Audiences and Institutions Pratice Essay

Film

5. In relation to the media area you have studied, discuss the ways audience consumption has changed over time.

Audience consumption has changed a lot over time due to the advancement of technology and film making. These technologies were not available in the past where you could only watch a movie at a movie theater, later including drive-in theaters or TV.  Technology advancements have made it possible for films like Black Panther, which made 361 million dollars in its first weekend using cross promotion with companies like Lexus. They utilized synergy with the use of Black Panther in Mobile games, and during New York fashion week which is another advancement not available in the past.

Film consumption has increased due to the number of streaming websites that are now available that were not available in the past. With websites like Disney + or Netflix, the audience has many choices. The film Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was recently added to the website Disney +. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 has also used Cross Media Convergence with Monopoly, and Dairy Queen This synergy is good for audience viewings because people that never saw the movie in theater can just use a free trial for the website. Consumption is usually all at once, with most viewers binge watching multiple movies.

Another way that technology has advanced film consumption is movie and TV show pirating on online websites. Personally, I have downloaded two movies and TV shows because my grandma did not want to pay for them.  An example would be I like to watch the series of Pokémon that you pay to view.  My grandma would not want to watch them just because I wanted to watch them, so she would not pay for them telling me to watch something else that is free.

Some of the advancements in technology also benefit viewers that enjoy movie franchises. Franchises like Fast and The Furious started before the age of Netflix and movie streaming. All their older movie sales generally came from the theater. Now, with Furious 7, viewers have the capability to stream the movie online and other platforms like Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Net Flix. This franchise had a huge following and grew larger after the death of the Paul Walker, the lead actor, during the filming of Furious 7 making a significant benefit for viewers to be able to stream this series. Furious 7 also benefits from things like cross promotion. Forza Horizon 2 is a game that Microsoft owns and made for Xbox, and Xbox created a downloadable pack of cars to drive from the movie Furious 7.

In conclusion, the vast advancement in technology plays a significant role in how the audience views movies today that were not available in the past. Viewers growth in social media platforms changes significantly how and where film is viewed today.  Things such as Netflix have been a very big impact to the viewing in the film industry.

Extract Essay

Practice essay, game of thrones 

The theme of the extract is the meeting of the rulers of the Kingdom giving the argument over who is going to be the recognized as leader over Kings Island. The overall extract was the argument presented by Sir Davos on the qualities and why Stannous should be the rightful heir and the best choice, but the rulers on Bravos deny the request he presented and refused to discuss who will be their choice to back. Sir Davos re-enforced his argument with the voiced faults of the other choices. The dialogue in the extract was important in the extract to be able to determine an opinion as to what the theme involved. In the beginning of the extract the visual is a capture of the establishing shot as the ship sails into the Kingdom and a long shot that gives the wide view of them slowly entering under the statue and into the harbor using a long take as they pan the entrance view. A sound bridge is used adding new music when the scene changes to inside the castle that gives a different ambience in the tone of the mood of the scene and characters. The audience gets drawn in as the characters enter in the chamber to present their request and visibly seeing the characters mental state and mood of worry and concern over what they are about to present. This is when the dialogue becomes most important to understand what the theme is about with the words, tone, and emphasis of what is being said.  Jump cuts and shot/reverse shots are used to show the conversations going back and forth between the characters making it easier to follow the conversation from each character in different scenes. Stannous is captured in a close up shot to emphasis his shock, surprise, anger and discontent with the way he is being received by the rulers in Bravos given his position in the Kingdom as the rightful heir to the throne. The costumes worn by the characters are necessary to show reference to the era of the extract and to some extent the positions of the characters, and the gloves worn by Sir Davos showed the effect of shock as he removed them showing his chopped off fingers from a crime of thievery he had been punished for. There was also the effective use of props to give the visual display of who was more in authority with the use of the high back wooden chairs with a long table separating them from Sir Davos and Stannous  placed on cement benches, but Sir Davos displays his opinion in a strong opposition dialogue after being rudely dismissed stating that his choice for heir is the best as they then turn and leave the chamber ending the extract. 

Final Task

CCR

Covid-19 update

So I haven’t been able to work on the project very much due to the virus. Instead, I’ll talk about what I have done. I have started working on the CCR. Since the exams are canceled, unfortunately I don’t have to worry about studying for the AICE exam for this class. For my ccr, I will be doing a interview style. It’s difficult since the only place I will have to film this is my house. Inside of the house there is also very limited options due to my cat. My cat is always around, and will try to be in the video. Since this needs to be professional, even though he is trying to help, his expert assistance will not be required. So when I do film the ccr, it has to be somewhere like the bedroom. This will also cause problems because there is a window and people might be outside talking. I do not want background noise in the video so i would have to spend extra time editing it. I hope I will be able to finish the CCR before the due date. I am planning to do my project as one long edited video. It will be 13-14 minutes long. Since I need music from our project, I will need to get it from my group mate. My group mate has not sent us the video file yet to view. So it will unfortunately be harder to do the project with the music. I will have to look for the music myself and use it for the ccr. Since we also got an artist to confirm with email for our project finally, I will include that at the bottom. 

Extra Blog

This is one of our past projects we have done. It was a commercial for converse. In it, I was an actor. The actor for our film is the camerawoman in the commercial. And the lead actor in the commercial is our camerawoman for the film. In the commercial, we had to make a 30 second commercial about the product. The product we chose was converse.  We had to research their slogan. We also looked at how they advertised. We tried to mimic that in a way. Some common things used were close ups of the shoe. One actor in the commercial would walk along the street. In converse commercials there is usually a long shot of the street. Then, the other actor would walk up to them and start talking. In our case, the actor was Madelene. The first actor would stop and say yeah sure. Then, the second actor would ask if they wanted to listen to music. They would walk across the road with the camera far away. Then the camera would zoom in on the shoes. There was a voiceover and it said "Converse Made by you"

Re edit blog

Today we did the re edits. I was not able to attend the re edits. The reason is the Corona virus. The corona virus has worsened in Florida. Since I have chronic lung disease, I’m even more at risk. Chronic lung disease makes me more vulnerable to the corona virus. I am currently stuck in my home . I cannot leave to go anywhere because of my mom and grandma. They are making me stay home so I do not get the virus. The corona virus has affected my live pretty badly. I cannot go anywhere. Because of this, i was not able to help our group edit so our project may suffer.  My family has also been affected by the corona virus. My grandma is at risk to contract it since she is older. So she also must stay here. There is a special time for seniors to go shopping and do other things for the virus. Since other older people might have it, my grandma has just decided to stay home. My other group members also have older family members that are at risk. Because of the corona virus, the re edits may have not been the best they could be.

Re Filming Blog

Today we did refilming for the project. I did the same thing as the last time. Holding the reflector. Since it wasn’t raining, there wasn’t a need for the umbrella. The refilming included the street shots and house shots. Since it’s the refilming, I had to hold the reflector the same way as before. I would hold it up as our actor opened up the door during a shot. Because of the new virus, we were not able to film the park shots. The park area would have people and they could possibly be sick. The park also might of been closed because of the virus. So we did not refilm the park shots. Instead, we spent some time editing after. The new corona virus is affecting Florida. Florida is one of the most affected states in the U.S. The corona virus is mostly in Italy, and China right now. Refilming also included the inside shots. I held the reflector on our actor for the inside shots. And I also held the water bottles when we went outside, since it was hot. Even though refilming could not be done for the park shots, we had more time for the other shots. That helped them improve and get better for the reshoots.

Editing blog - Finishing Editing

Today the group edited the project. I worked on helping the group find the finishing touches for the project. Some of the changes are music changes. We also changed the sound. The white noise and ambient sound was added. The songs I chose were decided between and added to the video. Since there was still no response from the artists, we used Moby gratis. One of their songs was edited to where it looked like our actor was pressing play to start the song. Then when the actor took off the headphones later it would stop. It would have been nice to be able to use some of the songs we chose from artists, but the music choice was still ok for the project. There were also changes to the titles. Some of them were moved and made more clear. We made our own white noise for the video at first. Then, the group and I decided that it would be better to use one of the websites I found for the white noise. The sound would be clearer and there would be a larger variety of choices for sound. The ambient sounds however, we recorded from outside. The choices on the website I found did not suit our project. There was also discussion on whether or not to add dog noises. The dogs would bark while they were on camera to add noise. The dog we used on set never barked, so it was decided against.

Editing Blog - Sounds, and titles

Today the group and I worked on sounds. I worked on the music for the project. I had to find a song that would work for the video. The song had to be an epic style song for the video. Like songs heard from the lord of the rings. They would play when the character wakes up. I wasn’t able to edit the titles with the rest of the group. So I’ll talk more about the sound research. Some of the song choices were “Shy” by Local natives, and “Sapphire” by Grasshapa. Neither artist responded to our emails. Instead, I looked on a site called “Premium beat” To find royalty free music. I found some of the music to use for the video on this website. Most of the music on the website was fine for our video. Another one of the websites we used was called Moby gratis. This website is for filmmakers and I looked for things with ambient noise. Using Moby gratis I looked for more song choices in case the artists never responded.  The third website was audioblocks.com.  This was for more ambient sounds.  Ambient sounds to find there would be bird and forest ambience, and morning sounds. The fourth website was fesliyanstudios.

Peer Review

Today we reviewed another group’s project. We exchanged flash drives and we had to fill out a paper about their video. This groups video did not have any titles. They didn’t have things like “directed by” or “music by”. This video was about 2 teens walking through the forest. They split up and then are murdered by the villain. While the villain is on screen, they have the music playing in the background. They did not have all of the components that we had to review. They did not have a pan or tilt. And they did not have an action match. Something the group did good on was the music choice. They chose good music to portray the villain’s scary looks for the movie. They had good lighting for their project. There were no tripods visible in the shot. Their project ran only one minute and twenty two seconds. That is not enough and is something they need to improve. They need to have 2 minutes. They also need to add in the titles which is important to the project.  There was diegetic sound throughout the film. They had a good over the shoulder shot too.

Editing blog- Choosing shots

Today our group and I edited the project. I helped edit the project. I chose the shots for the video. Also editing them to 2 minutes. There was a flash drive with all the shots we used. I had to choose the good ones. Then I would name them. Then put them in another folder. The folder would be named “chosen footage”. They were in sequential order based on the storyboard. There were 3 folders of shots. From the 3 different days we filmed. Then, the selected shots were moved to cut down. The editing software was Final Cut Pro X. The shots needed to be shortened down from 7 minutes originally. To the time 2 minutes. Each shot needed to be cut with the blade tool. Then go back to select and delete the parts. Then, there was editing to put the film in sequential order. And then clean up any not so good transitions.

Filming blog- Final street shots

Today we filmed the final street shots. What I did this day was watch out for cars for our camerawoman. I  helped set up the props for the shots. And I also held the reflector. I would say if a car was coming so she could quickly move away. The prop that was used was my denim jacket. This is to help the disappearing people part of the scene. Another thing was I had to drop a soccer ball for the sound. The soccer ball also had to roll. The audience could hear the sound of the person suddenly disappearing from the roll. Later, I also had to hold the American flag. It was near the front door, so it would be in the shot. The reflector was for extra lighting for our actor during the shots. Since these shots were near the house, the reflector could work against the walls outside the house. I would quickly drop the flag and hurry to angle the reflector toward our actor.

This picture is of me, and our actor Brenna. I am being told when to drop the ball then to get out of shot. I was supposed to drop the ball when she reached the red plant. And to make sure it rolls onto the sidewalk. It didn’t rain, so I didn’t have to hold an umbrella for the camera.

Filming blog- Street and forest scenes

Today we filmed our street shots. It rained, but we decided to film anyway. We did all of our shots with our supporting actress Sydney first. I went to Sydney’s house with the group, and it started raining again. The camera died later in the day. The group  waited about 30 minutes for the camera to charge. Then, we went outside and filmed the street shots. My job was to hold the light reflector for inside shots. I also held the umbrella for the camera. While it is raining, our camerawoman was filming the actors. This was so the camera would not die. There was a previous problem with a camera that the battery would flicker on and off so we didn’t want that happening. Additionally,  I went with the rest of the group to film in the forest. The  lead actors parent, Ms Circe drove us to the filming location. Additionally I brought the reflector to use it in the forest for lightning. The reflector during the project I used to make our actor appear more colorful in the shot. During the inside scenes, this will greatly help for lighting. It’s also useful for helping the watcher see the actor more during inside scenes. When the actor is inside, I am using the silver side of the reflector.

Filming blog : Canceled

It was raining yesterday, so filming was canceled. We will try to reschedule for another day. The rain is something we did not plan for. We probably should have planned for the rain by listening to the news. The plan to reschedule will be tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow will not be rainy and we can film. If it rains tomorrow, we can try again next weekend. If it rains again next weekend, we will be prepared because we are following the news. We can always film on the weekdays, but it will be hard considering school, and after school activities. The plan for filming was to film in the house. Then we would move on and get the street shots. Then we would get the shots in the forest. Then we would get the final shot of the actor falling and waking up. The new plan is to film on Sunday. Hopefully it will not rain again. The plan is we will meet up at our actors house. Then we will drive towards the “forest” film location. Then we will film there and move to the next location on the street to film. After filming, we can edit before returning home. We can also edit the next day, or at school. If the shots do not turn out as expected, we will reshoot.

Storyboard

This is our story board for our project. Each box is 3 seconds long, with 24 total boxes. At first we were going to have 6 seconds per box, but we decided to change it to capture more detail. The titles are in order, according to what we researched previously in title research. When doing the storyboard, we made a checklist of shots to use, as we progressed through we checked them off. In our storyboard, we have three characters, and 2 are featured: Jane and Rose. The two of them are set apart by their hair styles so we can know who is who when filming. The storyboard also describes where they are in relation to the streets we are filming on, so it is very clear. Additionally, camera angles, sound and acting cues are written into the note section for each box, to reference easily. The process of creating the storyboard was simple after doing it three times before this. We already had the scenes planned, so all we had to do was split them into 3 second intervals. First, Jane is shown to be jogging along, starting up her music. Then, passing a corner, she waves at her neighbours: Rose and her parent. The camera follows Jane across the street, but not without showing the neighbours disappearing, and tracks Jane to her house. Inside her house, Jane is then transported to a forest, and Rose is there as well. The two minutes ends with their reaction to the forest. Throughout the whole sequence we will try our best to subtly convey that something is wrong, using the white noise and smoke in the background.

Location, cast, and schedule planning

Our first location is the house of one teammate, who has given consent for us to film there. We will be filming some of the streets, but mostly the sidewalk. In order to keep as many cars out of the frame as possible, we will be using specific angles to their best effect. We will also be filming the driveway, and inside the friend’s house. We will be moving the cars in the driveway, and clearing some things from the front door to get a cleaner shot. The second location is a nearby park. It is close to our first location, so it will be possible to film everything in one day because the commute is so short. The park is public, so we are allowed to film there, but we still plan on asking permission. We have a specific location at the park we want to film at, but if that space isn’t free then we have scouted out other possible places to film. Casting was an easy process for this project. We have three characters who need actors, and one actor will be from our group. We kept the cast small because we wanted to keep scheduling conflicts to a minimum. As a backup plan, we have an understudy for Rose. The actor for Rose’s parent isn’t truly determined, but it isn’t the most important because the character isn’t the main focus of the film. Scheduling was still difficult, even though we tried to keep the people involved with the project to a minimum. The actress for Rose might have to leave early into filming on Saturday, but time for this was built into Sunday just in case that happens. Since the weekend of filming will last 3 days, we might even get to start the editing process right after filming! Getting this project done quickly is important because we won’t be able to edit in class, only watch and take notes on ways to improve.

Health, safety, and title design planning

Safety was simple with this project. After the music video, we now have experience with these details so planning for possible missteps was easier this time around. Title design was a new one, though. There are many aspects to titles, which makes this process take longer. Sites like Watch the Title and Art of the Title really helped with knowing what to plan, like spacing and font. Currently, we haven't decided where the titles will appear on screen, this will come with the storyboard. Generally, everything we have planned has room to change and grow, but we hope that this is a solid base for our project to at least work off of.

Sound Script

This is the sound script. The sound script includes all the different sounds we will use. They are labeled by scene. Some sounds we will use are diegetic sound of the neighborhood. There will be white noise and music too. There will be music while the character is walking. As well as dog noises when there is a dog.

Shooting Script

This is the shooting script. The shooting script includes all of the scenes for our film. It also includes information like the music starting and dialogue. Our film doesnt have much dialogue but there is some towards the end. Our film has 13 scenes. Some of these scenes include the character walking down the street and listening to music. As well as white noise when the “bad guy” is near.