Costume, Mise En Scene and Semiotics

Below is my Prezi demonstrating my research, planning and organisation for the costume and mise en scene (including the semiotic representations which they create) that I'll be using within my documentary and ancillary product photography.


To research in greater detail about semiotics, I used these resources;
http://www.uvm.edu/~tstreete/semiotics_and_ads/terminology.html



I've also created a concept board for my costumes using Polyvore, which I have based on my Prezi presentation for this area. Polyvore was very helpful for creating this concept board as it links to where the costumes can be purchased, which I'll use for organisation of costumes and to include more detail about them on their original websites. My narrator's costume is to the left of the collage, and my interviewee's is towards the right.

Media Studies Costume by roseycourtney featuring a short sleeve black dress

Next, I'll send these costumes to my cast to organise which similar clothing items they own themselves and which I'll need to arrange in their sizes.

*Update: After casting, I've sent this concept board to Rowan and Emily to arrange their costumes. The ones which they own match perfectly to my envisioned style as set out by my concept board, therefore they will wear these to each shoot, with Rowan varying between jeans and black trousers to create a slightly more interesting range and to differentiate between time during my shoots.*

Lighting

It is conventional of documentaries to use simplistic and natural lighting, as they are often shot on the move  and improvised rather than overly planned in detail, and do not present complexly stylised lighting such a chiaroscuro, silhouettes or bright, coloured lights. Therefore for each location, the lighting I plan to use includes;

• Outdoor narrations: Natural lighting shot in not overly bright/shadowed locations during daytime. According to my initial location research into daylight hours, I will need to shoot between 11:00-2:00.
• The Forum, Marzano and library interviews/narration: Shot during the same hours as the previous location (I will therefore need to spread my shooting over different days to cover everything in time.) These locations all have losts of natural lighting due to the large glass windows, walls and ceilings, as well as the bright white lighting, and white walls which won't project colour (which I found from my location plan filming).
• Starbucks informal interview: This location includes artificial studio lights at the bar seats, however due to the yellow filter formed by the wallpaper and shadows of this location, I will also require natural lighting by holding my interview near the large windows; balancing the colours of the lights.

The images for my newspaper advertisement and double-page magazine spread will be photographed within my locations in order to introuduce them and form strong links tommy documentary. Therefore my lighting for this photography will remain the same as my documentary production lighting.

Animatic

I have produced an animatic from my documentary storyboard following my plans to do so on that post, which allowed me to;

• become familiar with the Final Cut Pro editing software which I'll be using for my editing
• research Final Cut Pro editing techniques such as this one
• practise the timings I'll be using for each clip and to see whether I'll meet my 5 minute duration
• view how my editing transitions and effects will flow together

Documentary Animatic from Courtney O'Donnell on Vimeo.

I noticed from this production that I didn't meet by 5 minute duration by 1:52, therefore I'll be including more shots, particularly artistic cinematography within my documentary, which I will include when writing my shot list and script to add the extra time. As my timings weren't exactly correct, I decided not to add my non-diegetic music as I had previously planned, as my music timings would also be inaccurate.

Documentary Storyboard

I have planned the production of my documentary by creating a storyboard with detailed annotations, as a plan for my:

• locations
• shot types
• mise en scene
• characters
• order of shots
• order of sound
• and some of my editing

I have also presented this storyboard interactively using SlideShare, as embedded below:

My Documentary Production Storyboard from Courtney O'Donnell

To extend this planning, I will need to create an animatic from this storyboard in order to plan my timings and editing transitions, as well as non-diegetic music.

Location Planning

I have presented my initial location planning using Prezi:


Researching from this website has been effective for planning a range of cinematographic shots: empireonline.com/features/film-studies-101-camera-shots-styles

Musician Update

Today my musician, Maya Law, emailed me her cover of 'Hard Out Here' following my previous request of this song for my non-diegetic sound for my documentary. I've uploaded it to SoundCloud (with her permission) to embed into my blog.


I am very pleased with her cover and it's professionalism, as the sound quality is high, and its original song is recognisable. I'm especially happy with 1:02-1:34, and 2:12-2:55 of the cover, as these parts capture the upbeat feel which I had planned to overlay the more positive sections of my documentary narrative - therefore I will be looping them for these sections. The beginning of the cover sounds similar to 'Timber', the other music track for my documentary, therefore allowing my non-diegetic sound to flow and sound organised. I will experiment with editing this music along with 'Timber' using iMovie, to adjust the speed and pitch of these songs, and use ducking to correspond with the diegetic sound of my documentary, and my non-diegetic voice-over.

*I will update this post with the next song I'm requesting for Maya to cover once I've finished planning it.*

Deconstruction of TV Listings Magazine

I recently deconstructed two film posters; 'Moulin Rouge', 2001, and 'Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street', 2007, in order to develop my deconstruction skills and to understand what to look for when analysing media texts and products:
*Insert 3 images from the booklet*

From this knowledge, I began deconstructing a relevant article from the TV listings magazine, 'TV Choice'. The article I deconstructed was appropriate, as it was the same documentary which I have deconstructed in a previous post, 'Don't Stop the Music'. This shows me that documentaries (which I had identitfied as similar to my own in my deconstruction, for example due to its matching exhibitor of Channel 4) are suitable for this magazine, despite first impressions due to the soap opera dominated front cover.

Deconstruction of article using SlideShare as a presentation method:

Deconstruction of TV Listings Magazine Article from Courtney O'Donnell

Evaluation:
By deconstructing this TV listings magazine article, I have gained knowledge of its format, strengths and weaknesses, and how text and images can link together. I've also noted the importance of a house style to create a stylistic article. By deconstructing this article, I have now began to prepare my planning and production for my own ancillary product. I am unsure whether I will use this exhibitor, its indicated target audience seems inappropriate for my own product, therefore I will need to analyse another article from an alternate exhibitor such as the 'TV Times', which presents scheduling for Channel 4.

Production Plan

Over the next 2-3 months, I will be working to produce a 5 minute extract from a television documentary within the documentary genre and with my exhibitor 'Channel 4' in mind. It will present and debate the issue of sexism within contemporary media; specifically the music, television, journalism and film industries in the Western world. I will also be creating two ancillary products; a double page spread from a TV listings magazine discussing and promoting my documentary using images and text, and a newspaper advertisement of my documentary.

To stay organised with completing all necessary areas of production within my timescale, I have produced a production plan for planning and producing my documentary and ancillary products below, along with an estimation of the time it will take to complete each task.

• Generation of ideas, 30 minutes: Mind-maps of developed ideas for all of my products, referring back to my research.
• Job specification, 40 minutes: As this is an independent task, I will be completing most of the production jobs myself; however just as I have recruited my musician, Maya Law, I will need to cast characters including a narrator and interviewee subjects.
• Characters, 30 minutes: Discussion of the influences of my characters and how mine have developed.
• Camera shot/ type/ angle plan, 1 hour 20 minutes: A detailed list of all of the camera shots, types and angles which I propose to use to film my documentary, and their effectiveness.
• First drafts of all of my products, 2-4 hours each: Early drafts for all of my products to make note of any problems which I may encounter during production (e.g. natural lighting or software), and have a basis to develop from for my next drafts.
• Time management, 20 minutes: Plans considering timescale to stay organised.
• Cinematography, 2 hours: Considering and evaluating the quality and artistic style of my ancillary product images and documentary shots.
• Lighting, 2 hours: Consider the effectiveness of a range of lighting and organise and experiment with equipment.
• Diegetic, non-diegetic and synchronous sound, 3 hours: Planning and producing sound including voice-overs and music, and experimenting with producing sound through techniques such as foleying.
• Ancillary product images, 3 hours 20 minutes: Organise, plan, produce and edit a range of images to choose the most effective within my focus group meetings.
• Health and safety, 1 hour 30 minutes: Research and evaluate the health and safety implications of my own products.
• Ethics and permissions, 1 hour 30 minutes: Research and evaluate issues such as plagiarism and copyright relating to my own products, and consider the ethical controversy of my production themes.
• Storyboards, 2 hours: Visually planning sequences of my production.
• Edits, 2 hours each: Produce developed drafts of edits for each of my products.
• Regular focus group evidence and questionnaires, 4 hours: Gathering feedback and evaluating and developing my products to suit my target audience.

Audience Research Plan

As sexism in the media is a controversial topic, it would be inappropriate to target my products to young audiences. Most young audiences would also have difficulty understanding my documentary content, due to the mature subject I am presenting. The readers of TV listings magazines and newspapers are also mainly within an older demographic. Therefore, it is clear that my target audience will be mature young adults - adults (17-35), as they are the most dominant media consumer demographic (making the issue I am discussing relevant to them), and will be comfortable with the theme of sexism in the media. They are also within the target audience for Channel 4 programming, TV listings magazines, and newspapers; making my products appropriate for them.

It is key for my planning and research that I identify my target audience using a balance of primary and secondary research, as this allows me to produce, market and distribute for the demographic which will be most likely to engage with my products. Primary research is the most reliable and precise, as I am researching specifically for my own target audience. Secondary is less reliable, however it will be useful for research which I could not complete in my timescale, such as wide studies and statistics into audiences similar to my own, as well as research into theorists such as Pete Buckingham. Therefore, I have organised the research which I will be carrying out below.

Primary research:
Interviews - I will be formally interviewing a person within my target audience in order to discover how I could engage them with my product, and gain a greater understanding of my target audience's generic pleasures. I will choose somebody who is interested in the documentary genre, as this will allow my interview to be more reliable. The interview will also be semi-formal, so that my information is as detailed and focused as possible; further increasing reliability. To record this research, I will film or record audio, as this will allow me to stay focused on interviewing rather than note-taking.

Focus group - I will form a focus group composed of people within my target audience in order to gather feedback of my documentary throughout my planning and production stages. This will allow me to improve and develop my product to specifically suit my target audience. To record, I will film my focus group feedback so that I can focus on presenting rather than note-taking.

Questionnaires - I will create online questionnaires to gather information from my target audience about how I will be producing, exhibiting and distributing my product to suit them. To determine that the information I am gathering if from my target audience, I will include a question asking their age and media consuming habits (e.g. interest in documentaries), and will record my research by presenting and evaluating my results on my blog.

Secondary research:
I will be researching audience theorists such as Pete Buckingham and his research into audience generic pleasures and archetypes, as well as statistical data based on my target audience such as their average viewing habits if appropriate. I will also be looking at essays and studies relating to my target audience and general audience research, to analyse and add to my blog. Finally, I will use smog testing to discover whether my script is appropriate for my target audience demographic, and will investigate the BBFC criteria for appropriate content relating to audience age. This is relevant to my documentary, as when discussing the issue of sexism within the media, some of my documentary content will be of a slight sexual nature to demonstrate this - requiring research into censorship and suitability for audiences.

Add screenomatic talking about the types of interview instruments to use and their pros/cons

Conventions of a Documentary

I have decided to research the conventions of a documentary so that I can meet these through my plans for my own production. This will allow me to make my documentary more professional and suitable for its genre and style. For this research, I am analysing the textbook 'Documentaries, Classroom Resources' by Jo Wilcock, published by Auteur. I have posted photos of my annotations of appropriate pages in the textbook where I have demonstrated how I plan to meet these conventions and details of other conventions which I need to consider.

From this research, I have learnt some conventional narrative, editing and style techniques from a reliable, modern and published source. I will use this research as a guide for my own production so that it will be a conventional documentary. I will also extend this research online to find the conventions of documentaries which Channel 4 produce, so that my product is appropriate for my exhibitor.