What Makes The News?

Click on the title above to go to two radio programmes from the BBC World Service about how news stories are selected and edited in different parts of the world and by different news organisations. The second programme examines the future of news in light of new media developments. Essential listening. The more examples from current news output that you can include in your exam answers the better - it shows that your engaged with current debates not just the well rehearsed ones that examiners will be bored of.

Foundation Production Christmas Research Task

So far you've watched The Birds, The Dark Hours and Momento, examples of Psychological Thrillers from the middle and late twentieth century. The notes you have taken on these films will form a key part of your "Product Research" section in your Foundation Product folder, which acts as part of your evidence for your Planning mark (30 out of the 120 marks available for FP). This task is designed to provide you with further evidence of product research and give you a better feel for the genre and how it appeals to its audience.

The Task:
1) Select 3 films from the list of Psychological Thrillers listed elsewhere on this blog
2) On your own or together with others in the class, view the 3 films, taking notes.
3) Write a brief summary (55 words or less) of the story and characters.
4) Write a paragraph describing the visual style of the film -e.g. does it use a lot o close-ups to create a sense of claustrophobia etc? Does it use saturated colours or a lot of light and shadow etc?
5) Describe who you think the target audience to be and why.
6)Write a brief summary of the credit info - director, producer, studio, cast (easy to find on www.imdb.co.uk)

Critical Research

For all you Year 13 Media Students who have even the slightest idea that things that happen in the media have something got to do with them, go and check this out. Its worth reading for the name of the Children's Secretary alone!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7134943.stm

Hellboy HomeWork

Task

(a)To plan a complete response to the question:

How are the following used in the extract

-Camera angle, movement and positioning
-Editing
-Special Effects
-Sound
-Mise en scene

Your plan will consist of four or so topic sentences that clearly indicate the type of material you will deal with in your response.


(b) You will then choose one of the paragraphs to complete to the very best of your ability.

You should aim to write about how the different technical codes are used in the part of the extract you have chosen to focus on.

It would be helpful for you to break the extract down into key events, for example:

1. Hellboy (protagonist) reading suddenly engulfed in combat in the lift shaft.
2. we then cut to the underground station
3. the fight then begins – there are several stages to the fight
4. the monster is splattered by the train.

If you deal with the action in this way then your work will have a structure and will convey a sense of the extract to the reader. However, if you tackle the question in this manner then you will have to write about all the technical codes simultaneously. The different parts of the extract will, to a greater or lesser extent, enable you to demonstrate your knowledge of all the technical codes.

Im really sorry if I upset anyone in Mondays lesson, I really am.

Day After Tomorrow Homework

As discussed in class today, I'd like you to write about the use of all five technical codes - camera, sound, effects, editing and mise-en-scene - in the second half of the extract. Remember, write in the present tense and try to convey a sense of the extract as it happens. By doing this you will force yourself to write about all five codes at once because the camera only makes sense when discussed in conjunction with sound etc.
It doesn't matter if you repeat detail mentioned by earlier posts. What I'm interested in looking at is how you structure your response. Can you post by next Monday night - 17th December.

Hamlet Quotations to be (or not to be) committed to memory.

By way of comments in response to this post let us see if we can build up a series of worthwhile quotations as a resource for the A2 Hamlet exam. I will get the ball rolling.

Wise Children article question

The question is...

Why does Jane Ogborn believe that Wise Children is a "typically 'postmodern' novel" and what evidence can you gather from the article to support this point of view?

Please post a short response by Friday 7th December.