Genre Conventions:
This lesson plan will enable students to 'manipulate media elements, and genre conventions' (VCAA 2016). Within the lesson students will look at various movie posters and fill out a worksheet that breaks down the media elements and conventions used. Following this students will create their own movie poster using the elements and conventions for a particular genre.
The worksheet can be download here.
The Movie posters can be downloaded here.
An extension of this task would be to ask the students to create their own movie posters following the genre conventions they have learnt. Here is an example:
This resource is a series of lesson plans based ground media elements and genre conventions with opportunities for students to both make and respond. The resource will 'help students to formalise their understanding of film genre and the choices that producers of media make to influence audiences, and to satisfy the codes and conventions of genre' (The Song Room 2013). Over a sequence of lessons the students will undertake activities that will 'explore the creative applications of production elements through analysis, discussion and practical production'(The Song Room 2013).
Explore and Represent IDeas.
Frankie magazine has developed Media Arts learning based activities with their magazine as a resource.
This activity utilses Frankie Magazine as an example of a media product. The activity engages students with media elements and causes them to analyse how the represented ideas and stories have been manipulated by media elements. The activity also calls for students to identify how genre conventions may have been used in order to construct new and alternative viewpoints within the images and text depicted in the magazine layout.
The activity outline can be found here on pp. 21-22.
Frankie Magazine Layout example can be found here .
Frankie Magazine Activity part 1: Responding.
Frankie Magazine Activity part 2: Creating.
This activity links to the Frankie responding activity and would be ideally done directly after.
This activity utilses Frankie Magazine as an example of a media product. The activity calls for students to create their own magazine layout, using the Frankie magazine layout as an example. Within my classroom when working under the theme of 'People' I will instruct my students to create their magazine layout with that in mind, using images of people, perhaps creating an interview.
This activity enables students to practice their creating skills, engaging with the manipulation of 'media representations to identify and examine social and cultural values and beliefs' (VCAA 2017). Students also 'experiment with ideas and stories that manipulate media elements, and genre conventions to construct new and alternative viewpoints in images...and text'(VCAA 2017) within this task.
The activity outline can be found here on pp. 22-23.
Media Elements
An important part of studying Media Arts is understanding the Media Elements and how they are used in media products.
This resource looks at symbols, imagery and technique in films. The resource focuses on the boy in the striped pyjamas but can easily be adapted to inform analysis within other films. The resource is mainly a guide for teachers to help inform and direct their discussion of the symbols, imagery and techniques within the film. This resource can assist student understanding of representations and the manipulation of media elements.
This resource contains visual examples with brief explanations and descriptions of film language and elements such as shot type, lighting and editing. This can be used in a class discussion or be given to students to help support their understanding of film elements.
This resource on p. 31, provides a table for responding to different aspects of film production as well as a line of questioning that is useful to help students break down and understand scenes. From this resource I have developed a worksheet that can be utilised to help students breakdown and identify the elements and their uses after watching scenes from films.
This resource explains narrative and breaks down genre and the elements used to develop narrative.
This resource is a glossary developed for Media Arts to assist students and teachers in developing Media Arts Language.
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This website provides 23 ideas for teaching Media Arts students about representation in the Media. This resource will provide students with the ability to understand and 'manipulate media representations to identify and examine social and cultural values and beliefs' (VCAA 2016).
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This website is an online radio that allows you to listen to radio from any country and any decade from 1900 and could be utilised to look at cultural and social values and representations across history in radio.
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This lesson plan looks at representation in advertising by focusing on how gender and gender roles are represented. Students will reimagine an advertisement directed at one gender for the other. This activity will support student ability to identify and examine social and cultural values and beliefs (VCAA 2016). This website has a number of examples of 1950s style advertisements aimed at men, reimagined to be aimed at women to show the students.
Social and Cultural Representations:
Creating Characters:
In order to learn more about social and cultural representation, as well as appealing to diverse audiences, this website can be used in an activity where students are asked to create a minimum of five characters. The characters can be for an animation, story or game. After creating their characters students must fill out a profile template with background information.
Music Video Analysis:
Another approach to looking at media representation is to examine social and cultural values and beliefs within music videos. Some great Australian music videos that discuss various different issues, beliefs and values that can be analysed are:
A great way to help students learn and understand genre conventions is to look at movie trailers. Within an activity students could identify the genre and the conventions used in a specific trailer and then select a new genre to reedit the trailer in. This activity will support student ability to ' manipulate media elements, and genre conventions to construct new and alternative viewpoints in images, sounds and text '(VCAA 2016). Here are some examples of reimagined movie trailers: