Section A, Question 1

G325 Section A: Exemplar Essay

1a)

Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making.


Over the two year media course we had to produce both a foundation portfolio of a school magazine and music magazine as well as an advance portfolio of a horror teaser trailer, film magazine – developing foundation skills further and a poster to advertise our trailer.

In the first year we researched existing music magazines and analysed each one so that we could gain knowledge of particular layouts, fonts and key elements that need to be contained in our production to make it successful. Research and planning allowed us to recognise ‘mastheads’ on magazines as being the most important and therefore the need to focus on a font more detailed to keep continuity with the contents page and double page spread which we also had to create.
Personally I researched ‘Rock’ magazines such as Kerrang, NME and others because I had chosen after carrying out a questionnaire to use Rock music as my theme. The real life media texts allowed me to visualise my favourite parts from each magazine – wripped sticker graphics and broken font on my own work which I then attempted to recreate within Photoshop CS4. In year one we were limited to what we could research because magazines were the only theme however, in the second year I was able to develop my ability to research real life media texts much further because we had a range of products we needed to create all under the ‘horror’ genre this time. I was able to research teaser trailers analysing my favourite and least favourite parts allowing me to plan with a mood board which I produced from a range of stills from previous horror films my ideas for my own trailer which helped me to develop my production of my products in relation to real life media texts and techniques such as restricted narration and handheld camera found in the ‘Blair Witch Project’ trailer which inspired my trailer ‘Laquem’ which is also set in the woods. Research into film documentaries like the ‘American Nightmare’ inspired me to create a product which reinforced fear and went against usual horror conventions to make it more interesting. Over the second year research became so important to achieving a product which was realistic and is now like my own distributed on on youtube as a real life media text of its own.

Real life media texts like advertising film posters were able to help me develop my Photoshop skills further because I was able to push myself with the ‘colour burn’ filters and want to create the scary atmosphere of my trailer from just an image and text which I found really fun.
Research into film magazines allowed me to develop my work from AS level so much further because I was able to produce a high standard piece of work in two weeks this year when the magazines took over 3 months last year which shows how much my skills have improves just by being able to constantly refer back to real life media texts for inspiration and even colour schemes that work well together such as black and red which in the first year I just found experimenting with. Research into horror trailers allowed me to recognise different styles of film and how we like Alfred Hitchcock could be an auteur creating new angles and ideas using generic conventions as well as unconventional representations that I have picked upon when watching films and analysing certain techniques which I have then attempted to do in Final Cut Pro when editing certain shots together to create collision cutting and changes in pace which my trailer does extremely well. I was inspired initially by the hand held camera in the
trailer REC and the fact I want as an auteur to change the stereotyped representations to be able use a female psycho killer.

Research also allowed me to produce text and intertitles that shook in order to capture my audience but narrating the story slightly so the shots when together made sense. Research into types of camera movements needed were really helpful and allowed me to completely change the pace with tracking shots and handheld camera which I noticed was used in Silent Hill and American Werewolf in London which I analysed and placed on my blog for reference as some pieces of footage I wanted to recreate including the final girl representations.

Overall - Level 3 - Relatively straightforward ideas have been expressed with some clarity and fluency. Arguments are generally relevant, though may stray from the point of the question. There will be some errors of spelling, puntuation and grammar but these are unlikely to be intrusive or obscure meaning.

Explanation/analysis/arugment - Level 4 -
There is a clear sense of progression and of how examples havbe been slected, and a range of articulate reflections on technical skills. There is a fluent evaluation of prograss made over time.

Use of Examples - Candidates offer a mostly clear, mostly relevant and reasonable range of examples of digital technology in relation to creative decisions and outcomes.

Use of Terminology - The answer makes basic use of relevant terminology.

Digital Technology
Creativity
Research and Planning
Post Production
Use of Examples From Actual Texts

A2 Media Exam

Section B –
50 Marks –
1 Hour to answer the question

How do contemporary media represent different collective groups (British Youth and Youth Culture) in different ways?
• This must be the main focus of your essay
• Diverse representations including fiction, non-fiction and self-representation
• Harry Brown, Fish Tank, Attack the Block, The Inbetweeners, London Riots news coverage and internet and self-mediation (Facebook page/Twitter/Blogs)

How does contemporary representations compare with that of the past?
• Examples needed for similarity and difference
• Examples from the past – Quadrophenia – The film and the representations of Mods and Rockers
• Have they changed? – Plato quote (on Zoe’s learnzone blog)

What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?
• Stereotyping – what is its impact?
• What power does the audience have to ‘resist’?
• Propaganda, moral panic, youth as empty categories, cultural hegemony, Stuart hall and reading the texts and their messages
• Statistics on result of these representations on attitudes and beliefs Vs. the reality of the issues

To what extent is human identity increasingly ‘mediated’?
• Increasing media = increasing mediation?
• Re-presentation by others/by selves (Facebook/YouTube (Youthtube))
• Be critical of who is offering the representations and for what purpose
• Mediated: How The Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live in it

Guidance…
• Add your own personal opinion
• What, in your opinion is the future of representations and what are you basing this on?
• Connections must be made between the examples/contrasts are discussed
• You must embed the theory into what you are saying

MUST REFER TO MORE THAN ONE TYPE OF MEDIA (FILM, NEWSPAPER, INTERNET)

Examiner Advice – Structure
• Introduction – start with a quote; paraphrase it and link to issues of identity, representation and the media. State your focus (social group and texts)
• Historical examples
• Contemporary examples
• Connect examples together
• Conclusion – return to start (Summarise). Prediction for the future.
• Use referencing – name and year of publication given after first mention e.g. (Giroux, 1997).
• Quote – paraphrase – critique
• One text older than 5 years
• Other texts should be from within the last 5 years
• Make a prediction for the future

Historical Representations – Example – Significance – Theory – Critique

Contemporary Representations Newspapers – Example – Significance – Theory – Critique

Contemporary Examples Film – Example – Significance – Theory - Critique

Contemporary Examples TV – Example – Significance – Theory - Critique

Connections/Effects

Conclusion…
• Return to the start
• Summarise key idea
• Prediction for the future
• Mass media construct representations of youth from a middle class, adult perspective, for the ideological purpose of maintaining hegemony.
• Impact of new media technologies/internet – more potential for self-representation; limited impact compared to mass media.

Case Study Research

'How have British youth been represented through different media in the London riots?'

The pair shook their heads as the jury foreman returned the unanimous verdicts.
As he left the court, Kafunda said: "You're sending an innocent man down, bruv, innit."
The original attacker had punched Mr Rossli in the face so hard he later needed to have metal plates inserted in his jaw.
He was later identified as Beau Isagba, 17, of Ilford, who will be sentenced for the attack on March 9, the day after his 18th birthday.

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16180945

An 11-year-old boy has been handed an 18-month youth rehabilitation order for stealing a bin during the riots.
Scotland Yard said the child, from Romford in Essex, is the youngest rioter in London to face prosecution.

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16060069

Figures supplied to Westminster North MP Karen Buck by the House of Commons library show that some of the neighbourhoods where the trouble was most extreme last month are characterised not only by high levels of economic deprivation but also by high proportions of 10-to-19 year-olds, sometimes as much as 18%. Wards in Croydon, the southern end of Enfield, Greenwich and, specifically, Haringey's White Hart Lane ward are simultaneously in the top 10% on the deprivation index and 14% or more - over one in seven - of their populations in that 10-19 age group.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/davehillblog/2011/sep/19/london-riots-youth-deprivation-overlap

the riots also reflect the alienation and resentment of many young people in Britain, where one million people from the ages of 16 to 24 are officially unemployed, the most since the deep recession of the mid-1980s.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/world/europe/10youth.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all