Tuesday, 10 May 2011

EVALUATION- TRAILER

My intentions for this media text was to appeal to our target audience of 20- 40 years old demographic ranging from A-C1 intended to attract this market through the use of genre specific narrative tools; medium close ups, voiceovers, montages, enigma and various other codes and conventions. The social context of my media text was to comment and challenge the social representation of social solidarity concerning the ideology surrounding normality and the perception of people who don’t conform to these stereotypical values.

Here I used a quote from the memoirs of T.E Lawrence in witch he vividly re-counts the time he spent in the Arabian Peninsula. His memoires had a lot of thematically similarities of self-doubt, loneliness and self-segregation. By using this quote I intended to create an association with him that connotes my intended target audience due to the demographic that his memoirs were intended for, therefore the use of intertexuality. In this quote the protagonist is directly engaging the audience I specifically used this quote for this reason as it incorporates the audience to become part of the narrative and become emotional and intellectually invested and breaks the fourth wall.

I opted not to give the protagonist a name as I saw it creates an enigma code that draws the audience in and makes them invested in the character and who he is and what will happen to him this technique has been successfully narrative tool in many other texts such as layer cake (2004). According to Propp’s archetypal characters the ‘hero’s’ motivations is to save the ‘princess’ and his enemy is stereotypically a singular force, however for my narrative I wished to subvert this stereotype and have the motivations for the not to be the attainment of the princess but to find the truth and to not conform to the stereotype and have not just a singular antagonist by have a ethereal, ever-present and omnipotent force to be the ‘villain’.

For the score I researched a great deal of time into the many different options I could take with the soundtrack (non-diegetic) ultimately I used a track from requiem for a dream (2000) witch shared the same aesthetic and cinematographically similar approach.

In the last third of the trailer I had a voice over (non-diegetic sound) from the hero (according to Propp’s theory) whose purpose was to leave the audience wanting more and for this reason I opted to use this opportunity to introduce the antagonist of my narrative in reference only therefore creating an enigma code because this was the first mention of an antagonist in all of the trailer and by not showing who this antagonist is it creates a sense of ambiguity and encourages the audience to ask questions through the use of a voice over from my protagonist by doing so in this manner I hoped to entice the audience to find out more about my media text also conforming to Todorov’s narrative theory by ending the trailer in the disruption segment of the narrative. I also used this opportunity to show a key narrative focal point in that to show that no matter how much the hero tries to save this woman there are un comprehensible forces at work that are determined to stop him which is a common code and convention pertaining to my texts genre this in itself creates a enigma code for the audience by us not knowing whether he will overcome this coercion. All of these different narrative focal points create a cornucopia of lies and obstacles for not only the characters but also that in this section I opted to use a rhythmic sample of non-diegetic sound that fades away the connotations of it was to show the audience that although this is the end of the trailer this is not the whole narrative and there is much more to see. I also added a web address that was there to promote a cross media platform for the text.

Another technique I used for the trailer was the decision to make was to position the camera at a low angle as the protagonist walks over it, my intention was to connote that despite the fact that he is not in a position of power within the narrative he possess knowledge about key points within the narrative that the audience is cannot comprehend at this point and will have to view this text to know more

For the title card I wanted an image that both reflected my target audience and genre therefore I opted for an image that did not have an abundance of colour the connotation of this was to show the grim tone of the text and narrative, the reason I chose to use a silhouette of a tree at dawn that had no leaves for the main image was to connote two messages; one that this narrative is much like the seasons and how it is the darkest before dawn and secondly as a generic convention within similar texts in this genre. The choice of typography was used to reflect the genre as it is quite gothic.

One weakness was time and budgetary constraints if I had more time and resources available I would have liked to be adding some testimonials of well known individuals within the industry to raise the production values and again to promote a cross media platform ideology.

Another that I encountered was the matter of continuity as we had a problem that the actor who the protagonist had gotten a haircut during principle photography to combat this we had to radically change the various camera angles and shot types to minimise the potential exposure of the character another problem I encountered was the different types of costume codes that were being used again disrupting continuity this was the biggest problem I encountered and if I had another chance then would definitely enforce a much tighter time table and more reliable cast and crew.

Monday, 9 May 2011

EVALUATION- MAGAZINE

The two types of print based media texts I choose to produce feature pages for were; Empire magazine whose target audience is men primarily aged 15-30 ranging from B-C1, this belongs to the film/TV genre with a greater focus on the actual text rather than the names attached to them. The second magazine I choose was Elle magazine whose primary target audience is women aged 14-28, ranging from B- C2 this text belongs to the fashion/ celebrity magazine with a greater focus on the stars behind media texts. I choose these two magazines because they have entirely different target audiences and would offer the greatest amount of exposure to my media texts target audience. One thing that they both had in common was the subjectivities that their ideal reader would posses , both would have a self image that has them knowledgeable in their area of expertise both the age groups are mid teens to late twenties both middle to working class, live in the western world and have no overt political views.

For my main image in Elle the main feature of the article was an interview with the female lead in my media text in this aspect I chose to conform to the findings of cress and van luien and base my article on , I decided to articulate an image that both is salient and conforms to the house style of Elle, while still retaining its individuality by being imaginative I opted to use a technique that showed the chief focal point of a article in a manner that would be appealing to my target audience for this reason I opted that the costume code should be something natural as to not be too aggressive and confrontational this was also the reason for the specific facial codes and gesture codes that would be the most appealing to my intended target audience

For my Elle magazine article I opted to use two dominant colours pink and white the use of these dominant colours was to reflect the readership of women, within this magazine. In regards to the article due to the hose style, genre and target audience the articles main focus was the star herself and less about the media text. For this reason the type of language used was semi informal and used common everyday vocabulary.

The main image for the empire magazine article was situated on the left hand side of the pages I chose not be unconventional to the findings of cress and van luein in this aspect of positioning as I believed that the headline and body of text were sufficient to grasp the attention of my target audience however I did chose to conform to the rules of cress and van luen when they stated that to make more feature image more salient it is often best to incorporate a foreign object within the mise en scene that does not traditionally appear in there. I choose to construct a the background of the image out of text this was to one connote the genre of the text in question and second reiterate the title given to the my media text, within the foreground I choose to position the subject of the image that gazed directly at the audience (direct mode of address/ cress and van luien)

The dominant colours used for this magazine were black and red as they provide a good contrast this was due to the readership that consisted of men. For the body of this article I opted to make the media text the focal point rather than on the stars themselves this was conforming to the magazines house style and the genre, the language used was semi formal and used terminology common within the industry

Saturday, 7 May 2011

END QUOTE

Now i understand where whey have been guiding me to
What they want me to see

They need me
Because only i can save her
You need me because all of you have failed
I know she's alive

This is my gift and my curse
I know i will make it
I know i will save her someday

Friday, 25 March 2011

THE BEST OF THE BEST OF THE BEST SIR!


here i have finally chosen witch background image and foreground font(typography) as.

TITLE CARD.....



Here are some possible background images that I am considering that could be used as a background image in conjunction with the chosen typography that I have chosen earlier.

Friday, 11 March 2011

Saturday, 5 March 2011

Kress & Van Leeuwen

Kress & Van Leeuwen has carried out significant research on magazine and page composition. Here are some of the things they found.



The positioning of information on the page itself can convey meaning.



· Kress & Van Leeuwen (1996) examined double page spreads Australian women’s magazines. The found that the right pages were ‘dominated by large salient photographs from which the gaze of one or more women engages the gaze of the viewer’


· These pictures often showed women in unusual or contradictory roles with which the reader is invited to identify, such as a working woman doing a tough masculine job


· They concluded that the right page was the site for ‘key’ or new information.


· The page on the left was the ‘already given’: information which the reader is already likely to know (e.g. who the person is, the new film they are appearing in etc...)



Kress & Van Leeuwen proposes three principles of composition:



Ø Information value – the placement of elements, e.g. left and right, top and bottom, centre and margin, can endow them specific information value.


Ø Salience – the elements placed to attract the reader’s attention to different degrees, e.g. foreground or background, relative size, contrasts in colour, sharpness, etc.


Ø Farming – The presence or absence of farming devices (dividing or framing lines, which connect or discount elements, signifying that they belong or do not belong together.

Thursday, 3 March 2011

LOOKING FOR INSPIRATION.....

In this first exaple print media text's feature article
i liked the fact that postioning of the the subjects and their body language and that they are shown in a direct mode of address










In this second example of print media text the features i liked were the fact that it is Black and white
It forces you to see the image rather than the colour. A low-light image of shadows can look like nothing
in a colour photograph but be a powerful picture in black and white. It also conveys remarkable purity of the action





In this example we can see the subject in ain direct mode of address that conotes that he is looking at somthing out of frame and i also liked the fact that he himself is positioned in the foreground above the tite to show that he is the cheif narrative focus

Wednesday, 23 February 2011

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

We asked a close friend who produces music semi-professionally to do a cover of the popular lullaby “Hush My Baby” but when he produced this audio text we found that the tone and pace of the sound did not comply with the generic codes and conventions associated with our media text. So in the end we ultimately decided to drop the idea all together and opted to go a for more commercial but less mainstream soundtrack in order to attract our target market (demographic).

Sunday, 20 February 2011

A TUNE TO MURMER THROUGH THE AGES...

For our media text I wished to create an individual soundtrack that best represented our texts genre and narrative pace and path.

To achieve this we enlisted the help of a close friend who produces music we asked him to perform and record an instrumental cover version of the popular lullaby. We did so to raise our production values allowing for a greater sense of professionalism. In doing so we hoped to create some of the archetypal codes and conventions associated with our chosen genre of our media text. Following in the footsteps of some of the most iconic themes from timeless classics such as


The Exorcist (1973)

Exorcist theme


Jurassic Park (1993)

Jurassic Park theme

Jaws (1975)
Jaws theme

With all these themes that have come before are now synonymous with their particular associated media texts. With these particular examples that had inspired me to condone the creation of a similar yet unique theme tune to be associated with out media text. Due to the source of my inspiration I thought it would be best to acknowledge them and reference them in some way or form this would be done using the tool of intersexuality.

Sunday, 13 February 2011

A TIME FOR EASTER EGGS

Our media text's narrative revolves around a unnamed man trying to save a unnamed woman from dying however later in the narrative it is revealed that the woman is actually a patient in a mental asylum and the man and his whole world is a concoction stemming from her mind. Due to this plot twist I thought it would be beneficial to introduce Easter eggs that hint towards the plot twist throughout the trailer.

I wanted something short and right to the point. I ultimately opted to go with the phrase 'IT'S NOT REAL'. Due to our lack of a budget we had to use Photoshop to create a fake newspaper front page with the phrase on it. I also spray painted the phrase on a collection of posters and placed it on a wall as the unnamed man ran past. With this the easter egg has two roles; one, to inform the protagonist of the narrative's destination and secondly, it breaks the fourthwall and talks directly to the audience by doing this I intended to reinvent the world famous Greek tragedies that Shakespeare also produced were the audience knows the inevitable demise of the character but is only there to look on and see the journey the narrative takes to get there.

Wednesday, 26 January 2011

A NAME IS BORN

in this post i will tell you what title we have picked

INSOMNIUM

Insomnium is the Latin equivalent of nightmares. The reason why we picked it was mainly due to the abstractness of the title and what thoughts and feelings it inhibits, i found that once i conducted a mini survey i found that once people heard this title it intrigued them and left them asking more

another reason for the reason i picked this was that it reflects our target audience that we are tying to capture with the inclusion of more older themes that were also present in inception (2010) and partly to do with the success of it.

Saturday, 15 January 2011

TO NAME OR NOT TO NAME...

in this post i will state some working titles that are currently attached to our project

INSOMNIUM
this title means nightmares in latin

SOMNIA
this title means dreams in latin

HYPNOS
this title is given to the greek god of dreams and nightmares

all these have a constant theme of dreams, sleep and nightmares which is a crucial narrative tool within our text

Tuesday, 4 January 2011

MEDIA NARRATIVE OUTLINE

Narrative 1

Genre: horror/ slasher

Setting: school

Narrative:

Starts off in a school assembly were the head boy has jus announced that a girl has gone missing. They organize search parties, in the course of doing this people start to die it soon becomes apparent that the girl is behind all of the killing through the uses of emails that had been sent in the police is then called in to apprehend the girl but they arrive too late resulting in her killing the head boy.

Narrative 2

Genre: fantasy/ drama

Setting: unknown

Narrative:

A normal guy with a normal job starts to have a recurring dream of a woman killing herself these dreams then start to happen while he is awake he thinks of them of nothing but mere daydreams but he then starts to recognize the places where the woman tries to kill herself he rushes to the point but once he gets there she is nowhere to be found he would ultimately find out something that will shake the foundation of his world

Narrative 3

Genre: drama/social realist

Setting: council estate

Narrative:

A single mother that was pregnant has her baby as a single parent she find it hard to cope with financial issues as well as the problems that the child has the mother gets her son check out it is then found out that the child has a disability that is degenerative. A few years pass and the child has become very ill and cannot function in everyday life properly she decides to euthanize the child when she does it she feel very guilt and as a result commits suicide

We as a collective group decided that narrative one’s was very simple to perform from using various techniques to increase the texts level of verisimilitude however decide not to go with it due to the oversaturation of texts that are similar in the market. We also reject narrative 3 due to the difficulties that would have been faced with the laps in time in the narrative which would result in us casting two actors for one character. so finally we decided that narrative 2 was the most sensible original with high levels of verisimilitude that will show a original and high standard narrative