Wednesday, 29 June 2011

A2 Induction Evaluation:

  1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
    - We worked as a large team which is similar to the real industry of media products, we all had a go at editing on the Macs which meant we all gained knowledge from this section of production. However in real media products there would probably be one specified editor for music videos that creates the final piece themselves. As a class we nominated one person to be the director so one person was in charge of us all and took on the full role of director by organising the cameraman and sound operator to be in cue etc. Whilst editing using iMovie on the Apple Macs I learnt how to synchronise the music track to the edited film clips; this will help me a lot when creating my final A2 coursework music video.
  2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
    - Our final cut of the video was uploaded onto YouTube and we believe it to be similar to the original as we took the exact shots from the official video and simply recreated them. This was successful due to the role of the director being organised and the cooperativeness of the class during the filming.
  3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
    - On YouTube as of (12:45pm, 29/6/11) we have had 79 views.
    We have also had one comment post on it 'niice ;)' which suggests that the audience feedback is positive and we will hopefully improve the view count over the Summer.
  4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
    - Video camera and tripod from Lutterworth College library
    iMovie editing software on Apple Mac computers
    Firewire Mac computer lead
    PC Computers to access YouTube

A2 Induction Music Video - What I Go To School For by Busted



Edited by Jess Pardoe, Steph Jarram and Joe Chamberlain

Sunday, 19 June 2011

Risk assessment of a music video

Our music video as a class is to Busted 'What I Go To School For', so the setting is a classroom and there are a few exterior shots also.
- obstacles in the way of performers/actors/lip syncers (e.g. tables, chairs...)
- high heels for the teacher character - hazard
- uneven flooring for exterior shots
- technical equipment faults or accidents

Friday, 17 June 2011

Evaluation of skills learnt - lip sync Busted video

In class we created our own Busted 'What I Go To School For' videos in small groups. From this experience our group of 7 could already use the school video cameras provided but learnt more about using them as we each operated it for a different shot. We used the tripod continuously as handheld camera can sometimes look messy and unprofessional. We then had to upload the videos onto the school Mac computers, we all had a go at cutting and editing on Mac's iMovie programme which allowed us to have a quick go before we have to make a full song music video later in the A2 year. There was a lot of editing and cutting involved in the 30 second version the first time we filmed it, so we re-filmed it within one take which made it easier; however we won't be able to do this for our final coursework so having a practise early on was helpful. Everything I have learnt will allow more skills to be used for my final coursework.

Prop, location + shot lists

I will be posting images of my storyboard and prop, location + shot worksheets, although I don't have access to a scanner yet.

Storyboard

I will be posting images of my storyboard and prop, location + shot worksheets, although I don't have access to a scanner yet.

Monday, 9 May 2011

Essay Plan for Ownership

  1. Overview -
    Comparison of Warp, WT and Hollywood
  2. Production -
    Explain, Analyse, Argue: Funding; conglomerate, UK film council, Tax Schemes/Shelters, Pre-Sales, Categories. Star Persona, Directors, New Technology
    Examples: Bullseye (Tim Bevan), Avatar, The Boat That Rocked/Hot Fuzz, King's Speech
    Impact: Wider audience - 4 quadrant, appeal, 3D (adv/disadv), more Financers = drop outs
  3. Distribution + Marketing -
    Explain, Analyse, Argue: vertical (quicker, digital vs. 35mm) vs. horizontal (sells rights to film, royalties)
    Examples: This is England, Avatar, King's Speech, release dates, 90+ territories
  4. Exhibition -
    Explain, Analyse, Argue: Reduced piracy, Orange Wednesday, challenge
    Examples: Alice in Wonderland, 4D (upgrade from 3D)
  5. Conclusion - Success/failure, relate back to Ownership
Other essays that could be in the exam:
- digital technology
- cross media convergence (synergies etc.)
- digital media (done)
- technological convergence (iPhone apps etc.)

Sunday, 8 May 2011

Digital Media Technology Mock Essay

Exam Practise - Digital Media Technology


Grade: B

Tuesday, 3 May 2011

Practise Exam Essay - Representation of Class



EXAM ESSAY - Monarch of the Glen

Wednesday, 27 April 2011

Practise Exam Essay - Representation of Gender


Summer 2010 OCR Media Studies Extract from N Tennear on Vimeo.

Exam Essay - Primeval

Monday, 4 April 2011

Submarine:



Facebook: Submarine
Warp Films Official Website
YouTube trailers
Internet auditions
Interviews with Empire magazine

Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides:



YouTube trailers
Facebook: Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides
IMDB offical website
Twitter: @jhonny_depp and other Teaser Trailer accounts
Teaser trailers
http://www.pirates-of-the-caribbean-4-trailer.blogspot.com/
http://www.themovieblog.com/

Paul:




































 

Paul The Movie Trailer - sold on iTunes
Paul has it's own Apple website
Twitter: @simonpegg @nickfrost
Facebook: Paul The Movie UK, My Name Is Paul, Paul The Movie, Paul Movie
Teaser Posters

Example Exam Question

Section B

Monday, 21 March 2011

This is England - Distribution

  • A-Film Distribution (2008) (Netherlands) (theatrical)

  • Arthaus (2007) (Norway) (theatrical)

  • IFC Films (2007) (USA) (theatrical)

  • IFC First Take (2007) (USA) (theatrical)

  • King Record Co. (2009) (Japan) (theatrical)

  • Nippon Shuppan Hanbai (Nippan) K.K. (2009) (Japan) (theatrical)

  • NonStop Entertainment (2007) (Sweden) (theatrical)

  • Optimum Releasing (2006) (UK) (theatrical)

  • A-Film Home Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)

  • Ascot Elite Home Entertainment (2008) (Germany) (DVD)

  • Canal Film (2008-2009) (Norway) (TV)

  • Madman Entertainment (2007) (Australia) (all media)

  • NetFlix (2007) (USA) (DVD)

  • Officine UBU (2010) (Italy) (all media)

  • Red Envelope Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)

  • Sandrew Metronome Distribution (2008) (Finland) (DVD)




  • Distribution - Case Study

    Thursday, 10 March 2011

    Distribution Research

    What is distribution?
    -         Distribution focuses mainly on how a film is marketed and sold either countrywide or worldwide; they focus on cinemas and advertising first and then follow on to DVDs and Blu-Rays once the film has been released. The same system takes place in Hollywood and general industrial cinema, the three stages are: licensing, marketing and logistics.
    What is licensing?
    -         During distribution, licensing is the first stage; it can take place in an international level or on a local level. The distributor has to pay a fee to license a film; after this has been sorted this distributor has the responsibility of launching the film.
    What is marketing?
    -         There are two key questions ‘When?’ and ‘How?’ This stage of distribution focuses on when the film will be released, and how the audience will react to it. They usually choose to release films on Fridays as this means people will view it over the weekend, however this would probably fluctuate depending on the age restriction.
    Marketing: Prints and Advertising:
    -         Prints and Advertising make sure that the film is well known and the word gets around about it. The most common forms of advertising are buses, billboards, trailers, emails, texts, leaflets and then more discrete ones such as having your Bluetooth or Infer-Red switched on near a cinema would cause you to receive a message from the cinema advertising the film.
    The Logistics of Distribution:
    -         The distributor arranges to have specific ‘play-dates’ with a cinema; logistics also consists of circulating copies of the video to DVDs and tapes to be sold in shops and video rental stores. There are differing laws from selling DVDs in shops and allowing them for rental use. Prints are generally broken down into sections of about 20 minutes each at 24 frames per second.
    Case Study: Bullet Boy
    -         Bullet Boy is an independent film with a first time director, it has a low budget because of this and stars a UK rapper from So Solid Crew. Linking to printing, the film opened on 75 prints worldwide; however it was screened mainly in London.
    Digital Distribution:
    -         The main change was from 35mm prints to digital film, this meant that technology could move forward by a considerable amount.  High Definition is also involved in the digital side of the distribution, the film is put into high definition if it is being sold as a Blu-Ray rather than DVD. The change to digital distribution only began to occur in 2005, this means that now digital projection increasingly uses digital formats, and also digital sound systems.

    Monday, 28 February 2011

    Film Distribution: Then and Now

    How does a film make money for the studio?
    - People watch the film if it is popular and has a good cast, they see it at the cinema, then follow on to buy the DVDs or Blu-Ray versions of the film so they can watch it at home. They could also buy merchandise for themselves or people they know which spreads information about the film.

    Where does the money come from?
    - Profit from things such as; merchandise, cinema tickets, premiere tickets, soundtrack, advanced showings of the film, DVDs

    Who decides to produce the film?
    - The producer makes the decision to produce the film after being pitched the writer's idea and how the director wishes to put the film into action, the cinematographer would also suggest how it could be filmed.

    Where does the money to make a film come from?
    - The budget for the film comes from the companies which invest in the film, the film company has to pitch their idea - the more investors interested in the film, the better the budget should be (because people can drop out of investments).

    What was the relationship between studios and Cinemas in the 1930's/40's?
    - These years were some of the most popular and successful times for cinema and studio systems, more than 600 films were being produced per year.

    How has that changed? When?
    - The studio system ended in 1959, along with the death of RKO; this is because technology became more advanced so people didn't need to use the studio system any longer.

    How do studios make money from Video/DVD sales? What rules govern DVD rentals?
    - DVDs make the film an ongoing feature in the world, with the introduction of Blu-ray DVDs as well people are now going to buy their favourite DVDs all over again in Blu-ray's high definition. Rented DVDs have law and age restrictions on them and must be returned within a certain date which is why it is cheaper to buy a film in the long-run.

    What ways does a studio have of making sure that a Film is profitable? (Stars, property, marketing)
    - The budget is decided before making the film so they can limit their money to each area; they would start by deciding which locations are actors are possible to get for the film. This would then follow on to smaller costs.

    What other ways does a studio have of making money?
    - Studios advertise everywhere and anywhere, from obvious places such as billboards and cinema trailers to sending messages via Bluetooth when people are near cinemas with Bluetooth switched on. There are also now bar codes that Blackberry phones can scan to receive updates or free downloads of particular things such as a clip of the film or a release date. Other forms of advertisement are posters, texts, emails, leaflets in cinemas, buses, taxis and TV interviews.

    Distribution + Marketing

    • Introduction
    • Logistics
    • 35mm > Digital (DSN Sites)
    • Release dates/blanket release
    • Marketing/Advertising
    • Synergy
    • Merchandise/soundtrack
    • Viral
    • New Technology
    • Festivals/awards
    • Opening weekends/film premieres
    • Quotes - from industry

    Sunday, 27 February 2011

    Group Revision - Grace Keogh (Audience Theory)

    Audience Theory’s

    The effects/hypodermic model

    The original model for audience was the effects/hypodermic model which stressed the effects of the mass media on their audiences. This model owes much to the supposed power of the mass media - in particular film - to inject their audiences with ideas and meanings. Such was the thinking behind much of the Nazi propaganda that was evident in Triumph of the Will and similar films. It is worth noting that totalitarian states and dictatorships are similar in their desire to have complete control over the media, usually in the belief that strict regulation of the media will help in controlling entire populations. The effects model has several variants and despite the fact that it is an outdated model it continues to exert influence in present debates about censorship and control in the media.

    Advantages of hypodermic needle:
    -          Can make a wide range of audience more interested in the film being advertised
    -          Makes the film stand out more from other films
    Disadvantages of hypodermic needle:
    -          Can cause mass panic, like with the film 2012, where there was billboards up saying the world was going to end. People did not realise that the billboard was actually advertising a film
    Reception Theory
    Extending the concept of an active audience still further, in the 1980s and 1990s a lot of work was done on the way individuals received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading.
    This work was based on Stuart Hall's encoding/decoding model of the relationship between text and audience - the text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader, and there may be major differences between two different readings of the same code. However, by using recognised codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of stars, the producers can position the audience and thus create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means. This is known as a preferred reading.

    Monday, 14 February 2011

    New Technology - Revision Stuff

    New Technology

    Working Title – Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, Paul
    Working Title can afford to use minimal new technology such as HD recording and 3D, for example Paul is coming out in HD on February 14th 2011; and Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang came out during 2010 in 3D and was their first 3D film, it was very successful which means they may continue to produce 3D films in future.

    Warp Films don’t have the funding to use new technology yet but as their name becomes more popular they may be able to use 3D or better editing quality such as HD.

    Hollywood – Saw 3D, Avatar, Alice in Wonderland, Toy Story 3, Shrek 4
    Hollywood upcoming – Cars 2, Happy Feet 2
    Hollywood can afford to use any types of new technology because they have larger budgets than working title and warp films. For example the editing software used for Avatar took up a large percentage of the budget and 24 programmes were used to create the Avatar world.
    Film4127 hours, Never Let Me Go
    Both the Film4 films listed above only use HD from the new technology as Film4 work with Working Title for ‘Paul’ by promoting it and by doing this they receive some of the profit.

    Advantages: The use of new technology makes the film more appealing to the audience; for example, 3D makes the audience feel more involved, CGI makes the animated characters clearer and the quality better for the audience. The production company receive more money for the film if it includes new technology.
    Disadvantages: People have complained about getting headaches from wearing the glasses, the cost of the film becomes more expensive and the quality of the 2D version may be poorer if originally filmed in 3D.

    Ed and Jess