CCR 1: COMPLETING 'HOW YOUR FILM OPENING REPRESENTS SOCIAL GROUPS & ISSUES'

In the autumn, during your research, you created Pinterest boards collating images of social groups and issues in your film opening. Your production is now nearly completed and you have a clear concept not only about who and what is in your film but also how you want them to come across to your audience.

In this presentation, you will use your knowledge of theoretical frameworks to present your characters in their social contexts and the issues / ideas that inform their world. 

In class, you watch two presentations that are core concepts in your entire course:

Video on representation  

Stereotypes can be distort representation because they reinforce specific ideas about people, often negatively.

For Stuart Hall, stereotypes are generated because of the limited stereotypes the hegemonic elite show us.

 

Video on reception theory  

For Stuart Hall, there is no one single fixed 'meaning' of any media representation or text; different audiences understand representations differently. A film maker may encode a character in a particular way, but different audiences decode the same character differently. Hall writes about these different understandings of any media text as the dominant (or preferred) meaning /reading, a negotiated meaning /reading and an oppositional meaning /reading.

 

In class, we look at how you have used visual and sound codes to construct your characters.

We discuss how your audiences may 'read' your characters. 

 

For instance, Vendetta includes a scene in which the murderer plays his guitar in front of what resembles a shrine to the girl who has betrayed him. Her picture, the flowers and the darkened room along with the music, suggest an element of ritual, of displaced self-righteousness, of warped justice. Is he made mad by love? Crimes of passion and jealousy are familiar themes in literature and a teenage / young adult audience may see in this central character similarities with the Duke of Ferrara from Robert Browning's dramatic monologue My Last Duchess in which the Duke justifies his murder of his young wife:  

Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,

    Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without

    Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;

Then all smiles stopped together.

 

 

 

 

HOW DID BLACK PANTHER ENGAGE WITH DIFFERENT AUDIENCES?

This is revision of your Black Panther case study. In an exam, students often start with BP as there is a huge amount of really useful information on the class blog and in the pack that I gave you.
Think about: 

• Black History Month
• How it was positioned - black director, black superhero
• Trailers
• Superbowl
• Kendrick Lamar
• NBA final
• posters
• celebrity power and Twitter, Instagram, viral marketing
• Welcome to Wakanda
• Hasbro toys

REVISE KEN LOACH FILMS

EXAM ESSAY: Analyse how media institutions are using different platforms to engage with their audiences. Set on Jan 26

Imagine that you have to answer this exam question. You would have to know about a range of films, so this revision makes about a third of an essay. You last worked on this on Friday, 26 November 2021 so it is familiar material.
Look on the class blog under Ken Loach films and use the two case studies 'Sorry We Missed You' and 'I, Daniel Blake'
 

Upload your answer on Classroom.
 

This is what you did last time:

• watch the trailer for Sorry We Missed You twice
• look carefully at the film website 
• consider why the website devotes so much space to ‘find the film screening’ and ‘book tickets’ (the right third)
• analyse the poster (left third) in terms of pull quotes, director power, accolades, subject matter, lighting, colour
• identify the convergent links on the website (top ribbon)
• open and read the link about the gig economy  Join The Impact Campaign
• open and read the link about Aiden Doyle’s paintings
• decide who the target audiences for Loach films (like this) are

Sorry We Missed You
Film Website HERE (links on blog)
Awards here 
Cannes Film Festival nominee for Palme d'Or
BAFTA nominee Outstanding British film of the year
Exposes a global issue: the vulnerabilities of people exploited in the gig economy
·Review by Peter Bradshaw The Guardian here
·Trailer here and here on IMDB
Interview by Paul Laverty here: " Technology means that every minute of the drivers' life is dictated and monitored... the pressure is relentless. Carers are on zero hours contracts, like Abby in the film... There is massive economic injustice at the heart of our society now."
SWMY Twitter

 

HOW A DISTRIBUTOR REACHES AUDIENCES

Task 1: make a single PP slide which will form part of your CCR 1 on how you will distribute your film. You should have already done this work: look in your blog for MY TARGET AUDIENCE like this one

Task 2: second image (easiest on same PP slide to ensure uniformity). 

HOW I POSITION MY FILM 

• For Mark Batey, a film needs to be positioned, with a clear idea of who the target audience is and how the film plays, as he explains in the presentation 'What is the film about?' Report that you have used the FDA resources to study this.
• Offer a brief synopsis of your film and state its genre. 
  
  
  
• Explain that you know how important it is to 'hook' the audience in the opening. Identify how your film hooks the audience. Use images to support.
• What makes your film different - identify its USPs (unique selling points). Use images to support.

Task 3: third image COMP LIST You should have already done this work

Task 4: fourth image HOW DISTRIBUTORS REACH SIMILAR TARGET AUDIENCES 

First view this presentation. Complete the form, screenshot it and add it to the slide. Around the form, add images that relate to your comp list films of social media relating to the 3 films, an online film review, fleet media (side of a bus), poster, film magazine cover.... to illustrate how these comparable films were marketed by distributors

Task 5: fifth image DISTRIBUTING BIG BUDGET FILMS

Pick from one of our slate of case studies, introduce the film and create a collage of its various marketing platforms. Pick from Black Panther, Captain Marvell, Rogue One, Emma (all materials on our blog). Example here.

OR pick from one of your own comp list and create a collage of the various marketing platforms

WRITE something such as: Hollywood 'Big Six'  studios and distributors with large budgets organize a wide variety of different marketing strategies and platforms to reach target audiences. In addition to the official film website, FB and Twitter presences which almost all films have, These showcase film posters, trailers, soundtracks, DVD and BluRay, and related merchandising. there is growing use of social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok to reach younger audiences. Distributors also arrange screenings, premieres, interviews in print and on TV, merchandising tie-ins, fleet media and so on.

Task 6: sixth section in CANVA DISTRIBUTING INDEPENDENT FILMS: BAIT 

The BFI distributes new independent features and classic re-releases across the UK and around the world. Look at Mark Jenkin's Bait and show how its distribution was handled, which film festivals it was screened at, how it can be viewed, what its marketing materials were, its USPs etc. in a collage of the various marketing platforms. Be sure to write the sentence about the BFI.

CANVA

Task 7: seventh image SELF DISTRIBUTION

First we look at the ICO site

We read the ICO advice on how to get an independent film distributed here by self distribution. In this section, we write something like this:

• I could pitch my ideas to cinemas directly and produce my own marketing materials such as images from my film, a film synopsis, a film poster, social media, a website and a trailer with closed captions (add  images).
• I could hire a PR company to invite the film press to write reviews
• I would identify why my film is unique and what drives audiences to see it, following Mark Batey's guidance

Task 8: eighth image POSITIONING MY FILM each film has different material here

Think about possible links: is your film related to an upcoming event, like International Women’s Day or Black History Month? Is it related to an issue / a historical figure / a cultural trend that may garner contemporary press coverage? Does it have relevance to a particular region; can you identify particular communities who may wish to see it? ICO "How do I get my film into distribution?"

Introduce this section using the ICO guidance above. 

Links for Chain Reaction: tap into the interest in issues like the world energy crisis; World Science Day - November 10th 2022

Links for Vendetta: hang onto the coat tails of other genre related film festivals / apply for screening at them: 

FilmFreeway.com Thriller Film Festival February 11-12 2022

Thriller Suspense Fest

Cambridge Film Festival with online distribution

FrightFest 10/11/12 March 2022

Links for Extraction: go for local links in London, Barnes:

The BFI Future Film Festival

London Short Film Festival

Barnes Film Festival

FILM OPENING

Prep for the weekend of Saturday 11 December 

TITLE of post: FILM OPENING

You upload the most recent edit of your finished film opening then write the rest of the post that the moderator will see first.

This is an example of what you write:

YOUR NAME 1234

I worked with Alan Rickman 5678 and Emma Thompson 9357

Our brief was to make the titles and opening of a new fiction film (to last a maximum of two minutes). We made a thriller film opening / psychological thriller film opening / comedy film opening / drama film opening entitled XXXXXXX

I took responsibility for the camerawork, in particular, ....

I took responsibility for the directing of the scenes...

I took responsibility for set design, such as ....I sourced LED lights and because I do DT at AL, I used the school DT studio for materials to... Together with Millie / Ollie, I created the pinboard which is a key prop...... I made suggestions about lighting which we implemented, in particular, the lighting in the scene...

I took responsibility for the editing / editing the scenes in which... I edited in Final Cut Pro / Premiere Pro / iMovie. Particular challenges in my editing included....

I created the music for the final scene because I play the guitar. I picked the track Hotel California and used my Squire guitar. I used an amplifier....

I designed and made the Production Company logo BELVEDERE STUDIOS / ROCKING HORSE PRODUCTIONS / MIRROR STUDIOS / LEVINE LOOPS / HILL LIMITLESS. I used Adobe Illustrator then edited the image in Premiere / I used Photoshop / I designed the image in Photoshop then took it into Premiere.

CONSTRUCTION: FEEDBACK

 3.2 Reviewing and editing coursework It is likely that some teacher guidance will be given during the production process in terms of facilitating discussions that encourage a higher level of application and engagement with creative processes. However, as part of the learning process, it is also valuable to encourage whole class feedback on productions. Creating a place where learners can watch the film productions initiates a good opportunity for critical reflection, peer assessment and feedback before the final edits on the coursework productions. A feedback form (see below) may be useful to ensure feedback is suitably critical, and constructive. In order to ensure a fair learning environment for learners of all abilities, it is advisable to make time for editing, two or three hours should enable learners to re-film a sequence after feedback and complete a reasonable level of editing before submitting the final media coursework production.

REFINEMENTS, CHANGES, EDITS & REFLECTIONS

PREP for the weekend of Sat 4 December

CIE are keen on reflective analysis in your blogs – the sort of critical reflection that may come after you get feedback from a focus group. They think that it is so important that it comes second in their bullet points. In the highlight below ('process'), notice the reference to 

• what you’ve changed because it
  didn’t work well enough (“any refinement, changes or edits made”) 
• what has have gone well, that you should be drawing attention to (“reflections on key moments”).
  

To present these important posts, I have suggested a ‘before and after’ visual evidence + written analysis 

See these posts HERE