Artifact 2 storyboard

Reseach into heroes and villains

While researching the murder mystery genre I found no reoccurring themes when it came to costume, even less when the murder mystery was a closed mystery, to make the consumer have to really work along with the detective or sleuth to solve the case. Subtle mannerisms are used however, such as someone nervously winding a necklace through their fingers or other traits to subtly bring them across as being out of the ordinary, not necessarily immediately alerting the consumer to their guilt.
I did however find within mystery-crime films a reoccurring theme when it came to the villain of the storyline. Almost every film features a character the consumer is meant not to like, whether this is through the way they act, the way they dress or how they treat other characters, and it is essential to make them seem dislikeable. From this I began to look into the stereotyped ‘goodie and baddie’ theme, which as the audience became more sophisticated so did the way they portray their villain or hero.
I then decided to compare a famous villain to their opposing hero, looking at both; how they are portrayed for their intended age range and how they compare as the time of their creation changes.

Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Maleficent was created by Walt Disney to create a feeling of fear among both children and adults. It is easy to see her character is portrayed to be ‘evil’, as in most Disney films, the villain wears black, symbolising darkness and mystery. Disney themselves called her the mistress of evil, and when compared against the hero Prince Phillip, Disney intend for her to be slightly ugly against the stereotyped dashing Prince, her green eyes also add to the dark and strange effect

Maleficent




Aurora and Prince Phillip

Looking a the hero of the story, you can see that Disney desired to make both the damsel and prince as attractive as possible, the damsel with blonde hair and attractive features and the prince with strong muscles. The hero and villainess in this case both make each other seem; for the prince, more attractive and for the villainess more abnormal and evil.


James Bond – You Only Live Twice (1967)
Bond has been credited with creating the arch-villain stereotype, and in a way is responsible for the appearance of villains becoming much more complex. Ernst Stravo Blofeld could be said to be James Bonds’ arch-villain, and is easily distinguished as being ‘evil’. He has disfigurements (the scar on his face) and is said in the film to be German, and since the book was written after World War 2 the public had a mistrust of Germans.


Compared against James Bond, the appearance of both characters is made much more intense, since James Bond is much more handsome that Blofeld. Throughout the James Bond films the villains are always Megalomaniacs, and more or less hope for one thing, world domination, but the way they talk is a way of creating a mistrust, especially if they are rich and intimidating.


Ernst Stravo Blofeld

James Bond



I decided to look into murder mystery films and programmes such as Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, but I discovered that whilst films such as James Bond and Disney's Sleeping Beauty have recurring themes into how they portray their villains and heroes, when you wish to create a more realist approach in creating an evil character you must do it much more with the way they act, not the way they dress or look. Miss Marple and Poirot look like normal, everyday people and so do the murderers which is the effect I wish to create in my film.




Miss Marple Poirot

The Story of my film 'Bad News'

I have chosen to create a closed style mystery and crime film. My film will feature mainly around the main character Dinana Macantire and her best friend Louise James. Diana has just got herself into a newreading job for the most powerful broadcaster NB (National Broadcasting) news. The story begin with Diana reading the news, and then in black and white her brother being murdered, I have chosen to show this in black and white because it will make it seem like it has already happened and that the person who is shown behind the camera is a dark character. Diana's brother David is the character I have chosen to murdered, Louise is having a relationship with David that Diana does not know about, which I chose to create a mistrust of Louise because she has already lied to the main character. Although the murderer is not introduced in the first two minutes, I have intended him to be the Editor-in-Chief of NB news, who had been blackmailing and then laundaring money from stories, which David found out about and is murdered. My story would then lead on to a sleuth-like investigation by Diana and her friend to solve the murder.

Filming My Second artifact, 'Bad News'

Whilst filming my Second Artefact I stuck to both my story board and shooting script, creating the effects and feel I wanted in most of my scenes. At some points in filming there were some mistakes and I chose to reshoot the film without affecting continuity, which I found hard especially with some of the costumes and had to reshoot both scene 2, 4 and 6 because of costume differences, my film did not have set costumes because I did not want impressions of all my characters to come across at once.During filming scene 4, due to my filming being in school because it was most like a news room, the fire alarm went off and I had re-film two scenes. My filming did go according to plan apart from this and some mistakes in camera work, which I corrected.

Expansion on Research

Research into Mystery and Crime genre and films
Most mystery films tend to follow a set pattern and most use the same effect to create tension. One of the most famous mystery series is often said to be Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Miss Marple and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock Holmes was first published in 1887, famous for his intelligent crime solving and ingenious ways of catching the criminal, he was always described him as a gentleman, but a gentleman with his own problems which allowed the reader, and later the viewer to connect with him. Sherlock Holmes was first released in film in 1908 and was aimed at the middle and upper class; this can be seen by the way he dresses and his typical pipe smoking. Alongside Sherlock Holmes was his nemesis Professor James Moriarty, an almost complete opposite of Holmes, described to give a shiver of apprehension from the consumer, often quoted as the ‘first ever super-villain. Doyle says ‘the man had hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind’ and this has been applied to almost any villain in more recent crime films, to create a character which the consumer is both scared of and hates.
Agatha Christie’s stories do not have a recurring villain; it is more a recurring sleuth, in most cases Hercules Poirot and Jane Marple. All of the stories followed a closed mystery, one which the murderer was not revealed till the end of the story, showing the sleuth solving the murder, leaving the reader or viewer to make their own assumptions as to who the murderer is. Unlike Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie’s books do not have recurring villain or describe the murderer in a particularly dark light, more treating like a normal person.
Other more modern mystery films have different attitudes as to how they portray the villains; some have them as an every day normal person or as megalomaniacal business men. Codes used in James Bond show the villains with physical impairments or other parts of their character or appearance that sets them apart from ‘normal’ people they also tended to be German or Russian due to the books being written after World War two. Although when the James Bond films were created they made the villains a lot less subtle that modern day audiences, this is mainly because the audience now is a lot more aware of the less subtle signs such as; clothes, voice, the way they are filmed and normally they are rich business men. The sophisticated audience of today has bred new kind of ‘goodies and baddies’ to entertain the audience but also to move away from the old fashioned class of ‘evil’.
Crime and Mystery films:

The Da Vinci Code.
A religious and dark mystery, The Da Vinci code focuses on the work of a sleuth Robert Langdon’s attempts to solve a mystery which many other people such as Dan Brown have written about, finding the holy grail and the truth behind Mary Magdalene. Although The Da Vinci Code was a controversial book and film it was praised for its fantastic locations but also for its in depth character development and how it does not give away any of the conclusion throughout the film.



The Minority Report
Although Minority Report is also considered a science fiction film, it is also praised for it mystery plot. My film will not contain any science fiction plots but Minority Report sold at least 4 million DVDs in the first four weeks of release and so must have attracted a broad audience. It easily reveals the ‘baddies’ by the way they act, dress and talk, but it also made the audience feel for the main characters situation, both of which would keep the consumer hooked, but also the almost need to know the ending.

Oceans Eleven
Oceans Eleven focuses on the attempts of thieves to steal a fortune which they judged was not respectfully earned. Although it was more aimed at the crime and comedy genre, it managed unlike many crime films to show complex character development, allowing the consumer to connect with why they are committing the crime.
The film was very successful, with two sequels being released, being praised as one of the best heist films ever.



I, Robot
Although I, Robot may also be classed as a science fiction, it shows both crime and mystery plots. Focusing on the work of a distrustful homicide detective investigating the murder of a famous scientist in the year 2035, I, Robot shows a complex distrust in the main character to robots, a part of everyday life. Through out the story the consumer is given clues to the murderer, but subtly, leaving the ‘unveiling’ of the murderer to still be a surprise, except to the most perceptive viewer. The development of the main character, in this case to trust robots, seems to be a major subplot in most new crime films, adding an edge to the typical ‘who dunnit’ plot.

From my research I have found that most mystery films have a closed plotline, one which does not reveal the perpetrator. Also they may have features of crime and/or science fiction. I have chosen not to contain features of science fiction, due to them being too complex to create, but crime almost always runs alongside the murder, such as hiding blackmail or hiding a secret. The development of the main character or a change in their ideas or beliefs features heavily in all of the films I have researched, this may be because of the development in the audience to decipher who the murderer is or how the event, in my case a murder, took place. From this research I have chosen to have a closed plotline, this will help keep suspense and also encourage the consumer to think of their own ideas in the implementation of the murder.

Storyboard for artifact 1

Evaluation of my first artifact

After filming my artefact, I realised it did not show a over the shoulder shot or any movement with the camera. After deciding to retake my artefact I inputted these, making it seem as if the consumers were actually there watching the piece from the position of the camera.Our piece shows the person coming in, sitting down opposite another person, then two lines of dialogue. It has an easy flow, but it has some sharp cuts but they do not affect the film. It stays within the 180 degree space and so won’t confuse the audience. If I were to create this film with proper filming equipment, I would use a camera crane, so the shots while at the table wouldn't be blocked by a head. I would also use audio recording devices so the sound quality would be higher, and then the recorded audio could then over lay the film.

Choosing the genre for my second artifact

I began to look into different genres of films and their code and conventions. I found two genres which I have decided to look into in more depth: Crime and Thriller.
After looking into the sub-plots and genres:
For Crime, I found:

1. Mystery - Focusing on the actions of a detective or sleuth.
2. Thriller - Characters normally more accustomed to danger, set in exotic locations.
3. Film Noir - Normally Black & White, used to show moral ambiguity, sexual motivations and an overall pessimistic tone
4. Drama - Normally looking at more in depth feelings and motivations of the major characters.

For Thriller :

1. Mystery
2. Film Noir
3. Tragedy - Normally showing a character's downfall by a flaw or wrong judgement.
   
   After finding that the two genres I was investigating overlapped, I decided I should look more into typical films in their genre.
   Thriller - The Bourne Identity, Phone Booth, Jurassic Park and The Da Vinci Code.
   Crime - The Italian Job, The Bodyguard, I-Robot, The Da Vinci Code and The Dark Knight.
   I have decided I am going to follow a mystery style crime films, like Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Miss Marple. Although newly released films tend to feature more action, I am deciding to move away from the Thriller aspect due to some of its conventions being more complex to create without a vast budget, but my film will still feature some aspects.
   
   

Editing our first Artefact

We downloaded our clips off the camera, and on to apple computers. We cut out our first two takes, due to mistakes, and then we put in our other shots. After that we decided upon our titles, and then our credits and added them to our artefact. Finally we added a sound clip to the credits to add atmosphere to our clip, and to cut it to finish with our film. We added fading our to the end of our last clip, into the credits, to allow a flowing change of picture, instead of immediate cut.

Story boarding and Filming our first Artefact

We first took still shots of our film, to allow us to put it into our storyboard. After that we began to decide upon our two sentences for our action. We then wrote up our storyboard pages, so we can stick to our decided points of action whilst filming. A story board allowed us a plan, which we could build our film upon and make it easier to remember the effect we had decided.

After finding a place to film, we set up the camera, after deciding on our 180 line. This allowed our piece to have a flowing action but not confuse the consumer. After a few takes we finished our piece, we managed to film in the same place as our stills, so we could use the same shots we had intended upon.

Video Editing

We downloaded our stills, and began importing them into the programme IMovie.
We then edited our film and cut out bits we didn’t want. This allowed to cut our any mistakes we made, which was useful for a point which we accidentally shook the camera. This exercise allowed us to familiarise with the Apple and the programs on it.

Introduction to Audience and Theory 11/09

Media is created with the main purpose to entertain and keep the audience or consumer, entertained. The audience gives meaning to the media text which could be anything from an advert to a radio broadcast. Audiences tend to attach their own meaning or interpretation to a text.
The media is normally explained with two ideas:
1. Two-flow, where the recipient of the media product influences the producer.
2. Hypodermic Syringe, when the producer 'injects' the audience with the product, who take it in with no feedback to the producer.
The mass media industry is always conscious of its need to make a profit and is constructed to suit its target audience at all times. With the media text constructed with aim of attracting the audience they wish to attract.
There is also a niche audience and unlike the mass media audience, has a much smaller audience. Generally they appeal to specific interest such as gardening, which is a life-long interest and lead to a much more loyal following.
The media is governed mainly by vast mass media institutions, due to their vast profits and power, whereas, niche audiences, attract a smaller following, but are normally kept running by their fixed audience.

The 180 degree rule

We began our work on the 180 degree rule, and how it can be used within filming. The 180 degree rule limits the camera to a semi-circle around the point of action. The reason for this is so the audience do not suddenly jump to another side of the action, but stay always on the same side. Changing sides would also lead to a change in right and left to the viewer.

We also began planning our story boards, which must implement within it the 180 degree rule. Our story board shows a workout scene, and some one going through different actions, although it also has a dance move like feel to it.

The start of my AS Media Studies - My First Lesson

I have just begun my AS Media Studies at Smithdon. In our first lesson we had an overview of the course and were given our A-Level text books. We were given a very brief outline on using the Cameras, and had to record different types of shot from a sheet we were given such as:

• Extreme close-up (ECU)
• Medium Shot (MS)
• Over the shoulder shot
• Medium Close up (MCU)

We then had to import our short clips into IMovie. I found it very intresting because it showed how certain types of shot can have different effects on mood and how someone is portrayed.