Media Course Work- 3 Print Pieces

Poster 1

Poster 2

Poster 3

Some quick feedback so i could make any necessary last minute changes to these would be great, thanks.

Disarming Britain- Practice Question

1.     What representations are offered in this poster- what representations might the audience expect to find in the programme it is advertising?

The poster represents youth as violent which we see from the child using his hand as a gun. We would normally see this as children playing but the dark lighting and the aggressive facial expression of the child aiming his fingers presents it as violent. The fact that they use children to advertise a programme called “disarming Britain” also represents to us that to get and use guns in the UK has become nothing more than child’s play.  It also represents to the audience how growing up for children in the UK is a very dark and difficult thing. They do this by using dark lighting and making the whole picture look almost dirty which makes us think it is very tough for these children to live in society the way it is. The picture also represents our society as one that often victimises others by having a clear contrast between the boys with one clearly being a victim with sad facial expressions and the other playing the criminal or bully with angry expressions. The audience could expect to see a representation of what could happen to their children, as the target audience is clearly parents, if gun use in Britain stays how it is. This is shown by how they use actual children in a violent scene you would expect to instead be occupied by young adults.

2.       What techniques is this poster using to attract an audience?

The target audience of this piece is clearly parents of young people living in the UK which we see from a lot of use of children and informing us what can happen to them when they get involved with guns which would certainly interest parents. The poster builds and attracts this audience in many ways. One way it attracts them is by having the imagery of a young child having a gun pointed at his head. This would shock parents and worry them it could happen to their child and make them want to watch the programme. They also use the fact that people seek out media that regards their personal relationships and that evokes emotion in someone, like in the uses and gratifications theory. They use this by making people who may have had some experience with guns causing harm or a child that has been endangered before want to watch the programme as it is something they can relate to and will connect with on a personal level. They also invoke fear in their audience to attract them to watch it. It states in the title that it is not areas but all of “Britain” that is at risk which would make people feel uncomfortable or even unsafe so they would want to watch the programme to feel more knowledgeable about the subject so that they can then feel safer. This plays on how it is human nature to want to know more and learn how to survive as best we can which would definitely draw in a wider audience.

Silver Linings Short Film Planning- Characters and Costume

Media studies- Silver Linings Planning

Characters:

Aaron(main)- Stressed, failing, only lives with mother, 18 years old, deteriorates throughout film, poorer, struggles through everyday life with lack of money, stress from work, trying to succeed and get an education to make his family good again, loved and still looked up to his dad, still believes his dad will come home, easily pushed to do things as he loses his nerve quickly.

Jason- Aaron’s friend, history with Aaron, supports Aaron and tries to get him to stop, wealthy, has full happy family, cares about Aaron and doesn’t want to lose him, massively contrasts Aaron as he has always had it better which causes distance and jealousy that he doesn’t want to exist.

Aaron’s mother- Hard working, does everything to support Aaron, tries to make Aaron realise that his dad is not coming back, works as cleaner to make any money she can, decided to move on and find new boyfriend which she plans to introduce to Aaron, easily upset and is constantly stressed over doing as much as she can.

Dealer- Is helped by Aaron and sees that he is broken down, gets him involved in drugs, young man, acts grateful to Aaron but is always closely watching almost to the point of analysing everything, cautious, doesn’t rush giving drugs to Aaron but thinks it will help him as the broken and violent manner Aaron is introduced to him leads him to believe that he is the kind of person to be into drugs anyway.

Aaron’s mother’s boyfriend- Acts nice when introduced to Aaron but is scared when Aaron freaks out. Tries to connect with Aaron but is rejected due to Aaron clinging on to believing his actual father will come back.

Dealer’s two friends- Come to dealer’s house and happen to find Aaron attacking him. Obviously aggressive.

 

Costume:

Aaron- Smart casual. Polo shirt, normal trousers. Black normal coat when going to college. Outfit deteriorates throughout. Gets dirtier with time and he replaces coat with hoodie later on.

Jason- Much more smart. Collared shirt always. Nicer trousers. Always important he looks better than Aaron to further imply that his life is clearly better.

Aaron’s mother- Cleaning clothes with apron, black trousers and boring jumper.

Dealer- Dark Jeans, trainers, red shirt (shows dangerous character) and a jacket to differentiate himself from the other characters and to represent how he is hiding things from people.

Aaron’s Mother’s Boyfriend- Plain outfit, white shirt, normal jeans. Looks friendly and innocent.

Dealer’s two friends- Two stereotypical hoodies, dark clothing, can’t see their faces too well.

 

Silver Linings Film Logo

We were asked to create a logo for the studio our short film is by. Here is the logo i created.

I created this logo with various ideas in mind. Firstly i wanted to have the visual image of the the film reel to show that they concentrate on the films themselves. i also wanted to have the film reel represent the silver lining of the cloud or the sun coming out from behind it to represent that in a heap of boring grey films this companies stands out and brings light to the film industry. I also did this to make the company stand out. The font is in a bold, black font to show how the company overshadows all the other film companies that are grey and boring. It also presents the company as bold and powerful to tell people the kind of content they will see and messages they will receive from the company.

Successful Film In Recent Years

I decided to look at trends of successful film in the past few years to see what types and genres of film have been the most successful. This will allow me to get an idea of what kind of elements, genres and ideas are popular among different target audiences.

The first show i will be looking at is HBO's Game of Thrones which began broadcasting in 2011 and has become massive with the last episode of it's fourth season receiving over 7 million viewers in the states alone.

The show has a more mature audience mainly aimed at 17+ because of the more complicated plot line, gore and sexual scenes. I believe it does a good job of appealing to it's target audience in a few ways. One way it does this is by having no main character and developing a whole set of characters and sharing their ideologies with you. By doing this you can understand and connect with all the characters even though they may be enemies and having characters you feel for is key to bringing in an audience. The way they do this also results in you finding characters that you connect with more than other ones, this method of making the audience have favorite characters actually works very well as a device to keep a big audience as people feel more inclined to watch as they will want to find out what happens to their favorite characters. They also appeal to their target audience well by respecting their maturity and creating a universe in which anyone can die and they often kill off main characters. This brings a sense of tension that the series is famous for as you never know if you're favorite character is going to die. I like this technique and think that putting these characters in situations where the audience feels a sense of danger can be very effective and one of the reasons the show is so popular is most likely it's ability to invoke these emotions in their audience. The creators definitely did this purposefully.

Now i will look at AMC's Breaking Bad. With it's first TV broadcast in 2008 and it's last in 2013 Breaking Bad was incredibly popular during it's run on television with it's final episode having 10.28 million viewers.  

Breaking Bad follows many darker yet very interesting and different themes throughout it's various seasons. I believe this is one of the reasons it may have been so successful because the focuses of this show address and look at many things in society in a very original way. For example the main character being told they are suffering from a very serious cancer almost straight away tells us their fate but the character reacts in a completely original way as to what we would normally expect people to react like which intrigues the audience and makes them want to continue watching. Breaking Bad often uses this technique of foreshadowing events that happen towards the end of a season and then using the season itself to build up to what was hinted at/shown at the start. This is very effective as the creators used this technique on purpose to draw peoples interest in the events leading up to something and then give them a very excited feeling when they see the events they now understand unfold.

Use of Music in Film

We can see music being used to add depth and emotion to scenes in film. A few examples are:

Video 1:

Here we see heroic music being used to make the heroes seem very powerful and victorious to the audience but then the music goes silent for when one main heroes get hit with an arrow. I think the film maker purposely did this to invoke a sense of victory for these characters and make you think they are going to win only for the music to stop and one of them to start to lose. This is effective because it creates a contrast that shocks the audience and makes them feel the sense of loss which makes the audience connect with the story and characters more.

Video 2:

Here we see the music being used to set a definite image in the audience's head. As well as making the fans of this film series connect by using the characters main theme that has been consistent throughout the films it also gives you a representation of who James Bond is. This music delivers the image of class and sophistication while also being sneaky and charming. I believe the film maker did this to specifically define the character and show them exactly what James Bond is about.

Short film Research- Camera Angles

The camera angles in scenes are intentionally used to create moods or imply meanings to the audience.

Video 1:

The camera work in this scene is very interesting as it is done with a few close ups to start with to get across the character's mood and how they are feeling in this scene but then we see a lot of medium shots which i believe they did on purpose to represent everyday life as we easily associate shots like that with scenes where characters are doing everyday things however because we think of it as such a natural view is the reason we notice the things happening in the background like the blood and zombies that the character doesn't notice. I feel like the film maker did this to add a sense of humor to the scene by making the character seem so oblivious to his surrounding as for him it is just an everyday trip to the shop. I believe it is important to use the camera angles to show the audience things that the character might not always see too as it adds a layer of storytelling and development aside from the actions of characters.

Video 2:

 The camera angles in this scene are purposely used by the film maker to show how large and intimidating the enemy is and to set a clear theme that the good characters are at a clear disadvantage compared to the bad one's. It does this by having a wide shot of space to show how massive the events taking place are. It keeps this angle as a small spaceship moves away from our view which instantly tells us as the audience that they are running away and then we see the much larger spaceship move in after them. When it first appears the larger spaceship covers almost all of space which is to compare them to the size of space to show the audience who has the power in the scene. This is important as it tells me that camera angles can be used to make things seem more or less powerful which can be really effective in storytelling.