Looking at Dreamweaver as the technology needed to create my web page.

Today I have been looking at the technology I am going to use to for my web page; this is dreamweaver. I have been researching how to use dreamweaver as it is quite difficult to use for the first time. I have been watching a video on youtube on exactly how to use it. This has given me a small insight in how to use the basic features of Dreamweaver in order to make a web page for my film.  

Planning of ancillary tasks.

Along side with our video; we have to create two ancillary tasks. The two tasks I have decided to create are a web page promoted our film 'Split' and a poster promoting it as well. This is because we have already created a trailer for our horror film; 'Split' and now we want to use a poster and a web page as a way of promoting the trailer. The first task I will look at creating is a poster promoting the movie; to fully create this using conventions of a real horror movie poster I will look at real horror film posters. This way I can inhibit some of their real conventions in my own poster; either conforming to them or challenging them.

The first poster I will be looking at is; Scream Four. This movie came out last year. The Scream films are very well known and are a brand of their own. Most people know the Scream films due to the iconic 'Scream' mask as displayed in the poster. This Scream brand has also become a big sensation at Halloween as a lot of people have bought the masks; in dedication to the film. So as a well known brand; there is no better way to promote the movie than using it's iconic feature that is the Scream mask. It is a simple poster because the picture is so iconic nothing else really needs to be said. The only other things mentioned in the poster other than the date and the title which are needed to tell the audience when the movie is coming out is; 'New Decade. News Rules.' This is because the third movie from the Scream movies was released in 2000 and it has been a decade since the new one had been released. This will draw the audience in as they believe and exciting twist will happen because the characters are now playing by 'New Rules of the new horror genres.' Due to copyright laws; obviously the company label that the films is produced by has to be included.

Now because our film; 'Split' is an original film, we do not have a popular and well known brand name or iconic picture to promote the film itself. So this means we either have to create an iconic picture to break into the brand or create a new way of drawing the audience into the poster and the film. From this poster I can tell that obviously the name and the date of when the film is coming out is very important, also a catchy slogan that will make the audience think will prove to draw them in as they want to discover the mystery the slogan has created. I will want to use the obvious conventions in the poster as they will prove to draw the audience in. Although; I will have to look at other horror movie posters to see the images and other conventions I may want to conform to in my poster. 

 As I have looked at a poster of a major horror film belonging to a well known brand; I thought I would look at a poster of a low budget horror film from the BBC. To see the conventions they use because the movie is a new release and not belonging to a string of previous movies. I will see the conventions they use in promotion the movie within the poster with the low budget they had in the first place. As I can tell straight away both of the posters use red and White for their posters with a black background; insinuating that most horror films like to use this colour scheme to portray horror itself. Using the red as blood. The title of the movie and the date of when it is released are both in red because that is the text that the audience will need to see in order to know what the movie is called and when to go see it. The quotes by a newspaper is also featured at the top of poster. The quote states; 'A Slasher movie for the SKINS generations' and also; 'A New Class of Terror.' This has the same strategy as the scream 4 poster as they are both insinuating that this film is very different to the previous horror films. They are trying to relate to the audience which will likely be teenagers. This is why they have stated the 'SKINS GENERATION' because skins is a very popular teen show and using this to promote itself to teenagers is a very good way of drawing teenagers in. As it will involve all of the things teenagers are getting mixed up in these days including; sex, drugs, smoking and alcohol. This is a good way of letting the teenagers know they will be able to relate to the movie. Also it lets them know it is unlike other old horror movies of the past that they might have found boring; using the words 'A NEW CLASS OF TERROR.' Using a school like term to help teens recognise the fact that it is aimed at their audience. It is also telling them it is on a higher level of terror that they are yet to see. The Scream 4 Poster also uses this convention. Now the image used is a lot busier than the Scream 4 poster's image because it needs to identify the characters in the film because they have not yet got an iconic image to promote the movie. So they have included all of the characters in the movie in the poster to help the audience recognise them. The image shows stereotypical views of what teenagers may look like in their school uniform; including lose ties and too much make up. Though in the poster they do not all look life like. They look asleep or even dead; allowing you to make up your own mind about what the image is telling you. This helps teenagers get a realistic view of what the film is going to be about; the stereotypical versions of themselves really. As Scream 4; this poster also needed to include the company that produced it and also the names of actors and actresses that are in the film.

Looking at the conventions used; I will most definitely be using black, white and red as a colour scheme for my poster because it seems to be the iconic colour scheme used for all horror movie posters. Creating a fear and thrill within the colours themselves. As used in the Tormented poster I will also want to included a quote from a newspaper or magazine promoting the film as it is a new release and needs to be promoted for the audience to hear about it. I will involve a title about the new level of horror for the new generation and decade that we are in as it has seemed to be proved quite successful with these posters. Drawing the new audience in as the believe it will be scarier, more relatable and completely different to any horror movie that they have seen before creating a growing audience. The image is what really interests me in the poster. As I have seen the movie I know which characters die and the ones that do not. I was very confused as to whether in this poster they are dead or just being stereotypical teenagers; lazy, drunk or drug induced resulting in them behaving this way in the picture. This picture also helps you recognise ALL of the characters in the poster because all of them are in the movie as well. The image itself creates a mystery for the audience because they don't know what is going on the picture exactly. I will definitely be using the convention of mystery in my poster for 'Split' because I do not want to give too much away in the image I provide in the poster, so the audience will want to find out what they are missing and go see the film.

The next horror film poster I looked at was; The Crazies. I have seen this film and it is very scary so I know what it is about but anyone who has seen this poster will not know. Though they will recognise that it is of the horror genre because of the 'Help us' writing in what looks like blood on a sign that says the friendliest place on Earth. Stating that something terrible has happened to the people living in that town. This will help the audience recognise that the film is in fact a horror; letting the horror lovers know this is their type of movie. Eventually leading them to seeing the film. The poster is quite simple really; the main object is a sign in the middle of a path and field with blood writing on it. This will catch the audience's eye because the normality of the picture has suddenly changed due to the writing on the sign. The simple sign in the middle of a field has suddenly become a horrifying cry for help insinuating that the person has died since the writing is in blood. This works because it isn't too busy and doesn't give a lot away; keeping the mystery and making the audience wonder who wrote it and why? The title is not in the main focus because it is the image which is the main object due to the severely alerting picture. The title is on the right hand side of the poster because obviously they want the audience to know what film it is but they want them to make their own mind up about what is happening in the picture, so they do not want to take the focus away from the picture with a massive title; so they have only used a small title. As Scream 4 and Tormented the title is in red; the horror genre mostly uses red because it is an alerting and bright colour. It can also be described as evil because it is a sign of the devil or considered to be the same colour as blood.

This poster is probably my favourite one out of all three because it has got a high amount of creativity because it makes the audience think about who exactly needs help and why. Opening the human mind up to all different kinds of suggestions, letting the audience make their own characters in their imaginations. These characters will either be certified or replaced with better ones in the film. I want to create a sense of mystery in my poster; not give too much away to the audience to give them time to make assumptions about the poster themselves. I definitely want to produce a creative picture that identifies something that was once normal but has been interrupted by something abnormal. I will also make the title of my film; 'Split' quite small because the main image will be the bigger focus drawing everyones attention to this.  

Posted our first draft of 'Split'

We have uploaded our first draft of our trailer; 'Split' to Youtube and now we have the time to improve, change and add anything that we feel will make it better. We will also be looking for suggestions and opinions of others for feedback.

Tips given by the examiners for the G325 exam in June

Today we were given tips from the examiners for our exam in June.

G325- Hints, tips and past questions

Umbrella Topics:

• How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?
• To what extent is human identity increasingly mediated?
• How do the contemporary media represent youth and youth culture in different ways?

TO SECURE A LEVEL 4 ANSWER:

There are no heard and fast rules, but the examiner’ report on the June 2010 exam gives some tips:

• Representation
• Key theories such as Marxism (for example)
• Ideology
• Hegemony

And make your connections between examples and theoretical context explicit and sustained. You must be able to set at least two different approaches against each other, for example feminist and Marxist.

Examiners tips:

‘Candidates were able to utilise the ideas of Gauntlett on identity along with Judith Butler and a range of others very well in relation to film and magazines.’

• Prepare some quotations and be able to discuss the ideas…

WHAT DO THEY KEY TERMS ACTUALLY MEAN?

• Representation- It is the construction in any medium (especially mass media) of aspects of reality, such as people, places, objects, events, cultural identities and other abstracts concepts.
• Ideology- for the purposes of Media Studies is, put simply, the ideas behind a media text. In any society, there is an agreed set of beliefs that underpins society. For example, the moral values of Christianity that underpin much of the British society even today.
• Hegemony- The accepted and agreed beliefs in any particular society. For example, you could say that football has hegemonic status in the UK.

What you are getting marks for:

• Explanation/analysis/argument -20
• Use of examples -20
• Use of terminology -10

YOU MUST TALK ABOUT AUDIENCE AND INSTITUTION AS WELL AS REPRESENTATION. HOW INSTITUTIONS CONSTRUCT TEXTS AND HOW AUDIENCES RESPOND.

Specimen Questions:

• Discuss the contemporary representation of youth and youth culture using specific textual examples from at least two media to support your answer.
• How far does the representation of a particular social group change over time?

Refer to at least two media in your answer.

JAN 2010:

·        Analyse the ways in which the media represent one group of people that you have studied.

·        ‘The media do not construct collective identity; they merely reflect it.’ Discuss.

JUNE 2010:

• With reference to any one group of people that you have studied, discuss how their identity has been ‘mediated.’
• ‘Media representations are complex, not simple and straightforward’. How far do you agree with this statement in relation to the collective group that you have studied?

JANUARY 2011

• Analyse the ways in which the media represent groups of people.
• What is collective identity and how is it mediated?

Notes on Quadrophenia

Today we have been watching the British film Quadrophenia which is about the riots that occured with the 'mods and rockers' in the 70's. This film is one of the first british films to portray youth in a realistic view. During the film we were asked to make notes on how the youth are being potrayed;

Opening scene:

• Motorbikes
• Travel in packs- Causing a threat.
• Drugs: -Sellers and buyers.
• Smoking
• Girls: Appearance orientated
• Bad language: arguments
• Mods and Rockers: RIVALS
• Boys are girl orientated (sex orientated.)

Creates a bad influence on young people watching
- Gambling
-Driving while under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Adults just ignore behaviour

• They expect this sort of behaviour.
• The do not help them, they can deal with it themselves. (Being sick at work from a hangover.)
• Parents show no interest.
• Parents set a bad example.
• Parents say their kids are; 'Not normal.'

-When one group of teens/young adults start to cause trouble; all 'youth' are roped in together and thrown out. (Of a cafe.)

Reviews of 'Eden Lake' in newspapers.

Choose one of the three films (Eden Lake, Harry Brown or Attack the Block) to research. Try to find reviews which reflect different persepctives, e.g. from conservative newspapers like the Daily Mail , or The Telegraph, and liveral newspapers like the Guardian, and The Independant.

EDEN LAKE

Liberal
The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/sep/12/horror  

Conservative

Daily Mail: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1054787/Eden-Lake-A-great-movie-stomach-it.html

The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturecritics/timrobey/3560312/Film-reviews-Eden-Lake-Jar-City-and-more.html

Media and Collective Identity

Today we looked at Media and Collective Identity as revision for our June Exam.

Media and Collective Identity

“Identity is complicated- everybody thinks they’ve got one.”-David Gauntlett

“A focus on Identity requires us to pay closer attention to the ways in which media and technologies are used in everyday life and their consequences for social groups.”

-David Buckingham

What do you need for the exam?

• Social group as a case study- examples
• At least two different media (films/television)
• Understanding of and reference to theory/cultural critics
• Your own voice!/others

What is Collective Identity?

• Representation: The way reality is ‘mediated’ or ‘re-presented’ to us.
• Collective Identity: The individual’s sense of belonging to a group (part of personal identity.)

How do contemporary media represent different collective groups in different ways?

• Focus: young people
• Diverse representations including fiction, non-fiction and self-representation
• For the exam, your own examples from the group you are studying will gain you marks.

How does contemporary representation compare with that of the past?

• Today: young people on TV/online and in film-mainly contemporary
• Examples needed for similarity and difference
• Examples from the past

What are the social implications of different media representation of groups of people?

• Stereotyping: what is its Impact?
• What power does the audience have to ‘resist’?
• How do we ‘measure’ the representations we encounter?

To what extent is human identity increasingly ‘mediated’?

• Increasing media = increasing mediation?
• Re-presentation by others/by selves.

FILM

• Fish tank- Andrea Arnold
• This is England- Shane Meadows
• Goodbye Charlie Bright- Nick Love
• Withnail and I- Bruce Robinson
•  Quadrophenia
• If- Lindsay Anderson
• Clockwork Orange- Stanley Kubrick

G325: Critical perspectives in media exam outline Section A

Introduction

• The purpose of this unit is to assess your knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates
• You are to show your understanding of media issues and evaluate your own pratical work in reflective and theoretical ways.

-Two hours
-Answer two questions on own production work and one question from a choice of six topicareas.

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of your production work, from AS to A2.

• Question 1a: Identify one production and evaluate it in relation to one theoretical concept.

-SKILLS DEVELOPMENT      -Research of real media texts
-Media representation (use for own work, AS to A2)
-Digital technology                   -Post production
-Creativity                                -Research and Planning
-Using conventions from real media texts.

•  Question 1b: Requires you to select one production and evaluate it in relation to a media concept.

-Genre              -Audience      -Narrative      -Representation       -Media Language

JUST ONE!