Super.Human - ticking every box

In this session, you will deconstruct the Super.Human promotional trailer in order to understand how it constructs meaning. This is an extremely textually rich promo, with rapid-fire editing and a range of referentiality (there's two things to talk about!), so it's best to consider very short excerpts from the text in order to consider how complex meanings are created. 

CLICK HERE TO FIND THE ADVERT

Media language - textual analysis terminology

• Connotes
• Signifies
• Constructs
• Designates
• Anchors
• Constructs a myth
• Encodes
• Narrative code
• Visual code
• Technical code
• Gesture code
• Genre code
• Symbolic code
• Proairetic code
• Hermenutic code
• Cultural code
• Referential code/intertextual reference
• Mode of address (formal, informal, direct, uncomfortable etc)
• Positions
• Codes and conventions
• Font size, type of font (e.g. serif/sans serif), colour 
• Mise-en-scène – colour, lighting, location, costume/dress, hair/make-up 
• Graphics, logos etc.
• Elements of narrative
• Codes and conventions
• Cinematography – framing, shot types, angle, position, movement
• Editing – pace, type of edits, continuity/montage structure/narrative
• Sound – music/dialogue/voiceover/diegesis
• Mise-en-scene – colour, lighting, location, costume/dress, hair/make-up 

Media language theories

Roland Barthes - the construction of meaning through codes and myths

Claude Levi-Strauss - binary oppositions construct the world 

Representation theories

Stuart Hall - Representations are a reconstruction of reality

Liesbet Van Zoonen - Different genres are constructed in different ways through media language. What it means 'to be a man' for example has changed over time

bell hooks - Intersectional feminism. Feminism is for everyone, and identity is EXTREMELY COMPLEX

Contingency week/submission week 2026 - guidelines

You have one week and change to ensure your coursework is submitted and is of highest possible quality. This will involve a lot of tweaking, form filling and writing justifications.

 

1 - Cover sheet - this form was emailed to you!

This form needs to be finished, completed, sorted. Every box you need to sign must be signed. Information on every section you need to complete can be found below:

Completion of planning

Here, please included detailed information from your planning and preparation PowerPoint, including the research you conducted on your chosen genre, the music videos your watched, what you learned about subsids of major music labels, and what you learned about your target audience. The more information you include the better.

Statement of aims and intentions

Your statement of aims is included later on so leave this box blank!

Production process task one

Your ‘task 1’ was the music video. So include absolutely everything that you did to prepare for and make the music video. Everyone’s will be different, but examples COULD/SHOULD include how you shot your music video, what went wrong, how you dealt with it, the ‘perfect shot’ task, the rough rough 30 second cut, the rough cut , location scouting, storyboard, mood board, shopping list, shooting, test shoots, editing, and so on!

Production process task 2

Your task 2 was the tour poster/magazine pages. So, include absolutely everything that you did to prepare for and make these. Everyone’s will be different, but examples COULD/SHOULD include 10 poster challenge, photoshop lessons, Lightroom lessons, test shoots, flat plan, drafts for poster and double page spread, interview lesson, your summer work, as in your research in to tour posers and your mood board, anything that went wrong or right, and basically include a full account of everything you actually did.

Completion of cross-media production

This is really straightforward. You made a music video, that was XX:XX long, and you made an album advertisement and a magazine double page spread. That’s it!

Statement of aims and intentions (500 words)

THIS is where you copy/paste your A&I, once you are completely satisfied with it.

2 - tweaking and perfecting

Spend some time making sure that EVERYTHING from the project brief is included in every piece of coursework you are submitting.

Also make sure that everything you are submitting is of an exceptional standard. If there are any shots that are out of focus, any still images that do not exude star quality, this is the absolute last time you can actually do anything about this!

3 - Make sure EVERYTHING is in the OneDrive submission folder

• Submit all work via the OneDrive submission link (see my previous email). Search your email for ‘michael submission link’. You should only need to click the link once.
• Make sure that each piece of work is called [firstname secondname]. NOT [aims and intentions firstname secondname] or [firstname secondname actual final music video]. NOTE: you can add a SINGLE CHARACTER to the end of the file name (EG '1') to differentiate it from other identically titled files you may have knocking around in the same folder.
• Make sure the work is submitted in the correct format. No ppr, psps or pdfs.

Resources

Aims and intentions

Exemplar 

how to write about industry context

Music video

Brief

Tour post

Brief

Examples of tour posters

Magazine double page spread

Examples

Brief

Final KA5 checklist

1 - Familiarise yourself with industry and audience theories, especially Hesmonhalgh and Hall

2 - Check out the official fact sheets, indexed on the blog

3 - Memorise the definitions of vertical and horizontal integration

4 - Refamiliarize yourself with trailers, episodes, gameplay videos, making of docs, your own notes, everything that we looked at!

The Tide advert: context and analysis

 'The Tide Advert' is a c1950s American detergent advert that happens to be the first set text in A-level media studies.

This means that in the final exam, you may be asked to either

• Explore the context of the advert, in terms of  how it appealed to contemporary audiences, or
• Compare the representations of reality in this advert with another advert

This session covers both potentialities.

1 - Contexts

Click here to find the exam bord resources, as indexed on this blog. 

Click on the Tide advert fact sheet link

Make notes on the product context section, writing these key facts in to your own words. You should also skim over the rest of the sheet and make notes on any juicy facts that stand out to you. You should try and fill up an entire slide with blunt, bullet pointed facts

2 - Textual analysis

Go to resources and click 'textual analysis toolkit. Find the section on advertising.

You can also click here, just this once!

Now find the Tide advert itself. Click industries - advertising - tide advert (the very top link!)

It's also at the bottom of this post. But you need to know where everything on the blog is!

Use the textual analysis toolkit terminology to analyse how this advert constructs meaning

You may (as in you should!) also consider what realities surrounding women are constructed through media language. What does this advert say about women? How does this sit with you?

Click to view in higher resolution. Also save the image to your advertising PowerPoint!

End of induction week - final editing

You have one more session to edit your PERSUASIVE ADVERT. You may well have assembled your cut to a good level. Now it's time to finish this off, and to include all the little details that will make your advert SELL A LIFESTYLE TO YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE. 

Note: if you have already exported your project, please go back and finish it off!

You can do these in any order, and you do not need to do all of these things

If there is anything here you do not know how to do, first, give it a go yourself. Second, ask the person sitting next to you. Third, Google it, and watch a YouTube tutorial. Honestly, watching tutorials is how you will learn how to do most atypical and complex techniques!

Record a powerful voiceover

Very few of you got round to doing this! Use your phone to record a voiceover. Then email the resulting mp3 to yourself. Download the file, put it where you saved the rest of your adverts, then import it and drag it in like you did with your video. 

Apply compelling colo(u)r grading

Windows, workspaces, 'color'. You can edit the colour profile and adjust and correct things like exposure. Be conscientious and careful. Make it beautiful, striking and persuasive

Go crazy with effects

Windows, workspaces, effects. I told you to be sparing with effects. But try out a range of them. Most are drag and drop, and you can tweak the parameters in the effect control section. You may need to use a tutorial to learn how to tweak it.

Add powerful titles and captions

Windows, workspaces, captions and graphics. You can add captions and titles to your videos, either using the 'T' too as a starter to create a new video layer, or picking a template to get started with.

You can also create subtitles at the bottom of the screen as an accessibility feature, or do jazzy TikTok style subs to make your advert suitable for sharing on social media platforms.

Find and insert a suitable soundtrack

Go to a royalty free music website. Incomptech is a good one, but a quick google will find more. You can add your downloaded music exactly the same way as you sort and import video. Find sometyhing that fits the mood. Dramatic or silly. It's your choice!

Do some animation

You can animate almost everything in premiere, from the 'movement' of the footage (good for doing shock zooms and spins) to how text appears on screen. This is basically impossible to explain in words, you will need to watch a YouTube tutorial and follow through step by step. Even though I know how to do it, I still have to watch YouTube tutorials :( 

Export your project

Use exactly the same routine as last time. I made a tutorial for this which is a bit out of date but still pretty much works. 

If you think you've finished, you haven't! Go back up the list and find something new to do! This is an instructional project, so if your project ends up looking silly and OTT, it's fine! It's all about learning.