teaser. So I have started looking at films coming out in 2011 and 2012, however these are even harder to find, as alot of them dont have teaser trailers out yet. However I have found one.. The Smurfs 2011.



A childhood tv programe, created into a film. The target audience is probablly higher than what a normal cartoon film would be, as it was shown more in the 1990s, I'm not even sure that its been on kids tv in recent years, so the younger generation wont of met the characters before. Getting back to the trailer, it shows little or no actual footage from the film such as the smurfs hanging on to a taxi, showing the name of the website, basically telling the audience to keep track of the film to go to this website ( I have noticed that teasers do like to encourage the audience to go to the website) it uses clever effects, such as making famous landmarks blue, the already sets out that the smurfs will get up to mischeif in the film. It also has it credits at the beginning, and when the film is out at the end what seems conventional of teasers, It also shows the audience what genre the film will be with the use of content.

ppM < MS

RANDOM

Ok so this is not related to our teaser trailer production though I found an online music video in a style that I had never seen before. It needs Google Chrome to run smoothly but it is "crazy and clever" as Matty said when I showed it to him.

The video starts by asking you where you grew up when you were little. It will become clear later in the video as to why they ask this.



It then uses different windows to pop up at certain points throughout the video to show a man on the street running in one window and birds flying over where you said your house was in the other. Very clever

Take a look for yourself:
http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/

PG

2012 Teaser trailer

Very simple teaser trailer, with little sound, but uses the text to tell the story. Also unlike other teaser trailers it says 'google search 2012', which is odd that they dont give their own website out, but searching it, will allow the audience, to read up theories and myths of what will happen in 2012, the way in which people think the world will end, so its like saying do your own research.

I forgot to put a name her ebfore, so had to edit. MS

bomb idea

So we have this bomber who brings his suitcase to a secret location which has a timer which shows how long till the bomb will detonate. He then calls up the MI5 headquarters and tells them that a bomb will go off in this amount of time. The story then becomes a race to find the bomb. They find the man who put the bomb into a secret place but he doesn't tell where the bomb while getting interrogated. Just before the bomb detonates one of the MI5 members finds the bomb but the only way to de-activated it is to cut one of the coloured wires. As she has no time to think she cuts one and then this huge explosion happens and that’s where it ends.

My other idea was to go even further where we then have 4 split screens of the devastation that just took place after the bomb activates.

I was not sure if we should show an explosion happening or end it just before the cutting of the wire. But I will discuss this idea with my group later on today.

PM

Teaser-trailer research

I have noticed as I have been watching more teaser trailers that only certain genres are sticking to the conventions. These are:

Comedy - e.g Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me



Animation - e.g The Incredibles



Sci-Fi - e.g Jurassic Park



Horror - e.g Paranormal Activity 2



Adventure - e.g Lord of the Rings



However action/crime/thriller films tend to use footage they will use in the final film in the teaser. This is due to the fact their audience wants to see little clips of any explosions or fight scenes to tease them rather than the background behind it as much.

e.g Action - Mission Impossible



PG

OFVM Week 1

On Tuesday I started a cousre at OFVM (Oxford Film & Video Makers) where I am in a group of 10 learning how to make a short film.

In my first lesson we watched and analysed the past videos made on the course and learnt how to set up the filming equipment, including camera, headphones, external monitor, tripod and external headphones. We were also told about the different types of camera shots and movements though I had learnt these previously for my AS media studies.

PG

Bomb storyline idea

The other day, I sent a facebook message to the group members, setting a homework to come up with at least 1 synopsis of a potential idea for a storyline involving a bomb, so that we can nail down a storyline sooner rather than later... Heres Mine...

Ok so I got my inspiration from four lions, my idea is the opposite of this, the side of a commical bomb squad called into action to stop a bomb.
The bomb squad

Genre: Action/Comedy


Dan Addison (Dad),James Sinclair (Jammy),Tom Tazlamala ( Mr DoubleT) AKA the london bomb squad, would not build you with confidence at disarming a device, this fumbling trio are used to doing controlled explosions on unattended lunch boxes. As the public and authorities live in the age of believing everything left unattended is going to blow up and take their heads off. Setting up their own explosives on their childrens toys they challenge each other to try and disarm the bomb before they are exploded with paint.
However when A call comes in warning of a Bomb in the center of London set on a timer, the trio are called in to their first real action, will they locate it in time? as the world watches in wait.


alternatively it could just be locating a bomb for a game.. where it will just be red paint if it goes off

Possible ideas to include in the trailer..

Exploding little toys..
Having photos of them with their thumbs up, with paint all over them.. or flying through the air.
Them running away
One of them saying.. "This shit just got real dude.. DUDE!"(other persons walked off) so just stands there nodding his head, smirking
Getting slapped.
Failing to get dressed and falling over
Getting called into action when on the toilet.. You see one sitting down, trousers down reading a magazine, other ones knocking on the door to hurry the 'fuck' up
Slight Racism.. trying to say one of their names
The title of the film being blown up with paint.. which then goes to coming soon., explodes again into the next titles.
running up stairs/ slamming a door shut, what slams back in their face.
All 3 hanging off a granny scooter.. pointing and saying "that way"
Falling off a chair..
Getting hit in the nuts, looks like hes going to get his genetials out but cuts before seeing it..
Getting in a news story
Going to jump over a ditch but falls in the ditch..
Characters simultaneously putting on sun glasses, and one puts on protective goggles..
looking at a map, then all 3 pulling and going a different way, then later see a masking taped together map..
Top boss " Why has there been so much money spent on red paint" Team member- " Man we got needs"
walking round and round those revolving doors..
walking into a glass, and squashing nose against it as he slides down with his face against the window..
stubbed toe..shouting at the object " Man what the fuck is up with you, why the feck are you trying to break my toes, you absolute..."
shot of one of their heads stuck in something.. like an umbrella, in a climbing framem D-Lock



Simply MS

Analysing a teaser trailer (Resident Evil:Afterlife)

First off id like to point out that this film is not the same genre as the Trailer we plan to do. then I'd like to point out how this is exactly how I envisioned our task right from the off.

From our initial brainstorming activities as a group i tried to express my idea but it did not turn out as well as I had perhaps hoped. but after seeing this film i was interested to see the teaser trailer and there we have it. A Different genre but perfectly modelled Version of my idea!
The beginning where the screen is black and there is a voice over this creates suspense which can hold the viewer throughout the entire duration of it. Which is interestingly ~37seconds, this is interesting because this is a standard time for a teaser trailer but on the other hand, lots of films teaser trailers do break this 'Barrier' of a time limit.

After this you have the main characters jumping through the window this is an action packed move and it further entices the viewer to continue watching.
This is relevant to our idea because the whole code of a bomb threat is the thriller effect of it and this being a Horror/thriller Movie we can analyse and take reference when doing our own work.

Aside from what the imagery that the teaser trailer shows, it also has the music. this sort of bellowing sound like thunder 'beneath' the other sounds. as well as the non-diagetic sounds that are put in to make the cuts seem more intense than they are perhaps in the final production.
This was also an idea that i put forward in the initial brainstorming meeting and me and Patrick Greenberg seemed to agree that the Non-Diagetic sounds would play a key part in our piece.

In addition to these things there is the blackouts between cuts. another idea i had toyed with but is used to great effect in this particular teaser trailer it makes them seem more fast passed and intense, which again leaves the viewer wanting more of these incredible visual stimulus's.

All of these things are then summed up after only 16 seconds of intense cinema and the audience is left for 14 seconds thinking about the film before moving on to the next teaser they are likely to see. Now, this is important because they don't want to give away too much of their film in the teaser trailer but they do want to put good bits of their production into it (or at least what they think will be in the final one). What you might notice is there is actually only 3 shots and 2 cuts in the teaser and the rest is titling and time to deliberate on what you just watched.

I think that now that the group has some time to see what my initial idea was even if it is a bad idea.

See my blog for a personal review of the movie after seeing it in 3d

CW

MEETING 1 AUDIO

OK as promised here is the recordings of our first meeting with Patrick, Piyal and I, I've split them into parts where different topics are discussed.

Part 1

The group discus a college made trailer for the film 'Speed (1994)

Part 2

Patrick has another idea!

Part 3

Piyals eye-dear

Part 4

The  2 different parties involved.

Part 5

the effect of the bomb

Part 6

Possible filming locations for a bomb teaser.
Part 7


other ideas

Plain MS

A media observation - Nothing to do with the group post

 Youtube has a new beta embedding format! This new style uses < I Frame >    
which uses a lot less code, not that its hard to copy and paste all the code, but its evolving technology!

If you use the new embed code style, your viewers will be able to view your embedded video in one of our Flash or HTML5 players, depending on their viewing environment and preferences.


An additional benefit of the new embed style is that it will eventually allow embeds to work on mobile devices, which typically use a built-in player instead of Flash or HTML5.

Original MS

Meeting audio -Update

OK so heres the long awaited update on the state of the audio from our meetings that we recorded... I gave up trying to get websites to upload the file and then for it to embed it.. the closest I got was to uploading a file then who ever wanted to listen to it had to download it.. and that really isn't convenient.

Soo I've had to edit them all down, with a new program to me... Free Audio editor, ok not the simplest thing to use at first, hard to get exactly the right place, and then make a selection but to see if both ends of the audio should be in it.. you have to listen to it all the way through, nonetheless I have done the majority of them.

My favoured choice of editing down videos (without effects, otherwise that would be After Effects, but thats not the point) is Premiere Pro, but then that didn't recognize the audio files, so I went back to extreme basics. WINDOWS MOVIE MAKER, I know, I know. Matthew using windows movie maker afters all hes said about it, what a joke.. but I did! just plonked the audio in there, added the my banner I made for the blog and just uploaded it straight to youtube from there. Simples.

So the audio files should be appearing in video format soon, all nicely split up into different parts.

Basically MS

Con/Hustle whiteboard

Following on from Patricks worry the other day we decided today, to make a mind map for the myths of Cons/hustles. So Today Patrick, Piyal put our minds together to scribble the ideas in our head onto the whiteboard.

However a general view at the end was to stick with the bomb idea, but keep it simple not try and cram all our ideas into the teaser, to think logically of how we go about it and to have explanations behind our decisions.  We have probably decided to stick with the Bomb idea as it has a lot of myth and theory behind it, thus enabling us to write a better answer to the exam question.

Duke of Oxford MS, PG & PM

Facebook Group

I decided to create a group facebook page to allow friends to view films we have produced and also to show a use of other forms of media. I have invited the other members from our group to become administrators.

PG

Researching film trailers

I have been looking at film trailers online and found a really good website which was well up to date with all new and upcoming releases (http://trailers.apple.com/#section=justadded&page=1). It also showed the film posters which may become helpful later on in our production when we have to make our own. This made it easier for me to pick out trailers that we could look at relative to the genre we are looking at. It also helps us consider contemporary films rather than older styles.

PG

Matthew and Patricks Summer video practice

OK I've finally added a few just random practice shots we did over the summer, we wanted to see how well we could film whilst on the move instead of just a simple still, tripod shot.
So we did.. Well Patrick did, I just was in front of the camera..



In this we wanted to see how effective we could do a low down while filming shot.. So Patrick ,managed to hold him camera down by his pedal, to see the front wheel and where it was going.



In this shot, we had stumbled accross a track, near Patricks house where there was 2 levels, one high up while the other low down, this enabled us to effectively film, the cyclist pedaling at speed..



and in this one the reverse of the previous video.


The shots are good because it means we are able to put a wide variation of shots into our trailer.

Mr MS & PG

The Other Guys Teaser Trailer

 

Now this is my type of teaser trailer, saw it, laughed and then I went to watch it at the cinema.. Shows that teasers work. But is this a teaser, searching accross the world wide web, it seems like it is but it goes agaist the conventions of a teaser trailer, it shows a LOT of real footage, a lot of the action, the story line it introduce the characters, to be honest, most of the funny bits in the film were in that trailer, making it 2:29 of footage, but it seem this was the official teaser trailer.. which is completly different to that of the Up Trailer

However with some more research,  I found the Others guy motion poster..



Now to me this is more suited to the official teaser, at being a teaser, it doesn't give the story away, it gives minimal information away, introduces the main actors and shows the relationship between then and sets the genre to the audience.. Have the concepts of teaser trailers changed??

Legend MS

UP Teaser Trailer

OK this teaser trailer has worried us, It shows so Little, doesn't give away any clear story line, or introduce the characters, yet it fits the criteria of a teaser trailer.. We dont know how we could show off our skills with such minimal content. Unlike Toy story 3, There have been no prequels before this, Yet it is such a loved and popular film.
However I see this trailer as more of a Start to a film than a teaser trailer, although it does tease the audience in to wanting to know whats going on.. But for one thing it really has made us conscious of what a teaser trailer should be like..

Master MS & PG

Potential storyline

The wonders of emerging technology that I can just copy and paste a convo we had straight on to the blog! So below I have copied a part of our chat, where Patrick was voicing his concerns about our current plan of action and suggested a new potential idea. Take a look.. I even coloured it!

			Saint MS and PG
	12:16:51	Patrick	what did u make of the idea
	12:17:17	Patrick	i sort of thought last night why arent we doing a con artist style thing
	12:18:59	Matthew	Its good, if we can get a story line behind it.. but I do want the trailer to include lots of technical stuff.. Obviously I would prefer it too fit the criteria of a teaser trailer, but I would choose showing off skills over it fitting the criteria..
	12:19:27	Patrick	is it not possible to do both rather than choosing
	12:20:20	Matthew	I'm not saying choose, but I mean if we're having problems on deciding stuff.. I would prefer for it to be technologically good rather than fit the criteria and be simply made..
	12:20:42	Patrick	ok
	12:21:23	Matthew	cause it fitting the criteria is such small marks.. like Lilys and Robyns didn't fit it at all but still got an A*
	12:23:16	Patrick	i know and i can see why theirs did get an A* cos it was amazing, and i think we have the ability to get that sort of grade as well if we keep working hard at it, though it would be even better than theres if it was that good and fitted the criteria
	12:24:35	Matthew	Just seeing someone walk, nudging and then smiling at the moment doesnt seem it will show off our skills (by ours I mean mine and yours) to a level we can do
	12:25:55	Patrick	i thought of that when i came up with the idea though i think what i was trying to get at was that we can and probably should make our piece a lot less complex
	12:27:30	Patrick	i think we could still use the bomb idea but i think we are starting to overload the storyline and may end up with a lot of stuff we want to put into it which would make it like an actual trailer rather than a teaser
	12:28:47	Matthew	Yeah I agree and I think our film is becoming too similar to other films.. But I do like the idea of a con artist film plot..
	12:29:47	Patrick	yeah and the thing with that is we could any type of short con and you'd could already amuse the audience
	12:30:32	Matthew	I like it!
	12:30:35	Patrick	we could do a complicated short con idea that the audience wouldn't understand until the very end
	12:31:02	Matthew	and that could have mild comedy in it.. I really like it
	12:32:05	Patrick	we may also get away with using teenagers as actors to break conventions as well, though it may depend on what type of con it is
	12:34:49	Matthew	what about the idea, of a wannabe conman, but keeps on failing..soo like he thinks hes got away with doing something thing like nicking a purse when he opens it, its got nothing in and when he turns around he sees the other person waving his wallet back at him
	12:36:30	Patrick	yeah could do summin like that

Considering other ideas

Whilst we are considering whether our bomb idea is the best choice for our trailer, I have come up with another idea just so we can consider other options. I have only thought about what actually happens in the teaser rather than the whole storyline around it, though it has a link to the theme of the film and uses a character that would be in it.

At the start we see a man casually walking down a street. We can only see his legs at this point. We follow him for a while as he walks past other people and maybe turns a few corners, still keeping his identity hidden. He then bumbs into someone and apologizes to them. As he walks around the next corner we then show their face with a huge grin on it.

The reason I like this idea is because it is short and clever. It also achieves the main aim of "teasing" the audience. However since it is so short we would need to get all the camera-work spot on to make it look very high quality and slick. I also feel after reading Matty's post below that it may include a slight bit of humour so we can compromise on our genre preferences.

We may never use this idea but I think that this early in the production stage is the best time for us to look at other ideas if we are unsure about our first idea.

PG

" I really want to do a comedy teaser trailer "

Ok there the title said it...

Over the past few weeks we have been cracking down to researching, mind mapping, note taking, podcasting, ( well recording it will have to get the audio up here soon... if the internet wants to make it easy for me ) arguing etc. We've even as an creative idea decided to do a rap explaining our project, although thats early stages and that might not even happen.

So I decided to name the title of this blog mainly to explain how we've got to where we are...

Our group main aim has always to make a teaser trailer what will actually tempt an audience to want to watch, it to produce an exciting storyline what will excite the audience and want to watch more, to find out more, to answer the questions they may have as a result of the trailer. e.g ' Ohh my, whats going to happen, I must watch to find out, it looks like such a good trailer" < Yeah that sort of thing..

So basically me and Patrick were planning to do several videos over the summer holidays, but with my more health during it, that wasn't achieved, but we had come up with ideas and did a few practice shots ( I might upload some of them later) But that was where our planning for our project started.

Patrick had just realized over the summer that he has a basement in his house, he may of knew about it before but it hit him over the summer, what a good room it was for filming in; it was a just room back to basics, stone floor and walls, cold, murky, cob webby,with blinking lights and 'moving shadows'. This is where our first idea came about, the idea of Torture and interrogation. The appearance of the room was perfect for where we perceive just situations to take place.Where there is no natural light, no where to escape and no one to hear your screams.

So then as a group we researched the torture idea, the different types of tortures, who? why people torture etc. it was during these discussions, where probably joking about ideas, where an idea of a plot line about a bomb came about ( probs from one of us joking about bombing someone) this then expanded to more ideas related to do with the bomb, with one of our main ideas to come out of it, was a constant timer running, the beep, the deafening noise increasing through out the film, to build up tension, so not reveal too much, but tease the audience into wondering.

From then on we have expanded on the idea of the bomb, coming up with possible story lines, possible scenarios, mind mapping many an ideas for motives, who, where, when how. To do the bomb plot we have decided that best locations, suitable for us, would be the city of London, with the large skyrise office buildings, which we believe will create much greater tension, as more terror will be created, due to the large scale effect a bomb will have, whereas we cant think of any suitable places in Oxford what will create such an effect.

Heres a Photograph taken by Patrick of what we mean by the types of buildings we visualize being a ideal location for a film with a bomb.

Patrick's photography skills could easily be perceived as a work of a professional photographer. Patrick has produced a wide range of, well to me amazing photography, I would highly recommend people to view his skills at...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/44534046@N03/
Patrick has an expert eye on framing a shot and exerting an effective use of focus on the images.


Now this is where I differ from the others in the group, I favour comedy films over all others, I largely base if I watch on a film, if its a comedy,  I have always loved comedy and is a characteristic of mine, therefore I see making films in a different way. While they like there actions and horror films, watching a trailer of one of these genres would not interest me to go and watch it, for example Avatar although it may be an amazing film, It hasnt ever tempted me to go and watch it as its not my genre but if there's a trailer what makes me laugh, then I will want to watch it. So in my view I would find it much easier to make a comedy and get a laugh than an action and be able to build up enough tension to incise people to go and watch it, I feel at the moment I wont like the end result as much as the others, as its not a film, I would watch..
But the ideas we are generating at the moment are very good, I just feel we are lacking uniqueness as several recent films have used a bomb(s) as a plotline, and believe that some of our ideas are coming from similar films we watched. nonetheless we are working well producing lots of work and the outcome should be very good.

Saint MS

Toy story 3 Teaser trailer research

Toy story 3D


Title: Toy Story 3
Release Date: 18 June 2010
Genre: Animation/Family
Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, John Ratzenberger, Joan Cusack, Michael Keaton
Director: Lee Unkrich
Writers: Michael Arndt
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures

 Obviously at out current level this type of teaser would be completely out of question, However Toy Story 3 uses a effective way to advertise the film as its a sequel of 2 previous popular films, the creators had no need to to introduce the characters, as they have already been established in the previous films, likewise they don't need to introduce the story line either. Instead our popular characters, creatively create the title of the film and its release date.
Its familiarity and mild humour, enables the audience to already be enticed with the story line whatever it be and  the emphasis on the films information is all the audience needs. However as our characters or a story line hasn't been established before, this may not be a suitable route for us to take if we want to tempt the audience...

Sir MS