Author: Mr G

Postmodernism Theory Recap

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There is a lot of competing ideas and concepts in Postmodernism and we have bombarded you with many of them over the last week.

It is time to review those ideas and summarise the key concepts from our three theorists:

  1. Jameson
  2. Lyotard
  3. Baudrillard

You be writing you first essay soon with the title:

With examples describe what makes a media text postmodern.

You have been assigned a document in Classroom, which asks you to complete some sentence stems, which require you to describe the theories proposed by those three cultural theorists.

To help you recap your should review the following resources, from previous lessons:

Jameson – Handout

Lyotard – Handout

Baudrillard – Handout (39&40)

Lyotard & Grand Narratives

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Jean-François Lyotard is our third theorist. He had some pretty radical things to say about post modern society.

He made the remarkable assertion that: All ideas of ‘the truth’ are just competing claims (or discourses) and what we believe to be ‘the truth’ at any point is merely the ‘winning’ discourse.

So essentially, he is saying there is no such thing as any absolute universal truth (or meta narratives) on any subject .

To Lyotard a ‘meta-narrative’ means, a view of the world and what is considered natural, right or inherently true.

Illustrations from Films

Here is a great image which looks at the recurring ideas underpinning of Hollywood films, which have seem to suggest a simplified / mythical view of life and how things should resolve and which perhaps also communicate ideas which are widely held as being ‘true’, or in other words ‘meta-narratives’.

Lyotard on Narratives

Now, watch this video with Russel Brand talking to Jeremy Paxman about the phone call scandal which got him fired from the BBC & now the story was exaggerated by The Daily Mail, edited by Paul Dacre.

  • Also what does Brand suggest about the meta narrative of celebrity?
  • Just think about the tragic news of the Love Island celebrity last year – the grand narrative of celebrity – tragically exploded.
  • What does Brand mean by the idea of ‘cultural narrative’?

To develop Lyotard’s ideas. He said these meta narratives (sometimes called ‘grand narratives’) are large-scale theories and philosophies of the world, such as the progress of history, the knowability of everything by science, and the possibility of absolute freedom. Lyotard argues that we (society) have ceased to believe that ‘narratives’ of this kind are adequate and are true for all of us.

The result of this rejection of single universal ideas being true for all of us is reflected by and explored in media texts that are rebellious and subversive towards widely held views and ideas, as well to figures in positions of authority and a distrust of what they claim is right or true.

Think also about the various different shows that feature different types of families, groups or individuals.

Golden Gregsons Your Nomination

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The Golden Gregsons are coming:

  • Where – The Performing Arts Centre
  • When –  Tuesday 30th March 2021 (6.30 – 10.00 PM)

We want to submit your music promo package into one of the award categories.

To do this you must submit your final product as follows:

  • Create a new folder in your project folder in the D Drive called…

‘The Name of Your Song, The name(s) of group members”.

For example: “Love is Blind: Jim, Bob and David”

Folder Content

  • In this folder you should put:
    • A copy of the whole video (file name = the song title)
    • A 30-40 second clip to be played as the videos are nominated
      • (file name = the song title 30 sec clip)
    • 4 x JPEG copies of the four panes of your digipack.
      • (file names = front, back, right, left, spine (if applicable))
    • 4 x JPEG screen shots/ snips of your social media page
      • (file names = SMP1, SMP2, SMP3 & SMP4)
  • Copy this whole folder into: P:\Awards 2021\Year 13 Media

AN ALTERNATIVE WAY TO EXPORT THE 30 second SEQUENCE:

Use the work space marker at the top of the sequence to select your chosen section. When you go to export, make sure you select ‘Work space’ as opposed to ‘Entire Sequence’

Exam Preparation & Essay Tracking

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Assessment

Set up Your Folders

Your Revision Folders

Your Essays

By the time the exams come around, you will have been set and submitted an essay for every type of question that ‘could’ come up in the exam.

Whilst, the actual questions in the exam,  might be worded slightly differently, the aim is that you should have a complete set of essay responses for the exams which will act as an essential revision resource.

However, if you do not have a complete set, then you will not have given yourself the best chance to practise writing a response to one of the questions that could come up.  To maximise your chances therefore, you should make every effort to have at least one draft for all of the essays set and those who are determined to do well, will redraft them in response to the feedback from your teacher.

Once redrafted, you can then resubmit them so that your teacher can give you some final feedback/improved grade.

Many of the essays will be handwritten in class in timed conditions, so typing them up and submitting them online for electronic copies mean you can store them in your Media folders for easy and quick retrieval.

It makes every sense to keep on top of these essays and take the chance to improve on them.  Just see the examples below.  Just from looking at the colours it is easy to see which student gave themselves the best chance of success. The A Grade student redrafted and resubmitted until the page was ‘GREEN’. The C Grade student did not redraft and did not resubmit and often did not complete the essays at all. They were really disadvantaged in the centre assessed grades (exam).

  • RED – MISSING, GRADE D OR BELOW
  • ORANGE – GRADE C SO SHOULD REDRAFT AND RESUBMIT
  • GREEN – GRADE B OR ABOVE – CAN BE REDRAFTED BUT NO NEED TO RESUBMIT
  • WHITE – STILL TO DO OR PENDING

Good luck. Only you can make this happen.

It’s all happening in Classroom!

The assignment will be set in classroom and you will have an individual copy made for you by your teacher. You should fill this in during discussion with your teacher over the next few week. They will also have your candidate numbers.

CR – Branding

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How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

What is Branding?

  • A lifestyle – a set of values, attitudes and beliefs.
  • A recognizable: name, symbol or design.
  • The brand ‘lives in the minds and gut reactions of your audience’.

Integrated Advertising

It’s important that you are drawing examples from across your multimedia campaign.

There should be consistency of:

  • Design
  • Message
  • Colour & Image

…all which should be serving to promote a unified & coherent star image.

You are The Brand Navigator.

Content

This is the intro paragraph (although we’ve come it to last it will be introductory paragraph in your essay).

  1. Define your brand – this is ‘your mission statement’
  2. Explain what elements of design are consistent across your products
    1. These are the coherent design elements across your multimedia package, which communicate meaning (the brand values)
  3. The message around ideology (values, attitudes and beliefs) which are central to your artists star image & the album they are just releasing (Hall)
  4. Use some key buzz phrases from the above videos.

Make sure you have three images in this section, one from each of the products. You should also refer to at least one other unifying feature which communicates your brand message.

CR Essay – Conventions and Representation – Week 1

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The Brief:

Candidates must write an evaluative essay of around 1000 words. This critical reflection of their work should be guided by the following compulsory questions:

  1. How do your products represent social groups or issues?
  2. How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?
  3. How do your products engage with the audience?
  4. How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

This critical reflection must be completed individually, even if candidates had collaborated in the creation of their products.

 

Task: Initial Brainstorm

You have already done a huge amount of research, planning & design as you made you multi media marketing package for the release of an album

As a whole class we completed the round robin and you are going to think about how you would answer these 2 questions using your own specific products:

  1. How did your research inform your music video and the way it uses or challenge conventions?
  2. How does your digipack represent the star and the issues they are concerned about?

You should describe and analyse your products with reference to specific examples and use terminology (just cite the theorist) to describe how those conventional features have been used, developed, challenged (designed) by you to construct/represent a specific set of ideas, which is: your brand or mission statement! 

You must then go on to say how your representation (ideology) of your star and issues raised in digipak were shaped by you.

Task 1

  • Recap what conventions means?
  • Recap what representation means?

Task 2

  • Read the template, draft sheet.

Task 3

  • Then begin to make your own submissions regarding conventions in the music video and regarding representation in the digipak.
  • @ 250 words for Conventions and 250 words for Representation.
ADVICE
  • The conventional design features in your video, include examples such as lighting, framing & composition, camera movement  mise-en-scene, editing styles, filters, effects g along with narrative structure and themes and also technical conventions such as lip syncing, edit to the beat.
  • The representation of social groups or issues in your digipak: include ideas such as star image, genre, brand – use of filters, fonts, body language, MES, imagery etc. And representation of issues – genre, the ‘vibe’ of the genre – anarchic, rebellious, contemplative, organic, upbeat?

To ensure you are addressing the question – bold or highlight or underline every time you use:

  • the terms use, develop, challenge, copy, emulate, follow etc
  • the terms represent, portray, convey, infer, imply etc
  • every time you have an adjective in the analysis of how the groups/issues are represented.

These are the assessment objectives – so keep it in mind when you are writing your response.

 

Feedback on Your Social Media Page

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Previously we thought that you would have two rounds of feedback on your social media page:

  1. Self Assessment
  2. Teacher Assessment

…but after discussion, Mrs Cobb and Mr Gregson have decided to reduce that, so that you will only have to respond to one series of feedback, from your teacher only.

However we thought it would be helpful to itemise what elements of the social media page will be considered as part of the assessment criteria:

Below is a list of features, some of which we would expect to see on your social media page. You don’t need every single one of the list below. However, the first is essential and  including some of the others would show an understanding of how social media can be used to drive engagement, promote your star image, their paid for media and build a fan base.

Design coherence (Essential):

Does your social media page include the same (generic)  images, colour scheme, fonts, graphics that appeared in your digipak design and to a lesser extent your music video.

Content:

Is there additional (teaser) content such as gifs, images, audio…

Synergy:

Have you created links with other brands or products that would appeal to your audience

Timeline:

Is there a sense of building excitement leading towards the release date of your album

Cross Media Convergence:

Is there a sense that your star is creating converged links with other media or stars (Radio / TV interviews, computer game / film soundtracks, adverts, collaboration  with other musicians…)

Promotion of live events:

An album release would almost certainly combine with a tour or series of streamed (paid for) gigs / shows. Remember this is where many artists make most of their revenue.

A Call to Action:

There should be a clear link to point of sale (iTunes, Spotify, Amazon, Tidal, You Tube…) for the music as well as link for audience to buy merchandise or concert tickets.

Ordinary / Extraordinary:

Is there an insight into the ‘real’ life of the star an opportunity to see them as an authentic person.

Interaction / Engagement:

The audience are looking for interaction with the star: Live chats, invitations to comment / engage.

Sell Physical copies:

The artist makes very little money from streamed listens. They would prefer you bought the album or vinyl. Are there promotions of physical versions of the music.

Issues & Charities:

Links to current political issues or charities close to the star’s heart is a useful way of developing a compassionate and engaged star image

This list is not exhaustive, nor is it meant to be a check list of essential items. However it’s a guide to the thinking and some of the expectations your teachers would have when marking this final piece of your cross media promotional package.

Draft 3 – peer assessment & feedback on YouTube

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Task

Finalise your draft 3 edit and then…

When your draft 3 is complete please turn your name on the spreadsheet green.

Feeding Back

Feedback on 2 different student’s music videos

  1. Below is a sheet which lists who you should be sharing your Draft 3 with on YouTube.
  2. Your peers should respond to the video in the comments section in YouTube, which you will then snip out and upload to your blog (below draft 3) as feedback.
  3. Summarise and reflect on their feedback. When you are giving feedback make sure you use media terminology and provide constructive criticism and suggestions on how to improve the edit.
  4. Make sure you review the videos that are shared with you, either directly or find them on the student blogs.

It is your responsibility to review their Draft 3 to enable them to move forward with draft 4.

Please use this link to edit the spread sheet. Turn the cell green on your name once you have given feedback. You may be in twice for a different video.

You must contact those listed to let them know it is on youtube and give them the link.

IF YOUR CANT ADD COMMENTS TO YOUR YOUTUBE ACCOUNT AS THERE ARE CHILDREN IN IT OR YOU LOOK LIKE A CHILD, THEN TAKE A SNIP TOOL OF SOME EMAILED FEEDBACK.