Structure for question 1a - further guidance

(b)1. Genre

Discuss how genre changes over time and how the industry uses it to help find audiences and distribute work, and how YOU have used this knowledge in your chosen product.

Whatever production you choose to write about, you MUST analyse it in relation to the forms and conventions present in your type of product... What makes your product fall into this specific genre? What conventions have you chosen to use in your final piece and why? How has genre changed over time and how has this helped informed your creative decisions? How is genre used to target/create new audiences and how have you used this in your work? 

Also, use media theories of genre with different approaches. This could be used to inform your writing about your production piece.

How to answer question 1b

This is where you need to take a step back and look at your own work critically (but always be positive; don't write about what you think is wrong, but rather what you have chosen to do). Remember, the examiner on this paper won't have actually seen your production work!

For Question 1(b) you have to select one production and evaluate it in relation to a media concept. This will be one of these:

• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media language

Past Questions:
January 2010 - Analyse one of your productions in terms of representation.
June 2010 - genre
January 2011 - narrative
June 2011 - audience
January 2012 - representation
June 2012 - media language
January 2013 - narrative
June 2013 - representation
June 2014 - genre
June 2015 - narrative

Basic essay structure for 1b (Choose only ONE product to write about):

Para 1 Intro:

1. First, define the concept you have been given in the question. For example, for Narrative you might say that every text tells a story. Add a quotation, such as for genre, "Genre is a type" (Daniel Chandler, 2001).

2. Outline the production you've chosen to evaluate.

3. Tell the examiner you're going to discuss (x) number of ideas about the concept. Use no more than 5 theories in your answer (so you'll need to have learnt about 6-7 theories in total).

para 2: Using the theorists, describe some of the key features of the concept you are being asked to apply. Outline two or three of the theories/ideas of particular writers, relating them to your production.

para 3: Start to apply the concept, making close reference to your product and to other examples to show how the concept is evident in it.

para 4: Show ways in which ideas work in relation to three areas of your product - production, distribution and exchange - and also ways in which those ideas might not apply/could be challenged.

para 5: Conclusion - Sum up by returning to the question and, having discussed key issues, say how your product follows or challenges the conventions of that issue

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(a)5 - Using conventions from real media texts

Look at the mind map below:

How can you use this to help you organise your structure to a question about using conventions from real media texts?

Mind Map created by Luis Amador with GoConqr


How can you adapt this structure to another area of Section A of the exam?

Create your own mind map...
Expand each bubble using your own examples...

(a)3. Research and Planning

Research and Planning

1a. Explain how your research and planning skills developed over time and how they contributed to creative decision-making. Refer to a range of examples from your media productions in your answer.

First, decide what you think 'research and planning' and 'creative decision-making' is! 

'Research' is all your work looking at previous film openings and music videos and learning the conventions. Use the Bentley quotation that creativity is "making of the new, rearranging of the old" - therefore you had to become very familiar with other work in the same genre in order to make something recognisable within the genre yet fresh and new for the audience. 

Required research included:

AS Foundation Portfolio film opening:

• watching lots on YouTube/internet to become familiar with the chosen type product (give one or two examples for each of these bullet points). However, this only gave vague ideas so you:
• conducted analyses to learn about shot types and editing techniques (print and video); 
• detailed analysis of key shots to learn what sorts of elements have been used in other film openings of a similar genre;
• creating a timeline/schedule of the product highlight changes;
• research into media company logos and fonts;
• research into media companies to find out how to produce, market and distribute your product.

Then AS planning included:

• audience survey to conduct a psychographic analysis of your target audience as well as what they expect from your chosen genre;
• pitching your idea to a focus group and taking feedback;
• storyboarding / sketching.
• location planning, practice shots, costume, props, mise en scene, shot lists, timetables, weather forecasts!

End result was a successful product which adhered to key conventions and received lots of positive feedback from your target audience.



A2 more advanced research included:

• completely new media - began again with the techniques used at AS such as watching lots of videos in your chosen genre;
• this time need to be more creative due to the need to provide something in a very demanding and competitive market, so lots more research into innovative techniques - greenscreening and effective lighting, stop motion, creative transitions;
• this time planning included much more analysis part-way through the project, taking feedback from audience focus groups and a music video director - needed to manage time very efficiently for this;
• additional new media for the ancillary task - magazines for the advertisement and digipaks. Lots more analysis of other magazine advertisements, digipaks, learning the conventions of what to include such as bar code and twitter/facebook logos, etc; 
• planning included research into new technology to use for these media, such as Photoshop;
• also included ways to create synergy between the three products, taking key signs, colours, images and fonts across all three.

End results were a slick, professional-looking product, attractive ancillary tasks and successful advertisement which worked very well together as a package and received very positive feedback from the audience.

Basic essay structure for 1a (Write about your AS and A2 productions):

Paragraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short, but should frame your response. Explain what you did and frame the essay with a quotation from a theorist that relates to the question.

For Paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 5, pick up a skill area and suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. Use examples. Follow this with ways you improved on those skills at A2, perhaps by using a more advanced piece of software or learning more advanced tools, always reflecting on how this improved your creative work.

Unless the topic is post-production you should cover three areas: pre-production, production and post-production. You could use those areas for a paragraph on each.

Paragraph 6 Short conclusion relating back to the question and summing up key skills you have developed in that area over the AS and A2 course. Frame your essay with another quotation from another theorist that relates to the question and confirms what you said in your introduction.

(a)2. Creativity

2. Creativity

This is the trickiest, possibly, but it is often combined with one of the other four areas in the question, so you need some phrases up your sleeve. Think about what 'creativity' means to you. 

Handy quotations from theorists are:

"Making of the new, rearranging of the old" (Bentley)
"Something new that communicates something to someone" (Gauntlett)
"Something original" (Roberts).

You can use these quotations to support your points in your introduction and throughout the essay.

Repeat the planning process as you did for Digital Technology. Now write your essay!



This is a PDF document with further guidance...

(a)1. Digital Technology

1. Digital Technology

1a. Explain how your skills in the creative use of digital technology developed over time. Refer to a range of examples from your media productions in your answer.

First, decide what you think 'digital technology' is! Then recall how you have used different sorts of digital technology across your AS and A2 courses. TOP TIP - remember the difference between software and hardware (ie a tripod is NOT an example of digital technology!). You need to demonstrate your development throughout the course, so think about what you used at AS then what you used at A2 that you hadn't used at AS.

Now think about your first area, Pre-production. Do a spider diagram or write bullet points answering this:
a) What digital technologies did you use in Pre-production at AS? This could be PowerPoint presentations, your blog, YouTube, mobile phones, tablet computers, FlipCams... Write down 3-4 examples.
b) What digital technologies did you use in Pre-production at A2? This could be social media (Facebook/Twitter), use of websites like IMDB, websites to stream content such as films... Write down 3 more examples.

Next, think about your second area, Production.
a) What digital technologies did you use during the production process at AS? This could be different camera settings, use of MP3 players for lipsyncing, lighting, sound recording, downloading tracks to iTunes... Find three examples.
b) What digital technologies did you use at A2? Find three examples.For example, Photoshop, creating a website, camera effects, greenscreening...

Finally, think about your third area, Post-production.
a) What digital technologies did you use during the post-production process at AS? This could be basic Premiere/Photoshop, importing clips, using transitions... Find 3 examples.
a) What digital technologies did you use at post-production at A2? This could be more advanced Premiere/Photoshop effects, such as colour correction, linking/unlinking audio, changing the speed of clips... Find 3 examples.

Now write your essay introduction, using the PDQ format: Point, Data, Question. Make your point, give your data/examples, then apply it to the question.
1. Answer or give your point of view on the question in 1-2 sentences.
2. Outline briefly the products you made across the two years - give the type of production, the title and the genre. The examiner needs to know what sort of work you're talking about!
3. Tell the examiner that you will structure your essay be explaining how you used digital technology at the pre-production, production and post-production stages of your work.
THEN reference basic theory if it's helpful - take from your AS representation work or your coursework evaluation.

Now you are ready to write your essay using the examples you found in your plan. A basic framework for your essay is below:

Basic essay structure for 1a (Write about your AS and A2 productions):

Paragraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short, but should frame your response. Explain what you did, e.g. 'For my AS Foundation Portfolio, I produced a two-minute chick flick film opening and for my A2 Advanced Portfolio, I made a pop music video.' Then move on to impress the examiner with a theoretical statement related to the topic, such as: 'Digital technology has meant proliferation and convergence of cross-media forms. My projects have evidenced what Gauntlett describes as "the harnessing of collective intelligence through interactivity".

Paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 5 should pick up a skill area and suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills you had already and how you used them. Use examples and have some key phrases ready, such as:

• 'Use of Premiere/Photoshop helped me understand the conventions of film editing' (good for analysing how use of software links to creativity). 
• Or 'My Premiere/Photoshop skills improved from AS to A2 as I  became more proficient with special effects' (then give examples of effects you used such as green-screening, detaching audio, colour saturation). You need to show evidence of improvement from AS to A2 which obviously also improved your creativity. 
• Or 'I found Premiere/Photoshop to be basic but suitable for the project; however at A2 I used the more advanced techniques'. 
• 'Using Premiere/Photoshop allowed me to create seamless transitions between camera angles, or using specific effects and filters in Photoshop to create suspense or follow genre conventions, whereas in my Foundation Portfolio I had problems with narrative continuity.' 
• 'I uploaded my film opening on to YouTube as an example of Web 2.0 to gain interactive feedback.'

Paragraph 6 Short conclusion relating back to the question and summing up key skills you have developed in that area over the AS and A2 course. Frame your essay with another quotation from another theorist that relates to the question and confirms what you said in your introduction.