The following information is for students completing their NEA (non exam assessment, AKA coursework) for submission in 2027. This information will NOT be correct for any other student group. Please use the blog to find the correct information for your year.
Brief
A cross-media production for a new artist or band in a popular genre (or sub-genre/hybrid) of your choice.
- Create an original music video and associated print material (a UK tour poster and a double page feature article from a new music magazine) to promote the same artist or band.
- You should create a cross-media production for a UK record label (such as Infectious Music or XL Recordings).
- Your cross-media production should target a twenty-something audience’ audience (even the oldest of this demographic will have typically grown up with digitally convergent media as a cultural dominant. Twenty-somethings may be younger professionals, graduates, and may be involved in club culture, attend gigs, and be active in their consumption of media. This demographic may not yet have children, yet may have access to disposable income)
Additional information
For this project, you will create your own music artist/band. Although you will use a pre-existing song for the music video, all other aspects of the artist/band should be invented by you.
Task 1 - Create an original music video to promote your artist or band.
Learners undertaking this brief should ‘invent’ a new artist or band. For example, they might select a track by an existing artist/band but create a new artist/band and persona, using a classmate (or classmates) to perform as the artist/band.
Length: 3 minutes - 3 minutes 30 seconds. Longer tracks may be edited or faded out to meet the required length.
The music video must construct representations of at least one social group and include the following:
- Two or more filming locations appropriate to the chosen genre, such as a studio, rehearsal or live performance setting, and other locations to establish the narrative
- A wide range of camera shots, angles and movement
- A range of shots of the artist or band to establish a clear image/identity
- Performance footage (rehearsal and/or live), lip-synched appropriate to the chosen popular genre
- Clear structure with an element of narrative (such as enigma, conflict, resolution or character types) to visually interpret the lyrics
- Editing of original footage to the music track
- Graphics depicting the name of the fictional artist or band and title of the track
Task 2 - Create a UK tour poster and double-page feature article from a new music magazine, written by the artist or band
Three pages. Your print production must construct representations of at least one social group and include at least 5 original images in total.
UK tour poster:
- At least one image (different from the images in the double-page feature article)
- Name of artist or band
- Name of tour
- Tour dates, cities and venues, appropriate to the genre and profile of artist
- Information about where to buy tickets
- Social media links
Additional elements that are not essential but may help your poster to be more effective include
- Album cover inset into advert
- Record label information inc. logo
- Additional information about production context
- Band website URL
Double-page feature article:
- Article (or beginning of an article) of approximately 200 words written by the artist or
- band
- Headline, standfirst and byline
- Column layout appropriate for a magazine
- One main image and additional images (original and different from the image(s) on
- the poster); these may include photographs of the artist/band on the music video
- set, but ‘stills’ from the music video must not be used
- At least one pull quote
- Page numbers and running headers
How to get an A in the media studies coursework
- Use media language to demonstrate intertextuality and/or generic hybridity
- Convey a complex representation of a social group using media language
- Subvert and challenge typical representational stereotypes
- Present an ideological context typical to your music label
- Create a magazine that demonstrates clear stylistic, thematic and ideological links to your music video
How to actually get an A in the media studies coursework
- Start shooting the first day you are able
- If someone lets you down, deal with it and shoot someone else
- If your venue falls through or your location shoot is rained off, shoot somewhere else
- If you accidentally delete all your work, take a deep breath and start again
- If your teacher tells you your footage is not up to standard, take a deep breath and go out and reshoot
- You do NOT need ANY technical skills to get full marks in this project, just hard work and resilience!