JAKE COSSEY - A-LEVEL FILM STUDIES

  Making notes and creating a research presentation Using online sites like IMDb I researched about: 1 - Research the  key details  of the film  - writer, director, date, budget, production company 2-  Context  - What is the context to the film? A - in terms of Kubrick's career timeline B - in terms of history, politics, culture - the zeitgeist. Make sure you look at the space race, moon landing and the Cold War, as well as America in the late 1960s. 3 -  Genre  - Explore the ideas around science fiction as a genre (what is it, where did it begin (literature and film), what are its tropes, etc) 4 -  Legacy and critical reception  - Look at Kubrick's legacy, and that of the film. Why is it so important? How was the film first received by audiences and critics. 5 -  Auteur theory  -  how important are Kubrick (and Arthur C Clarke) to the making of this film? Do you consider Kubrick an auteur, and why? 6  -  Technol...

After finishing studying The General By Buster Keaton we are moving on to look at  Hollywood musicals and will be exploring the technical side of sound in more detail. Throughout the next couple of weeks I will be updating new terms and new analysis pieces up onto my blog.  After reading the factsheet about "Understanding and using sound" I found out that t he first major Hollywood film to be released with sound was the  Jazz Singer  in 1927. Prior to the release of Jazz Singer , all films other films had been silent however, sound changed film forever and within a few years, silent films were almost extinct. Even though sound changed film, the transition to sound was not smooth and many film makers and critics hoped or as many of us today would imagine. After the introduction to sound in 1927 something important had been lost within film as sound was introduced. Films became less cinematic and visual creativity was hampered by the need ...

0:00-1:05 – Backstory and introduction. Text.    1:11-1:20 - An establishing wide shot of the train and location. We are introduced to Buster Keaton with a medium close up shot and then the camera pans along the train to introduce The General the train as it is the second most important character in the film.   1:20-1:30 – wide shot establishes location and the time in which the film was set e.g. Horse and cart shows the time. The General then swipes left to right through the scene destructing the shot (connotes to how the train is always a disruption.) but also connotes how the movement in technology is happening as the horse and cart is in the foreground, presenting the past and then in the background is the train which is connoting the future.   1:38-1:50 – Further develops Keatings characters as he has an encounter with two young boys.   2:03 – Introduced to the two loves of his life “his engine and Annabel” shown with a close up to a frame of her.  ...

With the BFI London Film festival just starting I thought it would be a good time to research about it. After flicking through the programme a lot of the galas look very good but a few caught my eye, one being Decision to Leave  a  South Korean  romantic mystery film produced, co-written and directed by Park Chan-wook. The film is about  a  detective who is investigating a man's death in the mountains of Korea, on his journey he ends up meeting and developing feelings for the dead man's mysterious wife in the course of his dogged sleuthing. The English. I also liked the look of The English a Western TV series starring  Emily Blunt. The English is about this sweeping tale of love and revenge from award-winning television auteur Hugo Blick. At the BFI London Film Festival the first two episodes will be shown.  I have embedded to trailer below.  

I created this power point on the pioneers of film and what they all contributed to film. Within the powerpoint there are clips of the films. 

  Yesterday we watched the opening of The Story Film an Odyssey, I really enjoyed the documentary and liked how the whole of the film history was given in a visual representation as before we were just reading about it. I feel it really helped me understand all the events in a conrological order as I prefer seining things visually.  I also liked how we saw all the early cameras, locations and cinemas now and it gave me a better understanding of how everything worked e.g the moving studio which rotated and had different panels to let light in, it was called The Black Maria, it was owned by Thomas Edison's film production studio in West  Orange, New Jersey. This was the worlds first film studio.  

Here I used the early cinema fact sheet and converted all the notes into a more readable timeline: 

We were set a task to analysis an opening sequence and point out what each shot was and how it was achieved. This was done so we could familiarise ourself with camera shots and is preparing us for when we analyse whole films. I chose the film 1917 (most famous for its one shot style). Below is the presentation. In the opening scene of 1917 a lot of the shots are eye level and the camera is used as almost a solider as it acts as a POV for the audience, for example the first shot is a bright open green field connoting calmness but as it starts to progress we are taken into the trenches and it starts to become darker and give the audience of feelings of venerability as we can see how quickly the mood can change but also due to the many eye level shots it makes the audience feel as if we are in the scene and helps emerges us into the scene and the location:  

 I'm a student studying Film Studies for A-Level. Over the next two years I will be publishing updates on the course on the page. I will upload presentations, course work, BTS,  inspirations and general work. 

Ridley Scott. To start off the A-level course we researched and created a presentation on a director of our choice. I chose to do my presentation on Ridley Scott. Below is the  presentation: