Saturday 26 March 2011

My Targets

We have been asked to come up with three SMART targets that we think are going to help us with our preparation for the exam.

Target 1:  To use more media terminology in the essays i write and also in the exam which is very important.
Target 2:  To spend more time reading the notes at home.
Target 3: To come after hours and work on the coursework as there is still loads to be do.

Thursday 24 March 2011

Notes on 'Life on Mars'

On thursday's lesson we looked at the clip called 'Life on Mars'. The first time we have seen it we were asked to watch it without making any notes but just to get some ideas about the clip. The purpose of this is to prepare us for the exam.  We have seen it about four times in total.
These are the things we had to look at while watching the clip:

  • Sound
  • Camera shots
  • Costume
  • Setting
  • Editing
  The opening of the clip opens up with a busy road and we get introduced to the male character who is laying on the street next to the car. First time we see the character the high angel shot is used and at first we do not see exactly who it is however the next shot which is a horizontal tilt shows the angle of the character on the street. Straight away we can tell he had an accident and it was most likely to be a car accident because we see a car next to him which probably belongs to him. We can also see the cars registration number which tells us what period of time he is in.
The second time we see the character in different situation this time the camera rotates 360 degrease around the character and the place he is in. This is because the audience can see he is in totally different place than he was before and the clothes he is wearing are very different than he had on  before. (the first time we saw him) The costume the character is wearing can be clearly discovered it belongs to 70's and the setting around the character such as cars and civilisation gives it away to the audience who can compare the times he was in before and the times he is in currently in this scene.
The sound used in that scene starts with non diegetic which is the music in  the background while the camera rotates around the character in 360 degrease because the character cannot hear it however it turns into diegetic when the character picks him self up from the ground and walks towards the car where the music is getting louder while the character moves closer. The music played in that scene is from 70's and its played from the casset player which is inside the car. This automatically shows the audience that the character has moved back in time which helps the audience to understand the story line and from the music we can tell what are the times the character is in.
Another scene which takes place in the police station clearly shows what is going on even tho the character is confused because of the changes and the times. The setting of the station shows that the times are different because there are no computers in the office, the sound of the telephone ringing is very old. Also people smoking inside the room shows that the rules were not introduced to them yet about smoking in the building.The office is full of men which shows that women were at home taking care of the kids while men were working to earn money , now days this is very different which shows a lot have changed since then. At that time male were a dominant gender therefore women were housewives.
The editing of the clip is very effective so the audience can understand the story very clearly and it brings the message across to them straight away.

Tuesday 22 March 2011

Synergy

Synergy is when two or more faces work together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently.
There is also media synergy which means different elements of a media congolerement work together to promote products across different media. Synergy works when different elements with media conglomarete products. AOL and Warner Brothers merged in 2000 in order to create the soudtrack for the megafranchise Harry Pottter.
The term synergy comes from Greek word syn-ergos, συνεργός, meaning 'working together'.

Tuesday 8 March 2011

Analysis of the Skins clip.

The skins clips represented a range of different shots, such as:
wide shots - which showed the whole settings of the scene making the audience feel involved, from his point of view.
close up of the character brother - showing that this character is relevant to this scene, make the viwers become more aware of the state of mind as this character is disabled.
medium close up of the main character while a voice off screen is happening - to show how he is expressing his feelings and engaging with the audience.
long shot - to show him in a different environment and situation. showing his is an ordinary guy living his life as a normal teenager.

editing - shows to understand the story and speaks to the viewers throughout the clip. it shows the different setting and motions that go along with the story line making it easier for us to understand the whole scene. No sharpe cuts, instead it is smooth and simple which might keep the audience interested with what is going on.
the editing was very clear so it showed the meaning to the audience so they can easily understand what the story is trying to bring across to us.

sound - the background music at the beginning could suggest that it has some relveance to the main character and the story line. the other sounds used were digetic due to the fact that it was to show him in different places to understand what environments he is living in. some examples are in the kitchen, the bus stop and in the class room where kids were messing/shouting and talking loudly.

mise - en - scene - most of the scenes were set up during the day time using natural lights so no studio lights were needed. the mise - en - scene delivered information across to us about what sort of person the main character is by portraying him as a typical teenager. His costume was of a school uniform to show that he is still a student at school which is relvant to the class room scene that is at the end.

the whole clip represents mainly males as the dominant gender because the camera is more concerntrated with them throughout the clip. towards the end of the clip we get introudced to a female teacher at the school which might have a meaning that women are just as equal to men due to having professional jobs, however they are not shown as often as the males characters are.