A Coursework Diary, posted weekly. However because of technical issues it has started later on in the post
6/9/12
In week 1 of A2 media we have been examining different trailers so we can learn some of the techniques used to make it enticing and a trailer. We did this because we will be making our own movie trailers. We used IMDB to look at the different movie trailers as it is known as the “Internet Movie Data Base” and is a very useful resource as it enables you to be able to find all the different movies uploaded under different categories such as “Top Rated”
10/9/12
In the second week we learned about contemporary media regulations, with owners of the large media organisations such as the newspapers and SKYTV UK. Rupert Murdoch is the owner of the larger companies, and is often described as a hoarder of media ownership because of his increasingly large amount of media ownership.
PCC
The PCC is a Regulatory Body
- Deals with complaints in the press
BBFC
British board of film control
Deals with film problems that may arise
17/9/12
We learned about a Complaints case study this week, with the MP Gordon Brown. We highlighted all the important information throughout the document that could be useful. This could prove usefull as we would be able to look back over the information when it comes to us needing to revise.
We also went over Critical perspectives writing about production, in our books. We took note of words that may be important to our studies, and which could help to improve our overall grades when it comes to written skill in the exam.
24/9/12
We planned essays this week. The essay title was “Is the press in the UK free? And to what degree should it be regulated?” a very media orientated essay to test our knowledge of what we had been learning in lessons.
We also watched trailers this week, so that we were able to get a better idea of techniques used in the film industry to make a successful trailer. The film we watched the trailer to was “The Da Vinci Code” and we took notes on genre, representation, audience, ideologies, and narrative.
When we got our essays back we were given the opportunity to improve them so that they could then be graded higher and we would have a better idea of what to put into an essay so that we would be able to get higher grades.
1/10/12
Key words in regulation:
Censorship – Restricting material that could be deemed inappropriate for the products purpose.
Deregulation – Stopping and checking media products for inappropriate material.
Regulation – The limiting of media products content.
Desensitisation – The consumers becoming less sensitive to more graphic issues
We then looked at some of the techniques used in movie censorship, these include:
Violence, Corruption, Controversy, Sex/Nudity, Shock, Language, Class.
007 - Violence
Portrayal of violence as a normal solution to problems
Heroes who inflict pain and injury
Callousness towards victims
Encouraging aggressive attitudes
Taking pleasure in pain or humiliation
Fight club
It's an 18
It encourages people to fight - bare knuckled fighting is illegal
Violence concerns
Significantly less violence than other films, apart from 2 scenes
8/10/12
Film Regulations
Films need to be watched before release so that they can be deemed suitable for public release, and that they're aimed towards the allocated target audience that they have.
Films are rated: U, PG, 12, 15, & 18.
U - Suitable for all Audiences
PG - Parents decision if it's okay for their children
12 - Ages 12+
15 - Ages 15+
18 - Ages 18+
BBFC - British board of Film Classification
The BBFC is the leading board in the UK that regulates film ratings and decides if the film is safe and ready for public release, and the correct age rating for the movie. They're there to make sure that the film is not offensive towards any specific group, because after all the world is a big place, full of people waiting to be offended.
Censorship protects audiences from images and ideas that may not be suitable
- Private people
- Government
- Religion
Censorship differs from year to year, decade to decade, country to country.
How does censorship work?
The deciding film regulation board of the specific country will have to watch the film through, and from this decide if their's anything that they may find and deem could be offensive, or wrong for that specific target audience, and from this the company will then have to take the product back and change the parts that are unfit to be shown. from this the film can usually then be released into the public as it fits well within the guidelines.
Old Exam
We also went over parts from our old exam and started noting things that could have been done differently so that we got better marks, because as a whole our class didn't get good grades last year (UPDATE: since we have re-sat and got very good grades in Comparison. I myself went from a E to a C)
Mise en Scene - commenting on the surrounding environment cloths, and props that could be in the scene to help with the portrayal of a specific meaning or identity.
Camera shots - Camera angles and shots that could be used to help show characters of power through the use of low angle shots
Sound - Sounds both non-diagetic and diagetic can be put into the scene to help build a certain emotion or feeling towards a certain character, or to help portray fear or a pace picking up or slowing down.
Camera Editing - Camera editing and montages can be used to help show a specific aspect of a character and build a representation of them, such as if they were disabled.
15/10/12
This week in lessons we were going through a past paper that we had sat and had a practice example along with it.
We were highlighting the important points of the past paper and example so that we knew exactly what it is that we would have to do so that we could increase our marks. this enabled us to get a much clearer idea of what was needed. I enjoyed doing this because it helped set my mind straight on all the different points that I had previously done wrong and lost marks on in my exam. because of this I am feeling much more confident with my work and it has enabled me to learn a few key facts that should make it possible for me to be able to improve my grade a lot more the second time around.
22/10/12
This week we had a practice exam so that we would be more prepared when it comes to taking our actual exam through. I felt a lot more confident doing the practice exams because it helped gain confidence with the exam technique and did give us a chance to be able to get used to the exam conditions and what would be needed of us in order to be able to get good grades. I feel that the practice exam went well because I managed to get good notes on the short clip we were shown so I then had plenty to write about in the essay. This made it a much faster process because I didn't have to stop and try to figure out what I needed to write as it was already there for me to put into words.
5/11/12
This week we were told that we would need to revise several different aspects of media for an upcoming test that we were going to have because it would enable us to test our own knowledge and enable us to identify any weak points that we may have.
1. Research the PCC
2. What it does now as a regulatory body.
3. Research the Phone hacking Scandle
4. PCC's code of practice
5. How do you think the press should be regulated?
We also were split into groups for our film trailers, my group consisted of Danniiella Cappellazzii, Harvey West, & Alsan Pagquil. We had to decide on what the Genre of our trailer would be and eventually got round to deciding our trailer would be a comedy. We had originally planned on doing a Horror, however we felt it didn't really match our personalities and thought that Comedy would be more suited towards our roles.
12/11/12
I was absent this week, however I know that we were tasked with what future changes would occur in the press, including through TV, Film, & Advertising,
19/11/12
This week we were given the opportunity of looking at previous trailers from other A2 students. I found this particularly helpful because it enabled me to be able see what the "bar" of student film trailers was. It also helped because it gave us a good idea of what film trailers come out as usually and how they are expected to be presented. We watched a wide range of trailers from very good ones, to the... not so excellent ones. this let us know some good points and bad points so that we would be able to take note of so we could avoid doing the bad points and possibly incorporate some of the better points into our own trailers. This was a good, educational week I feel.
26/11/12
This week we listened to a Podcast that was talking about how videogames are regulated. I found this particularly interesting because it spoke about how the ratings of videogames have changed over the years, such as originally if a game had blood in it, it would instantly be an 18+ however now days it is only classified as a 15+ because of desensitisation towards the violence of people to blood.
We also looked at different trailers on IMDB.com that were the same or similar genres to our own. this was helpful because we were finding it difficult to come up with ideas on how we'd make the production funny, and what film shots to do etc. however we were able to make noted on various trailers (Including Hot Fuzz) and this made it possible for us to come up with a rough idea, character names etc.
3/12/12
This week we received revision books for our exam and mainly just revised different sections from the books throughout the week so that we could then reinforce our current knowledge of Media and Media aspects as we have an Exam coming up in literally just over a month. Lessons this week weren't too interesting as we revised most of the week.
However we did look at Magazines and in particular a Magazine called "Little White Lies" I felt that the magazine looked dull, boring, & Lazy because of it's incredibly basic design. I didn't like the look of the magazine at all. However the magazine was a popular company. Many A2 students used this for their magazines and I just believe it's a cheap way to get hard work done quickly.
10/12/12
This week we filled out a questionnaire that our teacher had put in a word document about our trailer, it contained many different questions about our trailers and we filled them out in our groups. We then watched a powerpoint presentation on the same thing and how we can use the questions to make a presentation about our trailer that we would then be recorded whilst we gave it out. then we could record our classmates reviews and use them as audience feedback. this made for a pretty interesting way of being able to get the work done and I looked forward to getting on with the presentation.
17/12/12
It's the last week of term and Christmas holidays are coming up, we've been told to "Revise as much as we can over Christmas because our exam is in the first week we're back in January and we don't want to fail our AS grades again, do we?
7/1/13
Hello Blog! Haven't seen you since last year! How've you been?
Exam this week so a short old post. Revising for exam resit as much as possible. Roger wilko.
14/1/13
Unfortunately I was absent this week for an important lesson and had let down my group. I missed an important lesson on Audience theory and will need to ask one of my classmates for their notes on the lesson, aso that i can then revise Audience theory, as I don't want to fall behind with work.
28/1/13
This week we added more information to our Powerpoint Presentation as a group.
We were also shown a powerpoint on an essay that the teacher wanted us to write.
We also had a talk from a woman who works for the BBFC, it was very informative and enabled us to understand what they do in the BBFC a lot clearer and some of the statistics that they have. A very rare and lucky experience and i feel that the whole thing benefited my class greatly.
4/2/13
This week we made a quick storyboard of our trailer in lesson. We all contributed ideas and eventually come up with a plan for it and had it drawn up. This was very helpful as it enabled us to focus mainly on the practical side as we were all hoping to of at least started filming by this point
We also presented our Powerpoint Presentation to the class this week and were filmed whilst we did it, this enabled us to be able to look back over the presentation and put it up on our blogs VIA a link from Youtube.
11/2/13
We were given a booklet this week to revise from, it was called "understanding regulation and censorship". I read through the entirety of it and highlighted what i believed to be some key points, there was a lot of information in the booklet about Ofcom, and found it as a very valuable source of information and reference.
18/2/13
We had planned to do some filming this week, however because of a family issue I was unable to make it.
