Cranford Review 2020

Years 12/13 - Media
British Film Institute
edia Department organised a
The Mseries of study day trips to The British
Film Institute (BFI) on the Southbank in November and
December 2019 and in early January 2020. The objective
was for students to develop and reinforce their learning on
a range of topics including Historical Print Media, Video
Gaming, Critical Theory and the Newspaper industry. We
were astounded at the quality of student contributions during
the study days and the opportunities to have Q&A sessions
with professionals from the Film Industry.
Sharandeep Saroya (Digital Video & Media Department)
Each of the study days
was extremely helpfulas
we were able to recap
previously learnt content in
detail. The topic days that
the teachers had picked
for us to take part in were
topics that the teachers
knew we had struggled
to grasp in the past. This
was a great help as we
were not only recapping,
but filling any gaps that
we had. In November the
Year 13 media class took
part in the BFI session on
the Newspaper Industry,
an area I have always
found hard to comprehend.
However, once the brilliant
speaker had completed
his lecture and the guest
speaker had explained
her experience in the
industry, I had a much
better understanding of the
sector.
Suzannah Hussain
(year 13)
During our trips to the BFI studios over the winter
term we attended three workshops in which we
focused on different aspects of media studies.
The first one was focused on newspapers and
took place in a large theatre in which multiple
schools attended. This allowed us to broaden
our knowledge of the newspaper industry and
develop our analytical skills whilst learning in
a fun and interactive way including from other
students at different schools. Our next trip was
much more intimate with us being one of only
two schools that attended which meant we were
stretched further in order to develop our media
skills. The responsibility for this independent
trip as well as the lecture style format of the
workshops helped prepare us for independent
study at university. The third and final trip was
centred around gaming and was also attended by
Year 12 Computing students who were studying
gaming at the time. Because there were fewer
students it allowed for more engagement and
intimate discussion. Furthermore, all three
workshops ended with guest speakers from the
Media Industry related to the subject area we were
focusing on. This gave us a glimpse of potential
careers we could go into and we were able to ask
them questions and gain further knowledge both
in and outside of our examination specification.
Serena Lola and Ayesha Bhatti (year 13)
Taking part in the three study days
was a fun experience that really let
us expand our previous knowledge
as well as learning on a different
level with many other students who
attended. The insight into the other
examination specifications also
helped as we learnt new terminology
and were able to take a lot from this.
It was definitely a fun and productive
trip.
Diogo Atouguia (year 12)
The BFI study day for Video Gaming
was interesting as it allowed us to get
a better understanding of the Gaming
Industry in terms of how games are
produced and how they are released.
We were also introduced to Chris
Filip,a game designer, who gave us
a lot of inside information on how
they worked at Ubisoft, a giant in
the industry. I learned a lot from
this session as I do aspire to become
a game designer at some point in
my life.
Atanas Aleksandrov (year 12)
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