Your coursework mark is split into three different areas:
1. Planning and Research - 20 marks
2. Video - 60 marks
3. Evaluation - 20 marks
Your class teacher will go through the markng criteria of these three different areas of the production, however if you are serious about getting an A Grade (80-100 marks) the following guide on what to post for the planning and research stage of the task will help you in achieving this goal.
This is your coursework. The advice given here is only a starting point, so feel free to post whatever ideas you have as well. Remember credit will be given to the creative use of technology and the examiners do not want essay after essay on this blog, they want to see a visual blog reinforced by intelligent writing that reflects decisions made, choices that change during the course of the making of your opening and language which reflects the terminology of media studies.
(There is no order to these posts, but obviously you can start some earlier than others)
1. Codes and conventions of a thriller.
Post a summary of the codes and conventions you would typically find in a modern thriller. Include knowledge of mise en scene, sound, editing, narrative structure and cinematography if you can. I advise you do this in the form of a visual powerpoint, or if you're feeling adventurous a 'prezi.'
2. Mood Board - images which you would associate with a thriller.
Upload a series of images, accompanied by an explanation of why these images fit the codes and conventions of a thriller. When you have finished your opening look back at the mood board. Did your ideas of what a thriller constitute change?
3. Textual analysis of an opening to a thriller chosen by your teacher.
To prove your knowledge of what constitutes a good thriller opening, post your analysis of the opening chosen by your teacher. This will be based on the film Cape Fear. I would advise you use screen grabs of particular moments in the scene to strengthen your argument. Highlight the use of sound, mise en scene, editing and cinematography within the context of your answer.
4. Textual analysis of a thriller opening chosen by you.
To show further evidence that you know what a thriller is, post your chosen thriller opening onto your blog and include another written analysis underneath it. Refer to the codes and conventions you have already examined. 28 Days later, Taken, Scream, Inception, Zodiac, One Hour Photo are all good examples if you are stuck.
5. Year 13 talk.
To show that you have considered potential pitfalls with the planning of your video before you start filming, write a blog post which details the advice given by Year 13 students in class. Again this could be done in the form of a powerpoint with a written introduction which explains the purpose of the post.
6. Title sequence.
The specifications require that you include titles in your project. Write a blog post which considers the importance of titles in thriller films and paste an example of, what you consider is, a good title sequence. Use the website 'art of the title.com' as your introduction to this area. The work of Saul Bass would be another excellent introduction. Questions to ask are What information is required at the start of the film? and also look at many examples of thriller openings, what credits are actually used?
7. Marking other student's work.
You will be asked to use the marking criteria to mark past examples of coursework. Write a blog which evaluates the issues you need to consider when you submit your video. This could include a summary of what you have seen in the examples you have seen, for example 'What went wrong' and what went right.' in the past examples you have seen. The post could be entitled 'Do's and Don'ts'
8. Focus Group findings.
To make a thriller properly, you need to be aware of audience expectations of what constitutes a good thriller. You will be taught what a focus group is and on the blog is the place to post your findings. My advice is to film your focus group and post the video on your blog. If you can try and get focus groups from different ages, rather than just your mates or who is in the common room at the time.
9. Questionnaire.
You may opt for the questionnaire approach to your research. Again post your questionnaire and your findings on the blog to show what research you have done for the preparation of your thriller. You don't have to show all the questionnaires, only an example of a blank question sheet and then a filled out qustionnaire. You could use graphs, pie charts and bar charts to show your results as well.
10. Demographic/Psychographic profiling.
You will be asked to consider demographics and psychographic profiling in your research. All films target a segment of the overall audience and this post will explain what demographics and psychographics are, and explain who you consider to be the intended target area.
11. BBFC research
With any consideration of what constitutes a target audience it would be worthwhile doing a post on the BBFC. What rating are you after with your thriller? What rating is usually given to this genre? Write a post examining the role of BBFC and then, when your film is finished do another post speculating what rating your film would actually be given once the final product is finished.
12. Storyboard.
All thrillers need to be storyboarded, so that camera shots, camera movement and creative decisions can be considered. Photograph and upload your storyboards so you can explain the theory behind the drawings. Alternatively draw the completed storyboard on a white board and talk through the process, whilst filming it to be uploaded onto your blog.
13. Pitch/Brief
This is quite simply an overview of your chosen project. A pitch is an explanation of the plot of your thriller and the choices behind your characters and situations linking it to the codes and conventions of a thriller and the audience expectations of the genre. I advise you do a video of the group introducing this pitch, maybe with props/costumes as visual guidance to the intended aim of the opening.
14. Health and Safety Risk Assessment.
Changes to rules governing schools mean that all groups now have to design a 'risk assessment' form for their coursework, which has to be posted on their Blog. This form must outline any problems you could encounter on your shoot and what precautions you have taken to make sure that this problem will not happen. For example if you are shooting a 'chase sequence' in a forest, have you checked for hidden tree roots so the people running will not trip over etc.
15. Influences.
Every director can name an influence for their films and your group will also be heavily inspired by films, directors etc as well. These influences need to be documented in different blog posts so you can't be accused of plagiarism and to demonstrate that the group have researched the genre of thrillers fully and with due care and consideration.
16. Marketing.
This can be again a series of posts where you consider how you as a group could market your film. I advise you design a poster to advertise your film, alongside another post where you discuss how other thriller posters are designed, as well examples of film posters which have inspired you. One group designed a 'dummy' website which contained links to fictional social networking sites. You could create a group on Facebook about the making of your film in the hope of getting people to 'like' the product. Youtube could be utilized and obviously you could design a trailer which 'sells' the film to a wide audience. Take your pick of any of these ideas and feel free to add your own.
17. Changes.
If your original idea changes you need to keep updating your Blog with these different changes. Locations might be inaccessible, characters may change, ideas fluctuate etc etc.If they do you need to keep writing about all these changes, using the Blog as your focal point.
18. Music
You are not allowed to use any music which is copywrited at all. The point of this post is to explain what music you did use, what is the intended effect of the music and where you got the music from. My advice is to upload the intended music through Youtube and explain the purpose behind your decision to choose this particular piece of music. Don't settle on one piece either, it may change.
19. Settings and Locations.
Paste photos/video of your chosen locations with an explanation and how they adhere to, or subvert the conventions of a thriller. If you choose a different location, then do another blog post which examines the new location
20. Props and costumes
Take photos/video of the main props and costumes used and again explain the purpose behind using these examples of mise en scene to adhere to the conventions of a thriller.
21. Making any props and costumes.
Take photos/video if any of your group actually make any props or costumes for the film. In the pat we have had a video which explained the process of making masks and also photos of the creation of the Pandemic newspaper items. This will get you high marks for this section of the coursework.
22. Script.
If your thriller is dialogue heavy, include a script of your film and make sure you also explain the purpose behind the words chosen. You could create a video where you act out the words, instead of writing the whole script out.
23. Diary of a day shooting.
Post a blog entry which explains what happened during filming. Any problems? What went right? What went wrong? Include photos/video of your group filming the thriller opening. You have to do a post for each day of shooting.
24. Shooting schedule.
To prove that you have actually planned your shooting include a shooting schedule which explains the times, dates and scenes being filmed on one day of shooting. This should also include props to be used, who is in charge of what, what time you need to meet etc. You need to do a post for each day of shooting.
25. Editing diary.
Post a blog entry which explains how you edited the footage and the choices or problems that you were confronted with. You could do this as a video of you talking through the film when you have finished. Stop the video when you have anything interesting to talk about, in the style of a director's commentary.
26. Audience feedback.
You have to include Audience feedback so get the class, friends, parents etc to watch your video and get constructive criticism from them to include in the blog. Use Facebook, Youtube as a means to do this. You could film people's responses or video their response after watching the film. Alternatively design a powerpoint that records all of the people's reactions to the video.
Sunday, 18 January 2009
Important information! Please read!
Evaluation Questions
The following questions must be answered in the evaluation posts on your blog:
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 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 the product?
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
*IMPORTANT* Health & Safety for FILMING
Important Health and Safety information for when you are out filming:
Remember that although you might be concentrating on your filming, you still need to be aware of traffic.
Always be polite and respectful when interacting with the public.
Do not attempt to film anything which could be construed by a passer by as illegal. Last year one student was reported to the school for using a fake gun in Oliver Road.
If you are going to try and film in a public place, you should approach the people who are in charge of that place for permission.
Do not film in dangerous places.
What should I be doing outside lesson times ?
This project will not be a success for you, unless you do the majority of work outside of class time. Here are some suggestions:
1. Keep an eye on the Shenfield Media blog for any new advice or videos which may be posted for your benefit.
2. Search the web for material about thrillers and other examples, e.g. on youtube; again create links or paste videos/pics/film posters etc into your blog.
3. Have a look on the web for visual ideas in any kinds of text- photos of props, costumes, facial expressions, locations,fonts, anything that you might use- paste these into your blog as a kind of planning/ideas scrapbook/sketchbook
4. Use a digital camera or your phone to take some recce shots of locations and upload these to your blog.
ALL THE ABOVE WILL CONTRIBUTE TO PLANNING MARKS- so are well worth doing!
5. Start writing the different sections of the blog as soon as you can. Remember if you are in a group take it in turns to write the different posts. One student in the team could be writing a textual analysis of a thriller, whilst another pupil of the group could be taking and posting location shots of where you are going to be filming.
Remember this is your blog so be creative in how you use it.
6. Watch some thrillers to get ideas of what works and what doesn't- particularly lots of opening sequences for what is used in titles and for conventions of film openings. Listen to soundtracks and consider how to set up mood through sound. Planning music is essential to the success of this project because you are only allowed to use ‘copywrite free’ sound so investigate freeplay music. com and freesound.org asap for ideas and your soundtrack.
7. Sketch storyboard frames ready for uploading on to your blog and so you have the maximum amount of planning of your shots ready for when you go out with the camera.
8. Work out when you can do the shoot as you will need to be well organised and ready
9. Leave plenty of time to edit your footage.
The following questions must be answered in the evaluation posts on your blog:
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 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 the product?
7. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
*IMPORTANT* Health & Safety for FILMING
Important Health and Safety information for when you are out filming:
Remember that although you might be concentrating on your filming, you still need to be aware of traffic.
Always be polite and respectful when interacting with the public.
Do not attempt to film anything which could be construed by a passer by as illegal. Last year one student was reported to the school for using a fake gun in Oliver Road.
If you are going to try and film in a public place, you should approach the people who are in charge of that place for permission.
Do not film in dangerous places.
What should I be doing outside lesson times ?
This project will not be a success for you, unless you do the majority of work outside of class time. Here are some suggestions:
1. Keep an eye on the Shenfield Media blog for any new advice or videos which may be posted for your benefit.
2. Search the web for material about thrillers and other examples, e.g. on youtube; again create links or paste videos/pics/film posters etc into your blog.
3. Have a look on the web for visual ideas in any kinds of text- photos of props, costumes, facial expressions, locations,fonts, anything that you might use- paste these into your blog as a kind of planning/ideas scrapbook/sketchbook
4. Use a digital camera or your phone to take some recce shots of locations and upload these to your blog.
ALL THE ABOVE WILL CONTRIBUTE TO PLANNING MARKS- so are well worth doing!
5. Start writing the different sections of the blog as soon as you can. Remember if you are in a group take it in turns to write the different posts. One student in the team could be writing a textual analysis of a thriller, whilst another pupil of the group could be taking and posting location shots of where you are going to be filming.
Remember this is your blog so be creative in how you use it.
6. Watch some thrillers to get ideas of what works and what doesn't- particularly lots of opening sequences for what is used in titles and for conventions of film openings. Listen to soundtracks and consider how to set up mood through sound. Planning music is essential to the success of this project because you are only allowed to use ‘copywrite free’ sound so investigate freeplay music. com and freesound.org asap for ideas and your soundtrack.
7. Sketch storyboard frames ready for uploading on to your blog and so you have the maximum amount of planning of your shots ready for when you go out with the camera.
8. Work out when you can do the shoot as you will need to be well organised and ready
9. Leave plenty of time to edit your footage.
10. Ask other people to look at your ideas, your blog and your writing- parents have often seen a surprising number of useful films! they might even be prepared to be in your film...
Working off-site
Please ensure that if you work offsite during college time:
Working off-site
Please ensure that if you work offsite during college time:
You do not miss other lessons! If we catch you missing other lessons to do your coursework you will lose your free periods and be made to work in H9 or H5.
Behave sensibly and safely!
You do not annoy any members of the public.
That if you are asked not to film somewhere, you move on !
Friday, 16 January 2009
Example Post
Hi! Mr Sheriff here showing you what you can do with Blogger.
I will attempt to post a link, images and a video on this blog to illustrate what you can do. Here goes...
1. Link - google
2. Image from my computer: ZOMBIE MAN! 
3. Image from internet: BRUCE WILLIS! 
4. Youtube Video :
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