Think about last night. Did you watch something live with the rest of the country, press play on a series when it suited you, or open a game where your choices changed what happened?

Those three habits are three different kinds of visual media: broadcast, on-demand and interactive. Today you will learn how framing, colour, editing pace and sound steer what you notice, then write a short Visual Media Analysis for your Communication Portfolio.

There is no clip today: each shot of a short drama opening is described in words, so everyone works from the same one.

Most of what you watch arrives in one of three ways:

• Broadcast: everyone watches at once (a live GAA or Six Nations match on RTÉ or Virgin Media).
• On-demand: you pick when (a series on RTÉ catch-up, Netflix or Disney+).
• Interactive: you shape what happens (a story-driven game where you pick left or right at a corridor, or an episode that branches on your choice).

Then look at the craft inside the shot:

Worked example (drama still): A face fills the whole frame under cold blue kitchen light. The room is gone. You have nowhere to look except the eyes. Framing forces closeness; colour cools the mood; whatever they are staring at stays out of shot on purpose.

Worked example (game cut-scene): The camera locks on a character's hands at a corridor junction. You choose left or right; the frame still hides the threat behind you until you commit. Framing and interactive choice work together.

Four stills from an invented short drama, Night Shift, are described below. For each one, press Name a choice, pick the camera or sound choice and write one effect line: what it does to you as a viewer.

Your tags are not saved: press Copy for my portfolio and paste them into the box below to reuse next. You are practising the eye, not writing the Portfolio piece yet.

This is the piece that goes in your Communication Portfolio. Write it once, in the answer boxes under the sequence: they save as you type.

1. Read the full Night Shift opening as a continuous sequence (same four stills, now in order).
2. Answer the questions under it: together they are your Visual Media Analysis. Carry forward one or two effect lines from Mark It Up if they still hold. Aim for about 150–200 words on Night Shift.
3. In the last box, add three short lines on one visual piece you watched yourself this week (drama, stream, film, or game cut-scene). Name its delivery type first, then at least two craft conventions from the same list.
4. Press Copy for my portfolio and save it as m3_l67_visual_media_analysis_<your-initials> in your Communication Portfolio folder. The lines on your own piece can finish for homework.

Talk this through with the person beside you:

• Which convention did the most work on you in Night Shift: framing, colour, pace or sound?
• Think of a live GAA or match day versus a series episode you paused mid-scene. Did the cuts feel different when you could stop and rewind? Say one thing that changed.

The longer thinking can go in your Reflective Journal later if you want it kept.