1. G325 NOTES
(2 hours)
SECTION A (1 hour)
Two questions – 30 minutes each (sample answer about 1200 words for both = 600
words each)
Q1a: Needs to refer to both AS and A2 productions (including Preliminary and
Ancillary if appropriate). Answer would focus on 1 or 2 of the following, depending on
the exam question:
Digital Technology
Creativity
Research and Planning
Post-production
Generic Conventions
Q1b: Select one production and evaluate from viewpoint of theme specified in exam
question – will be one of the following:
Genre
Narrative
Representation
Audience
Media Language
(Production selected will be the most appropriate for the question, so need to be
ready to answer on any of them.)

2. Question 1a
You need to refer to at least two of your productions, covering both AS and A2.
(NB: A number of these topics will overlap)
One question or approach that will apply to all topics: What did you learn during you AS
production that benefited you at A2?
Digital Technology
Software / hardware used during production (computers, DTP packages,
camcorders, still cameras, video editing packages, manipulation of images, blogs,
Powerpoint presentations etc) – how and why they were used, ease of producing
media texts using digital equipment as opposed to analogue, but also limitations
(where applicable), development of skill and/or sophistication from Preliminary tasks
to Advanced Portfolio productions etc.
Creativity
Looking at imaginative content of productions – could be page design, use and
manipulation of images for effect, producing a media text that is perhaps a bit
‘different’ (or that is an excellent example of its type), how your ideas were translated
into the final text, perhaps how improved knowledge and experience of digital
technology enabled you to realise your ideas better in your later productions. Use of
music, sound or special effects, striking images etc.
Research and Planning
Different approaches to research and planning from AS to A2 (or similar, depending).
Use of blogs, Powerpoint etc. Level of detail. Use of questionnaires / feedback and
its effect on planning and development. Techniques used – draft layouts,
storyboards, draft versions, reviewing the production at different stages (and possibly
including it in blog or Powerpoint etc).
Post-production
Examiners have taken post production to mean everything after the shoot/gathering
or drafting of articles- so, for example, as soon as students commit to a DTP
package for print work it is all the equivalent of post production. Can also mean work
done in ancillary packages at A2 – promotional material.
Generic Conventions
How productions use or challenge generic conventions – comparisons or parallels to
real media texts, which conventions being used, how effectively, etc

3. Question 1b
Refer to one production, from either AS or A2 – select the one that best suits the topic in the
question. Will need theoretical input here.
Genre
Same elements as in 1a, but will not come up in the same exam. Will have to focus
on a single production, though. This will go further into the theories behind Genre –
how is a generic text marketed or promoted, perhaps, or how important is it that a
text fits neatly into a genre
Narrative
What story is the production telling and how? More straightforward for opening
sequence of a film, less so for other productions. Can be summed up by ‘Every
picture tells a story’ approach for other media – what is an image or media text telling
you about its subject – connotations, representations, inferred meanings, cultural
references etc. Examples: what is a music magazine telling us about the featured
music, its artists, fans etc; what is a local newspaper telling us about its community,
local opinions / attitudes etc.
Representation
Representation of people, locations, gender, ethnicity etc. Could be representation of
female / male artist in music video, a social group in a video production or artists /
fans within a particular style of music for a magazine etc – are conventional
stereotypes being challenged or confirmed and why?
Audience
Extent to which a production targets a specific audience, use of feedback from
potential audience during planning and research, also feedback on completed
products, how audience targeted, etc
Media Language
Artistic, stylistic or generic techniques used in production, intentions and effects of
these (not necessarily the same thing), iconography, use of conventions (challenging
or confirming), use of connotations to create or add to meaning (e.g. why use a
particular colour or combinations of colour in a production, use of b/w in a video
production, choice of words in a newspaper headline – looking in depth at camera /
editing techniques, use of images, effects generated etc)
Email response from an examiner on Media Language
There is a key difference between medium-specific language - ie the language of television,
the language of film, the language of social media even, and broader concepts like genre
which can be used across media or within a media but within a boundary (eg TV sitcom).
So to give an example, say a student has produced a film thriller sequence.
If asked about representation they focus on who + what is represented in relation to theories
of representation.
For genre. they discuss the conventions of film thrillers in relation to their own work and to
genre theories.
For media language, they discuss the way their sequence operates within 'the language of
film' which might indeed involve discussion of representation and the conventions of a
genre, but might focus much more on the grammar of the edit, cinematography, diegesis at
the broader level of FILM AS A MEDIUM.