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Friday, 2 May 2014

Ancillary Tasks - Image Analysis

When considering my magazine cover, I had many different ideas for the picture that would feature on it. When filming, we decided that the best looking picture would be one like the one featured, and so we took many similar photos of this one. There were some subtle, but important differences in these photos though. We started with the shutter (behind me) all the way down to the floor, but then decided that it looked too plain. We then moved the shutter up, but realised that if we had this new addition of light coming through at the bottom, we should do something with it; with this in mind, we put the hammer featured in the film down next to me as it is a fairly big part of the trailer - this could hint at what is in the film/trailer for some readers of the magazine. Finally, we also had my character not looking at the camera, so that it looks almost as if he is scared of something not visible to the audience - this would help convey the genre of the film.

The original, unaltered picture that was used in my Magazine cover.

After deciding on the photo I wanted to use, I took it into school to use Photoshop to edit the picture effectively. It took me a little while to get used to the different features of Photoshop, however I eventually understood each tab and how to make it look like I wanted. I installed the same font used in my trailer for the film's title - as this created synergy and many film magazine's do this too (for the exact same reason). Many different magazines all show their price in a smaller font at the top on the front cover. This is so the potential reader can see how much the magazine will cost, but after reading most of the other text and possibly generate interest in buying the issue. Also there were a lot of issues of different magazines that featured different sections of the magazine on the left/right of the front cover. This gave the the idea to do the same and have different sections of the magazine being described on the right of the cover. This is so that if a potential reader is unsure of whether to get the magazine or not, this will hopefully engage them more and they will end up buying it. Finally, some issues of Empire had a block at the top/bottom of the cover for other features in the magazine to be put in, I liked this and tried to put this in my original cover.

An example of the layout of an Empire magazine front cover - with different features on the right and the title of the main feature on the left.

The blocks at the top and bottom for other features being used effectively by Empire magazine.

My original cover.

After creating this and receiving feedback from the class, I decided that the cover was too light and the white block at the top didn't suite the cover at all. With this in mind, I looked at other issues of film magazines for ideas - in many issues of Empire that I looked at, the main characters take up most of the front cover, to the point that they usually overlapped the title of the magazine a little. This suggests that the magazine is so well known that they don't even need to have their title fully showing on every cover, as well as making the film seem like the most important feature of the magazine. I did the same with my improved version of my magazine cover, in the hope that it had the same effect. This was quite hard to get the hang of on Photoshop, but after watching some walkthrough videos on Youtube and asking friends how to do it, I managed to get used to it.

An example of an Empire front cover that has certain parts of the characters overlapping the text.

So I managed to put my head in front of the text for the magazine cover, however it was still too light and some text was hard to read because of this. I spent a little while playing around with the contrast and brightness of the whole picture and manged to achieve a darker 'tone' in the picture. I still wasn't happy with it, until I stumbled upon the idea of blurring the image behind the text and having me as the only thing that was clear in the picture. I found this amazing because it made the text stand out so much more and made me focus on me more than the other things in the picture. I marked around me and the hammer on the floor, so the rest was blurred out a little to make the text stand out - creating the final product (at the top of the blog post). I felt that the cover looked a lot darker and more menacing, while also highlighting the different features inside the issue, and so it is a massive improvement on the original version.

Evaluation

Question 1 is:
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Below is a nine-frame analysis that compares my influential scenes with my main task.

Note: these influences are from 3 different scenes:
The opening for Children of Men (2006)
One of the first few cutscenes from The Last of Us (2013)
Quantic Dream's tech demo 'Kara' (2012)

Below is the nine-frame analysis of the same areas in my main task.

1. Titles: In Children of Men, there is a hard cut to a back background with the title in white. This very simple technique is used in a way that is quite shocking for the viewers, due to events preceding this (a bomb explodes in a coffee shop). I tried to do something similar in my task because I liked this technique so much. At the end of my teaser, there is a bang in time with a cut to black - the title then fades into view, almost as if coming from darkness. I feel that this keeps the scary atmosphere going for a little longer.

2. Settings/locations: Also in Children of Men, the opening scene is in a bleak coffee shop. This makes the scene feel very drab and a little threatening. I have tried to recreate the same sort of feeling, but through a different style. Instead, I have chosen to film in a big garage - making there seem like there is a lot of empty space around (therefore a threat could be anywhere in the garage, and not be seen).

3. Costumes/props: In The Last of Us, Joel is wearing a simple jeans and T-shirt combination, this keeps reminding us that his character is more 'down to Earth' than some others and makes the story seem more realistic (as we are used to see in this combination in our own lives). In my film, I have tried to do the same thing - both Jack and Anna have very simple costume designs, to keep their characters more 'down to Earth' and realistic. In a zombie-apocalypse, you wouldn't really be wearing high heels or a suit or something similar...

4. Camerawork: Throughout Children of Men it features a handheld camera style, giving is a 'shaky, realistic' effect. I loved the way that the camerawork made the scenes feel so real, so I have incorporated this into my task, by using handheld camera movements and keeping the camera close to the action.

5. Story 'setup': In The Last of Us Joel's daughter, Sarah, dies after a gunshot wound to the stomach. This scene is very emotional as Joel has to deal with the death of his daughter right in front of his eyes. I wanted to re-create a similar feeling from my film, and so Jack has to deal with the fact that Anna has died from a zombie bite and he has to stop her from turning into one of them - which he fails to do. These scenes are very emotional and set the tone of the story extremely well.

6. Genre: The Last of Us's genre is defined by the creatures in the rest of the game, and the gameplay featured throughout. However, in this scene, a big influence is the state that Joel and Sarah's clothes are in - they are covered in spots of blood. Another big factor in this scene is the darkness - people are usually a little afraid of the dark. In my task, I have played on this, by keeping the room slightly darker and having both characters with blood on their clothes. This hopefully conveys the horror genre quite quickly to the audience.

7. Characterisation/representation: Joel in The Last of Us is a strong and independent character, however in this scene, he's weakness is exploited and he is broken. Sarah dies and Joel breaks down in tears. I wanted to re-create a similar scene in my task, and so Anna dies and Jack starts to break down. I feel that both of these scenes are extremely emotional and memorable for viewers.

8. Editing/effects: When watching Kara, I noticed that there were longer takes being used throughout the demo. Not to the extent of Children of Men (where a whole scene could be one take), but I felt they were longer than average. Especially when the scene started to get quite emotional towards the end - extreme close ups on Kara's eyes and mouth add to the emotion here. I felt that the longer takes could then allow me (as a viewer) to settle into each shot a lot easier, and focus more on the performance and emotions, rather than the different shots and techniques used. I tried to introduce this into my film - making many shots last much longer than I usually would have filmed them for. We even did the whole scene in one take a few times, so that I could experiment with that idea - however, I didn't like the final product and it didn't show off many editing skills on my part. My favourite shot that ended up in the final cut, is the final shot. This is due to the fact that it runs for a long time and simply follows Jack as he stands up and turns around to face the post - it then continues around the post to reveal the re-animated corpse of Anna, standing behind him. I feel that the shot is quite long and so the audience members can 'settle into' the shot type quite easily and really focus on the events that have just unfolded in front of them.

9. Music/sound/dialogue: When the bomb explodes in the opening scene of Children of Men, a high pitched 'ear ringing' sound is heard - this re-occurs at various points throughout the film. This is initially due to the sound of the bomb going off and is trying to give the effect that we are also affected by this explosion. However, I feel that it also translates to a situation of high levels of stress, due to the use of a similar effect in The Dark Knight (2008) - Harvey Dent wakes up in hospital to find that half his face is burnt off and his fiance has died. He then screams out in anger, but all we hear is the non-diegetic sound of a high pitched note. Both of these scenes are extremely hard hitting for different reasons: Children of Men because of the shock of the explosion; The Dark Knight because of the emotional stress that has been put on Harvey. I wanted to try and incorporate a similar feeling in my film, so I manage to get an 'ear ringing' sound effect from the internet and turn the sound down from the footage. I also incorporated an echo effect. This made the scene feel quite alien and strange, but this was because I was trying to make the scene about the stress that Jack's mind is going through at that time. I feel I managed to achieve this with the strange feelings that the sounds created - because Jack's life has changed dramatically and so what will happen in the future for him will be quite alien.

Question 2 is:
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Question 3 is:
What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Question 4:
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Ancillary Task 2 - Poster

After receiving feedback on my previous draft of the poster, I have updated it to a better version. The mian changes are an updated credit block and a smaller tagline. Below is this new version, and below that is the original post.

This is my second Ancillary Task. On 4th April, I spent a few hours editing the picture on Photoshop and starting to add in the correct text - I finished the credit block this morning. I think that the poster looks very professional and eye catching. I kept the font as the same style as the trailer, to keep synergy across all the media platforms. I also added a tag-line to generate more interest in the film - it gives more of a clue to what the film will be about, but also helps create many enigmas.

The biggest issue we had was the fact that we had forgotten to move a white bucket out of the way, when taking the pictures. This meant that there was a big white bucket taking up almost half of the shot and it distracted from the two actors in the doorway. This meant that, not only did I have to add the fade effect on the left, I also had to make it so much more predominant than I initially intended. However, I do like the way that the poster has turned out - I feel that the more predominant fade adds a more ominous feeling to the poster.

Ancillary Task 1 - Magazine Cover

After receiving feedback on my magazine cover, I have made a few changes. The biggest ones being simply removing an exclamation mark and changing the wording of one of the features. Below is my new version of the magazine cover, and below that is the original version.

This is my first Ancillary Task. On 4th April, I spent a few hours editing the photo to suit the magazine cover on Photoshop. I then proceeded to add text to the photo to make it seem more like a magazine cover. I feel that our efforts have produced a professional looking front cover. I kept the font for the film title the same - to keep the synergy across the different media platforms. In the real world, this would hopefully allow audiences to recognise our product easier. I also tried to attract audiences with news on the Academy Awards and a competition. A competition was also featured on the front cover of the Empire Magazine that I was constantly comparing our magazine to. The competition will hopefully attract more audience members because there may be a fan that would like to be in a film or even an aspiring actor that would like a shot at being in a professional film. There is also a feature describing what was released "10 years ago", this is because there is a section in my PlayStation Magazine that I receive every month that does the same thing - I always find it interesting to see how many differences there are between products made 10 years ago and films made now.

Monday, 7 April 2014