Could you ask Year 13 to all choose one music artiste to research over the break. They should research how the singer/group has use We-media to break into the industry. i.e. Ed Sheeran etc. They should pay close attention to the promotion of the Christmas number one.
They should also follow any we-media related stories in the news over Christmas.
I will be asking them to feedback stories to the class.
Thursday 20 December 2012
The Evaluation Questions
These need to be answered in different formats.
You should be planning to answer these as you finish your products.
Complete the first draft of these over Xmas and I will look at them with you in January.
The level of academic response for these needs to be much higher and in far greater detail than at AS!!
In the evaluation the following four questions must be addressed:
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Monday 3 December 2012
Sunday 2 December 2012
Monday 22 October 2012
Something else entirely....
While you have the cameras over 1/2 term, why not film a Southend version of this for when you leave or to show at Christmas?
Tuesday 16 October 2012
A reminder of research & planning tasks that should be completed
Research for main and ancillary tasks
1. Mood board
2. Detailed textual analysis of at least three examples for each task, with screen shots
3. Institutional context- who would finance, produce, promote, distribute, screen, consume this text?
4. Branding, consider how the tasks will work in conjunction with each other, you could use your case study that you used for your film industry work last year with this.
Planning
1. 25 word treatment
2. Storyboard/flatplans
3. Animatic
4. Location shots/typography drafts/photo & film editing process
5. Script (for talent and/or voice over)
6. Focus group feedback for all parts
You need to organise yourself very carefully with this process although I would suggest leaving the ancillary tasks until after half term, just to give yourself some focus.
1. Mood board
2. Detailed textual analysis of at least three examples for each task, with screen shots
3. Institutional context- who would finance, produce, promote, distribute, screen, consume this text?
4. Branding, consider how the tasks will work in conjunction with each other, you could use your case study that you used for your film industry work last year with this.
Planning
1. 25 word treatment
2. Storyboard/flatplans
3. Animatic
4. Location shots/typography drafts/photo & film editing process
5. Script (for talent and/or voice over)
6. Focus group feedback for all parts
You need to organise yourself very carefully with this process although I would suggest leaving the ancillary tasks until after half term, just to give yourself some focus.
Scary Mary
This video really demonstrates the importance impact the choice of music has in the editing process
The Jim Jones Review mini doc, filmed in Southend
Useful to consider how Southend has been used as a location and the pace,editing and use of music
Monday 15 October 2012
A reminder of the brief choices
1. A promotion package for a new film, to include a 2 minute trailer, together with two of the following three options:
a website homepage for the film;
a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
a poster for the film.
2. An extract from an original documentary TV programme, lasting approximately five minutes, together with two of the following three options:
a radio trailer for the documentary;
a double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary;
a newspaper advertisement for the documentary.
3. A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:
a poster for the film;
a radio trailer for the film;
a film magazine review page featuring the film.
Sunday 14 October 2012
What is the blog for?
Looking at your blogs, they are of a vastly differing standard.
You need to aim to complete a post for every lesson you have. See it as an online diary and record of your research and planning.
At the moment your blogs are not up to the required standard.
You should read these points from the examiners report and consider what you are doing and what you will need to add.
This is what the examiners report said:
Best practice from centres showed accurate assessment and thoughtful presentation of their candidates’ work, so that moderators could see easily the journeys made and understand the outcomes in context.
best practice used blogs in an on-going way, writing directly onto the blog so as to evidence their journey. It made the process of looking at the connections between research, planning and the final artefacts far more effective, especially when work was tagged well.
Centres should encourage their candidates to clearly set out their blogs so that each of the relevant sections (planning and research, productions and evaluations) are obvious to the moderator. and drafts are distinguishable from final versions.
I suggest you tag each of your posts as 'planning, research, production, evaluation'
blogging allows for a fully interactive multimedia experience, and allows for ongoing feedback
We need to do more of this as a class and you need to get into the habit of corresponding with your Media Buddy and focus group
Blogs must be kept online and related YouTube accounts etc must remain active until the end of results enquiries.
some candidates had conducted extremely thorough planning for their video productions, including storyboards, location visits, call sheets etc but had conducted very little research into existing media texts and no research into a potential target audience. Consequently the allocation of high level 3 or level 4 marks in such cases was inappropriate.
Many of you have this part missing, if you haven't done it, I can not give you the marks!
quality of research was lacking when it came to the ancillary texts, consequently many outcomes bore less resemblance to their intended product than the candidates intended, with digipaks having panes that were all different shapes and sizes and with no institutional information for example, film posters that were the wrong aspect ratio and with no credit blocks, radio advertisements that lasted a couple of minutes and that lacked any pace, etc.
It is important that, when assessing work, centres apply all the criteria rather than being selective and allocating high marks for the better aspects of candidates’ work.
In other words, all your artefacts have got to be to the same high standard
Analysis of existing media texts is a crucial aspect of research in terms of informing the construction process. It is extremely clear where candidates have undertaken detailed analysis and used the results of this to inform the construction process, resulting in texts which are much more in keeping with the codes and conventions of the relevant genre. Where this level of research is lacking it was clearly reflected in productions which were lacking in basic understanding of key codes and conventions.
Research into a potential target audience was a weakness across a large number of centres; either being omitted totally or just a brief statement of the intended audience with no evidence of research into this audience. As with research into existing texts, this is an extremely important aspect of work on this unit in terms of researching, for example, audience expectations of a genre. Not only does this then give candidates’ further information to take into account when planning the construction process to ensure texts are appropriate for audience, but it also gives them material which they can then use in their evaluation.
Planning
There were some superb examples of extremely thorough planning, particularly for moving image texts, with candidates mirroring industry practice including such things as storyboards/animatics, call sheets, location visit sheets, risk assessments and shooting schedules. Some of you need to add to this
More commonly, though, planning was generally limited to just storyboards and in some cases these consisted of very few frames. In some cases storyboards were constructed using screengrabs from the filmed production. By their very nature this is not evidence of planning, being created after the construction process has been undertaken. Planning of print texts was more limited, generally to sketches of layout, with little evidence provided of the planning of images and content.
Centres need to ensure candidates’ planning is more thorough in order to access high level 3 and level 4 marks; and to use their blogs or PowerPoint presentations more effectively to present their work.
Candidates should be encouraged to use their blogs as an ongoing record of their work throughout this unit, so clearly illustrating the ‘creative journey’ they have undertaken. This is what I am trying to do!!!
In many cases blogs consisted of only a handful of entries and most of these appear to have been posted in a relatively short space of time.
Film Trailers
The best film trailers clearly demonstrated excellent understanding of the genre and the ways the texts work to intrigue audiences and entice them to watch the whole film. These made use of a variety of shot types which made for effectively paced trailers in the edit; centres seem to have finally realised that a trailer should be maximum two minutes and should try to act as a tease for the film’s story. More candidates made use of intertitles and did this well but there was a marked lack of voice overs for trailers (although this might be down to issues of equipment).
are you giving away your storyline? Is your trailer at the same pace as researched ones? Consider counting the frames and comparing them.
However, far too many trailers submitted followed the narrative sequence of the film they were promoting, including giving away major plot points or twists, and used few camera shots with little variety of shot types and mise-en-scene, which demonstrated weak understanding of the genre. In these cases, more focused analytical research would have been more beneficial prior to the planning stage.
Short films
Short films are an increasingly popular brief and there were some excellent short films submitted in this series which showed superb understanding of film grammar. The films were clearly planned extremely thoroughly, with simple yet engaging narratives, and constructed with real creative flair in the camerawork and editing. Some centres took advantage of the ‘approximately’ 5 minutes long wording within the specification and made short films lasting approximately 3 minutes – others were around 10 minutes. Centres are advised to stick to the five minutes specified.
Lighting was an issue for many centres; sound recording on video a problem for others. Such issues either need to be addressed or other briefs chosen in order to maximise candidate marks. Expensive equipment isn’t necessary in that research properly applied to planning combined with technical confidence generally results in pleasing outcomes. there are a few issues with this in some of your rushes and some of you may want to consider re shooting some scenes in half term.
However, the move to DSLRs is bringing with it a new aesthetic, with candidates less likely to move the camera (the more unforgiving depth of field perhaps being the reason?) but experimenting much more with focus, resulting in pieces which made greater use of the foreground and background as well as the left/right top/bottom of the frame.
A number of centres are still carrying out their production work in the school/ college surroundings, when it is not appropriate for the mise en scène.
The availability of locations should also be considered in choosing production tasks.
Print
The use of found images in candidates’ print work is still a considerable cause for concern, especially where candidates have been awarded level 3 or 4 marks for construction. The specification clearly states that all material must be original, produced by the candidates themselves: ‘All material for all tasks to be produced by the candidates with the exception of acknowledged non-original sound or image material used in a limited way in video/radio work’ (p34).
However it would appear, due to the marks allocated for some work, that some centres either have not read the specifications in detail or are choosing to ‘ignore’ the use of found material, being seduced by the overall finish of candidates’ productions. Where found material is used this must be reflected in the marks allocated as the assessment criteria clearly refer to the taking of images, and if candidates do not do this they can not be given credit for somebody else’s work.
Digipaks
Digipaks continue to be the main problem with regard to ancillary texts. The revised Specification requires the production of a digipak, not just a cover (p32), and this should consist of a minimum of four panels; yet many Centres gave level 4 marks to digipaks which had no spines and fewer than 4 panels. Some centres were still looking at an early version of the Specification and produced DVD covers. Centres are advised to look closely at some of the many digipak templates available online and to get their candidates to design their work using this basic template (that would mean they could also start considering such industrial issues such as bleed lines etc.).
You may want to consider research into the whole marketing package of a film and analysing it as a whole brand, remember the work on the film industry you did last year.
Take half term to take some posed photo shoots rather than just screen grabs of stills.
However, some of the print ancillaries were excellent with a very clear grasp of the forms and conventions of the products they were making along with the practical skills to put this knowledge into operation.
However, generally there was far more cross-media promotion in good centres and even most weaker centres considered the cohesiveness of the three pieces.
Health and Safety
There seemed to be more health and safety concerns this year in comparison to last, including lighting fires in woodland, driving whilst on a mobile, free running precariously balanced on a wall that abutted a dual carriageway. Centres are reminded both of their duty of care to their candidates – but also that effective risk assessments are an industrial practice that candidates should be following. I'm worried about this in some of your shots of underage drinking and you have really got to use that footage sparingly and incorporate some health and safety/where to go for help or support links
Evaluations
The best evaluations not only consisted of extremely detailed responses to the four questions but also used different presentation methods for each response, using video and audio as well as programs such as Prezi and PowerPoint, fully exploiting the technology available to them to creatively present their work. However, some Prezis were far less effective; indeed, as one moderator put it: ‘the Prezi moved from one paragraph of writing (with photo attached) to another in a sickening whirl of pointlessness’.
Other less-than effective methods of evaluation were unedited films of students reading or referring to notes to answer the four questions; they often failed to use images or ICT to make this engaging, even if the material was thoughtful and appropriate.
Question 4 is often the least well answered, with candidates usually producing a list of hardware and software used with comments such as 'If I hadnt have had some software, I wouldn’t have been able to make a good video’ but no analysis of how and why they had used it.
The audience question is often weak because candidates have just posted an audience feedback video with no attempt to provide their own commentary on the feedback, explaining what they have learnt from it.
The exam respone
Section A 1(a)
As one examiner expresses it, “the question was touching on the idea that, even at the back end of the production process, in the geeky world of software editing where attention to detail is paramount, decisions can be inspired and 'creative'”. Where candidates were able to offer detailed and sustained examples of post-production decisions and outcomes, answers were strong and well rewarded. These details included editing, image manipulation, changes after evaluation and feedback, title design, sound editing and marketing. Those that offered merely a narrative account of these were rewarded in level 2. Those that linked these creative decisions to outcomes, combined with a critical reflection on progress made over time, were rewarded in levels 3 and 4. There was frequently a fair discussion of creative decisions, but these were often concerned with storyboards, camera angles, planning and general research, and this did not answer the post-production root of the question.
Unfortunately a significant number of candidates attempted to ‘redirect’ the question to a prepared answer on something else – research and planning and / or conventions of media texts, which in most cases couldn’t work. And a significant minority mistook POST production for PRE production, leading to very low marks being available to them.
1(b)
Once again, marks for 1(b) were often the lowest awarded.
Media language is an ‘umbrella term’ and hence gives candidates a range of options for responding to the question. The key distinguishing criteria was their ability to relate the broad conceptual notion of media language to the medium of their selected coursework production – the language of film, the language of web design, the visual language of magazines. A large percentage of candidates identified semiotics as a central theory for media language, but only in the strongest answers was semiotics applied to the medium at work. A range of writers were utilised here – Goodwin, Barthes, Saussure and Neale were all used well. Laura Mulvey often used in an unfortunately instrumental manner, unintentionally but problematically nonetheless – ‘we used Mulvey’s male gaze’. Perhaps surprisingly, many candidates appeared to be reaching to demonstrate an understanding of what the concept of media language actually referred to. This key concept has been tackled in a range of publications specifically tailored to this specification, both in its current and previous form. All too often, lost in the mix was enough discussion of the actual outcomes of the project chosen as the basis for response – too many candidates took extended excursions into discussing / explaining theory or discussing the applications of theory to professional products.
The weakest answers either ignored the question and responded with a prepared answer on genre or representation, with little attempt to contextualise this in a broader understanding of media language or saw candidates writing about the words used in their magazine articles and movie scripts. A number of candidates gave ‘short answers’ to this question, suggesting they found it challenging.
The more sophisticated responses discussed polysemy, juxtaposition and anchorage of media messages using the appropriate micro aspects of the production work - for example in the shot construction or editing process or narrative structure.
The most important advice to impart here is that candidates need to ‘step back’ from the work and assess it as a media text, using conceptual tools in so doing. A clear demarcation between approaches for 1(a) and 1(b) remains too rarely evident.
Make a list of what you need to review and add to your blog to get it up to this standard.
You need to aim to complete a post for every lesson you have. See it as an online diary and record of your research and planning.
At the moment your blogs are not up to the required standard.
You should read these points from the examiners report and consider what you are doing and what you will need to add.
This is what the examiners report said:
Best practice from centres showed accurate assessment and thoughtful presentation of their candidates’ work, so that moderators could see easily the journeys made and understand the outcomes in context.
best practice used blogs in an on-going way, writing directly onto the blog so as to evidence their journey. It made the process of looking at the connections between research, planning and the final artefacts far more effective, especially when work was tagged well.
Centres should encourage their candidates to clearly set out their blogs so that each of the relevant sections (planning and research, productions and evaluations) are obvious to the moderator. and drafts are distinguishable from final versions.
I suggest you tag each of your posts as 'planning, research, production, evaluation'
blogging allows for a fully interactive multimedia experience, and allows for ongoing feedback
We need to do more of this as a class and you need to get into the habit of corresponding with your Media Buddy and focus group
Blogs must be kept online and related YouTube accounts etc must remain active until the end of results enquiries.
some candidates had conducted extremely thorough planning for their video productions, including storyboards, location visits, call sheets etc but had conducted very little research into existing media texts and no research into a potential target audience. Consequently the allocation of high level 3 or level 4 marks in such cases was inappropriate.
Many of you have this part missing, if you haven't done it, I can not give you the marks!
quality of research was lacking when it came to the ancillary texts, consequently many outcomes bore less resemblance to their intended product than the candidates intended, with digipaks having panes that were all different shapes and sizes and with no institutional information for example, film posters that were the wrong aspect ratio and with no credit blocks, radio advertisements that lasted a couple of minutes and that lacked any pace, etc.
It is important that, when assessing work, centres apply all the criteria rather than being selective and allocating high marks for the better aspects of candidates’ work.
In other words, all your artefacts have got to be to the same high standard
Analysis of existing media texts is a crucial aspect of research in terms of informing the construction process. It is extremely clear where candidates have undertaken detailed analysis and used the results of this to inform the construction process, resulting in texts which are much more in keeping with the codes and conventions of the relevant genre. Where this level of research is lacking it was clearly reflected in productions which were lacking in basic understanding of key codes and conventions.
Research into a potential target audience was a weakness across a large number of centres; either being omitted totally or just a brief statement of the intended audience with no evidence of research into this audience. As with research into existing texts, this is an extremely important aspect of work on this unit in terms of researching, for example, audience expectations of a genre. Not only does this then give candidates’ further information to take into account when planning the construction process to ensure texts are appropriate for audience, but it also gives them material which they can then use in their evaluation.
Planning
There were some superb examples of extremely thorough planning, particularly for moving image texts, with candidates mirroring industry practice including such things as storyboards/animatics, call sheets, location visit sheets, risk assessments and shooting schedules. Some of you need to add to this
More commonly, though, planning was generally limited to just storyboards and in some cases these consisted of very few frames. In some cases storyboards were constructed using screengrabs from the filmed production. By their very nature this is not evidence of planning, being created after the construction process has been undertaken. Planning of print texts was more limited, generally to sketches of layout, with little evidence provided of the planning of images and content.
Centres need to ensure candidates’ planning is more thorough in order to access high level 3 and level 4 marks; and to use their blogs or PowerPoint presentations more effectively to present their work.
Candidates should be encouraged to use their blogs as an ongoing record of their work throughout this unit, so clearly illustrating the ‘creative journey’ they have undertaken. This is what I am trying to do!!!
In many cases blogs consisted of only a handful of entries and most of these appear to have been posted in a relatively short space of time.
Film Trailers
The best film trailers clearly demonstrated excellent understanding of the genre and the ways the texts work to intrigue audiences and entice them to watch the whole film. These made use of a variety of shot types which made for effectively paced trailers in the edit; centres seem to have finally realised that a trailer should be maximum two minutes and should try to act as a tease for the film’s story. More candidates made use of intertitles and did this well but there was a marked lack of voice overs for trailers (although this might be down to issues of equipment).
are you giving away your storyline? Is your trailer at the same pace as researched ones? Consider counting the frames and comparing them.
However, far too many trailers submitted followed the narrative sequence of the film they were promoting, including giving away major plot points or twists, and used few camera shots with little variety of shot types and mise-en-scene, which demonstrated weak understanding of the genre. In these cases, more focused analytical research would have been more beneficial prior to the planning stage.
Short films
Short films are an increasingly popular brief and there were some excellent short films submitted in this series which showed superb understanding of film grammar. The films were clearly planned extremely thoroughly, with simple yet engaging narratives, and constructed with real creative flair in the camerawork and editing. Some centres took advantage of the ‘approximately’ 5 minutes long wording within the specification and made short films lasting approximately 3 minutes – others were around 10 minutes. Centres are advised to stick to the five minutes specified.
Lighting was an issue for many centres; sound recording on video a problem for others. Such issues either need to be addressed or other briefs chosen in order to maximise candidate marks. Expensive equipment isn’t necessary in that research properly applied to planning combined with technical confidence generally results in pleasing outcomes. there are a few issues with this in some of your rushes and some of you may want to consider re shooting some scenes in half term.
However, the move to DSLRs is bringing with it a new aesthetic, with candidates less likely to move the camera (the more unforgiving depth of field perhaps being the reason?) but experimenting much more with focus, resulting in pieces which made greater use of the foreground and background as well as the left/right top/bottom of the frame.
A number of centres are still carrying out their production work in the school/ college surroundings, when it is not appropriate for the mise en scène.
The availability of locations should also be considered in choosing production tasks.
The use of found images in candidates’ print work is still a considerable cause for concern, especially where candidates have been awarded level 3 or 4 marks for construction. The specification clearly states that all material must be original, produced by the candidates themselves: ‘All material for all tasks to be produced by the candidates with the exception of acknowledged non-original sound or image material used in a limited way in video/radio work’ (p34).
However it would appear, due to the marks allocated for some work, that some centres either have not read the specifications in detail or are choosing to ‘ignore’ the use of found material, being seduced by the overall finish of candidates’ productions. Where found material is used this must be reflected in the marks allocated as the assessment criteria clearly refer to the taking of images, and if candidates do not do this they can not be given credit for somebody else’s work.
Digipaks
Digipaks continue to be the main problem with regard to ancillary texts. The revised Specification requires the production of a digipak, not just a cover (p32), and this should consist of a minimum of four panels; yet many Centres gave level 4 marks to digipaks which had no spines and fewer than 4 panels. Some centres were still looking at an early version of the Specification and produced DVD covers. Centres are advised to look closely at some of the many digipak templates available online and to get their candidates to design their work using this basic template (that would mean they could also start considering such industrial issues such as bleed lines etc.).
You may want to consider research into the whole marketing package of a film and analysing it as a whole brand, remember the work on the film industry you did last year.
Take half term to take some posed photo shoots rather than just screen grabs of stills.
However, some of the print ancillaries were excellent with a very clear grasp of the forms and conventions of the products they were making along with the practical skills to put this knowledge into operation.
However, generally there was far more cross-media promotion in good centres and even most weaker centres considered the cohesiveness of the three pieces.
Health and Safety
There seemed to be more health and safety concerns this year in comparison to last, including lighting fires in woodland, driving whilst on a mobile, free running precariously balanced on a wall that abutted a dual carriageway. Centres are reminded both of their duty of care to their candidates – but also that effective risk assessments are an industrial practice that candidates should be following. I'm worried about this in some of your shots of underage drinking and you have really got to use that footage sparingly and incorporate some health and safety/where to go for help or support links
Evaluations
The best evaluations not only consisted of extremely detailed responses to the four questions but also used different presentation methods for each response, using video and audio as well as programs such as Prezi and PowerPoint, fully exploiting the technology available to them to creatively present their work. However, some Prezis were far less effective; indeed, as one moderator put it: ‘the Prezi moved from one paragraph of writing (with photo attached) to another in a sickening whirl of pointlessness’.
Other less-than effective methods of evaluation were unedited films of students reading or referring to notes to answer the four questions; they often failed to use images or ICT to make this engaging, even if the material was thoughtful and appropriate.
Question 4 is often the least well answered, with candidates usually producing a list of hardware and software used with comments such as 'If I hadnt have had some software, I wouldn’t have been able to make a good video’ but no analysis of how and why they had used it.
The audience question is often weak because candidates have just posted an audience feedback video with no attempt to provide their own commentary on the feedback, explaining what they have learnt from it.
The exam respone
Section A 1(a)
As one examiner expresses it, “the question was touching on the idea that, even at the back end of the production process, in the geeky world of software editing where attention to detail is paramount, decisions can be inspired and 'creative'”. Where candidates were able to offer detailed and sustained examples of post-production decisions and outcomes, answers were strong and well rewarded. These details included editing, image manipulation, changes after evaluation and feedback, title design, sound editing and marketing. Those that offered merely a narrative account of these were rewarded in level 2. Those that linked these creative decisions to outcomes, combined with a critical reflection on progress made over time, were rewarded in levels 3 and 4. There was frequently a fair discussion of creative decisions, but these were often concerned with storyboards, camera angles, planning and general research, and this did not answer the post-production root of the question.
Unfortunately a significant number of candidates attempted to ‘redirect’ the question to a prepared answer on something else – research and planning and / or conventions of media texts, which in most cases couldn’t work. And a significant minority mistook POST production for PRE production, leading to very low marks being available to them.
1(b)
Once again, marks for 1(b) were often the lowest awarded.
Media language is an ‘umbrella term’ and hence gives candidates a range of options for responding to the question. The key distinguishing criteria was their ability to relate the broad conceptual notion of media language to the medium of their selected coursework production – the language of film, the language of web design, the visual language of magazines. A large percentage of candidates identified semiotics as a central theory for media language, but only in the strongest answers was semiotics applied to the medium at work. A range of writers were utilised here – Goodwin, Barthes, Saussure and Neale were all used well. Laura Mulvey often used in an unfortunately instrumental manner, unintentionally but problematically nonetheless – ‘we used Mulvey’s male gaze’. Perhaps surprisingly, many candidates appeared to be reaching to demonstrate an understanding of what the concept of media language actually referred to. This key concept has been tackled in a range of publications specifically tailored to this specification, both in its current and previous form. All too often, lost in the mix was enough discussion of the actual outcomes of the project chosen as the basis for response – too many candidates took extended excursions into discussing / explaining theory or discussing the applications of theory to professional products.
The weakest answers either ignored the question and responded with a prepared answer on genre or representation, with little attempt to contextualise this in a broader understanding of media language or saw candidates writing about the words used in their magazine articles and movie scripts. A number of candidates gave ‘short answers’ to this question, suggesting they found it challenging.
The more sophisticated responses discussed polysemy, juxtaposition and anchorage of media messages using the appropriate micro aspects of the production work - for example in the shot construction or editing process or narrative structure.
The most important advice to impart here is that candidates need to ‘step back’ from the work and assess it as a media text, using conceptual tools in so doing. A clear demarcation between approaches for 1(a) and 1(b) remains too rarely evident.
Make a list of what you need to review and add to your blog to get it up to this standard.
Sunday 7 October 2012
Work for Monday 8th Oct
In groups, prepare a 10 minute lesson on one of the key concepts.
It should contain:
a brief outline of the background of the development and history of the theory.
Key theorists involved in its development.
How you could apply it to your trailer, documentary or short film & marketing and distribution of the product.
For Friday's lesson
It should contain:
a brief outline of the background of the development and history of the theory.
Key theorists involved in its development.
How you could apply it to your trailer, documentary or short film & marketing and distribution of the product.
For Friday's lesson
Where are you going with this?
Remember that not only are you creating this project for your coursework but you will also have to write about it in your exam.
Here are some example questions:
1.Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
2.Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre
3.Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
You will notice that each of these questions is quite short and fits a common formula.
You can be assured that the same thing will apply this summer.
You will be asked to apply ONE concept to one of your productions.
This is a quite different task from question 1a, where you write about all of your work and your skills, as this one involves some reference to theory and only the one piece of work, as well as asking you to step back from it and think about it almost as if someone else had made it- what is known as ‘critical distance’.
There are five possible concepts which can come up
Representation
Genre
Narrative
Audience
Media Language
You need to consider all of these concepts as you are preparing your product and updating your blog.
So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff?
You need to decide which project you would be most confident analysing in the exam.
Representation
If you take a video you have made for your coursework, you will almost certainly have people in it. If the topic is representation, then your task is to look at how those representations work in your video. You could apply some of the ideas used in the AS TV Drama exam here- how does your video construct a representation of gender, ethnicity or age for example? You need also to refer to some critics who have written about representation or theories of media representation and attempt to apply those (or argue with them). So who could you use? Interesting writers on representation and identity include Richard Dyer, Angela McRobbie and David Gauntlett. See what they say...
Genre
If you’ve made a music magazine at AS level, an analysis of the magazine would need to set it in relation to the forms and conventions shown in such magazines, particularly for specific types of music. But it would not simply comprise a list of those conventions. There are a whole host of theories of genre and writers with different approaches. Some of it could be used to inform your writing about your production piece. Some you could try are: Altman, Grant and Neale- all are cited in the wikipedia page here
Narrative
A film opening or trailer will be ideal for this, as they both depend upon ideas about narrative in order to function. An opening must set up some of the issues that the rest of the film’s narrative will deal with, but must not give too much away, since it is only an opening and you would want the audience to carry on watching! Likewise a trailer must draw upon some elements of the film’s imaginary complete narrative in order to entice the viewer to watch it, again without giving too much away. If you made a short film, you will have been capturing a complete narrative, which gives you something complete to analyse. If you did a music video, the chances are that it was more performance based, maybe interspersed with some fragments of narrative. In all these cases, there is enough about narrative in the product to make it worth analysis. Here’s a link to a PDF by Andrea Joyce, which summarises four of them, including Propp and Todorov.
Audience
Every media product has to have an audience, otherwise in both a business sense and probably an artistic sense too it would be judged a failure. In your projects, you will undoubtedly have been looking at the idea of a target audience- who you are aiming it at and why; you should also have taken feedback from a real audience in some way at the end of the project for your digital evaluation, which involves finding out how the audience really ‘read’ what you had made. You were also asked at AS to consider how your product addressed your audience- what was it about it that particularly worked to ‘speak’ to them? All this is effectively linked to audience theory which you then need to reference and apply.
Media Language
If you think back to the AS TV Drama exam, when you had to look at the technical codes and how they operate, that was an exercise in applying media language analysis, so for the A2 exam if this one comes up, I’d see it as pretty similar. For moving image, the language of film and television is defined by how camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene create meaning. Likewise an analysis of print work would involve looking at how fonts, layout, combinations of text and image as well as the actual words chosen creates meaning. Useful theory here might be Roland Barthes on semiotics- denotation and connotation and for moving image work Bordwelland Thompson
So what do you do in the exam?
You need to state which project you are using and briefly describe it
You then need to analyse it using whichever concept appears in the question, making reference to relevant theory throughout
Keep being specific in your use of examples from the project
Here is a link to a good answer to q1a and 1b from the January session.
Here are some example questions:
1.Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
2.Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre
3.Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
You will notice that each of these questions is quite short and fits a common formula.
You can be assured that the same thing will apply this summer.
You will be asked to apply ONE concept to one of your productions.
This is a quite different task from question 1a, where you write about all of your work and your skills, as this one involves some reference to theory and only the one piece of work, as well as asking you to step back from it and think about it almost as if someone else had made it- what is known as ‘critical distance’.
There are five possible concepts which can come up
Representation
Genre
Narrative
Audience
Media Language
You need to consider all of these concepts as you are preparing your product and updating your blog.
So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff?
You need to decide which project you would be most confident analysing in the exam.
Representation
If you take a video you have made for your coursework, you will almost certainly have people in it. If the topic is representation, then your task is to look at how those representations work in your video. You could apply some of the ideas used in the AS TV Drama exam here- how does your video construct a representation of gender, ethnicity or age for example? You need also to refer to some critics who have written about representation or theories of media representation and attempt to apply those (or argue with them). So who could you use? Interesting writers on representation and identity include Richard Dyer, Angela McRobbie and David Gauntlett. See what they say...
Genre
If you’ve made a music magazine at AS level, an analysis of the magazine would need to set it in relation to the forms and conventions shown in such magazines, particularly for specific types of music. But it would not simply comprise a list of those conventions. There are a whole host of theories of genre and writers with different approaches. Some of it could be used to inform your writing about your production piece. Some you could try are: Altman, Grant and Neale- all are cited in the wikipedia page here
Narrative
A film opening or trailer will be ideal for this, as they both depend upon ideas about narrative in order to function. An opening must set up some of the issues that the rest of the film’s narrative will deal with, but must not give too much away, since it is only an opening and you would want the audience to carry on watching! Likewise a trailer must draw upon some elements of the film’s imaginary complete narrative in order to entice the viewer to watch it, again without giving too much away. If you made a short film, you will have been capturing a complete narrative, which gives you something complete to analyse. If you did a music video, the chances are that it was more performance based, maybe interspersed with some fragments of narrative. In all these cases, there is enough about narrative in the product to make it worth analysis. Here’s a link to a PDF by Andrea Joyce, which summarises four of them, including Propp and Todorov.
Audience
Every media product has to have an audience, otherwise in both a business sense and probably an artistic sense too it would be judged a failure. In your projects, you will undoubtedly have been looking at the idea of a target audience- who you are aiming it at and why; you should also have taken feedback from a real audience in some way at the end of the project for your digital evaluation, which involves finding out how the audience really ‘read’ what you had made. You were also asked at AS to consider how your product addressed your audience- what was it about it that particularly worked to ‘speak’ to them? All this is effectively linked to audience theory which you then need to reference and apply.
Media Language
If you think back to the AS TV Drama exam, when you had to look at the technical codes and how they operate, that was an exercise in applying media language analysis, so for the A2 exam if this one comes up, I’d see it as pretty similar. For moving image, the language of film and television is defined by how camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene create meaning. Likewise an analysis of print work would involve looking at how fonts, layout, combinations of text and image as well as the actual words chosen creates meaning. Useful theory here might be Roland Barthes on semiotics- denotation and connotation and for moving image work Bordwelland Thompson
So what do you do in the exam?
You need to state which project you are using and briefly describe it
You then need to analyse it using whichever concept appears in the question, making reference to relevant theory throughout
Keep being specific in your use of examples from the project
Here is a link to a good answer to q1a and 1b from the January session.
Friday 5 October 2012
shot types, camera angles, mise-en scene, sound, SFX/graphics
When you have completed it, screen shot it again. It will automatically be saved as a PNG file on your desktop which you can then upload to your blog as an image.
Monday 1 October 2012
Research
You must create a very detailed analysis of an existing product. Screen shot and put it into a 6 frame storyboard.
Tuesday 18 September 2012
Tasks
1. Summarise your treatment in 25 words, present to the class and upload to your blog. The chief examiner suggests you do this as it really focuses you and others in the group may have some bright ideas to help you! (think, the orange advert!)
2. Set up your focus group for your target audience
Friday 14 September 2012
Filmmakers Guide
What do filmmakers have in common?
passion, focus, commitment and resiliency.
and talent?
(Jacques Thelemaque, Withoutabox)
Which of these do you think you have?
Which might you have to develop?
Write about what you know, what you are passionate about.
Consider Todorov's theory of storytelling.
Equilibrium, disequilibrium, resolution.
What is the pattern of narrative? All stories benefit from structure for audiences to create meaning and understanding.
Consider Vogler's theory of 12 stage journey for a hero. For a short film, these 8 points may help give you structure.
1. Introduce main character, set the scene
2. Give them a problem, obstacle, obsession or addiction.
3. Let the character work out a plan to overcome the problem.
4. Have a moment of doubt before they set out, they may have encouragement from a mentor figure.
5. With a new resolve (and sometimes a magical gift e.g., Ruby Slippers or James Bond's gadgets) they set off
6. Next comes extreme opposition, a battle.
7. They appear to be failing but with a superhuman effort, recover themselves.
8. They win the final battle, they return to their natural self, wiser, stronger, cured and with a renewed self awareness.
Use your focus group,
'Listen carefully to first criticisms of your work. Note just what it is about your work the critics don't like, then cultivate it. Thats the part of your work thats individual and worth keeping'
Jean Cocteau
passion, focus, commitment and resiliency.
and talent?
(Jacques Thelemaque, Withoutabox)
Which of these do you think you have?
Which might you have to develop?
Write about what you know, what you are passionate about.
Consider Todorov's theory of storytelling.
Equilibrium, disequilibrium, resolution.
What is the pattern of narrative? All stories benefit from structure for audiences to create meaning and understanding.
Consider Vogler's theory of 12 stage journey for a hero. For a short film, these 8 points may help give you structure.
1. Introduce main character, set the scene
2. Give them a problem, obstacle, obsession or addiction.
3. Let the character work out a plan to overcome the problem.
4. Have a moment of doubt before they set out, they may have encouragement from a mentor figure.
5. With a new resolve (and sometimes a magical gift e.g., Ruby Slippers or James Bond's gadgets) they set off
6. Next comes extreme opposition, a battle.
7. They appear to be failing but with a superhuman effort, recover themselves.
8. They win the final battle, they return to their natural self, wiser, stronger, cured and with a renewed self awareness.
Use your focus group,
'Listen carefully to first criticisms of your work. Note just what it is about your work the critics don't like, then cultivate it. Thats the part of your work thats individual and worth keeping'
Jean Cocteau
Monday 10 September 2012
Planning Guide
Planning and research is an important element to your A2. Please download and copy this into your own blog and ensure you have fulfilled all the tasks.
Checklist
Friday 7 September 2012
Evaluation Questions
These need to be answered in different formats.
You need to be aware of these as you are researching and planning your project.
In the evaluation the following four questions must be addressed:
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
You need to be aware of these as you are researching and planning your project.
In the evaluation the following four questions must be addressed:
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Tuesday 17 July 2012
Tuesday 3 July 2012
Sunday 1 July 2012
Scorsese abandons film for digital
By a resonant coincidence, the news that Martin Scorsese is reluctantly abandoning celluloid to shoot digitally came on the day I decided to put my old Super 8 equipment – camera, projector, editing suite – up for sale. I haven’t used it for years, and I’d rather see it in the hands of an aspiring film-maker than gathering dust. It is poignant that the announcement was made by Thelma Schoonmaker, Scorsese’s editor of 40 years, and the widow of the great British film director Michael Powell. “It’s just impossible to fight it any more, the collapse of film,” Schoonmaker said. “It would appear that we have lost the battle.”
Although it probably makes little difference to the vast majority of filmgoers, when a director of Scorsese’s stature abandons traditional film, a significant cultural shift has clearly occurred. But is this really such a great loss? Every obsolete technology has its aficionados, as the nostalgic obituaries of France’s internet precursor, Minitel, demonstrate. Yet who would want to go back to the days when typewritten copy had to go down the corridor to a compositor and come back as galley proofs, which then had to be painstakingly corrected and cut to fit in pen, before going back to the setter who would then make the necessary adjustments. The whole process was so time-consuming that I don’t know how we ever managed to get anything to press on time.
Digital technology has also greatly driven down costs, putting professional quality leaflets within the grasp of the smallest businesses, professional quality recording within the reach of aspiring bands, and allows us to send a high-resolution image across the world – completely free of charge.
Few writers will hanker for the days of pen and ink, or the manual typewriter, although I sometimes wonder whether the word processor has made a difference to the way we write. Is the ease with which we can correct, add, delete or move sentences and paragraphs around evident – for better or worse – in the results? Perhaps it has only facilitated what writers have always attempted to do. Balzac drove his printers to distraction by endlessly rewriting his galley proofs; Henry James was quick to embrace the new technologies of the typewriter and the Dictaphone; Vladimir Nabokov wrote out each paragraph on a separate index card, rearranging them until he was satisfied with the result.
It is also important to remember that traditional analog media – even the oldest of them, painting and writing – are just that: media, the representation of something, not the thing itself. But digitisation takes the process a step further, dispensing with the artefact altogether. When you download an etext or an mp3, you are buying a numerical code that will allow a computerised device to reconstruct a representation of the thing itself. What has disappeared in the process is the physical artefact, be it a vinyl record or a film transparency.
That contains a hint as to what is lost in the conversion to digital media: the struggle with the medium that is essential to many a creative endeavour – the intensity of the engagement, the fact that you have to get it right first time. The traces that leaves in the resulting work are often what create its energy, atmosphere and visceral presence. They way that new technology attempts to simulate the incidental effects of the old is a tacit acknowledgement of the fact. Digital cameras play a sound clip of a mechanical shutter release when you press the button; Photoshop allows you to add film grain to a digital image; recording studios pump digitally recorded sound through valve amplifiers to ‘warm it up’; and the very terms ‘plug-in’ and ‘cut and paste’ hark back to analog technology. (There’s a technical term for this – skeuomorph, a decorative feature that reproduces a structural element of an earlier technology, like the shield-shaped thingy you sometimes see on the back of spoons, recalling the long-gone days when the bowl was actually welded to the handle.)
Maybe a new generation of digital artists will find that creative tension in their struggles with recalcitrant code. And maybe, as new, slicker, more user-friendly technologies supersede what is now cutting edge, they too will lament the good old days when you had to do it the hard way, and the results were so much more… well, real.
Tuesday 26 June 2012
Rapturous
This is cheating a bit as this extract is taken from the TV series 2 of Madmen (2011), however, this scene is rapturous, because...it is at the end of a really significant episode, the main character, Don Draper, a really cool man, is leaving to go on a journey, it is the end of the 1950s and the start of the 60s. He is starting a new phase in his life which reflects the change in society from the 50s-60s. He is entering the unknown, both physically and metaphorically, plane travel then was unusual and very glamorous.
It fits in with the format of Madmen which is to always have a really fantastic song, that was out at that time in the 1960s to close the episode. In
The music rises to a crescendo, in tandem with the visuals, the use of light as the plane rises is amazing and just beautiful, almost blinding him, reflecting his leap into an unknown phase of his life.
When I first saw it on TV, I had to rewind it on Sky+ and watched it several times over.
http://youtu.be/2Ir1Es4ZjN8
It fits in with the format of Madmen which is to always have a really fantastic song, that was out at that time in the 1960s to close the episode. In
The music rises to a crescendo, in tandem with the visuals, the use of light as the plane rises is amazing and just beautiful, almost blinding him, reflecting his leap into an unknown phase of his life.
When I first saw it on TV, I had to rewind it on Sky+ and watched it several times over.
They used a Beatles song, 'Tomorrow never knows', Lionsgate, the studio that produces “Mad Men,” paid about $250,000 for the recording and publishing rights to the song. That is an appropriately high price, several music and advertising executives say, since many major pop songs can be licensed for less than $100,000. Link here
Work for you to complete for next lesson.
1. Read all the posts on the blog, remember, we do not have time to go over everything in class. Consider the blog posts your reading list. This is now A2 work, advanced level and you are expected to complete at least 30 mins work for every lesson you have.
You should read/watch the links and make a few notes on your understanding of them on your blog.
2. Consider Bordwell and Thompsons' comments,
'Our basic assumption is that as an art, film offers experiences that viewers find worthwhile-diverting, provocative, puzzling, or rapturous. But how do films do that?'
You should find films that you find diverting, provocative, puzzling or rapturous. If you can, get a still or clip from You tube of the part of the film that inspires those reactions in you.
Next week you will be expected to present your favourite one and explain how you think it achieves that effect. You may present this as a powerpoint or just play an extract and talk about it if you prefer.
For example, a film that I find diverting is Withnail and I (1987). It is one of my favourite films of all time, it is amusing, thought provoking and has a great soundtrack. I discovered it at a very significant time in my life. This particular scene provides me with a lot of aesthetic & intellectual enjoyment.
It is very well filmed in difficult conditions (pouring rain). It occurs at the end of the film where the protagonist has been acting like a bit of an idiot throughout the whole film, he is a borderline alcoholic trying to become an actor. In this scene he delivers the soliloquy from Hamlet, (which I studied at A level and knew very well) and finally proves, in a very poignant manner, that he really can act. It works on several different levels and is a film and a scene that I can watch repeatedly.
You should read/watch the links and make a few notes on your understanding of them on your blog.
2. Consider Bordwell and Thompsons' comments,
'Our basic assumption is that as an art, film offers experiences that viewers find worthwhile-diverting, provocative, puzzling, or rapturous. But how do films do that?'
You should find films that you find diverting, provocative, puzzling or rapturous. If you can, get a still or clip from You tube of the part of the film that inspires those reactions in you.
Next week you will be expected to present your favourite one and explain how you think it achieves that effect. You may present this as a powerpoint or just play an extract and talk about it if you prefer.
For example, a film that I find diverting is Withnail and I (1987). It is one of my favourite films of all time, it is amusing, thought provoking and has a great soundtrack. I discovered it at a very significant time in my life. This particular scene provides me with a lot of aesthetic & intellectual enjoyment.
It is very well filmed in difficult conditions (pouring rain). It occurs at the end of the film where the protagonist has been acting like a bit of an idiot throughout the whole film, he is a borderline alcoholic trying to become an actor. In this scene he delivers the soliloquy from Hamlet, (which I studied at A level and knew very well) and finally proves, in a very poignant manner, that he really can act. It works on several different levels and is a film and a scene that I can watch repeatedly.
The first ever documentary, Nanook of the north 1922
Nanook of the North (also known as Nanook of the North: A Story Of Life and Love In the Actual Arctic) is a 1922 silent documentary film by Robert J. Flaherty. In the tradition of what would later be called salvage ethnography, Flaherty captured the struggles of the InukNanook and his family in the Canadian Arctic. The film is considered the first feature-length documentary, though Flaherty has been criticized for staging several sequences and thereby distorting the reality of his subjects' lives.
Question for you to consider.
How much manipulation or staging should a documentary maker use? At what point does the reality become fiction? Would you consider programmes like TOWIE or Made in Chelsea to be documentary, docu soap?
Genre develops and evolves and in these cases this is what we are witnessing.
Development of genre....Horror
Nosferatu 1922, adapted from Bram Stoker's Dracula
You can clearly see with its use of shadow lighting and suspense how it set the film language and generic conventions of the narrative of a horror film.
You can clearly see with its use of shadow lighting and suspense how it set the film language and generic conventions of the narrative of a horror film.
Review of Prometheus.. is it art, or a blockbuster?
"Yeah! Take that, Sir Ridley Scott!" seems to be the gist. "If you’re so smart, with your conceptually audacious two-hour epic about mankind questing beyond the stars in search of a face-to-face encounter with the divine, how come Charlize Theron and Noomi Rapace don’t run sideways to get out of the way of that crashing spaceship?"
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How come? Who cares? Having now seen Prometheus twice (and enjoyed it even more the second time than I did the first) I can confirm that the fact neither Theron nor Rapace thinks to run sideways during an action sequence predicated on them running forwards does not render the film worthless – and anyone who finds themselves getting worked up about it is making some fairly basic mistakes about how to enjoy blockbuster cinema.
Despite its faults, which are fairly mundane as these things go,Prometheus is a film that demands to be puzzled over, marveled at, even dreamed about. Some of the dialogue might not stand up to scrutiny, but my word, the ideas do. You may already be aware that fantasy writer Adrian Bott has, fairly convincingly, mapped the film's underlying mythology onto the Dying God archetype described by James George Frazer in his seminal study of religion and folklore, The Golden Bough. I don't recall anyone doing that with Avengers Assemble.
I suspect that with Prometheus you’re either on board or you’re not, and no amount of coaxing will convince the moaners to go back and work out what they’ve missed. But I wouldn’t be too surprised if, in 30 years or so, they’re being quoted at the top of an article like this one.
Full article here
Monday 25 June 2012
Bordwell and Thompson on film art
Remember 'GLARN'.
We need to go back to the basics of film language and try to identify what it is audiences enjoy about film and why the auteurs make them.
Read this extract from the seminal book by critics, Bordwell and Thompson.
Consider and take notes on the points that you will need for your exam and Advanced Portfolio.
We need to go back to the basics of film language and try to identify what it is audiences enjoy about film and why the auteurs make them.
Read this extract from the seminal book by critics, Bordwell and Thompson.
Consider and take notes on the points that you will need for your exam and Advanced Portfolio.
Film art
View more presentations from shsgmedia
Evaluation questions
Remember, for this production you will have to respond to the following evaluation questions on your blog.
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
But you must also prepare for a possible question in the exam on:
How your skills developed from foundation-portfolio and also how you can apply theories of
'GLARN' (this now replaces 'LIAR").
Genre
Language
Audience
Representation
Narrative
so obviously you need to have some awareness of what these theories consist of before you begin!
This powerpoint from last year may help you comprehend.
What is postmodernism?
The Smashing Pumpkins video for 'Tonight, tonight' is a good example of post modern, intertextuality. Intertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can refer to an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since it was coined by poststructuralist Julia Kristeva in 1966. As critic William Irwin says, the term “has come to have almost as many meanings as users, from those faithful to Kristeva’s original vision to those who simply use it as a stylish way of talking about allusion and influence”. Kristeva's ideas have been linked amongst others to Saussure's (1913) theories of semiotics and Roland Barthes. Barthes's many monthly contributions that made up Mythologies (1957) would often interrogate pieces of cultural material to expose how bourgeois society used them to assert its values upon others. Roland Barthes's incisive criticism contributed to the development of theoretical schools such as structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, Marxism and post-structuralism. While his influence is felt in every field concerned with the representation of information and models of communication, including computers, photography, music, and literature. Barthes’ work was ever adapting and refuting notions of stability and constancy means there is no canon of thought within his theory to model one's thoughts upon, and thus no "Barthesism". His works remain valuable sources of insight and tools for the analysis of meaning in any given manmade representation
and in a slightly more surreal manner, The Mighty Boosh's moon character
and in a slightly more surreal manner, The Mighty Boosh's moon character
A Trip to the Moon (French: Le Voyage dans la lune) is a 1902 French black and white silent science fiction film. It is loosely based on two popular novels of the time: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells
The film was written and directed by Georges Méliès, assisted by his brother Gaston. The film runs 14 minutes if projected at 16 frames per second, which was the standard frame rate at the time the film was produced. It was extremely popular at the time of its release and is the best-known of the hundreds of fantasy films made by Méliès. A Trip to the Moon is the first science fiction film, and utilizes innovative animation and special effects, including the iconic shot of the rocketship landing in the moon's eye
It was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century
Still influential today...
see Smashing Pumpkins video for Tonight Tonight
The film was written and directed by Georges Méliès, assisted by his brother Gaston. The film runs 14 minutes if projected at 16 frames per second, which was the standard frame rate at the time the film was produced. It was extremely popular at the time of its release and is the best-known of the hundreds of fantasy films made by Méliès. A Trip to the Moon is the first science fiction film, and utilizes innovative animation and special effects, including the iconic shot of the rocketship landing in the moon's eye
It was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century
Still influential today...
see Smashing Pumpkins video for Tonight Tonight
The Lumiere Brothers
The first films produced were short. Film was very expensive, they didnt have batteries to power cameras etc.
The Lumiere Brothers were groundbreakers in the field. Each of these films are 17 metres long, when handcranked translates to 50 seconds. They mainly produced 'actualities', that reflected everyday life, or mini documentaries. Maybe you would like to produce an 'actualite' of your own?
They toured with their work using a Cinematograph which effectively functioned as camera, projector and printer all in one.
The Lumiere Brothers have been credited with over 1,425 different short films and had even filmed aerial shots years before the very first aiplane would take to the skies.
The Lumières pioneered not just the technical attributes of the camera but also its artistic attributes, creating a dialogue of REALISM that has always been a crux of cinema.
These early, silent films are useful to look at, not only to give you some historical context into the development of film, but also to pin point the evolution of the visual language and grammar of film that has formed the codes and conventions we take for granted today.
The Great Train Robbery 1903
These films show film makers attempts at creating a 'narrative'. This one in particular shows how important editing and using different shot types is.
Almost an example of how not to do it! Needs faster editing and a wider variety of shot types and camera angles.
Almost an example of how not to do it! Needs faster editing and a wider variety of shot types and camera angles.
The film used a number of innovative techniques including cross cutting, double exposure composite editing, camera movement and on location shooting. Cross-cuts were a new, sophisticated editing technique. Some prints were also hand colored in certain scenes.The film uses simple editing techniques (each scene is a single shot) and the story is mostly linear (with only a few "meanwhile" moments), but it represents a significant step in movie making, being one of the first "narrative" movies of significant length
Tuesday 19 June 2012
The Advanced Portfolio
Your task, you may choose from one of the following three option:
1. A promotion package for a new film, to include a trailer, together with two of the following three options:
a website homepage for the film;
a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
a poster for the film.
2. A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:
a poster for the film;
a radio trailer for the film;
a film magazine review page featuring the film.
3. An extract/package from a local TV news programme, lasting approximately five minutes, together with two of the following three options:
two hyperlinked pages from the programme's website;
a generic radio trailer for the programme;
a short title sequence for the programme.
1. A promotion package for a new film, to include a trailer, together with two of the following three options:
a website homepage for the film;
a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
a poster for the film.
2. A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:
a poster for the film;
a radio trailer for the film;
a film magazine review page featuring the film.
3. An extract/package from a local TV news programme, lasting approximately five minutes, together with two of the following three options:
two hyperlinked pages from the programme's website;
a generic radio trailer for the programme;
a short title sequence for the programme.
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