I've been looking back over my blog posts and I realised that i haven't yet justified our use on music in our film opening. Basically, we were stumped over what to use after the company had told us we couldn't use the 'cool shades' track without paying a lot of money. Then, while flicking through the tracks on my Ipod I remembered a track called 'Fell In Love With A Girl' by The White Stripes, which has a very upbeat sound and has lots of points where the music stops. I knew we couldn't use the actual song, and actually we wouldn't have wanted the original version because the lyrics might have distracted from the actual movie, so we found an instrumental cover done by an unsigned artist on YouTube. We put this onto Garageband and cut it in places so that it would fit with the film, and voila! We were really happy with the way the soundtrack turned out, and how well it fits with the upbeat nature of the film.
Tuesday 19 April 2011
Monday 18 April 2011
The Disney Channel
It's been over a week into the easter holidays now, and although I've been doing plenty of revision (honestly!), I've also been fairly susceptible to what I call 'holiday boredom'. This has meant succumbing to the evils of the Disney Channel, a habit i've been trying to kick for the past few years, to no avail. I don't know what it is that makes it so addictive, but for some reason i'll happily sit there and watch an episode of something that i've seen at least five times, when I couldn't bear to watch an episode of any of my favourite 'proper' programs for any more than three times.
Anyway, while watching an episode of Wizards of Waverley Place the other day, something occurred to me. In this episode there was a character in a wheelchair, a topic that in any British drama would have used as most of the storyline for the episode. However, in this instance the fact that the character was in a wheelchair was completely inconsequential to the storyline. In fact, it wasn't even mentioned. This man was treated as a normal person, and even managed to help the protagonists escape a 'dangerous fate'. I've looked up the actor playing the character, Daryl Mitchell, and he is actually a wheelchair user, and not just stuck in one to make the cast seem more diverse.
This made me think of more ways in which programs on the Disney Channel actually shows real life better than British dramas, for example the casts in most of the shows are usually ethnically diverse, including Caucasian, Black and Asian actors. The casts are often also mixed in gender, for example there are many shows with male (The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, Zeke and Luther, Pair of Kings) and female (Hannah Montana, Sonny With a Chance, Shake It Up) protagonists. The portrayal of older characters is sometimes mocking, but there was an entire storyline in an episode of Sonny With A Chance in which the main characters are shown by an older character that they are just as capable as them, and should not be discriminated against because of their age.
However, the channel isn't completely diverse. For example, all the characters are shown to be heterosexual, and while there is the occasional 'effeminate' character, the audience will never be shown that they are anything other than straight. As the channel is shown in America, this is hardly surprising, as in many states it is usually a taboo subject, and people are often discriminated against because of their sexuality, and if the channel decided to introduce any story lines on the subject they would probably lose a good 30% of their audience due to parents of the children watching the channel. As for regional identity, there is a good deal of stereotyping, mostly to do with British people. The character Mason in Wizards of Waverley Place is one of the few Brits in any of the programs, and is heavily stereotyped as tea loving and eccentric, and used words like 'jiffy' in normal conversation and has a very posh accent. There was also a Scottish character in a Canadian show, 'Overruled' on the channel called Rusty, who was also stereotyped, wearing kilts and playing bagpipes at least one an episode, with a fairly light, understandable accent for the Americans.
In conclusion, although the Disney Channel still has a long way to go before it reflects reality in a non stereotypical way, it is better than many British dramas, as it is better at being racially diverse and showing disabled people to be normal. So there's my attempt at justifying a colossal amount of time wasting.
Anyway, while watching an episode of Wizards of Waverley Place the other day, something occurred to me. In this episode there was a character in a wheelchair, a topic that in any British drama would have used as most of the storyline for the episode. However, in this instance the fact that the character was in a wheelchair was completely inconsequential to the storyline. In fact, it wasn't even mentioned. This man was treated as a normal person, and even managed to help the protagonists escape a 'dangerous fate'. I've looked up the actor playing the character, Daryl Mitchell, and he is actually a wheelchair user, and not just stuck in one to make the cast seem more diverse.
This made me think of more ways in which programs on the Disney Channel actually shows real life better than British dramas, for example the casts in most of the shows are usually ethnically diverse, including Caucasian, Black and Asian actors. The casts are often also mixed in gender, for example there are many shows with male (The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, Zeke and Luther, Pair of Kings) and female (Hannah Montana, Sonny With a Chance, Shake It Up) protagonists. The portrayal of older characters is sometimes mocking, but there was an entire storyline in an episode of Sonny With A Chance in which the main characters are shown by an older character that they are just as capable as them, and should not be discriminated against because of their age.
However, the channel isn't completely diverse. For example, all the characters are shown to be heterosexual, and while there is the occasional 'effeminate' character, the audience will never be shown that they are anything other than straight. As the channel is shown in America, this is hardly surprising, as in many states it is usually a taboo subject, and people are often discriminated against because of their sexuality, and if the channel decided to introduce any story lines on the subject they would probably lose a good 30% of their audience due to parents of the children watching the channel. As for regional identity, there is a good deal of stereotyping, mostly to do with British people. The character Mason in Wizards of Waverley Place is one of the few Brits in any of the programs, and is heavily stereotyped as tea loving and eccentric, and used words like 'jiffy' in normal conversation and has a very posh accent. There was also a Scottish character in a Canadian show, 'Overruled' on the channel called Rusty, who was also stereotyped, wearing kilts and playing bagpipes at least one an episode, with a fairly light, understandable accent for the Americans.
In conclusion, although the Disney Channel still has a long way to go before it reflects reality in a non stereotypical way, it is better than many British dramas, as it is better at being racially diverse and showing disabled people to be normal. So there's my attempt at justifying a colossal amount of time wasting.
Saturday 16 April 2011
Premiere evening speech
Here is the speech we gave at the premiere evening. We've yet to read/see all the feedback, but most of it was good and hopefully the rest will be too.
Friday 15 April 2011
Killing Bono
Yesterday I went to see the film Killing Bono, which is a sort-of biopic/comedy movie adapted from the memoir Killing Bono: I was Bono's Doppelgänger by Neil McCormick. The basic synopsis is the tale of Neil, played by Ben Barnes and his brother Ivan, Played by Robert Sheehan, who fail at becoming famous musicians while their classmates in U2 go on to become a huge success. I thought the storyline was quite funny, and I thought all the actors were very good, but the main reason I decided to review it here was because the beginning of the film was very well done.
The film starts with the end, which is quite a popular method of storytelling in many movies, but it was only from one character's perspective, while at the end the clips are shown from a normal viewpoint, so you know who Neil is talking to. It's difficult to describe fully without screenshots, but I thought it was an unusual way of starting the film, and certainly draws the viewer in, adding mystery and intrigue. Overall, I found it was a very good film, and you don't really have to be much of a U2 fan to enjoy it. Here are some of the posters and promotional images from the film.
The film starts with the end, which is quite a popular method of storytelling in many movies, but it was only from one character's perspective, while at the end the clips are shown from a normal viewpoint, so you know who Neil is talking to. It's difficult to describe fully without screenshots, but I thought it was an unusual way of starting the film, and certainly draws the viewer in, adding mystery and intrigue. Overall, I found it was a very good film, and you don't really have to be much of a U2 fan to enjoy it. Here are some of the posters and promotional images from the film.
Something else notable about the film, was that it features the late Pete Postlethwaite, in his final role, playing the boys' homosexual landlord.
Wednesday 6 April 2011
Premiere Evening
Our media teachers have organised a premiere evening for the 6th forms' final films, so that our families and friends can see our work. We're also going to be giving out a sheet that looks like this:
for each group's work, so we can get some good feedback. The results will be looked at after the holidays, so I won't be able to post people's responses just yet.
Tuesday 5 April 2011
Evaluation Questions
When we come back from the Easter holidays, we will have to do our evaluation, which will be 20 marks towards our final grade, so we have to do it well! Here are the seven questions we have to answer:
1. In what ways does your film opening use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your film opening represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your film opening and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your film opening?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this film opening?
7. Looking back at your prelim task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the final film opening?
1. In what ways does your film opening use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your film opening represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your film opening and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your film opening?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this film opening?
7. Looking back at your prelim task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the final film opening?
Monday 4 April 2011
Survey Results
My survey also showed that more women preferred Romance films, while men preferred Action and Horror films, however it was pretty much equal for Comedy. The people who preferred Historical/Biopic movies were usually older and were a C1 or above in social demographics.
The least favourite movies listed were the Twilight movies (romance), The Happening (disaster? Whatever it is, it was bad), The Last Airbender (action, I think) and the most recent three Star Wars movies (action sort of thing).
Many people also stated that the first five minutes of a film are very important, because 'it sets the scene', 'tells you what genre the movie is going to be' and 'draws the viewer in'. They also said that the use of interesting shots is 'good, but the movie shouldn't be all about the flashy shots'.
Many people also said that the cast heavily influences their decision as to whether to see a movie or not, for example films with Colin Firth, Megan Fox and Robert Pattinson are likely to make people want to see the film, while Nicolas Cage, Eddie Murphy and Kristen Stewart are likely to put people off a film.
Preferred film genres were 12A and 15s, while not many people listed 18's. PG's were also fairly popular, which would probably be the certificate of our movie were we to make the rest of it. Preferred themes for almost everyone included either Romance, Good vs Evil and Action. Finally, many said they were fairly influenced by movie advertising, saying that the trailer can often influence whether they see the movie in the cinema or not. One person also stated that 'If the poster is badly designed, I won't see the movie'.
Overall I think the survey gave me a good idea about what our target audience is (females from 13 - 30, but possibly also males as it would be mainly a comedy with some themes of romance in it), and provided some good information which would, if we were to carry on the film, be very useful to us.
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