+

Theories for Questions 1a and 1bWhat to pick and why

+Petesmediablog.blogspot.com

This is the chief examiners blog.

Tips for EVERY question can be found here

Our blogs

http://mrsmitha2musicvideo.blogspot.com/

http://smithlcmedia.blogspot.com/

http://lccollectiveidentity.blogspot.com/

+Question 1a

Will be a combination of

Creativity

Research and Planning

Real Media Conventions

Digital Technology

Post production

+Past Questions

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. (Jan 2010)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. (June 2010)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. (Jan 2011)

+Past Questions

Explain how far your understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way you created your own media products. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this understanding developed over time. (June 2011)

Describe how your analysis of the conventions of real media texts informed your own creative media practice. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time. (Jan 2012)

+Past Questions

Describe a range of creative decisions that you made in post production and how these decisions made a difference to the final outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time (June 2012)

Explain how your research and planning skills developed over time and contributed to your media production outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer. (Jan 2013)

+Top Tip – From the examiner

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.

Final tips: you need some practice- this is very hard to do without it! Try 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!

+Creativity – matching the debate to an area

"A process needed for problem solving...not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people" (Jones 1993) post production research and planning

"The making of the new and the re arranging of the old" (Bentley 1997) media conventions, post production, digital technology

"Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation." (Csikszentmihalyi 1996)

"There is no absolute judgement [on creativity] All judgements are comparisons of one thing with another." (Donald Larning)media conventions

+Real Media Conventions

Knowing what ‘real’ texts include and knowing why you used them. 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

Prelim Mag – Music Mag – Music Video – Digi Pack – Poster

Or

Continuity exercise – film opening – Music Video – Digi Pack - Poster

+Key basic terminology – magazines (useful for poster)

Masthead: The title of the magazine or newspaper. It is usually placed at the top of the front cover for display purposes

Cover lines : Information about major articles given on the front page of a magazine

Plug: Information about the contents of a magazine or newspaper given on the front cover

Left-side third: A lot of important information designed to attract potential readers is placed in the left-hand side vertical third of the front cover page. This is in case the magazine is displayed in a horizontal shelving system rather than a vertical one.

+Section 1b – analyzing your text against theory

Make sure you have a line of argument and plenty of examples to back them up.

Audience

Genre

Narrative

Representation

Media Language

+Past Questions

Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions. (Jan 2010)

Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre. (June 2010)

Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions. (Jan 2011)

Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of audience (June 2011)

+Past Questions

Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions (Jan 2012)

Explain how meaning is constructed by the use of media language in one of your coursework productions. (June 2012)

Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of narrative. (Jan 2013)

+What’s been been asked?

Representation x 2

Genre

Narrative x 2

Audience

Media Language

+Audience

Who was your product aimed at?

(revise using your blog and uktribes)

How did you target this audience?

(think uses and gratifications, what did you include to appeal to them?)

What was their reaction?

(prefered, oppositional and negotiated)

+Media Language

Difficult as it’s a bit catch all BUT focus on technical features

Editing

Camera work

Page layouts (magazine or poster)

Fonts (magazine or poster)

These elements are used to tell a ‘story’. You’ll need to revise Music Video theory.

+Media Language - Basic Music Video stuff

Tempo of music drives the editing.

Genre might be reflected in types of mise-en-scene, themes, performance, camera and editing styles.

Camerawork impacts meaning. Movement, angle and shot distance all play a part in the representation of the artist/band (close-ups dominate).

Editing is done in fast cuts, rendering many of the images impossible to grasp on first viewing, so ensuring multiple viewing (repeatability).

Digital effects often enhance editing, which manipulates the the original images to offer different kinds of pleasure for the audience. 

+Media Language

Slightly more advanced – Andrew Goodwin

Illustrate: Images used to represent the meanings of the lyrics and genre (this is the most common feature of a music video) this is very often literal.

Disjuncture: When the meaning of the song is completely ignored

Amplify: Meanings and effects are manipulated and constantly shown throughout the video and shown to the audience (basically repetition).

You MUST link these elements to the basic technical elements.