AQA ENGLISH GCSE AND ENGLISH LITERATURE GCSE: REVISION

A very useful site to help you with your revision is Mr Luhr's English Online.  Click on the link below to take you there:

http://www.mrluhrs.co.uk/revision.html

There you will find an excellent explanation of the course details and information on what each Paper contains. There are also useful revision notes on how to approach each paper. I want you to visit this site by Wednesday and report back to me. I will be asking...

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WATCH WATCHMEN

"Who watches the Watchmen? " ask the concerned citizens of the USA during the film. Anyone who enjoys bringing their brain into the auditorium instead of leaving it by the popcorn counter would be my reply.

If you go to see this film expecting Spiderman teen-angst, Superman heroics or Batman pseudo-Freudian trauma, then this is not the movie for you. However if you want a film that stimulates the mind as well as the senses I recommend it without reservation.

It's pointless giving you a synopsis of the film - you can find this at IMDB or in Total Film or Empire magazines and their sister sites. I can only tell you my personal response and that was to be gripped by an intelligent storyline and not feel that the two and half hours of my life I had invested in this movie had been wasted. Also, I wanted to watch it again.

Whether seeing Watchmen on an IMAX screen contributed to such a positive experience will remain a matter of conjecture until I see it on a standard screen or on Blu-Ray in 6 months time. It is a film that's made for IMAX: epic and bold, visually stunning and riveted together by a savvy, intelligent script. The casting is crucial here: not one real-headlining, big-batter star but highly skilled and accomplished ensemble. Fine actors all. Most of them are familiar but would not instantly spring to mind to be of blockbuster, high budget calibre. Of course whether this is a blockbuster is debatable. The audience is limited in terms of box-office as it received an 18 certificate in the UK. Is this reasonable? Probably.

Arguably it is no more extreme than Zack Snyder's two earlier outings: Dawn of the Dead and the choreographed violence of 300 but where it oversteps the mark in the censors' eyes has to be two graphic scenes involving firstly an attempted rape and one in which a pregnant woman is shot dead. Again this is a film with very adult themes, deeply political and visceral. This is not to say that it is not entertaining - it has a deep sense of irony and dark humour which is refreshing and characters who are not insular, brooding navel searchers which I find so irritating about the glut of Marvel manifestations appearing on our screens.

Special mention to the opening credits which are stunning and a lesson in how to provide the audience with back-story with brevity and without the use of text or the dreaded voice over. For a moment I thought I was watching a Saul Bass sequence such was its refinement and story-telling energy that complemented the narrative moving it forward without one wasted shot.

The theme of anti-hero is timely and it is sobering to remember that this "unfilmable" film has taken nearly twenty years to be realised going through a sway of screen-writers, directors and
actors penciled in for the parts including Arnold Schwarzenegger. The creator of the graphic novel Alan Moore told Terry Gilliam as he (Gilliam) gave up on the project that the "War and Peace" of graphic novels was impossible to film as this art-form was impossible to emulate in terms of film and literature. Even if the film must undoubtedly be Watchmen-Lite, the spirit and the themes within the original novel are realised and all credit to the screenwriters David Hayter and Alex Tse in achieving this.

As for the IMAX. I pity anybody who sits on the first six rows. The cinema announcer welcomed us to the evening's screening and gave advice on what to do if anyone should feel dizziness or nausea or perhaps a combination of the two. I can't see how anybody positioned so close to the front can gain a positive experience of the screen. I think you would need the eyes positioned like a bullfrog or a chameleon to benefit from such proximity.

Ticket prices were £9.00 and £10.00 for the central VIP seats. The seats are comfortable with plenty of leg-room. One issue with The Printworks cinema I attended: the escalators are inadequate for the volume of people exiting the cinema at the end of the performance especially as the screen is housed at the top floor. This leads to a bottle-neck and a delay when leaving and potential crushing if other screens are exiting at the same time.

FILM STUDIES: WATCHMEN

Off to see "Watchmen " at the IMAX on Thursday. It's rated 18 so I'll report back.  Two and a half hours is a stretch so the decision to see it on IMAX is a bid to make the most of this time and hopefully my attention will not wane! 

Here's the trailer:

AT LAST - WISE BLOOD OUT ON DVD

At last it's happened, the long wait in the wilderness is over.  John Huston's satirical masterpiece Wise Blood has finally been released on DVD.

No longer will I and other admirers of this great film have to scour the Internet in search of grainy and truncated versions and suffer eye-strain and loss of patience and the feed dies or freezes. 

Restored to its former glory,  the DVD also features interviews with the main cast including Brad Dourif who gives the best performance of his life.  Despite the obvious talent of Dourif, he, like the film, has been lost in the wilderness some thirty years since its release in 1979.  Despite a scattering of roles in David Lynch films, an Oscar nomination for One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and a memorable slot on the X-Files, his appearances have been too infrequent, his talent little utilised.  

That is until now.  He has appeared recently in Werner Herzog's Wild Blue Yonder and is pencilled in for two more of the great German director's forthcoming features.  About time too.

I'll let you into a secret. I'm a sucker for any story from the Deep South.  I think it all began when I read William Faulkner in my teens, first his short stories and then the novels including Absalom, Absalom and the Sound and the Fury.  The South is not a place it is more a state of mind. A primeval landscape  peopled by every eccentric imaginable and stories that are deeply Gothic and hysterical.   Honour sits squarely with racism, old world values, meanness and generosity, misguided loyalty, honour and red-neck justice all mix like a Bourbon mash with a dash of sourness at losing the  American Civil War. The American South is a heady mixture of the righteous and the venal at one and the same time, in one and the same person...  

Wise Blood has eccentrics a plenty and some.  A seemingly blind preacher, a belief that the motor car is a means of salvation above and beyond religion itself and the establishment of  the "Church of Christ Without Christ".   Based on Flannery O'Connor's debut novel, Huston's film is true to the writer's spirit.  Much of her peerless dialogue is lifted straight from the page.  Huston by this time was box-office poison and living the life of a recluse in Mexico.  He had been ill for some time and was uninsurable.  The film was not financed in America but relied on German investment in order for it to be made on a modest budget.   

Huston was an inspired choice of director and even has a cameo role as a fire-breathing preacher shown in flashback.  Look out also for Harry Dean Stanton as preacher Asa Hawks and his daughter Sabbath (Amy Wright).  All perfectly cast in this all too long-awaited film release.

  

 

 

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FILM STUDIES: QUIZ

This is a photograph from the Kitchen in Alcatraz prison, San Francisco. Can you think of a purpose for this device? First correct answer before Friday wins an Alien Key Ring! No expense spared as usual!

FILM STUDIES: QUIZ SHEET

Download the quiz sheet from here:


http://www.mediafire.com/?zudywztymd4

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?

YEAR 10 ENGLISH: POETRY - BACK IN THE PLAYGROUND BLUES

Consider the meanings of blues in this poem. Here's classic "blues" from the legendary Albert King, the Blues number is "Born Under A Bad Sign".

Gilbert & George "Bend It"

Amazing as usual: a national treasure.

Where's Captain Kirk? (A Spizzenergi classic)

Following the enquiries from Year 10 Media about the piece of music I was playing to the film clip it is non other than Spizzenergi's "Where's Captain Kirk". How could Capt. Luke Picard ever hope to match James Tiberius in his prime?

Ted Chippington - Pull Up

Rumour has it that Ted Chippington is making a comeback and about time too! Here's his classic "Pull Up".

The Fall - hit the north

Here's "Hit the North" by Frank Sidebottom tribute band The Fall. Only joking - the original song from the sublime Mark E. Smith & Co.

FRANK SIDEBOTTOM

This is for Natasha in Year 9. She wondered why Frank Sidebottom would be one of the people I would take on a desert island with me. Little Frank too - of course!

Yes it really is Paul Ryder on guitar and some guy called David Soul, yes David Soul AKA Hutch of Starsky and Hutch fame and Jerry Springer the Musical.

YEAR 10 ENGLISH JOHN COOPER-CLARKE

Apparently you'll always get a guy with a pie... more pearls of wisdom from JCC.

YEAR 10 ENGLISH JOHN COOPER-CLARKE

Following on from our examination of "I Wanna Be Yours" by JCC. Here's his classic "Health Fanatic".

YEAR 10 FILM STUDIES: COURSEWORK

Your second homework for tomorrow is to choose the film you will use for the micro analysis of a scene. Make sure your scene is able to include all the ideas and concepts we discussed in class today.

One of the early sequences from "Saving Private Ryan" when the troops land on the Normandy beaches is a particular favourite of mine however harrowing its subject matter and imagery.

The last minutes on board The Titanic in the James Cameron film of the same name is equally capable of promoting good critical and analytical writing from you.

Others might include the "stand off" in the film "The Good The Bad and The Ugly" or the fight in the trees in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" or the bamboo battle in "House of Daggers".

Maybe a romantic moment from a romcom or a great musical number from a....musical!

It's your choice but make sure you think carefully when choosing the scene.

WELCOME YEAR 10 FILM STUDIES STUDENTS!

Following on from today's lesson, here is one of your homework tasks for tomorrow.
We have been "reading" Master and Commander, The Far Side of the World". Answer the following questions and the first four of you who hand me or send me the correct answers will receive prizes. Yes, send me is a hint -look around the site and find out how you can do this.

1. What nationality is the director Peter Weir?

2. Write down the names of four other films he has directed.

3. Who wrote the series of books on which Master and Commander is based?

4. What is the name of the character played by Russell Crowe and in which famous soap did the actor appear early in his career?
GENIUS QUESTION

Earn an extra prize if you can answer this very difficult question. What is the connection between this film and the famous naturalist Charles Darwin (he of the theory of Evolution fame)?

Good luck. I look forward to receiving your answers.

YEAR 10 COURSEWORK

TUESDAY: LESSON PERIOD 3

Two podcasts on "The Little Boy Lost/Found" have been created for you to download or to listen to. You can listen to them at this site or listen to and/or download
at http://evansmedia.podbean.com/

The podcasts are in MP3 format so that they will load easily onto your mobile or player. They will also take up little space.

If you need help dowloading/playing or accessing the site all you have to do is ask.

"Fire and Ice" and "Captain, My Captain" are on their way!

YEAR 10 POETRY COURSEWORK

William Blake poems "The Little Boy Lost/Found"



In Monday''s lesson, period 3 we will be examining the different emotions found within these two short poems. Remember that in your essay you will be required to discuss these emotions and how language is used to support/reveal/heighten them.

Following our discussion of the James Bulger case and the article from the BBC News website, here is a link to the Wikipedia site

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

THE SITE'S FAME SPREADS TO... NORWAY!

Where did we go right?

Trawling the web I find that my site is listed on the Norwegian Education site Eniro. I seem to be listed with such big-hitters as IMDB and the BFI.

Here's the link which lists some (other!) useful websites.

http://kartor.eniro.fi/query?what=wrel&search_word=www.mediaedu.co.uk%20&lang=sv

MEDIA/FILM STUDIES: ZOMBIES FROM THE ID

Over the holidays I had the opportunity to watch the fantastic Channel Four "Dead Set" drama series written by the peerless Charlie Brooker - he of "Screenwipe" fame. The premise is that the "Big Brother" household is unaware that the UK has been ravaged by zombies. Yes, plenty of scope for social commentary, no shopping malls but TV studio and sets are the target for the zombies who amass outside its gates. The appearance of Davina McCall and other notaries/celebrities playing themselves adds a certain reality to the mock-reality TV conceit.

Purists beware: these zombies can move. They are exocet fast ala Zack Snyder rather than the lumbering death vehicles of George Romero.

Here's a link to the trailer for "Dead Set". Beware, this series is not for the faint-hearted and many of the scenes are graphic and truly harrowing. If you scare easily this is not for you:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=HQjq639WPiU


Follow this link to a scholarly article by Simon Pegg which appeared in the Guardian. Pegg is a purist and makes many interesting comments on what zombies represent in terms of our subconscious. Also he quite correctly makes the point that "28 Days Later" is not a zombie film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285482/board/thread/121956013?d=121986156&p=1#121986156

Personally I like my zombies fast and furious.

MEDIA: NEW DOCTOR WHO ANNOUNCED

Perhaps it's not the fact that Matt Smith is the youngest actor (26) to play the Doctor but that millions of people were actually bothered enough to tune to BBC 1 on Saturday to find out demonstrating not only the pulling power of the show but the miracle of regenerating (apologies!) the once staid, boring, cheap and irrelevant show into something which contemporary, dynamic and fun.

Can you name all the actors who have played the Doctor on the three mediums of TV, film and radio?

The longer Matt Smith interview here:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wishing you all a Happy and Successful New Year!

Oh and ABBA also wish you the same...

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Following the film "Glory" here are some photographs of the memorial to Robert Gould Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. The memorial is in Boston Massachusetts at the edge of Boston Common and is well worth visiting.

NEW POLL - QUANTUM OF SOLACE

Don't forget to vote in our new poll below.

Last poll results: Best Bond - Sean Connery was top dog 55% with Young pretender Daniel Craig second on 40%. Also rans: RogerMoore, P Brosnan, T Dalton in that order - even David Niven ranked above George Lasenby who gained 1 vote - somebody being ironic I guess (hope!). Thank you to all who took part.

FILM STUDIES: THE UNTOUCHABLES

Following on from our "reading" of The Untouchables, Al Capone was never convicted with murder but with tax evasion. He was sent to several prisons including the infamous Alcatraz island known as "The Rock". Here is a brief description of The Rock including a mention for Al Capone.





Above top left is a picture of his "mug-shot". Do you think De Niro looked anything like the real Capone in the film? If not, does it matter?

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

Pictures of the actual black soldiers who fought in the American Civil War including Robert Shaw and the 54th Massachusetts.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: GLORY

Following on from Film Studies and Media studies contribution to Black History month...



More information on the fantastic film "Glory" can be found at this link:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097441/

Here's part of the moving finale

YEAR 10 FILM STUDIES - FILM HISTORY Lumière: L'Arrivée d'un train à La Ciotat (1895)

Following on from today's lesson here is an extract from the Lumiere brothers' short film. Can you remember the reaction of the audience when they saw this for the first time?

Why do you think it was important that the Lumiere factory was located in Lyon, in the South of France? A clue lies in the name Lumiere!

YEAR 10: FILM STUDIES TEST

The Lumiere brothers.

Some broad clues for you in preparation for your film test: Revise genre and homage. Also early cinema and a certain country where films were pioneered by the Lumiere brothers.

Are you certain of all your camera angles and shots?

Good luck - prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places!

VISUAL GRAMMAR

A great activity on visual grammar at

http://aspirations.english.cam.ac.uk/converse/movies/visual_grammar.swf

Two That Definately Would Not Available for Children's Parties...

The dummy from British horror classic "Dead of Night" 1945







"Fats" from the film "Magic" 1978