RESEARCH: GENRE CONVENTIONS

(This post models for you what we started in today's lesson and what you need to develop for prep. It will help Georgina and Andrew who area absent today. You will make 2 posts: this one which develops into a ScoopIt! and a second which shows screen grabs of effective work that you find inspirational.)

In order to research genre conventions for the type of film opening that I am planning, I looked at clips from similar productions. I identified visual and sound codes that I would like to use myself.

Group 1
Last lesson, I planned the outline treatment for a crime drama involving a realistic British scenario with a young college student who works part-time on the fish counter of a high street supermarket and who witnesses a stabbing as he leaves work.

I need to familiarize myself with the crime genre as I do not watch much of it; my first port of call was the internet to see what other people watched, as boxed sets are very popular. I found that this is a huge genre ranging from genteel investigators like Poirot and Miss Marple to hard-hitting productions like The Wire and Taggart.

Boxed sets of crime drama reveal the wide range of crime drama

Now, I list some of the productions of British, European and American film and TV crime drama that I intend to investigate. I will create a ScoopIt! page to collate my research.

Sherlock
Inspector Morse BBC

Lewis BBC (sequel)
Endeavour BBC (prequel)
Jonathan Creek
Murder She Wrote
Inspector Poirot
Waking The Dead
The Midsomer Murders
Inspector Montalbano
Young Montalbano (prequel)
Zen BBC
The Inspector Linley Mysteries
Taggart
Wallender
Silent Witness 
Trial and Retribution 

Group 2
Last lesson, I planned the outline treatment for a psychological drama involving a young woman who becomes mentally unstable when she discovers that she cannot have children. The drama unfolds as she becomes obsessively devoted to dolls that resemble babies.

I need to familiarize myself with the psychological genre as I do not watch much of it; my first port of call was the internet to see what other people watched, as boxed sets are very popular. I found that this is a huge genre ranging from ... productions like

PLANNING: HOW TO WRITE A TREATMENT

A treatment is a description in clear English in the present tense setting out what your product / film / video has in it, starting at the beginning in the case of a video which has a linear narrative.

Look at http://www.georgeking-assoc.com/education/vid101c_summer07/how-to-treatment.html

Other sites include  http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Script-Treatment
and http://www.lightsfilmschool.com/articles/treatments/

Here is a sample treatment: 

TV DRAMA

This week we become creative by planning a new television drama series. For your Foundation Production, comedy such as this is one option, so we practise developing ideas and playing them out.

INTERNS exploring stereotypes in film & TV drama (think of Fresh Meat, The Devil Wears Prada, Legally Blonde)

Amber: Caitlin Moran, blunt, down to earth, not easily impressed

Georgina: hypochondriac, health freak, germophobe, obsesses

Sacha: air head

Connie: bossy, assertive

Bryn: sports jock

Andrew: posh

Elliot: wannabe model

Scenario

1.        Interview old person in care home

2.        Survey consumer behaviour in supermarket

3.        Restaurant critic

4.        Meetings with senior staff member

5.        Panic phone call home to mum /dad

6.        Interview local police about local crime

RESEARCH: A BRIEF HISTORY OF TITLE DESIGN

• Explain that you watched this three times 
• title design has changed over time and new technologies such as CGI have had their impact
• good title design entails a link between the graphics and the film genre
• you studied the different types of approach: some used CGI, some live action, some a mix
• you pick (say) 5 or 6 of your favourite from this screening, decode the iconography and say what you yourself might like to use from this model / inspiration
• screenshots!
• use bullet points: keep text crisp and concise

For example:  

Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995)

• The title sequence to Ghost in the Shell belongs to the 'inner workings' genre
• Its style is a mix of animation and other editing techniques
• It includes hi-tech CGI with computer graphics that mimic computer code
• It features Japanese manga / anime and naked torsos
• The sound track is Kenji Kawai’s intimidating, minimalist score. 
• It follows the construction of a cyborg from the inside out
• First the robot’s inner-core is assembled, then the imagery becomes softer and warmer colors as the cyborg takes on a more human form, soon emerging from the mechanical womb as a young woman.
• I find this compelling as it creates a cyborg in front of the viewer and signals the genre very clearly
• One of our students has used the computer code imagery and if I were doing a crime or spy film I would seek to convey a high-tech world by incorporating computer graphics.

RESEARCH: THE ART OF THE TITLE

Today I started to research opening title sequences in more detail...
As I am doing the film brief, I started my detailed research into opening credits..
In class I investigated the very useful website The Art of the Title http://www.artofthetitle.com  
Delicatessen (directed by Jeunet and Caro, 1991) 
For my first piece of close analysis, I used my own observations, class discussion and the website's own commentary, including the thoughts of Karin Fong, creative director and designer at Imaginary Forces, whose title work Terminator: Salvation, Boardwalk Empire and Rubicon. I have intentionally included comments on what in particular inspired me and my thoughts on how I might use the inspiration in my own foundation production.

• The genre of this film is black comedy, so the title design is witty, in that it invites the viewer to take pleasure in the way that each credit is embedded in an appropriate visual clue: the director of photography engraved on a camera, the costume designer is embroidered on a clothes label and so on.
• The historical period is clearly established by the period quality of the artefacts: old technology, paper tags, folding wooden ruler and so on.
• Colour and lighting are key visual codes. The sepia tone lends a period air and the colour black predominates, underscoring the grim nature of the subject matter: the objects are all the dusty possessions abandoned by their owners who have been invited in, fattened up and butchered to feed the hungry inhabitants of the commune.
• The camera movement is part of the method: the camera pans in a slow glide over the series of abandoned possessions, stopping over each credit to allow the viewer to scrutinize and take in the cleverness of each device.
• Our class undertook a project based on this stylistic approach. We gathered together a group of objects that had a common theme - that of the Far East - and, using the same techniques, we made a short film opening. Each of us undertook some of the camera work, directing and editing, with the final results all slightly different, as we added in some live action, to develop the narrative.
• Our finished result can be seen below: my group called our version The Scarlett Lotus (Blood Lotus / Siagon Darling...)  From this project, I learned....

PRESENTATIONS ON YOUR BLOG

Present your work visually and inventively. Your blogs must demonstrate understanding of how to exploit the opportunities offered by new technologies and presentational tools.

You must give your sources: URLs, book titles, magazine articles.

To reach level 4 marks, OCR require you to use appropriate formats for each task. We have noted that while textual analysis of music videos must be detailed and deep, reporting research findings should be crisp, clear and concise.

You should use images, bullet points, sound and a variety of presentational tools:

• Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/
• straight to camera : PhotoBooth on the Macs
• YuDu http://www.yudu.com/
• Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net
• Timeglider http://timeglider.com/
• Prezi http://prezi.com
• Museum Box http://museumbox.e2bn.org/
• Pinterest  https://www.pinterest.com/
• ScoopIt! http://www.scoop.it/

PREP:  

1. Complete your 'My Media World'
2. Post your Preliminary Exercise: see our class blog 26.09.13
3. Shift the position of your blog search engine to the top right.
4. Decide on a suitable presentational tool for  'My Media World' and format your post. You should keep the original draft as it is to show yous skills development in new technology.

FILM OPENINGS

Gladiator: flashback to memory of harvest in ECU

The English Patient: opening sequence ECU hand painting with brush

Today we look at film openings as preparation for our coursework module G321 Foundation Portfolio. The focus was on how some directors start with a close up in order to create enigma then build out to wider shots that develop suspense. Each film starts with an ECU of a hand. Enigma and suspense are two key codes in film opening convention.

• The English Patient
•  Gladiator
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

PREP Research student film openings, for example, from the Media Departments's  YouTube channel.