Skills Development Essay

 My foundation portfolio consists of different media pieces which show how my skills progressed over time. The first piece in the portfolio is a magazine I designed for a college. In my case I chose to base the magazine on Wyke College. The other media piece I did was for my own music magazine which I did after the college magazine once my skills had developed. Also, at the start of the course I made an advert for a new fragrance but this was more to test my skills on Photoshop than to be used as a piece of my portfolio.

 I had limited media skills before taking AS media and hadn’t covered it at all in previous education. I only had a vague idea of how Photoshop worked and found it difficult to pick up at first. I also had little experience in photography or image editing so didn’t know how to get the best picture or how to tweak it. I had some skill working and organising a blog which did prove useful but little in the work of other media skills. As for knowledge in the conventions of media texts themselves I knew some of the basic stuff from seeing them day to day. I knew the names of parts of a magazine and how they would only utilize a couple of house colours on them and continue to run with them throughout. I didn’t know some of the more obscure media conventions used so had to learn these. I had a basic understanding of how to plan my work but underestimated how much planning it would need. I wasn’t prepared for the amount of coursework I would receive in media. I did have a degree of creativity in how I worked when I started the course so coming up with slogans and what do write wasn’t a huge problem though this became limited due to not knowing enough about the conventions of media texts and not being able to utilize creativity to its full potential.

 As I had little in the way of previous media skills I had to learn most of what I had to do here. I can pick up how to use computer programs fast so this made it easier for me to acquire the skills I needed to complete my work to a good a standard as I could. I used my understanding of running a blog to make the presentation look better and to use colours that fit well together. I used the conventions that I knew to better help me decide what my media pieces needed and particularly focused on making these look better to compensate for other parts of the magazine that might be lacking. When I learnt of the large amount of coursework I had I tried to work more in advance of deadlines than I would usually do whilst still completing work to as high a standard as I was capable. I used to creativity when I had the opportunity to make slogans by creating puns or other clever word play.  I didn’t appreciate the value of post-production in this stage of using Photoshop so my work tended to look a little scruffy and unfinished.

 From the college portfolio piece I did to completing the music magazine my skills have developed significantly in the areas that I was weak in. I now have a more solid grasp on using Photoshop having learnt how to manipulate images using tools such as ‘distort’ and the ‘quick select’ tool to cut apart images. I also know better ways to lay out a magazine and have a better idea of how much actually needs to go into a media text such as what I made. I have a greater understanding of conventions in media texts now than I did at the start. I know that image is important, especially in the main image so you can grasp the attention of an audience straight away. On the same line as image, I know that the font you chose must represent the genre of your magazine and must be used consistently throughout your magazine. By the end of the course I had started to use existing media texts in order to improve my work by borrowing ideas on layout from them and tweaking them for my own magazine. This greatly helped me as it gave me something to work with rather than just a blank canvas. It also helped me decide what to use to fill the white spaces on my magazine which I was unsure of what to do with. I also improved in the post production phase of creating my piece as I better understood the value of retaking photographs if they weren’t what they needed to be.  I also learnt that, though my genre didn’t suit tons of facial editing, it is a good idea to show that you at least know how to do it.

 Overall, from the start of the course I have developed the very little skills I had into a wider, more advanced set. I am now capable of producing a much better media piece than I was when I first started the course. I can now better use Photoshop and am confident in editing and/or creating my own media piece. I also have a more advanced understanding of media conventions and know what will make my work successful if I put it in and what is a bad idea. I can now couple my creative ideas with the knowledge I now have to make a media text meaning creating slogans and other similar devices is easier for me than it was before. I also now appreciate how research and the post-production phase are. The research, by looking at magazines such as Kerrang! And Rocksound, made my magazine look more like the media text it was meant to represent and improved its overall appearance. Focusing more on the post production phase has made my work look more tidy and professional than it was before.

Influential Media Texts

The following film trailers are of the same genre or have elements similar to the genre I am going to make in them. Each of them is of a detective genre though has differences such as  being in either a modern style or having an older 'classical' feel.

Please answer the following questions on each of the film trailers:

1. What do you think of the cinematography used in this film (1-10)*
2. What do you think of the editing used in this movie (1-10)
3. What do you think of the mise-en-scene used in this movie (1-10)
4. What do you think of the soundtrack used? (1-10)
5. What aspect of the movie do you think makes it successful and/or unique (e.g unusual plot element, unconventional characters etc.)

*1 is lowest score 10 is highest

Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes is a successful movie which has an older feel to it than modern detective movies as it is set during a different time periods. It is a successful film and gives a comedy element to its characters whilst retaining the serious detective elements of the film.

Hot Fuzz

Though more of a police film, Hot Fuzz does have two police officers trying to solve a mystery of what is happening in their town. The film is first and foremost made to make people laugh as even the serious streaks it does have are shot in such a way that they are comedic. Basing a film trailer on this for the detective genre would make it drastically different from what people expected.

The Departed


Max Payne

A detective movie with a darker, more action packed theme. It portrays a detective who is bent on getting revenge for his murdered family. This film is based on a game which may attract a different sort of audience rather than people who choose film by the genre that this is.

Key Audience Terms

Qualitative Data
Qualitative data is collected for the meaning and validity while containing as much reliability. It is often taken on a smaller scale from a select group of people.

Quantitative Data
Quantitative data is collected to ensure reliability. It is taken from large groups of people and the data which is chosen the most is assumed to be the most reliable.

Due to the suggested unreliability of Quantitative data alone, a mixture of qualitative and quantitative data is often used for the most reliable research.

Demographic Data
Data which characterizes people using things like age, sex, where they live ect. Also used to determine someones class by looking at the job they have and money they earn.

Psycho-graphic Data
Used to determine what people like personally which in turn can be used to find out what the general populations opinion on something is.

Conventions of the Detective genre

 The detective genre both in novels and in film revolves around a mystery which is generally solved by either an amateur or professional detective. The general story line is conventionally a case which nobody has been or can solve until the protagonist who is the detective mentioned above. Other aspects are often thrown in to disorientate both the detective within the fiction and the audience. These may include wrongly accused suspects, corrupt detectives or wrong evidence.
 Detective and mystery genre is also divided into sub-genres which change the feel of the media piece depending on what type it is. These sub genre's can be to do with the style or the era in which the media piece is set and could include: noire, modern, whodunnit's, Victorian, crime stories ect. Many of these genre's will have the same basic template however will have a very different vibe due to the sub-genre they are from. For example, if we compare Noire with Modern detective, Noire is filmed mostly in black and white and has a dark, bleak feel to it. Lighting is used heavily to emphasis characters personality meaning less speech is used to introduce a character as we can get more from their appearance, which also gives us an instant impression. The modern genre on the other hand is filmed in colour and characters are introduced over time through their dialogue and actions they perform during the piece. Despite these differences both pieces will have a main detective character who will likely have a partner and in both pieces they will be attempting to solve what is considered an unsolvable case. This allows an audience to know what will happen in the media piece and be satisfied when they see it or shocked and surprised when general conventions are altered.
 Mise-En-Scene in the detective genre varies on the environment, sub-genre and whether or not the piece is following general conventions. A stereotypical detective may wear a suit or long trench coat, some form of trademark hat and carry around a magnifying glass. A more modern detective may wear work clothes for example a shirt and tie or even plain clothing if they were on some undercover job. The mise-en-scene is definitely heavily affected by the type of detective film the character is in. Clothing and objects will vary depending on the time period for example, you wouldn't see a mobile phone in a Victorian setting. The setting of the piece will also change depending on the time period the piece is set. Architecture is different in modern detective pieces to what it may have been in an older piece so a set needs to be altered accordingly or it will just look bad.
 The sounds used in a detective piece will be both diegetic and non diegetic. The diegetic sound will mostly come from the dialogue of the characters though other sound effects such as phones ringing, doors slamming etc will be used and made diegetically. Other sounds which may seem diegetic may be used such for things as crowds shouting in the background of scenes or people talking in a canteen or large office area but it may be added afterwards as non-diegetic sound to appear diegetic. Doing this would reduce the need for so many actors, and also give greater control over the sound of the background compared to the dialogue. Non-diegetic sounds could include the soundtrack for the film. Sounds are used for dramatic effect in a detective trailer and also give clues as to what is about to happen for example if deep, slow, tense music plays it is likely something bad may be about to happen.

Types of Detective Genre

Noire genre: The Noire genre is defined by a dark and brooding style and feel with cold and sinister characters. The film genre reflects the time in which they became popular which was one of pessimism and disillusionment, especially within the American population as the red scare, McCarthyism and the threat of atomic warfare loomed.
The dark feel common to the genre was also achieved by the lighting used in it. It was often shot in black and white with stark contrasts between the few colours used. This lighting is often a sure way to determine whether the genre of a film is Noire. The same lighting was also used to determine the nature of the characters. Tilted cameras and skewed images were used in conjunction with the lighting giving the character a unique appearance which could give the character a clear 'normal' face or have one cut by shadows to give the character a sense of madness.

Modern Genre: 

Whodunit
The whodunit detective genre focuses on making a reader or viewer of the media piece guess who the criminal really is. Whodunit gives clues throughout and revels the real culprit in the last few pages of the book. Whodunit's generally have a large group of characters whose personalities heavily built up throughout so the audience has to consider each one of them to decide who the real culprit is. A common plot enjoyed by audiences is misleading them by revealing

Victorian

Crime Fiction

Genre Ideas

My initial ideas for the trailer include things along the lines of a mystery/detective sort of film though I also like the idea of mixing this with elements from a horror movie to possibly give the trailer a supernatural feel.
Movie trailers I have looked at include:
Sherlock Holmes-Mystery/detective Genre
Cabin in the Woods-Horror with a sense of unknown going on throughout the movie. Loose link to mystery.

Brief

2. A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer together with two of the following three options.

• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
• a poster for the film.