MEDI@CHS
media stuff for sixth formers…and some English stuff too
Revision Materials for 12s
May 10th
I have create a page for my jazzy mindmaps and one for my lovely podcasts. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you MUST look at the page of past papers and answers.
Have the time of your lives.
I will be catching up with marking over the weekend so keep an eye on google docs and email on Sunday/Monday.
12s DEADLINES & REVISION
May 1st
1. Just wanted to remind you of the final deadline for the evaluation (by the end of the school day this Friday, 4th). Final marking will take place over the weekend and so no extensions are possible.
2. PLEASE NOTE that COM1 is being used for a Photography exam all day tomorrow. You will not have access to it all day, including lunchtime and break. You are welcome to use any computers you can find around the school but, to make sure that all your hard work is not interrupted, I have booked the following rooms for tomorrow:
p1 G20
p2 S10
p4 G20
p5 G24
Please use them – otherwise I look an idiot.
3. The exam is approaching very rapidly. It is 2 weeks today. You should already be well underway with your revision (key terminology for both sections and your Case Studies for Section B). If you have already completed your evaluation, you should be using Mr Gould’s/Mr Taylor’s lesson to work on this.
4. You MUST show up for their lessons next week. You will be doing timed essay practice with questions set by me.
Mr Gould’s class:
Wed 9th p1
Fri 11th p3
Mr Taylor’s class:
Wed 9th p4
Thu 10th p2
Fri 11th p2
I will teach the lesson that you normally have with Mr Taylor on Thursday 10th p1.
Attendance at all lessons will be crucial in the final run-in.
5. I will be running two revision sessions after school (room to be confirmed) on Tues 8th and Weds 9th from 3.10 to 4.00. Please try to attend either or, if possible, both of these.
I will also be running the timetabled leson with Mr Taylor’s group on Tues 15th p1 (the day of the exam) as a revision session for both classes. I am free p2 and will be able to help with any last minute panics.
Work, work, work
Categories AS&A2
Apr 20th
You must label your answers clearly and make it as easy as possible for us ( and the examiner) to find your work.
It is absolutely ESSENTIAL that the examiner can access your work without difficulty. They need to be able to find:
- Research & Planning
- Construction (All 3 final designs for AS, all 3 final designs for A2)
- Evaluation
without any difficulty at all.
They are perfectly entitled to take marks off if they cannot find things. One of the things in the evaluation mark scheme is ‘Excellent use of digital technology’ and to get top marks for Research&Planning, you need to demonstrate ‘an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning.’
You will lose marks if you have not made ‘excellent’ use of the blogs
Try to follow these three basic steps.
1. Have a post at the top of your blog with all 3 final construction pieces. This is the perfect starting point for the examiner and is much better than confusing them by having ‘Question 3′ (or something similar) as the first thing they see.
2. Use the categories effectively to make sure that they can click through to the things they need. A2 students need to make sure they don’t get confused with the AS categories and consider disabling the AS categories if necessary. Start off with the 3 main areas and use as many sub-categories as you think are necessary to show your work in the best light.
3. Try to get your Evaluation into some sort of shape. We need to be able to locate answers to 1-4 (A2) and 1-7 (AS) and you should use these numbers as part of the labelling. Try to run straight through from 1-4 or 4-1 (A2) or 1-7. 7-1 (AS). Re-order your posts if necessary. Make sure it is clear which question is being answered in each post. You need to set up categories with, ideally, an Evaluation category and 4 sub-categories for each of the 4 questions.
You all need to work on this. As things stand, the situation is particular urgent for the following AS students who do not seem to have set up categories at all:
Beau T
Chloe M
Lizzy K
Mollie H
Nate C
Alice T
Emma B
Melissa D
Michelle W
Tom B
The following A2 students do not seem to have categories for A2 work:
Emma S
Jamie S
Ollie M
Becky H
12s EASTER WORK
Mar 29th
1. Revise Film Industry terminology: film glossary in preparation for a test when we get back.
2, Refresh your memory about film terminology
and try to revise what we mean by Representation:
3. Plan and then spend 45 minutes writing the following essay:
Discuss the ways in which media products [films] are produced, and distributed to audiences, within a media area [the film industry], which you have studied.
- Very similar to ‘How a film goes from concept to consumption’ essay….make sure that this time you include detailed references to WTF and Warp.
4. Spend 30 minutes watching the following clip 4 times. Then spend 40 minutes writing a response to the question:
Discuss how the represenation of Age is constructed in this extract. You should refer to Camerawork, Editing, Sound, Mise-en-Scene.
13 Easter Work (AR’s class only)
Mar 29th
There are two essays for you to write over the holidays. If possible, after planning them, you should try to write them under exam conditions in one sitting.
1. Discuss why some people are not convinced by the idea of postmodern media. (spend one hour writing this)
Use materials from this page of the blog to answer this.
Don’t forget: Examples from Film & TV, some theory, a sense of past/present/future, terminology and clear engagement with the question.
2. Select one of your productions (again, I would argue that your trailer is probably best) and spend 30 minutes answering the following question.
Who was your target audience and what techniques did you use to attract them?
Use this structure:
1. Introduce your production 2. Introduce the concept of Audience & Audience Theory. 3.Explain how your product related to ideas about Audience. Conclusion.
Read the following resources / links before starting:
Who is the target audience for the production? (age, race, gender, social class)
Why will the production appeal to this target audience?
What uses and gratifications will the target audience get from the production?
What effect might the production have on audiences….
Here are my notes on Uses & Gratifications Theory – Two-Step Flow Theory These seem to me to be particularly relevant to the way in which trailers are consumed by audiences.
Here’s a very good page on the Two-Step Flow Theory.
You should also really know about Reception Theory, polysemy, preferred readings etc. Here are some notes on this. Focus on p1 than p2.
A2 Evaluation
Mar 20th
I have updated the document on how to do the Evaluation with 2 new paragraphs. These are some additional thoughts based on where some of the 13s went wrong last year. The new sections are highlighted in red in Evaluation- A2.
AS Research & Planning
Mar 20th
Some Year 12s seemed a little vague this morning about how best to get Research & Planning marks. Here’s everything you need to know:
In planning your magazine design, you must use your blog to prove that you:
- Consider alternative draft versions of designs and discuss possible changes/amendments. DON’T wait to post finished designs. You need to show evidence of your ability to make choices.
- Use technology imaginatively…..take more pride in how your blog is presented because there are marks available if you can prove an ‘excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning’.
- Consider how your designs use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real products. To do this you need to include detailed analysis of existing designs and discussion of how your design relates to these existing models.
- Consider whether your representation of artists/bands on the front cover challenges or conforms with stereotypes. You might even want to create alternative versions, using different photographs, to experiment with more conventional/challenging representations. You should also consider representation in the covers that you find and analyse.
- Research how magazines are distributed and consider how your own intended magazine would be distributed.
a. you need to do a case study into at least one of the main magazine publishers. Identify a music magazine that relates to your own.
- Find out who publishes it.
- Try to establish a brief history of the publisher
- Consider how the magazine you have chosen sits alongside other magazines on their list….do they cover a range of musical genres/audiences?
b. find out how mainstream retail magazines are distributed
- What other options are there for distributing magazines? You might like to research and consider the strengths and weaknesses of the following:
- free magazines handed out at venues. These magazines would depend on advertising revenue?
- Subscription-only magazines…or magazines linked to some form of club membership?
- Paper magazines linked to and promoted on websites?
- Other models for distribution?
Music Titles Fail To Rock
Trade Structure and Retail Supply Chain
Ten Key Facts about the Consumer Magazine Market
Nielsen research debunks myth that teens are disengaged from traditional media
Key Facts about UK Consumer Magazine Industry
Magazine Audience Research
Magazine Industry Presentations (PPA)
Some information on the main magazine distributors/wholesalers
Loads of good links to magazine related stuff:http://www.frankwbaker.com/magazines.htm
- Consider who the target audience is and experiment with different ways to appeal to them. You should use polls and other techniques to establish audience responses.
- Reflect on different ways of finding out information. Comment on the success of different strategies and reflect on the effectiveness of using different technologies (polls etc).
- Consider how you are progressing from the original preliminary designs for school magazines.
Here’s the mark scheme for Research and Planning.
GET MOVING
Mar 16th
We are becoming increasingly concerned about the (lack of) progress on many of your blogs. The deadlines are fast approaching.
DEADLINES
March 23rd AS RESEARCH & PLANNING and CONSTRUCTION March 28th A2 RESEARCH & PLANNING and CONSTRUCTION and EVALUATION April 27th AS EVALUATION
USE THE RESOURCES ON THE BLOG
Everything you could possibly need has been available for you throughout the year. The pages you need are:
Blog Pages for 12s
Blog Pages for 13s.
SPEND SERIOUS AMOUNTS OF TIME IN COM1
Here’s the timetable for COM1 so you can see when it is free. If it’s being used or is full, try any of the art rooms or S10. Use the rooms anytime from 7.30 am to 6.00 pm. Click to enlarge:
LEARN FROM OTHER BLOGS. HOW DOES YOURS COMPARE?
Here are links to the best Chosen Hill blogs from the last few years . Please take a look at these and try to pick out some ideas – particularly on how to approach the Evaluation imaginatively and creatively. Plagiarism is not allowed and will mean that you score 0.
| A2 | AS | |
| Research & Planning | Bennett, Morwenna | Jones, Katie |
| Construction | Bennett, Morwenna | Jones, Katie |
| Evaluation | Bennett, Morwenna | Allen, Rachael
|
HOW TO IMPROVE
- Volume. Many students, have not got enough to show for 7 months of planning. Remember that you need to show that you have planned what you have produced. For Yr 13, storyboards need to be more effective and detailed and you need to be more practical and detailed about how you are going to complete tasks.
- You need to link research to planning. Too many of you are researching into existing products without trying to draw any conclusions from this research or learn any lessons that they can apply to their own work. You need to try to refer back to existing products in your own planning – Not enough stuff on how the industry works (ie how trailers are used in the industry, how magazines are distributed etc). There are links to a huge amount of material here for trailers and here for magazines. This has simply been ignored.
- You need to think in much more detail about audience. You need to try to be specific about your target audience and try to understand their preferences and choices. You should be trying to understand what else they watch/read so that you can customise your work to suit them. You should be trying to survey/questionnaire/interview them as part of your planning rather than just ask people to complete polls on work that is already completed. Think of using video for interviews and kwiksurveys.com for surveys/questionnaires
- Try to be more analytical rather than descriptive when looking at particular products – Comment on all drafts that you post….what were you trying to achieve, what’s good, what needs to be changed, what have other people said etc – Don’t hide stuff away. Always try to embed documents/files rather than just link to them. Word documents are pretty daft on a blog….just paste the stuff straight into a post.
- Be more reflective and self-critical. Say if something didn’t work out and try to explain why. – Comment on each other’s work and encourage people to comment on your posts. You don’t need to limit this to media students. Share your blog address with friends on Facebook and ask them to comment on your work.
ORGANISATION
You all need to make sure that you are organising your work into categories. You MUST have the following categories – Research and Planning – Final Construction – Evaluation You may want to use lots of sub-categories within Research & Planning to organise that section. Remember, you get marks for the effectiveness and presentation of your blog.
Recent Comments