Camera shots: photo storyboard

Your photo storyboard needs to include the following ten shots and angles:

Camera shots recap:

• Wide shot / establishing shot (WS/ES)
• Long shot (LS)
• Medium shot (MS)
• Medium close up (MCU)
• Over-the-shoulder shot (OTS)
• Close up (CU)
• Big close up / Extreme close up (BCU/XCU)

Camera angle:

• High angle: makes subject look small and weak.
• Low angle: makes subject look big and powerful.
• Unusual perspective: can be used to surprise the audience or show danger (e.g. looking down off a cliff)

To get an example of what your photo storyboard should look like, have a look at this example from last year or this one - both very good.

Remember - all ten shots/angles and write an analysis to go with each shot to explain what it tells the audience.

Good luck!

Summer Project Update

Summer Project Update!

Well done to those people who uploaded their summer projects early and I have already read some excellent work. Thank you to all for their contributions.

However, some people are still missing their summer projects on their blog which is very disappointing. Can I remind people that this is a one year course and time keeping, deadline meeting and organisation is very important?
Some people's Summer Projects were also somewhat brief - this is a project and should have taken several hours to complete.

Please see the following excellent examples of GCSE level media terminology and detail for inspiration:

Abdullah- Guardians of the Galaxy
Abdullah Blog
Hussein - Maze Runner
Hussein Blog
Emman - X Men: Days of Future Past
Emman Blog

Well done to those people who have made an impressive beginning to the new year!

Miss Fowler

Good Morning Media!

This week saw the GCSE Media students doing some fantastic Photoshop wizardry, designing their own Fruit Bowls using the eye dropper tool and learning to use masks to really make an impact on their designs. All the students (from all 3 classes) produced some unique work - well done!

A shout out to the following Media Stars from B2:

Abdullah - for managing to complete 3 different fruit bowls and also help everyone else with their Photoshop struggles.
Gus- for teaching the second part of the lesson - they say teaching is the best form of learning!

The joint winners of the 'best fruit bowls' are Samie for his beautiful design and Mya for her interesting take on the project (using different skin tones). Special mentions to Amear for his design work, Abdullah for using a football shirt as inspiration, and Tyriq for a unique, comic book design based on conceptual Batman art.

GCSE Media Key Concepts

If you missed any of the notes from today's lesson this should help:

Language

• The Language of Media Studies
• How we ‘read’ media texts
• Recognising the codes and conventions of media texts
• Key media terms e.g. genre… denotation… connotation… narrative… 

Institution

• The companies or organisations behind the media
• Most aspects of the media are a commodity: something that is bought and sold. There is competition and a demand for profit.
• Huge institutions are called multinationals e.g. News International
• Smaller institutions can include media texts we create ourselves (blogs etc.)

Audience

• The people who consume media products
• How does the media influence its audience? Who holds the power?
• How is an audience targeted? What do the audience enjoy or learn from the media product?
• Audience research: who exactly is buying our product?

Representation

• The people who consume media products
• How does the media influence its audience? Who holds the power?
• How is an audience targeted? What do the audience enjoy or learn from the media product?
• Audience research: who exactly is buying our product?

Key Concepts blog task

1) Find a sci-fi film poster of your choice (use Google images)
2) Write an analysis of the film poster on your blog using the four key media concepts: language, institution, audience and representation.

Finish for homework if you don't complete it during today's lessons.

The key questions to ask:

Language: how do we know it is a sci-fi film poster? What impact do the key conventions have on the audience?
Institution: who are the companies behind the film? Who directs or stars in the film? Who is making money?
Audience: who is the target audience for this film? How can we tell?
Representation: what representation of people or groups can we find in this poster? What does it tell the audience?

Example: Splice (2009)

Language

The title and tag-line, release date and billing block (information about the Director and the production company) all follow the expected codes and conventions of a film poster. The effect created here is…

Institution

The film was produced by Dark Castle (for Universal Entertainment) who are associated with horror… It was executively produced by Guillermo del Toro who is a well known director. It was commercially successful (being the highest grossing Canadian feature film in 2010)…

Audience

This looks like it would be targeted at an audience of mixed gender (although perhaps slightly more female?) An adult age range might apply due to the 15 certificate and the content which includes hybridity and genetic experimentation…

Representation

The focal picture shows a female in a dominant position with another female confronting her. There is a male in the background which is perhaps unusual, particularly in science fiction…

Welcome back!

Welcome back to all our GCSE Media students. We made a great start in the summer on the move-up days and now the real business of getting a top grade in Media begins. We've got a lot to live up to: last year's results were...

95% A*-C

25% A*/A

I don't think we'll match those results - I think we'll beat them! We've got a great exam topic in Science Fiction Films and the coursework gets better every year.

Make sure you can log in to your blog and you've uploaded your summer project. If you're having problems with your blog, don't worry: we'll have some time in the first lessons back to sort things out.

Have a great year in Media!

GCSE Media - what you need to know

After four excellent move-up days of GCSE Media, we've already covered a lot of important material for next year. 

If you've missed any lessons, this is what we've been working on:

Lesson 1: Setting up blogs

Lesson 2: Textual analysis and Science Fiction films

Lesson 3: Pitching a Science Fiction film

Lesson 4: Introduction to Adobe Photoshop

Summer Project: Science Fiction film research

Most importantly, make sure you remember the Summer Project to research a Science Fiction film of your choice, watch it and find all the key details. Due: first week back in September.

For Year 8 and Year 9 students, we'll be doing a Music Promotion project in the final two days of Media this year. That means you need costume and props for the photoshoot on Tuesday - your group and the genre of music is up to you but music photoshoots are always better with casual clothing.

Keep up the brilliant work - next year we are going to get some seriously good results!

B2 Class: New Science-Fiction film competition!
And the winners are...

Best Pitchers: Dillan and Hussein
Best analysis on blog: Emman

So it looks like we are going to have to fork out $200 million and make a hybrid of three films that will result in Kevin Hart, Vin Diesel and some C listers battling aliens through a portal in a radioactive wasteland in London AND Australia, set on Earth AND on a new planet, featuring revenge against a racist brunette...
I predict a hit! :)