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
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