Note to the Examiner

Dear Examiner,

Over the past eight months I've been working hard on my Media Studies coursework, hopefully reflected in the below blog. Along the way I've learned many lessons about filmmaking and the presentation of media.

To the right of this post, you'll find a 'Blog Archive', containing a structured account of my project by month. The first post underlines the brief for my coursework and sits under the 'September 2013' section. I hope you enjoy navigating my blog as much as I have enjoyed working on it.

Kind Regards
Maximilien Frankel

My Logo

As I had a little bit of spare time I took the time to invent a potential logo for my media coursework. I did this on photo shop which is a professional desktop publishing program.
This took a day or two, here it is:

Calendar for Preliminary Task and Opening Sequence

This is my calendar which tells you when and what I did.

Evaluation question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task. What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Over the process of filming my preliminary task to completing my opening sequence I have learnt a great deal.

For my preliminary task I simply had to make a short film using only three camera angles. These included over the shoulder shot, match on action and the 180 degree rule. By the time I completed my opening sequence I felt very confident with these basic techniques and the way they can be used to in the editing process to create a sense of continuity and flow. 

I learnt about the importance of good pre production to producing a good media text. This included having a appropriate cast for my film. I needed a girl with a perfect age which I luckily found. I learnt how to make a full script in detail compared to my preliminary task. I also learned how to think of different conventions in my drama and to make my media text fit into the thriller genre.



Throughout the production process I really enjoyed being the director of my own movie. I learnt how to film using a shoulder mount and to make sure it was stable and not moving about. I learnt to deal with problems such as rain which I had not encountered with my opening sequence. I learnt many different camera shots such as a pan shot, which helped to make and entertaining opening sequence.

Finally in my editing process I learnt how to use final cut pro on my own which is much more technical and tricky then imovie which I used in my opening sequence. One of the benefits is that there were many different colour effect as one my cameras was filming on sepia. This allowed me to colour coordinate well. Another benefit on Final cut pro is that it is very intuitive and I also used it to do my directors cut, my opening titles and it was easy to insert sound.

Evaluation question 6

Evalaution question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

I chose Lionsgate as my production house as it is a very attention grabbing shot, taking up the whole screen in my opening sequence to attract fans of my thriller. I hoped that using this audiences would immediately accept a high quality and entertaining film, I would be excited by what was to come.

I chose to put Vanished film title at the end of the opening sequence in capital letters and in white so that it would stand out to my audience and make them think the girls kidnapping. The letters themselves appeared and then disappeared which I though would make the audience clearly understand the metaphor to which resembles the girl in the film.

I used two different types of sound; diagetic and non diagetic. The first one is a non diagetic, dramatic and percussive. I tried to use music which builds up tension as I recognised that my target audience would like films which kept them on the edge of their seats, I did that by precisely using the tense music as it makes the audience nervous and anxious. The diagetic sound includes the screeching of the car going by. This immediately creates tension as if something very bad is going to happen soon.

In my mies en scene I used Scream Masks from the film Scream for my kidnappers as they are widely due to the franchise of the film. My audience will know the Scream films well as it is a classic of the horror genre and by seeing the masks they will immediately associate it with horror and thriller.

Evaluation question 4

Who Would Be the Audience for Your Media Product?