Playlists of all past AS coursework productions

We'll use these in some lessons, but be aware of this useful resource - if you've watched one and are interested in how well it did, you can always ask (I'll answer so long as its clear you've given this some consideration yourself, and have looked at the markscheme when doing so).
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014 ...

Below are 4 examples I will ask you to use in this lesson:

2013's Black Nightmare:


2013's The Asylum:


2010's Not a Chance


2009's Just Another Day

Prominence of student work on YouTube

I've blogged previously on the growing number of made-for-fun short horror films on YouTube (especially zombie flicks), reflecting the ongoing impact of digitisation and the accessibility of digital film-making today, but its worth noting too how the battalions of Media Studies students across the land are leaving their own legacy. As students conduct research into their chosen genre before setting out to create their own genre piece, increasingly they could be accessing other students' distilled research to do so!

When doing some tagging on archive posts I came across a mention of how prominent my students' work was on YouTube search results - so, a year or so on, I had another look, and sure enough, a 'slasher openings' on YouTube (Nov 15th 2013) produced the following top results:

IGS student work came top of the pile in this search

You can help make your work more widely seen by using YouTube categories and tagging.

AS cwk: setting out Opening Analysis posts

TBC

Your Media coursework requires not just strong practical skills but also evidence of Research + Planning (20%) plus analysis and reflection within the Evaluation. How you organise and present your blog is important, for example by adding links lists to make it easy to see what work you've done on the major assessment criteria.
The following is an example of how a student, at an early stage of blogging, has presented analysis on the use of sound in a film; below this I've set out how (using the student's text) you should set out and present this.

This was how Conal initially presented his analysis...

My example below follows the (very!) detailed principles set out in this post, and also in past coursework guides (I should hopefully have a shorter, updated version of both ready for you soon). Like many key posts, you can find it by searching or by looking in the top links list where I've gathered some of the most useful posts:

There are many more links lists on this blog!

The post title would be: SoundEG4: Bride of Chucky
- brevity is good
- only use spaces where needed
- this makes it easy (for blog viewers, not just you!) to find linked posts (and add to relevnat links lists)

At the top of your post would be: 

Bride of Chucky [Child's Play IV]
Ronny Yu, 2000 (slasher, BBFC18)
Produced by: Universal Pictures.
Distributed by: Metrodome Distribution (UK, all media)
Budget: $25m; Box Office: $50.7m world, £526k UK.
Total Opening Length:  :min
Trailer; Wiki; RottenTomatoes.com (42%).

Here's the main title soundtrack:

[We start the post with key info laid out attractively, + incorporating basic multimedia: hyperlinks
You needn't include all of this every time, BUT you should always include at least the film title, director, year, genre, age rating
You'll discover you need to answer an Evaluation Q on which company would distribute YOUR film, so including this will be helpful info/evidence for that
Most of the hyperlinks are from the IMDB entry
Its up to you whether you want to note all the production co's or what you think is the main producer; with distribution its most useful to note the UK distributor - if there is none, that implies it never got a UK cinematic release. Look out too for multiple distributors
Finally, I looked on YouTube and spotted the audio which I've embedded here; be careful with embedding 18-rated material; trailers are generally okay, but some clips may be unsuitable]

The bride if Chucky (Yu, 2008) starts with non diagetic music over the idents that creates an audio bridge between both idents and the opening shot, this music is strings. The strings play slow, drawn out notes and in the background there Is a drum, playing slow beats. The beat then builds I to a faster beat after briefly stopping. This creases the tension and connotes footsteps or a heart beat (it is polysemic until we have further signifiers and therefore anchorage) the music here has been specificly designed to create tension. There is an increase in the pitch and a change to sharp and flat notes all this combined with the fast drum drastically increases the tension. When we do a commutation test we find that this music has been very specifically designed for creating tension and making the audience feel nervous. The long and slow notes combined with the percussion has an interesting effect on the audience, the long notes make yon hold your breath but the percussion makes your heart beat faster. Non diegetic and diegetic sound are combined and the non diegetic sound is exaggerated (an example of this is the phone, which rings as if it were on speaker phone) the young and naive voice creates an impression on the audience. The music gos away for the drips. This makes us focus on the action and then when the radio activates we are shocked by the loud noise of it starting happening in the quiet. The music the returns, making the audience feel safe. It then stops just before the person dies then returns at a faster pace as the dialogue is spoken. 

Zeitgeist terminology1: sexposition

The 1st in an irregular series: as 'Use of Terminology' accounts for 20% of your exam marks (both AS and A2), I'll keep an eye out for any relevant newly-coined terms suming up elements of our new media age, starting with this one: SEXPOSITION, blending sex and exposition (to provide narrative information to an audience).

If you happen to stumble across any interesting new media terms, please pass on as a comment or email!

Here's where I picked it up (the full article is a book review, which sounds promising, and starts with a linked reference to one of the best/most inspiring books on film I've ever read):

In these days of meth-dealing school teachers, it's easy to forget how shocking the idea of a criminal protagonist used to be. The conventional TV wisdom, enforced by advertisers, had always been that Americans would watch films with morally compromised heroes, but that they would never allow them into their living rooms. However, the proliferation of cable TV channels – and later, the introduction of DVD box sets – led to the creation of new, lucrative niche markets. HBO, a pay-TV channel that doesn't take advertising, produced the first wave of these shows as part of a deliberate corporate strategy: it was seeking out a sophisticated, affluent audience, and "adult themes", as they say, were a distinctive selling point. (HBO is of course famous for its use of "sexposition", a speciality of Game of Thrones: spicing up boring exposition with a gratuitous sex scene.) Its executives were famously hands-off and sympathetic to writers. Even so, when the time came to give the go ahead to The Sopranos, HBO's two pioneering bosses, Chris Albrecht and Carolyn Strauss, asked each other: "Should we do this? We should do this! Can we do this?" After shooting the pilot, Chase told his cast and crew: "You've been great. It's been lots of fun. Unfortunately, nobody is going to watch this."

Autumn1 2013 homeworks/deadlines

tbc

Warp/WT exercise

TASK 1 (1ST 5MINS OF LESSON):

Making the DB blogs list page the home page

Logged in as Media click on Safari > Preferences > General and change the homepage to http://igsmediablogs.blogspot.co.uk/

TASK 2 (1ST 5MINS OF LESSON):
At the start of the lesson I'd like you each to skim through this post: http://mediabritishcinema.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/cinema-in-2013-will-be.html. Then leave a comment with YOUR view on what you think will be the most significant trend in 2013. You have 5 mins to do this.

TASK 3 (5MINS, + REFER TO NOTES TAKEN THROUGHOUT LESSON):
Before I start going through the history + development of WT + Warp, and comparing the 2 companies, you'll have 5mins to go through at least 1 BritCinema blog post (and any links list page too if you have time).
WRITE - do not copy/paste into Word - down as many pertinent (useful) points as you can which you think will be helpful for your exam preparation on British Cinema.
After an initial quick summary of what you've picked up, as we go through the lesson if I mention anything you noted earlier shout out, or if you've a useful detail you think will help for the particular point we're looking at, shout out - there will be a prize for the student with the most (pertinent!) shout-outs!

I've assigned each of you one post to start with:
Ben: NBC-Universal's changing relationship with WT;
Tilly: WT's box office record to 2010;
Dom: WTs web promotions;
Kate: WT's Paul compared to Avatar;
George: Report on UK cinema in 2011;
Millie: Love Actually and The Boat That Rocked marketing;
Poppy: WT2 films + marketing;
Hannah: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy marketing;
Curtis: WT2 films + Britishness;
James: Green Zone: WT's $100m flop;
Declan: BJD3 looms;
Jake: BJD case study [if these docs locked, then: WT's impact on the UK film biz]

WT/WARP PRODUCTIONS COMPARISON PRESENTATIONS:
Tilly, Hannah, James: Les Mis v Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee
Millie, Poppy, Kate: Love Actually v Submarine
George, Jake, Curtis: Green Zone v Four Lions
Ben, Curtis, Dom: ? v Donkey Punch