Friday 26 October 2012

Ken Loach to visit King Edward VI College on 16/11/12


A once in lifetime opportunity to engage with Ken Loach, the high profile and socially aware filmmaker, has arisen and should be regarded as unique. I would, therefore, expect and urge you to research his filmmaking career in preparation for his arrival on 16th November and make sure he receives the respect that he undoubtedly deserves.

Ken Loach is a former student of King Edward VI Grammar School, a world renowned social realist filmmaker and he will be coming to Nuneaton on 16th November 2012 to revisit the college he attended in the 1950's. This is one of the first times he has returned to his hometown in recent years and it will be an excellent opportunity for current Film and Media students to gain inspiration from one of the most influential filmmakers that the UK has ever produced.

Loach's filmmaking career initially began in theatre and television, but he gained international fame in 1969 when he made Kes, the story of a troubled boy and his kestrel, based on the novel A Kestrel for a Knave by Barry Hines. 

His most recent film The Angel's Share centres around a young Scottish troublemaker who is given one final opportunity to stay out of jail. The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival where Loach won the Jury Prize.

Saturday 29 September 2012

'Attenberg' (2010)


Attenberg is a Greek drama film, written and directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari. The film was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 67th Venice International Film Festival and Ariane Labed won the Coppa Volpi for the Best Actress. It was filmed in the town of Aspra Spitia, in the Greek region of Boeotia.

 

'Heartbeats' (2010)


'Heartbeats' (French: Les Amours imaginaires) is a 2010 Canadian drama film directed by Xavier Dolan. It follows the story of two friends who both fall in love with the same man. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.



Tuesday 25 September 2012

Release forms for footage


Notes on the Filming Release Form

You need a Release Form for anyone who either gives you an interview or who speaks on camera, or owns a location that is not located on public land.  You do not need a Release Form for people on the street as long as your camera is not concealed. 

You will need Release Forms for people who are identifiable in sensitive places even if they are not speaking e.g. hospital waiting rooms, gay clubs, law court corridors.

You should warn your interviewee that you will need a Release Form signed after the interview and get it signed straight away.  Try not to leave it until the next day or the next week by which time they may have changed their mind.

Anyone under the age of 16 needs to have their Release Form signed by one of their parents.

It is crucial that the Release Form is not signed under any misapprehension or false pretences.  Whilst you do not need to share all your plans or thoughts for the film with the contributors, what you do say must not be misleading.  It is best to communicate with your interviewees in writing before the interview so that you have proof that you were clear about the nature of the film.

Most documentary interviews are given for no fee (if that is the case simply remove the clause which refers to the fee).  However, many people do now ask for a fee – particularly if the whole film revolves around their contribution.  There are no guidelines as to how much this amount should be although it is common for expert commentators such as historians or scientists to receive between £100-200.

Below is an example of a Release form Template

_________________________________________________________________________________________


King Edwards V1 College
King Edward Rd, Nuneaton, Warwickshire CV11 4BE
‪024 7632 8231‬
HNC Creative Media Production

Filming Release Form


Name and address of Contributor:


           





Date:

New Wave Footage (working title)


I agree to the inclusion of my contribution in this feature, the nature of which has been explained to me.  I understand that my contribution will be edited and there is no guarantee that my contribution will appear in the final film. I agree that my contribution may be used for educational purposes and to possibly publicise the educational course.

I have agreed to accept £0.00 for the use of my contribution.
I understand that this feature (or part of it) may be distributed in any medium in any part of the world.



Signed ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­(contributor)




____________________________________________________

Shooting Check list for Queens Road shoot


1. Shoot on different aperture settings. (a f/22 would be good for long shots and f/4.5 for close up or mid shot work)

2. Consider shutter speed/frame rate, review footage after filming on changed aperture to ensure the footage is not over or under exposed.

3. Ensure you use Cut ins and Cut outs, when filming people/locations

4. Use Innovative camera movements

5. Shoot location establishing shots

6. Shoot elements of political or social problems (this may be in the form of narrative it may not)

7. Ask to shoot inside a shop on the Queens Road. Get owner to fill out a release form.

8. Consider a variety of vantage points when filming the same subject. Get close, get high, do not just shoot at eye level.

9. Consider composition (TABLES) on all shots

10. Capture still images of recording occurring.

11. Amount of variety on each shot needs to increase a lot!

12. No crashing

Wednesday 1 August 2012

French film-maker Chris Marker dies


The controversial Left Bank Cinema director scored an arthouse hit with Sans Soleil and made the brilliant, haunting, highly influential La Jetée.

Chris Marker obituary

Chris Marker, the enigmatic master of left-field French cinema, has died at the age of 91. The artist and film-maker was best known for his award-winning documentary Sans Soleil and for his haunting drama La Jetée, charting the quest for memory in the aftermath of a nuclear apocalypse.Marker's other notable pictures include 1985's AK, an essay on the work of the Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, and 1977's A Grin Without a Cat, charting the socialist struggle in the period before and after the 1968 Paris uprisings. He scored an arthouse hit with 1983's Sans Soleil, his elliptical meditation on travel and memory that darted from Japan to Africa via an appreciation of the 1958 thriller Vertigo. Hitchcock's movie, said the director, was the only film "capable of portraying impossible memory, insane memory".

Born Christian François Bouche-Villeneuve, Marker fought for the French Resistance and then cut his teeth as a journalist and a critic for Cahiers du Cinéma. He made his film debut with Olympia 52, a documentary on the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, and went on to become a leading light of the Left Bank Cinema movement alongside his friends Agnès Varda and Alain Resnais. In 1961 he sparked controversy with the documentary Si Cuba, a film that praised Fidel Castro, denounced America and was promptly banned in the US.

Yet Marker's most influential production remains 1962's La Jetée, a 29-minute drama composed almost entirely of still images and tracing one man's attempt to reclaim an image from his past. Marker's poetic, provocative meld of global catastrophe and human frailty went on to inspire the 1987 drama The Red Spectacles and Terry Gilliam's 1995 blockbuster 12 Monkeys.

The teasing, elliptical nature of Marker's work was reflected in the man himself. He refused to give interviews, hated being photographed and claimed to have born in Mongolia despite contradictory sources that suggested he was a native of Paris. All of which, wrote the critic David Thomson, fostered the notion of Marker as "some mysterious if ideal figure, a hope or a dream more than an actual person". He was, Thomson added, "the essential ghost".

guardian.co.uk, Monday 30 July 2012

Saturday 17 March 2012

Revised Units: BTEC HNC in Creative Media Production (Moving Image)



Revised Units 


The course now comprises of eight units, the majority of which are practical. 
Units: 

• Contextual Studies for Creative Media Production
• Research Techniques for Creative Media Production 
• Practical Skills for Moving Image Production 
• Film Studies 
• Development and Techniques of Film and Video Editing 
• Promotional Video Production 
• Camera & Lighting Techniques for Moving Image Production 
• Music Video Production