Christmas Work for Year 13

Your mission is to complete all research into similar media texts for your film posters in a variety of presentational formats, complete your institutional research for your magazine (Empire/Little white Lies/Soight & Sound) and your analysis of at least 2/3 magazine covers each - that means 6-9 for the group of three and 3 for Blake - (they need not all be the same magazine but they should, perhaps be in a similar style).

You need to have an understanding of your audience for both poster and magazine (and trailer as well!).

A2 media film poster analysis from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Empire 2013 media_pack_fina_lv6 from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Little White Lies Black swan example from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Total film target_audience from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

A2 media Empire magazine cover and review from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

A2 Evaluations - How to jazz up your blog...

1. Padlet: this app allows you to put together a 'wall' of stuff. It looks a bit like Pinterest but is probably best used as a way of everyone in class putting up their ideas on a whiteboard, so it becomes like a 'live team wall' for sharing ideas and work done. Here's an example from a lower school english lesson:




2. Trello: this is effectively a 'digital to do list' and is ideal for long term group projects like coursework. You can organise things into three columns, for example, with 'to do', 'doing' and 'done' and gradually tasks shift to the third column, giving a sense of completion. Here's one from a diploma project:




3. Piktochart is an excellent tool for making infographics, which can look pretty good and express your information in really clear, visual terms. When you login, it even has fellow members online to help you with problems!

Or try infogr.am


4. Simplebooklet allows you to create attractive booklets from otherwise dull material and stick them online. It is a bit like templates for desktop publishing, but can certainly liven up your material:


5. Animoto: You may be familiar with this video editor, but if not, give it a try. It allows you to make up to 30 second videos out of stills, so is ideal for presenting bits of research as slightly more sophisticated slideshows.


6. bubbl.us - Free mind mapping software. This is a Web 2.0 tool that enables users to create mind mapping and brainstorming diagrams online. To begin, the main topic/concept is entered in to the parent bubble. Then ideas and thoughts are recorded in colorful text bubbles linked to the parent bubble. Users continue to add text bubbles which are color coded according to hierarchy.



7. Powtoon - You don’t need to be a professional animator to get started with PowToon today!

We provide all the animation tools you’ll ever need to immediately begin creating your own professional-looking animated explainer videos and animated presentations. From start to finish, you’ll be guided through a surprisingly simple process, resulting in eye-catching videos that will hook your audience without fail.

Or try any one of these free internet applications:

http://goanimate.com

http://www.voki.com

http://www.pixton.com

http://www.screencast-o-matic.com

https://www.surveymonkey.com

http://glogster.com

Exemplar Blog Posts for Year 12 Research and Planning

Now you have started your research and planning it is a good idea to use the work of students over the last few years to guide you as to what constitutes top level work.

Here's an example of a blog that received 19/20 for their planning:

On Max's Coursework sheet I wrote up the following:

Max demonstrated excellence in all of the Level 4 skills. Whilst he worked in a pair with Charlie, a lot of the Research was undertaken individually. Throughout the whole research and planning process he was tirelessly committed to the project. His research of the thriller genre is particularly impressive, analysing the more main stream thrillers alongside film noir openings and creating notes and mood boards on his influences in terms of stylistics and tone– including colour palate and lighting. The audience research was thorough including survey, analysis, vox-pop interviews, key focus interview on the film ‘Drive’, investigation into certification, industry and representation. Planning was equally detailed involving photographic stills, shotlist, edited location recee with v/o, storyboard animatic with sound. Max researched sound himself from older noir films and Hitchcock, creating a playlist on Final Cut of influences. He also investigated a range of idents and studios in order to plan his own ident and graphics. The pair working together shared all decisions, rehearsed with the digital audio recorders to make decisions on sound and managed their time over this process, with schedules, very efficiently. Each blog entry is very detailed and well organized which is true to this student’s approach to the project overall.

For you to get similar marks you need to do similar things.

It begins with Research into Similar Media Texts - he writes about 8 separate films overall.

His Pre-Production Proposal was details and illustrated with images and clips from films that were influencing him - Max Twyman's Pre-Production Proposal

Here's Willa Hope's version from the year before: Pre-Production Proposal

What's the Definition of a Thriller? How does your film conform to those expectations? Definition of a Thriller

What's your Narrative? Tell us your story and how the opening sequence fits into the story. Here are a couple of examples: Willa Hope: Narrative - Max Twyman: Narrative

Film Script - This is a good example of how to layout a Script...

Location Research - this should include photos of your intended locations with reason why you are using them and what effect they have on the script/idea. Max has 4 separate entries for his Location posts.

Willa Hope - Max Twyman - Christoph MacDowall

Location Recces - This is where you take a camera to the locations and do some filming to see if your ideas can work in real life. Southbank Recce -

Character Profiles - introduce each character including their costume and name/role - Protagonist/antagonist etc.

Max Twyman - Protagonist -  Willa Hope - Character Costume - Props and Actors 

Audience Research - you're going to need to know what Certificate your film is:

Questionnaire - Survey Findings - Interview - Vox Pops - Summary

Style and Tone - Here's an example of a thriller opening heavily influenced by Film Noir...

Graphics / Titles / Idents - Titles/graphics practice - Graphics research -

Soundtrack / Music - Max posted several times exploring issues around soundtrack - here is his main post. Here are some other posts on Sound to help give you ideas...

Shotlist - Here are two examples of very good shotlists - Willa and Bea - Max and Charlie

Storyboard - Here is the storyboard posted onto the blog - and here is the storyboard turned into an animatic - you should do both these things...

Shooting Schedule - This is where you organise what you are going to shoot on what days/dates and times. Here is a good example - Willa and Bea -