Lesson 04: Film Production Company Logos

Lesson 04: Film Production Company Logos

Research on Film Productions and their company logos.

27/09/12
MWE

                                                           Film Production Company Logos

Dream Works- The film production was the result of Stephen Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen (hence the "SKG" underneath the companies name) in 1994. 

Spielberg wanted the logo to feature a man on the moon fishing and to be computer generated. However, a dear friend of Spielberg who worked with him previously Supervisor Dennis Muren of Industrial Light and Magic; suggested that a hand print logo would look much better which Spielberg agreed to. And so Maureen contacted his friend Robert Hunt who created the logo. Hunt created an alternate version which illustrated a little boy with a fishing rod sitting on a crescent moon (the little boy being Hunts son), Spielberg prefered this better then the original idea and decided to make it the official logo for Dream Works.

Analyzing the logo above, it's interesting why Spielberg wanted a man on the moon with a fishing rod to star in the logo of Dream Works. Taking in the company name "Dream Works" it is very fitting to the logo. Dreams are associated at night and so it may be the reason why Spielberg chose a moon to feature. The fishing rod may imply that the boy is fishing for stars (great actors) or fishing for great movies which are dream-like. The fact that the moon is elivated and that all three objects are up the sky could be a metaphor for "out of this world" projects that they will provide for their audience.

 Paramount- Founded in 1912 by Adolph Zukor and Frohman brothers (Daniel and Charles).

The "Majestic Mountain" of the Paramount was a creation made by W.W Hodkinson after his first meeting with Zukor, this was based on his childhood enviroment- the Ben Lomond Mountain in Utah. Originally, the logo had 24 stars representing 24 contracted movie stars (there are only 22 stars present at the modern logo, no one knows why it was reduced).

The story behind the logo is pretty self-explanatory to why the logo looks the way it does and what it's trying to promote. Each 24 stars represents 24 great actors and actresses, the fact that they chose to use stars to represents them connotes the idea of outstanding, high quality acting, high achievers. Mountains can be seen as reprsentation for challenges, they're difficult to overcome and so putting the idea in the context of film production; just like mountains which provides difficult challenge for many, they're work are hard to trumph over.



Pixar- In most Disney animation the lively lamp often makes appearance on the pixar logo. This lamp was a character all the way back from year 1986, which starred in  a short film named "Luxo, Jr"

Pixars logo definitely has a playful element in it, it could be because its target audience are of those in lower age groups and it's their method of drawing them in. Having said that, it could be more than just a tribute to a classic pixar character. It is possible that they are tying to assemble another message, that just like the lamp which provides light, their productions are bright and are of high standards.

Lesson 03: Camera Shots

Lesson 03: Camera Shots

Recap of "Camera Shots"

20/09/12
MWE



                                                           Camera Shots

Throughout the years media evolved, many different camera techniques have been invented and graced upon our favourite tv series or films. Each one of them owning their own set of purpose, these are the top 10 basic camera shots which are often found in many shows. 

1.            Shot reverse shot - A film technique where one character is shown looking at another character (often off-screen), and then the other character is shown looking back at the first character.

2.            Over the shoulder -  A angle where it taken over the shoulder of another person

3.            Extreme close up – A shot taken which zooms precisely to a subject, which exposes great amount of detail.

4.            Close up – A shot taken at a short range.

5.            Medium shot – A shot from a standard distance (Often shows the object from the waist above).

6.            Long Shot – Shows an entire human body.

7.            Extreme long shot – A shot taken of its key subject at a great distance from the camera.

8.            Two shot – A movie or television shot of two people together.

9.            Point of view shot – A shot showing the individuals perspective.

10.          Overhead shot – A bird’s eye shot taken directly above the action, often used to show sceneries.

Here are a few examples of shots I have found over the internet:

Over the shoulder shot

Close up shot

Two shot


This link explains more about frames in filmmaking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=K6N2SpA2XPI

The following images will show examples of still shots I have found as I watched an spisode of the TV show "Glee".

Medium Shot- Presented in this screenshot is a character in a middle of a room, provided that there's a piano behind him and he's stood by a music stand, it suggests that he's in a music room. In addition to that there's a book shelf behind him which suggests further that he's in a learning enviroment. Taking in the charaters appearance, he's dressed quite smart which implies that he may be a teacher.

Shot Reverse Shot- This is actually edtited seeing that it is actually two shot placed in sequence to one another.

 

 Two Shot- Judging the distance from the camera and the characters, it's close enough that we can see their faces. The emotions which graced upon their face seems to be quite surprised. This shot is good at letting the audience know the characters feelings towards a subject.

 

Medium Shot- The centre focus of the camera here is on the guitar. Having said that, it might be perhaps that the camera is trying to show that there's something special with the object, hence why it is paid much attention.

Close up

 

                                                                                    Long Shot

 

Group Shot

 

Extreme Long Shot

 

Lesson 02: Anchorage

 Lesson 02:

Recap of the lesson about "Anchorage".

18/09/2012
MWE

 

                                                            Anchorage

The viewer/ audience is said to be "all at see" in a media world full of potential meanings.... There is no such thing as a fixed meaning. The BEST media producer can do is to only anchor the viewer/audience aournd prefered readings.

This is anchorage.









SO what is anchorage again? Well anchorage is an element in the picture which informs the audience what the picture is specifically about. The most frequent form of anchorage is in the form of text.
Let's look at the stuff below to learn more about this "anchorage"....

This is the original picture. From here we're told that the poster is obviously about the Disney film "Up... Now to the eyes of those who are not familiar with the film, they would have no idea whatsoever what this is about, and so they rely on the title on the top right to tell them what it's about.

Now lets look at the other photo:


















I've covered the the title on the top right. Now if a person looked at this and they had no idea what its about they wouldn't know that it's a film or what it's called or what its about. HOWEVER, they would be able to interpret what they can see and it would be a fairly educated guess.

They may say that since it's an animation it's a kids film,  a family film which the target audience are of young age. They would be able to guess that the story revolves around the old man, the boy and the bird. Eventhough their guesses are not as accurate, they can still put meaning in the image. SO this means that the title must be the anchorage! As the title PIN POINTS more accurately or should i say, ANCHORS what the poster is about.

Lesson 01: Semiotics

Lesson 01: 

For my first week back in Cherwell as a sixth former, I've attend my first lesson with both Mr Wroe and Ms Bird. From these two lessons I've discovered that Media Studies is full of new keywords which I'll need to learn for AS.


11/09/2012
MWE

                                                    Semiotics

Semiotics- the study of signs
Signifier- an object which is used to communicate
Signifiied- the message that is being mediate by the signifier

Semiotics was brought into light by Ferdinand de Sassure in linguistics(study of language) and it was studied further by Barthes in 1950's.

There are various symbols which are used today, they are called signifiers. There are three main types of signifier: symbolic, iconic and indexical. Symbolic signifiers are the signs we have learned when we were young, it's meaning is literal but they differ depending on the culture they're from. Iconic are symbols which are frequently and its representation is not literal but it's accurate. Indexical signs are more ambiguous, they have great potential to imply more than one idea.

The Power of Juxtaposition

Juxtaposition is another topic we've discussed, it's how two elements can be put together to either compliment or contrast one another. One object can connote many things but in combination of another one, it can interpret so much more, increase it depth. There are so many possibilities on what it could be interpret as.

For example:

From the picture above we have a cartoon illustration and beside it is a black background. The cartoon illustration itself connotes childhood and naturally the idea of innocence, freedom and optimism in general is associated with this word. However, if we look at the other element that is present us which is a  black background, it's a complete contrast. The colour black is commonly used to represent pessimism and corrupt. The combination of the two is quite unsettling in a way. The image above could represent unhappy childhood, so as you can see- two items put together can make quite a dubious topic depending on the audience.