2015 film statistics

film chain

The film chain are the different processes that happen when making a film. These processes consists of the following: 

• Production 
• Marketing
• Distribution. 

We started off by coming up with the idea of the film. This took us a while as we wanted to choose a film that majority of people would know. We then sorted out our cast and started to film. We had limited time to get our filming done, but we had got enough footage to work with. The technology that we used for filming was only a camera and this was a canon 550D. The next stage was editing and this took around 2 hours. We noticed that we lost a crucial part of film, but we did not have enough time to film it again so we had to deal with what we had. When editing we added things such as sound effects and slow motion. Moreover, the technology that we used to distribute our swede film was YouTube, and this was very successful. The film was left up on YouTube for just around a week ad during that week we came up with some advertisement ideas. These ideas consisted of an Instagram page, a website and poster, all of which did help, but the thing that helped us the most was the shoutout from Zara’s brother. He had 2000 people on his snapchat, and this helped to raise our views from 89 to 426.        

Mise-en-scene vocabulary

Lighting (general): Can be used to highlight the importance of characters.

High Key lighting: A bright and well lit scene with very few shadows. Often used to make a location or character seem friendly, happy or safe.

Low key lighting: A dimly lit scene with lots of shadows. often used to make a location or character seem shady, untrustworthy, dangerous or unsafe.

Chiaroscuro lighting: a scene lit with extreme lighting, lots of shadows, some very bright parts. see the effects of low key lighting. also used to make a location or character seem very dramatic and unusual.

Body shape and language: the way the characters body looks and they way they hold their body. e.g: confident, slumping down, cowering from someone etc. It tells us what type of person they are and how they feel about other.

Facial features and expressions: the way the characters face looks and shows emotion. For example a shocked expression, sadness, a look of love. You can also comment on the way they look such as bad teeth,

Swede film - Fault in Hamsterdamn

This is our swede film.

swede film - Powerpoint

Fault in hamsterdamn powerpoint from isabelle humm

This is the powerpoint for our swede film 'Fault in Hamsterdamn'. In this powerpoint I have talked about production, marketing, distribution and exhibtion. I also talked about what I had learnt from this expereince in making a swede fim. 

exam prep #1

• the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
• the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing;
• the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange;
• the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences (i.e. digital technology);
• the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences: the internet, digital downloads, DVDs, High Definition, CGI, etc.;
• the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions;
• the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.

(These are the only questions that they can ask you in the exam). 

When writing the exam essay - you should look for modern examples in the industry and be able to write a paragraph about:

• the processes of production – how the product is created
• the methods of distribution – how does the product reach its audience marketing
• methods, and processes of marketing as they relate to the institutions
• the way audiences consume the product
• the relationships between audiences and institutions
• issues raised by media ownership within your topic
• convergence and new technologies in production, distribution and marketing and its importance for institutions and audiences
• issues raised by global institutions targeting British audiences

Key Principles

1. Have you got contrasting films you can use as case studies e.g. big budget Hollywood v low budget British indie which allow full range of issues to be discussed?

2. Have you got contemporary examples - the best are almost always live case studies of films on release at the moment so that the material is out there to be grabbed (marketing, distribution, exhibition data, etc)?

3. Can you grasp the seven bullet points from p.19 of the spec, from which all exam questions will be drawn?

Candidates should be familiar with:

• the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
• the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing;
• the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange;
• the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;
• the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;
• the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international or global institutions;
• the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.

Semiotics

Semiotics - This is known as the study of signs and sign systems - the social production of meaning by sign systems, how things come to have significance and meaning.

Signifier + signified = sign

There are two parts of a sign:

• Signifier: Ant symbol, image, or word that can be seen or read. 
• Signified: The particular meaning or meanings of the signifier in a particular context or situation.

There are three types of a signifier:

• Iconic: These signifiers always resemble what they signify - 'a window on the world'.
• Indexical: These signifiers act as evidence - Smoke means fire, sweat is proof of effort etc. 
• Symbolic: These are the visual signs that are arbitrarily linked to referents. The diamond hats of monarchs, crowns, symbolise monarchy. 

Denotation: signs signify or 'denote' different aspects of our experience of the world. They are the work of that part of the sign (the signifier), which is immediately recognisable to the reader and which has a direct relationship to a real world entity or referent. The colour red for example we know as a colour in the light spectrum, different from blue or pink.

Connotation: These are the meanings interpreted from a sign, which link other values to it. For example: the colour red brings up notions of love, blood, stop signs, danger, hot, roses etc.

Semiotic terms:

• Binary oppositions: sets of opposite values said to reveal the structure of media texts. These define through their opposite and chose a lesser and greater position. E.g: man/women, weak/strong.  
• Conventions: 'un-written rules' in the production of mainstream texts. Conventions are the dominants codings in any media. 
• Anchoring: written text used to control or select a specific reading of an image. 
• Mise-en-scene: literally 'putting together the scene' how we read the actions of the creative personnel in a film crew who visualise. Everything on screen.
• Mode of address: How a text 'speaks' to its audience. How the audience is positioned in relation to text.  
• Polysemic: literally 'many signed' an image in which there are several possible meanings depending on the ways in which its constituent signs are read. 
• Metonemy: literally 'substitute naming' possible meanings depending on the ways in which its constituent signs are read. 
• Index: Measures a quality not because it is identical to it but has an inherent relationship to it. 
• Symbol: an arbitrary sign in which the signifier has neither a direct nor an indexical relationship to the signified, but rather represents it through conventions.  
• Synecdoche: The idea that 'part' of a person, an object, a machine, etc can be used to represent the 'whole', and work as an emotive or suggestive shorthand for the viewer, who invests the 'part' with symbolic associations.
• Icon: A sign in which the signifer represents the signified mainly by its similarity to it, its likeness.