Storyboard

Here is our storyboard for our thriller, it is a basis for all our ideas and what we will refer to when we film our shots. Our team member Ellie, drew out the storyboard, me and Brandon had a discussion over the phone on the kind of shots we wanted to capture, and our other team member Georgina helped decide on these as well. We all agreed on the type of shots and Ellie drew them up into this storyboard. I am very happy with it to use as a basis for our ideas. 

 

Q&A on Our One Page Pitch

Me, Ellie,Georgina and Brandon, were asked questions on our one page pitch which we began to explain in detail to our Media teacher, Mr Welch. I edited the video using Windows Movie Maker so I could get used to the software, and practice editing skills.

Our One Page Pitch

Age rating:
Our age rating is a 12. I looked at the BBFC regulations and have selected an age rating that I think will be appropriate to audiences. A rating of 12 seems suitable as our thriller will glaze over the murder scene so there will not be any graphic violence displayed. There will not be any scenes involving drugs or sex. However the theme will be mature and suitable for ages 12 and over.

Target audience:

Our target audience will be between ages 12-25. We are targeting our film at young adults as we think that is a good age to target our thoughts about the issues raised in the media text. Our media text will be used as a form of escapism. It will be used for people to escape from reality and everyday life. The media text is used to provoke an emotion from the audience or can be used as a way of expressing ideas about the topic of the film with friends, family or acquaintances. We do not want audiences to be passive when watching our thriller, we want people to question our ideas and what happens in the film, as it will raise issues regarding gender empowerment and sexism.

Statement of intent:

For our story, our theme is envy and jealousy, and how it can drive people mad. We have chosen to tell the story that we have to portray how delusional love can make people, and the drastic ending that one woman had to take when her love for a man was disrupted. For us as a group, we feel passionately about this subject, as although we haven’t personally experienced it, we know how being unfaithful can shatter someone’s heart. The feeling is unimaginable to comprehend, as the love of our main characters life betrayed her trust, as well as using the other woman. The audience, we feel, will care about this subject, as it is very commonly portrayed in the media and women’s feelings and thoughts are never shown.  In the modern day, we feel like the story of a man having an affair leaving a woman heartbroken and deluded, is appropriate to tell. Our aim is to make men think about their actions, as not many women will just forgive and forget. Our main woman character is strong, and although a murderer, her motive was that she either ended his life or hers, because she couldn’t take the news of his affair. We hope that the audience will feel the need for the story to be told, as it is an important aspect in relationships – and the gluttony of men or woman thinking they can have two loves, is sadly mistaken.  We have chosen to make our thriller a film opening, as opposed to a TV drama, as with TV drama characters can develop over time, whereas our characters we want their personalities to be clear throughout.

Plot

For our plot we have chosen to have many characters stood around a coffin, either viewing it in the morgue or crying, or around a grave. We want the characters to show emotion, to know that the loss has made a massive impact, and 2 women we want to stand out immediately, perhaps by cutaways from one to the other. But one noticeably crying, the other one noticeably looking angry ( the girlfriend and the one he is later revealed to have had an affair with ). For the second scene we want a clear flashback, where the main character BOB and his girlfriend MARY are shown in a montage of clips doing things together such as going on dates – the story of how they fell in love. After this we want a clear shot of suspicions, with MARY lurking around where BOB is, later to be looking out of a window and seeing BOB with the girl he’s having an affair with ( JESSICA ). After BOB returns from his affair that night, we see MARY look smiley and happy, however we (THE AUDIENCE) see she has a knife behind her back. We have shown to include the audience in dramatic irony, that she wants to kill him, as then they can infer for themselves what will happen, without actually being shown it.

Tag-Line;

The female of the species is much deadlier than the male

The what if premise:

What if the love of your life, the one you held closest to your heart, the one who you would do anything for, cross mountains and oceans for, betrayed you? What if the man, who promised to love you and to cherish you, no matter what, lied to you?  What if because of his poisonous and vile lies, everything you worked for and everything you’d treasured had come crumbling down?  What would you do? Could you forgive him? Or would you take your revenge?

Six Stages of Media Production.

In the media industry, there are various stages in creating a film and, in order to apply these stages and gain more of an insight to how to include these stages in our thriller, I decided to research them.

Negotiating a deal

The film industry is made up of big studios, where ideas must be pitched to a studio. After a film has been pitched successfully, the studio's producer hires actors, directors and a crew to work on the film. An example of some of the major film industries are: Warner Brothers, Disney, Sony Pictures, Paramount, Universal and 20th Century Fox.

In order for a film to be successful, it is suggested that it needs to be:

• A sequel to a box office hit
• A remake of a European box office hit
• An adaptation of a best selling hit
• An original idea from a successful director

For our thriller, we haven't specifically followed these suggestions, however we have taken inspiration from successful films and music videos, for example Taylor Swifts Blank Space music video, Sam Smiths Not The Only One music video and the Gone Girl film. I feel it will be effective as we have taken inspiration from many successful videos and adapted them to fit our story-line.

Pre-Production

As soon as a deal has been negotiated, the production team has a lot of preparation to do before shooting begins. Actors must be cast in roles, locations decided, costumes made, dialogue coaches hired, and hotel rooms booked for locations. This process will take a long time, and finally after everything is decided - the official starting date is decided and announced to the press.

For the pre production of our thriller, it is our Research and Planning stage. This involves my groups storyboard, ideas on plots, camera angle ideas and much more planning drafts. We need to ensure that everything is planned out, just like many major movie companies. However we do not have to worry about the large scale that movie companies do, as its a thriller opening, for school and everyone is on the same level.

Production

The actual production stage in films is arguably the hardest, as everything must be precise and correct, or it could cost a fortune to re-shoot scenes. It is often called the 'Principal photography' stage, an is often the shortest of them all. Films usually finish this part in about 50 days of shooting.

For our film, we realise the importance of this stage and therefore recognize that research and planning is the most important stage with regards to helping filming run smoothly. This is why I have decided to research the film industry, and the various different stages to gain more of an insight into how the process works. We obviously - with only filming a 2 minute introduction - will not be filming for 50 days, as we only have certain shots we need to get.

Post Production

Post production is the longest stage in the process. During this stage the film is edited, and the story put together. The director and editor may either be very close during this time, or distant - for example Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker work together for many months to completely finish a film. Sound is edited or added in, and visual effects are also edited into the piece.

For our film, post production will include our editing stage - on Premier Pro - and many other software, and this is where we can experiment with certain effects or gradients and decide what works best to create effect. For us, I personally think our Editor and the rest of our group will be working together, so everyone has an input - and we will share responsibility for editing certain aspects. This I think will be effective as everyone knows what is going on.


Distribution and Marketing

Every part of the process is crucial to making the film a success. Marketing is the key to power in the media industries. Distributors tens to promote and market films in particular areas and negotiate release patterns with exhibitors. In the US the 'major studios' through their own distribution companies or in partnership, took over 80% of the North American market.

For our film, we recognize that marketing towards a target audience is beneficial, as they are the main people that will view a film, therefore we have done a lot of research into our audience and even interviewed members of our audience - young adults - to see what they think of our ideas.

Exhibition

In the US the major studios were barred from ownership of large cinema chains however overseas there was no such restrictions and places such as Warner Brothers have built multiplexes in cinema markets. Ownership or control of stage productions is known as vertical interrogation and had advantages for the majors in ensuring that they will have a cinema available to take a film when its ready for release.

It is important that I understand what the process is when films are created, so by looking into the process of exhibition and what happens when films come to cinemas, it helps me further my knowledge of the media industry.

Representation in Media: Disability

In my media theory class, we have been looking at representations of different aspects of society and the world, such as how gender, class, sexuality and disability is represented in the media. For our media thriller, I think it is relevant to look closely at disability and different ways it is represented in the media, to make informed decisions on whether we want to represent it within our thriller. Here is some research that I have found out:

I visited various websites and read their articles on disability, one website informed me of the first televised plots featuring actors with a disability, and what these plots entailed. Within the British media there has been many shows such as Work at St. Dunstan's (1916) which was a TV programme giving viewers an exclusive look into a hostel for World War I soldiers who were blinded. This was one of the first programmes where disability was looked at in depth. Another programme showing disability was Fox Farm (1922) a silent feature that showed in depth the love between a blind farmer and a girl. This shows that the audience were aware of the issues with blindness and the hardships people with that disability faced from very early on in British media. Another documentary aired on British television highlighting disability was St Christopher (1967) which gave audiences an insight into Barney Platts-Mills' organisation that cared for children with many different disabilities around the UK. The programme A is for Autism (1992) gave audiences a strong perception and view into the lives of autistic individuals, highlighting the issue and encouraging viewers to recognize the disorder. A BAFTA award winning documentary called The Boy whose skin fell off (2004) showed the last few months of a Northumberland man that was born with a disabling skin condition, this showed the hardships he faced, and sparked a lot of interest and acclaim due to the award, for how the documentary showed his story.

Another article I looked at spoke of the Ricky Gervais sketch on popular TV show The Office encouraging employers to hire more disabled people, in a comical yet also serious way. Ricky - acting as a manager - is asked "would you hire a disabled person?" and immediately replies with "yes" something that most organisations answer when asked the question. However, quickly after Ricky begins to list the types of disabled people he couldn't hire, as they wouldn't be right for the job "Not dwarves. They can't reach stuff" and "Not blind. Dogs no good to you in here". Obviously poking fun at the pathetic discrimination of many companies who barely hire disabled people, it raised many eyebrows and praise, as Ricky spoke out for a wide group of people whose voices have clearly not been heard by employers. Nicky Clarke, a mum of two disabled children writes 'Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant produce projects which tackle our culture of discrimination and ignorance about difference. Their projects are imbued with a light touch and a sense of humour.' This shows that many people feel that a stand needs to be taken for those with disabilities, as they are cruelly dismissed from jobs that they are capable off, simply from the harsh discrimination which society seems to have.




When I questioned myself to think of disabled actors, one particular name stuck to mind; Warwick Davis. As he was included in Ricky Gervais' series An Idiot Abroad this further shows Ricky's passion to not underestimate or discriminate against people with disabilities. Warwick is best known for his role as an Ewok in the Star Wars films, as well as having various main roles in the Harry Potter phenomenon. Warwick was also, coincidentally, interviewed by Nicky Clarke - who I aforementioned - and had many views on disability and the media. When asked if he considered himself to be disabled Warwick said;  'There is a lot of other for me complications and sort of other issues related to me being short than just being short, and sometimes those things are debilitating in the fact that walking any distance is painful and things like that so in that side of things I do but I see being short also as being, it has enabled me to do everything I have ever done'. This shows that as a famous actor, and as Warwick is known for being short, he recognizes people may see his height as a disability however for him personally, it has led him to bigger opportunities. He made a fictional TV series called 'Lifes Too Short' with Ricky Gervais that focused on his height and disability within the media. I watched the making of the series to gain more of an insight into what the show was trying to achieve, and it focused a lot on the hardships that the character Warwick Davis, faced on his journey to fame. For example, after getting his big break in a show with Helena Bonham Carter, she begins to discriminate against him saying "I cant have its face staring at me" this shows the hardships that many disabled people face in society, not being treated as equals simply for their disability. Ricky Gervais says off the show 'I think people have already made their minds up before they've seen it that this is a cruel comedy because there's a...little person involved, so it has to be cruel.' The show illuminates the issues about societies prejudice for dwarves with one woman asking to take a picture of Warwick, then saying 'its funny isn't it...a dwarf carrying a box' 

 

Sharing ideas and gathering feedback from our target audience.

For our thriller, we decided to question members off our target audience - young adults - to see what they thought about the ideas we had. I asked them questions in a casual way, to gather their honest opinion about our thriller ideas. As they also are in our media class, they were able to comment on some of the suggestions I gave and suggest how we could improve, or shots they thought we should use. This helped me gain an understanding off how best to market our thriller towards our target audience, as we received effective feedback on what they would like to see, possible outcomes etc.

Experimenting with Camera Shots.

In preparation for filming our preliminary piece, I took it upon myself to take home the schools Nikon D5100 camera, to practice getting the shots that I wanted. My main aim was to figure out how to make the subject of a photo/film the focus, whilst the background remains blurry. This is a shot that I have especially been wanting to use in my film, ever since viewing a video on YouTube of a students media piece ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwsUnPHRXEM ). When I viewed this video I realised how much focus the shots put on the people in the film, and during my thriller I particularly wanted to use this shot a lot.
Here are some of the shots that I captured, and I am very pleased them:

Targeting an Audience

Targeting an audience, is one of the key aspects to planning our thriller. We must establish a specific market, as this would enable us to make our film as effective as it can be. I looked at several different theories to help gage more of an understanding about how to target the correct audience.

In 1974 two theorists, Bulmer and Katz developed the theory that audiences watch media forms for many different reasons. These are:

• Diversion - to escape from everyday life
• Personal Relationships - to use media for emotional and other interaction.
• Personal Identity - to create their own identity from characters in media
• Entertainment - as a mean of relaxation and enjoyment.
• Surveillance - to gain information.

Another theory on audiences and how to best target them is the LifeMatrix tool, which defines audience categories around values and beliefs. These are categorized into:

• Tribe Wired - Free spirited, creative young singles.
• Fun - Aspirational, fun seeking young people.
• Dynamic Duos - Hard-driving, high-involvement couples.
• Priority Parents - Family values, active
• Home Soldiers - Family orientated, ambitious.
• Renaissance Women - Active, caring, influential mums.
• Rugged Traditionalists - Traditional male values.
• Struggling Singles - High aspirations, low status.
• Settled Elders - Older lifestyles.
• Free Birds - Vital, activists.

The two-step flow theory is a hypothesis introduced by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, Hazal Guadet. The two steps are:

1. Opinion Leaders get information from a media source.
2. Opinion Leaders then pass on information, along with their interpretation to other people.

Opinion Leaders - pay close attention to media, are influential and are similar to those they inspire.

By gaining this information, its helped me realise how the audience will react to the media thriller that i am in the midst of planning.

Key Director: Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese is renowned for his films and directing skills, producing a wide range of films from thrillers to action films. I have decided to look closely at some of his work and famous techniques in order to gain more of an insight into what sort of techniques we should include in our film.

Martin Scorsese is well known for his movies, some are thrillers but most primarily have themes of redemption, crime and gang conflict. Some of his films that are most notable are; Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and the crime film Goodfellas (1990). He has had 8 nominations for best director, making him the most nominated living director. This is why I have chose to research Martin Scorsese's techniques.

The film 'Goodfellas' which is a crime-thriller film, and within the film he uses many editing techniques to help convey emotion and tell the story of the plot. For example he uses a Freeze Frame in the opening scene when the main character exclaims 'As far as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangsta' which, as the frame is paused on the character is effective in many ways. First of all due to the fact the frame is frozen we can infer that the character who is narrating is reflecting on his time - and the fact that it is frozen after he shoots someone shows that he believes shooting is a 'gangsta' way to behave. This freeze frame is effective as it stops the dynamic of the scene, pausing the action and giving the audience a chance to take in the information on what has happened prior at 1.32. it is clear Scorsese wants to signpost  moments he wants the audiences attention to focus on.

Opening to a Thriller analysis: Gone Girl

The film starts with an eerie hallowing music providing the underlying sound whilst the audience is shown a dark screen. Nick Dunne, the protagonist character begins to speak in what can be described as a mere, calm whisper saying “When I think of my wife, I always think of her head” which upon first impressions sounds as though Nick Dunne is a man devoted to loving his wife. As the audience we expect the protagonist to begin describing what he loves about her in a typical list fashion. This is revealed to not be the case as Nick Dunne slowly whispers “ I picture cracking her lovely skull”, this lets us as an audience know that the protagonist is a sick character, as he still uses a nice adjective to describe her skull, yet informs us he visions killing her brutally. This introduces the audience to the sick nature of the film, and gives us an insight about what to expect. Contradicting Nicks speech is an close up shot of his wife Amy Dunne, looking upwards, away from the camera so her eye line does not match the camera. This helps the audience infer however that she is looking admiringly at her husband, this is also supported by the fact she looks very seductive – wearing minimal clothing and showing a lot of skin.

After this shot, we are shown a series of quick images on the surrounding area, images of a window, old fashioned shots of a town looking deserted. From this we can assume that it is early morning in the town, a time when no one is about, which adds to the creepy atmosphere of the thriller. We are informed discreetly of the time, by a panning shot of a clock in the middle of the town, revealing the time to be 7am.This is followed by a shot of the main character, Nick, standing outside his house at this inferred early hour, next to his bins looking across the road which adds to the mentally unstable image we have already formed in our head of Nick.  The sound we here is the same sinister music, however the diegetic sound of Nick shutting his door is louder and takes up more of the audiences attention. Text appears on the screen saying “July 5^th: The morning off” which further makes the audience question what is happening. By not finishing the sentence this makes the audience ponder and guess what is significant about that morning, and adds to the suspense that has already been created by Nicks first speech. The shots then continue off Nick getting into a Black Range Rover and pulling up. We can infer that he is at a bar as there is a shot that precedes his entrance of a sign saying “The Bar” which is already strange and is a stark contrast to places people go in the morning.  The colour scheme seen throughout is dull and includes a lot of grey tones, the outfit of the woman Nick speaks to in the bar should contrast because her top is yellow however noticeably does not.




 



Opening to a thriller: Seven analysis

The film, Seven, is a well known thriller starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. I have written an analysis on the camera angles used in the film and how they create effect and meaning.

The film starts with a Flash Cut watching a black and white picture with the title "Se7en" printed in white appearing, the white contrasting the dark background and creating a sense of suspense. Throughout the whole opening sequence there is no establishing shot, which is usually used at the beginning of a scene to indicate the location or setting. This already adds to the thriller aspect, as the audience has not been given any clues as to where the action is taking place. Another shot used is an over-the-shoulder shot, otherwise known as a point of view shot, which allows the audience to look what is happening from the protagonists point of view, as he is moving various items. The most important camera range that is taking place during the opening sequence is a arguably the older-the-shoulder close up, which gives us a detailed insight into what is being prepared.
 

Thriller ideas

Here I have inserted an image of our work produced in lesson regarding our media ideas for our main task.

Conventions of Thriller Films

As our new project includes creating a thriller film and recording it, for our coursework; we have been asked to research a thriller film and write down the conversions of them. First I have thought to consider what is a thriller film? what defines them?

A thriller film is a film, genuinely face paced with a lot of suspense in places, including an antagonist and protagonist character, when there is disruption in the equilibrium. The plot usually becomes tense, waiting for the climax to reach the conclusion.

After considering the basics of a thriller film, I was led to consider, what aspects make a thriller different to any other media in terms of filming?

Usually throughout thriller films generally;  the lighting will be low, with quick cuts showing tension, music representing the dark and tense mood, often diegetic sounds of breathing, montage shots showing parts of the action and finally the protagonist is in the mercy of the antagonist.

In regards to characters, I pondered about how they are often presented?

There is almost always an protagonist and an antagonist. With the protagonist wanting to restore peace and generally not doing anything specifically wrong, the antagonist will most likely have a hidden personality which is uncovered later on, seeking revenge on the protagonist throughout the thriller.

After watching a thriller as an audience, I wondered, how do thrillers make the audience feel?

The audience should be expected, after watching a thriller film, to be thoroughly convinced that the events within the film could happen to them. Feeling scared, they should be fully invested in the film and the realistic style of the plot.

After investigating thriller films, it only makes me more excited to research more and decide what I will include in my thriller film coursework.

Preliminary Piece and Evaluation

We have finished filming and editing our preliminary piece, and I have wrote an evaluation on it, I will insert both links before. I am very happy with how it has gone and look forward to starting our thriller works.

 

As media preliminary evaluation from amber_needham

Case Study Homework

For my theory class in Media, my teacher, Miss Fry set us homework to complete a case study on a TV Drama of our choice. No one was allowed to do the same drama, which makes sense as in the future we will use the case studies to revise all the TV Dramas for the examination. I have chosen to do my presentation on Gossip Girl, which is a show I very love and am passionate about. I have already started my presentation, which I have concluded is because I very much enjoy Gossip Girl and therefore enjoy writing about it. Within our case study we are expected to answer questions on; how the show represents sexuality, age, gender, how the show uses camera shots and what effect these give, why the show was made, how popular the show it etc. I am excited to finish my presentation, and then print out a copy for reference. Theory very much links in with practical media, which is what I enjoy about it. As things I find out about shots and their effect will help me complete my preliminary task.

 

Premier Pro Editing

Today we had a go on the Premier Pro editing software that the school has to offer. We uploaded all of the clips that we had previously filmed and started to piece them in the right order. I learnt how to speed up a clip: by clicking on the clip, going onto Edit, then clicking Speed, and increasing the percentage from 100% to make it faster, and decreasing to make it slower. I sped up a lot of the videos of our actor walking, as it was very long and didn't get to the point. I also cut videos with the Razor tool, which was alike something I had previously used in Windows Movie Maker, so I found it very easy. Editing is very time consuming, I have definitely learnt you need a lot of patience, however as well as this I have learned practice is the key to becoming better at it, and asking friends and classmates how to do things is a good source of information

Filming for our Preliminary Task

Today we went out filming! We asked a friend to be an actor and filmed exterior shots of him walking into a building. We made sure we had appropriate props, such as a briefcase and a clipboard for him to look the part and got to filming! We got shots of him walking in from a distance, we then got him to pause mid walk, as we got a close up of his face. Following that we turned the camera round and filmed him walking from the back, to get a different perspective. Then came the fun part, the Match On Action shot where we filmed our actor opening a door and walking in. This shot was very hard to film as we had to be precise with how he opened the door from the back shot, and then how he opened the door from the shot where we were on the inside filming. Overall i am very happy with the shots that we got to film today, I do not expect them to be completely perfect,as its only our first try! I think if we started out amazing, there would be no room for improvement, so I expect some flaws in the filming. However we tried our best, and so far there is nothing I am unhappy with. 

Our Storyboard

Today we completed our storyboard for our preliminary task, and I am very happy with it as we have got a wide range of shots in our storyboard.

Preliminary Task and Continuity

Today we were set our preliminary task. We must film someone walking along a corridor, into a room, and they must exchange dialogue with another person, then leave the room. This task is to help us practicei filming and editing, and although it is not being graded, I really am excited to put a lot of time and effort into making sure it is really good! My teacher, Mr Welch, showed us some videos about continuity on YouTube, which emphasised the importance of it. I think that it can be easy to completely forget about little details, such as if in one shot your hand is touching your cheek and the next its on your lap. Continuity is about the whole film running without errors. Shows such as 'Biggest Movie a Mistakes' make tv episodes about movies with bad continuity. It is being shown as a joke, I hope that when we complete our preliminary task the continuity will not be an issue.

Experimenting with Camera Shots

Today, during my Media Studies lesson, we were sent out to capture a selection of shots, to further understand our idea of them and why they are used. I enjoyed these tasks, as me and my group went through great lengths to ensure that we got the right shots on our list. It was fun to explore the best places to take this images, such as our Schools exterior for the Establishing shot. I will insert within below the various types of shots that we managed to capture
.

Extreme Close Up Shot

This Extreme Close Up shot is effective because it shows the focus of the photo in more detail. In this photo, we blurred the background slightly in order to emphasise the vital importance of the berries in the photo.

 

Long Shot

This Long shot is very useful in some circumstances, as it shows lots of other detail in the background of the photo while also concentrating on the main focus of the picture which is the sculpture of a tree. By using the rule of thirds we were able to centralise the sculpture, this supported the idea that the sculpture is the most important thing in the photo

Low Angled

This Low Angled shot is useful for making the subject of the photo (in this case the sculpture) look more important as it is taken from a lower perspective, meaning that the subject will look much larger. Moreover, you could say that this angle allows the viewer to feel as though they're viewing the subject of the photograph from the eyes of someone who is small in terms of their height.

 

 Establishing Shot
 
This Establishing shot is useful for making the subject of the photo (in this case the sculpture) look more important as it is taken from a lower perspective, meaning that the subject will look much larger. Moreover, you could say that this angle allows the viewer to feel as though they're viewing the subject of the photograph from the eyes of someone who is small in terms of their height.

 

 

 

Shot taken fromThree Different Perspectives

Taking three different shots offers different perspectives of the scene. For example, the first shot of the car could show the perspective of someone looking at the car from the window of a house, the second photo could show the car arriving at it's destination and the last shot could show the car having already arrived at it's destination.

 

 

Starting Media Studies!

Hello and welcome to my blog site!

I am excited at the future of Media Studies, and the thought of creating a blog site excites me, as I have always been interested in aspects of Media, such as photography and film making. Luckily, I am familiar with using the internet, and use blog sites such as Tumblr already.

The thing which excites me the most is the practical side of media, such as editing and creating the final project (an opening to a thriller style film). With that being said, I also think I will enjoy the theory side of media, looking at camera shots and analysing film clips. I have recently found out that we will be watching parts of a series called Utopia,and commenting on the style of the series and camera angles used for different effects. As I enjoy watching television and films, I think that it will put a completely new perspective on things, as I will start to infer the deeper meanings of certain parts in the film or series.

My favourite film series is by far Harry Potter, as it is so interesting and imaginative, the characters are so complex, and the effects used are amazing. Theres so many clues carefully given throughout which we can piece together as the films go on, and as I have heard we will be studying it, I am excited to learn the techniques used to keep the effects just as imaginative as the plot.


Media is a subject I have not studied before, however I do believe that it is an important factor in every day life. As we encounter the Media all the time, be it through magazines, talk shows, or even music. It intrigues me how a subject which was definitely not taught when my parents were born, has grown into such a crucial subject which I think everyone should become familiarised with.

I am looking forward to the future of my time in Media, and updating my blog throughout my Media Studies journey!

Amber Needham