The Creative Process: Production...

Half way through our Media Production day, we began to work on short openings to films in which we had to stick to the conventions of a specific genre. Here's our creative process...

We first went about making a start on storyboarding what kind of shots we wanted to include to build upon the script and create something visual from it. This simply began by brainstorming ideas together of our visions of how the script could be interpreted and went from their. We primarily made creative desicions in the shape of the locations for certain scenes or pieces of dialogue, implenting features of the action genre as we went. Later during filming, these conventions were tested and improved upon based on the quality of the shots we got from following our original storyboard exactly.
Following the storyboarding desicions, we made pratical ones such as how would play each of our leads, what the leads would look like and act like in order to fit with our genre and where we should film to get the best possible outcome. We had to think realistically here, as well as considering the way in which these choices would effect the style in our opening.
One of the final desicions we made that day was that of what shots to film first. Ultimately, we decided upon our introductory tracking shots of walking up the stairs, as the weather did not fit with what we wanted (rain and general gloom!) at the time and they were shots that were relatively short and would allow us to get to grips with the equipment.
Creativly thinking before acting overall gave us an advantage when it came to recording at later dates, as most of the desicions had already been sensibly made, with influence from all of the techniques we had learnt that day.

"Action Scene" -Filming Diary [ongoing]

Our preliminary task is to create a short opening of a film, using match-on-action and continuity. To do this, we were provided with the skills and knowledge needed to create the shots, storyboard and to control the equipment and also the script...

Production day
Shots- 2
Our first diary of principal shooting. After obtaining the script, we drafted a storyboard for all the style shots that we wanted. This took a lot longer than expected as we all had a wide variety of ideas that we wanted to incorporate into our opening to greater reflect the conventions of the action film genre. Because of this extra time taken on perfecting the storyboard, we were behind schedual and only began filming our first few shots in the later stages of the day. These turned out pretty much as we had envisioned them, and a lot of time was taken up just familiarizing ourselves with the equipment, in particular the steady cam.

Filming hour No. 2
Shots- 2
Again, everything took far longer than we expected as we were rather paticular about getting the right angles and feel from the shot. Whilst this benefits the overall outcome, it meant that we only captured two shots in one hour. Here, we also implemented the use of techinal filming terms that we learnt from the production day, which helped to organise us and get things done. I particularly liked the outcome of one of our shots, in which we kept the camera still and low to the ground to get a passing close up shot of the villains footsteps. I think the soft focus and colours here really help to create an ominous yet mysterious feel to the shot -  advantageous for the characters introduction.

Filming hour No. 3
Shots- 5
This was the first time that I felt we actually achieved a considerable ammount in the time that we had. The weather conditions were exactly what we had hoped for and so we took the oppurtunity when we could. A difficulty we had here was having two group members with the camera up in the room to get a shot through the window and the remaining two were outside in the rain. Of course, this caused issues in communication and this resulted in us creating signs to hold up to symbolise when the camera was rolling and when the actor in the frame was ready. We also started to the consider genre convections far more  in the later shots we took on this day, especially in including shaky cam and low angle shots.

Filming hour No. 4
Shots- 5/6
Another good day in terms of what we got done. The weather was again good for the type of shots that we needed however, for this session we remained inside. We took a close up shot of the ticking hands of a clock to place in the opening when we need tension to build. Mostly we got many of the crucially parts of dialogue filmed too, which aleveated a lot of the pressure to be quick in completing the opening. A few of these shots proved quite troublesome and we had to repeat their filming a few times - the largest ammount being 5 takes. Despite that this put us back a little further on our time schedual, we felt that it was crucial to get them exactly how we envisioned and therefore spent that little extra time perfecting them.

Filming hour No. 5
Shots- 3
Again, all crucial shots for our piece. The main problem we had here was continuity as the room we had previously used to film in was not avaliable and one of our leads did not have the same clothes to wear. However, we managed to find a similar room and adapt it to match the other in a vague way and adapted a few camera angles to make it believable. We also impusively filmed a few shots for a flashback sequence, which will definitely add to the feel of action and suspence in the opening. Continuity wise, in these scenes we added a new external location to the shots and we must make sure that if we film here again, certain noticable aspects cannot be changed.

Filming hour No. 6
Shots- 4
In this session, we only had two members of our production group present, yet were still able to tie up the dialogue for one main character and work on some linking shots ready to film the protaganist when we next shoot. The hardest shot to get right was a close up, side-on shot of the villain firing the gun as we wanted to jerk the camera just as the shot was fired to give the action more impact especially as replacating some of the features of the action genre is one of our goals with this piece) and this proved hard to time exactly.

Filming hour No.7
Shots-8
After beginning the editing process, we realised we needed many other small shots mostly to fill continuity gaps. So in this hour, we worked quickly and productively to produce the shots that we needed. We also finished up our main protaganists dialogue, capturing various scenes from different angles to hopefully creating a quick editing pace later in post production, a convention of the action genre.

Representation: Appearance and Female Musicians

Often, in the media and in particular, the music industry, the way a person looks highly influences what we expect of them and how we see them. Many artists and acts alike have people on their team to deal with their 'image' along with how they appear in the media, which makes most of our decisions as viewers or listeners somewhat dictated by those who model the stars. Talent shows, to give one example, are a common place to see how people with talent are immediately judged by an audience.
By listing what we think of when we consider certain celebrities, we came to the conclusion that often, the media can influence what we belive to be true. This is such a list:

• Avril Lavigne- Rock chick, rebellious.

A good example of how appearance influences peoples views and likes is that of my favourite artist and inspiration, Taylor Swift.

For many years, the country superstar was the very essence of the american 'girl next door' - curled, gold locks, polite, clean lyrics and mannerisms. For this reason, many people, especially music critics, made snap judgements about her music and criticised it, even though she has now one six grammys and is a highly successful songwriter with a lot of talent. In fact, still today, a lot of fans of artists such as Lady Gaga and Rihanna still maintain the usual comments: "She's so annoying and girly and innocent! Her songs to too young!"
With the release of Taylor's latest album, RED, she also adopted a new look, changing her iconic hairstyle and with it, some of her musical style.

From this...

...To this.


Interestingly, her latest single, 'We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together' has been her biggest hit to date, and many people have suddenly changed their opinions of her. Is it because she no longer embodies country music? Or maybe people would say they've only just discovered her.
Still, appearance obviously does impact us largely in in the media and perhaps this is starting to become more apparent in a society that is now more focused than ever on looks and appearance.

The Production day...

A production day-
meant to replicate as realistically as possible the methods of creating a film. Led by a a skilled teacher who has a wealth of experience from working in the film industry, we learnt many new skills that are transferable to all our aspects of work within media. Looking at lighting, camera angles, and learning the exact terms to use when filming gave us all a greater insight into how producing a film really takes place.

I found that most of what we looked at shed a lot of light upon the techniques used to create certain images and meant that we could then apply them when it came to the filming of our own short film. I found that storyboarding was a very enjoyable process, brainstorming and then refining our ideas and this also tied in well with my wish for studying the script and screenplay. I liked that I was able to really appreciate the ammount of work that goes into the planning process when film making and will most definitely consider it when looking at future projects. I also thought that making desisions based on the problems we encountered forced me to think on my feet instead of following a set plan, which I found to be far more easy than I expected.

At the same time as this, we were taught the precise terms used when filming, such as 'first positions', 'roll camera' and of course, the almost iconic 'action!' This made controlling our group and filming process far easier and more concise, whilst also allowing me the space to be creative.
Some of the harder aspects of the day included things such as the control of the camera, as often the shots we had visualised and drafted did not appear as we had hoped due to equipment restraints and location. An example of this would have been the tracking scene following the main characters steps up the stairs, as at this point the camera felt heavy and awkward to control, especially with the addition of the steady cam set. Although using the steady cam greatly improved the fluidity of the shot, it also restricted our movement. One thing that the production day taught me especially was just how long it can take to capture the shot that you are looking for.
Improvements could easily be made to how we work (our group is full of perfectionists!) and also the way in which we thought about our shots, though I think this will improve as we get more familiar with the equipment, terminology and time management as well. Whilst I believe that this first film will be a little less polished, I think that the production day has given us the additional skills we need to further explore media and film making.

Things I learnt...

- Soft and Sharp focus- This simply refers to how the camera focuses on the objects in the frame. Soft focus is exactly what it says it is; the edges of the subject are blended a little more, sometimes creating a glow around them or even just a more stylised feel. This is not to be confused with, however, out of focus, where the image simply looks blurred and hard to distinguish.
Sharp focus is the opposite to soft focus and makes the image look clear cut and sharp.

- Depth of Field- Relating to focus, the depth of field of the frame is how much of a scene is in focus. A large depth of field means that everything in the frame is in focus, whilst comparitively, a small depth of field means the subject is often clear and in focus with the background blurred.

- Setup- The way a shot is laid out and planned. To get a feel for this, we were given two bottles, and told to create a setup that represented something or gave a feel of genre, whilst simultaneously thinking about the camera angle and direction of the light.

The Creative Process...

In making a short, 20 second film based around the theme of panic, we had to come up with the idea entirely ourselves. To do this, we underwent a creative process in which various decisions were made about what we would need to do to form something appropriate.
Some of the decisions we made here were often split into two vague categories; the first being creative based, and the second being for more technical reasons. An example of these would be or decision to film on the field, as this was purely to make sure that if we were to talk loudly or scream, then we would not be disturbing any other workers. The other, more creatively based reasons were things such as the idea of no sound or dialogue in the first half of the video to add a sense of panic, or the idea of using mainly still camera shots for the duration.
It was these decisions that helped us produce our Panic video and I think, only with this balance and understanding that the creative process we go through is just as important as the final product can we make things that we are truly proud of and provide a source of inspiration.

On Creativity

Well? What is creativity? It's a hard word to define, yet we use it to describe many people and their ideas. Here is my definition: "Creativity is the ability to use your imagination and knowledge to make something innovative and different, expressing your own personal ideas from experiences and upbringing." That seems like a very roundabout, varied way to describe the term. But isn't that what creativity is in the first instance? Varied and unique to you?

Being creative to me can mean many things. It can take the form of a medium: art, music or perhaps film. Or it can take the form of academics by people taking and creative, thoughtful approach to things. Creativity isn't just confined to being artistic. Its about looking at things without a structured view or plan of undertaking them. It's letting your imagination and ideas take control and influence your choices.

I consider myself to be a very creative person. I'm not very good at art, however, nor am I an excellent actor. I enjoy writing creatively. I write song lyrics and stories. My creativity pours from my thoughts and inspiration into an expression of myself in a form I am truly passionate about. I tend to look at things in an imaginative way, always looping creative stories into events and scenarios: this is what I think being Creative is mostly about - expression. It doesn't have to necessarily mean the cliché of 'thinking outside the box'. Most things are already in the box anyway, so to speak. It just has to be your view and your way of looking at things, and the process of 'creating' being your own, with influences from all that inspires you.

The why and the what...

The main reason I chose Media Studies... it's hard to give a single reason. I love film and music and, above all, writing. Media is one thing that connects all of these things and influences us the most. I wanted to be able to look at these things, film in particular, in a different way, searching for the meaning behind a shot or even plot device. I want to learn about the things which are slowly shaping are world and lifestyle into something new, different and more connected. To understand the media is to understand how modern life is being formed.

I would define Media in one simple way; a way of connecting the modern world through new mediums. Included within this, we have films, photography, music, celebrity culture, print and, most notably, the internet. The media is a large part of our lives, shaping them and evolving us into free thinking people. It's a way of linking all the discoveries and creativity time is presenting and making all of this accessible to anyone.