3. Question 1(a)
Question 1(a) requires you to describe and evaluate
your skills development over the course of your
production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced
Portfolio.
The focus of your evaluation must be on
skills development and the question will require you to
adapt this to one or two specific production practices.
4. The list of practices to which
the question will relate is as follows:
• Digital Technology
• Creativity
• Research and planning
• Post-production
• Using conventions from real media texts
Questions will be posed using one or two of these
categories. Where you have produced relevant
work outside the context of the course you are
encouraged to additionally refer to this experience.
5. Question 1(b)
Question 1(b) requires you to select
one production and evaluate it in relation to a
media concept.
6. The list of concepts to which
the question will relate is as follows:
• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media Language
Questions will be set using one of these concepts
only.
7. Whether the candidate applies the concept
to the product or uses the production to
challenge the concept, it is essential
that candidates are sufficiently knowledgeable
about the concept for either approach.
Candidates may choose to write about
work undertaken at AS or A2, main task
or preliminary/ancillary tasks.
8. Example Questions
In this section you need to write about your
work for the Foundation Portfolio and
Advanced Portfolio units.
You must answer both 1(a) and 1(b).
9. Example Questions
• 1 (a) “Digital technology turns media consumers into
media producers”. In your own experience, how has
your creativity developed through using digital
technology to complete your coursework
productions? [25]
• (b) “Media texts rely on cultural experiences in
order for audiences to easily make sense of
narratives”. Explain how you used conventional and /
or experimental narrative approaches in one of your
production pieces. [25]
Section A Total [50]
10. How marks are allocated
• Explanation/analysis/argument (10 marks)
• Use of examples (10 marks)
• Use of terminology (5 marks)
11. “Digital technology turns media consumers into media
producers.” In your own experience, how has your creativity
developed through using digital technology to complete your
coursework productions?
Explanation/ analysis/argument (9-10 marks)
There is a clear sense of progression established by the answer,
and a range of articulate reflections on the production
process are offered.
Use of examples (9-10 marks)
Candidates offer a broad range of specific, relevant and clear
examples of the use of technology in relation to creative skills
development.
Use of terminology (5 marks)
The use of both production terms and conceptual media
terminology applied throughout is excellent.
12. “Media texts rely on cultural experiences in order for
audiences to easily make sense of narratives.” Explain how you
used conventional and/or experimental narrative approaches
in one of your production pieces.
Explanation/ analysis/argument (9-10 marks)
Candidates demonstrate a clear understanding of narrative
theories / approaches and relate them articulately to the
production process, describing specific decisions made in
relation to narrative and expectations of audience response.
Use of examples (9-10 marks)
A broad range of relevant and interesting examples of the
creative process are offered.
Use of terminology (5 marks)
Both conceptual language and production terminology are
applied with excellent results.
13. Also for high marks…
Complex issues have been expressed clearly
and fluently using a style of writing appropriate
to the complex subject matter.
Sentences and paragraphs, consistently
relevant, have been well structured, using
appropriate technical terminology.
There may be a few, if any, errors of spelling,
punctuation and grammar.
16. Digital technology
Watch this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO1bSakyIPs
17. In your lifetime
1990
SLIP/PPP (Serial Line Internet Protocol and Point-to-
Point Protocol): We've forgotten about this now, but
SLIP/PPP ' mostly PPP ' is what got everyone on the
Internet via dial-up modems back when broadband
was an obscure industry term.
1991
HYPERTEXT MARKUP LANGUAGE: You send the
instructions to the remote computer and let it figure
out how to render the layout, dummy!
18. In your lifetime
1992
THE BROWSER: It made the Web work for the rest of us.
1993
E-MAIL: Electronic mail goes back to the 1960s, but it
really started taking off with Web use. By 1997, the
volume of business e-mail surpassed that of regular
mail.
ADOBE PDF: Lawyers and other control freaks love it!
Also, it was perhaps the first truly effective document-
sharing technology.
19. In your lifetime
1994
JPEG: Lit up the Web with images.
1995
WINDOWS 95: 32-bit pre-emptive multitasking made
possible everything that has come along for the
desktop since ' including the graphical Internet and
Mac OS X.
WIKIS: They may have taken a while to catch on, but
wikis are becoming a dominant collaboration tool.
JAVA: Write once, run all over the Web.
20. In your lifetime
1996
MP3 AUDIO FORMAT: A file format that pretty much
leveled an entire industry ' and movies are next.
FLASH: Scripting your Web page like a movie, or
anything else, with almost zero-client footprint.
1997
BROADBAND: Cable and Digital Subscriber Lines start
to make an appearance in homes, and
telecommuting becomes a real option.
it figure out how to render the layout, dummy!
21. In your lifetime
1998
GOOGLE: We'd call it the portal to the Web, except
portals aren't this easy to use. The search bar is rapidly
becoming the „sippy cup of culture‟ with more than
partial thanks to Wikipedia, Google's query shortstop.
EXTENSIBLE MARKUP LANGUAGE: Data that tells us
what our data is. But this data is in brackets, so we
know what it means, more or less.
22. In your lifetime
1999
WI-FI: The network computer Libre! BLACKBERRY: Life
support for your government executive, with its push
technology making the difference.
VIRTUALIZATION FOR X86 ARCHITECTURES: Making the
most of what you have.
OPEN SSH: Telneting securely, saving untold fortunes in
KVM switches.
23. In your lifetime
2002
MICROSOFT.NET FRAMEWORK: A virtual machine
independent of programming language. The future of
Microsoft development.
2003
SERVICEORIENTED ARCHITECTURE: SOA and Web
services pave the way for a new generation of online
government services.
24. In your lifetime
2004
WEB ONTOLOGY LANGUAGE: The beginning of the
Semantic Web.
ADOBE FLEX: Flash development, open-sourced in
2007, for Rich Internet Applications.
2005
ASYNCHRONOUS JAVASCRIPT AND XML: Launched
Web 2.0.
MULTICORE PROCESSORS: More performance, less
energy use; a wave of the future.
25. In your lifetime
2007
FACEBOOK API/GOOGLE OPEN SOCIAL API: Social
network programming goes mainstream.
And what has also happened in the last few years?
26. What about your experience?
Draw a timeline for your own use of digital
technology. Include your first:
• Photo
• Record? CD? MP3?
• Email account
• Mobile phone
• Camera
• Use of internet – what was the first word you typed into Google?
• Computer/ laptop
What else..?
27.
28. And think about this…
Have you used any new technology in your
production work, from Foundation Portfolio to
Advanced Portfolio ?
Have you developed skills you had?
Give examples:
Hardware? Software?
Use of applications/ interfaces?
Has your thinking about technology changed?
30. CREATIVITY
It is important not to assume one answer to
any question! Rather than ask yourself the
question,
"How have I become more creative during
my A level course?", ask yourself,
"Have I become more creative?".
If you answer the second question, then you
will evaluate your progress much more
thoroughly.
31. CREATIVITY
Think about the the pros and cons of using
the technology and software you have
used.
Perhaps your options (creativity!) have
sometimes been limited by the use of certain
programmes (Vegas, Go-animate, etc.) or
hardware (cameras, mikes, etc.)
How could changes these tools be improved
to make you even more creative?
32. CREATIVITY
What do we mean by creativity anyway?
Is it being…
• Original?
• Different?
• Cleverer?
What do you think?
34. Research & planning
Begin with a timeline of all of the production
units you have covered for this area:
For each of these projects, note down all of
the technologies and methods you used.
Be very specific!
For example don't just write 'blogs'.
You have used blogs in many different ways:
35. you‟ve probably used blogs…
• To review real text examples and discuss
conventions.
• To analyse old students‟ work and discuss marking
criteria.
• To get peer feedback on the progress of your
project.
• To plan micro elements.
• To discuss audience expectations.
• To review your own progress and update your
plans
or this could apply to YouTube or Facebook
36. Then, for each of your technologies and
methods, make a list of pros and cons.
Ask yourself some questions….such as…
• What advantages do blogs have over 'paper planning'?
• Are there any disadvantages to using blogs?
Are they easy to 'read'? To access?
• What are the pros and cons of getting peer feedback?
• Did I find getting qualitative or quantitative information
most useful?
• How useful are storyboards and shotlists?
• How important is research into audience experiences
and expectations?
37. When you have completed your
timeline of notes, you should be
able to see how your research
and planning skills have
developed during your A level
Media Studies and what factors
have helped them to develop.
40. Watch this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd9-bM_fSvw
41. While watching answer these
questions:
• What skills were developed?
Existing skills? New skills?
• How were the skills developed?
Give examples
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd9-bM_fSvw
43. Using Conventions of Real Media Texts
Each of your practical projects had a specific set of
conventions. For this topic, you need to consider how
your understanding has developed over the course.
Begin by make a note of the conventions of each
of the genres you created.
Then pick 2 or 3 of these conventions and say how
you used (or challenged) them within your own work:
44. Using Conventions of Real Media Texts
Example….
A Convention of the Thriller genre is the theme of
identity. In my own project I created mise en scene
that included different types of mirrors.
These gave different reflections to imply that the
protagonist's identity wasn't fixed and could change
depending on which context he was in...
45. Using Conventions of Real Media Texts
Don't forget to ask yourself how useful it is to
understand and apply real conventions
AND
why your ability to apply this understanding
has improved over the course.
