Sci-Fi poster analysis - 'Avatar'

Warner Bros. Film studio tour - Harry Potter

Introduction

     As a class we all went to the Harry Potter studio tour in London on the 7th October. We went here to learn more things about media such as; design, marketing, filming ect..

Summary of events

     During this day we did many things. First we started the studio tour by getting told about what our day would consist of, then we went into a cinema and it showed us things that went into making the film such as the filming, designers, makeup, hair ect. After that the doors to the great hall were revealed and opened and we were able to walk through and take as many photos as we liked. Then the tour carried on even further until we had our class 'movie marketing' after that the tour was continued and then brought to an end. 

Movie marketing

     In our 'movie marketing' class we were given a talk about many things. First we were asked to say what we thought of the word 'marketing' and the majority of people said 'selling' or 'advertising'. Then we were told what a real pitch for a film would be like and the man who listens to pitches and the Warner Bros. studios apparently only listens to 25 words or less about your idea for a film and it has to be a good one that they think they can make their money back on because making a film has lots and lots of money involved. Also we were told that every little thing in a film has lots of jobs to be done to it and different people are assigned one job in that actual job itself, so everyone has to be very precise. 

My highlights

1. I never realised how much goes into making the Harry Potter world real and the tour gave such an incredible insight of how it was all made, such as the castle, it was first made with a mini white 3D model and then made into a larger scale as shown below.

2. I loved seeing all of the sets and the props because they were interesting to look at and knowing how much time and effort went into making them and how they play a huge part in the film. 

3. There were good videos set up all around showing you how it was filmed and I especially liked the quidditch ones because you had the chance to experience it yourself by riding on a broom with a green screened background. This is the image from the day below.

4. The creatures that were made for these films were also on display. There was a huge life size Aragog suspended from the ceiling above the buckbeak and basilisk display and this gives the audience a view on how big they would actually be if they were real and stood next to them.

5. One thing that I thought was good on the tour was that the showed the actual costumes that was worn by the actors/actresses that played characters in the films and there were hundreds of costumes made for the characters. 

conclusion
     The skills and knowledge that I gained on this trip will impact my work on this course because it gives me an insight on how things work in films and how it is done such as; green screen, design, movie marketing. It also will help me know if things are good ideas or not from that movie marketing class we all took part in.

Film genre mind map

Film opening

Film opening - 'The Conjuring'

Audio codes of the film opening:

• Non-digetic sound in the form of scary music
• dialogue 
• a light switch clicks
• people having a conversation
• conversation stopped another scene starts
• non-digetic sound again
• creaking of wood
• two girls laughing
• dialogue
• non-digetic sound

Visual codes of the film opening:

• black screen and the the warner bros. logo fades onto the screen
• whilst the screen is still black the non-digetic sound starts with dialogue
• a light is switched on and then a china doll's face appears in an extreme close up (only half of the face was shown) and dialogue continues
• panning between the people
• three people, one male and two female talking to people (cut screen shots used)
• the room is dark (low key lighting) with only light shining through the curtains
• scenes of what happened in the past
• the two young women open the door
• a note is on the floor it reads; 'miss me?' 
• the doll is sat on the floor when they didn't move it
• one woman opens a door
• the room is smashed/destroyed

Film table

Film: Horror

Horror films

My favorite source of media are films, to be specific, horror films. I like horror films as they contain many aspects to them such as;

• they touch onto emotions that other films don't - letting people have an escape from reality.
• adrenaline rush - this keeps the person/people watching glued to the screen for the whole time which other films don't tend to have. ect

I like horror films and so do many young people that I know, this is because they are appealing to a younger audience. This is said because they are apparently more likely to want to have intense experiences and older audiences find everyday life scary enough without having to escape in a horror film. 

Also, there a different sorts of horrors that appeal to people, my favourite are horrors that you need to think about and have good story-lines. others may like ones that have sickly gore, funny story-lines or get you on the edge of your seat.