Pitch feedback

Your pitch was presented effectively using slides to outline ideas. You communicate well as a team and seem to have developed roles within the group.

I like the idea of an interrogation and it offers opportunities to explore lighting and mise en scene in a short scene. One concern was how this would be a short film  as it reflects the tropes of dram on TV. However, you explained how this would be overcome effectively.  Ideas such as use of colour sound interesting, make these clear.  Your answers revealed a depth of thought about the narrative which allayed any fears about the genre and medium.

Be realistic about where you film this. It is ambitious to use the library and keep e-mail communication to show planning. 

Why use a Go Pro?  Explain what different cameras bring to the style of the piece.

Can you publish a first draft of the script on the blog?

Comment on audience feedback received as part of the pitch. You will need this later for the evaluation.

Outline the roles allocated within the group.

Rutherford Feedback

I am impressed with your enthusiasm this year and your approach to practical work and am anticipating some creative ideas.
You now need to press on with coursework and ensure that the blog reflects your application.
Avoid the pitfall of last year where you dropped off in terms of application.
 I like the fact that you are exploring your choice of short films. Widen this research to get ideas.  
Targets

• Flesh out ideas and settle on your favourite that fits the brief 
• Research the purpose and conventions of short films 
• Write a blog post about Lynne Ramsay and Andrea Arnold. 
• Have a look at someone else's blog to see what you have missed
•  Complete the music video analyses
•  Publish all posts

TASK 4 Print Product Research

TASK 3 Short Film Ideas

TASK 2 Film Tropes

Christopher Booker is the writer of the book 'The Seven Basic Plots', which is a length book describing his theory of tropes of TV and Film. A trope is another word for an important or reoccurring theme, a convention. In his book he mentions that there are in fact seven of these, these are:

Overcoming the Monster

The protagonist uncovers a threat to them and others around them. Often it is a single thing, such as in Alien or Godzilla.

Rags to Riches

The hero starts at the bottom, however as the underdog manages to rise to the top. An example of this would be Slumdog Millionaire

The Quest

The hero uncovers an item which he desires or needs, and goes out to find it. An example of this can be seen often in Indiana Jones films.

Voyage and Return

The hero finds themselves lost in a strange new place, but eventually survive, and find their way back to safety. One example of this would be Alice in Wonderland.

Comedy

This is where two protagonists dislike each other, however throughout the film they grow closer together, mostly though comedic situations.

Tragedy

Where the hero slowly succumbs to a tragic flaw of his, which can often be pride, anger or jealousy with at the end leads to the characters demise, sometimes at his or her own hands. Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith has elements of a tragedy. 

Rebirth

To an extent similar to a tragedy, however the hero is able to realize what he has been doing wrong at the last minute, and is reborn as a new person. An example of this would be Bruce Almighty.

TASK 2 Music Video Research

Music videos were not really a concept that people had really saw as people today. Nowadays any major musician will have a music video to promote a single or an album . There had been recordings of live performances before, but they had not really been "music videos" as we know them today. The first thing close to what we call a music video was actually a promotional film, for the Beatles : Hard Days Night. However, even though this was the first of its kind, music videos didn't become popular till the creation of MTV.   

There are three types of music video :
Performance: Where it is the musicians just performing the song.
Narrative: Where the video follows a storyline, with the music playing in the background.
Abstract: Where the video has no storyline or performing it is just things happening, also known as Artistic.

Often a music video is a blend of two of the three types. However the most common seen in mainstream media is a mix of performance and narrative, also the least used is often abstract, as very few bands use this. It is more common for more underground groups to use this, however in mainstream media it is not often you see a popular star using this form of music video, as it is less accessible and more "arty". However some artists mix other times of videos with abstract, such as a performance abstract and maybe abstract narrative.

TASK 2 Christian Metz's Theory

Christian Metz was a French film theorist who categorized stages of the development of film. He wrote that there are four stages in the film industry: Classical, Experimental, Parody and Deconstruction phases. This theory is easily applicable to mainly the horror genre

Classical is the first stage of his theory. This would be just around the start of Hollywood, where there was no real definition to genre, and if there was, there was very little. It was before any real conventions were set out, and people were just making films. However these classical films would in fact set the standards on conventions, some examples of this would range from the very earliest of horror films up to later films such as Psycho, films that defined the genre

Experimental was the phase where conventions were followed and slightly adapted to what audience wanted to see at the time, this phase ranges from around the time of the start of the slasher genre, with eventually became tired out, with countless sequels for nearly identical films, which made way for Parody.

Parody was taking the tied and worn conventions of horror, in this case, as audiences were tied of slashers, which in the time before dominated horror, Films such as Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, which took a more humoured twist on the genre. This could be consider a sort of break period in genres, a gap of which would leave a break, to leave room for new ideas to develop.

Deconstruction could be considered as the rebuilding of the conventions of a genre, and even the blending of them. In horror, it was clear that newer films re-imagined the genre for modern audiences, films such as Saw and even more recent films such as Signs.