Expectations of Students and How the Course Runs

Deadlines

Understanding Students working on diff projects in same lessons

Basic Set-up - Core Units

Diploma: 13 units - - 6 core units + 7 optional units

Subs: 6 Units - 3 Core - 3 Optional

Extended: 18 Units - 7 Core - 11 Optional

All Tasks will revolve around a basic structure:

Research

Development

Pre-Production

Production

Post-Production

TASK 1

Let's imagine you are working on the

FILM STUDIES UNIT 26:

To obtain a

P1,M1,D1 you were assigned to research various Film Studies analytical approaches to a scene. Looking into the history of film in particular one scene from a classic film (pre 70's discussing mise en scene, cinematography and editing. In order to do this we as a group will need to watch a chosen film. As this is a mere introduction to the course, do not fear, we shall discuss certain scenes and moments as a class.

WHAT FILM YOU ASK: (The only thing you currently care about)

We're going to discuss/watch/recreate and reproduce several aspects of Alfred Hitchcock's 1960's classic Psycho.

Everyone will watch the film in class. (Obviously, if you miss lessons, watch it yourself. We'll make it available to you.) Then, we'll start to do various tasks on it. However, these tasks will be easier and better if you think like a researcher and go further than a simple viewing of the film. An obvious thing to do would be to watch a couple more Hitchcock films. Now, he made something like 60 films and wrote several more, so some guidance might help. When studying a film, it makes sense to look at the films the director made immediately before and afterwards. In this case, that would be:

Vertigo (1958)
North by Northwest (1959)
Psycho (1960)
The Birds (1963)

All of these are outstanding - it must be one of the greatest run of films ever made by a director - and watching some or all of them will give you a much deeper appreciation of Hitchcock's style and themes. However, this is only for super-duper extra-special students - it's not compulsory.

You might also want to read around the topic a little. Start with Wikipedia, sure, but one of the most useful things you can do is to go to IMDB and read the reviews written by the professionals. They're here. (There are lots of them. Even reading the first two - Roger Ebert's very positive review and James Berardinelli's more critical opinion - will get you thinking in new and more focused ways.) Again, though this makes your work easier and better, it's not compulsory.

Approaches to Anaylsing: 3 main key points to look out for when watching Psycho

The context of the film
The technical detail of the film ('what IBO call 'film elements')
The relationship between these two things (also, the relationship between your extract and the rest of the film or even to other films. This is where those keen students who watched other Hitchcock movies start to reap the benefits.)

LETS WATCH:

Maybe:

To obtain P2,M2,D2 you are asked to create a serious of Pre-production sheets that include planning a short 5 min sequence for you to film and edit.

You will be expected to produce a

script,

storyboards,

Health and Safety Legislations

Prod Schedule and so on......

So in this respect YOU may also be asked to produce some REVERSE ENGINEERING in order to establish some practical use of equipment and demonstrate your abilities with cinematography and editing preparation.

This is where you come into it.

REVERSE ENGINEERING is simply the recreation of a scene shot for shot - including the correct DOF, ANGLES, MISE EN SCENE.

It is designed to highlight the qualities we want in Creative Film and Media students - creativity, problem-solving ability, attention to detail, organisational and collaborative ability. (This list holds good for practically all creative Group subjects and a lot of the others, by the way!)

We are now looking at attaining a P3,M3,D3

Luckily for you we are currently interested in your technical skills and approaches:

Psycho - Text Analysis Link

In 1998, director Gus van Sant remade the entire thing, almost shot-by-shot, in colour. Here's a side-by-side of the shower scenes.

Task 2:

Choose a part of the film - one to two minutes is fine - and remake it as exactly as you can. You can't use anything - music, effects, graphics - that you didn't make yourself. Work in pairs, choose one role - probably cinematographer or editor, but all of them are available.

You Shall be expected in lesson to:

Plan you ideas,
Storyboard
Write out the Script
Decide on a Location
Book the Equipment out

You WILL FILM OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL,

HOWEVER:

EDITING during class time is allowed.

Final Deadline: Friday 31st August

Task 3:

CHALLENGE: 2 WEEKS ONLY!!!!!

Time to brush up on your Photoshop skills and remind and me of what you can do. Its important we try to push the boat out on this BUT what does that mean.......

Simple basic photos are a no no, we want (BTEC very Specific on this) near professional quality images. That means thinking about your lighting, angles, time of day, focus, subject etc........

Gone are the days of GCSE - you are now the CREATIVE LORDS of the school and I/WE expect a lot more from you,

You should all have the appropriate tools on your laptop, ADOBE Lightroom I might add is a genius program for images.

Maybe you may want to think about shooting in RAW, No phone images unless they are awesome, think about professionalism always.

Students are to REPRODUCE a CLASSIC or CONTEMPORARY film Poster of their choice, demonstrating

Photographic skills and

Photoshop techniques

to produce a product of near professional standards within CLASS time - although images can be taken whenever lets be honest.

Additionally - The BTEC Examining board requires students to show their progress throughout, so at certain points duting your Photoshopping experience, it would be a very good idea to occasionally log key points with a screen shot for example to demonstrate your progress.

Final Deadline: Thursday 30th August - You only have 2 WEEKS ARGGHHHHHH! .....HAHAHAHA!!!!

It is important to ADD that during your BTEC experience, you will consistently be attempting to juggle various projects at once with very similar deadlines. Time management is KEY to your success within the subject as is with all subjects I guess.

BIG QUESTION FOR ME IS FINDING OUT ABOUT HOW MUCH YOU KNOW REGARDING PHOTOSHOP

EXAMPLES: