Great source of A* student work

Check out Chalfont Community College at http://chalfontmediablog.blogspot.com/ for useful resources and examples of student work.

Blogger of the Week

Much as it injures my sense of fairness to award this prestigious prize to the same person two weeks running, the justly-deserved Blogger of the Week must again go to Annabelle for a plethora of posts over the last seven days. Impressive research!

However, runners-up prize goes to Shereen for being the first to be up to date with blogs on 'Made In Dagenham'.

Blogger of the Week...

for a plethora of uploads, and quality work at that, is Annabelle. Blog on!

Collective Identity in a Box!

Watch this ad for a new board game, Best Of British.

Blogger of the Week

Congratulations to Rachael for winning Blogger of the Week two weeks running for keeping the coursework blog up to date. Blog on everyone!

The Media Magazine Student Conference 2011

Hope you all enjoyed the conference and learnt something useful and relevant to you and your studies.

Preparation for Friday's Conference

Session 1: Keynote presentation: Professor David Buckingham: Riots and Representations
David’s presentation will consider the sorts of questions you mght want to ask about the ways the media covered this summer’s riots. You might find it helpful to visit Pete’s Media Blog, and view some of the clips and links, in particular the most recent postings dated October 2nd, 5th, 10th and 16th, which are particularly relevant to some of the topics students may be studying for A2. http://petesmediablog.blogspot.com/ - or click through from the MediaMag home page.

Session 2: Meet the ExaminersIn this session, three principal examiners will present mini case studies which will be useful whatever your specification. Students will be able to ask questions briefly at the end of the session, and to talk to the presenters over lunchtime.

Christine Bell (WJEC) will be looking at Dr Who and its importance for the BBC. You might want to have a brief preliminary discussion with students about the role and remit of the BBC as a broadcasting institution.

Julian McDougall (OCR) will be presenting by video-link, on the debates surrounding Media Studies 2.0. He suggests you might want to take a look at David Gauntlett’s website– in particular http://www.theory.org.uk/mediastudies2.htm. He also recommends teachers to read Gauntlett’s new Kindle book Media Studies 2.0 and Other Battles around the future of Media Research, downloadable from http://www.theory.org.uk/david/kindle.htm

Session 3: Top Tips for making your production work better
Pete Fraser will be showing some examples of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of recent student production work, and suggesting some practical strategies to get maximum value and higher grades out of the experience. You might want to give students his recent MediaMag article, download as PDF.

Session 4: Garth Jennings, director.
Garth will be presenting a range of clips from his wonderful portfolio., and then take a Q&A session. If you’d like your students to be as actively involved in the session as possible, you can direct them to his rather fabulous website: http://www.tongsville.com/
Here you will be able to see the Hammer and Tongs showreel, featuring some inspired advertising, film clips and:
some of the most beautifully inventive and innovative music videos from the past two decades [including] Blur's `Coffee and TV' (1999) and Supergrass's `Pumping on Your Stereo' (1999), whose iconic images of walking milk cartons and gigantic, bendy bodies have firmly cemented their place among pop culture's most memorable moments. This is also true of Fatboy Slim's `Right Here Right Now' (1999), in which we see the beginning of time followed through to the evolution of man over the course of a three and a half minute song. Fairly ambitious I think you'll agree. (Amazon review)

Session 5: News Reporting in a Year of Big Stories
This session will offer students the opprtunity to hear from – and talk to – two highly experienced and acclaimed news reporters in print, online and on TV. The aim is to take as many questions as possible from students, whether on the stories themselves, on the ethics of news reporting, or on journalism as a career. We hope you will come with plenty of questions –  do investigate the following links to have a more informed understanding of the issues and contexts.

Jonathan Miller
So far ths year alone, Jonathan has reported and blogged for Channel 4 News on:
the Australian floods last January http://www.channel4.com/news/photo-gallery-australia-floods-by-jonathan-miller
The Libyan uprising http://www.channel4.com/news/libya-a-womans-cry-for-help-in-tripoli-hotel
The civil war in Sri Lanka http://www.channel4.com/news/sri-lanka-civil-war
Human rights abuses in Iraq http://www.channel4.com/news/top-army-lawyer-slams-mod-over-human-rights-abuses

Paul Lewis:
Paul is Special Projects Editor for The Guardian, and 2010 Reporter of the Year at the British Press Awards. http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/paullewis
Paul will be discussing his role in reporting this summer’s riots.  To prepare questions so you can participate actively in the session, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/series/reading-the-riots?intcmp=239
Also check out some of Paul’s award-winning coverage of the death of Ian Tomlinson, an investigation still ongoing. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/09/ian-tomlinson-death-unanswered-questions?INTCMP=SRCH

Visit to National Film & Television School

So what did you learn from your visit last week? I think one of the most important points raised by our tour guide was that NARRATIVE is key to creating any media product, whatever that product might be. SO you need to come up with a story first, pitch that story for your audience, then work out how best to create that story, whether you're creating the opening to a fiction film, a film trailer or a music video.

Remember, NARRATIVE is KEY.

So what exactly IS British Cinema?

Listen to Friday 14th October's episode of 'The Film Programme' on Radio 4 for a discussion on 2011 British success stories.

AS Representation/A2 Collective Identity Advice

Some very pertinent advice from President Obama on the way young people represent themselves on Facebook. As we have all become media producers just as much as consumers now, it's vital to remember the way we want to represent ourselves! Think about future employers and whether they would be impressed or horrified by the way you represent yourself to others...

Blogger of the Week

Well done to Kayleigh for her highly sophisticated rendition of 'What I have Learnt from Media Studies So Far' edited on imovie. A fine practical example of the skills learnt over the past year.

Blogger of the Week

Well done to all for keeping your blogs up to date, especially this week to Rachael. Blog on!

Copyright-free Music and Sound Effects

http://www.freeplaymusic.com/

Blogger of the Week

Well done to the whole A2 group for blogging fantastically last week. The award goes to all five of you. Keep up the brilliant work!

Blogger of the Week

Joint winners for last week's upload of their BBC Experience: Kayleigh and Shereen. Well done for keeping your A-Level journey records up to date!

Really Useful Storyboard Template

Download this storyboard template by Tim Clague, BAFTA-nominated film-maker. You can either print it out and write/draw on your storyboard or, better, import images etc and upload the pages to your blog.

Tuesday nights, 6.30pm

Watch BBC 2's 'Reel History of Britain', or catch up on iplayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yw2wc.

Fabulous Year 13's First Commission

Year 13 were commissioned to make a promotional video to show to potential sixth form students. Well done to them for a great, professional job, within the deadline!

Don't miss....

Channel 4's excellent series on the history of film, first episode Saturday 3rd September, 9.15pm. Catch up, and see a film timeline, here.

Possible band for a pop video?

Check out Richard Sherry and Friends, who played at the Waddeston Manor Mad Festival on today:

How to create a web pop-up

1. First, you need to find a host for your pop-up web page. Log on to https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?continue=http%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2F&followup=http%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2F&service=jotspot&passive=true&ul=1

This will ask you to log on to your Google account. Do so, just as you would for logging on to your blog.

2. Click on 'Create Site', choose a blank template and type in the name of your site (e.g. begood). Wait for your web page to be created. You are now ready to design your web page!

3. Use the tools to add pictures, text, etc. For a template in HTML, go to http://www.web-source.net/popups.htm

4. Save your page. Copy the url.

5. Go to your blog. In Design, click on "Add a gadget" and choose "HTML/Javascript". Paste the following text into the box:

<script>
window.open("Your Web URL", "_blank", "width=600,height=400");
</script>

6. Replace "Your web url" with the url of your new web page.

7. Click on "Save Javascript". You are done.

Blogger of the Week Award

goes to Kayleigh. Well done for keeping a close record of the 'journey' you are taking to your finished product.

Representation - G322 AS Exam

For further research, link to yesterday’s ‘Today’ programme on Radio 4 for a discussion on the lack of representation of ethnic minorities in ‘Midsummer Murders’. Slide the player to 1.52 to hear the clip; the link is http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00zfbrx/Today_15_03_2011/.

Blogger of the Week Award

goes for her fantastic re-vamp and use of examples, images and clips throughout her blog to... Shereen. Blog on!

Remember, bloggers, you MUST acknowledge any websites you use for your research to avoid plagiarism. It's not really enough to just put a link to the website at the end. You need to write "According to..." to justify your use of that information.

How to use green screen in Final Cut Express

How to Split Screen in Final Cut Express

If necessary, crop your video clip using the instructions on the YouTube video below.

Then using the Viewer window, click on the Motion tab and choose Crop. You can then use the sliders to crop the edge of your video to make it the correct shape for your screen.

Blogger of the Week

is Shereen for her research into iconic sounds of the chic flick.

Blogger of the Week

goes to Kayleigh for being the most up-to-date blogger so far. Blog on!

Blogger of the week

... goes for her fabulous timeline to Rachael. Well done, all of you, for the hard work you've put into your blogs in the last fortnight.

Blogger of the Week

for last week's sterling research work goes to Kayleigh, who, I think, has the most up-to-date production blog so far. Blog on!

Blogger of the week

for last week is Lizzie, for putting up a 'treatment' of her film opening on to her blog. Keep up the good work!

Blogger of the Week

Congratulations to Dani, who is building up an impressive bank of market and product research for her production portfolio task. Check out her January posts, fellow bloggers, for a shining example of positive blogging! Close runners-up are Shereen, Holly and Kayleigh, who are all keeping their production blogs up-to-date.

10 Year Anniversary of Wikipedia

Guardian news article

Moviemaker Experiment

It's fun to experiment with bits of old family movie clips to see what effects you can create - here's a video created in an hour!