question 1 and 2 of evaluation

1. In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.
Mine and my partners media product both challenges and supports stereotypes of students in our represntation. in the film we portray two different types of studenst. i represent the Lazy unbothered version of students that procrasinate everything and my media partner lucy represents the always studious type of student. we portrayed two different types so that the target audience can relate to one. We then challenge the stereotype of student life and exams being easy by delving into the dream world created by my characters subconscious where she and the audience meet the hatter who is the personification of exam stress. the scene where the hatter chases my character represents that exams and the stress that they cause is unavoidable and inascapable.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? - compare it to research, briefly mention Alice in wonderland then focus on Van Helsing, multiple remakes to look at.


While myself and my partner both researched A|lice in wonderland and were both influenced by it we also had different individual influences that come across in different ways. My partners influences are more obviously shown in the film itself while mine are shown in the poster and poster research. my biggest influence was the Van Helsing films, more specifically the one in 2004.


Van Helsing was originally a character in a horror novel Dracula that was published in 1897. since its publishing the novel has spawned multiple different films, video games, bored games and spin-offs for both Dracula and van Helsing. Both Van Helsing and Dracula have starred in multiple films together over time as well as having their own films and different film adaptations. Here are some in no particular order.

1. Van Helsing (2004) - $300,257,475 worldwide, had an estimated budget of $160,000,000
2.  Dracula (1958) - Box office unknown, though it had an estimated budget of £81,000
3. Van Helsing the vampire hunter (2012) - unknown box office, had a budget of 
4. Dracula (1958)
5. The brides of Dracula ( one of the first hammer horror Dracula films in the 1970's)
6. The legend of the golden vampires (another hammer horror Dracula film)
7. Bram stokers Dracula (1992)
8. Dracula 2000 (2000)
9. Van Helsing Vampire Hunter (2012)
10. Nosferato (1922)
11. Dracula (1931)
12. Dracula's Daughter (1936)
13. Count Dracula (1970)
14. Hrabe Drakula (1971)
15. Nadja (1994)
16. Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
17. Dracula (2002)
18. Van Helsing: The London Assignment
19. Van Helsing: From Beneath The Rue Morgue

There are countless other adaptations and films to do with Dracula and van Helsing as the two iconic characters often go together. Like I mentioned earlier since the books publication there have been countless adaptations of the story each with its own unique twist and this shows in their posters.
However like i stated at the start the one that influenced me was the one from 2004.

as you can see both of my own posters and the vanhelsing poster use shadows and backlighting to draw attention to the subject who is positioned in the middle of the poster and have similar font styles and shadows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Helsing_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Van_Helsing

Eval Q4 - photos of the word document

photos of research and previous ideas

Links to previous idea / draft footage

While I didn't use YouTube for the construction or research of the drafts I did use it to find music for the final project, originally the music was a mash up of spooky and dark instrumental music combined with sound effects to build the tension, this was later replaced with a song by Kevin mcleoad which was again found on the YouTube sound library. 

poster research

Poster Research

  

As you can see in the photos all they have similar themes or characteristics. For example they all frame their main character(s) in the middle of the poster and all use shadows to frame the edges and draw attention to the middle giving all of them a sense of suspense/darkness. All but three of them have a release date and the credits in smaller writing at the bottom of the poster, the ones that don't have them don't have them because they are secondary posters. This means that they were mostly likely released after the films initial release date to show reviews and keep the hype for the film up so that the film have a bigger box office gross.

What I have learnt from this is that my original plan to make the poster dark in a similar way to this will work, I can then put the credits at the bottom and possibly make a secondary poster with no credits on but it could have a review on instead or it can be left with just the title and tag line on it instead.

Into the woods:

Layout -

 

Font size -

 

Language used -

 

Image -

 

Tone -

Star Dust:

Layout -

 

Font size -

 

Language used -

 

Image - 

 

Tone -

Van Helsing:

Layout -

Font size -

The title is the biggest piece of writing, the names of the star vehicles are smaller and placed above it. This is so the fisr bit of writing that the viewer notices is the Title, which has been made silver, combined with the shadows on the title i would assume that this is to give it the impression of a weapon or to link with the legends of werewolves.

Language used -

Theres a short and simple tagline at the top that simply says 'Adventure lives forever', which implies that Van Helsing himself is immortal and his adventures/his fight with dracula has been around forever.

Image -

The most dominant part of the image is vanhelsing standing and looking down at the viewer with the full moon behind him. The important thing about the moon is that considering that this is a poster for a fantasy film, in myths and fairytales the full moon is strongly linked to werewolves, which suggests that there will be a werwolf or something closely linked to a werewolf in this film. Then theres the castle in the background that has a flock of bats coming from it, this is obviously ment to be Dracula's castle. For anyone that knows the story this poster would capture the plot extremely successfully. For anyone that doesn't it still hints at what could be in the film.

Tone -



Review Questions

Answer each of these questions in a different format - remember you are marked on how well you use ICT /new technolgies in your presentation

1. In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products - Power point presentation? put on blogger via photos

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? - blog post

3. What have you learnt from audience feedback?

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction, research and planning stages.- word document put on blogger via photos

FINAL POSTER!!!

feedback 29/04

recenter the tag line and change play so its in a different colour and place the tag line above the institutional information - DONE

final poster and first review question

Answer each of these questions in a different format - remember you are marked on how well you use ICT /new technologies in your presentation

1. In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products - powerpoint presentation

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? blog post

3. What have you learnt from audience feedback?

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction, research and planning stages. - word document

Final poster!

The inspiration for this poster came from my previous poster reviews. The idea of showing the two different personality's comes from the Alice in wonderland poster where the hatter is presented as having two conflicted sides even though only one face is shown. I decided to be less subtle and have the two faces side by side to show the contrast. The inspiration to frame it with shadows came from Pan where the the girl and the tree are framed by shadows and are the only things that have any light on them in the shot. The idea to use this style of writing came from looking at posters for fantasy film like the last witch hunter while I was making the poster, the last witch hunter uses a font which is a lot like the times new roman one that you get on word however I looked at using that style for the posts but it just didn't work so I started to experiment with other fonts that looked similar to the one they had used and then I found this one.

interview young people / target audience and how they visualise stress and visualise it in the narrative of film

feedback and targets 21/04

1) say what I might use from the analysed posters   -   DONE

2) reflect on 'draft' posters

3) Do (2 posts) review research - look at what posters of that genre usually use/look like:

layout

font size

language used

image

tone

MUST BE DONE BY SUNDAY!!

An analysis/review of Pan's labrynth Poster

COLOURS:
USE OF dark colours creates a tense atmosphere and draws attention to the tree and the girl as they are the only items that are lit. The tree symbolises the doorway between the girls reality and the other/fantasy world that she goes to to escape her negligent and borderline abuses step father, she finally escapes her harsh reality after she dies.
The poster has no tagline, only the date of the release and the title.
makes the viewer/audience feel a sense of mystery, intrigued and uneasiness.
Another important thing about the poster is that the tree mimics the image of the satyrs head above the entrance to the labyrinth, making it seem like the tree is the entrance to the other world and that it will end up consuming her. which it ultimately does after her death.


What techniques might I use from this poster?
What I will take from this poster and apply to my own is the use of dark colours to create and reflect the dark atmosphere of the film. I'll use this on my poster to express the hatters twisted nature and the stress of exams.

An Analysis of the Alice in Wonderland 'The Mad Hatter' Film Poster

Analysis of Alice in wonderland 'the mad hatter' film poster.

The most noticeable thing about this poster is the bright colours that clash with the plain colours e.g. the brightly coloured bow tie clashes with the plain brown of the hatters shabby coat. this reflects the way his bold and brash personality contrasts/clashes with the boring world that Alice knows and is escaping from.
The background of the poster is covered in the hatters top hat creating a sense of chaos and implying that while he's mad he is sane enough to create hats/hats are the only thing that keep him slightly sane.
His eyes are looking two different ways suggesting that the hatter sees everything but at the same time is unable to focus on any of it.


What techniques might I use from this poster?
The thing  I want to take from this poster is how it presents the two different sides of the joker at the same time in subtle little ways. The difference is I will not present it subtly instead I will display the hatters two different sides literally side by side. one half will be the hatter and the other will be the friend that the students subconscious has based the hatter on.

Results of our Target audience survey

After conducting a survey of our target audience my partner and I have now concluded that:

• The average age of our audience is 17-18
• The things people usually associate with the fantasy genre are: Magic, Special effects, Magic Creatures (e.g. unicorns) and magical beings (e.g. Elves, dwarves and hobbits)
• Popular favourite fantasy films are: Star wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets, Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers.
• People that's said they liked them like fantasy films because of: The magic and The sense of adventure and mystery.
• People that said they dislike them dislike fantasy films because: They're normally style over substance, they're not very realistic and they can sometimes be too over the top.
• Common favourite films are: Lord of the Rings - The Two Towers and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
• Common least favourite films are: Seventh son, Twilight, Alice in wonderland and pixels.
• Because our story was inspired by Alice in Wonderland we asked our target audience whether or not they prefer fantasy films that were based on/originally books to other fantasy films as well as what they thought was negative/positive about literary adaptations. The majority responded that they didn't have as long as the narrative is interesting or that it depended on the film.
• Their responses about the negative/positive  things about literary adaptations were:

1. Depends on genre, often the original concept can be tarnished for release
2. They offer an alternate light to the way the book portrays the story
3. Positive - pre-existing fans. Negative - occasionally don't do the books justice
4. Positive - can entice audiences to watch new adaptations. Negative - can be lead astray from the novel
5. Positive - when its Game of Thrones. Negative - when they are poorly adapted.

• People said that they believe the most important thing in a fantasy film is: Quests and magical elements, Cinematic immersion, reality in the madness and good narrative.

finished posters

By Friday:
Poster analysis must be done! And on the blog!
At least two poster analyses

New shots/location plans

Lucy and I will go to the beach / sandwich bay area and get a shot of me sat down and a shot of gloved hands on their own then pulling me up, at first I see lucy then there's a brief shot of lucy dressed as the hatter.
It'll end with lucy waking me up and me realising that I was dreaming all the time

Inspiration from Alice in Wonderland

Inspiration from Alice in Wonderland

This sequence where the inspiration from Alice in wonderland is more obvious. This part was inspired by the send of the animated Disney version of the film where Alice insults the cards only to be woken up by her sister and find out thatvit was all just a dream. In our film you see the subject fall asleep and wake up in her 'dream' world where she meets the hatter.

The letter and the 'exam' note on top of the card the hatter deals her and the notes on top of the other cards on the floor are the equivalent of the 'eat me' and 'drink me' notes. They are significant because they illustrate 

Comparison of the original mad hatter and Lucy's mad hatter - inspired by Everybody Stares

documentary of the police by the police. found by Lucy.

influenced by Alice in wonderland

Lucy's mad hatter is the result of her view on school and her inspiration from the police documentary and johnny Depp portrayal of the Mad Hatter.

Lucy came up with the original idea for our documentary, she was inspired by the everyone stares documentary. At first we wanted to do something similar with school. She then had the idea to personify exams/stress. The inspiration for this came from Alice in wonderland. The picture on the right is Lucy's representation of exams/stress inspired by Johnny Depp's portrayal of the mad hatter in Alice in wonderland and Klark Kent - the alter ego of the police drummer Stewart Copeland.

You can clearly see the 

Rough footage two

 The main type of iconography used is settings. The setting is one of the most common types of iconography used in documentaries, especially in school ones. The setting can be clearly shown by a shot of the outside of the building or of the inside of a classroom. The main setting shown in my film is the editing suite but the drama room is also repetitively used for interviews. The other settings used all relate to the theme(s) of that week. An example of this would be the shots of the hall and the path/alley down to the gates that lead out of school that have been used in the film to show isolation and exam stress.The inspiration for this style came from educating Cardiff. This documentary focuses on the school lives of students and teachers and the stress of their school lives as well as the stress the students doing their gcse’s experience.

music for the documentary

http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/track/memories



One of the ways the audience will be positioned will be through the use of audios and visuals. the visuals will represent sixthform as a whole and the audio will match the visual and will be of us talking over the visuals about sixth form and possibly our best/worst experiences of sixth form. The music we use will not only reflect/help to position our audience to feel a certain way it will also reflect whichever particular theme we are looking at.

These songs are all songs that I have used and/or may use in the documentary footage. Each of them makes the reader feel a certain emotion on their own, but when they are paired with the right visual the emotion can become overwhelming.

The first song, memories (click the link to view)starts with the sound of a piano playing then a back beat comes in and makes it seem more up beat then theres drums and drum cymbals come in and amplify the beat then the pianos tune changes and becomes higher. on its own this song makes the listener slightly cheerier but paired with our footage of our youth section makes the viewer feel reminiscent especially older viewers who will most likely remember their youth, despite their cultural detachment to the film overall.

The music will also help us to position our audience. While the audience will be positioned towards  particular subject the sic will help them to understand both the subjects emotions as well as connect to the one that they relate to.

ideas/scenarios for filming

also:
study sessions - like stone suggested we should get some footage of the olc and/or sixthform centre but i was also thinking that we should have some footage of people revising in different ways e.g. mindmaps, revision cards, esting each other (kind of like a revision version of trivial persuit)
celebration - some more shots of people celebrating that exams are over e.g. some of the drama people celebrating that their exam is out of the way / if it comes to it some  year twelves celebrating the end of the year. They have no idea what they're in for.
Memories/transition - this will be where the interviews of the year eights come in, they'll talk about their dreams/aspirations then we talk about our aims for after sixth form/what we used to want to be/do. We could also talk about/use footage of places in school / sandwich/our towns/objects that we have really strong memories off and talk about how we're basically saying goodbye tour childhood because as soon as we leave we're technically adults.Then it links in to what people/society expect us to do/be
My media partner then had the idea to:

• have a circle/small group of students sat together holding revision cards talking  about what they do in study sessions or confessions about their bad/extreme study habits.
• have a montage of photos for our memory section
• dub our voices over the year eights when they talk about their goals/aspirations and then they will have their voices over the visuals of us talking about our goals/aspirations for after sixth form.

location scenarios ideas for documentary

SPECIFIC LOCATION SCENARIOS TO FILM FOR DOCUMENTARY IN RELATION TO SIXTHFORM

CLUBS - DEBATE AND ART
FRIENDSHIP - PLAYGROUND, CANTEEN, OLC OR STUDY CENTRE
ISOLATION - EMPTY CLASSROOM/ALLEYWAY NEAR PE, YEAR SEVEN CLASS (I REMEMEBER WHEN I JOINED THE SCHOOL I FELT SO OUT OF PLACE/ISOLATED)

plan/scenarios for remaining sections

the only sections that Lucy and I have left to do are:

Growing up/transition

Celebration

Study sessions.

The easiest way to show growing up/transitions will be to find photos of what we looked like last year and compare to how we look this year, for this bit we will use a voice over of us talking about how we think we have changed during our time at sixth form and what are plans for the future/next steps are, this will play over the photos.

for celebration we're not quite sure of what to do because until we get our results or finish our exams there isnt much for us to celebrate during the school year.

For study sessions we will film us doing revision/working, Lucy will be shown doing art and I will be shown doing law. We may also take some shots of the study center with and without students in it.

feedback 14/01

footage needs more polish
think about framing carefully
set up the shot carefully - think a\bout location
do our locations communicate the right themes - locations may need to be more metaphoric
use a tripod

plan filming more carefully in terms of location and script. plan locations that we're going to use in terms of theme e.g. they should symbolise the theme we're going to look at.

this weeks theme

This week my media partner Lucy and I will be looking at stress and exams. We will interview members of sixth form and ask them about how they feel about exams, what subjects they're most nervous about taking and what results they want and do they know what they'll do if they dont get those grades

Short film(s) analisis - last weeks theme of friendship

La Gouffre is a short film about friendship, beating the odds/doing the impossible and sacrifice. in this short the audience follows the journey of two friends who's journey comes to an abrupt stop when they find that the bridge they have to cross has been destroyed. with no other way across the canyon the pair must find a way to get across and ultimately decide to use all the wood and old pieces of the bridge that they can to rebuild it. The story center's around their endevour to rebuild the bridge.

 The thing that I like most about this sequence is that you can see the exact moment that the characters decide to build the bridge which is represented by the sun, like a 'light bulb' moment. You can tell from their weathered and slightly rugged appearance that they've been on this journey for a while and the photo above shows how they consider turning back before ultimately decide against that and decide to build the bridge instead.

These two photos show how the closest of friends can communicate without words.

Over the duration of the film you see the different aspects of friendship and the importance of it. you see how your friend is the one that motivates you the most and can actually shape who you are, while this part isnt shown directly at the end you see the impact the death of the blonde one has on the other.