Blaise's A-Level Media Blog 1// Mr Bush

Talk about it This film is about a young black man growing up in a poor area of an American city.  Based on other films you have seen, what expectations do you have about its main character, and the sort of film this may be? Based on previous films I get the idea that the film will have quite a negative portrayal of black males. Many films based around this topic show them involved with gangs, drugs and violence. The idea of racism may be shown as black people are still often frowned upon. I expect the film to tell the story of a black male showing his struggles and the different issues he has to face throughout his upbringing. Discussion points • Chiron is a character of few words. Why is this? Chiron doesn't say much as he's been brought up by a mother who verbally abuses him and doesn't give him the love and support he needs. She is a drug addict who can barely look after herself let alone a young boy. All her funds clearly go towards her drug habit meaning her

Find the opening sequence to a film or TV drama of your choice on YouTube and e mbed the video in a blogpost called 'Cinematography blog tasks'. (First one minute)     1) Write an analysis of the cinematography in the opening sequence.  Highlight your use of media language and try to cover camera shots, angles and movement using the terminology we have learned in lessons. (First one minute) We expect a film to begin with a typical  establishing shot  so we are able to get some kind of information on what to expect through the film. The  establishing shot  shows the audience the setting so we can get some kind of feel for the film. The beginning of this film however  subverts  what we typically expect as it starts with a  long shot  in quite a confined space. This generates  enigma codes  as we begin questioning where we are and what's happening. The camera starts of still and then changes to a  backwards tracking shot  so we are able to follow the characters movement.

The video I have created explores a number of different camera shots, angles and movement. I have used a school setting as it was convenient and it was easy to create different shots which were clear to identify. I have labelled each shot so it is clear to see the differences between shots and I have cut them together so they begin to tell a story. I have put music behind the video and removed all audio from the videos to make it of a higher quality and to make the video more interesting to watch. In total I have explored around 14 different kinds of shots which all are used to create and portray different things and meanings.

Video feedback/learner response 1) Type up your feedback from your teacher. - Your cross cutting was clever - Good montage with clear differences (parallel and contrapuntal) - Well edited - Some of your clips didn't really work 2) Now reflect on your work and write your own comments. Add three WWWs and three EBIs underneath the rest of your feedback. WWW: My editing was of high quality (cross cutting) I jumped from parallel to contrapuntal clips instead of using just one parallel and contrapuntal clip The speed wasn't too slow or fast so the different clips were clear to understand EBI: The carnival clips didn't fit in as well as some of the other clips The music just stopped suddenly instead of fading out slowly Some of the clips were quite dark making it hard to see them 3) L earner response: Whose did you think was best and why? How could you have improved your own video? Personally I thought Aranjit's work was the best. The clips he used fitted wel