Year 13 Media and Film Cover Work for Thursday

Good evening everyone. I won't be able to teach your lessons tomorrow as I am busy all day interviewing the 'Head of Media and Film' candidates. Sorry! However, I have lots of work for you to do so please read on to discover what I have planned: 

Year 13 Media:

I want you to break into groups of no more than four people and work collaboratively on a 500 word essay response using the 'Horror' reader on my front desk + your knowledge and understanding of the four films studied to create a team essay. Here are 4 questions to choose from with basic structures: 

How important is Genre to film audiences and the film industry?

1. Define Genre- a blueprint of conventions, useful for Audiences and Institutions alike. 

2.Industry:

Think about it logically, its useful in, pre-production, Production- directors working with the same actors and crew- they know they work well together. Post modernism, inter textuality, directors and producers influences, auteur theory, etc. Post - Production, Marketing and distribution- via genre- trailers, press, TV interviews etc- all aimed at the target audience. mass or niche. 

3. Audience:
Genre is a contract between I & A - marketed in a certain way to appeal to a particular audience who will have expectations of a film and be prepared to 'suspend their disbelief' to take part in this process of consumption. 
They bring their own cultural & post modern references and experience to the film and may consume it on different levels. Roland Barthes theory of 'plaiser' & 'Jouissance'- audiences feel gratified that they have been intelligent enough to recognise these references and they also enjoy the film both on a visual spectacle level and also on a more challenging intellectual level. 

“Generic conventions provide a basic structure, but that is all. Every film is unique” Discuss this view.

The following issues may be referred to by candidates:
•Generic conventions
•Case study analysis
•Auteurism
•Audience pleasures
•Hybrid, cross genre films
• Sequels and prequels

Explain how and why certain films combine the conventions of more than one genre.The following issues may be referred to by candidates:
•Audience pleasures and expectations
•Success of certain formulae and paradigms
•Industry preferences
•Promotional issues and strategies
•Hybrids and sub genres
• References to and comparisons with literary genres

How do you account for the growing popularity of Horror?

PLEASE PRINT YOUR TEAM EFFORTS AND LEAVE ON MY DESK! HERE IS SOME GENRE THEORY TO SUPPORT YOU:

Genre Theory

• As audiences become acquainted with particular genres, they come to expect a specific type of viewing experience from films of that genre.

• Genres typically have a life cycle, progressing from uncertain beginnings to stable maturity and parodic decline.

• Though generic similarities between films have existed since the beginning of cinema, it was the advent of semiotics and structuralism that gave scholars a sophisticated methodology with which to analyze film genre (see Film Theory).

• Jim Kitses defined genre in terms of structuring oppositions, such as the wilderness-civilization binary found in westerns.

• Rick Altman divided genre into the semantic (iconographic elements such as the cowboy hat) and thesyntactic (structural and symbolic meanings).

  
  
  
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  YEAR 13 FILM: PLEASE WATCH 'CITY OF GOD' - IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU WATCH THIS FILM THIS WEEK PLEASE! ENJOY. X

Cover work for Year 13 Media - Friday!

Starter: How many Horror references?

Still got a very bad back....planning on some Acupuncture today as my last resort so I won't be in. Before Easter you watched Hostel 2. Today I would like you to read the following two articles from the Guardian Film site and Film Bunnies. Whilst reading, take notes/key quotes from them in a mature and diligent fashion:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/may/01/gender.world

http://filmbunnies.wordpress.com/category/alex/roths-hostel-2/

I would then like you to write a detailed 750/1000 word review of the film on your blog commenting on:

1 What you find interesting about the representations of men and women in Hostel 2?

2. What do you think the future of horror is post-Roth's Hostel? Where does the genre go from here? What next and why?

I look forward to reading these this evening. Missing you already x If you finish, have a go at creating a 'Horror' character in Cube Craft. 

Cover work for Nina - Today!

Good morning. I'm sorry but my back is still giving me a lot of grief and despite putting on a brave face yesterday, I was in a lot of pain by lunch and today I am suffering! However, because you are diligent and concientious students I know you will stay and do the work I set here. Please do, it's in your interests and I have made the effort to post this, this morning:

Year 13 Media:

Adam is bringing in Hostel 2 and you need to finish watching this film please. When you have finished, I would like you to read the following article from the Guardian Film site. It's brilliant - and take notes/key quotes from it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/may/01/gender.world

I would then like you to write a review of the film on your blog commenting on what you find interesting about the representations of men and women in the film and discussing what you think the future of horror is? Where does it go from here? What next and why?

I look forward to reading these this evening. Missing you already x

Year 13 Film

1. AS A MATTER OF URGENCY I NEED YOU TO PLEASE ADD A FRAME (BLACK WITH WHITE TEXT) BEFORE YOUR SHORT FILMS THAT GIVES THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION FOR THE EXAMINER:

1. SHORT FILM TITLE

2. CANDIDATE NAMES AND CANDIDATE NUMBERS

NOTHING FANCY-MANCY. JUST SIMPLE.

When complete, please tell Gerry and give him this information along with the computer you used and whether you used Final Cut or i-movie. Thank you. Burn a copy to DVD for you and DO NOT FILM OVER YOUR ROUGH FOOTAGE ON YOUR DV TAPES. 

ALSO I NEED FS4 WORK FROM THE FOLLOWING:

GRANT -    EVALUATION

DANIELLE-  ALL PIECES

LANGFORD - EVALUATION 

Can you e-mail me these at ninanoo@btinternet.com

NEXT IN CLASS AND HOMEWORK FOR NEXT THURSDAY:

1. Please read my most recent posting on Gendered Film 'Some Useful Notes on The Piano' and read the posting. 

2. Complete the exercise is pairs and post your results on your blogs.

Try to map out all the oppositions you think might be relevant for middle-class men and women in Victorian society. Which qualities would be expected from men rather than women etc.?

Now apply this Levi Strauss's theory of Binary Opposites to the other films we have seen. What do these play in the films?

What other binary oppositions can you identify in The Piano?

What binary oppositions can you identity in Tomb Raider and Thelma and Louise? 

If time permits, I'd like you to watch 'Persepolis' but I think Alan loaned it over Easter and he may not have it with him. It might be in my cupboard which I think I left open yesterday. If it's not in there, could you ask Alan? Thank you. 

Thank you for your anticipated hard work and I look forward to looking at the work on your blogs. I'm sorry to let you down and I'll see you soon. 

Good luck. Have Fun. See you soon x