Media Evaluation - Podcast by Monica Jane Wyithe

Research on Media Institutions: Dimensions Films – Monica Jane Wyithe

Dimension Films is  an American film motion picture company which is part of The Weinstein Company. The most famous films they have made are: Halloween, Scream and Sin City. This media institute releases a certain number of films per year and not only do they create famous films but they also so help get foreign lanugage films get distributed within the United States and internationally, this also goes for low budget films.

I chose this media institute because I thought that since Dimension helps low budget films get distributed and although it may not able to get to the cinema, it would be similar to their films as most of them are horror/thriller films and if their target audience like those kinds of films then it is more likely that their target audience would be similar to ours.

Monica Wyithe

Film Equipment Used

Sony HQ Camera and Sony Microphone

This digital video (DV) camera is an excellent example of how technologies have developed over time. Increasingly, in the media industry, DV cameras have become the preferred format for shooting short and full-length films due to many factors which include that DV cameras are: smaller, lighter, more mobile, easier to operate and footage can be edited at home on a PC or Apple Mac. Therefore, they are accessible and versatile since they are ideal for both budding and professional film makers.

The above mentioned really appealed to us and we realised that DV cameras such as the Sony HQ Camera that we were lucky enough to have access to, are perfect when shooting a low-budget film and there was no problem travelling to our location because the camera was easily portable. Furthermore, the microphone attached to the camera was really effective for recording dialogue, plus we were able to alter the focus of the camera which was a useful feature because in our sequence we have shots where the main protagonist's are in sharp focus,whilst we blurred the background, to highlight the importance of the characters and to draw the audience's attention towards them specifically.

Adjustable Tripod

This piece of equipment helped to maintain the professional appearance of our sequence as it kept the camera stable and our shots accurate. Also, the fact it was easily adjustable proved extremely useful because we could use it when filming both low-angle and high-angle shots.

iMovie

iMovie is another example of how media technologies have been introduced to the masses and we could use this software to edit our preliminary task and our main task with ease. We were given access to an array of transitions, shot effects, audio effects etc and it proves that the use of computer generated imagery (CGI) isn't neccesary in order to create a film with a quality appearance. Another way in which we found the software useful was that because the concluding shots of our main task were noticeably darker than the rest, we could edit this to an extent on iMovie using the contrast and brightness control and were able to brighten the shots slightly without losing much picture quality, also helping us to maintain continuity.

Sophiya Ali

Costume Design Sketches - Jenny, Sara and Emily

Monica Wyithe

Costume Design Sketches - Jason and Michael

Monica Wyithe

Final Statement - Sophiya Ali

Sophiya Ali

Feedback From Charlotte Robertson

Monica Wyithe