4 June 2010
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Sheffield Doc/Fest Youth Jury 2010 – Call for Entries
I'll post this here as the most likely blog you'll be looking at:
Sheffield Doc/Fest Youth Jury 2010 – Call for Entries
Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Micro-budget films +DCRUP
Have a look at the post (and others on this blog!) at http://mediabritishcinema.blogspot.com/2010/06/25k-kitchen-table-auteurship.html which is particularly useful for the topics of creativity and digital technology
Another very useful article from the Guardian... (skip ahead and read the article if you wish!)
As with the $10k US Indie detailed in a separate post, this article (and accompanying video, with clips and interviews) centres on the growing phenomenon of micro-budget film-making, made possible by digitization, new media, web 2.0; call it what you will.
The cost of film itself, whether 8mm or 35mm reels, used to be an effective barrier to low-cost film-making. Digital media reduces this to effectively zero, and means, certainly as increasing numbers of cinemas install digital projectors, distribution and exhibition is made possible at a similar near-zero cost. Self-distribution through the web is also possible: this movie has racked up 810,036 views at YouTube by 1.6.10 - and thats just the full-length posting; its also split into 12.
The article's author, Tom Lamont, uses a superb phrase to describe director Kate Madison's status: 'kitchen-table auteurship'. He refers to another, well-established, concept seen as a key characteristic of creativity in the online age: 'crowd sourcing'. Read more on this concept: wiki; wired on rise of this; twitter feed; a slightly bizarre blog, crowdsourcing.com; and, of course, The Guardian's articles on this!
It may seem a hell of a stretch, but the sort of features this article discusses aren't a million miles from you do at AS and A2 Media Studies, and the particular exam board we use, OCR, are especially keen for students to take this on board. The concept of web 2.0 was coined to describe the radical change from the early days of the web (web 1.0 in effect): users, the passive audience, went on the web to search and use media; in web 2.0 the audience and 'the media' effectively merge, as so many users are also now media creators. If you've exhibited your coursework on YouTube, well done, for you are now a distributor (the blog to drum up attention and feed potential fans inside info!) who has found an exhibitor (YouTube)!
Even just 5 years ago, Media coursework would remain largely within the confines of the school it was created within, with the possibility of exhibition at a handful of festivals including the Co-Op's. Now, you all have the power to put your work out there and attract an audience (from which you can make money if you attract a large audience: you can join YouTube's advertising programme, and take a cut of the advertising revenue they rake in from people who click through to your channel!).
I've detailed several examples of micro-budget films in this blog, all very useful to consider for your AS exam and coursework blog, not to mention both sections of the A2 exam. If any of you do watch (or have already seen) Born of Hope, Colin or any other feature-length micro-budget movie, post a comment below.
[Read more on Colin, reportedly a £45 movie that got a cinema release: Guardian article; BritMovie.co.uk forum thread; is the true budget much higher/is it all hype?]
Born of Hope – and a lot of charity
Tom Lamont The Observer, 7 March 2010 http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/mar/07/born-of-hope-lord-rings
Another very useful article from the Guardian... (skip ahead and read the article if you wish!)
As with the $10k US Indie detailed in a separate post, this article (and accompanying video, with clips and interviews) centres on the growing phenomenon of micro-budget film-making, made possible by digitization, new media, web 2.0; call it what you will.
The cost of film itself, whether 8mm or 35mm reels, used to be an effective barrier to low-cost film-making. Digital media reduces this to effectively zero, and means, certainly as increasing numbers of cinemas install digital projectors, distribution and exhibition is made possible at a similar near-zero cost. Self-distribution through the web is also possible: this movie has racked up 810,036 views at YouTube by 1.6.10 - and thats just the full-length posting; its also split into 12.
The article's author, Tom Lamont, uses a superb phrase to describe director Kate Madison's status: 'kitchen-table auteurship'. He refers to another, well-established, concept seen as a key characteristic of creativity in the online age: 'crowd sourcing'. Read more on this concept: wiki; wired on rise of this; twitter feed; a slightly bizarre blog, crowdsourcing.com; and, of course, The Guardian's articles on this!
It may seem a hell of a stretch, but the sort of features this article discusses aren't a million miles from you do at AS and A2 Media Studies, and the particular exam board we use, OCR, are especially keen for students to take this on board. The concept of web 2.0 was coined to describe the radical change from the early days of the web (web 1.0 in effect): users, the passive audience, went on the web to search and use media; in web 2.0 the audience and 'the media' effectively merge, as so many users are also now media creators. If you've exhibited your coursework on YouTube, well done, for you are now a distributor (the blog to drum up attention and feed potential fans inside info!) who has found an exhibitor (YouTube)!
Even just 5 years ago, Media coursework would remain largely within the confines of the school it was created within, with the possibility of exhibition at a handful of festivals including the Co-Op's. Now, you all have the power to put your work out there and attract an audience (from which you can make money if you attract a large audience: you can join YouTube's advertising programme, and take a cut of the advertising revenue they rake in from people who click through to your channel!).
I've detailed several examples of micro-budget films in this blog, all very useful to consider for your AS exam and coursework blog, not to mention both sections of the A2 exam. If any of you do watch (or have already seen) Born of Hope, Colin or any other feature-length micro-budget movie, post a comment below.
[Read more on Colin, reportedly a £45 movie that got a cinema release: Guardian article; BritMovie.co.uk forum thread; is the true budget much higher/is it all hype?]
Born of Hope – and a lot of charity
A budget Lord of the Rings prequel put together by hundreds of people working for nothing has recorded nearly a million hits on video streaming sites
On the eastern flank of Epping Forest, a short walk in from the town of Debden, there is a huge tree, lying on its side, upended by a storm. It was in this clearing that independent film-maker Kate Madison, along with dozens of game volunteers, filmed Born of Hope, a homemade prequel to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy that has caused a great stir since its release in December. A production pulled together over four years with a budget of a mere £25,000 – about a tenth of one per cent of the cost of Jackson's epic – it has impressed critics and recorded close to a million views on video streaming sites.
Friday, 28 May 2010
Providing a synopsis
AS I've said in the general guidelines for Q1a/1b, you should start by providing a brief summary of what you did at AS + A2. This needs to include a synopsis a very brief outline of your narrative, which say something along the lines of
The opening two minutes of a new feature film, including titles, based around...
- a period drama set in WW2, featuring the female protagonist receiving a letter from a uniformed soldier informing her of her lover's death
- a rom-com showing a young office worker rushing to get out for work, and tripping himself up just as he spots what will be the love interest
- a slasher featuring two friends making the deadly mistake of taking a shortcut through some woods, where one disappears, leaving his friend to try and make it back to safety
- a horror movie inspired by The Ring in which our protagonist is seen confused and panicked, running out of a building; he appears to hallucinate an ominous female character
Friday, 14 May 2010
Q1b: Representation
UPDATE JUNE 14TH 2012: SOME THEORISTS + HOW TO APPLY
Judith Butler + gender performativityFairclough (discourse)
framing as 'the other'
Hegemony + 'the other'
Daniel Chandler [genre theorist] + positioning audience
Bechdel test
Laura Mulvey + male gaze
Carole Clover + final girl
Queer theorist Judith Butler has written about how gender and sexual identities are wholly artificial constructs; concepts which do not have any objective meaning or exist in nature, but which we learn to perform through the reinforcement of acceptable, ‘normal’ behaviour through videos such as ours. We were aware of reflecting common stereotypes and encouraging such ‘performativity’ of gender, as Butler would put it, but felt that it was necessary to stay within the dominant discourse (as Fairclough would put it): we had fit within the expectations of the genre and our stated audience even if this meant being consciously heterormative, and indirectly contributing to the hegemonic perception of homosexuals as 'the other'. This highlights that genre is more than a neutral means of categorising content. Daniel Chandler has also raised similar points, arguing that genre texts provide a “reading position” for audiences; embedded within texts are assumptions about the 'ideal reader', including their attitudes towards the subject matter and often their class, age, gender and ethnicity.
We failed/passed the Bechdel test (The Bechdel Test: In order to pass, the film or show must meet the following criteria: 1 It includes at least two women, 2 who have at least one conversation, 3 about something other than a man or men). Only 7% of films are directed by women. (more here)
Feminist film critic Laura Mulvey famously coined the concept 'male gaze' in 1975. Again, there is a tension between the desire to create a recognisable genre text (vital to marketing and the commercial prospects of most films), and to more generally give the audience what they want, whilst squaring this with the knowledge developed over two years of media studies of how the media manipulate and objectify women on screen! [Carole Clover's final girl concept was a riposte to Mulvey; she felt horror films actually represented a mixed representation of females: objectified, sexualised often nude female victims (screan queens) but the actual hero was typically an unglamorous, typically academic (remember Laurie Strode panicking because she's forgotten her chemistry book in Halloween?) female] ----if film, discuss your final girl/scream queen and any countertyping used. This next point (on Mulvey) is taken from feedback on a sample 1a essay by ConorO:
We also went against convention somewhat, and we created a binary opposition to Laura Malvey’s Male Gaze theory (1975), as the frontman of our band was male [maybe… you weren’t really objectifying Sam. Female performers are objectified by being represented at least partially through shots which focus on individual body parts – Sam’s face was always in shot; female performers’ buttocks, legs, cleavage etc are often shown in isolated shots. At the diegetic start of the iconic Welcome to the Jungle video by Guns n’Roses we follow singer Axl Rose’s gaze and slowly pan up the long legs of a woman in high heels (a ‘hooker’ stereotype’) to her buttocks … and then cut away. There’s no need to show her face as she’s simply not important. That’s an eg of objectification. Regarding the AS you could also judge yourself against the Bechdel test (see this; (2nd post)],In addition to Carole Clover's objections that Mulvey was overlooking the final girl in her critique of horror films [Mulvey's original focus was on these; her idea has been applied to every type of media text since], there is a more general objection to the so-called "Screen theory" that Mulvey is linked to: their simplistic view of the audience as passive.
[ORIGINAL POST]
Some initial guidelines on this (we'll look at how to apply specific theory, especially the framework of David Gauntlett, and perhaps ideas such as Judith Butler's 'performativity', later)
THE GUIDING PRINCIPLE: TAKE A STEP BACK
This is YOUR work, YOU've created it, YOU're being asked to analyse it ... but its vital you try to step back from it, and view it as you would have the AS exam clip. To put it another way, look at it as if you weren't a young person from Yorkshire.
THE STARTING POINT: IDENTIFY POSSIBLE REPRESENTATIONS
Consider which social groups/collective identities (think about the links to the other section of the exam) you have represented. You may not have consciously planned much of your representations, but even so ask yourself if you have represented any of the following:
- Gender
- Age
- Ethnicity
- Sexuality
- Class and status
- Physical ability/disability
- Regional identity
We'll explore below what factors you might be considering within this.
INFLUENCES ON YOUR REPRESENTATIONS?
Denoting/listing possible identities you've represented in some way is one thing; what might you discuss in terms of influences behind these - if you like, what factors shaped this aspect of your Media Language?
- DEMOGRAPHICS + ACCESS - In the context of schoolwork, it was natural most of you .....[TO COMPLETE]
The following is one of several very useful documents from Mick Googan's uploads to http://www.slideshare.net/mickgoogan/presentations
08. G325 Section A Q1B Representation
From Charis Creber:
View more presentations from Alleyn’s School Media Studies Department.
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
Slideshow on media terms
Useful run through this of key media terms and concepts (from http://www.slideshare.net/mcmrbt/media-glossary):
Media Glossary
View more presentations from Rob McMinn.
Monday, 10 May 2010
Creativity: Gauntlett + Csikszentmihalyi
David Gauntlett (we're going to be drawing heavily on his take on various media theories in the final weeks) has produced a useful site on the theme of 'Making is Connecting', on the topic of how constructing media texts is to engage with a wider community. See http://www.makingisconnecting.org/
There are more useful links at http://www.theory.org.uk/
The following is what he says on creativity (extracted from http://www.makingisconnecting.org/gauntlett2010-extract1-v3.pdf)
There are more useful links at http://www.theory.org.uk/
The following is what he says on creativity (extracted from http://www.makingisconnecting.org/gauntlett2010-extract1-v3.pdf)
Creativity is channelled through tools, enabling us to make things
Creativity is often talked about as a general Good Thing, and something
Q1b: Media Language
The January exam Q read: "Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions."
A question on this topic then might read something like: "Analyse [the use of] media language in one of your coursework productions."
In Monday's lesson I'll ask you to have a go at answering this question, then swapping with a colleague and marking (though, more importantly, discussing).
This is a very widely framed question, which in fact requires some detail on at least some of the other 4 MANGeR topics. At a basic level, its asking you
A question on this topic then might read something like: "Analyse [the use of] media language in one of your coursework productions."
In Monday's lesson I'll ask you to have a go at answering this question, then swapping with a colleague and marking (though, more importantly, discussing).
This is a very widely framed question, which in fact requires some detail on at least some of the other 4 MANGeR topics. At a basic level, its asking you
Friday, 30 April 2010
Practice mini-mock 1: Q1a Creativity
For anyone who happened to miss this, fear not, you will get your chance.
in 13A that means SophieB, Emily, Theo
in 13D that means Saskia, Ellis, Holly, Josie, Conor
I'll do this with you after school if need be, but will accept your timed, handwritten response up to Tuesday of next week. You are addressing, within 30mins, how your AS/A2 work showed creativity, and how this developed over time.
in 13A that means SophieB, Emily, Theo
in 13D that means Saskia, Ellis, Holly, Josie, Conor
I'll do this with you after school if need be, but will accept your timed, handwritten response up to Tuesday of next week. You are addressing, within 30mins, how your AS/A2 work showed creativity, and how this developed over time.
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Q1a: POST-PRODUCTION
post-production
UPDATE JUNE 14TH, 2012: egs from your work
I'm doing this from memory (so may not be 100% accurate!), but some egs from each group's A2 work (remember to contrast each point with the comparative weakness of AS work for Q1a) that would help to illustrate analysis on this. As I've had a quick think about each one I've listed arising points below...
(1) Consider the variation between your rough cuts and sample footage with the final cut;
(2) give egs of how you used web 2.0 features to get aud feedback which influenced changes made(being specific with the impact this had on shots/editing style/ideas).
(3) Discuss how you were guided (or not) by existing vids;
(4) Discuss whether you continued with research as you edited.
(5) Discuss whether you worked as an auteur or collaboratively on editing. Don't get personal here; you're writing an academic essay. But it is potentially a very useful point. Give detail on any creative differences.
(6) Did you use more FX than in AS? Did you experiment with but abandon further FX? Did you experiment with colouring distortion at all? What AS FX did you use - be clear on this to show the difference.
(7) How/why did you select shots + parts of frame to layer in? Were you influenced by specific vids or directors (Anton Corbijn?) Did you include animated movement with any layering?
(8) Does your final vid deviate further from storyboard/animatic than final AS did (ie, was editing a more creative process)?
(9) What practical problems did you experience through post-production? (don't get bogged down in a negative rant, but you could briefly address issues with crashing, failing hard drives [and failing to responsibly back up!] where appropriate - compare to greater issues working with mini-DV tapes though)
(10) Were your ideas more abstract; your narrative approach more non-linear; your editing showing discontinuity features? Did you avoid closed narrative to make your vid better suited to multiple viewings?
(11) Did any single change from one cut to the next make a particular difference (eg the final shot in HBK's vid)?
(12) Were reshoots/additional shoots necessary ... and/or possible? Did this new footage change the signified reading of existing material and/or provide the extra exposition needed for an audience to be more likely to follow your preferred reading? (perhaps you were able to use shots intended to signify one thing to something quite different?) How did audience feedback differ from the first cut featuring this new footage compared to your previous rough cut?
(13) Were you able to work round any lack of shot variety (or improve shaky footage) by using FCE tools (eg creating CUs using zoom tool)?
(14) Any tension between target aud and song type (espec if ballad)?
(15) Did you take out (or reframe) any shots which didn't fit with your aud/theme/mood (eg shots of alcohol, or swearing)? [see 18 too]
(16) Did you create any matched cuts through editing that weren't originally planned?
(17) Were your ideas more ambitious at A2; influenced by the extra possibilities FCE offered?
(18) Was there a tension between genre expectations and your own views on representations? [most at AS stuck with basic gender stereotypes fitting archetypal character roles] eg Blazing Grace took out some shots which focussed on performers' bodies in isolation (objectifying the female performer; male gaze)
(19) Would your vid have worked as performance or narrative alone, or was this blend (contrast to AS remember) key?
(20) How did you create verisimilitude through editing? (eg, perhaps you had to experiment with different lines/takes to get closer fit for lipsynching on some lines?)
(21) Re feedback, did it matter/make any difference whether or not the sample aud were genre fans? What aspect/s of your editing/vid did you retain despite critical feedback?
(22) Did you leave yourself enough time to edit as best you could; did any comparative weaknesses/failings through the R+P (pre-production and main production phases) handicap your editing?
(23) Was decision-making around the balancing of performance/narrative footage (plus pace and general narrative sequencing) as important as the FX used?
(24) If you look back to your AS, did you start the A2 editing thinking such accomplished work was likely/achievable (ie, did your ambitions grow once you entered post-production?)? Did viewing past coursework spur you on at all?
(25) Did you experiment with colouring? [many of you applied blue or red filters at AS, and/or B+W/sepia...]
Some points I'll address below:
iMOVIE 06 v FCE 4
AUTEUR + COMBINING DIRECTING/EDITING
THE DIRECTOR'S CUT
IMPACT + SPREAD OF NEW MEDIA
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
'SALVAGING' WEAK FOOTAGE
RE-SHOOTS
DRAFTING
PACE/TIMING is frequently a key factor and influence on Media coursework post-production
TIME LIMITS: HELPFUL?
EXPOSITION
UPDATE JUNE 14TH, 2012: egs from your work
I'm doing this from memory (so may not be 100% accurate!), but some egs from each group's A2 work (remember to contrast each point with the comparative weakness of AS work for Q1a) that would help to illustrate analysis on this. As I've had a quick think about each one I've listed arising points below...
(1) Consider the variation between your rough cuts and sample footage with the final cut;
(2) give egs of how you used web 2.0 features to get aud feedback which influenced changes made(being specific with the impact this had on shots/editing style/ideas).
(3) Discuss how you were guided (or not) by existing vids;
(4) Discuss whether you continued with research as you edited.
(5) Discuss whether you worked as an auteur or collaboratively on editing. Don't get personal here; you're writing an academic essay. But it is potentially a very useful point. Give detail on any creative differences.
(6) Did you use more FX than in AS? Did you experiment with but abandon further FX? Did you experiment with colouring distortion at all? What AS FX did you use - be clear on this to show the difference.
(7) How/why did you select shots + parts of frame to layer in? Were you influenced by specific vids or directors (Anton Corbijn?) Did you include animated movement with any layering?
(8) Does your final vid deviate further from storyboard/animatic than final AS did (ie, was editing a more creative process)?
(9) What practical problems did you experience through post-production? (don't get bogged down in a negative rant, but you could briefly address issues with crashing, failing hard drives [and failing to responsibly back up!] where appropriate - compare to greater issues working with mini-DV tapes though)
(10) Were your ideas more abstract; your narrative approach more non-linear; your editing showing discontinuity features? Did you avoid closed narrative to make your vid better suited to multiple viewings?
(11) Did any single change from one cut to the next make a particular difference (eg the final shot in HBK's vid)?
(12) Were reshoots/additional shoots necessary ... and/or possible? Did this new footage change the signified reading of existing material and/or provide the extra exposition needed for an audience to be more likely to follow your preferred reading? (perhaps you were able to use shots intended to signify one thing to something quite different?) How did audience feedback differ from the first cut featuring this new footage compared to your previous rough cut?
(13) Were you able to work round any lack of shot variety (or improve shaky footage) by using FCE tools (eg creating CUs using zoom tool)?
(14) Any tension between target aud and song type (espec if ballad)?
(15) Did you take out (or reframe) any shots which didn't fit with your aud/theme/mood (eg shots of alcohol, or swearing)? [see 18 too]
(16) Did you create any matched cuts through editing that weren't originally planned?
(17) Were your ideas more ambitious at A2; influenced by the extra possibilities FCE offered?
(18) Was there a tension between genre expectations and your own views on representations? [most at AS stuck with basic gender stereotypes fitting archetypal character roles] eg Blazing Grace took out some shots which focussed on performers' bodies in isolation (objectifying the female performer; male gaze)
(19) Would your vid have worked as performance or narrative alone, or was this blend (contrast to AS remember) key?
(20) How did you create verisimilitude through editing? (eg, perhaps you had to experiment with different lines/takes to get closer fit for lipsynching on some lines?)
(21) Re feedback, did it matter/make any difference whether or not the sample aud were genre fans? What aspect/s of your editing/vid did you retain despite critical feedback?
(22) Did you leave yourself enough time to edit as best you could; did any comparative weaknesses/failings through the R+P (pre-production and main production phases) handicap your editing?
(23) Was decision-making around the balancing of performance/narrative footage (plus pace and general narrative sequencing) as important as the FX used?
(24) If you look back to your AS, did you start the A2 editing thinking such accomplished work was likely/achievable (ie, did your ambitions grow once you entered post-production?)? Did viewing past coursework spur you on at all?
(25) Did you experiment with colouring? [many of you applied blue or red filters at AS, and/or B+W/sepia...]
- HBK/NiN: the concept was abstract from the outset; closed, heavily anchored readings were not the intention. Storyboards only served as rough ideas, and the concept only fully emerged through the process of editing. The final shot, of the eyes opening, utterly transforms the overall reading though, switching from an overly downbeat narrative hinting at suicide to an ending hinting at hope and revival. The genre, and style of previous NiN videos (give examples tied to specific parts of your work), was a key influence on creative decision-making. The process of multiple layering also led you further away from anchorage; narrative enigma not only fitted with the genre and track atmospherics, but also helps make a music video open to multiple viewings without becoming dull. Applying a standard linear narrative, using Todorov's structure, wouldn't help with this
- Mellie/N'Sync: did you test out different endings, experiment with polysemy v anchorage of ending? How did your idea of ending change/get redrafted through editing as opposed to the original footage shot? Did you add further footage following on from feedback on rough cuts (I'm sure you did, can't rem the details)? Did you initially have an issue with repetition due to insufficient coverage or insufficient range of setups? Why did you re-edit the shot of Charlie with whiskey bottle, and did you have to manipulate existing shots (creating artificial zoom in FCE rather than taking new shots perhaps?) given that the main shoot was over and access to performers difficult? What difference did layering make when you began to add that? How/why did you select shots + parts of frame to layer in? Discuss the issue of pace and length of takes - any tension between target audience and song type (youth - ballad)? How were you influenced by existing vids?
- NUmusic/Robbie Williams - your journey was from a fairly literal and linear initial cut to a more abstracted, non-linear final cut: why? Discuss the process of tweaking many individual shots, adjusting (and cutting) to minimise shakiness and adjusting aspect ratio - could you have done this with AS (iMovie06)? You also created additional shot variety by artificial zooms through FCE. Your post-production additional/re-shoot options were limited by the children, but you did get some extra performer footage; discuss that. Would an additional setup with each of the three pairs have helped the edit? Did you seek to create 'matched cuts' that weren't in your original (linear) plan/storyboard/animatic? Did you cut any shots (handprint...) which were flagged as inappropriate?! How/why did you select shots + parts of frame to layer in, and what feedback did you get once these began to be added?
- Swillob/Muse - your initial sample footage and final cut are very different; discuss the journey and why this was. Each of you experienced extensive AS reshoots; what did you learn from that experience that you applied to the A2 post-production process? How/why did you select shots + parts of frame to layer in? What FX did you use and why (easy comparison with AS)? Did you experiment with but abandon further FX? Was there any tension/point of difference between general audience feedback and Muse fan feedback (accessed through web 2.0 sites?)? Were your ideas more ambitious at A2; influenced by the extra possibilities FCE offered?
- Blazing Grace/Destiny's Child: at what stage did you decide to shoot extra footage, and why? Did this new footage (ducks!) change the signified reading of existing material and/or provide the extra exposition needed for an audience to be more likely to follow your preferred reading? How did audience feedback differ from the first cut featuring this new footage compared to your previous rough cut? One of your key editing issues was how far to go with the objectification of your female performers: you took out a shot which showed Sophie's legs in isolation [objectification makes dehumanising] - why; did this make any difference to feedback; were you applying learning from AS here? Was there a tension between genre expectations and your own views on representations? Was sharing editing duties problematic - were there creative differences? What, specifically, makes your editing here superior to that on the AS? Layering a key factor.
- BY NOW I'VE ADDED 18 POINTS ABOVE, SO I'LL BE BRIEFER....
- Sublime Transcendence/Sunburnt in December: Colour distortion of the 'creature' - discuss! Would your vid have worked as performance alone? Taking out swearing + Conor urinating. Did you include animated movement with any layering? What issues did you face with the genre convention of very fast pace/short takes? Given the extreme nature of the music, was feedback from non-genre fans notably less useful? What aspect/s of your editing/vid did you retain despite critical feedback? Did you leave yourself enough time to edit as best you could; did any comparative weaknesses/failings through the R+P (pre-production and main production phases) handicap your editing?
- HayeFattie/Girls Aloud: The alcohol bottles and how you got around that. Issues of representation: framing the female performers. The wide array of FX trialled and how you decided which to use/reject, including the diverse audience types you got feedback from. Changing the ending. Were the FX the key part of your creativity here, or were any changes to pace/length of takes/shot variation and/or the narrative sequencing and balancing between narrative/performance as important? If you look back to your AS, did you start the A2 editing thinking such accomplished work [its worth noting the charity accolade] was likely/achievable (ie, did your ambitions grow once you entered post-production?)? Did viewing past coursework spur you on at all?
- TwoTwigs/Swing Movement: Your balance between performance and narrative changed dramatically from your initial edit; the competition success of your performance-only cut is also relevant here. By the final cut, was the balance right, and what guided this decision-making process to (re-)shoot additional material? Changes made to shot angle of raw footage (too extreme dutch angles). Open ending to A2 vid compared to AS? You could briefly reflect on how this would have turned out (how pre-production influences post-production) if you'd stuck fully to original ideas.
• How much of your text was ‘created’ only in post-production?Consider the Digital technology topic in particular when you're working on this one.
• What technologies did you use to modify your raw material. How did this change the meaning of your work?
• How much did you manipulate sync sound or create new sound for your text? What effect did that have on your text?
• How much of your footage ended up ‘on the cutting room floor’ (unused) and why?
Some points I'll address below:
iMOVIE 06 v FCE 4
AUTEUR + COMBINING DIRECTING/EDITING
THE DIRECTOR'S CUT
IMPACT + SPREAD OF NEW MEDIA
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
'SALVAGING' WEAK FOOTAGE
RE-SHOOTS
DRAFTING
PACE/TIMING is frequently a key factor and influence on Media coursework post-production
TIME LIMITS: HELPFUL?
EXPOSITION
Q1a: Use of conventions...
using conventions from real media texts
I'll remind you firstly of some of the prompts suggested earlier:
There are clear overlaps between this topic and Research + Planning, though it has also been used in combination with Creativity for a question. Given the nature of the blogs and the evaluations, this should be the most straightforward topic, and the one you can bring most detail to...
This is also a topic where it might be worth discussing your print text, though I don't see any explicit instructions that you HAVE to within the spec.
You should not write a long intro for any DCRUP topic. HOWEVER, a BRIEF summary of what you did at AS and A2 should be your starting point:
I'll remind you firstly of some of the prompts suggested earlier:
• In what ways have your productions used or developed conventions adopted from real media products?
• In what ways have your productions challenged or played with conventions adopted from real media products?
• In other words, is your work generic, or postmodern – or both?
• Some media producers adopt a style of working that is quite distinctive – explore how work you have produced may have been influenced by your own favourite producers/directors/designers/publishers.
There are clear overlaps between this topic and Research + Planning, though it has also been used in combination with Creativity for a question. Given the nature of the blogs and the evaluations, this should be the most straightforward topic, and the one you can bring most detail to...
This is also a topic where it might be worth discussing your print text, though I don't see any explicit instructions that you HAVE to within the spec.
You should not write a long intro for any DCRUP topic. HOWEVER, a BRIEF summary of what you did at AS and A2 should be your starting point:
At AS I created the opening two minutes of a new feature film (following on from a basic preliminary task), working within the slasher sub-genre of horror. I stuck with this genre/I chose [genre] at A2, creating a teaser trailer/short film.The central issue here is GENERIC/FORMULAIC v ORIGINALITY, but there are various (overlapping) areas which can be discussed, such as (and this really isn't an exhaustive list by any means - this is a rich topic to tap into:
WHAT FORMAT
WHICH (SUB-/HYBRID)GENRE + WHY
WHY THIS GENRE
SAME/DIFFERENT AT A2?
HOW YOU RESEARCHED
KEY CONVENTIONS
EMERGING STYLE?
POMO?
Q1a: Digital Technology [DRAFT]
digital technology
I'll remind you first of some of the prompt questions suggested earlier:
Some themes you could discuss:
EQUIPMENT - boom mic, digital audio recorder, Macs, mini-DV camcorders
SOFTWARE - the obvious one, but don't focus solely on this
BLOGGING - did you get into the spirit of making the blog a showcase for your work as a young film-maker? Did you do anything to publicise your blog, attract followers? Did you add multimedia features at A2? YouTube etc? Audience feedback. See 'NEW/SOCIAL MEDIA' BELOW
PODCASTING/VIDEOS - Did you use RSS to enable subscription to your podcasts (so your fans could automatically be informed of updates, and listen to your podcasts on their iPods)?
RESEARCH - get any books via Amazon/Play searches? Use Googlebooks to rad some chapters? Use YouTube for egs of openings/SF/TT? Use YouTube for videos on using aspects of software?
DISTRIBUTION/EXHIBITION - how has web 2.0 made these open to you? Did you publicise your movie? Think about the A2 package - the ancillary texts push you to consider how film fits into the wider media, through advertising and magazine content for example. You did have posters outside F6 - did these generate any interest in viewings? Did you get any viewings on YouTube or from Facebook?
ANALOGUE v DIGITAL - Its useful to step back and consider how digitization has transformed your experience. Commutation test: consider what would change if you had used analogue (eg VHS) media instead. How would editing alter? What about distribution, exhibition, audience feedback? This might surprise you, but digital media is generally lower quality than the older, analogue media - 35mm film remains the norm for the film industry, though films such as Warp X's Donkey Punch and Le Donk and Scor-Say-Zee show the future is bright for low-budget digital film-makers.
NEW/SOCIAL MEDIA - how did you use these?
I'll remind you first of some of the prompt questions suggested earlier:
• How has digital technology helped you to capture your ideas for media production?You should not write a long intro for any DCRUP topic. HOWEVER, a BRIEF summary of what you did at AS and A2 should be your starting point:
• What benefits do digital technologies offer over analogue? Are there any disadvantages?
• How did digital technology influence your work in post-production – for example in the creation of video effects, or the manipulation of images.
• How have your skills with digital technology developed, and how has this influenced your productions?
• What role might digital technology plan in the distribution of work such as yours?
At AS I created the opening two minutes of a new feature film (following on from a basic preliminary task), working within the slasher sub-genre of horror. Work on this was somewhat confined by genre expectations, whereas with the A2 work, on a music video, the format is so diverse and commonly uses postmodern touches such as intertextuality that there was much greater creative freedom.
Some themes you could discuss:
EQUIPMENT - boom mic, digital audio recorder, Macs, mini-DV camcorders
- compare Mini-DV to HD (eg wide-angled lense: what difference did this make? remember, you need specific illustrations for each point). More secure form (issues with mini-DV tapes)? Did higher resolution make any difference?
SOFTWARE - the obvious one, but don't focus solely on this
- what specific difference did FCE's layering option make over iMovie's single layer?
- was that the only difference?!
- did you use FCE's sequence bins, labelling these to organise clips?
BLOGGING - did you get into the spirit of making the blog a showcase for your work as a young film-maker? Did you do anything to publicise your blog, attract followers? Did you add multimedia features at A2? YouTube etc? Audience feedback. See 'NEW/SOCIAL MEDIA' BELOW
PODCASTING/VIDEOS - Did you use RSS to enable subscription to your podcasts (so your fans could automatically be informed of updates, and listen to your podcasts on their iPods)?
RESEARCH - get any books via Amazon/Play searches? Use Googlebooks to rad some chapters? Use YouTube for egs of openings/SF/TT? Use YouTube for videos on using aspects of software?
DISTRIBUTION/EXHIBITION - how has web 2.0 made these open to you? Did you publicise your movie? Think about the A2 package - the ancillary texts push you to consider how film fits into the wider media, through advertising and magazine content for example. You did have posters outside F6 - did these generate any interest in viewings? Did you get any viewings on YouTube or from Facebook?
ANALOGUE v DIGITAL - Its useful to step back and consider how digitization has transformed your experience. Commutation test: consider what would change if you had used analogue (eg VHS) media instead. How would editing alter? What about distribution, exhibition, audience feedback? This might surprise you, but digital media is generally lower quality than the older, analogue media - 35mm film remains the norm for the film industry, though films such as Warp X's Donkey Punch and Le Donk and Scor-Say-Zee show the future is bright for low-budget digital film-makers.
NEW/SOCIAL MEDIA - how did you use these?
- posting Qs/YT links on FB, Twitter, fan forums?
- getting audience feedback (discuss YT analytics: age, gender, nationality)
- BUT also limitations: perhaps by A2 you were more prepared to receive low quality feedback (give example) online, and adjusted your strategy to take in fan forums and Twitter?
- blogger polls and other means of aud research?
- feedback through blog
- sharing ideas/feedback/posts through blog
- communicating as a group
- communicating with cast
Q1a: RESEARCH + PLANNING
research and planning
UPDATE JUNE 2012: see relevant sections from Prep Points doc; commentary on existing sample answer centring on this (using music vid as brief) from June 2010 paper added to bottom of post
I'll remind you firstly of some of the prompts suggested earlier:
• How did your research into genre contribute to your production work?
• How did your research into audience contribute to your production work?
• How did your research into institutions responsible for the production and regulation of the media influence your production work?
• What pre-production planning techniques did you employ (scripting, storyboarding, shot-listing, flat-planning etc.)? How effective was your planning – how did it help you in the production phase?
• What did you learn from planning your first production that helped you to improve your planning for the second?
• How did you use audience feedback to influence your production work while it was in progress?
You should not write a long intro for any DCRUP topic. HOWEVER, a BRIEF summary of what you did at AS and A2 should be your starting point:
At AS I created the opening two minutes of a new feature film (following on from a basic preliminary task), working within the slasher sub-genre of horror [add just enough detail from your text to enable the marker to visualise it]. At A2 I worked on a more flexible, open format in terms of genre: a music video [add detail from your text to enable the marker to visualise it].
DISUSSION OF THE JUNE 2010 Q1A:
Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time
First off, that Q is from the June 2010 paper, the 2nd
running of the new exam; after this the exam board stated they’d always explicitly
include TWO of DCRUP in Q1a.
Key to this is:
- A solid intro painting a word picture of your two productions – a good opportunity for easy Terminology marks
- a sense of the process undertaken, the depth, range + extent of sources used + examples scrutinised (see p.6 of http://prodeval.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/q1a-prep-points-doc.html)
- picking out at least one aspect of research which developed over AS to A2, and tying this to specific examples from your work (moving beyond genre, but also moving outside the format, should be a key aspect of A2 research, eg Sublime Transcendence’s horror film research for their SInDec vid: this eg permits you to draw on postmodern terminology too, and discuss whether your work becomes ‘mere’ bricolage because of intertextuality and this research)
- you could also consider a greater level of research into auteur directors, including aspects of their personal aesthetic (style): eg the particular layering that Anton Corbijn engages in, his mixing of old and new film formats, and his highly postmodern blending of signifiers (props) of past and present (eg a cowboy using a modern phone); did you extend your research more into the post-production stage as you experimented with editing, especially FX, techniques?
- How did you make greater use of web 2.0 to augment your research? Did you use social media to get feedback on your own use of conventions in draft/rough cuts? Or, at an earlier stage, for suggestions of vids to look at? (be specific with sites, suggestions received, and influence on the actual text: what scene/aspect did this eventually influence?)
- Perhaps you also did more reading around certain video texts than you had done with film texts? Did you seek out Wikis, reviews, blogging on individual vids (and/or directors etc)? Did you spot certain editing techniques and use YouTube to find some how-tos or further examples?
- To reiterate the theory (+ thus terminology) opportunities here: web 2.0; postmodernism (bricolage; Strinati’s 5-point summary; Baudrillard and simulacra: by researching + to some extent replicating the conventions you found, were YOU making a representation of a representation of … [that’s what simulacrum means – any concrete meaning is lost in an endless sea of signifiers]? You were at AS, maybe through some discontinuity editing and/or moving outside standard genre conventions at A2 you avoided this? It’s a useful + simple point to discuss: its ok if you conclude (maybe at the end) that its difficult to avoid bricolage when you’re working in such a magpie format [ie it already steals + borrows from every other media form]); semiotics + narrative terminology; feminist critiques – did you manage to target male/female audiences BUT make more sophisticated use of gender representations? Again, maybe you could link such a point to looking beyond the m.vid format at A2?
- I’ve added single paragraphs on individual pomo theorists you can pick from at http://prodeval.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/postmodernism.html
The Vixens eg (embedded below; also see p.4-6 for breakdown of 1a/1b markscheme – again, reading this may be reassuring) provides a clear intro, setting out well the texts the examiner has not seen.
Para2: quickly stresses looking BEYOND genre egs for both AS/A2, BUT distinguishes A2 by stating she (I know it’s a she) researched beyond the format (ie didn’t stick to vids only), and gives clear UofEx (but doesn’t name the magazines used, which would have boosted UofEx mark here). There was an obvious opportunity here to draw on postmodern theory and/or feminist theory (eg Mulvey and male gaze: seeking to work beyond it) to extend the EAA.
Perhaps you might also argue at A2 you learned to keep researching vids + general ideas through additional media even as the production progressed and post-production work progressed – I think its fair to say at AS you saw conventions research as something you did early + moved on from; I couldn’t have stressed heavily enough at A2 how vital it was you kept returning to conventions research/learning/examples.
3rd + 4th paragraphs include some useful terminology, linked to EAA + some UofEx: note the range of semiotic terms (naming theorists here, + maybe going more into bin.opps, narr.enigma etc would be useful – see attached on narrative). A simple point here for you all would be to distinguish the A2 by flagging up greater use of web 2.0: as well as passively viewing materials did you interactively engage using social media to get further suggestions of vids to view/feedback on how well your vid reflected the conventions you’d observed etc?
June 2010 VixensQ1a Q1b
2010 June Markscheme G325
Wednesday, 28 April 2010
Jan 2010 exam Q1a+Q1b
Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production
In question 1(a) you need to write about your work for the Foundation Portfolio and Advanced Portfolio units and you may refer to other media production work you have undertaken.
1(a) Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
In question 1(b) you need to choose one of your media productions to write about.
1(b) Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
Remember, its a 2 hour exam, so you have effectively 1 hour for section A (30 mins each for Q1a + Q1b).
The sub-context of Q1a is how you developed, or progressed, with your skills over time between the Foundation (AS) and Advanced (A2) productions.
There is no trick to the questions; their phrasing will be quite formulaic. HOWEVER, note that Q1a raises TWO of the DCRUP options, and specifically how one fed into another (how R+P fed into your creativity). The board will not say if Q1a will include two topics, so don't count on it ... but be prepared for it!
In question 1(a) you need to write about your work for the Foundation Portfolio and Advanced Portfolio units and you may refer to other media production work you have undertaken.
1(a) Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
In question 1(b) you need to choose one of your media productions to write about.
1(b) Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
Remember, its a 2 hour exam, so you have effectively 1 hour for section A (30 mins each for Q1a + Q1b).
The sub-context of Q1a is how you developed, or progressed, with your skills over time between the Foundation (AS) and Advanced (A2) productions.
There is no trick to the questions; their phrasing will be quite formulaic. HOWEVER, note that Q1a raises TWO of the DCRUP options, and specifically how one fed into another (how R+P fed into your creativity). The board will not say if Q1a will include two topics, so don't count on it ... but be prepared for it!
Monday, 26 April 2010
Q1b pointers
Remember, this question asks you to consider either your Foundation [AS] or Advanced [A2] production, focussing on one from MANGeR:
1: most fundamental of all: you're writing for someone who has not seen your productions, so must be clear, detailed and specific with denotation: - in many of the initial attempts at analysing representation you have often described the outcome, or intended effect (pref'd reading), of scenes/choices without providing any detail or denotation
2: start off with a brief summary of your production:
AS or A2?
WHICH BRIEF? [WHAT WAS YOUR TASK]
GENRE/S
BASIC NARRATIVE SYNOPSIS + KEY CHARs
Some examples drawn from your work:
4: Have you followed or challenged conventions? (probably a bit of both)
5: Linked to 4, do cite comparable existing texts
6: Use of terminology is vital, not least semiotics (including specific shot/angle type denotation)
7: A central question across all 5 topics is how well you've anchored your preferred reading, and to what extent (purposefully or otherwise) your text is polysemic - do discuss the flaws of your production too!
8: Audience feedback can be worth discussing
9: Discuss some changes that might have improved the text, and helped anchor the preferred reading (you could consider the commutation test here)
10: Have you used intertextuality to construct meaning? Is this (and the knowledge required) tied to your target audience?
11: BBFC age ratings might be relevant
12: Consider the limiting conditions you worked under:
untrained cast (presumably), which may have problematised accents + script complexity, + re-take/re-shoot options, + emoting for CUs
micro-budget = limits on make-up, SFX?
equipment: what could you have changed with a camera riser/crane/steadicam, lighting rigs, boom mike [for AS] etc?
13: How did technology influence and shape your outcomes?
14: The roles of central pro/antagonist are critical: what sort of representation are we being encouraged to empathise with, and which to look on with hostility? Might we see any of these roles swapped in different media, or for a different audience?
15: If representation, by all means focus on one issue, but its not expected or necessary that you do so.
16: To what extent were your representations shaped by lack of resources? A common example being the mostly all-Caucasian casts.
MEDIA LANGUAGEI'll tighten this up shortly, but some questions/points to address as you begin planning for this:
AUDIENCE
NARRATIVE
GeNRE
REPRESENTATION
1: most fundamental of all: you're writing for someone who has not seen your productions, so must be clear, detailed and specific with denotation: - in many of the initial attempts at analysing representation you have often described the outcome, or intended effect (pref'd reading), of scenes/choices without providing any detail or denotation
2: start off with a brief summary of your production:
AS or A2?
WHICH BRIEF? [WHAT WAS YOUR TASK]
GENRE/S
BASIC NARRATIVE SYNOPSIS + KEY CHARs
Some examples drawn from your work:
- a period drama set in WW2, featuring the female protagonist receiving a letter from a uniformed soldier informing her of her lover's death
- a rom-com showing a young office worker rushing to get out for work, and tripping himself up just as he spots what will be the love interest
- a slasher featuring two friends making the deadly mistake of taking a shortcut through some woods, where one disappears, leaving his friend to try and make it back to safety
- a horror movie inspired by The Ring in which our protagonist is seen confused and panicked, running out of a building; he appears to hallucinate an ominous female character
4: Have you followed or challenged conventions? (probably a bit of both)
5: Linked to 4, do cite comparable existing texts
6: Use of terminology is vital, not least semiotics (including specific shot/angle type denotation)
7: A central question across all 5 topics is how well you've anchored your preferred reading, and to what extent (purposefully or otherwise) your text is polysemic - do discuss the flaws of your production too!
8: Audience feedback can be worth discussing
9: Discuss some changes that might have improved the text, and helped anchor the preferred reading (you could consider the commutation test here)
10: Have you used intertextuality to construct meaning? Is this (and the knowledge required) tied to your target audience?
11: BBFC age ratings might be relevant
12: Consider the limiting conditions you worked under:
untrained cast (presumably), which may have problematised accents + script complexity, + re-take/re-shoot options, + emoting for CUs
micro-budget = limits on make-up, SFX?
equipment: what could you have changed with a camera riser/crane/steadicam, lighting rigs, boom mike [for AS] etc?
13: How did technology influence and shape your outcomes?
14: The roles of central pro/antagonist are critical: what sort of representation are we being encouraged to empathise with, and which to look on with hostility? Might we see any of these roles swapped in different media, or for a different audience?
15: If representation, by all means focus on one issue, but its not expected or necessary that you do so.
16: To what extent were your representations shaped by lack of resources? A common example being the mostly all-Caucasian casts.
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
The 'Britishness' of your work
Interesting article here on the Ricky gervais Britflick Cemetery Junction; here's an excerpt which may help you think about yourselves as British filmmakers yourselves, especially for Q1a, tho' also Rep'n on Q1b (and, of course, the Section B Q on Media & Collective Identity). This is a brief excerpt:
Our cinema doesn't depend on lavish, feelgood reassurance; it revels in seedy grittiness. That's the way we like it. We're not a nation of optimists who're certain we'll be redeemed. We're glum and suspicious. We quite like misery and are more at home with grunge than glitz.Some interesting reader comments follow too, e.g. this:
DanAshcroft
19 Apr 2010, 11:32AM
Monday, 19 April 2010
Exemplar exam scripts
I'll make available below a range of example exam responses from this January;
Some prompts for Q1a
Always acknowledge your source! In this case David Allison, who posted the following on the OCR Media teachers' discussion list:
digital technology
• How has digital technology helped you to capture your ideas for media production?
• What benefits do digital technologies offer over analogue? Are there any disadvantages?
• How did digital technology influence your work in post-production – for example in the creation of video effects, or the manipulation of images.
• How have your skills with digital technology developed, and how has this influenced your productions?
• What role might digital technology plan in the distribution of work such as yours?
creativity
• What features of your work would you say are original to you?
• Which media texts and producers have influenced your creative decisions?
• How successfully does your work engage its audience and provoke its interest?
• Consider some of the creative choices you had to make during the course of your production – how to use cameras, lighting, dialogue, colour etc. How did you make these decisions, and how did these contribute to the final production?
research and planning
• How did your research into genre contribute to your production work?
• How did your research into audience contribute to your production work?
• How did your research into institutions responsible for the production and regulation of the media influence your production work?
• What pre-production planning techniques did you employ (scripting, storyboarding, shot-listing, flat-planning etc.)? How effective was your planning – how did it help you in the production phase?
• What did you learn from planning your first production that helped you to improve your planning for the second?
• How did you use audience feedback to influence your production work while it was in progress?
post-production
• How much of your text was ‘created’ only in post-production?
• What technologies did you use to modify your raw material. How did this change the meaning of your work?
• How much did you manipulate sync sound or create new sound for your text? What effect did that have on your text?
• How much of your footage ended up ‘on the cutting room floor’ (unused) and why?
using conventions from real media texts
• In what ways have your productions used or developed conventions adopted from real media products?
• In what ways have your productions challenged or played with conventions adopted from real media products?
• In other words, is your work generic, or postmodern – or both?
• Some media producers adopt a style of working that is quite distinctive – explore how work you have produced may have been influenced by your own favourite producers/directors/designers/publishers.
digital technology
• How has digital technology helped you to capture your ideas for media production?
• What benefits do digital technologies offer over analogue? Are there any disadvantages?
• How did digital technology influence your work in post-production – for example in the creation of video effects, or the manipulation of images.
• How have your skills with digital technology developed, and how has this influenced your productions?
• What role might digital technology plan in the distribution of work such as yours?
creativity
• What features of your work would you say are original to you?
• Which media texts and producers have influenced your creative decisions?
• How successfully does your work engage its audience and provoke its interest?
• Consider some of the creative choices you had to make during the course of your production – how to use cameras, lighting, dialogue, colour etc. How did you make these decisions, and how did these contribute to the final production?
research and planning
• How did your research into genre contribute to your production work?
• How did your research into audience contribute to your production work?
• How did your research into institutions responsible for the production and regulation of the media influence your production work?
• What pre-production planning techniques did you employ (scripting, storyboarding, shot-listing, flat-planning etc.)? How effective was your planning – how did it help you in the production phase?
• What did you learn from planning your first production that helped you to improve your planning for the second?
• How did you use audience feedback to influence your production work while it was in progress?
post-production
• How much of your text was ‘created’ only in post-production?
• What technologies did you use to modify your raw material. How did this change the meaning of your work?
• How much did you manipulate sync sound or create new sound for your text? What effect did that have on your text?
• How much of your footage ended up ‘on the cutting room floor’ (unused) and why?
using conventions from real media texts
• In what ways have your productions used or developed conventions adopted from real media products?
• In what ways have your productions challenged or played with conventions adopted from real media products?
• In other words, is your work generic, or postmodern – or both?
• Some media producers adopt a style of working that is quite distinctive – explore how work you have produced may have been influenced by your own favourite producers/directors/designers/publishers.
Wednesday, 14 April 2010
Post-It Note Film Task
The basic idea
The various categories for Q1a and Q1b can seem difficult to pin down; what exactly are you going to say about your use of creativity for example?
So the idea behind this mini-production (and as you can see from the links below, there is scope to be as creative with this task as you wish!) is to re-trace your steps over the 2 years of Media Studies. What developmental steps have you taken (some of which may have been completely independent of the subject) as you went from an interest in the broad subject to learning some fundamentals to developing some ideas to producing (and distributing/exhibiting?) your mini-masterpieces?!
By beginning to break this down - and the screening of these, with an open discussion of each others' steps on this road, should help clear the fog of time! - you can begin to tease out key points to discuss for these questions, though Q1a is the main focus here. (Remember, the focus of this question is how your practical work progressed between the Foundation + Advanced productions)
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Paddy Considine on Creative Freedom
See the article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/sep/27/donk-shane-meadows-paddy-considine, eg this (censored by me) quote:
"I can't deal with all the f--king waiting around," he says vehemently. "I'm writing a script at the minute, and the stipulations are mental. Six weeks to write it, five weeks for them to look at it. Then another little bit of money to go forward. All this constant stalling. It's all geared towards how the industry people work. Well, you know what? Creativity doesn't work like that."
He pauses for a moment as Meadows nods his approval, then he says: "I think a lot of people in the industry, the business people, they take the energy that we possess for aggression, and they're frightened of it. But it's not, it's f--king passion. When I'm ready to go, I don't want to wait around for ever, I want to get on with it."
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