Ghost Ship

In the opening scene of Ghost Ship we hear the happy, smooth jazz playing as the camera pans around the ship in a birds eye camera angle, this sets a juxtaposition for the scenes just to come because although it portrays a relaxed and joyful occasion for 2 and half minutes the film itself is far from joyous because it is marketed as a horror film.

Music at 2:40 turns quite haunted to indicate the impending horrors that are about to massacre the passengers, the music coupled with the change in lighting to high key to low key represents the somber tone the movie is about to make with the camera focusing on the loose wire that is going to become a terrifying murder weapon

Mise en scene

Favourite types of media

1. Movies


Movies are one of my all time favourite types of media which is due to many old films such a Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' and Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction', these two films in particular are brilliant symbols of masterpieces in the film studios because they both hold key aspects that make the film memorable and loved from Samuel L. Jackson setting the movies atmosphere and main protagonists by reciting the verse from the bible of Ezekiel 25:17 to Jack Nicholson slowly walking towards Shelley Duvall shouting "you've had your whole fucking life to think things over, what's a few minutes more gonna do you now!?" whilst she sobs manically, which was her genuine reaction to the actual acting performed by Jack at the time, showing that Jack might of had a bit too much devotion to the character, but that is what makes a film, dedication and devotion combined with loved poured into every crack of the films depths.




2. Video Games
Video games have always been apart of my life, ever since I was 2 in fact. They hold great story content and are a great way to express the developers beliefs. Games come in a wide variety, from Story driven games such as 'Transistor' to Fighting games such as the 'Street Fighter' series. Within these games hold a community however, most hold their own personalities inside them and keep games thriving and developing more and more until the ceiling is broken. These reasons are why I love video games, they are about fun, story and memorable moments and they hold enjoyment for everyone regardless of age or gender.









3. TV
TV has always been a powerful force, it controls people's point of views and provides people with a new window into a reality set by the directors. TV shows such as 'Mindhunter' provide a view into the mind of a psychopath and develops on what it was like to be a detective/cop back in the 70s with themes of homophobia and racism being randomly littered in the atmosphere of the film.

First Edited Video on Premier

This was my first time using an editing software at all, let alone Premier Pro. But that fact didn't stop me from hitting the ground running and turning my task from a small 30 second editing clip into a full 4 and a half minute feature film. I hit many obstacles in making this feature film starting with audio volume but that was fixed with the 'audio gain' feature which allowed me to change the dB level on each audio track.

Camera Shots and Angles

Newspaper Shaping Views

This newspaper cover is shaping the public's views of our previous prime minister, David Cameron, to be perceived as a man who didn't want to work hard for his role as prime minister so as a result he stepped down. The teary picture of David Cameron represents that he must have been overworked but that can also be put up to the media contorting things to their will to make a good story for their newspaper. The Sun newspaper in particular is infamous for manipulating stories just for a bit of extra pay.

Deutschland 83

Deutschland 83's channel 4 trailer uses the format bars to split the page into two sections, which shows the divide in Germany in 1983 where the east side of Germany were communists and the west side took in capitalism and were developing a lot more rapidly than the east side. The split in between the page can also represent the protagonists divide in ideals where he has grown up in the east side and has become a soldier with little choice in culture, food, etc because of the communist approach the east side took. Sending him over the wall as a spy however has shown him a new side to Germany he has never experienced, one filled with booming markets with a wide array of choice for brands and a rich and diverse culture. With these two ideals conflicting each other it would suggest that later in the show the protagonist needs to make a decision on whether he will stay in east Germany or take a side with west Germany, this will set the atmosphere and tone for Deutschland 83 as being one of great tension and drama and a lot of action with the gruff man punching someone into the ground and the explosion near the end of the trailer.

We, as a viewer, can see the protagonists facial expressions when is in his home of the east side of Germany, his face appears to be emotionless and with a lack of a smile, raise of eyebrows or even a frown. This represents the protagonist as a man who has given into the communist regime of the east side and become accustomed to the mundane life of worker and solider, however, this shows that he is easily influenced as well because not many people would agree with a communist view however he has been manipulated to believe that this is the way life is meant to be. It all changes as he goes over the border however, when he reaches the markets in the trailer his face lights up with fascination and curiosity, finally showing emotion and it also plants a question in his mind; Why is life not like this back home? It is the same when he gets hold of headphones and a cassette player as well because even here his face becomes glazed with a endearing grin whilst his head bobs showing that he is becoming accustomed to life in the west side and wants to finally feel emotions like: happiness, love, curiosity and confusion because those are the things that give a person life and personality and he wants a new chance to start over and finally feel those things.

In conclusion, we as a viewer, are meant to interpret the facial expressions as development in character and witness the protagonist grow from an emotionless solider who follows orders to someone who can make his own decisions and finally feel enjoyment in his life. Also the split bars layout works perfectly with this setting as it shows the historical divide between east side Germany (communists) and west side Germany (capitalists) and instantly sets the stage for the audience as they can tell that this show will be filled with tension between the two factions.

The Big Six

The big six are the top six film studios in the world currently. They are at the forefront of all ilm production and they dominate the box office with high budget films and powerful stories and wonderful animations and artwork.
These studios consist of:

-Warner Bros. Pictures.
-20th Century Fox
-Paramount Pictures.
-Universal Pictures.
-Sony Pictures Entertainment
-Walt Disney Studios

However these big six studios will be cut down to the fabulous five studios soon because Walt Disney Studios is just about to buy out 21st Century Fox which is a huge moment in the film industry because 21st Century Fox was one of the longest standing flim studios of all time and now they are being combined with Walt Disney Studios which will get rid of them as a contender for one of the most powerful film studios of all time.

Semiotic

Denotations and Connotations
In the Stranger Things poster we can see that with the way the style the poster is done almost as if it were painted represents a 80s theme because it takes inspiration from posters such as Bladerunner and star wars a new hope poster, as well as the poster being placed vertically almost identically like bladerunner, it shows that the writers are taking heavy themes from late 70s and 80s films.

The facial expression of Eleven in this poster shows that she is serious which in turn will make the atmosphere of the poster come across as quite scary and demonic with her hand being extended forward with her palm open showing that she has powers that no regular kid should have.

The 3 protagonists: Dustin, Lucas and Mike, are shown in a sort of spotlight as their bike's light shines brightly across the poster. This represents that these protagonists are quite intelligent and maybe slightly nerdy. The bikes they ride as well are reminiscent of E.T. In it's famous scene where the bike fly's and becomes a silhouette, which shows that the writers intend on making references to old shows to capture the sense of nostalgia and retro-ness.

Expressions of the characters are mostly shown in worry and concern and even fear, representing that the antagonist in this show is something not to be trifled with and is terrifying the characters that come into contact with it/them. Although we can also tell that their might be two antagonists in this Netflix show, by the fact that all the characters are looking at nothing which could mean that one of the antagonists isn't human and maybe have a supernatural presence about it that could explain it not being there on the poster, because it is invisible. However, the other possible antagonist is much more noticeable with him/her/it walking ominously towards our protagonist almost as if it is stalking them waiting for a chance to strike, and the fact that it is in a sort of hasmat suit shows that it could be with the government and he is trying to get the protagonists to be quiet about their discovery which would also represent corruption within the government because they would be willing to 'silence' kids to keep their information safe.

Hybrid Genre

  Hybrid Genre, which is the idea that genre changes, develops, varies and borrows and overlaps with one another.

Hybrid genre- Combination of genres
 e.g. horror/comedy - scary movie series
        Sci-fi/action - Bladerunner
        Historical/comedy - The Death of Stalin

Genre theory

Steve Neale

 Steve Neale philosophized the Genre Theory. The idea that genres may be dominated by repetition but are also marked by variation, difference and change.

Genre

 Today's media lesson was all about genre's. We learned the anagram DISTINCT which is essentially the blueprints for analyzing genre qualities and media posters such as film posters, etc.

Describe In detail
Setting - location, historical time period
Themes - love, guilt, revenge, good vs evil
Icons - Significant props such as a weapon or a wallet
Narrative - How a story is told, plot
Characters - boy/girl, background
Textual analysis - style of camera, editing, mise en scene and sound

 With DISTINCT we analysed the original Nightmare on Elm Street poster to identify all components that we can take from the poster such as the genre we can take from the poster being set at night which is normally associated with dark themes so we would link that with the horror genre. We identified all the way up to the final point on DISTINCT; Textual analysis which we identified the mise en scene which is essentially everything happening on a scene so it was basically a recap on the rest of our observations.

 Finally, today's lesson consisted of us being split off into groups in which we were with people who we wouldn't normally work with, I was with Reagan who I never really talked to until today. We were tasked with 2 random genre's and we were told to go take pictures that are related with these genre's, me and Reagan ended up getting the genre's: Horror and Comedy which was a challenge in itself because brainstorming ideas was not our strong suit.

 With horror we asked to borrow a knife from a food tech room and after scaring a couple of year 7's, we were off to create a scene. We ended up in the car park behind the Design Technology rooms, to use the knife to hold it against the car window and pretend to be sneaking up on the 'person' inside.

With comedy we were stumped until we came across some poms poms on a table and decided we would act stupid and go for some slapstick comedy, I say 'we' acted stupid but I was the one being moronic and getting a little bit too excited with the pom poms. The picture taken was me behind a tree jumping out behind it equipped with pom poms in both hands almost like a cheer leader shouting in joy.

Halloween Poster Annotation

Annotation of the original Halloween Poster

Within this poster the title is used to help explain the narrative. We know this as it explains to the audience when the film will be set. Also many other factors explain the narrative to the audience, for instance: the knife next to the pumpkin emphasizes the fact that people are going to be murdered by this weapon.

Also the writing next to the pumpkin helps explain the narrative because it tells the audience that the killings will take place in the killers house. As well as explaining the narrative to the audience the main image of the knife helps convey the sense of death to the audience as the hand is holding the knife in a stabbing motion.

The title of the poster has a slight glow around the typography; this glow is also located around the pumpkin. This shows the reader both the title and image are linked. They also know this because a pumpkin is an iconic symbol of Halloween.

Intro to Media

This is one of my most beloved films of all time purely because it was my childhood. The animation was incredible for it's time because it was one of the selected Disney films that used the novel technique of combining traditional 2d animation with up to date 3d animation which made the rustic look it needed for the film setting.
 Treasure Planet, although the film did not do well in box office and as a result is regarded as the worst Disney film of all time, it was still a revolutionary for animators (and fellow children alike) because of it's sci-fi pirate theme that challenged animators and was beloved by children for appealing to the two main themes that were the craze to children in 2002.
The box office and marketing failure of Treasure Planet was a major part in why it was never really regarded as a good film and no one actually decided to see it in cinemas when it was released because the trailer was produced poorly and gave the entire plot away. All in all I believe this film would have been a great success if it was advertised better however I still think this film is a good film because it had a a stellar plot and the characters were people that you could relate to.