How has digital technology helped you to
capture your ideas for media production?
Digital technology has
been a huge part of my production of my first film opening. From filming on a
digital camera, to editing on a computer, technology has pretty much helped me
for everything I’ve set out to do apart from choosing the costumes for Lia. I
used: a digital film camera to film the project, lamps and torches for lighting
the scene, digital camera for taking pictures, the internet for research and
for recording my progress in the project on my blog.
What features of your work would you say are
original to you?
Honestly, I don’t think
that much of my actual film is original just to me but I think that my title
sequence is totally different and unique to me. When conducting research by
watching other science-fiction films, there wasn’t another title sequence like
what I had planned for mine. I wanted it to be bold and dramatic while evoking
questions in the mind of the viewer about the protagonist of Lia and of her
journey through the film. I wanted to see if I could show hints of what would
happen without making them too obvious and I think that I achieved this
successfully. Also, I think that the music worked well with the titles to build
up suspense. I wanted to use a piece of music that wasn’t well known and so I
thought about listening to music from less famous stage shows and circus
productions as they often act out battles and so I thought that I could have
found something that would build the tension that I wanted in my titles.
Luckily I found a piece of music in the show Kà by Cirque du Soleil and it
worked well with my title sequence.
How did your research into genre contribute to
your production work?
I did a lot of research
into the sci-fi film genre as found that the genre has certain foundations
which you should incorporate for it to be classed as a science-fiction. The
research helped me to understand the genre more and to think about films that take
these foundations and warp them into something unusual and quite literally out
of this world. In looking at science-fiction, I discovered various stereotypes
that a lot of directors conform to in order to play the safe card for an
interesting science-fiction film. I wanted to challenge certain stereotypes of
the science-fiction and so I thought about what a lot of science-fictions didn’t
have and then my ideas sprouted from there. I also researched various directors
such as George Lucas and watched a lot of science-fiction films in a short
space of time (like Star Wars, Star Trek, Paul & Super 8) to see how they
differed from each other. From each film I got different ideas for my film
opening and so I believe that my research helped me a lot to get my ideas
together and collected and to give me a firm idea of what a science-fiction
film actually is.
How much of your text was ‘created’ only in
post-production?
I created the entire title
sequence in post-production on Adobe After Effects and it took longer to create
than the opening took to film. Also, I edited the footage by colour correcting
it after it was shot as the scene didn’t really have the right ambience that I envisaged
for my film opening.
In what ways have your productions used or
developed conventions adopted from real media products?
As well as using
conventional media products to make my film opening, I think that I have both
conformed and challenged the forms and conventions of real media productions.
With my titling, I think
that it is unique. I’ve not come across anything like it in my movie watching
experience and so I am happy that I have managed to come up with an idea that
is quite original and eye-catching. I think that my titling worked well with my
film opening and built suspense along with questions in the mind of the viewer.
Also, I believe that, with my titling, I have managed to create something that
looks quite professional despite the fact that I had an extremely small budget
to produce this film opening compared to the professionals.
The low budget meant that I
couldn’t afford a lot of the equipment that the professional film makers use to
produce their films. Instead of large cranes with lights on and a light and
sound team, I had house lamps to create the atmosphere of the opening being at
night without having it completely black and, thanks to my brother, I had a
studio microphone to record the narration on so the sound was crisp and clear.
However, I think that I could have made my film opening look better by shooting
in the day and darkening the footage later using After Effects as the end
result would have had a lot more detail in the image, but I suppose by not
having this level of detail, I have challenged the conventions of real media
productions.
The setting, I think
conforms to real media products. My film opening is set in the present day and
starts by a girl being unhappy with the world in which she lives which is your
standard, stereotypical suburbia. This
is similar to a few other sci-fi films such as ‘Super 8’. While the story is
set in 1979, the protagonist, Joe, isn’t happy with the course of his life and
is bored being stuck in suburbia. The setting of suburbia is common not just in
sci-fi films but also in action, rom-coms and pretty much any other genre you
can think of. So, in this way, I have conformed to the conventions of the
media.
Lia’s costume reflects her
personality and, in a way, conforms to the look of being an outcast which is
seen in many different genres in many ages of film. Take The Joker from ‘The
Dark Knight’ for example. The audience are made aware that he is more of an
outcast type of character by the costume and make-up that he wears. He doesn’t
have to say anything for the audience to be aware that he is different and Lia
is the same. I dressed her so that she was wearing mis-matching colours, her
style of clothing was an array of garments from different eras and her make-up
showed her creativity and the fact that it wasn’t hidden showed that she didn’t
care what people thought of her. The idea of her 'different' costume is similar
to those of the characters of the Zeta house girls in 'The House Bunny'. They
are all portrayed as geeks and outcasts through their clothing and, like with
Lia and The Joker, the audience don't have to see the characters behaving to
know that they are different from the norm of their society. So again, I have conformed
to the media by conforming to the idea of an outcast’s costume.
