With your practical project, be it online, video or print based, keep the following in mind at all times:
Who are my AUDIENCE?
What is the PURPOSE of this production?
Media production is all about communicating ideas, and before you start, you have to be absolutely clear what those ideas are and who you are communicating them to.
What to think about
The majority of media products are created in established and repeated ways. For example, TV programmes and films have lengthy introductory and closing credit sequences. Sitcoms and soap operas are roughly half-hour shows. Magazines and newspapers come in a limited range of formats with recognisable, repeated layout features. Film and TV genre products are governed by certain predictable narrative features, dress codes (Western/War films), lighting effects (Film Noir), special fx and explosions (Sci/fi and Action), and modes of presentation: think about how weather forecasts are usually presented, about news broadcasts to camera by serious, middle-aged, upper middle class people in suits, mostly seated behind a desk and reading off an autocue.
Writing about forms and conventions
You need to be able to write about forms and conventions partly to demonstrate you have a secure understanding of how existing media texts are constructed and how they communicate with an audience. You should also be able to take the knowledge of forms and conventions gathered from existing texts and use it when creating texts of your own. That's not to say you're simply copying; conventions exist partly because they're successful. Also, not following conventions, or subverting them, needs to be done with a knowledge of what it is you're not doing, and an awareness the implications of your decisions.
Media Studies
With your practical project, be it online, video or print based, keep the following in mind at all times:Media production is all about communicating ideas, and before you start, you have to be absolutely clear what those ideas are and who you are communicating them to.
What to think about
The majority of media products are created in established and repeated ways. For example, TV programmes and films have lengthy introductory and closing credit sequences. Sitcoms and soap operas are roughly half-hour shows. Magazines and newspapers come in a limited range of formats with recognisable, repeated layout features. Film and TV genre products are governed by certain predictable narrative features, dress codes (Western/War films), lighting effects (Film Noir), special fx and explosions (Sci/fi and Action), and modes of presentation: think about how weather forecasts are usually presented, about news broadcasts to camera by serious, middle-aged, upper middle class people in suits, mostly seated behind a desk and reading off an autocue.
Writing about forms and conventions
You need to be able to write about forms and conventions partly to demonstrate you have a secure understanding of how existing media texts are constructed and how they communicate with an audience. You should also be able to take the knowledge of forms and conventions gathered from existing texts and use it when creating texts of your own. That's not to say you're simply copying; conventions exist partly because they're successful. Also, not following conventions, or subverting them, needs to be done with a knowledge of what it is you're not doing, and an awareness the implications of your decisions.