Case Study Concept Maps for an art-house film

In the next few days I'll post my completed concept maps for "American Beauty". As the maps will be JPEGS I'll have to add the live links to the posts. Each map will feature issues on production, distribution and exhibition. There's also a generic map for any film. Of course, not everything will be covered but enough will be there for a meaningful Hollywood studio comparison with "ONCE" for FS6. I produced the maps as exemplars for my AS Media Studies class as they are creating case studies for OCR on film production and distribution companies. These concept maps will be followed up by another concept map which deals with the main issues for Section B of FS6: Film and its audience.

Recent small group research by my students on the problems they faced on how to produce, find and buy cameras, get permits for locations, finance and distribute their own films will be incorporated into the final concept map as this will be a good aid memoir for their essays. ( I'll hear the students' pitches this coming week.)

Work and posts on Section C of FS6 will also follow.

A Scottish TV interview with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova on "ONCE"

This 14 minute interview with Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova was made during the pairs promotion of the film as they helped ICON Films market "ONCE" when it was released in mid October, 2007. It's useful for understanding the origins of the film and for Glen's comments on how "ONCE" compares with mainstream Hollywood films released during the same period.

An interview by FILMdetail's Ambrose Heron with John Carney, director of "ONCE"

Film students studying "ONCE" as an independent film for FS6 would do well to well to listen to this audio interview of Ambrose Heron with ONCE director John Carney.
Interesting topics are:

• Carney's ideas on how music can be used in films
• acting and naturalism
• the story on how the film found its main distributor, FOX Searchlight.

Bear with the brief advert halfway through this interview. Scroll down on the web page for the audio link.

http://www.filmdetail.com/archives/2007/10/21/john-carney-on-once/

Why FOX Searchlight acquired the rights to "ONCE"

This is an important article for anyone doing a case study on ONCE for FS6: Independent Films and their Audience. This link refers to a press release by FOX Searchlight. It is worth noting that major distributors like FOX have specialised subsidiary arms, in this instance FOX Searchlight, that acquire the rights to independent (specialist films) and then distribute them in that manner, obviously in art house cinemas or in limited regional or selected cinemas releases.
http://www.comingsoon.net/blog/2007/02/fox_searchlight_picks_up_once.php This brief post in Cinematical also has useful info. on the deal with FOX Searchlight.
http://www.cinematical.com/2007/02/04/fox-searchlight-buys-american-rights-to-once/

A film review on "ONCE"
http://jacksonfilmreviews.blogspot.com/2007/07/once-fox-searchlight-2006.html
Amazon would be another good site for critical reception. Of course, read Roger Ebert, too, along with other reviewers. Their links are on the right hand side of this blog.