Sunday, 31 October 2010

'The T-Mobile Welcome Back' Advert

I saw this on the television and thought that it was really cleverly worked out and so thought I should post a link to its YouTube channel:
YouTube - Lifes For Sharing

Sunday, 17 October 2010

Examples of Intertextuality in Films

Intertextuality – where a text (such as a film) refers to another text (TV Programme/Film/Books/Comics etc). For example,’ The Simpsons’ use this often when they use certain famous film lines or famous characters that link to another Film or TV Programme.
 
Bruce Almighty at the Niagara Falls - This clip of the Bruce Almightily film includes Intertextuality when Bruce compares the interviewee with the Titanic story.

Kiss-Ass – This film relates to Superheroes in general, but relates to ‘Batman’ because of the costume and the way that the character ‘Big Daddy’ talks.

Disaster Movie – This film (along with Epic Movie and Scary Movie) contain Intertextuality all the way through the films because they are making fun at them constantly. I think overall, Intertextuality is mainly used in comedy genres because it is making comedy out of other films. It is highly effective because the audience will be able to relate to these other films and know where the humour is coming from.

Sunday, 3 October 2010

Preliminary Tasks - Evaluation

Magazine Preliminary Evaluation
The first preliminary task that I completed was of a magazine front cover and a contents page. Both of the pages should have included the main conventions that professional magazines follow and the preliminary requirements were that you should only use three colours (excluding the main subject image).
   The magazine front cover and contents page that I designed and constructed on Photoshop Elements was fairly easy because I knew a fair amount of knowledge regarding using the software and therefore did not really have to learn many new skills in order to make them. One of the new skills that I did learn throughout this preliminary task was how to soften the edges of the main image that I used in order for it to look not as sharp against the white background.
   Furthermore, I learnt in more detail on how to use the Magic Wand tool in order to change the colour of the Masthead to the Lutterworth College colour scheme; this made the magazine cover more appropriate to the targeted audience of the college magazine.
   I would improve my magazine cover by maybe changing the background colour so that it stands out more to the audience and then I would therefore have made the cover lines a different colour and change the font so that it would also stand out more.
   I would improve my magazine contents page by changing the text font and colour (the same as the front cover so that the text font flows through the magazine).
   Overall, I was happy with the magazine cover that I produced because I think that I followed the conventions that magazines have (see my Evaluation of the Magazine Pages on a Previous Post).


Film Preliminary Evaluation
The second preliminary task that I completed was to plan and shoot a short film of a persona opening the door and speaking to a second character with a couple of lines of dialogue. Although it was only half a minute long after editing, it took an hour to shoot and over an hour to edit and process; showing the great amount of time that film institutions put into their films in order to get the narrative as thorough as possible.
   The technical skills that I have learnt is defiantly how to use ‘IMovie’ because I have never used that piece of editing software before and have been used to using ‘Windows Movie Maker’ for previous projects. These skills were cutting footage on ‘IMovie’ and making sure that it flowed using the preview tool.
   The most important part of producing this short film was the planning; as I have realised that the planning stage will effect completely on the overall film. I think that if we were able to film a couple more different camera angles during the shooting stage then we could have varied the cinematography and also we could have added music into the film to give it more atmospheric drama.

Magazine Contents Page Evaluation

Magazine Cover Evaluation

American Beauty : Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) - Notes

From watching the beginning of the film in class, I managed to make notes on the character Kevin Spacey and how his body language, voice, clothes and mise en scène tell us about his persona:

- He has a very pessimistic very of life ('less than a year and I’ll be dead') - Foreshadowing
- He is in his mid-life crisis and is cynical
- Looks well off (his wife and the roses add prestige) - Also Red colour shows danger/love/passion.
- Very average and plain man (Suit and Tie with a Briefcase)
- When he peers out of his curtains (shows he is trapped and has blended into the background)
- His wife and daughter think that he is a loser by the way that she looks at his when he drops his things on the floor and how he sits in the back of the car instead of driving or in the passenger seat (showing lack of authority and respect for him in his family)
- He doesn’t love his wife (mutual) - Shown by his sarcasm in his voice
- His voice is confident at the start and is monotone and unenthusiastic - which links to his body language
- He has succeeded but now has no ambition left and nothing really is going right for him (with his briefcase things falling on the floor)
- The clouds in the sky show hopes and dreams for him - showing there could be a positive twist in the plot for this persona
- Plain and neutral colours used - White, black and cream colours - Boring and dull
- His daughter's bedroom has orange/purple coloured walls - Bright and contrasts to the dullness of her parents' room
- American Flag colours - Relating to the title of American Beauty

Research Links

While Researching 'Working Title' and 'Warp Films', I found these two articles relating to the funding of films and Warped Film's Background Information. The funding of films article relates to Working Title's films and so I thought it would be appropriate to include these links as research references:


'Funding the UK Film Industry' - BBC Article


'Warped Vision' - BBC Article