Media Trip

Media Trip

On the 19^th November I went to the BFI Southbank for a student task day on making film openings. The day included speakers’ Tom Woodcock, a teacher of film and media and Corin Hardy a filmmaker. Throughout the day I was given various tasks to do to help with the AS Media Studies coursework. 

Image is mine

Task A was the 'Macro Conventions Task' and involved watching 3 different opening sequences;  Napoleon Dynamite, Casino Royale and The Wedding Singer.

Images from the Internet

We were given a table listing 5 aspects of a sequence; genre, narrative, characters, themes and atmosphere. With the 5 aspects, we had to give a percentage out of 100 on the amount of time they each had in the sequence to show how important each aspect is and the amount of time each is needed in the opening titles and credits.  Here are the opening sequences;

The task showed that the opening sequence should introduce the main theme, create the atmosphere for the movie, establish the genre and set up the main character’s personality. 

Task B was to create a pitch for the opening sequence idea we had planned; the boxes were labelled; film title, genre and influences, idea in one sentence, visual themes, motives or references and sound design. The purpose of the task was to get feedback from a teacher and actual film-makers perspective and to get student feedback. It also highlighted if production of the opening sequence was possible or not.

Task C was to watch 2 opening sequences and see where the credits were being placed and who was being credited. The movies were Donnie Brasco and Gattaca;

The purpose of the task was to establish who was credited which was – The production company, lead actors, supporting cast, credits for those who casted, produced the music, designed costumes and set, producer, director and the film title. 

 

The film maker also went through his process for creating his movie etc what equipment he used, what lighting he used, the camera angles and his opening scenes’ importance. 

The information from the Media day is found in the link below -
http://titledesignproject.blogspot.co.uk/