BFI

On Friday 11th of November, as an AS Media class we attended a study day at the British Film Institute and was led by Tom Woodcock an A level Film and Media teacher in Cambridge. 

Tom began the morning explaining to us that in order for us to achieve the best grade or even a good grade then a lot more than minimal effort would need to be put in and that expectations are very high and as students we will need to work consistently and be extremely well organised in order for our coursework to be successful. He then went on to inform of us of different ways in which we can develop our film making skills to achieve our full potential. 

In the first morning session Tom spoke about Macro analysis and the importance of it in an opening sequence. The Macro elements of a film include:

• Genre
• Narrative
• Character
• Themes
• Atmosphere

We then watched three film openings (Napoleon Dynamite(2004);Casino Royal(2006);and The Wedding Singer(1998)). After each opening Tom asked us to fill (sheet shown below) in how important we thought the macro element was in each of the openings. 

In the second morning session Tom spoke to us about Micro analysis and the effect it has on the opening and tittle sequence of a film. Micro elements of a film include:

• Colour
• Lighting 
• Font
• Framing
• Costume
• Props
• Setting

We then watched numerous title sequences twice over, however, the first time each sequence played it did so without any sound. Tom then asked us to guess what sound we thought would go with the sequence and then played it a second time with the sound playing to see if it matched up to our predictions. 

In the session after lunch we were introduced to Dexter Fletcher who is am actor who appeared in both film and television and now is a successful director. He shared with us his experiences making films both behind and in front of the camera. Then he went on to speak in more detail of his three films and why he chose the films to open the way they did and with the accompanying tittle sequence. The three film openings we watched were:

• Wild Bill
• Sunshine on Leith
• Eddie the Eagle 

We were then aloud to ask Dexter some of our own questions and I enjoyed finding out why he made the decisions he did with integrating the titles into the film instead of having a separate tittle sequence.

The day ended with Tom Woodcock summarising the days events and leaving us with some very useful worksheets and information that we can use in creating our own two minute film openings. 

I have included some of these sheets below.