WELCOME MODERATOR!

Welcome to my blog. I hope that you find it both informative and entertaining. This blog details my coursework from sections B324 and B321. It contains my work from my production log and other work that I have done in Media Studies. I hope that you enjoy our three minute movie opening titled: The Serpent's Sting. I worked on this video opening with my two group members,Erzsébet Németh and Sabrina Yu. They both did a fantastic job. I hope you enjoy!

29/03/14 | EDITING | RECORDING THE VOICE-OVER & FINISHING!

Today we recorded the voice over using the record tool on the mac. We recorded it a couple of times to get the best recording we could within the limit we set. We used my voice as it is typically English and it is clear. The other members of the group had accents to suggest that they were not British which would not go well with the mise-en-scene. The voice-over talked about how the boy had died from the drug and the police was investigating. This voiceover lasted roughly nineteen seconds. We finished the movie and we handed it in!

28/03/14 | EDITING | FINISHING OFF!

Today, we finished off the movie opening using iMovie. We converted to a high quality mp4 file. We watched the opening that we had back.  We decided to put the title at the end of the opening and put the ident at the start of the opening.   We put in titles such as produced by and written by into the opening and decided whose name would go with which title.  All that is needed to be done now before it is finished to record the voice over and put it over the opening then it should be ready to hand in.

27/03/14 | EDITING | CHOOSING A SOUNDTRACK

We used the site www.freeplaymusic.com to find our soundtrack. The search engine of the website searched for the type of music that you wanted and it gave you the music which was linked to these keywords. We found many but we eventually settled on Day of Chaos by Kevin MacLeod. We checked and all music on this site was completely royalty free.

PRODUCTION LOG| Editing together the Footage | 26/03/14

Today, we edited together the footage that we filmed on the weekend in London with the footage of our previous shoots. We also spent today's lesson finishing the Ident and adding it to the movie.We had trouble adding the ident to the movie as I was using Adobe Flash Professional to make the Ident and the program only exported the file to Windows AVI or .mov which both were not working for the Mac although the .mov files should have. The problem was fixed when we used a different memory stick was used. We did not find the problem but it was imported onto iMovie and it looked exactly as I planned it.

PRODUCTION LOG| CALL SHEET #3

My Media Perfume Adverts

My First Advert: Cache

My Second Advert: Etoile

PRODUCTION LOG | PLANNING SCENE 2 | STORYBOARD (1)

Today, we have decided to add more scenes to our film opening. We decided that the scenes in which we had planned were not long enough to fulfill the brief. Therefore, we decided that the best thing to do was to add the scene of the distributor (Sabrina Yu), receiving the package in which killed the boy, and posting it on, with a Chinese symbol, which means Triad, tattooed on her wrist.

We planned to have these scenes filmed in Chinatown, London where the Oriental feel would fit well with the theme of our opening. We have set the filming date for Saturday 22nd of March.

PRODUCTION LOG| 11.02.14| DEVISING OUR FILM TITLE

Today we worked on devising our film title. Because this film opening is only 2 minutes long, we wanted to:

• Convey the theme of the movie (Thriller)
• Convey the key ideas
• Intrigue the audiences through the mystery of the movie
• Tap into the inter-textual knowledge shared through cultural codes (by using images that the audience is familiar with)

Ideas:

• DNP
• The DNP network
• The Serpents' Sting

We chose the name 'The Serpents' Sting' because of the connotations in which snakes are used. They have been used for many things, evil, betrayal and even medecine. The sting is the medicine itself which has poisoned the victim.

Snakes are often associated with both good and evil but they are especially associated with evil because of the symbolism of the devil in which they are associated with in the story of Adam and Eve. They are also associated with rebirth, guardianship, poison, vindictiveness and fertility.   

PRODUCTION LOG| PLANNING | FILMING LOCATION

Our opening scene's filming date was set and worked on the location of the film. We decided to shoot at Sisi's house as it was close to school and convenient to  get there for everyone as it was near a bus stop. It also had the ideal rooms for our shots. To learn more about the first scene, click here for the Film Treatment.