This document provides an overview of the A2 Media Studies course, which includes two main components: 1) an Advanced Media Portfolio coursework unit involving creating a music video and additional supporting media products, and 2) a Critical Perspectives in Media exam unit focusing on postmodernism and media theory. Students are encouraged to improve their technical skills in areas like editing and to regularly engage with media through blogs, websites, and other platforms to support their studies and productions. The goal is to help students achieve the highest grades through organization, skill-building, thoughtful evaluations, and dedicated work.

1. WELCOME TO A2 MEDIA
STUDIES!
So, what will we be doing?
1. Advanced Media Portfolio - coursework
2. Critical Perspectives in Media – exam
3. Learning cool stuff, having lots of fun doing it, making
some awesome products and getting cracking results!

2. A2 OVERVIEW – G324
 Advanced Media Portfolio – G324
 Coursework unit worth100 marks - 50% of A2
 A significant body of work requiring excellent organisation, high levels of
technical skill, unbridled creativity and a lot of time and effort
1. Research and planning – blog – 20 marks
2. Three products make up the portfolio – a music promo video and two
supporting products (a digipak a poster and a webpage) – 60 marks (40,
10,10)
3. Digital evaluation – 20 marks
 This is what you are expected to produce to get top Level 4 marks
 Example 1 – Puretone – ‘Totally Addicted to Bass’
 Example 2 – Beastie Boys – ‘Triple Trouble’
 Example 3 – You had me at 6 - Crash’
 Example 4 – Viva Brother – ‘Still Here’
 Example 5 – Noah and the Whale ‘Five Years Time’

3. A2 OVERVIEW – G324
 Q - What do these music videos have in common?
 A - Technical skills (tekkers) in abundance including:
 Accurate lip synch
 Layering / splitscreen (multiple versions of same person in shot)
 Green screen / chromakey
 High level editing techniques such as rapid cutting on the beat
 Colour correction/lighting adjustments
 Sophisticated use of SFX (not just cos their ‘cool’)
 Next 5 weeks - you will ALL know how to do these things! (except the dinosaur bit)
 Your ‘tekkers’ need to be strong so…
 That’s why we’ll be doing skills based lessons on Final Cut Pro after
an introduction to music video

4. A2 OVERVIEW – G325
 Critical Perspectives in Media – G325
 2 hour examined unit worth 100 marks - 50% of A2
 Two Sections – 50 marks each – one hour on each question
 Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 marks)
 Section B: Contemporary Media Issues (50 marks)
 Section A
 Question1a – you have to evaluate your skills development over the course of
your production work - from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. You’ll
be given a specific production practice focus for this in the exam. E.g.
creativity, digital technology, post-production etc – 25 marks
 Question1b – you have to select one of your productions and evaluate it in
relation to a media concept. E.g. representation, narrative, genre etc – 25
marks

5. A2 OVERVIEW – G325
 Section B – Critical Perspectives in Media
 We study: Postmodernism and the Media – one big essay – 50
marks
 We have to look at this concept through the past, the present and the future
 We need to understand it as a concept, a critical framework, a time period and
the theorists who pontificate about it (Baudrillard, Strinati, Jameson, Lyotard)
 An intellectually challenging, thought provoking and highly stimulating unit of
work!
 Past texts studied include:
 Film: Inception End of Watch. Hot Fuzz, Catfish, Scream, Sucker Punch
 Television: Flight of the Conchords, Extras, The Mighty Boosh, The Simpsons,
various Reality TV, Black Mirror, How Television Ruined Your Life, Supernatural
 Web 2.0: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Internet memes (e.g. lolcats)
 Video games: WOW, GTA, Assassins Creed, Farmville, SIMS
 Music: DJ Shadow, Gorillaz, Lady Gaga

6. KEYS TO SUCCESS AT A2
 Be organised – get your folders sorted now
 Up skill your tekkers - especially Final Cut and Photoshop
 Blog prodigiously and with quality on your production work
 Put in the hours for your production work – the most common link with
outstanding Level 4 work is ‘amount of graft’
 Plan and execute your evaluations EARLY – it is the most commonly
underdeveloped part of the portfolio
 Subscribe to things like this -- or this -- or this -- in general, keep up to
date with things happening in the media, especially the digital side
 Watch past episodes of this There are clips on Channel 4 and youtube.
Look out for the new series
 Start reading this (Username and Password to follow) and make use of
the books and magazines at the back of the room

7. CLASS NOTES
 All powerpoints (and handouts) will be on the blog so check regularly and
download what you want – I will TRY and put powerpoint up before the
lesson so you can come to the lesson with the powerpoint already saved
on to your laptop or printed out (with space for notes…..)
 Some extension reading will also be set using Twitter so make sure you
are a follower!
It is your responsibility to keep up to date even if you miss classes. This
includes homework tasks

8. LETS THINK AND EVALUATE OUR
PROGRESS AND GOALS
 What do you have to do to improve your performance this year?
 What are you going to avoid?
 What grade do you want/think you can get?
 How are you going to get it?
 What help do you need in order to get that grade?

9. LETS GET DANCING
 Music Video Homework Task
 You need to find a pre your birth iconic or ground breaking music
video – think Madonna, Michael Jackson, Peter Gabriel etc
 You need to complete a detailed blog post about why this video is
considered to be iconic (what have people said about it), what you
think of it, and detailed textual analysis (camerawork, editing,
mise en scene technical elements etc) You will also need to
include an embedding copy of the music video……
 Due in one weeks time!
 This website could help you think of a video but feel free to
research far and wide! This website is also good.