Thursday, 16 June 2011
Wednesday, 15 June 2011
Good Luck!
A couple of you still haven't sent me timed essay, it's not too late!
Please do so.
Good luck for tomorrow.
Remember, answer the question, define the term ( eg narrative, genre, language or audience) and mention theorists & do your best!
Please do so.
Good luck for tomorrow.
Remember, answer the question, define the term ( eg narrative, genre, language or audience) and mention theorists & do your best!
Thursday, 9 June 2011
Your questions answered
Lily asked for some clarification on some theorists points in relation to horror film trailers,
Murray Smith talks about....'Identification seems to imply taking on another’s state of being, but we don’t necessarily mimic a character’s emotions. We might pity a grieving widow, but she isn’t feeling pity, she’s feeling grief. Smith talks instead of allegiance, the extending of our sympathy and other emotions to characters on the basis of their emotional states. Allegiance, Smith maintains, depends partly on the moral evaluations we make about the character’s actions and personality.', in the case of Lily and Melania's trailers we feel a greater allegiance to your character as we have seen her birthday celebrations, surrounded by a loving family and friends, the horror and tragedy is heightened as we can, i) identify with her as a loved family member, ii) imagine what the next birthday anniversary would be like without her.
Murray Smith talks about....'Identification seems to imply taking on another’s state of being, but we don’t necessarily mimic a character’s emotions. We might pity a grieving widow, but she isn’t feeling pity, she’s feeling grief. Smith talks instead of allegiance, the extending of our sympathy and other emotions to characters on the basis of their emotional states. Allegiance, Smith maintains, depends partly on the moral evaluations we make about the character’s actions and personality.', in the case of Lily and Melania's trailers we feel a greater allegiance to your character as we have seen her birthday celebrations, surrounded by a loving family and friends, the horror and tragedy is heightened as we can, i) identify with her as a loved family member, ii) imagine what the next birthday anniversary would be like without her.
Bordwell and Thompson focus on narrative suggests that the use of flashbacks is a very useful narrative device to quickly establish a 'back story' and to encourage the sense of allegiance that Smith suggests is important to increase an audiences engagement and enjoyment of a horror film.
In summary, if an audience doesn't care about the protagonist, they are not going to be interested in whether they survive or not. If you felt your film would be like that you would probably agree with one of the feminist theorists such as Linda Williams who suggests that audiences, particularly male ones, gain pleasure from gore she calls horror films body genres", since they are each designed to elicit physical reactions on the part of viewers. Horror is designed to elicit spine-chilling, white-knuckled, eye-bulging terror; melodramas are designed to make viewers cry after seeing the misfortunes of the onscreen characters; and pornography is designed to elicit sexual arousal.[
Jenkins theory is more to do with online media he suggests that convergence be understood as a cultural process, rather than a technological end-point. That is, audiences have more of an input into texts as convergence has allowed them to contribute, either as simply as deciding when to watch a TV programme or film on iplayer, or from actively participating in the construction of a text.
- Show quoted text -
What to do now
Well we had two really good sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday.
You all seem to be much more confident now, and rightly so, we have covered everything, you just now need lots of practice.
The three of you that missed the sessions, you must read all the blog posts and links. It's not too late to email me or pop into school on Friday or next week if there is anything you are still unsure about.
What you must all do, before the weekend, is email me your repsonses to questions 1a and 1b. take just an hour to do this, one hour out of your life to make sure you are on target to achieve your potential
I have told you which theorists to use for your productions but I must check that you are using the references correctly.
You all seem to be much more confident now, and rightly so, we have covered everything, you just now need lots of practice.
The three of you that missed the sessions, you must read all the blog posts and links. It's not too late to email me or pop into school on Friday or next week if there is anything you are still unsure about.
What you must all do, before the weekend, is email me your repsonses to questions 1a and 1b. take just an hour to do this, one hour out of your life to make sure you are on target to achieve your potential
I have told you which theorists to use for your productions but I must check that you are using the references correctly.
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Examiners report
These are written for teachers by the examiners to let us know general points that past students have made.
See the documents here:
January 2011
June 2010
January 2010
See the documents here:
January 2011
June 2010
January 2010
Section A
The question on digital technology appeared to support candidates in finding a range of examples and the better answers reflected critically on the difference digital technology actually made to creative outcomes. This was the strongest set of responses since the introduction of this unit, with the better answers dealing with well chosen examples which ranged across hardware, software and online activity and began to connect these to discuss how they synthesized.
The higher achieving answers related clearly candidates’ decisions to the creative potential of digital media.
Less accomplished responses tended to fall into two categories – those that were confused about digital technology itself (often simply describing the use of the camera) and those that merely listed examples of technology used without sufficient analysis of how these affordances led to particular kinds of creativity that might not have been possible with analogue processes or with non-technical activities. Where candidates were able to document a journey over time, either in terms of more advanced use of technology or simply making more use of technology in A2, the higher mark bands were accessible. This was extremely difficult for candidates who were only able to speculate on future A2 work as they had not yet completed their coursework – examiners cannot credit this kind of response in a synoptic paper. Level 4 answers typically defined creativity, with references to theoretical work on this much-debated and contested area (for example, Gauntlett, Buckingham, Craft, Csikszentmihalyi, Readman) and then went on to ‘apply’ these definitions to their own use of technologies with a range of specific examples – from how web 2.0 platforms allow the consumer (arguably) to become the producer to identifying particular uses of software such as Final Cut or Dreamweaver that allowed candidates to achieve outcomes that were not possible with simpler software such as iMovie (in the case of video editing). Either, or both, of these approaches allow examiners to award higher marks as long as there is sufficient evidence of critical reflection and evaluation – for which a ‘model’ like Kolb’s cycle might be helpful.
Narrative was handled fairly well by most candidates, often applying one or two ‘classic’ theoretical models from formalist / structuralist approaches to their own work – character types, equilibrium and disruption, action and enigma, semiotic codes and ‘the gaze’. The choice of text to analyse is very important in question 1b and in some cases examiners were surprised with the choices made in this regard (for example, writing about a film in 1a and a magazine in 1b). Some made a brave stab at applying the theory to print based texts, but tended to fall back more on semiotics or genre.
Whilst there is no reason why a magazine or a website cannot be a rich text for narrative theory, it would seem more straightforward at A2 level for candidates to make use of the plethora of theories of film narrative at both micro (edits and continuity decisions) and macro (storytelling and culture) levels.
Many candidates were able to accurately reference narrative theories – Propp and Todorov, Barthes, Levi-Strauss and Mulvey were well described, with some very strong analyses of radio news work and of film trailers and openings.
Level 4 answers were those that successfully related these theories to elements of candidates’ own texts.
Weak answers were often just an account of “how we made it” but stronger answers were able to apply some critical distance. In some cases there was even too much theory (with unsupported references to Fiske and Adorno) with little, if any, analysis of their own (in cases not yet completed) coursework.
Once again, time management was a factor and it is crucial that candidates devote the same total time to section A as to B as both sections carry equal marks.
Media in the Online Age – Look at the recent debates between Jenkins, Buckingham and Gauntlett – all of which are free and accessible online, in the context of claims made by the likes of Gillmor, Leadbetter, Wesch and Shirkey – for a more academic approach to the difference the internet has made to media.
A lot of the answers were a set of opinions and ‘everyday’ observations about iTunes, piracy and social media, but in some cases some sustained case study work on music was well supported with a range of examples.
For this topic in particular, candidates would be well advised to ‘audit’ their answers to consider how much of them could have been written by a person with a keen interest in media but without the knowledge and understanding from an A Level course in the subject.
Question 1b
Coming from a 'critical position'-looking at your work with fresh, critical, reflective eyes. One production that you have prepared in advance ( I suggest your film work)
Analyse the finished text, not the process, that is for question 1a.
You can not hope to achieve well in this if you don't prepare the following before the exam:
1. Analyse your finished text in terms of all five concepts
2. Apply theory to your examples
3. Practice timed essays - would you take your driving test without any driving lessons?
Analyse the finished text, not the process, that is for question 1a.
You can not hope to achieve well in this if you don't prepare the following before the exam:
1. Analyse your finished text in terms of all five concepts
2. Apply theory to your examples
3. Practice timed essays - would you take your driving test without any driving lessons?
Genre
in terms of style, a set of expectations and as content
2 critics from
Narrative
in terms of structure, cause/effect and time/space
2 critics from
Media Language
what signs, semiotics does you product use? how does your text use the language of the medium
critics
Representation
identity, stereotypes and subversions, genre expectations
2 critics from
Audience
target, pleasure, reading, fans and active responses
Read this article first to decide which critic you agree with 2 critics from
Laura Mulvey Richard Dyer (1986) writes about the fandom and the star system and Steve Neale (1983) contradict Mulvey, Jenkins ( hegemony and shared cultural community).
reception theory, Hall: encoding/decoding.
Monday, 6 June 2011
2 hour exam
Remember, 100 marks available.
Spend 30 mins on the 25 marks Theoretical evaluation questions.
1 hour on the Online age question.
1a: Skills development in terms of one or two of the following using all of your production work as evidence (& anything else you have done)
research and planning- what & where you researched(internet & focus groups) & how you recorded it (blogs using software).
digital technology use- hardware, software & online & how they interlink
post-production- editing, manipulation & using digital tech to achieve this
use of real media conventions-texts you researched & how you appropriated or challenged their conventions.
creativity-where your ideas came from, how they developed maybe because of tech or creativity issues.
write about all of your production work (& anything else you have done)
There will be cross overs across these definitions.
1b: write about just one of your productions in terms of one specified concept
To prepare analyse all of your productions as though it were a real media product & someone else has created it. You may like to help each other and do a textual analysis for each other.
You should already have this done on your blog.
Audience-targeting, consumption, reading (eg reception theory Stuart Hall, Chomsky)
Narrative- how stories are told (eg equilibrium theory Todorov
Genre- how do we categorise artefacts (eg click here )
Representation- how demographics are presented back to us, what messages have you implied? (eg feminist theory- young female victim- Linda Williams, Laura Mulvey- the male gaze, Gauntlett)
Media Language- codes and conventions, semiotics and signs ( Roland Barthes)
thes)
- Tips for Online Age 50 marks (20 explanation, argument & analysis, 20 examples, 10 terminology)
- You must include past, present & future of your chosen area.
- Use at least two case studies & theory to support your points
- Identify what the questions are about & choose the one you are confident with
- make a plan- include: media areas, theories, arguments, past, present future.
- intro- short and simple
- case study 1, past, present, future, theory- do you agree or not?
- case study 2 past, present, future, theory- do you agree or not?
- conclusion - after every paragraph, think, does this answer the question? Try using the words of the question in your response but particularly in your conclusion to ensure you stay on task
How to do an exam answer
These were the questions in January, so obviously the June exam will not feature the same ones (!) but the general principles which I shall explain here will still apply.
The first steps for these two questions is to read the instructions! You also need to consider the number of marks available relative to the time for the exam as a whole. It's two hours long and worth 100 marks, so a 25 mark question should be completed in a quarter of that time (30 minutes). that's how long you should devote to each of these questions. If you prefer to do Section B (the 50 mark question) first, that's fine- you can answer questions in any order. Just make sure you do answer all three and you devote the right amount of time to each.
So in terms of instruction, the main things to note here are that for 1a you write about ALL of your work across the course (and you can write about anything else you might have made on other courses or in your spare time too!) and for 1b you just write about ONE of your productions. Try not to overlap too much, so that each answer is different.
1a is entirely concerned about skills development, but the area that comes up will be quite specific. So as you can see, in January, it was about development of skills in research and planning; the other areas which can come up are skills in:
digital technology use
post-production
use of real media conventions
creativity
It is possible that a question might refer to two of these categories, so be prepared to talk about any/all of them!
a few tips on what they mean:
digital technology refers to hardware, software and online technology, so the cameras, the computers, the packages you used and the programs online that you have worked with. It is worth considering how all this inter-links.
post-production would actually fall under digital technology as well, so if that comes up it would probably represent an expansion of points you'd make in one section of digital technology. It is really about everything you do after constructing the raw materials for your production; so once you have taken photos and written text, how do you manipulate it all in photoshop or desktop publishing for a print product or once you have shot your video, what do you do to it in editing.
research refers to looking at real media and audiences to inform your thinking about a media production and also how you record all that research; planning refers to all the creative and logistical thinking and all the organisation that goes on in putting the production together so that everything works and again gives you the chance to write about how you kept records of it.
Creativity is the hardest one in many ways because it involves thinking about what the creative process might mean. Wikipedia describes it as "a mental process involving the discovery of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the existing ideas or concepts, fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight." For your projects it might involve considering where ideas came from, how you worked collaboratively to share ideas, how you changed things or even how you used tools like the programs to achieve something imaginative.
Use of real media conventions involves consideration of other texts that you looked at and how skilfully you were able to weave their conventions into your work or ways in which you might have challenged them.
You will notice that most of the above were areas that you covered in the evaluation task at the end of each of your productions. This time, you are putting together ideas from evaluations and standing a bit further back to look across your production work and reflecting on how you developed across the course. You should feel free to acknowledge weaknesses and to reflect upon how you learned from them and how you overcame problems. It is not a place to be defensive about your work but to really reflect on it!
so how would you organise an answer?
paragraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short.
paragraph 2 should pick up the skill area and perhaps suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. use an example.
paragraph 3 should talk through your use of that skill in early projects and what you learned and developed through these. again there should be examples to support all that you say.
paragraph 4 should go on to demonstrate how the skill developed in later projects, again backed by examples, and reflecting back on how this represents moves forward for you from your early position.
paragraph 5 short conclusion
Remember it's only half an hour and you need to range across all your work!
Question 1b
I like to think of this question as being about moving a couple of steps away from your production work and imagining you are someone else looking at it for the first time. How would you analyse this music video, this magazine or whatever? Imagine you didn't make it but that it is a real media production.
Again the question will specify an area/concept for you to apply. The areas that could come up are:
Audience
Narrative
Genre
Representation
Media Language
For each area there are theories or ideas which your teachers will have introduced you to which you need to know a bit about and then you have to apply those ideas to ONE of your productions and analyse it accordingly. Decide in advance which piece you will write about and make sure that whatever the concept, you can actually do it. Again, here is a bit of a breakdown of what the five concepts might involve.
Audience can refer to how media products target audiences, which audiences actually consume media products, but most interestingly how media audiences actually read or make sense of media products and what they might do with them. There is a lot of interesting material on all this and you should certainly be familiar with some of it.
Genre is all about the ways in which we categorise media texts. Whatever you have made will in some way relate to other examples of the same genre, whether it be in print, audio, video or online. Again a lot of different media critics have written their own 'take' on genre and this would be useful to apply to your work.
Narrative is about how stories are told. Applying different models of narrative structure to your work may reveal unconscious things that you did in the way you have constructed it. Again a familiarity with some of these models or theories will be helpful in the exam.
Media Language is probably the most open one if it comes up, because it allows you to talk about the other areas as well (genre, narrative, audience) as it is about the techniques and conventions of different forms of media (how shots are organised in film, how text is laid out on a page).
Finally, representation particularly focuses on the ways in which particular social groups are presented back to us by the media. So in your case how have you portrayed young people or females or males in your work? what messages are implied in what you have constructed and what would particular types of criticism (e.g. feminism) make of it?
so again, how do we write about this in half an hour?
para 1 Intro: which of your projects are you going to write about? briefly describe it
para 2: what are some of the key features of the concept you are being asked to apply? maybe outline some of the theories briefly
para 3; start to apply the concept, making close reference to your production
para 4: try to show ways in which ideas work in relation to your production and also ways in which those ideas might not apply/could be challenged
para 5; conclusion
The first steps for these two questions is to read the instructions! You also need to consider the number of marks available relative to the time for the exam as a whole. It's two hours long and worth 100 marks, so a 25 mark question should be completed in a quarter of that time (30 minutes). that's how long you should devote to each of these questions. If you prefer to do Section B (the 50 mark question) first, that's fine- you can answer questions in any order. Just make sure you do answer all three and you devote the right amount of time to each.
So in terms of instruction, the main things to note here are that for 1a you write about ALL of your work across the course (and you can write about anything else you might have made on other courses or in your spare time too!) and for 1b you just write about ONE of your productions. Try not to overlap too much, so that each answer is different.
1a is entirely concerned about skills development, but the area that comes up will be quite specific. So as you can see, in January, it was about development of skills in research and planning; the other areas which can come up are skills in:
digital technology use
post-production
use of real media conventions
creativity
It is possible that a question might refer to two of these categories, so be prepared to talk about any/all of them!
a few tips on what they mean:
digital technology refers to hardware, software and online technology, so the cameras, the computers, the packages you used and the programs online that you have worked with. It is worth considering how all this inter-links.
post-production would actually fall under digital technology as well, so if that comes up it would probably represent an expansion of points you'd make in one section of digital technology. It is really about everything you do after constructing the raw materials for your production; so once you have taken photos and written text, how do you manipulate it all in photoshop or desktop publishing for a print product or once you have shot your video, what do you do to it in editing.
research refers to looking at real media and audiences to inform your thinking about a media production and also how you record all that research; planning refers to all the creative and logistical thinking and all the organisation that goes on in putting the production together so that everything works and again gives you the chance to write about how you kept records of it.
Creativity is the hardest one in many ways because it involves thinking about what the creative process might mean. Wikipedia describes it as "a mental process involving the discovery of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the existing ideas or concepts, fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight." For your projects it might involve considering where ideas came from, how you worked collaboratively to share ideas, how you changed things or even how you used tools like the programs to achieve something imaginative.
Use of real media conventions involves consideration of other texts that you looked at and how skilfully you were able to weave their conventions into your work or ways in which you might have challenged them.
You will notice that most of the above were areas that you covered in the evaluation task at the end of each of your productions. This time, you are putting together ideas from evaluations and standing a bit further back to look across your production work and reflecting on how you developed across the course. You should feel free to acknowledge weaknesses and to reflect upon how you learned from them and how you overcame problems. It is not a place to be defensive about your work but to really reflect on it!
so how would you organise an answer?
paragraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short.
paragraph 2 should pick up the skill area and perhaps suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. use an example.
paragraph 3 should talk through your use of that skill in early projects and what you learned and developed through these. again there should be examples to support all that you say.
paragraph 4 should go on to demonstrate how the skill developed in later projects, again backed by examples, and reflecting back on how this represents moves forward for you from your early position.
paragraph 5 short conclusion
Remember it's only half an hour and you need to range across all your work!
Question 1b
I like to think of this question as being about moving a couple of steps away from your production work and imagining you are someone else looking at it for the first time. How would you analyse this music video, this magazine or whatever? Imagine you didn't make it but that it is a real media production.
Again the question will specify an area/concept for you to apply. The areas that could come up are:
Audience
Narrative
Genre
Representation
Media Language
For each area there are theories or ideas which your teachers will have introduced you to which you need to know a bit about and then you have to apply those ideas to ONE of your productions and analyse it accordingly. Decide in advance which piece you will write about and make sure that whatever the concept, you can actually do it. Again, here is a bit of a breakdown of what the five concepts might involve.
Audience can refer to how media products target audiences, which audiences actually consume media products, but most interestingly how media audiences actually read or make sense of media products and what they might do with them. There is a lot of interesting material on all this and you should certainly be familiar with some of it.
Genre is all about the ways in which we categorise media texts. Whatever you have made will in some way relate to other examples of the same genre, whether it be in print, audio, video or online. Again a lot of different media critics have written their own 'take' on genre and this would be useful to apply to your work.
Narrative is about how stories are told. Applying different models of narrative structure to your work may reveal unconscious things that you did in the way you have constructed it. Again a familiarity with some of these models or theories will be helpful in the exam.
Media Language is probably the most open one if it comes up, because it allows you to talk about the other areas as well (genre, narrative, audience) as it is about the techniques and conventions of different forms of media (how shots are organised in film, how text is laid out on a page).
Finally, representation particularly focuses on the ways in which particular social groups are presented back to us by the media. So in your case how have you portrayed young people or females or males in your work? what messages are implied in what you have constructed and what would particular types of criticism (e.g. feminism) make of it?
so again, how do we write about this in half an hour?
para 1 Intro: which of your projects are you going to write about? briefly describe it
para 2: what are some of the key features of the concept you are being asked to apply? maybe outline some of the theories briefly
para 3; start to apply the concept, making close reference to your production
para 4: try to show ways in which ideas work in relation to your production and also ways in which those ideas might not apply/could be challenged
para 5; conclusion
Wednesday, 25 May 2011
Wednesday Question 1b
Here are all the questions which have been set in previous sessions:
Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre
Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
You will notice that each of these questions is quite short and fits a common formula. You can be assured that the same thing will apply this summer. You will be asked to apply ONE concept to one of your productions. This is a quite different task from question 1a, where you write about all of your work and your skills, as this one involves some reference to theory and only the one piece of work, as well as asking you to step back from it and think about it almost as if someone else had made it- what is known as ‘critical distance’.
There are five possible concepts which can come up
Representation
Genre
Narrative
Audience
Media Language
If you look through those questions above, you will see that the first three have all already come up, but don’t be fooled into thinking that means that it must be one of the other two this time- exams don’t always work that predictably! It would be far too risky just to bank on that happening and not prepare for the others! In any case, preparing for them all will help you understand things better and there are areas of overlap which you can use across the concepts.
So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff? First of all, you need to decide which project you would be most confident analysing in the exam. I believe that any of the five can be applied to moving image work, so if you did a film opening at AS, a music video, short film or trailer at A2, that would be the safest choice. Print work is more tricky to write about in relation to narrative, but the other four areas would all work well for it, so it is up to you, but to be honest, I’d prepare in advance of the exam as you don’t want to be deciding what to use during your precious half hour! What you certainly need is a copy of the project itself to look at as part of your revision, to remind yourself in detail of how it works.
Representation
If you take a video you have made for your coursework, you will almost certainly have people in it. If the topic is representation, then your task is to look at how those representations work in your video. You could apply some of the ideas used in the AS TV Drama exam here- how does your video construct a representation of gender, ethnicity or age for example? You need also to refer to some critics who have written about representation or theories of media representation and attempt to apply those (or argue with them). So who could you use? Interesting writers on representation and identity include Richard Dyer, Angela McRobbie and David Gauntlett. See what they say...
Genre
If you’ve made a music magazine at AS level, an analysis of the magazine would need to set it in relation to the forms and conventions shown in such magazines, particularly for specific types of music. But it would not simply comprise a list of those conventions. There are a whole host of theories of genre and writers with different approaches. Some of it could be used to inform your writing about your production piece. Some you could try are: Altman, Grant and Neale- all are cited in the wikipedia page here
Narrative
A film opening or trailer will be ideal for this, as they both depend upon ideas about narrative in order to function. An opening must set up some of the issues that the rest of the film’s narrative will deal with, but must not give too much away, since it is only an opening and you would want the audience to carry on watching! Likewise a trailer must draw upon some elements of the film’s imaginary complete narrative in order to entice the viewer to watch it, again without giving too much away. If you made a short film, you will have been capturing a complete narrative, which gives you something complete to analyse. If you did a music video, the chances are that it was more performance based, maybe interspersed with some fragments of narrative. In all these cases, there is enough about narrative in the product to make it worth analysis. The chances are you have been introduced to a number of theories about narrative, but just in case, here’s a link to a PDF by Andrea Joyce, which summarises four of them, including Propp and Todorov.
Audience
Every media product has to have an audience, otherwise in both a business sense and probably an artistic sense too it would be judged a failure. In your projects, you will undoubtedly have been looking at the idea of a target audience- who you are aiming it at and why; you should also have taken feedback from a real audience in some way at the end of the project for your digital evaluation, which involves finding out how the audience really ‘read’ what you had made. You were also asked at AS to consider how your product addressed your audience- what was it about it that particularly worked to ‘speak’ to them? All this is effectively linked to audience theory which you then need to reference and apply.
Media Language
A lot of people have assumed this is going to be the most difficult concept to apply, but I don’t think it need be. If you think back to the AS TV Drama exam, when you had to look at the technical codes and how they operate, that was an exercise in applying media language analysis, so for the A2 exam if this one comes up, I’d see it as pretty similar. For moving image, the language of film and television is defined by how camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene create meaning. Likewise an analysis of print work would involve looking at how fonts, layout, combinations of text and image as well as the actual words chosen creates meaning. Useful theory here might be Roland Barthes on semiotics- denotation and connotation and for moving image work Bordwelland Thompson
So what do you do in the exam?
You need to state which project you are using and briefly describe it
You then need to analyse it using whichever concept appears in the question, making reference to relevant theory throughout
Keep being specific in your use of examples from the project
Here is a link to a good answer to q1a and 1b from the January session.
Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre
Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
You will notice that each of these questions is quite short and fits a common formula. You can be assured that the same thing will apply this summer. You will be asked to apply ONE concept to one of your productions. This is a quite different task from question 1a, where you write about all of your work and your skills, as this one involves some reference to theory and only the one piece of work, as well as asking you to step back from it and think about it almost as if someone else had made it- what is known as ‘critical distance’.
There are five possible concepts which can come up
Representation
Genre
Narrative
Audience
Media Language
If you look through those questions above, you will see that the first three have all already come up, but don’t be fooled into thinking that means that it must be one of the other two this time- exams don’t always work that predictably! It would be far too risky just to bank on that happening and not prepare for the others! In any case, preparing for them all will help you understand things better and there are areas of overlap which you can use across the concepts.
So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff? First of all, you need to decide which project you would be most confident analysing in the exam. I believe that any of the five can be applied to moving image work, so if you did a film opening at AS, a music video, short film or trailer at A2, that would be the safest choice. Print work is more tricky to write about in relation to narrative, but the other four areas would all work well for it, so it is up to you, but to be honest, I’d prepare in advance of the exam as you don’t want to be deciding what to use during your precious half hour! What you certainly need is a copy of the project itself to look at as part of your revision, to remind yourself in detail of how it works.
Representation
If you take a video you have made for your coursework, you will almost certainly have people in it. If the topic is representation, then your task is to look at how those representations work in your video. You could apply some of the ideas used in the AS TV Drama exam here- how does your video construct a representation of gender, ethnicity or age for example? You need also to refer to some critics who have written about representation or theories of media representation and attempt to apply those (or argue with them). So who could you use? Interesting writers on representation and identity include Richard Dyer, Angela McRobbie and David Gauntlett. See what they say...
Genre
If you’ve made a music magazine at AS level, an analysis of the magazine would need to set it in relation to the forms and conventions shown in such magazines, particularly for specific types of music. But it would not simply comprise a list of those conventions. There are a whole host of theories of genre and writers with different approaches. Some of it could be used to inform your writing about your production piece. Some you could try are: Altman, Grant and Neale- all are cited in the wikipedia page here
Narrative
A film opening or trailer will be ideal for this, as they both depend upon ideas about narrative in order to function. An opening must set up some of the issues that the rest of the film’s narrative will deal with, but must not give too much away, since it is only an opening and you would want the audience to carry on watching! Likewise a trailer must draw upon some elements of the film’s imaginary complete narrative in order to entice the viewer to watch it, again without giving too much away. If you made a short film, you will have been capturing a complete narrative, which gives you something complete to analyse. If you did a music video, the chances are that it was more performance based, maybe interspersed with some fragments of narrative. In all these cases, there is enough about narrative in the product to make it worth analysis. The chances are you have been introduced to a number of theories about narrative, but just in case, here’s a link to a PDF by Andrea Joyce, which summarises four of them, including Propp and Todorov.
Audience
Every media product has to have an audience, otherwise in both a business sense and probably an artistic sense too it would be judged a failure. In your projects, you will undoubtedly have been looking at the idea of a target audience- who you are aiming it at and why; you should also have taken feedback from a real audience in some way at the end of the project for your digital evaluation, which involves finding out how the audience really ‘read’ what you had made. You were also asked at AS to consider how your product addressed your audience- what was it about it that particularly worked to ‘speak’ to them? All this is effectively linked to audience theory which you then need to reference and apply.
Media Language
A lot of people have assumed this is going to be the most difficult concept to apply, but I don’t think it need be. If you think back to the AS TV Drama exam, when you had to look at the technical codes and how they operate, that was an exercise in applying media language analysis, so for the A2 exam if this one comes up, I’d see it as pretty similar. For moving image, the language of film and television is defined by how camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene create meaning. Likewise an analysis of print work would involve looking at how fonts, layout, combinations of text and image as well as the actual words chosen creates meaning. Useful theory here might be Roland Barthes on semiotics- denotation and connotation and for moving image work Bordwelland Thompson
So what do you do in the exam?
You need to state which project you are using and briefly describe it
You then need to analyse it using whichever concept appears in the question, making reference to relevant theory throughout
Keep being specific in your use of examples from the project
Here is a link to a good answer to q1a and 1b from the January session.
Monday, 23 May 2011
Tuesday
Ok here are ALL previous questions for each element, from the exams in Jan and June 2010 and Jan 2011:
1a
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.
Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.
Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
1b
Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre.
Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
Section B
Online Media
“The impact of the internet on the media is revolutionary”. Discuss.
“For media audiences, the internet has changed everything.” Discuss
“The impact of the internet on the media is exaggerated”. Discuss.
Discuss the extent to which the distribution and consumption of media have been transformed by the internet.
Explain the extent to which online media exist alongside older methods of distribution in 2010.
Evaluate the opportunities and the threats offered to media producers by the internet.
escribe 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.
Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.
Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
You will notice that each of these begins by asking you to 'describe' and then goes on to ask you to reflect in some way: "evaluate", "how you used" "how your skills developed". herein lies the key to this part of the exam! You only have half an hour for the question and you really need to make the most of that time by quickly moving from description (so the reader knows what you did) to analysis/evaluation/reflection, so he/she starts to understand what you learnt from it.
there are five possible areas which can come up
Digital technology
Research and Planning
Conventions of Real Media
Post-Production
Creativity.
If you look through those questions above, you will see that they all contain at least two of the five- creativity is mentioned (as 'creative decision making') in two of them alongside the main area (digital technology on one, research and planning skills in the other). In the third of those past questions , research is combined with conventions of real media. So as you can see, the question is likely to mix and match the five, so you HAVE to be able to think on your feet and answer the question that is there.
So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff? I would suggest that you begin by setting out, on cards or post-its, a list of answers to these questions:
What production activities have you done?
This should include both the main task and preliminary task from AS and the main and ancillaries at A2 plus any non-assessed activities you have done as practice, and additionally anything you have done outside the course which you might want to refer to, such as films made for other courses or skateboard videos made with your mates if you think you can make them relevant to your answer.
What digital technology have you used?
This should not be too hard- include hardware (cameras, phones for pictures/audio, computers and anything else you used) software (on your computer) and online programs, such as blogger, youtube etc
In what ways can the work you have done be described as creative?
This is a difficult question and one that does not have a correct answer as such, but ought to give you food for thought.
What different forms of research did you do?
Again you will need to include a variety of examples- institutional research (such as on how titles work in film openings), audience research (before you made your products and after you finished for feedback), research into conventions of media texts (layout, fonts, camera shots, soundtracks, everything!) and finally logistical research- recce shots of your locations, research into costume, actors, etc
What conventions of real media did you need to know about?
For this, it is worth making a list for each project you have worked on and categorising them by medium so that you don’t repeat yourself
What do you understand by ‘post-production’ in your work?
This one, I’ll answer for you- for the purpose of this exam, it is defined as everything after planning and shooting or live recording. In other words, the stage of your work where you manipulated your raw material on the computer, maybe using photoshop, a video editing program or desktop publishing.
For each of these lists, your next stage is to produce a set of examples- so that when you make the point in the exam, you can then back it up with a concrete example. You need to be able to talk about specific things you did in post-production and why they were significant, just as you need to do more than just say ‘I looked on youtube’ for conventions of real media, but actually name specific videos you looked at, what you gained from them and how they influenced your work.
This question will be very much about looking at your skills development over time, the process which brought about this progress, most if not all the projects you worked on from that list above, and about reflection on how how you as a media student have developed. Unusually, this is an exam which rewards you for talking about yourself and the work you have done!
Final tips: you need some practice- this is very hard to do without it! I’d have a crack at trying to write an essay on each of the areas, or at the very least doing a detailed plan with lots of examples. The fact that it is a 30 minute essay makes it very unusual, so you need to be able to tailor your writing to that length- a tough task!
1a
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.
Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.
Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
1b
Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre.
Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
Section B
Online Media
“The impact of the internet on the media is revolutionary”. Discuss.
“For media audiences, the internet has changed everything.” Discuss
“The impact of the internet on the media is exaggerated”. Discuss.
Discuss the extent to which the distribution and consumption of media have been transformed by the internet.
Explain the extent to which online media exist alongside older methods of distribution in 2010.
Evaluate the opportunities and the threats offered to media producers by the internet.
escribe 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.
Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.
Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
You will notice that each of these begins by asking you to 'describe' and then goes on to ask you to reflect in some way: "evaluate", "how you used" "how your skills developed". herein lies the key to this part of the exam! You only have half an hour for the question and you really need to make the most of that time by quickly moving from description (so the reader knows what you did) to analysis/evaluation/reflection, so he/she starts to understand what you learnt from it.
there are five possible areas which can come up
Digital technology
Research and Planning
Conventions of Real Media
Post-Production
Creativity.
If you look through those questions above, you will see that they all contain at least two of the five- creativity is mentioned (as 'creative decision making') in two of them alongside the main area (digital technology on one, research and planning skills in the other). In the third of those past questions , research is combined with conventions of real media. So as you can see, the question is likely to mix and match the five, so you HAVE to be able to think on your feet and answer the question that is there.
So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff? I would suggest that you begin by setting out, on cards or post-its, a list of answers to these questions:
What production activities have you done?
This should include both the main task and preliminary task from AS and the main and ancillaries at A2 plus any non-assessed activities you have done as practice, and additionally anything you have done outside the course which you might want to refer to, such as films made for other courses or skateboard videos made with your mates if you think you can make them relevant to your answer.
What digital technology have you used?
This should not be too hard- include hardware (cameras, phones for pictures/audio, computers and anything else you used) software (on your computer) and online programs, such as blogger, youtube etc
In what ways can the work you have done be described as creative?
This is a difficult question and one that does not have a correct answer as such, but ought to give you food for thought.
What different forms of research did you do?
Again you will need to include a variety of examples- institutional research (such as on how titles work in film openings), audience research (before you made your products and after you finished for feedback), research into conventions of media texts (layout, fonts, camera shots, soundtracks, everything!) and finally logistical research- recce shots of your locations, research into costume, actors, etc
What conventions of real media did you need to know about?
For this, it is worth making a list for each project you have worked on and categorising them by medium so that you don’t repeat yourself
What do you understand by ‘post-production’ in your work?
This one, I’ll answer for you- for the purpose of this exam, it is defined as everything after planning and shooting or live recording. In other words, the stage of your work where you manipulated your raw material on the computer, maybe using photoshop, a video editing program or desktop publishing.
For each of these lists, your next stage is to produce a set of examples- so that when you make the point in the exam, you can then back it up with a concrete example. You need to be able to talk about specific things you did in post-production and why they were significant, just as you need to do more than just say ‘I looked on youtube’ for conventions of real media, but actually name specific videos you looked at, what you gained from them and how they influenced your work.
This question will be very much about looking at your skills development over time, the process which brought about this progress, most if not all the projects you worked on from that list above, and about reflection on how how you as a media student have developed. Unusually, this is an exam which rewards you for talking about yourself and the work you have done!
Final tips: you need some practice- this is very hard to do without it! I’d have a crack at trying to write an essay on each of the areas, or at the very least doing a detailed plan with lots of examples. The fact that it is a 30 minute essay makes it very unusual, so you need to be able to tailor your writing to that length- a tough task!
Monday
I came in today but wasn't well enough to stay I'm afraid.
I will try my best to come in tomorrow morning for you. I understand some of you are getting a bit anxious. Please try not to. Everything I have put on the blog is exactly what I would have done with you. We have covered everything on the syllabus and all we are doing now is revision. Fingers crossed I should be fully recovered after half term so I will do some extra revision lessons for you while you are on study leave. They can be for a whole morning or afternoon as I won't have Year 12 or 11 lessons timetabled.
Keep doing the timed essays, I am marking them as much as I can. The ones I have had from you have been excellent. You are very well prepared and all you need now is to practice writing at speed, including up to date examples and reference to theorists. We have covered enough theorists to support you in your essays.
The big issue that I would have discussed with you today is this one How parliamentary law needs to catch up with online media developments ie the Twitter V super injunctions row.
You should research this issue further and answer the question
'How have online media affected society and the institutions of news provision, music and film'.
Once again, don't panic!! All being well I will see you tomorrow.
I will try my best to come in tomorrow morning for you. I understand some of you are getting a bit anxious. Please try not to. Everything I have put on the blog is exactly what I would have done with you. We have covered everything on the syllabus and all we are doing now is revision. Fingers crossed I should be fully recovered after half term so I will do some extra revision lessons for you while you are on study leave. They can be for a whole morning or afternoon as I won't have Year 12 or 11 lessons timetabled.
Keep doing the timed essays, I am marking them as much as I can. The ones I have had from you have been excellent. You are very well prepared and all you need now is to practice writing at speed, including up to date examples and reference to theorists. We have covered enough theorists to support you in your essays.
The big issue that I would have discussed with you today is this one How parliamentary law needs to catch up with online media developments ie the Twitter V super injunctions row.
You should research this issue further and answer the question
'How have online media affected society and the institutions of news provision, music and film'.
Once again, don't panic!! All being well I will see you tomorrow.
Friday, 20 May 2011
Work for Friday and the weekend
Remember you should be following the revision timetable I gave you, so by now, you should have gone through all of your notes and summarisied them.
For Online media you should have them in topic form and you should have up to date examplles and quotes from theorists for each one.
For Critical perspectives you should have filled out those A3 sheets you got months ago (there are copies on the blog if you have mislaid them) and you should have notes, examples and theory about each of your productions in terms of:
genre
audience
language
representation
and narrative
you should also have notes on production practices from this list:
digital technology
creativity
research & plannin
post-production and using conventions of real media products
Another up to date theorist is Aleks Krotoski.
She has written some excellent article in the Guardian recently. Click here
In todays lesson I would like you to read these and take down some quotes that you could use to support your points in your essays.
All being well I should be back in school on Monday and will be very interested to see what you have been doing.
Essay of the week comes from Holly. A really good example of theory and up to date examples.
Monday, 16 May 2011
Work for this week
Hello, so sorry not to be with you last week. I had an accident last weekend and sustained concussion which has made me feel really ill. I hope to be back in school on Friday. So in the meantime you need to keep an eye on the blogs and get on with preparing timed essays. You can email them to me and I will try and return them as soon as is possible. Still have had no responses from some of you. Use the revision plan pamphlet that I gave to you some weeks ago to ensure you are on task.
A couple of points, Lily, Melania and Brooke, you all need to put your candidate number in the title of your blog. Lily, you need to upload a larger version of your video to you tube as the font on the version you have is all fuzzy.
Everyone else, please check this link to ensure that your blog is the correct version as this is the hub that is being sent to the examiner.
Now that everyones advanced portfolios are completed, well done.
This would be a good time to start preparing for the Critical Perspectives exam.
Read this article from Long road.
Make notes on it and incorporate your own knowledge of audience, using Gauntlett, Jenkins and Hall to answer the following question.
'What impact did your understanding of the theory of audience have on one of your productions?'
Tomorrow you should focus on Narrative and use this document to provide the theory back up.
Answer this question
'How important is narrative in creating a media product? Answer with close reference to one or more of your productions'.
Friday, 6 May 2011
Exam advice from Principal examiner
1. Divide your time sensibly. 1a &b 1/2 hour each, one hour for section B.
2. 1a is all about you, 1b is all about the work.
Both are about applying theory to practical work and the creative process.
3. Prepare to write about all of the concepts and all of your productions so you can respond to the question set.
Examples are crucial. Decide which eg you will use in 1b and apply your theory to it.
4. Section B is about a deep understanding of a complicated media issue. Make sure you answer the question that is actually set.
5. You need lots of reading, lots of your own examples and a clear balanced argument, plus make connections.
6. Most of your egs should be from the last 5 years, theory may be older than that.
2. 1a is all about you, 1b is all about the work.
Both are about applying theory to practical work and the creative process.
3. Prepare to write about all of the concepts and all of your productions so you can respond to the question set.
Examples are crucial. Decide which eg you will use in 1b and apply your theory to it.
4. Section B is about a deep understanding of a complicated media issue. Make sure you answer the question that is actually set.
5. You need lots of reading, lots of your own examples and a clear balanced argument, plus make connections.
6. Most of your egs should be from the last 5 years, theory may be older than that.
Thursday, 7 April 2011
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