End of September roundup!

As of tomorrow, Thursday 29th September, you should have completed:

1. Media in My Life
2. History of horror
3. Conventions of horror
4. Film Analysis 1
5. Film Analysis 2

By half term you need to have completed

1. the remaining two film analyses 
2. Camera angles and explanation
3. the work I gave you on mise en scene, sound, editing and use of camera
4. Audience survey questionaire
5. Initial planning for the main piece of coursework.
6. the planning for the prelim task should be here too!

Remember:

1. use a range of presentational devices / programs
2. put pictures or video clips in [nb if you do this don't make them long ones!!!]

Embedding pictures into your blog

Find your image, copy image save as, on your post click on picture next to link above in tool bar





a box appears with

upload and choose files;

find your saved image then open then click Add selected

and your picture should appear on your blog post. you can move it left, right or centre and change its size by selecting from the menu which will appear if you click on your picture as below:

Don't forget to wrap text to make your post more appealing.

Analysing a film opening

A scene from The Shining
Here we have a birds eye view tracking shot following the protagonist's car as it snakes along an isolated winding road surrounded by dense forest, emphasising the isolation of the location he is driving to. This camera use also gives the impression of the character being tracked, followed almost stalked which adds to the sense of unease the viewer feels.
The dense forest and deep shadows supported by a haunting sound track with no diegetic sound all presage the horror which will ensue.

Each of your frames should discuss technical effects: use of camera, sound, editing, mise en scene - stating what is used i.e. denotation and then commenting on what effect is being achieved by the different techniques i.e. connotation.

Choose 9 frames which have different information in them to give an overall assessment of (a) what an opening is made up of and (b) how the genre of horror is conveyed explicitly or implicitly.

And the rest of the work and posts you will need to do

In order to be able to film and edit your film successfully this work will also need to be done:

1. Preliminary task [with Mrs May]
2. Camera angles - take photographs around school or home to show different camera angles and what messages they convey to the viewer.
3. Planning - all of these need more or less detailed posts;
• story
• characters
• locations
• themes
• actors
• props
• costumes
• sound
• editing
4.  Audience research - VERY IMPORTANT
5.  Storyboard - animatic
6.  Call sheet
7.  Shooting schedule
8. And while you are filming -
• take photos or video clips or do a director's commentary or interviews
9.  After you have shot your film you need to edit it. Make sure you have a post explaining the process, what you learned, problems and solutions etc
10. Finally you will have to answer 7 evaluation questions which I will put on a later post.

I strongly recommend you keep adding to your blogs because the work load is spread rather than left to the last minute and I take a dim view of that!!
When you choose who to work with make sure your choice is the best one for YOU! Not everyone may have the same work ethic as you!
And you all have to have all the posts - no divying them up!

Good luck!

A list of the posts you need to have on your blog

By the end of September you should have completed these:

1. Media in my Life - what media you use, how and why, and what you think of different media.
2. An introduction to horror - i.e. A History of Horror films - you could do this decade by decade or by sub genre or type.
3. Conventions of the horror genre
4. Analyses of the openings of 4 horror films.

Please note:

• you need to demonstrate an ability to use a variety of presentation methods in your blog work.
• embedding pictures and video clips 
• good English and presentation skills e.g. use bold, capital letters, terminology, short and snappy paragraphs
• and remember - at all times you are thinking of how the technical aspects you are writing about convey an atmosphere or feeling of horror, how they contribute to categorising the film as horror
• AND above all ILLUSTRATE your points!!!

Introducing the AS Media Course

G321 Your Coursework

The brief is to produce a 2 minute opening for a horror film.

You may work in groups of up to 4 students or of course you may work on your own.

Essentially the coursework breaks down into 3 areas:

1. Research and planning
2. The film itself
3. Evaluation of the work you did.

The research for your film ALL needs to go on to your blog - so get one up and running and send me an email with the address of your blog to: sscales@ktemplar.herts.sch.uk 

The next post details all the posts you should have on your blog by the time it is finished.

Welcome To Media Studies AS Level September 2016

Welcome to all the new students of the AS level course in Media Studies at the Knights Templar School.
The Exam board for this syllabus is OCR and the code numbers are G321 for the course work and G322 for the written exam. [Note: this is the last year that this particular specification runs; it's all change in September 2017]