Assessment day feedback and targets

From my assessment day these are the key target i need to focus on the improve my exam paper. 

Targets  
1. Note taking- you must ensure you take detailed notes explaining what you are referencing, they mustn't be general.
5. Audiences decode the text, you should explain how they do this, and more importantly how the director wants them to respond to the text
8. Always provide specific references to the text and the aspect which you are discussing, never make general/vague points.

                                   Thriller trailer 

                                                     -Techno thriller 

social class teen drama film project 

Evaluation 

How did you represent stereotypes e.g. age?
we wanted to represent both social class and gender. We showed boys as being weak for a pretty girl, so much so that they become slaves for her. the social class aspect of the clip was the hierarchy between both girls, one of the girls was popular making her social status much higher than the other girls. Although social class is represented mostly about the wealth of the characters, we wanted our genre to show through more so we used social class to represent the social hierarchy.    

How did you represent your genre? E.g. horror
Our genre was teen drama comedy, we used the typical stereotypes and conventions used in a teen drama to shape our clip. we also represented our genre by using the characters to reflect it. a conventional stereotype of a teen drama is a popular girl becomes fake friends with a 'nerdy' girl, and backstabs her behind her back. 

USE as much sound and mise en scene terminology as you can
we used sound to amplifier the themes of the clip.

Analysis of tv drama

Representation of age and gender- Waterloo road extract

   

Waterloo road is a BBC one TV drama that focuses on teenage lives who attend high school; the plots are always focused on events in pupilâs lives within the school and outside of school. The show also focuses on adults related to the school or the pupils. The characters are represented in many different ways, for example represented by their class/status, sexuality, physical ability/disability, ethnicity, age and gender, regional identity. Waterloo road uses easily identifiable stereotypes that teens can relate to. It also represents modern school life in an engaging way that is familiar to the target audience. Issues surrounding education and young people are explored which helps the audience to understand and reflect. Through different episodes, they portrays teenager in a number of ways this gives people an incite to different kind of teenages and show that they are not all bad.     

 The clip is set i a school. In the first scene, there are two school boys present.These boys attempt to return a broken camera without been seen, when they are caught by a male teacher. The teenages in this scene are seen to be irresponsible and dishonest. As the scene goes on we are introduced to another (female) teacher, the male teacher informs her about the broken camera and smartly undermines her about the fact that she didn’t take insurance on the camera.The female teacher is seen to be irresponsible and useless, this is amplified as the male teacher criticizes her, this shows he has more power over her. it follows the stereotype that men are more powerful than women. However in a later scene there is a school girl attacking another student; which happens to be male. This subverts the stereotype i just mentioned above. This also show that school children are violent and can’t control their emotions. The girl is attacking the boy because she found out about her mum having an affair, this shows that women are not faithful or trustworthy. Many of the school girls are dressed in short skirts and their faces cover in make-up, this represents females as sex objects, and show that they are obsessed about their looks.

   As the scene come to the end we are introduced to a new teacher, trying to dress like a teenage,he is meet by two pupils that start to laugh at this attempt to look younger and be down with the kids. this suggest that many older people are trying to stay in touch with their teen life.

 throughout the sequence the lighting is very natural, which makes it seem more realistic. most of the pupils are dressed in school uniform which show their age group, and the teachers are dressed in smart clothing, which so that they are professional and responsible.

Camera angles and their effects on the audience

Camera shots, angles and movement mark a specific scene, each camera shot has a different effect on the audience.

A point of view shot is used to put the audience in the characters shoes dns help them see what the character is seeing , this makes the audience sympathise with the character, and understand their motive.

  

The use of extreme long shots set the scene and make the location known to the audience. it also helps the understand the location the character is in. Another way location is shown to the audience is through the use of long shots, long shot help the reader understand the relationship between the character and their surroundings. Birds eye view shot are also unnatural view for the audience, this helps  them to gain a greater understanding of the location.   

   

Close up and extreme closes up help the audience see the characters facial expression,emotions and reactions. extreme close up is a very unnatural view for the audience, so it can sometimes be used to make the audience feel uncomfortable with the scene. extreme close ups also make the audience think about the characters emotion through understanding common expressions, this is because they can only see a part of the character’s face.  

   The effects of camera angles on the audience.

Low angle shot make the audience feel inferior to the character,the low angle shot establishes the importance and power of the character. On the other hand high angle shots are used to make the audience feel sorry for the character. they are used to make the character seem vulnerable and in some cases defeated. Mid angle shots makes the audience feel on the same level as the character, this can help the audience build a rapport with the character.

    The effect of camera movement on the audience

Tracking makes the audience feel as if they are in the scene with the character, as the shot follows that character in their surroundings. panning is also used,this switches the audiences attention from an object or scene to the next.

Does the media reflect reality or create reality?

     

    The media reflects reality but it is more of a powerful source, which creates reality.

The media has power.  

     This statement is true as the media controls what people read and how they are informed. Newspapers tell us that smoking is bad, however films portray smoking as cool, as the main character (which many people think of as role models) for example James bond participates in this activity. Many if not all media publications have their own view. This influences them to write bias review on worldly issues.  By adding my opinion to this article can make the reader feel that I am giving a bias review, that is not the case. Although many media publications enforce bias opinions they do include an incite to the issues that are present in todays society.

   The media reflects the world, but by exaggerating worldly issues it shapes the views of society and create a new reality, for example many Muslims are being persecuted because of the reaction the newspapers and other media publications have given to the suicide bombers. Another example was the inflating news reports on the epidemic of the swine flu. Many news reports made out that swine flu was bigger than what it was. They used rear stories to scare the reader, causing them to have a different view on this epidemic virus.

 The media inject ideas into society, they control what people think is acceptable and how people react. stuart hall’s theory suggest that the media is a powerful source that creates reality. His theory talks about how people are represented in the media. Hall was concerned with media power, including how it propagates social values.                                                               

      "The mass media play a crucial role in defining the problems and issues of public concern. They are the main channels of public discourse in our segregated society". -stuart hall                  

Stuart Hall suggests 3 ways in which we may read media texts:                                                    

 1. The preferred reading – where an audience will read a media text in the way in which the director intends for them to read it                                                

2. The negotiated reading – where the audience may choose to believe parts of the media text, but not all                      

3. The oppositional reading – where the audience oppose the representations and views of the media text.

This can determine how people react to information provided to them by the media.                                  

    There are many factors that can determine how people react to different new, for example the age of the audience, the gender, ethnicity, and cultural background. The media use this to their advantage as it allows them to isolate certain groups and manipulate the audience into feeling either positive or negative view towards them.

   Going back to stuart hall's theory, In 1971 he made an influential appearance on BBC television, where he criticized media portrayal of blacks. He noticed that when blacks were being shown in the media, only stories that followed the stereotype of a black were being shown, however there stereotypes did not show a correct interpretation of black people.

          "When blacks appear in the documentary/current affairs part of broadcasting, they are always attached to some 'immigrant issue': they have to be involved in some crisis or drama to become visible actors to the media."

Although stuart appearance on the bbc made people question the media, this issue is still the case. Many media publications show stereotypical black in movies that are related to gangs and crime, and this is not only with blacks, but others such as muslims and arab countries.   

   Many media icons such as celebrities are shaped into tools, the media can use to get information across. many celebrities use different persona in the media, these personas create view on how people are represented when in fact they are not what they seem.   

   Most of our information is gathered by reading books, newspapers, magazines, internet and television. We are living in an age where information is at our fingertips and can be accessed from any remote place on earth. In a world where we have this much control, many of the devices we gather our information from can be manipulated to make us think and react to things in different ways.  

In Conclusion the media have a lot of power over their audience, and if used wrongly it can create reality rather than reflect it.

Luther media filming project 

Luther practical evaluation

1) How successful was your final product? How closely did you follow the script? Did it represent the TV crime drama genre? was the shift of power clear?

- The end product was successful as it followed the script and the conventions of a crime drama. the shift of power was presented throughout the whole clip, this was shown by the death of the police and the victory of the criminal. 

2) How did you effectively work as a team?

-we work well as a team as we each had different roles to preform. we each put in 100% to make our production. 

3) How did you represent your characters through mise en scene and sound?
- The criminal was dressed in a hoodie, which covered his face in some of the scenes. we didn't have enough time to incorporate sound, but if we did we would have used a very dark up beat sound track for the criminal.
4) How did you effectively use sound to represent stereotypes?
- we didn't have time to import sound, but if we did we would have used a upbeat soundtrack for the criminal, and a more structured classic soundtrack for the police.
5) How did you effectively use mise en scene to represent stereotypes?
- the criminal was dressed in a hoodie, well as the police were dressed in smart shoes and clothes.
6) what did you learn about camera work and editing in the process?
- we used a tripod to give the clip a smooth finish, this so show the camera work didn't look shaky. another thing we learnt is by using different camera angles and movement we could show the levels of power between the characters.
7) what would you improve upon if you were remaking your scene?
- during the editing process, we would have used more special effects and sound to give a better effect on the clip.
8) bullet point 3 things you will be taking from this practical task that is useful to future projects

• camera work is important when filming 
• editing can give the clip a better effect 
• dividing the work enable us to get the work done to a good standard 

9) What were some audience feedback?
- Many people said they liked the overall project however they thought we should have incorporated sound into the clip
10) what was your role in the group?
- my role was the camera work, i was responsible for shooting the clip and using the right camera angles. I also helped to edited the clip together on final cut.      

The Challenge...

                                This school is at cutting edge technology 

 

Apple macs is a high end, expensive piece of technology that is highly rated. many people want one and many envy those who have one. The first thing you see when you look at the image is the mac and the apple logo. most of the light is coming from the top left hand side, drawing more attention to the apple mac computer.
denote-
by looking at the image you can see a apple mac computer.
conote-
 this show that the school have the money to invest in high end computers.