Tuesday, 4 February 2014

Level 2-
Comment:
WWW: there is a good essay in here somewhere and  clearly passion and knowledge. However lots top work on too

Ebi: written English a real problem so many long clumsy sentences, some paragraphs are almost all one sentence. Towards  the end the tone is too casual too.
No bibliography (criminal) and a distinct lack of references this will keep you below level 3.
You need more focus on primary texts where is the textual analysis.

My second draft I’m hoping I achieve a high level 3 or low level 4.
Fix my written English, sentences too long
Add more footnotes to back up my points
Add some more ‘wider context’  to show I know about the subject
Stop writing clumsy sentences


BFI WISHLIST:
definitely ask for a paragraph on talkies in the 1930's for historical context
ask whether they have anything on Quentin Tarantino and his love of 35mm film
something on why the need for digital film making started (industry context)
make sure to get at least 10 more quality quotes and extend my bibliography by a page.


Thursday, 23 January 2014

coursework schedule

FRIDAY 24 JANUARY – SCRIPT COMPLETE AND SENT TO CAST
Tuesday  28th – rehearsal
Friday 31st – props and location scouting
Sunday 2nd feb – shot list complete
Fri 7th feb, - pickup hired equipment
8th feb – start filming
9th 2nd day of filming
10th feb + editing

15th show to halsey 

Monday, 9 December 2013

historical textual analysis

'the jazz singer"is the switch to digital similar to the switch to motion pictures with sound back in the late 1920's
and how what audiences and industries reactions?



sound in the movie industry failed for almost 2 decades and those in the movie industry thought that sound in movies would never be profitable.

The warner brothers challenged this on october 26 1927 by creating a sycronised sound film experience  "the jazz singer"

it was a landmark moment

dead silence and panic in the private screening independant inventors batteled with the studios then each other

everyone wanted to know how it worked

actors such as charlie chaplin found it hard to speak in films (similar to tarantino hard to use digital however its the actors that where effected)

thomas edison was the first person who tried to synchronise film and sound togther , film with sound was a chgange that people wanted not just something that happened naturally with technological advances.

edisons later inventions werent very good, they where too complex to use and didnt work very well, people where quick to judge that sound was not a good idea

edison finally said he had enough in 1913 and that he is not getting anyweher and he dropped it

thatres had to adapt and early movies with sound didnt do well because only a few could play them

mgm paramount declined sound on disc idea and said not interested

public where happy and the studio was happy with silent movies






Thursday, 7 November 2013

notes and quotes

Aspiring filmmakers are quite lucky compared to years ago. Today, you can make a movie in just about any format and still be taken seriously, assuming that you have a great story and reasonably good production values.


Has video reached the same quality level as 35mm? Old school filmmakers say "no" because the image capturing ability of 35mm is a "gazillion" times greater than video. Is this really the case?


http://www.filmschoolonline.com/sample_lessons/sample_lesson_HD_vs_35mm.htm

www.laweekly.com
article on Hollywood being forced to change to digital.

"It costs $1500 to copy a feature length film on to one reel of film"

Their are two factors that can be compared: color and resolution. Most casual observers will agree that, assuming a quality TV monitor, HD color is truly superb. To avoid a longwinded mathematical argument, let's accept this at face value and focus on comparing resolution, which is the real spoiler.
Resolution is the visible detail in an image. Since pixels are the smallest point of information in the digital world, it would seem that comparing pixel count is a good way to compare relative resolution.
Film is analog so there are no real "pixels." However, based on converted measures, a 35mm frame has 3 to 12 million pixels, depending on the stock, lens, and shooting conditions. An HD frame has 2 million pixels, measured using 1920 x 1080 scan lines. With this difference, 35mm appears vastly superior to HD.
This is the argument most film purists use. The truth is, pixels are not the way to compare resolution. The human eye cannot see individual pixels beyond a short distance. What we can see are lines.  background info on the differences between film and digital

Takes skill, timing, experience, and all the other things that take years to develop. Not that this is a bad thing, but, it is a bit disappointing when only one or two out of thirty-six images makes the grade. What could you do with your real skill, if you could see each image as you made it? Think about it!
http://www.cleanimages.com/Article-Digitalvs35mmFilm.asp  sd
I like this one since it shows how hard you have to work to be able to use film,


panavisions websites shows rental costs for a 35MM film camera cost around $4000 weekly not including film costs and processing costs.

The new Star Wars film will be looking to the past with a Seventies aesthetic, after it has been announced it will be shot entirely on 35mm film.

Star Wars Episode VII may evoke the Seventies feel of A New Hope. However, while 2002's Attack of the Clones was one of the first to be shot completely on a high definiton digital system and Revenge of the Sith followed suit three years later, fans won't be totally surprised at the move back to film

 "If film were to go away – and digital is challenging it – then the standard for the highest, best quality would go away." JJ Abrams

http://voices.yahoo.com/shooting-35mm-film-hd-whats-difference-5961806.html?cat=40


 six of this year’s Best Picture Oscar nominees were shot on Kodak film: Argo, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Django Unchained, Beasts of the Southern Wild, and Les Misérables.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/premature-burial-for-35mm-film

“Despite the fact that I photographed four films last year on the Arri Alexa (two of which were at this year's Sundance) I am and will be a film person until there is no film available to shoot. It is a different medium than digital by the very nature of the image capture process.The pixel array of digital is static, a fixed grid, and bears resemblance to the concept of a tile mosaic. Film grain is random, no two frames having the same structure, so it is organic, alive, vibrant. Next time you are at a digital projection walk up very close to the screen and you will see the pixels, just as when you blow up a digital photo too much. I believe the mind's eye, if not the physical one, ‘reads’ this difference. Many digital colorists and cinematographers add an overlay of random "digital grain" during the DI finishing to break up the static pixel array, simulating as best they can the vibrant "look" of film grain.




“Film is by definition self-archiving. I recently supervised a new 4K remastering of Groundhog Day at Sony Colorworks with colorist John Dunn. The scan from the original 35mm film negative was so clean and crisp—and we both agreed that the negative still contains more than 4K information.”
http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/premature-burial-for-35mm-film



Most filmmakers don't believe they can use 35mm on an ultra-low budget film. So when my director Sean Ackerman on The Diary of Preston Plummer said he wanted to use 35mm for a portion of the film, I thought, that sounds expensive!

And it may have been if Panavision weren't so supportive of new filmmakers. They go out of their way to help indie filmmakers afford to use their cameras. They have a New Filmmakers Program that allows you to check out their 16mm and 35mm cameras and use them for an extremely low check out fee. When I say low, I mean low.

researched how much it would cost to use this progrem, 1,500$ plus insurance, however on in the US




Thursday, 10 October 2013

Working title

Has the move to digital affected the Film industry in a positive or negative way?
With reference to The Hobbit and Django Unchained
Angle

Has 35mm film become obsolete, is this better for production companies but worse for up and coming film makers?

Hypothesis

 The Quality of film making has decreased due to the death of 35mm film making. 

Linked production piece

Music video, showing how a professional piece of cinematography can be made without a fully fledged production company unlike 10+ years ago.

MIGRAIN


media representations
The media represents digital media as a good thing, the shift to digital has fully taken effect and analogue film formats are becoming obsolete, this is due to the money saved by using this technology. usually in the media film as a format is not talked about, as if it was never even real. 

Institutions
Institutions have benefited massively from converting to a digital format, Money is the biggest issue with shooting in 35mm film, being expensive to buy and to develop, digital has changed this, giving instant review, easy sharing platforms, enough quality (for most)  


narratives
The narratives in films made on 35mm, seemed to be stronger more thought out and carefully planned, this was due to the sheer amount of money spent on each film, due to 35mm film costs, because of this the film HAD to be good, now a days with film, general films with a standard narrative such as toddorovs equilibrium theory is sufficient enough to make a film sell.

genre
n/a

media audiences
The mass media audience who go to the cinema may appreciate the high quality aspect of digital film, and many may have not even noticed the change, however I believe if the narrative is good enough an audience will come to watch no matter what the format. 


media values and ideologies
A dominant ideology of 35mm film is that it is old, vintage and Obsolete however this is not as true as it seems, many TV stations around the world use it as its dynamic range is outstanding and feel and colour reproduction is impossible to replicate.     
SHEP
Social
The digital format has allowed people to become creative again, through film, in the 21st century we are able to make small budget films with the use of consumer products and share it on platforms enabeling millions to view.

Historical
35mm film is the basic film most commonly used for film production .  This film stock has considerably remained unchanged since its introduction more than a century ago, until now.
While other film gauges such as the 8mm, 16mm, and 70mm became widely available during different time frames of motion picture history, 35mm film has passed the test of time of being the standard format used in cinemas worldwide. As an international industry standard it was a happy medium between quality of picture captured on set and price to purchase large quantity.
Economical
Speaking of price, compared to digital, 35mm had large initial setup costs and large running costs where as film as moderate initial costs and very minor running cost, this is an obvious benefit towards the industries as they are a business with profit as their priority. 


Issues/Debates

Select at least five and say how each relates to your study, using the Media A-Z to help you think about this:

  • Representation and stereotyping
  • Media effects
  • Reality TV
  • News Values
  • Moral Panics
  • Post 9/11 and the media
  • Ownership and control
  • Regulation and censorship
is no longer a bigger thing, indipendant film makers can make their own films exactly how they intend and share them to the world, with no companies butting their interests.
  • Media technology and the digital revolution – changing technologies in the 21st century
  • The effect of globalisation on the media


Theories

Select at least five and say how each relates to your study, using keywords/specific theorists' names from the Media A-Z:

  • Semiotics
  • Structuralism and post-structuralism
  • Post modernism and its critiques
  • Gender and ethnicity
  • Marxism and hegemony
  • Liberal Pluralism
  • Colonialism and Post-colonialism
  • Audience theories
  • Genre theories
  • Contemporary Media Landscape

Explain how your study fits into this.

Research plan (media texts, academic texts and websites)

Media texts
What your main focus will be, E.g.:
Call of Duty
Grand Theft Auto

Other media texts
(at least five related examples)

TV documentaries
Research videos online, e.g.:
BBC One - Panorama, Addicted to Games? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wlmj0

Academic texts/books
(a minimum of five, including author/full title/year, e.g.:)
Barrie Gunter: The effects of video games on children: the myth unmasked (1998)
James Newman: Playing with videogames (2008)
Nancy Signorielli: Violence in the media: a reference handbook (2005)
Peter Vorderer, and Bryant Jennings: Playing video games: motives, responses, and consequences (2006)

Internet Links
1. At least FIVE from Media Guardian or Guardian Culture or another newspaper website.
2. At least FIVE from university websites/academic papers online. Use Google Scholar as a starting point.
3. Any other relevant sites/articles - the more the better.

Use last year's archive of previous top-grade Critical Investigations to help you.

Monday, 1 July 2013

Our critical investigation was on whether audience desire for more liberal storylines has increased or whether its holly wood, we discussed and came to a conclusion that it was both parties that affected this, Hollywood has increased the range of their film rating to get a wider audience in and audiences are starting to expect a more sexual scenes in movies anyway, 12a films that include violence sexual scenes are, sky fall twilight etc a good film that could be made for this is a documentary on film rating or a short film that is rated 12a.