Blog Improvements

"Bunny and The Bull"

• Gave the post a title.
• Added an image (of promotion for the film) to the post. 
• Uploaded screenshots of my analyses of 3 screenshots from the the film ("Bunny and The Bull".)

Analysis of "This is England"

• Rounded off the monetary figures to millions.
• Added links to other websites to allow readers to gain more information.
• Added a link to the source.
• Added images.

Semiotics in Action 

• Changed the text size to normal.
• Highlighted key terminology.
• Corrected Spelling.

The History of Working Title

• Added a source.
• Added an image.
• Added links.

Analysis of "Nanny McPhee"

• Added an image to anchor the setting.
• Commented on the significance of a PG rating.
• Added more information.
• Briefly analysed the income.

The Prelim Task

• Attempted to add an example of a previous prelim (however, I was unsuccessful in finding one.)

The Prelim Task - Marking Criteria

THE BRIEF, EVALUATION + HOW ITS ALL MARKED

THE BRIEF

Your mission is to carry out the following brief:

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.
Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes.
All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source.

The coursework is worth 50% of the AS (same at A2) and the marking (detailed later) is divided into 3 sections:

RESEARCH AND PLANNING: 20%

PRODUCTION: 60%

EVALUATION: 20%

Your work is marked partially on my observations of your approach and level of organisation, but fundamentally its a DVD and your blog that are marked.

EVALUATION

Even before you start shooting (let alone planning) your production, you need to keep this final stage in mind. If you start (b)logging notes on this now it will save you a lot of stress as the final deadline (in May!) approaches. You are tasked with answering these questions (see below for details on how this is marked):

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

• How does your media product represent particular socialgroups?

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 

• Who would be the audience for your media product? 

• How did you attract/address your audience? 

• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? 

• Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

HOW ITS ALL MARKED [ie THE ASSESSMENT CRITERIA]

When I'm marking all this, I've got to write a paragraph for the exam board justifying the marks I've given you. The grid embedded below summarises the criteria I have to follow, and so you're advised to occasionally re-read this and ask yourself where you think you'll fall within the marking scheme!
For each section there are key components of the work which I have to assess as being one of the following:

MINIMAL
BASIC
PROFICIENT

EXCELLENT

If you think you're currently at the 'minimal' or 'basic' level for any of these, ask yourself (and me!) what you can do to jump up to at least proficient.
G321 - Simplified Marking Criteria as 1 Sheet

Analysis of "Working Title" Films

Basic Info

• Distributor: Universal
• Genre: Family
• MPAA Rating: PG (the significance of a PG rating is that it allows a wider audience access to watch the film. E.G. a rate R limits the audience, but PG allows everyone to watch.)

The appeal of "Nanny McPhee" is that it is a comedic, heart-warming family film centering around an upper-middle class family with posh English accents in the scenic countryside of England - this is the ideal image of England which so enchants audiences (especially American audiences.) This film also has very well known British actors such as Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, and Angela Lansbury.

Income

• American (Domestic) Gross: $47,144,110
• UK Gross: $29,183,838
• Foreign Gross: $75,345,712
• World Wide Gross: $122,489,822

It is very important to note how the US Gross was considerably higher than the UK Gross. With a production budget of $25m, "Nanny McPhee" did remarkably well. 

Directed by: Kirk Jones

Distributor: Universal

[Source]



PART 2

Johnny English Brief Analysis

Genre : Comedy
Filming locations:
London - Canary Warfe
              -  Westminster Abby
Kent


Gross:
USA - $28 M
UK - £19.2 M

Directed By: Peter Howitt

Cast:

• Rowan Atkinson as MI7 agent, Johnny English
• Ben Miller as MI7 agent, Angus Bough
• John Malkovich as Pascal Edward Sauvage
• Natalie Imbruglia as Interpol Agent Lorna Campbell
• Oliver Ford Davies as the Archbishop of Canterbury
• Tim Pigott-Smith as Pegasus
• Kevin McNally as the Prime Minister
• Douglas McFerran as Klaus Vendetta
• Steve Nicolson as Dieter Klein
• Greg Wise as Agent One

Johnny english is set in the South of England and portrays the stereotypical view of England of  Posh and rich

It portrays a candied view of England that appeals to both British and American audiences.

Pride And Prejudice

Pride And Prejudice is a working title film set in the upper class Britain. The characters are all posh white and live in a large family home. The main character, Elizabeth Bennet is one of 9 sisters all looking for marriage of a 'well off husband'. It was released in 2005:

• The main character is Elizabeth Bennet, white upper class looking for love.
• Keira Knightly is playing Elizabeth.
• The plot clearly states that Elizabeth is looking for the love in the relationship instead of the economics in which the rest of her family (and the white upper class nation of the 1800's) were looking into. 
• The film is based on a Jane Austin novel. The novel is the second best selling novel in British history. This gives the movie a pre-audience. 
• The film had a gross of $38 million.
• Pride And Prejudice is a satire and a novel of manners. The fact that the movie is based in white upper class is very appealing to foreign countries, such as america.
• Pride and Prejudice may be of these genres however it is also a love story therefore aimed at Jane Austin fans, which are mainly of a female audience. This is why there is Matthew Macfayden. There is large build up evening the trailer.
• It is a PG rated film. Production companies involved were Universal and CanalStudios. 

The History of "Working Title"

• "Working Title" is a British Film Company that is based in London. It was founded in 1983 by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe, and is now owned by Universal Studios (Parent Company.) The co-chairs of the company now are Bevan, and Eric Fellner.
• "Working Title" produces feature films and some television productions.
• In 1992 "PolyGram" (an Anglo-Dutch film studio) became "Working Title"'s corporate backer, until 1999 when "PolyGram" was sold to "Seagram" and merged with "MCA Music Entertainment" to form "Universal Music Group".
• "Polygram Films" was sold and folded into "Universal Studios" in 1999.

• "WT2" (or "Working Title 2") is a subsidiary company of "Working Title" which Bevan and Fellner launched in 1999. 
• "WT2" is an indépendant film production run by Natasha Wharton, and has produced films such as "Billy Elliot" and "Shaun of the Dead"

• "Working Title" work in Television production in the early 1990's.
• In 2010 "Working Title" launched its TV division as a joint venture with "NBCUniversal" (its parent company) producing content for both British and American TV.  

[Source]

Semiotics in Action: This is England (Opening Scenes)

In This Shot:

• There is central framing, which puts the words "THIS IS ENGLAND" within the middle third.  This is to give the audience a focus point and a very clear message...

• The writing is white with black smudges on it so as to seem grubby and neglected, signifying poverty and hardship.

• The words are also positioned directly in front of shoddy looking council houses; this connotes that the film is about working class people, but also has a greater reading that (coupled with the statement-like capital lettering of "THIS IS ENGLAND") has been anchored to show us that this scene is about what England is really like... 

• Poor, unkempt, and desperate.

In This Shot:

• Just as in the first shot, again there is the use of central framing. The face of a young woman is in the middle third, making her the focus point; however it's to be denoted that she is being lead by two large male police officers. Given the binary opposition of these front three figures, (and the angry looking civilians following behind,) it's clear that this scene is some sort of protest/riot.

• A narrative enigma is created though, as the audience (particularly younger members) are unlikely to know any information about the protest/riot. This mystery is furthered through questions over why the young woman is being  arrested, why there is a barbed wire fence in the background, and what it's protecting. 

Analysis of "This is England"

In today's lesson we spent time looking at the facts and figures of the production behind Shane Meadows' film "This is England" (a Warp film.)

With the financial help of EM Media and Screen Yorkshire (both of which are regional wings of the UK Film council (which has now become BFI,)) and the support of Optimum Releasing (now Studio Canal, and owned by NBC Universal,) "This is England" had considerable success; grossing $82m worldwide (a figure that is rather impressive, given that the budget was only £1.5m.)

The director of "This is England", Shane Meadows (as pictured below) has also directed films such as "A Room for Romeo Bass", "Dead Man's Shoes", and "Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee" (among others.) Due to Meadows' distinctive, social-realist style, he is very much the Auteur. 'Social realism' is a naturalistic form of realism that focuses specifically on social issues and the hardships of everyday life, and Meadows' certainly has the knack for this type of film (as evidenced through "This is England".) Another key feature in a social-realist style film is the protagonist, who's usually of the lower class or a minority; in the case of "This is England", the protagonist is 12 year old boy called Shaun Field, who lives in a poor area with his mum, and who's dad died fighting in the Falkland Wars.

Despite being from an Indie company such as Warp, "This is England" managed to gain significant success; 5 weeks of running time in the UK, shown on up to 151 UK screens, and earning £1.3m in the UK box office. Add that to the rest of the success and earnings from around the world, and you'll see why "This is England" has spawned three mini series continuing the story, and a sturdy fan base.

[Source]

Camera Shot Types: "Bunny and The Bull"

An assignment was set in which we had to select a movie, take three screen-shots from the opening scenes, and then identify the camera shot types used and why this was done. For my film, I selected "Bunny and The Bull" (of Warp Films.)

This is a mid-shot, where the camera give the view of the abject/subject as directly face-on in the centre of the frame. This is the opening shot of the film, and it appears to be the door of a house. Having watched the film, I believe the purpose of this shot is to show the audience that the story is to take place within the house behind this closed door, (a fact which the audience will realise is significant as the film's story unfolds.) 

This is a close-up  (bordering on extreme,) where the camera focuses on a particular object in close range, so as to give the audience a more detailed look at the scene. This is shot is from the opening sequence (which features multiple close-ups of household items, which are specifically designed to show the names of the film's management, crew, and actors, thus acting as the opening credits/titles.) This shot is important because it focuses on the hand of the main character (as revealed shortly,) and this is our first introduction to him (his name is Stephen.) The hand is on what appears to be blankets, at an angle that implies that while the character is lying down - possible even asleep - he is not relaxed, as the wrist is not limp and the tendons in the hand are strained. I believe this shot was a close-up  so as the show the audience these details, helping to build their impressions of Stephen as being a troubled man. 

This is a dutch/canted angle (when a shot it tilted, usually done to show the audience that something is wrong/off with the scene.) This shot is actually spinning, as it is meant to show the character (Stephen) watching his clothes spin in the washing machine. I believe this shot was included to further the audience's understanding of this character's inner troubles. What's particularly interesting about this is that it is Stephen who is spinning around (from the audience's point of view) as opposed to him staying still and us 'spinning around him'. This adds to our growing impressions of Stephen as being slightly mad.