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

THE RHETORIC OF THE IMAGE

The French semiotician Roland Barthes (1913 - 1980) termed the straightforward description of a text denotation and the added layers of associated meaning and values that society (people interpreting it) gives that text connotation.

• A word has a literal meaning (denotation) e.g. rose
• Beyond this, it may have a symbolic or cultural meaning (connotation) e.g. romance, true love
• Meaning includes both denotation and connotation

Barthes gives us the example of the advertisement for Panzani tinned and dried products as an example of how imagery can create a barrage of persuasive meanings through connotation. How does this text persuade the consumer that Panzani products are an essential ingredient in natural, wholesome, fresh and home-made Italian cooking?

Excerpt from Barthes 'The Rhetoric of the Image' (1977)