What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
As with the second question, think back to Unit G322 to help you with this one. We covered the film industry and you have been working on the production of the opening sequence of a film so it should all tie in. The question asks you about distribution so you certainly need to show that you understand what distribution entails in the film industry - remember that we talked about P and A - Prints and Advertising. It's also worth mentioning something about production too - what sort of institution would produce a text such as yours?
To answer this question you need to assume that your opening sequence would be turned into a feature length film and then think about how it would be distributed and who would do this. Look back over your notes at the work that we did on the production and distribution of Adulthood and Quantum of Solace. Ignore the fact that your film is a piece of A Level coursework to answer this question - what I'm looking for is an understanding of the film industry. If your film would be most likely to be produced and distributed by one of the majors then say so.
It's also worth checking the following websites for a bit of guidance:
www.launchingfilms.co.uk
www.launchingfilms.tv
www.ukfilmcouncil.org
More coming soon on question 4.
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Evaluation Question 2 - Representation
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
This is the second question that you have to address in your evaluation. Think back to Unit G322 - half of this paper was about the key concept of Representation; you wrote an essay about representation of age in Monarch of the Glen! Refer back to your notes from this unit to answer this question - all that stuff about stereotypes and so on should come flooding back quite quickly.
Use the following questions to guide your response to this question:
Which social groups (age, race, religion, gender, sexuality, region, any other as relevant) are shown in your film opening?
What are people from these social groups shown doing and saying?
Are they represented positively or negatively? How is this achieved? Think about dialogue, camerawork, editing, music, mise-en-scene etc. ect.)
How are people from different social groups represented in comparison to each other?
Are the representations stereotypical or countertypical? Or balanced?
How are the audience positioned in relation to the characters?
More on question 3 soon...
This is the second question that you have to address in your evaluation. Think back to Unit G322 - half of this paper was about the key concept of Representation; you wrote an essay about representation of age in Monarch of the Glen! Refer back to your notes from this unit to answer this question - all that stuff about stereotypes and so on should come flooding back quite quickly.
Use the following questions to guide your response to this question:
Which social groups (age, race, religion, gender, sexuality, region, any other as relevant) are shown in your film opening?
What are people from these social groups shown doing and saying?
Are they represented positively or negatively? How is this achieved? Think about dialogue, camerawork, editing, music, mise-en-scene etc. ect.)
How are people from different social groups represented in comparison to each other?
Are the representations stereotypical or countertypical? Or balanced?
How are the audience positioned in relation to the characters?
More on question 3 soon...
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
Evaluation - Question 1. Forms and Conventions.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
This is fairly straight forwards - another way to put it would be to say:
How typical is your film of it's genre?
Remember that conventions are features that have come to be seen as typical of certain genres. Masks are a convention of films in the Horror genre etc. You can think about generic conventions across the following areas:
Character Types
Settings
Narrative Structure
Iconography (significant objects)
Sound (Both diegetic and non-diegetic)
So - the question you are being asked here is how closely your film follows typical generic conventions in these areas. You should definitely make reference to other films within the same genre - both classical and contemporary. Refer back to the films that you wrote about as part of your research as they are in the same genre as your own film.
Perhaps the best way to start is to make a list of the conventions of the genre that you have been working in under the 5 headings above and then from here begin to think about how you have used these conventions in your own production. You also need to explain why and how you have used these conventions. It's just as important to discuss any areas in which you have deviated from generic conventionality - if you haven't used the typical features of the genre, explain why. It may be that you have chosen to create a generic hybrid, for example.
Question 2 guidance to follow shortly...
media products?
This is fairly straight forwards - another way to put it would be to say:
How typical is your film of it's genre?
Remember that conventions are features that have come to be seen as typical of certain genres. Masks are a convention of films in the Horror genre etc. You can think about generic conventions across the following areas:
Character Types
Settings
Narrative Structure
Iconography (significant objects)
Sound (Both diegetic and non-diegetic)
So - the question you are being asked here is how closely your film follows typical generic conventions in these areas. You should definitely make reference to other films within the same genre - both classical and contemporary. Refer back to the films that you wrote about as part of your research as they are in the same genre as your own film.
Perhaps the best way to start is to make a list of the conventions of the genre that you have been working in under the 5 headings above and then from here begin to think about how you have used these conventions in your own production. You also need to explain why and how you have used these conventions. It's just as important to discuss any areas in which you have deviated from generic conventionality - if you haven't used the typical features of the genre, explain why. It may be that you have chosen to create a generic hybrid, for example.
Question 2 guidance to follow shortly...
Evaluation
Overall, your coursework will be marked out of a total of 100:
20 marks for research and planning.
60 marks for the actual film opening.
20 marks for the evaluation.
You will be presenting your evaluations individually and uploading the presentation to your blog. We'll also do a group evaluation on your DVD as a Director's commentary.
The evaluation is formed from your responses to 7 stimulus questions:
• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
• How does your media product represent particular social groups?
• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
• Who would be the audience for your media product?
• How did you attract/address your audience?
• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from
it to the full product?
The bullet pointed questions are taken directly from the OCR A Level specification and are the same for everybody. I'm going to create a separate post for each question to give you some guidance.
The mark scheme for the evaluation also has 4 levels. The 'excellent' level is as follows:
Level 4 16–20 marks
• Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production.
• Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes.
• Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task.
• Excellent ability to communicate.
• Excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation
More soon on the 7 questions.
20 marks for research and planning.
60 marks for the actual film opening.
20 marks for the evaluation.
You will be presenting your evaluations individually and uploading the presentation to your blog. We'll also do a group evaluation on your DVD as a Director's commentary.
The evaluation is formed from your responses to 7 stimulus questions:
• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
• How does your media product represent particular social groups?
• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
• Who would be the audience for your media product?
• How did you attract/address your audience?
• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from
it to the full product?
The bullet pointed questions are taken directly from the OCR A Level specification and are the same for everybody. I'm going to create a separate post for each question to give you some guidance.
The mark scheme for the evaluation also has 4 levels. The 'excellent' level is as follows:
Level 4 16–20 marks
• Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production.
• Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes.
• Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task.
• Excellent ability to communicate.
• Excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation
More soon on the 7 questions.
The next few days...
Gentlemen - as you know, I'm not in school for the next few days. It is essential that you keep an eye on this blog as I'll put any useful information on it that you will need to be aware of. You won't be able to get to the MACs while I'm not in. I'll be in at some point early next week and will put the day/time on here - check it every day!
In the meantime, there is plenty for you to do:
1. Update your own blogs - some of these are excellent, some aren't as things stand. Remember that the Level 4 Criteria says:
Level 4 16–20 marks
• There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
• There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
• There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
• Time management is excellent.
• There is excellent use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.
Look at your blog and ask yourself how much evidence you have for each of the bullet points above. If you have done all that I have asked of you then you shouldn't have a problem as long as you have uploaded it all onto your blog. If you're missing stuff then get it uploaded asap.
Remember what I've said about the need to make this information visually stimulating!
2. Plan for the changes you need to make to the first cut of your film openings. These were a real mixed bag - some just require a little fine-tuning while others need extensive work. Plan your changes completely and utterly thoroughly - you are at the stage now where you should have learnt enough from the first cut production and your preliminary task to just go out and get the footage that you need without wasting too much time because a battery runs out/light goes/somebody forgets etc. etc.
3. Begin preparing for your evaluation. This is a significant piece of work worth 20% of the marks for this project. I'm going to upload a new, separate post that goes through the evaluation in detail. Basically, you have to address a series of questions that relate to your film opening. Your responses to these questions will demonstrate your level of understanding of a number of key areas.
In the meantime, there is plenty for you to do:
1. Update your own blogs - some of these are excellent, some aren't as things stand. Remember that the Level 4 Criteria says:
Level 4 16–20 marks
• There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
• There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
• There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
• Time management is excellent.
• There is excellent use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.
Look at your blog and ask yourself how much evidence you have for each of the bullet points above. If you have done all that I have asked of you then you shouldn't have a problem as long as you have uploaded it all onto your blog. If you're missing stuff then get it uploaded asap.
Remember what I've said about the need to make this information visually stimulating!
2. Plan for the changes you need to make to the first cut of your film openings. These were a real mixed bag - some just require a little fine-tuning while others need extensive work. Plan your changes completely and utterly thoroughly - you are at the stage now where you should have learnt enough from the first cut production and your preliminary task to just go out and get the footage that you need without wasting too much time because a battery runs out/light goes/somebody forgets etc. etc.
3. Begin preparing for your evaluation. This is a significant piece of work worth 20% of the marks for this project. I'm going to upload a new, separate post that goes through the evaluation in detail. Basically, you have to address a series of questions that relate to your film opening. Your responses to these questions will demonstrate your level of understanding of a number of key areas.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
Health and Safety
You're going to be filling in some risk assessment sheets before you begin filming. We'll use these as a basis for discussion so that I'm satisfied that you're not going to endanger yourselves (or anyone else) during the production process. Please also bear the following points in mind:
1. If you are filming in a public place try to get permission from whoever is in charge of the particular place. Use your judgement on this - filming a character walking down a residential street shouldn't present any problems. However, a gun-toting pursuit through the centre of town will require some fore thought.
2. Don't ignore traffic - I want you focused on your coursework but not to the extent that you ignore tonnes of metal whizzing past you in close proximity.
3. Don't film anything that looks as if it is illegal.
4. Maintain your good manners when dealing with or encountering members of the public.
5. Don't trespass because you think that you've found a particularly authentic location.
6. Don't film anywhere dangerous.
7. Think about what you're doing and what you are asking your actors/actresses to do - if it doesn't seem right then don't do it!
The golden rule is to discuss your plans with me thoroughly before you go out to film - this should allow us to avoid any mishaps.
1. If you are filming in a public place try to get permission from whoever is in charge of the particular place. Use your judgement on this - filming a character walking down a residential street shouldn't present any problems. However, a gun-toting pursuit through the centre of town will require some fore thought.
2. Don't ignore traffic - I want you focused on your coursework but not to the extent that you ignore tonnes of metal whizzing past you in close proximity.
3. Don't film anything that looks as if it is illegal.
4. Maintain your good manners when dealing with or encountering members of the public.
5. Don't trespass because you think that you've found a particularly authentic location.
6. Don't film anywhere dangerous.
7. Think about what you're doing and what you are asking your actors/actresses to do - if it doesn't seem right then don't do it!
The golden rule is to discuss your plans with me thoroughly before you go out to film - this should allow us to avoid any mishaps.
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