TASK 1 - Movie Review: I AM LEGEND

I AM LEGEND (2007)

Review

Cast

Will Smith – Robert Neville

Alice Braga – Anna Montez

Charlie Tahan – Ethan

Dash Mihok – infect male

Emma Thompson – Alice Krippin

Salli Richardson – Zoe Neville

Willow Smith – Marley Neville

Joanna Numata – Infected female

Darrell foster – mike

Pat Farley – President

Mike Patton – Voices of the creatures

'I AM LEGEND' is created by a director called Francis Lawrance distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. The movie was released on December 14th 2007 with a budget of $150 million.

The story was Set in September 2012, Robert Neville a military virologists lieutenant is the last living human in New York City. A measles virus created by Dr. Alice Kirppin (Emma Thompson) meant to cure cancer but mutated a strain. It spread throughout the world killing 90% of humanity becoming vampiric creatures leaving Robert to be the last human being to be on earth surviving while looking for other survivors by using AM Radio broadcasts.  

The average rating for this film is 6.4/10. This film is mainly targeted to a broad audience between the age of 16 – 45 also attracting people who are fans of horror. The movie combines 3 different type of genres; Sci-Fi, thriller and Action, ‘I AM LEGEND’ is based on a book ’28 days’ re-telling the story into a cinema screen that gives high jolts of obstacles but short emotions of excitement, thriller and action, this movie was not awful but not great either. I think this movie didn't show the best ability of Will Smiths acting skills and I expected more of him in this film as I thought this genre suited him the best. Comparing, ‘I AM LEGEND’ to 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire hunter' has the same content of having a human character killing all vampire creatures except 'I AM LEGEND' is set in the future and 'Abraham Lincolns' movie is set in the past with a historical context to it of Abraham of being Americas 16th president. 


Will Smith signed to 'I AM LEGEND' in April 2006. He said he took on 'I AM LEGEND' because he felt it could be like Gladiator or Forest Gump, he then found his character Neville to be the  toughest acting challenge since his last movie 'Ali', he said ''when your on your own, it is kinda hard to find conflict'' because of the films dark tone and exploration of Neville going insane which means that Will would have to restrain himself from laughing and stop from doing numerous takes. To prepare for this role, Will Smith visits ''Centers for Disease Control and Preventation'' and met a former prisoner of war. ''I AM LEGEND'' holds a question ''can he find a reason to continue?'' or the death of everything around tells him that he shouldn't be the last living human on earth. He also citied an influence in Tom Hanks ''Cast Away''.

In camera Editing

The task was to record a video without having the help of editing, we got into groups and was given a scenario and thought about what shots we're going to use in this scene. Our scene was Alex flirting with a girl. What I like about this video are the setting that we chose to film in which helped the scene looked more real and natural and the variety of shots used in this video like the point-of-view, close-ups, long shots and extreme close-ups that help the viewers understand what’s happening, I think the best scene was a scene of Alex on the phone because it was a good camera shot and it looked natural on how he acted. Although, some scenes are too long and should have been shorter like the scene were Christina was talking to me, it should of only lasted 5 seconds at least. Also the camera was too shaky and we should of used the tripod to make it look better. If I could edit the video, I would make some scenes shorter to keep it interesting also add text in the beginning so everyone knows what this video is about and add some background music to make it more appealing to everyone.

Task 2: CV

 Belinda Normsaskul
17 Gleblands Ave, South Woodford, E18 2AB
 07534314984

 kittycats_22@hotmail.com

Education:

I'm currently studying at City of Westminster College doing Creative media Level 3. For Secondary school, I went to Wanstead High School a Specialist college of performing arts in East London 2007 - 2012

Qualification:
English Language - A,
English Literature - B,
Media Studies - B,
Science - C,
Additional science - C,
Child development -  C,
Btec Music - Merit (B).

Skills:
In Secondary school, I did BTEC music and learnt how to use Logic and Cubase audio software also learnt how to use media software such as iMovie on a mac and Sony Vegas. I can multitask and organise my work well. I've played piano for 2 years and did many other activites at a young age such as figure ice skating, karate, swimming, dancing and singing.


Employment:
 I have worked for two family resturants in Central London:
Chiang Mai Resturant in Tottenham Court Road,      2007 - 2009
St Pauls Thai Resturant near St. Pauls station.          2007 - 2009
 
Now, I'm currently working in another local resutant called 'Purple Thai' in South Woodford near Redbridge, its not a family business and been working for 3 months, every saturday between 5:00pm - 10:30pm.


Media Related Experience:
 Outside college, I do Youtube videos and use blogs often such as Tumblr also doing a Creative Media course in City of Westminister College. I've done Media GCSE and worked at a Radio for work experience in Oxford Circus also have created a music video with friends in school and recieved postive feedback. I've modelled for a friends clothing line called 'Stack notes act broke' and experience a photoshoot in Liverpool street in a studio called 'City Studios'.

 

Interests and Achievements:

I've played piano for 2 years during secondary school and been singing since 6 years old, self-taught but never performed or sang in front of an audience before. Been successful on Youtube and hope to become even more successful by uploading more videos. I used to go dance lessons in Pineapple Studios in Covent garden every sunday while I was in secondary school. I'm interested in knowing what goes on in the Film industry and want to go backstage one day to have a better understanding of it, As a job I would like to work as a Journalist but if I don't achieve that I would like to be a presenter.

What is editing?

• What is editing?

When you have series of shots and put it all together to tell a story and to help audience understand what’s happening to the character.

• What is Elliptical editing?

Allows to fill in the gaps and move on with the story without staying on one shot only.

• Why are long shots used?

Long shots are used to show the audience of where the character is.

• What is ‘non-diagetic sound’?

Sound edited into a footage that is not part of the scene and the character can’t hear it when shooting the film but the audience can.

• How do we know she is bending down to pick up the ring? (what shots are used and why?)

The shots used are close up shots. they are used to show her emotions so the audience feel that their involved and the fact that she moved to the centre of the screen to the bottom-right tells us that she's bending down to pick up something and a close up of the ring shows what she's picking up.

Hustle

• Overhead establishing shot – what does this achieve?

Sets out what is taking place and makes the character improve their status who is standing in front of the group and makes the group look less important.

• What is Shot-Reverse-Shot?
A film technique where one character is shown looking at another character and the other character is shown looking back at the first character.

• What is Eye-line matching?

Where it involves a close up shot of the characters who are looking at each other, not directly at the camera, so the audience know who there talking to.

• Why do we cut to the other members of the group?
To help viewers acknowledge the emotions of the group and let them know who is involved in the scene so, there faces can be recognised throughout the film.

• What is a wipe?
A transition of a sequence that moves from one to scene to the next.

• What is the effect of using quick cuts?

A quick pace cut often used in music videos or action films to show excitement and action.

b) Now watch ‘Editing: The Invisible Art’ and take notes:

• How can editing build tension and pace?

• What is crosscutting?

• What are reaction shots?

• What is seamless editing?

• What is a jump cut?

• What is a flash back and what does it achieve?

• How can editing be used poetically?


C. Watch ‘Playing with Time’ – watch the film ‘The Gloaming’. Write a short evaluation of the editing used in this film. Refer to detailed examples from the film and use the terminology you have learnt today.







6. Editor Job profile: http://www.skillset.org/film/jobs/post/article_4732_1.aspRead the Film editor job profile. Then, summarise in your own words the key aspects of being an editor. Explain what other people the editor works with and the skills needed.Editor Job Role:



7. Finally - Read through your blog post and check for spelling and label your post 16.1.1. Upload this to your blog.

Task 4, Video Analysis: Viral Marketing

Cadburys Gorilla Advert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnzFRV1LwIo





What happens in this advert is a gorilla sitting behind the drum kit holding a wooden stick in his hand ready to play a beat that goes with the background music in the advert.  (song by Phil Collins). the target audience is very broad, it attracts both males and females of all ages because it involves an animal doing a human activity which young kids would find humorous and may be appealing to adults as well. This advert doesn't represent any stereotypical social class because its a wild animal playing the drums which means that the advert (cadbury chocolate) is for everyone no matter what status, ethnicity, gender  or age, everyone can enjoy a cadbury chocolate. the platform of this video is on youtube where everyone can watch it. The purpose of this video was to make people buy the Cadbury chocolate and showing what this chocolate can do to you for example, doing spontaneous things. The image quality and the shots of the advert is very clear.

Honda - The Cog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo




What happens in this advert are mechanical objects rolling and pushing another object. In the end, it leads to car which explains all the mechanical machinery leading us to the car. The target audience aims to young males from the age of 20+, who is in middle class or higher class and it can be from any ethnicity because it doesn't involve any human in the advert that might represent a certain ethnicity or social class. this advert appears on a digital platform called Youtube where it is shown globally. The whole purpose of this advert was to persuade people to buy a Honda car and the fact that it shows bits of the cars machinery explains how high-tech or how modern it is making the audience think its convenient for them to use also the lighting of the extract goes well with the car because it makes the car look brand new and shiny.

Evaluation

Evaluation:

What I enjoyed most about this project is the recording and editing process of it. Recording is a practical activity that keeps my active and motivated also it’s involves teamwork as well which gives me a chance to communicate with other students and build better relationship with them. The editing helps me to concentrate because it involves a lot of cutting, transition and inserts (pictures, video etc) where I would have to make sure they all go in together to create a smooth video profile. What I least enjoy was updating our logbook because I always forget to update them and tend to miss out a lot of empty pages. I think my video profile is very well planned and the diegetic sound was very clear (my voice) and you can hear everything I say. 

The background music in this video gives an upbeat, fun and interesting feel to the audience so they don't get bored throughout the extract. During my speech the music wasn't overtaking my voice, it was at a decent level of audio. the inserts of photos and fonts were well added to the video, it fitted the concept of my personality and the color of the text suited the scene and atmosphere of the video. the footages weren't too long and it was very easy to understand in a very simple form of transitions, fonts, color and music. the introduction was well introduced where I put pictures and videos of myself which explains what the video is going to be about. The quality of the video was decent and very clear, the audience can see what everything is happening apart from a few shots where some scenes were blurry. The downside of my video profile is that I should of done more variation of shots, for example a shot of me in a different scene/location and answer more personal questions, giving more information with different type of music in it, instead of just one. I should have been more creative with my scene and do more inserts of pictures and videos of myself to make it even more interesting and appealing to the audience. Overall, my feedback from other students were positive, they mentioned alot of my editing skills and choice of music, pictures and text. There were some room for improvements however, I will take their critics on board and hope that on my next project, I will do better than I did before. 

Task 6: Review Report

Review:

The project that I’m working on is to create a video profile of myself that shows who I am and what I enjoy doing. First, I plan for my video profile and making a shooting script, which involves what type of camera shots would be in my video and what I would say during the video. To achieve this, I watched 3 different video profiles, so that I have an idea of what my profile can look like, I also learnt on how to use different equipments such as a tripod and a canon camera to help me achieve my video profile, what frustrates me is the lack of equipment where other students are doing the same course and need to use the cameras and have none left for the other class. After planning our footages, next was to start filming for my video profile, In order for me to do this I worked in a group, so I get extra help on my video and used a canon camera, tripod to record as much footages as I can and gather them altogether in a folder so I keep my work safe and organized for when I edit them. I was aware of the audio in my location and decided to choose a quieter place where the camera can pick up my voice only in the extract, I had no problems doing this as it was easy to find a quiet place to record. After that, I edit my video and learnt to use Final Cut Pro on a Apple Mac Computer but instead of using Final Cut Pro I used Sony Vegas to complete my task because I find it easier for me to use, compared to Final Cut Pro where I would have to take time getting used to. In my extract, I added fonts, Images, music and different camera shots to make it more interesting and more appealing to people, I made sure that the background music wasn’t interfering with the audio in the extract (E.G my voice) also whilst editing, I watched my work over again and pick out which bit needs more editing/filming. Lastly, (task 6) was to do an evaluation by doing this I upload my video and get other people to watch my video profile and say what I need to improve while I do the same to their work and give them feedback on what they need to improve on.

What I learnt most about myself was that I enjoyed working in groups and helping each other film, I found out that doing a practical work makes me more motivated and working with other people helps me to gain confidence because it involves communication and build better relationships with my group/partners. Group work also allows me to do some problem solving for example, camera issues, recording for people, advice on what part should be edited etc. I like editing my own work and doing it the way that I like it because my work comes out like how I visualized it. What frustrates me as a learner is when I'm in a group and no one has finished recording or getting the work done stresses me out that the group would have to use extra time on filming for that person when it could have been used for our editing sessions. I hope in the future this won't stop me from doing my work, In order for me to do this I’ll learn to know exactly when the deadline is, so I can finish my work on time. To be an effective learner, I will work independently and expand on my IT skills including learning how to use Final Cut Pro instead of doing my work at home using Sony Vegas.