Tuesday 20th October

We looked over the peer assessment sheets we completed yesterday for our group, to see what others thought of the film and what could have been improved to make it better. Overall the main points were to create more captions so the narrative was clearer and to shorten a shot of a young girl in the mirror as it seemed too long.

After looking through the results, we then got into pairs and had to create a brainstorm/ mind map about Britishness, in order to do a presentation about it on Thursday. We had to think about what Britain was famous for, in other words what came into our heads when thinking of Britain and 'Britishness' in general.

Monday 19th October

As all groups had finished our films we then completed a self, peer and teacher assessment for them. This was so we had different points of views for each films which we could keep and look at what had to change in future media projects.
This took up the entire lesson as there was 4 groups and we had to talk and write about each one.
We had to give each work levels and scores out of 40 on the score sheet we were given. There were many shots and techniques used in other peoples films that worked well and i may use these in the future films we create if they go with the brief because they looked effective.

Thursday 15th October

As this was our last production time for our Underage Drinking films to be finished, we had to finsih editing and burn the film to disk so we are able to show them to other when we do our focus group next week.

Overall i was rather pleased with our film as we managed time well and therefore finished it on time. The only things i would change after finishing and watching it all the way through would be to make it longer by adding more action scenes, and cutting on of the shots as i thought it was too long.

Wednesday 14th October

During this lesson we was taught about film industry and film consumption such as the Hollywood Studio System.
I learnt that the 5 dominant companies within the film industry are:
-Paramount
-Loews- became MGM
-Fox films
-Warner Brothers
-RKO
Which created the Vertical Intergration Model. however that does not exsist now because more and more people moved away from the cities.

We also talked baout Blockbuster movies and what their characteristics are for these types of films, such as, simple storylines, the hero and villain combonation and are able to become a brand and sell merchandise.

Britain needs a film industry economically because it shows our culture across the world, helps create jobs therefore creating money for people and the Government.

Monday 12th October

During this lesson we got our critical evaluation outline for our 2000 word report on our Underage Drinking Advert.
This must include:

• A brief- what the advert is about
• The planning and research we undertook
• The production work- including any problems and how we overcame them.
• Our audience and their reaction- we must create a focus group of year 8s and play our film to see what they think of it and how effectove it was.

As it is due on the first day back after half term, my group must try and create a focus group next week as it is the only opportunity before half term otherwise we will fall very behind.

Thursday 8th October

We only had one hour of production today as it was open evening therefore losing an hour of what could have been used as part of our editing time.

So, instead of starting anything major we watched over what we have already recorded, and worke dout our last scene we need to do by next week, as this is when the project is meant to be handed in by.

I personally think our film will have an impact on anyone watching as it shows different sides of the effects of underage drinking. We now only have one week left to do the final scene and to edit all of it altogether.

Wednesday 7th October

We started to watch another 'ethnic based' film during this lesson called East Is East. It was released in 1999 and became the highest grossing British film that year.

It shows how children of a multi- cultrual family, with a Catholic mother and a Muslim father, have to deal with the confusion of religious values and traditions. There are also forms of racism and differences in sexuality therefore showing realism/ social realistic stories.

We then got homework which we have to do by next Wednesday. It is to create representation charts for this film and two other films which we have watched in class.
This will help when looking back over notes as it breaks down the film into catagories such as:

• Gender
• Class
• Sexuality
• Disability

Monday 5th October

After completing and handing in our homework, Mrs Rogers decided to go over some of the major facts needed to create a good essay and about rom- com's and representation, as some people got confused.

This lesson helped me a lot as i feel i am now more confident about the rom-com genre and about British representation.
We then talked about our culture in Britain for example we are represented as we have roast dinners ever sunday, drink tea, have big traditional church weddings etc. This then linked into the notes we made about Clifford Geertz who is an anthropologist which describes the way in which society is formed and accepted.

'Successful British films have the power to change attributes'.

Thursday 1st October 09

As this was our double production lessons and my group had filmed one of our scenes, we used this lesson to upload, watch and start to edit part of the filming we had done. The filmwe had done was the first scene where a 13 year old girl (we used a young girl i know to act this) waking up in a boys bedroom wondering what had happened the night before, and not knowing where she was.
So far i think our film looks like it will appeal to the target market and will do the job of making underage drinkers aware of the effects of drinking too much alcohol.

We do not have much time left to complete the film, so we must make sure we manage our time wisely and get all of the filming done ideally by next week so we can edit it in time and send it off on the correct date.

Wednesday 30th September

We watched the rest of Bend It Like Beckham during this lesson and whilst doing this we made notes. We needed to do this as we are going to write an essay for homework about ethnicity in films.

The question we must write an essay on is "How does Bend It Like Beckham represent the Asian experience in the UK?"
I will include in this essay Jess' experience in the UK, her parents experience, Juelz's mothers experience of having a daughter with a friend who is Asian. I will also add something about stereotypes as there are a lot of stereotypical comments like Juelz's mother says to Jess that she had made a nice curry the other day- stereotyping that Asians always make curry.
This homework is in for next Wednesday 7th.

Monday 28th September

At he start of this lesson we had a quick 'pop quiz' just to review what is included in a social realist film, this is just so we do not forget the important factors of the British film idustry.
We then started thinking about the cultural importance in British film. Durng this lesson I discovered that the rise in ethnic films improved the cultural visability within groups in Britain, they often talk about young, black people that have to deal with racism in their lives, and how there is a culture clash as young ethnic children who emmigrate to Britain accept different values within Britain to their own culture- showing the CHANGING FACES of Britain.

Film is an artistic convention of our culture and presents/ demonstrates our values and identities.

Thursday 24th September

As this lesson is our double 'production lessons' me and my group decided to make sure we had everything ready that we needed for next Monday as this is when we have decided to start filmin our Underage Drinking Advert. We made sure we knew when and where we are going to film and what our actress will be wearing and doingin the film, so we are able to give her clear instructions of what she'll be doing.

We felt very prepared after this lesson, and are now ready to start filming.

Wednesday 23rd September

We looked at the represenatation of Britain and the British industry of male and females again today, but we watched another popular, well- known Richard Curtis film called Bridget Jones' Diary. Again Hugh Grnt is an actor in this film, showing just how often Richard Curtis likes to use familiar actors within his films.
This film represented London as very busy and a popular place sing the iconic images of London make it also instantly recognisable to the audience.
Bridget the main character shows the 'British female' as rather well spoken women who like to smoke, drink and fall in love quickly and who also has frequent relationship trouble.

We also got our essay question we have to write which is..

'Using Notting Hill, Bridget Jones' Diary and Four Weddings and a Funeral as a refrence, what values and ideologies does Working titles London convey?

We are going to all write this essay for our homework.

Tuesday 22nd September

We watched the begining of another Richard Curtis film during the lesson, it was the very famous 'Notting Hill'.
Hugh Grant played a character in this film just like he did in the other Richard Curtis film Four Weddings.
We looked at how British males and Britain iteself are represented, using the mise en scene, their speech and the way they act towards others.

This was a good film to use when looking at representation of the British male as there are two main male characters who are completely opposite. One man (William played by Hugh Grant) is sanitised, well dressed, knows how to charm the ladies and has a proper 'British' accent as he is well spoken wuite gentlemanly.
Wheres his flat mate on the other hand is extremly messy, dirty, smokes, drinks, swears and is quite slob-ish. Therefore showing the differences of males in Britain.

Monday 21st September

During this lesson we mainly focused on Working Title films and Richard Curtis a famous working title romantic comedy film producer.
I learnt a lot of facts that will definatly help me throughout this project as i have disovered what a working title film actually is, and Richard Curtis the producer of Love Actually, Four Weddings and Blackadder uses some of the same actors in each film as they suit the character, and that his heroes are middle class, artistic, well-o off types.

We then watched part of Richard Curtis' Four Weddings and a Funeral to see how London and England are presented. We made a few notes as we may have to write an essay in a few lessons time.

Wednesday 16th September

Within this lesson we watched Trainspotting and Sense and Sensibility and saw the difference of genre and representation of Britain between the two.

After watching both of the films I discovered they are completely different in many ways, and represents Britain and England in two opposite ways.
Trainspotting is more of the 'grime' dirty, drugs, alcohol, swearing, living of benefit- type people in Britain. Whereas Sense and Sensibility on the other hand is the more, well spoken, upper class, courteous representation of people in Britain.

These films are showing how different parts of Britain can be represented via the media and that the audience believe what is being shown.

Tuesday 15th September

This lesson we spoke about what makes films 'British' and why is film important?
Film is important on an economy basis because of money and employment, it is showing the talent of Britain in an art form and also representing a certain 'Britishness' to promote 'what is Britain?'

Lord Putnam in 2006 said (in my own words)
That things which seem impossible in reality are often shown as possible through film, therefore making the impossible, possible and showing the audience the world we live in.

Anthony Minghella, who is a film director and former chairman of the BFI said (in my own words again)
Through film the audience are able to connect with the character shown and feel we 'know' them and are able to 'put on their shoes' and see from their perspective.

Both the quotes here will help when discussing British film and genre in essays and exams.
I also created a spider diagram in my book about 'BRITAIN' half of the ideas were mostly Royalty/ royal family, tea, pesh and well spoken and a full english breakfast, however on the other hand there was football hooligans, swearing, rowdyness and binge drinking. This is showing just how different things can be percieved about places and people.

Monday 14th September

This lesson we mainly focused on genre and types of film genre. Genre is a style overall of what is included in the film and using generic convention (accepted features) to define the genre, and with past films with the same qualities in certain genres the audience will have certain expectations of the certain style of film. We also discussed the conventions of each genre, for example horror movies usually include blood, death, mysterious actors, and lots of victims all of these conventions makes the film instantly recognisable of which genre it is when watching it.

There are also three different strands necessary in the film industry:
-Producer.. provides a template, instantly recognisable to audience
-Distributer.. provides key marketing strategies in order to connect with target audience
-Audience.. easily identify genre.

This formula helps them select the product before even viewing the film and by using knowledge from past films in the same genre.

Thursday 10th September

As this is our only double lesson during the week we are making these lessons as our 'production lessons' this means all production work is to be done in these two hours.
As we are currently producing an underage drinking short film we previously discussed last year in As, we got into groups to start brainstorming ideas of what i going to be included in our films.
I am working with Beckie and Dale and during this lesson we had already thought of the basic outline of the film and had drawn up a story board so we are all ready to start filming when we need to. We thought of dramatic ways we can get the message across to the target audience and what will help stick in their minds. We decided to use a phrase/ sentence after every clip aiming it at 'them' as we are using the word YOU in capitals throughout evry sentence said. For eample ' Do YOU want to end up like this?' 'Do YOU want to lose your friends?' etc. this way it will stay in their minds and think this is what will happen if they do it.

During the second half of the lesson/ second hour we had a spare half an hour as we could not film yet and had nothing else to do to our storyboard we used this time to complete homework set which was to research 10 different British films, put them into a catagory, write their directors and editors and estimate their budget on the film.

Wednesday 9th September

During this lesson we all watched another 'British' film this one is named Brassed Off. The first thing i noticed about thsi film is that it is in co-production with Film four and Minimax, this already shows me that it is with a television channel and American- financed. This film also has recognisable actors; all of these are recognisable factors of 'British' film. I took some notes during this film as we are going to produce an essay on both British films we have recently watched these past few lessons and compare their social realism techniques.

Tuesday 8th September

In this lesson we discussed the ways in which 'British' films can be recognised. For example British films are mainly dialogue lead, film directors often go to TV and theatre productions before film and are often co-funded by TV companies such as ITV and BBC.

We then watched part of The Full Monty and discussed the ways this portrays social realism. As i had not seen this film before i had no idea what it was going to be like so therefore i had to listen and watch carefully. Some social realistic parts in this film are the regional dialects, 'ordinary' working class characters, unemployment and money issues etc. Just some of the things that can also be recognised in everyday life.

Monday 7th September

This was the first lesson back after the summer holidays. During this lesson we spoke about what we are going to do over these few weeks and this year in A2.
I found out we are going to look mainly at national cinema, television representation and magazines & gender. We then focused on British films such as Bend it like Beckham, Trainspotting and St Trinians, talking about the ways in which culture and iconic 'British' features.
I also learnt about the BFI (British Film Institute) focusing on the catagories in which 'British' films fit in to. This was very interesting as i didnt know that there were different catagories for similar genre films.
Our homework this week is to go on the IMBD website, find 10 British films and work out what catagory they fit into, also looking at the budgets of the film and the directors and editors who made the film.

Friday 10th July

This single lesson we had to brainstorm ideas of what we may decide to use in our advert for underage drinking. We filled out an A3 page with as many ideas as we can so we can decide which is best and which ones we shall use. We had to think about the type of mise en scene we need to portray and how we will show the consequences of drinking.

I am thinking about creating an advert which includes flashbacks of when the character wasnt drinking and then back to how they are when they are drinking to show the different personalities and characteristics they gain when drinking. I think this may be quite effective as it will relate to the target audience of 13/15 year olds.

Thursday 9th July

For our homework we had to research facts about underage drinking. We had to take into consideration the effects it has on the individual, their family and society. This then helped in todays task.
This was to write one fact down on a piece of paper and pass it around the class so we had different types of facts and statistics from every person, we are then able to use these facts in our advertisment when we come to create it. Here is an example of one of the gfacts i had collected " Children as young as 12 have been admitted as alcoholics in the UK"

We then learnt about ways in which you can portray a character and the setting in a certain way using lighting and editing. We also learnt different interview techniques, rapid montages and sound and how they could be used in our advert to create a certain 'shock' factor if needed to get the main message across to the audience.

Tuesday 7th July

We came across an obstacle within this and the past few lessons. This was because all groups had filmed part or all of their 'rape awareness' advertisments but as there was a sixth form induction they filmed over our clips we had made. Therefore our work was deleted and we were not able to carry on with this task.

We were given the option to either film again or to start a new task of creating a 3 to 10 minute advert on underage drinking and have to consider the consequences, or we could chose to film our rape awarness adverts again.
We all decided on the first option as we thought the groups would try to copy what they had produced last time but will not be as good. This is our next project which we will be carrying on with next year in A2. This is also going to be a competition with other schools in Essex.

Underage drinking has become a major factor within the UK in these present times, and we need to start bringing awareness to all those who participate. The charity that came up with this idea of project are called 'Alcohelp'. The website containing a full brief is www.alcohelp.co.uk/consider

Our target audience for this project is 13 year olds, which personally thinking about it i think this is a too young of age for them to start drinking alcohol as it will damage them later in life, therefore bringing the awarness of alcohol effects will help them realise how bad the problem really is, whether iot be on a regular basis or once in a while. We then thought of things to include in the film about the aspects that cause underage drinking to start with to bring awareness to those involved.
They are:
- Peer pressure
- Violence
- Long term health problems (e.g- liver damage)
- Truancy
- Binge Drinking
This is to raise awareness of the different issues. We have to portray how underage drinking does have serious consequences. For a homework task, we were asked to research into the topic thoroughly and find statistics that will shock our audience.The main one young people do not realise when drinking is that it can cause them permanant brain damage and they have a higher risk of becoming pregnant and having sexual intercourse as they are under the influence of alcohol and dont realise their actions. Young people do not realise these consequences, and until they see it to believe it. Statistics also shown in my homework were that many young children these days can buy alcohol within a shop without being questionned of their age. This makes it easier for underage drinking to occur, as parents do not have control of their actions if they do not know what they are actually doing when they are out socialising. Another fact that shocked me was that children as young as 12 have been admitted as alcoholics due to excessive drinking on a regular basis. This is hard to understand as i stereotypically think of young children being innocent and well behaved and may just go to the park with friends to have fun, and not to binge drink. Many young children say they do this because they have no other activities they can become involved in.

In the second part of our lesson, we started to brainstorm and think about what different aspects of the film could make it more 'realistic' using several techniques. We looked at how documentary type films often use interviewing techniques, cutaways, and still images to get the message across clearly. I like the use of voiceovers and making it repeptitiveso it sticks in the viewers mind. This could be affective when producing the alcohol awareness, as many of these techniques could attract the target audience and inform and also show them of the effects their drinking will have in the future.

Friday 26th, Tuesday 30th June & Thursday 2nd July

We were all unable to attend these media lessons as we had a University open days and there was an induction for new sixth formers, therefore we missed 4 full lessons.

Tuesday 23rd June

This lesson we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to talk to some of the media students from St Marks who are currently now at University studying media/ film production. We were given information about what opportunities there are when at uni, and was told which types of media we could study there. Some examples were film production, producing music videos/ advertisiments, journalism and childrens TV shows.

This was a good insight into what media studies can lead on to in the future.



The second half of this lesson we was given another task to complete next lesson which is to produce an advertisment for Rape Awareness for around our age group. We got into groups and started talking and producing storyboards about what should happen within the advert. We will start filming these next lesson on Thursday.

Friday 19th June

This lesson we were able to complete our editing for our 'Phone Call' films. We used the Apple Mac laptops again to do this and to add special effefcts, for example adding the title accross the screen, adding rain sound effects etc. We also cut down some of the filming so the audience would not get bored and it would not look like we just put the clips together without planning.

We had to try and make them as professional so they all look good and the audience will want to watch it. We are going to watch and review the films next lesson.

Thursday 18th June

This double lesson we had to carry on shooting our 'Phone Call' film. We decided to shoot one person in a quiet house and one outside in a park to make the story more realistic. We also made the sound better than our previous film as some films were extremly 'windy', we had some diagetic sound such as birds outside which also helped make the film realistic. Overall i think we had some good shots and kept a steady hand to make the shooting clearer.

During the second half of the lesson we was able to start editing our films and slotting all of the clips togteher to make one whole film.
This half of the lesson i learnt about how to edit camera shots using the Apple Laptops and media player. This was hard to get started on but by the end i felt i had learnt a lot of new skills and am now able to use them in the future.

Next lesson we are going to carry on with editing the films and watch and analys eachothers.

Tuesday 16th June

This lesson was also used to develop our skills using the video camera. We first got into groups and was given a title of 'The Phone Call' and a sheet showing us which shot types we MUST include into the film.

When during previous tasks we discovered that planning was extremely important when shooting films or still images. Therefore we planned our film shots using a storyboard.

Our group then went out to find a place which would be most suitable for our shots. We was fortunate enough to have someone who drives within our group and was therefore able to go 'further afield' to get a perfect place. We did come across some obstacles in this lesson as we wanted to find a public phone box to use to make it different to everyone elses films, but could not find a suitable one as there were too many people or had posters on the front of it etc.



Next lesson we will be filming all of our films and editing them to make them look more professional.

HOMEWORK for Friday 12th June

Overview of Films Created.

We were all set a task to create a short film that showed a ‘tour’ type video of St Marks School. Throughout the whole of this task I learnt what camera techniques worked well and what I would choose to use within another task. Also after watching all of the videos each group had created I discovered which mise en scene works best in a film like this one. For example the character choices, the setting and the types of diagetic sounds (e.g. - music in the common room of sixth form).

The first film we watched was the one my group and I took part in. We decided to create a film which was in the style of a wildlife documentary describing a new student as ‘the new cub’ and the character leading him around the school as the ‘alpha male’ as he knew what to do around the school whereas the new student didn’t. I thought this was a good way of showing how the school looks after its new students and showed the main parts around the school, and also included a bit of comedy.
Our film included some good shots cameras shots which included canted angle shot, close ups, high and low angle shots. This was so the school and characters were captured at different angles.
However there were some points which needed improvement. One of the main bad points the film had was that the cameras shots/ edits were cut too short and didn’t fit neatly together. This distracted the audience and should have been edited better. Another point was the diagetic sound in the common room; this also distracted the audience as you could not hear the characters dialogue clearly, this could have been improved by turning off the radio which was playing at the time and making sure no one else talked in the room we was filming in.
A third point which could have been improved not only on our film but also on the other two we watched, was that some of the shots were rather ‘wobbly’. To make the shot clearer and more professional would be to make use of a tripod for the camera to stand on. I am going to take this into consideration when next filming. This will then make it clearer for the audience to watch.

The second group’s film also had a good way of showing the audience around the school showing all of the major good points. They also portrayed the film as comedy type clips to connect with the target audience of teenagers. The main character used was also confident and connected with the audience well which is a main factor.
However like the other films some angles didn’t work well within the film, for example one shot was a canted shot when the characters were just walking along outside. I don’t think this shot worked well as it looked like it was just slotted in to add another camera angle. The filming was also a bit wobbly in places too like our film; this could be overcome using a tripod too.
Another bad point within this film was that there were rapid shots/ quick cuts but then long pauses. The long pauses could conclude to the audience getting bored and not listening to the film, so it needs to keep flowing to keep the attention of the audience.

The third and final film had a different sort of story; this storyline was ‘a day in the life’ of a sixth former. There were a few positive points such as a range of camera shots, but overall I think there were more bad points about this short film.
The main point was that they did not use the camera properly as the film kept cutting to other films which were also recorded on the camera by other people previously. This took the story away and got confusing as the audience did not know what was going on. Also at one point the person shooting the clip didn’t realise they were recording and was talking, this made the shot look unprofessional and was therefore one of the major bad points.
A third point was the mise en scene. In some clips the setting looked messy, such as tables wonky in the wrong places or work over the floor. Also, when filming outside the wind and other cars made it difficult for the audience to hear the dialogue.

To conclude this task we was set I have tried out and discovered the camera shots which work well together and which don’t, how long the shot should be held for before the audience get bored an to not make the cuts of the shots too quick as it doesn't work well together.
I have also found out how to improve shots and angles aswell, whether it be using a tripod or making sure the angles fit the shot well otherwise it looks wrong and out of place.
Making sure the mise en scene is as best as it can be is also a main factor because this draws the audience in, if the scene/ setting doesn’t look clean and professional the audience will not like it and will therefore be a negative factor. I will use these points in future media work when filming as this has been a big learning curve and will definitely help improve my work dramatically.

Friday 12th June

We had a single lesson today and within this lesson we watched each groups film and discovered which shots worked well together and which did not work so well and should have therefore been changed.

We listed the good and bad points in our books as we are set a homework task to write an essay analysing each film. When watching all of the films the main bad point was that either the film in the camera was not rewound which then led it to have what other people using the camera have shot which distracted the audience away from the story. Another major bad point was the fact that most people filming did not have a 'steady hand' which then made the filming 'wobbly' and unprofessional. This could be changed in the future by using a tripod to put the camera on to make it steady.

Thursday 11th June

This double lessoon we had to produce a 'tour like' film about St Marks school. My group decided to shoot this film as if it was like a documentary with a voice over talking the audience through whats happening. I think this was a good way of shooting this type of film as no one else did the same kind of thing when producing their own work. We described the character which we portrayed as the new student as the 'new cub' and the character playing the student showing the new person around the school as the 'alpha male' this was becayuse then the audience could tell who had been at the school longer and the 'new cub' will look up to the 'alpha male' so he will fit in.

Next lesson we will be watching the films and critisicing/ analysing them to see which shots, edits, characters and setting (mise en scene) worked well and which didnt.

Tuesday 9th June

This was the first lesson of A2 studies in media. In this lesson we was able to practise shooting particular shots with the video cameras. We was first put into groups and was given a camera and a clapper board to write on. We had to use this to show off our skills of which camera shots we know, for example pan, long shot, over the shoulder shot and close up etc.



We had to write on the shot type and the person shooting the scene on the clapper board so it was clearly showing what the group was trying to portray. This was a very insightful lesson and throughout i learnt how to shoot particular camera shots and which work best in films i shoot in the future.