Should there be censorship on films or not?

ARGUMENT FOR CENSORSHIP

Music glamourises violence.

Films 'sell' us objects and influence us to do what they're doing- films and programmes now have to provide support for any distressing topics shown.

Film makers know what effect their medium can have on audience, (smoking may influence people to smoke, Film Noir for example.

Images and words have the ability to distort the way we think: promoting racism, violence etc. (not allowed to promote racism in modern day). The film Romper Stomper promotes racism, for example. people may argue that it is irrelevant if something is 'artistic'; it is still promoting violence.

Rape scenes: should they be banned? for the majority of people it evokes an unpleasant feeling, however some people may become aroused by this. 

Also, if people watch violence regularly they are more likely to accept this and think it is okay? 

Most people argue that if someone is harmed in the making of a film then it should be banned. 

Theory: mental deranged people do not have moral filters, therefore they need someone (censorship) to decide for them what is suitable.

It is illegal for people to create child pornography. Therefore, CGI could never create this. However fictional films about child pornography are legal, as long as there are no images of the child being abused.

ARGUMENT AGAINST CENSORSHIP

Moral argument: why should you let other people tell you what you can or can't watch? People are grown adults. 

People may argue directors can feature what they want in films because they have freedom of speech.

Films are also cut because of the consideration of the actors involved being corrupted.

'Nasty' scenes have such an effect on the audience that is will 'put' them off committing any crimes/violence.

Every single person views films differently: what one person finds objectionable, the other person does not.

Some people argue that censorship should not have the right to alter directors 'art'. Would you ask to alter someones painting in an art gallery because it may offend? -No. Therefore some people think it should be the same with films. 

Racist films from the past should not be banned as people may forget about the tragic things that happened, (the holocaust, for example) and we do not want that happening as tragic things may happen again. Therefore, old racist films are historical documents. The 1920's film Birth of a Nation is considered as 'art', for example. 

Link to share our audience questionnaire

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/12E17rc0Vr2_bmTopsndMG0R9zQ9YK1ZWUVBOiglwBmk/viewform?usp=send_form

Final Film Questionnaire

Final Questionnaire Responses

Questionnaire responses

EVALUATION QUESTION 3

How did you respond to the original brief with the audience in mind?
Focusing on the audience for our film was a very important aspect of our project and determined what decisions we made creatively. To start we decided to look into possible target audiences we did this

by looking at a range of things including age and gender as they were the key things that allowed us to pick our target audience. Personally i found it easier to look at the bbfc website to see what was needed to be included to make it age appropriate for our audience. For our brief we were asked to make a 5 minute long film for our advanced portfolio, compared to last year we knew this would be a hard task but was possible with the right planning and team effort. Last year for our foundation portfolio we made a psychological crime thriller so this year we decided to do a ghost horror based film instead to challenge our selves. We had a idea of what our target audience would be because of last years work. 

What we did for our audience research?
For our audience research we thought it would be good to look at gender and age because they were the two main factors, so we all did a post on that to get our understanding on the basics of an audience. Another thing we did was look at ages as an age rating is required on every film shown to indicate if it would be appropriate for a certain audience. The website we used for this was the BBFC (The British Board of Film Classification) which decides what age is right for each film in the UK. To make our research more thorough we also looked into films that exist already and see what they included. We looked at this and all the descriptions of each age because our film included drug abuse and violent scenes so we had to be extra careful when choosing an age in the end we thought that the most appropriate age rating for The Intruders would be a 15. To add to this we also did some video questionnaires from random people we asked in college what we did was read them the storyline and ask who they thought the film would appeal to we also asked them if they thought any improvements in our story line were needed. I think this was a good way to get audience feedback because it wasn't planned or from our friends so we managed to get honest answers from the people we asked. To make sure our storyline would appeal to our audience we made a questionnaire on google and sent it to our friends on face book to let them answer it. I think this was a good idea because it gave us more research to extend our ideas on and change anything that needed to be. The questionnaire we made included questions such as 'what genre do you think this film is?' and 'what age do you think this film would appeal to?'. We also asked them how old they were and what gender they were to get an initial feeling of what answers to expect from them. 

Why identifying our audience was important?

Identifying our audience was very important because it determined what we decisions we made. Its the first thing we did because we knew that the audience was what we wanted to appeal to and why we were making this film in the first place. I think that the audience also made us decide which story line to go with and if we needed to make any changes before we started filming and organising it. We decided in the end we were aiming our film towards a teenage audience between the ages of 15-25 and gave our film a 15 age rating in the end.

Video Questionnaire?
As i've said previously in this evaluation i think that the video questionnaire was a really good idea because it gave us honest answers. Additionally it added to our camera handling skills and helped us use the new camera we had been given to film with in our A2 project. I liked doing this task because we had to socialise with our audience and it opened our eyes to what they wanted to see. It also helped us clear up the issue of our story line and thinking it was confusing.

Rough Cut?
The rough cut of our film that we posted on youtube was the last thing we did to get audience feedback, i think this was a really good idea because it showed us a list of things of what we had to do. By watching the film put together for the first time i think it helped us decide what music to chose and which sound effects would go where. The rough cut let us know what the audience liked and what needed improving. During the rough cut the main aim was just to see if people liked the film so far and what we were trying to portray. However we still had more scenes to film at this point and music to add.

How our music was important in our film?

Choosing the music in our film was a very important task and we wanted the music to creatively match the genre. We used music that intensified the mood, this consisted of music made by an orchestra.When Agnes has been hanged and the film unravels itself the ending title sequence has music on it and it changes the mood and makes the audience feel uncomfortable.The music is sinister and is just a piano playing a tune we decided to chose this because it reminded us of the Exorcist music to some extent. This matched our film perfectly because it makes the audience wonder what happens next and leaves them on a cliff hanger and this is what we wanted to create. We used freesound.org  to gather our music, which was really beneficial in the overall result of our film. Special attention was put on the forest scene were Agnes gets hanged, we had to use the right sound effects after we found them and uploaded them onto our film it really added extra creepiness to our film. 

Conclusion
I think altogether our audience feed back helped us make the vital decisions we needed to in order to make our final film. To add to this i think the different ways in which we got our audience to feed back such as the online and video questionnaire was really useful and helped us get a bigger range of feedback from our potential audience.

Critical Evaluation Tips

Question 1: In what ways does this media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? ESSAY

a) At a technical level. Inspired by other films? Deliberately broke a match on action etc.

b) How does your film reflect or challenge the conventions of the genre you are working in? Stereotypes. Female characters as main characters. Sexism. Typical. Illustrate!  Use examples from other films. Developed genre. Positive/ negative images portrayed or encouraged.


d) THEORIES OF ENTERTAINMENT- Richard Dier:

-Energy (In what way do we give audience energy? Fast paced scenes. Clips from other films. In ours, in theres).
-Intensity (Extreme highs and extreme lows. Melodrama. Takes them out of their normal lives).
-Abundance (If someone has something lavish. Take audience out of the feeling of poverty).
-Community (People working together. Or just about one individual person).
-Transparency (People being clear and honest with other people. Voice overs, flashbacks- inner thoughts- persons true thoughts and feelings).

Question 2: Radio trailer & poster

a) What was the point of our storyline? Frightening? Reflected in advertising products (radio trailer, poster etc).

b) How effective do you think poster & radio trailer were? Make up a questionnaire. Good or bad?

c) Ilustrate with other radio trailers and posters

Question 3: AUDIENCE. Their feedback.

a) audience profile. who was it aimed at? video questionnaire.

b) Few things from film that might make audience understand what it means. EFFECTS, SHOTS. What is it saying? Putting audience in characters shoes.

c) Did this so audience would think this. Audience would think that because of this. Little clues.

d) What did audience think of our rough cut? Questionnaire.

Question 4: Blog, technologies used, research stage, planning stage, evaluation. LIST ALL SOFTWARES USED. Look at evaluation examples at bottom of page.

Use Of Various Cameras In Our Film

During the two year course, we have been able to experiment with various cameras when filming different projects. This has developed our skills immensely, giving us confidence when faced with new challenges; such as having to film on a new camera half way through filming the ending of our film due to inaccessibility of a Sony HD 1,000 camera.   

Panasonic HD Camcorder

When filming our preliminary exorcise in year one, we were using a Panasonic HD Camcorder. This device was simple to operate considering it was hand held, however, ultimately this made our scenes appear very shaky and unprofessional. It also consisted of a light weight considering it did not require a tripod which made it easy to relocate when filming shots, especially if a range of locations were required like in our preliminary exorcise. It was an excellent first device to train and develop our skills.

Sony HD 1,000

For our final AS film in the first year of the course, we upgraded to more professional device: a Sony HD 1,000. The shots we filmed were of a higher quality compared to the Panasonic HD Camcorder which made our film appear more professional. The accompanying tripod ensured all scenes were steady and did not shake; a problem we found when filming with the previous Panasonic camera. 

However, the advantages of a more professional camera came at a price; it was incredibly heavy and required at least two members of the group to carry it around which created risk hazards, especially when operating the camera around stairs or any steep altitudes. It meant we had to rely on one of the group members to drive us to the various locations for filming as we could not travel there on foot with the camera and it's tripod, which was an inconvenience. 

Canon EOS 7D

The extensive price of the Sony HD 1,000 meant that the college facilities regarded it as a very valuable object; only allowing us to gain access to the camera with a tutor present to grant us permission. This caused complications for our filming schedule. Although we were faced with a challenge as a result of being unable to film on our intended camera, we worked around this by making the decision to film the ending scenes with an alternative camera owned by myself: a Canon EOS 7D.

At first, we were spectacle about filming on this camera considering it is actually a device created mainly for photography purposes. However, we were thrilled at how similar the quality of this camera was to the Sony HD 1,000, meaning  that thankfully there were no continuity problems when it came to editing the scenes together in Final Cut Express.

Although I myself am already familiar with this device considering it is my own camera, this was an opportunity for the other members of the group to further develop their skills by filming on a new device. 

This device suited our requirements perfectly as it was light enough to travel with- without causing any inconvenience such as experienced with the weighty Sony HD 1,000- whilst allowing us to attach a tripod or film freehand as the camera itself was not too heavy to hold.

The only downside to filming on the Canon EOS 7D was that we had to 'render' each clip in Final Cut Express after importing them into the software, which slowed down our editing process. You can observe from the image below how each clip imported from the Canon device appeared with a red line above it. When the 'Alt' and 'R' controls on the keypad were pressed down alongside the said clips being highlighted, the box below appeared. It took a few seconds to render each clip. This was another challenge we faced concerning the software's and camera's that we used in the production of our film.

  

         

Props Used For Day Six Of Filming

The Cardboard Box

For the 'moving in scene' towards the end of the film, the 'Ghost Girl' and 'Ghost Boy' are presented to be just moving into their new home. In order to add to the verisimilitude of the scene, we decided to add two cardboard boxes- of a large size- to make the situation more realistic. 

In order to add to this even more, we used a pen to write 'Living Room' on one of the boxes, and 'Kitchen' on the other. This makes the scene even more believable than just plain cardboard boxes. 

In this scene, the boxes were taken out of the back of a car and then carried into the house by the actors. This portrays them as moving into the house without us actually needing to inform the audience in the dialogue. 

The Car

For the same scene as mentioned above, we also required the use of a car. We needed a car considering it may have confused the audience if they saw two characters randomly walking into the house. If a car was not accessible to us when filming the scene, we may have needed to alter the script in order to incorporate one of the characters stating how they were 'moving' into the house into the dialogue for the scene.

The actor did not actually drive or start the engine of the car therefore there were no safety precautions needed. We simply filmed a short conversation of the two characters from the back of their heads whilst one of the group members filmed the scene from the boot of the car, and a short-reverse-shot between the actors whilst they were seated in the front of the car which was filmed through the window. These unique shots give dimension to our film; intriguing the audience considering the cinematography is interesting.

The Mug

We gave the actress playing the 'Ghost Girl' a household mug- to act as a representation of a cup of tea- for the scene where she is faced with Agnes' 'ghost form' at the bottom of the staircase. Although the prop itself is a small, understated object, it creates the illusion that the characters are settling into their new home and connotes feelings of comfort. Little do the audience know that this scene is the climax of revealing the true identity of our characters. 

EVALUATION QUESTION 4

For my evaluation i decided to do a prezi because they help me do sections and decide where to put certain information. To view my Question 4 evaluation click on the link below.


http://prezi.com/jv1jvsyoakcw/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Questions To Practice For The Exam: Section A Part 1 - Development Of Skills

Potential Questions:

1.Discuss the development in research and planning skills from AS to A2 

2.Explain how your post-production skills have developed from AS to A2 and how this has impacted on your creativity

Creativity: putting your own personality/ twist on something

3.Explain how you have developed your use of real media conventions/ texts over the two year course

4.Analyse how your research and planning over the two year course had an impact on your use of real media conventions

Question 1(A):

PRELIMINARY, FIRST FILM, SECOND FILM

Digital technology- (Y-framing, unlinking clips/ sound bridges, after affects, added sounds that we created ourselves, transferring photoshop to final cut express) LIST PROGRAMMES USED. Cameras etc.  

Creativity- how we have been creative: preliminary exorcise (creating a script, choosing shots), first & second year films. Cinematography?

Research and Planning- researched shots and similar films, target audiences, film certificates, shot list

Post-production- final cut express, sound bridges, video effects, colour correction

Using conventions from real media texts- preliminary: conversation, inspired by similar films. Looked at similar films & title sequences

Focus on how you have developed your skills!

Section A of exam

Theoretical Evaluation of Production


1 (a) “Digital technology turns media consumers into media producers”. In your own experience, how has your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete your coursework productions?

• describe and evaluate their skills development over the course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio
• adapt this to one or two specific production practices
• Digital Technology
  
  
  Creativity
  
  
  Research and planning
  
  
  Post-production
  
  
  Using conventions from real media texts

(b) “Media texts rely on cultural experiences in order for audiences to easily make sense of narratives”. Explain how you used conventional and / or experimental narrative approaches in one of your production pieces.

• select one production and evaluate it in relation to a media concept.
•  Genre
  
  
  Narrative
  
  
  Representation
  
  
  Audience
  
  
  Media language 
• expected to select the production that appears to relate most effectively to the specific concept
• describing their productions in terms of them not relating straightforwardly to the concept
• describe ways in which websites cannot be understood easily through applying conventional narrative theory
• sufficiently knowledgeable about the concept for either approach
• choose to write about work undertaken at AS or A2, main task or preliminary/ancillary.