Final Movie Intro

 In this blogpost is the final Movie intro that my teammates and I have worked so hard on. We are very proud of how this whole thing turned out!

<3 FINAL MOVIE INTRO - 'THE UNREAD'

Here's a link to the final movie intro video incase the one displayed does not work. - final movie intro

CCR 4

 <3 CCR 4

In this blogpost I will be displaying my CCR 4,  and a link incase the embed is faulty.

CCR 4- Miya - Here is a link incase the one displayed does not work.

CCR 3

  <3 CCR 3

In this blogpost I will be displaying my CCR 3,  and a link incase the embed is faulty.

CCR 3 - Miya - Here is a link incase the one displayed does not work.

Black and White Standard Professional Resume by lamiya zara

CCR 2

 <3 CCR 2

In this blogpost I will be displaying my CCR 2 and a link incase the embed is faulty.

CCR 2- Miya - Here is a link incase the one displayed does not work.

CCR 1

 In this blogpost I will be displaying my CCR 1 and a backup link incase the embedded one doesn't work

<3 CCR 1

CCR 1 - Miya - Here's a link to the presentation incase the embed is faulty.

Typeface Development: Title + Credits

 

Here is our blog post on research development about different typefaces and our title ideas. This was made by my teammate kristine

These are some examples that I liked

1. [⏺REC]

I liked this idea because the font and style stands out from other found footage titles, making it a unique feature. The idea of using the red dot and bracket helps convey that the movie is related to a recording, signaling to audience that it is a found footage film. In the second version, blood splatters suggest audiences that the movie may context murder, death or gory scenes. However for this title card, it was seen at the end of the film. This was because the filmmaker still wanted to maintain the realism and managing to incorporated the title card.

2. The Blair Witch Project

The opening scene for this movie was really short since the title did go before the movie start. This is because a found footage typically does not require an opening scene to maintain realism. The way the title was presented was simple, but it has many strong points to support the reasoning behind it. Incorporating a small title makes audience feel like they are watching a raw, unedited footage to which helps keep an immersive feel.

3. GRAVE ENCOUNTERS

This was a great way to sneak a title card because it didn't really feel like one. It made the found footage seem more like a YouTube vlog, which might make the audience feel like the movie was edited, slighting reducing its realism. However, it was an effective way to incorporate the title card without making it feel too planned. This font also differs to what most found footage films use and it also can be an inspiration. This distorted font gives audience an unsettling emotion which could suggest paranoia or hallucinations.

4. CLOVERFIELD

This title card is short and lacks a typical opening scene because they decided to follow the conventions of a found footage film. This could also be an idea we could incorporate to help maintain a realistic feel to the audience. What I like about this is the way the editor used different technological fonts to create the connection to a recording. I think the time-stamp helps enhance the feature of this technique and the use of inserting the title card in the document name is such a great way to sneak in the title without intended to do so.

5. Spree

This is similar to the example from Grave Encounters, where they sneaked the title card into the scene to maintain the realism effect. I found this opening scene really sick and smooth because of the transition is created as the name of the app is also the name of the movie. This could be an inspiration to us since we could use the title of the book as our title card. I also like the use of a simple, clean font with a red coloured title, which helps make it feel like part of the recording and brings audience attention because of how bright and alerting the colour red connotes.

What credits / names will you include

Starring: Actors

         - Drew: Panji Wiradharma

         - Carrie: Kellie Collins

         - Lyla: Lamiya Zara

Editor: Maisie Halomoan

Directed: Kristine Lambert

Found footage films often don't include opening credits to keep the feeling of realism. Since we wanted to keep that same style, we chose not to include any credits at the start. Doing so would break the immersion and make it feel less authentic. 

10 Typeface Choices

credits: dafont.com, capcut fontsDiscuss Connotations

VCR

The VCR font makes the movie feel old, eerie, and realistic, like a lost VHS tape. It adds a creepy nostalgic vibe and is often used in horror to make the footage seem mysterious or haunted. 

What I like about this font:

- It's a typical found footage font, which aligns well with the genre conventions. We could use it to stay true to the found footage style. 

What I dislike about this font:

- The font looks too digital. Our goal is to make the film feel realistic, not technologically advanced. We don't want to incorporate too much technology, as it could break the illusion of realism

How it will look like in our product (brief idea)

Punktype

The font looks glitchy and creepy, making it feel like a corrupted or haunted message. It gives a sense of mystery, fear, and something being worn, perfect for a horror or eerie digital themes.

What I like about this font:

- This font is commonly used in found footage films because it looks handwritten. This gives the impression that it was made and meant to be "found", which fits the genre

What I dislike about this font:

- The font appears too old for a modern found footage film, so it doesn't logically connect with the setting or time period (2019). It feels out of place. On its won, the found looks strange and may require vintage filters to bring out the desired realism. Without those, it could disrupt the overall authenticity.

How it will look like in our product (brief idea)

The overall meaning to both of these title card helps make the movie feel real, especially if it's made for a found footage horror. It looks like a police report or a warning, telling people what happened before the scary footage starts. Because there are no pictures, it makes people feel nervous like something bad is coming. This simple look makes it seem like nobody edited it, like a real tape someone found. This tricks people into thinking the story really happened, making it even scarier.

Experiment

Here are quick experimental pictures that I did to get a better look on how each font would look like

Title Ideas

Opening Text Ideas

Our Final Decision

We took feedback from our teacher because he suggested that our font was too cliche and we should change the typeface. He suggested to use a serif font and I've found an approved font that we have gonna used. 

Our title is going to be 'the unread' in lower capitals with the Punktype font

Reflection: This was an easy task for me because I didn't really do anything except give out my inputs and  found footage doesn't really require much fonts and effects because that would destroy the illusion of realism. But this was challenging because not much found footage films have title cards or opening scenes. Luckily, as media evolved, more found footage films have been subverting this convention. Finding and choosing the fonts was easy for me because there was a feature in the dafont web where they had specific fonts for horror / typewriter.

screen test: Audience feedback

This post explains how we showed a rough draft of our film opening to some members of our target audience in order to receive helpful feedback. This blog was created by my team member, Maisie.

The purpose of a screen test is to gain audience feedback about our work and see if there are any improvements that can be made. We decided to use Google Forms to create a survey to share with our audience because it is very quick and easy to use for both me and the respondents.

Here is our questions:

1. What do you like about the video?

2. What improvements can be made?

3. What do you think of the effects so far? (sound, lighting, coloring, etc.)

4. If you rate it low, how do you think we can improve?

5. Mention 3 words to describe the cursed book.

6. Mention 3 words to describe Drew (the boy).

7. Would you watch the rest of the movie?

8. Which title is better?

We specifically chose these questions because we want to make sure that all of the elements and techniques we chose to implement into our opening scene successfully reaches and affects the audience correctly. At the same time, we are also making room for improvements by directly giving the respondents the freedom to express their opinions and thoughts. Furthermore, we chose these questions to further understand the extent of how immersed our respondents feel while watching the video, as it is one of our main goals (to make the audience feel like they're a part of the events).

We showed the clip to three members of our target audience to ensure that the feedback we receive is appropriate. Finding people for the screen test was easy, because we used social media (Instagram story) to spread the word and ask for volunteers. Thankfully, due to how quick social media connects us with other people, we got three different volunteers to help us out in no time. 

Here are the results from the audience feedback:

1. What do you like about the video?

2. What improvements can be made?

3. What do you think of the effects so far? (sound, lighting, coloring, etc.)

4. If you rate it low, how do you think we can improve?

5. Mention 3 words to describe the cursed book.

6. Mention 3 words to describe Drew (the boy).

7. Would you watch the rest of the movie?

8. Which title is better?

From the feedback, we learned that our opening scene needs to have more prolonged suspense to make the events more intense and unpredictable. However, we also learned that we have successfully conveyed some of our messages to our audience. For instance, we've succeeded in making the cursed book seem creepy and unsettling. We can tell from the words our respondents selected when asked to describe them. 

Since this is only a draft, there are many things missing in this opening scene. We are going to change some of the edits, because a respondent suggested to add more quick cuts involving black/blank screens. We will also change the coloring of the whole video, as it has been our plan from the start to make the opening scene seem more eerie. Lastly, as suggested by one of our respondents, we will also add more background music to help increase the thrill and suspense. 

reflection: This screen test was a useful part of our process because it helps open our minds towards broader aspects that can help us improve our project. Opinions from different people are really important because it helps us think of things that we couldn't think of ourselves. By being open to feedback, we are exposed to constructive criticism and advices that will help us better our project. 

Classwork Audience

 Here is a summary of what we have been learning about in class. We learned about different types of  audience theories.

Audience Theory

Hypodermic Needle

Not really a working theory anymore

It assumes the audiences as a sponge, absorbing ideologies from the media passively, without any questions.

Case Study: 1939, Orson Welles radio adaptation of War of the Worlds was broadcast to Americans who then truly believed that they were hearing the report of a real alien invasion.

Two Step Flow

Expand the passive audience theory to suggest that people have their interpretations formed by opinion leaders (Trusted members of the community >>> celebrities, influencers)

Audience Theory

Blumler & Katz - Uses & Gratification

The audience is actively using the media to satisfy some of our base social needs;

Diversion: A form of escapism from the stresses and strains of life. Maybe all media falls into this group. 

Personal Identity: The media supplies us with role models and ways of understanding our place in society.

Social Relationships:

1) People make connections with performers they see on the screen 

2) People form relationships with people in society when discussing the media product

Surveillance: Audiences use the media to gather information.

reflection: I did not come to school when this was being tasked so My teammate kristine helped me out and said i could just take it from her blog

Classwork Production

 

Classwork Production

Here is a summary of what we have been learning about in class. We learned about different types of media production / texts and media theories.

Stages of Production

Production: This is when the media is made. Examples include:

- Pixar 

- Marvel Studios

- Netflix 

Distribution: This is how the media gets shared. Examples include:

- Disney

- Dreamworks

- Universal 

Exhibition: This is where and how people watch the media. Examples include:

- Disney+

- Netflix

- Spotify

TV Production

Difference between Commercial and Not - for - Profit

Commercial

- Subscription

- Pay - per - view

- Advertising

Not - for Profit

- Government funded

- TV license

The BBC is funded through a yearly license fee:

- £53 black & white

- £169 colour

BBC Charter

To enrich people’s lives with programmes and services that inform, educate, and entertain. 

1. Sustain citizenship and civil society

2. Promoting education and learning

3. Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence

4. Representing the UK, its nations, regions, and communities

5. Bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK

Media Theory

Media Consolidation

Media consolidation is the concentration of ownership of our media sources (news, film, TV, radio, video games etc)  into the hands of fewer and fewer corporations.

Media Ownership

CURRAN & SEATON explored the power yielded by media and news group owners. 

- The mass media is owned and operated by fewer and fewer companies. (Media consolidation into conglomerates)

- Mass media is driven by political agendas and economic influences.

- The rise in new media is associated with the decline in quality of content.

- Web users have a larger voice and can challenge conglomerates.

In the US, 90% of the media consumed is owned by just 6 companies.

Media Consolidation

(National Amusements / Viacom, Disney, WarnerBros Discovery, Comcast, News Corp, Sony)

What are the advantages and disadvantages to this?

Advantages:

- Able to provide content for niche audiences

- improve quality due to better funding 

- its cheaper for the audience

- converging technologies (eg. We can now get our TV, phone and internet from thr same company, making things simpler)

- Diversification - Less risk for the media company. (if something fails, its not too much of an issue)

- Can reach a larger audience

Disadvantages:

- Smaller/Independent media outlets cant compete with the production quality

- Illusion of choice

- Lack ofcompetitiveness and alternate view points. Every TV channel is expressing the same viewpoint.

- The focus is on making money, not good content.

- Less local news

Case Study

In 2009 Disney bought Marvel Entertainment and the rights to most of their characters. This meant that Marvel how had to fit into Disney's brand image. Some aspects of the Marvel comics have been changed to appear more family friendly.

Deadpool

In 2019, Disney purchased 21st Century Fox for $52 billion. 20th Century Fox had the rights to Deadpool and made their movies R rated to better suit the content.

Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey 

Walt Disney Co. has controlled the rights to Winnie-the-Pooh since 1961 and kept depictions of Milne's talking animals true to the spirit of the family-friendly material. The copyright expired in January 2022. Since then, Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends have been available to the public for other purposes.

Media Theory

Vertical Integration

When one company owns more than one stage of the media chain

How does owning all stages of production beneficial:

Company

- Creative control over story, script, design, editing, rating, marketing

- Able to use more characters that appeal to wider audiences

- Increase revenue (don't share profits)

- Access to source material

- Access to use data (tailor content, suggestions)

The Audience

- More content, intertextuality

- Fan service

- Easier access to content

- Cheaper access to content

Horizontal Integration

When one company owns more than one stage within the same level

Owning multiple companies within the same level shares many of the benefits of Horizontal Integration.

- It also allows companies to diversify their content, and profit more from these. It also allows for cross-promotion and different media platforms bring access to different audiences.

- Audiences can benefit because it gives them more exposure to their favourite media properties/characters, and can increase engagement. (Children who are exposed to a character when they are young will more likely consume the same property when they are older)

Cross Media Convergence

Horizontal Integration allows companies to target different audiences with the same property.

Media Theory

Synergy

Mutually beneficial cross promotional strategies used by companies. This is not restricted to media companies.

Case Study: Throughout the history of the James Bond franchise, companies have teamed up with character to promote their own brand. Many countries even compete to be a location in the movie, usually offering tax breaks for filming or even just paying for the right to be included. These potential partners pay huge sums of money to be featured alongside Bond.

Products link themselves to the James Bond franchise because it has come to connote a variety of things: sophistication, wit, refinement, charisma and ruthlessness. Brands want this association for their product, and so by linking themselves to the franchise they are telling the audience that they too embody this representation.

This is a synergetic relationship because the product companies can increase their popularity with their audience, and the bond company - in addition to receiving large sums of money - gets to tap into new market.

Synergy is not only related to commercial products, it can also work with other media. For example, Billie Eilish (female singer) sang the theme song for the new Bond movie.

For it to be considered synergy (symbiotic relationship) both parties need to benefit

Benefits for Bond

- Millions of money paid by companies

- More locations, tax free

- Luxury brands to bolster Bond's image

- More awareness (each company will have its own Bond marketing campaign)

- A chance to reach new markets / audiences

Benefits for companies

- Get to be associated with Bond

- Good advertisement for locations

- They can include the character in their marketing campaigns

- Bond fans may purchase products they see on screen

reflection: this blogpost was made by my teammate kristine