A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

Dir: Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

Starring: David Niven, Roger Livesey, Raymond Massey, Kim Hunter, Marius Goring

Country: UK

Colour and B&W

It is with no little amount of weeping and gnashing of teeth that I have finally arrived at my decision for a film of the 1940s. Such a wealth cinematic delights emerged from this decade that I’ve ended up comparing notes with the only other person whose opinion I value on the matter. 

It is of interest to me that when we tallied up our choices for films of the decade, the only era we differed on was the 40s, so vast is the choice. So I’ve had to go it alone. But, just so you know, it wasn’t easy and I feel I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t list just a few of the films that could’ve gotten the vote. They are, in no particular order: The Maltese Falcon, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Brighton Rock, Notorious, The Third Man, The Bicycle Thieves. I’ll stop there, but you get the picture. It’s probably my favourite movie decade. I don’t have enough room to explain why.

“A Matter of Life and Death” is nothing, if not utterly unique. It was created (I use the word advisedly) by the twin talents of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (whose Grandsons Andrew and Kevin, are now leading lights in contemporary British cinema; Andrew producing, amongst other films Slumdog Millionaire, and Kevin the director of both fiction – The Last King of Scotland - and the recent documentary Marley).

Under their production company, The Archers, Powell and Pressburger are responsible for at least six bone fide classics of cinema (and several others also worth a look) including A Matter of Life and Death, made in a particularly fertile creative period between 1943 and 1948.

These are: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Cantebury Tale, I know Where I’m Going, Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes (to which, along with Powell’s solo effort from 1960, Peeping Tom, Martin Scorsese attributes his love of the colour red, on screen). It is a truly monumental achievement, which you’ll only truly understand once you’ve seen as many good, bad and ugly films as I have.

                                                                                             

A Matter of Life and Death stands out from them all for me though, because it first introduced me to magical realism, a genre where magical elements are interwoven with the real world. This is distinct from fantasy because of the seemingly ordinary and straightforward way in which the elements are blended. Suspension of disbelief and an absence of cynicism on the part of the viewer are an essential requirement if you are to truly enjoy the experience.

Opening sequence: "This is the universe...big isn't it".

From the opening shots of the cosmos with it’s wonderfully deadpan voice over: “This is the universe…big isn’t it”, It wears its intelligence and irony lightly, and is shot through with an English eccentricity (curious since Pressburger was a Hungarian émigré) that, when combined with it’s fantastical elements, makes it unlike any other film I’ve ever seen.

                                                                        The story follows a pilot who, returning from a raid over Germany in an all but destroyed Lancaster Bomber makes radio contact with an American radio operator. Hers is to be the last voice he hears in the land of the living because the aircraft is kaput and there are no parachutes. The girl becomes terribly upset, while he – all stiff upper lip – puts on a brave face as he prepare to shuffle off this mortal coil, except…

David Niven, "done for", apparently.

…he doesn’t die, despite bailing out without a parachute.

What follows is a flight of fancy, so remarkable and perfect in its realisation, yet so truthful in the emotions it conveys and the philosophical worldview it espouses, that only the most hard-bitten cynic would fail to be moved. It is, in short, a delight.

Roger Livesey at the trial in Heaven

Marius Goring as Conductor 71 - "One is starved of colour up there".

We discover that the rest of the pilot’s crew are awaiting him in heaven (shot in luminous black and white, contrasting vividly with the real world’s sumptuous technicolour) where the angels are getting themselves all in a tizzy because one of their souls is missing. There’s been a cock up in heaven and the books aren’t balanced. 

The angel in charge of the safe transport of the pilot’s soul goes by the name of Conductor 71 (a charming turn by Powell and Pressburger favourite Marius Goring), is duly despatched to earth to rectify the error. But there’s a hitch. In a twist of fate, our hero and the radio operator have met and fallen immediately and completely in love.

How it plays out after this has to be  seen to be believed, but it is without doubt one of the oddest, most beautiful and most sophisticated cinematic visions ever committed to celluloid, and my life is richer for having seen it (about thirty times at the time of counting).

Roger Liveey as the eponymous Colonel in,"The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp".

David Niven is the unshakeably firm of purpose, death-dodging pilot. And he is driven on by that most old-fashioned, yet noble of English qualities – a sense of fair play – to challenge the fate that has been ordained for him. There is a youthful Kim Hunter as the girl he loves and  Roger Livesey (another Powell & Pressburger regular), as the noble doctor who fights through life and death (literally) to keep them together.

So what is it finally about this unique cinematic achievement that so overwhelms me? Certainly its directorial vision is so acute, refined and innovative that it marks Powell out to be one of the true greats of British cinema, to be ranked alongside David Lean and Carol Reed, to name but two. The film is so ahead of its time that it is almost inconceivable that it was made just one year after WW2 ended.

Perhaps it is the fact that its oddness has exempted it from topping the polls of greatest British films of all time (that honour goes to The Third Man a dark, cynical film noir set in post-war Vienna, it’s a moot point, but there is much to recommend it); there seems to be something resolutely non-mainstream about it, despite the presence of top drawer talent like Niven, and this certainly appeals to my contrarian nature. But it goes deeper than that.

The film was titled, "Stairway to Heaven", for its American release

I said at the very beginning that this was to be a very personal list, and to truly fall in love with cinema you have to get personal about it. For it to really get under your skin you need to completely embrace the films that ignite your passion and damn the opinions of others. So here’s why I love A Matter of Life and Death.

It touches me deeply in a way that I don’t fully understand. There is something about it that makes me feel that it was made for me and me alone. It reminds me that, despite my perennially grumpy classroom façade, I am in fact a soppy old romantic at heart and sometimes I want to be reminded of that. 

David Niven and Kim Hunter. Brought together by a clerical error in Heaven.

Because life can be hard and tough and cruel at times; it will make you cynical and bitter and jaded if you let it. So sometimes, just occasionally, it’s nice to hear the message contained in this film - albeit told in its own curious and enchanting way; that love can conquer all. It’s enough to make a grown man cry.

Watch it and fall in love.

The Roaring Twenties (1939)

Dir: Raoul Walsh
Starring: James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, Priscilla Lane
Country: USA
B&W

Under the studio system in Hollywood pretty much all films fitted into a genre. Some of the best known are: horror, western, musical, screwball comedy, melodrama and of course the gangster film.

In any business, when a product is successful, more are made to capitalise on the success of the first product. The film business (as is still sadly the case) is no exception to this.

The downside is that over time the quality that was inherent in the first product, will eventually diminish. The upside is, that for a moment, before an idea is rinsed out, the product will be unparalleled. Consequently, when studios got good at making a certain kind of film (and we must remember that stars were contracted to exclusive deals with one studio), they became known for it; it was their specialty.

• MGM became know for musicals because it did glamour and gloss so well.
• Universal were unrivaled in horror movie production in the 1930's. 
• Everybody made westerns.
• And Warner Brother made gangster pictures.

Before The Godfather; before Goodfellas; before Carlito's Way and before Scarface there was Public Enemy, Angels With Dirty Faces and The Roaring Twenties. Scarface itself is a remake of a 1932 film.

The Warner Brothers cycle of gangster movies from the 1930's, probably more than any other moment in cinema history, came to define a key moment in American history.

The Volstead Act (1919-1933) prohibited the sale of alcohol across the US, however the demand for alcohol did not miraculously disappear. Into the void stepped a motley crew of mostly Irish, Jewish and Italian gangs intent on getting rich. Initially they imported booze illegally; running it over the border from Canada (it is from this period we get the term "bootlegger") and selling it in speak easies. But eventually they began distilling their own variations on alcoholic drinks, which maximized profits but did put the health of the punters at risk.

As the gangs grew in wealth and power they began to engage in turf wars with each other as they all vied for control of the liquor trade. By the time prohibition was repealed, the criminal make-up of America had been transformed. 

John Gotti, head of the Gambino family and the last
Capo di tutti capi to be acknowledged by all five families which
comprise the American mafia. The five families link directly 
back to the Sicilian mafia, Cosa Nostra.

The Italians emerged the ultimate victors and it is from this time that the Mafia, as we now know it, really begins to take shape as an organised criminal network with an infrastructure of families with soldiers, captains, under-bosses, bosses and at the very top, the boss of bosses, or Capo di tutti capi, as it is in Italian.

However, since much of this activity took place in New York, and the Irish were the first immigrants to really make their mark there, in the early days of prohibition a lot of the gangs were Irish. They emerged from the street gangs that formed in New York in the 19th century (See Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York) and would go on to be so influential in the police force and politics - JFK's father Joe Kennedy, was known to have been a bootlegger.

But perhaps just as importantly Warner Brothers had James Cagney under contract, and he was never going to play an Italian.

The 1930s belong to Jimmy Cagney. One of the greatest screen actors of all time, he managed to combine a sometimes quite theatrical exuberance, with a street sensibility that made him mesmerizing to watch. You literally did not know what Cagney would do next.

Cagney as Tom Powers at the climax of Public Enemy

His Tom Powers, in The Public Enemy(1931) helped create the archetype of the screen gangster (and was unquestionably Irish in origin), in the first wave of films from the early thirties. The other key films of this time are Little Caesar(1931) with Edward G. Robinson and Scarface(1932) with Paul Muni.

By 1939 Cagney was already a huge star and Warner Brothers had gotten the gangster picture down to a fine art, though in doing so they had become somewhat stale. However, were the lead characters in gangster films prior to this had frequently been thinly veiled references to real gangsters, The Roaring Twenties was based on a story by Mark Hellinnger, who had been a crime reporter in New York during this momentous, tumultuous time.

Edward G. Robinson as Rico in Little Caesar

His story of an ex-soldier, turned bootlegger, turned crime boss, offered a plausible rags to riches story for the modern era. The evolution of Jimmy Cagney's everyman car mechanic, Eddie Bartlett to a powerful gangster both shocked and thrilled; its ripped-straight-from-the-headlines ring of truth, gave the audience a three dimensional protagonist, which had not quite been achieved in Little Caesar or Scarface - both based on Al Capone.

Alongside Cagney starred Humphrey Bogart, still yet to make the grade as a leading man and confined mostly to "bad man" roles, at which he was nonetheless very effective. Bogart's real break wouldn't come for another year, when in a rather short-sighted move, George Raft turned down the role of Sam Spade in John Huston's adaptation of Dashiel Hammet's The Maltese Falcon (1941). The film made Bogart and Raft's career sadly went into perpetual decline.

Al Capone, the original Scarface

The gangster genre is unique to American cinema. The British have attempted it but, with a few rare exceptions, the results tend to be weak at best.

The American gangster in many ways reflects the dark underbelly of the American Dream. The fact that the majority of gangsters rise from immigrant communities, who have gone to America to pursue the dream, is no accident. Whether Irish, Italian or Jewish, the immigrants quickly realised that they were second class citizens in America, especially those that chose to remain in the cities and not break out for the wide open spaces of the frontier.

"He used to be a big shot". Eddie Bartlett's death draws an explicit
link between the gangster's downfall and the sacrifice of Christ

The America gangster relentlessly pursues the American Dream but strictly on his own terms, and with all the ruthlessness of a bank repossessing a house. He is in many ways the ultimate free market capitalist, and when the market continued to demand booze after it had been banned, the gangster entered the void. The rest is history.

The Roaring Twenties, like many gangster films, is a "rise and fall" story. What distinguishes it from the others, for me, is Cagney's portrayal Eddie Bartlett, as a reluctant hoodlum, constrained by circumstance. His inevitable downfall therefore feels less a comeuppance, and more a tragedy - emphasised by the final pieta on the steps of the cathedral, a clear religious metaphor, linking Bartlett's demise to ideas of suffering and sacrifice. This was a new grace note for the gangster film, something earlier attempted in Angels with Dirty Faces (1938).

Previously they purported to be staunchly moralistic stories; cautionary tales about the dangers of greed and violence. But the vicarious thrills offered by gangster movies were hugely appealing to the public. Like the cowboy heroes of westerns, here was a man who lived by his own rules, didn't take orders from anyone and followed his own (albeit rather loose) moral code. The films themselves thrilled 30's audiences who, still reeling from the depression, identified with the an anti-hero who robbed from big business and gave the public what they wanted; illegal liquor.

From left to right: Errol Flynn, tough guy director Raoul Walsh and Cagney

A mood of reckless abandon had pervaded America in the 1920's and the gangster film captured it perfectly.    But perhaps The Roaring Twenties was the first film to really attempt to examine what was still very recent history and offer some kind of commentary on the period.

Eddie Bartlett is ultimately seduced by the bright lights and glamour of the world that is foisted upon him, before falling victim to the Wall Street Crash and becoming one of millions ruined by the financial collapse that followed. It is in the film's attempt to honestly appraise the impact of this tumultuous decade on ordinary people, that I think  enables The Roaring Twenties to transcend the confines of its genre, and allows it to still feel vital and enthralling to this day; one of the first truly modern films.

Nosferatu: A symphony of Horror (1922)

Director: F.W. Murnau
Country of origin: Germany
Language: Silent
B&W

Ok, admittedly, this might feel like being thrown in at the deep end but bear with me, for this film is a wonder to behold.

The first (and arguably still the best) screen incarnation of Dracula, is Max Schreck's terrifying portrayal of the blood-sucking, sexual predator Count Orlok. But what he lacks in looks he makes up for in style, wit and panache. No, not really, he's just such a horrific creation, he will set your bowels to churning and skin to crawling.

Nosferatu is important for several reasons.

Classic low angle shot

It is a major early work by F.W. Murnau, a former theater director, who along with the Russian director, Sergei Eisenstein, American D.W. Griffith and Charlie Chaplin, would really create the blueprint for what we now speak of as film language.

While Griffith was a pioneer of epic staging; Einstein more or less invented editing and Chaplin became a master of the set piece to rival them all; Murnau brought the theater concept of mise-en-scene to the party. I'm not saying he invented it, but few were doing it as well as him, as early as him.

All those low angle shots giving an impression of power, or high angles that make characters look vulnerable; Murnau was at it in 1922.

Mise-en-scene: The Count, framed by the window's criss-crossed sashes, appears as if imprisoned behind bars. His own awareness of his predicament is reflected in the anxiety on his face. As with all great versions of the story, as much as we are repelled by the Count, we also pity him his plight.

Every shot is highly composed; the attention to detail supreme. Every aspect is chosen to create maximum effect. From the placement of a prop, to an actor's precisely blocked movement; Murnau was an obsessive perfectionist, sometimes driving his collaborators close to insanity, if the stories are to be believed.



This "faction" is captured wonderfully in the curious, and apparently little seen film, Shadow of the Vampire (2000). A fictionalised account of the making of Nosferatu, it suggests that the venerated German stage actor Max Schreck, who plays the Count, was in fact a real vampire, whom crazed Murnau tempts to play the role with the promise that he will get to feast on the blood of his co-stars. John Malkovich is perfectly cast as Murnau, and Willem Dafoe delivers a predicably batty turn as the immortal Schreck. An interesting counterpoint to his other wonderful turn as an immortal: Jesus Christ in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

Nosferatu is a key work of German Expressionism, an art movement whose cinematic offshoot was visually defined by jagged angles and geometrically absurd, wildly unrealistic sets (see also: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari). The result was a nightmarish visual landscape which reflected both the metal turmoil of the characters and the psychologically disturbing  themes being explored.

Jagged, angular shadows

Nosferatu, however was shot on location, a bold move in those days given the lighting limitations imposed by the very basic, hand-cranked cameras of early cinema. Nonetheless it is full of looming, sharp shadows, inside which lurk our deepest fears. It epitomises  expressionist film, creating the template for the modern horror film.

These frenzied tales of madness could be interpreted as attempting to confront the dread that festered in the aftermath of WWI. The impact on the European psyche of the cataclysmic devastation of that war cannot be over-estimated.

A very real fear was emerging that this rapidly changing and modernizing world, where death could be delivered to men by the tens of thousand, may be spiraling out of control. The new world was viewed ambiguously at best, for it seemed to hold within itself the seeds of its own destruction, on a mass scale. Nosferatu reeks with the madness of this death dealing.

Artists like Murnau would, notice early the changes occurring in Germany as the Nazis began to emerge in the 1920s; they would eventually brand his kind of cinema too intellectual. But Murnau escaped early, avoiding the oppression to come, like many German artists (not necessarily all Jewish, artists by their nature have tended to be liberals) to the welcoming arms of Hollywood where he would make the magnificent Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927).

He died in a car accident in 1931.

Links:

To watch Nosferatu CLICK HERE

To watch a trailer for Werner Herzog's chilling remake: Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) CLICK HERE

A (film) Education - Part 3: The List

Here's how it will work. As with imdb.com (a most wonderful research resource for you) I will give a basic listing of the film in question. This will include:

• title
• director
• year of release
• country of origin
• language
• colour/B&W

Some of this will be self-evident: if the country of origin is Germany, the film is likely to be in German, except when it isn't (this will soon make sense).

If the film is made before 1939, it will be made in black and white (B&W).

I'll then write a little bit about the film. This will be partly be synopsis, partly some of my observations and reflections on the film and what I think about it and why.

Where possible, I'll include reference pictures, posters, trailers and links to other relevant material.

The list will be in chronological order, starting with the oldest film first. I am not sure yet how long it will be - 10? 20? 30? Who knows - but I will try to keep it manageable. And even if you only manage to watch five of them, rest assured that your knowledge will have multiplied tenfold in comparison to the impact of the mind-rotting multiplex fonder that passes for cinema these days.

Get it? Good.

On with the show...

A (film) Education - Part 2: It's all a matter of taste

Or is it? Well it is and it isn't.

Now, I'm not talking in riddles here just to bamboozle you. Taste is intangible. What one person likes, another person might despise. It's true of most art forms: painting, music, cinema, theater.

What we personally like, is dependent on a myriad of different factors that relate to us personally: age, gender, sexuality, race, religion. (Exactly the same factors that marketing people base their research on; this is no accident.) And any number of personal factors of taste, that are unique to us as individuals.

However, what you must now begin to understand and accept is that in all art forms there is a recognised canon of what is considered to be of worth. That is to say, it's inherent properties give it an intrinsic value, in and of itself. (Of course we must acknowledge that films are a business, but at their best they can achieve the level of art.)

Undoubtedly, there will be many films regarded as classics, which you will not care for. The same can be said for me. This is absolutely fine, you are entitled to your opinion, but that is not the point. That it is all a question of taste, is almost irrelevant when it comes to the appreciation of something. If that were the case we would accept the stance of millions of students who cannot stand Shakespeare. But they are wrong. Shakespeare is a genius and they may just be reluctant learners. This is just a fact of life. What must be acknowledged is that there is an accepted criteria for what constitutes good or better in everything. Film, is no different. If you don't get it, it is your job as a student to try to do so, even if it is a struggle. Nothing in life worth having comes easy, knowledge and understanding as much as anything.



Another aside:

I continue to struggle with the work of Italian director, Michelangelo Antonioni.

His modernist masterpieces leave me cold. This, as the man might say, is the whole point of these films. They are cold, clinical exercises in formalism; stylistic experiments where the locations are as much "characters" as the people.

-But, I repeat, they leave me cold. I wish to care about the people in these stories.

-Well, look elsewhere for your succour then, the aesthete admonishes.



BUT, and this is a big but. As students of media, you have a duty to at least try to understand why some dodgy looking old 1940's film. with a lot of stagey acting and wobbly sets, may be considered a classic by generation after generation of audiences, filmmakers and critics. This is just common sense.

Bogart in Casablanca

Why is Humphrey Bogart revered as one of the greatest screen actors to have ever lived by everybody from Quentin Tarantino to George Clooney? When to you, he just looks like somebody's slightly rough uncle, who likes a drop too much of the hard stuff.



How did a bald, rotund, (apparent) buffoon from Ealing - who caricatured himself in his own TV show - come to be regarded by many, as perhaps the greatest filmmaker of all time? This was Alfred Hitchcock.



Hitchcock is a point in case. His 1958, tale of sexual obsession, Vertigo, created a template for many similarly themed psycho-sexual thrillers. It is not a only regarded as Hitch's greatest, but regularly makes the top 3 in top ten lists of the greatest films of all time. But personally, I'm not  big fan. I reckon it's about 20 minutes too long, and the effects have dated really quite badly.



I prefer Rear Window, which as anybody will tell you, is gimmicky, stagey and more than a little bit daft. But it does have Grace Kelly, not Kim Novack as Hitchcock's standard issue icey blonde. I am a big enough man to admit that this may have not a little to do with my fondness for it.

The key thing is, I understand why everyone thinks, Vertigo,  is so brilliant, it just doesn't really do it for me.

Ironically neither of these films will feature on my list, though another Hitchcock will.

Whilst the main purpose of the list I am going to compile is to educate you about what constitutes a great film, it would be remiss of me were I to cram it full of the sort of masterpieces that you would never in a million years want to watch. That would be self-defeating.

Ideally you should LOVE these films.

But while, you may not love all of them, I am hoping that my selections will be intriguing enough for you to give them the time to try to understand why they are held in such high esteem.

A (film) Education - Part 1: Why Now?

This is something I've been meaning to do for a while now.

Since the summer looms on the horizon, you will have time on your hands, and what better to do with time on your hands than watch a bunch of films.

But what to watch? Hhhmmm????

Fear not, I've decided to create a list of classics - old and new - that it would be in your interest to see.

The slight problem with A level Media Studies as a subject is that the actual study of film is very limited - that's why there is A level Film Studies.

However, in order to be truly effective and enlightened producers of media, and to feed into your other units of study - to be able to talk intelligently about, amongst other things: genre, narrative theories, film language, pot-modernism at A2 etc., you need to develop a greater appreciation of cinema. This can only be done  by gaining some background knowledge about film and cinema history.

Currently (and don't take this the wrong way but...) what you all don't know about films could just about be crammed into the Olympic Stadium.

Fortunately for you the reverse could be said about me. Furthermore, the arrogance on my part that allows me to make such a claim, extends to a desire to share this knowledge with you.

Here's how it will work:

I will create a list (which will be by no means exhaustive) of films which I think you should see. They will be grouped roughly under two labels - CLASSICS (from the Dawn of Cinema to the 1960's) and MODERN CLASSICS (1970's to the present).

Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra in Cleopatra (1963)

This is my own categorization, based on the fact that the Hollywood studio system had largely collapsed by the 1960's, due to an over-reliance on what critics regarded as bloated epics like Cleopatra and Doctor Zhivago (both of which I love ironically, but there's no accounting for taste - more on that subject later).

Doctor Zhivago (1965)

The days of out and out genre pictures and the star system was essentially at an end, or at least undergoing a period of radical change and adaptation.




With the 1970's, the era of contemporary American filmmakers (often referred to as the Movie Brats, or in academic film books as the
"New Hollywood") like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola had arrived. These directors were as much inspired by European and Japanese cinema as by classic Hollywood, and that - if only for a brief, beautiful moment - transformed the possibilities of what an "American" film might constitute.

From left to right: Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola

Sadly the whole moment had largely blown out by 1980 in a  snowstorm of cocaine and the rampaging egos that excessive use of that drug seems to spawn in creative, yet incredibly insecure people. They had it all and they blew it. Go figure.


If you want to know the full story behind that era then seek out Peter Biskind's fabulously entertaining and somewhat depressing book Easy Rider's, Raging Bulls.

An aside:

My own love and appreciation of cinema does not simply revolve around American films. However, I do understand that there is often a resistance in young people to engage with foreign films, consequently I have framed the idea of "classics" to essentially revolve around the American milieu. This does not mean foreign films will not make the list, merely that they will be more limited than if I were compiling the list for a more open-minded audience. Sorry if you feel like that sells you short, but I am basing it on the understanding I have gleaned thus far of the level of your appreciation of film.

Now back to business.

Shifty case study

From the Media Education website that you are signed up to.

http://media.edusites.co.uk/article/shifty-case-study-2009/

Vivian's Group Feedback 29/04/12

Planning and Research

Mid Level 2  10 marks

Planning and research evidence may be partially incomplete;

There is basic research into similar products however no reference made to the potential target audience (nor to the Ring movies which are an obvious inspiration); M2

There is basic organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props; choices not always clearly accounted for, though a very detailed costume analysis increases this mark L3

There is no evidence of work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding; L1

There is a basic level of care in the presentation of the research and planning; some posts cover too much information and would be better broken down into smaller posts. Blog is difficult to navigate with some posts having more that one post and no archive visible to indicate how many posts and when they were made. M2

Time management is basic. M2

Construction (Production currently incomplete)

Low Level 3 – 36 marks

There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:

Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task;

Proficiency in producing material appropriate to task, though no apparent acknowledgement of target audience. The opening scene, shot with a fish-eye lens to create an extreme looking POV perspective, works very effectively to create the unsettling dream imagery. M3

using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;

Use of titles appropriately - minimal. There should be no end credits as the “film” is not technically over. M1

using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;

No sound available. Unmarked.

shooting material appropriate to the task set;, including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;

An excellent use of the camera for the first scene; the nature of employing a fish-eye lens determines that certain framings and shot distances will be altered/distorted. Eg. The shot of the feet. The students have used this to their advantage, creating a quite disturbing sequence, which, though having obvious antecedents, is nonetheless still effectively rendered. Limited shot types in the following scene limits the mark though. It might’ve been more appropriate to come out of the dream sequence on to a close up of the main character, simply so we get a clearer look at him, Overall the mise-en-scene, in terms of framing and composition, to include and exclude appropriate elements do however show a reasonable level of proficiency. Opening establishing shot feels somewhat out of place, since we do not cut immediately to action inside the school, but more precisely, inside a character’s head. M3

using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Proficient use of editing creates clear meaning for the audience. Proficient use of transitions - white-out transition from dream to reality works well. Very cold, muted colour grade on dream sequence clearly establishes that audience is seeing something out of the ordinary helping to establish the unsettling, horror movie feel from the outset.

However, since the clip is currently unfinished the overall meaning isn’t entirely apparent. M3 (finish it effectively and it will be higher).

Jahura Group Feedback 29/04/12

Planning and Research

Low Level 2  - 8 marks

Planning and research evidence may be partially incomplete;

There is some basic research into similar products but no evidence of research into potential target audience M2

There is basic organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props; M2

There is basic work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.L2

There is a minimal level of care in the presentation of the research and planning; little on the blog to illustrate choices made in any area of the production.  M1

Time management is basic. M2

Construction

None available to view.

Rene's Group Feedback 29/04/12

Planning and Research

Mid Level 2  - 9 marks

Planning and research evidence may be partially incomplete;

There is some basic research into similar products but no evidence of research into potential target audience M2

There is basic organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props. Scant detail in any of the assessed areas L2

There is minimal work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding. They did use teacher feedback. L2

There is a minimal level of care in the presentation of the research and planning; M2

Time management is basic. M2

Construction

Mid Level 3 – 42 marks

There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:

Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task;

Proficiency in producing material appropriate to task, though no apparent acknowledgement of target audience. M2

using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions;

Proficient use of titles, with the adoption of the freeze frame to introduce cast credits having many antecedents in real media products, though it could be held for slightly longer in order for the audience to clearly read them. The production company name should carry the text “Duality productions presents”. M3

using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set;

Heavy use of classical music is made for much of the clip in an ironic contrast to the violent imagery. This has the desired effect. In the following scene the sound is less well combined with pictures and this obvious camera mic audio lends the clip an amateurishness which was absent from the initial scene. M3

shooting material appropriate to the task set;, including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene;

An excellent use of the camera for the first scene with an appropriate variety of shot types and distances employed (with especially good use of POV shots. Second scene, somewhat rougher in execution, felt less well considered with the camera being a little too shaky on a couple of shots. Overall the mise-en-scene, in terms of framing and composition, to include and exclude appropriate elements showed a good level of proficiency. H3

using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects.

Proficient use of editing creates clear meaning for the audience. Proficient use of transitions - white-out on contents of bag nicely masks the shot change. Heavy colour grade in the first scene works well to convey the murky world of the story. However in the first scene there is a very brief cut which is somewhat jarring. H3

A2 Exam date

Unusually late at:

15 June

So stay focused on getting the coursework done for the deadline.

AS EXAM DATE

Unusually early at:

15 May (PM)

But then I'm sure you all were revising hard over Easter.

Level 4 Blog for Planning and Research

http://www.a2coalition.blogspot.co.uk/

This is a high quality blog in almost every regard.

Something about the content of the blog:

Note the frequent use of visual references both still and moving; screen grabs, audio references, links to other clips, related webpages etc. All of these posted with a comment which identifies (and where appropriate analyses) their relevance and relation to the group's media product.

Something about the layout of the blog:

Note how, down the right hand side of the page there is the BLOG ARCHIVE, which list all posts by date of entry, month-by-month.

Once you click on the respective month another menu drops down listing individual posts.
If you have given a post a title then it is clearly displayed here.
YOU MUST GIVE YOUR POSTS A TITLE because this provides much easier navigation for the viewer (me and the moderator).

If you want to make it super user friendly then use the LABEL function just below the post window (where you write your entries).

Give each post one of the following labels:

PRELIMINARY TASK
PLANNING
RESEARCH
CONSTRUCTION (when you're making it)
EVALUATION (to be covered by the answering of 7 specific questions - 4 for A2)

Dating your posts:
What you don't want is to have 40 posts all made in the last two weeks of April. You can do this but it won't look good - after all, you don't RESEARCH and PLAN after you've made the film. However, help is at hand. Using "post options" located just below "labels" you can reset the dates on your posts. Doing so will at least make it look, like you've been organised and followed a process to get to your finished product.

ALERT!!!! FINAL DEADLINES!!!!

Final deadline for the completion of PLANNING and RESEARCH part of blog and MEDIA PRODUCTION is:

Friday April 27th.

This will allow me to give feedback and suggest further changes to be made over the following week.

By this time we will have explored the EVALUATION questions, which will need to be completed by:

Friday 4th May.


The projects will be marked and sent to the moderator by the following Friday 11th May.

It is essential that you manage your time effectively between now and then or you will not be able to complete the projects to the best of your ability.

A2 Evaluation Questions

Marking Criteria for Evaluation
Each candidate will evaluate and reflect on the creative process and their experience of it. Candidates will evaluate their work digitally. The format of the evaluation has some flexibility and its form can be negotiated between teacher and student: it may take place with individual candidates or with the production group as a whole, or each individual candidate or production group may make a formal or informal presentation to the whole class. The teacher must allocate a mark according to the contribution/level of understanding demonstrated by the individual candidate. Each candidate should give a clear indication of their role in any group evaluation and the presentation must be evidenced by the Centre.
The four questions that must be addressed in the evaluation are:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Jahura group feedback

JAHURA, FARJANA & IBTISSAM feedback

Nothing for me to look at film-wise so I can only comment on the blog:

Currently the blog is insubstantial to say the least. I have reiterated many times the importance of keeping up to date with the blog and you all have a lesson set aside with Ms Shillingford every Monday, so there is no excuse for not posting something relevant, at least once a week.

As I have said before the blog should contain about 40 short-ish posts covering the PLANNING, RESEARCH and PRODUCTION, and to be finished off with the EVALUATION based on 7 specific questions, which we will be addressing in the next few weeks.

You need to look at another blog to see how it’s done; though you should’ve already done this weeks ago. Check this one out;

 a2coalition.blogspot.com

In its current state (unwritten though admittedly unfinished) the blog would be marked with the following criteria.

Level 1 0–7 marks

Planning and research evidence will be incomplete;

There is minimal research into similar products and a potential target audience;

There is minimal organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;

There is minimal work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding;

There is minimal care in the presentation of the research and planning;

Time management may be very poor.

I would probably give it approximately 5 or 6 marks out of a possible 20.

You need to include picture references for things like costume and props, location stills to show that you put some thought into planning. References to other films to show that you have done some research into the kind of film you’re trying to make.

The blog is supposed to show you have gone to considerable effort to make the film as good as you, in order that, if it is not creatively on the level of Citizen Kane, then at least you will have some record of your intentions and be able to still get a reasonable mark.

If you complete the blog along the lines that it currently stands it will get no more than a basic mark (8-11 marks).

NB: You need to create a menu down the side of the blog page so that your posts can be organised into the months they were posted and be collected under headings such as RESEARCH, PLANNING, PRODUCTION and EVALUATION. 

RENE group blog

RENE GROUP FEEDBACK

First a note on the blog:

The blog is worth 20/100 marks.

You need to organise your posts with headings that relate to PLANNING and RESEARCH so that they can be easily accessed.

At the moment there is little to suggest much thought or analysis has gone into this.

Check:    a2coalition.blogspot.com   to see what it should look like.

Check:    mrmmediastudies.blogspot.com   for a reminder of what the blog should include.

You are leaving yourselves a lot to do, at the moment the blog is very weak and also contains no information about what the film is either about, or what it is called. No treatment, no outline, no storyboards, no shot list. No visual references, no movies you were inspired by. It’s as bare as a pauper’s cupboards at Christmas. It looks like you just got some masks and went and did – shooting from the hip as they say. If your blog does not clearly show that some planning and research went into it, the blog will receive a very low mark and it will also reflect badly on the mark of the overall finished piece. Currently I have very little to help me gauge whether you are succeeding in your aims, because I do not know what your aims are, or how you planned to go about them. Anyway, I’ve told you this enough times, you ought to have done something about it by now.

Here’s the marking criteria for a level 1 blog:

Level 1 0–7 marks

Planning and research evidence will be incomplete;

There is minimal research into similar products and a potential target audience;

There is minimal organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props;

There is minimal work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding;

There is minimal care in the presentation of the research and planning;

Time management may be very poor.

A blog in the current state would get you maybe 5 or 6 marks out of 20.

Production

Overall note on the production:

In simple terms I like it. Though I’m still not sure who or what it is about.

The what isn’t massively important because I can tell that it is a violent, sinister thriller, which has been influenced by A Clockwork Orange, amongst other things and therefore has a darkly humorous element.

The who is a bit of problem because it means that there is no one for the audience to connect with.

If you are going to start off with a POV (which is very intriguing for the audience) it is a convention of cinema that when the hood is removed, the character who is the source of the POV is revealed in the next cut, in some reasonably close shot. The audience must at least have the opportunity to at identify him, if not identify with him. 

The music is good – but you must show in your blog that you have at least tried to clear it – a letter asking for permission from the record company is required here to be posted on the blog.

I’m not sure if works to have the music for the whole sequence, but I don’t know what else you’ve got – any usable dialogue from Femi? I think you’re going to find yourselves undone a little here by the lack of planning.

Editing:

As a general rule you could trim a bit off most shots to tighten things up. The bit over black/hood seems especially long.

Stephen takes too long to get the gun out of his pocket. Tighten that. Just get him to pull it straight out, that shut cut up easily enough.

If you do that with a few shots it’ll add a lot more pace to it.

It’s currently also 40 seconds too short but I think you’re shooting something else anyway.

The bit with the teacher in the background; do you not have a shot you can cutaway to? A close-up of Femi maybe? And then just cut back to the fella in the hat.

Caption:

The caption is confusing. The font is too thin and I’m expecting to see the name of the distribution then production company first, then the film title, cast names, crew names etc (if you choose to include all of these, it is not strictly necessary but remember, you are being marked on the use of titles). Remember there are conventions that apply to all these things, to get these things right shows planning and research has been done.

The time caption gets lost at the side, centre it.


Music:
Despite what I said about the use of music, I have re-consulted the spec and have reached the conclusion that such a track would not be permissible. It is too well known and even if you did apply for the right to use it from the record company, you'd never get it. I suggest you use some copyright free music or perhaps something you've made yourself Rene.


Type copyright free music into google for a list of sites. 

Below is a break down of the mark structure and how you would be graded:

Level 3 36–47 marks

There is evidence of proficiency in the creative use of many of the following technical skills:

Producing material appropriate for the target audience and task; H3

The nature of the images suggests a darkly comic, violent thriller. This has been achieved with proficiency. Material has been shot in an inventive way to create tension and play with audience expectations.

No indication of what target audience might from blog however (I’m suspecting young men).

using titles appropriately according to institutional conventions; L2

Titles under-used and currently a little confusing.

using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set; M3

Editing is proficient (with some trimming could be excellent). The use of the music track sets up a darkly ironic tone quite proficiently though it is perhaps overused.

shooting material appropriate to the task set;, including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot distance and close attention to mise-en-scene; M3

material generally proficiently shot, with some interesting visual images created. Eg. the whip pan shot to give a visceral sense of a violent punch. Various shot sizes used to quite proficiently. Framing occasionally inconsistent – cut from unmasked handheld POV to side angle tripod mid-shot, somewhat jarring (this is where you need the close-up of Femi as a reaction shot – he’s surrounded by men in masks, who are going to hurt him – you need this close-up, the audience needs to see and feel his terror). This is an issue of mise-en-scene also.

using editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions and other effects. H3

The editing is proficient but a lack of coverage has left only limited options. This does slightly affect the meaning of the piece because we are never really fully connected to the protagonist. See all the earlier comments. The time caption currently feels surplus to requirements. Unless you are intent on using another one in the last little bit. A colour grade has been used to make the image very contrasty and dark and moody which feels entirely appropriate given the subject matter. No transitions used, none were appropriate.

This comes out as a just about a Low level 3 with 36 out of a possible 60 marks.

That’s 60%, which scrapes a C. However there is no reason why this should not be a B.

Not bad but if you don’t get your blog in order and do a decent evaluation (20 mks)  the mark will be badly dragged down.

With the blog as it is you’d be left with 42 out of a possible 80. That’s 52.5%; a D.

You have much to do. Get to it.