Outline

Overview

This unit provides an introduction to the theory and practice of media production. It combines a holistic investigation of contemporary media practices with an exploratory first-hand account of media production techniques. Students will have the opportunity to create their own media production using a variety of technologies. They will create a major media piece by the end of the semester, and learn how to promote and publish their work.

Unit details and rules

Academic unit	Media and Communications
Credit points	6
Prerequisites ?	None
Corequisites ?	None
Prohibitions ?	None
Assumed knowledge ?	None
Available to study abroad and exchange students	No

Teaching staff

Coordinator	Blue Lucine, blue.lucine@sydney.edu.au
Demonstrator(s)	Adam Finney, adam.finney@sydney.edu.au
Lecturer(s)	Blue Lucine, blue.lucine@sydney.edu.au
Tutor(s)	Tegan Nicholls, tegan.nicholls@sydney.edu.au
	Cassie Charlton, cassie.charlton@sydney.edu.au
	Lawrence Meltzer, lawrence.meltzer@sydney.edu.au
	Farhana Dawood, farhana.dawood@sydney.edu.au

Type	Description	Weight	Due	Length
Assignment	Online Promotion and Publication of Video Project and Personal critical reflection Create a website to host your video project, and materials to promote it.	35%	- Due date: 03 Jun 2023 at 23:59 Closing date: 30 Jun 2023	1700 wd equivalent
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Production Plan and Pitch Write a production plan for your project idea. Oral pitch in class.	25%	Week 05 Due date: 24 Mar 2023 at 23:59 Closing date: 30 Jun 2023	3 minutes 1000 words
Outcomes assessed:
Assignment	Major Video Project Produce, shoot, and edit a video in any genre. Can be factual or fiction.	40%	Week 10 Due date: 05 May 2023 at 23:59 Closing date: 30 Jun 2022	3-6 minutes 2000 words equivalent
Outcomes assessed:
= group assignment ?

Assessment summary

Detailed information can be found in Canvas

Assessment criteria

The University awards common result grades, set out in the Coursework Policy 2014 (Schedule 1).

As a general guide, a High distinction indicates work of an exceptional standard, a Distinction a very high standard, a credit a good standard, and a pass an acceptable standard. You must submit all assessments to pass the unit.

Result name	Mark range	Description
High distinction	85 - 100	High distinction projects demonstrate outstanding levels of creativity, storytelling, technical competency and publishing ability. These productions have a sophisticated approach towards creativity and storytelling by understanding their audience and drawing on outstanding engagement techniques. The technical capacity demonstrates outstanding skills by correctly recording, capturing, manipulating and exporting the production that adheres to industry standards. The work exceeds the requirements of this assignment and could be commissioned by existing media publications.
Distinction	75 - 84	Distinction projects demonstrate excellent levels of creativity, storytelling, technical competency and publishing ability. These productions have a sophisticated approach towards creativity and storytelling by understanding their audience and drawing on excellent engagement techniques. The technical capacity demonstrates excellent skills by correctly recording, capturing, manipulating and exporting the production that adheres to industry standards. The work exceeds the requirements of this assignment.
Credit	65 - 74	Credit projects demonstrate good levels of creativity, storytelling, technical competency and publishing ability. These productions have a well-rounded approach towards creativity and storytelling by understanding their audience and drawing on satisfactory engagement techniques. The technical capacity demonstrates good skills by correctly recording, capturing, and manipulating the production, which may have a few minor problems. The work demonstrates the requirements of this assignment.
Pass	50 - 64	Projects that pass demonstrate minimal levels of creativity, storytelling, technical competency and publishing ability. These productions have some understanding of creativity and storytelling but have been masked by errors and problems in comprehensive produciton. The technical capacity demonstrates some skills by correctly recording, capturing and manipulating the media, but also demonstrates some technical problems and errors. The work minimally meets the requirements of this assignment.
Fail	0 - 49	When you don’t meet the learning outcomes of the unit to a satisfactory standard.

For more information see guide to grades.

Late submission

In accordance with University policy, these penalties apply when written work is submitted after 11:59pm on the due date:

Deduction of 5% of the maximum mark for each calendar day after the due date.
After ten calendar days late, a mark of zero will be awarded.

This unit has an exception to the standard University policy or supplementary information has been provided by the unit coordinator. This information is displayed below:

5% per day past the due date

Academic integrity

The Current Student website provides information on academic integrity and the resources available to all students. The University expects students and staff to act ethically and honestly and will treat all allegations of academic integrity breaches seriously.

We use similarity detection software to detect potential instances of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breach. If such matches indicate evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic integrity breaches, your teacher is required to report your work for further investigation.

Use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and automated writing tools

You may only use generative AI and automated writing tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator. If you do use these tools, you must acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section. The assessment instructions or unit outline will give guidance of the types of tools that are permitted and how the tools should be used.

Your final submitted work must be your own, original work. You must acknowledge any use of generative AI tools that have been used in the assessment, and any material that forms part of your submission must be appropriately referenced. For guidance on how to acknowledge the use of AI, please refer to the AI in Education Canvas site.

The unapproved use of these tools or unacknowledged use will be considered a breach of the Academic Integrity Policy and penalties may apply.

Studiosity is permitted unless otherwise indicated by the unit coordinator. The use of this service must be acknowledged in your submission as detailed on the Learning Hub’s Canvas page.

Outside assessment tasks, generative AI tools may be used to support your learning. The AI in Education Canvas site contains a number of productive ways that students are using AI to improve their learning.

Learning support

Simple extensions

If you encounter a problem submitting your work on time, you may be able to apply for an extension of five calendar days through a simple extension.  The application process will be different depending on the type of assessment and extensions cannot be granted for some assessment types like exams.

Special consideration

If exceptional circumstances mean you can’t complete an assessment, you need consideration for a longer period of time, or if you have essential commitments which impact your performance in an assessment, you may be eligible for special consideration or special arrangements.

Special consideration applications will not be affected by a simple extension application.

Using AI responsibly

Co-created with students, AI in Education includes lots of helpful examples of how students use generative AI tools to support their learning. It explains how generative AI works, the different tools available and how to use them responsibly and productively.

Weekly schedule

WK	Topic	Learning activity
Week 01	What is Media Production?	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 02	Introduction to Story	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 02	Idea Generation	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 03	Production Planning and Pitching	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 03	Pitching and Photography	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 04	Video Principles and Lighting	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 04	Camera fundamentals	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 05	Sound Principles	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 05	Sound for video	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 06	Documentary and Feature film production principles, and audiences	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 06	Interviewing tactics and techniques	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 07	Story II	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 07	Group work - Editing in Adobe Premier Pro	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 08	Editing and Post Production	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 08	Editing in Adobe Premier Pro	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 09	Promotion and Design	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 09	Adobe Photoshop	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 10	Online Publication	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 10	WordPress	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 11	Ethics	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 11	Ethics Scenarios and Photoshop	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 12	Algorithmic Media	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 12	Word Press and Socials	Seminar (2 hr)
Week 13	Representation and Voice	Lecture (1 hr)
Week 13	Group work	Seminar (2 hr)

Attendance and class requirements

Attendance: students are expected to attend 90% of their classes. If you attend less than 50% of classes, regardless of the reasons, you may be referred to the Examiner’s Board which will decide whether you should pass or fail the unit of study if your attendance falls below this threshold.
Lecture recording: Most lectures (in recording-equipped venues) will be recorded and may be made available to students on the LMS. However, you should not rely on lecture recording to substitute your classroom learning experience.
Preparation: students should commit to spend approximately three hours’ preparation time (reading, studying, homework, essays, etc.) for every hour of scheduled instruction.

Study commitment

Typically, there is a minimum expectation of 1.5-2 hours of student effort per week per credit point for units of study offered over a full semester. For a 6 credit point unit, this equates to roughly 120-150 hours of student effort in total.

Required readings

All readings for this unit can be accessed on the Library eReserve link available on Canvas.

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are what students know, understand and are able to do on completion of a unit of study. They are aligned with the University's graduate qualities and are assessed as part of the curriculum.

Outcomes
Graduate qualities

At the completion of this unit, you should be able to:

LO1. Identify the foundational principles of media design and participation
LO2. Demonstrate basic skills in conceptual media production (audio, video, design, writing, social media and publishing) across multiple platforms
LO3. Demonstrate the basic skills for social media production and promotion
LO4. Demonstrate the capacity to identify and apply ethical standards in producing media texts, forms and environments

Graduate qualities

The graduate qualities are the qualities and skills that all University of Sydney graduates must demonstrate on successful completion of an award course. As a future Sydney graduate, the set of qualities have been designed to equip you for the contemporary world.

GQ1	Depth of disciplinary expertise Deep disciplinary expertise is the ability to integrate and rigorously apply knowledge, understanding and skills of a recognised discipline defined by scholarly activity, as well as familiarity with evolving practice of the discipline.
GQ2	Critical thinking and problem solving Critical thinking and problem solving are the questioning of ideas, evidence and assumptions in order to propose and evaluate hypotheses or alternative arguments before formulating a conclusion or a solution to an identified problem.
GQ3	Oral and written communication Effective communication, in both oral and written form, is the clear exchange of meaning in a manner that is appropriate to audience and context.
GQ4	Information and digital literacy Information and digital literacy is the ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, manage, adapt, integrate, create and convey information using appropriate resources, tools and strategies.
GQ5	Inventiveness Generating novel ideas and solutions.
GQ6	Cultural competence Cultural Competence is the ability to actively, ethically, respectfully, and successfully engage across and between cultures. In the Australian context, this includes and celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, knowledge systems, and a mature understanding of contemporary issues.
GQ7	Interdisciplinary effectiveness Interdisciplinary effectiveness is the integration and synthesis of multiple viewpoints and practices, working effectively across disciplinary boundaries.
GQ8	Integrated professional, ethical, and personal identity An integrated professional, ethical and personal identity is understanding the interaction between one’s personal and professional selves in an ethical context.
GQ9	Influence Engaging others in a process, idea or vision.

Outcome map

Learning outcomes	Graduate qualities
Learning outcomes

Responding to student feedback

This section outlines changes made to this unit following staff and student reviews.

We have slightly changed the assessment based on student feedback and have made the final assessment a group project.

Additional information

This unit involves a weekly 1 hour lecture, a 2 hour tutorial, reading and online activities on our Canvas e-learning site and blogs.

Lectures are compulsory, but will be in part run like discussion/demonstration sessions. You are required to do the readings and look at the suggested websites BEFORE the lecture and will be called on to discuss your analysis of the readings in the lecture.

There will be occasional guest lecturers — people with extensive academic or industry background in media production. As these people may be your future employers (and we often refer students to job opportunities on the basis of their participation in class) it’s worth turning up to these events and asking questions.

Tutorial workshops will be a combination of online tutorials alongside in-person workshops – we will need to align with COVID-19 restrictions to ensure the health and safety of all is upheld. Due to equipment and resources there is an absolute cap of 20 placed on the number of students in each workshop. To gain entry to the lab outside class times you must use your student swipe access card. If you haven’t already done so, please apply for and activate your swipe card at the Security building G12, Darlington Campus. To use lab computers outside class times you need to book them through the booking system. This is very important after week 5 as many groups are sharing the same production resources.

All your e-learning activities will take place on Canvas or your personal online portfolio space blog.

All your class handouts and other support materials will be posted on Canvas. If you have any difficulties logging in or using the system, visit the Student Help area of the Sydney eLearning site http://sydney.edu.au/elearning/student/

Your software demonstrator will be available in class and for one hour of other consultation on your feature project. Please be polite to, and patient with them, especially if you want help to realise your creative vision.

Disclaimer

The University reserves the right to amend units of study or no longer offer certain units, including where there are low enrolment numbers.

To help you understand common terms that we use at the University, we offer an online glossary.

Current students

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links

MECO1004: Introduction to Media Production

Semester 1, 2023 [Normal day] - Camperdown/Darlington, Sydney

Overview

Overview

Unit details and rules

Teaching staff

Assessment

Assessment

Assessment summary

Assessment criteria

Late submission

Academic integrity

Learning support

Learning support

Simple extensions

Special consideration

Using AI responsibly

Weekly schedule

Weekly schedule

Attendance and class requirements

Study commitment

Required readings

Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes

Graduate qualities

Outcome map

Responding to student feedback

Responding to student feedback

Additional information

Additional information

Disclaimer

On this page

Useful links