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

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

Film Analysis Homework for AML

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

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

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

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)

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?

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...

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

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?