G322 SUMMER EXAM 2013

Your summer exam for G322 Key Media Concepts is on Monday 13 May a.m. Two sections, 2 hours:

• TV Drama
• Institutions and Audiences (Film)

Today in class we work through two exam questions on Film, using very recent exam papers. You will shortly receive a folder with all recent exam papers and TV drama extracts. You will complete one TV drama question every week.

Today's exam questions: 
'Media production is dominated by global institutions which sell their products and services to national audiences.' To what extent do you agree with this statement?' (January 2010)

PREP to be handed in on Tuesday 5 March on paper: TV drama question. Read the examiner's report before attempting the exam answer, so you have a clear idea of the outcome. The extract is on a disc with the report and exam paper in your G322 file.

Coming Down The Mountain 



 

The Film Industry By the Numbers infographic

The Advent of Online Film Distribution infographic

How social media makes or breaks a movie

How Social Media makes or breaks a movie infographic by sramzee.

CONSTRUCTION: ANIMATION IN OPENING SEQUENCES

FILM OPENING: MOCKUMENTARY

The work of graphic designer Saul Bass is worth researching: he has been called the master of the title sequence. He has devised the opening title sequences for films such as Ocean's Eleven, It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Carmen Jones, Psycho, The Human Factor and over 60 films. He often worked with directors such as Martin Scorsese and especially Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho). His skills have intrigued audience all over as film critics say that you could tell what was going to happen in a film for which Saul designed the titles. He had a long lasting and successful career, helping out with visual concepts, storyboards but most importantly the titles for the bigger cinematic hits of the 20th century.

Grease successfully uses animation in its opening sequence.

YOUR FILM OPENINGS

Film opening: THE RAVEN
We looked at the iconography of menace in The opening title sequence of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo 
Film opening: ZEST
Social satire:We viewed women behaving badly at meal times and with the family Absolutely Fabulous and The Daily Telegraph's Appalling Guests

Additional scenes using (say)  4 difficult couples visiting the restaurant; straight cuts; voice over for context

1. Grumpy oldies
2. Metalheads
3. Celebrities
4. Embarrassing parents ("I have a THIN person inside of me just waiting to get out!" and her mother says, "Only one dear?")

Example of email request and outline of task:

Dear Mr K**** and Mrs H****

We would like to ask you if you would be able to make a cameo appearance in our film opening, a comedy about a restaurant called ‘Zest’.

You would play a couple of grumpies who exchange one line of dialogue:

Woman: I feel quite queezy about the beef, for all we know it could be zebra, or hippo, or giraffe

Man: It’s my cholesterol I’m bothered about

EVALUATION Q. 2 and 4

CLASS AND PREP: Today I set you the task of tackling two of the evaluation questions which you will complete and post by Sunday 24 February (end of half term).

• You need to create 7 pages on your blog (like mine) if you have failed to do so yet.
• Follow through the steps for Evaluation question 4 (who will watch your film) using the link here to create an audience profile. In your main blog, show all the steps of the planning. When the work is complete, post it on the page for Evaluation q.4 in a finished Photoshop poster. Able students may want to add a voice over in Sound Cloud. Look at how other companies present audience profiles and record what you consulted on your blogpost. I suggest Sky Media and NME. Add screenshots as evidence. Look at previous Claremont student work (links on our class blog).
• Follow the steps for Evaluation q. 2 (who is in your film) next. This is about representation: you need to read through this blog post first. 
•  For example, the Mockumentary probably features stereotypes of metalheads so you would need to research 'Stereotypes behind heavy metal culture iconography' 
• and this one  Leather Clad and Proud: Metal’s Fans and Stereotypes 
• and so on....
•  The Zest production team should search for images and profiles of gap year Australian girls like this wholesome Aussie girl, high-profile scientific nerdy chefs perhaps these , Parisian dolly birds like this one and so on
•  The Raven production team (as above)

CONSTRUCTION: FRAMING SHOTS TO CONSTRUCT REPRESENTATION

Yesterday at the study day at the British Film Institute, we were shown how framing shots can help construct representation. You need to show that your learning / research has influenced your own outcome. So after an analysis such as the one below, post a shot from your own film and explain how representation is constructed.
In Billy Elliot, there is a huge contrast between the framing of Billy dancing and that of his father and brother when they confront the scabs in the miners' strike. Look at the wide open space around Billy; on a denotative level, he needs space to leap into during his ballet dancing; on a connotative level, he is taking a leap into the unknown and demanding his right to express his masculinity as he sees fit, not as the footballer, wrestler or boxer that his father sees as masculine. He is claiming new territory for masculinity at a time when masculinity had more rigid and clear cut roles and when these traditional roles, such as men working in heavy industries, were being challenged by the collapse of the mining and steel industries.

Billy dancing

By contrast, his father and brother stand shoulder to shoulder with their fellow miners and brothers in arms during the miners' strike. Both literally (that is, on a denotative level, as they mass together to confront the scabs and try to block their coach entering the pit head) as well as metaphorically (on a connotative level, they are squeezed dry by Thatcher's government, reduced to near starvation and their only strength is in unity), the crane shots of their mass gathering construct them as united but trapped by fate.

Crane shot of miners in clash with police

CONSTRUCTION: ZEST OPENING SCENE

Location filming in Esher of ZEST establishing shot outside restaurant.

• Australian female gap year student arrives outside restaurant, 
• checks phone to verify location 
• and appears to enter
• CUs of restaurant window, advertising board etc to provide material for cuttaway shots

BFI STUDY DAY: WORKING TITLE

G322 INSTITUTIONS & AUDIENCES (FILM)

The focus is on our case study, the British film company Working Title. The study day isled by Wendy Helsby, editor of the Understanding Representation resource, and freelance film and Media teacher and lecturer.

The day covers the reasons why Working Title is such a successful British film production company and the significance of its contribution to British film culture. We discover how a production company works, its relationship with its audience, the importance of distribution and marketing, and its position in relation to Universal Studios in the USA. The day includes a presentation from Working Title personnel and a panel discussion when you can ask questions, followed by a screening.

Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994, dir..Mike Newel) was screened but you cannot use this as an exam reference as it is too old. For our case studies we must refer to films made in the last 5 years.

This is an excellent day's preparation for your summer exam, adding several new texts to our spread and enabling us to contextualize our research. You will receive a copy of the teacher's hand outs with all the additional information provided by Wendy Helsby.

PLANNING: SCRIPTS

ZEST
Script ideas for Heston character:

Molecular gastronomy is the way to go....

If it's good enough for Heston, it's good enough for us.

I’ve got prawns with a soy foam and fruit noodles.

I’m planning a medieval feast complete with blood sauce and sea foam

On the menu tomorrow, beetroot meringue and snail porridge

Now where’s my blow torch?

PLANNING: CALL SHEET

MY CALL SHEET

Each group will produce a call sheet for Keep each shoot (do not post your phone number or email online, though, but let your group have it)  as in this example.

• Title of page: AS Media Studies Call Sheet for [name of your film]
• Track
• Length
• Shoot date
• Location
• IMAGE: FROM GOOGLE MAPS
• Crew: [name of person, their phone number, their email]
• Crew: [name of person, their phone number, their email]
• Crew: [name of person, their phone number, their email] etc..
• Camera equipment (this heading then lists camera stuff)
• Lighting equipment (this heading then lists lighting stuff)
• Props (this heading then lists all props)
• Wardrobe [name of character]
• Wardrobe [name of character] etc

PLANNING: INSPIRATIONAL FILMING

As you film, let's remember some of the outstanding features of the camerawork and editing in Les Bleues de Ramville. Incorporate them as you storyboard: they need to be built into the planning stage.

PLANNING: RESTAURANT COMEDY FILM

Your recent work included the following, which I suggest you blog as separate items:

• thumbnails of a variety of restaurant facades (the fronts), such as the O2 collection and some internet research. You could present these using Pinterest
• shortlist of two, photos taken in Esher, with brief explanation of your final choice + reasons
• evidence of menus collected as potential mise-en-scene
• photos taken in school canteen for restaurant interior
• comments on how you plan to dress the set, that is, the visual codes of your restaurant