Welcome back to the summer term.
Your written exam G322 is in just over 3 weeks time on Thursday 18 May 2017.
Between now and then, classwork will involve consolidating our case studies for Section A (the institutions and audience of the US an UK film industries) and practising essays. We will also revise film language in TV drama. You should time yourself for practice essays done at home.
There is a list of all past papers on the blog as well as examiner's reports and exemplar essays which we will look at.
I will also deliver a revision lesson immediately prior to the exam on Wednesday 17 May. You are all asked to attend this session. I have also asked you to attend all media lessons unless you have study leave for other exams. Revision lessons with me in class are invaluable.
Clinics are also available in lunch break in White Cottage on Mondays.
Between now and the exam, you must ensure that you follow up all emails that I have sent you with advice about your blogs. Some of you have left huge gaps, or done low quality work, such as in the seven Evaluation questions.
All the work that we need to revise from, such as the case studies for the Hollywood film industry (Disney: Star Wars, Rogue One and Legend: Working Title and so on) are on our class blog.
Remember to incorporate your personal consumption and to cover trends, or you won't reach a level 4 mark.
We have done every exam paper set by OCR on television drama so you should feel confident, but do remember to be systematic:
- TM, EG, EAA (the film language)
- the focus (representations of gender, age, regionality, disability, sexuality, ethnicity)
From now on, the blog posts will not be posted every lesson as we will work from existing material.
From the FDA Handbook 2017 on Distribution, Foreword by David Putnam:
We practised writing about this, the final bullet point in the specification outlining G322 section B (see below). We integrate our response about national trends and our our consumption. You made your own notes.
Major online Indie film distribution platforms for uploading content:
Consumers as producers
Web 2.0
iTunes
BitTorrent Bundle
Vimeo on Demand
Platforms for home screenings as consumers continue to migrate towards online platforms:
Netflix
Amazon Prime
BBC iPlayer
BBC Britbox for US audiences
Mubi
Home cinema
Other platforms that you prefer
But we also go to the cinema
for the wide screen, Dolby surround sound
for 3D experiences (name the film & say why you chose cinematic exhibition: e.g.Fantastic Beasts, Arrival, Star Trek Beyond, Rogue One)
for the social experience.
Cinema attendance is robust with figures for 206 holding up, only slightly down on the previous year at 2.6 times a year per head nationally.
At the BFI study day, Rob Kenny, director of operations for Curzon, told us of his plans to open 50 more screens in the next five years. Curzon's USP: screenings tailored to engage diverse audiences, Curzon Artificial Eye as distributor, special events.
After coursework deadline day on Wednesday 22 March, we will focus on exam work. You have already completed nine written exam questions on analysing representation in TV drama and many oral analyses. Our next focus is the film industry question for which you will have a 'define the key terms' task and written essay questions.
Our starter activity involves a Disney case study Beauty and the Beast and an independent UK film '71.
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
- its website clearly demonstrates how Disney uses horizontal integration in its marketing as the banner shows links to its TV, DVDs, games, merchandising, live events, theme parks, travel company, cruise line, videos, competitions and DisneyLife.
- Beauty took $350 on its opening weekend. It had the biggest ever opening weekend for a PG-rated film, and notched up the seventh best opening overall. This marks Disney's best opening for a live action remake yet - beating The Jungle Book, Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland.
- Disney can afford to use big names such as Emma Watson , Emma Thompson, Ewan McGregor and so on.
- Is the film an example of Dalecki's '4 S' model? Yes: whilst not a sequel, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is a live-action re-telling of the
studio’s animated classic which refashions the classic characters from
the tale as old as time for a contemporary audience.
- Budget $ 160, the most expensive musical ever made
'71 (2014)
- By contrast, '71 is a low-budget national film but one that aimed at international audiences as its subject (radicalization of young men during the Troubles in Northern Ireland) was of universal interest. Plot summary here.
- Jack O'Connell had previously attracted critical acclaim for Unbroken (2014) appearing as a prisoner of war in a Japanese war camp. Directed by Angelina Jolie, this film made O'Connell known to an American audience.
- 71 won Best Director at the 2014 British Independent Film Awards, after receiving nine nominations. The National Board of Review named '71 one of the top 10 independent films of 2015.
- Budget, £8.1 million. Box office, $3.2 million.
In today's lesson, we start Evaluation q. 1 by making the notes that will be posted as YouTube annotations. We view an example from a previous group. I give you a prompt list.
Make sure that you keep the actual question in mind as you write.
If you work with your group to compose these annotations, claim responsibility by identifying who wrote which note e.g. MARY: distribution company ident for Metrodome, a good choice because Metrodome is...
1 FORMS & CONVENTIONS
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Deadline Wednesday 22 March.
Unfinished work? Checked on Wednesday 22 March. IS YOUR NAME BELOW?
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Alexandra, Josie & Megan; Tom & Matthew; Cesca & Alfie; Oli, Alastair, CD & CGB
PRESENT THIS THROUGH YOUTUBE ANNOTATIONS
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2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? Alfie
PRESENT THIS USING PINTEREST + SCREENSHOTS / VIDEOS OF CHARACTER INTERVIEWS
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3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
PRESENT THIS IN (leave as a blog post until I hear back from YuDu, which I have contacted about retaining the free version as we are an academic not commercial institution).
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4. Who is your target audience for your film?
Alfie, Matthew (audience profiles)
PRESENT THIS USING EMAZE
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5. How did you attract/address your audience? Alfie & Cesca; Alexandra, Josie & Megan; Alastair, CGB, Callum D (where are the group's own social media creations?)
PRESENT THIS IN SLIDESHARE WITH SCREENSHOTS LIKE THIS
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6. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Alfie; Alastair, Megan
PRESENT THIS WITH HYPERLINKS TO YOUR WORK + SCREENSHOTS
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7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product? Alfie; Alastair; CGB, Josie
PRESENT THIS IN VISME LIKE THIS
OR IN YUDU LIKE THIS
