AS Coursework: Film Openings: March 2016

Friday, 18 March 2016

Film PITCHING guide from executives at SXSW

See the main pitch guide here. Pitch tag.

A hit team of Hollywood producers discussed the art of pitching at a SXSW (the Texas festival) session. Quotes are from the article by Liz Nord (2016) How Not to Pitch a Movie: Production Execs Tell All.

NB: the article contains an image which may be considered disturbing/NSFW (poor choice from a great site).

I did learn a new term from this myself: sizzle reel! Read on [click the read more] to find out what that is!

Last year, Shaked Berenson's company got 28 scripts from agents, double that number from managers, and slightly more from producers. About ten times that number were unsolicited.

Epic Pictures Group made five films that year.
Berenson and his fellow SXSW 2016 panelists, who have decades of Hollywood producing experience between them, gave a few pointers. The group included Gudrun Giddings, CEO of G4C Innovation; Travis Stevens, CEO of Snowfort Pictures (whose film Teenage Cocktail is playing at this year’s fest); and Winnie Kemp, Director of Development at Super Deluxe/Turner.

How the AS exam works in with coursework

The skills and knowledge of the 2 parts of the course are closely linked! As we explore the Evaluation in particular you'll note frequent references to the exam material. In the exam you use semiotics to analyse the media language and (one area of) representation within a 4-5min clip of a US TV drama. You also write an essay on Cinema industry/audience. The following is a list of the elements you're asked to analyse across the 2 parts of your exam (provided on your AS Course Guide):

(UK only, but useful to consider) 7 AREAS OF REPRESENTATION:
Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Sexuality
Class and status
Physical ability/disability
Regional identity

4 Technical Areas of Media Language
Camera Shots, angles, movement and composition
Editing
Sound
Mise-en-scene

Aspects of Cinema
the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
the importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing;
the technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution, marketing and exchange;
the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;
the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;
the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences by international or global institutions;
the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour.

'MULTIMEDIA'?

The term multimedia is used frequently in discussing how/what to blog to get into the high marks band. You're partially marked on the 'level of care in the presentation' and 'use of ICT' within your blogs. What does this mean? Multimedia = a combination of images, hyperlinks, podcasts, videos, vodcasts, links lists and other blog tools, use of Facebook/YouTube et al for audience feedback/research/marketing etc. Level of care means taking time to appropriately illustrate posts, find useful hyperlinks to include [generally make a phrase into a hyperlink; don't just type 'here is a link:'!], and checking your links work, images have been properly embedded (always: save and upload, never copy/paste or drag in), posts don't have massive gaps/white space (if you place a lot of images in a post it can take some tweaking!). I try to apply these principles. Make your blogs at least as good as this one!

AS Coursework: Film Openings

Key Posts

Thursday, 31 March 2016

CINEMATOGRAPHY Tips for low light shoots

Saturday, 19 March 2016

Rule of thirds challenged

Friday, 18 March 2016

Film PITCHING guide from executives at SXSW