Friday, 7 December 2012
Charles Gant
The host of the Film Futures day was film journalist, Charles Gant. You can read some of his recent articles for The Guardian here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/charles-gant
Friday, 30 November 2012
Film Futures Day Preparation (from Film Education)
Some suggested preparation for Film
Futures Day 2.
Series: Box office analysis: UK
Skyfall's
supremacy and the dawn of Twilight reduce the rest to also-rans
1). Please
access:
This will provide some background on the areas of
discussion.
2). Please
look at Charles Gant’s weekly blog reporting on the weekend’s cinema attendance
for the Guardian:
Series: Box office analysis: UK
Skyfall's
supremacy and the dawn of Twilight reduce the rest to also-rans
As 007's
latest outing goes from strength to strength, the arrival of the final Twilight
film will do nothing to help the chasing pack
3). Your
own cinema attendance:
Do you go to see British films? Independent films? Foreign Films?
Please think about the last three or films that you saw at
the cinema:
What made you see those particular films?
Are there any films that deliberately decided not to see at
the cinema? Why?
Do you pay attention to posters? Trailers?
Are there any that have been particularly engaging or
influential? Are there any that you
liked/admired?
Have there been any that have discouraged you from seeing a
film?
Are there films that you missed but wished you had seen at
the cinema?
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
Fight Club - Critical Approaches: themes, ideas, interpretations
- The "everyman" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everyman Children of Men (2006) and 28 Days Later (2002) also feature 'everyman' characters. What makes the narrator in Fight Club an everyman?
- The "coming of age film" - see influential films: Rebel Without a Cause (1955) and The Graduate (1967). http://www.allmovie.com/subgenre/coming-of-age-d959 http://www.edward-norton.org/fc/articles/filmcom.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_Without_a_Cause http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Graduate Is Fight Club a coming of age film?
- The "homoerotic" film http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homoerotic see Top Gun (1986), Chariots of Fire (1981), Eastern Promises (2007) for examples of male relationships critics have described as homoerotic. What examples of homoeroticism can you find within Fight Club? (This would link well with masculinity.)
- Consumerism and the power of advertising http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumerism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_Fight_Club http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/sociology/research/publications/papers/diken-laustsen-enjoy-your-fight.pdf http://www.domspe.org/fight_club/soc_fightclub3.html http://www.academia.edu/193320/Diagnosing_Chuck_Palahniuks_Fight_Club http://journalism.uoregon.edu/~cbybee/j388/ideological.html http://writing.colostate.edu/gallery/talkingback/issue1/briggs.htm http://voices.yahoo.com/the-movie-fight-club-uses-aggression-masculinity-1833384.html?cat=40 http://masonmediacrit.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/consumed-by-consumerism-narrative.html http://writing.colostate.edu/gallery/talkingback/issue1/briggs.htm http://www.academia.edu/3789929/Cults_Consumerism_and_the_Construction_of_Self_Exploring_the_Religious_within_Fight_Club What part does consumerism play within Fight Club? (You can link this to the corporation section.)
- Corporate America and economic globalisation. http://www.globalissues.org/issue/50/corporations http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/problem_with_corporations.pd What does the film say about corporations?
- Dissociative personality disorder / depersonalisation disorder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depersonalization_disorder Can these conditions be seen in the narrator, and if so, when? (Link this to Freud and also 'states of consciousness'.)
- Freud: the Id, ego and super-ego http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freud#Id.2C_ego_and_super-ego http://www.mediationsjournal.org/articles/the-anti-anti-oedipus http://voices.yahoo.com/pyschoanalysis-fight-club-236007.html?cat=9 http://www.scribd.com/doc/93254/A-Mind-Struggle-Fight-Club http://www.personal.psu.edu/kdm5182/blogs/novel_psychology/2010/02/revisiting-fight-club.html http://www.burcu-arikan.com/?page_id=142 http://chuckpalahniuk.net/files/papers/fight-for-self-marc-price.pdf How can this psychological approach be applied to Fight Club?
- Nietzsche and the "ubermensch" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nietzche#.C3.9Cbermensch http://www.academia.edu/193320/Diagnosing_Chuck_Palahniuks_Fight_Club Is Nietzsche's idea of the ubermensch a valid critical approach, and if so why? (It's a good idea to do Nietzsche in conjunction with a fascist approach and you could include re-education as well.)
- Nihilism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihilism http://axisofaccess.blogspot.co.uk/2008/03/fight-club-and-nihilism.html Where in the film is a nihilistic attitude represented?
- Buddhism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism See here for this approach: http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol11no2/ReedFightClub.htm
- Nazism / fascism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/sociology/papers/diken-laustsen-enjoy-your-fight.pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_Fight_Club http://www.academia.edu/193320/Diagnosing_Chuck_Palahniuks_Fight_Club http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0000190.cfm http://newhistories.group.shef.ac.uk/wordpress/wordpress/?p=2412 What elements of fascist ideology, behaviour, clothing etc. can be seen in Fight Club? Is it a Nazi or fascist film?
- Marxist / anti-capitalist http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist#Criticism_of_capitalism http://www.religiousthought.com/papers/durdenmarxist.pdf http://taftese.tripod.com/other/fightclub.html http://www.nd.edu/~olizardo/papers/jcr-fight-club.pdf http://scottsommers.wordpress.com/what-i-think-about-the-story-of-fight-club/ http://pmcconachie.typepad.com/blog/2010/05/socrates-marx-and-durden-philosophical-fight-club.html http://pcasacas.org/SiPC/29.1/29.1%20Bishop.pdf http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/sociology/papers/diken-laustsen-enjoy-your-fight.pdf http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~ortegon/portfolio/documents/Ortegon_FightClub_Thesis.pdf http://www.domspe.org/fight_club/soc_fightclub3.html http://www.academia.edu/193320/Diagnosing_Chuck_Palahniuks_Fight_Club http://journalism.uoregon.edu/~cbybee/j388/ideological.html http://www.mediationsjournal.org/articles/the-anti-anti-oedipus
- "Re-education" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainwashing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reeducation_camp How important is re-education or brainwashing in Fight Club? (Can be linked to historical groups such as the SS, Khymer Rouge etc.)
- Emasculation / masculinity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculinity (read 'Masculinity in crisis') http://2013.neutralmagazine.com/article/fight-club-and-masculinity/ http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue8/fightclub.html http://www.criticism.com/md/fightclub.html http://www.domspe.org/fight_club/soc_fightclub3.html http://www.livereal.com/movies/fight_club.htm http://pmc.iath.virginia.edu/text-only/issue.503/13.3friday.txt http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/sociology/research/publications/papers/diken-laustsen-enjoy-your-fight.pdf http://www.academia.edu/3789929/Cults_Consumerism_and_the_Construction_of_Self_Exploring_the_Religious_within_Fight_Club How and why are men 'emasculated' in Fight Club? What actions reverse the trend? Do you think their behaviour makes them more manly?
- 'Retro-noir' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_Fight_Club
- 'Slumming trauma' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_Fight_Club
- 'States of consciousness' (psychological approach) http://old.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id1497/pg1/index.html
- http://metaphilm.com/index.php/search/results/1adb2f1e7b15f41299d57bc1c34e094d/
- Love story http://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/13377/entertainment/fight_club_a_classic_love_story.html http://www.rogerebert.com/scanners/fight-club-at-ten-a-love-story http://filmschoolrejects.com/features/the-stretch-find-true-love-in-fight-club.php
- Misogynistic http://ilovethatfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/fight-club-feminism-and-misogyny-a2.html
- Anti-feminist
Monday, 26 November 2012
Monday, 15 October 2012
Marking Criteria for the Research Project -FM3
Annotated Catalogue (10-15 items, approximately 1000 words)
• Items selected from both primary and secondary research with an excellent sense of relevance to their chosen topic
• Broad range of material selected from diverse sources, suggesting excellent research
• Excellent notes on reasons for their selection
• Excellent reasons offered to explain why certain items were not selected for inclusion in the catalogue.
Presentation Script (approximately 1500 words)
• Excellent insight into chosen research area of investigation demonstrated
• Considerable evidence that a broad range of ideas has been developed during the investigation
• Excellently well-structured presentation script with explicit reference to key items of research from the annotated catalogue
• All examples used in the presentation will be well-chosen and relevant, contributing important ideas to the area of investigation.
Quality of written communication
• Excellently structured and accurate use of appropriate language to communicate clearly
This criteria is for the top band (Level 4)
Tuesday, 9 October 2012
Homework
Please note that homework/independent work will be posted here: http://www.showmyhomework.co.uk/thehoward
Monday, 2 July 2012
How to add video from DVDs into your research project presentation
First you need to download MakeMKV from here http://makemkv.com/ or use a PC in school that has the program pre-installed.
This is a very easy program to use and if you read the short instructions, you will know everything you need to http://www.makemkv.com/onlinehelp/
Basically, you are going to copy the DVD (or parts of it) onto the hard drive of a PC, so that you can then edit sequences from the film in an editing program such as Moviemaker or Premiere Pro.
Rather than copy all the DVD (which takes up a lot of space on the hard drive) you can just copy the "titles" (sections of the DVD) that you need - these contain the "chapters" (or scenes) that you will use in your presentation.
Make sure you choose the destination folder for the video so that you can find it once the "conversion" (save) has taken place.
After you have saved the DVD titles to your hard drive, go the destination folder. You will see that the video is saved as a .mkv file. You need to right click this file and rename it by changing the .mkv part to .mpg.
Now you should be able to import your .mpg file into an editing program and trim the sequences that you want for your presentation. Bear in mind that if you try to import a complete film into your editing program in one go, it will probably crash it! Whenever you are editing, remember to save regularly - editing uses a lot of RAM and programs frequently freeze.
Once you have finished editing, you can export ("Save to my computer" - Moviemaker) your clips into a format that will allow you to insert them into Powerpoint or Open Office Impress. For example, if you edit in Moviemaker you can export your sequence as a DVI-AVI (PAL) file which will open in Powerpoint. In Premiere Pro you could export as H.264, MPEG or WMV (Windows Media Video), all of which should open in Impress. WMV should open in Powerpoint as it is a Microsoft file.
A good explanation of supported file formats in Impress can be found here http://www.tcaps.net/Portals/0/technology/training_docs/OpenOffice/ImpressVideo.pdf
To add video to Impress you need to "Insert" - "Movie and Sound". Make sure that you save the video on to your memory stick and insert it from the memory stick, otherwise when you come to do your presentation the video will be missing. When you save the presentation, save it as ODF Presentation (.odp).
To add video to Powerpoint, you need to "Insert" - "Movie". With Powerpoint you can embed your videos in the presentation so that you don't have to carry separate video files with you - everything will be combined. To do this, you first have to click on the 'Office button' in the top left of the screen. Then hover your cursor over 'Publish' and choose 'Package for CD'. A box appears; click on 'options'. Check (tick) the 'linked files' option. Click 'ok'. Then click 'copy to folder'. Choose your title and destination and click 'ok'. Click 'yes' when you are questioned about linked files. Click 'close' once the files have been combined into one and you are done! You now have a single folder with your presentation and video. When you open the folder and click on the Powerpoint file, it will have your video embedded in the presentation.
Good luck! It may require a little trial and error, but you will get there if you persevere.
This is a very easy program to use and if you read the short instructions, you will know everything you need to http://www.makemkv.com/onlinehelp/
Basically, you are going to copy the DVD (or parts of it) onto the hard drive of a PC, so that you can then edit sequences from the film in an editing program such as Moviemaker or Premiere Pro.
Rather than copy all the DVD (which takes up a lot of space on the hard drive) you can just copy the "titles" (sections of the DVD) that you need - these contain the "chapters" (or scenes) that you will use in your presentation.
Make sure you choose the destination folder for the video so that you can find it once the "conversion" (save) has taken place.
After you have saved the DVD titles to your hard drive, go the destination folder. You will see that the video is saved as a .mkv file. You need to right click this file and rename it by changing the .mkv part to .mpg.
Now you should be able to import your .mpg file into an editing program and trim the sequences that you want for your presentation. Bear in mind that if you try to import a complete film into your editing program in one go, it will probably crash it! Whenever you are editing, remember to save regularly - editing uses a lot of RAM and programs frequently freeze.
Once you have finished editing, you can export ("Save to my computer" - Moviemaker) your clips into a format that will allow you to insert them into Powerpoint or Open Office Impress. For example, if you edit in Moviemaker you can export your sequence as a DVI-AVI (PAL) file which will open in Powerpoint. In Premiere Pro you could export as H.264, MPEG or WMV (Windows Media Video), all of which should open in Impress. WMV should open in Powerpoint as it is a Microsoft file.
A good explanation of supported file formats in Impress can be found here http://www.tcaps.net/Portals/0/technology/training_docs/OpenOffice/ImpressVideo.pdf
To add video to Impress you need to "Insert" - "Movie and Sound". Make sure that you save the video on to your memory stick and insert it from the memory stick, otherwise when you come to do your presentation the video will be missing. When you save the presentation, save it as ODF Presentation (.odp).
To add video to Powerpoint, you need to "Insert" - "Movie". With Powerpoint you can embed your videos in the presentation so that you don't have to carry separate video files with you - everything will be combined. To do this, you first have to click on the 'Office button' in the top left of the screen. Then hover your cursor over 'Publish' and choose 'Package for CD'. A box appears; click on 'options'. Check (tick) the 'linked files' option. Click 'ok'. Then click 'copy to folder'. Choose your title and destination and click 'ok'. Click 'yes' when you are questioned about linked files. Click 'close' once the files have been combined into one and you are done! You now have a single folder with your presentation and video. When you open the folder and click on the Powerpoint file, it will have your video embedded in the presentation.
Good luck! It may require a little trial and error, but you will get there if you persevere.
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