Links
General
- www.imdb.com – The essential film reference source on the internet.
- www.imsdb.com – A film script database.
- www.sbbfc.co.uk – The British Board of Film Classification’s student site.
- www.bfi.org.uk – The British Film Institute.
- www.rottentomatoes.com – A useful film review site.
- www.mediaguardian.co.uk – The place to find all things new and exciting. You’ll have to register but it’s free.
- The University of Wales, Aberystwyth (Media Department) – Hundreds of links, undergraduate essays and generally useful items. Be sure to look at the
- ‘Semiotics for Beginners’ section.
- www.filmeducation.org/filmlibrary.html – If you look carefully there are many useful items here on all aspects of Media Studies.
- www.theory.org.uk – Leeds University’s site on media theory.
- www.rajar.co.uk – Radio audience figures.
- www.barb.co.uk – Broadcasters Audience Research Board. Useful for audience analysis.
- www.asa.org.uk – The Advertising Standards Authority
- http://community.ocr.org.uk/community/mediastudies-a/home – Resources directly from the exam board OCR (for AS/A2). Here you’ll find sample answers, amongst other things.
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/marketresearch/ – The BBC’s Commissoning site is very useful, especially on audience profiling.
Other media teachers’ and schools’ websites
- www.longroadmedia.com – Long Road College in Cambridge
- mediaschool.blogspot.com – The thoroughly insightful blog by Steve Connolly.
Gender & TV Sitcom
- www.guardian.co.uk/gender/story/0,11812,670775,00.html – What are men today? A long article on how men are presented and targetted by the media, with some useful material on sitcoms.
- www.staff.livjm.ac.uk/mcclpapa/research/jmumr/tzioumakis.html – An analysis of Friends in terms of traditional family structures.
- www.guardian.co.uk/tv_and_radio/story/0,3604,525140,00.html – The ‘problem’ with Will’s homosexuality in Will and Grace.
New Media Technologies
- www.wired.com/wired – How enlightened: a technology magazine that puts its entire contents online about a month after publication. Fully searchable and highly recommended.
- www.mediaguardian.co.uk – You will need to register but it’s free. The ‘new media’ section is particularly useful.
- www.webopedia.com – Stuck with the new technologies jargon? Type the word or acronym in the search box to find true knowledge (or a complicated definition that confuses you even more; results can be variable).
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/ – Passages for the comprehension part of the exam have been taken from here, so it will pay to keep up with developments.
- www.howstuffworks.com – If you like taking things apart to see how they work you’ll love this site. If you don’t it’s still useful (eg how does a steadycam work?)
Film Genre
- www.bfi.org.uk/collections/release/mildred/index.html – The BFI have been busy writing about Mildred Pierce: handy!
- www.filmsite.org/doub.html – Lots on Double Indemnity
- www.moderntimes.com/bab/di.htm – Double Indemnity – More useful material.
- www.imagesjournal.com/issue02/infocus/double.htm – Double Indemnity anyone?
- www.culturecourt.com/F/Noir/DIndemnity.htm- And another Double Indemnity site…
- http://film.guardian.co.uk/Century_Of_Films/Story/0,4135,91758,00.html – An article on Double Indemnity and more links.
- www.germanhollywood.com/noir.html
– There’s a useful checklist of the conventions of film noir here.
Production Work
- www.filmmaking.com – A very comprehensive resource covering many aspects of your production work. Also useful if you want information about potential backers for your next film …
- www.exposure.co.uk/eejit – The Eejit’s Guide to Filmmaking. As you can guess from the title, this site has tips and guidance on constructing your production.
- www.imperica.com/sofia/ – A useful site which has plenty of information on the technicalities of filming such as the 180 degree rule etc.
- www.asa.org.uk – The Advertising Standards Authority. This will be useful if you are doing the charity adverts/campaign production option.
- http://media.guardian.co.uk/creative/ads/0,1033,533544,00.html – A chance to study recent adverts and their makers.
- www.adassoc.org.uk/inform/content.html – A very full guide to what advertising agencies do and lots more. (Produced by the Advertising Association)
- www.mediaknowall.com/gcse/advertising/advintro.html – A very good introduction to advertising.
- www.tbwa.co.uk/ – The website of the advertising agency TBWA. See examples of their adverts for customers including FCUK and John Smith’s. Each has a short explanation of the thinking behind the work.
- http://www.3dtext.com – Make titles for your magazine pages (or anything else!) – much better than WordArt.
- http://www.cooltext.com – Another very good site for creating titles.
- www.1001fonts.com – Although you can’t install fonts at school, the preview is a good way of generating a title. Use Photoshop or GIMP to alter the colour of the background and the text to suit your production.
- www.cdcovers.cc – High quality scans of CD and DVD covers.
- http://docs.gimp.org/en/ – The ‘User Manual’ for GIMP. Use it before asking!
- http://brusheezy.com/ – Cool brushes for Photoshop.
Critical Research: Women & Film
- www.bfi.org.uk/nationallibrary/collections/16+/ – An index of the bfi’s study guides, including two on ‘Strong Women’. Lots of case study material.
- New York Women in Film & Television – Lots of useful things here. For example you can get statistics about women in the film industry.
- www.wmm.com – ‘Women Make Movies’ site.
- Representation of Youth in An Angel at My Table – A page from the Film Education site.
- http://www.people.virginia.edu/~pm9k/libsci/womFilm.html – ‘Women in Cinema: A Reference Guide’. Possibly the most compendious listing of resources ever. Now you have no excuses…
- http://markov.utstat.toronto.edu/mfulford/quizzes.html – Quiz your knowledge of women in film!
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/2420713.stm – An article entitled ‘Women Directors Fight Back’.
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3006943.stm – An article entitled ‘Boost for women film-makers’.
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/2098046.stm – An article entitled ‘Female film-makers ‘face struggle”.
Radio & Television News
- www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,31300-1010414,00.html – Sky’s student pages, with material aimed at all ages up to undergraduate level.
- www.rajar.co.uk – Radio audience figures.
- www.barb.co.uk – Broadcasters Audience Research Board. Useful for audience analysis.
- www.pcc.org.uk – The Press Complaints Commission.
- www.ofcom.org.uk Ofcom are the regulator of the communications industry.
- www.channel4.com/breakingthenews Learn about the process of constructing news sequences and have a go yourself!
