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.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
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!
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!
Tuesday, 22 September 2009
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:
- Research the production and distribution of a film of your choice.
- 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.
Tuesday, 15 September 2009
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.
Next lesson you will be summarising your results.
Saturday, 1 August 2009
HP 6... Finally
So, last night I went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and very good it was too. As far as I can see this installment is up there with Azkaban in terms of the series' best. I thought the first half was excellent with loads of laughs, mostly at Ron's expense. This got me thinking, a lot of the humour in the first half comes from teenage awkwardness surrounding burgeoning relationships and in many ways it felt like an American teen-comedy, but how many British comedies like this do we see? I can't think of one, sign Ron up for one quick!
The second half of the film was just as good but does seem to take more liberties with the book. Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing, films 1 and 2 are the most direct adaptations and are really slow, whereas Azkaban manages to find a clear path through the plot to deliver a strong film. So, back to 6: I don't mind the screenwriter and director changing things if it makes sense, so we'll have to wait and see why the Weasley's house gets torched and why Harry CHOSE not to intervene in the unfortunate event whilst in the book he CAN'T. We'll have to wait and see.
Finally, I saw the film in an single screen independent cinema in the Lake District (the Alhambra in Keswick http://www.keswick-alhambra.co.uk/). Small cinemas like this only get the prints a week or so after the big chains (Vue, Odeon, Cineworld) have finished with them. However, they are important because they allow people in smaller towns to see films they wouldn't otherwise get the chance to see. For instance yesterday's programme was: Ice Age 3 at 2pm, HP6 at 6pm and Bruno at 9pm. They also try to cater for their local area, sometimes showing older films, classics and often running films by local filmmakers too. More than just this, the tickets were cheap as was the coke and popcorn!
So here's to HP 6 (four stars me reckons) and also here's to independent cinemas, for offering a different choice.
The second half of the film was just as good but does seem to take more liberties with the book. Now this isn't necessarily a bad thing, films 1 and 2 are the most direct adaptations and are really slow, whereas Azkaban manages to find a clear path through the plot to deliver a strong film. So, back to 6: I don't mind the screenwriter and director changing things if it makes sense, so we'll have to wait and see why the Weasley's house gets torched and why Harry CHOSE not to intervene in the unfortunate event whilst in the book he CAN'T. We'll have to wait and see.
Finally, I saw the film in an single screen independent cinema in the Lake District (the Alhambra in Keswick http://www.keswick-alhambra.co.uk/). Small cinemas like this only get the prints a week or so after the big chains (Vue, Odeon, Cineworld) have finished with them. However, they are important because they allow people in smaller towns to see films they wouldn't otherwise get the chance to see. For instance yesterday's programme was: Ice Age 3 at 2pm, HP6 at 6pm and Bruno at 9pm. They also try to cater for their local area, sometimes showing older films, classics and often running films by local filmmakers too. More than just this, the tickets were cheap as was the coke and popcorn!
So here's to HP 6 (four stars me reckons) and also here's to independent cinemas, for offering a different choice.
Tuesday, 7 July 2009
Today's Lesson - 07/07/09: Genre
Today we talked about genre and how we can identify genres. This could be through particular types of characters (I was joking when I said that Gandalf, Dumbledore and Obi Wan Kenobi were the same person, but they are remarkably similar!) , settings, stories even down to types of camera movement and music. It is important that we can identify these genres but more importantly how film makers make the audience aware of the sort of film they are watching.
If an audience doesn't feel as if they know what type of film they are watching they can become a bit twitchy and feel uncomfortable. It may seem like a criticism but it is very rare when we can't guess what is happening in a film. This is because films tend to stick to well worn stories. We still watch them because we like the idea of familiarity. This is also true as to why we like sequels - we actually want them to be the same as what we've already seen!
A couple of things more: I found this tonight (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aLzh3gmCoWdo) which has worked out what the most successful films are if you tweak the prices so that they're all the same (eg. a ticket in 1939 would cost the same as one in 2009). Just take a look at how different the films are!
Lastly, I'm planning on taking you lot to Bradford on 24th November to the National Media Museum (http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/), while we're there I hope we can catch A Christmas Carol in 3D at the IMAX. I'll get more details to you in September.
If an audience doesn't feel as if they know what type of film they are watching they can become a bit twitchy and feel uncomfortable. It may seem like a criticism but it is very rare when we can't guess what is happening in a film. This is because films tend to stick to well worn stories. We still watch them because we like the idea of familiarity. This is also true as to why we like sequels - we actually want them to be the same as what we've already seen!
A couple of things more: I found this tonight (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=aLzh3gmCoWdo) which has worked out what the most successful films are if you tweak the prices so that they're all the same (eg. a ticket in 1939 would cost the same as one in 2009). Just take a look at how different the films are!
Lastly, I'm planning on taking you lot to Bradford on 24th November to the National Media Museum (http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/), while we're there I hope we can catch A Christmas Carol in 3D at the IMAX. I'll get more details to you in September.
Wednesday, 1 July 2009
Today's Lesson 01/07/09 - Sound
Today we talked about the importance of sound. We noted down the difference between diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The main part of the lesson was built around the importance of sound in a horror sequence. We looked at a few minutes from near the end of Halloween.(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077651/)
What became clear was that the film is much, much less scary if you only see it. The sounds, especially the music really add to the tension of the scene. Oliver noticed how the score sounded a bit like Psycho (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/).
What also interesting is, that with only hearing the sound we could still tell what was going on. Seathera noted that she could imagine a tracking shot being used as Laurie (the main character) searched the house. She was right. In fact it a lot of horror movies use tracking shots and POV to great effect.
One other point; we briefly mentioned the difference between scary and gross. 'Halloween' is scary, whilst something like Saw is gross (another term used for these films is 'torture-porn' because they sort of enjoy, and ask the audience to enjoy watching the really gross-stuff). But which is scarier? The scariest bit in the 'Halloween' clip is when the villain's mask appears from the shadows.
Homework: watch a sequence from a film you know well with the sound off. How does it affect your viewing of the scene? Write some notes in your blue film diaries.
What became clear was that the film is much, much less scary if you only see it. The sounds, especially the music really add to the tension of the scene. Oliver noticed how the score sounded a bit like Psycho (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054215/).
What also interesting is, that with only hearing the sound we could still tell what was going on. Seathera noted that she could imagine a tracking shot being used as Laurie (the main character) searched the house. She was right. In fact it a lot of horror movies use tracking shots and POV to great effect.
One other point; we briefly mentioned the difference between scary and gross. 'Halloween' is scary, whilst something like Saw is gross (another term used for these films is 'torture-porn' because they sort of enjoy, and ask the audience to enjoy watching the really gross-stuff). But which is scarier? The scariest bit in the 'Halloween' clip is when the villain's mask appears from the shadows.
Homework: watch a sequence from a film you know well with the sound off. How does it affect your viewing of the scene? Write some notes in your blue film diaries.
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