School Doc Camera Day

Well done to all of the School Documentary team who did some excellent work on the Camera Day on Wednesday.

In particular, the following are to be highly commended (and receive credits)...

• Parampreet, Sonal, Chiraag and Sherish for their interviewing of Mrs Griffin.

• Russell, Jagdish, Shreena and Anita for their interviewing of Michael Elliot.

Both the Head and the Mayor want me to pass on my congratulations to those who were involved in these interviews - they were most impressed with your maturity and professionalism.

We have got some superb footage, shot by our professional cameraman Johnny; and Lindley - the Channel 5 News reporter - is very pleased with the progress we made on Wednesday...we have almost three hours in the can!

We need a volunteer or two from the team to log the footage with Ms Dol this week. It's a crucial job and would suit someone who is keen to be invoved in the editing part of the documentary. Please email Macguffin this weekend if you're interested.

As you all know, there is a lot to do this week as it's 'officially' the last week of the shoot so most of the footage should have been shot and logged by the holiday (with the exception of 'The Reunion' group).

Therefore, could each group leader and deputy post up an outline of their group's progress so far and a schedule for this week to the Macguffin forum. Post it as a reply to the 'Week Commencing 27-03-06' thread in each section, please.

Finally, both Lindley and Johnny were also very impressed with the standard of the Year 12 Practical Productions (which they saw when they were in the edit suite). Keep up the good work!

New Macguffin Blog For Year 11

As the standard of work keeps getting better, so Macguffin keeps having to get bigger. The newest addition to the Macguffin online empire is a site especially dedicated to work produced by Year 11s that also provides help and information for them as they lead up to their exams.

At present there are three video productions on offer as well as one audio production. Do check out what's on offer and make some comments as to what you think. I'm sure you'll agree that it's mightily impressive for Year 11s. They might even make some Year 12s start worrying about the standard of their productions!!

Over the next few weeks you'll also (hopefully) see excellent examples of comic strips produced by Year 11s as practice for their controlled test (which is on Children's Comics). They have all entered a competition to produce the best ones and the winners will each receive a £15 prize and be posted up here.

New Media Mentors

After gruelling interviews by a four-person panel (including student rep Ruby) this year's media mentors have now been selected. The three Year 13s will be available to support Year 12s with their all-important Practical Productions - passing on their expertise in the fine art of editing on Adobe Premiere and providing feedback on the new Year 12 projects as they take shape.

Each is an excellent student who has already achieved top grades for practical work and they are all planning to continue to do Media Studies and video editing at university so they'll have plenty to offer. They are...

Danny

One of the driving forces behind last year's £1000 Macintyre Award winner - the powerful documentary on crime against the elderly, "Mugged".

Quite possibly the nicest young man in the whole of the Sixth Form (no, make that West London!)

He'll be working on Monday and Tuesday afternoons after school and Thursday and Friday mornings before school.

Sofia

She was part of the incredible team that produced last year's 'Best Media Studies Production' about the issue of dyslexia, called "Misunderstood".

A very patient and hard-working student, she spent hours and hours sitting at PC6 this time last year - now it's the Year 12's turn, and her job to help them.

Sofia will be working with all the 'earlybirds' - she'll be in every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning from 8 until 9am.

And don't forget all Year 12s - you must send along at least one representative (preferably two) to every editing session (before school, and after school) every day. In addition, all available frees should be spent in the edit suite until the work is finished...there's only four and a half weeks to go!

Chiraag

Made a documentary last year about learning disabilities but was also called upon at the last minute to produce the final montage sequence that was played at the end of the Media Awards Evening 2005. His work here showed his capacity to work under pressure and to meet deadlines -something all Year 12s will have to do!

He'll be in the media suite during the after school session (from 3.30 until 5.30pm) every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoon.

School Documentary

For all Media students...

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to be involved in a prestigious project that will remain long after you've left GHS. Imagine your name on the end credits of a documentary that people are watching in 50 years time to see what the school was like at the start of the millennium!

As most of you should already know, Mrs Griffin has commissioned a film to be made over the course of the next year that will document our school as we prepare to leave our present accommodation and move into the new buildings.

We are hoping that this will serve as a record of a very important time in the school's history -– of the staff and students who work here and of the current environment where this happens (before it is demolished), thus preserving memories and images of GHS in 2005-2006 for future generations. It is something that we hope to show to invited audiences (like at the Media Awards Evening) and for it to appear on the new school website when it's up and running.

A number of Year 13s have already captured footage from the Prospective Parents' Evening and various other major events over the past term or so (well done to them!) Now we are moving on to the exciting second stage of the project that will involve some of you working alongside real media professionals!

During the week commencing 27-02, a top Channel 5 news reporter - Lindley Gooden (above) - will be in school for a whole day to work with a select group of Year 12 and 13 Media students who will form the main planning team of the project. Your task will be to come up with ideas about what we want to include in the film - it's your school and you know it as well as anyone!

On this day we will also be assigning roles for the remainder of the project. To get one of the key roles you must have been selected for the planning meeting. We'll need camera crews, interviewers, people to be involved in the editing etc. Some of the subsequent shoot will be filmed by you (either with or without Lindley) and we'll also be employing a professional cameraperson for a few days to work with you too. When it comes to the editing stage we will also seek to get outside involvement, so again you will get to work alongside someone with industry knowhow.

There really is no substitute for this kind of opportunity - it's a bit like getting media work experience (often really hard to come by) without having to leave the school! It will look very impressive on your CV/Personal Statement whether you choose to go on to do media in the future or not.

So if you want to be part of the team you need to email Macguffin to say why you want to be involved, what experience you already have that makes you suitable to be a member (media experience and your personal qualities) and which specific roles interest you and why. You may also like to suggest a few ideas for the film itself that might demonstrate your keen eye for documentary production and this could be the thing that sets you apart from the other candidates. The deadline is Sunday 26-02 and you will be informed by email if you are successful and when the day-long planning meeting will occur.

Good luck!

Commendations Latest

Following Interim Report 2, it's now time to total up all the commendations awarded to each student since the start of this academic year. A big well done to everyone who finds themselves on this list - you have received your commendations either for reaching five credits or for a single outstanding contribution to Media Studies.

As you can see the number of commendations individuals have achieved ranges from one to five...well done to Manjoth for the most in the whole of the sixth form. Check out her blog to see the excellent work she's been doing.

For each class there is also a figure for how many they achieved as a whole. This is divided by the number of students in the class to arrive at an average number of commendations per student. This way we can work out which are the most successful classes - the highest scores win - and it means that leading at this stage in the year are 13C. Congratulations!!

But don't forget, there are still about eleven weeks of school left until you all go on study leave (yes, only eleven weeks!) so there is still time for things to change. Who will be crowned Best Media Class 2006? Which of you will get the most commendations? Game on!

12C (29 commendations/24 students = 1.21/student...4th place)
Kiran 2, Kiranjit 1, Navdeep 1, Sam 1, Kelly 1, Jatinder 3, Alliaya 2, Alice 2, Priya 2, Ajay 1, Parampreet 4, Sukhpreet 1, Nathan 1, Ragdeep 1, Jaskeerat 3, Avinash 2, Ruby 1

12D (39 commendations/23 students = 1.70/student...2nd place)
Shreena 2, Sherish 4, Furzana 1, Balinder 3, Kavita 2, Sandeep 1, Hiba 1, Rishi 1, Sawan 2, Harpreet 1, Kiran 2, Prascilla 1, Rajan 3, Ramneet 2, Puja 1, Bushara 2, Harveen 1, Dinveer 3, Jagdish 3, Gurveer 3

13C (37 commendations/18 students = 2.10/student...1st place)
Shabaaz 1, Roohdip 1, Charanpal 2, Aanchal 2, Manjoth 5 (top score!!), Harbinder 2, Iena 2, Steven 4, John 1, Abisheik 2, Bilan 3, Danny 2, Anita 2, Mariam 1, Pardeep 1, Kristina 4, Russell 2

13D (22 commendations/14 students = 1.57/student...3rd place)
Rajpreet 2, Imroz 2, Abdullah 1, Sonia 3, Nadia 2, Sofia 1, Hari 1,Ladan 2, Chiraag 2, Renuka 2, Nisha 2, Kimberley 2