Thursday, 10 December 2015

Practice exam question - Age



" How is the construction of age shown through out the piece?"

During the first twenty seconds of the extract the piece represents teenagers as sneaky and liars. This is shown by the boys in piece trying to hide their mistakes and they look sheepish ans guilty when trying to think of excuses. When confronted by the teacher in the piece the medium long shot clearly shows the boys body language and them having their backs to the camera again reinforces their secretiveness.
In contrast, the teacher addressing the two young boys is represented as old and patronising, as well as rude and sarcastic. This is shown by the close ups on his face to show his snug facial expressions and the pans up his body when holding the camera brings the audiences eye to the way he holds things and carries himself ( leaning backwards onto his hips to suggest he is old). At forty five seconds into the piece Miss Chowdry joins the scene and a medium long shot and panning camera angle give a clear comparison between the ages on screen. Miss chowdry walks towards the boys in a brisk manor which shows she is young and energetic where as the teacher before simple strolls up behind the boys and stands there waiting for attention, which maybe suggests he has more authority then miss chowdry as she only seems to make an impact on the boys through telling them off instead of simply arriving behind them.

Through out this extract the relationship is shown to be stronger between teens and adults then between teens and "elderly" as the boys seem to have a more native relationship with them then with their younger teachers. This is shown again through the camera angles for example at 1 minute onwards with the scene between " mr stack" and his teacher. In this scene the camera angle is always the same medium long shot showing the clear similarities between the two actors and also how they are equal in relationship. The camera angle shows both of their relaxed body language and ease with each other and so suggests that the age difference is not so large. This being said the middle aged people in the piece often stand away and looking over their shoulder to show maybe how they are slightly uninterested in what the students are saying and also when using shot reverse shot in a conversation, mostly the reaction of the teachers faces are shown to suggest their opinion is more important and so they are more mature and knowledgeable then the children.

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Lesson questions - 8th of December

On Tuesdays lesson we were doing some exam prep on age representation in media films and programs. WE looked at how teens and the elderly and whether or not the representations are fair/accurate.

1. Are teenagers or the elderly represented more accurately? Why do you feel this way? 
  Personally I feel that the elderly are represented more accurately because generally the elderly have  more influence in the media such as films then young people. Although some stereotypes of old people given in the media are unfair I think that there are many unfair representations of every type of person in media and although sometimes harsh I think that elderly are represented far more accurately then teenagers shown on screen.

2. Which representation is more damaging? Although I think that most groups of people are wrongly represented, personally i think the negative representation of teenagers is the most damaging. This is because many people will then listen to the negative stigma and then will have pre conceived ideas about teens growing up in society today. Secondly, young people do not have much of a voice and so cannot defend themselves when blamed for petty crime and being "thugs".

Monday, 9 November 2015

Gender representation in songs

Image result for lily allen hard out hereLily Allen "Hard out here"


Lily Allen's hard out here is a song that mocks are makes fun of the stereotypes and social norms that girls and women are supposed to live up to. Lily also compares the way in which men and women act and how supposedly if women acted the way men do it would not be acceptable. She talks about how women must be skinny to be considered good looking, or have something like money or domestic skills to offer man. She asks her audience " don't you want to have some body who objectifies you?"  implying that women are objectified but also that they are expected to enjoy and put up with it. Lily also refers to the words inequality and injustice when talking about how women are treated in her song, as well as referring to women as "bitches". Using the word "bitch" represents women and petty, rude, stupid and is a derogatory term as well as this it suggests that is the way women are thought about in today's society.
The music video in itself is shot showing the making of a music video in order to show the misogyny of women in the music industry but also in society as a whole.The music video humorously is shot through the male gaze to show how women are looked at.





Image result for beyonce if i were a boy music video
Beyoncé "If I were a boy"


 In Beyoncé's if I were a boy the lyrics talk about the things that boys do in their day to day lives, and she suggests how if girls and boys acted in the same way it would be completely different.
The lyrics suggest that women are judged for their actions where as men can do that they want and "kick it" with who ever they want and society accepts this where as women have behave and are not listened too.
Men are also represented as dominant in relationships in this song and also predatory when she says they "chase" after girls for their own "selfish" desire. More over, boys are portrayed as un emotional as they "don't understand" where as women are "faithful" and sensitive..
Beyoncé's song seems to critic the stereotypical norms for both men and women and shows how she wishes she could act the way men do.





Thursday, 1 October 2015

Link to filming edits and "first filming task"


filming links:


 "first filming task"-edit 1
the first filming task we filmed in the first week for our media course to start to get the hang of the cameras and how to film a short piece..
my evaluation has been posted previously for both edits that we did of our footage

link to first edit of filming task



"first filming task"-edit 2
once we had edited our piece, we took the footage and added many special effects and strange transitions in order to get used to using the serif software.
again the evaluation has already been posted but the link is below:

link to second edit of filming task

Tuesday, 29 September 2015

Lesson notes 29th September

Sound and music 

Sound within a media text should:
Reinforce the mood/atmosphere of the scene.
Enhance the audiences emotional experience.
Suggest a characters thoughts and feelings.
Build a sense of continuity.(e.g sound bridges help moving in and out of scenes) 

Key terms learnt:

DIEGETIC SOUNDS- Sounds within the scene, for example a radio playing in the background. the source doesn't have to be shown in order for it to be diegetic.
NON-DIEGETIC SOUNDS- Sounds that are outside the world of the scene, an example of this would be a them tune, voice over or noises outside.
PARALLEL- When the mood of the audio track follows the mood of the image track.
CONTRAPUNTAL- When the audio track contradicts the image track.
SOUND BRIDGES-Sounds that take us from one scene to another

Friday, 25 September 2015

Camera angles lesson notes

camera angles




Key camera angles: 

EXL- extreme long shot. 
Can be taken from as much as a quarter of a mile away.. Used for scene setting and is used to show exterior.

LS-long shot.
full shot showing entire body,head at the top of the shot. Focus is on the person but background detail is visible

MLS- medium long shot.
shows from about thighs upward and again focuss on the person or figure although some background detail is visible. 

MS- medium shot.
shot from the waist up and is used a lot in dialogue scenes 

MCU-medium close up.
 shot from chest upwards giving little background detail. Used com manly in dialogue scenes, as shows clear facial expression. 

CU-close up.
Shows very little background, most background is blurry as main focus is the shoulders and head of the person. Used to make the viewer uncomfortable

BCU- big close up.
Close up of the face of the person. Used to show emotion and to unsettle the viewer, could also be used for dialogue but not often. 

ECU- extreme close up.
Extreme version of a close up. Magnifies beyond what human aye would see. No background detail is shown. 

low angle-
Gives a sense of confusion. Gives the Person a sense of powe and authority. Background will be sky or ceiling but nothing at usual eye level 

high angle-
Makes subject smaller and powerless. Becomes part of a wider picture and is slightly surreal? 

Worms eye view- 
View of an object or person from below. To show third perspective, also shows someone's strength and to make someone look more powerful. 

Canted angle-
To show disorientation to the viewer, usually to show subject has been drinking or is on drugs. Surreal and strange. 

Birds eye view-
Shows a scene from directly overhead. Very unnatural... Again used to suggest a bigger picture to the viewer and to make things look insignificant. 

Eye level- 
Fairly neutral shot, camera is positioned as though it is a human actually observing the scene. Usually 5 or 6 feet from the ground. 




Lighting homework, photographs taken in school and evaluation..

Lighting Homework




  • Horror: this photograph was taken in a dark room with the door open so that we could control the light source and make sure that only a certain side of Lucy was in the light. The dark background further contrasts with Lucy making her the focus of the photograph. The darkness of the background symbolised the unknown and goes with the horror theme.


  • Thriller: this photograph was taken in a corridor, and we simple turned off the lights and took the photo with flash. The dark corridor is again to make the photograph more scary and suspenseful and the figure being at the front but also the side allows the viewer to see what's behind.. Making the person in question more vunerable.


  • Sci-fi: this photo we took again in a dark room. We shut all the blinds and instead shone a torch through a colander to achieve the spots of light on Lucy's face. We wanted the contrast between light and dark to be more intense than it was in order for it to look more surreal but the idea worked as a whole

  • Period drama: this photograph we again took in a dark classroom. Again we used a torch but this time it was used in order to create a shadow on the wall. I was slightly turned to the side and not looking at the camera so we could imitate an old fashioned portrait, as they were usually painted sideways on, or at an angle.

  •  Comedy or TV show: this photo we took in natural light. We wanted the audience to be able to see the face as they would in real day to day life to achieve  verisimilitude, the colander was used for a strange and "comic" effect. 








Photos taken at home







Monday, 14 September 2015

Analysis of edits of short film

On our second lesson we were set to film a short film using and experimenting with the camera angles and techniques we learnt about in the previous lesson. 

Here is our first and second edit of the film.


Analysis of film 1:
When filming this we all chatted about what angles we thought best before filming each scene and it was very much a case of trail and error. We experimented using long shots and over the shoulder shots but found that as the subject of the clip was so simple it would be best to have clear and simple filming too. We didn't use and flips and transition edits that were too fancy to keep the style naturalistic. I would have liked to have spend more time on it because I feel there was more that we could have done but all in all for a first attempt I think it was an alright go. 



Analysis of film 2:
The second edit we went a big wild, and experimented with the serif programming. We used a royalty free website to download MP3 clips of music and added them to the film to play alongside it. We also added some images and dragged them into the screen so they would pop up through the the film. We also managed to make our transitions smoother. For me to improve i would have liked to have spent more time using serif instead of giving my friend ideas. Because although I was watching and taking notes on what we had to do for each step I would have liked to have actually done more As it think I would have learnt better this way.. 

Friday, 4 September 2015

Media lesson 3rd of September:


thursday period 5 - lesson notes

yesterdays lesson was a simple introduction to media studies and the course as a whole.we looked at the content of the exam and what our coursework would be,and what it would consist of. we looked at some of the basic key terms such as semiology;

semiology- the study of signs 

A sign is anything that can represent something other than itself, they can also have or suggest more then one meaning. there are three types of sign focused on media. We looked at many of the basic signs we see everyday like the symbol of hazard, and how we learn to recognise them even if they look nothing like they are trying to inform us about...

the tree types of sign: 
symbolic-these are arbitrarily linked to what they signify. 
Iconic- these signs resemble what they signify 
Indexical- these signs are evidence of something else.