Question 1a – Skills and Processes

Conventions of real media texts Post-Production Research and Planning Digital TechnologyExplain how you have used, developed or challenged conventions of real media products.

Discuss the decisions you made during post-production of all 4 media products

How did your Research and Planning inform your production? (GDS)

How has digital technology aided your creativity to during your coursework productions? (GDS)

Evaluate how you creatively drew upon and/ or developed conventions of real media products.

Discuss the ways in which you have exercised creativity during post-production?

Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision-making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time. (Jan10)

“Digital technology turns media consumers into media producers”. In your own experience, how has your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete your coursework productions? (Exam board example) In what ways have your productions

used or developed conventions adopted from real media products? In what ways have your productions challenged or played with conventions adopted from real media products? In other words, is your work generic, or experimental – or both? Some media producers adopt a style of working that is quite distinctive – explore how your own favourite producers/ directors/ designers/ publishers may have influenced work you have produced. Do you have a ‘style’? Are you an auteur?

What do you consider to be the impact of having learnt and applied typical conventions AND why your ability to apply this understanding has improved over the course.

What would Andrew Goodwin say about your work?

What did you do @ POST PRODUCTION that you are particularly proud of and how did you do it?

What was the impact/outcome on the quality of media texts produced?

How specifically and to what extent did your skills develop @ AS & A2?

If and how did a lack of access to PP soft/hardware or of PP skills, impact your work

How much of your text was ‘created’ in post-production? What technologies did you use to modify your raw material? How did this change the meaning of your work? What transitions/ effects did you apply during post-production? How did you manipulate narrative/ colours/ lighting/ contrast/ brightness/ sound etc during the edit? How much of your footage ended up ‘on the cutting room floor’ (unused) and why?

How has digital technology helped you to capture your ideas? What benefits do digital technologies offer over analogue? Are there any disadvantages? How did digital technology influence your work in pre-production, production, and post-production? How have your skills with digital technology developed, and how has this influenced your productions?  What role might digital technology plan in the distribution of your work? How is digital technology changing media production?

How did your research into genre contribute to your production work? How did your research into audience contribute to your production work? How did your research into institutions responsible for the production and regulation of the media influence your production work? What pre-production planning techniques did you employ (scripting, storyboarding, shot-listing, flat-planning etc.)? How effective was your planning – how did it help you in the production phase? What did you learn from planning your first production that helped you to improve your planning for the second? How did you use audience feedback to influence your production work while it was in progress?

CreativityYou will not get a question on creativity on its own. Creativity is ONLY used in conjunction with one of the other key areas.

What features of your work would you say are original to you? Which media texts and producers have influenced your creative decisions? How successfully does your work engage its audience and provoke its interest? Consider some of the creative choices you had to make during the course of your production – how to use cameras, lighting, dialogue, colour etc. How did you make these decisions, and how did these contribute to the final production? How did digital technology/ real media texts/ research and planning/ post-production give you an opportunity to express and stretch your creativity?

Question 1b – Concepts

Media Language Genre Audience“Media is communication.” Discuss the ways that you have used media language to create meanings in one of your media products.

“Media texts rely on audience knowledge of generic codes and conventions in order for them to create meaning.” Explain how you have used or subverted generic conventions in one of your production pieces.

“Media texts will never be successful unless they are carefully constructed to target established audience needs or desires.” Evaluate the ways that you constructed your media text to target a specific audience.

‘Media language’ means the language of the medium you are working within. For example, there is a language of film which is different to the language of music video/ television drama etc. This is different to genre: genre can cut across media (e.g. a sci-fi film/ TV programme/ music video (!)). How are you using the language of the medium? How have you used the language of music videos/ film openings/ digipaks/ magazine adverts? What would Andrew Goodwin say about your music video?

• How useful is the concept of genre in understanding your work?• How can genre be used to understand music videos, and how is this different to genre and (thriller) films?• How is your work intertextual? How does it fit in with other music videos?• How is your production conventional of the genre?• Why is genre useful to you as a media producer/ useful to audiences?• Genre theorists you have quotes from: Gunther Kress, Denis McQuail, Nicholas Abercrombie, Christine Gledhill, Katie Wales, John Fiske. Jacques Derrida: “A text cannot belong to no genre, it cannot be without... a genre. Every text participates in one or several genres, there is no genreless text.”• How could you use the theories to discuss genre and understand your production?• What would Andrew Goodwin say about your work in terms of genre?• Genres change and evolve (see Christian Metz and David Buckingham). How is your production using/ developing the genre?

• How useful is the concept of audience in understanding your work?• Who is your target audience? How did you develop your target audience? How does your production appeal to your target audience?• How useful are various segmentation models to describe your target audience? Demographics? Psychographics? Findyourtribe?• Consider theorists and theories such as: Stuart Hall: Encoding and Decoding; Preferred/ negotiated/ oppositional readings; Denis McQuail – (Uses and Gratification theory); Ien Ang - “Audiencehood is becoming an even more multifaceted, fragmented and diversified repertoire of practices and experiences.”; Hypodermic Needle Theory

Narrative Representation“Media texts rely on cultural experiences in order for audiences to easily make sense of narratives”. Explain how you used conventional and / or experimental narrative approaches in one of your production pieces. (Exam Board Example)

Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions. (Jan10)“Representations in media texts are often simplistic and reinforce dominant ideologies so that audiences can make sense of them.” Evaluate the ways that you have used/ challenged simplistic representations in one of the media products you have produced.

• How useful is the concept of narrative in understanding your work?• How is narrative and music videos different to narrative and film?• How is your narrative structured? (convergent/ parallel/ circular/ linear/ non-linear/ interweaving/ fragmented/ impressionist…?) How did you use chapters/phases?• What pleasure(s) does your narrative offer the audience?• How do you use characters in your narrative? How have you used protagonists/ antagonists? Is Vladimir Propp useful to understand your production?• Some theorists and theories you may be able to apply: Story versus plot; Tzetvan Todorov (equilibrium etc); Claude Levi-Strauss (binary opposition); Roland Barthes (Enigma code; Action code. Also, Open and Closed texts); Pam Cook; Noam Chomsky (narrative is fundamental to human understanding)• How does the narrative structure/ ending shape the meaning of your production?

How does your video represent different social groups/ people/ places/ lifestyles? What values/ ideologies are you representing/ promoting? Does your production create a hegemonic representation/ does it represent and reinforce the dominant ideology? What positive/ negative/ stereotypical connotations and representations are you constructing/ using/ challenging? How are the representations in your production the products of your own cultural experience/ background/ ideology/ values? What would Laura Mulvey say about your production?

Section B: Media and Collective identity

There are four areas you need to understand in preparing for the exam:1. How do the contemporary media represent nations, regions and ethnic / social / collective groups

of people in different ways?a. How are young people/ males/ females/ gay people/ Northerners/ any social group represented?

Discuss how the representations use stereotypes; are the representations hegemonic/ reinforcing dominant ideologies; do they challenge hegemony; are they represented as heterogenous/ homogenous; how could terms and phrases like Female solidarity/ teen solidarity/ male solidarity, Constructed certitude, Consciously cultivated (fe)male bond/ teen bond, Socialisation, Binary, Plurality, Femininities/ masculinities be useful in discussing the representations?; Who are these representations aimed at, and how does this affect the way the group are represented?; Who is creating these representations?; How are different social groups represented in the media industry, as well as by the media?; What is the purpose of these representations?; How does the media construct representations of groups of people?; How is collective identity constructed?

2. How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods? a. Compare recent texts (last 4 years) to past texts in terms of the ideas in question 1. What differences/

similarities are there?;

3. What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people? a. What impact does the media have on audiences’ sense of identity?; How do audiences respond to/

use media representations?; To what extent are audiences active in constructing their own sense of identity?; How useful are Uses and Gratification theory/ Hypodermic Needle Theory/ Cultivation theory in understanding audiences’ responses to media representations?; Does the media reflect or shape our sense of who we are?

4. To what extent is human identity increasingly ‘mediated’? a. Does the media reflect or shape our sense of who we are?; Is the media increasingly important in how

we shape our identity?; How powerful is the media in shaping/ helping us to shape who we are?

In the exam you:b. have a choice of two questionsc. have 60 minutes to answer the ‘Collective identity’ questiond. MUST write about two media (e.g. film and magazines. It doesn’t need to be even between the two

media, so could be 90% on one and 10% on the other)e. Must include theory or theorists and apply them to your case studiesf. Should be able to discuss past, present and future

We have looked at collective identity in terms of teen/ youth and gender. Other schools will have looked at all sorts (e.g. Africans; Muslims; Northerners; the working class…). The exam question will be broad enough so that you can write about whatever area you have studied.

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These are the kind of questions you will be asked.1. Discuss the contemporary representation of a nation, region or social group in the media, using specific

textual examples from at least two media to support your answer. (Exam Board Sample)2. How far does the representation of a particular social group change over time? Refer to at least two

media in your answer. (Exam Board Sample)3. Looking at two media, describe the ways in which a particular group of people are collectively

represented or provided for, using specific examples to support your response. (Textbook)4. Analyse the ways in which the media represent one group of people that you have studied. (Jan 2010)5. “The media do not construct collective identity; they merely reflect it”. Discuss. (Jan 2010)A couple of bonus ideas:6. To what extent do audiences use media to construct their own sense of collective identity?7. “The media has replaced family, society and religion as the main source of collective identity.” Discuss.

G325 Critical Perspective in Media – Information from the Exam BoardThe purpose of this unit is to assess candidates’ knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates, through their understanding of one contemporary media issue and their ability to evaluate their own practical work in reflective and theoretical ways. The examination is two hours. Candidates are required to answer two compulsory questions, on their own production work, and one question from a choice of six topic areas. The unit is marked out of a total of 100, with the two questions on production work marked out of 25 each, and the media theory question marked out of 50. There are two sections to this paper: Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 marks) Section B: Contemporary Media Issues (50 marks)

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production Candidates answer two compulsory questions. The first requires them to describe and evaluate their skills development over the course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. The second asks them to identify one production and evaluate it in relation to one theoretical concept.

Question 1(a) requires candidates to describe and evaluate their skills development over the course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. The focus of this evaluation must be on skills development, and the question will require them to adapt this to one or two specific production practices. The list of practices to which questions will relate is as follows:

Digital Technology Research and planning Post-production Using conventions from real media texts Creativity (will only be asked alongside one of the other categories)

Questions will be posed using one or two of these categories. Where candidates have produced relevant work outside the context of their A Level media course, they are free to additionally refer to this experience.

Question 1(b) requires candidates to select one production and evaluate it in relation to a media concept. The list of concepts to which questions will relate is as follows:

Genre Narrative Representation Audience Media language

In the examination, questions will be set using one of these concepts only. In some circumstances, candidates will be expected to select the production that appears to relate most effectively to the specific concept that arises in the exam question. However, the requirement for candidates to evaluate one of their productions in relation to a concept does not assume that the concept will

necessarily always fit easily and in an orthodox way. Thus in some cases candidates will be describing their productions in terms of them not relating straightforwardly to the concept. For example, a candidate producing three websites over their two portfolios might describe ways in which websites cannot be understood easily through applying conventional narrative theory. Whether the candidate applies the concept to the product or uses the production to challenge the concept, it is essential that candidates are sufficiently knowledgeable about the concept for either approach. Candidates may choose to write about work undertaken at AS or A2, main task or preliminary/ancillary.

Section B: Contemporary Media Issues One question to be answered from a choice of six topic areas offered by OCR. There will be two questions from each topic area. The topic areas require understanding of contemporary media texts, industries, audiences and debates.

Candidates must choose one of the following topic areas, in advance of the examination and, through specific case studies, texts, debates and research of the candidates’ choice, prepare to demonstrate understanding of the contemporary issue. This understanding must combine knowledge of at least two media and a range of texts, industries, audiences and debates, but these are to be selected by the centre / candidate. The assessment of the response will be generic, allowing for the broadest possible range of responses within the topic area chosen. Each topic is accompanied by four prompt questions, and candidates must be prepared to answer an exam question that relates to one or more of these four prompts. There should be emphasis on the historical, the contemporary and the future in relation to the chosen topic, with most attention on the present. The categories of contemporary media issues are:

Contemporary Media Regulation Global Media Media and Collective Identity Media in the Online Age Post-modern Media ‘We Media’ and Democracy