Stop: is this post for you? If you have just finished your first year of A-level media studies, and will graduate in 2026, then yes it is!
Why summer work?
To be quite honest, you guys deserve a break. You've been working very hard, and you should really take some time to enjoy this holiday. Spending time with friends and family, playing videogames, reading books, going to the cinema, going for a huge walk... whatever you're in to, you have a lot of free time coming up.
With that in mind, setting summer work is a bit mean. But, as I said at the start of the course, I will only every set homework that is absolutely essential. Also, this is not very hard at all. Also, I think you'll enjoy it. But most importantly this work is essential. It will be part of your preproduction, and you have to write about completing it when you finish your cover sheet. Finally, from a college perspective, if you do not complete your summer work, you will be issued with a warning. So basically, do your summer work.
There are three tasks. You could technically rush the first two. But take your time. You're going to have a think about the next piece of your coursework, and the more thought and research you put in to it, the better it will be, the easier it will be to complete, and you will get more marks for it overall.
Task one - Researching album covers, album advertisements and music magazines
For your next part of your coursework, you will be creating a one page album advert for your artist, and a double page feature article interviewing your artist.
Here are an example of an album advert
Using Google or some other search engine, find a bunch of album adverts. Also acceptable for this task are album covers, but please remember your actual production is going to be an album advert. Make a collage of of them, in a PowerPoint, directly in to your blog, in photoshop or even print them out if you're feeling flash.
Tip: type '[name of artist] [name of album] album advert' or ''album cover' or whatever in to the search engine to find adverts and album covers for artists you like.
Task 2: making a mood board to research an aesthetic
You've made a mood board before. It's a collection of images and costumes and whatever that you like the look of.
The advert you make will be very straightforward. You'll get specific instructions in September, but you need to include a representation of your artist, as well as a list of tour dates, and a nice logo.
The example above encapsulates a very specific aesthetic and ideology. It is forged from 80s horror iconography and hyperreal, fetishistic nostalgia towards old tech, constructing a sense that this album has some precedent and actually means something. The idea that nothing means anything will be explored in detail next year. It gets scary.
Just like with your music video, you should take inspiration from actual media products, which you have already done. You will also make explicit reference to this task in your cover sheet, as this is part of your planning and production.
Task 3. Consuming media
There's no point in doing media if you're not regularly engaging with media. In addition to your college work, you should be
- Watching films
- Checking out advertising campaigns
- Reading newspapers and news sites
- Listening to the radio and podcasts
- Playing videogames
- Listening to music
- Watching music videos
- Reading books
- Watching TV
- Reading magazines
- Taking pictures
- Checking out social media, blogs and other examples of online media
- Writing your own blog
And so on and so forth. A good thing to do is to go on Netflix and watch something you would not usually watch. Just watch the first episode of a bunch of shows and then keep watching the best one. Go to WH Smith or whatever it's called now and treat yourself to a cool looking magazine about a topic you are interested in.