~Continuity task~

This is my personal continuity task and to say the least i found it quite challenging but also very interesting.

My issues

The Tools

I found that while editing in final cut it took me a while to get the short cuts. For example the razor blade and move tool were only "B' and "A' but it took me a while to get it. I just remembered it as "B" for barbershop and a for Area; just little things that helped me progress slowly.                         

Even the arrow and space shortcuts were a bit tricky due to the lag on the Mac at the time but i eventually got the hang of it after at least 45 minutes. Because of the leg the editing at the end wasn't as good as i had hoped for. On the mac it came out fine but when it came to watching it on youtube the errors really began to show.

Rendering 

It took me a while to figure out why i couldn't implement soundtracks into my work because it kept coming up with a red line at the top of the footage and this massage:

Now the red line initially didn't mean anything to me, but this message was annoying me and the worst of it is i had no idea how to get rid of it. I had to ask for assistance and i then found out you had to press cmd+R to render in order for audio to play and merge with visual.

After that issue was sorted out, i found myself in a comfortable position and i was able to finish it.

How i felt about the task

Before the task even began i was eager to see what it was like to edit because i see youtube videos and wonder how it is exactly how they edit their videos. I finally got the hands on experience and i have only gained from this experience. Even though i had the issues i still found this extremely enjoyable as well as beneficial. I feel like i have learned a lot from this session and it should only make me better at editing int he future.

~CSI South Norwood task~

What is this?

We had to CSI version of South Norwood using a variety of shots and techniques, we made sure that each shot for a character greatly showed the audience what exactly that characters role in CSI South Norwood is. For example, Inspector Sykes is seen interviewing a convict in a cubicle and then looking at documents in the following shot. This suggest he is some sort of negotiator or detective of some sort before the name of the character even comes up.

The editing side of this [Final Cut]

We had been given footage of the city to implement into our video to show that this is taking place in London. The Big Ben is a perfect example since this building only resides within central London. It was about 7 different videos of footage and what we had to do is use what we wanted from each video and then put it into the final video in which we would re-arrange the footage and add our own footage while still successfully implementing different editing techniques like visual matching. We had to make sure to add in the text. However, i went that step further and stylised the font and then variate the size of the text. I would even put the text in different areas of the shot for different characters.

When it came to the characters shot I would put in some further editing and change the colour of the visual of the character. As you can see on the video it’s an orange colour with a change in contrast as well.

My regret

I really wish I had the knowledge of motion text editing because this way i could have really made the profession of this video stand out and all together it would have looked much better. However i have learned from this experience and hopefully will learn how to do certain text animations soon

~Mise-en-scene~

What is Mise-en-sene??

Well, judging by the name itself, this is a french term meaning "put in the scene" and in filming, we narrow this meaning down into definitive segments. We use these segments ultimately to check if everything in the specific scene is a good as it needs to be. I will now take you through the 5 aspects of Mise-en-scene.

• Lighting: This Usually highlights a certain aspect of a scene so it stands out from everything else. As a simple example take a high school scenario and the prettiest girl of the year is walking down the hallway. The light will hit her hair as she looks around and her make up will become particularly noticeable as well as her natural beauty. This will highlight the fact that she is the prettiest in the school. Lighting is particularly important as it also relates to exposure. The right amount of light/exposure is required for certain shots and can be a big issue if its too much. Sometimes too much light Is an intended purpose e.g. someone is approaching and their head in in front of the sun. Because of this, we cant see their face and it is usually later on in the film or show where their face is revealed. So lighting is a very beneficial aspect to manipulate when it comes to film.

• Costumes: The costumes of the characters determine: what time period they are set in, sometimes the mood of the atmosphere (i.e. if its a happy environment, we would see bright colours), and can add essences to certain settings e.g. If a girl is wearing a white long torn gown, without even looking at the make up we can tell that something is going on with the character themselves. Its quite obvious but if the directors wanted to illustrate that its a cold setting, the characters will wear something think and warm.

• Props: These are the objects used within a scene and essentially everything down to an office pen will count as a prop. This just means that these items are made specifically for the movie. Most movies (mainly sci-fi) rely heavily on certain crops which are used constantly throughout the film. 

Back To The Future: The first movie in the sequel was made in 1985 and the prop that is used in every single one of these movies is the delorean (Time machine car in image). This is what i would call a " paramount prop" because without this prop, we wouldn't have the back to the future film.

• Characters: In terms of Mise-en-scene, its the way the characters are displayed in the scene and what their body language suggests and how it compliments the setting and their surroundings. To elaborate on things a bit further, i will give an example below.

Image analysis:

Now to analyse this image, i can see that everyone is smiling in this image which is a clear reading that they are in a good mood and enjoying themselves in some way shape or form. I can also see that all the focus is on the elderly man so my guess is that he is telling them a story of some kind because the cups in their hand suggests that they have been or will be there for a while, which is why i say hes telling them a story . To further prove my analysis to be further accurate. This could be one of the younger peoples grand parents. (this is my short analysis to just give you as the audience what mise-en-scene means in terms of character and how it applies to media)

• Setting: This is the area in which the scene takes place and makes us as the viewer have a better outlook on that scene as a whole. If it was a snowy area with  trees stripped to the bark and deprived of their leaves alongside the unique snowflakes floating down onto the white blanketed ground, this would be a type of setting. From that description alone we can have a guess whats going on in that scene. The thought of children playing in the snow and snowmen come to mind. It is of up most importance that this is displayed correctly so the viewer can get a good idea of the scene. I find that sitcoms seem to do this a lot; they play a short soundtrack track and show a picture of where the scene will take place.

My Wife And Kids: This sitcom was started in 2001 and the way they express the mood of the setting with the image is the sound track. If its a casual matter, it will play something with a quickly snappy tempo. (see 08:10-08:17 of the video for this). At one point in this video the son is offered a "joint" which is slang for smoking tobacco/marijuana. The music following up to the next setting told us that things were going to get bad; also the shading of the trees covering the house indicates that bad matter are going to be implemented soon. If you put this part on contrast to 08:10 then we can clearly see a difference in even the lighting of the house, this establishes the following scene as "not so good" . (10:25- 10:35 to see this)

~Micro & Macro Analysis~

Before i begin i would just like to introduce the topic.

Micro (meaning a small aspect of something, in this case it's media) looks at the little things within images and film which ultimately makes up the entire image or film. Without these aspects, we wouldn't have a film to watch and it's these things which are in a sense most important when it comes to film. Im talking about Lighting,special -effects, camera angles, sound and editing (these elements make up the mise-en-scene which i shall go into more detail in another post).

Macro: (Meaning a wider variety of things within a certain area) looks at the wider picture of the shot or film over all and allows us to depict what it is we are exactly talking about. An example would be me looking at a shot and establishing at that moment what Genre it is and the Representation and to roughly determine what the story line could be judging from the film or photo.

Establishing the aspects of Macro

• Genre: The genre is the nature of a film and we have these to separate different films from one another. If we didn't have genre then we wouldn't have different style of movies. Movies fall under categories like horror,comedy,thriller, action, story based, tragic ect. Some films however fall under 2 or more categories and for that it makes the film for more audiences. I will give 2 examples of genre i will mention 2 films and by that it-shall clearly depict what genre is in a nutshell.

Bruce Almighty Is a movie made in 2003 and sometimes the actors alone will give you a rough idea of what the genre is. e.g. because Jim Carey is the main character in his film and he is known for comedy,  this is most likely a comedy (which it is). Even the cover of a film case can sometimes give you an idea of what the genre is and this movies case tells me its a "wacky" film . I wouldn't say its a horror because nothing in this images even suggests that this has the slightest bit of gore involved.

Prince Of Persia sands of time Is a movie made in 2010 and by just the front cover, i can see that it promotes some sort of action because of the daggers in the princes hands, Also the light battle armour also confirms this and may also add the idea that this film has something to do with war. Its a typical stereo type and its these stereo types which make us think of certain genres when we see cases. This is just by looking at the cover alone. . We can't always tell by the cover but in certain cases, The makers of the film like to give the customer that luxury of having an idea what kind of genre the film falls under. This movie actually has some aspects of comedy inside it but its mostly focused on action.

• Representation:  This Is how the character is portrayed in a film. A range of categories fall under this because detail is key when it comes to representation.

Attire is one thing to look out when examining a specific character. This can change throughout the movie which is why its important to look out for. This can determine what the character is like and what they are into. An example is cat woman. Her suit is made of latex and she carries a whip around while fighting in a rather seductive manor. She resembles a dominatrix and we can see that she has or likes the sense of control and authority. When she Hallie Berri Plays her normal self in cat woman, she dresses casually showing that out of her alter ego, she is a regular office woman who goes to work and has normal friends. This is just from the attire alone.

Body language is also a thing which falls under this category because we can sometimes if not all the time determine weather someone is confident or not via their body language and the way they carry themselves. Stereo typical potrail of a nerd would have been walking with his head down and his back slightly hunched. We would be able to tell he wasn't very confident by the way he walks and most probably by the way he dresses. On the contrast, a stereo typical potrail of a confident person would be someone who walks with their chest high and looks around frequently to see if anythings going om. Its also common for the fashion sense to be up to date and if they are round certain crowds, their facial expressions change.  The "popular kids" in college in american films are usually portrayed like this.

Speech can tell us what kind of background they come from and sometimes what class they are from. An example of this is a posh British man will speak proper English and will also have the strong British accent. Depending on what he wears, we can insinuate that he is from a higher class and even from just the way he speaks, we expect him to carry himself with pride. On a completely different contrast, if he was to speak like someone from the ghetto, we would have that stereo type that he was raised in a rough neighborhood and not well educated (this is of course a confirmed stereo type because this isn't always the case). Its not just accents but things like trauma can affect the way someone speaks. their voice becomes softer stutters are stuck in his voice. There are many ways to judge someone by their personal attributes but this judgment becomes more accurate as the film goes on.

General stereo types This just about rounds up everything i have mentioned because representation comes down to the way the character is throughout the entire movie, Like i said, stereo types can cloud our judgment of a certain person but its because of stereo types is why we can thoroughly enjoy a movie, because we get to know that character on a more personal level.

• Narrative: This is simply the story line and what happens to surroundings and characters in the film. Where there is a narrative, there is a beginning middle and end; with that comes a plot that may sometimes have a twist to it. This way the story can become organized. The narrative is supposed to attracted the viewer further on so that they watch the entire film and gets them thinking or sympathizing. It draws out the emotion of the viewer, weather it be sorrow are happiness. Apricot is a good example of a good narrative short film because it has a good story line yet its short. This in turn makes it a good narrative because its short and snappy. Its about a man who looses his memory and asks this woman questions about things he needs to know.

Establishing the aspects of Micro

•  Sound: The sounds effects are a key element to the movie. of course without this you cant hear things that are behind the character for example. Someones walking and  a mellow sound is behind them. The sound would add to the tension however if the scene were to be deprived of this sound then it changes the whole meaning of the scene and takes away from the tension.   Different types of sound techniques all link into the category "sound techniques" because music and soundtracks are used in a fashion where it makes certain scenes seems more unique that others. An example of this is When the music is a complete contradiction to what is actually going on in the scene like a montage of nuclear bombs going off and sand man bring me a dream playing in the background. It sometimes used for comedy purposes but i will elaborate on the different techniques in a future post.

• Cinematography: This is basically the different shots used in a film or image. The type of shot will suggest the atmosphere (e.g. if i were to used a worms eye view for a blacked out figure with glowing white eyes and a pumpkin shaped mouth, this will tell us that this is a tense and awkward atmosphere) and will help develop the film to make it what it is at the end result. If we were to use the same shot every time in films, then it would take away from the effect of he different shots we have now, in addition to this, it wouldn't make the film very interesting For example. If we never hand extreme long shots and close ups for horror films, it would defeat the whole purpose of a horror film and it would ultimately be a dull film with blood in it. The shots in the film is what makes the film the way it is. You could say it is the the rule or art of film because the different shots have different effects on us as the viewer.

• Special effects (SFX): This is used in most films of today and the quality of special effects only get better by the year. This is used to illusionist something with the help of Props camera work and editing by the computer. Where ever you see a volcano in an action movie, this is obviously not a real volcano but special effects. Th scenery is aided by a big blank green canvas behind the cast and it allows them to later on put images behind the actual people to make this look real. Of course special effects wasn't always this sophisticated.

In 1895 Alfred Clark was the first person to actually implement a proper special effects scene. It was a scene where the actor who was playing Mary was going to get beheaded, All the actors had to freeze before the axe reached her neck so that they could replace her with a manikin. This at the time looked real and they had to implement a secretive jump cut so it all fit together. If you click here you can see for yourself how real it looked. From that day on, special effects has become even more real; but it had to because back then was black and white but now we have coloured film. It is harder to do good special effects. (click here to watch the scene)

• Editing: This links to special effects a lot but editing comes under a lot of categories. Usually editing is done on the actual computer so they can re-arrange images or add in detail that wasn't originally in the film to make it look even better. Without editing, films would be one big scene. Even adding in the name of the film is a form of editing because it wasn't originally there. So editing plays a major part of the filming organization. We even use editing to establish different scenarios and maybe even flash backs. Flash backs arent even possible without editing. You could imagine that without editing, its extremely hard and difficult for the actors because they have to keep up their character for the at least an hour (the average time for a film). They may not even remember their words. 

Silent Hill-  This movie literally used as less editing as possible and done this entire movie in one take with minimal editting. Apparently they had various mechanical difficulties due to lighting and exposure ect. This meant that they had to re-do certain things again. (click here for Wikipedia to read about the details)All these elements are usually corrected via editing.On a future post, i will be discussing what exactly the different type of editing techniques there are.

~Shots Techniques~

Extreme long shot (XLS) 

XLS usually establishes the scenery and what exactly is going in in the surroundings. Of course not everything is in definition but the viewer can then see other crops and just the character but in a more dramatic way.

Medium long shot (MLS) 

This cuts off the characters legs so we can see more of his/ hers body language and ultimately shows the full subject. At this shot, we now know what is essential in the shot from what isn't so important i.e. extras and other props. we would clearly see the main attraction thanks to this type of shot.

Long shot (LS) 

This Shot exposes no more than the characters head to feet, so we can get a clearer image of what the character looks like and take in finer detail that what we wouldn't have seen in the XLS. Unlike the XLS we
can focus now on fewer things so we can get a better feel of whats going on in the actual shot.

Medium shot (MS) 

Medium shot doesn't establish the scenery but the characters. This shot is used in films for when some people (commonly two people) may be having a conversation and you want to see everyones reactions and movement. This shot cuts the character in half as well.

Medium close up (MCU) 

This focuses more on one character and we can capture more of specific facial features down to the tear. this shot is usually implemented when the scene is about to change and the character who's at the end of the scene has a certain expression i.e. he/she is happy and they show a smile. This shot mostly cuts of everything from the chest downwards. On this image we see Matt Parkman from the TV Drama Heroes. We can see his quite serious facial expression and this is why we use this shot, to get close enough.

Close up shot (CU) 

This shot is implemented as a follow up shot in the sense that to get to this shot usually in dramatic scenes, they zoom into the persons face by using this shot. Everything from the shoulders downwards is cut off. This shot can be also used if a conversation gets more interesting. You shall notice that the shots become more up and personal. A deaf person could tell things are getting serious just from the shots and how certain shots are implemented. just like this shot.

Extreme close up (XCU) 

This is rarely used but is commonly used in thrillers and horror films to give it that dramatic effect. The main point of this shot is so we can see every fine detail on the persons face. Things we may not see from a close up shot prospective e.g. Someones upset but doesn't look like their crying in a close up shot but if we use a extreme close up shot we can then see that his/her eyes are starting to water, suggesting that's she/he is more upset than they actually are. This shot is also used when someone in a show or film is when something happens to someones pupils; they may get broader or they eye may change colour. This shot is commonly used in Manga and anime to show the seriousness of the atmosphere. The image next to the sub title is of the sharingan in the manga/anime series Naruto. As you can see the shot helps build up the tension along with the colour red in his eye. We can see his face is screwed up a bit. From this, we can tell he's angry and this current situation is tense.

Low angle (Shot type) 

This shot angle is commonly used to show someones superiority over someone else. This makes them look bigger than they actually are, suggesting that they are powerful in some way. This sis usually used in super hero comics/films/shows to show us as the viewer that the super hero is always the bigger person both physically and mentally.

Eye level (shot type) 

You could say this is similar to a close up shot because it is. the only thing that separates the two is that this one is more like a portrait and is used in more true story based films so we can capture that long term emotion that the character feels.

High angle (shot type) 

This is the contrast of low shot because unlike that shot, this shot is commonly implemented to show someones inferiority and just how weak they are in the current situation. they don't necessarily have to be up against someone but they could feel insignificant to the circumstances. In this pictures case this shot is showing us how small iron man is to the world but simultaneously showing us that he is capable of being the odd one out in the sense that he's special.

Worms eye view (shot type)

You could call this an enhanced version of the Low angle shot type because this makes the object look even bigger, as you can see on the image i provided ( img1)these flowers look inhumanly gigantic, and this is all thanks to the worms eye shot. By putting us in the 1st person prospective we feel what the
metaphorical worm would feel. It is used also when the hero of a certain movie gets a huge burst of courage. However this could portray a "bully" or someone bigger than the hero. Lucas in ant bull is a lovely way to show us how this shot can be used to make any character or place more bigger than it seems.

~Welcome People~

Welcome ladies and gentleman, my name is Omari Marshall and this is my media blog and to be honest iv'e never done media. This does not however affect much since you will see what you want and then some. So have a browse and have a look at my amazing Media coursework. i am ICT efficient so i have more than enough knowledge on how to operate things on this blog. Please do enjoy !!