Action!

On Monday after school my group decided to go out and start filming our walking scenes. We went to the small roads and alleyways where we wanted to film as our character is paranoid and wants to avoid main roads where she can be spotted. I think we did really well, we realised how we need to improve our shots and what would look better. We got plenty of shots that we are now currently editing. We hope to go out filming soon depending on the weather.

Advert

This advert is amazing! I love it so much. I love the window shot where the mother is inside the house but you can see the reflection of the children and the snowmen. The music suits the advert and the whole message it gives is lovely.

Practice makes perfect

The first video is our practice time-lapse and the second video is what we would like to achieve with our time-lapse in London.

Group Vlog and Storyboard

This is our group vlog on our ideas. We have spent quite some time discussing our ideas so we really need to start filming them!
We were meant to go up to London this morning at 6 a.m. but due to the weather we wouldn't be able to get the shots we wanted so we plan to go next week friday where the weather is nicer.

Planning and group discussions

Here are some pictures of our group brainstorming and explaining our storyboards. We have drawn up our storyboards, written down our choice of music, and made our filming schedule.
Our filming schedule has been split into three big days where we plan to get a lot of the filming done. We have had a group discussion and we are all happy with our ideas and filming schedules. Now our ideas are written down on paper we will confident enough to start filming and producing our 2 minute opening.

We have come up with an idea for our 2 minute opening to a film, which will be a girl on her journey home after being involved in an incident due to gang culture. We have decided that Leanne and Alicia will be in front of the camera whilst myself and Taneshia hide behind it! Our film will be an Indie-Drama based on gang culture and the 2 minute opening to our film will involve lots of different camera shots. I think our group need to work on getting our ideas across in an easier way however we are all very excited to get started on our planning, practice shots and of course filming!

We had lots of fun creating our practice video and getting used to using our equipment! (Ignore my introduction in the video, someone clearly left it there by accident!)

Vlog about our equipment!

These are just some of shots me and my group will like to use in our 2 minute movie beginning. Over the next few weeks we will be practising these shots to see what angles are best and how our editing can improve our shots.

My first Vlog!

This is my first ever vlog! We decided to do it as a group so we could all talk about how we thought the editing to our Prelim went!

We have just finished editing our Prelim and I think it looks really great! I think all our edits worked really well, especially the background music. We then edited our outtakes and put them all together. I think some of them are really funny! I enjoyed my Prelim experience and I think my group did really well.

Moderator's Report - Summer 2012

Moderator's Report - Summer 2012

Below is the full moderator's report for our centre from Summer 2012 coursework unit:

"Thank you for your prompt submission of the centre’s entries for this series. The work was securely packaged, the central hub for the blogs was appreciated and the candidates’ blogs were easy to navigate, despite the additional examination related posts.

The centre’s comments were clear and referred to the appropriate level and mark descriptors. Marking was in-line with what is considered to be the agreed national standard for this unit.
In research and planning, there was a range of evidence in place for both the groups and the individuals. There was a clear ‘journey’ of progression from the brief to the evaluation across the sample, mainly due to the frequent blog posts. It was clear that the final moving image constructions were result of the detailed research and planning. Video-logs were strong across the sample and candidates posted regularly. It was felt that key concepts, like audience, could have been documented in more detail and the candidates should relate planning to their potential construction whenever possible. It is especially important to link all stages of planning and research when a group changes ‘concept’ midway through the process.
The video work made use of forms and conventions which made them clearly readable as openings to films within their chosen genre. Use of sound and the post-production titles were particularly strong from this centre. Editing was generally well considered to create meaning for the viewer. The centre correctly identified the professional film to some of the examples and how framing was successful in creating a cinematic feel. This led to the majority of the candidates falling well inside the Level 4 criteria.
In the evaluation element, all candidates responded to the seven stipulated questions showing an understanding of the key concepts, outcomes and the process of construction. A wide range of technologies was successfully employed. The mixture of video commentaries was explored here in detail. It may have been helpful for the centre to identify the different individual candidates in the group commentaries for the moderation process. Some candidates included outtakes of the evaluations, which although entertaining, was unnecessary for the moderating process.
Overall, it is clear that the candidates are well supported and that they responded positively to this. The centre has fully embraced the spirit of the specification. 

It was a pleasure to moderate such a well organsied centre. Thank you."


After reading the Moderator's report for last years media AS students, I have realised that the presssure is on! I now have to try and live up to last years blogs, wish me luck!

This is my favourite opening movie scene! Its the opening scene to The Devil Wears Prada and I just love it. The music is great, the camera shots and angles are brilliant. I also love how it shows the contrast between the different lifestyles. It also introduces you to what the movie may be about. Just love it!

During Friday's lesson, my group, Leanne, Alicia and Taneshia, had to shoot our Preliminary Exercise. Our Prelim was based on the scene from Titanic where Rose is telling Jack not to let go. Taneshia played the role of Jack and I played the role of Rose while Alicia and Leanne filmed.
Our Preliminary Exercise had to involve someone walking through the door, someone sitting down on a chair and both students exchanging a few lines. We used the 180 degree rule, aswell as close-ups.
The experience I had infront of the camera was really fun and I really enjoyed it, however I have learn't that I am a terrible actress and I will not be recieving any Oscar awards any time soon!
As you can see from the pictures I have attached to this blog, myself and Taneshia worked very hard to get the scene spot on as well as showing emotion.
My group hoped to achieve good camera shots of the scene and to get every action spot on. I found it very difficult not to look at the camera and not to laugh during the filming!
I think our Prelim could be improved by myself not sitting infront of the projector while it was on, causing half of my face to light up with different shapes projected on to my skin and to also have a few more different camera shots and angles just to make it more interesting.
I have enjoyed the Preliminary Exercise and I think my group did very well, we have now began editing our exercise on the Apple Mac's and our final film shall be uploaded on to my blog soon!

This is a Preliminary from last years Media Studies group. I have watched this so that I can see what I will be doing in the next few lessons and to also get some ideas of what I might like to do for mine. I think this clip is very funny and I am looking forward to filming my own Preliminary Exercise.

This is a clip that shows parts of the movie The Black Swan. Natalie Portman shows great acting skills and I think this clip really shows her at her best.

This is a clip of a scene from Pirates of the Carribean which is one of my favourite parts of the movie! It also shows why I like the two actors, Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom.

My two favourite actors are Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. This is because Johnny Depp is just such a great actor! His acting skills are so amazing, he is very good at adapting to different character roles. He plays a range of different characters in films but he always manages to pull it off and he is actually really funny. I enjoy the films he is in and I think he's great at what he does. Orlando Bloom is another one of my favourite actors because I enjoy all the movies he is in. I love the characters Orlando Bloom plays in Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Carribean. My favourite actress is Natalie Portman. I've loved her every since I was little. I l loved her character in Stars Wars and The Black Swan was just amazing. She is a great actress and she won an Oscar for best actress in 2011.

Harry Potter Deathly Hallows Part 1 and 2 are my favourite films. I love all of the films but the last two have to be the best! I love the scenery used, the animations that have been used throughout (Hogwarts, and certain scenes) and also the storyline is brilliant. All of the movies are full of great techniques that give some scenes amazing effects.

One of my favourite movie lines has to be from Mean Girls - "one time she punched me in the face.. it was awesome." This movie line always makes me laugh and Mean Girls is just full of really funny lines throughout.

The new John Lewis advert is amazing. I've seen it on my tv for the past week and I just never get bored of it. I think the whole idea is very clever, I love the song, I think it fits in really well with the theme of the advert and I love that there is a split screen which just fits together really well. I also really like the message that they are trying to give through the advert, what's important, doesn't change. I think the advert has been well put together and the contrast shown between the two different lifestyle's has been presented very well which I believe is down to the use of the splitscreen.

ECS as and A2 Media Studies Course Booklet This is a Media Studies Course Booklet which will be very useful to me over the next two years as it tells me what I need to do in order to achieve a good grade at AS and A2.

This is a video that I think is very useful to my media studies as it is a video that gives you the names of different camera angles and camera features and the video also shows an example.