Film, Television and New Media
Film, Television and New Media is a senior Authority subject that may be included in a student’s assessment for an Overall Position. The course aims to provide students with knowledge of production processes through involvement in film, television and new media production.
This knowledge, together with an understanding of how to analyse texts, assists in developing student awareness of the role of the media in our society and its power as a form of mass communication in today’s technological world.
WHY STUDY FILM, TELEVISION AND NEW MEDIA?
Film, Television and New Media are one of our primary sources for information and entertainment. They are important channels for education and cultural exchange. Moving-image media enable us to understand and express ourselves as Australian and global citizens, consumers, workers and imaginative beings. The ‘information’ and ‘creative’ industries are already among the largest employers and drivers of the economy in many countries. Their significance in our lives seems set only to increase, given that moving-image media will play an increasingly prominent part in our work and leisure.
Investigating ‘new’ media is more than just investigating changes in technology and the ways it is used; it deals with existing technologies and developments in formats, genres and ways of representing the world. It also involves examining the ‘new’ ways in which local and global communities interact with and through the media as well as ‘new’ issues associated with access, ownership, control and regulation.
WHAT DO STUDENTS STUDY?
Students study the design, production and critique of products by using five key concepts that operate in the contexts of production and use. These key concepts are:
Technologies: the tools and associated processes that are used to create meaning in moving-image media production and use.
Representations: constructions of people, places, events, ideas, and emotions that are applied to create meaning in moving-image media production and use.
Audiences: individuals and groups of people for whom moving-image products are made, and who make meanings when they use these products.
Institutions: the organizations and people whose operational processes and practices enable or constrain moving-image media production and use.
Languages: systems of signs and symbols organized through codes and conventions to create meaning in moving-image media production and use.
WHAT DO STUDENTS DO?
Students, for example could:
- explore a range of products and contexts such as historical and contemporary, Australian and international, commercial and non-commercial, independent and mainstream, established media and new media
- make productions for real audiences, such as a local or school audience, an audience associated with a film festival or competition, or an online audience for their products
- interact with guest speakers from industry or online
- take part in excursions to cinemas, film, TV and animation studios
- discuss, analyse and evaluate concepts and idea
- complete a storyboard based on a film script/screenplay identifying different shots, angles, composition, timing and transitions
- design a product for two different audiences, eg alternative, mainstream, fringe, resistant, niche, minority, youth, local, global
- investigate how community standards, decisions about public funding, and political decision affect production and use
- compare the social and cultural conventions used in creating meaning in products made in two different countries
- use editing technologies to manipulate and juxtapose images produced by others to create various meanings and critique these
- make a product that incorporates the principles for successful interactivity
- plan and organize for production
- work effectively in groups
- solve technical and other problems
HOW ARE STUDENTS ASSESSED?
A wide range of assessment techniques are used to judge student achievement. These could include:
- Designs for products include: using oral and written treatments, character outlines, level descriptions (for video games), screen shorts for websites or video games, character images, three-columns scripts, film script/screenplay, shooting script/shot list, storyboard.
- Products (whole or part) include: whole or sequences of a video, animation, video game; whole or segment of camera footage, editing, soundtrack; advertisement.
- Critiques include: extended writing (such as analytical essay, research assignment, report, feature article); oral presentation (such as interview, report, seminar, debate, voiceover on a production, director’s commentary); moving image media format.
- Achievement in Film, Television and New Media is judged by matching a student’s achievement in the assessment tasks with the exit criteria of the subject. These criteria are: Design, Production and Critique.
HOW CAN PARENTS HELP?
Parents can help students by provided a supportive environment in the home and by showing an interest in what students are doing on a day-to-day basis. They can:
- support and keep informed about the Film, Television and New Media program in the school by reading the syllabus and the school’s work program
- attend school Film, Television and New Media screenings of students work; view films in cinemas and on DVDs and play video games with students
- encourage students to attend live screening of moving-image media
- be considerate of the practical demands of the subject in terms of physical effort and time, especially the out-of-hours commitment sometimes required.
PREREQUISITES
Students are required to have a genuine interest in the Arts and a willingness to commit themselves to self-disciplined, individual and group work. This may often involve out of class time work.
Queensland Certificate of Education - 4 points
