Questionnaire Preparation

Before starting the questionnaire, I thought it would be a good idea to do some research on the subject. I found a website that helps with the process of making a questionnare. Here is the link: http://www.lboro.ac.uk/library/skills/Advice/Questionnaire%20design.pdf. The website is actually quite useful, and I will be sure to use it when making the actual questionnaire. I also found two other websites that list the advantages and disadvantages of a questionnaire, and the link for those are http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi/cookbook/info_questionnaires/index.html and http://libweb.surrey.ac.uk/library/skills/Introduction%20to%20Research%20and%20Managing%20Information%20Leicester/page_51.htm. I want to make sure that I have done enough research as the results of the questionnaire could greatly effect the outcome of the main task-the actual thriller opening sequence. So far I believe everything has gone as planned, but there is still a lot of work to do.

Garageband Experiment 2

To try and get to grips with GarageBand and the way it works I decided to make another song, but this time for there to be more layers and it didn't have to relate to the theme. I made it sound like a song that would be heard at an arcade, but it was really unintentional as it was just me trying out everything out on GarageBand. I really do think that this experiment did help as I now think it would be easier to make music and now I know where everything is and this will hopefully be very useful when I am making the music for the final task. Also, to upload it to YouTube I had to use iMovie, which was also good as it is the programme that will be used to edit our opening sequence. I think this task will really help in the long run.

Garageband Experiment

This wasn’t much of a task as it was a learning experience for all of us. I personally have used Garageband before this task, but that was quite some time ago, so this was a good experience and it helped a lot. Garageband is a very good application for making music as it is so simple and easy to use, and it also comes with very good loops. However it is easy to get taken away by its capabilities and add many loops together without a purpose (making it with no genre).

Song: 

The soundtrack I made wasn’t as good as it could have been, but I’m hoping that the actual one my group uses will be much better, and I also hope we all have an input. And planning ahead, I think we should use tempos instead of time, as then it will be consistently improving, rather than it popping up randomly.

Preliminary Task Storyline

The storyline outlining what will happen, who will do what, and what camera shot will be used is below:


[ADAM]
1. Person A walks through corridor (Establishing Shot)
2. Person A will put their hand on door handle to open the door (Close-up)


[TANVEER]
3. Person A enters the room and closes the door (Medium Shot)
4. Person A walks through room and sits down (Pan)


[BALKARAN]
5. Person A has a conversation with Person B (Two shot, Shot reverse shot, over the shoulder shot)


[AMIR]
6. Person A leaves Person B and goes to close the door (Tracking Shot)
7. Person A pulls out scissors from their pocket (Extreme Close-up)


Although this is just the preliminary task I believe that everything that happens should be outlined and understood so it will be much easier for the group when it comes to the main task. Obviously this script and storyline is very basic, but hopefully we will all get better as time goes by with the help of our research.

Preliminary Task

The preliminary task was a good way to start out the project as it helps put things into perspective for the main task. We had to first start out by planning out each shot for the video and then give people a certain position and tell them what to do. The main task will be similar to this but slightly harder as it can’t be as bad as this, to be quite honest. This task was just done to make sure everyone got a basic idea of what it was like to film something, and it was also done to make sure we understood all the rules so we wouldn’t make any mistakes during filming.

Overall the task could have been done a lot better, but this was just a little preparation, so it was okay. I have links to both the unedited product as well as the final product. Both had no music, as we still haven’t learnt how to use Garageband yet, although I have used it a few times before. Also, this wasn’t as good as it could have been because we didn’t even have a storyboard, and that means that there was no real plot. Obviously in the main task we will have to do a lot more work than this, and I hope that this will lead to a much better product overall.

Video 1:

Video 2:

Preliminary Task Preparation

The first thing we have to do was the preliminary task. This doesn't necessarily have to be related to our theme, but as a group we have decided to have a link to it, just to try and get the hang of things. The basic idea is just to see if we understand the concepts that we had to (like the 180° rule). Obviously before we do the actual task we needed to plan it all out, and here is our plan:

Action	Shot type	Camera
Door closed	Establishing shot	Adam
Hand on door handle	Close shot	Adam
Door opens from other side	Medium shot	Tanveer
Person walks to other person and sits	Pan shot	Tanveer
Conversation, images switches from person to person	Shot/reverse shot -  over the shoulder shot.	Balkaran
Person goes to door and closes it	Tracking shot	Amir
Person pulls scissors out of his pocket	Match on action	Amir
Walks toward person	Medium shot	Amir

It is quite evenly split between the four in our group, but the reason Balkaran only has one thing to do is due to the fact that the conversation is probably going to be the longest part, so it will add up to the same amount of time on the camera as the rest of us. That is also the same thing with Amir. His shots are relatively small, so we decided to give him three to make it add up. I think this is quite a good plan, however for the main task it will have much more detail and a storyboard.

Preliminary Task Research

Before even doing the preliminary task I decided to do a little research. On the internet I found a slideshow with the following presentation:

It is a slideshow that shows the conventions of thriller films, which is actually quite helpful. Considering we are doing only the first few minutes of a thriller, it is very important to get through the idea of what it is immediately as there isn't too much time. So far all four of us have some simple ideas, but in the coming weeks we will watch some thriller films openings and do research, and we will hopefully have a vague idea of what we want to do.

Match on Action

Match on action is a cut in film editing using a different shot, also meaning a different composition, and both clips match, often helping to establish a strong continuity of action and linking the two shots metaphorically. Without it the audience would be confused as to what is going on as it would hardly make any sense.

    

                                          

Shot Reverse Shot

Shot reverse shot is a technique where character A is shown looking at character B (that is off-screen), and then the character B is shown looking back at the character A. The diagram below shows the technical aspect of it, and the one below that shows it actually being used in a film.

The 180° Rule

The 180° rule is the teaching that states that two characters in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. The camera must not pass over the imaginary line in between unless a pan is used or else it may leave the audience confused. The diagram below shows this:

First Post

This is my AS Media Studies blog. I will be using this for regular updates on my film project and the process behind making it.