Homework 2: Pitches for Sunday 4 October

SCROLL DOWN FOR HOMEWORK 1

1. Look at the briefs for the project and brainstorm some ideas for possible pitches for your imagined film. Don't just stick at one idea- have at least one pitch for each brief.

How can you sum up your idea in a couple of lines for each brief?

Here are some examples of 25 word pitches

You might like to paste in on your blog other examples of films which you think meet the criteria for the briefs

Homework 1 and 2 must be complete by next Sunday evening (27th, 9pm) and I shall look at them all on monday and give you feedback. Do e-mail me if there are any problems: petefraser@me.com or via the long road e-mail pfraser@longroad.ac.uk.

Pete

Project Briefs for Film opening

Film Brief 1
A mainstream action film that will appeal to 15-25yr old males
Your film should appear to be based on a "fictional" comic book




Batman (Tim Burton, 1989)

Film Brief 2
A supernatural thriller that will appeal to female audiences
Your film should appear to be an international co-production




The Others (Alejandro Amenabar, 2001)

Film Brief 3
An independent movie featuring a young protagonist
Your film should appear to be financed through regional funding



This is England (Shane Meadows, 2006)



Film Brief 4
An animated feature to appeal to adult audiences
Your film should appear to be based on a "fictional" novel




A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater, 2006)

Homework 1: Preliminary exercise for Sun 4 Oct

What is continuity editing?

The three rules you tried to use were: the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot. Explain the three terms.

Paste your preliminary task onto your blog and write about how far you think your group succeeded in demonstrating these basic rules. Refer to examples to show where you did and did not succeed.

The prelim tasks will be uploaded and linked for you here.

work for Sep23-27; due by 9 pm sunday!

1. Go to youtube and find your JUNO video from tuesday at Coleridge. If you were absent, you can do all the tasks EXCEPT the bit about how you edited it.

2. Paste the video you shot and/or edited onto your blog.

3. Write a post about what the whole exercise was about; you should cover the planning, shooting and editing. What are you most pleased about? what proved difficult to do? I am expecting at least 300 words on this.

4. Do a link to the original/ to other stuff online about Juno and paste in an image from the sequence and do a screengrab of the same image from YOUR sequence. Comment on the effectiveness of what you achieved.

5. Create another post- call it CASE STUDY OF A FILM OPENING. Look at the list below, which is a composite of the points you collated yesterday:

TITLE- with carefully chosen font to create a BRAND
INSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION- Studio, Production company, Distributor
JOB TITLES- Producer, director, editor, composer/music director, stars, director of photography, screenwriter...maybe more
MUSIC and OTHER SOUND- to help create atmosphere
MAIN CHARACTER INTRODUCED
MOOD SET UP THROUGH SETTING/LIGHTING
INTRODUCTION TO ACTION/STORY
SOMETHING TO CAPTURE AUDIENCE INTEREST

Now take a film that you have on DVD or one for which you can find the opening online and analyse how the elements above are present in the opening two minutes. If features are NOT present, explain why you think this is (e.g. why is there no need for action in the first two minutes?) You will need to find a sequence which includes titles.

If you find the sequence online, paste it onto your blog. List which job titles are present and who the named person is in each case (e.g. 'directed by Martin Scorsese') and explain how things like atmosphere are set up.

This task will take you a couple of hours to do properly, as you need to look at all the elements carefully and spend time thinking about them.


All three posts must be complete by next Sunday evening (27th, 9pm) and I shall look at them all on monday and give you feedback. Do e-mail me if there are any problems: petefraser@me.com or via the long road e-mail pfraser@longroad.ac.uk.

Pete

Work for this week 16-21 Sept

1. Go to youtube and find your video from tuesday at Coleridge

2. Paste it onto your blog. (Nick will demonstrate in tutorial both this and how to access your e-mail account from home)
3. Write a post about the techniques you learnt in Final cut, such as cutting, fading, titling and anything else you tried out. What do you think of what you produced as a first go?
4. Create another post- note down username and password today if you can't remember them!For this post i'd like you to go to the link for film openings on youtube and watch THREE of the openings, one of which at least should be from a film you have never seen. Note which three film openings you looked at and then choose ONE of the three and say what you find interesting about it as an opening- such as camerawork or setting or character or whatever- and why. Paste that opening onto your blog as well.
5. create a THIRD post. Now try some searches on youtube for student film openings- you may have to try a range of searches, such as 'AS media projects' or 'student films'. There are loads on longroadmedia but you may find other schools and colleges. Again choose one, paste it onto your blog and write about what you think the STRENGTHS and the WEAKNESSES are of the sequence.

All three posts must be complete by next Sunday evening and I shall look at them all on monday and give you feedback. Do e-mail me if there are any problems: petefraser@me.com or via the long road e-mail pfraser@longroad.ac.uk.

Pete

Film Opening project

Useful links:

Longroadmedia thriller blog
Longroadmedia film opening blog
Film openings on youtube
Saul Bass title sequences
Title sequence compilations
Touch of Evil
The Player
Hurtwood House Video Channel

Juno title sequence
Juno Flickr pictures

Shifty film set
Shifty: Wikipedia

Art of the Title site

Film Opening project

This is the first assessed project for the course. It counts for 50% of the AS in Media Studies.

The project will be undertaken in a pair, shooting on HD cameras and editing in Final cut at coleridge.

20 marks are for research and planning, which you will undertake individually on a blog throughout the process. You will be set regular homework tasks for this.

60 marks are for the opening of a film, including soundtrack and titles; all material must be original, created by yourselves. Guidance re length, genre and contents will follow.

20 marks are for evaluation, for which you will undertake a series of tasks, also displayed on your blog.

deadlines: rough cut 16 October final video: 22 October