FILM STUDIES: DISASTER FILMS

SKY Premier is screening Cloverfield next Saturday. This is part of your study of disaster movies.

QUESTION: how long has it been since this film was released at the cinema in the UK and it being shown on for the first time on SKY?

CHINA: CELEBRATING THE FESTIVAL OF THE LANTERNS

YESTERDAY evening (18.02.09) I attended the Manchester Chinese Centre for the Festival of the Lanterns. Nine students also attended and met the Lord Mayor of Manchester in their roles as Youth Ambassadors to China. The Lord Mayor was impressed at the students’ knowledge of China and said she had visited Shanghai and Wuhan recently. She gave the students some excellent tips regarding Chinese food and the art of haggling.

Then the lantern festival commenced. We gathered outside at the back courtyard of the centre while the lanterns were prepared. The lanterns are a cross between kites and hot-air balloons and come in all shapes and sizes. They are lit beneath like hot-air balloons and this gives them their lift. The festival is also in-part, a version of Valentine’s Day so there were red, heart shaped lanterns taking to the Ardwick night skies. This was followed by a demonstration of traditional Chinese music, a martial arts display and even a dragon made an appearance with the assistance of the children, who attend the centre for lessons in their cultural heritage.

Following the festivities outside, we returned to the warmth of the centre for a buffet of delicious Chinese cuisine. Our students enjoyed the food immensely and many went back for seconds and thirds! It was a highly enjoyable evening and all credit to Jenny Wong and her colleagues for organizing such a unique and fun evening.

For a slide show of the evening scroll down the sidebar on the right of my blog.

NEW POLL!

I've just started a new poll to find out which platforms you generally watch films on. List up to three answers please.

THE RETURN OF THE MAD MEN

One of the best TV shows of 2008; Mad Men returns for its second series on BBC4. Set in the cut-throat world of advertising, the series pulls no punches as each character vies to climb to the top of the greasy pole that is the American Dream.

The series begins in the late 1950s at the fictional Sterling Cooper advertising agency on New York City's Madison Avenue. The show centers on Don Draper, a high-level advertising executive, (a man not without skeletons in his well-appointed closet) and the people in his life in and out of the office. It also depicts the accepted attitudes of 1960s America.

In a similar vein to Life on Mars, viewing this series through the eyes of the 21st Century, the work and home place of the characters seem like another planet. Political correctness does not exist. All the top jobs are held by men. The outlet for women's intelligence, in order to compensate for the power-imbalance lies through manipulation: a combination of seething sexuality and bitchiness.

The executives begin their working day with a stiff scotch and continue as they started. The air is full of cigarette smoke and four hour lunch breaks are not uncommon. Women are there to serve and service the men. They not only prettify the office but are the butt of crude innuendo and the overbearing attention of their male colleagues. The frustration and fear is tangible even beneath the heavy make-up but sexism has not been given a name yet and feminism is a belief held by only a minority of cranks. Similarity homosexuality does not exist - period. The gay male and female characters succumb to a life of conformity: "straight acting" and leading lonely, miserable lives.

The series is well-realised with fantastic attention given to characterisation and the nuances of the age. A memorable scene for me was when an adult slaps his neighbour's son (in front of the neighbour), without any remorse or fear of recrimination because the boy was playing up and misbehaving.

The second series begins Valentine's Day 1962: guaranteed there will be little love in the air...

If you haven't seen the first series, I would strongly recommend you rent it or borrow it from somebody who owns the box-set. Alternatively, if you're flush you could buy series one. You will be watching it several times over so it does have re-usability!

BELLS AND WHISTLES!

Please check out the new features to the site including:

• a comments box - just click on the heading to each post to add your own comment and join in the debate
• a share button so that you can send any post to friends, colleagues etc. or store it in your own saved area

Please try it out, I'll be grateful for your feedback.

CHINA

Check out the slideshow on the side-bar for photographs from Summer 2008.

FILM STUDIES: COURSEWORK

For all the financial details of the film you have chosen to research, you will find "The Numbers" website extremely useful. Click the link below and add it to your list of favourite websites.

http://www.the-numbers.com/

FILM STUDIES: COURSEWORK INDUSTRY FORM

You will need the industry form to complete your coursework.

Download from this site:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/5ymzddjzitd/Industry form fixed.doc

FILM STUDIES GCSE

A "map" of your course can be found here including studying tips and my expectations of you.

The guide breaks down the coursework units you will be studying and the topics for your examinations.

Click the link below to download your guide.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/myvwlm5ngou/film_studies_gcse_1.doc

MEDIA STUDIES: HORROR POSTER

Download this poster here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/lnznmwkoezt/amityville poster.docx

FILM STUDIES: YEAR 10. FILM ANALYSIS SHEET

Download the film analysis sheet here:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zqzdmmtjetx/Film Analysis Sheet.docx

ENGLISH YEAR 10: BACK IN THE PLAYGROUND BLUES

The question sheet for this poem can be downloaded here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?zfntznm3yhm

FILM STUDIES YEAR 10

One of my favourite scenes from any Mel Brooks film. The "werewolf" scene from his 1977 film "High Anxiety", a spoof of Alfred Hitchcock movies. Apologies for the contributor to Youtube - I think s/he meant "scene".

FILM STUDIES YEAR 10

It seems that following our consideration of spoof, comedy, the surreal and parody in film, many of you have become great fans of Mel Brooks, especially Menka.

Here is a clip from another Brook's film I would recommend: Young Frankenstein. For reasons I shall not go into here, Doctor Frankenstein and the monster are about to give a rendition of Irving Berlin's "Putting on the Ritz".



Here is a link to Mel Brooks's biography at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Brooks

MEDIA YEAR 10 PERFECT CINEMA

As part of our "perfect cinema" coursework, here's the opening to the "Phantom of the Megaplex", from the Walt Disney company.

This gives a good overview of the different jobs in a megaplex. You can catch the rest of the story on Youtube or on The Disney Channel.

Can you remember what is the difference between a Megaplex and a Multiplex?

FILM STUDIES YEAR 10 TSOTSI

As part of our study of films outside Hollywood we will be "reading" Tsotsi, in my opinion one of the best "foreign" films of the last decade. The film is set in South Africa.

Here is the music video to the film.

The language is Zulu.

YEAR 10 ENGLISH: POETRY - BACK IN THE PLAYGROUND BLUES

MONDAY, PERIOD 3.

We will be analysing this poem. Ensure you have completed your homework in readiness of this lesson.

What could be the possible meanings of the word "blues"?

The poet Adrian Mitchell once said, "Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people."

What do you think he meant by this?