Nostalgia critic

Nostalgia critic is a character and series created by Doug Walker. In it, he reviews movies that are known to be awful and presents them in a funny, cynical manner. Mixed in with his reviews are little sketches and clips from other films to add to the comedic values. He's even done reviews for films that haven't been released by recreating the scenes and shots used in the film in a low budget style. Examples of films he reviewed this way are "Jurassic World" and "Star Wars; The Force Awakens".
an example of a review of his is linked below. Strong language from the start.

But Nostalgia critic doesn't just stop at film reviews. He also does shows where he treats film with a more serious edge and even discusses some interesting questions. Examples of series like this are his "top 11" series and, my personal favourite, "old versus New"; the title's being rather self explanatory. While these still feature element of his main show, they focus more on the good side of cinema rather than the rougher entries. below is his comparison between The old and New "Karate Kid" films. Again, strong language from the start.

I've been watching Nostalgia Critic for many years now and have learnt a lot from his videos; primarily in the fields of taking critical looks at films but also about having an opinion and running with it. While some of his jokes and little inputs may not hit the mark or can be confusing, it's been incredibly enjoyable watching his videos grow and develop over time. He is also head of a multi media review site called "that guy with the glasses". On this site you can find reviewers for almost all forms of media; along with some who do the behind the scenes entries or just talk about topics they are passionate. I couldn't recommend them highly enough. Below is a link to the site (now known as Channel Awesome).

Channel Awesome website

My main task idea

The push for us deciding on our main task was thrust upon us last lesson. While many people were still running through their options, I decided rather quickly and started to develop. I decided on making a music video for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers song "Dont Forget Me".

This song is based and written around a drug addiction. But, rather than focusing on the traditional view, it is taken from the addiction's perspective. This is shown through the lines "come again, get me exited" and the fact that a majority of the lyrics focus on the writer being aspects of the addiction, such as "i'm the bloodstain on your shirt sleeve".

The next task for the class is to make a presentation on our ideas.

Below is a link to the song:

Mumford and Sons- Lover of the Light

In the run up to summer, our main objective is to decide on what main task we are going to do. For me, I have narrowed it down to either a music video or a short film. This is because I feel like I have the greatest experience and interest in these two mediums rather than radio dramas or podcasts. That being said, I now have to make my choice based on examples of each of these mediums. Firstly, I will look at "Lover of the Light" by Mumford and Sons.

This video, starring Idris Elba (one of my favourite actors at the moment), focuses on the life and journey of a man trying to connect back to the world. However, he is restricted by one factor. He is blind. I think this is very well played however, as there is no real sign posts provided. Instead, it is all done through props and the actor himself. One of my favourite scenes in the video is when he is about to leave the house but his grasp falls on his cane. The use of the hand shuddering amplifies his frustration and sadness about his condition and how it is his biggest restraint.

This theme of restraint is key to the flow of the music video, as it focuses a lot on him being free to roam and being one with nature. But, there still exist timly reminders that he is not well (such as the cane).

As music videos go, I like how much this one carries a story. Many exist just to carry the music or to give it greater depth to the experience for the viewer. This one actually follows a story and has quite a strong narrative and focuses on quite a melancholy theme of disability and isolation because of it.

The Deeper Questioning Grid

In our last lesson, we were introduced to this document called "the deeper questioning grid". This is a table that features the two first words of a question. The aim is to get us, the students, to adventure with out questions and aim for a greater understanding through the questions you ask. It is shown below.

 with this grid, we were asked to get into pairs (not partering with who we made our production with) and watch each others production. From this, we were tasked with making questions about their production with this grid.

I think this exersize gave everyone a greater understanding of what is expected at us from the A2 course and how we can better apply ourselves.

Course layout A2

For the course this year, we are given a wider variety of options of main task compared to last year where we had to do an opening sequence. Paired with this choice, we have to complete two other smaller tasks related to our main. These options are all shown in the powerpoint below. Apologies for the length of the power point.

Media Studies - A2 Course Layout by Ben court

AS Main Task Critique

Synopsis

For my AS level media main task, my partner Alyx and I wanted to dive into the aspects and conventions of horror films in order to contort pre concieved ideas of the christmas season. Our film focuses on a monster breaking into a families home and looking round the house. Much of this is drawn from slasher horror films such as Halloween, whilst mixing in with supernatural/creature films. 

Area's of success

I Think we achieved the mood we were striving for; focusing on the creature like characteristics of the being we follow. Furthemore, our structure for filming worked well. We decided to do all of our exterior shots during the festive season because decorations would still be out. This meant that we could build up a stock of good film that we could contiunally draw on in order to build up the ideas of the time of year. I feel our use of free hand camera was good too as it links closer to the idea of the creature, and choosing to do a majority of out exposition either through the radio broadcast or through items found inside the house that the monster looks at.

Areas of improvement 

i think one of our primary concerns and areas of improvement was how dark our peice was. Because we didn't understand just how much we could do in post production. And as we wanted our production to be quite dark. To achieve this, rather than using darkening in post, we made our set quite dark too. We used drapes and towels in order to darken our set. However, this means that a majority of our footage was rather dark and had to be brightened. This could have lead to a kind of bleaching effect on some of our clips, aswell as not being able to see much; especially in our ending shot. Aswell as a shoddy segway between a shot taken in a seperate location on a seperate day. These are my main gripes with our production however.

Conclusion

I feel like this task gave us an incredible introduction into film making. We are able to draw from our mistakes and are better informed on the theory done in class such as 180 rule and the rule of thirds. i can comfortably say that i feel way more confident in starting my A2 production after having this this experience.