Once Upon A Time In America

Couldn’t find the trailer on youtube, so my analysis may be a bit sketchy.

Opens with the women coming through the door and the light being turned on, “God Bless America” is being played, a non-diegetic sound. Already we know it’s a noire thriller, as its dark and its very suspending.

The women is a stereotypical women, she has curls in her hair, dressed in very womanised clothing, and is wearing pearls, which symbolise as tears, which could be foreseeing what is to come.

The camera follows her around the room, and she then turns on the light, which is the same shade as the women, possible showing that she is the light and is bright and pure.

She then looks at the bed after seeing a hole, and pulls off the covers to reveal a body shape made out by bullet hole, the camera angle is of the perspective of the women, a high angle shot.

Three men then enter, all wearing tweed coats with suits underneath and trilby hats, they all look the same, showing they are from the same group and are all here for the same reason. The camera angle is low down, making the three men seem powerful and strong, also there are three men there to make sure the women doesn’t get away.

She is then shot, after a few moments of horror and fright, the light next to the bed goes out, symbolising the death of the women.

This case study is very weak, I know that, when I can find the opening scene for it, I will improve it. 

Essex Boys

(Analysing up to 5.50) 

Essex Boys starts off with a garage which is opened by a young man called Billy. The camera shot is from the back of the garage, a medium shot is used to capture everything that is happening without the need for movement, making it seem more real and "uncut"

The lights are then turned on, after the garage door is opened. The lighting is noire and non-ambient, giving the sense of darkness and danger. Also the sound is diegetic, which is the door being opened and footsteps of Billy, making it seem more isolated and real, putting the audience in with the character, as there isn't anything to stop the mood of the scene affecting the audience. The camera then moves around to follow the young man opening the bonnet of the car, there is then a close up of engine of the car.

The camera then jumps into the car with Billy,  there is an over-voice, the voice is of Billy talking about what he would and wouldn’t try, his opening line is "I'll try anything once, me", already making it seem that there will be violence and crime, if the character is willing to try anything once. He then turns on the windscreen wipers and after clearing the muck off the windscreen, we can see Jason, who stands there in an old versace shirt, which is pattered in swirls and flowers, from this shirt, we can see the man is very confident and doesn't care what other people may think. After the camera zooming into Jason's face, for us for see his worn face, it then cuts to Jason’s car being driven down into the Dartford Tunnel, there is a close shot of the rear of the car, and it then slowly drives away, down into the tunnel, into a vanishing point. The tunnel is claustrophobic, dark and long, possible showing what is to come, the tunnel being dark, could be a sign of the unknown outside of the car. The sound is both diegetic and non-diegetic, there is the sound of the car on the road and some hip-hop music playing, the music, in my view, can sometimes be associated with gangsters in New York and then music may reflect the two men in the car making them seem like gangsters and law breakers.

After the car going off into the vanishing point, the camera jumps to a view of Jason in the back of the car, with the camera looking through the side window. Jason has his hands behind his back, showing his confidence and possible his “arrogant-ness”.

Then the camera moves onto the bonnet of the car, with the view of Jason, in the back and Billy driving. The strip lights of the tunnel reflect on the windscreen in bar like shapes next to each other, like prison bars, which shows what could really happen to Billy, showing that life will be full of crime and hatred.

The car then is seen and is driving out of the tunnel, into Essex, we know this because the camera looks towards the county sign with Essex written on it, this moment is important, as it is the real start to the film, as their both in Essex it signs the start of the crime and violence.

The music stops and Jason and Billy are in a van, there is a side view of Jason from Billy’s view point, and Billy’s voice over comes back in, telling us they picked up a van and Jason wants to see an old friend of his, we know this could be wrong, as Jason’s look is isn’t of happiness for seeing a friend, but hatred and revenge, he then gets out of the van with a wooden stick in his right hand, the camera then moves to see Billy inside the cabin of the van in the drivers seat with a emotionless face. They are in a fish market, which may have something to do with the film.

The camera stays in front of Jason as he moves quickly in-between people in a confident way, swaggering his body, there is then a shot of the “old friend” who is going about doing his business.  The sound, again, is diegetic, making it seem more real and raw.

One final shot of Jason and of his old friend, before we see Jason hitting his old friend with the wooden stick, this throws the victim into a pile of fish and is then beaten up while a growing amount of people start shouting, this point Jason is swearing his head off towards his old friend, the victim is then pushed towards the van, the camera shot in the view point of Billy. The camera moves, and looks down the side of the van, the view point of the wind mirrors, where Billy is looking from, with the two men at the end, this thin corridor, creates makes it seem claustrophobic, and that there is no escape for the victim and  that there is only one way out, with Jason. Jason then throws acid into his victims face and he yells out in pain, he then grabs his leg and throws him into the back of the van. This is the first act of violence for us and Jason since he was released, but Jason doesn’t seem effected by it all, he had a calm look about him before he attacked his old friend and throughout the scene he didn’t get worried about getting caught, showing he doesn’t care about whats happening and will do his business no matter what. The van doors are then closed at the back and it the jumps to the white van driving out from the fish market on an empty road, the camera angle is low down, making the white van seem powerful and large, the van then drives past leaving the camera looking at the market.

The camera then moves onto the bonnet of the car with Billy and Jason in view, Jason looks very calm and not scared or worried about the consequences, Billy, though looks worried and slightly sickened by what he saw. The sound is diegetic and the only sound is the van going over the road, then the man in the back screaming out in pain. Jason looks down at his shirt and notices there is blood on it and seems more worried about his shirt than the man in the back screaming, the camera angle, at this point, is a close up shot from Billys perspective. Jason stares at Billy, possible trying to read his face, to see if he will “grass” him up.

The shot is worms eye, and is of the back of the van, Billy goes around to open it, and after opening the victim comes running out screaming, and Jason then kicks the victim onto the floor, and then says to Billy “come on, let’s go home”. There is then a shot of the white van against the Essex marshes, this shows the isolation that Jason his been going through. The area also seems very primeval, the water comes in daily, erasing all traces of what was there previously, it also reflects Jason, as a character, he is isolated, dangerous and lifeless, which can all be seen in the marshes.  

Prelim Task Final Cut!

Prelim Evaluation

The planning that we undertook was basic and could of been looked at better, we did a storyboard containing the bare shots necessary for the video, which is on my blog, under Preliminary Task label. We only knew how it was going to work when we went to the area of where we were going to shoot it, as we could then map out and asses our surroundings to make the best video we possible could.

So most of the planning was done on scene and in our heads, only the camera shots, layout and the basic movements the actors would take.

For this task it didn't feel like we needed to make large amounts of planning, as we only had a small amount of time before we would be shooting and it would only be a at max two minutes long.

We slightly changed from our planning, as it was basic, it left quite a bit of moving room. Most camera angles were the same, but a few would of been changed on set, to suit the actors and the environment best. Only minor changes took place for camera angles, for example, when Kaya walks in to the Pod, instead of moving to the right of the pod, the camera moves to left, as we found that it was the best shot for showing the actors emotions.

Camera skills I've developed, would be when moving with a camera to move slowly and smoothly as some movements turn into massive shakes on the camera, making it hard to see whats happening.

I feel that I was already confident with a camcorder, as me and my friends would often make small films in spare time, but I feel that I have developed my camera angles, for example tracking and worms eye shot, that is in the prelim task final cut, and ability to find the best camera angle for a certain scene.

When it came to editing though, I seemed to ended up taking a back seat, due to the fact that the other person seemed more able to it and when I did take over I lacked the necessary skills to be any use, though I did help when I came to finding parts of the film that was needed in the task.

Witness Murder Scene Analysis

The scene starts off with a young boy looking up at a statue. The opening shot is of the boy, the camera angle is low and close up shot, they used a low angle to make his emotions easily readable by the audience. It then shifts to over the shoulder and high angle from the view from the statue, showing the boy as insignificant person. It then goes to the boy again showing his emotions before his mother comes along to take him away.

Then it moves to a medium shot of the station, with him and his mother sitting down on empty rows of seats they then talk for a minute, before the mother lets her son go to the toilet, this shows her naivety towards the modern world, if she knew what would happen in an American city she would make sure at boy at his age wouldn't go to the toilet by himself.

We then see him walk away into the toilet. Theres one fluid motion into the toilet where we see a young man (man 1) having a wash at the sink, he then looks at the boy, who is also staring at the man, in awe possible showing his complete naivety towards modern world. He walks towards a cubicle and locks the door we see him as he closes the door from the outside of the cubicle, which may show he's hiding away from the outside world, locking himself away.

We then just see the man washing his face in the sink, we may only see the face of the man because the director wants to hold the suspence of what is going to come around the corner. We then see a blur of a  man walking past (man 2), still the man washes his face.


We then see one man at the far end of the toilet (man 3), this shot is a medium shot, so we can see his body language, and his emotions, he looks behind him and nods to man 2 possible giving us a hint that something is going to happen, but yet we don't know what. The camera then moves to a wide angle shot of man 1 washing his face and two other men either end, this is holding the suspense, as we now see all three of the men from where the boy in the cubicle was. 


The man 2 walks towards the door and passes man 1, holding his coat, the camera angle is from where man 2 was, giving us the best view of what might happen, putting all three of the men in picture. Man 2 then throws his coat over man 1, suffocating him, the camera goes to a close up of the man struggling to breathe, putting us in the middle of the action.
The camera then jumps to a shot of a knife, being held by man 3, giving us the impression that this incident is important and not just a gang grudge or something like that. By this time the boy has seen what is going on and is looking through the crack in the door, man 3 then runs over to the victim struggling to get to his neck and slits its open. The camera angle is from the boys view, showing his insignificance to this modern day action, its also low angle shot, making the three men seem powerful and showing us that these three men still are unaware of the little boy. 


After man 3 slits man 1's neck, it jumps to a close up of the boys eye through the crack in the door, then jumps back to watching the men dealing with their victim, through the crack in the door. The boy then closes the door slowly, we see this when the camera is on his eye, and slowly the door closes, possible showing how scared he is, how he wants to close himself off from this situation. The camera then goes to a shot in the cubicle and he steps back in shock. 


We then see man 3 stepping from the dead man on the floor, the camera angle is low and medium shot, we don't see his head, making it seem that the director doesn't want us to see his full identity. He moves around looking for somewhere to wash his hands and disposes of the knife. Man 2 is down by the victim, the angle is over the shoulder from man 2, we never see his face, meaning that his identity to us is a mystery and making it seem all the more menacing to us and the boy, still hiding in the cubicle.


Man 2 and 3 then have a hushed and rushed conversation, man 2 asks what man 3 is doing, telling him to be quick, man 3 is more laid back about it, telling him to chill out, this may mean that man 3 has done it before and isn't afraid of taking risks and killing people. The camera angle during the conversation is low angle, from the view point of man 2, maybe making it seem, again, that man 3 is the more dominant one and has done this more often, and is more experienced at this. Man 2 is flicking through man 1's possessions, taking his cash and what seems to be a police identity card, maybe, trying to make the murder seem like a mugging. 


The boy is leaning against the cubicle and lets out a gasp of shock, we see this inside the cubicle, medium shot. 
The shot then goes to a low angle of man 3, he hears this and and takes out his gun in one motion, putting up to his face, so we can see what he has done, he then moves to the start of the row of cubicles, and opening each door, and pointing his gun inside it, the camera angle is at the end of the row where the boy is. It shoots to the boy, at the same level of his face, seeing his shock.
We then see a shot of the open lock and the door shaking, this shot is simple but makes us realise that the boy will be found, and possible killed if he doesn't do anything soon. 


He goes to try and close it, but its stiff, and the camera goes to see man 3 opening each door getting closer to him, then back to him trying to lock the door, making us start thinking whether he will succeed in locking it, building the tension. 
Then two cubicles before the boys, he manages to lock it, and stands back, thinking of what to do.
The camera shot follows man 3, we see only his legs and feet, making it seem even more menacing, then we see the boys feet behinds man 3's feet, making us think that he's had it, and he will get captured. 
Then boy drops to his feet and slides under to the cubicle that man 3 has looked in, before this man 3 has got to the boys cubicle and starts shaking it, the camera angle is at the far end of the row of cubicle where it was to start with, seeing man 3's emotions, we see a spark of fear inside him, the first time in the film, he kicks down the door and the camera angle goes inside the cubicle, low angle, yet again, showing the man's superiority and power, after server seconds we see the boys feet standing on a toilet, the camera moves up his body, and we see his face, with his eyes wide, mouth open, showing his shock from this situation. 
His arms are on the cubicle sides, out at his sides, possible a reference to his religion. 
The camera then slowly zooms in to his face, man 3 then does a final look of where the boy was then moves away. 
It ends with the boys face in shot, looking white and in shock. 

Thriller ideas

At the begining our group came up with the idea of a group in the forest and seeing lights (see in thriller planning folder) but this was dismissed as the lighting would be too dark and is to complicated for a two minute opening to a thriller, we now have to come up with new ideas for our thriller.
Some ideas that I think would be suitable would be: 

• Victim being followed by "something" (person, animal, something else) and getting more and more agitated as time goes by. Climax at point of ending.
• Starts off with a news reporter standing outside a grave yard, talking about a group of teenagers who went missing, it then cuts to footage of the previous nights, where the camera is being held by one of the teenagers at the climax of the incident, the camera is moving quickly to confuse and disorientate the auidence. Noise of whats happening can be heard but not much can be seen. Maybe the heavy breathing can be heard of the person holding the camera. Its only a plan, I don't know how it could end, but would end with all teenagers possible all dead.
• Postman discovers a dead body in a house, camera would be on the perpective of someone hiding out, maybe the murder then follows the Postman into the house to kill him.
• Man in a scince lab, working on some cure for some illness or disease, the perpective of the camera is of someone there in the lab intending to not been seen, meaning the views of the sciencist would be of his back. The camera gets closer, with the person, who then goes to kill the sciencist and steals the chemcial being used for a cure, it then finishes.

These are thoughts of a thriller opening I have thought over and developed, hopefully one of these ideas can be incorporated into the final thriller opening in some way.

Kill Bill review

Kill Bill Volume 1 

Director- Quentin Tarantino

Review:

Man, what a film. As a fan of 70's martial arts movies, it was great to see all of the references. I also thought the use of B&W throughout was extremely effective. The cartoon sequences seemed a bit much, but did fit in with the overall feel of the film. I have seen many people posting about the sheer amount of blood and guts, but you have to remember this was Tarantino's homage to Bruce Lee-era action pictures. In those movies, the stories were very similar epics of revenge, and they never had much of a budget for good "gore" effects. It was more or less "throw some fake blood on the guy who just got killed" type of effects, which were duplicated accurately by some of the deaths in this movie. The plot also followed closely the plot of most 70's Kung Fu movies; something despicable happens to the weak hero (whole village razed, family slaughtered, etc..) and the hero goes away for years to learn the secrets of a particular style of Kung Fu. All of these movies contained the "secret move" which the master normally does not teach, except of course, in this rare instance. That move, as depicted in Kill Bill Vol. 2, is always used on the evil leader of the clan whom had brought death and chaos to the hero.

Kill Bill was a terrific modern take on those movies which were always set in ancient China. I was very impressed with Uma Thurman's swordplay, at no point did I feel that it looked scripted or fake. Even when fighting against more than 50 Crazy 8's, it replicated admirably the incredibly one-sided fights from some of the best martial arts movies made 30 years ago.

All in all, a great and original film! R.

Thriller Locations

After talking as a group about the thriller, we have come to a decision about where we will shoot the film
We thought about setting it in a wood (Poringland Wood to be precise) where a group of friends would be walking a dog and it is filmed like a video diary, hand held and rough footage.


Poringland Wood (where it will hopefully be set)



At first a light is seen by the camera man though his view finder on the camera, but it disappears before the rest of the group see it, after more chatter, few more orange lights appear (glow sticks) and one large white light (one large powerful torch) and it gets closer and closer and the group starts to run, this is when the camera man trips over and the camera falls on the ground, and a figure is seen running past the screen.....

Location- Poringland Wood

Lighting- dark or gloomy

Camera work-handheld, rough, with a torch attached on it.

Group- Me (Sam), Billie Kemp, Jessica Moy, Jack Monahan

This is only one idea we have and so far, the most popular....it may change!

How Did Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy Use New
There are some spelling mistakes, but after uploading it twice it still comes up with incorrect spellings. I can spell! 

My favourite thriller films

MAIN CONTAIN SPOILERS. 

Information and films are all from IMDd website. 

I Am Legend.
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller 
Description: Years after a plague kills most of humanity and transforms the rest into monsters, the sole survivor in New York City struggles valiantly to find a cure.
Characteristics: 

• Dark/gloomy (dark rooms)
• Suspension  (when the sun is slowly moving down putting Sam (the dog) closer to the infected dogs)
• Sadness (Sam dying from being bitten) 
• location (deserted city) 

I really enjoyed watching this film. There are many twists to the film, the ending shocked me most, as it was very unexpected, at no point did you expect the main character to kill himself. The deserted city made it feel more unsafe with the lack of people. 

Trailer- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewpYq9rgg3w&feature=related

AVP: Alien vs. Predator

Genre: Action, Sci-fi, Thriller
Description: During an archaeological expedition on Bouvetøya Island in Antarctica, a team of archaeologists and other scientists find themselves caught up in a battle between the two legends. Soon, the team realize that only one species can win.
Characteristics: 

• Deserted underground tunnels (possible symbolising no escape) 
• Dark, wet locations (tunnels)
• Invisible threats (the predator and aliens)

This film, for me, was a "sitting on the edge of the sofa" film, you had no idea when the creatures would pop out and take away one of the crew. It being set in a dark temple, means often the backdrops were dark, making it feel like the characters were never safe from the aliens or predators, making it one jumpy film. 
Trailer- http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1538785561/

Final Destination 
Genre: Horror, Thriller 
Description: After a teenager has a terrifying vision of him and his friends dying in a plane crash, he prevents the accident only to have Death hunt them down, one by one.
Characteristics:  

• Dark situations (Death often occurred during night time)
• innocent victims (All of the characters who die are innocent)
• suspension (we never quite know when they will die) 

This film was defiantly gory a film, as well as being a very suspending film, like "AVP" you never quite know when someone is going to die.
Trailer- http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi128385305/

The Last Excorcism
Genre: Drama, Horror, thriller 
Description: A troubled evangelical minister agrees to let his last exorcism be filmed by a documentary crew.
Characteristics:  

• Hand held camera (Through entire film, being filmed by one of the characters)
• Dark (Nearly everything takes place during the night) 
• menaced/possessed women (the young women with the devil inside her)

This film got me scared a teeny tiny bit, when I'm watching a scary movie, I don't get scared...it's only after watching it, when my mind is left to its own devices does it start freaking me out. 

The use of hand held camera work really put you in the story, made you feel like you were there. The style is in a documentary way making it even more scary, putting you as the first person, not third, so when the camera man dies...you die.

Trailer- http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4275897881/ (gessh, just watching the trailer again makes me shiver)

The Fourth Kind 

Genre: Mystery, Sci-fi, Thriller 

Description: A thriller involving an ongoing unsolved mystery in Alaska, where one town has seen an extraordinary number of unexplained disappearances during the past 40 years and there are accusations of a federal cover up. 

Characteristics: 

• Based on a true story (look it up!)
• Dark (a lot happens during the night)
• Innocent victims (the victims who have the recurring dream) 
• Isolated village 

I, myself, didn't find the film that scary, but a good plot, you don't ever see the aliens, so this keeps you watching, hoping for a glimpse of the aliens. But my friend was completely freaked out by this film...and still can't get over it. Overall though it was a good film, good background to the aliens, and kept me wanting more and more from it. 

Trailer- http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi120390169/

The Hills Have Eyes 

Genre: Horror, Thriller 
Description: A suburban American family is being stalked by a group of psychotic people who live in the desert, far away from civilization.
Characteristics: 

• Isolated place (in the middle of a desert) 
• psycho-fiends (humans effected by the radiation) 
• freaky abnormal humans 

This film was very good. There started off with six characters, the characters you least thought would die, died. The man who was arrogant, big headed ended up the only man alive, with a 13 year old kid, a baby and a daughter who's parents died. It was defiantly a film with many twists and plots to keep you on your toes. 
Trailer- http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2750611737/


Taken
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
Description: A former spy relies on his old skills to save his estranged daughter, who has been forced into the slave trade.
Characteristics: 

• Innocent victims (the kidnapped girl)
• criminals
• dark, illegal going ons 

A film with an excellent plot, a film with no double agents or twisted people. Just a hardcore, shoot, kill, action film. Great film
Trailer- http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3488219417/

Winters Bone (2010)

Ree Dolly a young woman who has had to grow up fast. She has two younger siblings to care for. Her father is missing, and her mother is an invalid. Ree is keeping the family together in their home in a remote corner of the Missouri Ozarks. She must find him before they lose their house to the state, she hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.

Rating- 7.3/10 

Director: Debra Granik 

Stars: Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes and Garret Dillahunt

Been given an 18 certificate due to drug use, violence and offensive language  

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Drama 

NEGATIVE REVIEW

Are you serious?

"I watched this because people were saying how GREAT it was. They kept mentioning how beautiful the story is, how amazing all the characters are. OH MY GOD it couldn't be further from the truth. This movie is atrocious. I wasted 100 minutes of my life watching this horrible excuse of a movie, time which I will never get back. I absolutely HATE this incredibly shallow boring predictable movie. The characters are all very one dimensional. The kind of people nobody cares about, I couldn't sympathize with any of the characters in any way, I hated them all. How can anyone make a 100 minute movie of a plot so shallow? I am so enraged by this movie I can't write very well. I feel a deep sense of loss for the time I will never have back"

POSITIVE REVIEW

So Real, So Good

"The overall theme of blood ties and hierarchy were so powerful and surreal that it's hard to believe there is actually a sub culture that inspired this movie. The women are subordinate to the men, but everyone is held accountable by someone. The women have a strict hierarchy but ultimately stick together and support each other. It's a complicated weave of loyalty and balance, that could easily be misrepresented in a movie as satire. In Winter's Bone it's handled expertly and instead becomes an incredible backdrop for an otherwise simple premise.

Also, I was shocked to see that these characters were actually professional actors and not just backwoods folk they gathered to play some of the parts. This is a testimony to not only the incredible acting, but the incredible make-up and wardrobe as well. I was thoroughly convinced that the actors were all meth addicts living in the Missouri hills.

The best movie I've seen this year by far."

Don't know why the text has gone all weird. All the text is same size and colour when I'm writing it out. 

tinker tailor soldier spy poster

tinker tailor soldier spy

Prelim Task

Today we "officially" started on our Preliminary Task and got most of it shot, we used Jack's camera, which shot in HD, we thought it was a good idea. We did shot reverse shot using it and in my and the groups eyes it went well and was successful. I think the conversation could maybe of be cut down, but I completely think that the shot reverse shot action we did using Jacks camera was perfect and in really good quality, we also did worms eye view using it, as well as high angle tracking action which was all really good.
But we we're told that the shot reverse shot was too confusing and would require a lot of uploading onto the computer, I was prepared to do that, so was the group I think, I suggested this but it was dismissed and we have to do it again, shorter and more simply using one camera...so a great start to the shooting our of Preliminary.

Story Board for prelim task

Sorry for the bad quality of image, converting word to a Jpeg can be a real pain, so I hope this is good enough, and I hope you can read it!

Various Shooting Angles (Many thanks to Morris the Mannequin for letting me use him in my as a model)

Low Angle 

Birds eye view

Worms Eye

Tilt

Long shot

Medium Shot

Close up

Extreme Close up

Over Shoulder

Student Questionnaire.

Sam Wright

GCSE Results: English Lit- C, English Lan- A, Maths- C, Sciences- C, Geography- B, History- A, Drama- D, ICT (short course)- Pass, Phil & Ethics- C

Hobbies- Playing guitar, Photography, Badminton, Cycling, hiking, camping.

Media Interests-

Print Media- I have a subscription to a BBC magazine called “Focus”, it includes science, the future and technology, which is the sort of thing I like reading, as I have been interested in what the future holds both for technology and science. I sometimes read the newspaper, if I do it would be from my Dad who reads the “i”. The newspaper gives me a good insight into the world as it is, from regional to worldwide, from the small to the big stories. Most of the time though get the news is from my “Yahoo” homepage which gives me the top stories of the day at a quick glance, I like to access news on the internet because it easier to access it than a normal paper, also if there’s an interesting article you can search it on the internet and find more about it almost instantly.

Radio Media

Mostly I get the news from the radio which I listen to when I’m trying to get up in the morning as its set as my alarm, also if I’m on long journeys, as it helps kill some time, apart from that, I don’t really listen to it. When I do I either listen to Radio one or Radio two as both play my kind of music and give good information out.

Music Industry

My favourite genre of music is rock, as the music always varies from band to band, also you can hear what their singing unlike rap or hip hop, can’t see the attraction in that stuff at all.

I would love to get into a band, I’ve tried many times and failed, as finding a vocalist is hard as well as getting enough interest from other band members for it to work.

If I get any music its mostly likely to be off the internet either from “i-tunes” or “YouTube” as its quick, easy and sometimes free.

I think illegal downloading can be seen as wrong, but it’s so easy to access and there aren’t any immediate consequences to be had, so it can’t be stopped easily. But bands get so much money from touring and from recording companies that music sales may only be a small part of their income.

The music industry doesn’t influence me personally, but for other people it may, for example, a person who listens to gothic and heavy metal music may wear gothic clothes and the colour black a lot and may act in a depressing or dark mood.

Video Games

For me, my favourite video game would be online multiplayer games, like Call Of Duty 4 (aka COD4) which I often go on, it’s based on the computer platform, as I have no PS3 or Xbox. For those who don’t know, Call of Duty is a first person shooter (FPS) where you can play a campaign, this is single player and you go through various missions playing as either the SAS or Marines, you can also play online against other players around the world, this is where you try and get as many kills as possible and win against your opposing team.

For the younger generation, Call Of Duty may have a negative effect on children as they may think violence is the way to deal with stressful situations.

New Technology

New technologies have increased my understanding of the world because the internet gives you access to all sorts of sites, giving you specific details about a place or country, or like “Google Earth” where you can see the earth as a whole or zoom right in to a street anywhere around the world, giving you a greater understanding on the world.

My ability to communicate with others has greatly increased due to the internet and phones, as it enables me to immediately contact someone around the world, even letting me see a person on a live feed like the application “Skype”.

Accessing tv, films and music industry has become easier as well, because there are sites where you can watch tv or films for free, like “BBC-iplayer”, also sites where you can buy music at a small price.

Making media texts yourself has become better, there are applications like “Adobe Photoshop” where you can create images and enhance them, also there are higher quality  videos cameras have become more available, making the quality of film better.

Television

The best tv channels for me, would be BBC Three and Film Four. BBC Three offers a lot of comedy and finished TV series, like “Gavin and Stacy”. Film Four has films 24/7 showing films to suit all genres.

My favourite TV genre would probably be comedy, as it always cheers me up if I’m down and you can never get bored of "Michael MacIntyre" or “Friends”.

TV programmes I think are memorable would be things like “Doctor Who” where the family would all sit down and watch it together, when I was younger the programmes would often leave thinking about them.

Feature Film

I don’t think I have a set genre, I like a variety of genres, like comedy, thriller, action and others. Genres that I dislike would be period films and sensitive romantic films which tend to bore me.

Three films I think that are outstanding in most ways would be Avatar, as it felt so realistic and I came away with “Avatar Depression” (http://theweek.com/article/index/105003/avatar-depression-syndrome), another one would be “Shaun Of The Dead”, it’s a spoof on “Dawn Of The Dead” and it’s just a well acted and hilarious film. The plot is well thought out, with just enough twists and turns to keep you on your toes, but a massive amount that you get confused. The third film I think would be “Saving Private Ryan”, as the acting in it is very good, you get a real sense of emotion and fear. The use of the rough camera work makes you feel like you’re there.

I prefer to consume film in my home, in front of the TV, as you can sit in comfort with or without family or friends and feel at home. If it’s not your thing, you can simply turn it off, also not forgetting it’s free unlike the cinema.

When I do go to a cinema I would probably prefer ODEN, even though its slightly further out of the city than VUE, its cheaper and more comfortable, making it my favourite cinema.

I like to watch films in a group, as it feels more at comfortable also, if it’s a comedy, people laugh more, and enjoy it more, making it a better experience for all.

I have been in a media production, for my school, it was part of a drama production but this was recorded and made into a silent movie, (I come in at 2.42 and I'm the one on the far right sitting down, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m44NhxNTf_I), this was in year 10 for a large drama production called “Pellagra”.

No specific media texts have offended me, but when people describe Norfolk or Norwich as a place where “people with six fingers live” or “are all inbred” I get annoyed because everyone seems to think that, creating a false identity for Norfolk.

The only media text that has influenced me or innovated me on a large scale would be “Avatar”, after I watched I got what’s known as “Avatar Depression” where you see the world as a dying place and where we’re doing nothing for our world, to prevent what was told on the film.

Mum has got me into reading spiritual books and things like that, after reading some of it, I did feel different about myself and how I act around other people, apart from that any ordinary media texts I didn’t find it altered my attitude to life.

If I was to construct a media text, I would choose to do a film, basing it on music. I would want to tell people about how the state of music genre has changed, from rock to hip hop. I want people to understand how proper music talent of creating guitar solos or making audible lyrics is being lost and being replaced with talentless auto tune and wordsmiths, losing the great feel of blasting out your favourite rock tune.   

I chose Media Studies because I enjoy photography and I have been complimented on it. I also enjoy editing photos, as well as filming and sometimes acting in it. I’ve always loved creating great photos and always on the lookout for an excellent shot. 

Mocha in "His First Broccoli!

Having a go at embedding a video...i don't know whether this is the correct way...but its a very nice video...
And this is the link on the sheet we we're given...I didn't just randomly chose it.

Labels

Here are the labels I will use in my blog.