MIND MAPS

My group members and i made Mind maps today which plotted out Narrative , Audience and Institutions. I am uploading a picture of the maps.We discussed and brainstormed about how we will implement our understanding into actions. Firstly , we discussed our target audience , which consisted of teenagers aged 16-25.Secondly , we gathered information about the Institutions which have a rich history of producing Slasher and Murder related movies. Lastly , we went through our story and make certain modifications for example: we changed the name of one of our main characters.

THE FINAL INSTITUTION

I researched and found out information about Dimension Films.The biggest media institution that makes slasher films is Dimension Films.This film institution has made a lot of films of the slasher film genre. It is a very popular media institution in slasher genre.The movies which have been solely created and distributed by Dimension films between 1992-2010 are:

Dimension film's headquarters are in New York City, NY , U.S. It was formerly used as Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax Films to produce and release genre films.

Bad Santa (2003)
The Brothers Grimm (2005) (with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)
The Crow: Salvation (2000)
Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995)
Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering (1996)
Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror (1998)
Children of the Corn 666: Isaac's Return (1999)
Children of the Corn: Revelation (2001)
Cursed (2005)
Darkness (2002)
Dracula 2000 (2000)
Dracula II: Ascension (2003)
Dracula III: Legacy (2005)
From Dusk till Dawn (with Miramax Films) (1996)
From Dusk till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999)
From Dusk till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter (2000)
Equilibrium (2002)
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995)
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998)
Halloween: Resurrection (2002)
Hellraiser III: Hell On Earth (1992)
Hellraiser: Bloodline (1996)
Hellraiser: Inferno (2000)
Hellraiser: Hellseeker (2002)
Hellraiser: Deader (2005)
Hellraiser: Hellworld (2005)
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
The Legend of Drunken Master (US Distributor) (1994)
Mimic
Mimic 2
Mimic 3: Sentinel
Mother's Boys (1994)
Mr. 3000 (with Touchstone Pictures)
My Boss's Daughter (2003)
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (with Columbia Pictures)
Phantoms, a film adaptation of Dean Koontz novel (1998)
The Prophecy (1995)
The Prophecy II (1998)
The Prophecy 3: The Ascent (2000)
The Prophecy: Uprising (2005)
Scary Movie (2000)
Scary Movie 2 (2001)
Scary Movie 3 (2003)
Scream (1996)
Scream 2 (1997)
Scream 3 (2000)
Sin City (2005)
Spy Kids (2001)
Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (2001)
Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003)
The i Inside (2003)
Starsky & Hutch (with Warner Bros.)
Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999)
The Faculty (1998)
Venom (2005)
Wes Craven Presents: They (2002) (with Focus Features)
The Amityville Horror (2005) (with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer)

AUDIENCE

Our final project is based on the horror/slasher genre. My teammates and i spent alot of time thinking about and researching what kind of audience would watch our film. Our target audience is mostly teenagers. There is no specific gender , although research has shown that young males like slasher films more than young females. There has been no outrage from Males writers while feminists have a different point of view on slasher films(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slasher_films#Feminism). The age group which we are targeting is between 16-30 years old.

INSTITUTIONS

Our final project is based on Slasher films. One of the most popular example of a slasher film can be The Saw Trilogy. This first movie was released in 2004 and the legacy continues to this day.The institutions which produced The Saw Trilogy are Twisted Pictures and Evolution entertainment.Twisted Pictures, based in LA , California became popular after their mainstream success "Saw", the first in the series in 2004.Their image in the hollywood industry continued to rise as they kept on producing sequels.Surprisingly , the sequels like their predecessors were also popular amongst the target audience. They have also made other films such as Catacombs and Dead silence which also lie in the same genre. Secondly , Evolution entertainment is an american independant film production institute.Founded by Mark Burg and Oren Koules, they are best khown for creating the Saw trilogy. They have also produced others, such as Lookdown and Good advice.

STORYBOARD AND SCRIPT

This is the full script and storyboard for my recently uploaded video on this blog.
Saad Tariq is a proven psychopath who has been caught by the FBI while trying to kidnap his uncle to eventually murder him and take revenge for his parents death.
The FBI officer walks into the interrogation room.
FBI: We finally caught you Saad , why did you do it?
Saad: (silently) i did not do anything.
FBI: What do you mean? you slaughtered two people so brutally for god's sake!
Saad: It was not my fault.
FBI: What do you mean not your fault?
Saad: Tell me something officer , if something raped your mother or killed your dearest friend .. what would you do?
FBI:Perhaps that is why we have the police department , but now way i would slaughter something so brutally.. THAT IS JUST INSANE !!!(throws pen at the table)
Saad:They were meant to be killed , they were not the men of god.
FBI:are you a man of god?
Saad: yes(silently)
FBI:oh gosh he is unbelievable...(points towards the security guard) ... TAKE HIM AWAY!
(the security guard takes Saad away to prison)
NOTE: This video is not yet complete due to lack of time and availability of space and the script may be edited to suit the environment which our team is trying to create.
Saad

Experimenting with camera angles

Recently we tried making another short preliminary video to check out more angles and enhance mise-en-scene. It was not completed due to lack of time and non-availability of space. Here is some unedited footage from the scene. In this scene , Saad Tariq has been caught by the FBI while trying to kidnap/murder his uncle(This has been kept as a secret and left upto the audience to figure out). The interrogator steps into the room and tries his best to make Saad confess his crime. Saad on the other hand does not admit that he has committed a crime and sticks to his point. At this point , as mentioned we did not have the necessary time and required atmosphere so there are flaws in the footage. Firstly , we could not manage to arrange a mike to enhance audio quality. It would have been much easier to record dialogues separately. Then merging them , so the audio quality enhances. Secondly , we could not arrange proper atmosphere for an interrogation room. We tried our best to imitate the lightning effects but could not quite do so, this was because the footage was shot in day light in a room full of windows. Next time , we will select our shooting area carefully so that we get the best possible results in our clip.

CURRENT(NOT FINAL) VIDEO SCRIPT

"This video is set in an interrogation room. The FBI has caught the main character of known as "Saad Tariq". The main character is from an affluent  background. His age is 21. His ethnicity is South Asian. He is of normal height (for this region) about 5.10" . He has led a really depressing life. His father died when he was 2 years old and his mother could not save him from the evil clutches of his uncle for too long . The uncle murdered Saad’s mother when he was 11 years old because the uncle wanted to get his hands on  Saad's property that his father had left him. Coming of age Saad found out the truth and wanted revenge from his uncle. But his uncle was a powerful man and could not be caught easily. Saad wanted to kidnap his uncle but before he could do so the FBI caught Saad . The film begins with Saad being thrown into an interrogation room. An  FBI officer enters the room. He asks Saad a couple of questions but from his expression it looks like he does not get a satisfying answer. Saad does not feel sorry for trying to kidnap his uncle. The officer tells Saad that there are other ways to deal with such problems but slaughtering someone so brutally is not the answer in any case. By the end of the clip the FBI officer is outraged and asks the guard to take him away ."

MY FINAL VIDEO CLIP'S POSTER

This is a poster for my final video (the opening titles sequence). I created and edited it on Adobe Photoshop. I am new to Photoshop and I learned a great deal by the common trial and error method. I applied effects such as : liquefy and adjusted opacity to suit my needs.

Note: "this image is not copyright protected and it is edited extensively with the use of photoshop"

FINAL VIDEO PREPARATION

We have started working on our final video. My teammates and I have been brainstorming for the past 3 days and we have come up with an idea, which may just be our final video. I am working on Adobe Photoshop to make a poster for our upcoming film. I will also upload the Preliminary (Bully video) and another video we  made for practice which starred me as a psychopath. I was also actively engaged in figuring out the correct camera angles , shot and movements for each particular scene. For example , i suggested that we should make use of the two shot in one particular scene. I was also in charge of the lightning. For example: In the jail scene , i will be holding a dim white table lamp designed for media rookies. This will create the atmosphere for an interrogation room. I also included my own opinions for the sound. 
Saad

Adobe Premier Pro

I just installed Adobe premier pro on my laptop today. I am learning how to use it by watching "how-to" youtube videos, so that i can easily edit my new video when it is done .With th advances in technology nowadays , media users are now becoming media makers. New technology is helping rookies to make full use of their imagination and skills. This will not only help in my final video preparation but will open a whole new dimension of possibilities which i could not have thought of before. I will try to learn it as much as i can so that i know the basics of editing.
Saad

Media Studies Textual Analysis Assignment

Today we submitted a Textual Analysis Assignment given a week ago. We had to analyse any one of the following short clips and write a 3000 words Textual Analysis on any one.1.Skins 2.The Bill 3.Life on Mars.

I did my assignment on Life on Mars TV Show (UK region - BBC). I have learned a bunch when analysing videos and this will definetly help me in completing my other pending videos. I will be uploading my first video very soon.

Saad

Preliminary Exercise and our Video

Today we set up our atmosphere for our preliminary exercise video. We have two scripts in total. I wrote one of them. My script is about a fictional psychopath named Saad Tariq (which is my name purely coincidentally). He grew up in a broken family and has led a disturbed life. His mother and best friend were killed by his father soon after his parents’ divorce. Saad was heart-broken and wanted revenge. He was about to kidnap his father when an intelligence agency caught him. Now he is in an interrogation room. He is suspected of planning a crime against his father, and the state. Since Saad’s father is a sucessful businessman Saad has less credibility than his father. We created the appropriate atmosphere in the gym by sealing the windows with black chart paper. This allowed us to create a fictional interrogation room atmosphere for our shoot. By learning from my mistake i.e previously we chose a well lit room for our interrogation room. I am focusing more on lighting effects which was a major shortcoming of our previous video. We have finally uploaded our previous video, here’s the link : 
Saad

Preliminary Exercise Scripts

Today we worked on scripts for the preliminary exercise required by the OCR brief. I think that while everyone is imaginative using that imagination productively/practically is challenging. This was exactly what I tried to achieve. I must say, my efforts did not meet with disappointment. My group, Mediatronics, analyzed the most suitable setting for our shoot. This was our school’s gymnasium, which provides  just the right amount of light. We are yet to make storyboards for our project. I will probably finish them by tomorrow. 

Saad

Practice Film Making

Today we studied Practical Film Making. After we learned about basic media terms for example: Conventions and Stereotypes. We borrowed our school Camcorder and practiced some shooting. This helped us to learn how to use a camera properly. After becoming familiar with our "tool" we decided it was time for some action. My past concept of "Film Making" was proven wrong when I started shooting for real.. It was much easier and more interesting than I thought it would be. We made a rough film. It was based on one of the most familiar concepts we could think of, the film is about a bully getting scolded by the school principal. I played the bully while my friend Daniyal Qureshi starred as the school principal. It was a pleasant experience to finally star in a short-film. After some debating with the various members of my group about which shots should be taken, where Kamran Shahnawaz and I had totally different opinions about what would work. Finally we were able to arrive at  a mutual agreement and start shooting. After editing, we all (the group) sat down and watched "our production". Our teacher pointed out some basic mistakes. We swiftly noted these down so that we don't do them again. Our group's name is "MEDIATRONICS PRODUCTION". I hope that my upcoming classes in the future will be as enjoyable and entertaining as today's class.

Saad

My passion for Media

I have always been a fan of "Media Texts"(Movies , Magazines , Newspapers etc)but i never knew that enrolling into the Media Studies Class would be so interesting.It was as if i had been studying about Media all my life but now i get a chance to go further with my passion for media.We started studying about "Media Language" and various terms used in the language. The first thought that came into my mind when i heard the term "Language" from my teacher was "text"(definations which i will memorize). Then my teacher explained that it is not only texts but a whole new world where "language" stands for visual and textual meaning. After sixty well-spent minutes in the my class. I realised , "yes , this is the subject i have been looking for".
Saad

My first blog

Hello everybody . As you already know by the title i am new to blogging and this is my first blog. i hope we both have a pleasant experience blogging.