03 CREATING MEDIA

Introducing your coursework module 03 CREATING MEDIA.

Next year, you will tackle your NEA (non-examined assessment or 'coursework') from the set briefs for 2023. It is marked by your teacher (30 marks maximum; worth 30% of your overall grade). It moderated by an OCR moderator.

Check out the work that Year 11 GCSE media students did last year here on the Claremont Portal and see how previous years tackled different briefs here on our class blog.

You will also submit a Statement of Intent. This is an outline of what you have intended to create. There are guidelines on the OCR website and all last year's pupils have published their Statements of Intent on their individual blogs - have a look, for instance, here, here and here.

BLOB OPERA

EXPLORING GOOGLE ARTS & CULTURE: BLOB OPERA
 

You will be making first a 45 second TV advert then an event flyer

TASK: Open Blob Opera and record a short track.

This is your advert for an opera event with your Blob Choir 

Save the file

Take a screenshot to make an event flyer

Give the opera a name; add the date and place of the performance

Add "pull quotes" to attract attention "Majestic BBC Magazine"...." Fun for all the family" Opera Today

Google Arts and Culture Blob Opera

 

EDITING THE MUSIC VIDEO

Airdrop your clip to MediaMac10 (Monday & Tuesday group) or MediaMac2 (Wednesday and Thursday)

Identify it by giving it one key word as a name

Number it according to where it comes in the lyrics, for example:

Drag it to the BE KIND bin on the desktop

Kai's clip would be '1_thirst'

Jagger '2_quench'

Toyan '3_hunger'

Flo '4_silent' and so on...

Find the track and edit the video

 

PRODUCTION WORK

We are making a music video based on Ajimal Be Kind. Ajimal is Fran O'Hanlon, a palliative care doctor who is playing Glastonbury this year. Both year 10 groups organize themselves by selecting a snatch of the words from the lyrics, writing the words on paper / card and filming themselves presenting the words to camera.

PREP Film in landscape. Be creative about how you present your words. Ensure that your words are easy to read.

Link to YouTube here

Link to the Official Video for our swede here

The Times newspaper Saturday 4 June

Above All Else, Be Kind

There is a wind of spite that chills
There is a songless sky of still
If I were struggling for breath, who'd clasp me close?
Who'd bear my breathing
As I gasped in death?

 

There is a dark that light can't kill
Within the blinding fear it fills
If I were huddling for warmth, who'd clean my clothes?
Who'd share their blankets?
Or would I freeze alone?

 

This is not difficult or radical
This is fundamental. This is pivotal.

 
This is the most important:

Be kind, be gentle
Be mild, be simple
Be patient, be peaceful
But above all else, be kind

 

There is a thirst no substance can quench
There is a hunger that will not be silent
If you were famished, your children unfed
Who'd sit you down to share their table?
Who would share their bread?

 

This is not difficult or radical
This is fundamental. This is critical.
 

This is the single most important:

Be kind, be gentle
Be mild, be simple
Be patient, be peaceful
But above all be kind
 

Be humble
Show mercy, show caring
Don't hate or hide
Don't let fears divide

Above all else...
Above all else, be kind

 

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Francis O'Hanlon

 

 

TARGET SETTING: MUSIC & NEWS EXAM - MUSIC VIDEOS

We go over the music video question (10 marks)

Explain how music videos use representations to create difference. Refer to one set pair of music videos you have studied that use different representations to support your answer. The set pairs of music videos are:

Pair 1: Wheatus – Teenage Dirtbag (TD) and Avril Lavigne – Sk8ter Boi (SB)

•   SB’s representation of a powerful woman with agency contrasts with the stereotypical representation of women solely as love objects in TD

•   SB celebrates teenage rebellion and rule-breaking, whereas TD represents a character trying to conform and succeed

•   The highly individualistic, status-ridden and competitive world represented in TD contrasts with the representation of the solidarity of an outsider community in SB

•   The representations convey the meaning of the songs: celebrating skater culture in SB and commiserating with downtrodden teenagers in TD

•   any other representational difference

• 
  

TARGET SETTING: MUSIC & NEWS EXAM - RADIO 1

• We go over the radio question (4 marks)

• Explain one way that music radio stations can meet the requirements of public service broadcasting (PSB). Use the Radio 1 Live Lounge as an example in your answer.
  

• This question is asking for media industries knowledge and understanding of PSB.

  AO1(1a)

  PSB requirements stated, for example:

  •   ‘Inform, educate and entertain’

  •   High quality content

  •   Innovative and challenging content

  •   Stimulating knowledge and learning

  •   Informing the public

  •   Original British-made programming

  •   Reflecting the UK’s cultural identity

  •   Representing diversity and alternative viewpoints

  •   Distinctive programmes

  • Explanation of the PSB requirement may be embedded in the exemplification using the Radio 1 live Lounge.

    Effective examples from the Radio 1 Live Lounge include, for example:

    •   The promotion of live music in the Radio 1 Live Lounge is distinctive and innovative as commercial music radio channels rely on recordings

    •   The range of artists featured in the Radio 1 Live Lounge brings diversity to the representations on BBC channels and reflects the cultural needs of the channels’ young target audience

    •   The Radio 1 Live Lounge is produced by the BBC in the UK, so is original programming

    •   The requirement on the musicians to play live means that the Radio 1 Live Lounge is ‘good of its kind’ – it is superior popular music programming in a cultural context where live performance is valued over recorded music

      Explanation of PSB requirements might include:

      •   High quality content means that BBC programmes, for example,

        should be ‘good of their kind’ – they don’t all have to be high art, but

        even popular programmes should be well made

      •   Innovative and challenging content means that PSB programmes

        should not chase audiences by being conventional and easy to

        understand

      •   Stimulating knowledge and learning means that PSB channels must

        include information and educational content

      •   Informing the public means that PSB channels must include

        information and educational content

      •   Original British-made programming means that PSB channels cannot

        simply schedule cheap imports

      •   Reflecting the UK’s cultural identity means that PSB channels must schedule programmes that address UK issues and reflect UK culture in all its diversity
      • 
        
      •   Representing diversity and alternative viewpoints means that PSB channels must schedule programmes that reflect UK culture in all its diversity and address UK issues from a variety of viewpoints
      • 
        
      •   Distinctive programmes means that PSB channels must schedule programmes that are different from those on non-PSB commercial channels 

     

  

TARGET SETTING: TV & PROMOTING MEDIA EXAM

We look through the recent exam paper 01 Television and Promoting Media to identify how to improve. You make notes in your target setting document on media terminology that you want to remember, exam tips, how to tackle two-bullet point questions and what the main pitfalls were.

• Q.1 Offer more that two examples if asked for 'at least two'. Revise the difference between editing and camerawork.
  
• Q.2 and 3 You will have to show knowledge and understanding of the genre (police procedural, crime drama) and of the social, historical and cultural contexts. The question will expect you to know the whole of the two texts, not just answer from the 5 minute extract
• Two bullet point questions ask you to make judgements and draw conclusions, so drop down into a new paragraph and signal clearly what your judgements and conclusions are. There are separate marks for each bullet point.
• 'How far' questions expect a nuanced response: offer a balanced view, considering alternative views
• For Blumler and Katz, audiences use media to gratify needs. Can you apply the framework to Cuffs and The Avengers?
• Do you know the names of all the characters in each programme?
• Have you watched the Lego movie video game walkthrough online?
• As you watched the Lego movie trailer, could you identify film trailer conventions?
• Can you analyse action movie genre conventions in the Lego movie poster campaign?
  

 

TARGET SETTING: MUSIC & NEWS EXAM - NEWSPAPER LANGUAGE

We look through the recent exam paper 02 Music and News to identify how to improve. You make notes in your target setting document on media terminology that you want to remember, exam tips, how to tackle two-bullet point questions and whet the main pitfalls were.

• What is media language? This term refers to how a text is presented. In the Music and News exam, there are different types of 'language' for different genres
• The language of music videos
• The language of music magazines 

The language of newspapers: the genre of modern broadsheet newspapers like our set text. 

• The Observer is a mix of serious traditional hard news journalism presented in a formal style, hard news stories with standfirsts, pull quotes
  
• focus on orderly organization in five columns one main photograph often spread across 2-3 columns but the ratio of text to to image is high
• title and copy in dark colours, serif font
• plus an element of tabloidization: skybox occupies at least a quarter of the front cover and advertises the weekend supplements The New Review, The Magazine, Sports section
• Images dominate with celebrity focus and bright colours, often canted angled, leaking / dripping / pushing out of the boundaries