Ellie Evans ACCMP

I am Ellie, a Level 3 Creative Media Production student at Aylesbury College in Buckinghamshire. I completed a BTEC Creative Media course alongside my GCSEs and also studied Media for another two years before attending the college. 

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I edited some of my footage to display Walter Murch’s six rules of editing. 

The shots of the group all together shows a range of emotion, mostly happiness. This is seen by the laughter and playful nature of their interactions.

The story is shown by the different shots being placed together as it portrays a party/gathering and then the morning after as if it is a flashback with periodic returns to the present time.

The rhythm of the piece is different, with the party shots being more upbeat to show the emotion, and the morning after shots being a lot more calm and still. The music is fairly calm to display that the party is not currently happening and is a memory.

The eye trace is broken up by the placement of the shots. Every other shot is the morning after, and between those are the party shots. The morning after shots are ordered to be in similar positions to where the shots of the party occurred in the room. 

The 2D place of screen in the edit applies as it follows the 180 degree rule. It is all filmed to the front and left of the camera’s placement as it was set up along a wall.

The 3D space does not apply as the subjects were actively moving during filming and the camera was not moved to show their interactions.

I used appropriate transitions to switch between shots to show the fading of memory to present time. There was intercutting for the storyline which was effective as it was clear that the shots were showing different time periods.

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Unit 55 Health and Safety

- I will not knowingly expose my actors or anyone involved in this project to dangerous circumstances

- I will keep equipment dry and safe from damage, theft and poor conditions

- I will secure any wires to avoid trips and injuries, as well as damage to equipment

- I will not feature any under 18s in my project without written permission from their parents or guardians (I did not use any under 18s)

- I will ensure I am fully prepared for situations where accidental injury is caused and will always have access to transport in case of an emergency situation

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Unit 55 Evaluation

I was fairly happy with my project, but I feel as though it could have been better if I’d invested more time in the planning. I think the music choices worked well with the intended narrative but the narrative was not as clear as it could have been if I’d spent more time on that idea, as I changed my mind about what was going to happen too many times.

Most of my photos were of a good standard, or at least had the desired effect, for example, the blurry photos of street lights were meant to show the passing of time and how our thoughts can consume us, making us focus less on the world around us. I think this went well, and helped to shape the audience’s understanding of Becks, the persona whose eyes we are seeing things through.

I think the timing of the transitions could have been sharper to fit the music better as some of the shots were really long in comparison to some of the others, making it less visually interesting. I also did not like how I ended the first song and transitioned it into the next one as it felt a bit jolted and should have been done at a point where the song was smoother, to fit with the second song.

I used storyboards and a script to plan this project, however I did not storyboard for long enough to fill the desired time and therefore had to use a lot of unplanned filler shots to make the project longer. Although this was not the original plan, I think these photos did help with the narrative, structuring it as a journey. I had scripted a voiceover but ran out of time to record and edit it, so I left it out and used titles to help describe what was happening. This did not work as well as a voice over would have and therefore took away from the overall look of the project.

I think the initial idea for this could have been really good if it had been executed properly, however I left myself with minimal time to complete this. It has the makings of a great story, and I really like some of my shots, however it feels a bit lacking in professional quality and entertainment factor. The music is appropriate and easy to listen to which could help this, but overall I would have liked to have done this differently if I had more time. I would put more focus into storyboarding every shot, perhaps using rushes logs and an edit decision list before starting to edit. I also would have made sure the shots were better cropped in order to make it more visually interesting and feel less like it was dragging. I would definitely use a well-scripted voice over to add to the reflective-diary style I wanted the piece to have.  Despite all these changes I would like to make, I still am quite happy with the overall outcome of the project.

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Storyboard planning

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A short made of photos. Unit 55.

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Lighting Set ups 2

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Anonymous Lighting Set Up (Silhouette)

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My Pitch Presentation

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Documentary Research

Questionnaire

 1.     Are you male or female?

  2.     How old are you?

  3.     Do you watch documentaries?

  4.     Do you listen to music? If yes, what genre/s?

  5.     Do you have an interest in lifestyle and culture?

  6.     Would you be interested in watching a documentary about the alternative subculture, with a particular focus on the music scene?

  7.     What would you like to see in this?

  8.     Would you prefer a formal style, or an informal, interactive style of presentation?

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Code and Convention News

Explain the code and  convention in your own words

How does the code and  convention inform/determine audience responses? How does it achieve an  audience response?                  

Studio news readers role

·        Present an impartial summary of current issues

·        Relay the facts without opinions  (formal/traditional)

·        Engage viewers using body language and  delivery of news while behaving professionally

·        Allows audience to form their own opinions  based on the facts

Studio news readers  appearance

•        Usually an anchor or a pair of anchors with  the combination of an older man and young woman

•        They must be presentable, so are always  well-groomed and dressed smartly

•        They speak clearly and in received  pronunciation – regional accents must be toned down

•        They use direct address to build a rapport  with the audience

•        Appear friendly and trustworthy, so the  audience are able to listen to and believe them

•        Inoffensive, so accepted with minimal active  response (other than acknowledgement)

Field reporters

·        Field reporters go to the location of a story  and provide the finer details of the report

•        They do their own research for this and write  their own script

•        They often provide information that would be  unobtainable for the studio news readers or the researchers working from the  studio

•        Their role is very important for getting all  the necessary information to accurately deliver the story in a factual and  unbiased manner

•        Allows the audience an inside view to prove  the stories

•        Gives the sense of being involved/in the know

Links to studio

•        Links to the studio is where the news is  featuring interaction with field reporters and other studios and there is a  conversation between the studio news readers and whoever is connected via  video link

•        Diversifies the show to avoid it being  visually boring

•        Makes the station seem more reliable as they  have connections and conduct research into the stories

•        It enables the audience to see the widespread  coverage of news in the world and get relevant details faster

Mode of address to viewer

•        Modes of address to the viewer is the way in  which presenters and reporters speak and behave whilst on camera in order to  deliver the information in a way that will engage and interest the viewers

•        For example, they employ direct address and  eye contact to hold viewers’ attention

•        They also speak formally, often in received  pronunciation, to appear professional and reliable

•        Aspects of their appearance and behaviour can  be manipulated to deliver the message correctly

•        Connects and engages viewers

•        Influences the way they are received by the  audience

•        It is vital this is used to successfully  connect with and interest the audience

interviewing

•        Interviews are often conducted to get  different opinions in news stories

•        They can offer both the views of the experts  and the general public and can add important, relevant information to the  report

•        They are often conducted in the studio, on  location or via video links and this enables the news readers to find out  more in order to deliver this to viewers

•        As well as this, it can deliver inside views  of people involved, like a powerful politician or a witness to an accident

•        Gives exclusivity and insider opinions to  viewers

•        Shows more opinionated sides of stories to  allow viewers to form their own judgements based on (generally equal)  representation of two sides of an argument

•        Interests viewers more and give them  information directly from the relevant people in a story

Experts and witnesses

•        Experts and witnesses are used to enhance a  story or provide different views for the audience

•        Sometimes they are interviewed and other times  they are set up in a panel-like formation, speculating on the stories  alongside the news reporter

•        An example of this is Sky News’ morning  section with Eamon Holmes

•        Appears reliable

•        Makes audience feel current and connected with  events

•        This adds interest, and sometimes humour, for  the viewers

 Report structure

•        The report structure is very important for  captivating viewers

•        The studio news reader will begin with reading  the headlines

•        After this, the stories will be delivered one  at a time, using studio links, field reporters and interviews to fully  deliver the information in an interesting and accurate way

•        Gives audience a sense of organisation and  trustworthy preparation

•        Enables the audience a first look at whether  or not there are stories of interest to them

Actuality footage

•        Actuality footage is very useful for news  shows

•        It has the same effects as witness accounts,  however it is more reliable

•        An example of this is the CCTV footage of the  British man, David Miller, who was murdered in Thailand - it shows him alive  and well just hours before he was killed

•        CCTV footage of a crime would be effective in  delivering the story in an interesting and accurate way as it proves what has  happened and shows the order of events correctly

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Unit 55 Initial Ideas

- Modern day Bonnie and Clyde - narration as the two of them conversing, looking through their Instagram accounts 

- Teenage girl gang in London (stealing, destroying, eventually killing) - from a fly-on-the-wall perspective

- Road trip - seen through the eyes of a camera, playing to clips of songs on the car radio

- Mental breakdown of a girl - narrated as her mother reading through her diary or her conversations with a therapist

- Exploration of self-image - various people, narrated by their thoughts when looking in the mirror and entering rooms etc

- Development and breakdown of a relationship - seen through their memories, their conversations with friends and each other, texts, etc

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Spectre Photographic Poster

Part Two.

I found the best settings that made the tattoo look as realistic as possible but I decided I wanted to do something more interesting. 

Firstly, I needed to make the background black. I opened up the file in After Effects and used the Keylight to replace the green screen with black. I then screen shotted this and pasted it into Photoshop before cropping it.

TBC

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Spectre Photographic Poster

Part One.

I took a few photos of Rudy’s arm while he was holding a toy gun and a girl’s hand was wrapped around his wrist. I played around with angles and decided the following one would be better than the angle in my isotype poster.

It was slightly blurry, but I knew I could edit it in Photoshop to fix this. 

The next step was to edit a Spectre logo tattoo onto his arm. I sourced the logo from the internet and used Photoshop to superimpose it.

The next step was to make it look more like a realistic tattoo. I had to adjust the layer in Photoshop. In order to find the best one, I had to try a few out, playing with the opacity and, layer setting and filters.

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My final Spectre isotype poster.

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I used Illustrator and Photoshop to make this isotype poster for Spectre, based on my thumbnail idea of the tattooed arm holding a gun. 

I put a black box over the page as a background, then I constructed the arm using shapes in Illustrator. I then got a Spectre logo from the internet and cropped away the background and outer circle in Photoshop. I opened this into Illustrator and adjusted the size and positioning to fit the arm. 

Next, I got a 007 logo from the internet and cropped out the background. I then opened this into Illustrator and sized and positioned it in the bottom right hand corner. I needed credits for this, so I got those from the internet as well and went through the same Photoshop cropping process as with the 007 logo and also opened it into Illustrator, positioning it at the top. I did not like where the 007 was on the credits so I put a black box over it to keep it hidden. 

If I had to change this, I would have done the gun differently because it doesn't look very good in comparison to the rest of the picture. I didn't want to put a full hand in this, however, so there was a lack of space to show a gun which affected how it looked. 

Overall, I was happy with the look of this isotype poster, and decided to emulate this with my photographic poster.

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I made an isotope version of my Spectre poster idea, using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. I started by making an arm. gun handle and jacket sleeve out of rounded rectangles on Illustrator. I then photoshopped the background out of the Spectre logo and imported that into the Illustrator document and resized it, putting it on the ‘arm’ at an angle to look like a tattoo. After that, I did the same of photoshop to the 007 logo and put it in the bottom corner of the document. Finally, I repeated the process on the credits from a Spectre poster and place it at the top. I preferred my chosen 007 logo so I put a black rectangle over the one from the credits to hide it.

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I practiced using Adobe Illustrator by making an isotope poster for Spectre. 

I did this by using shapes and colour for the man and woman, the text tool for the word SPECTRE and changing the background format.