Critical Analysis: Film/ Genre Review

Audience Theory: Hypodermic Needle and Uses and Gratifications etc...

This is a short video of me outlining the differences between the Hypodermic Needle theory, Uses and Gratification and receptive theory in regards to the audience and  mass media productions.

DVD Menu Design and Authorizing

IS DVD DEAD?

DVD (Digital Video Disc) is an option disc storage invented and developed by Phipps, Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba in the year 1995. Even though it has only been accessible to the world for only  18 years, its has left a great lasting effect on the evolvement of the technology formats.

A normal format of a DVD case/ packaging is simple. It would usually have a still image of the lead actors and supporting actors, which relate to the premise of the film. This image could either be taken from the movie or shot for the fabrication of the DVD. It will definitely have a title and a caption that, again compliments the narrative of the film.

An example of what the portrait of a DVD cover should look like is from one of my favourite comedic films: The Proposal.
The rear of the DVD is also shown there.
On the back you would find a short synopsis of what the film is about, exactly like you would find the blurb on the back of a book. It is that small piece of information that will make people rent or buy that DVD when reading it.
In order to persuade people further, it will most likely include reviews from magazines and newspapers and star ratings. At the bottom you can find a copyright infringement declaration. They will specify an age rating certificate to show exactly who it's appropriate for and the running time of the film.

The conventions of a DVD:

The feature menu on a DVD includes more information that the viewer might want. It will usual have a soundtrack playing in the background and moving images or animation from the film.
The menus may consist of:

• Play Movie: To play the full feature length of the film
• Scene Selections: This is so the viewers can choose the scenes they want to watch as opposed to sitting through the whole film waiting for 'their Part' to come on
• Deleted scenes: These are usually the scenes that could have been in the final film but had been decided against in the end for whatever reason. (I personally, like this options as it changes my whole prospective on a film and gives me the chance to see alternative endings.  
• Directors Notes: This is the least common of all the features. It is just a few words from the Director and/or Producers and actors to explain a little about the film, their inspiration behind it and what they aimed to achieve. 
• Outtakes/ Behind the Scenes:  This is a good way for the audience to see the making process of the film and the mess up made by the cast and crew. 

Most of the time the animation and still images can be found on the actually DVD CD instead of just having a blank DVD. I've put an example of this on the left. 

DVD VS EVOLUTION 

Over the years, as the media platform/formats have developed it prompts to ask the question; Is DVD dead? Or even dying? 

First came, the Video Cassett, then DVD's, now Blu-Ray....what is next? 

There are so many online media film co-operations currently running such as Netflex and Love Film that it makes streaming movies from anywhere around the world so easy, what's the point in using DVD's anymore? Some may argue that having a physical DVD is better as you may get a better quality film (HD) and the novelty of having a menu section is useful. However, major film and games stores are shutting down such as blockbuster making it harder to purchase a DVD should you ever want to. 

The Blu-Ray Disc seems like the DVD's only competitor as of yet and the market for it is vastly growing. With it only having been released in 2006 it has taken the world by storm. It has a 50 Gigabytes of memory available on it and it is ideally used for feature length films. The name Blu-Ray, refers to the Blue laser around the ring of the CD which is used to read the disc.  

Despite all that, people still tend to collect DVD's in the form of television show series box sets and film sequels which I think is still encouraging. 

In all, I do agree that DVD is dying in some way. I don't believe that it is still as highly valued as it once was. I, personally cannot remember the last time I physically watched a DVD, so I hope that's testimony enough to back up my points above.

Analysis of Installation: THE BOX

Before starting my installation, as always we had to begin with the pre-production.
I researched three famous installation artist, Sam Taylor Wood, Bill Viola and Matthew Barney. One thing that they all had in common was meaning behind their art. As opposed to just creating an installation for the sake of getting through the college unit, I wanted to produce something with a little more depth.

Thus, The Box.  The concept shows how easily us, as members of society conform to what we see on television, sometimes subconsciously . The boxes represent us as empty vessels waiting to be used and filled up. We have no identity excepted what is imputed into us, much like the hypodermic needle theory.

I decided to produce my installation with Gill, which turned out to be a good decision. We made mind maps, story boards, mood boards and more in order to prepare ourselves for the shooting.

The shooting was harder than we anticipated to be honest. We knew what we wanted our end project to look, however finding the best way to film was tricky. We tried most things, until finally settling with red colour gel sheets over the light lambs whilst filming, in aim to captivate our audience and allow them to be taken on our journey.

We used the photography studio for location, two DSLR cannon HD cameras and tripod for equipment.

The editing process, seemed the most challenging. As we were creating an installation, we had to use a lot of transactions and effects that we wouldn't have normally used. Adding and deleting footage which may have made the final piece look a bit distorted, but that was the risk Gill and I took and by the looks of things, it paid off. I believe we spent about two weeks trying to find the best soundtrack for our video. We need something that complimented what was happening on screen and two we finally choose, definitely did that.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the Video Installation unit more so than I thought I would.
I hope that our audience enjoy and relate to our work too, and understand what we were trying to achieve.

Three Visual Artist (Video Installation)

My Three Installation Artist

Sam Taylor-Wood

London, Croydon’s born and bred, Samantha Taylor Wood was born on 4^th March 1967.

She’s known as an English Film Marker, photographer and visual artist. Many people would remember her for having directed ‘Nowhere Boys’ which followed the lives of famous Liverpool band: The Beatles. This film starred, Aaron Taylor-Johnson who is now her husband.

During the years she has be responsible for making some of the most controversial video installations of her time. Her first; Still Life, shows a bowl of fruit rotting over a period of months in slow motion. Taylor-Wood had beaten cancer twice before hitting 35 years. The virus attacked her once in her colon and the other in her breast. When asked about her inspiration behind the ‘Still Life’ installation, she said ‘I saw it as more of how our bodies decay but our thoughts endure. Pens are use to document our thoughts... And the impression we leave in this world is not by the physical presence of the body, but the thoughts we implant unto others’. The second installation is a more disturbing one in my opinion. It has the power to make you feel uncomfortable, on edge and frankly disgusted. However, having said that, you are yet unable to take your eyes away from the screen. ‘A Little Death’ sees a rabbit body decaying, again over a period of months.

Bill Viola

Viola was born on the 25^th January 1952 in New York, USA. He is a contemporary visual artist. He is considered the leading figure of artist in New Media. His works mainly focus on the ideas behind the fundamental human experiences such as birth, death and aspects consciousness.

Whilst researching the works of Bill Viola, I came across one of his installation videos called ‘Emergency’ which I thought was absolutely stunning. It shows a man emerging out of what looks like a well full of water. Keeping in line with Viola’s nature of Art, the video is presented in an extreme slow motion. There are two women sitting at beside the well as this man rises. His body is pale and almost lifeless. Viola says his inspiration behind ‘Emergency’ was a picture he once saw of Jesus Christ but, argues that this art piece is not linked to religion.

He almost always involves the usage of water in his video as it brings out a nostalgic feeling for him.

Matthew Barney

Barney was born 25^th March 1967 in CA, USA.  He is an American artist who dabbles in sculpturing, photography and film. His most famous piece was a project which took 8 years to produce, from 1994-2002 called ‘The Cremaster cycle’. It’s a combination of five feature length films which consist of different art methods. This piece of art primarily explored the cycle of creation.  ‘The Guardian’ described it as ‘"one of the most imaginative and brilliant achievements in the history of avant-grande cinema.”

Viewing of Installation: THE BOX

PREPRODUCTION FOR DVD: Screen Grabs

Amiee Wolf and Gill Ucar's Video Installation: THE BOX

Video Installation: PRE PRODUCTION.

Photography Evaluation

During this unit, we were given the opportunity to experiment and try our hands at something completely different. To launch ourselves into the unit, we were asked to research different types of photography and then make a presentation concentrating mainly on two types. I choose to focus on the two genres of photography that mostly interested me; War and Fashion. The presentation had to include what these photographies achieve, how they were used, how the photographers made money from them. I also had to compare the similarities and difference of War and Fashion photography.

Having complete task one, I looked closely at the cannon DSLR's camera and learnt how use the settings to capture the images I wanted. I then familiarised myself with these settings by producing, blured motion, shutter zoom, frozen movement shadow depth of field, light graffiti and large depth of field photography.

Using all the new skills I had now learnt, it was time to produce my own set of photographic images. Having had the chance to play around with and research different types of photography, establishing the kind of photos I wanted to produce came easily to me. I initially decided to produce Music photography, but changed my mind later on. After looking for a plan B, I finally settled on Commercial fashion photography.

With my mind made up, I began to Pre produce my final images. This consisted of me creating a mood board of the images I wanted. I also started to contact the people I wanted to use during the shoot and plan out my photo shoot concept in the form of a video pitch and mind map. The pre production stage of this unit, for me was one of the most rapid and enjoyable of any other units I've produced in the past. Everything seemed to occur according to plan and when scheduled. 

However, the day of the shoot could have ran much smoother. Although the photo studio was booked for 10am, CWC technicians were not available therefore delayed our setting up process, so forcing the shoot to start much later.  Unfortunately, the fire alarm at the college was set off, again eating into our shooting time. Aside from those little misfortunes, overall it was a good shoot. 

The Post Production stage was amazing as I learned how to use Photoshop to professionally edit the my final images. I took over 200 images and had to choose 10 pictures that had the most potential. That was difficult, so insisted the help of Mahan and Ngozi in helping me decide which was helpful.

I think I've worked very hard and well with the time I had. I used a professional photography studio with a plain infinity backdrop. I feel that the ambient lighting used created an elegance and simplicity to the final images. During the post production, I familarised myself with the photo editing software, Photoshop which professionals use when adding the final touches to their photos. I tried my best to create a professional atmosphere all throughout the shooting process by actually hiring a professional model (Ava Roeg) and make-up artist (Ngozi Amaechi) to help out. I provided our visitors with a refreshment table that they could help themselves to in between shots and wardrobe for my model of a set of outfits that I wanted her to wear during our shoot. I think some of my pictures would look and suit the style of Glamour magazine because of the minimal background and set used therefore bring attention to the outfits being shown.

In all, I enjoyed this project much more than I thought I would. I was highly apprehensive when I first found out what the unit was. I think I surprised myself. I think that my final images have some levels of professionalism. From what some of my classmates have said they can pass as features in a printed magazine or online magazine which I'm very pleased about. 

PRE-PRODUCTION FOLDER

Emails sent out to all those involved in the shoot, making sure they knew what would happen on the day and what to bring along. 

PRE PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHY

Final 10 Photography Images

The Photographic images below are the pictures I've produced of commercial fashion photography. They've been created for an online magazine as opposed to a printed magazine to advertise the latest trends. 

Photography Video Pitch (Fashion)

Fashion Photography Mind Map

Mood Board

Shallow and Large Depth of Field

Shallow depth of field was used as principles for the pictures below. The Depth of Field is measured in Fstops. The way it works is the larger the Apature number the larger the depth of field. This controls how much of exposure the lens will pic up in the photo. To achieve a larger depth of field the opposite needs to be done. As Fstops vary from 4.5-30 apature  

Photography Work

 Rule Of Three Photography 

FRAMING PHOTOGRAPHY  

War Vs Fashion Photography Presentation

WAR PHOTOGRAPHY on Prezi

Multi-Camera Production

T.S.T  Magazine Programme Evaluation

For this unit of work, we as a class were assigned the task of creating a Television Magazine programme. In preparation for this task, we were given the opportunity to attend a live broadcast of the Television show, ‘The Allan Titchmarsh show’. It was a good experience as it opened our eyes to the television industry and gave us first look experience at how things are run; from minor roles such as cable basher and warm up man to camera men, floor manager, and presenter so on and so forth. Going on this trip to the London Studios really fascinated me and made evident how important each and every role of production is to making a successful show.

Next, we watched a TV show called ‘Faking It’ which showed a fire station operator ‘Faking’ being a Multi-Camera T.V director. After all these tasks, we finally had an idea of what we wanted to do.  Primarily, we had to write up our proposal of what we wanted in our individual shows (to start with) and present our ideas to the class. This was a way of determining which aspects of each other’s show would be incorporated within the main live production. 

The pre-production process of the task was demanding as the team mates seemed to find it challenging to keep on top of the different tasks that were assigned to them. Consequently, the things that had to be produced quite prior to the live show we done hastily within a few days of the Show.

The lack of communication between the entire class appeared to be the team’s downfall. An example of this would be when auditioning the special performing guest. It fell apart as majority of the group had no knowledge of it ever been planned and felt ostracised  by some of the teams decisions when it came to running the process. Some of the ideas and suggestions put across by the team members weren’t listened to or put into consideration until the very end.

 I was given the responsibility of producing the Equipment List.  I was in charge of finding out the props we would need for the live show and produce a budget list that corresponded with the items needed in order to obtain funds for them. This process was done fairly quickly and effectively. As we chose to centre our Live show on Halloween, all the props and costumes had to compliment that theme. As a result, our prop list consisted of items such as fake blood, face paints, pumpkins, spiders etc.

As chaotic as the pre-production stage ran, I enjoyed this unit. At some stages I was given other roles however no enough time was given to me to performance them. I was given the role of understudy presenter, floor manager and co director. Each of those roles we’re taken from me within days of being assigned them. Likewise, to many others faced with the same problems as me, it made me irritable.

In conclusion, I think the entire process would have been more successful if the team worked and listened to each other. There are many things we could do in the future in order to improve ourselves however one thing I would say, is that we must comprehend the importance of time management; as sticking to deadlines would have eliminated all prospects of anything going wrong. If something had gone wrong before the show going live (as many things did) it would have given us enough time and ability to rectify them before the live show. Nevertheless, I must commend my team mates for the set of the show. As we all had the same vision of what we wanted it to look like, it made it much easier to produce a creative set revolving around the Halloween theme.

 

Multi-Camera Production

T.S.T  Insert Analysis

 In order to make the T.S.T live show run as professionally as possible we had to create short inserts to incorporate within the show. In groups of four we brainstormed some ideas that we felt would captured the attention of our audience and make them enjoy our show. Many of my team mates went for educational things that fit in line of the colleges themes and values.

Thinking outside the box, those in my team and I choose to do something a little more spontaneous and light hearted. We decided to recreate a television show entitled ‘Name That Tune’ which was a popular show that ran from 1952-1985.

Using the same name and similar concept we went about producing our insert.

We choose familiar and current song with some variations from our music devices e.g phones, iPods, MP3 players.  The aim of the game was that the participants had ten seconds to listen to a random juncture of a song chosen for them and identify the song that was playing correctly. The entire insert had an overall running time of two minutes which stuck to the brief received at the beginning of the unit.

The pre-production stage of our inserts making was fairly uncomplicated. However, the sound equipments let us down. As at some points of the filming stage, it randomly stopped working, so the audio of the transition between different participants and songs were inconsistent and therefore made the footage hard to hear and muffled. After having rectified that problem, we were unluckily braced with another. The edited footage that we had saved had been deleted thus making us restart the process again. Second time round, the filming process was tedious. Reluctantly, we finished it.

Feeling content and excited about the work we produce and how the audience would react to it we proceeded to setting up unto the tricaster ready for the live show. Unfortunately the format of the insert wasn’t compatible with that of the tricaster so therefore couldn’t have been put on. This was a technical error which could have been fixed if the process was done considerable before the live show day.

In conclusion, I enjoyed the making of our insert and think of it a great shame that we didn’t get to show it. My group and I worked well together in producing it. In future, I would recommend a back up of our work so if one copy was to get lost it wouldn’t set us back as much as it did this time round.