Sunday 20 March 2011
Wednesday 9 February 2011
Monday 31 January 2011
Introduction to TV Drama
Explore your understanding of the term ‘TV drama’ – what kind of programmes does this include? How would you define ‘TV drama’?
Watch an episode of Eastenders (www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer) and identify the conventions of TV Drama according to the following headings: storyline/plot, characters, length of episode, setting, themes, main camera shots/movements used, use of music.
Evaluate how far this episode could be considered an accurate example of the drama of everyday life (realism).
Watch an episode of Eastenders (www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer) and identify the conventions of TV Drama according to the following headings: storyline/plot, characters, length of episode, setting, themes, main camera shots/movements used, use of music.
Evaluate how far this episode could be considered an accurate example of the drama of everyday life (realism).
Monday 24 January 2011
Extra evaluation ideas...
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
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 we would like you 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 opening. 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 will need to go back to the early posts on film companies and maybe do a bit more research
When you have scripted, record the voiceover using Final Cut on a new audio timeline, then export to quicktime and embed on blog.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
You should have a drawing of your target audience member 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 taken a photo of it, post 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 will 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 Opening 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?
In pairs, take a picture of each other holding the kit you have used. This might just be the camera and tripod, and your Macbook 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.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
Concentrate on editing and camerawork.
Grab some frames from both tasks and put them on the blog and show what you know about shot types, edit terms and techniques.
Make sure you mention the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of film openings)
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 we would like you 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 opening. 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 will need to go back to the early posts on film companies and maybe do a bit more research
When you have scripted, record the voiceover using Final Cut on a new audio timeline, then export to quicktime and embed on blog.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
You should have a drawing of your target audience member 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 taken a photo of it, post 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 will 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 Opening 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?
In pairs, take a picture of each other holding the kit you have used. This might just be the camera and tripod, and your Macbook 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.
EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
Concentrate on editing and camerawork.
Grab some frames from both tasks and put them on the blog and show what you know about shot types, edit terms and techniques.
Make sure you mention the 180 degree rule, match on action and shot/reverse shot
Monday 17 January 2011
Your evaluation
Your evaluation of the practical production coursework
Questions =
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4) Who would be the target audience for your media product?
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Things to think about:
What exactly are the key conventions of an opening title sequence?
What is the overall purpose of the title sequence?
How do film makers use iconography, mise en scene, narrative, camera angles and sound in the examples that you have studied?
How have you used these conventions to create your own opening sequence?
Have you conformed to the expectations of a title sequence or tried to challenge the conventions by doing something unusual? Give examples and details to support.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Things to think about:
Which social groups are represented in your opening sequence? (Think of our exam work for representation: age, gender, disability, regionality, sexuality, ethnicity, social class).
Have you conformed to the stereotype or have you subverted the stereotype?
How might audience’s expect that particular group to behave—have you challenged or supported that expectation?
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Things to think about:
Which film companies most commonly produce your genre of film? E.G. 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Dreamworks animation etc...(Use your initial research into existing films to support theses ideas)
You need to do some brief research into the film companies that produce your type of film, find out how they market/advertise films and why that institution may well produce your own film idea.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Things to think about:
*Define your audience through the demographic and psychographic elements
Age Gender Income Personality
Likes/dislikes Attitude to life
Demographics - This defines the audience largely by the work that they do. It breaks the population down into 6 groups, and labels them by using a letter code to describe the income and status of the members of each group.

Psychographics – This is a way of defining an audience by looking at the behaviour and personality traits of its members. Psychographics labels a particular type of person and makes an assessment about their viewing and spending habits.
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
Things to think about:
How have you tried to appeal to your audience through use of sound, mise en scene, narrative, camera angles, characters…
Link all ideas to demographic and psychographic from previous question.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Things to think about:
Identify all the new technology that you have used e.g. Sony Video Cameras, editing software on imovie, blogging, uploading material to blog sites, garage band/music studio, editing music to match visuals...and anything else you can think of!!
Remember, it is good to show development of your skills so don’t worry about saying that you had no/little experience of technologies before using them...in fact, it is better to show strong development and learning of new skills for your marks.
7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Things to think about:
What you’ve learnt about planning, storyboarding and researching
What you’ve learnt about organisation when working in a group
What you’ve learnt about how to use a camera/shots/movements/angles successfully to create effects
What you’ve learnt about editing raw footage
What you’ve learnt about planning to film and shooting the footage
What you've learnt about creating and using music for effect
Questions =
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4) Who would be the target audience for your media product?
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Things to think about:
What exactly are the key conventions of an opening title sequence?
What is the overall purpose of the title sequence?
How do film makers use iconography, mise en scene, narrative, camera angles and sound in the examples that you have studied?
How have you used these conventions to create your own opening sequence?
Have you conformed to the expectations of a title sequence or tried to challenge the conventions by doing something unusual? Give examples and details to support.
2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Things to think about:
Which social groups are represented in your opening sequence? (Think of our exam work for representation: age, gender, disability, regionality, sexuality, ethnicity, social class).
Have you conformed to the stereotype or have you subverted the stereotype?
How might audience’s expect that particular group to behave—have you challenged or supported that expectation?
3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Things to think about:
Which film companies most commonly produce your genre of film? E.G. 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Dreamworks animation etc...(Use your initial research into existing films to support theses ideas)
You need to do some brief research into the film companies that produce your type of film, find out how they market/advertise films and why that institution may well produce your own film idea.
4) Who would be the audience for your media product?
Things to think about:
*Define your audience through the demographic and psychographic elements
Age Gender Income Personality
Likes/dislikes Attitude to life
Demographics - This defines the audience largely by the work that they do. It breaks the population down into 6 groups, and labels them by using a letter code to describe the income and status of the members of each group.

Psychographics – This is a way of defining an audience by looking at the behaviour and personality traits of its members. Psychographics labels a particular type of person and makes an assessment about their viewing and spending habits.
5) How did you attract/address your audience?
Things to think about:
How have you tried to appeal to your audience through use of sound, mise en scene, narrative, camera angles, characters…
Link all ideas to demographic and psychographic from previous question.
6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Things to think about:
Identify all the new technology that you have used e.g. Sony Video Cameras, editing software on imovie, blogging, uploading material to blog sites, garage band/music studio, editing music to match visuals...and anything else you can think of!!
Remember, it is good to show development of your skills so don’t worry about saying that you had no/little experience of technologies before using them...in fact, it is better to show strong development and learning of new skills for your marks.
7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Things to think about:
What you’ve learnt about planning, storyboarding and researching
What you’ve learnt about organisation when working in a group
What you’ve learnt about how to use a camera/shots/movements/angles successfully to create effects
What you’ve learnt about editing raw footage
What you’ve learnt about planning to film and shooting the footage
What you've learnt about creating and using music for effect
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