Santa's been!! and he knows me all too well

This year for christmas I received lots of lovely gifts but some in particular were Awesome with a capital A.
My mum and dad, I mean Santa reads my blog and has seen that I have been reviewing Empire magazine and Total film but I concluded that Empire magazine had better in depth reviews with lots of contextual information about the actors and directors in conjunction with their past films.
Having read this, I received a subscription to Empire magazine for the 12 calendar month issues. How cool is that? very is the answer.
Another gift related to my passion for films and empire magazine is an Empire movie miscellany, hundreds of amazing filmic facts that instantly guarantee a film buff status.
This book includes so many funny and interesting movie facts as well as film set lingo and cinematography slang. Many film shot names are explained and terminology is given some context.

-Did you know that the number of speaking roles in the entire lord of the rings trilogy is only 114.

-Did you know that Jim Carrey's first job was a janitor. Sean Connery used to be a coffin polisher and Kate Winslet was a Deli assistant.

Another awesome gift that I received was Christopher Kenworthy's book on master shots, there are 100 advanced camera techniques to get an expensive look to your low budget movie. After reading around half of the book so far, there are many shots that I have recognized or revisited the film it is depicted within to the watch the action of the shot unfold and let the dramatic irony take place because I know how the shot is done and that within 'fight club' many of the punches that are landed, are landed at least inches from their face but the camera techniques used make it look like they will have one big black eye in the morning.

Overall best christmas yet and thank you Santa for all my christmas presents, you may have just added a considerable amount to the look of our film and the perceived budget that was used.

Representation theory, analyzed by Blaine Kenneally

Representation can dramatically affect a person's interpretation of a film, the filmmaker is in control of the representation of the characters by choosing: what they wear, their personality, their hobbies, their lifestyle and the events that they participate in within the film. All these aspects contribute to the audiences interpretation of these characters and how they are judged by the viewer. The producer does not have full control over the viewers judgement because their cultural background will have an effect upon their overall judgement. This however does not effect the implied representation of certain characters that the producers portrays, for example women as inferior to men as this will not be welcomed by the viewers as it is insulting but in some circumstances is necessary within the narrative. ill either fall in love with or feel indebted to the male hero; in fact, she is somewhat repulsed by his actions.

To view my co-directors detailed post on representation with reference to a critical theorist Laura Mulveyn, who we can learn from and then apply our own knowledge and hers to our short film to make sure that characters are represented the way that we want them to be and nothing else.

Follow the link below:

http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2010/12/representation-laura-mulvey-vs-us.html

Production log 3, Presenting our Final cut express effects

We set about making this production log a little different to our usual production log entries because we had just had a tutorial on how to use Final cut express, we ended up using the end of the actual production log because we wanted to manipulate it within Final cut express to practice and show our learning experience. Feel free to watch the video below and laugh at us, not with us, at us, due to our very individual sense of humor.

Production Log 3 (Experience in Editing) from Blaine Kenneally on Vimeo.

We do only have access to Final cut express and we were informed that their will be certain limitations between using the express version and this can be seen within the video. We created a mask over myself to turn me black and white but within the express version we could only create a box/square mask around me and then bevel the edges which looked good but not to the professional standard that we desire our film to be, so in order to achieve this standard we may use a different editing program to achieve this one effect known as the 'Sin city' effect.

Editing techniques

Within our film we want to add some post production effects to the visual style of parts of our film to help convey the narrative structure and other parts to make the visual style have a greater impact upon the audience. When editing our film we will be using, final cut express and this is new editing software to both myself and Blaine. We both have experience in using and utilizing the editing software of Imovie as well as this we both have some experience in editing within Sony Vegas knowing the basic editing skills and how to apply some effects and titles.

In order to make our short film professional we wanted to learn how to use Final cut, this is not saying that it wouldn't look professional if this editing software was not used but this is the software that is widely used within the movie production industry and to learn a new skill that could be applied in any future job is a great step in moving from school work towards potential products that may be consumed and bought by the general public. we set about arranging a short session with the new technician at school because has experience in using the software and could talk us both through the basics that we need to know and he may possibly know how to apply some specific after effects that we would like to include as well as some composition changes.

When we met up with the technician there where some specific elements that we wanted to learn.
We wanted to work out how to change the huge and saturation, as the composition change will create an explicit distinction to the change of chronological order as the flashback and his quick childhood/symbolic memory will be in Black and white.
This is a very easy effect to create as there is a pre-set colour manipulation tool which can be used to automatically change the shots to black and white but if we wanted to sharpen up the contrast or add a tinted colour then this can easily be done within the colour manipulation settings.

We also wanted to know if we needed to create a mask over a certain object to change the colour of this object and this object only. We want to use this after effect to put emphasis on a red rose when a finger is pricked in the main protagonists quick symbolic memory that occurs each time he absorbs the pain of others.
After filming some quick test footage that we could try and manipulate we played around with the editing tools and found that you can put emphasis upon a certain object by just changing the contrasts of the colour's, the huge and saturation and the colour corrector tool that is within the software this can give of a good effect that we may want to use.



Another way could achieve what is known as the 'Sin city effect' when the certain colour's are emphasised and brought into the viewers focus. Within the extras of the Sin city DVD some of the editing techniques are included and the way that they achieve this effect was by using a green screen which we could try and do. To view a short segment of sin city to see the well renowned Sin city effect in action watch the video below:



The final effect that we want to include is the layering of clips. We want to use this effect to represent a young girls channel of thinking as she stares out of a window, deep in focus. We want to have a the shot of the girl as the main clip but then we want to layer multiple clips over the top of her parents arguing to represent the troubles she may have at home and how this is effecting her. This can be done in two ways:
The first way can achieve this effect by using simple transitions of the multiple clips. If you change the opacity of the clips, feather the edges and possible add some motion blur the quick transitions will create the effect of the girls thoughts and this will be emphasized by the dominant static shot of the girl after we have slowly zoomed in on her head as a signifier to the audience that what follows are her thoughts.
For an example of the overlaying effect watch the video bellow:



The second way is to change the opacity of the overlaid shots and to have them featured within the space situated within the shot of the girl. If feathering is added then this could stop the overall shot looking very regimental but depending on the content of the argument it may be too small and overall have this regimental look which would be very unprofessional as well as boring for the audience.

After learning all these skills we now feel very confident that we can make our short film to a very high standard.

Film review analysis

After reading reviews for the social Network a recently released film directed by David Ficher in both 'Empire' magazine and 'Total film' magazine, I have gathered an idea of the underlying tone of each review and the individuality of them both making each magazine distinct from each other and this helped me to gain ideas and an understanding of how to write a review catered for your target audience.

The target audience of Empire magazine is predominantly male orientated between the ages of 16-30. The reasoning for such a wide range of target audience is that many reviews are writing based rather than picture led , this means that many younger readers can see the well chosen cinematic images and read the review and star rating to then come to their own conclusion about a film which is great but the detailed reviews that present a stream of consciousness style of writing focus upon the film using complex film terminology that not any movie lover and teenager would understand, it gives very detailed and accurate information on actors and directors also touching of their past films when mentioned comparing and contrasting them giving the audience an overall picture of the film and how it is compared to some of the directors/actors other films which then enables the reader to make self generated connections and opinions on how good the film will be if they have seen the films that are referenced.

Now to focus on the demographic side of the target audience we have already established the age range but I believe that the audience fits into the B,C categories of the Acorn system and that they would be reasonable upper class with disposable income to spend on luxuries such as a £3.99 film magazine for personal enjoyment as well as guidance on what films to see in the cinema (another luxury) or DVD to purchase (another luxury).

Empire:

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=136853

The demographic side of the target audience for Total film magazine is much the same as Empire, but the tone of the review is very different. Reviewer: Damon Wise of Empire, creates an extensive review of The social network giving detailed information about the film/actors and director whilst not telling the story. His thoughts and opinions are made aware and Reviewer Andy Lowe of Total film in my opinion is very biased in his opinions leaving little room for others to make their own decisions, this can be seen by many as a good quality as this is a man that lives and breaths film so his opinions must be extremely valid but others may say that it effects peoples own judgement and leaves no room for their own conclusion. The review is much shorter and does focus upon the narrative, telling it a bit too much in my opinion but others may disagree. Total film also uses film terminology and does not use any witty language like Empires review includes.

Total Film:

http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/the-social-network

Overall these two reviews offer a different style in writing that myself and Blaine can use as example when writing our review. The variation also gives us many different ways we can write but we want to find out which style of writing our target audience would prefer before we construct the review.

December schedule

To keep on top of the work that we have to complete throughout the project, both myself and Blaine thought it would be a good idea to outline the posts that we will complete over December. We wanted to do this because we also have other work to do as well as exams to revise for, so if we set out a basic structure for over the December holiday then we could stick to the plan and complete over work around this.

Blaine has created a post with each separate post that we delegated to each other and he will turn each task into a link to the post after the work has been completed to view this post and follow the links within the post click the first hyperlink below:

http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2010/12/december-schedule.html

Target audience for our short film poster

CAP- Committee of advertising practice helps to regulate advertising codes which are set to protect consumers against advertisers that do not comply with the rules. This is the overall message that can see above their mission statment.

"The Advertising Codes contain wide-ranging rules designed to ensure that advertising does not mislead, harm or offend. Ads must also be socially responsible and prepared in line with the principles of fair competition. These broad principles apply regardless of the product being advertised.

In addition, the Codes contain specific rules for certain products and marketing techniques. These include rules for alcoholic drinks, health and beauty claims, children, medicines, financial products, environmental claims, gambling, direct marketing and prize promotions. These rules add an extra layer of consumer protection on top of consumer protection law and aim to ensure that UK advertising is responsible.

The ASA administers the rules in the spirit as well as the letter, making it almost impossible for advertisers to find loopholes or ‘get off on a technicality’. This common sense approach takes into account the nature of the product being advertised, the media used, and the audience being targeted."

For our poster advertisment we will have to abide by these rules and regulations that are set by the comittee of advertising practice. I have thouraghly read through the codes on their website and here are some examples of the general sections. Each one has its principle outlined a definition of its meaning and the rules that are set under the specific heading.
There are also specific category sections that also have many rules within them, many sections relate to other sections and have links to other regulatory websites with their rules which you also have to abide by like the National lottery if you are advertising gambling.

When creating our poster we will have to make sure that we do not break any codes set by the comittee of advertising practice because consumer legislation has to be thought of and kept to a high priority. The content within the poster will have to mimic the target audience that we are advertising towards, but must not offend potential consumers of the advertisment.

For detailed information of on the codes set by CAP follow the link below to their website were downlodable version of the regulations are avalible:
http://www.cap.org.uk/

Now that we have the codes and conducts to follow, we can start to focus on the content of our poster and who the poster will be predominantly aimed at.Blaine has already constructed a post about semiotics within taditional film posters
and he is going to construct a post on the visual content that we want to include as well as some example texts that we may want our film title to be as well as some different texts for some credits. Above is a picture of the Psychologist Abraham Maslow's 'heirachy of needs' this motivationall theory wich was included within his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” the theory is based upon the basic human needs that then build up to more complex needs such as self actulisation this motivational theory structure is used within many business corporations. However John Antonios has applied this theory to social media and the way that audiences have responded it is Similar to Maslow’s pyramid, in the social media counterpart we have to complete our “basic needs” before moving up to our “social needs” ultimately reaching our social optimization. This can conseqently help us to distribute our poster on various social networking sites and this use of Wee media proves how the heirachy of needs works.

Abraham Maslow also constructed a theory of 'how advertisements use human needs' This theory looks at where companies place their television and print adverts to make the maximum impact upon their audience and how adverts work to attract the audience to the product. The theory is based on typical human behavior that focuses on satisfying Certain basic types of needs.
The advertisements may address the consumer directly: for example 'Do you like watching great films, well watch this one' or you can advertise in-directly to your consumers for example making a situation in your advert that people can see themselves in or by creating an ambiguous and intriguing poster which will respond to their need for fulfilment, and consequently will make them want to find out more about the poster and overall the film it is advertising. This then links to the 'reception theory'/active consumer under the effects model.


Below are the nine most common basic human needs that occur most frequently within advertising.

Need to survive- Used by advetisments for food, drink, housing etc.


Need to feel safe- Advertisments for insurance, loans and banks promise security and freeedom from threats.


Need for affiliation or friendship- Adverts that focus on lifestyle choices like diet and fashion use people's desire to be popular. They may also threaten them with failure to be liked or fit in.


Need to nurture or care for something- Advertising which shows cute animal and small children brings this out in the viewer.


Need to achieve- Advertisments that are linked with winning, often promoted by sports personalities, tap into the need to succed at difficult tasks.


Need for attention- Advertisments for beauty products often play the need to be noticed and admired.


Need for prominence- Advertisements for expensive furniture and diamonds may use people's need to be respected and to have high social status.


Need to dominate- Advertisments for products like fast cars offer the possibility of being in control through the product.


Need to find meaning in life- Advertisments for travel or music may appeal to people's need for fulfilment.


When constructing our poster we will need to take into account both the demographics' of potential consumers as well as the psycho graphics. These two prominent categorization methods will be vital in making sure that our poster reaches the largest possible range of potential consumers, in order to make them aware of our film. Maslow's theory of targeting basic human needs will also come into consideration when drawing up some plans for potential posters and getting feedback for them.

Analysing and choosing a target audience for our short film

First of all what is a target audience? My understanding of a target audience is that it is a specific group of people that have been identified as an intended consumer of your product, advertisement or message.

There are many different ways that people within society are stereotypically categorized. The grouping of these people is a tool used by many corporations to gather basic information about this 'group' of people and the best way to make them aware of your product.
I am studying business studies so I would like to think that I am educated within this area.
There are two prominent ways to categorize your target audience. One is called, demographic; this describes the person's sex, age, family size, education, income, and social class. The audience's demographic can be learned through a populous or another survey.

The next category is the psycho graphics of a potential audience. This information is based upon lifestyle and/or personality. This may be more difficult to then deconstruct because the information is not black and white but this information is easier gauged in analysis of activities, interests and opinions.

After you retrieve the information needed regarding your audience, you will have a better idea who will want your product but equally important, who can afford it.
This then makes it easier to advertise your product or create a product that a specific target audience want due to a niche in the market. If you know your audience then it is easier to create your marketing strategy or product to cater for their direct needs.

We had to do extensive research into target audience for our 'film noir' production that we created last year. For our Short film we need more up to date analysis of peoples personal preferences as a target audience theory so we have looked at some updated theories that we will be using to categorise our target audience. The quantitative or demographic method will still be used as the acorn system is still a very effective way to group people based upon their income.

To view my A.s blog post for the Qualitative method of grouping a target follow the link bellow:

http://tompalmerasmedia.blogspot.com/2009/10/target-audience-qualitative-measurment.html

To view my A.s blog post for a Quantitative method follow the link bellow:

http://tompalmerasmedia.blogspot.com/2009/10/target-audience-acorn-system-research.html

Media analysts have developed several effects models which can be seen as 'theoretical explanations of how humans ingest the information transmitted by media texts and how this might influence (or not) their behaviour.'

Effects models are still not a 'sure thing' because indisputable evidence that audiences will always react to media texts in the same way has not been found but the effects models are a new detailed categorization method that myself and Blaine can use to establish our type of potential consumer and the relationship between audience and text.

-The hypodermic needle model:
The intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver.
-Two-step flow:
The people with most access to media, and highest media literacy explain and diffuse the content to others. This is a modern version of the hypodermic needle model.
-Uses and gratification:
People are not helpless victims of mass media, but use the media to get specific gratifications.
-Reception theory:
The meaning of a “text” is not inherent within the text itself, but the audience must elicit meaning based on their individual cultural background and life experiences.
-Obstinate audience theory:
This theory assumes that there is a transactional communication between the audience and the media. The audience actively selects what messages to pay attention to. The Zimmerman-Bauer study found that the audience also participate in the communication by influencing the message.

Both of these theories help myself and Blaine to then come to a conclusion about our type of target audience. The acorn system helping use work on the demographics and the effects model giving us an idea of our audiences psychological needs. We can then use this information to develop our understanding about our target audience and what they expect to see within a film and what would blow them away.

Blaine has found a great way we can acquire this information via
primary research, Google provides online questionnaire software called 'Google forms' which you can use to create,view and analyse your questionnaires for some more information on Google forms follow the link bellow:

http://ncmstech.pbworks.com/w/page/30753446/GForms

We can both now acquire relevant information that can be used to establish our target audience which is the next step to creating our short film.

Pre-poduction location testing

Myself and Blaine did a small 30 second short clip of one of the shots that we want to include within our film. It is just a quick test of the location and sourroundings to see what the noise levels were and natural lighting that was avalible. It was extremal cold so my hands were shaking like mad but we can over come these factors by having professional equipment when the real production is filmed for example a tri-pod, some gloves and a better camera will all be vital equipment we will use when the clapper board snaps for scene one take one of our short film as well as estensive planning on behalf of myself and Blaine and professional acting. (Sorry blaine)

Pre-poduction testing from Tom palmer on Vimeo.

Scene 1 location and potential camera shots

Most writers, film directors and script developers have a preference for one style of writing over another. Some writers are more interested in developing complex, interesting, and quirky characters. Others indulge in eye catching visual effects or heart pumping action.
Myself and Blaine are very interested in very complex narrative based films which are predominantly character driven and this is to a certain extent what our short film will consist of. We have taken inspiration from many films that follow this style. Blaine's posts on sources of inspiration and Directorial techniques to consider as well my posts, Inspiration for our short film, True leaders of film and Three inspirational films from our teacher extensive DVD collection show our interest in this style and how we were inspired by these films and their unique styles.

Our film will strongly focus on the emotional development of the main protagonist and due to this being our main focus we want the cinematography to be very minimalistic, giving off a great sense of realism but also to accentuate that the main protagonist is just a real man in the real world, any over elaborate visual effects will digress from this sense of realism as well as the over attention to detail as it would then not portray the real world but an idealised version. This links with the postmodern theorists that we are learning about throughout the A2 course and how they believe the media portray an idealised world to us and this is another post-modern asset that our film includes, we want to portray the real world.
Both Blaine and myself have discussed the visual style of our film in great detail and my fellow director has written a post on cinematography: the look of our film which gives an overview of our discussions as well as some great examples for you to look at.
Above is just a very simple picture of a location which could be used within our first scene, it would be the place were the main protagonist wakes up, the protagonist would be centralised within the shot on the path laying down.

These four shots give you an example of the overall location that we want to use. The graveyard will be the opening location and because it is a very morbid but surreal place it will add to the ambiguity of why the main protagonist is their. The shots above are some examples of some establishing shots we could use before you see the protagonist on the floor, these establishing shots will set the mood of the film as well as providing a picture the audience can paint of the general surroundings that the main protagonist is in. Like myself and Blaine said the shots we used will still be thought about and look great making sure we portray the message that we want they will just not be overly visually stunning due to the realism we want to create.


Another idea that we had was to have a two shot of a couple of graves, one of them being rendered down a little and he other either relatively new with some flowers next to it. This shot will juxtapose the two types of graves showing that one is frequently visited with fresh flowers placed upon it and generally being clean, but this will then be emphasised by the rendered grave or grave with no flowers signifying the difference between them. we want to then use a close up shot of the rendered grave making sure that the name is in focus and centralised within the shot, this will mean nothing at the time but it will be referenced later within the film.
We also played around with the shadows around the graveyard which made the visual look of the shot very aesthetically pleasing, this part of the location could be used for the protagonist to walk through, he would also create a shadow and with the glare from the sun there would be minimal detail on him so he would look basically like a shadow. we wanted to uses this part of the grave yard because it has no path and this would be a great place to bring in the theory of semiotics that Blaine was deconstructing for one of our ancillary products. We want the protagonist to walk on the grass but respectfully not walk at the heads of the grave stones where many people would create a visual outline of where the body is. This would show and act as a sign of respect and would correspond to the protagonists selflessness nature. This would be a very simple way to incorporate semiotics within our short film but it would show that we are thinking about the production of our film in great detail.
This is a picture of the road just outside the graveyard. We managed to create a very good image on camera incorporating the light of the sun that beams down onto the road where the protagonist will walk. The darkness at the side will emphasise the beam of light that the protagonist appears to be walking towards. the outline of the protagonist will only be visible as he walks down the road to end the first scene. When taking this picture I thought about our underlying style that we wanted to include, film noir, which will also be portrayed within the flashbacks of the protagonist. This then meant that we had to think about the chiaroscuro within some shots to conform with the conventions of film noir.

Within this picture I was trying to re-create the glare from the sun that blinds you if you look towards it, so I faced the camera towards the sun just over the trees to reconstructed the visual image of the protagonist opening his eyes to be blinded by the sun. This did work to a certain extent but the image is not bright enough to re-create the effect on screen but I think we will have to create some artificial light to help create this effect on camera or we could add an effect on within the post production process.


Whilst we were walking around we came across an archway of trees which created a very mysterious walkway which we could try and use within our film. I thought about this later on in the day and I realised that if we did use this archway then it wouldn't be conforming to the minimalism that we want the cinematography to portray.

Over all after taking these location shots it has boosted my confidence within our chosen choice of location, first of all because we acquired permission to film within the graveyard. But whilst looking around and taking pictures I began to create the movie within my head, planning out every shot and detail that we would include and it all started to piece together.

Our choice to use the graveyard for our first scene I think will create the first enigma within the audiences mind. 'well why is this man here, on the floor?' I think it will give the correct ambience that we are looking for, which is to have a familiar location that the audience can relate to because this will add to the realism but they will have no idea why the man has woken up their and due to the overall mysterious and spooky feel that a graveyard includes it will add to the ambiguity of the whole film and can create many questions that the audience are left with still un-answered which corresponds to the postmodern active consumer that our film is aimed at.

These images are just locations shots and do not convery any of the camera shots and angles that we want to use within our film. This will be done within our pre-production testing with the main protaganist within the film and this will be filmed , uploded and analysed shortly afterwards.

Follow the link below to view this post:

Pre-production testing scene one, graveyard.

Production Log 2

Our second production log can be seen on my Co-director, Blaine Kenneally's blog as he kindly uploaded the second instalment to our ongoing production log/research/analogy/evaluation videos.
In my opinion this is a very good way for us to track our progression throughout the course and it is working great so far. Our teachers also like the frequent updates to.

Bellow is a link to the critical/analytical/amusing second video:

http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2010/11/production-log-2.html

Cinematography within our film presented by Blaine Kenneally

Cinematography is the art of making sure lighting and camera angles, shots and movement all portray the same feeling within the audience that the director wants and when recording photographic images for the cinema perfect continuty is present.
My self and Blaine want to have a minimalistic style of cinematography within our short film this is because we want our audience to feel that they are watching a real story and inorder to create this feeling or to at least help emphasise it we will use simple camera shots, movement to creat the realsim within tghe audience that we want.
For more information on the cinematography within our film and some inspirational film directors with their own distinct cinematic style follow the link below:

http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2010/11/cinematography-look-of-our-film.html

"Writing a treatment" - Blaine Kenneally

After the discussion to finalise the narrative of our film which took place at my house for a couple of hours we then rewarded ourselves with pizza and an amazing film 'fight club'. Blaine then finished drawing up the plans at home scene by scene which you can see in his post as well as the treatment that he constructed for our short film.
A treatment is a step between basic ideas for scenes and the first screenplay. We wanted to do a treatment because it is a very professional process and it clearly lays out the scenes and many important features.
To view the treatment that Blaine constructed follow the link to his blog below:
http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2010/11/writing-treatment.html

"poster for a short film: Semiotics" - Blaine Kenneally

The preparatory research for both of our ancillary products is under way, I have done some research into three different film magazines that we could aim our film review to be a feature in. All three film magazines have different tones to their reviews so I will be analysing them in a future post to then decide the writing style of our review. follow the link here to view this post: Film review analysis

Blaine Kenneally has done some great intial research into film poster's as this is the other ancillary product that we chose to create. To view his post follow the link below:
http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2010/11/poster-for-short-film-semiotics.html
After reading his post, we talked together and came up with a couple of initial ideas for a poster but we need to do more research into the target audience of our short film first because then we can carry out some primary research but at the correct target audience. We could construct a questionnaire or carry out some face to face interviews asking the potential consumers some questions and oppinions on some existing posters to find out what they would expect to see on a poster aswell as what they would find interesting and eye catching.

My week of work experience at the 'Theatre Royal Norwich'

For the past week I have been at a work experience placement at the Theatre Royal Norwich. During the placement I was working closely with the backstage technical department which involved:
-putting up the lighting for the touring show.
-focusing it.
-Applying a rig check before each show.
-Placing various mics and speakers around the stage then connecting them to the sound board.

I then watched the first performance of 'Agatha Christies, witness for the prosecution' within the lighting gallery and 'Nick Monk' the lighting manager ran the first show, whilst explaining the process and what each button meant, I also had a pair of cans (headphones) which he was using to communicate with the touring manager back stage which enabled me to hear everything that was going on which was very fast paced and exciting.

The next day I got to do some of the ques, I would listen for the Lx cue and the number then I would reply by stating the cue and add standing by to show I was ready, unless it was a snap cue which then I had to complete upon the go ahead.
For the next three days I got to run the lighting for the whole show which was both very exciting as well as scary. The whole week was very exciting and I'm very excited about returning to help with the Christmas pantomime which they invited me back to. Above is the lighting plan which we had to follow, in all honesty this is a pretty simple plan with minimal lighting but I got the chance to look at some extremely big productions such as a nine hour Greek play called Tantalus which was a touring show with over a million pounds of lighting to give multiple effects such as the ripple on the sea. Bellow is a picture of the lighting plan for this show it was very interesting learning about all the different lights they used and got to see most of them from the Theatre Royal's collection.

Production log

Today we filmed our first production log of many to come as this is a great way to monitor progress and tell you what we plan to do in the future, report if this was completed and then set new goals for the following weeks. Bellow is the link to Blaine Kenneally's blog as he kindly uploaded and edited the video:

http://blainekenneallya2media.blogspot.com/2010/11/production-log-1.html

The 'Empire' of 'Total film' reviews

For one of our subsidiary products we need to write a review of our short film, that could be featured within a magazine. But which Magazine?

Empire magazine

Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. It is the Uk's leading film magazine with over a circulation of 190,000 consumers a month.
As well as film news, previews and reviews, Empire has some unique features, which are generated both by themselves as well their readers and if popular they become regular features within the magazine. Some regular features are:

The At Home section covers DVD news and releases; Empire's editors consider this section to be of sufficient quality to term it a magazine in itself, which is also relevant to the growth and importance of the DVD market, where sales can often outstrip that of box-office.

Pint of Milk section presents celebrities' answers to silly or unusual questions, including the question "How much is a pint of milk?" This is intended as a guide to the Chosen Celebrity's contact with reality, and as such can be more informative than a direct interview, often reporting some surprising responses.

Each magazine includes a "Spine Quote", in which a relatively challenging quote is printed on the spine of the magazine. There are usually some obvious and obscure links from the quote to the main features of that month's edition. Readers are invited to identify the film source and the links to win a prize.


If you want to visit Empire's website and have a read of some of their great movie reviews and unique features then follow the link: http://www.empireonline.com/

Total Film

Total Film is also a British film magazine. It is Empire's main rival due to it being the United Kingdom's second best-selling film magazine offering film and DVD news, reviews, and features, but nevertheless it still has phenomenal circulation. The magazine was launched in 1997 and is published by Future Publishing.
Each month, a range of features are included: from full-length interviews with established and upcoming actors and directors, to major film previews and reviews, as well as top 100 lists of the greatest films ever made as well as specific titles such as best narrative and cinematic experience. These are all then illustrated with film stills and profile shots constructing the foundation of the magazine. All issues contain The Total Film Interview — which is an in-depth chat with a celebrated actor or director, along with a critique of their body of work and a rating of each major film to date.

If you want to visit Total Films website and have a read of some of their great movie reviews and unique features then follow the link: http://www.totalfilm.com/

These two highly respected and consumed magazines provides great movie reviews that myself and Blaine can read and get inspiration from in order to construct our film review but it also provides a target location for our review, which would then entail making our review to an industry standard and to the standard for these magazines which will be hard to achieve but we will give it a go. If our short film was the be reviewd and fetured within these magazines, this would be great way to get our film noticed, as the target audience for our film would be the same target audience that read these magazines therefore potential consumers would become aware of our film. This is a definate option that we will aim for but awsell as this we also want to feature our film within a free magazine that you can pick up when you go to ODEAN cinemas.

This magazine is free to millions of readers that go to the cinema which makes this a very effective way of making potential consumers aware of our product but also a very good place to feature a review which can then bee seen by critics and educated consumers who can then come to their own conclusion about our film.

Bellow are two movie reviews for the recently released, The social Network and this will provide a comparison of the two main magazines and their approach to writing film reviews and their overall ratings as this will then provide us with some ideas for he style of our review:

Empire's review of The Social Network:
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=136853
Total Film's review of The Social Network:
http://www.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/the-social-network

Genre theory or Auter theory? That is the question

'Genres create order to simplify the mass of available information. Creating categories promotes organisation instead of chaos'

The quote above is written by Daniel Chandler-British visual semiotician based (since 2001) at the department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at Aberystwyth University.
I have chosen this Semiotician because I believe that his definition is the closest to defining genre.

Genres are broad enough to accommodate basically any film ever made, although film categories can never be precise. By categorizing various elements within a film into genres, it is possible to easily evaluate a film within its specific genre. As well as this, it also allows for meaningful comparisons on overall ratings from consumers and film journalists around the world. A film doesn't have to pick a genre and then stick to this category though. Overlapping genres or creating sub-genres within a category, is a major part of creating an epic film. These types of films could then be categorized as a hybrid or cross bread film, but this is done so much within the film industry it is seen as the norm and no categorization takes place.

The Auteur theory can be contrasted to the genre theory, in which films are rated on the basis of the expression of one person, their own creativity becomes individual to them. This is usually applied to the director for their unique style, vision or signature narrative structures, witty dialogue, camera angles, transitions anything which dictates their personal, look, and feel to the film and therefore become distinctive to them. Certain directors are known for certain types of films, for example, Woody Allen and comedy, Alfred Hitchcock for suspense and thrillers, as well as quentin tarantino for graphic thrillers and artistic dialogue.

Some of my favorite films nearly all fall into the same genre but have some different sub genres:
-Dead Man's Shoes/psychological thriller
-Phone Booth/ psychological thriller
-Memento/psychological thriller
-Lucky Number Slevin/Crime thriller
-Donnie Darko/psychological thriller-fantasy
-Inception/Science fiction thriller

The correlation between them all is that they all fall into the thriller category. This is my favorite genre of film as well as Blaine's and this is why we want to make a thriller. But we would also like to incorporate sub genres making our short film a psychological thriller, which matches many of my favorite films above.

Both myself and Blaine will categorize our film as a 'psychological thriller' and this will provide some basic conventions that make up the thriller genre but we are both very imaginative,intellectual and artistic young directors, so having total creative freedom and control over our film is vital in making our film to an industry standard as well as consequently giving us the chance to express our artistic visions and possibly make consumers think about the message within the narrative. Which would give me great pleasure in achieving.

If you want to read more into the historical context of Genre theory as well as many different philosophers views on genre and auteur theory then take a look at my co-directors blog and his post:
Genre Theory Vs. Auteur Theory

All Hail Hans Zimmer

Hans Zimmer is amongst the most respected composers within the film industry and as a composer in general, the German composer and music producer is most notable for integrating electronic music sounds with traditional orchestral arrangements.

A turning point in Zimmer's career occurred with the 1988 film Rain Man. Hollywood director Barry Levinson was looking for someone to produce some exciting soundtracks, and his wife heard the soundtrack CD of the anti-Apartheid drama A World Apart, for which Zimmer had composed the music. Levinson was impressed by Zimmer's work, and hired him to score Rain Man. Following from this, in nearly three decades he has composed music for over 100 films many of them exceptional films such as The Lion King, Crimson Tide, The Thin Red Line, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down,The Last Samurai, Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Da Vinci Code, Frost/Nixon, The Dark Knight, Sherlock Holmes and Inception. Many have won multiple awards each.

He, himself has won four Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, a Classical BRIT Award, and an Academy Award. He was also ranked 72nd in the top 100 living geniuses which was a poll collaborated by The Daily Telegraph.

Not only does Zimmer compose for films but he composed the opening titles to the world record holding video game, Call of duty: Modern warfare 2. sales reached $301 million dollars in the first 24 hours of release in the UK and U.S alone.

Myself and Blaine are adamant about using a soundtrack that was previously released on a computer game. The main narrative ideas have originated from a computer game and we want our main soundtrack to also be from a computer game. Our reasons for this is that 'we think it will give our short film a very post modern vibe, when people find out that the narrative and soundtrack originated from video games, this will enhance the sudden world wide interest that can be clearly seen above with Call of duty modern warfare taking over $310 million dollars within its first 24 hours of release.' The new instalment to the call of duty franchise: Call of duty Black ops which is set to release on November 9th 2010 is set to break records and this statement was released by one of the worlds biggest video game website. Gamespot UK regarding the progress. “We are ahead of where we were with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 last year, which previously set the industry standard.”

This one video game franchise is part of a much bigger industry and with such interest in just this one game, overall the video game industry must be booming.

Quentin Tarantino is quintessentially known for the soundtracks included within his films, many of his soundtracks pay homage to other films or novels that he has been inspired from. All the soundtracks that are used within his films are available to purchase on Itunes and many websites such as Amazon. The soundtracks he uses are more of a collaboration than original soundtracks which creates his own original style but this style is now associated with Quentin Tarantino and sets him apart from other directors, his quintessential blood and gore with very humorous, but controversial violence in my opinion is provides a great example for Auter theory, which is based around the concept that if a filmmaker has such a unique style which can be instantly recognisable then their artistic voice will transcend genre.

'I don't believe in putting in music as a band aid to get you over some rough parts or bad film making. If it's there it's got to add to it or take it to another level'

This statement from Tarantino himself sums up what soundtracks are all about. This is why we want to include soundtracks within our short film and the main soundtrack that we have chosen will defiantly add to the whole film taking it to another level.

Our Main soundtrack is from a video game called Black Mesa Source: Half life. the soundtrack is titled End credits and we want to use it to end our film, we think that the track will heighten the atmosphere as well as setting the mood that we want the audience to be feeling that will make them thoroughly evaluate the content they have just seen.
Because the soundtrack does not belong to me I sent an email to the original composer, joelnielsen asking permission to incorporate his soundtracks within our film. Generously Joel emailed me back granting permission for me to use his soundtracks within our films. This was very exciting news and I would just like to thank Joel for letting us use his exhilarating soundtracks. If you want to visit his website follow the link : http: http://www.joelnielsen.com/ and if you want to preview the soundtrack we are going to use, then watch or rather listen to the video below:



I have provided evidence below of the email I sent to Joel and the reply from him granting me permission:

An epic trip to Epic

Yesterday our media group had the chance to go on an amazing trip to Epic studios, an independent television production company within Norwich. It is home to many well known TV programmes over the years some of the highlights include: Trisha, Loose Women, Frank Skinner Opinionated, The Wright Stuff, Late Kick Off, Question Time, The Politics Show, Knightmare, Anglia News and many more.

The trip involved many different discussions about the different types of media institutions and how, if we wanted to get a Career within the media industry what would be the best way to do so, either higher education, work experience, starting off low in the job being a runner/tea service but then you have a foot in the door and you can work your way up through higher jobs. We had talks from local radio presenters, people within the field of journalism, website designers, music video directors and designers, documentary film makers and some people got chosen to have a hands on experience with some of the studios equipment.

I was lucky enough to be chosen and I got the chance to go into the gallery and look at all there equipment, we then filmed a small news programme and I was in charge of VT (video tape) this job involves playing pr-recorded footage, archival footage and opening titles. I was sat infront of a mac, given a script and a little instruction on how to use the software. I was very nervous but looked through the script, found out were I had to play footage and then played around with the software to find out what I had to do. We went through a practice run and then recorded the news programme. The thrill that I got from being on a recorded show was amazing, there was pressure to get it right and this made the adrenaline pump through my body and overall it was one of the best experiences ever
re-enforcing my desire to work within the media industry involving similar camera work to this.

The lighting and vision control part of the gallery makes sure that the composition of the camera shots are to perfection and the news reporters or characters look good on screen, changing the brightness of the shot if it is to dark or vise-versa.

Lighting and vision control from Tom palmer on Vimeo.

The production control part of the gallery is the heart of the production this is where everything binds together ans is run by around 5-6 people depending of the content. Some roles within the production control room can be from playing the opening titles and other VT's, running the autocue, pushing vast amounts of buttons to cut from camera to camera,two people instructing the cameras what type of shot they want and when they will go to your camera as well as counting down VT times and always keeping track on sound and lighting, overall gelling the whole production together and in some big production there may be another person instructing doing and controlling their own little section of fixed shots for example of the audience. This was where I was playing the VT and once again just to enforce my enjoyment it was brilliant.

Production control from Tom palmer on Vimeo.

The sound control centre would usually have 2-3 people Manning the station, depending on the content within a programme being filmed or broad casted. The screens are linked together so each part of the gallery sees the same production of their screens, this enables the sound quality and efficiency to be optimized because when an interview is taking place, microphones can be made louder or quieter in a split second which makes the recording run smoothly.

Sound control from Tom palmer on Vimeo.

Overall each section of the Gallery is as important as the others because if one section makes a mistake then the whole production is effected therefore everything must run smoothly.

Thank you To our teacher for arranging this trip it was very interesting both practically and theoretically and it provided me with lots of information about the media industry and ways to be employed and I gained some contacts which can help me with this because as you all know:

Its not what you know, Its who you know.

True leaders of film

I am part of a senior student programme that our school runs which gives me the chance to get my voice heard, we explore many issues around the school and help with non-curricular activities and various open evenings. As a part of this programme we went on a leadership course which enlightened us to become leaders of our school giving us confidence to stand up and lead a group in whatever task we face. We were asked to prepare a short speech about a leader that inspired us and I chose two of my favorite directors, Christopher Nolan and Shane Medows who have been role models to me, for many years, making so many truly touching films that you just cannot look away from.
Their ability to have a vison that they then process and turn into such amazing cinematic experiences just gives me an excuse to spend a ridiculous amount of money on a cinema ticket over and over again, (which in hindsight makes it less ridiculous).
Both directors have gained vasts amounts of respect for producing award winning films and one of the reasons that they inspire me is that they both became famous for their own hard work and determination. From a young age they both made short films which got them noticed within the industry, not straight away, but this didn't effect them they kept going with their passion and Christopher Nolan was talent spotted at a Cambridge film festival and Shane Medows got a job at Warp (an independent film and music production company) after many attempts.
Bellow are two films that were produced at the beginning of their carers which helped them acquire the respect they have within the industry to date.

Doodlebug-short film. Directed by Christopher Nolan:


The man with no name-short documentary. Directed by Shane medows:


If you want to view my leadership speech about the two directors, please follow the link bellow.
Leadership speech:
I have picked two leading innovators....
Another link that you may find useful directs you to Shane Medows official website which includes a list of all his different short film productions as well as music videos that he has produced.
Shane Medows official website:
http://www.shanemeadows.co.uk/

Market research

There are two different types of research: Primary and secondary. Primary research is up to date research that you have carried out yourself. For example questionnaires, face to face opinions, ringing someone on the phone to ask their views.










Secondary research is formally known as desktop research because you can acquire it all from the comfort of your desk on the Internet. It is data that has been collected by somebody else that you have access too, either for free or at a price.



Both types of researches have their advantages. Primary research is very up to date, you can acquire the exact data you want to because you are asking the questions, you can include as many people that you want in your research and you know the data is defiantly reliable because you have got it yourself.

Secondary research also has its advantages: A huge range of data is available, you can analyse trends in the market because you can get data that has been analysed over many years, it is cheap and it is easily accessible.

Myself and Blaine have to produce a five minute short film as well as two of the three subsidiary tasks. We have chosen to make a poster promoting the film and a review of the film that will be placed within a magazine. We have chosen to drop the radio advert for our short film as this doesn't interest both of us and it would be very menial to then find out lots of information that we are not passionate about.
All three tasks that need to be completed require vast amounts of research both primary and secondary, we will have to look at existing short films, film posters and reviews in order to get a rough idea of what we want to include within our products, then what is the best way to then construct our products always referring to our research on target audience and what they would both expect within the products as well as what they would like to see.

I was researching classification for short films because I wanted to find out whether the classification rules and regulations that are applied to a feature length film are the same for a short film. I found out that the same rules apply and whilst I was on the BBFC ( British board of film classification) website I found some very useful information for our film poster.

'The Video Recordings Act (Labelling) Regulations 1985 state the letter or number (U, PG, 12, 15, 18, R18) within the triangle, circle or square must be no less than 5mm in size. The size refers to the letter or number and does not include any shadow or other design elements'

This is just a small part of our poster but we have to be law abiding so this information is very useful and is just a small example of how desktop research can be very helpful.

The British Board of film classification

The British Board of film classification was set up in 1912 and is an independent,

non-goverment organisation that brings a degree of classification to films.
A film is classified by the BBFC to give viewers a understanding of the content a film will include, the classification is just a guidline that helps you to make your own mature decision but for younger people it is a guidline for their carers.

A film is first viewed by a group of examiners and is then stripped apart to catergorise sections of the film which fall into different age classifications. The producers then have the choice to change parts or keep the film the same but have the suitable age classification that is given. Some producers and some narrative do want blood, sex and violence, which then will consequently have a higher age classification.

For example a 12 or 12A may contain content that could be unsuitable for children under the age of 12. An example of a 12 could be You, me and dupree which contains scenes that may be unsuitable for children under 12.


Another example could be an 18 which would contain very graphic scenes so cannot therefore be viewed by people aged lower than 18 because they may me disturbed by the content. An example of a film with a classification of 18 could be saw.

Myself and Blaine are creating a short film. Do the same rules and regulations apply? I hear you ask. The answer to this is, yes. I did wonder if the was any change within the classification regulations between short films and the conventinal feature length film but there isnt which in my oppinion is very logical because a short film is just a variation of a film the same audience will consume them so the same rules therefore should apply. This means that the content of our film and poster will have to reflect the classification specifications of the target audience that we choose.

To view further information on film classifications click the link bellow.
BBFC Website:

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/general/index.php