Question 1A) Overview

Required to DESCRIBE and EVALUATE your skills development over the course of both foundation and advanced portfolios, looking a the production side of things.
The focus in the evaluation MUST be on skills development and the question requires you to focus on one or two specific production practices.

• Digital Technology
• Creativity
• Research and Planning
• Post Production
• Using conventions from real media texts

Either one or two of these practices will be asked in the question paper. 

Example question: 'In your own experience, how was your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete your coursework productions.' 25 marks to complete in 30mins max.

ALLOCATION OF MARKS

Explanation/analysis/argument (10 marks)

Use of examples (10 marks)

Use of terminology (5 marks)

FOR HIGH MARKS

Complex issues have been expressed clearly and fluently using a style of writing, appropriate to the complex subject matter.  Sentences and paragraphs, consistently relevant, have been well structured, using appropriate technical terminology.  There may be a few, if any, errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar.

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For any of the questions that you may get in the exam you need to talk about:

1. Preliminary task for foundation portfolio + actual foundation portfolio (magazine cover etc)
2. Advanced portfolio - Main and ancillary tasks.

Make sure to cover hardware, software and online tools that you used that apply to the question that you may get. 

- For example: If there was a question on post-production, you wouldn't talk about what you used to research and plan the media form.  Or what you used during the actual filming or taking pictures process. 

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The idea of this question is to indicate the progression over the two years.  Highlight what you was taught and learnt in the preliminary task and how it made it easier to complete my final tasks.  It may be that it made me more aware of the possibilities that you were working with.

With your secondary year, although there was no preliminary task, you did complete some practical prep - action match (door), discussion (shot reverse shot), locked down shot, dolly work and panning?

You also used iMovie as your introduction to timelines and video editing, and that meant it was easier to learn the more advanced Premier Pro for example.

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Paragraph One - Introduction; Address and define key terms.
Paragraph Two - Technology has taken all the creativity out of media production.  This would seem to be a good starting point, then state what projects you actually did for each of the two units.
Paragraph Three - Starting with the foundation portfolio, do not hesitate to highlight anything you could've done better.
Paragraph Four - Go to advanced portfolio making sure you highlight the progression you have made and being more aware you are of the possibilities and potential.
Paragraph Five - Conclusion/ Summary

Question 1a. Analysis of Conventions - unfinished.

Throughout my AS and A2 media productions looked at various conventions of real media texts in order to inform my own creative practice.  In my foundation portfolio I looked a lot at the conventions of magazines, including the front cover, contents page and double page spread.  I did this through looking at factors including colour palettes, fonts and images, in order to develop the work I was creating.  In my advanced portfolio I looked at theatrical trailers, posters and magazine covers, in order to create a skilled and professional production.  Through analysing the conventions of real media texts when looking at the various production pieces, I was able to appeal to my target audience, giving them what they expect from the pieces of media that they are looking at.  Through looking at conventions, the audience are going to be more likely to be enticed by the product as it gives them a sense of understanding.  

Before the creation of my foundation portfolio, I had no proper understanding of conventions and the purpose that they served in appealing to audiences and their preferences.  I soon began to understand the importance of analysing conventions and including them in my own work.  In the beginning of my foundation portfolio creation, I had to create a music magazine, where I focused on the idea of festival music, consisting of a front cover, contents page and double page spread.  In order to do this I had to analyse the conventions of real media texts, such as NME and Q so that I could create a media product that partially resembled an existing music magazine, despite targeting a highly niche audience of festival goers.  Through looking at these conventions, I was able to understand and interpret their use of coverlines, colour palettes and fonts, so that the conventions I would interpret into my own niche genre of magazine, would highly appeal to existing audiences.  One of the conventions that I noticed was apparent throughout my analysis, was the use of inserts, especially on the front cover of the magazine.    These were the use of 'freebies' and 'BOGOFF's', that audiences like to see.  This convention, to me was a highly important part of the creation of my media practice so that the audience was completely attracted to my magazine as a whole.  

Looking at conventions in my foundation portfolio was highly limited as we only had one media text to analyse.  As I progressed into my advanced portfolio, I began to further understand the importance of analysing the conventions of genre's to inform my own media practice, as there was a broader range of products that we needed to create.  As I began to look at theatrical trailers and posters alongside magazine covers, I noticed a consistency in the conventions that I was seeing. As I was specifically analysing drama trailers, looking at the theatrical side in particular, I analysed the conventions, such as the continuity, storyline and character profiles, to help me understand what to include in my own production.  This analysis of conventions throughout the drama genre, also proved important when I was looking at magazine covers, as I was able to develop the analysis skills that I had picked up in my AS year.