Copy of checklist

Checklist

Please fill out and print these forms

http://www.ocr.org.uk/download/forms/ocr_36754_form_gce_ccs334i.pdf

Why not enter this?

Evaluation of Advanced Portfolio

The unit is marked out of a total of 100 marks:

20 marks for the planning and research and its presentation;

60 marks for the construction;

20 marks for the evaluation.

In the evaluation the following questions must be answered:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

You need to present your evaluation on the blog. It can take the form of a powerpoint, blog entries and/or directors commentary on the DVD.

You must make lots of use ICT, they want to see links to your research, theory, audience feedback. You need to provide quotes from your subjects. Vox pop them and put them into a podcast if they don't want to be filmed.

You can set your blog up so you can link back to previous quotes. Screen shots, commentaries, commentary straight into the imovie, or even an extra normal video. You could interview yourself as the director.

The more imaginative, inventive & multi-platform you are, the better.

Mark scheme

This is what I shall be using to mark your work so make sure you have done as much as you can

Appendix C: Sample Marking Criteria for Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

Research and Planning must be presented in electronic format. Where candidates have worked as a group, the research may be presented collectively, but teachers are asked to differentiate the contributions of individuals within the group in arriving at a mark and justifying individual marks on the assessment sheet. As part of the moderation sample, the moderator will request some research/planning material.

Level 3 12–15 marks

                   

There is proficient research into similar products and a potential target audience.

There is proficient organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.

There is proficient work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.

Level 4 16–20 marks

                   

There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.

There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.

There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.

Time management is excellent.

There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning.

There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.

There are excellent communication skills.

Marking Criteria for Evaluation

Each candidate will evaluate and reflect on the creative process and their experience of it. Candidates will evaluate their work electronically. The format of the evaluation has some flexibility and its form can be negotiated between teacher and student: it may take place with individual candidates or with the production group as a whole, or each individual candidate or production group may make a formal or informal presentation to the whole class.

The questions that must be addressed in the evaluation are:

                   

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

Ideas for the format for the presentation of the evaluation can be found in the Guidance Notes.

Level 4 16–20 marks

                   

There is excellent understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions.

There is excellent understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production.

There is excellent understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts.

There is excellent understanding of the significance of audience feedback.

There is excellent skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation.

There is excellent ability to communicate.

There is excellent use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.

Marking Criteria for the Media Text

In this piece of work, in terms of production 40 marks will be allocated to the main task and 10 marks each for the two ancillary tasks. In arriving at these marks, centres should use the relevant markscheme below for whichever media is being assessed. Within the section of the main task, centres should consider the relationship between the tasks and ensure that a sense of brand identity across the package is evident. This should be taken into account at this stage.

Where candidates have worked in groups, the teacher is asked to indicate clearly on the mark sheets any differences in the contributions made by each individual to the group’s work. The teacher should also make clear on the mark sheet the quality of the brand identity across the package as a whole.

In arriving at a level, teachers are advised to adopt a ‘best fit’ approach.

Main Task		Subsidiary Task
Level One	0 – 14 marks		0 – 3 marks
Level Two	15 – 23 marks		4 – 6 marks
Level Three	24 – 31 marks		7 – 8 marks
Level Four	32 – 40 marks		9 – 10 marks

Film/Television/Video

Level 3  24-31 marks

The candidate is expected to demonstrate proficiency in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

                   

holding a shot steady, where appropriate;

framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;

using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;

shooting material appropriate to the task set;

selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;

editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;

using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;

using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.

Where a candidate has worked in a group, a proficient contribution to construction is evident.

Level 4  32-40 marks

The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

                   

holding a shot steady, where appropriate;

framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;

using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;

shooting material appropriate to the task set;

selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;

editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;

using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately;

using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task

Print

Level 3 24-31 marks 7-8 for subsid

The candidate is expected to demonstrate proficiency in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

                   

use IT appropriately for the task set;

show understanding of conventions of layout and page design;

show awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size;

accurate use of language and register;

appropriately integrating illustration and text;

framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;

using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;

shooting material appropriate to the task set;

selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;

manipulating photographs as appropriate to the context for presentation, including within text, within particular IT programmes, cropping and resizing.

Where a candidate has worked in a group, a proficient contribution to construction is evident.

Level 4  32-40 marks  9-10 for subsid

The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

                   

using IT appropriately for the task set;

showing understanding of conventions of layout and page design;

showing awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size;

accurate use of language and register;

appropriately integrating illustration and text;

framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;

Useful terms

Try and incorporate these into your writing to improve your media specific terminology.

camerawork
cause and effect (Blair Witch)
chronology
colour
contrapuntal sound (Holly)
costume and props
cultural identity
diegetic sound
expectations
exposition
genre
globalisation
hollywood
iconography
identity
ideology
lighting
marketing
messages & values
mise-en-scene
narrative
non-diegetic sound
oligopoly
paradigm
performance
pleasure
plot
poster campaign
reading
resolution
talent
technological determinism
trailers

Checklist for new deadline, first week we are back

Please ensure you have completed the tasks from the previous post. In addition you should have the following on your blog:

Research and Planning that displays an excellent use of technology and media specific language.
You need to show:
1.interactive research on the generic conventions of all of your products.
2. research into your target audience, profiles, questionnaires, results.
3. Evidence of your planning process, eg storyboards, shot lists & an animatic

You should also highlight the links between your research and your products. You need to address these and more points in a directors commentary.

Completing the following activities will add a great deal to your blog and give you a more confident approach for your directors commentary/evaluation (which realistically will probably have to be recorded in January if you don't have the technology at home).

So you should complete these activities before the start of term. When you have completed them, write a script for your directors commentary and then we can help you record it in the first week in Jan, of course it would be better if you had already done it at home!

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)

Look at  Art of the title sequence? Do the same with nine of your frames.

You should go through the final version of the project and select nine distinct frames which you screengrab and drop into a photoshop in the same style as the website. You will be using these to write about how typical or not of opening sequences your particular design is, so choose them carefully.

Once you have the nine frames neatly in Photoshop, screengrab the whole thing and post to your blog, then write an analysis of how you have used such conventions.

The aspects  to consider across your nine frames are:

The title of the film
Setting/location
Costumes and props
Camerawork and editing
Title font and style
Story and how the opening sets it up
Genre and how the opening suggests it
How characters are introduced
Special effects

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Pick a key character from your trailer or film. Take a screengrab of a reasonable sized image of them. Think of one or more characters from other films with some similarity to them (but maybe some differences too!), find an image on the web of that/those characters and grab it as well. Drop the two into photoshop, as a split screen. Export this splitscreen image as a jpeg then drop onto your blog and write about the similarities and differences in terms of appearance, costume, role in film etc.

So for example if you have a lone cop type character, look for other lone cops to compare him with...

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?


For this question, you are going to do a 'director's commentary' style voiceover explaining some of the key features of your opening

You will need to script the voiceover which deals with institutional issues to include:

discussion of your production company name and logo and the role of such companies

What does a production company do?
the idea of a distributor and who that might be and why.
where the money might have come from for a film such as yours
why the various people are named in the titles- which jobs appear in titles and in what order and how have you reflected this?
what your film is similar to 'institutionally' (name some films which would be released in a similar way)
You need to refer to actual company names and processes so you may need to do a bit more research

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

You should have a profile of your target audience  and an explanation of what kinds of taste they might have- where they would shop, what music they would listen to, what their favourite Tv programme would be, etc.

make sure you have posted it on the blog and write a few notes on why they would watch your film.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 5

How did you attract/address your audience?
You could use YOUTUBE's annotation tools to add NOTES, SPEECHBUBBLES, and LINKS to your video:

http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=92710

These annotations will highlight the ways in which your Film trailer or short film links to other similiar films in order to attract the particular Audience you have previously identified.

Your annotations will refer to genre conventions, use of music, similiarities with other movies and what you have identified as the Unique Selling Point of your imaginary film.

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?


Take a picture of yourself holding the kit you have used. This might just be the camera and tripod, and a Mac but there may be other things you want in the shot.

Drop the image onto your blog and annotate it, adding all the programs and other technology you have used as screengrabs and what you learnt about it/from using it. Your written text need only be minimal. You could include reference to all the online and computer programs you have used such as youtube, flickr, blogger, final cut,photoshop,vimeo garageband, etc.

Review of work and updated deadlines.

Time is pressing on now.
Deadlines are:

Practical Work: Friday10th December
This should consist of either:
1. 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.
2. An extract from a new documentary TV programme, lasting approximately five minutes,
together with two of the following three options: 
 a radio trailer for the documentary;
 a double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary;
 a newspaper advertisement for the documentary.
3. 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.


On Monday 13th December and Tuesday 14th  we will record your audience feedback.
You must have all your work ready to show and a list of 5 questions that you would like your audience to answer. We will structure it in the same manner of last years work. To get maximum benefit your whole portfolio must be ready as branded package.

The rest of the week must be spent preparing your evaluation. This should be presented as a directors cut and answer the following questions:

 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
 How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
 What have you learned from your audience feedback?
 How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?

Bearing in mind the time lost due to the snow you are going to have to work very hard to get this completed in time.

Clarification

After speaking to the OCR advisor today, they confirmed that there is no specific time for the trailers because in the industry they vary so much. The guideline however, is 1 minute 30 seconds..

Remember, you are not telling the story, you are getting the audience interested & intrigued.

Monday 15th November

You should be editing your footage this week.

Try the 'share' tool in imovie to make a quick version of your rushes to upload to You Tube and embed in your blog. Remember, in your evaluation you need to reflect on, amongst other things, your use of digital technology and your creative development. This will also make it easy to show to your focus group and get some audience feedbacl.

Keep checking the site, 'Get Ahead in OCR Media'  it seems to be updated quite often with questions and tips, from students and examiners.

These courses are based in Southend

Very cheap for industry standard courses

Try out as many different applications as possible

Try Prezi

Google documents to create an online questionnaire, (thanks Alex)

We looked at the Chief examiners site today

Here is the link for it

Take his advice!
Favourite the site on your blog and yourtoolbar so you don't miss anything!

Exams after Christmas

You will have a mock exam after Christmas. It will be based on the exam you will take in June which will be on the Theoretical Criticism of your productions. To prepare you for this you need to be aware of the issues that could come up and keep a track of your development in terms of the key concepts and your skills and understandings. Use the sheets below to plot your development.

Mini deadlines

There will be other blog submissions to upload but for now here is a guide to the speed at which your film should be taking.

Week beginning:
1st Nov: Upload footage
8th Nov: Editing
15th Nov: 1st Rushes completed: show to Focus Group
22nd Nov: Re-edit
29th Nov:  Final edit: show to focus group for audience feedback
6th Dec: Write evaluation
13th Dec: Submit whole project and blog.

Explain your idea in 25 words & post

You have to do this because I said so,  because the chief examiner said so.

If you want to pass, do as I say, ok.

Remember, all your footage must be filmed over half term!

Before you film, make sure your characters know what is expected of them...

How not to do it...

As I was falling… « DepicT!

As I was falling… « DepicT!

Cinematography

18th October

All research & planning coming to an end now.

Remember to label all your posts very clearly and you must have at least two posts each week.
Your aim for this week is to:
1. Get one page of your storyboard filmed and edited as an animatic, this means putting transitions and sound on, perhaps a voice over, even special effects.

Look here for links explaining this first and here

2. Set up 'logistics' of filming over 1/2 term. Create a shooting schedule that details, equipment, props, locations, who, what, where, how etc.

You may find it useful to create a call sheet for the different locations:

The daily call sheet is a filmmaking term for a sheet of paper issued to the cast and crew of a film production, created by an assistant director, informing them where and when they should report for a particular day of shooting. Call sheets also include other useful information such as contact information (e.g. phone numbers of crew members and other contacts), the schedule for the day, which scenes and script pages are being shot, and the address of the shoot location. Call sheets may also provide logistical information in regards to the location. It is common to find weather information, sunrise/sunset times, local hospitals, restaurants, and hardware stores. Call sheets also detail information about cast transportation arrangements, parking instructions and safety notes

Here is an example of a call sheet or production sheet, note how detailed it is.

3. Pick 5 points from your research that you have discovered and that influenced your ideas. Make the connection between your research and your product explicit.

For Amy, documentary spec

7. An extract from a new documentary TV programme, lasting approximately five minutes,


together with two of the following three options:

 a radio trailer for the documentary;

 a double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary;

 a newspaper advertisement for the documentary.

Examiner's Report on Advanced Portfolio Jan 10

The best film trailers did not attempt to tell the plot of the film in narrative order and included a


great variety of shots, using fast cuts to create an effective and atmospheric trailer. However the

majority followed the narrative of the film and were overlong and would have benefited from a

greater variety of shots and tighter editing. Some of the weakest looked more like submissions

for the short film brief!

Film posters were the most successful aspect of the ancillary tasks submitted and showed good

understanding of conventions. Magazine front covers were the most inconsistent. The weakest

showed little understanding of generic conventions.



There were some informed and effective TV documentaries, that demonstrated understanding of

the appropriate conventions, explored with technical skill and which had succeeded largely

because they had been built on genuine stories and featured real interviewees and mise en

scene and used thoughtful cutaways, relevant to what was being talked about. These

productions also clearly demonstrated a detailed level of planning. Some Centres submitted

much weaker TV documentary productions, where candidates had clearly fabricated the content

of their documentaries using people to play characters in the documentary who were clearly

reading a script when being ‘interviewed’. Sound was a real problem with a large number of

productions, with inconsistent sound levels and background noise under the voiceover. The

ancillaries for this brief were met with different levels of success: newspaper adverts were

generally well produced but a number of candidates used found images in their construction.

Double page spreads of listings magazines were the weakest element, with most of the DPS

being taken up with listings for TV channels and only a small amount of space being used for the

original production. The best created a full DPS about the programme with still images from the

programme and detailed and creative text. Few candidates produced radio adverts and those

that did tended to be weak with just a voiceover outlining the programme and little variety of

content, such as clips from the programme. The best productions had clearly been planned with

consideration of the channel it was to be broadcast on and target audience. This was evident in

the style and content of the programme and the ancillary texts with clear channel identity and

scheduling. There was only one candidate who appeared ‘confused’ producing a documentary

extract with the Channel 4 ident before the production started then producing ancillary texts

indicating the programme was to be broadcast on BBC1.



A few candidates worked to the short film brief and these were largely successful with clear

narrative and characterisation, careful construction of mise en scene, titling and camerawork.

Centres need to be more careful about originality in soundtracks, however. The posters for these

films were generally effective although the film magazine review pages were less successful.

There were very few radio trailers for the films. Evaluation



The best Evaluations took a multi-media approach. Whether as a presentation, a blog entry, or

as a DVD extra, an effective evaluation used clips and stills from the production work, feedback

from the audience - often as video or audio clips - and reflective analysis. Of particular note are

those candidates who created video-based evaluations which included talking heads, clips from

production work (often paused and annotated), and interviews with the audience. The direct

addressing of the four set questions was also a characteristic of a focused evaluation.



However, the Evaluation more generally tended to be the weakest element of candidates’ work

and the most over-marked. The worst evaluations were those on blogs or presentations that

consisted entirely of text, especially when responses to the set questions were either very short

or difficult to find amongst the rest of the material in a largely unstructured piece of writing. A

small number of candidates made the mistake of answering the set questions for Foundation

Portfolio, which was not acknowledged by the Centre. Most candidates did address the required

questions but in many cases their answers tended to be descriptive. Many evaluations took the

form of largely text-based essay-style answers on blogs or on numerous PowerPoint slides,

which many Centres then inappropriately rewarded as being excellent use of digital technology

and ICT. In one case a candidate was filmed reading her answers, which does not constitute

excellent use of digital technology. A number of Centres submitted DVDs of candidates either

being interviewed by a teacher answering the questions or delivering a presentation of their

evaluation to a class using a PowerPoint presentation. Some of these were extremely overlong,

in one Centre averaging 20 minutes per presentation. One centre filmed their presentations with

very faint audio, the candidates standing in front of the classroom door (which was opened in the

middle of presentations by other members of the Centre!) and with the view of the PowerPoint

on the screen being partially obscured by a desk top fan. This was not a very useful experience

and perhaps the sound and ‘mise en scene’ of this could be reconsidered for future submissions.



Advice

• The expectations of the unit are greater than for the old 2733 and this needs to be

reflected in the marking

• The best submissions were those making the most of the electronic basis of the new spec,

thoroughly integrating audio, video, image and web links to the written word during the

planning and research stages and the evaluation

• Encourage candidates to blog or use VLEs where possible, on an ongoing basis; this will

prove especially useful in preparing for G325

• Ensure candidates answer the four questions in their Evaluation

• Teach the skills for the ancillary tasks not just the main tasks

• Set an internal deadline well in advance of the Board’s deadline

• Complete print-based coversheets, filling in all sections accurately

• Where there are fewer than 10 candidates send all work to the moderators without waiting

for a sample request

Presentations

Well done for some excellent presentations. Make sure you upload them to your blog. Take the time to look at each others then write a feedback comment for each other on the blog comment. Its important that you use your blogs in the most interactive way possible.

You all have lots of information and activites to plough through over the next couple of weeks. I would like you to upload your responses to these onto yours blogs in the most user friendly way possible. You can record yourself straight onto the computers in almost a 'video diary', manner, discussing your ideas. Short responses or powerpoints are fine, but the exam board doesn't really want essay type responses. I will be looking at your blogs after every lesson and giving you a grade, -, = or + for the effort and level of response. Remember, sixth formers can have detentions and if there is nothing there you will have one! You are expected at this level to work outside of lesson time as well. I would suggest at least four hours a week.

Trailers:
Look here  for activities to go with your sheets.

Short Films:
Look again at the 'About a Girl' worksheets and work through those for a detailed analysis of a short film.

Proposal for Advanced Portfolio

This needs to be handed in on Wednesday 8th September
Name:

Title of Brief:

Outline of ideas:





Auxiliary Products:



Target Audience: (age, gender, socio/economic group)

How will your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real



media products? What is your inspiration?



How will your main product and ancillary texts compliment each other?





How will you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

How will you incorporate the following concepts?

Genre

Narrative

Representation

Audience

Media language



Timeline: the final product is due in on Friday 17th December. Draft a timeline for your research, planning, production, post-production (including audience feedback). How are you going to get it all done?

A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media

A2 G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media


You will be assessed on your ability to:

1. plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills (AO3);

2. Your knowledge and understanding in evaluating your own work, showing how meanings and responses are created (AO2);

3. Your ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research (AO4).

4. You need to demonstrate engagement with contemporary media technologies, and develop your own skills in these technologies and in your presentation skills.



In the evaluation the following questions must be answered so you must bear this in mind during the planning and production process.

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real

media products?

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

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?

• How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation

stages?

Choose from either:

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

Or

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.



You will be examined on your Portfolios in

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production

You answer 2 questions.

Question 1(a) requires candidates to describe and evaluate their skills development over the

course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. The focus of this

evaluation must be on skills development, and the question will require them to adapt this to one or

two specific production practices. The list of practices to which questions will relate is as follows:

• Digital Technology

• Creativity

• Research and planning

• Post-production

• Using conventions from real media texts

In the examination, questions will be posed using one or two of these categories so you need to prepare answers for all.

Where candidates have produced relevant work outside the context of their A Level media course,

they are free to additionally refer to this experience.

Question 1(b) requires candidates to select one production and evaluate it in relation to a media

concept. The list of concepts to which questions will relate is as follows:

• Genre

• Narrative

• Representation

• Audience

• Media language

In the examination, questions will be set using one of these concepts only, you can use either your Foundation or the Advanced Portfolio to answer this depending on which is most suitable. So again you need to prepare answers to all of these and consider the concepts when planning and producing your artefacts.

Nightmail 1936, Poem by WH Auden, music Benjamin Britten

First rapping?

Comedy

Cinema going becoming a national past time. Cinema screening would go on all day. Remember there was not television, audiences would visit the cinema to watch the news reels, the national anthem was played and everyone would stand. A feature film would be on the bill but would be supported by shorter films. Comedians such as Buster Keaton, Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin amused the masses across the Atlantic, the start of globalisation??



Notice in the Laurel and Hardy clip how the editing is so much more involved. They are still using 'slapstick' techniques as they are coming from the silent era.

The Open Road 1927

Again, realism. Is that the short film makers purpose? To reflect reality?

Pageant of New Romney, Hythe and Sandwich (1910)

One of a number of short films G.A. Smith made to demonstrate his patented Kinemacolor process, this showcases a traditional historical re-enactment performed by people from various South Kent towns.




It also provides a graphic illustration of the Kinemacolor process's major drawback. Because it relied on alternating frames being filmed and projected through red and green filters, any movement would lead to minute differences between red and green elements, leading to the colour fringing that's all too evident in this particular take.

Link to BFI site

The Great Train Robbery 1903

These films show film makers attempts at creating a 'narrative'. This one in particular shows how important editing and using different shot types is.



The film used a number of innovative techniques including cross cutting, double exposure composite editing, camera movement and on location shooting. Cross-cuts were a new, sophisticated editing technique. Some prints were also hand colored in certain scenes.The film uses simple editing techniques (each scene is a single shot) and the story is mostly linear (with only a few "meanwhile" moments), but it represents a significant step in movie making, being one of the first "narrative" movies of significant length.

Le Voyage dans la Lune 1902

A Trip to the Moon (French: Le Voyage dans la lune) is a 1902 French black and white silent science fiction film. It is loosely based on two popular novels of the time: From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne and The First Men in the Moon by H. G. Wells


The film was written and directed by Georges Méliès, assisted by his brother Gaston. The film runs 14 minutes if projected at 16 frames per second, which was the standard frame rate at the time the film was produced. It was extremely popular at the time of its release and is the best-known of the hundreds of fantasy films made by Méliès. A Trip to the Moon is the first science fiction film, and utilizes innovative animation and special effects, including the iconic shot of the rocketship landing in the moon's eye
It was named one of the 100 greatest films of the 20th century


Still influential today...

This is a good example of post modern, intertextuality. Intertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can refer to an author’s borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in reading another. The term “intertextuality” has, itself, been borrowed and transformed many times since it was coined by poststructuralist Julia Kristeva in 1966. As critic William Irwin says, the term “has come to have almost as many meanings as users, from those faithful to Kristeva’s original vision to those who simply use it as a stylish way of talking about allusion and influence”. Kristeva's ideas have been linked amongst others to Saussure's (1913) theories of semiotics and Roland Barthes. Barthes's many monthly contributions that made up Mythologies (1957) would often interrogate pieces of cultural material to expose how bourgeois society used them to assert its values upon others. Roland Barthes's incisive criticism contributed to the development of theoretical schools such as structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, Marxism and post-structuralism. While his influence is  felt in every field concerned with the representation of information and models of communication, including computers, photography, music, and literature. Barthes’ work was ever adapting and refuting notions of stability and constancy means there is no canon of thought within his theory to model one's thoughts upon, and thus no "Barthesism". His works remain valuable sources of insight and tools for the analysis of meaning in any given manmade representation.

The beginnings of Film, the 1890s

The first films produced were short. Film was very expensive, they didnt have batteries to power cameras etc.




The Lumiere Brothers were groundbreakers in the field. Each of these films are 17 metres long, when handcranked translates to 50 seconds. They mainly produced 'actualities', that reflected everyday life, or mini documentaries. Maybe you would like to produce an 'actualite' of your own?



They toured with their work using a Cinematograph which effectively functioned as camera, projector and printer all in one.

The Lumiere Brothers have been credited with over 1,425 different short films and had even filmed aerial shots years before the very first aiplane would take to the skies.







The Lumières pioneered not just the technical attributes of the camera but also its artistic attributes, creating a dialogue of REALISM that has always been a crux of cinema.

These early, silent films are useful to look at, not only to give you some historical context into the development of film, but also to pin point the evolution of the visual language and grammar of film that has formed the codes and conventions we take for granted today.

Timeline for Advanced Portfolio

Task	Deadline
Research into short film or film promotion. Generic research into at least 4 short films. Liar chart of aux products. Theory of film genre. Storyboards, animatic, photoshoots, sketches, drafts, screen shots, skills development from Foundation	On going- keep adding to blog
Aims and context 1. The situation: opens the story and may be disrupted. 2. Whose situation is it?- identifies the protagonist. 3. Central quest or conflict? What has the protagonist to resolve? 4. Who stands in the way of success? The antagonist. 5. How does the quest end? Show, don't tell! If its a genre specific film then define those conventions you will use. Consider, sound	Friday 9th July
Scripting: 1st draft Mood board about film	Friday 16th July
Drawn storyboard & location stills Upload to blog as an animatic	Wednesday 21st July
Shooting schedule prepared for shooting over summer hols	Wednesday 21 1st July
Summer hols: 1. Shoot footage for short film or trailer 2. Continue with research on blog 3. Complete FM1 Exploring Film Form –analysis of your choice of 2-5 minute film extract, (if you are taking Film Studies)
Submit coursework for film studies Upload footage, edit & produce first rushes by	Monday 13th September Friday 24th September
Presentation of 1st edit to audience. Prepare questions you want target audience to answer in feedback session. Begin research for aux products.	Monday 4th October
Catch up on any outstanding work	25th October ½ term
Research, plan and shoot for auxiliary artefacts. Poster, radio trailer or film review for Short film. Homepage, poster or magazine cover for Film Promo	Individual deadlines for these, plan your time !
Re-focus on editing, re shoot parts that need it. Final presentation with aux products Record focus group feedback	Friday 3rd December
Analyse your work in terms of Media Language, Genre, Narrative, Representation, Audience. Write a script incorporating this as a ‘Directors commentary’ to be recorded over your film. This is instead of a formal written evaluation so it must be good!	Friday 10th December
Edit above footage. Ensure blog is complete, all research etc in place. Submit	Friday 17th December