Exam revision - see your email today for the essay outline and also revise from the class blog here
Starter activities:
9607/22 Paper 2 Key Media Concepts May/June 2018
Section A Clip details: Empire (series 1 episode 1, Pilot, 2015, dir. Lee Daniels) Clip duration: 4:50 Start point: 00:00 End Point: 04:50
Discuss the ways in which the extract from Empire constructs meaning through the following: • camera shots, angles, movement and composition • sound • mise-en-scène • editing. [50]
Mark scheme available
Watch clip here
The key areas are HERE.
You will be given credit for your knowledge and understanding, illustrated through case study material, relevant to the question. Assessment will take place across three criteria:
Read the question's key instructions:
Use your case studies to answer.
Hollywood ‘Big Six’ / majors:
· Black Panther (dir. Ryan Coogler 2018) Marvel Studios, Walt Disney
· Captain Marvell
· Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
British films:
· Sorry We Missed You (dir. Ken Loach 2019) and BBC Films & Sweet Sixteen, supported by BFI Film Fund, distributed by eOne, Canal + (amongst others in different territories)
· I, Daniel Blake (dir. Ken Loach 2015) a UK/French co-production, received funding from BFI and BBC Films, distributed by BFI (UK) Le Pacte (France)
· Emma (2020) Working Title https://www.workingtitlefilms.com/film/emma/
Low-budget British film
· Bait (dir. Mark Jenkin 2019), Early Day Films, distributed by BFI
Netflix film:
· Roma (dir. Alfonso Cuarón 2019), released on Netflix
Guerrilla film-making:
· This Is Not a Film is an Iranian documentary film by Jafar Panahi and Mojtaba Mirtahmasb. It was released on 28 September 2011 in France, distributed by Kanibal Films Distribution.
· The film was smuggled from Iran to Cannes on a flash drive hidden inside a birthday cake. It was specially screened at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and later at the New York Film Festival, and others. It also took part in the International Competition of the 27th Warsaw International Film Festival.
Today, we spend some time revising and some time on coursework as below.
I have printed out Film Industry materials for you and put them in individual yellow folders in the media studio. I have also emailed them to you. Please read them now as revision.
Introducing Emma (dir. Autumn de Wilde, 2020) Working Title Films' website. This case study illustrates one of the genres of film that WT pitches at both national and transatlantic audiences; it also enables you to explain WT's business model as a national UK company with a US parent company, Universal, owned by Vivendi.
Distribution (source: BFI Statistical Yearbook 2021)
Emma's USPs:
Adaptations of Jane Austen’s most famous novels are relatively common on the big screen. Some take a more faithful approach to the source material (see 1995’s Sense and Sensibility) while others update the characters and situations to a more modern setting.
The new version of Emma – directed by Autumn de Wilde and starring Anya Taylor-Joy in the title role – seems to split the difference, keeping the time period of the original while updating some of the sensibilities of the characters. Remaining intact is the premise of the story, that Emma Woodhouse is the undisputed social queen of her town, becoming a matchmaker for those around her. While trying to get everyone married and attached she has trouble setting down herself until she finds a solution has been in front of her the whole time.
Focus has been selling the film, getting a limited release this week with an 88 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with a wicked sense of humor behind a story of gender roles and class in 19th century England.
The Posters
Emma is “Handsome, clever and rich” we’re told on the first poster (by marketing agency P+A). She’s shown standing and looking ready to match wits with all comers, perched on a flat rock on the edge of a massive estate garden. The plants in the foreground look deliberately fake while the background looks like a matte painting, giving the poster the look of a stage production of sorts. It’s a great look.
“Love knows best” is the copy used on the second poster, released in mid-January), which adds Mr. Knightly and Mr. Churchill, both of whom play significant roles in the story, to either side of Emma in the same setting.
A series of character posters came out that shows more of those in Emma’s social sphere, also in the same background. Using the same setting for the entire poster campaign creates a great sense of brand consistency, all while presenting the movie like a stage play.
The Trailers
As the first trailer (4.3 million views on YouTube), released in November, makes clear, this is not a traditional take on Jane Austin’s material. All the story elements might be there – though the trailer doesn’t take pains to communicate them in any sort of linear fashion – but the attitude is much more arch and comedic. It’s a fast-paced trailer that shows the material is every bit as malleable as other classics, even if you keep the time period setting.
Online and Social
The movie’s official website uses the standard Focus Features site template but offers a lot more content than has been seen on other recent efforts. For the most part that takes the form of curated social updates that offer behind the scenes and other looks at the production and stars. There are also profiles on the major social platforms.
Advertising and Promotions
A 60-second commercial was released last week that cuts the story down slightly while retaining everything about the sense of humour the movie contains. Emma is presented as a wilful and slightly subversive young woman, seeking to manoeuvre those in her orbit into marriages, all while oblivious to the romance in front of her.
BellaCures, which gave movies tickets to those coming to one of their salon locations for a manicure or pedicure.
Vogue Magazine hosted a screening of the film earlier this month.
EW hosted a sweepstakes awarding tickets to the movie’s premiere.
Interviews with the cast included Taylor-Joy and costar Johnny Flynn talking about their experiences with the costumes and others including costars Bill Nighly commenting on the importance of continuing to adapt Austen’s works.
Adaptations of Jane Austen’s most famous novels are relatively common on the big screen. Some take a more faithful approach to the source material (see 1995’s Sense and Sensibility) while others update the characters and situations to a more modern setting.
The new version of Emma – directed by Autumn de Wilde and starring Anya Taylor-Joy in the title role – seems to split the difference, keeping the time period of the original while updating some of the sensibilities of the characters. Remaining intact is the premise of the story, that Emma Woodhouse is the undisputed social queen of her town, becoming a matchmaker for those around her. While trying to get everyone married and attached she has trouble setting down herself until she finds a solution has been in front of her the whole time.
Focus has been selling the film, getting a limited release this week with an 88 percent “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with a wicked sense of humor behind a story of gender roles and class in 19th century England.
Emma is “Handsome, clever and rich” we’re told on the first poster (by marketing agency P+A). She’s shown standing and looking ready to match wits with all comers, perched on a flat rock on the edge of a massive estate garden. The plants in the foreground look deliberately fake while the background looks like a matte painting, giving the poster the look of a stage production of sorts. It’s a great look.
“Love knows best” is the copy used on the second poster, released in mid-January), which adds Mr. Knightly and Mr. Churchill, both of whom play significant roles in the story, to either side of Emma in the same setting.
Just last week a series of character posters came out that shows more of those in Emma’s social sphere, also in the same background. Using the same setting for the entire poster campaign creates a great sense of brand consistency, all while presenting the movie like a stage play.
As the first trailer (4.3 million views on YouTube), released in November, makes clear, this is not a traditional take on Jane Austin’s material. All the story elements might be there – though the trailer doesn’t take pains to communicate them in any sort of linear fashion – but the attitude is much more arch and comedic. It’s a fast-paced trailer that shows the material is every bit as malleable as other classics, even if you keep the time period setting.
The movie’s official website uses the standard Focus Features site template but offers a lot more content than has been seen on other recent efforts. For the most part that takes the form of curated social updates that offer behind the scenes and other looks at the production and stars. There are also profiles on the major social platforms.
A 60-second commercial was released last week that cuts the story down slightly while retaining everything about the sense of humor the movie contains. Emma is presented as a willful and slightly subversive young woman, seeking to maneuver those in her orbit into marriages, all while oblivious to the romance in front of her.
Promotional partners for the movie included:
PaperSource, which offered a line of stationary and more featuring designs inspired by Emma or by Jane Austen.
Vogue Magazine hosted a screening of the film earlier this month.
EW hosted a sweepstakes awarding tickets to the movie’s premiere.
Interviews with the cast included Taylor-Joy and costar Johnny Flynn talking about their experiences with the costumes and others including costars Bill Nighly commenting on the importance of continuing to adapt Austen’s works.
In a nice nod to one of the most popular of those adaptations, Taylor-Joy talked with Clueless director Amy Heckerling about their various approaches to the story and more. Taylor-Joy was the subject of a feature profile about her experiences filming the movie and more.
A group of young women are playing a game of which Emma does *not* approve in an exclusive clip given to Town and Country, the outlet appropriate given the important role real estate and locations play in this and other Austen stories.
Overall
To use a term that would fit in with the time the story is set in, the entire campaign features such a wicked sense of humor it’s enough to make one blush.
That sense of humor is apparent in the posters in how everything is staged like the promotional photos from an amateur stage production of the story, with the actors posed on a rock with plants placed around them and a painting of a scenic backdrop behind them.
In the trailers it’s more subtle but still very much there. It takes the form of arched eyebrows and sly, suppressed smiles. And volumes could be written about that moment Emma looks at the woman next to her while delicately putting a strawberry in her mouth.
It’s a great example of how to sell a movie that retains its period setting while clearly offering something relevant to the audience, showing modern awareness that is still respectful of the original. More than that, it just looks like a lot of fun.
9607/21 Paper 2 Key Media Concepts May/June 2017
Section A: Textual analysis and representation
Extract: Fargo (series 1, episode 1, 2014 dir. Adam Bernstein) Clip duration: 4.44 Start point: 2.31 End point: 7.15
9607/02 Paper 2 Key Media Concepts October/November 2017
Section A: Textual analysis and representation Extract: Boardwalk Empire (series 1, episode 1, 2010 dir. Martin Scorsese) Clip duration: 4.23 Start point: 21.13 End Point: 25.36
Purchased from Amazon 08.04.2021
