Year 13 homework

Due in Tuesday 14th January.

Apply the 5 key concepts to your film trailer, poster and magazine cover.

• Audience
• Media language
• Representation
• Genre
• Narrative

Look back at your notes on the theories and theorists (quotes) and apply each to your work.

Year 12 homework

This is due Tuesday 7th January. It is one of your evaluation tasks and is marked for coursework. It should be detailed and use media terminology. You must make sure you have photos of different social groups from your film BEFORE the end of term.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

List social groups e.g. teenagers, middle aged women...

Pick a character from your film that is a member of a social group. How do you know? How typical are they of this social group? What is your evidence?

Consider clothes, facial expressions, hair, jewellery, make up, accessories, age, camera shots used, settings, who they are with, their role in the film

Example above from Mean Girls.

Find a photo of a character from a film that is from the same social group as a character in your film. Put this in Photoshop next to a still from your film of the character. Save as a jpeg and put on blogger then explain the similarities and differences. How stereotyped is your character? Use the list above to help.

Do this for at least one more social group.

Year 13 pitch

On Wednesday 27th November you willpitchyour ideas for your film trailer, poster and magazine cover. You should have a short presentation (power point or equivalent) which you should expand with explanations as a group. Each presentation should last about 4-5 minutes and should include:

USP
Production company logo and connotation
Plot outlines
Characters
Settings
Generic conventions
Trailer conventions
Poster and mag cover ideas, layout, colours,
Title and connotations
Target audience

Year 12 Tuesday 12th November

During this lesson I would like you to analyse film production company logos and explain what they communicate to the audience. Look at colours, fonts, images, shapes, angles and words used. What are the connotations of these?

Here are some suggestions to get you started...

Dreamworks
Film 4
Warp
Take two
20th century Fox

Year 13 homework

Once you have chosen the genre of film you want to make you need to do some research and put it on your blog.
 
Watch a selection of trailers and films in your chosen genre.
Make notes on titles, setttings, characters, narratives, actors.
Make notes on genre conventions and trailer conventions.

I will expect at least one hour of work to be on your blog by Tuesday 12th November.

Year 12 homework

Your 2 case study films are Gravity and The Selfish Giant.
Gravity is released next week and The Selfish Giant is released today.

Your task over the next few weeks is to find out how these 2 films were made, how they were distributed and marketed and the impact of this. Who saw the films? Where did they see them? What did they think of them? If you manage to see them it is a real bonus.

Put all your findings on your blog using as many images as you can, especially ones taken yourself

I will check your blogs on Tuesday 5th November and I expect at least 2 hours worth of work on there.

Homework for Thursday 17th October



By Thursday 17th October

Work in a group to plan and rehearse a presentation about your swede unit. There is a PowerPoint template in shared topics, get work, AS. Divide up the work, use lesson time and homework and be ready to present it on Thursday 17th.

Also you need to include on this your advertising campaign. Set each other a task to complete for this.

Glossary of film terms



Film and Institution Glossary

Above the line advertising	Publicity that is controlled by the distribution company such as trailers, posters, links with companies,
Artshouse	Cinema specialising in films that are not mainstream e.g. art films, foreign films, classic films
Artshouse film	A low budget independent film that would most likely appeal to an educated higher class audience who follow unusual genres or like cult directors that few have heard of.
Below the line advertising	Publicity that is not controlled by distribution company and is usually free e.g. reviews, interviews, articles in magazines
Big Five	Biggest film studios: MGM, warner brothers, 20th C Fox, paramount, Sony. Produce, distribute and own cinemas
Conglomerate	A company that owns large numbers of companies in a range of mass media such as TV, film and the internet. Eg Disney, news Corporation, Time warner
Contemporary	Up to date, modern
Convention	What we expect to see in a particular genre or text
Cross media convergence	Companies coming together vertically or horizontally for mutual gain e.g. orange Wednesdays, McDonalds happy meals
Demographic	Measurable characteristics of media consumers such as age, gender, race, lifestyle, education and income
Digital screen network	A project to convert 240 screens in UK cinemas to digital costing £12m.
Digital technologies	Any piece of technology that stores information by reducing it to digits then reassembles it for an exact reproduction e.g. internet, phones, HD cameras, I pads
Distribution	After the film is made it is distributed to cinemas, promoted on TV and radio and in magazines, marketed using posters, websites, trailers, links with companies such as McDonalds
Exchange	Ways of watching and sharing films e.g. cinemas, you tube, streaming, DVD, bluray, fansites, swedes,
Global	worldwide
Hardware	The physical equipment used to produce, distribute
Horizontal Integration	One company buying others in the same level of work to strengthen their business.
Independent film	Produced outside the major film studio format usually with a low budget
Mainstream	A high budget film that would appeal to most segments of an audience
Marketing	The way in which a media text or product is sold to a target audience
Mass audience	A very large group of people
National	Within one country
Niche audience	related to or aiming at a specialised group of people or a group interested in a particular theme
Online distribution	Delivery of media content without the use of physical media usually streamed or downloaded
Print	A 35mm film reel that is sent to cinemas to show. Costs 10 times that of a digital copy
Production	The process of creating film from the idea to the final edit
Proliferation	A huge increase or a huge amount
Prosumer	Audience member who makes film and distributes usually through the internet
Swede	A summarized recreation of a popular culture film using limited (or no) budget and a camcorder. The process is sweding and once done the film has been sweded.
Synergy	The combination of 2 separate media texts or products that share similar characteristics so that one helps market the other e.g. colour, font, image, logo
Target audience	The ideal audience member in terms of age, gender, income, lifestyle, race
Technological convergence	The merging of previously separate communication methods made possible by technological advances. Eg a phone is used for photos, videos, internet, messaging
USP	Unique Selling Point. What makes the film different or the aspect that most appeals to the audience
Vertical integration	Where an institution shares or owns each part of the production and distribution process e.g. 20th C Fox makes and distributes films
Viral marketing	Being passed from one person to another usually via the internet and free

AS evaluation tasks

Evaluation Activities: Video

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

Remember when we looked at 9 frames from Art of the title sequence? Well now it's your turn to do the same with nine of your frames.

You should go through the final version of the project and select nine distinct frames which you screengrab and drop into a photoshop in the same style as the website. You will be using these to write about how typical or not of opening sequences your particular design is, so choose them carefully.

Once you have the nine frames neatly in Photoshop, screengrab the whole thing and post to your blog, then write an analysis of how you have used such conventions.

The aspects we would like you to consider across your nine frames are:

The title of the film
Setting/location
Costumes and props
Camerawork and editing
Title font and style
Story and how the opening sets it up
Genre and how the opening suggests it
How characters are introduced
Special effects

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Pick a key character from your opening. Take a screengrab of a reasonable sized image of them. Think of one or more characters from other films with some similarity to them (but maybe some differences too!), find an image on the web of that/those characters and grab it as well. Drop the two into photoshop, as a split screen. Export this splitscreen image as a jpeg then drop onto your blog and write about the similarities and differences in terms of appearance, costume, role in film etc.

So for example if you have a lone cop type character, look for other lone cops to compare him with...

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?


For this question, you are going to do a 'director's commentary' style voiceover explaining some of the key features of your opening

You will need to script the voiceover which deals with institutional issues to include:

discussion of your production company name and logo and the role of such companies

What does a production company do?
the idea of a distributor and who that might be and why.
where the money might have come from for a film such as yours
why the various people are named in the titles- which jobs appear in titles and in what order and how have you reflected this?
what your film is similar to 'institutionally' (name some films which would be released in a similar way)

You need to refer to actual company names and processes so you will need to go back to the early posts on film companies and maybe do a bit more research

When you have scripted, record the voiceover using Final Cut on a new audio timeline, then export to quicktime and embed on blog.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?

You should have a drawing of your target audience member and an explanation of what kinds of taste they might have- where they would shop, what music they would listen to, what their favourite Tv programme would be, etc.

make sure you have taken a photo of it, post it on the blog and write a few notes on why they would watch your film.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 5
How did you attract/address your audience?

You will use YOUTUBE's annotation tools to add NOTES, SPEECHBUBBLES, and LINKS to your video:

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=92710

These annotations will highlight the ways in which your Film Opening links to other similiar films in order to attract the particular Audience you have previously identified.

Your annotations will refer to genre conventions, use of music, similiarities with other movies and what you have identified as the Unique Selling Point of your imaginary film.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In pairs, take a picture of each other holding the kit you have used. This might just be the camera and tripod, and your Macbook but there may be other things you want in the shot.

Drop the image onto your blog and annotate it, adding all the programs and other technology you have used as screengrabs and what you learnt about it/from using it. Your written text need only be minimal. You could include reference to all the online and computer programs you have used such as youtube, flickr, blogger, final cut,photoshop,vimeo garageband, etc.


EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Concentrate on editing and camerawork.

Grab some frames from both tasks and put them on the blog and show what you know about shot types, edit terms and techniques.


Make sure you mention the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse sho

Year 13 A2 Evaluation Tasks

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products
You should go through the final version of your project and select 9 distinct frames which you export and save to your own area.  Create a blank A4 document in photoshop then drop each image in so they appear on the page as a block.  Number them 1 to 9.  You will be using these to write about how typical or not of soap trailers your particular design is, so choose them carefully.
Once you have the 9 frames neatly in photoshop, save as a jpeg file to your own area then upload the image to your blog.  You now need to write an analysis of how you have used the conventions of soap in your trailer.
The aspects to consider are:
The title,  setting/location, costumes & props,  camerawork & editing,  Title font and style,  storylines/plot and how the trailer sets it up, how characters are introduced, special effects, use of logo.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
 Create a script for a voiceover discussing why the combination is effective.  This will be recorded over the top of your soap (you will unlink the original sound and replace it with the voiceover) You should export the image of your TV listings magazine and your poster and insert at suitable points in your trailer.  Choose some points where you can discuss similarities (e.g. if you have used the same characters, is there a theme that runs through all of them e.g. use of spotlights or fire to symbolize something) and some that are very different. Discuss the images to show how effective they would be as an overall promotion package for your new soap and why they work together well. Say which images/props/characters/colours/titles/fonts/effects you have chosen to use and discuss why.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Present the audience feedback you have received from other groups in the form of a graph, pie chart or other diagram form and post to your blog.  You should then select screengrabs of particular changes that you made to your project as a result of what the feedback results showed you and discuss how those changes have made an improvement to your work. 
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4

How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages
Upload some of the photos you took during the planning and filming of your trailer to your blog. Using these photos discuss what media technologies you used during the process and also what you have learnt during it (e.g. We used Panasonic HD video cameras and a tripod to achieve a steady shot. )
 For magazine cover and poster, use screengrabs of your magazine on the page to illustrate special effects used (on titles for example, or outer glows round images).  Also discuss how difficult/easy you found it to manipulate images for these.
 Don’t forget to include screengrabs of other technologies used such as  if you have used your phones to take some of the photos, youtube, facebook to arrange meetings etc and using the blog, email etc. You could screengrab your actual blog, photoshop image, youtube, your project on final cut and arrange as a block in the same way you did for activity 1.