Term 1 theory work
- 1. Term 1 theory work Caleb wilcox
- 2. Spaced series 2,Episode 5 • Recently I watched an episode of 'Spaced' and when viewing it took notice of the different camera angles/props/editing and context ext. and now as part of the task from viewing this episode of 'Spaced' I am going to talk about them. One of the main things that stood out for me was the props/clothing that there characters where wearing and inparticually the colours of them, as with this series being one of which was produced in the 1980s it was obviously quite a while ago, this makes sense as the characters in this are all wearing hippy like clothes in quite bright and dark/faded colours, even the tracksuits of the younger characters appear to be in more darker colours, but I suppose that could just be to show that they are the chavy/bad people that are out to cause trouble, and that the hippy like clothes of the others are just to show that they are normal everyday working class people. Throughout this episode of the series I noticed that there was a lot of echoing/reverbing sound effects used when some of the characters spoke, not only that but when this happened it sounded more like alien sound effects, which I thought to be a good thing to include as it helps to influence the sci-fi like genre of which this series. I found myself to be especially fond of the use of echoing sound effects in the fighting scenes, although they weren't actually hitting eachother the echoing made it seem like they were bouncing gunshots of eachother. On a whole I quite enjoyed watching this episode of 'Spaced' and it is something of which I think I would quite enjoy to go back and continue to watch more episodes of and I definitely recommend it to any sci-fi lovers.
- 3. How image from film shows conflict This is a classic screenshot image from the iconic film trilogy ‘Harry Potter deathly hallows part 2 ‘and I am going to talk about how this screenshot shows conflict in it. The first thing that shows that this screenshot has conflict in it, is the fact of the people who are actually in the screenshot which are two of the main characters from the film trilogy ‘harry potter and Lord Voldemort’ which for whom didn’t know they have had a strong conflict since the first film ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’. From looking at the image you can make out that something serious is about to happen between the two enemies which I can clearly see by the fact that they are stood so close to what seems to be the edge of a death drop so there is clearly built up tension In this screenshot as you can’t tell what’s going to happen as its just a screenshot so you can only assume in your mind what’s going to happen or what you want to happen. Its not hard to make out who the enemy is in this screenshot because if you look at the clothes both of them are wearing ‘harry’ is wearing what seems to be normal everyday clothes that we would wear and from looking at the back of ‘Voldemort’ you can clearly see that he is wearing all black and it appears to be some form of robe that he is wearing, the sort that an ‘enemy prince’ would wear to appear to be more ruthless looking. Also, if you look at the back of Voldemort’s head you can see that he appears to be very pale and veiny whereas harry isn’t, this gives the distinct impression that Volmert is the bad guy and harry is the one trying to save everyone hence the normal everyday clothes also that he has considerably less paler skin which suggests that he could be considerably more calmer then of what Voldemort is, which can be seen to be strange considering that he is stood on the edge of a death drop in front of that man that seems to want to push him off hence harry being on the edge and Voldemort is further away from the hedge and not holding onto anything, which shows that he’s not afraid whereas harry is as he’s the one stood on the edge trying to hold onto the wall next to him. You get the sense of death and danger in this screengrab just by looking at it in a short glance as the whole surrounding in this screengrab of these two characters is murky and dark throughout and at the edge they are stood at it looks just like a ‘black whole drop’, so from this I am getting the sense that at the end of this scene there is going to be a battle/fight that leads to a death, or the dark surrounding could be more to the fact that the main villain of ‘Harry Potter’ is in this screengrab and with him being the main villain/enemy then in a way darkness will always be following him around as a representation of death , if this is the case then no matter were he to be it will always be dark when he appears, not just in this screengrab. As well as this, if you look closely at the wall you can see that it appears to be damaged which would obviously make it dangerous to stand on/be leaning against. This helps to bring out the tension In this screengrab as it looks as if the wall is about to fall apart/drop apart so you don’t know if the wall is about to fall apart and the two main characters are going to have a fatal fall or stay stood up there, to have a better understanding of what happens and to really see the tension and conflict in this scene screengrab then it is better to watch the film. This concludes my explanation to how this screengrab from a scene in ‘Harry Potter deathly hallows part.2’ shows conflict and tension.
- 4. Amy 1. Is anyone to blame for Amy’s death? Why? What content makes you feel this way? 2. Do you think the film is fair/honest/truthful? Why? From recently watching the documentary ‘Amy’ which is about the life of deceased singer ‘Amy Winehouse’ you get a lot of impressions and thoughts and feelings from watching this documentary which for some can be seen to be quite a sensitive subject. The first impression of which I got to who is to blame for her death is more her fame of which she rose to, driving her to her death. I believe this because when she first came out to be a great singer and that she said she didn’t want to be famous as she knew she wouldn’t be able to deal with the stress and pressure that comes with being famous. We see this clearly throughout the documentary as you see her not being able to cope with the stress of being in high demand to the public. However, this is something of which we don’t see till further on in the documentary, as a result I did not get this impression straight away. At first, I was more getting the distinct impression that a lot was to blame on her father leaving her at a young age, which resulted in her not having a strong up-bringing and not really having much of a role model. We later see this in the film as there is multiple parts of which we see Amy and her dad together multiple times, which would normally have given you the impression that they had sorted things out, but that is where you are wrong as the documentary also shows her dad saying ‘No, Amy does not need to go to rehab, I know my daughter’. This gives you the distinct impression that he is lying, as the starts of the documentary Amy talks about her father abandoning her and her mother, so how would he really ‘know his daughter’, yes, they had sorted things out as it shows in the documentary but still he wouldn’t have properly known her from the years he spent away from her. Personally, this gave me the impression that her father was strongly to blame for her death as if he had said ‘yes, she needs to go into rehab’ then who knows how different it could have been if she was put into rehab earlier then of what she was, a lot of people say that it could have been very different for her, as things might not have gotten out of control as badly as they did. This isn’t the only thing that makes me believe that her father was partly to blame for her death, as throughout the documentary dedicated to her memory you also see her father walking round with a camera crew, now why would he need to walk around with a camera crew when it was meant to be all about Amy’s memory. It is clear that he was trying to make some money/fame from his daughters’ success, which I thought to be very harsh of him and he did this by walking round with a crew of his own. This is seen to very much frustrate Amy which I could see when she went away and her father came to visit, with a whole crew, exactly what she wanted to get away from her as it was causing her all the stress and illness and he just bought it to her which I thought to be very unfair as he was her dad and he was meant to be there for her, but I didn’t see him to be. Overall, I believe that the film is a mixture of fair/unfair truthful and honest, this is because at the start of the film we see it to be fair as it is just more aimed towards he early years before she started becoming famous and taking all the deadly drugs. However, this changes further on in the film as it starts to show her in a very much negative light, which also includes scenes of ‘news reports’ at the time pretty much taking the piss out of her and very much giving negative light towards her and her ‘bad period’ as some might say. Which a lot of people would find to be rude and un-truth full as at the point she was seen to be famous and wanted by everyone in the world. But later on this switches back over to the film being more fair as it is more shows Amy when she rises back to her being a star again, which I found to be glad of as I thought it was un-fair for the film to be showing her in a negative light as the world was so fond of her and the media was just putting false information into their heads, this wouldn’t of just messed with the heads of her fans but also Amy’s head. Despite this though I believe that the film was truthful all the way through as all of the information that was given in the film was true, with it having all been filmed and documented by Amy’s crew and family when she was alive and passed over to be produced into a film, this I found to be good as it shows the information to be genuine so people won’t have been given false information when watching it and they could have had an inside into Amy’s life which is something they won’t have really seen when she was alive.
- 5. Amy- Amy's death and aftermath • To what extent does Kapadia use filmic techniques to generate a response at the climax of 'Amy'? • At the end of the film 'Amy' which is based around 'Amy Winehouse' you get a very different climax to the ending then of what you thought you would have throughout watching the film. I think this because from watching the film you get very different approaches towards 'Amy Winehouse' herself, one of those approaches is more to the idea that she is great, a public sensation and a new found star ext, whereas the other view is her name being dragged through the media and nothing other then bad talk and hate being given out about her and the drug addiction of which she was battling. So i was quite surprised at the different approach at the end of the film when all you see is people showing remorse and guilt. This is more of a subjective perspective towards the end after her death as it is showing a lot more of peoples emotions rather then just facts, which should of been the case no matter what with the ending being based on her funeral and death. However despite Kapadia using the subjective technique towards the end, i feel that he could of made better/stronger use of this throughout the film and worked on highlighting peoples emotions more, as i feel it would of given more respect to the memory of 'Amy Winehouse'.
- 6. Mighty Redcar • 1. Can a documentary be objective? Why do you believe this? • 2. How far should we accept what we watch/read? Why? • 3. How can we make sure what a documentary presents as fact, is true? • 1. Yes i believe that a documentary can be objective because a documentary is supposed to be based around being truthful and factual with information that is correct as it is supposed to be something that talks about stuff that is real/has happened and gives information about it. If a documentary wasn't to be objective then i feel that it wouldn't really be classed as a documentary, as what else would it be talking about if it wasn't giving any information/content about what it was talking about, it just wouldn't really be a proper documentary which is why i is better for any documentary to be objective. • 2.I think we need to be more careful about what we watch and read as we can only really believe what is true up to a certain point. This has especially got to be the case when watching a documentary as you don't know what they could have edited out/edited in to make the actual footage appear to be something different, which is something that happens quite a lot without people realizing but when people have realized there have been some kick-offs about it. • 3.There isn't really much you can do about making sure what documentary's present is fact, as we dont really have control over what people make into documentary's, the only thing that we can really do is make an objection if what the documentary shows turns out to no be true, or after the documentary make sure to look for information on what you have just watched to find out if it is true or not.
- 7. Compare the different representations of people in 'the mighty redcar','Benefits street' and 'skint' • What do you think the aims of each program is? • Are these programs biased? • From watching these different documentary's about 'life in poverty' i was getting different views from each of the documentary's that i watched, which i found to be surprising as i thought that they would give the same sort of views as they are all about the same thing 'life living in poverty'. But that is where i am wrong as they all appeared to be giving different views and opinions in the 3 documentary's, i especially thought this when watching 'Mighty Redcar' as in this documentary all you really see is people trying to give a positive opinion about life and trying to make it seem alright. I suppose you get a similar approach with 'Benefits street' as it portrays all the people living on the street to be like one big family all working together, which i believe to be a bit biased as it makes them seem like they aren't really struggling that much and more that they are happy and getting on with there lives. I don't really understand that tho as if they were struggling with living in poverty, then surely they would be the kind to go out and do something about it, not just sit about on there street all day. Out of these three documentaries I believe that the documentary to be the most biased is 'Benefits' street as it shows all the people on the street to be struggling and making it sound like it is the end of the world, when actually its not as all they really have to do is sort there lives out and get on with stuff, not just sit there doing nothing all day. think about it this way, everyone is capable of changing/turning there lives around so why dont they get on and do it rather than siting about all day 'complaining about how hard life is for them'
- 8. Discuss the topics in todays lecture in reference to your own work. • • 1.Explain how you have worked to the expectations and conventions of the medium of factual production fanzine. • 2. Compare and contrast your work to one or more professional productions. When it came to creating work for my fanzine production I decided to make it to be around something that people would appeal towards and in that case I decided to base it around 'Sony PlayStation' as I know that this is something of which people would be interested in and is something that the majority of people must play in there spare time. To make sure that it is something that people would be interested in I took some time to research into the history of this games console so that it would be something of which people would enjoy to read as it would need to be something interesting that the people would enjoy to read. I also took some time into looking at the colour schemes of which would be seen to be more appealing to the viewer/reader especially if it is being read at a festival, So in this case I decided to go with the use of a darker colour scheme at the start, as I thought that it would give a better representation to be showing the past/history of the console, then once I move on to the more present and future consoles I changed the main colour to the typical blue that is familiar with the PlayStation, I chose this colour as I thought that it would be more appealing for the reader to see a familiar colour. From looking at my fanzine i feel that it is quite unique to me, mainly this is down to the fact that i created this set production on my own but also because from looking at already existing production I get the idea that my production is still a far way from look similar to them, which i feel is a good thing as it gives an indication that i have managed to make use of my own tools/effects for my production which is obviously what i intended to do so there wasn't any chance of being accused of copyright. To conclude to this i feel that I used some goof techniques/tools in my production and managed to make it my work taking some tips from already existing fanzine production but obviously making it my own work.