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AS revision – resources for 18th May 2018

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Revision Timetable for AS

Past Papers

Over the next few weeks you need to make a point of listening to three Podcasts on The Film Industry. These podcast contain interviews, discussions and issues about all the areas of the film industry that we are studying. They are called:

  • Development Hell – This episode is all about how a film gets the green light for production and about how script are drafted and redrafted and how stars are cast.
  • Getting to the Screen – This episode is all about marketing and distribution and discusses the ways in which films get the attention of the audience.
  • The Business of Showing – All about the many different ways films are watched by audiences from Imax to Phones and everything in between. Over the next few weeks you should listen and make notes on each part of the documentary.

Here is a three part document, that includes questions for each part. The questions are in chronological order, so listen carefully and you’ll hear the answers in the order they are written.

Date of the exam is 18th May 2018.

We will be running a specific session before Easter and several after Easter but start now. Don’t wait. Read through the resources and start practising TV drama note writing and start learning some case studies for Film Industry.

 

POMO – mockumentary on Vloggers – funny

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A recent mini series on BBC 3 highlights the absurdity of the Vloggers we are all so involved in on youtube. Using mockumentary (bricolage of documentary and parody) it highlights how the industry works.  Lots of self-reflexivity as it shows that it is making a documentary on Vloggers but also shows how highly self-reflexive Vloggers are (shows the sound boom, shows the camera, includes the outtakes and how they bend, play with representation through editing, post production and distort time and space etc).  It is subtle because you have to be in it, to get it i.e. culturally competent to get the nuance references and jokes.

A postmodern take on a postmodern phenomena! Great example of how postmodern media plays with time, space and the audience.

Have a look at it – it made me laugh, especially Episode on Health and Beauty.

Useful article on mockumentaries.

POMO – The Lego Movie – another postmodern movie

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lego-movie

http://pop-primer.com/2014/08/5-reasons-the-lego-movie-is-a-postmodernist-masterpiece/

A really interesting analysis of The Lego Movie and why it is a postmodern film.

Try and find your own examples from your own film and TV consumption. There are loads of examples out there and the more you can evidence your ideas in the exam with up to date examples to illustrate your debate, the better your mark will be.

 

 

POMO – a music video and song that the lead singer describes as very postmodern and a very postmodern performance at The Brits 2017.

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1975 are prone to making fun of themselves, being self-reflexive and making a comment on pop music and its predictability.  Do you remember at the 2017 Brit Awards they gave a performance that many thought had been ‘hacked’ on TV as irreverent, critical, social media type warrior key board comments appeared as if ‘trolls’ had taken over.

And at the Brits they did a pretty postmodern thing by being self-reflexive

This music video is self-reflexive.  Draws attention to itself in a shameless way.  Pokes a finger up at celebrity culture – he ‘ribs’ himself about his celebrity lifestyle.  Read this Article for more background.

POMO – film examples for Jameson – parody, pastiche, intertextuality, self-reflexivity

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The Lego Batman Movie 

Postmodern? or post-postmodern?

Reasons by The Lego Movie is a postmodern masterpiece

Katy Perry – Chained to the Rythmn – chained to Black Mirror

Kingsman – postmodern or just cynical?

The Big Short – breaking the 4th wall, self-reflexive

Deadpool – postmodern and loads of other ideas about postmodernism

 

It’s all connected – movie links across the genres

Snow + Year 13 = work? Booooo

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Dear Year 13 students,

Just a reminder that we move on next week to Postmodernism so all your outstanding tweaks and ordering, branding of your blog needs to be done by the end of school on Friday.

There is an essay on Classroom for you to plan and submit that we would have been doing in class this week.  It is a Post-production Skills essay so you should be able to use a lot of your production skills stories from your blog as examples as long as you have stories from earlier on in the course to show the progression of that particular skill. Always remember to have a specific anecdote to illustrate the impact the skill had on the product. Submission is Monday 4th March.

Here is some initial feedback from the Mock exam which you should read so that this Skills essay does not make any similar mistakes. Mr Gregson and Mrs Cobb will be going through your essays individually.

Good luck and take the opportunity of some home time to get on top of stuff.

Mrs Cobb and Mr Gregson

Skills – 1a

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Lesson 1 + 2

Big Fat Skills Quiz

Fully Complete your Skills template in classroom. In particular focus on RP (this will be your mock question).  Remember some of the stories you have already done for PP and DT could be used here – don’t make work for yourself.

Do not complete the Conventions section yet.

Always remember the skill needs a starting point and a finishing point.  This can be anywhere in the course but each skill story needs to show progression.

The most important aspect is that you evidence how the skill impacted specifically on the product i.e. not just that it made it nicer, more professional. What do you mean by that. How did the colour filter directly impact on the anarchic, grungy star image? How did  the transition develop the narrative disruption for the story?

Remember to use the name of the tools, techniques.

Revisit your essays for excellent examples and revisit classroom for exemplar paragraphs that others have submitted.

Write like a media student: use terms from across your media learning.

 

 

 

DP Backgrounds – be creative – get out and take shots!

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click to open a file with all kinds of backgrounds that I took at home last night. As black canvases they are not particularly exciting but take them into photoshop and play with the filters and liquify and you could end up having some really funky backgrounds for your Digipak.

You have to get some shots in – experiment and look for angles, perspectives, textures and composition of random objects.

 

Conventions of a magazine advert for album

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You need to annotate an advert for a digipak from your performer or a similar artist from your genre.  Find the advert for the DP that you annotated if you can, if not find another advert that has a DP cover that you can include in your annotation to highlight the similarities. Whatever happens, the advert should be for your Genre/Performer.  Deconstruct it for meaning – why colours, fonts, composition, images, register have been used in the way they have. Some of the DP analysis were not particularly detailed enough as textual analysis so take this chance to show the examiner that you can decode, read and understand how media language is used in print texts.

 

Conventions of a Magazine Ad for an Album

ALWAYS CONSIDER AIDA:

  • A = Attention – does it catch up eye, stand out, stop you flicking through the pages?
  • I = Interest – now that it has caught your eye, does it make you want to find out more?
  • D = Desire – the purpose of all advertising is to make you WANT/DESIRE something – does the advert make you want to buy the album?
  • A = Action – does the advert tell you what you have to do to buy, download, stream engage with the product – part with your money?
Labelled Magazine Ad – Example

DIGIPAK Templates – IMPORTANT

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Mr Gregson has designed a 4 x pane Template for Indesign that includes a spine and the dimensions should be correct for our covers.  It is important that the final version fits into a Cover as the examiners are keen that you show how it will look as a completed product and photograph it accordingly.

The Template is in the P DRIVE.

Take a copy of it and save one for your own use.

SIMPLES!

Digipak – Previous Students’ Work – Print Assessment Criteria

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Choose a DP cover from the display on the wall.  Mrs Cobb will point out the ones that achieved Level 4 as clearly it is this level that you will be aspiring to achieve.

Then search for that blog so that you can use the images in your post.

Go to www.blogs.grammar.sch.gg and search for the site in ‘blogs’.  There are some paper copies around but you will still have to find the images on their blogs to copy and embed.

Using the four general assessment criteria in the slideshow below, explain how the students skills are evident in their digipacks. Be specific with examples from their texts and what they have done.

Narrative Planning – storyboard

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STORYBOARDS

You need at least 40 post it note on A2 paper so that you can really sort out how you are going to shoot your narrative.  Think of all those skills you used at AS – match on action, shot reverse shot, framing, 180 degree rule, pull focus, DOF, framing, angles and distances to help tell your story.

Here is some background reading to help you understand the purpose of storyboards and how they are designed. How to Use a Story Board

Here is a template for you to create your storyboard. You may use drawings or take photos to complete these. BFI Storyboard Template or you can use the post it style so that you can move your images around.

They need to be as detailed as possible and you should take a photo of them out on your shoot so you don’t miss a shot.

Remember to take inspiration from professional videos. Narratives tend to be more thematic and an amplification of the lyrics. Rather than an illustrative full story.

Happy planning!