Section B – Introduction Lesson

On Tuesday we began covering the content for Part B of our exam: Institutions and Audiences.

We discovered that the questions that we are likely to be asked in the exam can be grouped into three main categories: new technology, digital distribution and media ownership; meaning that we could be asked a question focused on one of these particular areas that we are going to be studying in due course.

New Technology Questions:

Jun 2009
How important is technological convergence for institutions and audiences within a media area which you have studied?

Jun 2010
What significance does the continuing development of digital media technology have for media institutions and audiences?

Jun 2012
“Cross-media convergence and synergy are vital processes in the successful marketing of media products to audiences.” To what extent do you agree with this statement in relation to your chosen media area?

Jun 2013
Evaluate the role of digital technologies in the marketing and consumption of products in the media area you have studied.

Digital Distribution Questions:

Jan 2009
Discuss the ways in which media products are produced and distributed to audiences, within a media area, which you have studied.

Jun 2011
“Successful media products depend as much upon marketing and distribution to a specific audience as they do upon good production practices.” To what extent would you agree with this statement, within the media area you have studied?

Jan 2012
To what extent does digital distribution affect the marketing and consumption of media products in the media area you have studied?

Jun 2013
Evaluate the role of digital technologies in the marketing and consumption of products in the media area you have studied.

Jun 2014
The increase in hardware and content in media industries has been significant in recent years. Discuss the effect this has had on institutions and audiences in the media area you have studied.

Media Ownership Questions:

Jan 2010
“Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and services to national audiences.” to what extent do you agree with this statement?

Jan 2011
Discuss the issues raised by media ownership in the production and exchange of media texts in your chosen media area.

Jun 2012
“Cross-media convergence and synergy are vital processes in the successful marketing of media products to audiences.” To what extent do you agree with this statement in relation to your chosen media area?

Jan 2013
What impact does media ownership have upon the range of products available to audiences in the media area you have studied?

We also looked at the criteria that we would have to cover in the exam:

1. the issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice;
2. the importance of cross media convergence and synergy, in production, distribution and marketing;
3. the technology that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production marketing and exchange;
4. the significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences;
5. the issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically, British) by international and global institutions;
6. the importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences;
7. the ways in which the candidates’ own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behavior.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

We decided that this question would be better answered separately because we have learnt different things and didn’t do our preliminary tasks together.

Editing: Day 11

I spent yesterday adding the final touches to my ‘Doodle Dog’ and the lettering that is going to be animated. Yesterday consisted of taking pictures of the Doodle Dog, with each individual letter added one shot at a time in order to create the effect of them appearing on screen. I got these images onto the Mac and began editing the times for which the letters were on screen, on FinalCut, so that they would appear to be animated. After this, I added a clicking sound when each letter appeared, almost to give the effect that the word was being typed out, with a bark at the end of the ident.

Editing: Day 9

So I’ve decided to scrap the ‘Jack & Jill Productions’ idea because to be honest, it looked rubbish and I’ve had a strike of inspiration. My new idea is ‘Doodle Dog Productions’ and its going to be bigger and better than ever. I’ve spent today drawing up my image, so that I can start sorting out the text tomorrow.

Editing: Day 8

Ident planning began today and it took me a fairly long time to even come up with an idea to start with (creative block, I think it’s called). But once I got my first idea down on paper, ‘Jack & Jill Productions’, the process of working on it from there became easier. At first I wanted a boy and a girl to be stood next to a well as my image idea, but later realised that this would be too complex for me to create. So I then decided upon just having the wishing well with the text underneath. I started by taking this image and stencilling it onto Motion so I could then add text.

Ident Research

When it comes to the ident, we’re trying to keep things simple, and I thought this video shows perfectly how simple yet effective an ident can be:

From this, I can see that my best bet will be to focus on making the text for my ident interesting, and to keep the background or image simple and possibly motionless. However, when I looked around for idents followed by a film in the crime genre, I found this:

This showed me that sound is also important and that I would think about what sounds I would need to consider for my own ident.

Coupy and I decided that it would be time efficient for us to do one ident each, with one separate idea each, this will allow for us to get a bit creative and do some individual work on our project.

Editing: Day 7

We’ve finally managed to get all of the colour correction sorted, although we might have to make a few adjustments once we’ve had some feedback from people others. We also decided that today was a good time to start looking into some ident research so that we could get an idea of what we wanted ours to look like, so I plan to start doing some research at home tonight. Obviously we’re going to want some pretty simple ident ideas that we can make using the programmes that we have at school, so nothing too fancy, but hopefully they will look professional as possible none the less.

Editing: Day 6

Most of today’s lesson was spent playing with the colours in our film and mostly just learning how to use the colour adjustment tools. By the end of the lesson we had matched up a few slides so that the colours looked the same throughout, but we still have a lot more to do, due to changing light conditions whilst filming. It was also noticed today that our final few shots didn’t have the sound quality we were hoping for because of the wind whilst filming, so our plan is to re-record the voices of the actors in a quiet room and put that sound in over the top of the original recording.

Editing: Day 5

Well, over the weekend, Coupy and I managed to get all of the shots for the section in the house re-filmed that needed doing. Phew! That’s a weight off of our shoulders! We spent today’s lesson matching up these clips with the gaps in our film opening so far, and adjusting the length of clips we already had in order to make allowances for the new ones. Overall, our film is starting to look a lot better!

Editing: Day 4

Today we continued to cut down the clips to the right lengths and watched the film through a few times in order to make sure the story made sense as a whole. However in doing this, we noticed that a few of the shots didn’t fit due to a different lighting as the outside light changed while we were filming. The only way that we are going to be able to fix this problem is by retaking the shots, we plan to do this this weekend. So fingers crossed, all should be okay!