Film Review 2 - Forrest Gump

In 1995, Forrest Gump won Academy Awards for
Best Director, Best Actor and Best Picture

Over the last few weeks I have watched more than my fair share of films and television programmes but by far my most favourite film I watched was Forrest Gump. I watched this film three or four times and I've watched numerous times before that. It's about the life of a man called Forrest Gump (played by Tom Hanks) and it just illustrates the extraordinary events that happened in his life and how even though they were mostly bad experiences or upsetting, he still carried on going through them. Forrest Gump is considered to be very incapable of using his brain to its full capacity and this is shown through the way he handles certain situations in the film such as the public speech after the Vietnam War.

I like the whole storyline as it illustrates how Forrest is trying to find himself and he is trying to ensure that he lives a normal life despite the fact he is caught up in practically every single major event that happened in and involving America at that time. It is very different to a lot of films as there is no telling what is really going to happen as the film goes on because the scenario's that Forrest finds himself in change very rapidly which means that it is difficult to anticipate anything that could happen five minutes from the point you are watching.

I also like the way in which the producers and director do not use this film to portray Forrest or any of the events as biased either for or against. They don't dwell on the situations even if they are severe such as the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement. This makes the viewer have an open mind when watching this film and considering it is a very different type of film to most, this is the best way to go about watching it. Below is the trailer for Forrest Gump.

Alternative Shots Idea 1

I was looking through some of the music videos that are associated with the type of song I am using and I wanted to see if there were any ideas that I could interpret and produce in my own production. One of these ideas was the idea of a couple at dinner and this appealed to me as I work in a restaurant and thought that I may have the ability to make this work. This would be very good as it would incorporate a better surrounding and would make it seem more realistic than some of my other scene ideas as this would have more people in it rather than just being the two main actors.

The types of shots that would be possible in this would be slightly limited as there is only a limited area where anything can be done and the restaurant itself will not want the filming to disrupt the atmosphere of the restaurant and make the customers feel uncomfortable as this would generate bad business for them. Therefore I would probably try to use more shot reverse shots and use the 180 degree rule when shooting the shots of them sat down for dinner. The restaurant I have in mind does have a step ladder so it may be possible to do high angles shots in some places.

The Video that gave me this idea is shown below and the moment it occurs is at the 3 minute mark and follows through until the end:

Film Review 1 - The Place Beyond The Pines

Recently I was looking through films and came across an article which listed the best films that were never nominated for an Oscar Award, based on the opinion of the article writer. One film that caught my eye was "The Place Beyond The Pines" as it was one of the most recent films on the list and I can remember watching the trailer (see above) previously and wanted to watch it but never got round to doing so. Therefore, I decided to watch it and thought I could write a review as part of my media course. The review is found below:

I found the film to be very entertaining and the entire storyline was so unique that I don't think I have ever seen a film like it before. The cast is very high quality talent and I liked the fact that Bradley Cooper does not get introduced right at the start, but plays a vital part in the storyline for the second half of the film. At the same time, both Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes both start off as key parts to the story but both have less of an influence after Bradley Cooper's Introduction. The camera work was very well produced in my opinion and I particularly liked the first scene where Ryan Gosling is walking through the fair ground (Right). The camera just follows him and the sounds of all the fairground rides and people around don't draw your attention away from him. It also gives a sense of mystery to where he is going.

As I stated before, the camera work is very good and the scenery also compliments this with how well it compliments the mood. There are a couple of shots both still and video that are very simple to do but have a great effect on how the mood of the film is reflected. I have placed two of these shots in the space below:

Youth Culture Essay - TV

A2 Media – Youth Culture Television Series Essay

Since the introduction of youth culture television series, it has become increasingly popular and there has been an increase in the quantity and variety of programmes available for consumers to watch. In class, we have looked briefly at the history of youth culture television programmes and we have watched some episodes of the programmes Byker Grove and Grange Hill as these were the first real series to tackle more serious issues that had been associated with youth culture such as teen pregnancy, drugs and alcohol. Grange Hill first aired in 1978 and the final episode ended in 2008 whereas Byker grove was first shown in 1989 and ran through until 2006.

Byker Grove was all about a youth centre up in Newcastle and it followed the stories of the teenagers that attended it. Although it was centred on the teenagers and their issues, it still had the presence of adults in the form of the supervisors which made it more suitable for a younger audience as it ensured that the teenagers were not subjected to complete freedom and some boundaries were put in place. This meant that is was more tolerable than the likes of Grange Hill and therefore did not go into great detail with some of the issues but did illustrate how it affected the youth and why young people incurred these issues. In terms of Grange Hill, it was similar in the fact it illustrated issues involving young people but it illustrated them in a more graphic and detailed manor which made it seem as though it was more accurate than Byker Grove. Grange Hill was set in a school in London and because of this, there were teachers which meant that like Byker Grove, boundaries were put in place. Both of the series were set in places that were inhabited by people with little money so the adults in each series acted more as parents to the younger characters as they were seen as more trustworthy and this therefore meant they were the ones that were needed by the teenagers to fix the issues that had been incurred. These series were both seen as highly accurate compared to any other similar programmes before it or aired at the same time. Grange Hill gives the illustration of social order being present which complies with the theory constructed by Acland of how youths should obey the social order but tend to break away from this. It also complies with Giroux’s theory of how the issues are constructed by adults as they all seem to have very severe consequences to them. The same goes for Byker Grove but it is less severe making it relate less to Giroux. They both have an element of Gramsci’s theory to them as they are both mixing the classes together but the upper class seem to have more authority over them as all the adults are higher class (especially Grange Hill) and the children of higher class in the classroom tend to be more powerful.

Coming back into the present day, we have the criteria of looking at shows that have been screened on television within the last five years. The first series we looked at was Misfits and more specifically seasons 3-5. The series is about a group of young people who are all attending community service after breaking the law and being given an ASBO. They also get given superpowers after supernatural thunderstorm that reflects their personalities. They use these powers to benefit themselves and to try and bring order to any situations they find themselves in. The main issue that is tackled in this series is the crime committed by the youth culture and the amount that occurs. This is supported through the fact they are attending community service and have been labelled with an ASBO which was put in place by the prime minister at the time. The series illustrates the youths as troublesome and makes them seem deviant to society but as the series grows greater, you see that some characters have just been caught doing something wrong once and being punished severely for it. An example of this would be Curtis as he was caught holding drugs and his athletic career is over. This complies with the theory of Gerbner as it suggests that people who watch the TV series that involve crime see crime as always being caused at a high expense when really this isn’t the case. This then ties in with Giroux’s theory as the youths are labelled in such a way because of the way they are viewed by adults, thus meaning they are being illustrated through the eyes of adults. As well as this, the characters all fit into different subcultures despite all being in the same community service team. This therefore means that Hebdige’s theory is also present in Misfits and Acland’s theory also ties in with that of Giroux’s because adults are expecting the teenagers to behave like they do but do tend to be deviant and troublesome on occasion.

The other television series that we have looked at is The Inbetweeners. This follows the story of a boy called Will who moves from a private school to a public school and makes friends with Simon, Neil and Jay. These 4 are considered unpopular by society but they are believed to be more popular that people at the bottom of the social order. Also, they see women as sexual objects and tools when in fact they are unable to even hold down a relationship with one of them. This series is very likely the most realistic youth culture series around as it follows the lives of a group of teenagers that are more common in society rather than rebellious youths. It appears as though it has been presented through the eyes of teenagers rather than the eyes of adults even though the producers are both fully grown men. This is because the series is based on a recount of the producers’ lives and this makes it seem more accurate in terms of how teens are represented. It does address some issues of youth culture but they are more commonly incurred issues such as gaining independence, losing their virginity, experimenting with drugs and alcohol etc. As for theorists, I feel that The Inbetweeners complies with the theory put in place by Hebdige as they all fall under a sub culture of not being popular but not being terribly unpopular. Throughout the series, you always see the main characters trying to break away from their parents and even from one another at some points but they always seem to struggle without them which indicates that Acland’s Theory applies as the need a source of protection as without one another they would not really be anything.

Scene 1 Shot Ideas

In class I have been looking back over my scene ideas and listing the ways I want the shots to go in each scene. This is just a plan and it is my ideal situation which may not happen because of difficulties when filming or some other problem. the ways in which i will be presenting my first scene shots are described below:

1.       Establishing shot of the house with a slow pan from left to right.

2.       Pan from top right to bottom left of the room the girl is in. The girl will be lying on the bed at the left of the screen and the pan stops when the bed is fully visible and the sun is shining through the window to give a slight bur affect.

3.       Slow pan upwards to give closer look at girl as she is playing on her phone.

4.       Shot behind her looking at what she is doing on her phone.

5.       Shot of her (quite close up) as she puts her phone on her table. Hand goes out of shot and you hear a thud on the floor.

6.       Looking at her from under the bed as she searches for her phone.

7.       Gets closer to her as she finds the phone but takes a second look because she sees something.

8.       Shot reverse shot of her and the box before she grabs it.

9.       Not sure whether to show her grabbing it then coming out from the bed or having the camera where the box is and watching her move from that perspective.

10.   Slight above shot of her dusting off the box.

11.   Shot of title of the box.

12.   Level shot of her standing up and as she walks off the camera stays still – cutting off her top half.

13.   Next shot is her sitting down at her desk from the side view.

14.   Close up as she opens the box, slight pause before she puts her hand(s) inside. (music starts playing potential 1)

15.   Quick shot of the emotion on her face.

16.   She pulls out a bunch of photos and starts looking through them.

17.   Aerial shot with slow pan as she flicks through them. (music starts playing potential 2)

18.   Different angles of her flicking through the photos until the lyrics come in – side view, view of just her ands flicking through, other sentimental objects around the room etc.

19.   She stops on a specific photo that we are unable to see, we only see her stop and the reaction on her face.

20.   As the lyrics “I will laugh with you” come in, it cuts to the first flashback scene.

Production Example 2

Recently I watched a music video which I was impressed by the lighting and general effects of and as it the music video takes place mostly in a car, I thought it would be a very good example of how I should edit the car scene that I want to use in my production. The only downside is that the music video is kind of a happy video and therefore wouldn't reflect the mood of my music video so I needed to find a music video which showed a similar background (car, couple, woman getting out of the car etc.) but with a more upsetting or argumentative feel towards it.

At this point I remembered in the "Rihanna - We found love" video, there was a scene where the couple had an argument and the woman stormed out of the car. I could not find a clip to show of just her storming out of the car so I found the timings of that section from the entire music video and will post the video below. This is a good scene as its the only car and the argument shows how both sides are upset and angry which makes it similar to what I want from my production. The only downside is that it isn't raining but if you try to imagine it with the effects from the other video then it will be ideal for my music video. The video clips can be seen below:

Ideal Effects: Keith Urban - Somewhere in my car

Ideal Scene: Rihanna - We found love ( 2:51-3:03)

Media Production Location Ideas

For my production idea, I will need at least 4 different locations. As well as this I will also need a brief shot of a singular house with appealing aesthetic features on the outside at the start of the video but this house does not have to be the same one as I will use in another scene. The locations that I feel I will need will be listed and explained below:

Scene 1 - Girl's Bedroom:
The start of the music video takes place with the main character in her room where she finds the photos under her bed. Ideally I would like the room to be as tidy as possible and it to be very basically coloured i.e. white and light colours to match it. This is so that nothing draws attention away from the main character. The box she finds should be dark colours (black or a dark navy blue) with a white label so that it seems like the box contrasts to the room and it gives a sense that even though the memories are happy ones, the whole flashback aspect of it is a negative one. This scene will be mainly at the start of the video and will feature briefly between each flashback and it acts as a kind of safe scene compared to the sadness and bad memories of the darker scenes.

Scene 2 - Park:
This scene is meant to be the placing of the first meeting between the two characters. Ideally I would like the scene to be filmed in a park with a few trees around and on a bright sunny day but in the time frame I have and the current season, this will be difficult. I may try to do something with the fact it is autumn and all the trees have had their leaves fallen to the base of them. The two characters happen to meet by chance and quickly begin to start talking and walking together (maybe holding hands) and end up sat together on a park bench. The scene stays the same but now only the female character is present and the lighting turns darker to give the feeling she is now alone.It would start with her near the bench and walking around looking at all the places they had been but now it is empty and dark. It would then turn back to the bedroom scene until the next flashback.

Scene 3 - Oxford Covered Market:
I want this scene to be filmed around Christmas time as the Covered Market begins to have decorations all over it. This will ensure a cute theme is present and the brighter Christmas colours suggest a happiness between the pair. I would like the girl ideally to be dressed in either a white or red coat to make her stand out with the man wearing more of a navy coat as this will make him seem more like he just wants to blend in to the background. The pair would be happy and seem as though they are in love and I would like to end the scene with a shot of them from high up so I can also get a close up of a clock. When it turns to the darker aspect of the scene, I would start it from the same position I left it but this time no one is in the background and the time is still the same as before. Then the girl appears from the side and it then cuts to a close up of her with a slight rotation in an arc shape looking up at her. After this it is her going to all the places they went before and ends with her leaving the market alone.

Scene 4 - Car Park/Car:
The final scene should be filmed in a car park which is preferably empty or with very little cars around. It will be filmed in the dark and will also be filmed whilst it is raining. I will also want part of the scene to be filmed with both characters in the car along with some shots of the girl outside the car and the male character still inside the car. This will give the idea of an argument occurring between the couple and the rain will signify that the man is inside the car and will be safe and secure with the break up but the woman has been left out in the cold and all her feelings have been destroyed.

The music video will cut back to the other scenes for like a final flashback and will end with the girl running down the stairs of her house and bursting out of the door to see the boy stood there. They hug and the screen fades away.

Production Example 1

As I am doing a music video, I felt that it would be necessary to look for some music videos that are similar to what I am doing and see if I can take some of the ideas they use and implement them into my production.

Firstly I looked at one of the bands that may provide the music for my production, Against the Current. They are a relatively new band who have only made 3 original music videos but their video for the song "Another You, Another Way" captures the same sort of ideas that I want to include in my production. The video is based around a boy and girl such as mine and involves the girl looking back on all the good times she spent with the boy, which again is just like my idea. The video is very clever in the use of photos when the video shows band performances and it also shows various different events that happen between the boy and girl which I would consider using such as the firework scene.

There is one main drawback to the music video however and this is that it is mostly filmed in the summer and with the time frame I have to produce my music video, it will be very difficult to have the same sort of weather and to perform the same sort of activities. It would also have an effect on the lighting and the general mood of the video.

The music video for Against the Current - Another you, Another way can be viewed below:

Song Ideas for Production

Choosing the right song for my production is the most important and most challenging point of the whole project in my opinion. The video needs to be able to match the song correctly and reflect the mood that the song gives. It also needs to be able to fit the timings of the song so that certain things can happen accurately and correctly such as slowing down the video when the song becomes slower or ensuring the actors lip sync the lyrics accurately etc.

I have chosen a few songs that I feel will be able to reflect the mood of my story. There are two which I definitely feel will reflect the correct mood of the song through the pace of the music and the softness of the lyrics and there is a third option which has a different approach to it and if I choose to do this song I think I will have to change the dynamics of my storyboard slightly in order to incorporate the faster paced music and the louder, much harsher lyrics. The three songs will be listed below with the titles of both the song and the artist:

Song 1: Alex G - Find You

Song 2: Tyler Ward - Dashes

Song 3: Against the Current - Gravity

Production Story Outline

Since choosing to do a music video for my coursework, I have been brainstorming different ideas and seeing what I could do to make the video and music link together perfectly. After a lot of thought, I have decided on doing the following:

Intro Scene:

·         Girl lying on bed playing with phone.

·         Drops phone off the side of the bed and it bounces slightly under the bed.

·         Shot from one side of bed looking under as she leans down to look under the bed.

·         She picks up phone but sees a dusty book further back.

·         Picks up the box and looks at it, rubs off some of the dust to reveal the title.

·         Moves it over to her desk and sits down to start looking through the photos.

·         As she opens the box the song begins to play.

Music Begins To Play

·         Starts flicking through pictures.

·         Stops on a specific picture.

·         Flashback 1 begins just before chorus starts.

·         Chorus starts at 1:09 hopefully start at roughly 0:40

Flashback 1 – preferably sunny and dry, may have to film very close to finish.

·         First meeting.

·         Park Bench, Train Station, Party, Classroom?

·         Classroom – First day at school, sat next to each other, start talking, girl smiling as boy speaks to her.

·         Park Bench – Boy walks up to girl, introduces himself, start talking, and eye contact, smiling/laughing.

·         Train Station – Boy on train, girl is rushing to train, by holds door for the girl door closes just behind?

·         Train Station – Boy walking through a carriage to find a seat, girl moves her bag so he can sit next to her/opposite her, start talking, eye contact, smiling/laughing.

·         Party – Boy and girl both with different sets of friends, they both look at each other, begin to talk to each other away from everyone else, start talking, eye contact, smiling/laughing.

·         Party, Train Station will be more difficult than the other two.

Flashback 2 – Certain time frame for filming (Christmas Holidays)

·         Oxford Covered Market/Cornmarket Street at Christmas

·         Covered Market – Lights, Christmas trees, festive atmosphere, and festive food.

·         Cornmarket Street – Lights, couple running around, laughing, hold hands.

·         Women dressed in a puffed up coat/fur hood? With a hat and gloves. Man dressed in darker colours just a basic autumn/winter coat, jeans, boots/dark shoes. Woman has more vibrant colours (red).

·         A shot of them walking holding hands from behind, then cuts to just the girl in the same pace, darker coloured atmosphere (Navy Blue or Grey).

·         Walking around, barely anyone else there, looking at similar things as the couple were earlier.

·         Ends with her looking at the same object the photo was taken.

Flashback 3 – Only film on rainy evening

·         Break up scene.

·         Inside a car, argument, rain outside, girl gets out of the car, cuts between boy and girl both showing emotion, anger at first turns to sadness.

·         Location – Car park (Pear Tree services, somewhere in Oxford, Woodstock?)

·         Ideally in the rain but need to find way of keeping camera dry. (Umbrella?) 

Youth Culture Essay - Film

A2 Media – Youth Culture

The way youth culture is represented is hugely depicted through the various forms of media available to the public. Youth culture is often illustrated as being very disruptive, violent and troublesome through the news in both newspapers and on television. Part of this is true and is backed up through evidence of knife crime, drug use, vandalism etc. but it is only a part of the entire youth culture that is accurately represented through the media. The main reasoning for the news and other media platforms (TV and Film mostly) illustrate youth culture like this is because it draws more attention from those outside youth culture and makes the specified media platform more interesting to watch. If these platforms decided to document the life of most young people, they wouldn’t gain as many ratings or views which would render the showing pointless. There are other different ways in which the youth culture of today is represented. Most films such as Kidulthood and Attack the Block focus on the teenagers living in inner city London, Manchester, Birmingham etc. which the public would generally associate with knife crime and drug use as this is how these teenagers are portrayed in the media.


At the other end of the spectrum there are films such as Juno and Superbad which have a more comical approach to them but address issues that affect teenagers. Juno tackles the teen pregnancy issue but has a twist as the girl is not someone who would be seen as sexually active and neither is the father but they end up having a baby together. Another twist is that the girl does not expect her parents to do everything for her; instead she acts more independent about the situation and manages to sort things out. Superbad does not particularly tackle a serious issue such as teen pregnancy or knife crime but illustrates how three teenage boys who struggle with being unpopular at school overcome obstacles to lose their virginity before college. The film is based around this issue and has a very similar element to the British TV series ‘The Inbetweeners’ with the story line and the added comical effect.


The main youth culture film I have watched is My Brother the Devil. This film is set in Hackney and follows a family who have migrated from Egypt to find a better lifestyle. The eldest brother, Rashid, is involved in a gang and is considered one of the senior members of the gang. He is also highly idolised by his brother Mo who has just received is GCSE grades and Rashid has set a goal for him to go to college. Mo however wants to be like Rashid and starts doing work for the gang behind his brother’s back. Rashid then decides he wants out of the gang due to personal reasons and the two brothers begin to cross paths and become near enough enemies. The film illustrates the issues of gang violence, drug use, murder and also homosexuality which is different for a gang culture film as it is not widely accepted in areas such as Hackney.

Creative Task 1

Myself and my class mate Abel were given the task of creating a short piece using specific camera techniques. We decided to look at creative ideas others had done and we looked into a man who walked backwards through areas of Japan and then reversed it so that he was walking forwards whilst everyone else did their actions backwards. Below are both the original piece and our creation:

A2 Media Ideas Powerpoint

A2 Brief Ideas

For the A2 side of my Media Course, I have been given a selection of design briefs in which I am allowed to choose from as the base of my coursework. After some thought, I decided that I wanted work singularly rather than in a pair or group as I felt it would be easier to get to do exactly what I wanted even if it meant more work has to be done on my part. I analysed the selection of briefs and found that the main two the caught my attention were the music video and the short film. Again I looked over these two options and searched up some past exemplar work on YouTube before deciding that I wanted to do a music video. However I do not want to do just any old mainstream song, I am a big believer in promoting artists who do not get the same recognition as the artists who currently dominate the charts. Therefore I would like to look into songs I enjoy listening too and that I can provide an adequate music video for. Below are some of the songs I want to try and base my music video around:

AS Overview

As part of my Media A Level course, I had to do an opening sequence in a group with two other people. This was also my AS Media Production. The whole project was in my eyes a huge improvement from when our group did a preliminary task to get to learn about some of the key aspects in making a film which included camera movement, editing and script and storyboard writing. Below is a video showing my group's final piece that was sent to examination to be marked.

The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off Analysis

The other day in class, we watched a documentary called "The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off". The documentary was all about a boy called Jonny Kennedy who has lived his entire life with a very severe and rare disease which causes his skin to fall off and for him to find everyday life very difficult to cope with. The documentary showed the last few months of Jonny's life before he sadly passed away from skin cancer which had been brought on by his illness. The documentary showed how Jonny lead his life in his final months and how he tried to make the most of the little time he had by doing activities such as skydiving, setting up a charity, visiting different areas of the UK etc.

The clip to the left illustrates the beginning of the entire of the opening scene to the documentary and gives an insight as to how the condition effects Jonny and how he has to deal with it in every day life.