The Artifice

If you are interested in developing a wider knowledge of the media then The Artifice, an online magazine is the place; from Films to Comics, Literature to Anime and Games to Manga. Furthermore if you are interested in writing about something The Artifice is a place where you can publish work on almost any topic. Go an take a look, you never know what you might find.

AS: Group Writing on Editing / Sound

Currently working on analysis and quality of writing, here are the paragraphs that you wrote in small groups... please use them to critique and reflect on your own writing.

Some key points:

• Ensure that you open paragraphs with a clear point, referring back to the area of representation that you have been asked to write about
• Avoid run on sentences - clear grammar and punctuation adds to the clarity of your analysis
• Avoid description; ensure that there is evidence of technical analysis in every sentence
• Use key terms frequently and accurately
• Make sure you know the difference between 'dentotation' and 'connotation'
• Try to make links between the different technical features. This demonstrates a deeper level of understanding.

School Magazine

Josh and Toria are launching a School Magazine. This is an exciting endeavour and they are looking for students in Year's 10-13 to get involved. There are roles for students who are interested in:

• Writing
• Photography
• Design

The team is meeting every Wednesday in Media 1. If you're interested, come along and find out more.

Here is a sample of what the magazine might look like...

Responding to 1a

1a. Explain how far your understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way you created your own media products. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this understanding developed over time.


The key words in the question are….

I have to…

I am going to use the following evidence…

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My knowledge and understanding of existing media texts has had a significant impact on the way I created my own media products. In particular at AS, as my theoretical knowledge was developing I was more reliant on existing media to help formulate ideas. However, the impact of existing media decreased at A2 as I began to formulate more original ideas, due to a better understanding of how ‘the Media’ works, particularly in terms of representation and audience theories.

Beginning the AS course, I found it challenging to produce a media text that demonstrated originality. This was because my knowledge of the Media was limited. It became evident that I would have to rely on existing media, to draw influence from. One text that I analysed in detail was Se7en. The film opens with an engaging yet conventional thriller opening in which the genre and antagonist are introduced to the audience. This model had a more than significant impact on my work; both semantically and syntactically. For example, I chose to animate the font in my opening title sequence – this decision was directly taken from Se7en. I wanted to re-create the eerie shuddering effect that I had observed. I felt that it would help me to set an appropriate tone for the opening of my film. Moreover, I also decided to use intercutting in a similar way to Se7en. This allowed me to develop the visual iconography through font and colour while also establishing a narrative sequence involving the antagonist. In retrospect, while my work was deemed to be successful, I feel that this direct lifting of existent material limited the scope of my ideas. On the other hand it could be argued that my opening works in pastiche of an existent genre. I believe this is a fallacy however, as the process is one of creativity and here I was not particularly creative.

As I began researching my A2 media production, I decided that I needed to take a more informed approach to my work. Having completed the AS course I was more widely versed in media theory including ideas surrounding representation, audience and postmodernism. I aimed to produce a more original response by using my wider knowledge to influence my work – and to be less reliant on existent media…