Media Department

Oct

Media Department

Communication & Production

Introduction

The world around us is packed full of media influences, from advertising on bill-boards or in magazines to television and the internet. Journalism or Marketing are now extremely well respected careers with an medias exceptionally broad scope for development and fisrt steps to understanding both e theory and practical steps involved is to opt for Media Studies at A-level. It is an excellent stepping stone towards a career in the industry and offers skills from research and profiling, through to technical print, photographic and internet/multimedia techniques. This subject requires a significant amount of project work and independent study which is expected to be carried out with a high degree of professionalism, as it would in the industry itself. It is therefore, by no means, a ‘soft option’ but can be very rewarding and many students quickly find they are choosing to work on projects in their free time as well as putting in the required hours.

Curriculum:

AS level includes three units

Industries Texts and Audiences

This unit focuses on the industry, its products or texts, and the audiences that receive those products or texts. Learners examine how they construct their products around their specific audiences, and how those audiences understand and use the product that is offered to them.

Skills for Media Production

In this unit pupils develop their research and technical production skills. They learn how to gather materials for the content of a new production, and how to investigate an already existing one. They will acquire knowledge and understanding of relevant technology, and develop skills in the techniques required to create a media product in the medium in which they are working.

Media Production Brief

This unit will allow learners to put into practice the skills they have learned in Unit 2 by creating a media product in response to an externally set brief. Through working on the brief they will learn about pre-production, production and post-production, creating proposals, budgets and research, and further develop their technical skills.

To complete the A2 course a further 3 units are required:

Research and Development for Media Production

Here pupils originate an idea for a production. They will research the content, audience and viability of the idea and apply that research to its development by experimenting with the technical and creative elements of the proposed production. They will present the idea, with their research and development work through an oral ‘pitch’ followed by a written ‘treatment’.

Media Production Project

Working from the treatment of the idea developed in Unit 4 learners will produce a media product. They will demonstrate their understanding of pre-production, production and post-production techniques as well as their technical and organisational skills in a major piece of work. This unit may involve some team work.

Professional Practice in Media Industries

Pupils reflect on the work done in Units 4 & 5 through a report on the product and the production process, following a given structure. They will take into account past and current professional practice in the chosen medium and genre, and the professional codes and constraints that might have affected their work and working practice. The report can be in any format – written, oral, audio or video tape.