Monday, 20 June 2011

Poster analysis (A2)

Poster Analysis – Advanced Production
ü  What is the genre of the poster?  (What signifies the genre to you?)
ü  What does the title of the film mean to you?  (Does it connote anything?  Is an enigma – a question – created by the title?  Where is the title positioned?
ü  What other text appears and where is it positioned?
ü  What type of lettering is used?  (font style, sizes, colours, effects, borders/shadows etc.)
ü  What does the lettering style signify or represent?
ü  What is the key image in the poster?  What representation does this image give?  What can you see in the foreground and background (give reasons for this).
ü  Are there any secondary images?  If so, what do they represent?
ü  If there are characters in the poster, describe them (in detail) and what they represent.
ü  If there are significant objects in the poster, describe them and what they represent.
ü  Does the poster have a theme, idea, message or value that it is trying to communicate to you?
ü  Is there a tagline?  What is it and what does it represent?
ü  Are the stars of the film identified?  If so, how?
ü  Is the director of the film identified?  If so, how?
ü  Can you identify the producers (studio) and/or distributors of the film?
ü  Is the poster a teaser (advance) or the general release poster?  How do you know?
ü  What release information are we given?
ü  Does the poster offer ways to find out more about the film?
ü  Who do you think the poster is trying to appeal to?
ü  In your view, how successful the poster be in appealing to its target audience?

Wednesday, 15 June 2011

Animatics

How do I create an animatic?

1. photograph (or draw) storyboard frames
(2.) if drawn, take individual photos of each frame (not needed if you took photos rather than drawn frames)
3. upload the photos to the computer
4. import the photos into the editing programme
5. drop each image onto the timeline and cut to the required length
6. put music or other sound on the audio timeline (you can also do a voiceover where you explain your ideas for the film and discuss camerawork, editing, mise-en-scene and sound)
7. add titles or effects/transitions as required
8. export and upload to youtube or vimeo
9. enter the link on the blog or upload the video directly

Here is an example of a drawn animatic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQGxV2Uds9U

Friday, 10 June 2011

A good example of an A2 Media Studies blog

http://enorfmcmanusb.blogspot.com/?zx=a4c570c533e22d19

Advanced Production Self Assessment

You can use this to check your briefs and to guide you as to what you need to do for research and planning.  You can also use it to help you think of things to write in your blog.

Media Studies - Advanced Portfolio
Self assessment
Name:

A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:
·         A poster for the film
·         A radio trailer for the film
·         A film magazine review page featuring the film.



A promotion package for a new film to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

·         A website homepage for the film
·         A film magazine front cover, featuring the film
·         A poster for the film


Research and Planning
1.      What general research did you do into short films or trailers before you started your film?

2.      Did you attend any workshops?


3.      What were your three influential short films?


4.      Did you carry out textual analysis for each of the three films?


5.      What conventions did you identify?


6.      What conventions did you decide to use, modify or subvert in your own film?


7.      Who, or what, is the target audience for your film?


8.      How did you research your target audience?  (e.g. focus groups, questionnaires, interviews etc.)

9.      What did you do to ensure that you had organised actors, locations, costumes and props?


10.  Did you create storyboards?  (If not, how did you plan your shots?)

11.  Did you create a shotlist?


12.  Did you log your shots as you took them?

13.  Did you write a script?



14.  What location scouting did you do?  Did you take photographs?


15.  How did you manage your time?  (if your time management has not been good, give reasons for your problems and how you might improve.)

16.   How much care have you taken with the presentation of your research and planning evidence?


17.  What ICT skills have you shown in the presentation of your evidence?

18.  How would you rate your communication skills in the planning and research stage: ‘minimal’, ‘basic’, ‘proficient’ or ‘good’?  Explain your answer.


Construction
1.      Are your shots steady?  Did you use a tripod?

2.      Have you framed your shots thoughtfully, including and excluding elements as appropriate?


3.      Did you use a variety of shot distances?

4.      Was the material you shot appropriate to the task?


5.      What choices did you make in terms of mise-en-scene? (e.g. lighting, props, decor,
settings etc.)


6.      Did you create sets/characters/props etc.?  How was this achieved?



7.      How did you edit your film so that meaning is apparent to the viewer?


8.      What shot transitions did you use?  Were they effective?

9.      Did you use captions?  Were they effective?


10.  What sound effects did you use?  How do they combine with the images?

11.  What music did you use?  Is it copyright free?  How does it combine with the images?

Evaluation
1.      How does your film construct a narrative?

2.      How does your film represent people, places and behaviour?


3.      In what ways does your film use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of existing films?

4.      How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?


5.      What have you learned from audience feedback?

6.      How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?


7.      How/where would your film be seen? 

Trailer Addict

Trailer Addict is a great site for trailers.  If you search 'teaser', you will be rewarded with lots of teasers that you can analyse for conventions.

http://www.traileraddict.com/

A good site to watch short films

http://www.filmsshort.com/

In Defence of Media Studies

Next time you are told you are studying an easy subject, use some of these arguments...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/22/media-studies

Get Ahead OCR Media Site

http://getaheadocrmedia.blogspot.com/

Specification and useful documents from OCR

http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/type/gce/amlw/media_studies/index.html