From the Victorian Certificate of Education: Media Study Design: On completion of this unit the student should be able to research aspects of a media form and experiment with media technologies and media production processes to inform and document the design of a media production.
Key Knowledge
media codes and conventions, narrative, genres and styles appropriate to the selected media form
structural and aesthetic qualities of media products that engage with and are read by audiences
research that informs the exploration and development of ideas and skills in a selected media form
methods for recording, documenting and evaluating research
media equipment, technologies and processes appropriate to a selected media form and proposed product
media language.
Key Skills
explore media codes and conventions, narratives, genres and styles appropriate to the selected media form
analyse how audiences are engaged by structural and aesthetic qualities of media products
analyse how audiences use structural and aesthetic qualities to read media products
undertake research to inform the exploration and development of ideas and skills in a selected media form
record, document and evaluate the exploration and development of ideas and skills in a selected media form
develop skills in the use of equipment, media technologies and processes appropriate to a selected media form and proposed product
evaluate the use of equipment, media technologies and processes of the proposed product through documentation
use media language.
PRODUCTION EXPERIMENTS
Take some advice from our 2012 Media students: "Make sure you learn something from your Production Experiments". The idea is to choose at least two tasks, or two experiments, that you can complete in your media form, that will enable you to create a better product. So, for example, you might choose to do one very practical exercise, let's say, the use of different lenses. Now you may have a selection of lenses to choose from for your photography, and you may have not yet decided which one is best to use. The production exercise would be a way for you to test out the lens, specifically looking for the way it captures colour, or light, or tones etc. In your written response, you would need to detail the exact way you used the lens (the settings used, how far away the object / model was, whether the lighting changed etc.). Your second production experiment then might be the specific use of PhotoShop. It is best to choose a certain area to focus on. So for example, if you intend to create Black and White photography from an original colour photo, you would experiment with and explicitly document (screen shots during the editing process, as well as a write up of the process you undertook) the changes you make to an original colour photo to make a black and white finished product.