20th Nov - cover work

sorry guys - ill

Today please continue to work on your PLANNING

You should all be storyboarding the narrative ready for filming starting next week.
Lane/Eloise - bullet point plan/storyboard initial ideas for the music video
Cal - keep at the work we discussed yesterday
Moll - plan narrative please and schedule a shoot
Sophie - please make sure everything is uploaded so i can see it
Ruby - do some demographic on magazine readership / smog testing / sketch layout ideas OR storyboarding you planned film
Emily - storyboarding
Courtney - storyboarding/evidence of documentary content - remember the timescale restriction
Sam

All except Max - Max,  you need to be planning the layout and content of your pages: organise simple paper sketches of potential layouts and provided evidence of intended article topics/content

please photograph and upload relevant work so i can see what you have done today

thanks

RESEARCH looking for demographic evidence?

TRY yougov.co.uk

you put in a brand, product or group and then sit back and read

https://yougov.co.uk/profiler#/The_Sun/demographics

Planning - production of a magazine /front cover

if you re taking this option you need to explore the codes and conventions as applied to magazines and the elements you are intending to produce

the following are interesting examples of other students deconstructing, denoting,  planning and comparing research to own ideas - they are good levels to aim for

MEDIA STUDIES QUESTION 1 from Matilda Dawson

or

Conventional layout of a magazine front cover from jackdawson1111111111

or 

Front cover analysis - Empire and Total Film magazine from ChrisJDonnellan

production of ancillaries - website design

these links may be interesting

7 key web site conventions


3 homepage mistakes you may make

examples of student presentations

a basic student presentation on the core conventions required

Analysis of website convention (the killers) from Forbzy

Conventions of a music act’s website from Lucki17

research and planning: Advance consideration of Genre - linked to Audience/Industry/Exhibition

You must include Genre studies/evidence (for each artefact). you could use tables, talking head videos / comparisons/primary and secondary research. You must have deconstructions

Conventions

Definition the ‘rules’ that are generally understood and accepted when producing a media text in a particular genre. they are long accepted as the norm by an audience and although you can change them if as genres evolve if you do it too fast the audience will be confused

stage 1

the conventions, aesthetics and representation codes of your chosen media area. The codes and conventions in media can be separated into 3 distinct groups –
- Technical (camera techniques & shots),
- Symbolic (ie clothing, colours)
- Written and audio (music etc).

they can include:

• structure
• form
• narrative
• colour
• editing
• character / representations
• mise-en scene
• camera and editing work

stage 2
the conventions, aesthetics and representation codes of your chosen media genre: 

Codes

Definitiion - Codes are systems of signs, which create meaning - they are really firm and almost never broken. Codes can be divided into two categories – technical and symbolic

there can be  a number of codes:

• character codes
• plot codes
• structural codes
• cultural codes
• production codes

you could power point it

for example

stage 3
how your intended genre meets the needs of your Target Media Audience

• identify your audience and explain what they like
• genre habits
• prefered reading style - active / oppositional / passive / frequency.....
• expected generic pleasures

stage 4
how your genre meets the needs of your Media Industry:

• what are the implications for the Industry
• cost/ profit
• distribution
• exhibition
• audience responses

you will need evidence of all 4 stages to get the highest marks

this site may be of use http://media-studies.tki.org.nz/Teaching-media-studies/Media-concepts/Codes-and-conventions

FEEDBACK: Current issues appearing in blogs as i mark them

THERE are a number of issues that are recurring as I assess - please take note

TIPS FOR SUCCESS

1. the more secondary content you use the more it looks like you are a weak student so: if you use other peoples material - analyse and criticise it / then produce your own versions - this is especially true if it is other students work
2. make sure you regularily review your own blog - there are lots of 'post later/I am going to do.....later' type comments so do go back to it and finish / reflect on what you have learned.
3. Your Blogs should be pretty full by now - only 2-5 posts is simply not enough however good they are
4. make it interactive - add images/links etc
5. deactivate the word verification option - it drives me nuts and slows down the process of assessment

many things trigger blogs being blocked - look out for them - here are a few

• trigger words - violence/racism/aggression/sexism...
• links that are not word urls
• links to sites that link to others that are blocked -(look for Urls that use numbers and symbols) - if necessary just remove the hyperlink and add the address only

readability Smog Testing link

The readability guide to a piece of text is NOT an age guide but a guide to how easy the passage is to read - you need to do this for written artefacts like reviews, newspapers etc

Nottingham guide to SMOG readability tests

NEXT: audiences and critical theory - be thinking about it

research and planning: Narrative codes and systems

critical theory

the basics:

Narrative

Narrative is defined as “a chain of events in a cause-effect relationship occurring in

time” (Bordwell & Thompson, Film Art, 1980).

Diegesis

The internal world created by the story that the characters themselves experience

and encounter.

Story and plot

Story – all events referenced both explicitly in a narrative and inferred (including

backstory as well as those projected beyond the action)

Plot – the events directly incorporated into the action of the text and the order in

which they are presented

Narrative Range

Unrestricted narration – A narrative which has no limits to the information that is

presented i.e. a news bulletin.

Restricted narration – only offers minimal information regarding the narrative i.e.

Thrillers

Narrative Depth

Subjective character identification – the viewer is given unique access to what a range of characters see and do

Objective character identification – the viewer is given unique access to a

character’s point of view such as seeing things from the character’s mind, dreams,

fantasies or memories

then it can be more complex:

Modular Narratives “articulate a sense of time as divisible and subject to manipulation”.

Cameron has identified four different types of modular narrative:

• Anachronic

• Forking Paths

• Episodic

• Split Screens

Anachronic modular narratives involve the use of flashbacks and/or flashforwards, with no clear dominance between any of the narrative threads. These narratives also often repeat scenes directly or via a different perspective. Examples include: Pulp Fiction and Memento.

Forking-path narratives juxtapose alternative versions of a story, showing the possible outcomes that might result from small changes in a single event or group of events. The forking-path narrative introduces a number of plotlines that usually contradict one another. Examples include Groundhog Day and Run Lola Run.

Episodic narratives are organised as an abstract series or narrative anthology. Abstract series type of modular narrative is characterized by the operation of a nonnarrative formal system which appears to dictate (or at least overlay) the organization of narrative elements such as a sequence of numbers or the alphabet. Anthology consists of a series of shorter tales which are apparently disconnected but share a random similarity, such as all ‘episodes’ being survivors of a shipwreck.

Split screen narratives are different from the other types of modular narrative discussed here, because their modularity is articulated along spatial rather than temporal lines. These films divide the screen into two or more frames, juxtaposing events within the same visual field, in a sustained fashion. Examples include Timecode.

todays tasks

FIRST - discussion in pairs - for tasks 1-2

1. discussion and identification of the term NARRATIVE - what do we understand it to mean?
2. narrative versus story versus PLOT - what is the difference

upload evidence of understanding of both to BLOG

THEN

create my original narrative structure and pattern:

Q which narrative conventions will i use / break - video discussions?

research and planning

Focus: below is a borrowed presentation on genre
Driving Question: do you understand Genre as it relates to your own chosen production artefacts?
Challenge: Present your research and understanding of genre in an interactive and interesting way. show that you understand the following as they relate to each of the three artefacts

• Genre and media area
• sub or hybrid genre
• conventions of that genre
• what kind of audience respond to that genre/product

TFS - (tips for success) make it visual, make it synoptic - use your research from AS if it helps - add hyperlinks and make it enjoyable to read. 

Deadline - 15th September

making a choice of Brief

it is important to choose wisely -the best choice is:

• something that interests you
• a brief that requires some skills you already possess
• a brief that will challenge you
• a brief that you are motivated by - without passion it will be boring

please cut and paste the two or three briefs you like best into a posts and reflect/SWOT analyse all the options for each - Summarise the strengths and weaknesses of all - and then explain the reasons for your final choice

Post the exact wording of the brief and the main production/ancillary products so that you know exactly what us expected of you

research and planning:distribution and flow path

choose a suitable instrument and show evidence that you understand the function of a distribution flow path and how it applies to your chosen brief. start with the document you are given and complete the boxes - you may want to add areas or change titles - select a suitable media text as the focus for your research

summer challenge

please ensure that over the holiday you:

complete presentation 1 to the best of your ability and upload the evidence

First presentation; choose an artefact (e.g.DVD/cd/games/magazine) and find three or more related products in different media genres.

Present to the class evidence of the following

□   intertextuality

□   borrowed interest

audience theory

□   the two-step flow concept

□   exhibition and distribution processes utilised

use digital technologies to make your presentation and embed it to the blog

complete presentation 2 to the best of your ability and upload the evidence

Second presentation; choose one of the set briefs and present a pitch of your ideas for the final production and ancillary products. You must provide evidence that you have considered;

□   the likely target audience

□   how the products will relate/support each other

□   potential routes for exhibition and distribution

□   skill-sets necessary for production including your own strengths and need for training.

□   Time-management

Because this is an initial pitch all of the above does not need to be presented in great depth or detail BUT you are expected to show that this is a realistic but ambitious project that fits the assessment criterion and is achievable AND has a target market.

Again- use digital technologies within your presentation and embed it to your blog