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)

NARRATIVE IN FILM

Have a look at the new 'page' on the class blog to learn about narrative theory. Last week, we covered Propp, Todorov and Levi Strauss briefly. Today, we go over Roland Barthes: see the post on semiotics and The Rhetoric of the Image first.

G322 FILM INDUSTRY: INSTITUTIONS & AUDIENCES

MediaKnowall on blockbuster movies

Blockbuster = A movie which is a huge financial success. In common usage a "blockbuster" is a movie that has a box-office of more than $100 million upon release in North America."

— from the Internet Movie Database Glossary

Big movie studios need big movies. What they particularly need, given the fact that they are all part of huge multi-media conglomerates, are big movies that can also translate into big theme park rides, big video games, big t-shirts, big soundtrack CDs, big magazine circulations and big TV ratings. And for this they need big audiences.The first blockbuster movie is generally deemed to be Jaws (1975), directed by the then little known Steven Spielberg. It was a movie that everyone went to see, and that made its studio, Universal, nearly $500M worldwide. It was a blockbuster because it was a huge financial success, but it was also a blockbuster because it had global appeal, and attracted mass audiences. It only cost $12M to make, and movie studios have been chasing that kind of profit margin ever since.
Every summer (to take advantage of the summer holidays amongst other things), the main movie studios release movies that they hope everyone will want to see (i.e. it's a four quadrant movie, appealing to male, female, young and old audience members). Around 40% of their year's takings are concentrated into this period. By everyone, they mean that the film does not have a niche audience. It is not a chick flick, or a kid pic, but it offers something to everyone. Perhaps it contains a major star, or is part of a franchise, or is a remake, or an adaptation of a book, comic, TV show or computer game. It will often be very clearly identifiable as belonging to a genre, and although it will contain plot twists, it is likely to come to a satisfactory ending for the audience (usually, the good guys win). It will have high production values, and much will be made of the special effects sequences. because of this, it will have a high budget, and the studio will be anxious about the box office it will achieve.
'Action Adventure' is the most usual genre for a blockbuster movie. This is because they are big on action and short on dialogue, which means they are much easier to sell all over the world. It seems there are no cultural or language barriers to enjoying car chases and explosions.
Sometimes these movies are referred to as 'tentpole movies'. That's because they are expected to perform well enough to 'hold up' the movie studio that releases them. In order words, tentpole movies are expected to make hundreds of millions of dollars - often in a short period of time - in order to compensate for the other releases that might not be so profitable, or might be a colossal failure. Movie studies put a lot of resources behind their perceived 'tentpole releases' which are often entries in a tried-and-tested franchise like Shrek, Twilight or Harry Potter.

FILMING YOUR PRODUCTION

Good to see recent work filming The Raven. This group organized an after-school shoot in the Mansion with camera, lights, boom mike and candle light. Taking photos as you go is a good way of documenting your production journey. They also made a short video on the spot, talking to camera, about what they had set out to achieve during the shoot, then edited it using picture in picture so that an inset video explains the filming.

This shot shows the use of the home-made wall sconce and the candle light.