Essential for thorough preparation for the exam. Have you planned for all possible questions?
Question 1A Prompts
Firstly, list all of the media products you have created since you joined Sixth Form, both in Media Studies, other subjects and at home. Re-read your AS and A2 blogs to remind you!
Digital Technology
List all of the technologies you have used (hardware, software and online)to create these media products, including ones you have just explored but decided not to use.
Group them together, e.g. all the digital editing software you have used or all of the website creation software). What skills have you learned with each of these groups in the last two years? How did you learn to use them – were you taught, did you use the online help manual, Youtube video tutorials, trial and error? What problems did you face along the way? How did you resolve these problems? Where there were choices to make, what did you choose? How? Why? Describe your journey with these technologies over the last two years.
Identify specific aspects of your productions that were impacted by using this technology, e.g. you chose to use Final Cut to allow layering as shown in xxx scene in your music video...
How does easy access to simple-to-use technology impact you as a producer? What has it enabled you to do? (Remember this sort of technology has only become available in the last few years!!!)
What media production technologies do you have access to at home? Does this make a difference to your confidence / ability / output?
Creativity
What does creativity mean to you? Define it. Look it up in the dictionary too.
Think about where your ideas come from. It is likely to be a combination of influences and some original thinking. Think about influences first; identify specific real world media texts, media producers, other student work (or whatever else) that has influenced you. Make clear links to specific aspects of your productions that have been influenced by each of these. How has your audience influenced you? What about your team members? How has what you have learned about postmodernism influenced you?
Now think about what has been original (if there is such a thing!) in your work. Have you developed your own personal themes / style / aesthetic in your work over the last two years? How has this manifested itself in your work? Identify specific aspects of your productions to demonstrate the sue of these themes, etc.
How has what you’ve done encouraged and developed your creativity over the last two years? Do you think the briefs you have been given have encouraged or subdued your creativity? Why? How? Are you able to be more creative with personal projects?
Research and Planning
Consider first whether you are a ‘natural’ planner and a ‘natural’ researcher (they are two different things). What were your planning and research skills like two years ago? Did you value planning and research or just want to get on with creating?
What planning skills have you developed in the last two years? What methods have you used? How have they impacted your work? Are there examples of times when your planning has been poor? What effect did planning have on your work? Did you change your plans? Why?
What research skills have you developed in the last two years? (Think about how you’ve used your blog, the development of your textual analysis skills and audience research). What methods have you used? How have they impacted your work? Are there examples of times when your research has not been effective? What effect did research have on your work? Did you change your plans? Why?
Identify specific aspects of your productions that have been impacted by your planning and research (both good and bad!) Compare your views about the value of research and planning now with those you held two years ago.
Post-Production
This links closely with digital technology – think about all of the post-production work you have done and the technology you have used to do it. What skills have you learned? How has your approach to post-production become more sophisticated, e.g. consider your use of sound or editing, comparing how your approach to and use of these have developed between your preliminary task and your A2 productions.
How has audience feedback influenced your post-production? Did you hold focus groups, for example? What changes were made as a result of these?
Again, remember to identify specific aspects of your productions and link them to the developments in your post-production skills.
Using conventions from real texts
What is genre and why is it important? Consider its impact on audience and institutions, in particular. What genres / sub-genres have you worked in across all of your productions? Why have you chosen to work in these genres?
What real media texts did you study or were you influenced by (look at your Research and Planning notes from above)? What conventions did you observe in these real world texts? Which of them have you used in your own work? Give specific examples from your productions. What conventions did you subvert? Why? You may wish to bring in ideas from postmodernism here too. Have you become more sophisticated and subtle in the way you use / subvert / play with conventions over the last two years? How? Give specific examples from your productions.
Question 1B Prompts
Whereas 1A requires you consider your progress across all of your production work in the last two years, 1B needs you to reflect on only one piece of production work. Choose which production suits each of the aspects that you may be questioned on carefully.
There will be lots of overlap between each of these areas, so don’t worry if it feels like you’re repeating yourself when making notes on each area. Lots of this you will already have thought about in your planning for 1A.
Genre
Identify which of your productions would be most appropriate for a discussion on genre.
What is genre and why is it important to audiences and to institutions? What other texts in this genre did you study? What did you observe about the conventions they used / subverted / played with? How did this impact your decisions and your production?
What genre / sub-genre did you work in? What conventions did you use / subvert? Identify specific aspects of your production where you have used / subverted or played with conventions. How has this impacted your work? Is there any theory you could apply here, for example, Goodwin’s analysis of the conventions of music video? What has postmodernism taught you about genre and conventions? How has this impacted your own production? Give specific examples.
Narrative
Identify which of your productions would be most appropriate for a discussion on narrative.
What is the structure of the narrative in your production? For example, is it linear or non-linear? Is it chronological or does it use flash backs? Are there two or more narratives working together at once? How does your production tell its story? What governs the beginning, middle and end of your narrative? What impact has your learning on postmodernism had on your narrative structure? If you are discussing a film trailer, how much of the film’s narrative have you chosen to reveal? What real world media texts have influenced you and what narrative structures did they have? How have you played with time and space, used ellipsis, etc? How does your audience understand your narrative?
Representation
Identify which of your productions would be most appropriate for a discussion on representation.
What groups, places, social structures, belief systems or other have you represented in your production? Consider age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, class, regional identity, location, etc. How have you portrayed them (i.e. what is your production saying about this group of people, location, etc)? How have you used media language to create these representations? (Think back to your TV Drama exam in Year 12.) Is there anything controversial about these representations? How have you used representation to address and attract your audience? What feedback did your audience give regarding the representations in your production?
Audience
Identify which of your productions would be most appropriate for a discussion on audience.
Define your target audience in detail – age, gender, lifestyle, media consumption patterns, aspirations, etc, etc. Why have you decided to target this audience?
How have you tried to appeal to and address this audience in your production? Consider all aspects of media language.
What audience feedback have you received? Give specific detail from the entire production process, both positive and negative. How did this feedback influence your decisions?
Media Language
Identify which of your productions would be most appropriate for a discussion on narrative.
Essentially this is asking for a detailed textual analysis of your production which explores the meanings created by the camera angles, shots, distances and movements, the mise-en-scene, sound, editing, lighting, colour and special effects you have used. Link these meanings to representations you have created, the ways you have targeted the audience and the conventions of the genre you are working in.
These prompts are intended to be used alongside Pete Fraser’s article “The OCR A2 Critical Perspectives in Media Exam” from Media Magazine (February 2010).
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