WELCOME, MODERATOR

Welcome, moderator! I am George Cluney 1234 and I worked with Cameron Diaz 4321 and Tom Cruise 0007.

I hope you enjoy my blog, which contains my work on my G321 Foundation  Portfolio. We chose the video brief, the titles and openings of a fictional thriller film which we named Our Film. My preliminary exercise follows immediately underneath.

My evaluation questions are above.

TITLES

EXAMINER REPORT TO CENTRES 2014 below.
Note the reference to film titles often being inadequate and to the importance of creating your own music:

OPENING CREDITS
The order of credits is determined by guild rules -- SAG, the DGA, WGA and other unions. the list that follows is for opening credits.

The order in which credits are billed generally follows their importance to the film, just not linearly. First is usually the motion picture company, followed by the producer, then the 'a film by' credit. Then we see the Title followed by the cast. from there we reverse gears on the whole "order of importance" guideline and work backwards to the director...


PRODUCTION COMPANY presents
a NAME LASTNAME production
a NAME LASTNAME film
"TITLE"
Lead Cast
Supporting Cast
Casting Director
Music Composer
Costume Designer
Associate Producers
Editor(s)
Production Designer
Director of Photography
Executive Producer
Producer
Writer(s)
Director


if the writer and director are the same person, or the director was also a producer, hold his earlier credit and pair it with the more prestigious one (in this case "director"). so you would place "Written and Directed by" or "Produced and Directed by" or "Edited and Directed by" where the Director's credit goes. if your Dp was also your editor, you'd have "Editor and Director of Photography..." falling in the position where the DP credit goes. et cetera.

CLOSING CREDITS
Closing credits do not have any hard and fast rules that dictate how they need to be ordered. But there are conventions that have been established. If you intend to have no opening credits (something George Lucas left the DGA over) you basically put the Director, Writer and Producer credits first, then go down the line for the closing credits:


Director
Writer(s)
Producer
Executive Producer
Lead Cast
Supporting Cast
Director of Photography
Production Designer
Editor(s)
Associate Producers
Costume Designer
Music Composer
Casting Director

THE DISCLAIMER
Here is a standard motion picture disclaimer...

"PERSON'S NAME OR PRODUCTION COMPANY" is the author of this motion picture for the purpose of copyrght and other laws.

This motion picture is protected pursuant to the provisions of the laws of the United States of America and other countries. Any unauthorized duplication, distribution and/or exhibition of this motion picture may result in civil liability and criminal prosecution.

Characters and incidents portrayed and the names herein are fictitious, and any similarity to the name, character or history of any person is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

No animals were harmed in the making of this film.


PRODUCTION LOGO
if you have an Animated Production Company Logo, place that at the very beginning, before your credits. it's the first thing we see. some studios/production companies will tag the logo on at the very end too.

BREVITY
Now, it's important to note that on a short film, many of the roles you see above were handled by one person. I've been to a few film festivals and there is nothing more likely to induce a collective groan, and lose a few fans in the process, than a tedious string of credits on a five minute film... especially if the same names keep popping up. and I'll tell you why. at festivals, shorts are programmed in blocks of 90 to 120 minutes. no one in the audience cares who did what. so waiting thru two minutes of white test scrolling against black is pretty miserable for everyone. it also does a disservice to your fellow filmmaker. shorts blocks thrive on momentum. I've seen people leave the theater over because of long credits. in particular, I sat through a 22 minute film followed by 6 minutes of very detailed credits. HALF the theater left before my film screened. half.

The best advice I can give here is that if you were the writer, director, producer, cinematographer and editer... just go with the most important titles (in this case... "written and directed by...", dropping any credit for your editing or cinematography. Or maybe "a film by..." is enough. Didn't have a casting director and held scheduled the auditions yourself? skip it. And even if you had a crew of 20-30 people, move through those credits as quickly as possible.

Source(s): http://www.indietalk.com/showthread.php?.

G322 THE IMPACT OF MEDIA OWNERSHIP ON THE RANGE OF PRODUCTS AVAILABLE

Section B question: What impact does media ownership have on the range of products available to audiences in the media area that you have studied? (January 2013)

HOW TO ANSWER THE SECTION B QUESTION!

Look first at the OCR Report to Centres then at the guidance below that to learn how you could have organized your answer.

• State your area of debate: I have studied the film industry.
• State what you understand by media ownership and by audiences in the film industry: By ownership, I understand the various institutions that make and distribute film, such as the 'big six' Hollywood mega-franchises targeted at mainstream global as well as international audiences, the UK film industry with its different, smaller scale and national / US target audiences and independent film producers, often with national / niche audiences. 
• State what 'range of products' could include: I interpret 'range of products' to refer to the range of genres that studios produce, which tend to be limited to prequels, sequels and superhero films in Hollywood, with spectacle and narrative privileged over character and theme, which is more typical of the UK film industry.
• In addition, I interpret 'range of products' to refer also to the formats in which films are produced for a range of platforms, such as for cinema exhibition,in DVD and BluRay for home cinema, for downloading and streaming on the internet (such as Netflix offers) using portable platforms, for YouTube audiences and for IMAX screens. 
• These products include the range of distribution products used by distributors to attract and address target audiences, such as TV and in-cinema trailers, film websites with interactive features, Instagram and Twitter feeds to satisfy audience's hunger for pre-release information.
• I will also explain the way in which the mega-franchises like Disney can offer audiences a range of related products that create a synergy of cross-media ownership, through horizontal and vertical integration of products, such as theme parks, merchandise, TV shows, musical sound tracks, clothing, toys, comics and numerous sequels. 
• Whilst it may seem that the mega-franchises have the upper hand, I will provide examples that web 2.0 has been a game changer, allowing audiences to be both producers and consumers. Equally, I will argue that UK cinema looks to serve national audiences who do not necessarily demand a wide range of merchandise or theme parks, as long as they have a choice of platforms / formats.
• Cover your debate through a range of contrasting case studies.
• Remember the words "what impact" means the question invites evaluation.
• Refer to your own film viewing experience to support your case studies.
• Include an understanding of what trends are developing. 

 

G322 FINGERSMITH & DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION January 2012

G322: COMING DOWN THE MOUNTAIN and CROSS MEDIA CONVERGENCE

You have already tackled Section A. In the Easter break, please do the Section B essay.

LOVE PHOTOPEACH

...as you can create a slideshow of still pictures with a moving subtitles! Thank you Ellen Scott for finding this and for showcasing Mindmup.
See it here...

I have found Moldiv really useful. Thank you, Eliza Tracey, for introducing me to Moldiv!

Well done, Demi Collins, for discovering Papelook and Collage.com.
Thank you, Agatha Parry, for introducing me to Visme and Pow Toon! Also for leading the way in high quality use of Piktochart.
Thank you, Freddie Howe, for showing us how effective GoogleDocs is as a collaborative tool.
Well done, Sophie Bennett on an amazing Emaze! And for finding FotorCollage.

WELCOME, MODERATOR

Welcome moderator! I am George Cluney 1234 and I worked with Cameron Diaz 4321 and Tom Cruise 0007.

I hope you enjoy my blog, which contains my work on my G321 Foundation Portfolio. We chose the video brief, a short film together with storyboard and titles,  which I named My Short Film.
My seven evaluation questions are also above.

7 WHAT I HAVE LEARNED ABOUT FILM MAKING

Complete this evaluation question over the weekend.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

• research the genre, specific genre codes
• suspense, enigma, tension, thrill: function of film opening to hook audience, not reveal all
• realism, props, costumes, setting, lighting
• the role of visual codes
• tripod, bubbling the tripod; hand-held
• ellipsis in narrative; motivated edits
• Key characters should be prominent in the first and last shots in a sequence to signal their importance.
• camera angles serve different specific functions
• continuity editing 
• function of sound: did you have any trouble with sound recording? What mistakes did you make / what did you learn?
• 180 degree rule
• titles
• organization of cast, equipment; planning tools like shot lists and call sheets
• you went to the BFI study day on UK Cinema: Audiences and Institutions. Did anything there help you to think about your film making?

It may help you to study the marking criteria for a level 4 (top band) mark:

YOUR BLOG WILL SHORTLY BE MARKED

Have you:

• Added your candidate number to your blog? You can create your 'Welcome Moderator' post NOW and add your full name and number there. See what we did last year.
• Titled the evaluation pages correctly with NUMBERS on your page header? 
• With the FULL QUESTION at the top of each evaluation answer, to show that you really know what you're explaining?
• Have you added the blog roll WEB TOOLS
• and MOSTLY FILM
• and STUDENT SITES
• and UK STUDIOS
• and TUTORIALS?
• Have you tweeted recently?
• Have you checked 'comments' under the evaluation questions (and others) or acted on verbal marking delivered to you personally in class? Answered using 'articulate reflection'?
• Added your search engine?
• Posted your PRELIMINARY TASK and titled it 'Preliminary task' so that the moderator can find it easily?
• Titled posts RESEARCH: , PLANNING: or CONSTRUCTION: ....?
• Completed 5 out of the 7 evaluation questions? (Number 1 is being done this week; number 7 is for next week).

BFI STUDY DAY : UK CINEMA AUDIENCES & INSTITUTIONS

EVALUATION QUESTIONS

You should now have under 'pages' the completed answers to Q.2 (social groups), Q.3 (distributor), Q.4 (your target audience), Q.5 (attracting your audience), Q.6 (new technologies).
NEXT is Q.1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 
 We start work on the way that our film opening uses genre conventions, delivers the narrative and uses film language. Complete the writing by Friday of this week.

Q.3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 
This question is about the film industry side of things, that is, about how films are distributed. (The question has to be generic as some centres may have made a music magazine or local radio news bulletin, for example).  You have to show knowledge of distribution and justify why you chose the distributor that you picked. Link your film's genre (and its indie status) to the kind of films that your chosen distibutor handles.

Q. 5: How did you attract / address your audience?

Q.5 requires you to think about marketing your product.

• USE SLIDESHARE
• You should design the mock-up of a website for your product and explain what would be on it by referencing an actual film / magazine website. 

• Mock up the home page using a still from your film / cover from your magazine, with 'links' to Facebook, Twitter, dates of release, key personnel.

For An Eye for Danger, the first slide in PowerPoint would say:

In order to attract our audience, we used the same techniques that a professional distribution company would create:

a poster for P & A

a film website

a Facebook page
an Instagram feed

 and a Twitter feed.

All these platforms are linked, creating a synergistic whole.

The second slide would say:

(under your poster for P&A write…)

The key visual code here is the haunting stare of the victim. Thriller film audiences would respond to this arresting image with its direct address and engagement with the audience. The image embodies the film title An Eye For Danger visually. It clearly signals the genre. The trail of red connotes blood, hinting at violence. The eye’s colour has been enhanced in Photoshop to beautify the victim and engage the audience’s interest.

 The third slide would say: (write about film website)

... and so on