Final Idea

we have decided to change the story of our coursework slightly. We still have the police interview and the flashbacks. however there will be two people fimed made to look similar. this is the person being interviewed and the criminal. they willl be made to look the same until the end where both identities will be revealed and it is shown that the guy being interviewed is innocent. the rest of the film would be about the man trying to prove his innocence quickly as he is on death row. We are going to keep the identities secret by using clever camera angles and shots which would not give away the identity and add to the mystery.

Logline for Media Coursework Idea
· First we read openings to many books, until we found one we all agreed on and believed we would be able to base our film on, this book was ‘Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.’
· We then studied the opening of the film the Shawshank Redemption, looking for ideas for our own film.
· Once we had a vague story line, loosely based on the novel and film, we drew out a story board and began to plan the shots we would use.
· Once the story board was completed we worked on a script to fit with the storyboard.
· We began to shoot, sticking as close as possible to the storyboard, however some shots were not possible or we felt could be improved and so were changed.
· This left us with our idea modified to suit our needs, but still loosely based on the novel and film.

Coursework Update

We have made changes to our ideas and plans for the film that we are going to produce; instead of re-making our own version of The Shawshank Redemption, we have decided to base it loosely on the film. We have included a sequence of flashbacks which flick between an interview and to the story in which the interviewee is telling. However the, identity of the interviewee will be kept anonymous, also the main guy in the flashback will only be kept partially anonymous until the end in which the film will reveal both identities.

Hills Have Eyes

Today in Media we watched the opening 10 minutes of the film 'The Hills Have Eyes' to think about what ideas and techniques used in the film we could use for our own coursework. We have decided to take the idea where the camera cuts to a shot where an object blocking the view then moves around to reveal something or to give the impression that someone is hiding or spying.

With the use of ideas from films, we shall add techniques together to create a good coursework.

Harry Potter and Misdirection

Today, we watched 3 clips of the latest Harry Potter film, 'the Order of Phoenix' and a short film called 'Misdirection', by a university media studies student.

The 3 Harry Potter clips showed a film can become sucessful, with simple shots used effectively. High angled shots, low angled shots, birds eye view, and tracking shots were used in a big success, but in a manor that kept the audience drawn into the film. This could help us as we can take the oportunity to use this shots, and adapt them to suit our film.

The short film, 'Misdirection', which used various shots to create a sense of tension and excitment. The shots that were used varied from simple, and difficult, but were edited together very well to create great effect. After studying the short film, we can now use some of the shots and editing techniques to influence our film.

Media Questionnaire

We have designed a questionnaire that is to be given out to people our age to gather a general idea as to what people expect from a thriller/drama genre. First we made a pilot survey that was handed out to our class members, this was to see if the questions were viable and the information received was useful to our investigation.

Here is the pilot questionaire we sent out to members of our Media studies class:

The People’s Opinion

The public’s ideas and opinions on what you think should happen in MJS’s Media Coursework.

Section 1

1. Gender: Male ׆ Female ׆

2. Age :

3. Year : 9 ׆ 10 ׆ 11 ׆ 12 ׆ 13 ׆


Section 2

4. What film genre do you prefer? Horror ׆ Thriller ׆ Drama ׆ Comedy ׆ Action ׆ Adventure ׆ Romance ׆ Sci-fi ׆ Fantasy׆

5. Why?

6. Do you enjoy watching thriller films? Y ׆ N ׆

7. If yes, what is your all time favourite thriller?

8. Have you seen ‘the Shawshank Redemption’? Y ׆ N ׆

9. If yes, what did you think of it?

10. Are there any ideas you have that might improve our coursework?

Our pilot survey was a basic questionaire, and did not explore areas in enough detail. For this reason, a lot of improvements were suggested. We look at this as a positive, as it helps us understand what an audience is looking for in our film, therefore giving us a better opportunity to make our film better.

Coursework Progress

The novel we have decided to base our coursework on is 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption', a dramatic short story. The film 'The Shawshank Redemption' was based on the novella, filmed in 1994 and is today classed as one the greatest films in global history.

Our task is to produce a story board containing various media aspects that the original film contains, and hopefully turn it into good remake. Our aim is to achieve high marks for the coursework, creating a spectacular film to be proud of.

We firstly need to obtain a location, figure out who shall star in the movie, and sort out equipment. We shall produce video blogs to cover our progress, upload pictures of our film locations for your own review, and write blogs to update you on our current situation.

Once these have been established, we shall produce a detailed storyboard, containing every single shot we plan to film. This storyboard shall contain colour, dialogue and detailed drawings to make filming easier and to obtain a professional impression.

Once our film has been created, edited and final touches have been made, our finished product will be uploaded for evalution by the Media studies examination board. We hope to achieve success in our coursework while pleasing our followers and fellow media studies students while doing so.

Thanks for reading

Video Blog Coming Soon!

Watch this space for our video blogs that we will be uploading soon. They will be videos based on coursework that we do in Media Studies, so behind the scenes footage will be available.

MJS team

Alex, Joe, and Alex's Media Coursework Blog

Welcome to our blog.

This blog is reflective of our media coursework, produced by Alex Jones, Joe Stanfield and Alex Machin. Here we shall update the blog with our coursework progression, also including video blogs.

Initially, we filmed a short film called "A Man and his Gun", including various media aspects such as Mise en Scene, numerous camera angles, and SFX. The finished product is posted below. We also designed a basic storyboard, based on the novel turned film, 'Devil May Care'. We also created a film poster for the novel, shown on the left.

The novel we will base our coursework on is currently undecided until further notice. Until then, please enjoy our embarrasing first attempt at making a movie, including comical bloopers.

Have fun!