Planning of Film

Propps/ Mis-en-Scene/ Costume

I am going to base my super hero on the Childrens series 'Power Rangers'. Although there are going to be some modifications such as title and style, so that it is aimed at more of a teenage audience. Many other comicbook superhero characters have done the same on the big screen, so this could happen with a TV show.

This prop is a morpher, which will be used to eastablish the superhero character, towards the end of the opening scene after the football game.

I will be partly using the helmet towards the end of the red ranger, so this really establishes to the audience that this is an action/superhero genre film, for when the central protagonists morphs and begins the fight at the end of the opening. Although due to buget this will have to be made as a type of mask, not a helmet.

The football will be used in the slow motion scene at thr very begining, to signify that the character is very sporty, so its in keeping with the superhero being strong, fast etc.

For the villain character of the narrative, they will be wearing a basic black hoody, due to the colour of black representing evil and death. This a basic costume, once again due to budget, but will once again establish the genre of action.

Sound

I will be using non copyrighted material which i have optained from audionautix. At the current moment I have downloaded some action genre music which will be use mainly in the fight scenes. The main problem is finding the right pace music for the fight and chase scenes. Could give a possibility of making my own music on 'Garageband'.

Results from Questionnaire

Post Options

Labels for this post: e.g. scooters, holidays, autumn

Research and planning

The genre in which I am basing my work on is action. Though I am theming it on the sub genre of superheroes.

Directors

Waschowski Brothers

The Wachowski brother's most famous directorial work for the action genre was 'The Matrix'. Their narrative work is usually told as multi part narrative as they base their work on the same style as a type of comic book.

Michael Bay

Michael Bay is best known for making large-budget action films, such as Armageddon, The Rock, Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys, Bad Boys II, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and producing remakes of horror movies such as Friday The 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as well as the upcoming A Nightmare on Elm Street.

His style of work is considered poor even though he has won many awards for his recent work in the film Transformers.

Martin Campbell

Martin Campbell's most famous work was directing many of the James Bond films such as 'Golden eye' and 'Casino Royal'. He has also directed the recent Zorro films as well. His awards have mostly been won in TV dramas where he won the British Academy Television Award for best director. It is confirmed now that he will be directing the super hero film 'Green Latern'

Genre: Action

The narrative of the action genre is largely told through physical action as opposed to dialogue. The main action is taken up by the Hero character of the film. The genre usually follows the theory of Strauss with the binary oppositions of Hero and villain fighting each other, which also could follow the same theory of Propp also. The action film genre is closely linked with the thriller and adventure genres.

Current trends for more modern action film, is alot more elaborate fight scenes (e.g. The martix etc).

Evaluation of progress: Week 5

Theories



Toderov: This theory applies to many meida texts as it is a very basic structure to follow. This theory follows 5 steps



- Equilibrium (This is where the scene is established so are the characters aswell)



-Disruption to equilibrium (This usually introduces the villain of the story or an event that changes the normailty of the characters lifestyle)



-Recognition of disruption (This is when the characters find out the changes in the narrative)



-Attempt to repair disuption (When the situation or change of the narrative is going to be changed to the same equilibrium or a new equilibrium)



-New equilibrium (This is the end of the narrative/story where the disruption is sorted and then a new storyline or back to the start)


Propp: His theory is based around the characters of the media text. There are 8 characters in total

-The villain — The person who fights agains the hero

-The donor — This person gives the hero an object to help with the adventure

-The (magical) helper — Helps the hero on his/her journey

-The princess — The person that the hero has to save towards the end of the narrative or even sometimes marries.

-Her father — In media texts this person is not usually distincted as the father to the princess

-The dispatcher — The dispatcher is the person who sends the hero off on a type of 'quest' which knowledge of something that will happen on the way

- The hero or victim/seeker hero — This is the character that saves the princess and is accompanied by the helper

- False hero/anti-hero/usurper — Trys to take the princess away from the hero and even tries to marry the princess.


Levi-Strauss

This theory is about the binary opposits within media texts such as e.g.

-Hero/villain
-Black/white

Skills using camera

For filming with cameras we used many shots for our film such as, close-up and long shot, this was due to that the zoom feature on the camera. The camera did not have a complex setting which was easy to use.

Skills in Imovie

Using 'Imovie' aswell was simple since I have used it before for animation projects of my own. There is a simple step by step process that you can follow so that you can upload footage that you need. It is also simple to crop/edit video clips so that you can make it shorter if you want to at certain points or even split the footage so that you can delete images easier. You can aslo add effects to the footage to improve the effect.

Genre Homework

Codes and Convention of Science Fiction/action genre

Codes:
· Aliens
· UFOs
· Space
· Planets
· Green
· New technology (futuristic guns)
· Military
· Time travel
· Robots
· Sterile

Convention:
· It is usually set in America when aliens want to take over the Earth.
· It also contains the type of hero that will save their own home planet.
· There will always be mass destruction of people and buildings before the final equilibrium
· There will be a damsel in distress to be saved
· Also a type of alien treasure (Indiana Jones and the kingdom of the crystal Skull)
· They mostly follow Toderov’s theory.

Evaluation of genre music

Evaluation of research

To obtain the information required for the music Genre action, I used the search engine Google and typed in the key words: Action genre music. This gave me the list of what Google had search with those keywords and the very first result shown was Wikipedia. I also used the software on the computer Itunes, to listen to existing music of that Genre and get a general idea of what type of tone and tempo that the music will be like.

Part of the research that went well was the finding of existing music within the software Itunes as it gave a list of different types of action Genre films or I used my own knowledge of recent films as well of that Genre.

The research that went badly was the finding of pages on Google. Even though I typed in the key words: Action genre music, the results given did not show a clear understanding of what type of instruments are used within the genre though Wikipedia gave a simple explanation of what type of tempo the music should be. So instead I had to use what I could hear off of Itunes and tried to use the similar instruments.

If I was to research again for the music, I would still look up recent Soundtracks of music from Itunes, though I would try and use other search engines rather than Google. Also maybe look and see what types of instruments the musicians play and try and research that instead.

Garage Band

Our task for the software Garage Band was to create our own piece of music in a group, for a genre of our own choice. Which in the case was action.

To begin with the whole group was given a simple demonstration on how to use the Garage Band. This included on how to change instrument styles, mainly the basic requirements on how to change the beats etc.

We found using Garage Band itself quite easy. It was easy to change the different instruments and also using the keyboard was simple from the basic knowledge from previous works in music. The software itself is very basic and takes you threw step by step.

For our music making we used the electronic keyboard and put in some notes we thought that were very fast pacing for our action genre. We used some synethtic music for the base line and a hip-hop instruments aswell we had some random beats and noises which we used to make the music very loud and again keeping up the pace.

The success of the final piece was not achieved. The music notes were too random and that people could not identify with the music (such suggestions: adventure, also horror). It seemed to have more of a comedic quality as with the demonstration many people laughed.

Next time there is sections of beats within the Garage band, which many other people used through out media group used as we did not have the musical capacity to make our own on the keyboard.

Evaluating role in team

The skills I have developed in that week is what type of instruments to use in our genre of music action, which includes bass guitar drums etc.

Using Garage band, the main contributor of the project (playing the music) was me, then Jess was the listener to see what could be improved and moved to certain places. Ben also contributed to the music by suggesting what type of instruments to use at what point.

Photograph Homework

For this portrate shot I have used the goal posts as a type of inside frame within the camera. (Natural frame). I have used Sam (The subject) and placed her within the hotspot places so her eyeline faces on of the squares and the bottom line of the goal follows the opposite line. So her whole body is on 2 of the hotspots.





Again for this landscape I have used the trees as a type of natrual frame within the frame. I have used the pathway as a diagonal line so it looks as though you are about to travell down the road towards the subject which is the clock towers at the end of the shot. The shadows are also tilted slightly so that your eye line trys to follow the pattern down towards the end.

Camera angles and frames

A "Tilted shot" is used when the character is about to fall over in a rockfall or if a character is about to fall over.

A "Low angle shot" is used to show the dominance of a character. This angle is also used if the character is a giant and shows the huge height to scare the audience.

The "Looking room" shot is used for when an interviewer is talking to his/her interviewee. This usually requires a space in front of the speaker.

A "low angle" shot shows the insignificance of a character, this also could be used if a dramatic death has happened as if it is a point of view shot from the murderer.

This shot is known as the "Walking room" this is

used when someone runs or walks into the front of the frame e.g. running from a monster.

This shot "Over the shoulder" is usually used for when two people are talking to each other, so the audience can see who the person is talking

This shot is known as the "Two shot". This is used to establish the relationship between two people in that situation.

Now this shot is called the "Very long shot". Now this is mainly used in the establishing shot to show the audience where the film is going to be set.

This is a "Medium long shot", this is to show the relationship between the background and the character. This could include a character running from an explosion.

A "Medium long shot" is used so that more than just one person can stand close together and it sets a more social frame. (Its not focused on just the one person now).

This shot is a "Medium close-up" to show again the characters facial expression whilst showing more of the background to show the surrounding.

"Close-ups" are used for when you see an emotion on a charcaters face. This is used on all types of films to show to the audience how they feel.

A "big close-up" is used when a character is giving out facts, so the shot is to show that the main chacater is giving important information.

This shot is an "Extreame close-up". This shot is commonly used for showing emotion around the eye area to show e.g. fear

Why I chose Media Studies

I studied Media Studies at GCSE and gained an A grade for the subject. Not only that, I love studying all different types of Media and how it is created in different ways, from Newspapers to Television. I also think that media will help me in my career in the future of working in Television production.