Colour Mood Manipulation

Thanks to Chaya for finding this really good (and short) YouTube video about how colour grading can manipulate the mood of a film:

Blogger of the Week

It was a very difficult choice this time, as AS blogging has reached an all-time high,linking coursework with Audiences and Institutions exam work. Particular accolades to CP for detailed Disney and coursework blogging. At A2, blogger of the week is Georgia for keeping us up to date on her filming schedules.

Design Challenge

To hone your digital technology portfolio skills, sign up to the great design website canva.com and design one of your planning tasks, use for your Evaluation or even see if you might be able to create your A2 ancillary advert or movie poster with this. Have a go and blog your results! Thank you to Lizzy for discovering this website.

Other design websites you could try: http://www.picmonkey.com/ and https://www.gimp.org/ for photo editing. Have a go with them all and blog your results!

Blogger of the Week

Well done this week at AS to Lizzy, who posted two entertaining and informative videos about BARB, which we looked at in class. And well done to Emily at A2 for blogging in detail about what she could use from our BFI Study Day in making her own music promo video. Blog on!

Blogger of the Week

At AS we've moved on to our study of Audiences and Institutions, so particularly well done to those who have blogged about BARB and/or OFCOM - it's all still relevant to your coursework to some extent. The winner this week is Nikita, who also posted a wonderful quality recording of her performer playing her piano music for her film opening.

At A2, the winner this week is Georgia, who has come up with a genius idea for her film trailer. I can see a short film in the making, too. Well done!

BFI A2 study day

Blogger of the Week

Dear Bloggers, this week's joint winners at AS are Tabitha (for catching up fully on her posts and achieving 30) and Katriona for using her Media skills across the curriculum in a French video about the Paris terrorist attack.

At A2, our blogger of the week is Emily for blogging in lots of detail about the ups and downs of greenscreening the first section of her music video. Fablogulous!

Blogger of the Week

Well done this week at AS to Tabitha, who found a way around the issue of using copyrighted music by planning to create her own soundtrack by recording her own artist playing the piano piece that she has selected for her film opening.

Well done at A2 for the second week running to Chaya - lots of planning and research on her music video and ancillary tasks. Blog on!

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Horror Film Documentaries

If you're including horror in your film opening at AS or your film trailer at A2, there is no shortage of documentaries about horror films to help. Check out 'Fear Itself', a montage of key moments of powerful use of sound and images cut together with an eerie voiceover by a girl whose sister has died and left her with horrific memoires: http://bbc.in/1PruNAY

Also it's worth looking at 'The Fear', a series showing amateur short horror films to an audience who give feedback on their scariness, the best winning £20,000 towards the director's next project:
 http://bbc.in/1MQcDra

Sound Editing Website

You can all use GarageBand to edit sound for your videos, but another handy website is: http://www.karaoke-version.co.uk/?currency=GBP
Have a look at what you can do easily.

Blogger of the Week

Not so much blogging this week at AS, due to much storyboarding. Well done to everyone for completing their storyboards, however. This week, for uploading her script and an impressive montage of dystopian films (her chosen genre), at AS our blogger of the week is CP.

At A2, for working really hard (and blogging her progress) on her research for her ancillary tasks and learning how to use Photoshop, our Blogger of the Week is Chaya. Well done and blog on!

Blogger of the Week and Blogger of October

Dear Bloggers, it's been a tough yet fascinating journey judging your half-term posts. I decided to award just one 'Blogger of the Week' for the two-week half-term holiday, and that winner at AS is Jessie, who made another novel use of digital technology with her post using Pinterest. Well done, Jessie.

Blogger of the Month goes to Lizzie, who is really showing the journey of her research and planning with detailed notes on her thinking and re-thinking of her film opening (and 36 posts to date, which brings her so close to the 40-post target you were set in September). Fabulous work - definitely a film-maker in the making.

At A2, Blogger of the Week goes to Chaya, who has created an animatic of her storyboard which really helps us imagine how her plans will be realised. Excellent practice, Chaya.

A2 Blogger of the Month goes to Georgia, who posted some photos of the location shoot she did over the weekend, plus an 'on location' video. Her blog clearly shows the progression of her work from the planning to the production stage. Well done!

Half Term Horror

Never work with children or animals? Well, both were quite happy on the set of Georgia's horror trailer:

'Motion' SFX

OCR have recommended a piece of software compatible with Final Cut Pro if you are interested in creating any effects in your music video or film opening. A quick overview of it yesterday was very promising. It looks great for creating interesting title sequences, much easier to use than LiveType. Only problem is, it costs about £35 to download from the App Store.

Here's a YouTube tutorial if you are thinking about getting it:



And a website http://www.rippletraining.com/category/motion-5/ with a whole host of 5-minute tutorials such as 'How to add snow to a scene': http://www.rippletraining.com/categories/motion/
http://www.rippletraining.com/free-videos/how-to-add-snow-to-a-scene/

Opening night of 'Suffragette'

My daughter said she'd never been to a film before where the audience didn't start getting up to leave as soon as the closing credits began to roll. On the contrary, last night on the opening night of 'Suffragette' at the Odeon, Uxbridge, the entire audience stayed sitting in a kind of respectful silence right up until the camera operators' credits. That was the case the whole way through the film.

It's one of those films that everyone should see - our daughters and our sons. Perhaps particularly our sons. Apart from the stunning performances of the likes of Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan, the film is edited to provide just the right balance of horror - there are some harrowing moments - and historical resonance. So many different perspectives of the time from 1912 until the sacrifice of Emily Wilding Davison in 1913 are represented here - from the factory owner to the protagonist's husband, the police and the government.

Go see it - it's a keeper!

Blogger of the Week

Year 12 surpassed themselves this week with the blogtastic research and planning, uploading their presentations for their film ideas as well as some excellent audience research videos. Just first past the post at AS this week was Lizzie, who has 28 very detailed and relevant posts so far, including excellent audience research.

At A2, Blogger of the Week is Georgia, who has uploaded her completed storyboard for her film trailer. Let the filming commence!

Media Open Day

I've put together a medley of triumphs from the Media students over the years:

Bugsy Malone Promo Praised

Following terrific response to the request for volunteers to film a promotional video for the latest school musical, exactly a month before opening night, Year 12 came up trumps with a well-filmed and expertly-edited product. Our Head of Drama was delighted, saying it was "amazing" and perfectly suited the brief we were given. Our Headteacher said it was "Fantastic - love the bit with the hat!" Well done to CP, Jess and Katriona who filmed and edited.

Suffragette News

With the film 'Suffragette' premiering at the opening of the London Film Festival last night, the issue of the representation of women in the media has come to the fore. Meryl Streep in an interview with 'The Today Programme' expressed how 'enraged' she is about the lack of females in top jobs, not just in film, but everywhere. Carey Mulligan said "our industry is sexist. It's taken 100 years to make a film about this enormous human rights movement, and that's incredible to me."

The interviewer quoted some shocking statistics:

In 2014, the top 10 female actors earned just over half what the top 10 male actors did.
In 2014, only two out of the top 100 films were directed by women.
In 2014 there was no female actor over 45 in the lead or co-lead of any of the top 100 films.

Meryl Streep said, "It has to do with the distribution of films, the way films are financed. Of the 10 top buyers for films in the United States across all territories, there's not one woman. If the people who are choosing what goes out into the multiplexes are all of one persuasion, the choice will be limited and then that will be a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Feminist protesters used the occasion to stage a 'die-in' at the premiere to raise awareness about domestic violence.

Blogger of the Month

Well done, Bloggers, for entering into the spirit of the competition. Our very first Bloggers of the Month are, this month, at AS, Jessie, for her inspiring research and going the extra mile with creating a hologram. At A2, Chaya and Emily are next and neck, so this month they share the Blogger of the Month.

Bloggers of the Week this week are, at AS, Nikita, for her adventures into the world of Prezi. At A2, it's Emily.

Filming Opportunity

Attention all bloggers: the Drama Department is looking for some willing Media experts to make a promo video for the upcoming Bugsy Malone musical extravaganza taking place in November. Filming dates are straight  after school on Thursday 1st and Tuesday 6th October. The video could be something like this:




Interested? Please let Mrs Williams know asap.

Stop Press: Blogger of the MONTH

News just in! There is a new competition in addition to our Blogger of the Week. It's Blogger of the Month, to the overall best blogger of - well - the last 28-or-so days. The winner of this competition will be announced in the first week of the new month, so next Monday, which is the first Monday in October. The race is still on, folks, so blog away til next Monday 5th October!

Blogger of the Week

Well done to Katriona this week, who earned her strawberry laces by making some really good Prezis for her research and planning tasks. It's great when you use as wide a range of digital technology as you can to present your work - and even better to embed Prezis, Slideshare presentations, videos, etc into your blog so that the moderator can see them there rather than having to click on a link. At A2, the blogosphere has been a little quieter of late, but the prize goes to Georgia for completing a plan of action for her horror trailer. Just an observation - AS bloggers have achieved more posts than A2 bloggers so far this month - remember at A2 you're aiming for 80 posts by the end of your coursework (and at least 40 at AS, but you're well on the way!).

BBC Tour

Thank you to the Year 12s who were such great company and who proved themselves potential weather girls, newsreaders and radio drama actors and sound producers on last Friday's BBC tour. Sadly we weren't early enough to snap up tickets to see Gabrielle Applin on The One Show, but at least we experienced the sound check. Here's the video, with a topical licence fee slant:

Blogger of the Week

How the weeks are beginning to fly by, but huge congratulations to Year 12 who have taken blogging to a whole new level, uploading some of the videos they made before they began the course and blogging about other film courses and activities that have already built up their skills. Top blogger for last week is Jessie, who has achieved a fabulous 15 posts in the last couple of weeks, all of them detailed and relevant. At A2, the winner is Chaya, for posting her detailed analysis of her Little Mix video. Well done, both. Blog on, everyone!

Stop Motion Animation

Huge thank you to those of you who were able to help with Year 5's stop motion animation of the earth moving around the sun yesterday for their science lesson. Although the results may not be as professional as we'd like, their teacher was really impressed with what was achieved in, let's face it, under an hour. And they definitely now understand how night and day works!

Version 2 with added starry sky:

...and the original, less edited version:
Lots of you think about including stop motion animation in your videos, and it's a really creative - and often beautiful - use of your skills. Here are a couple of videos to look at. This is by a relative of one of the staff here at St Mary's - her own poetry with animated plastacine characters (think Wallace & Gromit or 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'):

Blogger of the Week

Welcome, Bloggers, to the first post of this academic year 2015-16! And for our first two winners of the Blogger of the Week competition we have, at AS, Charlotte, with her superb start to her Foundation Portfolio blog. She completed some detailed analysis of clips in her chosen genre, which is excellent research towards her film opening.

At A2, the competition was fierce, but Chaya finally was the first choice because she is up to date in uploading her House video and her evaluation of that task. Well done, and blog on, everyone!

Case Study: Suffragette

Our newest case study for AS and A2 students for 2015/6 will be the film 'Suffragette'. See below for key information.

The film will receive its European premiere on Wednesday 7 October at the Odeon Leicester Square, attended by the filmmakers and stellar cast (including Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep), with a live cinecast from the red carpet and simultaneous screenings taking place at cinemas across the UK.

See further information on the BFI Press Release at http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-press-release-suffragette-opens-59th-bfi-london-film-festival-2015-06-03.pdf

Trailer:

Digital Revolution with Tidal?

In your exams, remember to mention this week's launch of Tidal, which claims to put digital downloads back in control of artists. See Madonna's thoughts at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3020253/Tidal-not-greed-Madonna-insists-artist-owned-streaming-platform-protect-music.html

Final Blogger of the Week

Huge congratulations to our bloggers for completing those Production Portfolios. Final Blogger of the Week goes to Shona, with a very well-organised and clearly presented, well-designed blog. Blogtastic!

Blogger of the Week

Joint bloggers of the week at A2 this week are Priya and Emily - Emily for reaching 60 posts plus posting her final edit of her excellent music video, and Priya, also for reaching 60 posts and including regular fun updates of the evaluation process. After a blog break for work on evaluations, at AS, it's Emily B this week for reaching her target of 40 blog posts. Congratulations! Well done to all.

Blogger of the Week

Congratulations to Shona at A2 this week for being the first to post her 'final edit' of her music video. Feedback so far has been really positive, so hopefully the lunchtime viewing with other students will also go well. Fabulous!

Blogger of the Week

After a break from Blogger of the Week for half term and mocks, we're back in full swing. Congratulations at A2 to Priya who has posted some fab shots of her final music video shoot.

Blogger of the Week and Deadlines Reminder

At A2, this week's star blogger is Emily, who has completed her magazine advert (ancillary task) and is well on the way to completing her digipak, creating synergy by using the same picture, font, colours and style. Plus Emily passed her Maths skills test for her teacher training. Congratulations!

Deadlines Reminder: Please be aware of your Coursework Deadlines: 

22^nd February AS editing must be completed.

28^th February – A2 editing must be completed

16^th March – Last deadline for coursework to be handed in (including ancillary tasks and evaluation 4 questions for A2, 7 questions for AS)

Media Photo Shoot

The pictures of our Media Studies lessons are up on the school website!

Great revision - mind mapping website

Elevate Education came into our school yesterday and pointed out a really good mind mapping website, https://www.xmind.net/. You can download xmind for free on PC or Mac. I've downloaded it on the Media Studies Macs for you. It's a great way to add to your use of technology for planning essays and planning answers to your evaluation questions.

Bloggers of the week

This week at A2 it's Shona for fixing her low blog count and reaching the giddy heights of 47 worthy posts including fabulous stop motion animation this weekend. Let's keep up the posting to lower that blog pressure to a healthy level before the March deadline.

Last week was also Shona at A2, with her blog and pictures of the Harry Potter visit. Blog on!

Blog Pressure:

Harry Potter Trip

Blogger of the Week!

This week at AS it's Emily for catching up with the Cinderella and Vertigo Films research. Well done to everyone at AS for keeping your blogs up to date. At A2 it's Priya. Blog on, my friends, blog on... Remember your target of 40 posts for AS, 80 posts for A2!

Blogger of the Holidays

Through the holidays, for updating her Cinderella research, winner this time for Year 12 is Chaya. And for A2 is Emily - fantastic rough cut of her whole music video uploaded. Well done and blog on!