Singing media's praises

'The course has been really good,' said Stephanie Glen.

'It has been kind of like English, but with a visual outlook and interaction,' added Elle Castle.

Another student, Michelle Redhead, extolled the virtues of studying in an area where technological advancements are rife.

'The great thing about media studies is that it is changing all the time,' she said.

'We're learning things that haven't been taught before now, whereas many people have learnt Shakespeare.'

After completing a feature-film thriller in Year 12, the students were put into groups, where they watched and analysed music videos. One of the most difficult decisions for the project, they said, had been choosing a song and they had to be careful not to pick one for which they had already seen the video.

'We could have been seen as just copying a video we had seen before,' explained Elle.

'And I think we benefited from not seeing the video to our chosen song – it gave us a clean slate to start with and fresh ideas.'

After studying the song's lyrical content, the groups drew up a storyboard – although they

admitted those changed once filming was under way.

'Ours went from being a pool party and the mean girls pushing people into the pool to three girls causing mayhem around school,' explained Michelle.

'The more the filming developed, the more changes were made to the narrative.'

Most of the groups did the filming in any free time they had.

'We were shooting in our media lessons, free lessons, lunch time and after school – it became very time-consuming,' said Stephanie.

'At some points, people who were playing in the band for the performance would be busy or have other engagements, so it was hard working around and with everyone.'

'After we finished filming, we started editing, which took quite a lot of time as well,' said Louis Taylor.

'Sorting out the time frames and the lip synching – it was hard.'

When the videos were finished, the class watched them all and gave feedback, something they felt was helpful.

'The class feedback was really useful,' said Elle. 'We've all been really supportive with each other, which helped as we were all in the same position and it made it easier.'

Each year, the number of students applying for media studies is growing. Contrary to the popularly held belief that it is a 'skive' subject, students see it as just as important as English and maths.

'There are so many media changes every year,' explained Reece Carter.

'So media studies changes each year too. We are learning about the most up-to-date media programming and technology – like Blueray, which is like a DVD but better.'

Louis added: 'As there are so many changes in media, the subject is very interesting and we are lucky to have the best facilities and programmes here at school.

'People need to know about media – it plays a huge part in society now. Therefore, it's a valid subject in schools today.'