Monday, 23 December 2013

Characters:

At this moment in time we have decided on who all three of our characters will be, these are:
  • Eve (Main character)
  • Hazel and Cha Cha (Hitmen)
The character named Eve will be the main character in our film. She is going to be aged around 17 for our film to ensure that person we use for the film fits correctly into that age. We chose the name Eve because it is a reference to 'Once Upon A Time In America'. Eve was killed within the first scene of the film, so we decided to use this as an inertextual reference in ours. However our character doesn't get killed, we are using the name to signify that she has bad luck. The name itself holds a sense of sin from the bible. We originally spoke about not giving this girl a name which would have added an inertextual reference to 'Fight Club'. The character played by Edward Norton isn't actually given a name throughout the entire film, he is simply referred to as the 'Narrator' when looking up the film online. We spoke about using this idea as a group but soon realised that the plot of our film couldn't be carried our without the name of the female being revealed.


          The next two characters are Hazel and Cha Cha. These will be our two hitmen who chase Eve to retrieve what she has stolen from their boss. The age of these two characters isn't going to be that significant to the plot. We wanted to concentrate on the point that they are ameatures so if the actors were a little young it will only really add to the realism of their character development. I actually came up with name of the two men. It is an intertextual reference to the Graphic Novel 'The Umbrella Academy, Dallas' by Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba. This is a the second Graphic Novel in the franchise. Each novel is made up of six sections (originally released as individual comic books in America) and was released by the publishing company 'Dark Horse Books'. In this novel two psycho hitmen/assassins are introduced which is who we are going to take reference from. The names almost sound childlike which then adds a sense of nightmare, they seem like something that a child would come up with for the 'monsters under their bed'. The way the characters look is also taken from these characters. They aren't big or muscly hitmen like the stereotype for that kind of person. They are either an average build or moderately skinny.
          These are the only three characters which will be featured in the opening of the film, but technically there could possibly be a fourth. The hitmen need a boss, so this character will have to be incorporated into the opening somehow to grab the audiences attention and add a larger sense of mystery. The way that the boss will be incorporated is either through a phone call with Hazel/Cha Cha, or just a mention in dialogue between the two hitmen. This character would be revealed later on in the film along with the introduction of other characters (these may be mentioned in the plot of the film in later planning).    

Friday, 13 December 2013

How Tarantino uses generic conventions in Jackie Brown (1997)

             1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvA4VwMA6OY Title sequence. Explain how Tarantino establishes the character of Jackie  Brown  through camera shots and movement. Explain in what way Tarantino challenges  the  way women in thriller films are represented. Think about age, ethnicity and status.



          Tarantino establishes Jackie Brown's character primarily through the camera angles and         movements. The majority of the opening sequence is done at body height of Jackie which doesn't really indicate that much. The fact that the shot is a medium close up then adds more definition to the shot. It signifies that this is in fact Jackie Brown and that she is going to play a very important part to the film as a whole. The movement suggests that Jackie never stays still in her life. She is a woman that travels a lot and its almost as if her actions/movement is being watched. Tarantino is trying to establish that this is the main character and that she is noticed. Tarantino does use a a low angle in this array of shots. This type of angle illustrates that Jackie has power and status. This single shot proves all the presumptions that you made as an audience in the first tracking shot of the opening. 
                        Jackie has been choreographed to stand up straight and keep her head high in the first sequence. To me this portrays her character as being very strong and independent. The opening of the film shows her by herself the whole time which gives the impression that she is a lone, but her posture shows that she is strong without anybody by her side. This challenges the way women are seen because normally in Thrillers like 'Once Upon a Time in America' the female character is weak and lacks confidence. In Jackie Brown she is the complete opposite. Tarantino does this in a large amount of his films like 'Kill Bill: Volume 1' and 'Kill Bill: Volume 2'. He does this to create a Femme Fatale ( a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnares her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising dangerous and deadly situations). Tarantino wants to portray women the same way that men are perceived in generic thriller films.  


2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XstgfkXrqUs  The shooting of Beaumont Livingstone by Ordell Robbie.
A) With close reference to the text  explain how this Tarantino uses thriller conventions in this clip.
            B) What  does the camera angle  used when Ordell  kills Beaumont connote about the character of Ordell Robbie?    

A) Tarantino uses several different generic thriller conventions in this short section of the film. The first one is the location in which this is set. The building looks dirty which is often used as a metaphor for the characters who own them, in this case Beaumont. The apartments are also very dark which could be seen as being a suggestion for the dark actions that either go on in this building, the dark characters or the dark lie Ordell is about to make. Tarantino puts a large amount of thought into his locations. He wants them to perfectly portray the characters. Another generic location is the boot of the car. Orderll makes Beaumont get in the boot of the car before killing him. When the two men stand over the trunk looking in and Ordell pulls the fun out it reminded me a lot of 'Pulp Fiction', another Tarantino movie. Jules and Vincent look into the trunk of thier car a pull out guns which is almost identical to the scene on Jackie Brown. Another thing that makes them similar is that Samuel L. Jackson is in both films.  
 
B) The camera angle that is used when Ordell kills Beaumont is a long shot that establishes the surroundings and gives the audience an idea of Ordells character really is. The first thing you learn is that Ordell lies. He told Beaumont that he should hide in the trunk until they get to the location and then Beaumont should use the gun he was given to threaten everyone, however this was a lie. This camera shot shows a very small distance was travelled but the space between Ordell and the world has never had so much distance between them. Ordell is distant from people and society and that is perfectly what this shots captures. Ordell is made to seem emotionless and almost careless due to his actions.
                 



Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Costume:

So far we have had a few different ideas for the costumes that our characters will wear during our Thriller opening. There will be three characters, so that means three costumes needed to be designed. The two Hitmen will have very similar costumes to ensure that audience know that they're together and are trying to do the same thing. The girl character (now named Eve) is going to be wearing all dark clothes to contrast with her bright hair. If the girl(s) we want to use can't make the filming we are going to use a male character instead. His outfit will have more colour than what the girls would.

Specific ideas for costumes:
1.Hitmen: We wanted these characters to look good at what they're doing so we think a full suit would appropriate. This shows that they are proffesional at what they do and it uses the generic of hit men wearing a suit like in other movies such as Pulp Fiction. Jules and Vincent both wear suits during the opening to this film. It shows that they have the power and it gives a sense of professionalism that only a suit can provide. We want our hitm en to have this presence on screen so we don't want them wearing something like jeans and a hoodie. We aren't that bothered if the suits aren't the same colour because it shows that our hit men are ametures that are trying to look and be proffesional. This means our hit men could be wearing a grey suit (right) and possibly a black one. The colour of the suits will be whatever suits we can get our hands on as a group. We discussed maybe getting one of our hit men to wear a bow tie, but this took the professional and generic look away from them so we've decided to stick to using plain black ties. After deciding what the hit men will be wearing we needed to find a way to cover their faces. This was for two reason, one being a thriller generic and another being due to our choice of actors. It is sometimes generic in thriller movies for the dangerous character our killer to hide their identity so that nobody can identify them. An example of a film whereas gas mask is specifcally used for this reason is 'Dead Man's Shoes'. The other reason we are going to use masks is to hide the fact that the hit men are only young. This helps to make our thriller look and feel more realistic because you don't really see two 16/17 year old being hit men. We think a gas mask would be the best mask for use to use because it not only hides their identity, it also makes them look more threatening and horrifying. The last part of the costume we decided on was what shoes they'd both wear. We thought that leather shoes would obviously look good with the suits that they were both wearing, but then we thought about what would really be practical for somebody chasing down a girl. Running in leather shoes wouldn't be comfortable so they'd wear shoes like  trainers. This would look wrong with the suit but it helps to add to the idea that these two are amateurs who don't really know what they're doing. It also looks and will feel a lot more practical for when they are running.



2. The next outfit that we had to design was for the main girl character of out Thriller who we have decided to name Eve. This is because the name portrays sin and lets us include an intertexual reference to Once Upon a Time in America. We wanted this character to having special about her, something that made her unique. There was a discussion for a few different ideas like maybe giving her some form of scar or mark, but we decided on her having bright coloured hair. We thought this would look good because it would make her character stand out in the locations that we're using. Her bright coloured hair would create a large amount of contrast that should look good when filming our thriller opening. We've thought about using red coloured hair because it represents danger and evil. To increase the contrast of the hair and add another intertextual reference we decided to take inspiration from 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo' for the rest of Eve's look. We want her to wear something dark because this portrays the darker side of her character. It also makes her look link a punk. The dark clothing gives a bigger visual difference between her hair, which will stand out quite well when watching the film after it's been completed. The person who plays Eve will be wearing tight black trousers, a black t-shirts and a black leather or other material jacket. This is to give her the same status that Lisbeth Salander had. As a group we also had a big discussion about shoes this character would wearing. Again we had to think practical, so anything like black plimsolls or any other weak shoes were put of the question. The girl needed to be wearing something which she can run in, but also suited the rest of her costume. This left us with something like dark coloured boots or possibly black converse. These two shoes would suit what Eve would be wearing and would also support the idea that the character that she is playing is a punk. Finally we came to the conclusion that boots would be the best shoes to wear because they're relatively easy to run in, would be able to cope in the situations that we are filming in and they go with the rest of the costume/character.
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Thursday, 5 December 2013

Shot List (In Progress)

Shots Characters Location Camera angle Lighting
1 Eve (main girl character) Field/dike Long shot/ rule of thrids Ambient
2 N/A (shot of record player) A bedroom Close up Non-ambient
3 Hazel and Cha Cha (Hitmen) A bedroom Close up Non-ambient
4 Eve (main girl character) Another bedroom Close up Non-ambient
5 Eve (main girl character)   Exetreme close up Ambient
6 Eve (main girl character) A burnt down house Long shot (pan) Ambient
7 Hazel and Cha Cha (Hitmen) Empty road Medium shot Ambient
8 Eve (main girl character) Field Tracking shot from behind/ medium close up Ambient
9 Hazel and Cha Cha (Hitmen) Field Tracking shot from infornt/ medium close up Ambient
10 Eve (main girl character), Hazel and Cha Cha (Hitmen) Field Birds eye Ambient
11        
12        
13        

Preliminary Task


Wednesday, 4 December 2013

Planning for our Thriller task



Since creating this presentation our group have changed the plot and lighting of our film, but the locations, characters, costume, music/sound and title options have stayed the same.

Friday, 29 November 2013

Essex Boys case study. (Not done)

General information about the film:
  • Release date: 14th July 2000
  • Genre: Crime, Thriller
  • Director: Terry Winsor 
  • Rating on IMDB: 5.9/10 
  • User comment: The user 'paully73' left a comment on the IMDB for this film saying "Don't mean to sound like The Sun ,but if you want to see a gritty,violent gangster movie - this is the film for you! Mainly , the story of a young lad unwittingly pulled into a situation above his head.Enough twists and turns with reasonable dialogue and performances to keep you glued till the end."
  • Opening weekend earnings: £111,548 (UK)

                                  Whole movie above (annotation only done for opening scenes, up to 0:05:45). 


Storyline/Plot:

The film is based loosely around events in December 1995 that culminated in the murders of three drug dealers in Rettendon, Essex, UK. On 6th December Patrick Tate, Craig Rolfe and Tony Tucker, three drug dealers well known to the police, were lured to Workhouse Lane, Rettendon. There they were blasted to death with a shot gun while sitting in their Range Rover. They had been lured to their deaths on the pretext of a lucrative drugs deal. The three bodies were found the following morning, 7 December 1995.

You can tell form the plot of this film it is of the thriller genre. The murderers, guns and drugs are all generics that have been used in other thriller movies. So even from reading the plot of Essex Boys you can tell this film is going to build suspense through all of it's thriller generics.

Genre:


The genre of this film is a thriller which means it includes a lot of generics seen in other similar productions. This film also has the genre of crime making it slightly different to your conventional thriller movie. This genre is known for its dark lighting, suspense building elements and dark characters, which is exactly what this film provides. It uses generic locations, lighting, costume and sound which is what I will be talking about in this case study.

Lighting:

A large amount of very dark and dim lighting is used in the first scene. There is a minimal amount of non-ambient lighting coming from a single street light in the background of this scene. It produces just enough light so you can make our small details about the dirty and old lighting. The use of a single light uses a lighting technique called chiaroscuro (Italian for light-dark, chiaro means light and scuro means dark), this creates a strong contrast in the frame of the film which ensures the focus of the viewer is only on a single section of the screen.
A large amount of dark lighting is used through the whole opening of this film which sticks to the generics of a thriller movie. No other scenes are as dim as the first one, but there is no big change in lighting. There are no bright lights used to indicate any kind of joy, the director of Essex Boys wanted to show how gritty this film would be and one of the strongest ways he did it was through the murky lighting of the surrounding scenery.

Locations:

All the locations used in the opening of this film use a large amount of generics which other thriller films use. A large amount of the locations used are small and empty which brings a sense of claustrophobia to the film. This feeling allows the director to produce a sense of being trapped that helps to build suspense in the movie. The opposite of this is the scene in which Billy drive into the tunnel which has a vanishing point. To the audience this shows that they are almost travelling into another world. Examples of these loactions are:

The inside of the old car.
The dim garage
The tunnel (has a vanishing point)

 The scene when Billy sits in the car at the start of the film reminded me of the seen where Baby Doll, from Sucker Punch, is taken away in the car. The two screen shots show a slightly gritty car which is a metaphor for the darker characters in the film.
Baby Doll being taken to the Asylum in the film 'Sucker Punch'.
Characters:

Essex Boys main character is called Billy Reynolds and the man he is hired to drive around is called Jason Locke. Jason Locke is your typical "hard man" which means he fits in with genre of this movie very well. He automatically has a dark presence the first time you see him in the film. He is seen through a filthy car window which a metaphor for how dirty and gritty his character is. He is a generic bad guy for thriller films, he is feared, violent and has that certain quirk that shows he has some form of  problem (all used for other bad guys in other thriller films such as Kill Bill and Sucker Punch).


Costume:

There is a large amount of contast in the costume of Jason and Billy which is in fact a generic of thriller films. The bad guys tends to wear darker anf older clothing whilst the good guy wears something brighter and normally a lot newer. Essex Boys goes against conevention though, Jason wears something a lot brighter in the opening of the film and Billy wears soemthing slightly darker which is what is shown in this screenshot;

Thursday, 14 November 2013

Thriller Planning (Early draft)

- Locations:
  • Empty barn
  • Burnt down house
  • Empty field
- Flashback to build story.
- Day and night, either could work, but night time would work better for our plot. Also, depending on the weather, snow would look good.
- Black and white
- Chiaroscuro lighting (strong contrast)
- Two actors; interrogator and interrogatee
- Interrogation
- Two interrogator (male)
- Interrogatee (female)
- Classical music (contrast of elegant music to rough actions).
- Plot: She burnt down the house after taking something from the house. She is then caught and interrogated.

Title options:
  • Voleur- 'Thief' in French
  • Varas- 'Thief' in Finnish

Friday, 25 October 2013

Evaluation of Preliminary Task


Question 1: 
For the planning of our preliminary task we first decided on the plot of the short film. Our plot was that Toby had left his coursework at Luke's house. Luke had then forgotten to bring the coursework in after copying it and this has resulted in Toby becoming angry at Luke. After developing our plot we created the storyline for our preliminary task which we recorded with storyboards. Our storyline consisted of Toby walking into school, realising he is late so he then runs, goes through the first door and then walks down the corridor. He then opens the second door and sits opposite to Luke. The conversation begins until it reaches it's climax which is Toby getting angry, knocking over his chair and leaving the room. The film then fades to black. When the storyline had been perfected, as a group we came up with a detailed shot list for each scene of our task. We decided to incorporate as many camera angles and filming techniques into are video to show we were experimenting with the feeling each camera angle gave to the scene. We wanted to use shots like "over the shoulder" to make the audience see the events from Toby's perspective. 
          All of our planning helped to make the filming of our preliminary task easier and more structured. It allowed us as a group to film our video in a logical and chronological order. The planning really aided us in terms of what we actually filmed, it gave us to structure and really sped up the whole process. The planning also allowed us to see what each scene would look like before we filmed it, the planning aided us in ensuring each scene would look good when editing and in the final production. It took us around 3 hours to film the whole of this task which means we filmed over two days. We took special care in ensuring there were continuity errors when filming. We made sure everything stayed in the same place in each scene and both Toby and Luke were wearing the same thing on both days.  

Question 2:
The 180 degree was very important when filming our preliminary task. It mostly applied when we were filming the conversation between Toby and Luke. We decided as a group where the imaginary line would be placed when filming and made sure we didn't cross it when filming. We didn't actually break the rule when filming the conversation but we did however break it in the birds eye shot before Toby said his first line. We took the shot from the other side of the table so the two boys were the wrong way round. We fixed this problem when editing the film. We simply turned the shot upside down so that Toby was now on the right and Luke was on the left.

Question 3:
As I mentioned in Question 1 we tried to incorporate as many camera angles and filming techniques into our preliminary task as possible. Each shot we used was to help emphasise a certain aspect of each character. We used several close ups throughout the shooting of our film, each was was to either bring more focus to a certain action (e.g. opening of the door) or show the audience the emotion that character was feeling (e.g. Luke's eyes showing he is nervous/scared). Throughout our preliminary task we ensured the audience new what location was where at all time, this means we included a few location establishing shots. These were two birds eye views (shot 6 and 13 from our shot list) and a single panning shot (shot 4). As a group we all included ideas for each scene, when it came to discussion of what camera angles to use for the conversation we all agreed we should mainly use over the shoulder shots, so that the audience was viewing the conversation from the characters view. I then came up with the idea of the first two shots in the conversation being 'profile' shots (these are shots taken from the side of the persons face). These are all the camera angles we used. The shot types we used are: match on action, shot reverse shot and the 180 degree rule (explained in Question 2). We used the shot type of match on action mainly in the beginning of the film. Match on action is when one shot cuts to another shot to portray the action of the subject in the previous shot. This shot type was used as Toby walked through the school gate, the motion of his walk was carried on into the next shot so that these clips flowed well together. The last shot type we used was shot reverse shot, this is when the camera switches between two people having a conversation to show they're looking at one another. We used this shot when Toby and Luke are having the conversation and looking at one another. This was used to make it obvious to the audience that they were both sitting opposite to each other and maintaining eye contact.

Question 4:
I have only ever done a small amount of editing before completing this task, so there was a lot of learning to do when it came to using Premier Pro Cs5. The first editing skill I really learned was how to select the required section form the video clip and then take it out and apply it to the timeline. This process is done by opening the needed video clip into the preview window, pressing I (in) when you want that frame to be the first image of the video and then O (out) when you want the clip to stop. After selecting the needed footage inside that clip you simply drag it down to the timeline at the bottom of the screen and it becomes a scene within your video. After putting all the footage together I then adjusted any sound that was either too quite or too loud. This was done in scene 4 (from my shot list) and one of the cuts in which Luke is replying too Toby. Scene 4 was too loud due to their being a lot of background noise from the wind and the footage of Luke talking was too quite. I adjusted these problems by changing the volume of the clip in the timeline. After the sound, look and flow of the film was perfected I began to apply some effects to selected scenes. The first thing I applied was a fade to black at the end of the video. This was to give the edit as smoother ending that looked more professional. I realised some more emphasis could added to a couple of different clips (shots 10 and 11 from my shot list) so I slowed down the speed of the footage so that it was in slow motion. Slow motion gives the audience a longer period of time to focus on an action,so in our short film more emphasis is put onto Toby pulling the chair back and Luke's eye showing his nerves. I slowed these two clips down by around 20%. The last effect I applied to our preliminary task was making everything from the second Toby opens the door black and white. This effect lasted till the very end of the video. The black and white look gave the smaller details a larger amount of emphasis and it made the conversation in our task feel almost like a flashback. After editing my preliminary task I can safely say I can use the editing software confidently to complete simple processes. I can easily select the required footage and insert it into the timeline of the software. I can also apply video effects such as black and white, dissolve and fade to black. I can currently only edit simple things, but as I move onto the next part of my coursework I hope to develop more editing skills that will result in a more professional final product.                  

       

Wednesday, 2 October 2013

Shot list and Planning

PLANNING:

Film roles:
Toby- Boy who left his cousework at Luke's house.
Luke- Boy who has the courework at his house after copying it.

Loactions (In order seen in preliminary task):
-School gate
-Canteen door
-Canteen
-Corrdior to the Media Studies room
-Media Studies
 
Plolt: Toby has left his coursework at Luke's house. Luke has then forgotton to bring the coursework into school after copying it. Toby confronts Luke about this problem which leads to him (Toby) becoming angry and exiting the room.

Storyline: Toby walks into the school throught the school gates, he then realises he's late and decides he needs to speed up. He runs from the school gates to one of the canteen doors and opens the door. Toby walks through the canteen and then to corridor to leading down to the Media Studies room.He then opens the door to the room. Toby sits down opposite Luke and starts the conversation. The coversation continues till it reaches its climax and then Toby exits the room (the climax of this story is when Toby finally gets really angry at Luke, knocks his chair over and walks out of the room). End.
 
 
SHOT LIST:
  1. Close up and low angle of feet (walking). This shot involves; Toby.
  2. High angle of him walking through school gate. This shot involves; Toby.
  3. Close up with a zoom of a watch to show he is late, then a pan to the face. This shot involves; Toby.
  4. Panning shot which leads to a long shot of him running round the corner of the building. This shot involves; Toby.
  5. Extreme close up of hand opening the door. This shot involves; Toby.
  6. Birds eye view of him coming through the door. This shot involves; Toby.
  7. Shot of him walking, then zoom to the hand (close up) to show him clenching his fists. This shot involves; Toby.
  8. Over the shoulder view of him opening door. This shot involves; Toby.
  9. Worms eye view of him opening door for the second time (continued shot). This shot involves; Toby.
  10. Tilt and close up shot of his face (worried). This shot involves; Luke.
  11. Extreme close up of him pulling his chair book. This shot involves; Toby.
  12. Close up of his hands to show nerves. This shot involves; Luke.
  13. Birds eye view of the table to show the layout. This shot involves; Toby and Luke.
  14. Profile shot of him asking about his coursework (medium close up). This shot involves; Toby.
  15. Same shot as shot 14 of him answering the question. This shot involves; Luke.
  16. Over the shoulder shot from Toby of Luke finishing the question. This shot involves; Toby and Luke.
  17. Over the shoulder shots (switching between Toby and Luke) for the rest of the conversation.This shot involves; Toby and Luke.
  18. Tracking him across at the end of the conversation. Door closes. This shot involves; Toby.   

Monday, 23 September 2013

Camera training: Still images

High angle: This camera angle shows both insignificance and vulnerability when shooting a movie. This makes the audience either have less respect or feel distressed for the character.

 Low angle: This camera angle shows power, status or menace when shooting a movie. This makes the audience fear or/and have respect for the character.

Over the shoulder: This camera angle is used to show that somebody is following the character or it is used to put the audience in the characters position.

Tilt: This camera angle in a film shows confusion, disorientation or a a nightmare. This type of shot is normally used to show that something bad is going to happen or is currently happening.

Long shot: This type of angle tends to be used to establish location or action within a film. Long shots are good for showing depth and giving a general idea of what is happening within the scene.

Medium close up: This type of shot is good for bringing focus to the characters face.

Close up: This camera angle allows the audience to develop a better view and understanding of the characters emotion in the scene.

Extreme close up: This angle is used to closely identify characters or action within a film. This tends to be used in thriller movies to establish horror, more than any other films.

Bird's eye view: This shot is used purely to give the audience a different view of the action that is occurring in the scene.


Worm's eye view: This camera angle is mostly used to show fear. It allows the audience to view events from one of the characters vulnerable perspectives.  

Rule of thirds:


Sunday, 22 September 2013

Media Questionnaire

Name: Jordan Jones

GCSE Results:
  1. Photography= A*
  2. History=A
  3. I.T.=Distinction double award (equal to two As)
  4. English Literature=B
  5. English Language=B
  6. Maths=B
  7. Science=B
  8. Additional Science=B
  9. Drama=C 
Hobbies:
  • Reading
  • Photography
  • Gaming
  • Listening to music
  • Watching films
  • Going to the cinema and concerts
Media Interests:



  • Print media- Occasionally I will read through my local newspaper the 'Lynn News' to see what is happening in my local area. Most of the time it is just to see something that I know of though (e.g. if a friend or family member have something related to them put in the paper I will read that). I tend to read most of the news on the internet due to the fact I use the internet a majority of the time. Reading the news on the internet is a preference to me because it is easier to access and doesn't cost, like a newspaper. On the rear occasion I do read magazine's like Kerrang, NME and several different photography magazines. I tend to read music magazines to find out about concerts that are coming up and concerts that have already happened. Music magazines are also good for finding out about upcoming albums and reading reviews about albums. I also read photography magazines to find out about new techniques for taking photographs.    
  • Radio media- I listen mostly to Radio 1 for entertainment and news because it plays a large variety of music which I love and informs me of the things that I seem to want to know about. I occasionally listen to my local radio station KLFM for local news, but not music because the don't tend to play the genres I like. 
  • Music Industry- My favourite genres of music are: rock, dubstep, indie, alternative rock, rap, metal, pop rock, punk and dance. I have a very diverse taste in music. I mostly do access my music on the internet through YouTube and Spotify because they allow me to find new artists which I can enjoy for free. I download all my music through iTunes due to the apple devices I own. I do however still like buying physical copies of albums because that is the way I have been brought up and I like to be able to show my collection of CDs. My opinion on illegally downloading music is that it is bad. I don't think it is right to take money away from artists that have worked hard to produce singles, EPs or albums. They deserve the money that is a result of the purchase of their music. People shouldn't be allowed to download this music illegally because it isn't fair and it is against the law. The music industry does influence my dress because I tend to dress how people who like the same genres as me dress so that they know I also like the same kind of thing. It is just an easy way for people to know we've got stuff in common. I also let music influence my attitude a lot because certain types of music puts me in certain moods.

  • Video games- My favourite video game is Alice: Madness returns. The story line of this game is that Alice has essentially gone crazy and her wonderland has become corrupt due to the fact she is trying to find out how her parents and sister died. This is in fact the second game in the series, with the orginal game only being available for PC until this game was released, and now it is avaliabe for console play.This game is really interesting because it shows a twisted and very new side of wonderland that people who read "alice's adventures in wonderland" by Lewis Carroll have never seen before. I understand why some people think games can have a negative effect on gender roles. This problem comes in specifically with games like Call of Duty, Battlefield and other war games. As a gamer I have noticed in most games now there is the option to play as a female character which isn't something that was available so much, say 5 years ago. There are still less female characters though, with male characters dominating most of the gaming universe. This is something that could be improved in my opinion, mainly in first persons shooters. People also say that conflict is a big issue in video games because of the way it influences younger children, but there are age restrictions on most games which portray conflict. This means parents are buying and letting influential children play these games, so I have no sympathy due to the fact that parents should be having more control over what their children play.
  • New Technology- New technologies have allowed me to understand new parts of the world through seeing the news on the internet and allowing me to research certain cultures with easier access through phones, laptops and tablets. New technologies have allowed me to communicate with people all round the UK and even people from different countries. They've also allowed me to communicate faster with better phone signals, faster internet and faster phones. A lot of new technology has increased my awareness of new films and television programmes. It has mostly led to me finding out more about music and the music industry. I've learnt more about music and the music industry due to it being easer to find new artists and genres. 
  • Television- My favourite television channels are E4, Sky 1 + living and BBC one. This is because these channels are the ones that broadcast the televisions shows that I like. My favourite genre is American sitcoms because they have the sense of humour that I like and I like the casting for these types of shows. The 5 programmes I consider memorable are: 1. How I met your mother, 2. Adventure time 3. Scrubs, 4. Hannibal and 5. Doctor Who.
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  • Feature film- My favourite genre of of film is comedy because I tend to love anything that will make me laugh. Three films that I found outstanding the Suckerpunch, Kill Bill and The Matrix. I prefer to watch watch films in the cinema because it is more of a sociable activity that I can do with my friends. I do also like watching films at home because I feel more comfortable like this, but going to the cinema is my preference. My favourite cinema is the Majestic cinema in Kings Lynn. I prefer to watch films in a group due to the fact you can compare opinions when the film is finished

Conclusion: The only piece of media I can think of that has offended me is anything within the news to do with homosexuality or bisexuality being wrong.I find this offensive because I believe what they're saying is wrong, there is nothing bad about being gay, lesbian or bi so these news stories are offensive in my opinion. The most interesting media text I've ever seen is "Looking for Alaska" by John Green. This book was amazing in my opinion and absolutely sent me on an emotional roller coaster. The book that has most altered my life and the way I think is "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green. This book made me realise that sometimes the people we love and who we think are safe may actually be gone before us, they may actually be in more danger than ourselves. This book also made me realise how tough it really is being a cancer patient and how caner kids have their "one wish". Hazel Grace ( the main character of the book) really shows how tough life can be for a teenager struggling with cancer and relationships. My favourite quote from this book is "The marks humans leave are too often scars", this quote personally means a lot to me because it shows how when we die we don't always leave a good legacy behind and that we should maybe consider who we've hurt and try and fix the scars we're responsible for. If I was to construct a media text about the condition of England I would produce a speech and talk about how we need to start using out countries money wisely. We need to stop building things we don't need, we need to stop celebrities getting so much money for doing nothing and people who are actually helping need to get more respect for what they're doing. People who help need rewards, because after a while they're going to stop helping if they get nothing in return. I have chosen media studies as an option because I want to learn more about the modern media and how it works, I want to develop my filming skills and improve my editing skills.  

Summer Task

Monday, 16 September 2013

An Introduction

Hello, I'm Jordan Jones and this is my blog for my media studies A-level.