Week 19 - 28th January - What you should be doing...

By now you should have footage to upload and you should be editing your sequences in your groups. It's fine to need to re-film sections but you should be focusing on getting the sequence into a reasonable shape.

If you have to re-shoot, make sure you match action, sets and costumes etc - you must ensure continuity or your footage won't be usable. Take screenshots of your film so you can match things up.

You should be thinking about credits and titles - BOOK a training session for LIVETYPE with Michael as soon as you can.

Remember you should be POSTING your progress EVERY LESSSON - so 'Today we xxx. When we reviewed the footage we found...The footage was ...' is the kind of post you need on your GROUP blog. as an individual, you should also write a couple of sentences about the process- so 'Today when we uploaded the footage I thought that most of what we shot was...'.

Finally, you will be getting a feedback sheet on the state of your blog so far. You must get this up to date by next week (2/3rd Feb it will be re-checked). Those of you who are significantly behind will be asked in to discuss your future in Media Studies with Mr Smith and Mrs Thrasher.

As a warning, we will be sharing our rough cuts in a showcase with each other for some peer review/feedback at the end of the next week - about the 7th Feb.

Week 18 - 21st January - What you should be doing now..

So this week things should get interesting. There are TWO strands (as usual) - what you do as a group (GRP) and what you need to do as an individual (IND) - any of these not done will be chased up this week - phone calls home may be made! Please note, this is the bare minimum required, not an exhaustive list.

You should have done the following - they're split into -

1. completed the following
2. started the following
3. be thinking/preparing the following

MAKE SURE you have done ALL you're supposed to - catch up what you haven't

3. THINKING/PREPARING the following

SOUND - start listening to sound tracks on Openings IND - write notes on effects/how atmosphere created  IND - write about some on your blog IND - investigate where you can get copyright free music and loops GRP - decide on some loops/effects in Garageband you might want to use GRP

2. START the following

CREDITS/TITLE SEQUENCES - watch some (you can use the list on TR or youtube) IND - write an analysis of them (what is included? what order? what fonts/colours used and why? Are they genre specific? How do they relate to the film's content and style?) IND - embed some examples on your blog that particularly inspire you IND and some on your GRP blog too please - ask MICHAEL to show you how to use Livetype (to make credits) GRP - think about whether you want to you Photoshop or After Effects to help make your titles GRP

1. COMPLETED the following: (note these should already have been done or started)
 Posts in 'draft' cannot be seen by us and you therefore you won't get any 'credit' for having done them!

INDIVIDUAL
Prelim sequences - embeded, evaluated
Opening sequences - embedded, notes on content, conventions made
Genre - notes on your genre, some examples
Audience - research into potential audience, identify audience for your film, some discussion of findings
Representation - who is being represented in your film? how? what messages are you trying to convey?
Institution - some information about film exhibition and distribution, who might distribute your film - some info about companies and discussion around your choices
Narrative - apply narrative theory to a film
Editing - commentary about continuity editing, including work on Spooks, Lift and Stairs and sequences you analysed (see task list below)
Camera - work on 'The Rock' uploaded
Classwork - Harry Potter - sound exercise - should be uploaded and evaluated, analysis of those three openings should be up too - Apocalypse Now, Jaws and Max Payne. Phantom of the Opera - anything you did in class that's useful
Pitch - your initial idea and repsonse to your idea (including audience response)
Storyboard - your individual idea - this should be up (those of you that did this as asked)

GROUP
Planning work - storyboard, brainstorms, location lists, cast list, props list, location recce shots, risk assessment, organisation of costumes, props etc
Production Meetings - notes on what discussed and decided
STORYBOARD - detailed, final idea

ON BOTH
Filming - a blog entry for each day you filmed with some commentary on progress/the process
Editing - as you start to edit, comments on progress and decisions
There should be TWO of these EACH per week at least AND there should be comments on both your individual blog and group blog - on the group - what you did, decisions made and why, how things are progressing, plans for the next stage etc, on the individual blog - what you personally think about progress, decisions made, how things are coming on etc

Week 17 - 14/1 What you should be doing

Continue with last week's tasks.

You need to ensure you have completed your individual research tasks.
As a group, you MUST have filmed, or be fiming, this weekend (19th - 20th January)

You have only FIVE weeks left to complete the WHOLE film, bearing in mind you will need FOUR weeks for editing and creating your soundtrack.

Week 16 - First Week back - 7/1/13 - What you should be doing...

So you have a schedule to follow but here's a summary for this week:

As a GROUP
 - Plan your opening - avoid cliches - match genre and research of similar genre openings - look at other student work on youtube with similar genre
- Check idea with staff
- Write a location list, a costume list, a props list, a script
- Devise a risk assessment - what is dangerous/what could go wrong - how are you planning to avoid the problems - such as not tripping over wires, burning yourselves on lights, getting mugged in a dark alley etc etc
- BOOK a camera and tripod - get a memory card which will be yours for the duration of the project

As an INDIVIDUAL
 - Make sure you've looked at lots of Opening Sequences and that you have linked/embedded some examples and made bullet point notes on them - how they fit the conventions of openings (rules/expectations/common practice)- how will you use what you learn from these? This is INDIVIDUAL and a major part of what MARKS ARE ALLOCATED FOR!
- You could use wikipedia to help you to work out what credits should be shown and in what order... Also you should be looking at how the art of the titles and credits work...Can you use Photoshop? If not, you need to learn- book a session now
- You could be researching music on opening sequences for use later - remember you HAVE to make your own (or use music from a copyright free source)
- Use the teaching guide to help you - look at other student blogs to help you- there's a link to last year on the top of this page left (check students like Ellen Fraser, Ella Baker - and year 13 blogs are even better for this year - click the link above)
- Your other work should be uploaded - on Spooks and Ocean's 12 - AND -
- You should have edited either Stairs or Lift (on TR) and
- Booked a teaching session with Michael for more advanced use of Final Cut/How to start your project (incl settings you'll need) etc

LOTS TO DO PEEPS!!