Blogging task: Mon.11th Oct

With thanks to Charlie Dellar for spotting this, the reason we couldn't get the embed codes to work on Monday was down to one setting within your blogger accounts. Follow these steps, and you should see the Word doc finally appear:
(1) edit the post
(2) look to the bottom of the post editor frame, for 'Post Options'
(3) click on this and you'll see...
(4) Compose Settings. You need to ensure that... 
(5) 'Interpret typed HTML' is selected, and NOT 'Show HTML literally'


HTML is the code your browser uses to work out what font, colour, position etc to use; you'd only want to 'show HTML literally' in a post if you were actually teaching how to use HTML!
If it still seems as if your blog post is only showing the copied code try reloading the page (apple+R) - you'll often find this solves strange problems!


Lets remind ourselves of the ambitious task list for Friday's lesson:

OUTCOMES: By the end of today everyone should have...

1. Emailed me their blog's URL (the web address) so that...
2. I can become a follower of your blog
3. you will be following at least 1 fellow student's blog, as well as...
4. the AS Media, British Cinema, AS Coursework, horror, rom-com, semiotics and media lang, and UK TV Drama blogs
5. in addition to myself, you should yourself have at least 1 follower
6. created a post entitled: My Coursework Task, in which...
7. you copy/paste in the text from a January 2010 AS Coursework blog post which describes the tasks and how its marked; only copy as far as EVALUATION: 20%
8. add to this post your own summary of The Evaluation (you can copy/paste in the 7 questions) and how its all marked
9. now you'll embed a copy of the Word document that summarises the marks scheme; I'll guide you all through this
10. at this stage you'll set up a scribd.com account

Most of you have got as far as setting up the blog post entitled 'My Coursework Task'. The aim of this is to ensure you can swiftly and easily refresh your memory on what the coursework unit is all about; you're not being asked to evaluate something you haven't created yet as some of you seemed to think!!! You'll gain a lot from Media Studies, but not time travel alas! (Though give us time...)
Carry on now with finishing this; please don't start into the next section - look around and go over and assist anyone who hasn't finished yet!

STAGE 4 OF YOUR BLOGGING ODYSSEY

By now you've examined a range of blogs; set one up; undertaken some initial posting tasks. We're going to do a little work to add a multimedia flavour to your blog right from the outset. You are partly marked on how multimedia and well-presented your blog is, so this is important!
Our basic aims here are to set up a links list and to create a blog post on this which includes images, hyperlinks and a YouTube video which can be played directly from your blog - now thats multimedia!

I'll set out the steps involved below; the 1st requires pen, paper and a little thought; you will then need to engage in a little research. You should be able to figure the design steps detailed for yourselves; have a try before you ask for any help on this - Blogger is designed to be easy to use if you apply a little thinking!

1. List your fave 5 movies of all time. These can be British, Hollywood, obscure Indie, tentpole blockbuster, moody Korean drama, or even Leningrad Cowboys Go America, one of those that might make my list!
2. Using IMDB if required, make a note of the director, year of release and budget (which won't always be provided; just give it where you can) plus UK+US box office totals.
3. In no more than 2 sentences, note why each is a favourite (yes, thats 2 sentences for each one!)
4. Write this up in a new post alliteratively entitled 'My 5 Fave Films'. Include the director's surname + year of release in brackets after each film title (you should do this in every post [and essay!] when you first mention a film; you don't have to do it twice in any post). Then add 'Bugdet: £xm' and 'UK box office: £xm' then 'US: $xm' (all figures to 1 decimal point) Type everything in BEFORE moving on to step 5
5. Work on the design and layout as follows:
6. Hit return after each Title (Bloggs, 2025), make them bold. Change the font so that it stands out. Make it large rather than normal size. Make it a hyperlink that takes you to the IMDB entry for the film
7. Put the budget and box office info into bold and the same font as the title; change the font colour
8. Now google for an image relevant to the movie; save it and then use blogger's picture upload tool (look for the icon of a framed picture!!!) to insert it into your post. As you do this 5 times you'll discover it can be fiddly keeping these in place, and will need to play around with size and positioning. This is easier with a PC - a right-click lets you choose a size for example - so you may find yourself tweaking this at home.
9. This next step you will - for the moment - have to do at home while YouTube remains blocked on student accounts in school. Find the trailer for your top movie on YouTube, check you've picked the highest resolution, find and copy the EMBED code. Press RETURN twice after your 2 sentences on this movie. Type in 'The trailer'. In the blank line above, paste in the embed code. You'll find whenever embedding any document/video it helps to ensure you've got a line below with some text; if you don't it can be tricky getting to do any additional typing!
10. Publish your post and see if you need to make any changes. Again, for the moment any YouTube clips will simply appear as blank space - they are still there, but simply not displayed because of the school filter. Finally, consider what else you could add to make your number one choice stand out - a bit more detail than your 2 sentences? Snippets from some reviews? (Try this - and experiment with the quote marks tool to see what this does) Info on more useful websites? Books on this? Films you'd compare it to? Aspects of the media language you especially admire? Target audience analysis?

ITS CRUCIAL YOU ALWAYS PROVIDE DETAILS OF WHERE YOU'VE FOUND INFORMATION, WHETHER ITS A REVIEW OR INSIGHT INTO THE PRODUCTION PROCESS - SO ALWAYS PROVIDE THE SOURCE OF YOUR INFORMATION!!!

For blogging purposes I'll often simply add 'source' in square brackets and provide the URL, eg, if I were to be blogging about Rupert Murdoch's 'evil plans to take over the world, by way of his Death Star, News Corporation,' I'd add [SOURCE: http://gothamist.com/2003/05/28/rupert_murdoch_is_evil.php] I might opt to provide an option to read more, showcasing the research I've done [You can read more at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karl-frisch/fox-nation-the-seedy-unde_b_210574.html which specifically tackles Fox News, and find many more useful articles simply by googling 'murdoch is evil'!]


Read more on providing source details here - one that I prepared earlier! (an interextual reference for those of a non-teen age!)

Next up: creating a links list...