Task Re-DO PART II

OK so what i did was:
1)complete analysis of the 'inspirational blog' AGAIN!

2)discussed with my partner things we needed to focus on most and things we needed to just cover very briefly.Things that we should not put in our blog because we didn't find a valid reason to do so!

3)asked our sir what 'indent' means?

Ident - short for identification, esp. in reference to its use on television channels between programs. 

its basically the company logo that is presented in an animated form with background music and is presented in a certain manner. It gives the introduction to the production house that is used for making the film like 'Dream house' and 'Pixar' .

Task re-do part II

　Introduction

The bloggers have researched into the history of filming briefly,usually the time duration of the short film in different places like Europe and America etc and basically how the themes of the films produced in these countries relate to the people living there, but I believe that more detailed research should be carried out on the types of themes that are usually viewed by the people of a particular region or place as they are most likely to be your target audience and if we produce something that the have experience in watching the feedback would be much more valid and genuine. 

Their lifestyle, their cultural values, the meaning they attach to particular act, ceremonies, places etc should be well researched so that a more original and closer to reality film can be produced in the end. Focusing on issues that surround our daily life's, or issues that are faced by people of a particular region so that when the final product is viewed to them they can relate to it.
 
My team members
 
Next the blogger talks about her team members and at how they first outlined all the positive and negative points about their partner and how these positive and negative could be used to their advantage in their final project. 

I liked this point because i too selected my partner on the basis of her skills and her work compatibility with me so i would like to mention this.
 
 Shorts research 

The bloggers first outlined the conventions of a short film at how its usually up to 10 min long, related to everyday issues, uses less than 3 to 4 character, everyday location and characters. They also researched on the internet, short films related to their particular genre and the audience feedback that these films got.How positive were the feedback, the age group of the viewers of the short film. 

I believe once me and my partner decide on our genre and theme these short films related to our genre would help in matter of shooting technique, sound effects ,music, lighting, location, characters , clothing, environment etc as well so these will be beneficial in the making of the movie and topped with the feedback response the final product can be produced keeping in mind the age group of the viewer and their likes and dislikes but also following the conventions of the short film and genre.

Partners idea
 
Discussing with the partners about their ides, the pros and cons,difficulties they might face and suggesting solutions to these problems.
 
Our chosen genre and its conventions

Research into the genre, the directors who have produced long and short films on these related genre, the shooting technique, their terms applied etc.the type of sound effects used, location, setting, environment, characters,clothing used and also the audience feedback, by which age group they got the most views etc. 

What i liked about the 'inspirational blog' here was that they highlighted all the conventions of their genre so it makes it easier for them to follow them or challenge them later.
 
Target audience research and declaration

The blogger used You Tube for viewing the target audience just to get idea about the type of target audience that is interested in this genre. Good data has been collected.

 Me and my partner agree that we would use this method as well but we will use other media technology as well for feedback and getting data like Facebook etc.

Film treatment

First the blogger made the original script with all the minor details included in it, they then carried out an audio treatment with it in which the recorded the feedback of their peers about their scrip,slight changes were made and then the edited version of the script was read out to a large audience that include friends,relative and few middle aged people and then the final version of the script was made with all the alterations made.

 Feedback was a very vital part throughout this media project. Question answer sessions were carried out as well.Then the script ha been broken down into audio and video.

It will also be a very important part of out media project as well.

Research and planning　

Carried out on the location and clothing at the practical and psychological meaning held by particular locations and colors, the effect they had on the mood. The made a list of all the locations they were going to use,their advantages and disadvantages, how they had to take permission to shoot at particular location.

 Research was carried out using different movies and films which had the same genre at how they had used what type of location and settings and what type of clothes and colors and what meaning these colors held in what particular place and what meaning did a particular location hols and the overall symbols attached to locations or colors of clothes like death, funeral, black color etc.Images and clips were taken from various films that were based around these genres and themes were taken for help and to understand the conventions etc.

Research into the use and presentation of film titles including idea for your own film.

The color and the font style make a lot of difference in sending across the message.The colors and the font style must be attractive at least to capture the attention of your target audience but it should also show the link to your movie genre.

Storyboard
 
Pictures explaining scenes and camera angles and location,exactly what the characters would be wearing and their face expression,the settings around them,the objects around them etc.That was something me and my partner liked a lot cause it was quite impressive in showing in visual form of what was in our mind and how we wanted our scenes to be clear before hand o that at the time of shooting we would be clear at our camera angles and the characters position etc.

Animatic

The pictures that were used to construct the story board were later used in the Animatic by adding sound effects to it and using software like Adobe premium me and my partner can easily do this as well as we really liked this idea too.
 
Shooting schedule

Description of the camera angle in every scene, cast member, location, date of shooting and shot number, this shooting schedule was given to each member of the team so that everyone was clear of which day which scene was to be shot and at what time so that misunderstanding and barriers of communication can be avoided.


A very important aspect of when shooting a film.

Construction

It involved first the rough cut of their film, the first shooting, then the team carried out an analysis amongst themselves and edited the mistakes by deleting some shots and adding some.Like in many places there was the problem of shaky camera. Then the edited version was showed to an audience consisting of friends, relatives etc. Then more editing was done on the final cut to add more perfection.Some scenes had to be re-shooted and then the team presented the final edited cut of the film and again audience feed back was asked for to judge if they understood the theme of the story and how they overall thought of it.Though they are not clear at the sources of obtaining the feedback but its most probably through YouTube though it was a point that bothered me in their blog.

Software such as 'final cut', 'soundtrack pro', 'live type' etc had been used in the construction of the final film.

The most pointless thing that i found in their blog was the 'brand identity' so i'm not gonna talk about that.

Magazine review

The magazine research was extensive using examples of Hollywood movies review pages in magazine.Understanding of the fonts,colors,essential requirements of the page like page no., issue no., subscription at website, plug in, plus points, photography taken from the movie that captured the essence of the movie, the main text, its writing style, its color, columns and rows of writing, how the color and the type of font used must make a link to the theme and genre of the short movie. How they made the first movie review page then asked for feedback,made changes and then the final edited page.

For the construction of the magazine review we too will have to study the codes and conventions related to our genres and use software such as Adobe Photoshop to create it and add effects to it.

Film poster research

The film poster should have colors and fonts that are mostly associated with the genre of the film.Then the main object of the film of what it revolves around should be on the poster so that the association is shown.Also usually the main characters of the film have their picture on the poster to show the main character. Usually the name of the actor/actress is written on the poster so that people who like this actor/actress come see this movies but sometimes it is missing either because the actor or actress is so famous that the name is not required or in case of new and up coming actors or actress.

The color of the title or name of the film are usually in the boldest font and is in different color with the date of release right under the title of the film or at the bottom of the page.The rest of the information is usually in the same generic poster font with information about cast, studio, genre of movie,etc.Tag lines are also very important.the bloggers had to edit their poster quite a lot of time using software such as adobe Photoshop etc and feed back was taken at every step till it was like by the peer group and other audience.alterations were made keeping in mind the conventions of a film posters.

Again study the codes and conventions, but not only of the genre but of the construction of the poster as well.

Evaluation

Is a detailed explanation from the use of each software and media technology and its benefits listed,the inspirations for their ancillary tasks that were posters and magazine reviews of Hollywood movies of the same genre. The conventions of the main task and the ancillary task were carefully analyzed and challenged in terms of sound and shooting. Audience feed back was very important and was take at probably every step of the way which ii think contributed to the originality of the short film and the poster ad the magazine review giving it a touch of real Hollywood movie.

Melissa Moore's blog:
http://mjmgwpahsa2media.blogspot.com/

TASK RE-DO!!!

Yesterday we again analyzed our 'inspirational blogs'. Turns out there were a lot of things that we missed out in our analysis and so we had to do it again. I evaluated and analyzed the 'inspirational blog' with my partner, talked about all the things they had done, what the had focused on, what we liked and what we would also do in our research and evaluation. We discussed about things they might have missed,things which we should include that inspired us from inspirational blog' etc.

its the PROCESS that MATTERS

We searched around for some previous A2 students blog and found quite a few blogs, both good and bad. We selected one blog out of the good blogs as our 'Inspirational blog' so in order to study it and analyze it.

The bloggers seemed to have made a schedule of their entire year,by which time or deadline would they be done with which part of their project. A very organized way of going about your work which I believe would help me and my partner a lot as-well.

This is what I learned:

The blogger has explained each step in detail from the team making to the task division to the plan or idea selection. They were in total of 4 team member each came up with their own ideas and their pros and cons and then gave a detailed presentation of their idea, of what they needed to use, the limitations they were going to face which is I think a very good idea so that your aware of what problems you might face beforehand and also that if there is any problem you might have overlooked your partner might identify it.the partners analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of their own team members as well so that task division could be made considering who is best at doing what then after the idea selection the used different software’s like storyboard quick etc to plan out their shots and how they were going to be shot.

 In depth research was carried out on their genre, research was carried out on directors who had produced films or shorts films on the related genre,short films and films that had been made on the related genre were analyzed and studied in terms of shots,camera angles,lights,editing,characters,locations etc, how they planned to challenge the conventions of their selected genre etc.they took inspirational shots from different films to understand their own ideas and how the directors have used them in their movies or short films .then they carried out research on the target audience through the help of YouTube and other resources to collect data on their target audience, also by talking to people and telling them about their ideas.

Tthen research on the actors characters, their clothes, their location to use,the investigated the location using their own means of checking it out first physically-like going to the site before shooting it- and then using a Google satellite image as well. they looked at these things in term of its practical meaning and psychological meaning The team used a film treatment and an audio treatment in order to narrate their story and to give a visual idea of their story board.

A story board made using the Storyboard Quick Software consisted of the picture of all of their shots,how the characters were to be placed,which angle the camera would be shooting at, what furniture and objects would be surrounding the characters as well.

An Animatic was used for creating an animation the film  using the pictures from the storyboard at how the final film was to look ,adding sound effects as well. Wrote down their script, their shooting schedule, their equipment list, their time management, and their schedule of the entire year etc. then after shooting the whole film in raw they got a few audience feedback then a final audience feedback after the final edited film shot. 

So is the same case with the ancillary task of the poster and film review, the made the raw ancillary task and got the feedback then made improvements and made changes to it. Finally their evaluation which was just as detailed as everything else. So what I liked about their blog was that all of it was in a lots of detail and well constructed and well researched.

here is the link to the blog we checked out:

http://mjmgwpahsa2media.blogspot.com/

 melissa moore's blog.
i checked out a few other blogs aswell:

www.slaa2mediagwpahs.blogspot.com

First media class of A2

 

Mahnoor and Aiza

  HI! My name is Mahnoor Khalid and my partners name is Aiza Yasir and for the next 6 to 7 months we shall be working together on our A2 level Media Project of a Short Film.

Today what we got out of sitting in a room for two to three hours was a simple thing yet a very important thing 'whatever the final project may turn out to be its okay,what matters is the process and procedures gone through to get there...in easier words 'the destination doesn't  matter but what matters is the journey' so this year all I've got to do is keep a clear head,set ideas,polish my skills of expressions and just do my work with a meaningful purpose.
 
The reason why I choose Media Studies as a subject in my A levels at first were very immature and naive. I thought that it would be a fun subject(which it is but tough). I thought that we would study about all the glamor that we see on t.v that keeps us glued to our chairs. My first response to media studies was like any other non-media literate person as it could get and there fore I can safely say I had no idea what was up ahead.

Yes it is true that I did not really know what i was up for and whether I would even be able to do what this subject entailed for but I must say that the 1 year that I studied this subject I was home. Media studies was something that I was good at and something that I enjoyed doing the most in my A1. I learned the difference between a media student and a non-media student. I felt happy while doing my media work even though it has its highs and lows, stresses that lead to breaking points and a few tears but in the end the happiness I felt for achieving a good grade in my  A1 was all worth it.Its tough, its challenging and it pushes you, it helps you explore and be creative.

The knowledge that i gained in my A1 was the best I could get out of any other subject. The one thing that I absolutely love about media is that it is every where. It touches every aspect of life from economical to psychological to sociological to even environmental and many more. It is a pool of information and knowledge.

Therefore continuing with media is a decision I am steadfast on. It may be tough but then again what inst.

Our A2 project is to make a short film of the time duration of five to six minutes.We were given a choice of working either on a documentary, music video, ad making or short film with which we will have to complete two ancillary task as well.

The short film seems like an interesting aspect to cover in media studies because not every thing can be explained in a written form. Much of how we communicate these days is through verbal speech and body language but the difficult part is that when you are trying to communicate to hundred and thousand's of people who belong to different culture and background the same thing, one might understand it completely differently to the other and the message of what we are trying to say might not get across like we would have wanted it to. That's what media teaches us.It teaches us how to say what we have to say in a way that a person sitting next to us and a person sitting in the other end of the world understands exactly what we are trying to say in the same manner.

The ancillary task involves a Movie Poster and a Magazine Review.

The reason for me choosing Aiza Yasir as my partner for my final media project in A2 is because she is the one person that i feel is tolerant enough to bear me.In all honesty I can get stressed out and of all the people I could have chosen as my partner I believed she would be the best one. I can discuss my ideas with her and know that she understands them the way I want them to be presented , and i with her. She is very good with Photoshop and editing of movies and her ideas are creative and refreshing . She has good writing skills that would be very helpful in the ancillary task.