In what ways does your media product use, develop or conventions of real media products? (Question One)

Film

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The main inspiration for the opening sequence, e.g. the woods dream sequence is from ‘Eden’ by Justin Cane. This sequence uses similar shots, and focuses mostly on the altering of depth of field and focus from the foreground to background. This is something I used in my film as I feel like it gave a surreal and dreamlike atmosphere. Another main focus of ‘Eden’ is the fauna and flora of the woods. This is also something that I kept throughout my opening sequence.

One of the things that I changed for my opening sequence from anything that I have looked at, especially ‘Eden’ is the transition from the dream sequence to the waking world. In ‘Eden’ the transition is too artificial and doesn’t flow as that well with what I wanted to do. So to change this and make it more fluid I created a natural change of scene using an image the movement of the character to make it more natural.

The opening of ‘Daddy’ uses a slow track/steady cam to open the film; this makes it feel as if it searching through the house. I used this type of shot twice, the first I used it was during the opening sequence where it is cross cut with the dream sequence. In this shot I used a steady cam to search through the house until it gets to the bed of the main character. However in ‘Eden’ it is very smooth and natural, so I changed it to make it less flowing so it feels as if someone is searching for the character. Another place that I used a similar type of shot is when the main character is sat on the sofa; the camera slowly tracked forward toward the character. This creates the feeling of isolation as the only sound that can be heard is the ticking of a clock.

The image on the left is a still shot from ‘Don’t Leave Me’ and the right is taken from my short film ‘The Absence of Reality’. The reason I have chosen to compare these two scenes is because I have used the idea of a sharp focus and depth of field; but I changed what the camera us focused on, from the person to the mug of coffee. This is because it shows the audience what the person is focusing on, so it is a similar technique just used in a different manner, not to focus on what is happening, but to place the audience with the character

 

The comparison between these two is because of the focus on nature throughout both. But at this point during my film this nature theme has been ignored from the beginning of the scene. In ‘Eden’, on the left, the nature is out of focus and the character is, whereas I have placed the nature in focus and the character out. This is because it gives the effect of being lost again, even for a split second. It is also a mention to the earlier dream and shows thus the lack of trust in the characters reality.  


Audio Comparison

Audio Comparison

One of the instructions given to Helen when doing the music is that we wanted it similar to ‘Daddy; e.g. using only piano and that it must create a somewhat eerie atmosphere. When comparing it directly you can see that if ours was closer to the ‘Daddy’ sound it would be too much like horror. So we decided to make it more emotional than eerie. There are two different sections to our soundtrack though as we wanted to have a release of the tension. This is different to the soundtrack on ‘Daddy’ because the break of the tension created in that is diffused in the visuals, while it isn’t in ours.   

Poster

 

 

The colourisation in these posters are all similar; the yellow tint in the natural lighting is obviously enhanced digitally. This is something that we did on Photoshop to match the other films.

 

This is a comparison between my short film 'The Absence of Life' and institutionally produced 'The Descendants'. Here you can see the similarities between my product and a product made within institution. The area that is Pink shows the characters and where they are within the poster. You can see in my film the character is placed to the left of the film title, this is similar to the film on the right as the character who is prominant is also on the left; wlthough there are other characters under the title. The title placement (Blue) themselves are very similar; to the right of the frame, although mine is higher in the frame. The Yellow square shows the credits of who is in the film, this is similar placement in both posters, however in mine is lower and more centre than the institutionlised poster. The Green are the 'tagline' or name, within 'The Descendants' poster it is the most known name of the film and is thus the 'Banker' as people will see the movie as they recognise the name. The area in my poster is above the title but it is not the 'Banker' actor, it is who created the film as we felt it would be more eye catching. the area in Red is the date of release, in both it is coming soon; however the placement is different, in mine it is below the title and not the credits, this is again because it looks better in the frame and it seems more eye catching. The area in Cyan is something that is in one poster and is different, the cyan area shows the rating and a quote which isn't in the instituionalised shot because this is much before the release; however we felt that it was needed to fit with the genre.

 

The institution poster on the right is for 'The Tree' a drama based around the passing of a family member, so it is close in terms of narrative and feeling. The Blue area of the poster being the title credit shows that the placement between the two posters. They are very different as the poster image on the right has the title in the centre of the page because it makes it easier to see and also allows room for the characters to be prominant; this is while the image on the right is the majority of the frame while the image on the left has the landscape as the focus so the title is more to the top. The text in the Yellow box is the credits, however in my film they are smaller and more pushed together; this is because we only had a few and it would have not suited the style of the poster, however the larger styles are more typical of the industry. The Pink coloured box is the character placement, as you can see in the right image is the prominant image.

The landscape in this scene is very similar in terms of shape, it curves around the centre of the frame, this is important on both as it places the characters in the scene. The area in Pink, the characters are placed in the scenes very specifically. My poster on the left shows the character next to the titles, but 'I'm Here' on the right shows it above, closer to 'The Tree' layout. The area in Blue shows the titles are in two different places, the right poster has it more centred, however I didn't think that this would work well with the mise-en-scene of the poster. However the area in Yellow is the same on the posters as all posters have credits, rather they are indipendant or mainstream.