Stop: is this post for you? If you have just finished your first year of A-level media studies, and will graduate in 2025, 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 gig flyers, posters, and tour posters
A tour poster is an advert for a series of dates a band or singer of DJ will play. You're going to be making one.
Here are just a couple.
Using Google or some other search engine, find a bunch of tour posters. Also acceptable for this task are gig flyers and posters (which are for a single date), but please remember your actual production is going to be a tour poster. 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] concert poster' or 'gig flyer', or 'tour poster', or 'live poster' or whatever in to the search engine to find posters 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 tour poster 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 two examples above are very straightforward. Yet both of them encapsulate a very specific aesthetic and ideology.
Beabedoobee presents a clean, straightforward and stylish aesthetic. It focuses on the singer staring directly at the audience, with a look that connotes confidence. The MES of her freckles, oversized jacket and messy fringe reinforce the conventions of the indie-pop genre. While she is hegemonically attractive, there is a marked step away from the self-sexualisation that is often present in the marketing material for female pop stars. The use of black and white connotes a sense of timelessness, but also clarity; she elicits a simple, straightforward yet slightly quirky brand of retro indiepop. Finally, the fonts. 'Beabedoobee', while being a somewhat ridiculous work is presented in a simple, elegant, font, reminiscent of design choices from around the early 2000s. Yet the title of the tour itself, 'BEATOPIA' is written is a scrawled and messy font. Rather than connoting low production values, here it simultaneously connotes a quirky mode of address with a sense of almost child-like joy. It invites the young, predominantly female target audience to engage with the artist on an emotional as well as emotional level.
And that's all from a woman in a puffa jacket looking in to the camera. See how important art and design really is!
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 and treat yourself to a cool looking magazine about a topic you are interested in.