SECTION A

Pizza Study Day

Q1a in a nutshell

Directly asks you to evaluate how your media production skills have developed progressively from AS to A2

Critical reflection on creative processes and decision making in the context of a range of productions and progress made from AS to A2.

Let’s start small…

Fill in a different sheet for each production you have done.

You should have at least 3 (prelim, thriller, music video)

This should not be too hard- include hardware (cameras, phones for pictures/audio, computers and anything else you used) software (on your computer) and online programs, such as blogger, youtube etc.

This is a difficult question and one that does not have a correct answer as such, but ought to give you food for thought.

You will need to include a

variety of examples-

institutional research (such

as on how titles work in film

openings), audience

research (before you made

your products and after you

finished for feedback),

research into conventions

of media texts (layout,

fonts, camera shots,

soundtracks, everything!)

and finally logistical

research- recce shots of

your locations, research

into costume, actors, etc

Start with the genre andtype (thriller and film opening)

Then list the conventions you had toinclude in order for it to be a

successful product.Repeat this process for the other

productions (it’ll be harder for the prelim as there was no set genre or form – but there were some things

you had to include…)

This one, I’ll answer for

you- for the purpose of this exam, it is defined as everything after planning and shooting or

live recording. In other

words, the stage of your

work where you manipulated your raw material on the computer, maybe using

Photoshop, a video editing program or desktop publishing.All you need to do now is

explain what you did

Research and planning

How much did research inform the development of your own ideas?

What types of research were most significant in developing your own ideas?

What difficulties did you encounter in your research?How did you plan your production work and what

types of planning were most effective?What issues did you experience in moving from the

planning to the production phase? How useful was your planning in the production phase?

What aspects should you have planned and prepared more thoroughly?

Creativity

What do you understand by ‘creativity’ and to what extent have you been creative?

How have you tried to facilitate and encourage your own creativity?

Did you experience limits/blocks on your own creativity? How easy/difficult was it to be creative while still working to

the brief? Did working within conventions stifle your creativity? To what extent did you need to work with others and ‘bounce

ideas’ off other people to be truly creative? How much of your creativity was about trying to picture things

in your mind’s eye? How much of your creativity was about trial and error? To what extent was a lack of confidence an issue in terms of

your creativity? To what extent was a lack of technical competence/confidence

an obstacle to your creativity?

Digital Technology

Photoshop iMovieFinal Cut ExpressGarage BandWixPreziBloggerWord or PowerPointYouTubeCameraInternet(anything you used for your evaluations)

Post-production

EDITING – techniques used; style; pace; transitions and how the editing helped communicate meaning to the audience.

SOUNDTRACK & SOUND EFFECTS – the choices made and the impact of these choices on audiences.

SPECIAL EFFECTS – discuss any special effects (fast-motion, slow-motion etc) and any effects you used to distort/edit images. Again, the emphasis should be on the way these effects impact on audiences and communicate meaning.

Using conventions from real media texts

How much was your own production influenced by existing texts?

How did you identify the conventions? How did you research into existing texts?

Why follow conventions? Think about the relationship with audiences here.

Which conventions did you follow?How easy was it to follow conventions in your own

work? Were there any obstacles?To what extent, if any, did you depart from existing

conventions? What effects were you hoping to achieve by breaking some of the conventions?

To what extent did adherence to conventions limit your own creativity?

Let’s have another go…

Fill in a different sheet for each production you have done.

You should have at least 3 (prelim, thriller, music video)

Q1b in a nutshell

This question requires a more distanced approach – a textual analysis of one production outcome – as a media text – to demonstrate the ability to apply a theoretical concept to the text.

What do you need to be able to do with theorists and theories?

You do NOT need to: Learn a load of quotes Explain their theories in great depth Know them all

You DO need to: Use a few Be able to apply them to your work/ case

studies Consider how useful/ not useful they are when

discussing your work/ case studies

How to use theorists…

Quote SummariseComment

Assume your reader knows about the theory/ theorist.

Don’t explain the theory; use it.A Todorovian analysis would argue…Mulvey’s notion of the Male Gaze provides a useful

way of understanding the video in that…Kate Wales statement that “Genre is... an

intertextual concept” could be useful here because…

Media Language

Essentially this is asking for a detailed textual analysis of your production which explores the meanings created by micro elements.

What are the denotation and connotation present in the work What key decision have been made by the producer and what meaning

are they meant to create (If a film maker has chosen to employ a particular sign at one point from a range of possibilities that is a ‘paradigmatic’ choice e.g. what costume to choose for a character).

How do signs work together to create meaning (syntagmatic relationship)

How has the film maker try to encode meaning – what techniques? Are they successful ie is it easy to decode the production? Could be be decoded in a different way?

What are different ways this text could be read and understood ( Audience Concept stuff)

What ideologies/myths/ meta narratives does the work reinforce or challenge?

What effect might this production have on the audience – emotion stuff, role modelling, challenging beliefs/ ideas

Why are any of these things important?

Audience

Who is the target audience for the production? ( AC Neilsen TAGS, Rubicam's 4Cs Cross Cultural Consumer Characterisation ), how do you know?

Would this production be successful with it target audience? How might it be read/understood by a different target audience?

What uses and gratifications will the target audience get from the production?

What effect might the production have on audiences? What is the Dominant/Hegemonic/Preferred reading of this

text? What is a possible Negotiated reading of this text? What would be an Oppositional reading?

How would this text suit a Pomo audience (Gauntlett – meaning is fluid and the audience is intelligent)

In what ways is the work an example of Jenkins Participatory Culture (audiences are no longer just consumers, they are also producers and users.  They create and consume, participate and publish, download and upload, receive and share)

Narrative

Does the product follow a linear narrative? Does the production adhere to or subvert narrative

conventions? How does the narrative support the establishment of genre? How have narrative techniques been used to appeal to the

audience? Does the text have a clear narrative (in other words, are the

audience able to understand what is happening) Is there a narrative thread? Is there any suggestion of resolution in the product or, instead,

do we have elements of the beginning/middle of the film, but not its end?

How could the product be interpreted using narrative theory? Propp / Todorov/ Levi-Strauss/ Boardwell and Thompson/ Three Act Structure (Set Up and Catalyst for Thriller)

Why is narrative important? Why is it good to challenge narrative conventions?

AYO (Analyse Your Own) Production!

Watch your thriller or music video (it should be on your blog from last year).

Create a presentation which ANALYSES the thriller or music video as if it’s not yours.

Try to cover the following areas: Genre Representation Audience Media language Narrative

Use the question prompt sheets to guide your responses.

Present back to the class.