Question 1a-Mind Maps (Essay Plans)

Question 1a mindmap

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Exempler Essay-Question 1a

Explanation,Analysis,Argument

Example

Terminology

1a) Over the two year media course we had to produce both a foundation portfolio of a school magazine and music magazine as well as an advance portfolio of a horror teaser trailer, film magazine – developing foundation skills further and a poster to advertise our trailer.

In the first year we researched existing music magazines and analysed each one so that we could gain knowledge of particular layouts, fonts and key elements that need to be contained in our production to make it successful. Research and planning allowed us to recognise ‘mastheads’ on magazines as being the most important and therefore the need to focus on a font more detailed to keep continuity with the contents page and double page spread which we also had to create.

Personally I researched ‘Rock’ magazines such as Kerrang, NME and others because I had chosen after carrying out a questionnaire to use Rock music as my theme. The real life media texts allowed me to visualise my favourite parts from each magazine – ripped sticker graphics and broken font on my own work which I then attempted to recreate within Photoshop CS4. In year 1 we were limited to what we could research because magazines were the only theme however, in the second year I was able to develop my ability to research real life media texts much further because we had a range of products we needed to create all under the ‘horror’ genre this time. I was able to research teaser trailers analysing my favourite and least favourite parts allowing me to plan with a mood board which I produced from a range of stills from previous horror films my ideas for my own trailer which helped me to develop my production of my products in relation to real life media texts and techniques such as restricted narration and handheld camera found in the ‘Blair Witch Project’ trailer which inspired my trailer ‘Laquem’ which is also set in the woods. Research into film documentaries like the ‘American Nightmare’ inspired me to create a product which reinforced fear and went against usual horror conventions to make it more interesting. Over the second year research became so important to achieving a product which was realistic and is now like my own distributed on YouTube as a real life media text of its own.

Real life media texts like advertising film posters were able to help me develop my Photoshop skills further because I was able to push myself with the ‘colour burn’ filters and want to create the scary atmosphere of my trailer from just an image and text which I found really fun.

Research into film magazines allowed me to develop my work from AS level so much further because I was able to produce a high standard piece of work in two weeks this year when the magazines took over 3 months last year which shows how much my skills have improves just by being able to constantly refer back to real life media texts for inspiration and even colour schemes that work well together such as black and red which in the first year I just found experimenting with. Research into horror trailers allowed me to recognise different styles of film and how we like Alfred Hitchcock could be an auteur creating new angles and ideas using generic conventions as well as unconventional representations that I have picked upon when watching films and analysing certain techniques which I have then attempted to do in Final Cut Pro when editing certain shots together to create collision cutting and changes in pace which my trailer does extremely well. I was inspired initially by the hand held camera in the trailer REC and the fact I want as an auteur to change the stereotyped representations to be able use a female psycho killer.

Research also allowed me to produce text and inter-titles that shook in order to capture my audience but narrating the story slightly so the shots when together made sense. Research into types of camera movements needed were really helpful and allowed me to completely change the pace with tracking shots and handheld camera which I noticed was used in Silent Hill and American Werewolf in London which I analysed and placed on my blog for reference as some pieces of footage I wanted to recreate including the final girl representations.

Question 1a-Essay Structure

Paragraph 1:  should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short.

Paragraph 2: should pick up the skill area and perhaps suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. use an example.

Paragraph 3: should talk through your use of that skill in early projects and what you learned and developed through these. Again there should be examples to support all that you say.

Paragraph 4: should go on to demonstrate how the skill developed in later projects, again backed by examples, and reflecting back on how this represents moves forward for you from your early position.

Paragraph 5: short conclusion

Remember it's only half an hour and you need to range across all your work!

Question 1b-Genre Essay (Draft)

The piece I am going to write about in relation to genre is my AS opening sequence for the thriller film ‘Chaos Theory’.  The Chaos Theory is about a girl Taylor who is prone to blackouts and skips certain parts of her life. She keeps a journal to keep track of her life and finds one day that by re-reading these she can go back to these times. She attempts to alter parts of her life but finds changing one thing can make a big difference to our future. The opening sequence I made shows Taylor trying to go back in time and erase her birth.

The genre of our film was obviously a thriller, which allowed us to challenge Todorov’s theory of equilibrium, as our opening sequence began at the end of the story, this is a non-linear narrative.  However in a way we followed the typical conventions of a thriller as many start at the end of the narrative, for example the film’ The Butterfly Effect’ which we used for inspiration for our own idea, does this.  We decided to stick with this typical convention of the genre, so that it could be recognised by its existing target audience.  Steve Neal’s theory of narrative says that all genres are instances of repetition and difference; this means that certain generic features have to be included, in the case of my opening sequence this was the use of an empty, isolated building, dark lighting, fast editing and trying to create the atmosphere of suspense. 

We kept with a conventional theme of the thriller narrative which is the idea of the film focusing on the idea of an ‘enigma’ and the unknown.  Thrillers often introduce ideas of an ‘enigma’ and then complicate the story right through until the climax. This plot device is used in the thriller genre to help build up the atmosphere of suspense in the film and make the audience want to know more about the characters in the story and be fearful for them.  We wanted to play with the idea with identity and make our audience want to know what was going to happen next, so they would be drawn in.

We were also able to challenge Neal’s theory as we went against the convention of a thriller by instead of having a dominating male character as the antagonist and a female character as the protagonist; we made our character a young teenage girl who represents both these character roles. We did this as because of her condition she causes the negative events in her life making her the antagonist; however towards the end of film she also becomes the protagonist by taking control of the situation and going back in time to put an end to it all. We have followed the conventions of a thriller through using the character roles of a protagonist and an antagonist. In thrillers the antagonist drives the protagonist deeper and deeper into a sinister plot, leaving the protagonist feeling helpless and it is not until the climax of the film in which the protagonist finds a solution to defeat the antagonist.  We wanted to make sure we represented our character of Taylor at the beginning of the film as being vulnerable, as this is a usual characteristic of young females in the thriller genre, for example many of Alfred Hitchcock’s films such as ‘Pyscho’ feature defenceless women.  We chose to have the character of Taylor at similar age to our target audience of young adults, so they could relate to her. We dressed her in casual, laidback clothing which would appeal to this specific audience. We tried to portray Taylor as a stereotypical teen, so that the audience could relate to her.

Genre encompasses many parts and our opening sequence links to it, in more ways than one.  The use of an empty location and the fact we used an isolated building, helps to represent Taylor fear and feeling of loneliness/isolation from the real world.  It also helped us to create an atmosphere of tension and suspense, like other thrillers, that we were trying to achieve in our opening sequence.

Editing and Mise-en-scene is important to genre, as it contributes to creating certain moods and atmospheres. In our opening sequence, we used dark and dingy to connote the fear Taylor is feeling about going back in time and altering her life. We also used this lighting to make the building appear dangerous and mysterious. When it came to editing, we used quick cuts and fast editing in order to heighten the pace of the sequence and feeling of suspense. This type of editing is a typical convention of thrillers. We used a soundtrack over the top of the opening sequence; it was loud in volume and quick in tempo, to fit with the fast editing. We also used some diegetic sound including the heavy breathing of Taylor as she was running, the footstep sounds of her being chased by the mental care worker and the sound of her reading out from her diary as she wrote. Together these sounds, help with creating a fast build-up of tension,  they all work to help provoke emotion from our audience as they fear for what is going to happen to Taylor.

Genre enables us to place a media product in a specific group and helps it to be recognised, in order to attract its target audience. I believe our opening sequence was successful, as it fitted the thriller genre in a number of ways, through the twist we used in the narrative and following the conventions of a typical thriller in terms of camera, editing and Mise-en-scene.