'The Boat That Rocked' Analysis

The Boat that Rocked, is a film by Working Title made in 2009. The Boat that Rocked is directed by Richard Curtis and features A-list actors such as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Rhys Ifans, Bill Nighy, Nick Frost and Kenneth Branagh. This film has a mixture of acting nationalities, this shows that Working Title wanted to appeal to more than one national market. With the likes of Nick Frost from Britain, best known for Hot Fuzz and Paul, and Philip Seymour Hoffman from the United States, best known for The Big Lebowski, Working Title tried to make this movie to appeal to both the British film industry and the American film industry. Unfortunately this wasn't so successful, fetching only $2,904,380 in its opening weekend. Working Title was given a $50,000,000 to produce 'The Boat That Rocked', only $37,472,651 was recouped, with a loss of $12,527,342. These figures show that 'The Boat That Rocked' was a major disappointment, but only $1,374,953 was gathered from DVD sales in the US. This may be because of its bad press, or just too much hype, but we can be assured that Working Title would rather forget about this film.

G321 Preliminary Task - Final Cut

This is the final cut of mine, Jono's and Nile's preliminary task. At the beginning it shows Jono walking through the car park. This shot is mainly focused on Jono, and makes you feel as if something may happen to him. This sort of shot could be easily used in a thriller film, to build up suspense. It then cuts to the hallway shot, which has dark lighting, and creates a sense of foreshadowing; this could also be included in a thriller film. The cut between the car park scene and the hallway scene is smooth and realistic. It then cuts to the bird’s eye view shot of Jono walking past the media studies room. This is where the problem starts. Jono walks past the media studies room, and into the editing room. The problem is that the conversation takes part in the media studies room, not the editing room. At 0.37 Jono walks past the media studies room. At 0.42 Jono is opening the editing room door. At 0.44 Jono walks into the media studies room. So somehow the media studies room is swapped with the editing room. Another problem with this part is the cut between Jono opening the door at 0.42, and Jono walking into the room at 0.43. The switch stutters which doesn't look very realistic. For the conversation, we used shot-reverse-shot and obeyed by the 180 degree rule, (two characters in a scene must always be in a left/right relationship, when the rule is broken, the audience get confused because the person on the left moves to the right, and the person on the right moves to the left). We used different camera angles during the conversation such a high angle and low angle. It then ends with a steady panning shot of Jono walking outside of the classroom. We decided to use a range of different shot types to see what effect each one had on the audience. Continuity became a problem for us, as between 0:43 seconds and 0:45 Jono changes costume. There were problems with our group because, it was originally me and Jono, then Nile changed class, and therefore we had to compromise our idea to fit Nile in. This meant we had to film on different days, and the costume wasn't the same as before. Overall i think our preliminary task was a success, apart from the odd anomaly, I thoroughly enjoyed filming it and watching the finished product.

G321 Thriller Research Kill Bill

This is the opening scene of Kill Bill Volume 1. It starts with a black screen; this creates suspense, for the audience. They don't know what is actually happening as it is only the opening of the film. The first signifier of the film is the diegetic sound of the heavily breathing bride. There is a close up of the bride, which creates a relationship between the bride and the audience. This produces sympathy for the bride, but also is focused on the serious wounds, which suggests that something dreadful has happened and it is going to finish in this part of the scene. It then cuts to a tracking shot of a male, possibly the perpetrator. You can hear the sound of the footsteps, measured to be in rhythm. The camera then cuts back to the bride, which suggests that the man is somehow linked with the bride. The title 'Kill Bill' suggests that the movie is about killing Bill. Therefore when the shot of the male's handkerchief says Bill on it, the audience immediately know that this male is in fact Bill. He then starts to talk, but it seems as if he talking to himself, showing off the power that he has. Once the bride talks Bill shoots her. This creates a sense of authority, as if he is the only one who can talk, and the power is in his hands. Chiaroscuro lighting is used on the bride, this highlights the bride, and creates a sense of tension, and it relates the bride to what may happen at the end of the opening. Chiaroscuro lighting is mainly used in black and white films, but Quentin Tarantino, makes excellent work of it in the opening scene. This opening scene is one of the best opening scene i have ever seen, and it's a must watch.

Year 12 Media Studies Questionnaire

Year 12 Media Studies

Student Questionnaire

Joe Stevens

GCSE Results

English Lang – B

English Lit – B

Religious Studies – B

Graphics – B

Additional Science – C

Science – C

Maths – C

Hobbies – Football and Basketball

Print Media:

I like to read the football section of the newspaper, mainly to look at the latest scores and transfers.

Music Industry:

I don’t really have a genre of music I like the most, I tend to like any sort of music, as long as it has a good beat and is not screamo.

I access music through the internet, by going on YouTube and downloading music off iTunes.

Illegally downloading music is easy to do, so people often resort to illegally downloading music rather than buying it legitimately. Illegally downloading music shouldn’t happen, but I think that it’s too late to stop it.

The music industry doesn’t really effect what I wear, I just tend to wear whatever I think looks good, regardless of whether it’s influenced by the music industry or not.

Video Games:

My favourite games are the FIFA series, they are an endless amount of enjoyment for me, I am a massive football fan (Manchester United) and these games give me the chance to have fun whilst playing with my favourite team.

The more people play video games the more people tend to get hooked to them. The majority of the ‘video gaming community’ are males. People are generally shocked when the see a female playing Call of Duty for example. This creates a very bias attitude towards the female gender, which shouldn’t be happening; the only way to stop it is to have more ‘girl gamers’.

New Technology:

Having technology such as gaming consoles and the internet do increase your understanding of the world, because you can easily search something in Google for instants, and you can pretty much find the answer/thing you were looking for.

Programs such as MSN, Facebook and Skype all allow you to communicate with others, and are easily accessible and FREE.

New technologies such as BBC iPlayer and other catch up programs allow you to watch episodes you may have missed, whilst you were watching something else on another channel. New technologies also allow you to easily listen to music, due to programs such as YouTube.

Television:

Dave. Dave is awesome. It has all my favourite programs such as ‘Not Going Out’ and ‘Top Gear’. I love things that make me laugh, if your funny, you win my vote. My favourite television genre has to be comedy, and Dave is the perfect channel. Unfortunately I don’t have much of a good memory, so I tend not to remember TV programmes much.

Feature Films:

My favourite genre of Film has to be Sci-Fi, the genre will never deplete, and there is so much variety, from Avatar to X-Men. The Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Attack the Block and X-Men origins: Wolverine are all outstanding films in my view. Each of these films starts with something interesting, rather than boring rubbish that no-one cares about. I prefer to watch films on television seeing as they are free, and you can lounge around at the same time, which is an added bonus. I never really go to the cinema to watch films, as there are so many available on the television and internet. I also prefer to watch films on my own, instead of in a group, because being in a group means that there will be lots of distractions. I just sit and stare at TV, and sum up what things are happening.

Conclusion

There aren’t many films that have offended me, but there are parts of films that may offend people I know or knew. For example, films that portray what aren’t reality. Films such as ‘Band of Brothers’ and ‘The Pacific’. Innocent people are shown to be killed on these films; false information is being handed out. Is that the way it really was? My great granddad fought in World War 1. He survived; he tried to go back to base camp with his battalion, when they encountered a river. They got across this river by stepping on the dead bodies of their fellow soldiers. I feel that things like this aren’t portrayed in war films, instead it’s giving us false information, about how war is like, and that offends my great Granddad, which offends me. Although I haven’t had first hand experiences of this, I understand from talking to my granddad that war is not like it is now, because there are few remaining to tell the tale.

My most interesting film that I have watched has to be my most recent, ‘The Rise of the Planet of the Apes’. ‘The Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ is epic. I can’t possibly see anyone hating it. Right from the beginning you’re intrigued as to what may happen. It also helps that it is a follow on from ‘The Plant of the Apes’ which is also a brilliant film. Rupert Wyatt the director, who also directed ‘The Escapist’ (another brilliant film), is one of my favourite directors, of many. You always want to know what happens next, there is no boredom involved, and it just gets into the nitty gritty right from the start. The main actor James Franco, who is also known for playing Harry Osborn in ‘Spiderman 3’, is in a league of his own. A world class actor, I could never fault. It also features Frieda Pinto who featured in Slumdog Millionaire. With this line-up and Brian Cox, who featured in the Bourne Sequels, ‘The Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ is one of the best films I have ever seen.

If I was to create a media text I would create a sci-fi film. I wouldn’t use it to communicate people, I wouldn’t have a moral either, and it would just be crazy. The film would start and finish with action packed dialog, it would be awesome!

Why I chose Media Studies.

I chose media studies because it sounded REALLY fun. We get to make a thriller, how fun can it get? I’ve always wanted to start vlogging on YouTube, but have had the expertise, or programs, or equipment to get started. I feel by doing media studies, it will enhanced my knowledge about camera shots, techniques etc. and will help me to be a vlogger.