EVALUATION: AUD FEEDBACK Q

Make sure you're clear on who your target audience were before discussing what actual feedback you received! It needs to be clear which feedback was received from target audience and which outside of this

FilmGdn arts on viral marketing, new media, UK box office, trailers

If you got the Guardian on Friday you will have seen a rather handy feature on trailers and the experimentation that new media is allowing, especially as regards viral marketing campaigns and a shift away from trailers that reveal virtually the entire plot to much more enigmatic teaser-style trailers. No? Try http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/dec/17/film-trailers then!
There's also a nice example, from a regular series, of a trailer being ripped apart for being ... well, read for yourself at http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/dec/16/yesterday-was-a-lie-trailer-review (wee bit of narrative enigma there for you).
Another regular Film Guardian feature is in-depth analysis of box-office takings. The latest is an excellent overview of some of the key trends in release strategies, and contains much useful info on the arcane business of releasing movies in the UK, discussing the importance of digital 3D screens and the problems facing arthouse cinemas (with very precise screen/takings figures to reference), as well as the commercial failure of a spate of British releases. All useful material, and the sort of thing you're expected to reference as part of your Research and Planning/Evaluation. Read it at http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2009/dec/15/a-christmas-carol

Just how many digital 3D-equipped cinema screens do you think there are in the UK? The answer shares the name of Zack Snyder's 2006 semi-animated epic...
And how many screens is James Cameron's $230m budget Avatar set to open on in the UK? I'm thinking this must be a record (the answer is 3 and a third times the previous answer) at about twice the typical figure for a UK number 1.

BLOG CHECKLIST

I've almost completed a detailed breakdown of what should be on your blogs. Anyone who emails me by the end of today with info on what they intend to change/add can be improving their blog through to Wednesday. Ring around if there's anyone you think needs to hear this! I'll post a Word doc shortly, still completing it

a2 Production Blog Checklist Compressed

RE-SUBMITTING FOR JUNE

I'll be writing to parents of all of you who haven't submitted on this. I'll include with this a detailed breakdown of the tasks you've got to do, and your deadlines for this, so they can help ensure you're keeping up to date.
Its disappointing to have any of you not submitting, but I hope you will make good use of the break to complete all your research, sort your blogs out and come back either with a production schedule or footage you have taken over Xmas.
I'll put together a timetable for this shortly, and post it here when I do. You can expect this to include all research and planning to be complete by the start of the 2nd week back, so, again, you really need to get going on this over the break.
Although you're entered for the June sequence of units, the marks actually get sent off in May, and in any case we can't have AS and A2 working on coursework at the same time. Your final deadline for this will be either mid-February or the end of February, I haven't made a final decision yet - but it won't be any later than February.
The same will go for any requests to re-submit AS coursework.

WELL DONE!!!

I've viewed several of your final cuts this morning. Many of the rough cuts caused some concern, but I'm really impressed at the work most of you have done in the short time since to transform your productions. These do deserve a wide audience and I'll think about what sort of event might best suit that.
You really set an exceptionally high standard last year, and many of you have at least maintained that standard - again, very, very well done!
Take every opportunity to screen your work now before submitting the evaluation; focus feedback especially on whether an audience sample follows your preferred reading, or whether its too polysemic for this. Go beyond your target audience for this too
Happy Xmas!

Evaluation pointers [added to on 4.2.10]

UPDATE FEB 4TH 2010: USEFUL POINTERS DIRECT FROM THE CHIEF EXAMINER ON PRINT EVALUATION + FILM EVALUATION 

[I'm currently working this into a Word doc, something I've been trying to get time to do all week, but couldn't due to the constant feedback requests! I'll update this post as I go]

There is a lot of material at http://asmedia0910.blogspot.com/2009/12/wt-warp-web-20-marketing.html which will be useful for aspects of this, as well as the mag and BritCinema blogs

As flagged up above: Make sure you're clear on who your target audience were before discussing what actual feedback you received! It needs to be clear which feedback was received from target audience and which outside of this

Evaluation Rough Guide

C'est finis
...
Ah, je souhaite!

A Guide to Posters [updated Dec 10th] (and other products)

I've updated this guide [Dec 10th]
Pages 1-3 are on posters, 4-5 on sleeves/covers which are an option as additional texts.
There's much detail on what goes in posters, though really you can each work this out for yourselves, and should be comparing your posters to several (similar genre) posters when nearing completion. The last 2 points on this doc are crucial: keep a detailed record of tools used and steps taken to construct your poster, saving as a low-resolution JPEG each and every time you make a major change or addition (so you can evidence the work you did and your use of technology) + try to link every detail on your poster to some existing text, providing images for comparison where you can.

Posters and Products Layout Guide

QUICK NOTE ON BLOGS

The guides I produced some time ago listing the typical postings you should include looks to be a fairly accurate summary. There is material on all of this on the blog - if you've been following this and blogging as you go you shouldn't have any problems there!!!

I'll post the actual comments if I get time, but a few things that come through from the examiners' report on the first year of AS coursework under the new syllabus:

• embed documents/videos rather than including links to them; makes it much easier for the examiners to access them (in Scribd you simply upload your doc, click on the link when done, 'share and embed' and copy/paste the embed code into your blogger post)
• the evaluation MUST continue the policy of making your blog multimedia, using hyperlinks, images, embedded docs, podcasts etc - you can cover some of the Evaluation through a podcast, though a 'director's commentary' would really be the ideal (quite lo-fi, but you can consider trying filming a TV/computer screen while you talk over the content, pausing at stages as need be)
  
• cover the Evaluation in 4 separate posts
  

A MANIFESTO FOR MEDIA STUDENTS? Digital Media and Cinema's Future

I've written extensively on this at http://mediabritishcinema.blogspot.com/2009/11/some-thoughts-on-digitisation-effect.html
One small fragment of this I'd particularly like to draw your attention to follows. It can be read as a manifesto for the modern Media student (that'd be you!):

Empire magazine critic Angie Errigo makes an interesting defence of the state of modern movie-making against claims that its filled with mega-budget tat that ignores narrative in favour of sheer spectacle (Inside Empire (2009) "They do make 'em like they used to", pp. 18-19).

A voice and a vision, and a reluctance to do what is expected are what's wanted in aspiring filmmakers. A-list stars and million-dollar explosions are completely optional if there's a story to be told, an emotion to be felt, a mood to be captured. Far from being a downbeat era of pap, these are wildly exciting times for all of us, rich with possibilities. Having entered the digital age with web access for all and an array of technology that gets cheaper by the minute, it's more possible than ever for movie brats to make their own productions and make them more ambitious and sophisticated than the Super 8 kids managed in their backyards. For every Hollywood film that costs upwards of $150 million, thousands of 'home movies' can be made and hundreds that are good to go in cinemas. It isn't naive to believe that 'talent will out'. The next Shane Meadows, Steve McQueen and Duncan Jones are out there at work within and without 'the System'.

 Super 8 is an old-fashioned format of video camera. If you've ever seen Son of Rambow imagine you were making your coursework with the same technology, a VHS video camera and two VHS machines linked up for editing (no digital technology at all, no computers even!).

UK Film Mag Circulations

[THERE ARE FURTHER ARTICLES ON EMPIRE etc ON THE BRIT CINEMA BLOG - WHICH YOU SHOULD BY NOW BE A FOLLOWER OF]

Although there a range of smaller-scale, Indie rivals, the film mag sector in the UK is dominated by just two players, Empire and Total Film - both of which are published by major companies (Bauer and Future respectively - see the mags blog for info on Bauer), a conglomerate with global reach in the case of Bauer.
Both are quite Hollywood-centric, not especially going out of their way to reflect what the UK film industry is up to for its UK audience! Their covers routinely lead on some Hollywood star or director.
Flick towards the back of each and look at the ads: all these invites to ring up young ladies for a nice chat suggests each sees the male reader as their primary demographic, a common assumption in both music and film publishing which I've always found a rather strange reflection of our culture (these companies are very, very good at knowing who reads their mags!).
The latest ABCs are out - figures are released monthly but half-yearly and annual comparisons are always paid particular attention to for highlighting trends. I'm sure you know by now that ABCs are how the official circulation (not necessarily sales) figures by the Audit Bureau of Circulation are known!
Here's the latest summary, from the excellent (though troubled itself; ironically the Media industry has struggled to support media on the media: The UK Press Gazette and MediaWeek the main players)  
....


THE REST OF THIS BLOG POST CAN BE SEEN AT http://mediabritishcinema.blogspot.com/2009/12/uk-film-mag-circulations.html !!!! 

Film Fest 2010 entries

I'm putting together a report for the school newsletter right this moment; any quick lines you'd like to contribute about your experience would be appreciated - please email asap, as it needs to be submitted by Weds morning. Please pass on any photos too; it'd be nice to keep an archive of this event.
I double-checked their entry criteria, and specifically age requirements:

Film-makers must be aged 19 or under on the closing date for entries. Where work is submitted by a group the majority of members must be 19 or under. People over 19 are allowed to be actors in the film and teachers/tutors working on film projects with children and young people can be over 19.

I'll only be entering AS work as official entrants from the school, but I'd encourage you to independently enter your own work (just not putting IGS as your contact address!).
Well done again - and look out for the article in the upcoming newsletter...

See if you can spot Messrs. Jowett and Scaife sharing a wee joke by the way!