Is Cinema Toast?

I've added a new hot link to a video of a keynote from the Berlin Film Festival discussing the future of Cinema. Take a look!

~Mr D.

Candidate Numbers

Hello All,

I have changed the list of student blogs to be ordered by candidate number. If you think your number is wrong please let me know before Thursday (13th May)

~Mr Darlow

Important! PREZI links

We've noticed that some of your links to prezi's aren't working; because you are leaving '/edit' on the end of the URL. Please make sure you remove this part of the URL.
I AM NOT ABLE TO DO THIS FOR YOU!

Thanks! ~Mr Darlow

New Layout. Yay!

Hey Kids!

I hope you like the new layout/colourscheme. If any of you have any trouble reading the text because of the colour let me know and we'll see if there's something more suitable.

This is probably a good time to reintroduce you to the blog and what it's for. This is where Ms Humpleby and myself will post information we thing you could use, links, advice and activities, so check it every time you check your own.

If you want to know how to do something of a technical nature head over to http://darlowmedia.blogspot.com which is where technical questions are answered. You can learn how to encode your videos, upload, set up your blogs effectively, and add powerpoint slide shows amongst other things. Enjoy!

Reflective Comments 17/02/10

How frustrating; after 3 months of locking me out today i got here no trouble, no change nothing different. Therefore i intend staying logged on unitl blogger locks me out lol.
todays reflective comments

Strengths; i really like the way blogging allows me to combine my own opinions and research in an interesting and visual way. The structure allows me to be systematic in a creative way and the fact it is public means i can show off lol.

Weaknesses; As an oldie i find that i forget what i have done. At this session i am dumbfounded by how to add a print-screen snatch, v frustrating, and i realise just how much work i have to do to support my students.

Outcomes; pleased with the result of my 1 hours work - hoping it will help my students. it is definately helping me to learn - sorry all for calling it WARP STUDIO instead of WARP FILM.

Key Terminology for the Second Unit (Film Case Study)

• Production
• distribution
• marketing
• exchange
• contemporary
• audience consumption
• media ownership
• cross-media convergence
• synergy
• proliferation
• hardware
• global and globalisation
• patterns and trends
• HD/DVD/MP4/ etc
• download
• genre
• preferred reading

please cut and paste this post into your own blog and spend some time finding out the meanings of each term before moving on; the handbook i gave you will help but you may also need to use initiative and reflective thought.

to up your game i need you to do the following
Post a reflective comment daily or after each session of posts on ur blog
A reflective comment should be a version of a diary in which you reflect on ur task, what has been learned, what were ur strengths and challenges, how have you grown/improved etc through this task - mine is above this post.

Contact me if you need help

Film Homework

please use the posts below and the links to the left to start your search.

AIMS: demonstrate that you have explored and understood the ethos, style and history of Warp

How: what must you do?
answer the following questions each with at least one post per question.
1. how long has Warp been running and how did it start?
2. what has been the devlopment of the compnay since the start?
3. how has it survived unlike other british film companies? (and name at least one that has failed)
4. Discuss some of the films produced by Warp - who is the director, what do you think of the film etc
5. How has warp managed to incoprorate new media technologies? How have they adapted to the changing technical convergence and the needs of their targte market?
6. who are their target market?
7. what is teir future?

please use images / links / opinion etc but especially media terminology - see above post.

Warp Films

Warp Films has created some of the most exciting pieces of British film making in the last five years. It has won numerous plaudits and awards (including three BAFTAs) since being set up in 2002.

'My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117' was Warp's first short film and was directed by Chris Morris. It won the BAFTA in 2003 and for its television premiere on Channel 4, more than one million viewers tuned in to watch it. Warp sold an astounding 22,000 DVDs of My Wrongs and was the first DVD single in the UK market.

Warp's debut feature 'Dead Man's Shoes', directed by Shane Meadows, received a record eight British Independent Film Award nominations, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Achievement in Production. "Dead Man's Shoes" was also nominated for a BAFTA and won the Southbank Award for Best Film. The film has received nothing less that rave reviews across the board, and is being hailed by some as a landmark in British cinema.

Chris Cunningham directed Warp's next film, Rubber Johnny, an experimental short and 42-page book that shocked and amazed audiences.

Following Rubber Johnny Warp made the critical success 'Grow Your Own', a film written by Frank Cottrell Boyce (24-Hour Party People), which tackled the subject of immigration.

In 2006 Warp made their most successful production to date: 'This is England', the story of Shaun, a boy who is befriended by a local skin-head gang after his father is killed in the Falklands war. With it's evocative soundtrack, dazzling young star and emotive content it has won numerous international festival awards as well as scooping Best FIlm at the British Independent Film Awards and Best British Film at the BAFTAs. At the same award ceremony Warp collected it's third BAFTA as Paddy Considine's directorial debut 'Dog Altogether' won best short.

Warp FIlms has also worked closely with the Arctic Monkeys, producing two music videos for them and collaborating on the short film 'Scummy Man' starring Stephen Graham, which won best music video at this year's NME awards. Richard Ayoade has recently directed a feature length live show film with of them. shot at their final concert of a world tour.

Warp Films' development slate currently includes projects with directors Shane Meadows, Chris Morris, Chris Cunningham, Richard Ayoade, David Slade and Lynne Ramsay. They are also dedicated to seeking out new voices; this goal is reflected in their recent ventures into promo making and the new digital slate, Warp X.

Warp X

Warp X is a pioneering new digital film studio based in Sheffield, with offices in Nottingham and London, and is allied to Warp Films and Warp Records.

Warp X harnesses cutting edge digital technology and low budget production methods to make high value movies that can reach cinema audiences across the world.

Warp X’s first slate consisted of A COMPLETE HISTORY OF MY SEXUAL FAILURES, DONKEY PUNCH (both released Summer 08) and HUSH (released March 09). ATP, BUNNY AND THE BULL and LA CHINOISE are due for release this year.

Slate one was managed and produced by Warp X for the Low Budget Feature Film Scheme set up by UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund and Film4 to revitalise the low-budget sector of the British film industry. Our other key financial backers were EM Media and Screen Yorkshire. Optimum Releasing were closely involved in the development process and distribute the films theatrically and on DVD in the UK. Channel 4 take UK television rights. The current slate is being funded until the end of 2010 by the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund, Film4, Screen Yorkshire and Optimum Releasing.

Warp X is a brand new venture in the British film industry - a sustainable digital studio that is driven by creative talent and a dynamic digital business model that rewards everyone involved in the films. Our financiers have agreed that creative talent should share in the gross revenue of any film once the commission and expenses of distributors and sales agents have been deducted.

Warp X is building on Warp Film’s reputation for combining creative originality with commercial success, with releases like Shane Meadows’ THIS IS ENGLAND and DEAD MAN’S SHOES, Chris Cunningham’s RUBBER JOHNNY and Chris Morris’ MY WRONGS 8245-8249 and 117. Warp Films latest film by Shane Meadows LE DONK & SCOR-ZAY-ZEE will be out on DVD on 26 October 2009. Visit www.ledonk.com for more information.


Warp X JOINT OBJECTIVES:
as outlined by the UK Film Council and Film4

| To source a diverse range of filmmaking talent and mentors.

| To develop a more integrated and cost-effective model for the development and production of low-budget films by accessing a core team of production, financing and business affairs expertise and taking into account the cultural and commercial needs of the UK film industry.

| To provide new opportunities to increase participation of groups currently under-represented in the UK film industry such as writers, directors, producers and actors who are disabled, women and/or from black and minority ethnic groups.

| To encourage filmmakers to explore social issues of disability, cultural/ethnic diversity and social exclusion through the content and range of individual film projects.

| To create much-needed progression routes into the UK film industry for identified filmmaking talent, who may have experienced some success through their first feature film or through short filmmaking, but who need further infrastructural and other support to make their next film(s) a success.

| To provide an opportunity for and to encourage established filmmaking talent to reinvest their expertise in the talent of the tomorrow, both in front of and behind the camera.

The Workstation, Paternoster Row, Sheffield, S1 2B

Activity for w/e 16/09/09

Title: Exploring Genre
1.upload your film noir essays

Title: Exploring the Regulations
2. start with a visit to the site for British board for Film Classification (address is on the links to the left). also explore the media and article pages of different news publications.

Post blogs to show evidence of understanding of

1. categories of film classification
2. who does what at the bbfc
   
3. notions of protection - what is censorship/classification for
   
4. upload screen shots and a brief synopsis for one film for each category of classification (be aware of the age.restrictions agreed for this blog)

Homework

1. take/find 30 different photographs f people using doors and windows. include movie shots from film blogs/sites
2. upload 5 with comments on how they could influence your continuity task, keep the rest in ur profile at the Kett.
3. be prepared to show and discuss your postings/choices

Cultural Relativism and Media Images

how does relate to your culture???
how would your audience respond to this image??
what kind of discussion does it provoke??
do different audiences have different responses??
http://www.chinaexpat.com/files/u659/04-07_037.jpg

Semiotics of New Media Literacy: a media degree blog

Every single thing has meaning and gives a different message depending on where it is located and who sees it. For instance the color “red” implies different things. Red means stop when it is on a traffic light, stands for blood in medicine. If a woman wears a red dress, or a man wears a red armband, it means something different. So red in western culture means usually danger, hot, sexy, embarrassment, left-wing or radical. Whereas red brings different things in my mind since I grow up in Turkey. Traditionally, red was the color of the wedding gown for woman Still in some villages it is possible to see red gowns. Also, during the Sacrification Festival, the blood of a sacrificed animal can be put on the face.

Semiotics has been applied to film, theatre, medicine, architecture and other areas and generated interesting results. It includes study of how animal communicate (zoo semiotics), of nonverbal communication (kinesics and proemics), of aesthetics, of rhetoric, of visual communication, of myths and narratives, of anything that allows us to make meaning and sense of the world. (Danesi, 1994)

Semiotics is concerned how the meaning is generated in "texts" (films, television programs, fashion, foods, etc.). The meal with steak, mashed potato, and apple-pie conveys meanings beyond the food. It shows status, taste, sophistication, nationality, and so on. (Berger, 1982).

Semiotics is one of the approaches to Media Education and new media literacy. It opens a new way to the study of Media Literacy. We can not only study the alphabet of deaf-mutes, religious symbols but also study the commercials, sit-coms, soap-operas, and bulletin boards. In a sense, we all are using, deconstructing, learning, and reading signs even though we never studied Semiotics. We learn new signs everyday as the signs evolves continually in their meaning or significance all the time.

Imagine a web page which will be viewed by many people. How could these people from many backgrounds, cultures view this page? First the language of the web page becomes an issue not everybody in the world is fluent in English. So our page should include more than one language to help the users.

http://euphrates.wpunj.edu/faculty/yildizm/SP/

Semiotics

"Semiotics could be anywhere. The shortest definition is that it is the study of signs. But that doesn't leave enquirers much wiser. 'What do you mean by a sign?' people usually ask next. The kinds of signs that are likely to spring immediately to mind are those which we routinely refer to as 'signs' in everyday life, such as road signs, pub signs and star signs. If you were to agree with them that semiotics can include the study of all these and more, people will probably assume that semiotics is about 'visual signs'. You would confirm their hunch if you said that signs can also be drawings, paintings and photographs, and by now they'd be keen to direct you to the art and photography sections. But if you are thick-skinned and tell them that it also includes words, sounds and 'body language' they may reasonably wonder what all these things have in common and how anyone could possibly study such disparate phenomena. If you get this far they've probably already 'read the signs' which suggest that you are either eccentric or insane and communication may have ceased"

http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html

for the purposes of getting an A or B grade especially at A2 level media and photography you must engage in semiotics - tthis site is easy to access and quite fun once you take a deep breath and get past the language.

Accept that you may need a dictionary/sail past tough words and have a go

For example in your production you may use semiotics as follows

make a bullet point list of brief cut and paste quotes

• signifiers i will use
• signs my audience may recognize
• symbolic content i could use
• ways my audience will recognize protagonist and antagonist

Do Not be afraid to try - it may be light-bulb number 1 switching on