Institution Task

Institutions

Have a look at some big media companies and smaller companies and their logos and design your own. You will then bring these to your film groups and select the best one.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/these-6-corporations-control-90-of-the-media-in-america-2012-6

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39083257/page/1 - most profitable movies of all time

http://www.businesspundit.com/10-most-profitable-low-budget-movies-of-all-time/

http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/records/budgets.php


Low budget V high budget institution comparison and analysis to be completed. Place onto a powerpoint and upload onto the blog. Choose a big budget blockbuster and compare to a low budget film eg Dark Knight vs Paranormal Activity. Do some research:

1)What are the main institutions used for each of the films? (in terms of production and distribution?) Find their logo and add it on.

2)How much money was used to produce each film? (The budget)

3)How much money was made from each of the films?

4)How well known are the production companies for both the high-budget and low-budget film?

5)List the differences between the high-budget film and the low-budget film in terms of the institutions.

6)List any similarities that exist between the high-budget film and the low-budget film in terms of the institutions.

7)What other films has the production company made? Were these as successful? Why/why not?

8)What genre of films does the company usually produce? Is this important when considering who could produce your film? Why?

9)What audiences do each of the institutions aim to appeal to? Is this reflected through their film choice, or does this vary?

10)Which institution do you feel outperforms the other and could claim to be more successful, considering your research? Explain your reasons.

Juno task

Well done on your dancing animals/James Bond task.

Hopefully you will be a little more familiar with premiere now.

In this task you will familiarise yourself with the cameras, practise your camera and editing shots and further stretch your premiere skills.

Storyboards - number each shot, write down times for length of shot, type of shot and transition

Post name Juno task - label research - upload your storyboard onto the blog and your Juno task and then evaluate by answering the following questions.

You are editing your own footage, how did the filming go?
Was your storyboard accurate?
What were your strengths and weaknesses in the group?
Did you get all the footage you wanted?
What technical skills - camera and premiere - did you learn?
How does it compare to the original?

What went well - What I learnt - What I will take with me to the next production

Film language

Film language Analysis homework

BOYZ IN THE HOOD

Watch the first six minutes and apply your knowledge of camera, sound, editing and mise en scene to textually analyse the clip and the meaning that it created. Consider: - the symbolism in a lot of the shots - sound / music, dialogue and sound effects - what is the clip saying about race, how? - what have these children seen that you wouldn't expect them to have seen at their age? - How does the shot go from street to classroom? - what are the pictures on the wall?

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=boyz+n+the+hood+dutch+subtitles&FORM=HDRSC3#view=detail&mid=BCA98CE309ED50662AF4BCA98CE309ED50662AF4


TERMINATOR 2 Consider: - colour contrasts - age contrasts - good vs evil


UP Consider how they show the passage of time, sound, mise en scene and camera.



CAPE FEAR

Narrative

Narrative Theory

Select a film opening of your choice and apply Barthes' 5 narrative codes. Write a list of the shots in order, how long they last and what you see.
1. Identify the key actions within the opening - what kinds of actions are included and how is the narrative moved forward?
2. Identify the enigma codes within the opening - what kinds of questions are posed and how is the audience meant to read these codes?
3. Identify key characters and think about what they represent in the opening
4. Identify key themes and analyse how symbols are presented visually/technically.

Narrative theory from Katrinabrookes

Roland Barthes' Three Main Codes student example using The Prestige opening scene:

ENIGMA CODE:

•  What are the top hats on the ground doing there? What is their relevance to the plot?
• "Are you watching closely?" What does this mean?
• Who is the little girl?
• Who is the magician?
• What is the big machine? What does it do?
• What is the relationship between Angier and Borden?
• Did Borden let Angier drown? Did he murder him?
• Was Borden charged for Angier's murder?
• What will happen to the little girl?

ACTION CODE:

• Flattening the cage (killing the bird?)
• Angier taking off jacket - what is he about to do?
• Stepping into electrical field
• Water tank locking - will he get out?
• Borden putting hand against water tank
• Wave between Borden and little girl

SYMBOLIC/SEMIOTIC CODE:

• Top hats connote magic tricks - pulling something out of the hat
• Clothing signifies Victorian era
• Suit - rich, successful
• Dark, gloomy - mysterious
• Electricity/lightning - danger, electrocution
• Warm colours connote comfort, safety
• Wave between Borden and girl suggests that he is her father
• Shackles - he is the one being charged
• Drumming fingers, fidgeting - impatience
• Top hats symbolise the mystery to come
• The small bird represents the victim in the magic trick - the place taken by Angier in his own illusion, where he drowns/begins to drown
• Little girl represents the audience

Mise En Scene

REMEMBER CLAMPS WHEN LOOKING AT MISE EN SCENE - Costume, Lighting, Actors, Makeup, Props, Setting

Mise en scene1 from Great Baddow High School Media

Mise en-scene from Great Baddow High School Media

Semiotics - apply to your own film opening

Semiotics from Great Baddow High School Media

Film pitch to test your understanding of genre

Pitch presentation

Pitch presentation – as a powerpoint to be uploaded onto blog via slideshare.net

You are to pitch a new idea for a film to producers (the rest of your class). Five minute presentation tops. We, the audience will then decide which film we would most watch and why.

Genre:

Target Audience and BBFC certificate:

You need to come up with:

· A title of the film and why you chose this title

· Character types and what stars or upcoming starst would be appropriate and why you’ve chosen these for the film

· How you are going to create interest for the audiencestraight away (enigma code)

· What will the narrative be – use storyline, settings, themes

· How are you demonstrating conventions within the genre

· What will make your film different

· How you will create interest in the film (marketing) institution

 

Here's an example from last year - http://www.slideshare.net/gbhsasbeth/the-code-26094180

Genre tasks

All your posts at the moment will have the label Research on the right hand side.

Upload your photos and apply the DISTINCT (setting, themes, icons, narrative, characters, textual analysis) and describe the genre and why you did what you did. Did it work? What went well/Even better if...

On your blog write about the following:
Watch the following trailers and describe what makes them the genre they are applying the DISTINCT conventions. Any hybrids? If so, how.

The Brief

Hello year 12s and welcome to AS Media Studies.

In the first term you will be completing 50% of your AS level by producing an opening sequence to a film of a particular genre. All your work will be stored online and sent to the examiners as a blog link. The marks are divided as follows:

20 - planning and research
60 - construction
20 - evaluation
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
Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. Maximum four members to a group.