Today's Lesson - 30/09/09

More research today. Can I remind you that this needs to be completed for next Wednesday. Use the example form the samples drive to help you. Can I also remind you that you need a DVD of whichever film you have chosen to analyse. This needs to be with you next Tuesday and Wednesday in class. If you haven't got a copy then let me know and I'll try to sort you a copy (don't leave it until Monday to mention this, please!). Can I further remind you that reply slips for our jaunt to Bradford need to be with me by Friday 16th so that I can book the tickets with the museum.

We'll be watching Disney's new version of A Christmas Carol (I'm guessing it'll end happily and that the third ghost, you know the scary one, doesn't whip a machine gun out from under his robes and kill EVERYBODY!!). Remember folks this is in 3D! (anyone seen 3D yet? Any good?) and in IMAX! So its all very exciting indeed. See the trailer here:

http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/a-christmas-carol/trailer

This of course is another attempt at Mo-Cap (motion capture) that the director, Zemeckis, used on both The Polar Express and Beowulf. I'm still not sure that this is the future of cinema, as some of it looks ace whilst other bits (the eyes, their dead eyes!) are a bit ho-hum.

If I get chance I'll put another example of a research sheet, that I've done this time, on the samples drive. I will, of course, let you know when I've done this.

Today's Lesson - 29/09/09

Today we started on our first piece of coursework; your research on a film of your choice. We will continue this tomorrow. There are three parts to the research you need to do.

1. Production - who made the film, when and where.
2. Distribution - who put the film into cinemas and how did they advertise the movie
3. Exhibition - which cinemas was the film shown in (did the locals show it?), how long for and how much money did it make?

Like I say, we'll finish the research tomorrow (and at home if needed). I'll put up an example to show you after tomorrow's lesson.

Keep thinking about which are the worst films you ever seen. See the comments on the last post for some suggestions!

Today's Lesson - 22/09/09

Today we talked a bit about what you will have to do for your first coursework piece. There are two parts to the assignment:

1. Research the production and distribution of a film of your choice.
2. Analyse a key sequence from your film

I'm going to ask you again tomorrow for your choice. Choose carefully, think about a film that you know well and feel happy talking about. In preparation for this, we spent the lesson analysing a scene from 'Titanic' (1997, James Cameron). We looked at the sequence when the boat starts to tip up and Rose and Jack have to make their way to the top of the boat. We're going to practice with another scene tomorrow, not from 'Titanic' but 'Poseidon' (2006, Wolfgang Petersen), just to keep the whole soggy theme going!

The other thing we briefly talked about was the worst films you've ever seen. We're going to play a little game to see what is the worst film any of us has seen. Now I'm not talking about the rubbish and the shoddy, I'm talking about films that are so bad, so utterly terrible they make your eyes itch! So woeful that you can no longer watch. Maybe you've walked out on a film, maybe you've sat through a right old load of dreck with friends or family. I'm not interested in films that you don't like - that's a matter of opinion, I may have not liked Transformers 2, but its not a BAD film, just not very good. In my opinion. No, I want to hear from you about the films that looked like they've been put together over a weekend by a bunch of people who did not have a clue what they were doing. My nomination? 'Domino' (Tony Scott, 2005). Cor its rough, really rough. The whole thing is a mess and, as far as I can see utterly pointless. Its shot like the cameraman was having an epileptic fit and edited so fast that it becomes very difficult to say what is happening. In fact this may be the point, nothing IS happening and the director is merely trying to hide this fact. Dreadful.

Anyway let me know what are the worst things you've seen, either in class or post a comment on the blog.

Today's Lesson - 15/09/09

Today we started doing some research into what people like and dislike about films and going to the cinema. I asked you to write ten questions to ask to ten people. Research like this is important as it allows the studios who make the films (and films cost a LOT of money, so they have to get it right!) to understand what films people are watching and what they like. They will do market research to find this out, but the most useful information for the studios is the 'box office'. This records the amount of money a film has made from ticket sales in a week. You can go to www.boxofficemojo.com to find out the weekly and all-time charts.

Next lesson you will be summarising your results.