Case Study Links for "The Kings Speech"

The King's Speech as a British Film aimed primarily at UK and US audiences. Several KEY areas for case studies are in capitals and in bold.  (Even though this post is an example of exchange using Web 2.0,  other examples of Exchange will be added later.)


What makes a film British?
The UK Parliament's view from 2003 on what is a British fllm - see page 6 of the report for definitions  Have things changed somewhat since then?


EXHIBITION ISSUES- Box Office in the UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2011/jan/11/kings-speech-127-hours-box-office


EXHIBITION ISSUES and reviews: the film's reception
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/09/kings-speech-philip-french-review
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/jan/18/pass-notes-the-kings-speech
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/8244121/The-Kings-Speech-review.html
http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/89059/the-kings-speech.html
http://www.filmjunk.com/2011/01/06/the-kings-speech-review/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_kings_speech/


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/8285855/Oscar-nominated-film-The-Kings-Speech-littered-with-errors.html (Awards - The Oscars. It is nominated for 12!)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/18/bafta-nominations-kings-speech-2011  (Nominated for 14 Baftas!)
Colin Firth on CBS talks about his role as King George VI with original footage of The King Stammering over his words


Critical Reviews of the Film
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/31/the-kings-speech-gross-falsification (Christopher Hitchens is critical about some aspects of the film's historical accuracy and how this may wrongly influence the movie-going audiences.)


You Tube Reviews (Web 2.0 and EXCHANGE) ( The Americans seem somewhat ahead of us here. Audiences include your friends, too! We should really be aiming at UK audiences but these reviews also help out with the film's reception here and in the US.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GBS1QUOMMU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GBS1QUOMMU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGJqRxU7Aho
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALIHyRpZ0lQ  ( check out posters comments, too, as these review are interractive. Some newspaper reviews also allow Web 2.0 comments too.)
How about making your own review and publishing it on YouTube? You could canvass your friends' opinions about the film first before you produce it!


The Film's facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/TheKingsSpeech


The Film's PRODUCTION ISSUES
The film's PRODUCTION notes
http://www.firth.com/king.html


The Film's origins and how it became a co-production
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/the-kings-speech-if-all-else-should-fail-try-junk-mail-2174647.html  ( The producers had to post the script through Geoffrey Rush's letter box - and received an angry reply from his agent!)
http://www.screendaily.com/home/awards/the-kings-speech/5022661.article  (A key article)
http://wtproductions.co.uk/the-kings-speech.html ( the film began as a play!)


The Finance
The UK Film council contributed towards the financial backing for the film alongside Prescience films, a  UK Film finance company. Harvey Weinstein in the USA also had a share.
http://www.deadline.com/2011/01/the-uk-financier-behind-the-kings-speech/


The King's Speech is a joint production so synergies would have arisen out of the two companies working together.

The PRODUCTION Companies ( the institutions which made the film)
http://www.bedlamproductions.co.uk/news.asp
http://see-saw-films.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/See-Saw_Films
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jan/02/the-kings-speech-period-sets (Helpful for understanding several production issues.)

DISTRIBUTION, Marketing and The Value Chain
Momentum Pictures ,  the film's British DISTRIBUTOR  (This institution created the film's marketing plan and  marketed the film to UK audiences)
http://www.filmeducation.org/pdf/resources/secondary/KingsSpeech.pdf (Useful for the film's posters)


http://www.momentumpictures.co.uk/



The original speech given by King George VI on September 3rd 1939.

Kick Ass as a British Film - Repost

Kick Ass is a worthy study as a British film in Institutions and Audiences. Have a look at Mr Smith's information to aid your study of this film for institutions, audiences, production, marketing, exhibition and exchange. When you get there, scroll down.
http://asanda2mediastudies.blogspot.com/2010/11/some-excellent-resources-on-kick-ass.html

Audience Theories Repost

Click the links

For building audiences by profiling them
http://asanda2mediastudies.blogspot.com/2011/01/audience-profiling-for-building-target.html

For audience theories
http://asanda2mediastudies.blogspot.com/2011/01/audience-theories-including-passive-and.html

Argument against postmodernism

The link to this post.
http://asanda2mediastudies.blogspot.com/2011/01/arguments-against-post-modernism.html

05. g325 contemporary media issues - videogames and postmodernism

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05. g325 contemporary media issues - videogames and postmodernism

View more documents from Alleyn’s School Media Studies Department.

Guide to section a of the exam

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Guide to section a of the exam

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Postmodernism theories and texts

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Postmodernism theories and texts

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Baudrillard The Matrix and Blade Runner Simulation, Hyperreality and Hyperidentities

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Baudrillard The Matrix and Blade Runner Simulation, Hyperreality and Hyperidentities

View more documents from Alleyn’s School Media Studies Department.

Arguments against post modernism

A really good study guide. It has everything you need about this topic! Scroll down to find arguments against. Some of its films suggested for study are somewhat dated. You should focus on modern films for your examples such as "Inception", "Kickass", etc.
http://media.edusites.co.uk/files/Postmodern_Media.pdf  .
Postmodernism: What is it and what is wrong with It?   http://goinside.com/01/1/postmod.html
http://www.as.ua.edu/ant/cultures/cultures.php  (Scroll down arguments against postmodernism)

Interesting points, clearly argued, for and against, here:
http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/postmodernism.htm

Patrick West accepts that post modernism exists. He cannot bring himself to accept the abstract advertising in The Cadbury's Gorilla:
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/4088/

http://asanda2mediastudies.blogspot.com/2009/11/arguments-against-jean-francis-lyotards.html

Audience theories, including passive and active audiences

Audience Theory

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Coleshill Media Site also offers a  snappy, good, visual information on various audience theories, including the hypodermic (passive) and active theories. This is very useful for evaluating your coursework and marketing  plans.
http://coleshillmediasite.weebly.com/g322---audience-theory.html

Audience profiling for building a target audience

Building your audience ( for marketing/distributing and even producing films).

Profiling your target audience for A2 coursework productions

You need to understand the demographic or audience profile for your films, etc. so you can focus your adverting efficiently for your target audience.

Examine your work on thrillers to build an audience profile of who might view your films

Fix upon a specific person. You  could even use a first name for:

• age
• sex
• income level
• education
• tastes in film genres
• tastes in music
• class
• considering technological convergence, the platform they would most likely watch your film
• where in the media, including WEB 2.0, they might find out about your film. This would include social networking sites, like Face Book, etc.
• etc.

Thriller Conventions

Thriller conventions ( with thanks, to Longroadmedia who posted this originally on their blog.)


Obviously, many thrillers these days are hybrids ie. they draw from more than 1 set of conventions. However, it is still possible to create a list of thriller conventions. Consider the list below in your analysis and technical construction of a thriller:

Thriller Generic Characteristics

The narrative centres around a crime eg. a theft or a murder.

The protagonist is fallible and has an 'Achilles heel' that is exploited by the antagonist.

The title of the thriller may relate to this weakness eg Vertigo and Insomnia.

The protagonist will be seen 'in peril' in one or more scenes before the resolution.

The antagonist ensnares the protagonist in an increasingly complex web, until the protagonist feels isolated and helpless.

The narrative presents ordinary situations in which extraordinary things happen.

Micro elements combine in a build up of suspense. ( Micro means film elements like camerawork, sound, narrative, genre, mise-en-scene, lighting, costumes, actors and facial expressions, etc.)

Themes of identity are common: mistaken identity, doubling/doppelgangers, amnesia.

Themes of seeing, reflection and mirroring. Manipulation of perspectives, visual McGuffins, and optical illusions are common.

The audience of a thriller is placed in the ambiguous position of voyeur. Voyeurism can also be a theme and the objectification of female characters is common especially in earlier thrillers.

A series of/ one important enigma(s) are/is set up in the opening sequence of the film, is further complicated during the first part of the film and only resolved at the very end.

Example
http://thrillerproject.blogspot.com/2008/11/vertigo-1958-opening-sequence-analysis.html

Thriller Conventions

Nice-looking table.

Conventions of Thriller films and Tables of Analysis

View more documents from Cissnei.

Thriller Film Conventions

Conventions Of Thriller Films

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Facts and Stats on your section B case studies

Make sure you have have your facts and statistics for you case studies so you can argue giving details. Know, for instance, your box office ( exhibition ) for the UK for your films. Then you can decide how people consumed them. New Line Cinema's "Sex In The City 2" got bad reviews and fairly bombed at the UK box office with only around £6 million taken on wide release. The film itself cost $100 million and most of that went on the stars. The reviews on Amazon UK and USA and on You Tube mostly slate the film. Yet on Amazon UK the film is number 9 on the best selling DVDs! Maybe people did not want to shell out for exspensive cinema seats and waited for its home entertainment release to watch it on any number of viewing platforms. So, maybe its target audience will want another one!

The best websites for getting detail quickly are IMDB (Scroll down on your film and see "Main Details"), Amazon UK and Wikepedia.

Whatever the question technological convergence will be important. This concept is ever present and will, no doubt, be significant for all exam questions.

Underline the key words and phrases in the question and write down a plan consisting of key areas and concepts (ideas).  Aim to debate and argue.

Good luck.!There is always the summer to have another go!

Exemplar film industry essay (full marks) G322 Section B

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Exemplar film industry essay (full marks)

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Doctor Who and UK Film Response - AS Exam Answer, June 2009

Check out this SlideShare file for a top grade answer to the whole TV Drama and Institutions and Audience exam. The second answer is on film and includes Film4's "Slumdog Millionaire" as one of the case studies. An examiner's comments follows for both responses. Note how the examiner expects the use of key concepts and how he/she rewards essays with sustained examples drawn from case studies. The student's case studies enabled him/her to compare two types of institutional ownership and their films: Hollywood with British

Doctor Who and UK Film Response - June 2009

View more documents from M Taylor.

Media Ownership and Cross Media Promotion

The Royal Technological Convergence

From Reigate College. Even The Queen and Einstein are getting in on it!

Post Modernism in Media

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Post Modernism in Media

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Last words of advice before the OCR AS Media Exam

Technological Convergence Explained

I found some of my students watching this helpful explanation of technological convergence the other day! It is by Reigate College.

Technological Convergence and Exibition

In the film industry the number of platforms where you can view films is proliferating all the time; audiences can also watch films in a variety of ways WHEN THEY WANT TO. You can use digital technology to download a film or TV programme onto your mobile phone, laptop, I-Pad or PC; you can watch it on your flat-screen TV; you can also connect your  HD TV to the Internet and watch the film on You Tube; of course, you can see the film on Blue Ray or ordinary DVDs;  some might prefer to watch the film on Playstation or X Box; you could, perhaps, download it on Pirate Bay or other sites and consume it at a time that suits you. Of course the latter is illegal. But is this not how many students get their music these days? How do you think institutions will use technological convergence to reduce the impact of piracy?