G325 – Section A – Theoretical Evaluation of Production

1. G325 – Section A – Theoretical Evaluation of Production

2. WHAT WILL THEY ASK? • Question 1 A • One or a combination of two of the following (30 mins) • Over the two years: • How have you made use of digital technology? • How has your creativity developed? • How have you researched and planned your productions? • How have your post-production skills developed? • How have you followed the conventions of other media products? What do you need to know/learn??

3. Question 1b) • One of the following (30 mins) • For one of the products (either your film opening or your music video): • how have you followed/challenged genre conventions? • how have you followed/challenged narrative conventions? • how have you followed/challenged conventional/stereotypical representation? • who was your target audience and what techniques did you use to attract them? • how have you made use of ‘media language’ to communicate meaning to your audience? What do you need to know/learn?? What are the similarities between these things?

4. Suggested outlines • Question 1A • Paragraph 1 • should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short. • Paragraph 2 • should pick up the skill area outlined in the question and perhaps suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. use a specific example.

5. Paragraph 3 • should talk through your use of that skill in early projects and what you learned and developed through these. The key thing is that there should be specific examples to support all that you say. • Paragraph 4 • should go on to demonstrate how the skill developed in later projects, again backed by examples, and reflecting back on how this represents moves forward for you from your early position • Paragraph 5 • short conclusion – relate to the question

6. Remember…. • it's only half an hour and you need to range across all of your work!

7. Checklist of requirements for success in the exam: • Creative decision making • Process • Progress over time • Specific examples • Reflections on own development • Terminology (theoretical/technical) • It’s about you and your development

8. Question 1B • Paragraph 1 Intro: • which of your projects are you going to write about? Briefly describe it • Pararaph 2: • what are some of the key features of the concept you are being asked to apply? maybe outline two of the theories/ideas of particular writers briefly Concepts??? Representation and any theory attached Genre theory Narrative theory Media language (?) Audience

9. Paragraph 3: • start to apply the concept, making close reference (explained examples) to your production to show how the concept is evident in it • Paragraph 4: • try to show ways in which ideas work in relation to your production and also ways in which those ideas might not apply/could be challenged • Paragraph 5: conclusion – linked to the question

10. Remember…. • Again you only have 30 minutes • You really need to analyse the finished production, rather than tell the marker how you made it – think of it like analysing a TV drama/pop video/film etc

11. Checklist of requirements for success in the exam: • Showing understanding of the concept (ideally with references/quotations from theorists) • Applying the concept – ie explaining how your work uses it/subverts it etc • Textual analysis of the work (ONE Production) using the concept – giving examples in your explanation • It’s about the work not you

12. Example 1 • Successes??

13. Example 2 • Successes??

14. Your own planning – Question 1a • Reflection is the key word • Begin by setting out, on cards or post-its, a list of answers to these questions: • What production activities have you done? This should include: • The main task and preliminary task from AS • The main and ancillaries at A2 • Plus any non-assessed activities you have done as practice • Anything you have done outside the course which you might want to refer to, such as films made for other courses or skateboard videos made with your mates if you think you can make them relevant to your answer.

15. Next - • For each list, provide examples. • You need to be able to • Talk about specific things you did • Discuss why they were significant, • For example you need to do more than just say • ‘I looked on youtube’ for conventions of real media • Actually name specific videos you looked at • Explainwhat you gained from them • Explainhow they influenced your work. • Divide your examples into the following areas:

16. Looking at different questions – give examples for each product. • What digital technology have you used? • 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

17. In what ways can the work you have done be described as creative? This is a difficult question and one that does not have a correct answer as such, but ought to give you food for thought.

18. What different forms of research did you do? • 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!) • Logistical research- recce shots of your locations, research into costume, actors, etc

19. What conventions of real media did you need to know about? 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

20. What do you understand by ‘post-production’ in your work? • For the purpose of this exam, it is defined as everything after planning and shooting or live recording. • Manipulating your raw material on the computer, maybe using photoshop, a video editing program or desktop publishing.

21. Final tips: • You need some practice- this is very hard to do without it! • Have a crack at trying to write an essay on each of the areas, or at the very least doing a detailed plan with lots of examples.

22. Question 1B • First: • Decide in advance of the exam which project you would be most confident analysing in the exam. • You will need a copy of the project itself to look at as part of your revision, to remind yourself in detail of how it works.

23. Preparing revision tools • Create a spider diagram for each key concept that you could be asked on. • Representation • Genre • Narrative • Audience Media Language • On this should be examples, how they have been used, connected to theory • For example….

24. Women – challenged conventional representation within this genre – protagonists – in control of the situation Representation FILM OPENING Establishing shot – close up – no make-up – woman discussing political situation – not objectified Challenging conventional concept of Mulvey’s ‘the male gaze’…

25. Representation • How do different representations of people work in your video? • THINK: AS TV Drama exam here- • how does your video construct a representation of gender, ethnicity or age for example? • You need also to refer to some critics who have written about representation or theories of media representation and attempt to apply those (or argue with them). • Interesting writers on representation and identity include Richard Dyer, Angela McRobbie and David Gauntlett. DO SOME RESEARCH!

26. Genre • Create a list of generic conventions: • How have you used/subverted them? • Give specific examples • However –there are different approaches to genre • There are a whole host of theories of genre and writers • Some of it could be used to inform your writing about your production piece. • Some you could try are: Altman, Grant and Neale – DO SOME RESEARCH

27. Narrative • A film opening will be ideal for this • It depends upon ideas about narrative in order to function. • An opening must set up some of the issues that the rest of the film’s narrative will deal with… (how does yours do this?) • …but must not give too much away, since it is only an opening and you would want the audience to carry on watching! (How did you manage this?) • For music videos, the chances are that it was more performance based – but did you intersperse any fragments of narrative – a suggested back story, • Here’s a helpful handout by Andrea Joyce, which summarises four different narrative theories, including Propp and Todorov.

28. Audience • Who is your target audience? Specific. • How did you appeal to them? Include: • Specific examples from your product (including any ancillary tasks if you’ve chosen A2) • Specific examples from any research • Connect your analysis of these examples to theory: • DO SOME RESEARCH - this website is good= http://www.mediaknowall.com/as_alevel/alevkeyconcepts/alevelkeycon.php?pageID=audience

29. Media Language • Think back to the AS TV Drama exam: • Looking at the technical codes and how they operate • An exercise in applying media language analysis • The language of film and television is defined by how camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene create meaning • Theorists to look at: Roland Barthes on semiotics- denotation and connotation and Bordwell and Thompson

30. In the exam: • State which project you are using and briefly describe it • analyse it using whichever concept appears in the question, making reference to relevant theory throughout • Keep being specific in your use of examples from the project