OCR Media

1. L.O: To be able to evaluate how your
skills have progressed from AS to A2
Digital Technology

2. L.O: To be able to evaluate how your
skills have progressed from AS to A2
Digital Technology
Starter:
Write a list of all the different digital technology
that you have used at both AS and A2

3. Digital Technology
Next to your list write down 1 example of how
you have specifically used it at AS and A2.
Photoshop AS – We had to create a
magazine front cover,
contents page and two-
page spread.
A2 – we used Photoshop
again to create another
magazine front cover
and a poster for our
movie.

4. Digital Technology
Digital technologies have had a massive influence on
media production over the last few years and you may
not realised but since you started in Year 12 you have
learned a massive amount about how to use them and
what the benefits are of using them. They in turn have
had a massive impact on the quality of your finished
products.

5. Digital Technology
Throughout your essay you should try and give several
examples of real occasions you used these technologies. For
example:
“At AS we were not as confident using digital technology and therefore when
we began working on Serif we struggled with putting together our opening
titles. As a result we used very basic transactions between the clips and the
fonts we used didn’t really match the genre of our film. The finished version
still looked rather amateur. However at A2 we developed our skills by learning
how to use Serif in more depth. Through the use of YouTube tutorials we
learnt how to layer our images which gave a final product a more professional
look. For example, in our trailer we created a blurred effect surrounding the
young people holding a séance. We were able to do this by duplicating the
footage but having the top layer my transparent and in a slightly different
place. This gave the illusion of confusion and disorientation which fit with our
genre.”

6. Digital Technology
Serif– Had zero experience at the beginning and have now moved from basic editing
to more complex editing, effects, transitions, sound manipulation (Layering). Quick to
upload so something can be filmed, uploaded and edited in a matter of minutes. – Be
specific – What specific techniques did you use and where?
Social Networking Sites – Allows you to communicate with a far wider
network of people than other websites. You could have used this to gather audience
research, upload your video and ask for feedback etc. Be specific – Give an example of
something you did using facebook/twitter etc.

7. Digital Technology
YouTube– Allows you to communicate with a far wider network of people than
other websites. Allowed you to research existing trailers. Once work is complete you
will be able to post your own video to a massive audience. Be specific – Give
examples of real videos you looked at, real comments you got etc.
Digital Camera – Struggled initially with holding steady shots, framing etc..
But they allow instant playback, LCD screen, small, portable (in comparison to larger
older bulkier camera) etc. Allowed you to film in small spaces, to easily travel all over
Slough to film, to film something and view it straight away to check if it was ok. Now
can easily film a variety of shot types.

8. Digital Technology
Photoshop – This allows the manipulation of images, effects, colours, cropping,
layering images and words. Be specific – What did YOU do on Photoshop?
Other technologies you could mention:
•Blogging
•Prezzi
•Other Internet sites (Incomputech – royalty free music)
Digital technology has enabled you (a consumer of media) to become a
producer that can not only make a higher quality media product, but edit it
and distribute it to a wider audience.

9. Evaluation
4) Opinionated Octopus. Evaluate the topic using 4
strengths and 4 weaknesses.

10. To Get A & B Grades
To get the higher grades on this question, you need to ensure
you are not just DESCRIBING how your skills developed. Instead
you need to focus on the EVALUATE part. To EVALUATE you
could comment on any of the following throughout your work:
• HOW important digital technology was
• WHY was digital technology important
• HOW did digital technology benefit you? Strengths/weaknesses
at AS
• WHAT EFFECT did digital technology have on your final work at
A2?
• WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without digital
technology?

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

12. AS to A2
Technology How it helped us/How did
we progress?
At AS we used Digital Cameras to....
At A2 we used Digital Cameras in a different
way.....
At AS we used Photoshop to...
At A2 we used Photoshop in a different way......
At AS we used Social Networking Sites to....
At A2 we used Social Networking Sites in a
different way........

13. Homework

14. L.O: To be able to evaluate how your
skills have progressed from AS to A2
Creativity
Starter:
What IS creativity? – DEFINE IT!!

15. Creativity
Creativity is….
“the making of new things and the re-
arranging of the old”.
E.G. The ability to have your OWN ideas and
not just copy other peoples. The ability to do
things that are unusual and different.

16. Creativity
Where did your original ideas come from? –
How did you increase your ability to come up
with your own ideas? Did you mind map? Did
you share ideas? Did you do creative types of
research e.g. not just questionnaires with
people you knew, but using YouTube to get
comments from people around the world, etc.
Give real specific examples.

17. Creativity
Location/Sets/Costumes –
At first you chose locations that were nearby
and easy to access (give examples). Then as
A2 you were more creative in your choices (give
example). Did you choose unusual ones? Did it
take creative planning to adapt them? Be
specific – What creative locations did you use?
Why did using creative locations help your
production?

18. Creativity
Camera Shots –
At first your shots and filming were practical. You
filmed and took pictures with a medium shot
because you hadn’t considered doing anything else.
For AS your camera skills were quite basic. Now you
have developed so you started filming in a more
creative way e.g. high/low angles, putting the
camera on the floor etc… Be specific giving real
examples of creative camera shots you used and
explain how they made your production better.

19. Creativity
Editing –
At first you weren’t very creative. Editing was functional.
Your manipulation of images were very basic on
Photoshop which didn’t allow you to have very
professional looking pieces. Your pictures were much
more straight forward so it didn’t allow you to be as
creative as you could have been. You tended to just
copy styles from other media you had seen. However in
A2 your ideas were much more creative, your skills had
advanced allowing you to try out more interesting
techniques – be specific, explain what impace they had
on your production.

20. Creativity
Other possible creative opportunities:
•Genre
•Conventions
•Casting

21. Conclusion
Certain restraints on your creativity in place from the exam board – you
HAD to make a poster and magazine etc.. These rules do limit your ability
to be creative to a certain extent.
Not easy to just be creative. You actually needed to do practical thinks
like research, paperwork, storyboards, etc. to ALLOW you to develop
your creativity. Without solid research and planning, being creative was
impossible. You needed a balance of organised AND creative people to
be successful.
You can’t BE creative. Often it is a learning process where you start by
being told what to do, then you try doing things on your own and then you
end up being confident and skilled enough to experiment which leads to
creativity. You have to make mistakes at first to be creative.

22. To Get A & B Grades
To get the higher grades on this question, you need to ensure
you are not just DESCRIBING how your skills developed. Instead
you need to focus on the EVALUATE part. To EVALUATE you
could comment on any of the following throughout your work:
• HOW important creativity was
• WHY was creativity important
• WHAT EFFECT did creativity have on your final work
• WHAT PROBLEMS are there with being creative?
• WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without creativity?
• HOW did creativity benefit you?

23. To Get A & B Grades
Pick three areas of creativity from the following list and answer the 6
questions on them.
•Original Ideas
•Location/Sets/Costumes
•Camera
•Editing
•Genre
•Conventions
•Photoshop
1. HOW important creativity was
2. WHY was creativity important
3. WHAT EFFECT did creativity have on your final work
4. WHAT PROBLEMS are there with being creative?
5. WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without creativity?
6. HOW did creativity benefit you?

24. Homework

25. L.O: To be able to evaluate how your
skills have progressed from AS to A2
Planning and Research
Starter:
List all the things you did in order to plan and
research for your coursework.

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

27. Evaluation
Create a table of strengths and weaknesses for planning and research at AS and A2
AS A2
Strengths Weaknesses Strengths Weaknesses

28. To Get A & B Grades
To get the higher grades on this question, you need to ensure
you are not just DESCRIBING how your skills developed. Instead
you need to focus on the EVALUATE part. To EVALUATE you
could comment on any of the following throughout your work:
• HOW important research and planning was
• WHY was it important
• WHAT EFFECT did it have on your final work
• WHAT PROBLEMS are there with ineffective p&r?
• WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without it?
• HOW did it benefit you?

29. Exam Question

30. L.O: To be able to evaluate how your
skills have progressed from AS to A2
Post-Production
Starter:
List all the things you did during the Post-
Production stage.

31. Post- Production
AS A2
• How much of your text was ‘created’ in post-
production?
• What technologies did you use to modify
your raw material?
• How did this change the meaning of your
work?
• What transitions/ effects did you apply
during post-production?
• How did you manipulate narrative/ colours/
lighting/ contrast/brightness/ sound etc
during the edit?
• How much of your footage ended up ‘on the
cutting room floor’ (unused) and why?

32. L.O: To be able to evaluate how your
skills have progressed from AS to A2
Conventions of real text.

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