Conventions

David Fincher's Seven

Conventions met...

- Eerie tension filled music
- Fast cut montage
- Extreme close ups
- Hidden identity
- Dark lighting
- Dark shadowy atmosphere
- Creation of fear/ apprehension
- Flashbacks

Conventions subverted...

- Realistic setting not used
- Red herrings

The Kooks - She Moves In Her Own Way

Conventions met...

- Music to visuals
- Lip syncing
- Lyrics to videos
- Performance based
- Genre characteristics
- Close-ups
- Images of instruments
- 'Notion of looking'

Conventions subverted...

- Intertextual references
- Star image motifs
- Voyeurism
- Tempo changed to match

Essay Structure

Point - What editing tool/ technique did you use? What did it suggest/ connote/ represent?

Evidence - Specific evidence from your film (AS/A2)

Explain - Have you progressed from AS to A2? How does this example show this progression? What did you experiement with/ take risks with? Were you more confident/ adventurous?

Conventions of Thrillers and Music Videos

Thrillers

• A build up of action
• Unsettling feeling
• Dark, shadowy atmosphere
• Soundtrack
• Morally ambiguous character
• Creating moral panic
• The unusual within the usual

Music Videos

• Intertextuality
• Genre characteristics
• Notion of looking
• Music to visuals
• Lyrics to visuals
• Star image motif
• Performance/ narrative/ concept based

Timed Essay

“The post-production process can be the most important part of the filming process.”

How important has the post-production stage been in your foundation and advanced portfolios and how have your skills developed over the two years?

Over my Media Studies A-Level I have developed and broadened my editing skills from my Thriller Production at AS to my Music Video at A2, both using the computer programme iMovie on the Apple Macs. Arguably, the post-production process is the “foundation of film art” (described by Eisenstein). I believe this means it is so building block for the production you are creating, and so is vital to the filming process. This is extremely relevant to the skills I have developed over the past two years.

In my Thriller Production at AS I used black and white colourisation to suggest a flash back, acting as a meaningful and relevant piece of footage to the plot: it filled the audience in on past information of the protagonist. By using this, it represented a different time scale, which was useful when describing the persona of the protagonist through the footage. I used this by editing the entire clip of footage on iMovie where I could also adjust the lighting to make the atmosphere more dark and sinister, capturing the essence of a Thriller Production. In my A2 Music Video I used colourisation in more of an experimental way – it matched the genre of music. Within the music video, when the lyrics were ‘this party’s heating up’ there was stop frame animation of fire matching lyrics to visuals. On each beat, the colour of the fire changed meaning I was using my editing skills to apply Goodwin’s principles and by it being more to do with colour; my range of usage had changed from just black and white at AS to the whole spectrum of colours at A2.

Another frequently used editing tool during AS was the slow motion tool available on the Apple Macs through the turtle versus hare image. The slow motion used on the dropping of the protagonist’s mask (key to the concept of hidden identity) was used to dramatise and grasp the audience into this feeling of insecurity of the protagonist. It also partially had to be slowed down due to an error when filming – the worm view shot and the angle the mask was being dropped at meant the shot needed to be slowed in order to fully see it. In A2 I used the same tool; however it was used to make the beat of the bass drum match the music and thus applying Goodwin’s theory of music to visuals. As this was intended, and I had captured enough footage for this shot, it showed development from AS to A2 where I had learnt from previous mistakes.

Editing being the “foundation of film art” applies most strongly when talking of my AS coursework: there were, at times, around 20 seconds of the protagonist talking directly into the lens of the camera which became a tad monotonous. Had it not been for the editing stage, I would have had to re-film this footage, which would have challenged my time management skills. Using the ‘effects’ tools on iMovie meant I could trim the image and piece it together but changing each clip by flipping, reversing, reverse zooming, cropping and panning a different clip, giving it a fragmented, disjunctive feel relevant to the genre, but also keeping the audience at the edge of their seats in an uncomfortable state, again: the aim of the genre and accordingly, it applied Bentley’s theory of production, ‘The making of the new and rearranging of the old.’

At A2, I used fast zooming in and out effects on the ‘effects’ tool available on iMovie. Had I not discovered this tool last year, the guitar solo within my Music Video would have appeared quite bland and as if I was merely repeating the footage I had used previously. This proves the importance of editing and how vital it is in keeping the audience entertained, part of the ‘Uses and Gratifications’ theory – without the post-production, the product could be a failure as it enables the audience to keep intact and wanting to view more of the finished piece. Through development from AS to A2, I was able to create a more strongly edited piece.

In conclusion, I agree ‘the post-production process can be the most important part of the filming process’ as it has saved the other areas of my filming process from having to be repeated. It also enhanced, elaborated and extended my productions into pieces of work I am proud of.