Closure

This blog is now closed

AND RELAX!

All of this has come to an end :(
With a hectic few weeks of working out what to say, filming with many difficulties of battery life and editing it all this week, I have finally finished AS Media coursework (can I go back to September please and start it all over)

Evaluation Question 7

Question 7: Looking back, your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Evaluation Question 6

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

Evaluation Question 5

Question 5: How do you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Question 4

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question 3

Question 3: What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

Evaluation Question 2

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social group?

Evaluation Question 1

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

Evaluation Stress!!

I have finished my notes on what I will roughly say for each question but now, all I need to do is to sit down, turn on the camera and speak about "Duplicity". What's so hard about that?

Well, I'm currently at home, stressing about what to say and whether I'll have time between now and Friday 22nd April too finish recording, editing and uploading all of the seven questions together.
Let's hope my editing is quick and fast!

Iconic Moment

This is the screen shot of our iconic moment in our opening feature film.

Not the dog, not the strongbow but this:

The showcase is on Monday 14th March

Review: Room

Directed By: Lenny Abrahamson
Starring: Brie Larson, Jacob Tremblay, Joan Allen, William H Macy, Sean Bridges.
Plot: After five-year-old Jack and his mother escape from the enclosed surroundings that Jack has known his entire life, the boy makes a thrilling discovery.

Wow. This film truly captivated me. Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay deserve and Oscar for this. And Jacob should of got more with previous award ceremonies. The shots were so simplistic but with every close up you see the different emotions from the characters, especially from Joy "Ma" and Jack. I now understand why Brie is winning all these awards because she performed so well and you can't help but sympathise for her character, because in spite of all that has happened, she still wanted to be a mother. The only thing I did not like about it, is the interview with the interviewee, I liked Joy's answer but I felt the whole concept was a bit cheap and reminded me of Gone Girl.

A truly great film, shot perfectly and performed great. Definitely a film everyone should watch.

Titles Ideas

Here is some of the names we have for our opening two minutes.

Alibi
Look Back
Shadow
Shattered Asylum


Nevertheless, I have no idea what to offer for the group :(
Even a plot is a lot to think about.
Now, the whole class has seen our project, maybe we can ask them on Monday what they think would be a good title for it.

If you have ideas for the title of our feature length film, please tell us!

Feeback Number 2

On Thursday, we showed our opening minutes of our feature film to the class and Miss Foster.
The reviews were, in my opinion, very positive and luckily we don't have to do any more filming!!

Now, all we have to do is sit back and relax, not drop a cup of tea and wait for the 4th March.

However, we do have a check list for next week:

- Change the title transitions
- Add the scream and foley it right at the end

FEEDBACK

With my team not in school I was a lone wolf on Monday, so I thought I would ask Mac 1 to give me feedback on our 2 minute opening.

Here it is:

Please ignore the boys in the background ergh!

 

Snow, Snow, Snow

Last Sunday we filmed new shots and re-filmed some old ones as well.

We changed Billy's character too have a more nerdy approach instead of a mask.
Unfortunately, we decided to film on a Sunday and it decided to snow the night before. However, with the re-shoots we needed to do, it didn't affect them as you couldn't see the grass covered in snow.
The only shot that you can see the snow in, is the final Two Shot. But we need to re-shoot that anyway because we now have gone back to our original idea of braking the mug (throwback) and needing a better reaction from Jodie as the killer comes running too her.

Behind the Scenes from last weeks filming, giving feedback to the "stars"

 

We Should Sue the BBC (Joking)

Well, on Monday Miss reminded me at how the start of Luther is similar to our opening.

As the murderer secretly is the wife's husband, he sprints right at the end and then cuts to the titles. Similar to ours, our killer sprints towards the protagonist and then we cut it to a blank screen.

We could say that we got inspiration from them but that would be lying! We thought of this idea before the episode came out and we should basically sue them for taking our idea. But in reality, they probably thought of this idea after the third series came out and we only thought of this idea in September.

And now it all goes wrong...

Here this woman says "Who are you". After editing everything this week, we realised that Jodie should react better and include dialogue and now she's going too say the same thing as this woman did, looking at the killer in the distance.

We thought of an Over the Shoulder shot but it didn't look right in our film and the mise-en-scene

 

 

Our Close Up of Billy's hand won't reveal a knife but instead something more weird and freaky.

 

Then eventually, he runs past the camera (to kill her). We hope for Billy to run into our camera or past and then we cut it too the two shot; the final shot!

Character Profile: Billy Winter

Smart and Creepy. How we imagined and someone you wouldn't want to see in the back of your garden!

 He can not smile in pictures and when he attempts too, he ruins it.

 

 Him and his very last minute thinking prop: hand sanitizer.

 

I think they're happy they don't have to film on a Sunday Morning anymore.

Character Profile: Jodie K Maxwell



We kept all the outfits simple  

 

Jodie's Character: all black with the famous odd socks

 Can't forget the mug

Both stars together, getting on like he's not about to murder her or something!

Oscar Nominations

The Oscar Nominations came out this week and it has made me see how much I want too see "The Revenant", "Room" and "Carol" after all their hits during this award season.

With the amount of nominations, "The Revenant" looks likely too be the winner and after the Golden Globes winner, they could possibly win it at the Academy

This COULD be the year Leonardo wins his first Oscar! His main competition is most likely Matt Damon.

It's highly unlikely that J Law will win her second Oscar. But I hope Brie or Saoirse will win it for their performance.

I am a fan of Kate Winslet and Rachel McAdams so either of those two would be favourite too win and after the Golden Globes, Kate might get it again!

 Stallone's win at GG could see him win the Oscar but I do love Mark Ruffalo so he is my favourite too win.

 After reading an article from Alejandro and his win at the Golden Globes, I hope he wins the Oscar.

 I don't know who will win this but I think the main contenders are: Mad Max, Hateful Eight and The Revenant

There are many more awards but these seek out too me more and the ones I'll be checking on Monday morning after the night.

EDITING !!

We went back in on Monday after the Christmas Holidays and Mock week too start editing again!
After a few weeks not seeing the footage we took amused us slightly as we see how Billy (the killer) can not run and fails a lot.

Anyway we got back into it and surpringly JB was really quick at editing it all together that all we need to do now is re-shoot some scenes as Miss said that we shouldn't have the figure in the garden with a 'mask' over their head. So instead, we're having him pure face and then finally shooting the last scene too perfection! With a few new camera angles ideas inputted in.

Also, on Friday, we started adding in titles for the start of the opening. Although, we haven't actually thought of a title name but hopefully with this editing, we can come up with one as we keep watching it and all the shots are finished!

 Jodie is very intrigued in our editing

Filming: Behind the Scenes

FILMING

WE HAVE FINISHED FILMING!

HOORAH!

We forgot about a mask for the killer so instead used a pair of my tights, stuffing the leg part down my brothers neck. Hopefully, we have one good clip of the high angled two shot of the killer sprinting towards Jodie because they're a lot of out-take of me complaining to Billy that he needs to sprint not jog or too sprint like a normal person!
Anyway, we have many different shots and re-shots of the scenes inside the house. Don't worry, Jodie made tea with milk this time !!

All we need now is for Jodie to shoot her close up of her feet getting out the shower and then our shots are completely done!!

After those two days filming, I am now really excited too see how it can all come together with great teamwork and hopefully think of a title whilst editing it together.

 



 ME as the stalker man

 JB taking a shot of the tap

 Jodie's P.O.V Shot

Testing out new shots too have if we want too add it in

Ahh Jim after a long morning of filming

Review: Joy

Directed By: David O' Russell
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro
Plot: Joy is the story of the title character, who rose to become founder and matriarch of a powerful family business dynasty.

 

 

This film is pure joy (pardon the pun). But it does have that family tone feeling and even though it doesn't scream "And the Oscar goes too...Jennifer Lawrence" as much as I want it too, it isn't on the "Silver Linings Playbook" Standard. Although I shouldn't compare that performance too any of her other roles, I just feel like her performance as Tiffany made me cry and she deserved it then. But with this film, it is such a good film I feel like she at least deserves too be nominated.

Furthermore, Joy Mangano, we can see the pure struggle that this divorced mother of two kids had to face and with society changing now, people can relate too it. But also, you can see how she never gives up and that's what everyone should do: not give up.

 

HOWEVER, I do have one thing too say. Can Bradley Cooper and J-Law stop making films together!! This is their fourth one now and I know that they are great together, but I feel like I need too see a film of hers where she isn't sharing it with the same old actors again. Nevertheless, I still watch every film she's in and love them no matter what.

 

Still love J-Law though.

Review: Se7en

Directed by: David Fincher
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, Gwyneth Paltrow.
Plot: Two detectives, a rookie and a veteran, hunt a serial killer who uses the seven deadly sins as his modus operandi.

It's been a while (sorry).
Anyway, in December, the whole class watched "Se7en". Though I have never seen it before, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Overall, I enjoyed the fact that we didn't see the serial killer until the end where the final two sins were to be shown. I read online that Kevin Spacey didn't want to be on any posters or even the opening credits because he wanted people to be surprised.

These types of films / TV Dramas (not too such a gruesome extent) do entertain me and get me hooked in to the plot. With many viewers wanting too see how these people died I thought it was better this way because the only death we see is "Wrath" when David Mills shoots John Doe. Furthermore, the opening title sequence was confusing at first but eventually, we see someone shaving off the skin of their fingertips. Later, John Doe does exactly that to prevent himself from not being caught.

Overall, I enjoyed the film a lot and will have too watch it again...