Media studies essay

In what ways does your media product use, develop or change forms and conventions of real media

products?

• In my research I have learned many different aspects of a zombie genre. In my research the conventions I have looked at were mis-en-scene, camera work, narratives, the use of sound, characters and special affects. In the research I have looked at many zombie films such as Land of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Zombie land and diary of the dead. All of these films I have looked at have many things in common. One of the most obvious things is the structure of the film it has a similar story line, which follows the Todrov’s narrative structure, of equilibrium.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or change forms and conventions of real

media products? (Continued…)

Todrov’s Narrative Theory

• The equilibrium – In the start of the film it introduces the location or everything starts peaceful and quiet, or is set in a busy area. The main characters to us look like they have no idea what's going to happen they don't realise about the infection

• Disequilibrium – This is when there is zombie outbreak the main characters discover the virus spread and the zombies disturb the neighbour hood. The area appears to be evacuated and zombies destroying the area and build up in there groups and search for survivors

• Return to equilibrium – Mainly the disequilibrium turns back to the same situation at the beginning the zombie virus is over, everything reverts back to normal

•

In what ways does your media product use, develop or change forms and

conventions of real media products? (Continued…)

• Comparing film TrailersComparing Dawn of the Dead (1987) to Dawn of the Dead (2004)

With looking at both of these trailers there is a lot of difference between them. With the age of the first Dawn of the Dead the main difference is the technology used, this shows the realism of the film. In the 2004 remake the zombies look more realistic, make up, it is also a high budget film.

This is George A Romero's classic dawn of the dead. Like all of his zombie films they were a metaphor for the events happening at the time, This was the idea that consumerism was turning the public into mindless zombies.

From research and watching both of Dawn of the Dead films the plot of the 1978 Dawn of the dead follows the same characters two swat members, a reporter, and his girlfriend and there all trapped in a abandoned shopping mall.

In the 2004 version the lighting in the film is a lot different comparing it to the 1987 version, With the start of this film this film could be a romantic film because of the bright and natural lighting.

There are many differences between theses films, this is mainly in the advanced of technology in dawn of the dead remake in 2004.

Dawn of the dead remake was a lot more high paced, fast paced it cuts to the point. In the remake they use a lot of jump cuts, quick editing. It builds tension for example on the trailer when the little girl enters the room and bites the dad you don’t exactly see what happens but you know he got bitten, we don’t see the attack. This is meaning it is a element of surprise. These edits in the trailer are deliberately edited to make the audience jump. In this film there is also a lot more digetic sounds. The clock ticking is emphasized, the clock is louder and quicker this creates tension and it is intensive for the audience. Also in the trailer there is a lot of non digetic sounds, harsh noises sounds you wouldn’t want to hear. Screams and screeches. These edits in the trailer are deliberately edited to make the audience jump.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or change forms and conventions of real media products? (Continued…)

• Zombie Film Trailers

Dawn of the Dead (2004)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LUzJAsa-gg

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpuNE1cX03c


• Comparing Zombie filmsSerious and Comedy

Zombie land and Day of the Dead.

With comparing these films both of them are very different, because with zombie comedy films like zombie land isn't taken as seriously as day of the dead, with zombie land we can tell that it isn't taken as serious. The reason we can tell this because of the main character Jesse Eisenberg or known as Columbus in the film he starred in other comedy drama such as Adventure land and comparing to the other film day of the dead the main characters such as Mena

Suvari she's starred in films such as drama called Nowhere

in 1997.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or change forms and conventions

of real media products? (Continued…)

• Mis-en-scene• In many zombie film you think of typical setting. In most of the zombie films I have looked at e.g.

day of the dead diary of the dead and dawn of the dead, each of these films have the same typical setting. This builds up tension straight from the start of the film, we as the audience start to know when a problem occurs, in this case a zombie apocalypse. In the scenes we see that the lighting changes dramatically and becomes noticeable the things you will start to noticeable these are such as high the contrasts turn, dark, gloomy and dull areas. When I watched day of the dead and diary of the dead, diary of the dead stared off with a news report and this has high contrasts but everything seems dark and dull and with day of the dead one of the very first scenes it builds up tension straight away because you think something is already going to happen as the character walks in a silent room and he's only got a candle in his hand. Most of the zombie attacks tend to happen at night for more tension and often these places that the characters get disturbed in are ordinary locations such as supermarkets, houses, ally ways. This is suggesting a treat to normal life.

Day of the Dead Diary of the Dead


• Camera Work• There are many different camera angles used in zombie films.• Most of these zombie films follow the same type of shots.

The camera shots that are used in most films are shots such as,Panning shot, is when the camera is moving around the scene showing you the locationExtreme long shots, these shots are generally used as a scene setting, establishing shot.Long shots, this kind of shot includes the whole of the human figure in the scene which the head and feet are near the edge of the camera shot , this can be used to establish the character.Medium shots, this shot is mainly used from waist up, mainly the character speaking or some sort of diolouge is spoken.Close up Shot - This shows very little background, and concentrates on either a face, or a detail in the scene. This kind of camera angle would be to show the characters expressions or tense moments. -High angles, generally to show the character in the different way to make he or she look smallLow angle, this shot is mainly used to make an object or the character in the scene look bigger than it or they really are.

• In most films its not all about what camera angles are used in the scene it’s the way they use them for example in day of the dead, (images at the bottom of the page) the camera moves left to right in this scene at a medium shot, this may show the expressions on the scene, it brings tension because you have only little to see and you cant see what's happening around them, if it was a long shot on the same theme, it would feel different because you would feel like there safe as you can see there is nothing around these characters.

(Theses series of pictures below are the same scene but the camera movement moves across staying at the same distance from all the characters)


• Characters• After watching many zombie films I thought it becomes clear the characters roles. From the start

of a zombie film we tend to see the main character first, as we first glance at this character we always assume this character is going to be the hero of the day. We can also see that in zombie film it tends to represent binary opposites of good and evil. In a serious zombie the characters roles are more obvious than a comedy zombie film because the main character tends to become the leader, the guidance through out the film. This can be related with the Valdimar Propp theory, The villain, The helper , The princess, The donor, The hero and the False hero.

In zombie land at the start you can see Columbus as a weak character and a shy character. We discover this when he sees a truck driving towards him and Columbus hides behind a car for protection, this is showing he is afraid of his surrounding. During the film we can see that Columbus character starts to change he becomes the false hero to a hero and try's to rescue the person which he has fallen in love with, Wichita played by Emma Stone. At the start of this film Wichita can been seen as a villain because Wichita and her daughter Little Rock played by Abigail Breslin, steals Tallahassee's truck. Later on in the film they meet again and you see all of these people build up a friendship together and start to become good friends, this is the part when the characteristic start to change throughout the whole film. At the end of the film Columbus is seen as the hero, Tallahassee is the helper,


• Special Effects• In zombie films special effects are used a lot, the most special effects used is

makeup. The makeup in a zombie film is crucial, in the top zombie films today, all of them are set up and best quality to the film, and you can see over time that zombie films have become more realistic and gory. In Zombie films today it is essential that all make up is the same or the film will not work.


• Audience• Target Audience Profile

Our film is a zombie film which would be classed in the horror eara which is aimed at primarily 15 to 24 year olds,However it could appeal to people living adults as they too are interested into living dead or watched earlier zombie films like George A. Romero It is likely to appeal to people in the C1, C2 and D class, this is meaning, the audience will be stundents or part time workers.

Folowing the reception theroy: David Morely

Age: 15-24, because we thought that it would appel to that genration of people that are discovering and looking for new things.

Sex: Male althoughti t could be some female, mostly male because in a sterotypical way the male is the one that would fight off and protect the people around them and also tend to be the bravest.

Class: Students

Ethnictiy: there really isnt a typicall ethnicity for horror type films.

• A moral panic for these types of films could be a threat to parents as the child may follow these ideas of cruelty and effect of behaviour around other people. Also relating it to video games its full of violence and anger.


• Conventions in my own product…

• In my product, I mostly looked at the research and got inspiration by zombie films such as Shaun of the dead and dawn of the dead. With the conventions like the Todrov’s theory of equilibrium

Following the Todrov’s narrative• From looking at the layout, I think it fits in with the Todrov’s narrative theory, I think that our

film fits the criteria because in the plan for our film it starts off with a peaceful day at school, with the main characters Charlie and jack, then since jack views the news report later on in the film the action starts and the tension rises. The teaser trailer doesn’t really show a equilibrium, at the start, it starts straight away with montage editing, quick edits of zombies, and news reporters. Through out the whole trailer it shows the disequilibrium of the film, it doesn’t show you how the zombies started but it shows the way the main characters are dealing with this situation.

With the films dawn of the dead 1987 and the remake we noticed that in one of the scenes the zombies were surrounding the mall, when I first saw the film I thought they were going for the humans but it wasn’t. from the research I looked up, this metaphor has stayed the same for 26 years, the message has stayed the same and consumerism has turn these people into zombies.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or change

forms and conventions of real media products? (Continued…)

How do horror films reflect fears in society?

• In one of the scenes in Dawn of the Dead (2004), one of the characters says “why are they coming here?” the metaphor of the film, with the zombies going to the mall has stayed the same and we see this as a treat to our nature as we see shopping as a everyday, habit or you see everyday. This has stayed the same consumerism has turned people into zombies. The metaphor we decided in our film to use this metaphor and come up with our own. The metaphor for Dead Memories, because of the increase in university fee certain students cant have a life they want, so there stuck doing something they don’t want to do, so we refer them as zombies

How effective is the Combination of your main product and ancillary

texts?

• Ancillary tasks

The tagline – the reason we chose this tagline because its directing it at us, using direct address with the you it makes the audience feel that the poster is pointing at you, its telling you what to do.

Central Image – the face is half human and half zombie, the reason for this relating it to the tagline, its telling you either chose to live or you die. Also the background behind the face the brick wall, this is a meaning that there is no escaping from this there is no way out.

For one of the ancillary tasks I decided to do a film poster. The title of our film was called dead memories, for this we had to find a suitable font for our film, I think it was hard to find a font to suit this picture.

The age – target audience is teenagers and young adults 15 -24

The date of the film, from looking at the date you may think its around Christmas time but from research this is when the world is suppose to end so this film is to represent the end of the world

The title - we called the film dead memories because, school in many peoples lives is a child hood memory and with this film, the teenagers that get killed no long have a memory, which makes it a dead memory.

Credits and makers of the film

How effective is the Combination of your main product and ancillary

texts?

• Ancillary tasks•This is the Magazine front cover for our film Dead Memories, this magazine is a special edition, due to the special edition all the front cover is related to the film, deadmemories.

Blood splatters and blood writing is to do with the zombies on the front cover

Strap line – telling you what this magazine is about and what is inside

Central image – this image is showing it is a threat to teenagers as our target audience is 15 – 24, we thought as the image being zombie teenagers readers and also to them it could be a treat to real life.

Title of the magazine – a horror film magazine, the title screech the sound of people screeching zombies screeching, screeching brakes

Subtitle – the quote for the film, the world ends with you, direct address so the magazine is directing it at the

reader

The tagline for the magazine – this is a horror magazine, making the magazine sound creepier

barcode

The tagline for the film – the reason we chose this tagline because its directing it at us, using direct address with the you it makes the audience feel that the poster is pointing at you, its telling you what to do.

Subtitle – massive preview, similar text to the title due to the special edition this is relating our zombie film, the reason we chose this text was because it’s a meaning of what zombies do to everything they destroy everything around them.

What have you learned from audience Feedback?•

1. What is it about horror films that you enjoy?- The old horror films which don't take themselves seriously x2- The simplicity and not poor special effects - I like the psychological aspect of horror filmsThe suspense x2- Having fun with friends while watching them x3

2. Do you prefer it if the horror film uses special effects or good plot line to scare you?- Special effects x3- Good plot line x6

3.Are you influenced to watch a horror film because of the actors? - Yes x4 - no x5

4.What kind of location do you find mast frightening when watching a horror film?- Abandoned hospital - Forest - City x2- Space- Neighborhood x2- Underground x2

5. Are you influenced to watch a film because of the production values?- yes x3- no x6

6. Has the trailer ever persuade you to watch a film you weren't sure about?- yes x5 - no x4

•From these questionnaires I can apply the findings to the trailer that we are making, for instance the results for whether you care about the actors in the film were low, therefore we don't need to emphasis the names with the trailer. also question no.4 showed that the location it self was the scary part, but the face that the location was abandoned with not one to help, so it doesn't matter what location it was.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and the evaluation stages? (Continued…)

• Internet…• The start for inspirations is starting with Google searching for information for theory's

and also videos.• Video website such as YouTube this was also really useful for linking with my blog as

you can share videos so it made my blog more interactive and interesting.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and the evaluation stages?

• Blogger

• With the use of technology I used blogger it made it easier to display and explain videos. Other than posting writing and points about our research we could post in videos from YouTube clips to interact with and see for yourself what, the information is about.

The advantages of blogger is that you can add friends and interact with others blogs comment and view and also share information, with feed back from friends you can also develop your understand. Displaying lots of links and making it easier for the examiner, with this instead of displaying a really long essay, with the blog you can add pictures and videos to make it more interactive.

This in my project is very useful and has made it a lot easier to organize information.


This was most useful to my project for my ancillary tasks.

• The poster: knowing all the basic things we needed. With started from scratch our idea was use a normal human face and half the face so half of the face is zombie and half human.

• By making the face half human and half zombie we first took a head on picture of the main character.

• The first thing we did was altered the brightness and contrast so there was more shadow on the, so it looked like there was less lighting on the image on some areas of the face.

• After this we had to remove the background, with the poly lasso tool and the eraser tool we removed the background the image so we were left with the face.

• Next was to add the dead on the face, how we did this was we found some crack preset brushes, and painted them on half of the face. The colour we used was black and also dark grey, click on layer use overlay and it looks like the cracks are on the face.

• The next thing was to get blood on the face so, with the brush tool and the blood splatter preset brushes we pasted them onto the face in specific places, (use redign red and overlay making the bright red go to dark red making it look like human blood)

• Also to make the human face look more like a zombie we used the burn tool around the eyes making his eyes look bruised.

• Then we got a image of a side wall of the house and used that as the background• The last thing we did to the image was change the opacity • For our photos we used studio lit photography, with this the advantages we

had was it looked more professional.

Photoshop CS5


Photoshop CS5How I created the poster:

The magazine front cover:

• I thought doing this magazine for our film was a lot easier than doing the poster because for the magazine I knew

what was doing, from the previous as work in AS so I knew what works and what part of the magazine ideas fit together.

• With looking at many film magazines such as empire and film, I thought I would mix the two together give my own idea.

the use of Photoshop to me like the poster I thought was very useful, to me I thought Photoshop was really easy to use as I am familiar with it.

The central image wasn’t edited that much but changing the contrast and making the background darker on Photoshop it really make a difference to the magazine. The zombies in the photo this was all set up with make up so there wasn’t much Photoshop used on this photo. The title original title that was on the magazine used to be a standard font, and straight, I thought as the magazine was a special edition, this was done but using the rectangular tool and rotating the letter to a slant.

Blood splatters a preset brush just using on the texts and also the subtitle

The text with the blood dripping done the image, using the liquify tool, filter – liquify


Photoshop CS5


• Adobe Premier Pro CS3 • The use of premier pro:• This was the main software I used for my project, for first the start of the project I had no idea how to use this

programme how I developed my skills in using this was from looking at tutorials and help from technicians in school.

• Using simple tools on adobe like cut tool and copying and pasting I thought was quiet easy but also some parts were hard to work out on your own, but now I have developed my skills and understanding of premier pro I think that I am familiar with the programme now.

With this programme I also looked into more advanced options such as green/blue screen, with this instead of making a normal school report in our film I wanted to make it as realistic as possible and made it into a BBC news report like seen on TV.

How I created this was we set up a background which was blue and placed the person we needed for our report in front of this screen and with this footage we imported it into adobe.

Using the blue screen remover: Bottom left hand corner there is preset options, click on video effects then, click on the folder keying then you should

see a box drop down and then you should be able to see different selections to click on, there is two ways to do it but one of the ways doesn’t work all the time it removes two much of the colour during to lighting on the clip. Click and drag blue screen key or colour key onto the video clip you want to remove the background. For the blue screen if you want to remove the background it should be on the clip then to view what you want to alter on the clip in the middle where source is played there should be a second tab which says effects control. If you were using colour key, in the effects control click on the arrow and a box should drop down. When you see this box you should see a coloured box which should show a solid colour, to change this to remove the background you click the colour box then click on the clip and where you click should show you the colour you want to remove in the replacing the solid colour in that box, when you want to remove the colour on the clip, you click on each of the arrows, and another set of options should drop down and drag that arrow towards the right and you should slowly see the colour begin to fade away. (this doesn’t always work, this is because the person or a item is a similar colour as the background or the lighting is to bright)


• Adobe Premier Pro CS3

• The use of premier pro: images • These are the images showing the effect of blue screen and how much of difference and how much it can

improve your film.

Before After


• Adobe Premier Pro CS3 The view of out film, showing the trailer

Cut and edit our film

taking out the clips

Sound

Video clips

Presets

Imported clips

Play to slow motion

Video selections

Information on selected imported clip

Media studies essay

Entertainment & Humor

Transcript of Media studies essay