Monday, 28 September 2015

Prelim AS Opening

THE BRIEF, EVALUATION + HOW ITS ALL MARKED

THE BRIEF
Your mission is to carry out the following brief:
Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.
Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.
All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.
The coursework is worth 50% of the AS (same at A2) and the marking (detailed later) is divided into 3 sections:
RESEARCH AND PLANNING: 20%
PRODUCTION: 60%
EVALUATION: 20%

Your work is marked partially on my observations of your approach and level of organisation, but fundamentally its a DVD and your blog that are marked.


EVALUATION
Even before you start shooting (let alone planning) your production, you need to keep this final stage in mind. If you start (b)logging notes on this now it will save you a lot of stress as the final deadline (in May!) approaches. You are tasked with answering these questions (see below for details on how this is marked):

  • In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 
  • How does your media product represent particular socialgroups?
  • What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 
  • Who would be the audience for your media product? 
  • How did you attract/address your audience? 
  • What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 
  • Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

HOW ITS ALL MARKED [ie THE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA]
When I'm marking all this, I've got to write a paragraph for the exam board justifying the marks I've given you. The grid embedded below summarises the criteria I have to follow, and so you're advised to occasionally re-read this and ask yourself where you think you'll fall within the marking scheme!
For each section there are key components of the work which I have to assess as being one of the following:
MINIMAL
BASIC
PROFICIENT
EXCELLENT
If you think you're currently at the 'minimal' or 'basic' level for any of these, ask yourself (and me!) what you can do to jump up to at least proficient.

Friday, 25 September 2015

About Time - International Trailer



About Time - International Trailer


Release Date

  • August 8th, 2013

Director

  • Richard Curtis

Genre

  • Romance, Drama, Fantasy

Setting

  • Southern England, London
      - Worldwide audiences will feel more inclined to watch a film that is set in the south of London as it is 'middle class' and is more appealing that the 'working class' of the north. It is the stereotypical setting of Britain to a wide audience.

Class

  • Middle Class

Big Stars

  • Bill Nighy (British)
  • Margot Robbie (Australian)

Budget

  • $12m
      - This is a large budget in comparison to Warp Films budgets. A lot of the budget will have gone into paying the big american stars to appear in the film and promote it.

  • $15m (US) 
  • £7m (UK)
  • $87m (Worldwide)
  • $71m (Non-US)
      - The film broke even in the US and nearly in the UK. The worldwide box office nearly hit $100m, this emphasises how important having big name stars in the film is.


Tuesday, 22 September 2015

This is England Screenshots


Title Shot


- centrally framed title
- follows the rule of thirds
- bubble font connotes childishness and simplistic styles
- white with black marks signifies poverty and decay
- council flats denotes what the film will be about (the working class)
- title is in uppercase so it provides anchorage to the connotation.

Anchoring Title


- cracked paint on the wall signifies poverty and decay
- Shaun's dad portrayed in a photograph as he was killed in the Falklands war. This is significant for context and it relates to current issues at the time.
- the radio and photograph is placed on a chair which signifies that the room is not properly furnished thus conveying more poverty.



Tuesday, 15 September 2015

Analysis of This Is England Figures

  • This Is England was released in the UK by 7 different production companies: Warp Films, EM Media, Film4, Optimum Releasing, Screen Yorkshire and UK Yorkshire. 
  • Shane Meadows directed and wrote This Is England.
  • The film had a budget of £1.5m.
  • It ran on UK screens for 4 weeks and made £1.3m in that time. The screens ranged from 62-151 screens over the 4 weeks.
  • It ran for 15 weeks in the US and made $328k and was on a range of 1-14 screens.
  • Made over $1m in 3 countries in total. UK - $3.1m, France - $1.4m and Sweden - $1.4m.
  • This Is England released in 14 different countries worldwide.
  • Total lifetime gross of $8.2m worldwide.
  • The filming locations were all in the midlands UK - mainly in Nottingham. 

Monday, 14 September 2015

Senna Screenshot Analysis


The establishing shot for the film Senna contains a medium shot as it shows the protagonist Senna from the waist up. It is from a mid angle but does not have a dutch angle.


This shot has a close up of Ayrton Senna portraying his emotions as he looks back at his childhood racing.

This shot is an extreme long shot that gives the viewer a feel of the location and mood of the scene. The colours are bright which is a pathetic fallacy for the success that Senna had. The wide angle gives the viewer an idea of the volume of the event.