AS Media 2009-10: Work Brief

Hi, my name is Ben Halliday, an AS Media Student studying at Suffolk New College in Ipswich. From here, you'll be able to see what I've been up to on my course, track progress and find out what my course is actually about as I regularly post blog updates, videos, pictures and ideas for my final piece. Here is a breif summary of what's expected of me during my first year of A Level Media:

As we have been introduced to the world of film noir, after extensive research, getting used to the wide range of equipment and learning more about the style of film, the brief comes down to one thing: a 2 minute opening sequence for a film noir.

After making a preliminary video, we will work on planning and create ideas in order to construct a final, detailed idea on how will we recreate the style of a film noir using contemporary imagery. We have been asked to update the genre and add a modern feel to it, bringing in modern values, ideas, narrative and mood whilst still retaining that of a film noir. Working in groups of 4, we will all have different responsibilies in this piece and will have to produce individual work, planning and blog posts corresponding to that role.

We will put to use everything we learn in lessons and from our preliminary exercise in this video and show how far we have progressed. Skills such as cinematography, editing, direction, sound and performance will be displayed from experience and this blog will keep you informed of the progress we've made on this course.

The age certificate we should aim for is a 15-18 because of the dark, sinister, quite angular nature of the genre. Anything under this age rating and we wouldn't be able to fully exploit this large quality of noirs.

Over the course of the AS year, we have three components to the course:

1. Research + Planning: To be posted on this blog.
2. Finished Product: Which is the video I briefly explained above, mastered on to a DVD.
3. Evaluation: Also posted on this blog, reflectively analysing the opening sequence with examples of work in the form of pictures, video, powerpoints or actual footage.