Section 1A - Real Media Texts

Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time. 25 Marks

Without having the use of prime examples of real media texts referring to my specific briefs I wouldn't have been able to collect any inspiration to add into my own creation of work. Throughout this two year course I have been able to understand the impact that these existing videos would have on my production stages so could collect only the most realistic that related to my chosen genre as I knew these would be the ones I would be referring too most of the time to enhance my level of creativity in the long run. Over the two years two separate briefs where set;  In AS we were asked to create a 2 minute film sequence from either a Film Noir or Horror Genre including titles, I personally chose Horror because I knew I would be more successful at it. In A2 we were asked to create a music promo package which included; Music Video, Digipak and Advert I personally chose the Pop Genre and chose to use the song Cannibal by Kesha.
In this question I will explain the texts that were inspirational to me throughout pre production, production and post production and then explain the same answers for A2, however will explain how I have developed a range of skills to take the most influence from each.

Before actually filming my horror sequence a lot of research was done for me to see exactly what existing horror films story lines where and what conventions they where following or challenging. I firstly looked at nightmare on elm street because I knew it was a slightly more violent horror and although I didn't want to go down that route I knew the whole idea of from the beginning of the film right up until 5 minutes had past the camera angles focused mainly around a girl - who could be seen as the main character, even when titles where flashing up onto the screen, shots of her would follow and this is the exact idea I had for my sequence because I would want the audience to understand exactly who she was and that she played the main part. In that film the scene only showed the girl in her home, which didn't suggest any violent acts would occur and although I want my film to be of the horror genre I would like it to be slightly more discreet in the way this film doesn't have a real story line till the middle scenes.
The next film I looked at was scream, although it's slightly more comedy than horror I knew some of the scenes where very memorable and could fit into my ideas and plans easily. Such as when the 'villain' calls up the girl who is alone in her house seeing he can see her and is coming to get her which she responds in a way that shows the audience how worried she is that a strange man is watching over her. Although this is interesting research to look in to I don't necessarily want to follow this lead because I want my sequence to be unique, however showing the worry from my character being approached or 'caught' by the villain in a different sense would show I have took the inspiration and transferred it into my own ideas.
Finally in pre production stages of my AS brief I looked at Orphan, which is a much more modern version of a horror film compared to the other two and the main reason I looked into this was because the girl was again the main character and she has physiological problems which stops her being able to be loved by any sort of family. This problems involve her hurting family members to make sure she is getting all of the attention however I think this is way too much story line to include in such a small sequence because a lot of detail would need to be shot, however my male character could seem to be shown as quite 'gone in the head' for the things I want him to do to my main character by keeping her hostage and taking images which could suggest that he has problems and could work.


Production stage of my brief was much more important to find the best texts to refer to as they would influence my overall filming techniques. The film wolf creek supports a specific scene at the end of the film where the girl runs off into the Australian desert to get away from this killer, however he does end up finding her and the end is un certain. But the variety of shots that are conducted in that one scene make the audience feel like they are actually running with the character as you can hear the high level of panting as well as see the fear from her facial expressions using meat shots and then how tired she begins to look by the long shots used to show the whole scene. Because at the end of my short sequence I want to show a running scene of my main character actually becoming free from this killer she thought she was caught by, I hope to incorporate this variety of shots that cut a lot to keep the audience interested and also feel the fear of what could happen next.
The lovely bones was the next film that inspired me mainly because the female character who is a part of it is very quite and 'normal looking' which indicates the girl next door image as well as the person who she befriends (her next door neighbor) actually becomes her killer, which the audience wouldn't expect from the beginning. At the beginning of my sequence I hope to capture my female character looking just like a usual teenage girl who has no care in the world. However this perception can suddenly change when the flashback begins as they would be shown her tied up by this 'unknown man' who seems to be very fond of her in a uncomfortable way.
Finally the film Descent's main story line shows the 'alpha male' being the more dominant character giving out all the orders and actions because he is superior to anyone else, whereas the female is more vulnerable and would actually be afraid to speak her true feelings. I would transfer the idea of male vs female into my own sequence as in many horror films the woman is seemed to be very scared of what the male will do to her and will listen to any orders given. In mine my female will be tied up and ask to be released with the response of the male replying no and laughing as he will know himself she will soon give up because she knows he's opinion will always come first.

Post production mainly consists of the editing stages and discussing why I captured each of the shots in my own sequence. I had the idea of scary movie and how the humor overwrites the actual idea of horror to not be so full on, so for some of my scenes I tried to make it slightly more mediocre in the way that it wouldn't scare anyone but still be a shock, for example I captured a scene where my main character is running and she looks away and double takes a girl sat on the swings to be her. This would be very unexpected to the audience and because the other girl we used looks nothing like her then it's even more unusual. Although it's not as joke like as scary movie, the aspects are still there.
Once again I used orphan as a main part of my inspiration and a lot of various scenes where inspired by that film alone. For example Ester the main character in Orphan is seen as quite an angelic cute little girl who looks as though she wouldn't do any harm however as the film goes on her whole personality changes, this doesn't actually happen in my film but the whole angelic type of character is the part that I established in my own sequence because I thought the female is the vulnerable victim here so I want the audience to grasp a relationship with her from the start. This also isn't a common type of element to be included in every type of horror film so if many people hadn't actually seen Orphan then they would grasp my idea as more unique.
Also the various scenes in Orphan where Ester is seen singing a very creepy and spine chilling tune that entails the lyrics ' that's the glory of love' this would definitely make the audience think that she wasn't actually stable by the way she was expressing each of the words. In my own sequence I took this inspiration but actually found existing sound effects of children laughing and slowly portraying different words 'if you go down to the woods today' and by linking that to the female character running away it would worry the audience about visiting woods again this is the type of scenario I would want to create as these are all horror conventions that they are used to seeing which would make the sequence more professional.

In A2 my whole creative stream seemed to develop as I actually took inspiration from the videos I watched very seriously and tried to establish them in my own perfectly. In the pre production stages of my work I looked into a variety of music videos that actually linked to my specific genre. Pixie Lott's all about tonight was one of my main inspirations because you could significantly see who was the main character by the large amount of meat shots that where contained in the 4 minute video, although there was a selection of group shots where Pixie could be seen with a group of dancers whilst singing the lyrics she was still distinctive as her outrageous outfits screamed sex appeal compared to the rest. This is exactly the type of thing I hope to achieve in my own video because the camera angles are very important - meat shots mainly used if wanting to focus on one single person.
Rihanna's video for hard shows her dominant character compared to the males used in the video as she is seen as an army cadet bossing the rest of the army soldiers around to her every order, she is also wearing quite a revealing outfit which indicates the sex appeal available with pop stars in every music video they conduct. Because my main character in my video is seen as a cannibal who likes eating humans I hope to make her boss around her victims before she pounces to get what she wants, she will also be wearing a revealing outfit to live up to these conventions linked to the genre.
Because I was following a Kesha song I thought looking over her previous videos may give me inspiration I need to conduct a one of the same standard, We R who we R includes a lot of diamonds, colours and dramatic make up because Kesha is quite a unique character compared to anyone else in the music industry as her 'trampish' looks stand out to her fans. The only similarities I would probably use in my own video however is the lack of clothing she actually tends to wear because I am planning on using a female character with attractive features who can pull off this idea without looking overly revealing.
Without just planning these simple ideas like in AS I actually conducted detailed drawings that I would later conduct into a storyboard because the ideas where too detailed to forget. Also by making mood boards of outfits and different make up types would help me in the production stages when these will be needed.

Production stages meant I would need videos I could look to and help with camera skills but also story lines that I could personally follow. Rihanna's disturbia was one I used quite a lot because she doesn't really look stable throughout the video as it's all very surreal as she has humans dressed as animals as they sit and obey her also the amount of affects used such as jolted head movements, dramatic outfits that add to the dark incite of her character and the in sync dance movements that are very disjointed and unique. All of these elements I hope to incorporate in my own video because my main character is a cannibal she wants to just portray who she is to the real world but she knows she cant, however in the middle of the video 'she comes out as who she really is' as scenes can be shown of her going mad with hiding her identity when the jolted head movements could come into it as well as a creative dance routine including the victims.
Lady Gaga's paparazzi was mainly used in my production stages because she looks very simple and pleasant towards the end of the video with her painted on black lipstick, however this is when she does actually add poison into her boyfriend's drink to instantly kill him. The same idea will be used in my video however she will have already killed them but now joking around with their dead bodies actually acting as though they are alive and can complete day to day activities with her, this suggests she isn't stable as scenes such as a Alice in Wonderland themed tea party where each of the males are sat around in positions she has put them in otherwise they would flop down as they are actually dead. This scene came directly from Jessie J's nobody's perfect video as she is the head of the table but doesn't actually feel like she is being accepted, where as in mine my female character is taking orders and because the males are dead she can effectively be who she wants as they can't judge her cannibal role.
From AS I actually just had these ideas from the videos but didn't actually use them to my full potentional but for my music video the existing inspiration from these music videos I recorded exactly into my own but because of the different story line it had no immediate link because I made it my own with different set ups, costumes, actors e.t.c.

The post production of A2 was the most difficult as it included a lot of different elements to actually make a successful music video. Looking at Rihanna's Rude Boy video for inspiration was really what give me the whole idea to use a projector screen for scenes that would cut into my video all the way through, because her video was very Jamaican themed with all of the Rasta colours as well as distinctive symbols e.t.c in my own video I used leopard print for my brand identity through my digipak and advert and thought by incorporating that flashing from plain to pink leopard print would show I had thought about my music video on a more professional scale. I also added it in small chunks throughout the video although Rihanna's themed video was all the way though mine only needed tiny bits to be included in various scenes to show a quite distinct shot of my main character as it only concentrated on her face.
Jessie J's do it like a dude was inspiring by the variety of jump cuts that where included throughout the whole video as not one shot stayed on the screen for more than 3 seconds because it was such a fast paced song, like mine I knew that I would have to include many shots in my own video, when recording various scenes where filmed numerous times to show the different shots e.g medium close ups, long shots, aerial shots so I had a lot to work with, especially in the chorus it meant I could use shots from various locations to keep the audience interested just like Jessie did.
Finally Rihanna's only girl in the world video was a inspiration only for the fact that she was the only person included in the whole video which ensured that she could be distinctly seen as the artist and 'main character' in the video, even though various locations where used it was only her that could be seen, this was not the case in my own video because I had the victims she had attacked due to her being a cannibal, however it did mean I thought about more meat shots or general shots of her in various locations to make sure most of the footage was of her because the story line behind the video was about an average teenage girl who had a secret that she was too scared to release, but through music she expressed it so there was not much need for other characters but to get the point of her 'secret' across the cannibalism had to be recorded in some way.

Overall in A2 I have used my research skills in the best way possible to collect the right sort of media texts I need to refer to for the inspiration I need to actually conduct and complete my coursework brief, in AS I looked at other people's work but I didn't exactly incorporate it into my own, which is in fact what let me down and give me the lower grade because all of my ideas where not specific conventions. But because I knew how much harder it was to get the better grades in A2 I made sure what ever artists video I looked at I either added to my own in the same way but made it more unique or referenced it in some way to show that I couldn't have actually created a successful music video without the information received from those.