Guardian Film Competition

I know the Advanced Production deadline is looming but if any of you feel inspired the Guardian are running a really interesting film competition - the deadline of which is also the 19th December. 1st prize is the chance to be mentored by a top Channel 4 executive and gain experience working for a film or TV production company. Second prize is a Macbook Pro - that's Mr. Gibbs sold on the idea.
If anything check out the site just to read the text written by Mark Ravenhill.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/youtubecompetition

WHERE IS THE BLOODY (chamber) HOMEWORK

Follow the link if you dare. If you do not comply the blood will flow and flow and flow...


http://www.talkingpets.org/?mid=28400639

Films and Other Items to Make You a Fit and Proper Media Student

The good people of 12.22, frustrated at my 'obscure' references, requested that I post a list of film recommendations. I've decided to add the odd great bit of TV drama or TV comedy in the hope that you will search them out, watch and enjoy. Inevitably, not all of the items on this list will appeal to all but hopefully you'll find something to both entertain and challenge you. This list will evolve and grow as more gems come to mind. Be aware that many of these may be 18s certificate or be considered offensive by some members of the community. However, great art often has the potential to offend because great art challenges conventional thought.

For a list of thrillers to look at go to labels on the right hand side of this blog and click on the label "psychological thrillers."

Coen Brother's films: Blood Simple (1984), Raising Arizona (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Fargo (1996), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Bother Where Art Thou (2000), No Country For Old Men (2007)

Hitchcock Films: Psycho (1960), The Birds (1963), North By Northwest (1959), Vertigo (1958), Rear Window (19540, The Lady Vanishes(1938), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), 39 Steps (1935), Rope (1948)

Stanley Kubrick: Dr. Strangelove (1964), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), 2001 Space Odyssey (1968), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

David Lynch: The Elephant Man (1980), Blue Velvet (1986), Wild at Heart (1990), Twin Peaks TV Series 1&2 (1990-91), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992), The Straight Story (1999)

Woody Allen: Take the Money and Run (1969), Zelig (1983), Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), Hannah and Her Sisters(1986), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), Mighty Aphrodite (1995)

Martin Scorcese: Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Goodfellas (1990), Raging Bull (1980), Casino (1995), Age of Innocence (1993), The Departed (2006)

Francis Ford-Coppola: The Godfather (1972), The Godfather II (1974), Apocolyspe Now (1979)

Classic TV Comedy: Monty Python's Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers, The Day Today, Brass Eye, I'm Alan Partridge, Blackadder, The League of Gentleman, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm

Classic TV Drama: Prime Suspect, The Sopranos, The Wire, Our Friends In The North, Life on Mars, Pride and Prejudice, Deadwood.

The Bloody Chamber - Close analysis example

Below is an example of close analysis that Ms Georgiou and I have scripted. You will be expected to apply the assessment objectives to this example, then to comment and grade it providing justifications for your choice. These should then be posted on this blog by adding a comment.

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Explore how Carter uses a range of techniques to create tension and comment on their effectiveness.

Throughout ‘The Bloody Chamber’ Carter explores the potential for and consequences of female curiosity and independence. This extract presents the reader with the moment at which the narrator is faced with the cost of her desire for knowledge.

When the narrator enters the ‘subterranean privacy’ of the chamber in search of her husband’s ‘soul’, the word ‘subterranean’ develops the demonic characterisation of the Count, beginning the comparison of the chamber with ‘hell’. Carter develops the contrast between the innocence and inexperience of the narrator and the malevolence and sexual ‘depredation’ of her ‘stark’ physical environment as a way of creating a tense, fraught atmosphere for the reader.

“One false step, oh, my poor, dead girl, next in the fated sisterhood of his wives; one false step and into the abyss of the dark you stumbled” p27

Carter’s description of ‘the abyss of the dark’ signifies both the ‘torture chamber’ and her fateful marriage to the Count and for the reader has a greater significance as they too are invited to consider whether the narrator has made the same ‘false step’. Carter structures the narrator’s discovery of her predecessors chronologically which leads the reader to the conclusion that the narrator is the next victim of the Count’s violent sexual desires.

Throughout this collection of short stories, Carter subverts our expectations of traditional images. In the opening of the story the narrator refers to the "unguessable country of marriage" which echoes Hamlet's reference to death. This pairing is revisited in this extract with yet more subversion of traditional symbolism.
"...this skull...had been crowned with a wreath of white roses, and a veil of lace, the final image of his bride"
The link between marriage and death, sex and violence is made explicit here when the narrator sees the extent of the bargain she has entered into and the consequences of sexual curiosity. The word "crowned" suggesting a ritualistic idolisation of the female, whereas the "white roses", traditionally symbolic of love and innocence become reminiscient of the white funerial lillies associated with her husband when described as a "wreath". The final clause of the sentence places emphasis on the word "bride", reminding us and our narrator of her position and possible destiny.

The Bloody Chamber -Mr Gibbs' class.

OMG-we have to do this real quick or we just might have our throats ripped to shreads...!
Task: To produce a 300 word insert that will fit like a glove into the named stories-The Snow Child-The Company of Wolves-The Werewolf. You have the snow white sheet with the detailed suggestions but you may-if you so desire and if you dare, decide upon your own points of digression.
To get the juices flowing you will need to produce the following and number them in the following way:

1-a 50 word proposal that outlines your intentions and all the twists and turns your plot will contain.
2-an outline of the themes, settings, symbols you intend to include.
3-a brief description of the literary devices you will use and their intended effects.

If you fail to post then stay out of the shadow and on the path............

13:51 Hamlet Class THEMES IN HAMLET

Post the work that we have been looking at in class by way of COMMENTS