Spooks Analysis (for Tues 2nd December)

As part of preparation for your mock examinations (and for your AS exam), I would like you to to do a thorough analysis of representation in the BBC Drama Spooks.

Please try to follow the rubric as you would in an exam (take one hour to do this)

Watch Spooks on iplayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00flyz9/Spooks_Series_7_Episode_6/

The extract is from 04.45-10.06

• The extract will be screened four times.

• First screening: watch the extract; no notes are to be made this time.

• Second screening: watch the extract and make notes.

• There will be a brief break for note-making.

• Third and fourth screening: watch the extract and make notes.

Answer the question below, with detailed reference to specific examples from the extract only.

Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs representations of social status and class using the following:
• Camera shots, angles, movement and composition
• Editing
• Sound
• Mise-en-scene [50]

Justin.tv VS The Premier League

A really interesting article of football streaming culture....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/nov/26/premierleague-bskyb

Editing and sound

To be done for Tuesday 18th November

Time to start finding examples and writing commentary from British TV drama of:

Editing

Transitions, dissolve, fade-in, fade-out, wipe,
superimposition, long take, short take, slow motion, ellipsis and expansion of time,
post-production,
visual effects.


Sound

• Diegetic and non-diegetic sound;
synchronous/asynchronous sound; sound effects;
sound motif,
sound bridge,
dialogue,
voiceover,
mode of address/direct address,
sound mixing,
sound perspective.
• Soundtrack: score, incidental music, themes and stings, ambient sound.

Coursework pt 1

This is the preliminary exercise you must compete before attempting your main project.

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door,crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action,
shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Opening Credits

Start having a look at opening credits to movies and see what they can add in terms of an establishment of atmosphere. You should try to identify why certain images/fonts and music have been used to achieve a particular effect.

This website http://www.imaginaryforces.com/featured/5 might be a good place to start.

Soap and Hospital Drama

-View one episode of Casualty from the BBC iPlayer and one episode of Eastenders from the iPlayer.

-List all of the similarities in terms of conventions.

-Group these similarities into MICRO (camera, mise en scene, editing, sound) and MACRO (broader representational themes)

-You are in 5 groups of 2:
Torin and Riain,

Lauren K and Daniel D,

Dan K and Charlotte,

Lauren Killen and Alex

Chris and Maria

-By emailing each other back and forth (you all have each others' emails), I would like you to discuss how you would make a Hospital drama look LESS like a soap opera.

-I would then like you to create a storyboard for the joining of 2 story lines in a hospital drama, one dealing with the personal/social aspect and the other with a hospital story, whilst trying to make this look LESS like a soap opera. Include the micro and macro elements in your storyboard as per above. Your work on Hollyoaks should also prove useful here.

-I would like this to be completed by Wednesday 22 October so you can create a Keynote to give to your class on your findings and also to present your ideas

Sebastien Tellier

Well, looks like some other media studies student had a go at making a video for this track, not a bad effort I suppose. Great tune

Grange Hill

Here is the scene I spoke about earlier, quite hard-hitting for what was essentially a kids programme in the 80s


It was sadly let down my this memorable pop outing from the kids from Grange Hill!


And for good measure, those old opening credits i spoke about, which still totally rock!

Ruckus on the Reservation

Don't know if you have ever seen this before, a massive battle between buffalo, lions and a crocodile, truly quite amazing..

GABCAST and VOICETHREAD

A couple of handy wee sites that you may use later on, I'm putting them up now in case I forget!

http://www.gabcast.com/

http://voicethread.com/#home

HOLLYOAKS!!

Time to start some of your own textual analysis of some British TV Drama. Look at case study 5.1 page 83 of Media Studies book.
You can watch some past episodes of Hollyoaks here http://www.channel4.com/video/hollyoaks/catchup.html

You should be looking at a 3 to 5 minute section that deal with a more serious issue (there is a HIV storyline) and something a bit more frivolous, and the transition between the two storylines.

This is to be done for Thursday 2nd October, so you need to get cracking today!!

A Corner In Wheat

A bit of cross cutting from 1909, which may have some prophetic resonances in the way today's economy is going....:(

township funk

just love this video

Yeah well, you knew it was coming

Alrighty, time to get blogging on examples of and EXPLANATIONS of Editing techniques:

Transition of image and sound

Continuity and non-continuity systems

Cutting

Shot/reverse shot

Eyeline Match

Graphic Match

Action Match

Jump cut

Cross Cuttting

Parallel editing

Try to get examples from British TV dramas too.

For Tuesday the 30th of September, pop-pickers!

Some of The Third Man

Another classic starring Orson Welles and directed by Carol Reed, this is The Third Man, with the fantastically atmospheric setting of Vienna and , ahem, its sewers

And after 83 years...

... Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 materpiece "The Battleship Potemkin" still has a devastating emotional impact. This is one of cinema's most famous scenes, chilling, brutal and masterfully done....

..And More

This is an amazingly long single take tracking shot, from Martin Scorcese's Goodfella's, one of the definitive Mafia movies. Classic! Scorcese is definitely worth a watch

SOME MASTERPIECES

Alright folks, time for me to start posting some of my favourite sequences from movies. 

The first is from the absolute classic of cine noir, A Touch of Evil from 1958 by the grand master Orson Welles himself.... you HAVE to watch all of his movies

THE MIGHTY TYRONE

ABSOLUTELY CLASS....I KNOW YOU WOULD BE DISAPPOINTED IN ME IF I DIDN'T DO THIS.....

COLLECTING MUSIC

Someone recently sent me this blog, and many of the illustrations in it capture the (what was for me anyway) the obsessive nature of collecting music.
http://stefanglerum.blogspot.com/2008/07/crate-digging-dont-do-it.html

As I have said to you before, I do miss buying vinyl, though now I can buy more for less and diversify the type of music I am buying as I used to have to choose before between Record A (Techno) and Record B( house). I Used to buy reocrd A because there were only 500 made, few others would have it, i would be the first to have it, this would be THE track, etc etc. Or It would be a rare import, with one track on it that was outstanding and 8 others rubbish, but you really wanted it and then that meant that you couldn't get the other 4 records you wanted because that one was so expensive. Being able to buy mp3s offers a great deal of freedom but.....

The above reasons were what made it all so special, that made your reecord collection unique, that when you played it you could say.."there are only 500 of those".

I suppose my greed for lots and lots of music is assuaged with the availability of mp3, I can get both A and B now, but I do miss spending all my free time looking for vinyl, i suppose I can have some of my life back and nerd off about something else equally as trivial and boring to other people.

It goes back to what Lauren was saying, she doesn't want to gather a whole pile of dusty bits of plastic, and I suppose I definitely have got less precious about owning music, but I'm not always sure that it's the right thing........ the quandry continues......

MUSIC

A wee site y'all might be interested in is www.last.fm effectively an online personalised radio station, which is legit!!

www.emusic.com is the subscription based site I use

www.7digital.com is another site

you can listen to loads of great music on digital radio sites, worth checking out

A couple of articles here on that myspace music worth reading:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/11/technology/leonard_myspace.fortune/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9910344-7.html

British TV Drama

Try to put examples of camera work and angles in the context of British TV Drama, so please do so in your existing posts.

You may also wish to suggest how this is REPRESENTING the character(s)

myspace music label

Have a look and see what myspace music is trying to achieve.
-How is this different to the ways in which current music is owned, distributed and consumed?
-Do you think this model can be successful?
-Will it appeal to under 18's?
-You can check www.hypebot.com for information too

MUSIC CONSUMPTION

Remember to have your blog completed on how you consume music done for this friday the 19th September

MORE CAMERA ANGLES AND COMPOSITION

By Monday the 22nd September, you are to have finished posting examples and commentary on the following:
Pan
Tilt
Track
Dolly
Crane
Steadicam
Hand-held
Zoom
Reverse Zoom
Framing
Rule of Thirds
Depth of Field
Deep and shallow focus
Focus Pulls

Sharing

One of the great things about this is that we will all be able to share ideas and best practice with each other. Feel free to comment on each others' and my blog, but as always, be fair! (Fair and balanced FTW!!)

CAMERA ANGLES/MOVEMENT

Congratulations on the great start you have all made on your blog already, looking good!
You have been posting videos and pictures of camera movement and commenting on them with great success.

This week you should provide definitions, examples and commentary on:
(a) Shot Types
Extreme Long Shot
Close Up,
Medium Shot
Long shot
Mid shot
Wide shot
Two shot
Aerial shot
Point of view shot
Over the shoulder shot

(b) Camera Angles
High Angle
Low Angle
Canted Angle

blogging

Welcome!
Some rules for our blogging folks:

1.These blogs are solely for the purposes of your Media Studies A-level and should be treated accordingly.

2.Language should always be used appropriately.

3.Please play fair when commenting on the work and ideas of others

4.Don't share this blog publicly, it is only for me and the class to use and comment on. Ensure that your blog is set to private and that you invite only myself and your classmates as followers.

5.Do not link or post up offensive or unsuitable pictures or videos- this will be severely dealt with by the school

6.Please ensure that your blog has no personal information, details or photographs of you

Happy blogging everyone!!