Year 10 Media SWAT lesson

The Basics

Cinema is a visual art form. Cinema is not literature. A film is not a novel.

Our Film Analysis Handbook will provide you with terminology and techniques for decoding and examining film.

Lets now look at Pages 1-6.

SWAT

When we analyse a film or visual text, we analyse it relation to Symbolic, Written, Audio and Technical codes.

Can you name some elements or conventions that would go with these codes? Using the four headings, where would you place the following conventions?

Costume	Camera Angles	Soundtrack
Dolly shot	Subtitles	Dialogue
Shot size	Film stock	Lighting
Colour	Props	CGI

Quiz

Camera angles and shots are two types of Technical Codes. Try the quiz, and see how well you know them.

Camera angles and Shots

Watch the YouTube videos and see how well you did:

Year 11 PowerPoint links

Hi Guys,

Here are some links to the Power-points I have shown and referred to in class this week.

Harvard Referencing:SkyDrive - Harvard Referencing PowerPoint
Essay Writing:SkyDrive - The Ultimate Essay Guide PowerPoint

Also, a friendly reminder to get your parent information letter signed by Friday, and to try and obtain your copy of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Monday.

Thanks

Miss F

Welcome to the 2013 Academic Year

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And whilst everything in society seems to be winding down, we are only just beginning.

If you aren't already familiar with this site, here is a chance for you to get acquainted. This is the place that you can come to seek information for those times that we are not in the classroom. I will be making sporadic posts throughout the upcoming year, relating to the content and tasks covered.

You will notice the navigation bar above you in which a specific page has been created for your class. This page will give you details about what is being covered throughout the upcoming weeks, and information relating to assessments. I will also be posting links to websites and YouTube vids that I feel are important for you to view. Here is the link to MissJFitton's YouTube Channel

I encourage you to comment on as many posts as you wish, and I will be setting "Blog exclusive" tasks now and again to make sure you're checking back regularly.

Good luck and happy studying.

Miss F.

Year 12 Study Group Challenge

OK ladies and gents. Here are the current results as of today:

Team Meh: 318.25 points
Team Anal: 317.80
The Incredibles: 316.04
The Invisible Men: 320.05

The following work is outstanding for each group:

Team Meh: Podcasts 4
                  Journals 2

Team Anal: Investigations 1
                  Reflections 1
                  Podcasts 3
                  Journals 2

The Incredibles: Reflections 1
                   Podcasts 3
                   Journals 2

The Invisible Men: Podcasts 3
                   Journals 3

Remember, the more work submitted, the higher your points will go and the competition is very close.

Be supportive of each other and make sure you are assisting your team mates with study strategies and helpful tips.

Only 3 days until the exam.

Happy studying :)

Year 12 Week 1 Overview

This week commenced our investigation into communities and where their place is within culture.
Students were asked to formulate and express any ideas, language and stereotypes associated with particular community groups which would form the foundation of their Part B component - namely creating a community publication.

Students were also given a taste of tertiary lectures and concepts, when they were presented with a lecture on culture, its formation and how language constructs it.The notes from the PowerPoint were taken from a university cultural studies text book.

The main concepts from the culture PowerPoint were as follows:

}In language, we use signs and symbols – whether they are sounds, written words, electronically produced images, musical notes, even objects – to stand for or represent to other people our concepts, ideas and feelings.

}‘Culture’ is one of the most difficult concepts in the human and social sciences and there are many different ways of defining it

}Culture is used to refer to whatever is distinctive about the ‘way of life’ of a people, community, nation or social group.

}Culture can be used to describe the ‘shared values’ of a group or of a society.  

}To say that two people belong to the same culture is to say that they interpret the world in roughly the same ways and can express themselves, their thought and feelings about the world, in ways which will be understood by each other  

}Members of the same culture must share sets of concepts, images and ideas which enable them to think and feel about the world, and thus to interpret the world, in roughly the same ways. They must share, broadly speaking, the same ‘cultural codes’ or ‘cultural knowledge’. 

To elaborate on this, a sequence from the movie The DaVinci Code was shown.

Students were given time to source Internet publications for their community group in order for them to define a selection of terminology along with developing a discourse for their community group.

Students were finally given a document on inclusive language in order to develop an awareness of language and vocabulary choices within their own publications.

This document can be found on the 'Get Work' drive on the school network.

Reminder that the community investigation Part A task will be due this Friday August 3rd.

Week 7 & 8 Recap - Yr12

Over the past two weeks we have been investigating the structure and language use within a variety of different blogs. This is to build up to the next assessment task in which students are required to create a variety of blog post with the same overarching theme.

The Task:

Students are to create 7 different blog posts which share the same overarching theme.

• 3 posts must be written blogs that are a minimum of 2 pages in length
• 3 post are to be picture/image blogs with a minimum of 5 pictures per post
• 1 Vlog of approximately 4 mins in length.

Planning and research:

Written blogs
Students have studied these extensively prior to their examinations for the first part of the assessment task.
All written blogs have a post title as well as a blog title (the blog title may be used throughout all 7 posts.)
Blogs use tags to easily categorise what a blog is about.
When writing their blog posts, students will need to be aware of their audience and ensure what they write engages them.

Picture/Image blogs
In class we investigated the social imaging networks of Instagram and Pinterest. These social media sites allow users to blog images surrounding certain subject matter, interests and/or themes. Students should be aware of visual language conventions and the aesthetics of their images to ensure a strong point of view is being conveyed.

Vlogging:

In class, we investigated some of the most popular Vlogs and Vloggers on YouTube. We also investigated the conventions and stylistic devices used within Vlogs. The vids can be found on my YouTube channel for this class.

Glove and Boots Vlog on blogging.

Students should note:

• must be aware of audience at all times
• blogs should be created with purpose
• the overarching theme should be explicit
• language should be appropriate
• correct conventions should be used
• BLOGS ARE NOT TO BE LIVE BLOGS

Happy blogging!! :)

Year 12 Exam : Our soul on an app

For the Year 12 English exam, I included an interesting blog post within the reading section. Most students may be unaware of the fact that this blog post is indeed real, and not something I made up to test their reading abilities.

The original blog post can be found here in its glorious full version, including images:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/post/inner-peace-in-the-palm-of-your-hand/2012/04/18/gIQA5pzXQT_blog.html

Upon reading the post myself, I went on a bit of a mission to investigate and research the apps the post was describing.

The Dream:ON app can be found here on iTunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/dream-on/id504521920?mt=8

and information in relation to GPS for the Soul can be found here:
http://www.heartmath.com/gps-for-the-soul.html



It's a bit concerning that society is willingly to allow their smart phones control every facet of their lives. Will we indeed be 'selling our souls' to iTunes? Will there ever be no such thing as 'free will?'

I find it rather ironic that many wars have been fought and many lives lost fighting for either independence or free will. Yet, as this blog suggests, society wants to revoke this privilege and be controlled and led by an app.

Do people truly believe that the meaning of life will all be revealed in an app? If this were the case, wouldn't we all just Google it? Maybe we are starting to feel unfulfilled in our lives because we are becoming too reliant on technology?

I wonder if we will see an iGod app appearing anytime soon?

This blog got me thinking about the Joss Whedon TV series Dollhouse, in which people voluntarily allowed themselves to become living 'dolls' in which the personalities of deceased humans are uploaded onto them. These 'dolls' are then loaned out to the rich to fulfil whatever they feel is missing in their lives.

Although these apps aren't uploading full personalities onto ourselves, will we ever get to the point where our lives and thoughts are predetermined from birth? Will we in the future have an all new definition of 'designer babies'?

Thoughts?