In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The Canvas is a story about three boys from the upper class who try to save their friend’s life with dodgy methods. The characters are Danny, Harry and Henry all three uncommon bays with interesting backgrounds, which unfortunately aren’t precised in the intro so that we may only guess them. The inspiration for that movie came when I was watchin Ocean's 13. The screenshots I've posted earlier this year represent in a good way how the scenes were set.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The most obvious attributes of Danny are that he is tall and is in a certain way the leader of the gang. He doesn’t talk a lot and tries to communicate as much as he can by body language. He is dressed well in a waistcoat and is a person many other people would respect. The question he asks are mostly rhetoric questions and validations of things he said before. He may not stand counter-arguments from his mates because that kind of character automatically cancels out factors like contradiction.
The character called Harry is asian and well-fed guy coming from a wealthy family - probably from china. As we saw in the clip, he doesn’t care too much about a decent outfit in questions of chic. His outfit is composed of a hoody and a olive-green T-shirt. The piece de resistance of that are massive white earphones around his neck.
Due to the fact that he really isn’t a jabber we can describe him as selfish and self-focused, but these attributes would cancel out the very fact that he wants to help one of his friends. I deduce from that, that he is taking part in this whole business for being respected by Danny or others. In the dialogue it comes out that he thinks that his ideas are the best - the only problem is that he never pronounces one useful sentence which would push the plot forward.
Last but not least, Henry the last character playing a major role during the first 2:17 minutes of the story. He is very posh and like Harry, but he shows that through his way of behave and clothing. His accent tells us that he comes from a german country like Austria, Switzerland or Germany. His hairs are fixed with an insane amount of styling gel or wax, he has e very expensive watch at his wrist - this one is definitely swiss and he has leather sneakers. he represents the asking and executing guy in the story. His questions aren’t rhetoric, he asks because he has no clue what to do next. This is the pattern of behavior you can expect from a spoiled child who always gets what it wants.
He talks four times in the whole 2:17 minutes. Three of his dialogues were opened by questions. He is - however - a nice boy, not too brilliant but easy to dazzle and hard to impress.
All three of the boys wear jeans and sneakers. That I think empowers the effect of them being teenager. Let’s talk about the characters who were only mentioned or shown. The boy lying on the bed in the hospital is John, the friend who is in a vigil coma. We don’t know much about him except his state of health, his name and that he has three friends who appear to like him a lot. The second character - only mentioned - is Anderson. Even after the dialogue between the boys we know nothing very concrete about him. We know that the boys know him and that this person nearly blew up a hotel in the south of France out of unmentioned reasons. The profile is like that. Either Anderson is a mentally ill pyromanic or his dad owns a dynamite factory and Anderson forgot 10 kilos of Semtex in the safe. However, he is an interesting character who can put a lot of tension and conflict into the plot. Let’s hope that this guy is at least as explosive as his luggage…
It is not mentioned out of which social, religious or political group Anderson and John come from.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The clip I made may appeal to an audience in cinemas. The project I am working on is meant to find an end within 90-120 minutes.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Due to the fact that the main actors are under 20, I’d propose to set everything to a target group between 14 and 25 years who is interested in watching teenagers messing around.
But before showing it, how do I attract my audience?
How did you attract and address your audience?
Camerawork is the solution. Even when a story is not really worth to be told, good camerawork can sometime cause wonderful representations of scenes. You don’t really need famous actors for a good movie, but good camerawork is one of the most essential things. When people see a great picture they gonna think that the movie will be great to - unfortunately the truth is often very different. The best way to attract attention is a PR-campaign, but I haven’t the budget for that.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
having good camera angles is half the battle won. So the optical part is a very important one because the product bases on visual elements. My story is not clear from the beginning on, what makes the people sit and wonder what might happen next. For a good movie you need 3 components: A good Story, Good Camreawork, Good directing.
What have I learnt?
I learnt to make something good without a big crew and a big budget and an awesome lot of technical gadgets and that stuff like track or cranes. For me that project is in a certain way a downgrade from what I’ve done before, but this wasn’t too bad, because now I know what it means to do everything and not only directing, filming with my other visionary friend and harassing the rest of the crew, which is not that high in the hierarchy of production processes.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Compared with the Preliminary task there is a big difference because I was allowed to use my own camera, which weighs 3 kilos. Thus I had a higher stability for tripod-less shots. I think very small cameras… well… they aren’t made for real films, if you get what I mean by that.
What have you learnt from the feedback you got from your audience?
I learnt that not everyone is alway happy with movies. That's why there are different target groups. People might sy that movies are well made, but some persons can't identify themselves with the showed content. Feedback shows you as a producer or director, what you can make better or what you've done totally wrong.
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Friday, 13 March 2009
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Final Comments
The things I did over thas last days:
I exported my movie on Mrs. Downes USB-Drive and burnt a copy on DVD.
Furthermore I checked the rest of the red-tape I had to do and finished my critical evaluation.
There is not a lot to do anymore. Here I posted some screenshots from "The Canvas"
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Positive Criticism...
Who and what have you represented and how in the film?
I've represented some crazy youngster who have nothing better to do than stealing things...
Who is included and excluded by the text you've created?
Included are young people between 14 and 25 years.
Excluded are older peolple.
What form of realism have you created and why?
Well I don't know if the plot is realistic, but I can make it feel realistic.
What role does the mise en scène, acting, dialogue, music and style of the camera work play in the construction of verisimilitude?
It is supposed to construct a feeling of anxiety.
I'd appreciate your feedback on my project.
I've represented some crazy youngster who have nothing better to do than stealing things...
Who is included and excluded by the text you've created?
Included are young people between 14 and 25 years.
Excluded are older peolple.
What form of realism have you created and why?
Well I don't know if the plot is realistic, but I can make it feel realistic.
What role does the mise en scène, acting, dialogue, music and style of the camera work play in the construction of verisimilitude?
It is supposed to construct a feeling of anxiety.
I'd appreciate your feedback on my project.
Monday, 2 March 2009
Related Questions
1: How did you manage the group dynamics, equipment and resources, interim deadlines and the necessary collaborative nature of film making?
- I am not in a group, so I manage myself and it functioned pretty good until now. Concerning equipment and resources, it wasn't too complicated as well. I used my own equipment under some conditions given by Mrs. Downes, and shooting permissions were given for every location I wanted to work in. I have been able to stay within the deadlines and was handing in everything on time.
2: What health and safety and logistical problems did you solve?
- The only problem I had was how to get four boys who were up to star their role for one day.
Fortunately I had the opportunity to do my work during Leave-out week-end, so everyone had time and nothing else to do than to help me with media. I haven't had the logistical problem of lending a camera over the week-end because I used as I already mentioned above my own stuff.
3: How did you organize your human resources – the people involved in the production?
- I used the psychological vector called "boredom". My shooting over the week-end on a nearly empty campus way interpreted as an entertainment therapy by my actors. That motivation made everything easier and the actors were playing their roles in a convincing way.
4: How did you manage actors, locations, costumes and props? Remember that deciding NOT to use a particular strategy [e.g. not to use any props] is also a creative decision.
- I had two locations. A roundabout and a room in our san. However both of them had massive inconvenients as I realized during editing. The room in the san has a too high resonance what means that spoken dialogues sound very artificial and not pure. Especially the echo is particularly annoying, but I had no choice. The roundabout is the perfect location - except the fact that we're 2K away from the RAF-Lossiemouth implies that jets are flying over the campus in very short intervals. I had a lot of good shots, but I must do a cutdown in the end and sometimes it will be quiet and sometimes you'll able to hear the noise of the jet-engines.
5: How did storyboarding and creating a shooting script work in practice? Did you make creative decisions to depart from the original plan? For what reasons and with what outcomes?
- I a certain way storyboards have no meaning for me because I like to improvise. Of course you can design some nice shots and angles but technically factors like lighting or wind or weather as well as the environment influence my final choice massively
6: Although time management may seem a less exciting aspect of the creative media practice, it is possibly the most important – how did you manage your time, and with what success?
- I'm on time because I work effectively.
- I am not in a group, so I manage myself and it functioned pretty good until now. Concerning equipment and resources, it wasn't too complicated as well. I used my own equipment under some conditions given by Mrs. Downes, and shooting permissions were given for every location I wanted to work in. I have been able to stay within the deadlines and was handing in everything on time.
2: What health and safety and logistical problems did you solve?
- The only problem I had was how to get four boys who were up to star their role for one day.
Fortunately I had the opportunity to do my work during Leave-out week-end, so everyone had time and nothing else to do than to help me with media. I haven't had the logistical problem of lending a camera over the week-end because I used as I already mentioned above my own stuff.
3: How did you organize your human resources – the people involved in the production?
- I used the psychological vector called "boredom". My shooting over the week-end on a nearly empty campus way interpreted as an entertainment therapy by my actors. That motivation made everything easier and the actors were playing their roles in a convincing way.
4: How did you manage actors, locations, costumes and props? Remember that deciding NOT to use a particular strategy [e.g. not to use any props] is also a creative decision.
- I had two locations. A roundabout and a room in our san. However both of them had massive inconvenients as I realized during editing. The room in the san has a too high resonance what means that spoken dialogues sound very artificial and not pure. Especially the echo is particularly annoying, but I had no choice. The roundabout is the perfect location - except the fact that we're 2K away from the RAF-Lossiemouth implies that jets are flying over the campus in very short intervals. I had a lot of good shots, but I must do a cutdown in the end and sometimes it will be quiet and sometimes you'll able to hear the noise of the jet-engines.
5: How did storyboarding and creating a shooting script work in practice? Did you make creative decisions to depart from the original plan? For what reasons and with what outcomes?
- I a certain way storyboards have no meaning for me because I like to improvise. Of course you can design some nice shots and angles but technically factors like lighting or wind or weather as well as the environment influence my final choice massively
6: Although time management may seem a less exciting aspect of the creative media practice, it is possibly the most important – how did you manage your time, and with what success?
- I'm on time because I work effectively.
Thursday, 26 February 2009
More Details...
On the technical level of continuity
there is one major problem on this campus: The RAF.
Nearly every two minutes jets are flying over the location and ruin the sound.
However after several frustrated attempts to shoot in the short intervals between the flights I decided to ignore that issue because this is in every sense force majeur. Clothes and props remain the sames throughout the whole plot because it is set on one and the same day.
In my opinion I made no mistakes ignoring the fact that I didn't deactivate the 1080i caption of my camera. Why do I have a bad feeling about overlocking my mac for the compression process...
The film will subvert expectations deliberately. Unfortunately the audio track sounds like the audio of cheap day TV-series, fortunately only inside closed rooms.
Concerning elements of other movies I helped myself with the Ocean's 13 setting.
One guy ill, the rest of his friends plan an act of revenge or try to raise money for a surgery...
However, this is a nice basement for a film, which isn't too used yet.
Making promises in the film-biz is in my opinion a very hard
thing. The audience must find out itself if it likes the movie.
there is one major problem on this campus: The RAF.
Nearly every two minutes jets are flying over the location and ruin the sound.
However after several frustrated attempts to shoot in the short intervals between the flights I decided to ignore that issue because this is in every sense force majeur. Clothes and props remain the sames throughout the whole plot because it is set on one and the same day.
In my opinion I made no mistakes ignoring the fact that I didn't deactivate the 1080i caption of my camera. Why do I have a bad feeling about overlocking my mac for the compression process...
The film will subvert expectations deliberately. Unfortunately the audio track sounds like the audio of cheap day TV-series, fortunately only inside closed rooms.
Concerning elements of other movies I helped myself with the Ocean's 13 setting.
One guy ill, the rest of his friends plan an act of revenge or try to raise money for a surgery...
However, this is a nice basement for a film, which isn't too used yet.
Making promises in the film-biz is in my opinion a very hard
thing. The audience must find out itself if it likes the movie.
Monday, 23 February 2009
San shooting
Here are some pictures about the indoor location where I will be shooting tonight with my crew.
It's a room in the san. The nurse and me, we found some props, but I keep trying to make everything a little bit more authentic. However, here are the photos:
50% done...
Today I shot the second part of the plot and created the titles. Tonight I will shoot the 1st part in the san. The final title of the movie is gonna be "The Canvas"
Sunday, 22 February 2009
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