MEDIA STUDIES

TRANSITION PACK

NAME

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Content of Course The new AS Level syllabus for media consists of two units: 1. Foundation Portfolio in Media (coursework production project)

2. Key Media Concepts (examination) Each AS unit is worth 100 UMS marks, 50% of the AS Level, and 25% of the final A Level. At A2 you will study two further units: 1. Advanced Portfolio in Media (coursework production project)

2. Critical Perspectives in Media (examination) Each A2 unit is worth 100 UMS marks and 25% of the final A Level.

The AS Level Course • Foundation Production Coursework: • Main Task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. Genre: Murder Mystery • Key Media Concepts Examination: • 2 Hour written Paper – Section A: One question based on an unseen moving image extract (TV Drama)

– Section B: One question on Institutions and Audiences (Magazines.) This transition project will prepare you for the work that you

will undertake next year. Each task that you undertake over

the summer will form the basis for our first assessment of your suitability for the course.

Blog Creation If you are also a FILM STUDIES student, you will only need one login. You will be able to set up two separate blogs within the same blogger account. All of your coursework will be uploaded onto an electronic blog. No work is submitted on paper at all. Everything is electronic. So your first task is to create this blog. This will require you to sign up to gmail and create an account. Whether you have an existing gmail or not, you will still create a new one just for your coursework. We need to know the password and we cannot do that with your personal accounts. The next few pages will show you how to create the blog. The procedure for the creation of the account will be:

Create a gmail account.

Use blogger to create a new blog.

Use settings to add labels.

Use settings to change privacy/readers.

Use Drive to upload/embed work.

Blog Creation – Guide

1. Go to gmail.com 2. Click on Create An Account

3. Fill in details and create a suitable gmail address.

4. Once in gmail, add the teachers and moderator into your contacts (top left drop down.) The contacts are woodcocklaurence@gmail.com sawtrymediaholden@gmail.com amyellismedia@gmail.com sawtrymoderation@gmail.com

5. Now click on the cubed icon (top right) and find blogger.

6. At this point you will be asked to create and confirm a google profile.

7. Once in blogger you will be able to select ‘New Blog’

8. Give your blog a suitable name. This should be your name, candidate number and the title AS MEDIA STUDIES Coursework Blog.

9. On the left is a list of tools. Choose Template to

select and modify how your blog will look. How it looks is up to you.

10. Now choose Layout. You will be able to select Add Gadget. Find the ‘labels’ gadget and add it to your blog.

11. Select New Post (top left/orange button.) Add a title ‘Test’ and write ‘Test’ in the main body of the post and click ‘Publish’ on the right hand side.

12. You should now be in the Posts tab (select it if not.) Tick the box next to the post you have just created and then select ‘New Label’ from the drop down menu. Write in the label name ‘Genre Research’ and hit enter. This should now appear next to your post. A label has now been created called Genre Research. When you select the drop down again you will see it as an option for future posts. Now repeat this ‘New Label’ process and use the test post to create the following labels:

Genre Research

Diary Entries

Planning

Production: Preliminary Task

Production: Main Task

Evaluation

When you view your blog (View Blog button) you should now see a box called labels with all of those labels in.

13. Now choose ‘Settings.’ In privacy, change both options to ‘no’.

14. Still in ‘Settings’, in ‘Blog Readers’ select ‘Private-Only These Readers’ and then choose from contacts at the bottom. Choose all the teachers and the moderator. This will send a request to those people which they need to accept.

Your Blog is now set up and ready for use.

Using Google Drive to upload and embed work

1. Firstly create your document/work. This might be in

a word document or powerpoint.

2. Now use the cube icon in gmail to select Google

Drive.

3. Once in Google Drive, select ‘New’ and then ‘File

Upload’.

4. Double click on the document once it is uploaded.

There is a ‘Pop Out’ option on the top right.

5. The document should open in another screen and

you should now see some dots at the top which drop

down to a menus which has an ‘Embed’ option.

6. Select embed and copy the embed code that is

generated.

7. Go back into blogger. Create a new post. Paste the

embed code into the main body of the post. There is

an option on the far left to change the post

document from ‘Compose’ to ‘HTML’. Do this. You

must always set the post to HTML when embedding

items. Most presentational tools have an embed

code generator (such as youtube) and you will be

able to embed things into your blog using this

method.

8. When you hit publish you should be able to view

the document embedded into a blog post on your

blog.

Foundation Portfolio in Media For your production coursework you will produce the titles and opening of a film from the Murder Mystery genre. You will be expected to provide evidence of extensive research, planning and preparation. As part of your research you will need to analyse the openings of a number of different films from the genre in order to identify the techniques used. We will use this opportunity to get started…… This task should actually be uploaded onto your new blog coursework portfolio in the ‘genre research’ label.

MURDER MYSTERY PRE-COURSE TASKS: Section One: Choose a character from a Murder Mystery film. Create a profile for this character which provides lots of detail about the character’s personality and traits. Section Two: Choose a Murder Mystery film and write a detailed analysis of the opening sequence. Write about the following:

Camerawork

Sound

Mise-en-scene

Editing

Representation

Use of Titles. You should use visual screen shots to demonstrate your points.