Film Titles research.

A method by which cinematic films or TV programs present their title, key production and cast members, or both, utilizing conceptual visuals and sound.

Opening credits or titles are shown at the beginning and end. The creativeness of film titles has advanced massively, they were always usually shown as text superimposed on a blank screen or static picture, or sometimes superimposed over a piece of action. However, a new trend has started to be explored and introduced, where opening credits are built into a separate sequence of their own, this is called title sequence.


Opening credits since the early 1980s, if present at all, identify the major actors and crew, while the closing credits list an extensive cast and production crew. The idea of credits and titles were to set a mood and to capture the audience before the film began.

The example below is the work of Saul Bass in 1950s and 60s. His modern title sequence for the films of Alfred Hitchcock were key in setting the style and mood of the film even before the action began, and contributed to Hitchcock's "House style" that was a key element in his approach to marketing.


Superimposed on Blank screen


The above film titles are very animated but the characteristics and repetitive use for action film titles, may mislead the viewer into thinking that the sequence is an action film. For this set of titles, there is little opportunity to build in our own characteristics and symbolism around our production company name.


Superimposed over Action


The above titles are used as a reminder of previous series or events in the film, for our purposes this style of film titles would require extra footage whilst also the film title is too long, we will need the film titles to last around 10-20 seconds at the maximum. The film titles are also very action film style and would take some serious time for planning and then creation, in which we have not got either the time or the ability to create such film titles, as the titles use a mix of animation, real footage and digital photo editing.

Own title sequence


The above film titles are an animated sequence for an animated film, in our production team, none of us have got the ability to create such a film title due to the lack of time and animation software. However, this film titles do not match the genre of the film.



Once again, the title sequence contains mostly animated footage, in which we are unable to re-create. The timing of the sequence is also another large issue, as the sequence is over 4 minutes long and our task is only a 5 minute short. The actual titles would be easy to create with the 'flying past' titles for the actors and production teams names. This sort of titles also does not match the genre, however, parts could be used in context of our production. eg. using religious items instead of planets.

Saul Bass


The film titles could be re-created due to large usage of text and camera movement rather than full animation. Every title or name is set as one large picture, the creator has then used camera movement to show different names or titles. However, these titles are once again too long and would needed to be shortened. There is also very little or no way of incorporating our own theme of religion into the titles other than the text font.

Brand Identity

As we are required to produce a media product, two ancillary products and research and planning into the products, we need to create a 'Brand Identity' that is evident across all of our products.

What is Brand Identity?
Brand Identity represents a company's values, services, ideas and personality, it can generate loyalty from the company's customers, however, it isn't just a logo, it is the whole identity; name, terms, design, symbol, websites, logo, colour, fonts and font colour.


Why is Brand Identity so crucial?
A strong and distinctive brand identity can position a company above it's competition and in the film company, the requirement to be above the rest is evidentially crucial in the fight for ratings, viewings and reviews.

Brand Identity in the Film Industry.
Most cinema tickets are one-off purchases. Most people don't buy a cinema ticket, in the same way as you might buy a particular brand of soft drink, knowing that you will go back to this brand again and again. Millions of pounds are spent making the film, however, nearly the same amount of money is then further spend marketing and advertising the film, as each new film release needs it own 'brand'. 
An example is the Harry Potter sequels, millions of pounds were spent on making the initial film but Warner Bros. spent alot of money creating the 'Harry Potter' brand, as before the film release there was an equally successful series of books from which they were able to further the brand identity. The techniques that were deployed on the creation of the 'Harry Potter' brand were:

• The typography has remained a constant design feature in all of the products from the Film title's, DVD series, film posters and magazines.
• The brand does not rely on the use of 'Stars' or actors names or faces, all of the products do not contain any pictures of the actors.

The steps of Brand Identity in Film.

The Film:

• The film needs to be clearly identifiable in its advertising and marketing; the genre, actors, story, special effects and style all need to be easily identifiable to the audience.

Release:

• Films need to be released at very specific periods of time. e.g. a Christmas film at Christmas.
• Do not class release dates with other big release's.

Advertising:

• Print (Posters, Adverts in newspapers and magazines).
• Trailers (Shown at the cinema, TV, Radio or Internet).
• Internet (Social Networking sites, fan sites and forums).
• Merchandise (Books, T-Shirts, DVD's, Soundtracks, games, toys or anything related to the brand).

Publicity:

• Actor interviews.
• Director commentary.
• The 'Making of' tv shows and documentary's.
• Reviews.
• News stories.

Brand Identity for our Product.

As we are creating a new product, we will require a new brand identity, however, we have not got a budge so all of our brand identity will be based around the actual design of the products (film, poster and magazine review), rather than the release, advertising and publicity side of brand identity. Below, I have made a list of a few things that we could do to achieve brand identity throughout all of our products;

• The use of the same type of font and colour for the colour of the title in the film and poster, however, magazine film reviews are normally generic fonts used in the magazine.
• As we are a small product company, we will need to include photo's and the name of our actors, as a means of further audience attraction and a 'unique selling point' (USP).
• The use or little use of colour across all of the products. e.g. Love is often symbolised with the colour red. Could we use red for the titles, filter over the film, effects in the poster, titles in the poster, titles in the magazine review, background colour in the review?
• Tag line - can it be used through all the products?

Specific Brand identity;

Magazine Review:

• Empire use the same layout through all reviews. Do we use a standard layout for the review or do we create another new identity by changing the layout?
• Image from footage or just location? Include actors? USP?
• Do we only reveal certain pieces of the plot in the review.
• Colours used?
• Fonts used?
• Title and tag line importance? Are they identifiable?

Poster:

• Image from footage or location? Include actors? USP?
• Target audience identifiable?
• Genre identifiable?
• Tag importance, positioning, size, font and colour.
• Title importance, positioning, size, font and colour.
• Layout represents the product?
• Fonts used?
• Colours used?
• How does the tag line work? USP?
• How is attention gained?

Film:

• Music used: Does the music represent the brand, is the brand recognisable from the music? USP? e.g. Harry Potters theme is recognisable even without the visual branding.
• Ident used to further the brand? USP?
• Are the credits also linked to the brand identity?

Shooting Schedule

Our Shooting Schedule is currently a draft version, this is due to us not being able to fill in details about shooting date and time. I will republish the shooting schedule when definite details are confirmed.
Shooting Schedule

Property List

The following shows a list of props that are included in our film. The previous post shows research into the props we have chosen to include in our film.

• silver crucifix
• rosary beads
• pregnancy test
• abortion leaflet
• wrapped box
• box containing baby memorabilia
• birthday card (reading 17 years old)
• baby booties (blue)
• baby scan photo

Property List research

One of the most important props we have in our film is a crucifix. When beginning to research this product it was important that we had chosen the right religious symbol for the correct faith. This is why I researched the differences between a crucifix and a cross, as both of these are symbols of christianity. However both of them resemble a different viewpoint in christianity. I found that the crucifix is a common symbol of the Roman Catholic religion, in our film Samantha follows the faith of Catholicism. It is also important to understand the reason of which why Catholics prefer the crucifix to the cross in order for a more in depth understanding of our characters. As well as this, using something as important as religion in a film is very risky in the sense that it may offend someone of that faith. This is why that during the construction of our treatment we assessed the plot by reading it to a follower of the Catholic/Christian faith. It is thought that the reason in which Catholics prefer to use the crucifix as it is a reminder of the fact that Jesus died for the sins and beliefs of his followers (the Catholics). There is also evidence in a passage that Jesus himself did in fact want people to follow him through the use of a symbol.

John 3:14-15, Jesus says in correlation: "And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

The story behind this passage is that the Lord said to Moses to carry a bronze sculpture of a serpent, and that the people who were suffer from the bite off a serpent would look at the sculpture and be cured. Jesus references this quote to his followers, he makes comparisons between the serpent sculpture and man, meaning he wishes people to carry a symbol of man as moses carried the symbol of a snake. This is why the crucifix is used in Catholic belief instead of a cross.

Another religious prop we use in our film is Rosary beads. Rosary beads are a common Catholic devotion. The beads are used to count the prayers that make up the Rosary. The rosary is a catholic act of veneration to the blessed Virgin Mary, meaning to honour her. This comes from the scripture "In the fullness of time, God sent his son, born of a virgin". The prayers consist of repeated sequences of the Lord's Prayer followed by ten prayings of the Hail Mary and a single praying of "Glory Be to the Father". The use of rosary beads in our film will help justify the faith of our character Samantha and also add effect to the film as it intensifies the strong religious theme.




Along with the religious elements we also venture into the subject of abortion. This is another sensitive subject in which we have to be very careful when addressing, this is why I am researching into the type of information and utensils that would have been used to determine pregnancy or abortion in the 70's. These include pregnancy tests, abortion leaflets and also baby booties etc.

In the 1970's pregnancy and sexual health had began to improve greatly. abortions were now made legal and were becoming increasingly popular. contraception was being improved along with prenatal care and prenatal testing. this has significance to our film in the sense that it would not have been out of the ordinary for our character Samantha to contemplate abortion in the 70's. however her faith would not allow this still but there are no significant problems that issue sexual health or abortion. after researching into what pregnancy tests looked like in the 70's, there is no definite look, meaning we could use an ordinary non-digital pregnancy test.

Following on from the pregnancy test we have chosen to show an abortion leaflet, this has to be considered very much in depth as the subject of abortion is very sensitive. however it will add dramatic effect to our film and so have chosen to use it. we need to make sure that we use an appropriate leaflet that suits that time as it is shown in the past. on the other hand when the leaflet is shown in the film it is crumpled up, this means we really only have to show the words abortion and so could make ourselves if need be

Costume Plot

To Sin No More Costume Plot

Special Effects; Hair and Make up

As Holly did the special effects make up for her AS Media Studies portfolio, we have decided that Holly should be in charge of any hair and make up that is required within our film. Holly will also be responsible for making sure that actors have the correct hairstyles of the time period, this preventing any continuity errors.

In one of the scenes, Samantha is required to have bruises and scratches on her wrist and arms, after consulting with Holly, she realised that in order to create a professional looking special effects, that she would need a bruise wheel, however, due to our production company having no budget this was not an option. However, Holly said that between the actresses and herself, that she would be able to create a professional looking special effects.

Script

To Sin No More Script

Location Research

In order to create our product, we need to research into where we are going to film the footage that we need. We will need to consider;

• Availability of the Location
• Lighting
• Size
• Suitability to the plot
• What the location will be used for.

Establishing Shot
Below, I have embedded an image of my house, which we will be using as our establishing shot.

Kitchen Scene
For the kitchen scene, we require a dinner table with 4 chairs (as this shows that there was previously a father figure in the family and now there are only 2 people) with suitable room to complete close up shots, long shots and side on shot.

The image below is an image of my kitchen, the kitchen has plenty of room to complete the required close up shots and long shot, where by two characters (Samantha and Anthony) are sitting at the table. The extra room is required as Samantha gets up and leaves the kitchen and as we wanted to keep the 'leaving the kitchen' shot in one shot without panning or tilting we need to have enough room for the camera to fit both characters in.

We have decided not to use the location (pictured below), as the location for the kitchen scene, as there is only a 2 seater table with little amount of room to complete range of shots required.

Lounge Scene
For the scene in the lounge, where Samantha is staring at a report of a rape on the TV which then leads into the flashback, we will need a modern lounge with a TV and seating. The location below is an image from my house, the lounge contains two two-seater leather sofa's and just off the picture is a large 42" TV. The lounge is modern and the picture represents a suitable position by which the camera could be positioned.

We have decided not to use the location below as the lounge is very dated and does not have a television, in which we require for the plot to develop.

Bedroom Scene
For the scene in the bedroom, we will need a good sized bedroom in which we are able to complete a long shot of Samantha in bed, as well as having a large sized mirror so that Samantha can be shown replacing her Crucifix around her neck. To further the plot, we have decided that we will need a very stereotypically 'female' style bedroom, so that when the audience look at the bedroom they instantly recognise that it is a female's bedroom.

Below, I have embedded an image of the bedroom that we are proposing to use. This is a picture of Holly's bedroom, therefore, meets the female style bedroom. Holly also has a full length mirror in her room in which we will be able to successfully show Samantha playing the crucifix around her neck. As this is Holly's bedroom, a member of our production team, the bedroom will be available for us to use, whenever Holly is present, therefore, this is a very good choice of location for us to use.

We have decided not to use the bedroom below due to the bedroom being very 'male' stereotyped with dark blues and basic wall decoration, where as we need a bedroom that relates to the audience as a females bedroom.

Rape Scene

For the scene, by which Samantha is raped by Ray, we will need a wooded area that has sufficient room for us to be able to create a good selection of camera shots and angles. Below, I have embedded an image of the wooded location in which I believe that we should use for our film. The advantages of using this location is that although there is a large amount of coverage by the tree's, there is sufficient opportunity for a successful and high quality shot with the amount of light that shines through. The images were taken on a standard digital camera so with an HD camera, we should have some good footage. The location is available 24/7, however, we are restricted on the time of the sun set as the rape will need to be in the day time. The woods are located in Norton Canes, just minutes from GWPAHS, so it is easily accessible.

I had already planned to use this in my film pitch at the start of the A2 course.

We decided to not use the location below due to the over grown wilderness and grass covering the floor. The location, although a wooded area, does not provide enough cover for the 'Rape' to happen. Another issue, is that the location is very hard to access and is not available 24/7 due to locked gates at the entrance of the park.

Other Scene's
Below is an image of outside Holly's house, we are planning to use this location as the start of the rape scene, as Ray and Samantha are walking to church.

Final Treatment

To Sin No More FINAL

Film Certificate

A film certificate is issued by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) (In the UK) to state the suggested audience for which the film or video works, is suitable for presentation or playing too. The classification ranges from 'U' to '18' and also '18 Restricted'. There are two main principles, that the BBFC follow;

• that works should be allowed to reach the widest audience that is appropriate for their theme and treatment.
• that adults should, as far as possible, be free to choose what they see, provided that it remains within the law and is not potentially harmful.

I decided to research into the categories and the guidelines that the BBFC provide, below I have created a table which lists all of the categories by which our product could fall into;

 

'Universal'

This film should be suitable for all aged four years and over. They should be set within a positive moral framework. Offering counterbalances to any Violence, Threat or Horror.

'Parental Guidance'

Unaccompanied children of any age may watch. Parents are advised to consider whether content may upset younger or more sensitive children. Mild use of language only, Sexual activity may be implied but infrequent.

'Aged 12 or Over'

Video works classified at '12' may upset children under 12 or contain material which many parents will find unsuitable for them. Brief and discreet use of nudity, Sexual activity and infrequent use of drugs or reference to drugs.

'12' only exists for Video Works, no one younger than 12 may rent or buy a '12' rated video work.

'Aged 12 or Over'

12A is a category only exists in cinema films. No one younger than 12 may see a 12A film in a cinema unless accompanied by an adult. The viewing is the responsibility of the accompanying adult.

'Aged 15 or Over'

The Video work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behavior. References and use of drugs is aloud but must not promote or encourage drugs, Sexual Activity can be portrayed although without strong detail. Use of strong language 'Fuck' and the strongest term 'Cunt' may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repetition of the Terms is unacceptable.

'Aged 18 or Over'

Material is in breach of the criminal law, created through the commission of a criminal offense, a risk or harm to individuals through behavior or society and the use of explicit images of sexual activity which can not be justified.

'18 Restricted'

Classification primarily for explicit works of consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults. Films may be shown to adults in specially licensed cinemas or sex shops. The infliction of pain which causes lasting physical harm, portrayal of any sexual activity or material which encourages sexually abusive activity.

After researching all of the classifications, I believe our film would be an "18" classification. The classification states that material is in breach of criminal law, through criminal offence, potential risk or harm to an individual, therefore, due to the rape scene in our film, although not showing any sexually explicit material, the intent of a rape, I feel makes our film an "18" classification. 

Target Audience

After presenting our treatment to Mr Leach, our headteacher, we asked him some questions around the target audience of our film. I have embedded the audio recording below.

Mr Leach identified that the film should be targeted towards adults (18+) due to the rape scene and the storyline around it. I agree that our film should be targeted towards an audience of 18 years or older, even though we are have wrote the storyline to hide the rape scene although still allowing the audience to understand what is going on.

We are targeting our film to an audience of over 18 years of age due to the complicated and some-what distressing storyline, however, we have decided that our film is specifically appealing to Women, over the age of 21, that can empathise with the dilemma that Samantha has had to face and also men who are father figures.

Reading of Treatment & Feedback

During our media lesson on Tuesday 18th October, we decided to invite Mr Hood, our media teacher and Mr Leach, our Headteacher. We are presenting to Mr Hood because he is a qualified media teacher and has the technical knowledge and film experience to tell us whether an idea will work or will not work. We chose Mr leach as he conforms to the stereotypes used within our media product; as he is a catholic and is also a step father. We asked Mr Leach to come along, as we wanted to know whether we were addressing the serious matter of rape and Catholicism correctly without causing offence to any of our audience or over stereotyping.

Below, I have embedded an audio recording of our treatment reading to Mr Hood and Mr Leach.


Treatment



Feedback


After listening to our treatment, Mr Leach said that we were correctly conforming to the stereotypical view of Catholicism and we were treating the inclusion of rape in our media product very professionally and without dwelling or focusing entirely upon the issue for long periods of time.

Mr Leach deemed that the target audience was for the viewing of adults and young adults although not for young teenagers. He felt that it was very much a religious thriller due it being very dark, supernatural although very realistic. Mr Leach recognised several conventions; religion and the use of Catholicism, rosary beads and the crucifix. The location and the use of the wooded area, the stereotypical step father being the bad guy along with the use of a flashback. The costume conventions of the time with big glasses and large flares. Along with Mr Hoods idea of the media product being more tear jerky rather than edge of your seat horror.

Nursery Rhyme

Hush Little Baby

The lyrics of Hush Little Baby 'promise all kinds of rewards to the child if he or she is quiet'. I believe that this nursery rhyme is probably the most suitable as the relation to our plot, as the mother at the age of 17 was forced to keep quiet about her abortion. I also believe that from a technical side it would be easy for us to record the nursery rhyme as well as manipulating the track by adding echo to the vocals and stretching the whole track out to achieve a slower tempo thus creating a more scarier and haunted effect.

Hush, little baby, don't say a word, Papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird.

And if that mockingbird don't sing, Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring.

And if that diamond ring turn brass, Papa's gonna buy you a looking glass.

And if that looking glass gets broke, Papa's gonna buy you a billy goat.

And if that billy goat don't pull, Papa's gonna buy you a cart and bull.

And if that cart and bull turn over, Papa's gonna buy you a dog named Rover.

And if that dog named Rover won't bark. Papa's gonna buy you a horse and cart.

And if that horse and cart fall down, Well you'll still be the sweetest little baby in town.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Treatment Draft 1

To Sin No More

Treatment Development / Research

As a group, we decided to list the basic plot ideas that we have, from this list we will produce our treatment. I have included every idea that all of our production team put forward, some of these ideas we will use in their entirety, some will only be partially touched upon or not even used in our film.

Main Ideas:

• Two brothers - one treated better than the other.
• Brother not treated as good - twist on ghost/sixth sense
• Alternative ending - fall back idea of bother existing and treated differently.
• Eldest brother treated differently; result of rape when mother 17.
• Raped by uncle (moms boyfriend/husband).
• Rape happend on the way to church service - sunday morning.
• Pregant but as she is cathlic - struggle with religion and conscience. - Loses faith when aborting child
• Abortion is looked down upon by highly religious catholic families.
• Watching news report.
• Forced into flashback by seeing a report on sexual abuse on the TV.
• Box of baby items - sons 17th birthday/sentimental items which Samantha can relate to.

Catholicism;
As all of our production team admitted that we did not know alot of information around the subject of Catholicism, we have decided that we will need to read up around the subject before writing the treatment.

Character Names;
We decided that to further the symbolism and representation of the religious theme and genre, that we should choose names that were of religious meaning and symbolism.

• Samantha; Listener of God
• Daniel - God is my judge
• Anthony - Worthy of praise
• Ray - Wise protector.

Symbols;

• Catholics body covered
• Rosary beads
• Crucifix - Jesus on the cross.

Film Name;

• To Sin No More.

Pregancy/Abortion

Flashbacks.

After thinking up all of the ideas that we think should be included into our treatment, another idea which was brought up at the end of the meeting was whether we decided to have the brother as a character or to present the brother as a ghost. We all seemed to like this idea, however, we all also agreed that there is a large percentage of risk into the 'ghost brother', so we decided to also pursue the other ideas as a backup and just in case the footage did not make sense.

Potential Technical & Administrative Difficulties

The potential difficulties that we could face during the completion of our media product;

• Time Keeping; In order to be able to complete our media product, to the highest possible quality whilst also being able to create professional ancillary products, we need to use our time wisely.
• As we have no financial budget, we will need to make sure that any props or costumes are available to us free of charge.
• A positive working attitude is required from all members of our production company, due to the high velocity of work required to be completed, everybody needs to pull their weight.

Existing Product Reseach

After our group meeting to decide upon what we would like to include within our media product, i have decided to therefore watch existing professional media products in order to understand how they portray an idea or a event to their audience.

Rob put forward a great suggestion of the film 'Carrie' and we decided as a group, for all of us to watch Carrie as four members can analyze different parts of the film, as I look at how the existing product has managed to achieve the idea using technology; special effects, animation, fades, effects and transitions. Whereas the my other group members may concentrate upon the storyline, plot and script and how the technological insertions help to develop the film or portray further the idea intended by the director.


Carrie
We could watch 'Carrie' in order to see how existing media products create the large amounts of tension, the strange movements and goings on and in particular the religious aspects; the praying to God and asking for help from above. Carrie, which was set in 1976 could also help us in the costume and location research to gain knowledge of how the existing media product made it recognisable to the audience that it was the 70's.





The Stepfather
I have decided to watch the Stepfather, as I believe that this existing media product could help us to paint a better portrayal and picture of how to represent the stepfather in our film, by the stereotypical aspects used in the existing media product which could be developed within our film. In particular, i will be concentrating on;

• The pieces of music used when the stepfather is in shot.
• The type of camera shots.
• How the technology helps develop the storyline.
• The transitions, fades and effects used. eg Cutting between shots or fading out of a shot to leave the audience in suspense.

As these existing media products, did well at the film industry I believe to make our media product more professional it will be good to gather all of our group members analyst of the films of which they feel could be used within our media product.

Roles & Responsibilities

So to make it fair for all of the group, we decided to share out and highlight each persons individual responsibilities, below I have listed each responsibilities and the person responsible.

Film Responsibilities;

• Producer - Adele Dibble
• Director - Sam Clark
• Camera operator - All of our group
• Editor - Sam Clark
• Sound editor - Holly Sandford and Sam Clark
• Storyboarding -  Rob Abel
• Script Writer - Adele Dibble
• Treatment - Holly Sandford
• Costume - Holly Sandford
• Make-up & Hair - Holly Sandford and the Actors.
• Location manager - Sam Clark and Holly Sandford
• Continuity manager - Adele Dibble
• Lighting - All of our group
• Talent scout - Rob Abel
• Props manager - Sam Clark and Holly Sandford

Ancillary Products;

• Photographer - Sam Clark
• QuarkXpress editor - Holly Sandford
• Photoshop Editor - Sam Clark

Genre / Ideas

During our group meeting, we finally decided upon a genre for our final media product; 5 minute short film. We have decided upon creating a Religious thriller, this is due to the continuation of creating a thriller whilst also adding religious elements.

Why create a thriller?
We are creating a thriller due to the same eventualities of last year at AS Level Media Studies. We do not have any budget, equipment or facilities in order for us to create an action film or a Science-Fiction as we would need powerful animation software and experienced animators for which we have no facilities in school. We would also not be able to write a comedy due to level of writing required to which none of us have experience or the capabilities to do so.

Thrillers, are still becoming ever more popular, with big releases like;

• In Time - Large budget film and A list actors and celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Amanda Seyfried and Cillian Murphy. Rating of 6.6/10 prior to UK release and 54 user reviews on IMDB

• Johnny English reborn - The follow on of Johnny English and with a budget reported in the region of $45 Million. Universal are hoping for a large return. IMDB

This just goes to show that thrillers are still on the rise and new big releases are already in the pipeline and ready for release over the next couple of months and in 2012. Large production companies like Universal are continuing to throw large amounts of money at the production of Thrillers.

My AS Thriller research
As we are deciding to once again create a thriller, I decided to look back at my thriller research from my AS Level Media Studies blog. However, after watching each other's pitch's and reading their treatments, we decided that it we will add religious elements to the film.

For the AS Level projects, every group decided that it would be best to create a thriller, this was due to the lack of experience in writing other genre's like comedy and we do not have a budget, equipment or the facilities for an action, animation or horror film. These are once again reoccurring factors for our Advanced Portfolio project.

My AS Thriller research post can be found here.

Next Meeting
In order to complete all of the required planning and preparation, so that we are able to start the construction process, we will need to decide upon the role and responsibilities within our production team over the next couple of weeks.

My Group & Film Pitch's

During the six weeks holiday, all GWPAHS media students had to complete a film pitch which would be filmed and assessed by Mr Hood, our teacher. Each member was filmed and depending on the assessment grade were put into a group e.g. top 4 = 1 group. Here i have embedded my group's film pitch's.

My film pitch;

Above, I have embedded my own treatment pitch. I believe in making sure everything is to the best we can possibly achieve, although last year time was a key factor for the reason why my media product was not to the best it could have been. With the formation of a new group; Holly, Rob, Adele and myself i believe we have all round media students, I prefer the technological side with the production; shooting, editing and publishing although i will more than pull the weight during the post-production side which will be crucial in creating a recognizable and professional media product.

Holly Sandford;

Holly is a very organised individual, with huge talent in the pre-production side of media studies as well as behind the camera in the production stages. Holly's organisation will be a great factor within the team, her film pitch was very professional and very realistic for possible use as our group's film idea. Holly is a perfectionist and is very good at spotting errors as to avoid any problems later on.

Rob Abel;

Rob is a very imaginative character within the group and this could play extremely well alongside Holly's organisation skills to create a successful team, Rob's treatment pitch was very professional and his captivating storyline which touched on a new film genre of Religion, which none of us have used , developed or challenged before. Rob's enthusiasm for in depth writing shone in his treatment pitch and his skills will prove very creditable in the pre production; script, storyboard and treatment stages.

Adele Dibble;

Adele is also a very imaginative person whom ideas could also be developed and included within our final media project. I'm sure that although being a quiet member of the group, she will be a huge contributor to the team both in pre and post production. As her creative side will give our media product that extra special twist as her ideas within her treatment like the horror style creation of suspense and tension, could be a huge factor within our final media product.

Now that we have all pitched and the groups have been decided, it is now time to start our research and planning for our product. Next week, we will need to decide upon a genre for our film, so that we can complete some existing product research.

Short Films

What is a Short film?
A short film is any film that is not long enough to be considered or called a feature film, although there is actually no time boundary on the difference between a short or feature film. Short films can be either professional or amateur productions and are often screened at local, national or international film festivals. Short films are often created with no or a very low budget by independent film makers, this compared with feature films that often have very large budgets and are created by large production company's that are solely profit making organisations.

The development of short films
As the introduction and development of web 2.0 and such websites as YouTube and Vimeo, it now means that non-profit film makers are able to upload their short films to a much wider audience rather than having to rely entirely upon film festivals. However, large production company are also releasing short films with new feature films and the introduction of FILMshort and the BBC film network focus entirely upon showcasing short films.

Why are we creating a short?
We are going to create a short film due to having no budget and the short time frame in which we have to write, film and publish the short film. Short films are also a typical first stage for new professional filmmakers.

Examples of Shorts
Below, I have embedded a wide range of different shorts from Drama's, Romance and Thrillers

Welcome

Welcome to my A2 Media Studies blog. I will be using this blog to present my OCR A-Level Media Studies coursework. The main task is centred around creating a contemporary media product, we have decided to create a 5 Minute short film as we have the capabilities both software and hardware to create a stunning piece of film material. Alongside the media product (Film), we must create our own company or brand in which to accompany the film as well as creating two ancillary tasks; Film poster and Film review. Once again, this decision was down to the capabilities within school to create such media.

The Task
Create a 5-Minute 'Short'.
I have included the specification link here.


Why choose too Blog?
I have decided to use a Blog, in particular Blogger over other publishing methods such as a scrap book due to the mixed level of presentation forms available, like being able to embed videos straight from the web in particular YouTube and Vimeo or create stunning online presentations through prezi or upload self recorded screen casts. Obviously such features can not be achieved within a scrap book. As well as things change, using a blog they can be changed immediately however using a scrap book requires having to start the whole book again.

What will be in the blog?
This blog will contain all the steps in the process of creating my media product;

• Planning
• Pre-production
• Filming
• Editing
• Publishing
• Evaluation
• as well as Two Ancillary tasks.