Congrats on finishing A-level media studies!

Just putting it out there, but

We

Covered

Every

Question

So second years, be confident. Have a great summer. Keep in touch with the awesome things you do (or if you just want a great reference).

And first years, if you were not already convinced, remember the blog is pretty useful!

First year - stuff you need to do

First year students have lots on their plate at the moment, with the music video coursework, UCAS applications and the upcoming parents evening. We've been hitting you with lots of emails, but to save you some confusion, here's a handy checklist of everything you have to do. If you find yourself getting behind, please contact your teacher ASAP.

• Film and edit your music video
• Respond to the UCAS questionnaire email to help your teacher write a detailed an excellent UCAS reference
• Email your teacher every time you are filming during lesson time - your email has got to be detailed!
• Make a note of the new and revised deadlines for the music video (click here to find them!)
• Talk to your teacher to arrange a parent teacher consultation 
• Wait patiently to find out your mock exam results (Either Monday 17th or Tuesday 18th of June), then read the detailed feedback on the blog!
• Tell your teacher in as much detail as possible about any technical issues you may be experiencing to help the IT department fix them (check this post out for help)
• Attend the video workshop sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday for expert advice and a chance to boost your grade
• Research courses for your UCAS application: your teacher can help, especially if they are media related!

Ongoing Mac issues

As first year have started editing, we have noticed there have been issues with the performance of the Macs, particularly when running Premiere. The IT department have been on the case, but it's REALLY important to let your teacher know EXACTLY what is wrong with your computer so we can pass this on to IT.

If Premiere or any other application is running crazily slowly, please try this:

"In connection with Adobe applications crashing, [students] could try resetting the preferences which may correct the issue. Quit the application in question if it's still running, then hold down the Option (Alt) key while opening it back up again. This will reset the preferences to default which may alleviate crashing issues. Note that these preferences are per user, per application and per machine, so for example if student A resets their Premiere Pro preferences on Mac 1, this doesn't have any effect on student B or Mac 2 or Photoshop, and so on."

Don't save anything to your desktop! It WILL disappear! Instead, save your files to your own area. If this is impossible, then follow these instructions:

MUSIC VIDEO COURSEWORK: Video editing workshops! Revised deadlines!

Revised deadlines

You will submit a rough rough cut of your video (20ish seconds, no colour grading, post production editing techniques etc) next Thursday or Friday (20/6 or 21/6 depending on your block)

You will submit a rough cut (as much of the video assembled as possible, possibly with post production work) on Thursday 4th July or Friday 5th July (depending on your block)

You will submit a final cut during the week commencing Monday 8th July

Workshops

For first year students working on the music video project, we cannot stress enough exactly how much time you will end up sinking in to this. In order to help you, with immediate effect, we are running two workshop sessions a week during plus time.

Tuesday and Wednesday - 14:40 - G107

Not only will you get extra time to edit and advice from a teacher, your attendance will be noted and will help influence your overall mark. So come along!

If you have any issues, concerns, questions or are just feeling a bit lost, come and see your teacher 

Second year: one down, one to go!

Well done to all students who sat the component one exam! 

As you possibly saw on Twitter, reactions were pretty mixed to the exam. Having heard your accounts of the questions, I think it's safe to be positive about your responses! Obviously it's a shame that so many 'big' topics didn't come up, but we always knew that was a possibility.

The good news is, the hard part is over! 

It might sound crazy, but component two is 'easier' than component one. Here's why:

• No uncertainty: Woman, Adbusters, Zoella, Attitude, Humans and Les Revenants will all, absolutely DEFINITELY come up!
• Easier to revise: you know what's coming up, so you can prepare dedicated case studies for each product!
• More scope to argue: You have 50 minutes on each industry to present your excellent arguments, and to explore concepts like hegemonic norms and ideological perspectives! Lucky you!
• More freedom: instead of defining what a film is or something, you get to talk about what you want to talk about, as long as you answer the question. Make sure you underline key terms!
• Less bitty: let's face it: component one is a bit messy. It can be tricky to work out how everything fits together. NOT SO with component two! Three industries, all of which you know (and love), and you spend 50 minutes on each one!

These are the only six texts you need to think about for the upcoming
exam, and they will come up!

There are of course a few downsides

Given that you are expected to know everything there is to know about the six case studies, your examiner will have higher expectations of you. But, as I keep trying to tell you lot, you are excellent students and you will impress the examiner with the strength and clarity of your argument.

So what should you be doing over the next week?

ONE - Make sure you have three explicit examples (eg pages, scenes, videos, depending on the industry) for each of the six key products

TWO - Make sure you have some big opinions. For example:  

• What do you feel about the fact that Woman magazine reinforced patriarchal hegemonic values for profit and power? 
• How does Humans use themes of hyperreality to allegorically criticise the ways in which we use technology? 
• How do you feel about the limited opportunities for audience interaction and singular, mass market representations that Attitude online  sells it's gay, male target audience

THREE - Check out the blog. Seriously, there's a ridiculous range of sample questions and responses to help you structure your answers. You'll know about the revision question masterlist post by now (or at least I really hope you do), but if for some reason you've been under using it, check it out right now!

FOUR - Revise theorists. One question in component two is very likely to name and quote a theorist, and you must evaluate their theory. Don't be caught out, and make sure you know all nineteen!