AS Media Studies

Welcome to AS Media Studies at CBA. Each week the list of tasks to be completed will be posted below with any guidance or advice that can be offered to help you do this ... don't forget to keep a printed copy of all your blog posts and get them signed off when they're done :) Miss H

Week One - Preliminary Task

1. Preliminary Task Brief - what are you being asked to do and how are you going to do it?
2. What are your initial thoughts and ideas for this project? What would you like to include in it? Who would you like it to be aimed at? Any good ideas or things to avoid? Who will read it?
3. What is your 5 week action plan to complete this project? Remember to outline your FOCUS, any TASKS to be completed (beyond the ones I set you), what are your NEEDS and REQUIREMENTS (equipment, rooming etc).
4. Your research and annotations (3 annotated school/college magazine and magazine front covers and contents pages looking at relevant forms and conventions used and their appeal to a potential audience).

Week Two - Preliminary Task

1. Create a Target Audience Profile for your School/College Magazine.
2. Prepare your original images - take as many as you want but you're only going to be using 4!
3. Annotate your chosen 4 images (1 main image and 3 supporting images) looking at: mise en scene, lighting, composition and what is being represented and how?
4. Create the layout plans for your front cover and contents pages - what are you going to include and where?

Week Three - Preliminary Task

1. Your School/College Magazine Cover No.1 needs to be completed and annotated for relevant forms and conventions used.
2. Ask for feedback from different readers in your target audience - summarise and blog their comments based on your work.

Week Four - Preliminary Task

1. Using the feedback from your target audience, alter your front cover and contents page to meet what they have suggested would make it more appropriate to their needs.
2. Annotate your redrafted front cover to explain what you have changed and why.
3. Add a post onto your blog to reflect on your work so far in media - if you were to redo this project again, what would you change.  Use the following questions to help you:
• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
• How does your media product represent particular social groups?
• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
• Who would be the audience for your media product?
• How did you attract/address your audience?
• What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Week Five  - Preliminary Task

Your preliminary task should be completed and uploaded onto your blogs.  You should also keep a completed printed version in your exercise books of everything you have done.

1. Make sure to complete your final front cover and contents page - add this on an individual post to your blog.
2. Complete your evaluation questions, reflecting on what you have completed throughout this preliminary task.

Week Six - Photoshop Training

1. Following on from our session on Monday, please print and keep a copy of the notes that you were given.  Your homework is to practise using photoshop to recreate the following front covers: make sure all work completed is printed and stuck in your exercise books.  If you have any questions or queries about using photoshop, please note them down and bring them to next weeks' lesson.  Enjoy :) 



Week Seven - Main Task

This week, we are starting to consider the main coursework task.  On your blogs, you should make sure that you post the following:

1. Your Main Task Brief
2. Your initial thoughts explaining the genre you would like to focus on.
3. 4 x annotated front covers, contents pages and double page spreads for existing publications from the genre of your choice.  I've included some example response below, to help you with your analysis.