Wednesday 28 March 2012

Interesting TED talks videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOE1HFEL8XA&sns=fb  what facebook and google don't tell you



http://www.ted.com/talks/adam_ostrow_after_your_final_status_update.html social newtwork info and status update (archiving info)





How to revise for Media

How to revise for media exams:

1.       Review the examiners reports
2.       Know and revise the mark scheme
a.        By marking other past papers and your own responses
3.       Know and revise the possible topics you could be tested on
a.       Year 12
                                                               i.      Section A              
Know the categories inside and out (and all key terms in them)
a.        Camera shots, angles, movement, composition
b.       Editing
c.        Sound
d.       Mise-en-scene
TV Drama (representation of…..)
Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Sexuality
Class & Status
Regional Identity
Physical ability/disability
Know the different types of British TV dramas
Teen Dramas
Soap Operas
Costume Dramas
Medical/Hospital Dramas
Police/Crime dramas
Docudramas
Know and WATCH British TV dramas (at school, home – TV/BBC iplayer, 4OD etc)
Life on Mars
Rome
Skins
Coronation Street
The Hamberg Cell
Doctor Who
(and more of course!!!!)
                                                              ii.      Section B               Audiences & Institutions  (Miss Williams)
b.       Year 13
                                                               i.      Section A               Evaluating c/w
1.       1A : Know your pieces of c/w from both years (and how you developed and progressed from AS to A2 (different platforms/tasks), the skills, theorists & possible topics
Digital Technology
Creativity
Research and Planning
Post Production
Use of Real Media Texts
2.       1B: Know your pieces of c/w, the skills, theorists & possible topics
Genre
Narrative
Representation
Audience
Media Language
                                                              ii.      Postmodernism    (Ms Paisley)
4.       Revise with friends/groups – it is always GREAT to revise with others so you learn from each other – you would be surprised of how great this works!
5.       Read past papers
a.        Assess them using the mark scheme
b.       Make annotations of them
c.        Make note of the WWW & EBI (and apply this knowledge to your answers)
d.       Know what an A grade answer looks like versus a lower grade answer
                                                               i.      Compare differences between these


6.       Practice writing answers using past papers
a.        STICK TO TIMING!
b.       Write answers for each possible option
c.        Have a friend (who takes media) mark your answers to get another opinion
7.       Buy and read the media revision book a few times a week
a.        Read a different section at a time
b.       There are loads of activities at the end of sections
8.       Make revision notes (and show teacher if you want advice!)
a.        Make a list of key terms and review them daily
b.       You could even test yourself on the key terms to see if you know them
c.        DON’T make these really wordy – keep it brief!
d.       Make key words stand out
e.       Revision cards
f.         Make your own revision slides (powerpoints) of topics complete with key terms, brief info, pictures and videos  (like I made for TV drama)
9.       Know a few theorists for your topics!
10.    You can revise from various websites
a.        Various websites in relation to specific topics
                                                               i.      Be careful of Wikipedia as always
b.       OCR blog – has links and info about exams
c.        TED talks
                                                               i.      Great for educational lectures about various topics
(Clay Skirky is a great media theorist btw)
d.       Youtube is great but be be careful (same as wiki)

Tuesday 27 March 2012

VARIOUS INFO ON DOCUMENTARIES

VARIOUS INFO ON DOCUMENTARIES


The following boxes are useful for last minute additions for your research and planning and also for preparation for exam section A


TYPES OF DOCUMENTARIES
  1. Moving Image
  2. Television
  3. Documentary  (breaking down the genres)
                                                               i.      Observatory  (ones that observe topics or issues)
                                                             ii.      Expository  (ones that expose topics or issues)
                                                            iii.      Participatory  (ones that audiences participate in to reveal a message)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEP_CugxZCI discussion of these 3 types of documentaries and how they are made

    1. Informative
                                                               i.      Historical
                                                             ii.      Nature/wildlife
                                                            iii.      Educational  (science or social issues)
    1. Entertainment




http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/Documentary/docu_index.php

Documentary - A Definition for the Digital Age

In his 2001 book, Introduction to Documentary (Indiana University Press), Bill Nichols (theorist) defines the following six modes of documentary

Documentary texts are supposedly those which aim to document reality, attempting truthfulness in their depiction of people, places and events. However, the process of mediation means that this is something of an oxymoron, it being impossible to represent reality without constructing a narrative that may be fictional in places.
Certainly, any images that are edited cannot claim to be wholly factual, they are the result of choices made by the photographer on the other end of the lens. Nonetheless, it is widely accepted that categories of media texts can be classed as non-fiction, that their aim is to reveal a version of reality that is less filtered and reconstructed than in a fiction text.
Such texts are often constructed from a particular moral or political perspective, and cannot therefore claim to be objective. Other texts claim to simply record an event, although decisions made in post-production mean that actuality is edited, re-sequenced and artificially framed. The documentary maker generally establishes a viewpoint before starting the construction of their text, and the process of documentary-making can be simply the ratification of their idea. Perhaps, to misquote Eco, the objectivity of the text lies not in the origin but the destination?
The documentary genre has a range of purposes, from the simple selection and recording of events (a snapshot or unedited holiday video) to a polemic (controversial argument) text that attempts to persuade the audience into a specific set of opinions (Bowling For Columbine). Audiences must identify that purpose early on and will therefore decode documentary texts differently to fictional narratives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_mode  more on documentary mode (Bill Nichols theory)



http://www.adamranson.plus.com/documentaries%20%5bv6.0%5d.PDF     extremely useful document looking at types of documentaries and elements of documentaries.  Most useful information is about pre-production, production and post-production stages of making a documentary.





http://www.filmsite.org/docfilms.html   website that explores different types of documentaries, documentary makers, lists of examples of documentaries






http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_film loads of information of definitions and information about types of documentaries. It also has info on contexts exploring why documentaries change/evolve.


http://www.slideshare.net/emhughes/basic-documentary-genres-outline  the first part goes into more detail and examples of different types of documentaries

IMPROVING THE BLOGS

IMPROVING THE BLOGS

1.      Know your current mark – (construction and evaluation)
2.      Know the mark scheme for R&P
Level 4 16–20 marks
-Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed.
-There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
-There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
-There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
-Time management is excellent.
-There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.
-There are excellent communication skills.
-There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning.

3.      Embed/include all the assignments and work set on the blog checklist!
4.      If you haven’t - You could complete drafts (in retrospect) for your different drafts of your documentary and ancillaries  (presentations)
a.      Decisions/revisions (changes)
b.      Structure plans
c.       Storyboards
d.      Scripts
5.      Actors = presenters and people being interviewed  (discuss how this is NOT formed/planned characters for a fictional story but how it is real life)
6.      Costume & props = still use this for presenter and props used for various content
a.      Ex. Outfit for presenter (which should relate to target audience)
b.      Filming content that relates to a topic (ex. Statistics?)
7.      Time management = dates on blog are over time, meeting logs, short term and long term plans
8.      Communication skills = communicates clearly and with appropriate language in presentations and on blog (including posts)
9.      Level of care in the presentation = the overall blog is very accessible, well organised, easy to read, presetnations have title and explanation of the task, titles are clear and consistent, range of images and videos (that are labelled), text and font is clear and consistent, things are sequential, videos/pdfs/images/powerpoints are embedded correctly and clearly

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Evaluation question guidance for questions 1 & 2

Evaluation Question (#1 & #2)  Guidance

1.     In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

FORM: How something is constructed (made)
Documentary:   anything with filming (shots/angles composition etc)
 editing (cuts/transitions/music/volume control etc)
Ancillaries:  composition, visual design/layout (composition) typography (font style size & organisation) photography, etc.

CONVENTIONS: things you expect to see
Documentary:   background music, presenter, voiceover, cutaways, montage etc.
Ancillaries:  catchy title, catchy/unique photography and concepts, placement and style of text (titles/subtitles/paragraphs)

DOCUMENTARY
ANCILLARY

1.      Discussing/showing your inspirational documentaries
2.      How/why they use/develop/challenge forms
3.      How/why they use/develop/challenge conventions
4.      How/why YOU use/develop/challenge forms
a.      COMPARE SIMILARITIES & DIFFERENCES (of forms) TO REAL DOCUMENTARIES
5.      How/why YOU use/develop/challenge conventions
a.      COMPARE SIMILARITIES & DIFFERENCES (of conventions) TO REAL DOCUMENTARIES


1.      Discussing/showing your inspirational double page spreads  and adverts
2.      How/why they use/develop/challenge forms
3.      How/why they use/develop/challenge conventions
4.      How/why YOU use/develop/challenge forms
a.      COMPARE SIMILARITIES & DIFFERENCES (of forms) TO REAL DOUBLE PAGE SPREADS/ADVERTS
5.      How/why YOU use/develop/challenge conventions
a.      COMPARE SIMILARITIES & DIFFERENCES (of conventions) TO REAL DOUBLE PAGE SPREADS/ADVERTS


           

















2.     How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
You can consider the following things to describe how effective the combination is of your main and ancillaries
           
1. CONTENT AND CONCEPT OF IMAGES
-(perhaps you photographed your locations/people in your ancillaries and shot in same places as documentary so they are connected by CONTENT)
-maybe they connect by the concept? Or the episodes
-or maybe the people/presenter?

3.      STYLE
-do they connect by a certain type of style?
-style of typography (font) or titles
-style of the photography

2. TARGET AUDIENCE 
-(how do all of the products link to same target audience)
-documentary: what time would they be watching the documentary? Why? (link to audience)
-ancillaries: why and when would they be reading the newspapers where you put the advert and the magazines for the double page spread?)

4.      IDENT
(opening of documentary)
-(channel 4/bbc) at beginning of documentary connects to your advert

5.      ADVERTISING/MARKETING
-(how did you brand the whole package?)  Consider how would people firstly see the adverts, then read the article (double page spread) and then watch the documentary)
BUDGET
-then relate this to a budget (how much would you have to spend on construction (making the documentary? Advertising/marketing (ancillaries)?  Remember to consider the costs of putting a documentary on a channel and which newspaper (and size of the advert) you put your advert on and what magazine you chose for your double page spread
-(you could make a chart to show your approx. budget)