Short film inspiration

Further inspiration for my sort film.

I begin this blog with a small list of inspiration.

Lesson notes folder:

All future lessons notes will be published under

this section. It is not intended to run chronologically

with the rest of my project and instead will be a subsection

to my work.

I will also be applying ties to my work and ways that my 

product has been influenced by my lesson notes, hopefully

this will be come apparent as you view this blog.

Lesson notes

Lesson notes.

Conventions of a film trailer:

-       No spoilers (a draw for the audience but not enough to ruin the plot as there would be no reason to see the film.)

-       Strong thematic music

-       Appropriate editing pace

-       Montage editing

-       Presentation of the main actors

Conventions of music video:

-       Cuts on the beat

-       Narrative

-       Abstract

-       Lip sync

-       Appropriate props

What makes a bad product?

-       Crappy editing

-       Unneeded shaky cam

-       Out of beat editing

-       Crap lip syncing

L:  language is relating to the not just the lyrics but also the mise en scene, making the narrative and message clear to the audience. Very similar to Representation.

I:  Institution; who made it and why? What they stand for and what it was made for, links to ideology.

I:  Ideology, what are the values and beliefs of the artist conveyed to the audience. If a music video is created by similar individuals then their ideology will be similar.

A:  Audience, genre. Who is this product aimed to and how is it done? Why will it not work for another audience?

R:  Representation. How is the artist portrayed, are they giving across the same message and their music or their institution eg is it about the artist or the man who makes it.

Four key elements:

Cinematography; what camera angles are used, why? What message does it get across?

Editing; what does the editing say? Is it in time with the music and what does it say about the narrative.

Sound; Sound breaks for narrative or continuous non diegetic sound?

Mise en scene; What does this say about the product? Does it fit the genre and still convey the appropriate message?

Lesson notes

Lesson note.

Critical Perception in media:

- Narrative

Within the exam you will need to show how you used media theory in your production, therefore we will be looking at narrative structure and theory applied to your finished product.

Narrative:

A narrative is simply made up of two components, the plot and the story. In laymen's the two are often confused or used incorrectly entirely. 

Picture a time line separated into three sections, the first is "inferred events" the second is "What we see" the third is "Non diegetic material". 

Inferred events:

- Waking up

- Birth of the protagonist

- Things that we just accept have happened without being shown, things that we assume have happened to the character to get them where they are(either metaphorically or physically). 

What we see:

- The interesting bits without bogging it down with mundane specifics. I.e. we see John Wayne in a duel but we do not see him brush his teeth that morning we just assume that he has done so as this would be a waste screen time and exercise in mundane futility.

Non-diegetic material:

- The things we view that are unseen by the characters involved i.e. the bad guys talking about their master plan, it is something that the protagonist is unaware of but as an audience we are allowed to see.

Story:

The story encompasses the first two sections of the narrative structure.

Plot:

The plot encompasses the second and third sections of the narrative structure.

(All of this is much easier to picture with a diagram so I advise drawing one out)

Lesson notes

Lesson notes.

The downfall of Mulvey's theory: 

- Mulvey's theory is based around women being objectified by men, however it does not take into consideration the feelings of the women involved. Especially within the music industry we see women being sexualised but does that mean they don't want to be?

- In many cases women in media such as film and the music industry are not necessarily being objectified as women often feel empowered being seen as desirable. 

- Furthermore men are also sexualised in media such as adverts, film and music videos. Mulvey's theory only refers to women being objectified.

Richard Dyer's Star Theory: 

- Richard Dyer's theory states that all stars, celebrities and individuals in the public eye are not the individual personalities that they appear but are  instead the production of the institutions they represent. I.E. Lady Gaga seen as a very quirky and individual singer but is she really? If you traced her rise to fame did she start off as this weird pop icon, or was her existing quirky character emphasized to increase publicity and therefore profitability for the institution she represents.

"People are not real, they are a creation of an institution to make money. They, pop stars, are produced to fulfill the desires of their audience."

His theory is separated into three sections:
- Audience and institution
- Construction
- Hegemony (Cultural Beliefs)

"Stars are commodities produced by institutions" 
"A Star is a constructed image, represented across a range of media and medium"
"Stars represent and embody certain ideologies and beliefs within the culture of which they are associated"

Audience and Institution:

Stars are made to make money done to be consumed by the popular audience. The institution modifies a Stars image to conform to popular belief. They build Stars for what they think the audience wants, they're looking for the full package.

Construction:

The Star is built for an audience and is not an actual person, a persona is created for the audience to identify with and an audience can differentiate between different Stars and why we like them. I short the Star is simply the face on the box, nothing more. I know it sounds dark but the easiest way to explain this is to assume all celebrities are nothing more than hollow constructs.

Hegemony:

Leadership and dominance over a social group, this can be in positive or negative ways e.g. we try to build social constructs to support this belief and Stars help us do this, they appear as the constantly adapting figure heads of ideology and style upon which we base our outward perception of our peers.