12E - Brand values (Mr Halsey)

According to Gillian Dyer (Advertising as Communication, 1988) advertisers use, among other techniques, lines of appeal to create brand identities and attract their target audience.

Institutions use these images, references or suggestions to tap into our desires and make us ‘feel part’ of the brand. Dyer suggested lines of appeal could be classified into 13 groups:

• Happy families - everyone wants to belong 
• Rich, luxurious lifestyles - aspirational 
• Dreams and fantasy 
• Successful romance and love 
• Elite people or experts 
• Glamorous places 
• Successful careers 
• Art, culture & history
• Nature & the natural world 
• Beautiful women - men AND women like looking at beautiful women, so the thinking goes: men admire them, women admire what makes the men admire them. 
• Self-importance & pride 
• Comedy & humour 
• Childhood - can appeal to either nostalgia or to nurturing instincts 

Brand values task 100-10-1

Choose 5 brands. For EACH brand:

1) Sum up the brand values in 100 words, making reference to Dyer’s lines of appeal.

2) Distil the brand values into one sentence of no more than 10 words. 

3) Sum up the brand in ONE word.

Example: Starbucks

1) The Starbucks brand is clever because it comes across as a friendly, local-style company when it is in fact a massive global business. Its brand values would be about quality, lifestyle and a personal touch.  Starbucks could fit into several of Dyer’s lines of appeal: Happy families - everyone wants to belong, hence Starbucks asking your name when you order. It could also fit into Successful careers – Starbucks is for hard-working, successful people who want to enjoy life. Finally, Self-importance and pride links to Starbucks taking coffee seriously and its employees and customers having genuine passion for the brand. (100 words)

2) The Starbucks brand is about quality with a personal touch. (10 words)

3) Starbucks in one word: Passion.

Due: by the end of Tuesday's single lesson

12E homework - Mr Halsey

Your homework is to make sure everything we've done on Institution is up on your blog. That means the following needs to be posted:

For your 8 minute lesson on a particular media institution:

1. Write up your feedback on your blog, dividing the points into WWW and EBI.
2. Upload your Powerpoint, notes and anything else from your lesson (videos, images etc.) on the same blog post.
3. Write an evaluation of your lesson, reflecting on what went well and not so well from your perspective.

In a separate blog post:

Write a channel profile for the TV channel you have worked on in class.

Due: Monday 21 October

12D homework - Mr Halsey

We're getting towards the end of our Film Language unit and have seen clips from some of the best films in cinema history. In order to finish the unit, we've got a lot of homework to get through but this week you'll have plenty of time due to the training day and strike.

The tasks are as follows:

Cinematography task (camera shots and movement)
Choose two extracts from different eras (e.g. one from the 1940s and one from the 2000s) and analyse the cinematography.  What are the key differences? Upload the extracts on your blog by embedding the YouTube videos and write the analysis below.

Editing task

Choose an extract that you think has been edited in a distinctive way and write a 750 word analysis. Upload the extract on your blog by embedding the YouTube video and write the analysis below.

Film Language revision

Before half-term you will have a written test that will involve analysing a film clip. Revise everything we have covered in this unit: mise-en-scene, sound, camerawork and editing.

Due: Monday 21 October

Institution: Teaching a lesson

With Media institutions, there is no substitute for knowing a variety of institutions in detail.

In your pair, you need to teach a 6-8 minute lesson on the institution you are given. The lesson needs to involve the following…

Starter activity
This could be image or clip-based, or perhaps involve a quiz to engage the class. It should introduce your institution and grab the attention of your students.

Teaching
Make sure you cover the following in your lesson:

Their history: how did they come to be where they are now?

Their influence: What audiences do they reach? Do they have political influence?

What they control: What companies or other media institutions do they own or have authority over? How many phases of production and distribution are they involved in?

Who influences them: Are they owned or controlled by powerful individuals, families or governments?

Synergy: In what ways do their different businesses support each other? Give specific examples.

Why is any of this important? Explain what we need to know about this institution.

Handout
You need to produce a handout to give to the class for their Media folders. No more than one page of A4, this needs to summarise the main aspects of the institution.

Plenary
Finish up with something that will help your students remember your institution. It might return to the starter activity or be a memorable or important fact about the organisation.

Think about…

• Using audio-visual materials (clips, images etc.)
• Interactivity – involve other students
• Role play or performance
• Key questions you may be asked at the end of your lesson

The topic you’ve been given is HUGE, so try to take a step back. Individually, do some preliminary research, and get a sense of the most important elements of the institution. Then, as a pair, you can decide how to use your research to plan an effective and memorable lesson.

Good luck!

12E homework - Mr Halsey

Today we learned a lot of key words - denotation, connotation and then how to break down an image or advert (colour, framing, composition etc.) This ability to 'read' an image is absolutely crucial in both Media coursework and exams.

Your current task is to write an analysis of the Reebok 50 Cent advert using the key terms we have learned: denotation, connotation, colour, pose, framing, composition, size, type of shot, subject matter, setting, lighting. Finish up by writing about the audience: Who do you think is the target audience? How does it address its audience?

If you don't finish it in class, complete it for homework - due Monday 30 September.

Your main homework is to write an analysis of another advert of your choice - it can be for any product but make sure you use the same headings, demonstrating your knowledge of media language.

Finally, for both analyses, highlight, underline or write in bold each time you use media language. This is a brilliant habit to get into and doing it in the exam can get you crucial extra marks.

Overall due date for all this work: Monday 30 September

12E: Media consumption

In a blog post, type up our starter - the list of media you have consumed in the last 24 hours.

Next, answer the following questions to create a more detailed picture of your media consumption:

Newspapers

• Which daily newspapers (if any) do you read?
• What sections of newspapers do you turn to first, and why?
• What sections do you never read, and why?
• What kinds of stories do you usually read and why?
• Do you, or someone else, buy the newspaper you read?

Magazines

• What magazines (if any) do you buy regularly?  Why
• What sections of the magazines do you read and not read, and why?

Television

• Approximately how many hours a week do you spend watching television?
• What times of day do you usually watch television?
• What programmes do you like best and why?
• Do you watch alone or with others?
• If you watch with others, who decides what you will watch?

Radio

• What stations do you like best and why?
• Approximately how many hours a week do you spend listening to the radio?
• What times of the day do you usually listen to the radio?
• What stations do you dislike most and why?
• Do you listen alone or with others?
• Where do you listen to the radio?
• What other activities (if any) do you do whilst listening to the radio?

Cinema

• What films, if any, have you seen in the cinema in the last month?
• What films have you seen in other places – for example, through rental, satellite film channels (free or otherwise) or through video-on-demand?
• Who else watched the films with you?
• Who decided what films to watch?

Internet

• How often do you access the internet?
• Where do you access the internet?  At home, at college or school, or at work?
• What are the main sites that you access?
• What are the main reasons for accessing these sites – for example, for information, to make purchases, communicate with friends or for entertainment?
• What other activities (if any) do you do whilst accessing the internet?

Finally, write a paragraph suggesting ways you can increase and widen your media consumption now you are an A Level Media student.

Finish for homework - due next Monday

Good luck!

12D Homework - Mise-en-scene

Your homework tasks from our mise-en-scene lesson are:

1. Find a distinctive still image and write an analysis of the mise-en-scene.
2. View three extracts from films of different genres (e.g. horror, sci-fi, costume drama) and write a comparison of the mise-en-scene in each. 

Make sure these go on your blog with the image and embedded YouTube clips easily visible.

Due: Monday 23 September