Media Studies A Level Coursework

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKN0-27R9Sc&feature=youtu.be Please note: the voice-over at the start of the video will not be done by me in the final cut; it will be done by the girl from the red scene.

I shot my scene in the warehouse, which is the second part of my production's dream sequence. My first attempt at this did not go as planned, and there were some problems with the cast, so I re-shot the day after, and edited the footage then. Here, I also began doing the VFX for my project, which mostly involved some masking and a little bit of Rotoscoping to keep the order of my layers in check. I then began editing a first rough cut of the first three scenes that I have shot. I now need to shoot my fourth and final scene, which is set in reality and consists of the police finding another body.

(This draft is ongoing and unfinished.) It’s not unusual for a director’s life experiences to shape their creative outputs. But, as Sam Crowley tells me as we sit in the comfortable living room of her Ealing flat, the life that led her up to this point, with a prime-time ITV drama set to blow up ratings in the pipeline, is inextricably linked with her work.  “'Life imitates art', that’s the old saying,” she tells me as she nurses her coffee, and I would be inclined to agree, but one look even at the poster of her new project Torn makes me wonder what this could possibly mean. Three dead girls, a town haunted by a sinister mental health epidemic, and a hardboiled cop whose past problems make The Maltese Falcon’s Sam Spade look like an angel, and all this before the opening credits even roll. A smile tugs at the corner of her mouth as Crowley notices my clear confusion, and she rushes to clarify: “I mean, it’s not like I’ve lived a horrible life or experienced anything lik...

Learner's Name: Michael Quigley-Smith Word Count: 425 I have decided to make a psychological thriller that utilises striking visuals and an unstable sense of reality channelled through the protagonist to create an unnerving drama that also contains the suspense and mystery elements of crime shows. My programme will jump between reality and the protagonist’s dreamscapes, and the latter will be indicated with extreme mise-en-scene elements such as block-colour lighting and Dutch camera angles, which will act to disorient the audience, offering them a unique viewing experience. During a scene where the main character is running from an unknown entity, there will be rapid editing and handheld camerawork without a steadicam, creating tension, while in the next scene, the camera will move slowly on a dolly in binary opposition to the running scene, varying the pace and maintaining audience interest. Reality will be depicted in a more standard manner, with less extreme mis...

My plan for this day was to get the indoor dream sequence shot, as well as to finish off the outdoor dream sequence scene that I had failed to finish on day 1 because the sun set too quickly. However, the location that I would have used for the indoor dream sequence was unavailable to me, because it turned out that I didn't have permission to shoot there. The other scene that I could have shot instead - the body dump/crime scene - required people who weren't available on the day, so I was stuck. I did manage to finish the outdoor dream sequence, which is good, but I wanted to have shot more by now. At the moment, I have shot and edited nearly half of my production, which is ok progress, but unfortunately, securing permission might take some time, and the availabilities of the necessary people don't line up again for a while. This means that I won't be able to film again for a bit of time, so I'll focus on my magazine work instead.

I began my shooting with the first scene of my script, which is a dream scene in which the protagonist is running away from an unknown entity. The scene was filmed at sunset, and I found out quite quickly that the rapidly fading light was going to be a problem that ultimately led to me not getting all of the footage that I wanted: I still need to film the end of the scene, which I will do as soon as possible.     I also shot the first scene set in reality, which is where the protagonist wakes up from his nightmare to a call from his partner saying that there has been another murder. I shot this in very low light, which may have been a mistake as there is a lot of graininess in the footage, so I may re-shoot this section. However, I think that the shots themselves look quite nice, so I might just keep the scene as is.