AMERICAN TV DRAMA

In class we analyse how representations are created through film language in Lie To Me.
Other trailers are collated in my ScoopIt page here.

MY PRELIMINARY EXERCISE

The title of this post on your blog indicates what it should present:
Write in the first person ("I.... we....").
First present the task set (take this from the class blog).
The course specification develops skills including

• the ability to react critically upon their own learning.
  

Therefore you must expicitly explain what challenges you faced and what you learned.
Use medium-specific terminology!  (open this link) Write in paragraphs!
You may wish to accompany this with screenshots.
Upload your video.

EDITING YOUR PRELIMINARY EXERCISE

We watch the editing tutorial and then start editing the footage taken yesterday.
Each individual does their own edit.

FOUNDATION PRODUCTION PRACTICAL

A pizza delivery takes place. Person A delivers the pizza to person B.
Shot types and camera movements to include:

• tracking shot of person A on the way.
• pan as person A enters room.
• Over the shoulder shot to show person B greeting / talking
• over the shoulder shot to show person A's response
• shot reverse shot to show person B

Show that you can:

• Use a tripod to keep shots steady (bubble the tripod).
• Focus the camera. 
• Take care of the camera and tripod.
• Observe the 180 degree rule. 
• Edit the sequence to make meaning clear. (Tutorial here.)
• If you wish, you can add titles / sound to the edit. 

NEXT TASK: making a swede

.

TV DRAMA TEXTUAL ANALYSIS: DESIGNATED SURVIVOR

We watch the opening to the American TV drama Designated Survivor and analyse how gender is represented. 
PREP: complete this textual analysis and email me by Thursday 28 September 9 a.m.at the latest.

Copy /paste the following title at the top of your written work:

0. How do the following technical elements create specific representations of individuals, groups, events or places and help to articulate specific messages and values that have social significance? 
   
   
    
   
   
   
   

RESEARCH: DELICATESSEN and LES BLEUS DE RAMVILLE

In class, we watched two pieces of moving image that showcased excellence.
Blog post title: RESEARCH: DELICATESSEN and LES BLEUS DE RAMVILLE

Put a screenshot of each from The Art of the Title then write about what you noticed about the editing, framing and camerawork techniques that made each so effective at signalling the genre and hooking the audience.

Copying the camera movements of the opening of Les Bleus de Ramville

RESEARCH: THE ART OF THE TITLE

DAYS OF HEAVEN (Terrence Malick, 1978)

Set in 1916 and telling the story of a tragic love triangle, this film evokes both the period and genre in its opening sequence, which reflects Malick's knowledge of photography and willingness to use little studio lighting. 


The film's cinematography by Morricone models itself on silent films, which often used natural light. Malick also drew inspiration from painters such as Johannes Vermeer, Edward Hopper (particularly his House by the Railroad), and Andrew Wyeth, as well as photo-reporters from the turn of the century, such as Alfred Stieglitz, Weegee (Arthur Fellig) and Jacob Riis. The street scenes capture the urban poverty of the period and explain the desperation of the film's protagonists whose future is precarious . 


We have studied Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange as an example of the power of photography as reportage and its use in social change; the close-up of the infant's and young woman's faces exert a strong appeal and tug on our heart strings. The films concerns with social difference and the need for financial security are hinted at by the stills of the girl in the wedding veil and the three young women drinking tea intercut by shots of manual workers of various kinds.


The subject matter gradually moves from the urban to more of the rural, reflecting the narrative trajectory of the film.


The enchanting orchestral music echoes the use of musical accompaniment in silent film to suggest emotion.


Period colors (brown, mahogany and dark wood for the interiors) and period costumes from used fabrics and old clothes to avoid the artificial look of studio-made costumes. The colours create the illusion of period photographs, street journalism: an essential part of creating verisimilitude or 'real life' on screen. As a result, the footage is imbued with the quality of documentary truth, of scientific 'fact' which allows the viewer to engage fully with the world of the film. 


Art of the Title comments: Firing a mix of critical thought and mesmerizing immersion, Dan Perri's title design for Terrence Malick's Days of Heavencombines street level photojournalism and credit-to-character inferences drawing the curious eye at will, the ears aswoon with "Carnival of the Animals - The Aquarium" by Camille Saint-Saens. You are nowhere if not here, with these people, in the Gilded Age of American history.'


'And then the last shot of the opening title sequence] subtlety shifts us from photos and into the world of the film. In a masterful move, the last shot perfectly replicates the same look of the previous images, but...it is one of the actors, Linda Manz (in a photograph taken by Edie Baskin.) It’s through her perspective that we will take this journey so it is fitting that she is the one who bridges the gap from the opening credits into the first shot of the film'. Read the analysis by Cinema Sights

SHERLOCK HOLMES (Guy Ritchie, 2010)

Watery cobblestone logos and longitudinal linotype layer, lace and lash Prologue Films’ opening and end credit work for Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes. Key visual codes include pen-and-ink line wash drawings that emerge from live action film, handwriting in ink in a flowing Victorian hand complete with ink spatters for authenticity, sepia colour tones and the quality of foggy London pea-soupers that conjure up a shady, dangerous underworld where crime lurks in the shadows.

SE7EN (David Fincher, 1995)

Se7en is a 1995 American thriller film, which also contains horror and neo-noir elements. The now classic opening sequence to Se7en that helped rejuvenate title design in mainstream cinema. The dvd has a long video about the making of this sequence. Title Designer: Kyle Cooper

SEPTEMBER RESEARCH

THE ART OF THE TITLE
Several slides:

• First slide has the screenshot from The Art of The Title

• Introduction : the overview with your first impressions, such as how genre / period is signalled

• Narrative: characters and plot - how is the audience drawn in?

• Mise-en-scene

• Credits

• Editing / pace / transitions

• Sound 

PREP: Three tasks by next Monday, please. You can use the class blog and those of previous students for guidance.

1. Complete first analysis of a film opening, with illustration, using The Art of the Title site. Try Gone Girl or Boardwalk Empire or Nerve
2. On PowerPoint, complete Ist analysis of a film opening, with illustration, using The Art of the Title site. Sign up for SlideShare and upload your 2nd analysis to your blog.
3. Create Twitter account and 'follow' relevant media people like Pete Fraser (pete'smediablog), MediaMagazine, Julian McDougall, Learnaboutfilm, OCR Media and Film, Casey Neistat, Film School Shorts, Future Shorts, Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, MGM, British Council Film, NationalFilmTVSchool, Sony, Edusites, ScreenInternational, Film London and so on...

NEXT PREPS: (in case you wish to get ahead) Ensure that you have posted them on your blog.
set Monday (for Tuesday): Complete classwork above
set Wednesday (for Thursday): Find out how to use Emaze and complete 4th analysis of a film opening, with illustration, using The Art of the Title site
set Friday (for following Monday): Now that you have researched how film opening sequences work, you can summarize your knowledge of this genre's codes and conventions. You sign up for Piktochart and organize your learning about film openings into a Piktochart. Title: Film Openings Codes & Conventions.

THE FILM INDUSTRY

Who are The Big Six?
What is horizontal integration and how is Disney an example of this? 

What succeeds at the Box Office?
Box Office Mojo

In what way is independent cinema different?
How was Star Wars: Rogue One marketed?
What did the distributors of Legend do to compete in the marketplace?

TV DRAMA TEXTUAL ANALYSIS

We analyse the film language in Treme
To do this, we watch the OCR 2015 exam DVD. 
The focus of the exam is ethnicity.

INTRODUCTION TO FILM LANGUAGE

Introduction to the film language of television drama

• Film language: how meaning is created through camerawork, editing, mise-en-scene and sound
• Television crime drama: we contrast the film language of Suits with that of Strike The Cuckoo's Calling Episode 1.  You have a list of film language on the TV drama page at the top of this blog.
• You create your individual blog and email me its url.
• Next: start your ScoopIt! Look at the site (open the link provided) and sign up. You are making a page called AMERICAN TV DRAMA where you will 'scoop' (collect / collate) websites that give you information on American television crime drama, like this one. 

Suits

Strike

MEDIA CLINICS

Media clinics are there to provide you with individual help.
They are held on Tuesday and Friday lunch break 1.40 to 2.10 in White Cottage.
Look for me there and tell me that you are attending.

MEDIA STUDIES AL WELCOME

Welcome to your AL Media Studies class blog and the Media Studio.

At the start of your course, you will create your individual blog which will be linked to the class blog and to the others in the group. Your blog will be submitted as evidence of your work (such as production work research and planning) and count towards your final mark. Your blog will host your foundation and advanced production work.

You will also use the blog to prepare for your two examinations. At the top of the class blog, the pages are used to store information that builds over the course.

The hyperlinks and Twitter feed in the sidebar take you to useful sites.

Here is your CIE specification. 

UCAS EXHIBITION FOR MEDIA & FILM DEGREE COURSES

BOOKING at http://bit.ly/2vKWYsd