EVALUATION QUESTION 1

1.In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

BELOW IS A LINK TO THE PREZZI I MADE ANSWERING THIS QUESTON -



https://prezi.com/view/6aVzjjSM2LIvcQPFTQc5/

TITLES AND FONTS

POSSIBLE FONT IDEAS 

For our titles, we had several options but narrowed it down to the following -

We then decided that we wanted to use a font that reflected the time that Meabh lived in. Set in Ireland, we were looking for a Celtic style of font. 

We went with this "Irish Uncial" Font.

We took inspiration from other films we have previously analysed such as; 

The Blair Witch Project...

The Witch...

The Ring...

All these titles are in a more sinister font, against a dark background with the writing contrasting against it. Both The Witch and The Blair Witch Project titles are against a forest background, which is similar to the way we plan on presenting our title in our film.  

COSTUME AND MAKEUP - EVALUATION

Make-up

Make-up and costume is something that was very important in our movie and essential that we got right. I was in charge of make up and costume and wanted to create the appearance of bruising, dirt and very gaunt features.

I used browns, purples, blues, greys and blacks to create meabhs  makeup. I focused the dark blacks in the contours of meabhs face, the purples, blues and greys around her eyes and the greys, blacks and browns round the perimeter of her face and roughly all over to create a more dirty complexion. 

Dark contours to create shadows for the appearance of sunken  features. 

Me doing Meabh's makeup.

Created bruising on meabhs hands and wrists using purple and black shadows.

COSTUME

I began with an old white dress that Anna had lying around the house. I began by  ripping the neckline and sleeves, to give a more rugged and worn look. I also added ladders in some places and frayed the hems. I then took the dress outside and covered it in mud by dropping it into a muddy puddle and stamping on it with muddy shoes where i wanted the mud to be more intense. I was constantly changing the position of the dress in the puddle to create a more uneven effect as this would make it look a lot more realistic. 

MUSIC

Originally, we wanted to have Anna compose the music for our film herself, however we decided this would be unrealistic as we didn't really have enough time and made the decision to focus on getting the rest of the movie perfect, and finding a royalty-free track just as good online.

For the beginning of our movie we wanted something serene, a track that would work alongside the slow water scenes and would contrast to the action that is yet to unfold. We trailed and tested several different tracks before settling with "Waterways". There was something off with every track we tried, however we weren't entirely happy with how it sounded paired with the shots. Here are a few songs that we tested;







And this is the track we decided to go with;

KALOPSIA

KALOPSIA PRODUCTIONS 

DEFINITION -a condition, state or delusion in which things appear more beautiful than they really are. As a combination of the Greek roots kallos, meaning beauty, and opsis, meaning sight (or opos, meaning eyes), in English kalopsia can also mean beautiful sight or with beautiful eyes.

These are three designs that we were considering using in our production company logo. We decided to use a black and white eye to symbolise how things can appear more beautiful than they are. However, we decided to go for something slightly different as we preferred the overall look of this logo better and felt it looked slightly more professional. Our logo can be seen here;

FILMING IN NEWCASTLE

LOCATION ONE - THE FOREST

We chose to use this derelict cottage as our first location, this would be
the house that our actress Meabh had grown up in.

The day we filmed was freezing cold and at times raining.

I did Meabhs makeup, adding dark shadows to the  eyes and cheekbones to make her face appear gaunt, browns and blacks to look like dirt, and purple, blue and grey shades to create a bruised effect. 

We had to walk up a long path to find the cottage.

LOCATION TWO - BLOODY BRIDGE

Meabh in the water getting one of our opening shots. 

Getting the underwater shots.

Filming some scenery shots. 

MONARCH OF THE GLEN ANALOGY

Monarch Of The Glen 

ANALOGY 

The scene opens with traditional, country style music played over the scenes of an older generation of characters. When the scene changes to show the younger characters, the music changes too, to a more upbeat, youthful style of music. There is a variation of shot types in the opening scenes, such as over the shoulder, this can be used to show authority and the age gap between the older and younger characters. There is also many zoom ins and close up shots, to show the contrast between the older characters and the younger characters, such as Amy.

Age can also be seen through the clothing and makeup of the characters. Amy is wearing more youthful, casual clothing, a simple t-shirt and jeans where as the older characters, such as the headmaster seem to be wearing a lot more formal clothing and there is a definite difference in the styles from one generation to the other. This is portrayed through the mise en scene. The scenes are all quite dimly lit and the colour scheme is very much full of dull, dreary colours. This contrasts to the colour of Amy's clothing, were she is wearing bright colours such a green, this represents her youth.

There is a sense of authority with the older characters, and we learn that they are responsible for Amy, and are looking after her for her father. This is portrayed through low angle shots, and we get a sense of authority through the height difference between the characters, which is extensuiated through the shot types and camera angles. Here, we get a sense of age as we see the the older generation looking after the younger generation, which is very typical and expected.  When Amy initially gets in the car, we see her muttering to her self, and her inexperience becomes apparent, reinforcing her youth. When the car crashes, no music is overlaid, this makes the crash more dramatic and comes as more of a shock to the viewer. There is a mid-shot when we are being shown the three characters loading up the truck. When the crash happens, the three adults run to ensure that the teenager is OK, as they are responsible for Amy as adults. The shot types used here are from above, close ups to show the fear and worry when the noise is first heard and a slight panorama shot to capture the damage of the car. Age is shown here through the reactions to the crash. The headmaster is more concerned about the damage to the car where as everyone else is more concerned about the health and well being of Amy, as they are responsible for her and this again portrays the age gap between the two generations. The headmaster says that he has been "worried sick" and that when a "sixteen year old girl runs away you can't help but fear the worst". Here, we see the headmaster feels as though he has a lot of responsibility over Amy, and must take care of her and look out for her as she is so young and he is the adult. This is reinforced when he requests a replacement car to be given to him so he can drive himself and Amy back to school, where she can do her exams.

The sense of age is carried through to the next scene when they are inside what appears to be a very grand building. Here, the mise en scene and setting have been used to portray age. The three generations respond differently to Amy not being in school, and deal with their anger in different ways. The headmaster turns to alcohol, Amy has a very stereotypical teenage 'tantrum', screaming "I hate you," and storming out, while Paul; the father figure remains relatively calm. The shot types here all reinforce these attitudes, and the shot of Amy's granny looking rather anxious and fidgiting gives the impression that she is feeling almost guilty, and shows signs of sympathy for Amy. She clearly cares a lot for Amy and this again portrays the theme of age.

 The mise en scene also portrays a sense of age when we see into Amy's bedroom. The furnishings of the room contrast to the that of the previous house we have seen. There is a slow pan of Amy's bed, to show the decor and to get across the age gap through the inside furnishings. There are multiple fashion and makeup magazines sprawled across Amy's bed, showing the hobbies of a stereotypical teenage girl. Age is also portrayed through the presents and cards that Amy leaves on her bed, the teddy bear symbolising youth and the blue pyjamas for someone older. This is created through the mise en scene. There is also a zoom in shot of some photographs on Amy's mirror, and we can see through her facial expressions that she longs for this time period and that perhaps a lot of time has passed since they were taken, and with that a lot of change. There is no music over these clips, and this allows the viewer to really focus on what is being said in the scene. However, when the scene cuts to the traditional, rural setting, the traditional, country music comes back.

In these scenes we can see the older generation working hard, which contrasts to Amy's work ethic, as she has left school and has not completed any of her exams. This portrays a sense of age as here Amy is being presented as a care-free, irresponsible teenager while the older generation are all at work, as they are responsible. This is re-inforced when Amy decides to drive the car when she is only sixteen and has not yet passed her test, this is an act of stupidity and one  that you would expect from a sixteen year old, and not someone older. Here we get the message that wisdom comes with age.