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.