Unit 26 - Assignment 2 - task 2 - Conecting with films

The films I connect with the most would be the Star Wars saga. I interact with them and the films' genre is, I watch the films I listen to the sound tracks, By reading the genre I know that the star wars franchise while the films may appear to just be Science Fiction it is in reality science fantasy due to the presence of the force which is a mythical energy field.


Others may interpret Star wars just to be Science Fiction but as stated before the franchise is science fantasy due to the mystical presence of the force.
The attraction of Star Wars I suppose is the escapism which is apart of uses and gratification model, the ability to see new vast worlds, the characters, the battles and the music, and the ability to interact with others about theorising about future releases. 

Star Wars' online presence is massive with social media, games, videos on YouTube such as trailers interviews with cast and crew. The fandom is also represented via cosplay which is where people dress as their favourite characters from films. And then there are the fan made productions, there is even a yearly competition for the best lightsaber choreography in a fan film I am not even joking. A competition winning example is below.

Active spectatorship is where a member of the audience actively agrees with preferred reading of the film an example of this would be the film "Avatar" which has the message of that we shouldn't interfere with indigenous species and their natural resources. Passive spectatorship is where an audience member just watches the film for what it is or could be influenced by it such as the James Bolger incident where 2 young children brutally murdered  an even younger boy after watching Child's Play 3. This was seen to have an effect on their psyches this event allowed people realise that some films may have an adverse effect on certain members of audiences. I would say that when it comes to Star Wars I am a mixture of both because when it comes to watching the films, I just that but I also research the expanded universe material to learn more about the franchise.

Before the Latest Star wars film came out I interacted with the online media by watching the trailers or interviews with the cast and crew.

I own at least three releases of the original trilogy one was the 1997 VHS special editions, the 2004 DVD release and 2011 blu-ray release. and I have two versions of the Prequel Trilogy.  

Star Wars has Several Facebook pages for it's various things Such as it's main page for Facebook and twitter, Star Wars Rebels, and for the charity events that Disney and Lucasfilm has set up for advertisement. I prefer to watch the saga on Blu-Ray due to the Better quality of visuals and audio.

Unit 24- Future learn course

While undergoing the pre-production process for the short films myself and the rest of my class had to take an online course on the future learn website.


The point of this is to learn about the jobs and positions we could take in the short films and in the industry. the things we learned about included the art department, the production staff (Producers, writers, Directors, Production co-ordinators etc.) the camera department (Director of photography, camera operators, the grips.) The Post Production Department(aka Editing and Promotion, Distribution).

Unit 26 - What is Queer Theory and What is Genre analysis

Queer theory is built upon the challenges of feminism to the idea that gender is apart of oneself as well as gay/lesbian studies' examinations of the constructed nature of sexual acts and identities.



The tern 'gay' normalises homosexuality however the term 'queer' is a break with the belief that gayness arises from gay liberationist  and lesbian feminist models.


Queer theory is based in sexuality and gender, due to this association a debate often arises weather orientation of sexuality is natural or if it is essential to one's person or if sexuality is a social construction that can change.
Queer theory was originally associated with radical gay politics and that the term 'queer' became an identity label.
Two examples in films where Queer theory is used is Brokeback mountain which is set in the 1960's where homosexuality is seen as wrong and vile and the two main characters have to hide their sexuality. A second example is in X-Men: The Last Stand however this is more of an comparison as Sir Ian Mckellen who plays one of the films antagonists compares the cure to mutations in the film like a cure to homosexuality which is like removing a part of who you are.


Genre Analysis
Genre analysis is the academic subject which studies genre theory as a branch of general critic theory. literary genre studies is a structuralist approach to the study of genre in film theory and other cultural theories. Genre is used by audiences and production staff to match a film with a set of conventions. Audiences expect certain things from different Films. And production staff use it as a set of rules to know how to create the required elements of certain genres and how to much to spend.
For example Science Fiction often abbreviated to Sci-Fi. Science Fiction often features aliens, spaceships, advanced technology, moral and ethical issues. the expected conventions are

• Aliens - independence day, Star trek Star Wars, Doctor who these films show that the sci-fi genre of Aliens either they be invading the earth or just part of a cultural menagerie.
• More advanced technology then current human technology such as faster then light travel, the ability to destroy a planet in a single shot for Example Star Wars
• Another convention of the Science Fiction Genre is the moral and ethical questions which asks she would we let technology replace what we are as humanity's core, and what it means to be human, like Blade Runner which had replicants for example or Transcendence which dealt with downloading a human mind into the internet.  

Unit 26 - American film industry vs British film industry

British films are generally a smaller scale in production then most American Movies with much smaller budgets. This can be seen with smaller scale stunts and effects as well as lesser known actors.




A co-production is where a larger company mainly American provides funding and is the company that distributes it, however that only happens if 10% of both cast and crew are American. The UK uses these to allow for greater tax returns which are used by the larger American companies to get interested in the production of any sequels.


the factors that influence production are finance/budget. most British film productions either get funding from either the BBC, the BFI film fund, Film 4 or as stated previously funding from the larger American companies.




The tax incentives for Shooting a film in the UK is that there is 25% Tax return from the British Government for shooting in the UK, this would interest the overseas production companies because it means they can make more money out of the film's production.




The technologies used in production that influence production have differing effects such as filming and presenting the film in either 3D or Imax increases cost because of the equipment. DVD's are cheaper to make and purchase then Blu Ray disks which is due to the fact of it having more behind the scenes features then ordinary DVD's


Films are exhibitioned usually at cinemas or at film festivals. the reason that most of cinema chain lines present the larger films is because the larger production/distribution companies have got shares of that company meaning they can exhibit their films easier then the smaller companies. Films are usually distributed by one of the film's main production companies. The marketing plan for the film like the Avengers (Assemble) they had several solo films to build up to it, trailers, posters video games and cartoon shows. In America film promotion is massive, posters everywhere in towns and cities on giant billboards at the side of the roads, race tracks and Comic Cons. In the UK however it is slightly smaller scale.


Vertical integration is where one Company handles all three stages of the film's life which are Production, Distribution and Exhibition. Horizontal Integration is where different companies handle production, distribution and exhibition.


The regulatory issues of film distribution and exhibition is that it means that only a certain audience can see the movie for example the film Deadpool was rated R in America by the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America, but in the UK it was rated 15 by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification

The Tech Team shot sizes video tutorial

This is my contribution to the single camera techniques for my group the Tech Team and that contribution is Camera shot sizes.

Unit 24: Short Film Self Evaluation

The two weeks we spent filming were long and tiring but the end result I'm sure will be worth it. The first week of filming was probably the most difficult especially the first day of shooting due to lack of communication between the director and the rest of cast and crew. allowing us only to wrap one scene and only film part of another. The rest of the week actually quite fun to do.


The second week I think went much better because we mostly didn't have to work on heavy make up and most of the scenes were shot inside (Monday at Teeside University and Tuesday we filmed at the Director's old House until 4pm. On Wednesday morning the rest of cast and crew filmed in Billingham town centre which I could not take part in due to having maths lessons in the afternoon.)
 On the Wednesday night we filmed a werewolf transformation so it was a bit nippy, and I'm pretty sure that the actor's screams for the transformation scared a few people that were walking past where we were filming because a police car passed by where we were filming several times. The day after that we filmed in an abandoned house in Ingleby Barwick where I played a dead body.


After the Half term Holidays we returned to Preston Park to shoot the fight scene for Shadows walk among us which involved fake blood, fake organs and an actor who's knee landed into a pile of dog poo during a take where he was flung over while chasing the protagonists. two days later we went to Norton high street to once again shoot several scenes which were lost due to the tape being lost or damaged I am not sure which.


once all the scenes were shot we had to edit them and compile the first cut/draft of the film by the 25th of April which was extremely fun.


Overall I enjoyed working on both short films. I did have a few problems due to the location being cold and the background noise from cars when filming in Norton High street but I enjoyed working with the cast with the jokes. In between takes. some of the crew were fun to work with the ones who did work anyway during the pre-production process.

Unit 24 - Week 2 of filming production diary

Monday - Location Teesside college, thankfully filming went well today despite the fact that the tripod didn't have a plate on it, we had no extras resulting it myself and most of the production crew acting as extra's instead.

Tuesday - Was a mild shoot in comparison. Based in Norton at one of the Production crew's house. Filming went until 4pm.

Wednesday - Filming started at the Billingham Forum theatre in the morning which I could not attend due by the time we started filming I had to be in Maths and then back to Norton in the afternoon. where we would film the werewolf transformation scene as the sun set we may have scared a few people due to how loud the screams got. we were filming under a bridge so the sound echoed slightly.

Thursday - Location, The Rings, Ingleby Barwick, Firstly when we got the first location we got everything we needed done but then the Camera Operator left to go on Holiday leaving us to get filming done on our own. the second location was an abandoned house which was used as a prison cell, I was a dead body lying against the cell wall.