Alleyn's Media Department

Creativity - G325 Section A

2012-03-11T23:07:00.002Z

An interesting article in The Guardian on creativity for you to read:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2012/jan/02/top-artists-creative-inspiration

Web 2.0 and New Media technology

2012-02-28T21:15:00.002Z

Background information - useful watching for G325 Section A exam on digital technology:

David Gauntlett (Professor of Media at University of Westminster) discusses the influence of new media and web 2.0 in everyday life:

Coursework Guidance - Mark Schemes

2012-01-10T09:58:00.000Z

G324 advanced portfolio mark schemes and evaluation

View more documents from Alleyn’s School Media Studies Department.

A2 Coursework - Ancillary Tasks Powerpoints

2012-01-09T12:11:00.000Z

A2 media film poster analysis short version

View more presentations from Alleyn’s School Media Studies Department.

A2 media empire magazine cover and review1

View more presentations from Alleyn’s School Media Studies Department.

Exemplar film british posters

View more presentations from Alleyn’s School Media Studies Department.

Year 13 - Postmodernism - Latest Reading

2011-11-03T17:01:00.000Z

03. g325 contemporary media issues - postmodern media aesthetics

View more documents from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Weeks 10 -16 Schedule: TRAILERS - YEAR 13

2011-10-25T23:17:00.007+01:00

AIM: TO HAVE A ROUGH CUT OF YOUR TRAILER BY XMAS

How to achieve this:

The following should have been completed by the end of WEEK 9:

- sorted out any inconsistencies, bits missing etc.. on your blog to date

- completed all the Locations research - including photos and analysis

- completed all the character research (similar intertextual characters) and costumes/ props

- completed a strong, detailed shot list - include the script, the length of each shot and the spaces for graphics - also I would start to include ideas for transitions between shots or in shots

- completed a storyboard (keep very clear and in ink - for later animatics)

- completed a full and detailed recee with voice-over - close attention to sound and lighting

SECOND HALF OF ADVENT TERM:

Complete planning and embark on filming of trailer and edit a rough cut

- animate the storyboard

- Sound research

- Graphics research - both for the trailer and for idents

- studio research / distribution company

- Transitions/ Filters/ Effects research

FILM THE TRAILER - book out equipment well in advance using Alyson's booking sheets

Allow more than one day for filming - split up the scenes so as not to get too tired

Remember to take extra shots, cut-aways, a range of angles, establishing shots

Remember to synch the sound and video and to test!

I have noted all this so that some of you can move forward in certain areas when you are ready. We will be discussing these aspects in further detail in class.

Important: Keep all your progress documented regularly on your blog!

AML

Crime Drama - Half Term Work

2011-10-12T21:24:00.003+01:00

Whitechapel Episode 1, part 1

This is a first essay. Do not worry about whether you have everything right - instead I would like you to consider the extract carefully and write down plenty of ideas.

To view the Extract in Question - visit my youtube channel - it is in My Favourites...... or click on the link above.

The Question:

Explore the representation of social groups in this episode of 'Whitechapel'. You should pay close attention to:

camera position, angle and movement
editing
mise-en-scene
sound

Pointers:

Watch the extract at least 4 times and take detailed, technical notes on the media language (ie the above bullet points). Then consider the ways in which the different sections of the police force are represented. You should also consider the ways in which men and women are represented.

Consider the things we discussed in the lesson - is there any stereotyping? is there a balanced view?

How should you structure the essay?

- Begin with an overview of the different types of representation and what is being suggested about these social groups

Then move through a discussion of the 4 bullet points on media langage. As you look at technical details link your analysis to the representation of the men, women, police

- Conclude by considering whether there are certain messages/values which are being put forward here

DUE IN : Monday 31st October

Case Study - London to Brighton - How to sell a low-budget British film

2011-09-29T14:45:00.002+01:00

Click on the title to go to the Film London 'Microwave' site aimed at helping inexperienced film-makers get their films made and distributed.

This short video shows you how a micro-budget movie can gain critical and commercial success with a carefully thought through distribution and marketing strategy.

Year 12 Media Studies - Presentation on Convergence & Piracy

2011-09-15T15:24:00.000+01:00

01. General introduction to the Film Industry - Convergence

View more presentations from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Year 12 Homework for Thursday 22nd September

2011-09-15T15:14:00.001+01:00

lHWQ. What are the cons (for institutions) and the pros (for the audience) of digital film piracy?

lhttp://www.launchingfilms.com/who-gains

lhttp://www.fact-uk.org.uk/

lhttp://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/10022?page=1&step=10&viewby=category&value=16980

lhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/4968765/Tackling-film-piracy-would-generate-614m-for-UK-economy.html

Year 12 - Film Industry - How to make an intelligent blockbuster...

2011-09-06T16:17:00.005+01:00

...and not alienate people

In this highly charged polemic, the Observer film writer and 5 Live critic tackles the big-budget producers for their cynical rejection of intelligent movies – and contempt for the ordinary cinemagoers who fill their pockets

Here are three absolute truths:

1. The world is round.
2. We are all going to die.
3. No one enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Oh, I know loads of people paid to see POTC3 (as I believe it is known in the industry). And some of them may claim to have enjoyed it. But they didn't. Not really. They just think they did. As a film critic, an important part of my job is explaining to people why they haven't actually enjoyed a movie even if they think they have. In the case of POTC3, the explanation is very simple.

It's called "diminished expectations".

Click on the link to find out more...

Summer Holiday Genre Research Essay (AML)

2011-08-22T21:07:00.000+01:00

A reminder for those of you who cannot find the hard copy! Also remember to read the 'trailer conventions' handout again first. ALL essays due in on Monday 5th September 2011.

Postmodern Media - Summer Reading List - Films & TV

2011-06-28T13:41:00.001+01:00

Over the summer you need to watch several examples of Postmodern Films and television. And maybe ecven play some computer games.

This can be as a part of your general interaction with the Media - you need to start to put together an idea of what makes something Postmodern, and how can you apply Postmodern theories to film, television, music and videogames.

Consider ideas to do with the changing nature of reality and the way narratives develop, the declining importance of truth, the blurring of boundaries between truth and fiction, and between high and low culture, the increasing intertextual referencing between texts, the increasing distance between real and mediated communication - how often do you actually talk to anyone anymore? What are the positives to social networking, mobile 'phones and Skype? What are the downsides?

Blade Runner [1982] - 'more human than human' - if we can no longer discern human from robot - how can we judge what is humane? What's real? What's truth and what's fiction?

Atonement [2008] - a story about storytelling - think about how the ending changes everything that's gone before...

The Matrix [1999] - 'Welcome to the real world...'

A Cock & Bull Story [2006] / The Trip [BBC 2010] - where are the real Rob Brydon and real Steve Coogan? How are these hyperreal

Fight Club [1999]

Pulp Fiction [1994] / Inglorious Basterds [2009]

Scream [1997]

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang [2005]

Inception [2010] / Memento [2000]

Avatar [2010]

In This World [2002]

I’m Still Here [2011]

Exit Through the Gift Shop [2010]

Catfish [2011]

Life on Mars [BBC 2006-2008]

Source Code [2011]

The Adjustment Bureau [2011]

Scott Pilgrim vs the World [2010]

Kick Ass [2010]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [2004]

Adaptation [2002]

Being John Malkovich [1999]

Extras [BBC 2005-2007] / The Office [BBC 2001-2003]

Jean Baudrillard and the Theory of Hyperreality

2011-06-22T11:14:00.000+01:00

Extracts from The Matrix - choose three of these extracts and explain IN YOUR OWN WORDS how they reinforce what you understand Baudrillard's theory to mean...

For next Tuesday...

1.Morpheus and Neo meet for the first time

Morpheus: Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know, you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there...like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Neo: The Matrix?

Morpheus: Do you want to know....what it is....?

Neo nods

Morpheus: The Matrix is everywhere. It's all around us, even in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to work, when you pay your taxes. The Matrix is the world that has been pulled over your eyes, to blind you from the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Morpheus: That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison...for your mind....Unfortunately, no one can be...told what the Matrix is...you have to see it for yourself.

…

Morpheus: Have you ever had a dream, Neo, that you were so sure was real? What if you were unable to wake from that dream? How would you know the difference, between the dream world...and the real world....?

2. Upon Neo being woken up for the first time

Morpheus: Welcome to the real world....

3. The program

Morpheus: Your appearance now is what we call residual self-image. It is the mental projection...of your digital self. Two chairs appear in front of them, and Neo reaches out to touch one. He runs his hand along its back.

Neo : This....this isn't real?

Morpheus looks at him

Morpheus : What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain….

4. Upon Neo being shown the real world for the first time

Morpheus : Welcome.....to the desert of the real.

5. The Program 2

When Neo wakes up, Morpheus takes him into another program.

They walk down a busy street, full of people going to work. Morpheus casually walks through them, but Neo keeps on being hit or shoved aside. As they walk, Morpheus begins to walk.

Morpheus : The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around. What do you see? Business people, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system, and that makes them our enemy.

A woman walks by, standing out from all the people in suits, as she is wearing a bright red dress, and bright red lipstick. Neo stares.

Morpheus : You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependant on the system, that they will fight to protect it. Were you listening to me, Neo? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?

Neo : I was...

Morpheus : Look again..

Neo turns around, to see that the woman in the red dress has turned into an agent, and is pointing a gun at his head. Neo ducks, covering his head with his hands.

Morpheus : Freeze it.

6. Returning to The Matrix for the first time

They all walk out the room, leaving Switch and Apoc waiting for them to come back. As they head towards a black car, Cypher drops a cell phone into the bin and it begins to ring. They get into the car, and Morpheus begins to drive them to their destination. At a red light, he turns around to look at Neo, who is sitting in the back seat with Trinity.

Morpheus : Unbelievable....isn't it?

Neo looks out at the street they are driving down.

Neo : God...

Trinity turns to look at him

Trinity : What?

Neo points to a restaurant.

Neo : I used to eat there....really good noodles.

He stops to think about it

Neo : I have these memories from my life, none of them happened. What does that mean?

Trinity : That the Matrix cannot tell you who you are.

7. The Oracle

Neo looks around the room, and sees he is the only adult there. Most of the children's heads are shaved. Some are playing, others meditating, or practising their gift. Neo watches in amazement, as a little girl levitates wooden alphabet blocks. He turns around, and sees a skinny bald boy sitting on the floor, holding a spoon, which sways and twists as he bends it with his mind. Neo crosses over to him, and sits in front of him, interested. The boy looks at Neo as he picks up a spoon and tries to imitate the boy's actions. Despite his best efforts, Neo cannot make it bend.

Spoon Boy : Do not try and bend the spoon...that's impossible. Instead only try to realize the truth...

Neo : What truth?

Spoon Boy : There is no spoon.

Neo : There is no spoon?

Spoon Boy : Then you will see, it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.

Trailer Research - AM LEGG

2011-06-14T14:44:00.000+01:00

PLEASE COMPLETE THESE NOTES AND POST ON YOUR BLOGS FOR Tuesday 21st JUNE

Inception

Watch this trailer and make notes on the questions beneath

1) What cinematic techniques are used to establish mood and tone?

2)How does the trailer establish the themes and narrative?

3) How does the trailer establish genre?

4) Who is the target audience and how is this audience targeted in this trailer?

5) What is the reason/ effect for using the director's name and previous work?

SALT

Watch this trailer and make notes on the following questions:

1) How does this trailer promote and focus on the big star? (look at camera work, editing, sound...etc..)

2) Action films are thought to appeal to a predominately male audience. How does this trailer target both a female and male audience separately?

3) How does this trailer use editing to create atmosphere?

Heartbreaker

Look at these different trailers and make notes on the difference between them and the reasons for these differences

- Look at the different tone - the editing, sound (especially v/o), camera shots

The UK release trailer:

The very different European release Trailer

French Teaser Trailer

Vajazzled! How chavs have replaced working class people on Britain's TV

2011-06-06T10:04:00.003+01:00

The Only Way is Essex is must-see television, but this mixture of reality show and scripted situations gives a one-sided view of Britain's chavland...

What is a chav? I ask a man called Paul. He's standing having a fag outside the Hare & Tortoise on Brentwood High Street, Essex, and he answers with absolutely no hesitation at all.

"A chav is someone who wears a tracksuit, has an earring, and a haircut which is grade zero on the sides, grade three on the top. A chav is someone who does his top button up. That gentleman over there," and he gestures down the pavement, "in the Ralph Lauren shirt? He's a chav."

Everybody knows what a chav is, it seems, but no one is a chav. But then it's a word unlike any other in current usage. Not just because no one is exactly sure what it means, or if they are sure, they all have a different answer, or even because it's still not entirely certain where it suddenly came from, although theories abound – from the Romany for child, as an acronym for "Council House And Violent" – but there's not even any agreement on whether or not it is or isn't a term of abuse. Whether it's snobbish. Or not. Is it a harmless bit of fun? Or a vicious class-based insult?

Click on the link to find out more about the 'demonisation of the working class' on TV, in film and when you're sat round the dinner table...

Are video games now more sophisticated than cinema?

2011-06-03T09:29:00.000+01:00

Video games such as LA Noire have led to claims that games are overtaking films in terms of sophistication. But can they ever really go as deep as cinema?

The appearance of pioneering new adventure game LA Noire has reignited a debate among gamers and film lovers which has been bubbling under for years. Not least for Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker, who asserted last week that video games display an intelligence and imagination well beyond the majority of contemporary cinema. Gaming's huge commercial success, he argued, is "the equivalent of films of the intelligence and quality of 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Maltese Falcon not just being released to great fanfare in 2011, but actually going on to smash box office records."

It's likely the gaming community stood up and cheered this assessment when it appeared – that was certainly the sentiment expressed by a huge number of those who commented online. At the same time, film fans were moved to defend their passion for cinema. Many agree that the studios are spewing out too many knucklehead superhero movies, cliche-ridden genre pics and feeble-minded multi-sequels, but still firmly believe that cinema refreshes the parts that even the best games in the world can't reach.

Hollywood has long regarded itself as the billion-dollar big daddy of the image entertainment world. It has the glamour, the iconography, the big brands, the A-listers and lots of cold, hard cash. In 2010, the US box office was worth $10.6bn. But for a supposed subculture, the gaming industry is just as impressive a market player, if not more so – outshining the movie moguls with an estimated annual revenue of around $18.6bn in the US last year. The biggest hit of 2010, Call of Duty: Black Ops has already grossed more than $1bn for its publisher Activision – less than 10 films released in the last decade can claim the same. The gaming industry is no longer the snot-nosed little punk of the entertainment world – little wonder fans and creators alike are calling for serious critical recognition of the medium....

Click on the title to read more...

Hollywood shuns intelligent entertainment. The games industry doesn't. Guess who's winning?

2011-06-02T09:39:00.001+01:00

LA Noire and Portal 2 are video games that challenge the mind instead of the thumbs.

Do you remember the days when you used to be able to head out to the cinema safe in the knowledge that even if the film you wanted to see had sold out, there'd be something else worth watching? I'm talking about 10,000 years ago, obviously, because here's what's on at your local multiplex.

Screen one: a 3D CGI cartoon about a wisecracking badger with attitude you'd quite happily reverse a six-tonne tractor over. Screen two: a 3D superhero theme park ride that thinks it's King Lear. Screen three: a rom-com so formulaic you suspect it was created from a template on Moonpig.com. Screen four: The Very Hungry Caterpillar 3D. Screen five: all of the above, randomly intercut with one another because no one's paying attention anyway. Screen six: a lightshow for cattle. And so on.

About once a month there's a film actually worth bothering with: either something with a quirky sensibility and a modest budget, or the occasional decent blockbuster the studios have made by mistake. There seems to be something missing from cinema: big budget dramas with panache, aimed at an adult audience. Where are they? They migrated to television. And – don't snort with derision here – to video games....

Click on the title to find out more...

The Ethereal Mind - A2 Postmodern Media

2011-04-05T12:49:00.000+01:00

The historian of broadcasting, David Hendy, explores the ways in which the electronic media have shaped the modern mind.

How did wireless conquer the world in the early years of the twentieth century, and how did a fascination with radio among scientists and writers unleash new ideas about the transmission of thought and the utopian potential of invisible forces?

Click on the links to listen to this 15 min programme...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sq538

If you go and see one film this Easter make it...Source Code

2011-04-01T13:02:00.001+01:00

With his debut movie Moon, Duncan Jones made a mighty leap; now with this superb follow-up, he has hit the ground sprinting. Source Code is a terrifically exciting and hugely enjoyable sci-fi thriller, written by Ben Ripley. For pure entertainment, there's nothing around to touch it.

Click on the title to read the full review from The Guardian...

Click here to read an interview with the director Duncan Jones...

AS Film Industry students - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0945513/

A2 Postmodern Media students - http://www.enterthesourcecode.com/

Jake Gyllenhaal Recalls 'Debate' On 'Source Code' Set...click here to read an interview with the star...

Who made the film? Find out here...

Rousselet launches Vendome Pictures with $115m credit facility...

Longtime French producer Philippe Rousselet has formed Vendome Pictures to develop, produce and finance roughly 15 features over the next five years in the $10-40m range.

Vendome is backed by a $115m revolving credit facility funded by a consortium of banks led by CIT and RBS Greenwich Capital, a mezzanine facility funded by Newbridge Film Capital, and a group of private equity investors from the US and Europe including StudioCanal and Vendome Investments, a jointly owned vehicle owned by Rousselet and French TV host and Endemol France co-founder Arthur Essebag.

Studying the Film Industry and want to learn about the Marketing and Distribution? Click here...

Here's the review of Duncan Jones' debut film Moon from 2009...

The moon landing anniversary has been a time of nostalgia, for the glorious missions themselves and for the elegant, speculative and subversive sci-fi classics they inspired on screen in the next decade: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, Dark Star and Silent Running. Movie pundits now routinely affect to despise the all-consuming popular success of Star Wars in this context - but the cerebral, grownup strand of sci-fi was not destroyed. Click on the link above to read the rest...

And if you like the sound of that and liked the look of 'Source Code' why not try Danny Boyle's 2007 sci-fi film 'Sunshine'?

Here's Peter Bradshaw's review from The Guardian...

Enjoy.

Nine Top Tips for Media Students...

2011-03-29T11:48:00.000+01:00

If you're thinking of starting a media degree at university or college you might like to read this list of NINE TOP TIPS.

Your own tutors may totally disagree with this list. You might hate it yourself. (If so, that's probably a good thing – critical thinking!).

Click on the link to discover, according to Theory.org.uk, nine suggestions for getting on as a media student...

Global recorded music sales fall almost $1.5bn amid increased piracy

2011-03-29T11:43:00.000+01:00

Think that illegal downloading is a victimless crime? Think again! UK loses mantle as third-largest music market after 'physical' sales of CDs collapse by almost a fifth

Global recorded music sales fell by almost $1.5bn (£930m) last year as digital piracy continued to take its toll on the industry, with the UK losing its mantle as the third-largest music market after "physical" sales of CDs collapsed by almost a fifth.
Global recorded music revenues fell 8.4% last year, about $1.45bn, to $15.9bn according to the annual Recording Industry in Numbers report by international music industry body the IFPI.

Overall physical sales, the term used in the industry for sales of products such as CDs, fell by 14.2% year on year to $10.4bn.

Digital revenues grew by 5.3% year on year to $4.6bn to account for 29% of all recorded music revenues. However, the rate of digital revenue growth has halved year on year as the industry continues to struggle with piracy and winning consumers over to legal download models.

The world's two largest markets, the US and Japan, took a hammering last year accounting for 57% of the total global decline in trade revenues. In 2009 the two countries accounted for 80% of the global decline.

Click on the title to find out more...

Older women unhappy over their portrayal in films, survey shows

2011-03-29T11:40:00.001+01:00

Sixty-one percent of women aged 50-75 want more focus on their sexual desire, according to UK Film Council poll

Older women want to see more of their sexual desire depicted in film, a survey has suggested, while black and gay people would like to see less of a focus on theirs.

Sixty-one percent of women between the ages of 50 and 75 questioned for a UK Film Council survey of 4,315 people said women of their age were portrayed on the big screen as not having sexual needs or desires. Half said they were comfortable with older women being seen as attractive to younger men. Seven in 10 also felt that their group was generally under-represented in films and that younger women were glamorised.
In contrast, two-thirds of black African and Caribbean people said black characters were portrayed as being overly sexual. Eighty percent of the gay people questioned felt gay characters' sexuality commanded disproportionate attention.

The survey highlighted a series of stereotypes and imbalances in films, with 80% of black respondents also believing films contained too many black drug dealers, and 74% calling for more superheroes who are not white males.

For more info, click on the link...

The 4G auction - a beginner's guide

2011-03-22T23:01:00.000Z

Remember the sale of the century, or was it the sale of the millennium? Probably not as you'd have been about 8 years old...

Back in 2000 the 3G auction raised £22.5 billion for the Treasury and set the framework for mobile phone services in Britain for the next decade.

Today Ofcom has fired the starting gun for an even bigger sale of mobile spectrum which it believes could prove even more significant. But the mobile operators are hoping that it will turn out rather cheaper for them than the 3G sale.

The regulator is calling this the 4G auction, and despite the cries of purists who insist that is just a marketing term to cover an ill-defined collection of new mobile technologies, that is the name that will stick. So to find out the answer to a few questions about 4G, click on the title...

SXSW film: The pros and cons of geek domination

2011-03-18T08:35:00.000Z

South by Southwest's film festival shows that it is now fanboys and bloggers, rather than 'professional' critics, whom the industry likes to court. Catherine Shoard finds out why...

There are two rooms at the disposal of those reporting from South by Southwest (SXSW). Both have grey canvas walls and a watercooler, and are on the top floor of the Austin Convention Centre (think Kubrick does Comfort Inn). To enter the press suite you need to have been previously OKed by the press officer and to work for an approved media organisation. To gain access to the blogger lounge, all you need is your festival pass (anybody's, for a fee), and to register your email address. A blog is not a requirement.

So guess which one is light and spacious, with lush carpets and a fleet of iPads, a free bar, popcorn, hot snacks, live music and keynote speakers? And which one feels a bit like working inside a filing cabinet? The press suite does have complimentary coffee, a sporadic cheese platter and helpful staff. But there's little doubt which set of writers has been identified as the better bet to butter up.

Find out more by clicking on the headline...

Media Studies Glossary of Terms

2011-03-14T21:43:00.003Z

Action match: for example, when a character or vehicle leaves the frame on the left, the same character enters the next shot on the right to maintain continuity.

Aerial shot: a view from directly overhead to afford a clear view – sometimes used to emphasize the spectacle. A crane shot is usually necessary to achieve this (sometimes called a bird’s eye shot)

Archetype: an often- repeated character type or representation which is instantly recognisable to an audience

Attitudes, beliefs and values: terms commonly used when discussing the audience for media products and the factors influencing the reception of media messages.

· Attitudes are the positions people adopt in relation to a particular issue, e.g. Being for or against foxhunting.

· Beliefs are deeply held views, e.g. A belief in the principle of human equality or a belief in God.

· Values represent the moral or ideological structure within which beliefs and attitudes are formed, e.g. Belief in Christianity or Islam.

· All these factors affect the reception of media texts. Research also focuses on the ways in which media content influences the formation, representation and reproduction of attitudes, beliefs and values.

Audience: key concept the groups or individuals targeted by producers as the intended consumers of media texts. Owing to the wide availability of media texts, the actual viewers, readers or listeners may not be those originally targeted.

· Audience studies are usually structured in terms of gender, age and social and cultural background, and are concerned with the circumstances in which media texts, are consumed and the nature and the consequences of this consumption.

· The identification of an audience is a vital ingredient for the successful production and marketing of and media text.

· Considerations of audience motivation and behaviour are at key focus of attention in both active and passive audience theories.

BCU (short for ‘big close up’): a close up camera shot, particularly of an actor’s face, showing prominent detail and facial expression as a means of creating intimacy and audience engagement with the thoughts and emotions of the character.

By-line: the use of the journalists name on a newspaper article or report.

· Not all articles are attributed to a particular journalist and a by-line is recognition of an author’s status.

Close up (and variations): close ups, including extreme, big and medium close ups, are used to draw the viewer closer and to involve them in what is happening; they also used to observe reactions and emotions, such is happiness, elation or tension. These shot often used to privilege the protagonist over other characters and position the audience with him or her.

Closed Text: and media text that is anchored in such a way as to restrict the number of ways in which it can be interpreted.

e.g. An image of diseased lungs with the caption ‘Smoking Kills’

Composition: the arrangement fee of visual elements within the frame, for clarity, balance or aesthetic judgement.

Connotation: a meaning attributable to an image beyond the obvious denotational level.

· Such meanings may be metaphorical, symbolic or culturally generated and will vary line with the cultural background and attitudes, beliefs and values of the individual viewing the material.

· e.g. An image of a red rose has connotations of New Labour, or England, or on a Valentine card can represent hot-blooded passion.

Continuity Editing: an editing style that aims to present the text in a linear and chronological manner to emphasize the real-time movement of the narrative and to create a sense of realism for the viewer by giving the impression of continuous filming.

· Continuity editing creates a narrative that approximates to the real experience of moving through time, even though screen time usually covers a much longer period. Audiences feel comfortable with a linear progression that reflects their everyday experience.

· TIP the term ‘continuity’ also applies to the avoidance of errors in sequence or content, as when elements present in one scene are missing or altered in the next e.g. Gladiator (Ridley Scott, 2000), in which Maximus the gladiator turns horse with his sword in his right hand in one scene and emerges from the turn with a sword in his left hand.

Conventions: the expected ingredients in a particular type of media text.

Convergence: the coming together of new media Technologies.

· e.g. Television is now digital and interactive, with the potential for 1000 channels and with technology available to download and store programmes; television can also be used for banking and shopping; Internet web cams allow for visual interaction between users; music can be downloaded and burnt onto CDs and mobile phones can take and send pictures and access the Internet.

Copy: the written content of a newspaper or magazine as submitted to the editor for inclusion in a finished product.

Crab Shot: a type of shot which involves the camera being placed in a confined space.

· e.g. A shot taken from inside a cupboard is the subject opens the cupboard door.

Crane Shot: a type of shot in which a camera is positioned on a specially designed crane, which can be raised and lowered and will.

· A crane shot is a high-angle shot but the versatility of the equipment allows a director to start a shot from a high-angle and then swoop down toward the subject at ground level.

Crosscut: a type of moving image edit that involves a series of cutaways and cut backs from one sequence of narrative action to another taking place simultaneously.

· e.g. The closing scenes of The Godfather III (Francis Ford Coppola, 1990) involve cutting between five parallel-action narrative sequences, including a stage opera which provides the musical backdrop to the whole scene. The result is to raise the level of dramatic intensity and tension.

Cutaway: a brief shot that momentarily interrupts the main action of a film by showing a related action, object or person, not necessarily part of the main scene, before cutting back to the original shot.

· Often filmed from the point of view of one of the characters, a cutaway provides visual relief, eases transition from one shot to another, breaks up a sequence and provide information on or hints at impending changes. Reaction shots are usually edited as cutaways. See crosscut.

Deep Focus: a camera technique that allows objects both near and far from the camera to be in focus at the same time.

Demographics: information concerning the social status, class, gender and age of the population.

· Audience profiles use demographic information, the best-known system being the ABC1 scale.

Denotation: the first and simplest level of meaning of an image.

· e.g. A picture of a rose represents the rose flower and reminds the viewer of the real thing.

Dialogue: that which is spoken by actors/presenters.

Diegesis: the story-line or narrative which includes the whole fictional world created by a media text.

Diegetic Sound: sound generated within a film narrative.

· Non-Diegetic sound is outside the narrative such as an orchestra playing rousing music during a battle scene.

· e.g. The sound of traffic in a scene involving a road.

Dissolve: a type of moving image editing where one image slowly dissolves into another.

Dominant Ideology: the belief system that serves the interests of the dominant ruling elite within a society, generally accepted as common sense by the majority and reproduced in mainstream media texts.

· Dominant ideology establishes a hegemonic position in society which is reinforced by media representations and is consequently difficult to challenge.

· The term derives from a Marxist theory and is addressed in detail in the work of Gramsci, Althusser and Hall.

Effects: for the idea that the media have influence over people and can play a role in changing their behaviour. The suggestion that people’s behaviour is influenced or altered (either directly or indirectly) as a result of exposure to media is described in terms of ‘media effects’

Ellipsis: the removal or shortening of elements of a narrative to speed up the action.

Empathy: the ability to share the emotions or point of view of a group or individual.

· Empathy involves recognizing shared experience rather than sympathising from a detached position.

· Human interest journalism, feature writing and reality television often involve emotionally identifying the reader/writer with the subject, with the intention of thereby sustaining audience interest.

Encode: the process of constructing the media message in a form suitable for transmission to a receiver or target audience.

Encoding/Decoding Model: model devised by Stuart Hall to explore the ways in which the meanings of media texts can vary in line with their circumstances of production and consumption.

Enigma Code: a narrative structure that involves the creation of riddles or problems to be solved by the resolution.

· Suspense and horror genres use enigma to retain the attention of an audience.

Establishing shot: the shot (usually wide or long), often used at the start of a programme or film, a new section of a programme or at the start of a new scene to establish the relationship between the set/location and the characters and to show the whole view.

Eyeline Match: a type of editing that maintains the eyeline or level when cutting from a character to what’s the character sees.

· The effect of the edit is to create a sense that what the camera sees is what the character sees.

Fade: a type of moving image editing where the image gradually fades and disappears, leaving a white or black screen.

Flashback: a scene in a film which disrupts the chronological narrative by going backward in time to recall past events.

Framing: the process of selecting what is to be framed by a particular film shot, for example, characters, setting and iconography.

· Across a scene, framing determines how the action is perceived by the audience. It includes such elements as background detail, lighting source and the emphasis given to specific characters within a shot.

· Framing can determine how the audience perceives character relations in terms of dominance and submission and the weighting given to each character. For example, a foregrounded character can be seen as dominant where is a character in the background appears less important.

Gender: psychological and cultural aspects of behaviour associated with masculinity and femininity, acquired through social socialization, in accordance with the expectations of a particular society.

· Representations of gender increasingly challenged traditional concepts of masculinity and femininity.

· Girl power, launched as a marketing device for the Spice Girls in the early 1990s, created new role models have a certain young women, rejecting the traditional passive female role.

· Traditional masculine trades of violent aggression, sexual promiscuity and high levels of alcohol consumption are increasingly represented without gender distinction, and female representations in film made challenge or subverted traditional femininity and female roles e.g.Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino 2003, 2004) and Tomb Raider (Simon West, 2001)

· Masculinity is represented increasingly as soft or ambivalent. Men can outcry, show affection for babies and talk about their feelings openly, or characteristics traditionally associated with femininity. Males are also shown as uncertain about their gender identity, e.g. Fight Club (David Fincher, 1999)

Gendered Consumption: the way that gender affects our consumption of media texts.

· Ann Gray suggested (1992) that women prefer open-ended narratives, such as soap operas, whereas men preferred closed narratives with a clear resolution, for example, police dramas. The concept of (women’s fiction) (Christine Geraghty, 1991) involves identifying characteristics and media texts that appeal to women.

· e.g. Soap operas attracting large female audiences have strong female leads, deal with personal relationships in the domestic sphere and contain an element of escapism.

Genre: key concept a category of media products classed as being similar in form and type.

· Film, magazine, newspaper and television are all media genres. Types of film, magazine, newspaper and television programme are also genres. Westerns and musicals are filmed genres, lifestyle magazines are a magazine genre, tabloids and broadsheets a newspaper genres, situation comedies, crime dramas and soap operas a television genres.

· Genres operate alongside narrative constructions in line with the audience expectations, for example, magazines of a particular genre are expected to contain a specific kind of narrative discourse.

· Genres can be further divided into subgenres.

Genre Theory: an explanation of the role played by genre in differentiating media texts and aligning audiences.

· Genre theorists consider the relationship between audiences, media texts and media producers and the ways in which genres, particularly in film, can be used by producers to target specific audience groups, with predictable expectations of audience numbers and responses.

· e.g. In explaining their appeal to audiences, Richard Dyer (1973) argues that the genres a pleasurable because they offer escapist fantasies into fictional worlds which remove the boredom and pressures of reality. He sees these worlds as utopian, offering the audience abundance, energy, excitement, spontaneity and community-none of which are present in their everyday lives.

Head-On Shot: for a type of shot in which the action comes directly toward the camera.

· Head-On shots are often used in war or action movies to enhance the sense of involvement and excitement of the audience, for example, charging cavalry may be directed at the camera.

· e.g. Waterloo (Sergei Bondachuk, 1970)

High angle: to provide a view from above the subject(s), often making the subject look vulnerable, isolated or powerless. This is sometimes combined with a crane shot into a closer shot of the subject(s).

Hybrid: a cross between one film genre and another.

· E.g. From Dusk till Dawn (Robert Rodriguez, 1996) starts as a crime drama and becomes a vampire movie.

Icon: a sign resembling the thing in represents.

· An icon can also be an image representative of an ideology or religion. Icons were originally religious paintings of Christ and the Virgin Mary and treated as sacred objects.

· E.g. A photograph.

· TIP of a public figure who, having achieved the ultimate in a particular field, has become the focus of mass adoration is also called on icon, e.g. Pop icons such as Kylie Minogue or Madonna.

Iconography: the distinguishing elements, in terms of props and visual details, which characterise a genre.

· Genres are said to be recognisable through their characteristic iconography.

· E.g. The iconography of gangster films include smart suits, guns and fast cars, while Westerns have horses, dozen locations, clapboard houses and men in hats.

Ideology: key concept of a set of attitudes, beliefs and values held in common by a group of people and culturally reproduced within that community to sustain its particular way of life.

· Ideologies can be described as dominant, subservience, or opposition all depending on their status within a society.

· E.g. Capitalism, Communism, Christianity and Islam.

· TIP Ideology is present in all media texts. You can explore it by assessing the attitudes, beliefs and values within the text and the assumptions made about what the viewer or reader thinks and feels.

Incidental music: the use of music to punctuate for a specific events or action, or to provide a sound background.

Independent: a media organisation or activity that is not connected to a major company.

Institution: key concept any of the organisations responsible for the production, marketing, distribution or regulation of media texts.

· Institutions are business and social structures that produce media texts and regulates and structure media activities. If they are collectives within which individuals are encouraged to work toward a common goal and to develop working practices based on assumptions about the aims and ethos of the institution. Institutions assumed shared values of all employees and have a status and power relationships with other institutions and the wider public.

· E.g. BBC, Sky, CNN, British Board of Film Classification.

Intertextuality: the practice of deliberately including references to one text in the narrative of another, either as homage to the text referred to or as a device intended to engage the interest of the audience by appealing to their prior knowledge and experience of media texts.

· Intertextuality can generate levels of meaning for the viewer and anchors a current text within texts of similar or related genre.

· For example, Kill Bill Vol. 1 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003) makes many references to Westerns, gangster and Japanese Samurai films.

Jump cut: increasingly used in TV adverts, the jump cut occurs when two shots are shot from approximately the same position, and one immediately follows another when the text is edited. It appears to the audience that part of the action is missing. The jump cut can be used to create excitement and tension.

Key Concept: any of the core concepts on which a media studies programme focuses, specifically audience, genre, ideology, institutions, language, narrative and representation.

· These key concepts provide a systematic structure for the study of the media and media products and provide terms of reference in any media assignment or project. Any analysis of the media topic should be related to the key concepts where appropriate.

Language key concepts: the particular codes used within different media to convey messages to audiences.

· This includes the content, theme and purpose of a print-based text, its layout and design, the use of written language and of photography and illustration.

· With the moving image, language involves iconography, mise en scene, use of lighting, colour, editing and montage techniques.

· Visual language involves selection and construction from paradigms to produce syntagm’s e.g. a poster, photograph or film.

Linear Narrative: a sequential narrative with a beginning, a middle and an end-in that order.

· Linear narratives provide a straightforward, sequential representation of events leading to a single resolution. As such, easily accessible to audiences and are the dominant form in mainstream media representations.

· TIP Linear narrative are increasingly challenged by the non- linear, which is more reflective the random experiences of life and the complexity involved in the viewers construction of meaning, e.g. Lost Highway (David Lynch, 1997).

Long Shot: a distance shot where the camera is a long way from the subjects being filmed.

· A long shot can be effective as an establishing shot that sets the scene for the action and roles in the viewer.

· E.g. The opening of Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) is a long shot panning across a city. This slowly transforms into a zoom through the window of a hotel room, then to an internal shot of the room and its occupants.

Long take: each time a shot is recorded it is called a take. A long take is one that is allowed to remain for a long duration before it is cut.

Low-Angle Shot: a shot where the camera approaches a subject from below eye level.

· A Low-Angle shot can emphasize the size of the object being filmed and add to a point of view perspective.

· E.g. In a Tom and Jerry cartoon, the mouse’s Low-Angle view of the cat presents the cat as a towering, threatening monster.

Male Gaze: term used by Laura Mulvey in her essay ‘Visual Pleasures and Narrative Cinema’ (1975) to describe what she saw as the male point of view adopted by the camera for the benefit of an assumed male audience.

· Mulvey view the practice of the camera lingering on women’s bodies as evidence that women were being viewed as sex objects for the gratification of men. She argued that the central active characters in films are male and that the male audience identifies with them in their viewing of the passive females. Women in the audience are also positioned by the narrative to identify with the male gaze and see the world through male eyes.

· Mulvey’s essay was hugely influential in the development of feminist film studies.

· TIP Mulvey’s approach owes much to Freudian psychology. The arguments can be challenged by simply pointing out that not all central heroic characters in films are male. Also, Mulvey denies the existence of a ‘female gaze’, which has enjoyed physically attractive men in films from the earliest days of cinema, with stars ranging from Rudolph Valentino to Brad Pitt. Lastly, changes in the representation of women have resulted in fundamental challenges to stereotypical gender roles since Mulvey’s essay was written e.g. Kill Bill Vol. 2 (Quentin Tarantino, 2004)

Master Shot: a camera shot used at the beginning of a sequence to establish the component elements and relationships in such a way as to allow the audience to make sense of the action follows.

Media language: an umbrella term that describes the ways in which audiences read media texts through understanding formal and conventional structures (for example, the grammar of film editing). Media literacy describes our ability to read and write in this extended sense of language.

Mediation: the means by which, through the use of representation, a media organisation and its employees stand between an event and the public’s perception of that event.

· Mediation involves the process of constructing, interpreting and editing material in accordance with the requirements of the chosen medium of communication.

· TIP It is useful to remember the term indicates other media change events by reporting and representing them.

mise en scene (French for ‘put in the picture/scene): the arrangement by a filmmaker of everything that is to be included in a shot or frame.

· This includes settings, props, decor, lighting, actors, characters, positioning and all other technical elements which contribute to the look of the scene and create its distinctive quality and unity.

Mode of Address: in narrative studies, the way in which media texts talk to an audience.

· In audiovisual texts, this can be in the form of a voiceover where an unseen narrator addresses the audience. The narrator could be one of the texts characters and provide insight into what occurs on screen us.

· In film noir, the private detective’s voice often provides a running commentary on the action, from his perspective.

· TIP fans of the cult movie Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) dispute which of the two versions of the film, one with lead character Deckard’s (Harrison Ford) off-screen narration and one without, is the most successful.

Multi media: the text created in a variety of media.

Narrative: key concept the storyline and structure of a media text.

· Narratives all stories helped to shape and explain all aspects of our lives from earliest infancy. They are part of the ways in which we make sense of the world and provide reassurance in the face of the dangers and contradictions of everyday experience.

· Narratives are structured within genres, which provide frameworks of expectation, predictability and outcome.

Narrative Theory: a type of thinking that seeks to explain narrative structures and their relationship to wider cultural and genre-related factors.

· Narrative theorists seek to deconstruct narratives in order to identify their common characteristics and component elements, e.g. Todorov, Levi-Strauss, Barthes, Propp.

Negotiated Reading: a reading of a text which assumes that no absolute meaning exists and that meaning is generated and negotiated by what the reader brings to the text in terms of attitudes, values, beliefs and experience.

· The term is part of Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model along with dominant and oppositional readings.

· TIP a negotiated reading emphasises the position of the subject or audience member.

Niche Marketing: the targeting of a small but significant group of consumers with a media product directed specifically at their interests.

· E.g. Living France magazine is directed at people who have a specific interest in the French way of life, in holidaying in France and who may have a second home there.

Not crossing the line: see 180-degree rule.

180° rule (also known as ‘not crossing the line’): the filmmaking role of placing the camera in a 180° relationship with the filmed subject to ensure narrative continuity.

Oppositional Reading: a reading of a media text that rejects the ideological positioning and apparent meaning intended by the producers of the text and substitutes a radical alternative.

Pan: camera action involving gently moving the camera 180°across the subject matter in a horizontal plane.

Parallel Action: the narrative technique of showing two or more scenes happening at the same time by cutting between them.

· E.g. The closing scenes of The Godfather Part III (Francis Ford Coppola, 1990)

Parody: the imitation of one media text by another for comic effect.

· E.g. Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks, 1974) parodies all the iconographic, narrative and character features of the Western genre; scary movie (Keenan Ivory Wayans, 2000) parodies the horror genre.

Pastiche: a media text made up of pieces from other texts or of imitations of other styles.

· The term is often used to describe an unoriginal, derivative text that it can be used positively if the pastiche involves a deliberate homage to other works.

Patriarchy: male domination of the political, cultural and socioeconomic system.

· Under patriarchy, male perspectives and male achievements are valued and rewarded at the expense of the female. Female contributions to society are ignored and women are culturally and economically invisible, being defined solely by the relation to men.

· Patriarchy is an important assumption behind some feminist film criticism, which sees the male domination of film discourse is evidenced in the male gaze.

Pleasure: a motivating factor in the consumption of media texts.

· Pleasure has often been ignored by researchers seeking to explain the motivation of audiences that is reflected in the uses and gratification theory and is an increasing feature of the appeal media products have in a hedonistic, self-gratifying and consumption-orientated cultural environment.

Plot: those elements of a media text that convey information about the narrative.

· Plot information includes character detail and behaviour and explanations of the course of events through time.

Point-of-View Shot (POV): a camera shot taken from the position of the subjects, used to enhance a sense of realism and audience involvement in the action.

Pop Culture: text which are consumed by a wide range of people, as opposed to a smaller group that is seen as an elite; they tend to be described as ‘popular’ and this implies a lesser cultural status or value.

Positioning: the locating of a media product in a marketplace with regard to audience and socio economic, political and cultural factors.

· Five television was position to aim at a ‘modern mainstream’ young audience and this was reflected in its presentation of news programmes and its choice of presenters.

· The Daily Express newspaper has recently shifted its political positioning away from New Labour in order to adopt a stance more critical of government

Post Production: the editing stage, where material is manipulated using software and transformed into a finished media product.

Primary Research: research undertaken through direct interview with a source or by direct access to original, unmediated documents or images.

Protagonist: the leading character in the text.

Reaction Shot (also known as ‘nodding shot’): the shot devised for an interview between two people, usually showing an interviewer responding to the interviewee’s answers by nodding or reacting in some way.

Realism: a film and television style that attempts to represent the real world.

· Concepts of realism are governed by recognisable codes and conventions which change over time. Black and white newsreel images of the 1930s and World War Two carried strong messages and, as filmed ‘reality’, define a period in which they were constructed. Rare colour footage of the same period shocks the viewer with its sense of immediacy and newness, making the events in fresh and the passing just like the present.

· In the film Schindler’s List (1993), Spielberg chose classic monochrome film and a 1930s/1940s treatment style to replicate the ‘realism’ of newsreels he remembered from his youth. The only colour image is of a young girl in red, a symbolic victim representing the whole holocaust.

· TIP Remember that film images are never ‘real’, they are only ever representations of the real.

Reception Theory: an active audience theory which sees the audience as being actively engaged in the interpretation of media texts rather than as passive consumers.

· Audiences decodes media texts in ways that relate to the social and cultural circumstances and individual experience. Reception theory uses qualitative and ethnographic methods such as group interviews and participant observation.

· In Morley’s 1980 Nationwide study (Nationwide was an evening news programme) he found that an audience’s response to media texts was influenced by family, class and educational factors. He showed the different groups interpreted the same texts in different ways depending on their background and level of involvement with the subject matter. For example, a group of management trainees saw the programmes items on trade unions as being biased towards the unions, whereas a group of workers saw the same items as being anti-union.

· Morley’s approach is important because it combines semiological and sociological approaches. Semiological study involves the idea of directed preferred readings of media texts, while sociological study is concerned with how age, sex, race, class, gender, sexuality and disability may determine the reading of a text.

· The approach is also known as audience studies or new audience research and in the 1990s was associated with the work of David Buckingham. His research concludes that even by the age of seven children have become skilled readers of media texts and a able to interpret, challenge and reject media messages, including advertising.

· TIP this research can be used to challenge effects theory models which argued that audiences, particularly children, are affected negatively by media content.

Representation: key concept of the process whereby the media construct versions of people, places and events in images, words or sound for transmission through media texts to an audience.

· Representations provide models of how we see gender, social groups, individuals and aspects of the world we all inhabit. They are ideological in that they are constructed within a framework of values and beliefs. Representations are therefore mediated for and reflect the value systems of their sources. No representation is ever real, only a version of the real.

· The representations are part of cultural mythology and reflect deep-seated values and beliefs e.g. Of such places as the north of England, Scotland and America.

· TIP representation is the key to many media debates and is usually described as being positive or negative, depending on the view of the group being represented. Achieving positive representations (versions of themselves that they agree with and approve of) has been a goal of minority groups who have criticised the perceived negativity of media stereotypes, e.g. homosexuals, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, disability groups and women.

Scheduling: the strategic positioning of media texts within broadcasting time. Digital television is increasingly disrupting this approach, since viewers can choose more easily than before when to watch.

Semiology (also known as ‘semiotics’): the study of signs.

· Semiological provides a system for deconstructing and analysing visual and moving images and for explaining the wider cultural choice and combination patterns that generate cultural meaning.

· It assumes that all communication codes are arbitrary and that there is no logical reason why we use a particular sign. Meaning is seen as deriving from the creator of the sign, the reader of the sign and the nature of the sign itself.

Sexism: representations that discriminate on the basis of sex, especially against women, which is seen to derive from an sustain patriarchy.

· Some feminists would see any media representation of women confirmed a stereotype as sexist, for example, the display of women’s bodies as sex objects in ‘Lads Mags’ for the entertainment of men.

· TIP in a post feminist environment, challenges are launched at representations of men that showed them as sex objects or as being humiliated at the hands of women.

Slow motion: used in the editing process to slow down the action for emotional or comic effect.

Sign: a term to describe the combination of the signifier and the signified, where the signifier is the physical object and the signified is the mental concept or meaning that the signifier conveys.

· A photograph of a rose makes the viewer think of the flower

· There are different categories of the sign to explain the relationship with what is described as their object.

Signifier: the physical object used to represent a mental concept.

· E.g. The word ‘tree’ represents the physical object, the tree, as an idea in the mind of the reader. The Eiffel Tower signifies, or represents, the idea of Paris.

Soap Opera: a continuous, episodic serial on radio or television based on community life.

· Originating from the U.S. radio series of the 1930s that was sponsored by soap powder company, ‘soaps’ have grown to become one of the most popular television forms worldwide.

· Extensive studies have been done on the nature of soap operas, including the use of realism or fantasy, character representation, audience appeal and scriptwriting techniques. They are seen as addictive by many viewers, but the pressure of sustaining storylines can render scraps and characters increasingly unrealistic.

· In Britain, soaps guarantee a regular audience and are increasingly used for this purpose by rival television channels. For example, Hollyoaks expanded from twice weekly showings to being scheduled five nights a week to help secure an early evening audience.

· TIP not all soap operas are launch successfully. The BBC lost large sums of money with a failed soap opera called El Dorado (1992-3) based in the fictional Spanish holiday resort of Los Barcos.

Social Realism: the representation of characters and issues in film and television drama in such a way as to race serious underlying social and political issues.

· Social realism involves a drama-documentary treatment in the sense that, while the characters may be fictional, the contexts and circumstances in which they are placed represent social realities.

· The films are usually shot in a naturalistic way, avoiding the use of sophisticated editing and treatments and sometimes giving the impression that the camera is simply recording events as they take place. There is often little use of non-diegetic sound.

· E.g. The films of British director Ken Loach, KES (1970) and Sweet Sixteen (2002)

Soft focus: in images, the use of a special lens or filter to create a hazy light around the subject.

· Soft focus shots are associated with the romantic or sentimental treatment of subject matter.

Sound Effects: enhanced sound added to a film or television programme during post production.

· Sound effects are designed to complement the visual content of a film and heightened the audience’s experience.

· In horror or gangster films, melons slashed with knives are often used to represent the sound of a body being stabbed.

Stereotype: the social classification of a group of people by identifying common characteristics and universally applying them in an often oversimplified and generalised way, such that the classification represents value judgements and assumptions about the group concerned.

· E.g. The ‘dumb’ blonde, the ‘mean’ Scotsman.

Subjective Shot: a type of shot in which the camera is positioned as if looking at the world through the subject’s eyes.

· E.g. The opening title sequence of Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976) shows the world through the eyes of driver Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) as he views the streets through the rain on his windscreen. The image is blurred and distorted, as is his view of the world.

Superimpose: the appearance of writing/symbols or images on top of an image so that both are visible at once, increasing the amount of information the viewer has in one shot.

Suspense: in the film and television audience, the creation of a feeling of tension and anticipation.

· The suspense involves information concerning characters or outcomes of a film being concealed from an audience to generate feelings of excitement and surprise.

Target Audience: the intended audience for a media product.

· When producing a media text for mass consumption, identification of the target audience is essential so the media institutions can assess the likely response to the product and the investment risks involved.

· The BlockBuster movie titanic (James Cameron, 1997) was carefully crafted to appeal to a range of audiences, with its generic mixture of disaster movie, historical reconstruction, action movie and romance. To this was added a hit single theme song by Celine Dion. In spite of costing $200 million to produce, it grossed$1 billion at the box office, a record at the time.

· TIP the target audience is not always the actual audience for a text, e.g. children under the age of 15 watching a 15 or 18 rated film when their parents are at.

Text: any constructed media product or piece of communication, whether print or audio visual, which can be analysed and deconstructed.

Theme: the key passage of music link to the subject matter/style of the film or programme which helps to create the mood.

Three Point Lighting: a lighting technique involving actors being lit from three points: A main source (or key light), the source filling shadows (filler light) and a source backlighting the actors (back light)

Tilt: a camera movement that involves moving the camera vertically up and down from a fixed position.

Tracking Shot: a camera shot in which the camera moves along rails to follow the subject.

· When the rails are replaced by a moving platform on wheels, the shot is called the dolly shot.

Two shot: of two people, usually a medium close up or medium shot. The shot shows the spatial relationship of the two people, who are often in conversation. This is commonly used in TV soaps.

Uses and Gratification Theory: an active audience theory that focuses on ‘what people do with the media’ rather than what the media does to people, arguing that audiences are free to pick and choose from a wide range of media products to satisfy their own needs.

· Individuals may seek: diversion in the form of escape from reality, the emotional release or pleasure; personal relationships through companionship and sociability, using knowledge of television characters to interact with others; personal identity and a sense of self through identifying as members of a particular audience; surveillance through finding out about the world and the events that affect them.

· TIP although useful as an active theory, it assumes that audience needs are identified are met by the media and underestimates the media’s role in generating those needs in the first place.

Voice over: the use of a voice, over images, perhaps as an introduction, a linking narrative device for or to comment on action. Often used in documentary.

Verisimilitude: seeming to be like or to be connected to the real.

· The term is important in many media genres because it determines the level of audience engagement and willingness to engage in suspension of disbelief.

· TIP contemporary war films need to convey a sense of verisimilitude to be credible. Reconstructions of Second World War battle scenes, with special effects bullets flying around the heads of the actors, are now seen as more real than newsreel footage of the actual events, e.g. Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998)

Vertical Integration: the merger or takeover of companies operating at different stages of the production/distribution process.

· Total vertical integration gives a company control of a product from raw materials to distribution.

· E.g. In media Industries, the takeover by newspaper owner of the distribution service and retail outlets such as newsagents would be vertical integration.

Vox-pop: ‘voice of the people’ – the gathering of opinion on a topic from ordinary people representing a cross-section of a community.

Whip/swish Pan: a very fast pan between two or more characters all points of interest. He gives the impression camera has been ‘surprised’ by activity and is used in the place of a more conventional cu or shot/reverse shot.

Wide shot: this can be used as an establishing shot of a set or location or to show a large crowd of people. They can also emphasize the isolation of a single figure.

Wipe: a moving image editing technique that involves one image wiping another off the screen.

Zoom/Reverse Zoom: the adjustment of the camera lens to allow the operator progressively to move in close off or to pull away from the subject.

The Lighter Side of Youth Crime: Urban film spoofs

2011-03-12T11:02:00.001Z

The likes of Kidulthood and Shank started a new wave of films about urban British teens. Now the genre is getting its first spoof. So has it truly come of age?

There's no surer sign that a film style has matured into a fully-grown genre than when the first parody comes out. That bittersweet moment has arrived for British urban films in the shape of Anuvahood. This brashly coloured council estate jaunt follows a deluded sad case named "K" who fancies himself as a MC-turned-drug dealer, but lacks the nous to pull it off. Marketed as the UK's answer to US urban comedies such as Friday (1995) and House Party (1990), the title is also an obvious pastiche of Noel Clarke's Kidulthood, the 2006 film that gave rise to a slew of imitators. It's a ballsy move, especially considering co-writer, co-director and star Adam Deacon got his own break playing comic relief Jay in Kidulthood and its 2008 follow-up, Adulthood.

Deacon, a 27-year-old whose slight build allows him to pass for the teenage hoodlums he plays, is keen to emphasise that Anuvahood is more homage than parody: "For me it was about being thankful." Yet his film was obviously also born of a frustration with the limits of the Kidulthood mould. "I can't tell you how many scripts I've read where it's just about violence on London streets. You can't keep doing that – you can't."

Click on the heading to find out more...

Hollywood wants Red Riding Hood and Snow White to weave a box office spell...

2011-03-07T17:21:00.001Z

Studios and A-list actors are banking on updated versions of fairytale favourites to explore darker themes about sexuality that will appeal to today's teenage audiences.

Prepare for a fairytale invasion. Hollywood movie studios, in their constant quest for remakes and modern spins on old stories, are about to unleash a new wave of film versions of ancient European folktales.

The list includes an updated version of Little Red Riding Hood, two films based on the Snow White story, a movie of the old English fable Jack and the Beanstalk, a 3D Pinocchio, a version of Beauty and the Beast set in modern America called Beastly, and the unusually titled Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters.

The recent release of a new Disney cartoon version of the Rapunzel story called Tangled will be followed this weekend by the release of Beastly, whose monster is a high-school jock magically turned into an ugly freak due to his vanity and arrogance.

But the fairytale revolution will really get into top gear with the debut in the US of Little Red Riding Hood, starring the rising young actress Amanda Seyfried.

Like many of the coming rush of fairytale films, the movie takes the format of an ancient folktale, set in a village in a deep forest menaced by a predatory wolf, and gives it a contemporary feel.

Click on the title to find out more...

How The King's Speech got an outside edge at the Oscars

2011-03-02T08:33:00.001Z

The King's Speech's Oscars victory over studio big-hitter The Social Network is a triumph for independent film financing

The success of independent cinema at the Oscars is nothing new, but it's always a welcome sight. Sunday night's marginal triumph by The King's Speech over the studio's biggest heavy hitter, The Social Network, will have spread good cheer among the movie's many backers outside the studio system. The King's Speech is one of the moribund UK Film Council's last hurrahs, although there are quite a few forthcoming releases that will bear the stamp of the ill-fated funding body, such as Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin, Terence Davies's The Deep Blue Sea and Andrea Arnold's Wuthering Heights.

The UK Film Council was one of several key elements on the project, along with UK financiers Prescience and Aegis, UK distributor Momentum Pictures and Australian distributor Transmission, whose sister company See-Saw, run by Iain Canning and Emile Sherman, came on board to produce with Gareth Unwin's Bedlam Productions, which had been a longtime champion of the project.

That's quite a list and I'm not even sure it's comprehensive, but it illustrates a truism in independent film financing: the tougher the sell, the greater the number of investors. No studio would have gone near this because the project lacked brand recognition, wasn't part of a franchise and didn't offer clear merchandising opportunities.

And then, of course, there is Harvey Weinstein, the Oscar impresario extraordinaire whose apparently resurgent company did such a bang-up job distributing The King's Speech in the US. The film launched modestly in a handful of theatres last December and climbed from 43 to 700 theatres over the Christmas weekend, rising steadily after that. Heading into the final weekend before the Oscar nominations on 25 January, the movie played in 1,680 theatres, and by the time it emerged as the frontrunner on 12 nominations it was in 2,557.

It went on to gross more than half of its current $114m (£70m) running total in the so-called Oscar corridor between the day of nominations and the show itself. That's the Oscar bump in action and you see it with another success story, Black Swan, which amassed roughly one-fifth of its $103m running total in the same period. Both will continue to prosper now that they have gongs to their name. The King's Speech will go out as a PG-13, too, after Weinstein cut a few expletives from the original R-rated version. Colin Firth disapproves and thinks the movie should be seen "as is", and I wholeheartedly agree. Alas the gatekeepers in the US believe audiences must be protected from the brutal spectrum of the English language, even though they are happy to expose under-13s to a disgraceful level of on-screen violence week-in, week-out.

For some years now a movie's prospects outside the US have played a key role in assembling the financing and distribution. Central to this is the international pre-sale, whereby a company licenses distribution rights to a forthcoming project in return for a portion of the budget. In this regard kudos is due to FilmNation, the New York-based company run by the vastly experienced former Weinstein lieutenant Glen Basner. FilmNation handled international sales on The King's Speech and ensured it ended up in safe hands outside the US. To date the movie has grossed more than $130m outside the US, bringing worldwide ticket sales to around $245m.

Black Swan had a pretty tortuous route to the big screen, too, but when Fox Searchlight came on board as financing partner it knew a good thing and held on to worldwide distribution rights. It's been Hollywood's leading title in the international market for the past few weeks and so far has racked up $123m overseas and $226m worldwide.

These are astonishing and rare numbers for specialty film, but what's so gratifying is that because both movies got made for a price and were expertly released in the US and overseas, they're profitable. The rumour doing the rounds at the recent Berlin film festival was that Weinstein is plotting a sequel to The King's Speech called The Windsors at War. Harvey and his cohorts are keeping mum about that right now as they focus on this year's movies, which include Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in the Oscar hopeful My Week With Marilyn.

Who Killed the UK Film Council?

2011-02-15T12:07:00.001Z

by Sebastian Doggart

The main reason I left England and moved to Los Angeles ten years ago was the dire state of the British film industry in which I was pursuing a career as a writer and director. Jobs were scarce and funding for new movies was fraught with bureaucratic obstacles. If you wanted training and didn’t get into the National Film and Television School, as happened to me, you’d have to teach yourself.

That was 2000, the year that the Labour government created the UK Film Council “to stimulate a competitive, successful and vibrant UK film industry and culture.” That body has since gone on to train hundreds of film-makers, and to help produce over 900 movies. Watching these pictures almost persuaded me to return to Blighty – fine dramas like This is England and The Last King of Scotland; witty comedies like Bend it Like Beckham and Happy-Go-Lucky; terrific documentaries like Man on Wire; and ground-breaking works of film art like The Arbor.

So it was with some amazement that I read on July 25th last year that the incoming Liberal-Conservative coalition government was abolishing the UK Film Council (UKFC) and had no plans to replace it.

Since then, a tragi-comedy has unfolded in the British film community that has inspired me to do detailed detective work both for this extended post, and for a screenplay that I am hoping will one day become my Four Weddings and a Funeral.

To read the full story...click on the title...

New Film Industry Case Studies for 2010 - Brighton Rock (2010) d. Rowan Joffe

2011-02-14T18:07:00.001Z

Brighton Rock

Click on the links below to help find information to put together into a personal case study of this new film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1233192/

http://www.brightonrockmovie.com/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms/film/brighton_rock

http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/awards?awardid=16478

http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/article/16022/Brighton-Rock-starts-shooting

http://www.optimumreleasing.com/press/?id=1372

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/mods-and-rockers-return-to-brighton-for-optimum-effect-1776406.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/brighton-rock-the-movie/sixties-brighton-rock-helen-mirren-sam-riley

Sony profit down 8.6% in third quarter

2011-02-04T08:28:00.000Z

Even the biggest studios are feeling the pinch...

Revenues fall in TV, film and music divisions despite rise in digital music sales and box office success of The Social Network.

Film studio Sony Pictures reported a 26.7% fall in sales to ¥149bn, a 20% decrease in US dollars to $1.8bn, with operating income collapsing by 66.7% to ¥4.7bn or $58m.

Click on the title to find out why?

Is the age of the critic over?

2011-01-31T11:49:00.001Z

Guardian critics reflect on how social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and myDigg, fit into the perennial debate on cultural elitism....

Miranda Sawyer, broadcaster and Observer radio critic: 'Twitter has made it easier for critics to hear other people's opinions. Even then, though, you tend to hear similar views to your own'

Jessa Crispin, editor-in-chief of Bookslut: 'The tussle, the argument, the fun of criticism is now online'

Philip French, Observer film critic: 'It could be that bad criticism might drive out serious writing'

To read more click on the title...

Making films got too easy says UK Film Council chief

2011-01-20T15:36:00.001Z

Access to lottery-funding made it too easy for British film-makers to get projects made, the Chairman of the UK Film Council has admitted.

The admission, by Tim Bevan, will be seized upon by those supporting the Coalition’s decision to axe the Film Council and hand responsibility for backing UK film to the British Film Institute.

However Bevan argues that the new structure may now make it too hard to get Film Council-backed projects like The King’s Speech off the ground. And Sam Mendes is leading a wave of directors who are warning that it is now becoming impossible to make mid-budget, intelligent dramas.

Click on the title to find out more...

Chauffeurs, cigars and clauses

2011-01-12T16:27:00.000Z

Getting a movie deal in Hollywood is only the beginning. Hammering out the details is when dreams and egos really collide

In Hollywood, the deal is king. Deals are how scripts get optioned, how stars and directors get signed up, how films make it to production. A good one can mean financial security and a name above the title. A bad one can be as dispiriting, gruelling and financially ruinous as building your dream house on unmarked floodland. The bad news is sometimes it's worse than that, and in the current financial climate it's getting tougher to make the right deal.

Click on the title for more details...

Holiday Work - TV Drama for AML

2010-12-20T20:52:00.002Z

Year 12 Xmas Holiday Work

You should complete the following essay on a television drama extract.

The extract is on my youtube site. Search for amlegg (you might have to look down the list a little). When you have found me look in my 'Favourites'. You will see a extract entitled:

prime ocr ext.avi

This is a 5 minute clip from the drama Primeval. This was the exam question last summer.

Watch the clip 4 times. Then write an essay for 45 minutes (plus any additional extra time). Do not just stop after the time; complete the essay but mark the time code in the margin.

The QUESTION:

How is the representation of gender constructed in the extract? You should pay close attention to the following areas:

Camera angle, movement and positioning
Editing
Mise-en-scene
Sound

Instructions

1st viewing : no notes
2nd viewing: you may make notes
longer break of 2 minutes
3 viewing : you may make notes
break of about 1 minute
4th viewing: you may make notes

Remember the lessons learned from the previous task. Please email me the essays or hand them in on Tuesday 11th January in the lesson. Any questions you can email me - I will check my messages regularly.

Have a good holiday!

Year 12 Research & Planning

2010-12-16T09:53:00.000Z

The deadline for ALL research & planning is Thursday 13th January 2011.

Each student should have posted on their blog (clearly labelled) AND printed hard copies in colour of their preparatory work under the following headings (not in order of importance):

Narrative / Plot Sequence - this should include a description of the opening 2 minutes AND a further explanation of the arc of your film's narrative using the correct terminology.

Characters / actors - this should explain the reasons behind your casting choices and offer examples of actors you would like to take specific parts in your production.

Audience - this should offer a clear indication of your target audience and any niche audiences as well as showing an understanding of your films likely classification and why you think it should be given that classification.

Location - this should include location photos and, if possible, some recce films. You need to explain how you will gain access to these locations and why you are using them.

Storyboard & shot list - the storyboard needs to be approx 5-6 pages long and must be clearly labelled and annotated. The shot list must be clearly laid out and link carefully and closely with your storyboard.

Shooting schedule - this should clearly explain where and when you plan to complete your filming.

Production Model - you need to decide what production model your film is likely to follow and show examples of films within a similar genre and likely budget.

Sound - soundtrack, narration, ambient sound etc - think through your choices carefully and explain them giving examples from your research.

Graphics - an essential part of any title sequence - examples of font types and title sequences that you have been influenced by with an explanation of your reasoning.

I will be checking my e-mails frequently over the duration of the holiday. If you have any urgent problems then contact me via my school e-mail address.

Happy holidays!

Work for Media classes (during snow interruptions)

2010-12-02T15:51:00.002Z

We hope you are all busy getting on with your work. Here are a few points on work from AML and MFG. Check your emails and our blog site also. Email us with any questions.

Year 12 Media

For AML

Please email me your essay on the represenation of ethnicity in 'Spooks' - ( those of you who have not done so) leggam@alleyns.org.uk
Please start watching lots of medical/hospital dramas (if you are stuck at home you should be really able to master this). Look at the represenation of gender and the represenation of power/ status and class. I would advise Holby or Casualty.... You can even look at extracts on our Youtube site.

For MFG

Continue preparation for coursework focussing on storyboarding, target audience (based on bbfc guidelines here - http://www.sbbfc.co.uk/) and writing up in neat and posting onto your blogs the work on narrative, characters and location recces.

Year 13 Media:

For AML

Please use this time to complete your planning work. The research on sound/ graphics/ idents is still left over. I will be marking this planning next week as there has been plenty of time now to complete it.
Please plan and schedule your next filming - those of you who have some construction still to be done.
If possible get into School tomorrow and spend time editing your trailer!

For MFG

Go to Slideshare here:

http://www.slideshare.net/mickgoogan/06-contemporary-media-issues-review-of-work-so-far

And download and read the presentation - making notes as necessary.

We hope to see you all very soon. Keep working hard!

Year 12 Homework - TV DRAMA

2010-11-12T16:10:00.001Z

WORK for AML - this work is due in on Friday 26th November.

Those of you who missed the lesson on Friday should catch up notes as the discussion will help you with this homework. (Please make sure that you have also completed the notes on the narrative material for Tuesday.)

The ESSAY:

Discuss the representation of age in the extract entitled, 'Criminal Justice' - The Prison.

You should pay close attention to:

camera movement, angle and position
editing
mise-en-scene
sound

Pointers:

- Remember the sample student essay that we looked at together and the level of technical detail required for this task

- remind yourself of my comments on your last piece of work

-watch the extract 4 times only and make detailed notes

-write on each area in turn and give lots of examples to back up your points

-you need to look carefully at framing and use lots of technical terms

- when considering the representation of age, think also about how age might convey innocence or guilt/experience considering the prison setting.

The extract is on the ALLEYN'S YOU TUBE site - look up mfgrogan. Take care to look at the correct extract it is called 'Extract 3' of the Criminal Justice clips.

Where now for the British film industry?

2010-10-08T21:49:00.000+01:00

The UK Film Council is being wound down – so could this be the final curtain for the soap opera that is the British film industry, or is it just what it needs?

If one were to dramatise the history of the British film industry, it probably wouldn't be a film at all. A soap opera would suit it better. How else to frame this litany of false dawns and hubristic triumphs; ignominious collapses and agonised soul-searching? On and on the drama runs, dragging so much history in its wake that certain incidents start repeating themselves, and the latest cliffhanger can look suspiciously similar to the last.

Click on the title to read more...

The UK film industry in statistics

2010-10-04T22:38:00.000+01:00

The UK film industry is bucking the recession, according to the UK Film Council. Find all the key data here

The UK Film Council has released its annual statistical yearbook in fully digital format. For the first time, you can access data on the UK film industry quickly and easily, using their searchable website.

Despite the financial crisis, 2009 was a bumper year for UK cinemas, with a record box office of £944m and one of the best admissions figures since 1971 (174 million). British films took a 7% share of the global market, and independent UK films took a record 8.2% share of the domestic market.

Click on the title or link below for more details...

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AgdO92JOXxAOdEFtVFgyV0ZlU0VpQUVrbTZrV25YM2c#gid=3

UK film-makers 'frittering away millions'

2010-10-04T22:13:00.000+01:00

British producers warned they must learn to make movies on the cheap if the domestic industry is to survive...this is also true of A level Media Studies students...

The British film industry is haemorrhaging so much money that it will not survive unless it changes its ways. Vast sums are being frittered away on needless production costs and most films recoup only a fraction of their multimillion-pound budgets.

This warning comes from Chris Jones, film-maker and head of the London Screenwriters' Festival, Europe's biggest gathering of writers, at which the issue will be debated later this month.

Find out more by clicking on the title...

Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner | No 12 in The Guardian list

2010-09-28T22:25:00.002+01:00

Working Title is that rarest of beasts – a properly successful British film company...

Film Analysis Homework for AML

2010-09-27T21:49:00.005+01:00

Watch the following extract from the film 'Mystic River' at least 4 times and make detailed notes.

Analyse the ways in which the director, Clint Eastwood, uses film language for effect.

Look carefully at:

camera angle, movement and position
sound
editing
mise-en-scene

Please keep your writing as technical as possible and don't forget to explain why you think certain camera angles or shots have been chosen. The analysis of the effects are vital. Try to pick out particular frames, shots, edits ... etc.. that you can discuss specifically.

file:

Film Council's closure claims its first big victim as Screen East agency folds

2010-09-26T22:14:00.001+01:00

Regional body, one of nine that made up Screen England, promoted film-making in east of country...

Screen East, an agency set up to promote film-making in the east of England, is the first large-scale victim of the government's surprise decision to close down the UK Film Council.

The regional body, responsible for luring film productions such as The Duchess, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Atonement, Stardust and Children of Men to its locations, has folded after it was declared insolvent this month. It was one of nine regional agencies that made up Screen England and was funded jointly by the national film council and by the East of England Development Agency, both now being disbanded by the government.

In the wake of the abolition of the UK Film Council two months ago, the regional screen agencies have been left in limbo. At stake is around £30m of lottery money, once distributed by the film council. Ed Vaizey, the culture minister, is to decide on a new chain of command for the British film industry, possibly handing the purse strings to the British Film Institute or The Arts Council of England. Vaizey has pledged to retain the British Film Commission and the other regional film agencies.

The collapse of the agency may threaten the future of the 30-year-old Cambridge Film Festival, which concludes today. "We receive £20,000 each year for the festival which is a substantial chunk of money and enables us to make the festival as unique as it is. Our money for this year's festival has not arrived yet and we are now chasing it," said Bill Thompson, chair of trustees for the Cambridge Film Trust.

Caroline Williams, chief executive of the Norfolk Chamber of Commerce, said the film industry played a growing role in the county's economy. "Over four years, the Norfolk film industry's economic impact rose from £685k in 2005/6 to £4.2m in 2008/9," she said.

Film Power 100: the full list

2010-09-24T22:22:00.001+01:00

Want to know who the most influential people are in the film business?

The Guardian Film 100 is their complete analysis of the most powerful people in the movie business. Download the list for you to play with...

A quarter of a century for Back to the Future

2010-09-17T15:13:00.008+01:00

As Back to the Future celebrates its 25th anniversary, Catherine Shoard examines just what it was about this genre-defying time-travel caper that captured her generation's imagination.

For me, a time before Back to the Future exists only in theory. Some films embed themselves so early and deep in your psyche they take on the status not of works of art, nor even cultural relics from your childhood. They feel like vital organs. Remove their influence and the whole structure constructed on top could collapse. Erase my early exposure to Back to the Future and I fear I'd disappear from existence, like Marty McFly at the Enchantment Under the Sea ball in 1955, when his parents still haven't kissed and his fingers slip from the frets of his cherry-red Gibson 335 guitar and start to fade in front of his eyes (a scene I laboriously immortalised in poster paints at primary school)...

For more click on the title.

Trailer Production Timetable - an example (AMLEGG)

2010-09-16T09:34:00.002+01:00

Week 1 + 2

Alongside prior research into similar media texts:

- clear conventions of genre
- clear conventions of the teaser trailer
- influences and creative ideas

Week 3

(13-17^thSeptember)

Target audience and audience research

Present findings electronically
Overview of narrative and nonlinear narrative plan

Week 4, 5 + 6

(20^th-8^thOctober)

See List for pre-production research and planning

Get early recee date for locations
Book equipment out in advance and book actors for filming in advance

Week 7 and Half Term

(11^th – 31^stOctober)

CONSTRUCTION

Filming for production
A number of days – not all at once
Also book time for pick-ups
Update Blogs with all planning materials
Update blog with skills acquired during filming (for Exam unit)

Week 10

(1^st -5^thNovember)

Final week of construction – get pick-ups

Log footage carefully and up-load onto Final Cut for editing

Week 11, 12, 13, 14

(8^th – 3^rdDecember)

Post – Production

Editing and improving your knowledge of Final Cut.
Separate Sound editing and Improved Graphics work.
Keep detailed blog on decisions and revisions

Week 15

(6^th-10^thDecember)

Another period of audience research – pilot your trailer and see what views are before finishing in post-production

Week 16

13^th + 14^thDecember

Update notes for blog on transitions/graphics/ sound editing

Only two days this week before end of term things start.

TRAILER COMPLETE: TUESDAY 14^thDecember

The malign influence of Rupert Murdoch on British life - Discuss?

2010-09-14T12:38:00.001+01:00

News International acts as if it is above the law and has contributed to the coarsening of society's values according to Henry Porter in last Sunday's 'Observer.'

When Rupert Murdoch appeared on his own Fox News Channel last week and was, astonishingly, asked about the News of the World phone-hacking scandal – "the story that was really buzzing around the country and certainly here in New York", as the anchorman put it – Murdoch cut him off with the words: "I'm not talking about that issue at all today. I'm sorry."

Seen against the background of Sun Valley, Idaho, and in short sleeves and sunglasses, Murdoch appeared more like a gangster fighting extradition proceedings than the attendee of a media conference. For some reason, the vicious agility of the elderly Hyman Roth in The Godfather, Part II came to mind. Naturally, the Fox News anchor didn't challenge the man he called Mr Chairman and the matter of the mass hacking of phones belonging to MPs, public figures and celebrities was dropped as Murdoch moved to praise his own organisation for its robust criticism of the Obama administration, delivering one swift jab at a competitor, the Financial Times, in the process.

Click on the link to find out more....

Charlie Brooker in The Guardian this week on newspapers and reality...

2010-09-09T09:42:00.001+01:00

Belief is weird. Weirder than the platypus. For one thing, even though belief really ought to be a binary state (you either believe something or you don't) it's still possible to be surprised when one of your beliefs is subsequently proved to be true, thus implying you didn't really believe it all along – or that maybe your brain believed it, on some floaty intellectual level, but your gut stubbornly refused to accept it as truth.

To find out more click on the headline...

AS to A2 Skills Development Work for AML

2010-09-01T20:07:00.001+01:00

Year 13:

This work is for the this week. The detailed notes that you make in answer to these questions will be vital for your examination later. I will be talking through this with you in class.

Unit G325: 1A ) : SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Make detailed notes on the skills you have now, at the end of the AS year – use all the technical vocabulary that you can:

Digital Technology

What can you do with a digital video camera?
What sound recording techniques do you have?
What skills did you develop using Final Cut?
Did you use a digial camera (photographic)….
What skills do you have?
What were the good and bad things about the software and hardware at AS?

Creativity

How creative were you at AS?Consider camera framing, lighting, narrative ideas, planning the brief, location choice, stylistic concept prior to editing?
Originality?

Research and Planning

What techniques did you use? Primary research (watching films etc) and Secondary research (books? Library? Internet search?, audience figures where? Institutional research?)
What would you improve?
How did you use Internet? Blog? You tube channel? …. How improve this? Well organized?

Post-Production

How did you organize your editing?
What techniques did you use? Be specific about precise SFX, transitions, sound bridges, graphics....
What about post-production for your evaluation? What might you improve?

Using conventions from real media texts

It is impossible to create an entirely original media text.

What conventions did you follow? Did you subvert any conventions?
How did you create meaning for the audience? Through film language and editing?

UK Film Council: out to lunch?

2010-08-28T22:39:00.000+01:00

The government's decision to scrap the UK Film Council has been condemned by its leaders as a big mistake. Chris Atkins looks into how the council has spent public money...

UK Film Council axed

2010-07-27T22:32:00.000+01:00

UK Film Council one of highest-profile quangos to be cut

The UK Film Council became one of the highest profile quangos to be axed by the coalition government after culture secretary Jeremy Hunt unexpectedly announced its abolition.

In a raft of mergings, streamlinings and closures, Hunt also axed the Museums, Libraries and Archives council (MLA).

John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council, briefed an unprepared staff about the decision at the council's central London headquarters this morning. No one had seen it coming. He said the decision had been taken with "no notice and no consultation".

UK Film Council to be abolished!

2010-07-26T23:33:00.000+01:00

The UK Film Council is to be axed as part of a cost-cutting drive by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), it has been announced.

The organisation, founded in 2000, had an annual budget of £15m to invest in British films and employed 75 people.

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he wanted to establish a "direct and less bureaucratic relationship with the British Film Institute".

UK Film Council chairman Tim Bevan called it "a bad decision".

He said the announcement was "imposed without any consultation or evaluation".

Click on the title to read more...

Film Council axemen could murder an industry

2010-07-26T22:26:00.001+01:00

The government's decision to shut down the UK Film Council is tragically naive. No other body will do a better job

It was nothing short of a hammer blow. This morning, word came through of John Woodward's email to UK Film Council staff informing them that the government was planning to shut them down. Then the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) confirmed it in a written statement at lunchtime. I was genuinely shocked. It felt like I'd nipped out for 10 minutes to get a pie and while I was out they closed the British film industry.

Reading the fine print is tricky. Can it really be the case that the Film Council will be killed, with nothing to take its place? The government has said that lottery funding of films will continue, but transferred to already existing organisations. (Who, exactly? The reason why the Film Council was created in the first place was that no one had proved competent in dealing with film industry funding in the past.) The British Film Institute was promoted with the phrase "strong relationship", but the BFI was stripped of its production funding capability years ago, and was in any case preparing to merge with the Film Council. What's happening there? And what about the Edinburgh and London film festivals, who have basically been directed and repositioned as part of a Film Council funding programme?

Click on the title to find out more...

Postmodern Media - Gaming moves in 3D direction at E3 expo

2010-07-01T11:39:00.001+01:00

Marc Cieslak checks out the latest in video game technology at annual gaming expo E3.

The future of gaming appears to be in 3D, with Sony's PlayStation 3 already supporting the format via a firmware download. Nintendo also plans to bring 3D to handheld devices with the 3DS.

Click on the link to watch more.

Cover Lesson Wed 30th June 2010 Period 6

2010-06-29T15:40:00.003+01:00

You need to catch up with all this work. Some have you are behind. Please sort out this material and ensure that you have done all these things for me by Friday:

1) Update your blogs with your notes on the trailers we have analysed so far (including Winter's Bone, Boy called Dad, Dark Knight

2) Update your blogs with your homework which I set and was due in last week! I am still waiting for work from Jordan and Livi (please email me this also). The trailers for analysis are on the Alleyn's Blog site here

3) This week's homework was to : choose your own theatrical trailer and teaser trailer and make notes on how it fulfills the list of trailer conventions which we wrote down last lesson. I would suggest that you look at a genre which interests you. This analysis should be handed into me on Friday.

Work hard. I will be looking at your blogs and checking my email for work this evening.
My email address is: leggam@alleyns.org.uk

Postmodern Media - the World Cup and technology

2010-06-28T10:52:00.003+01:00

Despite being depressed I thought I'd get at least ONE World cup story into our media lessons...

It is claimed that there are 700 journalists covering Brazil at the World Cup. Dunga, the team's manager, has already determined that there are more than enough regardless of the exact figure. He protests that this horde of pundits "terrorise fans" as they vie with one another to produce inflammatory stories.

Whatever the truth of that, the tournament continues to grow both in financial terms and in its power to obsess the planet. This is the sixth World Cup I have covered and because I am on the England beat nowadays there are particular contrasts.

Click on the heading to find out more...

Cover work for Monday 21st June

2010-06-21T07:34:00.003+01:00

Apologies but I can't make it in today.

I'd like you to continue/begin preparation for the short presentation to be delivered on Monday.

You need to select a film that has a website, poster and trailer you can access.

There are links on this blog that you can use if you can't find a film of your own.

I'd like you to make notes under the following headings:

Genre - what's the genre of the film and how do the poster, trailer and website indicate this?

Narrative - what do you think the story of the film might be based on the trailer, website and poster? What clues are you given?

Audience - what indicates the likely audience for your chosen film?

How are the characters represented in the website, poster and trailer?

More generally I'd like you to look for connections between the three sides to the promotion of your chosen film. Think about the documentary we watched - think about consistency of messages - fonts - central images - how does your film work as a package?

I'll be back in on Wednesday and will see you then.

E-mail me any problems.

Mr Grogan

Film Industry - Can Ridley Scott give Alien new life with 3D prequels?

2010-06-18T13:45:00.004+01:00

Another example of the increasing importance of 3D to Hollywood...

The director's focus on the enigmatic 'space jockey' is intriguing, but will he be able to preserve the original's dark claustrophobia? Click for more details...

The Film Industry - Avatar lifts the lid off Pandora's box of merchandising

2010-06-15T15:11:00.002+01:00

James Cameron's 3D behemoth seeks to expand its empire once again - this time into the chilling realm of 'legacy product'.

The Film Industry - Economists defend UK film tax breaks

2010-06-07T15:16:00.002+01:00

UK Film Council welcomes Oxford Economics report over concerns that ending filmmaking relief will cost economy.

Ending the tax relief given out to encourage filmmaking in the UK would cost the economy £1.4bn, a report on the economics of the British film industry warned today .

The UK Film Council, which represents the industry, is concerned about the impact of possible government cuts. Its chief executive, John Woodward, said the 104-page report, by Oxford Economics, was "timely".

Postmodern Media Presentations

2010-05-21T12:15:00.003+01:00

Here's the first Postmodern Media presentation to help with your revision.

Click on the links to take you to the other presentations at slideshare.net

01 Contemporary Media Issues Intro To Section B - Part 1

View more presentations from Alleyn’s School Media Studies Department.

Postmodern Media - The new wave of fan films

2010-05-18T22:42:00.004+01:00

A couple of clicks away on the web are scores of films made by fans – by turns hilarious, ingenious and ambitious. Lurking among their makers might be Hollywood's next generation. Jane Graham guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 May 2010

Many still regard them as flatulent waste products of the socially deficient unemployed-layabout community. In most cases, they're pretty much right. But it looks increasingly likely that some of the amateur fan films that pervade YouTube and other online broadcasters will one day be cherished by movie-lovers as the formative works of the next generation of cutting-edge film-makers.

The idea of the fan film – an amateur, not-for-profit work inspired by a commercial movie, TV show or comic book – isn't new. Even before science fiction conventions in the 1970s began to provide sizeable audiences for homemade homages to much-loved sci-fi/fantasy franchises, teenage movie geeks such as Hugh Hefner and Batman fan Andy Warhol were finding their film-making feet making short and shaky tributes to their favourite flicks.

What has changed, in ways that could have a serious impact on commercial cinema in the next decade, is the level of quality, professionalism and ambition in the cream of the contemporary fan-film crop. The wide availability of cheap and portable high-calibre equipment, instant distribution through the internet, and the increased involvement of acting and film-school graduates, means that the most popular offerings are no longer characterised by (in the words of veteran fan film-maker Larry Longstreth) "some goofy dipshit with access to a few costumes on the top of a parking deck". They're just as likely to be sharp, witty, original pieces of work with impressive production values and strong performances.

These films take themselves, and their audiences, very seriously, and find reward in doing so. Some of them, like last year's highly ambitious Lord of the Rings prequel, The Hunt for Gollum, were preceded by a number of teasers and trailers "announced" online before the film's unveiling – in Gollum's case at the Sci-Fi London film festival. Many of them – like the full-length, lovingly rendered Return of the Ghostbusters – will be screened in independent cinemas as part of fan-organised events all over the world. Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer, a clever, knowing, and very funny parody of the Oscar-chasing Hollywood promo, made by a couple of film-school graduates in Atlanta, had half a million hits on the first weekend it went up on YouTube in March – that's 499,989 more people than went to see Uma Thurman in Motherhood on its opening weekend in the UK.

...Click on the title of this post to take you to the original article

Here's three of the best fan movies...

Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer - this is a work of genius...

Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney took 10 days "from first draft to final edit" to compose this well-crafted parody of Hollywood trailer clichés and have seen their stock rise.

See it: bit.ly/b70pRr

Wes Anderson Spider-Man

This trailer for the new Spider-Man – if Anderson were directing – was inspired by 20-year-old student Jeff Loveness's passion for "absurdist" comedy such as Monty Python and The Office.

See it: bit.ly/by7bwa

The Hunt for Gollum

Despite its paltry budget of £3,000, British computer engineer Chris Bouchard's Lord of the Rings prequel is seriously slick. The 40-minute-long work has notched up more than 5m views.

See it: bit.ly/BSoVy

Postmodern Media - Special Effects Film Legend Ray Harryhausen Interviewed

2010-04-18T15:21:00.004+01:00

Ray Harryhausen, the greatest stop-motion animator in the world...Stop-motion animation is a kind of alchemy. With little more than metal, latex and cotton wool, Harryhausen shaped the terrifying sword-wielding skeletons of Jason and the Argonauts, the monstrous sea-dwelling Kraken of Clash of the Titans and the horned, cloven-hoofed Cyclops from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

His creatures have presence. You can see the human hand at work in their movements, but it doesn’t matter. It’s as magical as if your toys awoke one day and began to walk about. Stop-motion is also the most enormous test of patience – “not”, Harryhausen admits, “everybody’s cup of tea”. Click on the title to find out more about a true, living, film legend and one of Mr Grogan's favourite filmmakers...and here's a clip from one of his best films, forget the acting and checkout the special effects...

The Film Industry - British film funding takes a new direction

2010-03-31T15:13:00.003+01:00

The priorities are excellence (buzz word du jour) and tackling the unknown digital future...

Postmodern Media - Video games: the addiction

2010-03-21T15:51:00.001Z

Tom Bissell was an acclaimed, prize-winning young writer. Then he started playing the video game Grand Theft Auto. For three years he has been cocaine addicted, sleep deprived and barely able to write a word. Any regrets? Absolutely none.

Once upon a time I wrote in the morning, jogged in the late afternoon and spent most of my evenings reading. Once upon a time I wrote off as unproductive those days in which I had managed to put down "only" a thousand words. Once upon a time I played video games almost exclusively with friends. Once upon a time I did occasionally binge on games, but these binges rarely had less than a fortnight between them. Once upon a time I was, more or less, content...

AS & A2 Media Studies - Decoding Britain's digital divide

2010-02-03T14:50:00.002Z

Society is split between those who embrace technology and those who don't have the skills – or the money – to live in a wired world. Tim Walker explains the drive for cyber-equality in today's Independent...

The Film Industry - 3D TV: The shape of things to come...

2010-02-03T14:48:00.004Z

From sport to soaps, its disciples believe it will revolutionise the way we watch. But is 3D TV really a giant leap forward in entertainment – or could it be an expensive flop? David McNeill reports for The Independent

The Film Industry - Some say it's poverty porn - but not many...

2010-02-01T13:42:00.002Z

Here in India, films about poverty used to cause great offence. But not Slumdog Millionaire

Ian Jack The Guardian, Saturday 24 January 2009

A foreign director comes to India and shoots a film that in part depicts considerable cruelty, poverty and squalor. The Indian government is outraged when the BBC broadcasts the film. There are official protests; severe restrictions are imposed on the BBC and any other foreign organisation that wants to film in India; the director never enters the country again. Forty years pass. Another foreign director shoots a film in India in which the cruelty, poverty and squalor are even more horrid. It wins four Golden Globes and 10 Oscar nominations. Most of India is delighted; domestic film-makers are chided for the timidity of their vision and mindless escapism of their output.

The first director is Louis Malle, whose documentary series, Phantom India, examined some indisputable truths about so much of Indian life. The second is Danny Boyle, whose Slumdog Millionaire, pictured below, takes some of the same truths, dramatises and exaggerates them inside a fantastical story - which slum boy is going to jump into an oozing latrine, even for the autograph of Amitabh Bachchan? - set to Bollywood melodies. Something has happened in the years between these films, to western as well as to Indian sensibilities. The reasons are complicated, but perhaps the main ones are that Indian society is a thousand times more confident, that the word "vulgar" has vanished from the critical lexicon, and that the world has grown very small.

India has always had a difficult relationship with its easily observable poverty. Thirty years ago, the government's PR departments would express a sullen disappointment that foreign writers were so "obsessed" by it. Its depiction abroad was seen, with just a little justice, as a plot against national ambition.

In the 1920s, the American writer Katherine Mayo had been helped by the British administration to research a book, Mother India, which demonstrated how unfit India was for self-government. Child marriages, hopeless sanitary habits. Mahatma Gandhi famously described it as "the report of a drain inspector", but while it may have been inspired as a work of imperial propaganda, many of its facts were true.

In the 1960s, another foreigner, VS Naipaul, made squalor more vivid. His Indian ancestry offered no protection against unpopularity. Indians stood accused of selling the country short. Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali put Indian cinema on the map and is now considered a monument to humanism. But in 1955 its account of an impoverished family in Bengal drew a hostile response in some government circles and Ray was accused of "exporting poverty".

The same charge is now levelled against Boyle. His "poverty porn" is damaging the image of a country on the brink of becoming a superpower. So far as I can tell, that's a minority opinion. Bachchan, the great Bollywood star, made some mild remarks implying that the world took notice of Indian cinema only when a foreigner hijacked its techniques, and he was widely condemned for what was taken to be spite. Fewer people now believe that a single film can represent the Indian generality - supposing such a thing exists - to a foreign audience, who knows, or should know, of India's tremendous variety and compelling social change. And there are now so many ways to know - mass tourism, business travel, the web, hundreds of satellite channels. And anyway, who cares? It's only a film, and not a serious one at that, dealing as it does in the bestselling cliches of the Mumbai film industry. Poor man makes good, finds lost love, gets rich, lives happily ever after.

The more interesting question is: whom do we trust to best describe the experience of the poor? Ideally, the answer should be the poor themselves, but even in much more equal societies than India's that has always been a rarity. Dickens spent some of his childhood in a blacking factory, DH Lawrence's dad worked down the pit, but usually descriptions of the poor come from higher social castes. Writing is essentially a middle-class activity for a middle-class audience. In India, very few accounts of poverty have come from the people who know what it means. Literacy, opportunity, time, inclination: these are formidable barriers. Almost every Indian novel heard of in Britain has come from the Anglophone elite.

The author of Slumdog is no exception. The film was adapted from a first novel called Q&A (now retitled as a film tie-in) by Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat. This week I met him at the Jaipur Literary Festival, where he was one of the week's big events. Schoolgirls queued to get his signature, displaying all the grave and intelligent deference ("Thank you, sir, please put 'To Priya'") that will one day be put to use ruling the world. He was modest and polite. In the evening, among the large audience gathered on the lawn to hear him speak, a deferential questioner asked, "Sir, you have become a very famous writer. Many of us wish to write. Can you tell us, sir, how you did it?" And Swarup replied that he just sat down and wrote, and if he could do it, anybody could.

He was born into a distinguished legal family and entered the foreign service in 1986. He had no great ambition to be a writer. What struck me was his immense practicality. He grew up enjoying James Hadley Chase and Alastair Maclean and ignored India's fashionable new generation of novelists until his early forties. They were all very "literary". He had spotted a gap in the market. He would write an Indian thriller.

While posted in London, he was intrigued by the story of Major Charles Ingram on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? He sat down to write. Several agents turned him down, but one took him up. The novel was finished quickly - "20,000 words in one weekend", he said. And a year before it was published, there were rejections here, too, the film rights had been bought. Five years later, it has been translated into 36 languages.

Swarup has never been inside a Mumbai slum, but poverty in India was impossible to ignore. "The brown arm snakes through your car's open window and asks you for alms," he said. "No man is an island in India." This contradicts my own experience. Many people are islands, joined in an archipelago of social position. Becoming island-like offers you best hope of enduring sights that seem impossible to alter, and prevailing against the consequent despair.

Still, even as I write that sentence I see in it an old-fashioned attitude, dating from the time when India was filled with conversations about what could be done, when the poor were fretted over and documentarians such as Malle put anger into their work. Much good did it do. As objects of pity, the poor were one-dimensional. Swarup and Boyle show instead what they call the triumphant human spirit of the slums, and there are now trips around Dharavi, the Slumdog slum, to show tourists that feistiness at work. It certainly shows they are human, as imperfect as us, but could it be that our new approach also reveals self-interested pragmatism? Some facts can't be changed. The poor will always be with us, and we may as well make the best of them.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

The Film Industry - The Million-Dollar Question - Slumdog Millionaire

2010-02-01T13:38:00.003Z

Homegrown movies are attracting audiences and accolades and yet the industry is under threat - with even Slumdog backer Film4 facing uncertainty. So is there a future for British film? Stephen Armstrong reports - The Guardian, Monday 23 February 2009

On the face of it, times couldn't be better for British film - with Slumdog Millionaire's awards success so far adding to a huge growth in audiences. Cinema admissions are bucking the downturn trend, as figures released last week proved - the UK box office had the strongest January performance for five years with takings of £100m, according to Nielsen EDI, while total admissions rose 7.7% year on year.

At least three major Hollywood productions start shooting in the UK this year - Gulliver's Travels, Nottingham, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - as well as Film4's post-Slumdog projects such as Peter Jackson's and DreamWorks's film of The Lovely Bones and Sam Taylor Wood's Lennon biopic, Nowhere Boy.

Behind the scenes, however, there are problems - TV and DVD revenues have fallen, the credit crunch has stopped British banks lending to indie producers, and the consequent delays are threatening to wipe out indie productions before they've even started. There are those who fear a more fundamental threat in 2009 - that a possible merger between Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide could permanently damage both BBC Films and Film4. If it does, Slumdog, In Bruges and Revolutionary Road could be the last of their kind.

"I'm concerned we're at a tipping point for British film," says Andy Harries, chief executive of Left Bank and producer of 2006's Oscar-nominated movie The Queen as well as next month's The Damned Utd. "The future is very uncertain. C4 and the BBC are the only source of funds for anyone who isn't Working Title and when times are tough for broadcasters a film company can look like a bit of a luxury."

Reports last week suggested that merger talks had settled on a joint venture between C4 and BBCWW, combining E4, More4 and Film4 with various BBC digital channels. The move worries John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council: "We only have a few sources of funding for riskier projects in the UK - us, BBC Films, Film4 and a couple of others," he explains. "Any suggestion that we reduce that would be very damaging."

Harries also fears a separation of Film4 and C4 could damage talent. "TV and film are so intertwined in the UK," he argues. "Channel 4 are arguing they should survive based on their PSB remit - well, if Channel 4 were to go, what would I miss most? The films.

"Inside the BBC, without [former fiction head] Jane Tranter there's no one leading the creative tub-thumping for film, while all the indicators were that Film4 had more than a whiff of endangered species about it until the huge success of Slumdog."

The woman behind Slumdog is Tessa Ross - C4's controller of film and drama. She famously bought the rights to the book after reaching chapter three of the unpublished manuscript. Then she quickly packed The Full Monty's Simon Beaufoy off to Mumbai to research the screenplay. She believes a proposed merger would bring significant change.

"I don't think change is bad if there's a wholehearted great vision that carries us through it," she says. "I have an overview of film and telly. I have a brilliant head of drama and she makes all her own decisions. I can help if necessary, but most importantly - and this is the point about telly making film - I say here is a single door. Inside we make telly and we make film. Drama, documentaries, arts - all our commissioning editors work with talent that has aspirations to make film."

Ross highlights Four Lions - Chris Morris's film about British jihadis, currently in pre-production - as an example of this relationship. TV companies rejected the script but it found funding through WarpX - a Film4/UK Film Council joint project with the Sheffield-based indie Warp - that can finance three low-budget films a year.

"The point of public money is to make stuff that the market doesn't want to make," she argues. "You need the freedom to take risks because that's always where the biggest British hits come from. I'm not making derivative films - that feels cynical and the studios do it better than us. So you can't work at market rate - and with Slumdog that meant working with [the production company] Celador to pay more than the market would."

After starting Slumdog, the producers approached Celador to secure the rights to the gameshow Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. The makers of the TV quiz co-financed the film.

"At other times we develop films that no one else wants to pick up - which makes it harder to raise the money. But that's our job. If you knew what would make it you'd be a studio, wouldn't you?"

Ross has a relatively limited budget of £8-£10m a year for Film4's entire output. Typically, independent producers looking to make £4-5m movies will use public money to develop projects, then take the script and proposal to film festivals in the US, Cannes and Berlin to secure distribution agreements. Each distribution contract acts as collateral in securing bank loans to start production. Adam Kulick, a partner at Goldcrest, warns that the credit crunch means those loans have dried up.

Vicious circle

"Producers are having real trouble starting productions and they survive on production fees - which means some may go out of business in the downturn," Kulick explains. "At the same time, those distribution agreements they can secure are worth less this year as overseas markets struggle with their own recessions. You can see the beginning of a vicious circle developing. Producers are having to go further and further afield to places such as the Middle East for cash."

The creative industries are notoriously conservative about new forms of funding, with most industry insiders supporting the publicly funded status quo. Only a few companies, with Working Title the biggest, operate like commercial studios. Kulick, however, does praise the film-financing tax break that the government launched two years ago.

Woodward agrees. "It's very simple, the downside is protected and HMRC is very quick in processing claims," he says. "It's got a very good reputation in the industry - here and abroad. What I think you will find is that what money we do have tends to end up in the best films. The independent slate for 2009 is very strong and we've got high hopes for the films that will get released."

The Labour governments of the past 12 years are seen as largely supportive of British film. The other plus for UK film is that, while the downturn is forcing C4 into merger talks and hitting producers' credit lines, the fall in the value of sterling is making the UK a very attractive place for Hollywood studios to film.

"The UK's talent and creative base is very strong," says David Kosse, president of Universal Pictures International, who is preparing to release Richard Curtis's new movie The Boat That Rocked, in April.

"Couple that with the weakness of the pound and that's attracting strong inward investment from the US. Some of last year's biggest pictures - such as The Dark Knight and Mamma Mia! - were shot in the UK so Pinewood and Shepperton [studios] are feeling pretty optimistic after a difficult few years. Having said that, this further underlines the need for a strong UK independent sector.

"You can't have actors, craftspeople and camera crews who only work on a couple of big pictures a year - they need to be working all the time to make sure the creative base remains strong."

Which brings the argument back to Film4. Sadly, Oscar recognition is unlikely to secure much more cash for the unit. Slumdog is highly profitable - having returned four times its initial costs - but only a small proportion of this profit will return to C4. For Ross, however, the profit isn't the main point.

"I'm very concerned that public money for film is protected and I've always thought that the fact that we're end users - that we have always had film in our DNA - has meant we know our purpose in film," she argues.

"Protecting public money for film and protecting Channel 4, well, I would like them to be the same thing but they don't have to be. Change, when it comes, and it will come, will hopefully be about a wholehearted vision for a sustainable public service."

Harries, however, is less sanguine. "For some reason we have an incredibly strong TV culture in this country and yet a very ambivalent relationship with cinema," he says. "I don't know why that is and it's a shame. If you had the scripts for The Full Monty, The Queen and Slumdog purely on the small screen, they'd still be great scripts but the simple fact of them beginning as movies means they have far more cultural impact and will still be talked about for years to come.

"We're facing a real battle and we've got to win it - because it's more important than ever. People have to realise that we can't afford to lose British film."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

Postmodern Media - New BBC Series on the Virtual Revolution - go to the Homesite here

2010-01-30T21:25:00.003Z

Postmodern Media - Batten down the hatches. Augmented reality is on its way

2010-01-19T11:22:00.002Z

According to technophiles, experts, and that whispering voice in your head, 2010 will be the year that augmented reality makes a breakthrough. In case you don't know, "augmented reality" is the rather quotidian title given to a smart, gizmo-specific type of software that takes a live camera feed from the real world and superimposes stuff on to it in real time.

Being a gadget designed for people who'd rather look at a screen than the real world, the iPhone inevitably plays host to several examples of this sort of thing. Download the relevant app, hold your iPhone aloft and gawp in astonishment as it magically displays live footage of the actual world directly in front of you – just like the real thing but smaller, and with snazzy direction signs floating over it. You might see a magic hand pointing in the direction of the nearest Starbucks, for instance – a magic hand that repositions itself as you move around. It's incredibly useful, assuming you'd prefer to cause an almighty logjam by shuffling slowly along the pavement while staring into your palm than stop and ask a fellow human being for directions.

The Nintendo DSi has a built-in camera with a "fun mode" that can recognise the shape of a human face, and superimpose pig snouts or googly eyeballs and the like over your friends' visages when you point it at them. You can then push a button and save these images for posterity.

For a while, it's genuinely amusing ("Look! It's dad with a pair of zany computerised bunny ears sprouting from the top his head. Ha ha ha!"), until you realise there are only about six different options, two of which involve amusing glasses. If you could customise the options, you could make it automatically beam a Hitler moustache on to everyone in sight, which would improve baby photos a hundredfold – but you can't customise the options, probably for precisely that reason. You could print the picture out and draw the Hitler moustache on yourself with a marker pen, but that wouldn't be very 2010.

But while current examples of augmented reality might sound a tad underwhelming, the future possibilities are limitless. The moment they find a way of compressing the technology into a pair of lightweight spectacles, and the floating signs and bunny ears are layered directly over reality itself, the floodgates are open and you might as well tear your existing eyes out and flush them down the bin.

My goggles would visually transform homeless people

Years ago, I had an idea for a futuristic pair of goggles that visually transformed homeless people into lovable animated cartoon characters. Instead of being confronted by the conscience-pricking sight of an abandoned heroin addict shivering themselves to sleep in a shop doorway, the rich city-dweller wearing the goggles would see Daffy Duck snoozing dreamily in a hammock. London would be transformed into something out of Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

What's more, the goggles could be adapted to suit whichever level of poverty you wanted to ignore: by simply twisting a dial, you could replace not just the homeless but anyone who receives benefits, or wears cheap clothes, or has a regional accent, or watches ITV, and so on, right up the scale until it had obliterated all but the most grandiose royals.

At the time this seemed like a sick, far-off fantasy. By 2013, it'll be just another customisable application you can download to your iBlinkers for 49p, alongside one that turns your friends into supermodels and your enemies into dormice.

And don't go thinking augmented reality is going to be content with augmenting what you see. It's a short jump from augmented vision (your beergut's vanished and you've got a nice tan), to augmented audio (constant reactive background music that makes your entire life sound more like a movie), to augmented odour (break wind and it smells like a casserole), and augmented touch (what concrete bench? It feels like a beanbag). Eventually, painful sensations such as extreme temperature and acute physical discomfort could be remixed into something more palatable. With skilful use of technology, dying in a blazing fireball could be rendered roughly half as traumatic as, say, slightly snagging a toenail while pulling off a sock.

Some people will say there's something sinister and wrong about all of this. They'll claim it's better to look at actual people and breathe actual air. But then they've never lived in Reading. And anyway, even if they're right, we'll all ignore them anyway, because the software will automatically filter them out the moment they open their mouths.

In other words, over the coming years we're all going to be willingly submitting to the Matrix, injecting our eyes and ears with digital hallucinogens until there's no point even bothering to change our pants any more. Frightening? No. In fact, I'll scarcely notice

Postmodern Media - Second Life

2010-01-03T13:47:00.004Z

Digital Humanities address changing nature of knowledge in seminar featured on Second Life - Jan 2009

After much economic gloom and confusion in 2008, the new year is a good time to reflect on an increasingly vital issue for universities: The future of knowledge in the digital age.

Under an initiative sponsored by a $2.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation two years ago, faculty, postdoctoral fellows and guest scholars from more than 10 departments are exploring new research methodologies and disciplinary paradigms in the humanities. On Jan. 5, they met for the latest in a series of “Media, Technology, and Culture” seminars that offers vital insights from experts in the evermore collaborative fields of media studies, game theory and literary and cultural studies.

In a relatively new twist to Internet-enabled distance learning, the “Humanities Tools in Digital Contexts” seminar was also featured on Second Life (SL), the San Francisco-based 3-D metaverse that some call the campus of the future. Numerous universities, colleges and schools offer courses or educational programs in the digital realm, where they own virtual “islands.” Their representatives communicate with people in “real life” through cartoonlike virtual characters known as their “avatars,” or online alter-egos.

Click here for more details:

http://www.today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/digital-humanities-address-changing-77394.aspx

Now available on Twitter!

2009-12-27T19:38:00.000Z

A2 Advanced Production - Guardian Article on Film Trailers

2009-12-21T13:40:00.006Z

The new rebel film trailers

Movie trailers used to be pretty formulaic – just show the best bits – but, in the age of the internet viral, they're now works of art in themselves.

If you're looking for art or auteurship at the cinema, you're likely to be waiting for the main feature, not concentrating on the trailers for what were quaintly known as "coming attractions". As long as they have existed, trailers have been the tool of film marketing departments aiming solely to secure the maximum number of bums on seats. Experimentation with the form has not been a big part of the story. There have been brief flourishes of artistic advancement, such as the move towards fast-edit montages led by Kubrick in the early 1960s, and periodical oddities, like Hitchcock's personally hosted guided tour of the Bates Motel for Psycho, and the mock advertisement for the Ghostbusters' services, which led to the advertised phone number taking 1,000 calls an hour for six weeks in 1984. But the vast majority of studio-financed trailer-makers have played it safe, their audience-tested trailers following the basic three-act rule of set-up, jeopardy and emotional- or action-based blow-out.

Now, however, thanks mainly to that feral little monster, the internet, and one of its most recent and riotous offspring, the viral, there are strong signs of a creeping rebellion in trailer-making. The teams behind trailers for the likes of Cloverfield, The Dark Knight, District 9, Paranormal Activity and Inglourious Basterds have risen to the challenge of the new frontier, ushering in what might reasonably be considered a golden age of invention in the field. The future direction of film marketing is unclear, and that provides fertile ground for risk-taking – not because the studios have learned to stop worrying and take a punt, but because they're navigating unknown territory. It's not quite the wild west out there, but a comparison to the early days of rock'n'roll might stand up.

"The studios have had to learn to relax in terms of controlling film promo," says Ryan Parsons, owner of Traileraddict.com, a site that gathers and posts trailers. "The internet is wild. Things come out before they're supposed to, info is leaked, footage is leaked. The studios are just now learning how to exploit that, rather than try to curtail it. The marketing people I've talked to say that even when they're chasing down the source of a leak now, they know it doesn't really harm them – it all reminds people the film exists."

Trailers are immensely popular online. According to research by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists, movie trailers rank third in popularity among the 10bn videos viewed online every year, after news and user-created video. The growth of social networking sites, and particularly the instant buzz of Twitter, in the last two years have moved the goalposts. That process has been further boosted by the development of movie virals – which count online-only videos and interactive "alternate reality" games among their techniques for sucking punters in. The street-smart trailer-makers are the ones involved in multi-platform campaigns for which the release of the trailer is either the climax or the launchpad.

JJ Abrams' Cloverfield trailer, released in July 2007, was a brilliant example of the latter. Shown in US cinemas before the blockbuster Transformers, this teaser used footage from what looked like a home movie featuring screaming, running crowds and explosions in New York. Flying in the face of the first commandment of film promo (consistently supported by market research) that the more the trailer explains and reveals, the more commercially effective it is, it was devoid of information and untitled – only a release date and the name of JJ Abrams appeared onscreen.

"In the case of Cloverfield the trailer started the viral," says Nick Butler, who runs the site movieviral.com. "People watched the trailer over and over to look for clues, because the whole thing was such a mystery. Some people thought it was about terrorism, or maybe it had something to do with Lost [Abrams's TV series]. The trailer sent people off to check out the associated website, thousands of people did exactly that and the online buzz grew like crazy. Over the next few months, we were sent all over the internet. In the end I saw the film four times, constantly looking for links between it and the trailer."

Cloverfield is a perfect example of a trailer that capitalised on the new, more demanding world in which trailers now operate. They must fight for attention online against hundreds of others, be available for viewing 24/7, and face the fact that while they might spark a rush of excitement, they can also cause a sigh of disappointment. Cloverfield also proved that for those studios willing to take the new challenges head on, the rewards could be plentiful. No surprise then that Sony moved in on the action, steering the team at LA's Create Advertising towards a similar approach for Neill Blomkamp's alien thriller District 9.

"The studio had a big online and billboard campaign planned," says David Stern, owner of Create. "They were working on the notion that maybe it was better to pose questions in the trailer than tell people everything. When we found out about their campaign, we actually ditched our first, more traditional, story-orientated, trailer for one that just implied that something is going on in District 9 but we're not telling you what. We even made two versions – one blurred the alien and didn't subtitle his words, so it really made people wonder what was going on."

The experiment paid off – District 9 took $37m on its opening weekend this August and stayed strong through the summer. Sony approached its early trailers for Roland Emmerich's 2012 in the same way, again backing them up with a wave of viral marketing.

Trailer-maker Mark Rance has been a victim of the studios' natural timidity in the past. His daring ideas for promos for The Prestige, which proposed to use the screen like a theatre stage, complete with red-curtain framing, were received with enthusiasm by director Christopher Nolan and his producer-partner Emma Thomas, but rejected by Touchstone Pictures. A mere year on however, he was involved in a campaign for The Dark Knight that saw the studios, increasingly aware of the possibilities for a film's extra-curricular online life, loosen up a little.

Rance was hired to direct a series of online trailers titled Gotham Tonight. They aired once a week for the six weeks leading up to the film's release and expanded on an ostensibly minor thread within it, prior knowledge of which was rewarded with a narrative pay-off in the movie.

The Dark Knight was accompanied by a wildly varied and imaginative viral which involved numerous websites, interactive games and a treasure hunt, climaxing with the Imax-hosted launch of a six-minute trailer showing the effervescent heist scene from the film (James Cameron went seven minutes better with the Imax-premiered Avatar trailer this August). Rance agrees that the dawn of virals and Twitter have forced the studios to experiment with trailers, but he firmly believes that their inherent conservatism will lead to a more homogenised approach once they get their heads around the territory.

"Clamping down is part of the system," he says. "They'll end up just copying other ideas that have worked. Of course a viral shouldn't be a repeat of another viral, it should be like improvised jazz, taking on its own life. But to call the studios cautious – that's a polite way of putting it."

As David Stern suggests, the most significant impact that Rance's "improv" virals have had on trailers has been to free them from a commitment to plot information. The best online trailers don't go beyond "teaser" territory, needing only to intrigue, or even confuse, to set film fans off on a detective's quest. This has allowed for some genuinely innovative and smart promo work, like the fake news report on Dr Manhattan that formed part of the alternative Watchmen universe, and the Coraline trailer in which Neil Gaiman gravely described the effects of koumpounophobia, the fear of buttons, which set the tone for his script.

Also fantastically curiosity-pricking was the trailer for the German war film Nation's Pride – "by Alois von Eichberg" – which seemed to come from nowhere when it debuted this August. Nation's Pride turned out to be the (Eli Roth-directed) film within the film of Inglourious Basterds and, apart from ramping up the Basterds-related buzz, it showed film fans that Tarantino was truly one of them, an enthusiast who had fun with the parallel online life of the movie.

Cheeringly, the incredible word of mouth around the hugely successful $11,000 budget horror Paranormal Activity – bolstered by what Hugo Grumbar, president of distribution at Icon Films, calls an "experience trailer" showing terrified audiences' reaction – proves that viral marketing is not restricted to top-end films. In fact imagination and original thinking is more crucial to the success of this kind of marketing than big bucks, as the mid-budget District 9 also showed.

Of course there are other, more subtle, ways of exploiting the opportunities that high-speed word of mouth presents and the ever-pioneering Disney Pixar is master of the "double hit". Pixar has always made pester-power-engendering trailers, full of high-speed adventure and snappy one-liners, then rewarded parents with the high quality of its finished films. Recently it has gone further, hitting unsuspecting mums and dads with mournful stories of broken-hearted widowers and a surprisingly faithful, highly literary Dickens adaptation, ensuring a whole new promotional afterlife for Up and A Christmas Carol after their release.

Grumbar admits he attempted a similar trick with Icon's Bridge to Terabithia. "I thought if we slightly missold the trailer as Narnia or something like that, people wouldn't feel cheated when they saw the film because it was satisfying for all kinds of audiences. Did it pay off? Absolutely."

AS/A2 Productions - Presentation on Viral Marketing

2009-12-12T17:14:00.004Z

Viral Marketing Keynote

View more documents from rikhudson.

Thanks to Rik Hudson for this.

Teaser Trailer Examples from Other Schools

November Assessment Tasks

2009-11-30T12:38:00.002Z

Jordan and Livie's Assessment Task

Luke and Ben's Assessment Task

A2 Media Studies - Narratives - Vladimir Propp and Tsvetan Todorov

2009-10-13T13:01:00.004+01:00

Vladimir Propp

Propp - analysed the basic components of Russian fairy tales in ‘The Morphology of the Folk Tale’. He claimed there were only 8 broad character types in all the stories he analysed. These are:

the villain;
the donor (gives the hero some magical object);
the (magical) helper who helps the hero in the quest;
the princess (person the hero marries OR a dream or desire which is sought after in the same way);
her father;
the dispatcher (who sends the hero off);
the hero/victim;
the false hero or usurper.

How can these characters been seen, broadly, in the genre of your film? Sometimes one character can play more than one role.

There are differences in the interpretation of Propp's heroic tales in different genres.

The villain is a major character in the horror genre as this genre is based around them – Dracula?

The donor can be a key character in any genre - in the latest Batman, who’s Batman without his Batmobile (or his butler Alfred) or Bond doesn’t get far without Q’s gadgets in some of the earlier Bond films.

The helper in the horror genre is often killed off separately which contributes to a general sense of fear on behalf of the audience whereas in the Western the hero often needs some help in their mission – who is the Lone Ranger without Tonto? Or in the comic book movie, where’s Batman without Robin…

The princess is often in horror seen not as a person but a reward. If characters are threatened by evil in the film then the reward is to stay alive. However in the action/adventure genre the princess is often a central character who needs rescuing (damsel in distress)?

The father of the princess is rarely seen in the horror genre yet often a major part of the Western.

The dispatcher tends in crime/gangster films to be a higher authority figures (a police captain) but in film noir is often a criminal boss sending the hero after the princess (femme fatale).

The hero/victim - all horror films rely on at least one of these sometimes the hero can also be interpreted as the victim (they encounter disturbing events during the storyline).

The false hero or usurper – very common in film noir as the genre tends to not be straightforward and false heroes often appear in narratives with twists.

Tzvetan Todorov suggested there were five stages to a narrative:

Equilibrium
A disruption of this equilibrium by an event
A realisation that a disruption has happened
An attempt to repair the damage of the disruption
A restoration of the equilibrium which may be a new or changed one

This is a very basic film theory and can be applied to almost any movie.

It does not, however, cover all complex events.

A2 Media - Advanced Production - Trailer Analysis

2009-09-25T12:32:00.012+01:00

These are the films you have been asked to watch over the next week for homework. Choose one to analyse in detail, answering the same questions set for the 'Control' trailer. Here are the questions again:

What is a trailer designed to do?

Generate interest in the film;
Inform the audience about the release date?
Show off the stars of the film;
Show the film to its best advantage;
Create excitement/interest;
Tell people what the film is about, e.g. the genre;
Not give too much of the plot away;
Tease the audience by setting up narrative enigmas;
Showcase some of the best bits of the film;
Give details about the production team?

Does your chosen trailer do this?

Watch your chosen trailer several times. Then write one paragraph answering the questions listed below.

Q1. Discuss the use of codes and conventions used in the construction of this film trailer.
Q2. Consider the representations of people and places in this film trailer.
Q3. What does this film trailer tell us about the institutions involved?
Q4. Explore some of the ways in which this film trailer communicates with its target audiences.

Trailer for 'Let the Right One In' (2008)

Trailer for 'La Haine' (1995)

Trailer for 'Leon' (1994)

Trailer for 'Bullet Boy' (2007)

Trailer for 'My Summer of Love (2007)

Trailer for 'Brick' (2005)

American Trailer for 'Dirty Pretty Things' (2002) - hmmm, what gives it away?

Trailer for 'Eastern Promises' (2007)

Film Industry - Fish Tank (UK 2009) d. Andrea Arnold

2009-09-12T22:03:00.024+01:00

Main Poster

Synopsis

Mia (played by newcomer Katie Jarvis) lives with her mom and younger sister and doesn't have any friends, or at least none that she likes. When her mum (Kierston Wareing) brings home a new boyfriend (Michael Fassbender), everything changes for her. It's not the polished, happy-go-lucky kind of story you'd see in America, but it's a gritty look at a girl who has few passions in life and is living day-to-day just to get by. So when Connor steps into her life, it sparks a bit of joy inside of her and gives her a new sense of direction, or so we think.

Q. What genre of film are the synopsis and main trailer suggestive of? Is there a cultural tradition in the U.K. of films like this? Are there any other film directors who work in this tradition?

Main Trailer

What is a trailer designed to do?

Generate interest in the film?
Inform the audience about the release date?
Show off the stars of the film?
Show the film to its best advantage?
Create excitement/interest?
Tell people what the film is about, e.g. the genre?
Not give too much of the plot away?
Tease the audience by setting up narrative enigmas?
Showcase some of the best bits of the film?
Give details about the production team?

Watch the trailer several times. Then write one paragraph answering the questions listed below.

Q1. Discuss the use of codes and conventions used in the construction of this film trailer.
Q2. Consider the representations of people and places in this film trailer.
Q3. What does this film trailer tell us about the institutions involved?
Q4. Explore some of the ways in which this film trailer communicates with its target audiences.

Production Companies

BBC Films - http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms/
UK Film Council - New Cinema Fund - http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/newcinemafund
Limelight - http://www.limelightfilm.com/

Q. List the details of the New Cinema Fund. What kind of filmmaker is it aimed at? What other films have been funded this way?

Distributor (UK)

Artificial Eye
http://www.artificial-eye.com/film.php?cinema=fishtank&plugs&qt=false&wm=false

Distributor (Worldwide)

ContentFilm International -
http://www.contentfilm.com/index.php/film_tv/contentfilm_international/new_films/762.html
Q. What kind of institutions are Artificial Eye and ContentFilm International? Who are they owned by? Where are they based?

Website - http://www.fishtankmovie.com/

IMDB - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1232776/

Reviews

Overview of the film - http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/movie/129893/fish-tank

http://www.newstatesman.com/film/2009/09/fish-tank-mia-arnold-essex

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/may/14/cannes-film-festival-andrea-arnold-fish-tank-review

http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=175378%C2%A7ion=review

http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/86764/fish-tank.html

Publicity

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2009/sep/10/trailerpark-drama

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2008/07_july/28/fishtank.shtml

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/cannes/article6288427.ece
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A56696881

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A16714631 - background information on the director’s earlier film ‘Red Road’.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAhPNz9rAVQ

http://www.totalfilm.com/features/the-story-behind-fish-tank

Trailer for Andrea Arnold's First Film Red Road (2006)

Released in 2003, 'Wasp' is Andrea Arnold's Oscar winning short film that stars Nathalie Press as a struggling single mother determined not to let her four young children prove an obstacle in the pursuit of rekindling a relationship with ex-boyfriend Danny Dyer. Dartford (Arnold's hometown) is the setting for this troubling film.

Q. What kind of messages do Arnold's films appear to send? What does she appear to be interested in?

The Film Industry - Case Study: Shifty (UK 2009) d. Eran Creevy

2009-09-09T18:24:00.025+01:00

Synopsis

From the website Eye for Film. After 4 years, Chris (Danny Mays) returns to where he grew up, it seems at first to attend a party, but his real motive is to catch up with his old buddy, Shifty (Riz Ahmed), who he left behind. Whilst away, Chris has settled into responsible adult life, with a mortgage and a good job, but he is shocked to discover that Shifty has started dealing hard drugs, supplied by the double dealing Glen (Jason Flemyng).

Although happy to see him, Shifty hasn't fully forgiven Chris for leaving in the first place, and we soon learn that the circumstances under which Chris left are more complicated than they first appear. They spend the next 24 hours together, with Chris watching Shifty as he deals to a variety of increasingly desperate customers from the community. Over the course of this day they are forced to confront the ghosts from the past that drove Chris away and the desperate and dangerous present that Shifty finds himself in, whilst re-discovering their friendship. Chris is once again given an opportunity to prove his loyalty to Shifty and to save Shifty from himself.

Based on Eran Creevy's teenage experiences, and boasting convincing performances from a cast of rising stars, the film cost just £100,000 and was funded by Film London's Microwave scheme, and delivered after a shooting schedule of just 18 days.

Main Trailer

Production Companies

Between The Eyes - http://www.betweentheeyes.co.uk/
Film London - http://www.filmlondon.org.uk/

Distributors

Metrodome Distribution (2009) (UK) (all media)
http://www.metrodomegroup.com/

Websites

Home - http://www.shiftyfilm.com/
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shifty_(film)
IMDB entry - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1104126/

Reviews

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/dvd-reviews/6043814/Shifty-DVD-review.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/apr/24/shifty-film-review

http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/reviews.php?id=7396

Background/Publicity

On The Set Of Shifty - http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/A31986741

Interviews with actor Daniel Mays and director Eran Creevy http://www.pyroradio.com/index.cfm/act/news_details/id/299

Funding by Film London: http://www.filmlondon.org.uk/press_details.asp?NewsID=938

Details of the Microwave scheme
http://www.filmlondon.org.uk/content.asp?CategoryID=779

http://microwave.filmlondon.org.uk/

Film Education site for Shifty - http://www.filmeducation.org/shifty/

DVD Trailer

ITN Press Release and Interview with Riz Ahmed

Riz MC / Sway & Plan B - Shifty

Video from the original motion picture soundtrack for Shifty starring Danny Mays and Riz Ahmed. The track features the film's star Riz MC as well as Sway and Plan B, and is produced by Blue Bear from True Tiger.

Questions on the Production and Distribution of Shifty

Q1. Production - From your reading - what does production involve? What was the inspiration behind Shifty? What were the difficulties of working on a low budget film? How did the Film London Microwave scheme help Shifty get produced? Where does the Microwave scheme get its money from? What other films have received money from the Microwave scheme?

Q2. Distribution - How does a company like Metrodome 'distribute' a film? How did Metrodome find out about Shifty? What is one of the most important ways a low budget film can find a distributor? How did being part of the Microwave scheme help Shifty find a distributor? Where is Metrodome based? What difficulties did Metrodome come up against as they attempted to 'market' Shifty?

Now watch these extracts from interviews with Ben Pugh and Rory Aitken (Co-Producers), Eran Creevy (Writer & Director) and the Kitchen Rehearsal Scene.

What do these add to your understanding of how this film got to be made?

Alleyn's Media Department

Creativity - G325 Section A

Web 2.0 and New Media technology

Coursework Guidance - Mark Schemes

A2 Coursework - Ancillary Tasks Powerpoints

Year 13 - Postmodernism - Latest Reading

Weeks 10 -16 Schedule: TRAILERS - YEAR 13

Crime Drama - Half Term Work

Case Study - London to Brighton - How to sell a low-budget British film

Year 12 Media Studies - Presentation on Convergence & Piracy

Year 12 Homework for Thursday 22nd September

Year 12 - Film Industry - How to make an intelligent blockbuster...

Summer Holiday Genre Research Essay (AML)

Postmodern Media - Summer Reading List - Films & TV

Jean Baudrillard and the Theory of Hyperreality

Trailer Research - AM LEGG

Vajazzled! How chavs have replaced working class people on Britain's TV

Are video games now more sophisticated than cinema?

Hollywood shuns intelligent entertainment. The games industry doesn't. Guess who's winning?

The Ethereal Mind - A2 Postmodern Media

If you go and see one film this Easter make it...Source Code

Nine Top Tips for Media Students...

Global recorded music sales fall almost $1.5bn amid increased piracy

Older women unhappy over their portrayal in films, survey shows

The 4G auction - a beginner's guide

SXSW film: The pros and cons of geek domination

Media Studies Glossary of Terms

The Lighter Side of Youth Crime: Urban film spoofs

Hollywood wants Red Riding Hood and Snow White to weave a box office spell...

How The King's Speech got an outside edge at the Oscars

Who Killed the UK Film Council?

New Film Industry Case Studies for 2010 - Brighton Rock (2010) d. Rowan Joffe

Sony profit down 8.6% in third quarter

Is the age of the critic over?

Making films got too easy says UK Film Council chief

Chauffeurs, cigars and clauses

Holiday Work - TV Drama for AML

Year 12 Research & Planning

Work for Media classes (during snow interruptions)

Year 12 Homework - TV DRAMA

Where now for the British film industry?

The UK film industry in statistics

UK film-makers 'frittering away millions'

Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner | No 12 in The Guardian list

Film Analysis Homework for AML

Film Council's closure claims its first big victim as Screen East agency folds

Film Power 100: the full list

A quarter of a century for Back to the Future

Trailer Production Timetable - an example (AMLEGG)

CONSTRUCTION

Post – Production

TRAILER COMPLETE: TUESDAY 14thDecember

The malign influence of Rupert Murdoch on British life - Discuss?

Charlie Brooker in The Guardian this week on newspapers and reality...

AS to A2 Skills Development Work for AML

Unit G325: 1A ) : SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Creativity

How creative were you at AS?Consider camera framing, lighting, narrative ideas, planning the brief, location choice, stylistic concept prior to editing?Originality?

Post-Production

UK Film Council: out to lunch?

UK Film Council axed

UK Film Council to be abolished!

Film Council axemen could murder an industry

Postmodern Media - Gaming moves in 3D direction at E3 expo

Cover Lesson Wed 30th June 2010 Period 6

Postmodern Media - the World Cup and technology

Cover work for Monday 21st June

Film Industry - Can Ridley Scott give Alien new life with 3D prequels?

The Film Industry - Avatar lifts the lid off Pandora's box of merchandising

The Film Industry - Economists defend UK film tax breaks

Postmodern Media Presentations

Postmodern Media - The new wave of fan films

Postmodern Media - Special Effects Film Legend Ray Harryhausen Interviewed

The Film Industry - British film funding takes a new direction

Postmodern Media - Video games: the addiction

AS & A2 Media Studies - Decoding Britain's digital divide

The Film Industry - 3D TV: The shape of things to come...

The Film Industry - Some say it's poverty porn - but not many...

The Film Industry - The Million-Dollar Question - Slumdog Millionaire

Postmodern Media - New BBC Series on the Virtual Revolution - go to the Homesite here

TRAILER COMPLETE: TUESDAY 14^thDecember

How creative were you at AS?Consider camera framing, lighting, narrative ideas, planning the brief, location choice, stylistic concept prior to editing?
Originality?