Section A on the AS FM2 paper concerns ‘Producers and Audiences’ and requires you to be able to respond to resource material before bringing in your own examples from your wider viewing. To help you revise for this topic you should do the following:

Buy a Film Magazine - Empire, Total Film, Sight and Sound or Little White Lies. What type of film audience is this aimed at? How can you tell? What information does it have about films?

Buy a newspaper and read the film review section – Broadsheet newspapers such as the Guardian, The Independent, The Times or the Telegraph will all have a review section on a Friday or in their Sunday edition. What is film of the week? How does this choice relate to the audience for the paper?

Watch trailers online – choose 2-3 trailers for films that you would not normally watch. Who do you think the target audience is? Why?

Watch Film 2009 – use the BBC iPlayer to watch Film 2009, how is film presented on TV? What type of films do they focus on?

Look at a film website – vary what you look at from ‘Ain’t it cool news‘ to a film specific site. Who is the site aimed at? How can you tell?

Look at listings – look to see what is on in the Cambridge cinemas and contrast it with another city. Do cinemas in Birmingham show the same films? Why might the film choice be different?

The other thing to do is to attend revision workshops. These are Monday 12.20-12.50 in the LRC, Wednesday 13.05-14.00 in G23 and Friday 10.50-11.20 in the LRC. For any other help please ask your teacher

Tags: producers and audiences, Revision, workshop
Posted in FM2 Producers & Audiences

It was a very successful Oscars for the British this year with Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle and Kate Winslet all being winners. The Final outcome was as follows:

• Best Picture = Slumdog Millionaire
• Best Director = Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
• Best Foreign Language Film =Departures (Japan)
• Best Documentary = Man on Wire
• Best Actor = Sean Penn (Milk)
• Best Actress = Kate Winselt (The Reader)
• Best Supporting Actor = Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
• Best Supporting Actress = Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)

What do you think of the Oscars?  Have you seen any of these films? What did you thnk? Will winning an Oscar make you go and watch a film? Why?

Posted in FM2 Producers & Audiences, News

The nominations for this years Oscars have been announced with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionaire, The Reader, Frost/Nixon and Milk all nominated for Best Film. It is possible for you to watch Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon and Milk this week as they are all at cinemas in Cambridge. For more on the Oscars the BBC has a page dedicated to it and it also features Mark Kermodes predictions. It is worth following the Oscars to see what impact winning best film has on box office recipts and also on the directors and casts careers.

Posted in FM2 Producers & Audiences, FM3 Short Film

Following on from last years successful trip to New York we are pleased to be running the trip again. The trip includes numerous visits to the cinema to watch a variety of films, a trip to the Museum of the Moving Image, a visit to the Empire State Building and much more. The trip is open to all AS Film students and we will be going with Photography. For more information please see your class teacher.

Tags: New York
Posted in FM2 Producers & Audiences, News

Cloverfield is the new film by producer JJ Abrahams who is most well known for the TV show Lost. One of the key features of Lost, apart from having no overall plot is that it used the Internet to promote the show and offer fans the opportunity to find out more about the show and characters. This has been replicated through the online marketing for Cloverfield. The links below will take you to articles about this.

• Movie marketing madness article
• BBC News article about Cloverfield marketing
• Article considering how other ‘brands’ can learn from Cloverfield
• Article about viral marketing and Cloverfield

It would be very useful for you to read at least a couple of these articles. The links will also go onto moodle so that you can access them from there as well.

Posted in FM2 Producers & Audiences