Obsession

Evaluation Questions

http://donnella16.wix.com/asmedia-obsession#!question-7/c1uol

Hi and Bye Examiner

Hi Examiner,

I hope you have enjoyed my journey in media studies this year as much as I have and I hope you can see and appreciate everything I have learnt in the last few months as much I have. I have enjoyed this course and i hope some of the knowledge I have gained will be passed to you (even though you probably know more than me haha). Thanks for looking at my blog hope you enjoyed it ....

Bye Bye 

Improvements I would make

I was in charge of Locations, Props, Camera work and I helped with the Sound and if I was too re-evaluate Obsession i found there would be a lot of aspects that I would change and make better to improve the piece even further with my team.

LOCATION

I believe the location of the pier which I found was perfect for our film since it is quite ambiguous and achieved a sense of reality and had a great affect on our piece i believe.

• The long pier made it very good to track
• the imagery of water and all the buildings is not a common view to find in a city place
• it seems quite rural since there is no traffic and not a lot of noise
• the muddy and dirty surroundings adds to the thriller effect of a crime scene
• the open view of estates and building creating quite an outsiders perspective showing the protagonists way of viewing society as well (from a distance)

However, I found that while our actors Artan's bedroom was a good setting it could have been better 

• The room was not that good because one it is bright blue which would not be typical of a grown man of 40 to have a bright blue room 
• the curtains as well would not be considered something a 40 year old man would perhaps do 
• The room was too well lit as well showing us that his room is supposed to be a dark space 
• I understand the below image is not clear but something like that is what I envisioned but because we could not find a place in time and we wanted to stick to the shooting schedule but this room is what I would have preferred to find but I'm afraid i just couldn't find it in time.

PROPS

I was also in charge of the props and costumes which I believe was a grave aspect to the thriller, I liked the color's  of the costumes on the pier scene I told the actors to bring their own black jackets so that they can be seen as quite dark and sinister for the films but I would have changed one thing looking back on it now...

• I would have liked to find this kind of long, black detectives coat for John and a beige version for Jack to show the old and new and dark and light but they were so hard to find after even when i did try to find them it was impossible but i think this would have made a difference to the piece and made it more relevant.

CAMERA WORK

The camera work was of good standard with the shot reverse shot and the track but looking through the video that was the only shots visible and made in the clip apart from one pan.

• If I was to improve it I would perhaps create some more establishing shots of his house or surroundings
• I would have used focus to change the scene dramatically to perhaps focus more on his obsession than just him to make the story more clear
• We could use zoom to emphasize a certain aspect of John perhaps by creating the impression that he is really smoking by perhaps focusing more on the smoke to convey mystery.

SOUND

The music towards the end was very good and built tension as we intended it too but...

• Some improvements could have been that when they were at the pier there could have been some diagetic sound to connote the mystery that needs to be solved

But i still believe that silence was very relevance to our piece since it built suspense but not as much as we allowed because it therefore made it quite boring for the viewer since there is no clear action taking place or information being given.

Obsession - Final Cut

Concluding Obsession

In conclusion, I believed Obsession was a success in the sense that it did draw in our target audience and was successful in filling out the conventions of a thriller movie.

However, looking back on it it wasn't at all the way I envisioned it to be since the cast could have done without all the swearing and cursing. If we had stuck to the script maybe our thriller would have had quite a different feel. Also, certain aspects were taken out of the original idea (such as the voices) which would have been really effective but we did not include them since the equipment that was available to us was not good at all since it sounded quite amateur and unprofessional.

Furthermore, If we had had more equipment like more camera's and more devices for the voice perhaps the sound quality would have been better along with the visual quality if we had better quality camera's and sound equipment.

All in all I think the opening sequence was good but i think with the right equipment and finance it could have been a lot better. But i still believe that me and my team did a very good job and they have been a pleasure to work with.

Thanks Shanae Chisholm  and Reginald Kensah :)

Did everything go as we planned?

I believe that that our film worked out in the end. However, we didn't tend to stick to our shooting schedule or our script since different things went on which meant certain dates were changed and we had to do different things on different days.

We didn't end up really following the script since when we started filming we realized that our script was not accurate enough and contained to much detail for such a short amount of time we could have went with the script but I don’t think it would have worked out the same way and I think with the time we had we couldn't fit everything we had in the script into 3 minutes which a was a shame.

Audience Research

Our Audience research was conducted quite late in the process since we didn't believe we needed to since we believed that this would fit our target audience perfectly. However, our audience had some positives and some negatives ...

Group Discussion 2

After the footage I went to my team and discussed my criticisms we all had criticisms Shanae mentioned the Heart beat was too time consuming and that some of the shots could have been shortened to make more time for more relevant things which we all came to an agreement sat down together and   went through all the parts we thought were unnecessary, one of them being Johns phone conversation with Jack which we shortened to not let it drag on for too long.

The group also really liked my idea on how to end it and we are working now on inputting that into the end. 

Regional Identity

At the beginning when we were planning we didn’t really picture our characters being cockney lads from east London but when the actors started they did that and we thought it would work quite well since they seemed to suit our roles a lot more than we thought it was. I think the accents were so Key to the piece since it created a sort of ‘hard geezer’ atmosphere which surprised the audience and making our film much stronger as a whole by breaking he conventions of a normal thriller and making our film different and more down to earth a specified than in normal/everyday thrillers.

Obsession 3

After discussing it as a group we decided that we definitely needed new footage for the piece filmed at my house. My house was unavailable so we used our actor Artan’s house to film our opening scene again Shanae and I re-recorded the whole footage over again and staged it. We changed it quite a bit compared to the first one.

Shanae came up with the idea of filming the extreme close up of Artan at the beginning of the piece I came up with the idea of the low angle shot and to pan up towards the papers. Also the Heartbeat of the blackness at the beginning was my idea. Our Obsession title remained the same. Shanae and I had come up with the idea of Artan walking to the camera and using match on action then doing a Track behind him into the bathroom to create a subtle but mysterious effect  as we have a few seconds of darkness. Filming Artan at Mid shot while infront of the mirror was tricky since we didn’t want Shanae to be seen with the camera and the match on action used when he washing his face. We used jump cuts as he heard the door to create a tensional feel for the audience of suddenly something is happening and builds the tension also the music is heard for the first time here which adds an extreme amount of tension on the piece. The track from behind Artan towards the room was very effective since we tend to follow him into the mystery of what has happened in his room.

 Some criticism’s I saw was the fact that when Artan gets on the phone it was dragged out for too long. Also, in the other footage Artan says ‘ I need some alone time’ which is very low and you can hardly hear it which we are planning to fix by re-recording his voice and putting it on top of the video. Also at the end in my opinion, we could change it and make it more ambiguous by perhaps having a black screen with just Artans/ ‘Johns’ saying it all gone… This I believe would be way more effective than what we have now. We are going to have a group discussion where we will discuss these and come to some agreement.

Music and effects on Thrillers

The clip starts with the strings playing slightly in the background in minor keys making it seem quite sad and upsetting which is suited to the scene since the character of son and father are being split. As the aliens appear the music tends to get louder and it builds the texture as the children are taken away from the father it gets quitter as the son and father say their last goodbyes. The further the ship goes the higher the volume and texture of music increases the strings create quite a tense and mysterious feel to the piece and as they leave earth’s orbit and are finally gone all the strings are in unison very loudly to signify the pain and suffering that the father feels until the children are fully gone and the light is not visible anymore where the music just stops.

Until he enters his car and puts on the calm classical music in the midst of all the catastrophe and pain of people trying to survive. It is contrasted and highlights that there is no hope and that he chooses his last moments to be reflective and reflect on his past.

Then as the radiation of the sun is shown over the earth the music is atmospheric effect which emphasises the true end. Then at the end as the kids are shown in a new world the strings are in major and very loud which shows hope for a new beginning.

Obsession - Response from the Team

After Reginald and I had filmed the footage at my house we gave it to Shanae and she noticed quite a few bits that went wrong about the footage and things we needed to change.

Our first problem was the fact that our opening sequence didn’t include our names and credits to others because we tried to find a place where it would fit nicely but we couldn’t out it anywhere where it would look nice and presentable to the audience.

Also, Shanae pointed out that lighting was a clear problem with the footage from my house since on the first part the lighting is significantly darker than in the second and the lighting was just way to dim also the quality of the filming was not as good since towards the end the piece looked poor in quality. Also in the first part Artan (the main character) he wore a red blanket but what Shanae pointed out is that there is footage of him without the blanket but no footage of him taking it off.

She also pointed out that the papers were not as convincing which was my fault since from close up they looked quite professional and something he would be obsessed with but from far away I agree did not give the same effect and that means the Mise en scene was not particularly convincing for the piece.

We had also watched the clip back and had seen that what Artan was wearing was a shirt and trousers which in Shanae’s opinion was not very good for the storyline, I disagree since a conventional detective even if after being fired doesn’t really seems to care what he wears and I think the fact that he is obsessed with his career makes him obsessed to continue wearing the same clothing so he can convince himself he can still do his job even though he has been fired. But as a group we collectively agreed that it would be better for him to not be wearing that and wearing something different to portray his character. 

Obsession 2

Group Discussion

After organizing with some of our fellow sixth former's Reginald and I went to record their voices for the opening sequence of our thriller. When we came back we listened to the voices we were questioning whether it did fit into the piece as we originally thought it was. The main problem is that it didn't sound convincing enough from the peoples voices and a team member believed that it would damage the atmosphere we had created for our opening credits.

We discussed and a group member suggested we could add effects to make it sound the way we envisioned it to sound in the first place which wasn't as successful so we then came to the conclusion to not use the voices and use some music instead to create the atmosphere we wanted for our film.

Obsession credits 1

This is how our opening credits scene should begin before all the other filming we wanted to add a little mystery and tension which was created by this part of the opening scene we didn’t feel that this part would be the best to put our names since they would go better somewhere later on in the sequence.

We all picked the images to put into the sequence and picked different things to do with the illuminate. Then Shanae the main editor took the images and made them look wonderful by adding different effects and transitions which added a quite climactic effect also Reginald had an idea of the rain effect and the reverse which we discussed and came to an agreement to include. I watched Shanae do the effects, her being more experienced than me I just learned from her how to add the effects do the transitions and add the audio onto the video which I never knew before until Shanae had shown me. I believe so far our sequence is going well and I have learnt a lot so far about editing that I did not know previously.

Opening Credits : The Dark Knight Rises

Sound: the fact that it starts in complete silence is quite effective since the audience anticipate for something amazing to happen and around 50 seconds in the music begins slowly building a climax towards the beginning of the film showing all the distributers and production companies.

Camera: we have a zoom onto the Wayne enterprise building then we see a track from the front of the joker when he walks to the man showing that he is a key character in the film and they use a pan when the joker goes towards the truck, establishing shot right at the beginning

Editing: fade out and fade in on opening credits also the bank robbery creates a climax right at the beginning making it very engaging.

 Mise en scene: the masks convey the mystery of the film, the guns show violence and that this is going to be an action movie also, the difference between the business men in suits and robbers in worn out old clothes shows the different representation of good and evil.

In my opinion: Best Director Christopher Nolan

Christopher  Nolan is a American film director, screenwriter and producer. Nolan created several of the most successful films of the early 21st century, and his eight pictures have grossed more than $3.5 billion worldwide. He is known for bridging the gap between art house and blockbuster films by presenting audiences with intelligent, challenging narratives.

Having made his directorial debut with Following (1998), Nolan gained considerable attention for his second feature, Memento (2000). The acclaim of these independent films afforded Nolan the opportunity to make the big-budget thriller Insomnia (2002), and the more offbeat production The Prestige (2006); both were well-received critically and commercially. He found further popular and critical success with the big-screen epics The Dark Knight trilogy (2005–2012) and Inception (2010). He is currently working on the science-fiction film Interstellar, which is set to be released in November 2014. Nolan runs the London-based production company Syncopy Inc. with his wife Emma Thomas.

Nolan's visual style emphasized urban settings, men in suits, muted colours, dialogue scenes framed in wide close-up with a shallow depth of field and modern locations and architecture. He has noted that all of his films are heavily influenced by film noir.

Nolan spoke of Terrence Malick's work and how it has influenced his own approach to style:

"When you think of a visual style, when you think of the visual language of a film, there tends to be a natural separation of the visual style and the narrative elements. But with the greats, whether it's Stanley Kubrick or Terrence Malick or Hitchcock, what you're seeing is an inseparable, a vital relationship between the image and the story it's telling".

The protagonists of Nolan's films are usually psychologically damaged, obsessively seeking vengeance for the death of a loved one. They are often driven by philosophical beliefs, and their fate is ambiguous. In many of his films the protagonist and antagonist are mirror images of each other, a point which is made to the protagonist by the antagonist. Through these clashing of ideologies, Nolan highlights the ambivalent nature of truth. His writing style incorporates a number of storytelling techniques such as flashbacks. Crosscutting several scenes of parallel action to build to a climax. Nolan has also stressed the importance of establishing a clear point of view in his films, and makes frequent use of "the shot that walks into a room behind a character, because ... that takes [the viewer] inside the way that the character enters."

Nolan uses cinéma-vérité techniques (such as hand-held camera work) to convey realism.

Nolan explained his emphasis on realism in The Dark Knight trilogy: "You try and get the audience to invest in cinematic reality. When I talk about reality in these films, it's often misconstrued as a direct reality, but it's really about a cinematic reality."

Film Noir Research

Our teacher had mentioned film noir a couple of times in this last week so I decided to research about what exactly is Film Noir?

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classical film noir period was from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir in this era was associated with a low-key black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography.

Film noir conventions

Characters

·         Corrupt cops

·         Alienated protagonist

·         Misogynistic man

·         Femme fatal (seductive women)

Visual Style

·         Low key lighting

·         Low angle shots

·         Wide angle shots

·         Shots of characters reflection

Iconography

·         Dark sidewalks

·         Rain drenched streets

·         Flashing neon signs

·         City is villainous

·         Cigarettes

·         Guns

·         Trench coats

Settings

·         Urban settings such as New York and Chicago

·         Bars

·         Lounges

·         Nightclubs

·         Gambling Den’s

·         Industrial settings such as factory’s and power plants

Vladmir Propp - Character Theory

Vladimir Propp developed a character theory for studying media texts and productions, which indicates that there were 7 broad character types in the 100 tales he analysed, which could be applied to other media:

1.       The villain (struggles against the hero)

2.       The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)

3.       The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)

4.       The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)

5.       The false hero (perceived as good character in beginning but emerges as evil)

6.       The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)

7.       The hero [AKA victim/seeker/paladin/winner, reacts to the donor, weds the princess

Character theories

A character theory in the context of media, such as films and plays, is useful for analysing and understanding media in which people take on the role of an actor or social actor. Character theories are popular with academics teaching and researching media and film studies as they are useful for appreciating the structure of different types of media and the roles of the characters, fictional or otherwise that are portrayed in them. Character theories are often based on stereotypes, and the different characteristics that make them up can either be used for positive or negatives purposes.

Erving Goffman's character theory …

Suggests that there are four main types of broad character in a media text or production;

1.       The protagonist (leading character)

2.       The deuterogamist (secondary character)

3.       The bit player (minor character whose specific background the audience is not aware of)

4.       The fool (a character that uses humor to convey messages

Richard Bartle's character theory …

Was one of the earliest dedicated to the Internet, and is still used for analysing early virtual worlds today. It took the following form:

1.       Achievers (preferred to gain "points," levels, equipment and other concrete measurements of succeeding in a game)

2.       Explorers (preferred to be discovering areas, creating maps and learning about hidden places)

3.       Socializers (preferred to be interacting with other players, and on some occasions, computer-controlled characters with personality)

4.       Killers (preferred to depart from the norm of being "the good guy" who comes to save the day and play on the side of evil or conquest

John Campbell, Gorden Fletcher, and Anita Greenhill …

 Developed a character theory for analysing online communities, based on tribal typologies. In the communities they investigated they identified three character types:

1.       The Big Man (offer a form of order and stability to the community by absorbing many conflicting situations personally)

2.       The Sorcerer (will not engage in reciprocity with others in the community)

3.       The Trickster (generally a comical yet complex figure that is found in most of the world's culture

Editing and Camera in Kill Bill

The use of extreme close ups on the eyes and the eye contact between the two women in the scene are very effective to build the tension for the audience encoding that something might happen between the two at any second.

Long shot durations as the climax is getting built in the scene where she moves lowly with the swords to show that her patients is her strength which connotes to the audience that she believes she is in control.


The over-head shot wear the blonde women is smaller from the POV from the camera showing that she is less able and has less power.