595. Good luck A2 Media!

Good times!

157. AS MEDIA VOCABULARY FOR ANALYSING THE MEDIA

The following are words and phrases you need to know. Add to these terms any brief definitions you need. 1)    PRODUCTION OF MEANING

ANCHORAGE

CONNOTATION

CONVENTION

DENOTATION

IDEOLOGY

INTERTEXTUALITY

LANGUAGE CODE

MYTH

SIGNIFIER

STYLE

SYMBOLIC CODE

TECHNICAL CODE

GENRE

CROSS-GENRE

GENRE

ICONOGRAPHY

NARRATIVE

ACTION CODE

ACTS

ADDRESS

BINARY OPPOSITION

CHRONOLOGY

CLIMAX

CLOSED NARRATIVE

CLOSURE

CODA

ENIGMA

ENIGMA CODE

FIRST PERSON NARRATION

FLASHBACK

FRAME NARRATIVE

IMPERSONAL NARRATION

INVESTIGATIVE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

MULTISTRAND NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

NARRATIVE

NARRATIVE CODE

NARRATOR

OMNISCIENT NARRATOR

OPEN NARRATIVE STRUCTURE

PLOT

PLOT POINT

POINT OF VIEW

STORYTHEME

THIRD PERSON

NARRATION VOICE

REPRESENTATION

ACCESS

CONSENSUS

DEVIANT READING

GHETTOISE

PREFERRED READING

REPRESENTATION

STEREOTYPE

324. How to make notes for Critical Research Study

NOTE- MAKING

 

Remember the notes you make will form the basis of your preparation and revision for examination (including the 4 sides of notes for the Critical Research Study). It is vital that your notes are clear and enable you to remember what the purpose of the notes was.

 

GENERAL POINTS

 

Record the author, book title, publication date rand edition.

Identify the type of source and reason for using it.

 

Use abbreviations and a shorthand form that you will understand later!

Use clear headings and sub-headings

Use numbers and letters to list ideas in order or for priority.

Use bullet points to list ideas of equal importance

Date and number your pages of notes to make it easier to understand them later.

Do not write in full sentences

Summarise points in your own words (use a quotation if you want to keep the wording)

Pick out key words and phrases

Pick out relevant, brief quotations

Highlight or underline key points in the-text

Note the page numbers of the source from which you take the notes

 

Finally – read through your notes and…

 

Make bullet point summaries of the key points relevant to your research.

Use colour to pick out important ideas or to link related information.

 

Clarity and organisation are essential. Ideas and arguments should be built into your notes as much as possible so that the information you have makes sense in terms of the your investigation.

 

 

LINEAR NOTES

 

The most common form of note-making (though not necessarily the best for your particular purposes). They are generally hand-written on lined paper .

 

            Don’t fill the whole line, and don’t write on every line .

            Aim to leave a lot of white space on the page .

            Leave a margin on the right to add in notes I thoughts later .

            Choose headings that help you remember the information .

            Use sub-headings, sub-points to give more detail (number re- priorities) .

            Use non-written signs – colour, arrows, diagrams, bullet points, underlining to . visually clarify your notes

481. AS Media: Survey 1 Final Task

Click Here to take survey

480. G321: Survey 2 Evaluation

Click Here to take survey

482. Quote for the day

484. AS Film Studies -task for 22 April 2009

Explain why certain genres of films have thrived for many years, using the American war genre as example:

Use the following headings as guide:

Start with a brief introduction

Forms and conventions

Representation

Audience

Institution

Conclusion

503. AS Media task for Easter – representation

Click here – this is a really good site with representation theories and examples. On your blog, create a summary of the main theories around representation, using this blog and mine.

Areas to consider:

How audiences ‘read’ a media text

Representation of:
age
gender, including masculinity, femininity and queer theory
ethnicity
nationality
class

then use the examples from blackpool and the previous exam questions on this blog and attempt to look at how representation is created in at least three of the clips.

508. AS Media Task for After Easter

Click here – this is a really good site with representation theories and examples. On your blog, create a summary of the main theories around representation, using this blog and mine.

520. Film viewing – Audience Feedback Questionnaire

audience-feedback-questionnaire-17309

522. AS Film FM2 assignment – for 22 April 2009

Explain why certain genres of films have thrived for many years, using the American war genre as example:

Use the following headings as guide:

Start with a brief introduction
Forms and conventions
Representation
Audience
Institution
Conclusion

A2 Film FS5 Countdown Clock

Make your own Countdown Clocks

A2 Film FS6 Countdown Clock

Make your own Countdown Clocks

AS Media Exam Countdown Clock

Make your own Countdown Clocks

584. A2 Media Coursework deadlines

Research: week of 27 Oct

Pre-Production: week of 10 Nov

Production: week of 9 Feb

Post-Production: week of 9 March

Evaluation: week of 23 March

Final deadline: week of 31 March

Who owns what – media ownership in Europe

link

Shift Happens – Be Ready

watch this

A2 Media studies – creative option from digipak

look!

National Exams Timetable

for all your exams click here

Photoshop CS3 shortcuts for the Mac

click here

Help with AS Media Evaluation of coursework

Evaluation (or Production report) the following questions must be answered:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Most students will find that they are able to write about how their product develops and uses the formats, forms and conventions of the magazines that they have studied. It is harder for them say how they have been able to challenge those forms, but this might appeal to the most able students.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? Representation is a key concept of this course and must be addressed clearly and at some length here. Why did you choose this person as your model – are you missing out disabled people or not representing some groups.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? This is a straight forward institution question, except that because you are dealing with music magazines students should look at music websites as well as traditional print publishers

Who would be the audience for your media product? Say exactly what aspects of your magazine appeal to your target audience. Use technical terms such as demographic and quote ABC data.
How did you attract/address your audience? Describe all the elements in your front cover especially that would appeal to the target audience, and explain why the double page spread article is of interest to the audience.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? This is where your blog that you began at the start of term is so useful.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? This needs some thought – try answering this under brief topics such as: skills, communication, media knowledge, improved media technology, increased knowledge of the print industry.

AS A2 A-level results 2009

20 August – watch this spot!

596. How to build an armature for claymation / aardman secret clay recipe

click here

aardman secrets!

593. fight club subliminal messages

click here for easter eggs

592. Women in Film

www.bfi.org.uk/nationallibrary/collections/16+/ - An index of the bfi’s study guides, including two on ‘Strong Women’. Lots of case study material.
New York Women in Film & Television - Lots of useful things here. For example you can get statistics about women in the film industry.
www.wmm.com - ‘Women Make Movies’ site.
Representation of Youth in An Angel at My Table - A page from the Film Education site.
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~pm9k/libsci/womFilm.html - ‘Women in Cinema: A Reference Guide’. Possibly the most compendious listing of resources ever. Now you have no excuses…
http://markov.utstat.toronto.edu/mfulford/quizzes.html - Quiz your knowledge of women in film!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/2420713.stm - An article entitled ‘Women Directors Fight Back’.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3006943.stm - An article entitled ‘Boost for women film-makers’.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/2098046.stm - An article entitled ‘Female film-makers ‘face struggle”.

591. Critical Research: Examiner Advice

The points below are taken from the overall report by examiners of media studies so they’re definitely worth paying close attention to! They are all specifically about the critical research unit.

Generally answered well however the following points were noticeable:

Many candidates spent valuable time writing up to two sides explaining why they chose the topic and their focus area. Limited marks can be gained from this.
While it was pleasing to see more reflection and evaluation in most candidates’ work, this was often very general and not specific to actual methods or sources that the candidate had used. Many candidates had not been taught the difference between reflection and evaluation.
Many candidates did not reference their sources but talked generally about newspapers, websites & books.
Some candidates explained and evaluated a range of methods, but cited only one source for each. A range of sources, where possible, should be cited.
Explanation of logistic was often unclear. Phrases such as ‘I stumbled across..’ or ‘I was lucky to bump into..’ suggest a haphazard, rather than a logical and well planned, approach.
There was an increased use of observation as a primary method and this was rarely appropriate, and often simply anecdotal, for example – ‘I observed that a lot of the people I know who do drugs listen to hip hop’.
When addressing their sources, very few candidates really understand the difference between bias and balance.

590. American war Films – thanks Amy

click

589. How to write a newspaper story: 5 ws and an H

here

589. Photography – high key lighting tutorial

click here

588. film-making techniques

nice one!

587. 3-point lighting – three point lighting

THREE POINT LIGHTING

With a three-point lighting setup, you usually can’t go wrong. It is the very basic of lighting setups which will give your images added depth and prevent that all dreaded grain from creeping into your movie. As the name suggests, you will need three sources of light:

Key Light
This is your main light. The key light is a hard light source, which is placed to one side of the camera and up high. It’s light can be likened to the light from the sun on a clear day – a bright light with hard-edged shadows. It provides excellent “modeling” in that it highlights the shape and contours of the subject.

Fill Light
The fill light is a soft light source, which is usually placed on the other side of the camera from the key (but closer to the camera), and at about the camera’s height. It’s light can be likened to indirect sunlight reflected light from the environment. It provides the “filling in the shadows” light in that it lowers the contrast between light and dark in the image, and it casts very soft indistinct shadows.

Back Light
The back light is a hard light source like the key, but it is usually a smaller light and it is shone from behind the subject. It’s light is purely for modeling effect, in that it helps overcome the two-dimensional film image and makes the subject stand out from the background. It is sometimes referred to as the “highlight” as it is often used to give a sheen or highlight to an actor’s hair.

click

or, slightly sadder

or fake it in photoshop

586. Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe

click