Had enough Christmas Pud and Crocodile Dundee? Why not turn to the Noodle for a bit of Revision?

Hello my lovelies. How are you all? I hope you have had a fabulous Christmas break. I'm sorry to bring you back to the world of Media Studies, but thought I ought to remind you that re-sits will be upon us fairly shortly as will the critical Research Study exam. For any of you fed up with eating, drinking and watching DVD's, there is always the additional option of dipping into a bit of light revision with an alcoholic beverage. So for starters, the 'Prawn Cocktail' of Media Studies, a bit of Action Adventure stuff to help you prepare for this exam:

http://longroadactionfilms.blogspot.com/

I'll add some more later....a good movie has just started! Sorry.x

Year 13 Media - Critical Research Study Notes

It is imperative that I see your Critical Research mock exam notes before the mock exam this week. For those of you sitting the mock tomorrow morning, please let me see your notes before lesson. I'll be in my room at 8.30am. For those of you sitting the exam on Friday, can I please have notes to check by close of shop on Thursday? Thank you.

REMEMBER:YOU CAN HAVE 4 SIDES OF A4, HAND WRITTEN. NO ESSAY PLANS.

Good Luck

Arghhh - Year 13 Media Re-sit Revision!

Arghhhhhh! It's REVISION TIME for those of you doing re-sit exams in January. But don't panic...mummy media has got it all in hand! I will be posting lots of support materials and links on the blog to help you through the Christmas hols.

Here are a few great ones to get you started. They are the dedicated topic blogs from Longroad Media - a sixth form college in Cambridge:

Longroad's NMT Blog

http://longroadnewmedia.blogspot.com/

Longroad's Action/Adventure Blog

http://longroadactionfilms.blogspot.com/

Team Media will also be hosting some extra revision sessions after school in the first two weeks back. I will post the dates on the blog so keep you're eyes peeled. You should have received re-sit information through the post but if you are not sure here is the list:

Textual Analysis : Gender Sitcoms / Action Adventure

Grant Clarke

Lewis Evans

Emma Gower

Kimberley Holland

Emma Hunt

Rebecca Robinson

Audiences and Institutions: New Media Technology Case Studies

Gemma Andrews

Adam Bryant

Jade Burnett

Grant Clarke

Emma Gower

Amy Head

Kimberley Holland

Dave Jelliman

Danni Jones

George Jones

Joe Murphy

Rebecca Robinson

Oliver Rowe

Can I suggest that you dust-off your Year 12 files and read over the materials and handouts you were given last year. I will add stuff to the Learning Resources Zone that can be found on the right hand side of this blog. Happy Revision. x

Year 13 - Critical Research Study Support

Thank you to all of you who have made the effort to do your essays in preparation for the Critical Research mocks this week. I have been impressed by the standard of work and the quality of research. There is still time to get stuff to me, so I will try to look at anything you pass my way this evening OR early tomorrow morning. 

I have put some stuff together on 'News Values' for George, Grant, Danni, Joey, Joe M and anyone else exploring the relationship between tabloid coverage and representations of 'Crime' 'Sport' etc. 

NEWS VALUES

Every event which is reported in the news, has gone through some kind of "gatekeeping" process. How does a journalist or an editor decide what is newsworthy and what is not?

According to some media researchers, they refer to a set of so-called "News Values". These are the criteria which enable them to determine whether a "News Story" is followed up in the first place and then whether it makes it in to the news, competing against all the other possible items.

News values are those professional codes used in the selection, construction and presentation of news stories in corporately produced mainstream press and broadcasting.

News values are a result of the productive needs of industrialized news corporations. It is clear that people who work for such corporations will display mixed ambitions, allegiances, politics and abilities as individuals. Within the corporation they are subjected to an extensive division of labor. Beyond the corporation there are its competitors, and the occupational ideology of the journalist and the broadcasting profession.

Within these contexts, news values operate to produce a standard product out of the contributions of all such people, practices and beliefs.

This site explores the work of Gultang and Ruge. Many media academics have called for their list to be revised to add further values of 'Celebritisation' and 'Visability' (Giving a story high status because of its visual impact)

http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/media/nvdetail.html

Another useful News site with a focus on TV News but relevant all the same to those of you exploring the Tabloid Press - the bit on Audience readings (preferred, negotiated, dominant and oppositional) is great and worthy of use in Q2 in your analysis and presentation of a debate. 

http://www.channel4.com/learning/breakingthenews/schools/downloads/learningmaterials/btn_conceptmap.pdf

To those of you sitting the mock tomorrow, Good Luck. I look forward to reading your essays. If I think of anything else to add, I'll post it here tonight.
x

CRITICAL RESEARCH STUDY MOCK EXAMS

Good Evening everyone. I hope you have all enjoyed a super-noodle-dandy weekend and feel ready for the Mocks this week. My Friday class will sit the mock in Leanne's lesson on Wednesday. My other class will sit the exam on Thursday in my double.

I have been reading through quite a few essays and a very common error being made for Q1 is the tense you are writing in. Q1 is about the research methods you selected and used, and why? It therefore needs to be written in the PAST TENSE! I want to know what you did and why? NOT WHAT YOU INTEND TO DO! 

Also, Lewis asked if I could put together a bank of KEY MEDIA WORDS to use in your essays, so here goes:

The FOUR KEY CONCEPTS THAT UNDERPIN THE COURSE AND YOUR ESSAYS ARE: AUDIENCE, INSTITUTION, REPRESENTATION, FORMS AND CONVENTIONS:

Audience - primary audience, secondary audience, profile, sociographic, psychographic, ABC1, uses and gratifications, effects, mass, niche, respondents, 4C's (Young and Rubican's theory), lifestyle, brand identity, brand loyalty, taste, mode of address, complex, patterns of consumption, fickle, viewing habits,

Institution - broadcast, narrowcast, mainstream, independent, PSB, commercial, dominant ideologies, transgressive ideologies, censorship, regulation, monopolisation, industry, oligopolies, Transnational Corporations, mode of address, scheduling, media placement, advertising revenue, vertically integrated, production, distribution, exhibition, consumption, synergy, symbiotic relationship, patriarchal order, patriarchy, glass ceiling

Representation -  gender, sexuality, race, religion, age, ability, stereotypes, constructed identities, identity, male gaze, scopophillic gaze/ Narcissistic gaze / fragmentation / objectification (Laura Mulvey)/ ideological messages and values, voyeuristic, verisimilitude, female gaze, hetrosexual gaze, dominant ideology, transgressive ideologies, mode of address, implied, suggested, explicit, conventional, unconventional, challenging, subversive, undermine, patriarchy, matriarch, patriarchal order, ideological overtones, feminism, gender politics, socialisation, hyper-masculinity. THESE ARE CONSTRUCTED THROUGH FORMS AND CONVENTIONS

Forms and conventions - FORMS = TEXT TYPE (Magazines, films, TV, Radio etc.) GENRE and sub-genres. Conventions = Cinematography, sound, lighting, mise-en-cene, SFX, editing, headlines, subheading, slogans, shot type, framing, fragmentation, pace, movement, celebrity endorsement. 

I hope these are useful. I'll try and add some more later as my brain feels like it has been fried! See you next week. Only 5 Days to go! x

Year 13 Critical Research Study Mock Exam Preparation

Hi Year 13. Hopefully you now know that the 'Mock' Critical Research has been postponed until NEXT WEEK! Leanne is not going to be around for your lesson on Tuesday so here I am setting you some Critical Research work to get on with as I need to use the Edit suite with my Yr 12 students to do a Final Cut Pro lesson. The majority of you have still not done a draft of Q1 and 2 yet. Please spend the two hours in Leanne's lesson writing these up - IT IS IN YOUR INTERESTS TO DO THIS ASAP IN ORDER TO REALISE SUCCESS IN THE MOCK NEXT WEEK. I NEED TO SEE WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT AND PREDICT HOW YOU WILL PERFORM IN THE REAL EXAM IN JAN. 

FINALLY CAN I PLEASE SEE OLIVER AND HABIB ASAP? THANKS. 

See you all tomorrow. Use the advice on the postings here to support you with the essays and either print them off or e-mail them to me at: ninanoo@btinternet.com

x

Year 13 Critical Research Study Mock Exam Notice

I understand from Leanne that there is an air of panic about the Critical Research Mock Exams next week. Given that I have been off poorly I have decided to move the mocks into the last week of this term (an extension - yipeeee I hear you cry!), giving us next week to construct notes. I have posted some advice about notes on a blog posting yesterday so please have a look at these. I still have only received 2 essays and really do need to see some evidence of essay preparation by next week. 

Becky and Si Pui I have added the 'Women and Film' Essay 2 outline as requested and updated the original posting which can be found under 'Year 13 Critical Research' zone (see top of 'Noodle' under Quote of the Week). Sorry it's a bit late in getting up there! 

In a previous post I asked you to begin the process of writing your notes. Here is the document I am sent by the exam board regarding the 'RULES' on what can and cannot go into your notes. 

http://www.ocr.org.uk/Data/publications/prerelease_materials/L_A_Level_Media_Studies_PRM_Unit_2734_Instruction_for_Teachers_Jan_2009.pdf

This document will also prove useful to many of you interested in knowing how your MOCK will be marked. This is the Exam Board Assessment Criteria PDF for all examiners marking papers for A/S and A'level last June. You can find the Assessment Criteria for the Critical Research exam by scrolling down a few pages once entering this document.
http://www.ocr.org.uk/Data/publications/mark_schemes_2008/L_A_Level_Media_Studies_MS_Jun_2008.pdf

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. I hope to be back in school on Monday. x

A'level Media Studies - Critical Research Study Stuff For You

Women and Horror - Some stuff for Lewis and Remdeep

This site offers some insight into important feminist theories around Women and Horror films including Carol Clover's exploration of representations of women in Horror. You should be making reference to these theories if you want the A-C grades! 

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1775841

Another theory based site this time drawing upon the work of feminist theorist Laura Mulvey

http://www.helium.com/items/132886-women-in-horror-films-ripley-the-alien-and-the-monstrous-feminine

Top 25 Women of Horror - useful maybe

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/816579/top_25_women_of_horror.html?cat=40

John O'Grady - Where are you?

John. 

Where is your blog? Have you created a new one? I found a lovely little site with quotes from Morgan Freeman about his performance in 'The Bucket List'. I thought this one on his performance was particularly good:

"No moments are ever pushed. There's no overacting. Everything he does is so simple, elegant and subtle, yet it's all so filled in. Every moment is filled in with the right emotion. He's a gift -- and to have both him and Jack together in the same movie? A director can't have a better situation."
Boston Channel.com

Here's the link with some other lovely quotes about the 'Big' man:

">http://www.daylife.com/article/087Q5X7a2RdMi/quotes/1

Here is a collection of sound files on Shawshank Redemption that could be of some use:

http://www.entertonement.com/collections/1507/Morgan-Freeman

Let me have your new blog address if you have one. My e-mail address is:

ninanoo@btinternet.com

Ninax

A/S Film Studies - Hollywood Case Study Nina's Class

I hope the editing of your short films is going well in i-movie. Gerry has agreed to come and do a session on Final Cut Pro next week to help you bring your creative ideals to life with some 'Jazz Hands' snazzy effects! 

As you know, your Hollywood case study research is due on Tuesday. I have seen what Jake, Tara and Ruby have been up to but am not sure what the rest of you are up to? I have not received any blog links from anyone else so if you are creating a Film blog can you e-mail me your url address to: 

ninanoo@btinternet.com

I am off work feeling poorly and a bit sorry for myself. I hate daytime TV so have spent a bit of time in my cosy bed sourcing useful stuff for you. Here are a couple of useful links that might help you research the institutional aspect of your case study:

This blog focuses on 'Distribution' facts:

http://moviedistributionfacts.wordpress.com/2008/06/03/using-a-study-of-popular-movie-audiences-to-promote-your-film/

This site explores Hollywood studios as Oligopolies 'multi-national corporations' that dominate media output. Some interesting stuff especially in the Movie Industry section.

http://www.oligopolywatch.com/2003/08/06.html

This site is great for accessing 'fan-sites' where you can find loads of great marketing and publicity for your case study film+ facts/figures to do with box office sales and studio info.  
http://www.hollywood.com/

Oh and Jake, I think Sarah Jessica Parker launched a perfume called 'Lovely' when 'Sex and the City' was released. I saw an ad on TV for it last night and it reminded me of our conversation. 

Thank you all for your efforts in Tuesday's lesson. Despite not taking his badge, Mr OFSTED was very impressed with the class. 

See you on Tuesday. x

FS4 Film Studies Presentation Script Development

The presentation script (1000 – 1500 words)
The presentation script must take the form of notes for a presentation and could
combine (for example) subheadings, bullet points, short pieces of connected prose
and reference to visual extracts to illustrate the presentation. Candidates are
encouraged to devise a presentation format appropriate to their needs. This is not an essay but a presentation of research findings.

To access the higher grade tiers you MUST:
Reference key items of research from the catalogue and cross reference these
explicitly in the presentation.

Make use of short credited quotations derived from primary and secondary research but care must be taken that the words of the presentation are the candidate’s own. Credited quotations are excluded from the word count.

Here is some more information from Freddie Gaffney one of the principal examiners at WJEC for this paper with examples to show how each element of this project should be laid out and constructed: 

http://www.wjec.co.uk/uploads/publications/5288.pdf

I hope this helps. Miss you all and still feeling rotten. See you soon x

Year 12 Film Studies - Some Awesome Editing

Here are a few of my favourite 'Edits' from films that I will share with you in class. How does the editing help to construct meaning? How does the editing create mood, pace, tone and emotional responses?

City of God

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RoNATPsOsZ

Psycho Shower Sequence

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RN47mpzxgYA

Some amazing 'Long Takes' from De Palma, to Orson Welles and of course Hitchcock

http://www.dailyfilmdose.com/2007/05/long-take.html