Representations of Disability

Our exam section for our Media A Level consists of a range of representations within British TV Drama. Disability is one of the seven representations, which we may be asked to focus on during our exam. This powerpoint shows greatly a range of characters that prove this to be true, also presenting the facts of how disability provoke certain thoughts and opinions from society - whether it be a certain simplicity/dumbness or even aggression/evil.

Media Magazine

We were kindly given our very own copies of Media Magazine, perfect especially for our written exam. It displays a great range of sources about a variation of media within society, describing the forever evolving technologies and even the changes in the representation of women.A particular article that really struck me was Roy Stafford's "Do We Have To Live Like This?" piece. 

Filming Day 3

Here's a small archive of our third day of filming, which includes all of the snow shots. Unfortunately, Millie and Heather were left to edit the last section of this and put in a horrifically bad clip of me.

Reviewing our iMovie Library

icationRecently, we wanted to review our iMovie library simply to see if we could find any useful pieces from what we have already shot. We have come to realise that all of Annika's smoking shots must be re filmed. Perfect timing as our new Flip has arrived!

Annika's Walk of Shame

It was during the evening when Millie and myself had a long walk home in the snow, where we decided to film a 'walking off in the distance' shot. We were a little worried it may not come out properly due to the lack of lighting but surprisingly I am pleased with the little we managed to film especially due to the composition. Now that all the snow has disappeared, we will be unable to re film yet I think it is still possible to include this into perhaps, a flickering shot of our opening.

Millie's Snorricam Test

Millie built her very own Snorricam! Somehow we must learn to hide the wooden legs so they are not on show, hopefully with the school's new purchase of FinalCut. When we first discussed building a class Snorricam, I had not really thought about how we could incorporate ours into our opening, yet it in fact works rather effectively. I think the snow in the background along with the roughness of Millie's face works great with the expressive emotion we are wanting to display within Annika's surroundings.

Snow Day

Fortunately, we have also been given a snow day in England! A fantastic opportunity to get a few perhaps, big-money shots for our opening due to the snow. Millie and myself were forced to walk everywhere, I was quite pleased with the fact I managed to shoot quite an unexpected shot of 'Annika' walking in the middle of the road through the snow whilst the day started to get darker. We did attempt a pan shot of the sky (as the moon was very bright), yet the street lamps were so bright that the quality came out rubbish. We will without a doubt make use of this snow throughout this Christmas period - especially as it will add that extra Swedish feel to our entire opening.

School Trip to Holland

If Millie had remembered to update her passport, she too would have attended the Holland trip where it would have also been a great chance to get a few shots in the snow! As part of her punishment, she made her DIY Snorricam.

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Snapshot of Storyboard

A Day Trip to the BFI

Today, our media class all decided to ignore the horrific weather conditions, which consisted of A LOT of snow and an extreme risk of catching hypothermia.. 

We took the train to Southbank where we visited the British Film Institute for a course on Film Openings. The first half of the course introduced to us the basics of what is reflected from a film opening about the film as a whole - whether that be by its narrative, genre, setting or sound. Speilberg's Catch Me If You Can was one of the openings we watched, it is a very clever opening - created purely from the magic of graphics.

A little unrealistic as we need to incorporate a variety of shots in our project, not just animation. 

Soon after being shown a couple more openings using a very useful website: http://www.artofthetitle.com, we were then able to listen to Daniel Kleinman, a commercials director. He shared his experiences during the making of titles for the Bond series - including, GoldenEye and Casino Royale. Heres one of Kleinman's commericials - this one is for planestupid.com

The animated polar bears are quite shocking, as well as the realistics of global warming. The hard hitting polar bears are effective in allowing the audience to sympathise with these statistics.

The last part of the course involved us viewing some previous AS media work. The first couple gave us an extremely clear idea of how to not film. The best one had to be The Premonition, which simply involved a teenage boy calling out "Is Anyone Out There?" in a strong Bristol accent.. I can safely say it should have come under the category of Comedy.

Heather was our film archiver for the day and put together this small film for us, which rounds up the day - managed to capture snowballs unexpectedly hitting Ms. Routledge's head.. 

RIP Flip..

..Unfortunately yesterdays filming didn't go exactly to plan. We had everything set up and rearing to go, did a few takes - then our flip decided to stop working. We luckily, however, know that when we do again re film, it will turn out accordingly, as it was going pretty well! As you can see from the image below, Annika was sitting in front of the white screen - being questioned by a fading figure (myself). The script is completed and now even I have to put on my best Swedish voice. 

Filming Day 2

We decided to go along with the interview idea and set up our second day of filming in the photography room - making great use of the white screen and the studio lights we had available to us.

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Friday 26nd - Successes for Creative Filmmaking

After reading over and highlighting Mark Ramey's booklet on the 'five key ingredients for really good short film-making', it really did kick in that organisation is essential. It more than frequently increases the generation of creative ideas, as that equals structure. Having all read this, we are currently completely are storyboard. Oh, and we even named our characters for the time-being - Lilly May being Lina, Millie being stuck with Helga.. 


she forced us to change her name first thing Monday morning - she is now Annika.

Filming Archive: Day 1

We finally managed to put together a range of clips of our first filming day. Unfortunately even the most insignificant parts of the day were filmed - such as my 50 minute lateness..

Girl, Interrupted

A small discussion we had with Miss Foster recently made us reconsider what other possible elements we could consider for our opening. Girl, Interrupted immediately sprung to mine and Heather's minds after having a "light bulb" moment of perhaps, including a few seconds of our character being interviewed by a psychologist. 

"Why did you do it?"

After around 3:00 of this film, is what we were focusing on - both the doctor's passive questions and the girl's replies reflect aspects of irritation and confusion. I think this is key to include if we do continue with this idea, also picking up on the fact director, James Mangold, ensured Susanna lit a cigarette halfway being questioned. This film has always been one of my favourites, particularly due to the way in which Winona Rhyder's character is perceived as this 'crazy hard edged girl' who finds herself staying in a mental institution - not knowing why or if she is really supposed to be in there - her 18 month stay generates the need for answers as she begins to learn about the people she is surrounded by. A simply beautiful yet emotional character - a real essence we must capture for our own film.

Tracking Gone Wrong

Our first attempt of a tracking foot shot failed nicely, we found keeping our camera at a good level without any shakiness extremely tricky. We've decided to bring a skateboard when we re film..

An Interview with Lilly May

Millie's adorable sister, gave us an quick interview on her experiences during Day 1 of filming.

The SnorriCam

In our lesson today, we were shown this brilliant intervention used when wanting a camera devise to face the actor, therefore, allowing the actor's surroundings to move - fantastic portrayal of the actor's perceptive. 

The SnorriCam literally straps onto the front panel of the torso, using various poles and instruments attached to an overall harness. Sounds rather tech.. but our class is now on a mission to create one! We are unsure on how exactly we are going to make it, although we have found various tutorials. Our DIY Snorricam must be hardwearing especially as it will have to hold our camera, yet, it cannot be too heavy, as we will of course have to carry it around everywhere with us. 

YouTube Hits

We seemed to have unexpectedly attracted a range of viewers on our 5 minute practise Smoking shots and Swedish speaking clip we produced a little over a week ago. Not only have we received a surprising 319 hits in such little time but people seem to been genuinely interested in what and why we produced our film, judging for the inboxes/comments. As a group, we are happy to know our outrageous attempts on speaking Swedish have in fact, been a success!

Se7en Film Analysis - Friday 5th

"a dark masterpiece of modern horror"

Director, David Fincher, conjured up an amazing yet disturbing story line of the seven deadly sins - where killer, John Doe, turns each sinner against its sin in the most horrifically unimaginable ways. The entire film was set in very dim lighting, representing the hellish conditions and solemnity, proving that Doe had the power to manipulate his victim's sins. A sense of mystery was constantly being conveyed throughout, making use of darkness and silhouettes - creating an ultimate unpredictability for what was to come for their killer. A great selection of shots and compositions were used, particularly in the end scene, where Fincher wants his audience to get a real grasp of the location they have ended up in. Unlike the usual thriller or horror I have previously watched, I feel like se7en has certain elements within it forcing viewers to reflect upon the hard-hitting realities of immorality. 

Explicit or Implied?

I believe that it is not always essential for there to be use of explicit footage when trying to create a successful sympathetic audience. Being someone who can handle the images of blood and guts when watching a film perhaps alters my view as to whether films such as Se7en should simply imply the image of an disturbed, distressed, dying victim. However, when referring to the last scene of Se7en, I didn't feel it was necessary to see the actual shot of Mill's wives face - the distress and heartbreak he was feeling for the murder of his wife was enough for me to envisage the possible representation of what was concealed in his parcel.