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.