THE EXAM

The A2 exam worth 25% of your final A-level grade and is made
up of 2 separate sections

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Your Production

2 compulsory questions worth 25 marks each = 50 marks

in total

Section B: Contemporary Media Issues

1 question (Question number 2) from a choice of 2 worth
50 marks
There are a selection of optional topics for this section but here
we study Media and Collective Identity so make sure you look
for that on the exam paper!

SECTION A - THEORETICAL EVALUATION OF

PRODUCTIONS

Question 1
A question that requires students to describe and evaluate the
development of their skills over the course of their AS
Production work to their A2 Production work.
The question will ask students to focus their answer on ONE
OR TWO of the following issues:

Digital Technology
Creativity
Research and Planning
Post-Production
Using conventions of real media texts

Candidates can also choose to discuss media products they

have made outside of school during these two years.
On the following pages is a detailed breakdown of things you
could discuss for each of the above 5 topics.
The sections highlighted in green are the most important to
include if you get that question

Digital Technology how your skills have progressed

and how they helped you in your productions
Throughout your essay you should try and give several examples
of real occasions you used these technologies. For example At
AS we started to use Blogger to keep a record of all our
coursework. We had no real experience of blogging prior to this
etc then at A2 we developed our skills with blogger so
instead of having a group blog, we were able to have an
individual one. This gave us more autonomy over our own work
and helped us take more responsibility for all the research and
planning
Intro: Digital technologies have a had a massive influence on media
production over the last few years and since you started in Year 12 you
have learned a massive amount about how to use them and what the
benefits are of using them. They in turn have had a massive impact on
the quality of your finished products.
Adobe Premiere Had zero experience at the beginning and have now
moved from basic editing to more complex editing, effects, transitions,
sound manipulation. Quick to upload so something can be filmed,
uploaded and edited in a matter of minutes. Be specific What specific
techniques did your group use and where?
Social Networking Sites Allows you to communicate with a far wider
network of people than other websites. You could have used this to
gather audience research, upload your video and ask for feedback etc..
Be specific Give an example of something you did using facbook etc
You Tube Allows you to communicate with a far wider network of people
than other websites. Allowed you to research existing opening sequences
and music videos.. you uploaded your opening sequences and used the
feedback / comments that people posted to help you improve when it
came to your A2 productions etc.. Enabled you to post your own video to a
massive audience. Be specific Give example of real video you looked at,
real comment you got etc..
Digital Cameras Never used before. Struggled initially with holding
steady shots, framing etc.. But they allow instant playback, LCD screen,
small, portable (in comparison to larger older bulkier cameras) etc.
Allowed you to film in small spaces, to easily travel all over London to film,
to film something and view it straight away to check if was ok. Now can
easily film a variety of shot types.

Photoshop (you used to use Word and Powerpoint etc) Photoshop

allows manipulation of images, effects, colours, cropping, layering images
and words. Be specific What did YOUR GROUP do on Photoshop?
Other technologies you could mention include : Blogger, Prezi,
slideshare etc
Conclusion: Digital Technology has enabled you (a consumer of media) to
become a producer that can not only make a higher quality media
product, but edit it and distribute it to a wide audience..
To get A & B grades
To get the higher grades on this question, you need to ensure you are not
just DESCRIBING how your skills developed. Instead you need to focus on
the EVALUATE part. To EVALUATE you could comment on any of the
following throughout your work

HOW important digital technology was

WHY was digital technology important

WHAT EFFECT did digital technology have on your final work

WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without digital

technology?

HOW did digital technology benefit you?

To Prepare:
In this space write at least one example of something specific you
did with this technology and explain how it helped you

Technology
At AS we used Premiere Pro to

At A2 we used Premiere Pro in a

different way

At AS we used Facebook..

How it helped us

At A2 we used Facebook in a
different way

At AS we used You Tube to..

At A2 we used You Tube in a

different way

At AS we used Digital Cameras

to

At A2 we used Digital Cameras in

a different way

At AS we used
Fireworks/Photoshop to

At A2 we used
Fireworks/Photoshop in a
different way

Creativity - how your skills have progressed and how

they helped you in your productions
Intro - What IS Creativity DEFINE IT - It is the making of new things
and the re-arranging of the old. eg the ability to have your OWN ideas
and not just copy other peoples. The ability to do things that are unusual
and different etc..
Where did your original ideas come from? How did you increase
your ability to come up with your own ideas? Did you mind map? Did you
share ideas? Did you do creative types of research eg not just
questionnaires with people you knew, but using You Tube to get comments
from people around the world, etc. Give real, specific examples.
Locations / Sets / Costumes At first you chose locations that were
near by and easy to access (give example) Then at A2 you were more
creative in your choices (give example) Did you choose unusual ones?
Did it take creative planning to adapt them? Be specific What creative
locations did you use? Why did using creative locations help your
production?
Camera At first your shots and filming were practical. You filmed a
medium shot because you hadnt considered doing anything else. In your
prelim task at AS you had a set of specific camera shots to include. For
AS, your camera skills were quite basic. Now you have developed so you
started filming in a more creative way eg high / low angles, putting the
camera on the floor, in the fridge, using stop motion, green screening etc..
Be specific giving real examples of creative camera shots you used and
explain how they made your production better
Editing At first you werent very creative. Editing was functional putting
shots next to shots to create some meaning for your AS opening
sequence.. However you couldnt do that at A2 as just having a narrative
wasnt enough.. you needed to create energy and engage the audience
and edit to the flow of the music using effects etc ... be specific, give real
examples of creative editing you tried and explain what impact they had
on your production
Genre / Conventions How have you developed your use of genre /
conventions from just copying conventions, to instead, being able to
challenge and subvert conventions of genres. Were you creative by
combining genres?
Casting At AS you werent very creative in your casting.. Chose people
who were friends etc.. Then you became more creative at casting

including sending out facebook messages, holding auditions etc.. How

were you creative in your casting? Be specific. What impact did this
have?
Photoshop - Never used before. When using Word / Publisher your
creativity was stifled because you are limited in how much you can edit
the images. Photoshop allowed you to manipulate images etc.. Be
specific, give real examples of creative Photoshop work you did
Conclusion
Certain Restraints on your creativity in place from exam board - you HAD
to make a music video, digipak, poster etc.. These rules do limit your
ability to be creative to a certain extent
Not easy to just be creative. You actually needed to do practical things
like research, paperwork, storyboards etc to ALLOW you to develop our
creativity. Without solid research and planning, being creative was
impossible. You needed a balance of organised AND creative people in a
group to be successful.
You cant just BE creative. Often it is a learning process where you start
by being told what to do, then you try doing things on your own and then
you end up being confident and skilled enough to experiment which leads
to creativity. You have to make mistakes at first to be creative.

To get A & B grades

To get the higher grades on this question, you need to ensure you are not
just DESCRIBING how your creativity developed. Instead you need to
focus on the EVALUATE part. To EVALUATE you could comment on any of
the following throughout your work

HOW important creativity was

WHY was creativity important

WHAT EFFECT did creativity have on your final work

What PROBLEMS are there with being creative?

WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without creativity?

HOW did creativity benefit you?

Creativity
How it helped us
At AS we were creative coming up
with ideas by

At A2 we were more creative

coming up with ideas by

At AS we were creative choosing

locations by..

At A2 we were more creative

choosing locations by

At AS we chose costumes by

At A2 we were more creative with

our costumes by

At AS we copied conventions of
the genre for example

At A2 we were more creative with

the conventions for example

At AS we used basic editing

techniques such as

At A2 we were more creative with

our editing for example

Research & Planning - how your skills have progressed

and how they helped you in your productions
Intro: Research & Planning have played a huge role in all of your
production work so far and hence your skills in R&P have developed
massively. Your research and planning have made your production work
develop in terms of quality.
Audience questionnaires allowed you to find out who your target
audience was, what they wanted, what they liked etc.. Be specific, what
did you find out from your questionnaires? How did you improve your use
of questionnaires at A2? Asked better people to complete them? Wrote
better, more focused questions? Qualitative and Quantitative questions
Audience focus groups (both before and after) same as above,
allowed you to personally interact with your target audience, delve
deeper, get them to clarify what they mean etc.. Focus groups after
production helped you to see if youd achieved your goals. At the
beginning many people didnt know how to do a focus group, or what
questions to ask. Now at A2 you are confident talking directly to the
audience members, asking the right questions etc. Be specific with things
you asked your focus group or what they said
Looking at real film opening sequences /music videos At first your
analysis was mainly descriptive, as you simply watched the opening
sequences on You Tube / DVDs and described what you saw.. but as your
analytical skills have developed at A2 your ability to use these as research
has developed too.. Now you can deconstruct a piece of footage in tiny
detail, commenting on colour, camera angle, shot size etc.. Be specific
with what real texts you looked at and what you learned from them. You
now watch a wider variety of texts (not just famous ones) and also
watched student made work which helped you see what was possible on
zero budget with school equipment.
Storyboarding / Shotlists Never done storyboarding before A-Level..
First storyboards at AS tended to be simple, with mainly pictures, and very
little shot description or editing information. Now as you have developed
your technical skills, your ability to create detailed storyboards have
developed.. these are useful to give the crew a specific idea of what to
shoot (useful if someone is absent) and helps you to focus on getting
particular shots rather than just filming random stuff. Helped you get the
right amount and type of footage.
Location recces Never did one at AS, you just filmed in local places eg
school.. At A2 you have learned to check for other aspects such as noise

levels, power points to plug in equipment, health & safety, availability etc.
Plus you have sourced more interesting, exciting locations.

Casting At beginning you tended to cast friends, students etc.. Quickly

learned that people were unreliable, or didnt look right for the part etc..
Now you are able to cast the right people for the role, hold auditions, do
test shots, try them out on camera to see if they can act etc.. be specific
with real casting issues you had
Prelim The prelim in Year 12 helped you to develop skills you didnt
have before such as framing, different angles, 180 degree rule etc.. For
music videos you did a prelim task that involved shooting material for a
quick song and then re-editing it for a slow song. Some of you also made
a trial sequence for a Britney Spears video. How did this help you
progress? Be specific with real issues you had. If you hadnt done the
prelims, what problems might you have encountered?
Conclusion: Research & planning skills have changed you from a
producer of basic media texts, into a producer of complex quality media
texts. R&P skills are essential to making someone a better, more creative
producer of media.
To get A & B grades
To get the higher grades on this question, you need to ensure you are not
just DESCRIBING how your research and planning developed. Instead you
need to focus on the EVALUATE part. To EVALUATE you could comment on
any of the following throughout your work

HOW important research and planning was

WHY was research and planning important

WHAT EFFECT did research and planning have on your final work

What PROBLEMS are there with research and planning?

WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without research and
planning?

HOW did research and planning benefit you?

Research and Planning

How it helped us

At AS we used questionnaires to

At A2 we improved our use of

questionnaires by

At AS we used focus groups to

At A2 we improved our use of

focus groups by

At AS we examined real opening

sequences such as / in order to

At A2 we improved our research /

analysis of real texts by

At AS we used storyboards for

At A2 we improved our use of

storyboards by

At AS we completed prelim tasks

to

At A2 we improved the way we

used the prelim task by

Post Production - how your skills have progressed and

how they helped you in your productions
Intro: You have gone from knowing virtually nothing about post
production to now being able to complete complex editing of video, sound
and graphics..
Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 etc Had zero experience at the beginning
and have now moved from basic editing to more complex editing, effects,
transitions, sound manipulation. Quick to upload so something can be
filmed, uploaded and edited in a matter of minutes. Can also export your
movie to allow you to upload it online etc How did this change the
footage that you had? be specific with real tools and effects you used
and how it helped eg chroma keying, green screen, stop motion animation
etc
Specific about premiere pro tools you specialised in compare what
special effects you used last year and this year. What are the differences.
Why was this useful?
Photoshop (you used to use Word and Powerpoint etc) At A2
Photoshop allows manipulation of images, effects, colours, cropping,
layering images and words - How did this change the footage that you
had? Be specific with real effects you tried on Photoshop
You Tube / Redrafting / Peer Assessment At AS, you just uploaded
your final version to You Tube and left it there. At A2, after editing you
uploaded your opening sequences you used the feedback / comments that
people posted to help you improve it further and make multiple
improvements.. be specific with real comments you got and how this
helped your post production
Wix.com
What did you use to make your digipak?
Anything else?
Conclusion: Your post production skills have developed hugely and has
enabled you to take a simple piece of footage and turn it into something
complex and creative.

To get A & B grades

To get the higher grades on this question, you need to ensure you are not
just DESCRIBING how your post production skills developed. Instead you
need to focus on the EVALUATE part. To EVALUATE you could comment on
any of the following throughout your work

HOW important post production skills were

WHY were post production skills important

WHAT EFFECT did post production skills have on your final work

What PROBLEMS are there with your post production skills?

WHAT would you NOT have been able to do without post production
skills?

HOW did post production skills benefit you?

Post production
At AS we used Adobe Premiere...

At A2 we improved our editing

skills on Premiere by
At AS we used tools for film
sound...

At A2 we improved our use

At AS we knew this about

Photoshop

How it helped us

At A2 we improved our
understanding of Photoshop by

At AS we got feedback after the

production by..

At A2 we improved post
production feedback by

Use of Real media Conventions

Conventions are the common features of a particular type of media or a
particular genre.
Introduction Over the two year course you have learned a lot about,
not just what the conventions of particular forms and genres are, but how
to use them in creative ways in your own work
Main:
Prelim task you included different types of camera shot, and editing
techniques. But did you make the genre clear of what you were doing?
Did you colour grade it? Did you change the sound levels or add sound /
editing effects? Probably not.. So your use of conventions was very
limited. Although you could probably name a few conventions of horror /
action etc you didnt actually know how to use them in your work yet. At
A2 you were more confident with your technical abilities which meant you
could use the prelim task to experiment with conventions of the genre
give example
Your genre - At AS, how did you identify what the conventions were of
your film genre? What videos did you watch and what were the
conventions you found? How easy was it to identify the conventions?

Then show development by discussing A2 What did you do differently to

identify the conventions of the genre? Did you look at videos AND theory
(Andrew Goodwin / Laura Mulvey)? This was likely to be a lot harder as
music videos often belong to 2 or more genres and many genres of music
have very few semantic elements (eg visual conventions). Discuss
some videos you watched and identify what you thought the main
conventions of your genre were. How did using media theory to identify
conventions help you at A2?
Camera At AS, what camera shots / movements did you use that are
conventional of horror films? For A2, give an example of how you used
conventional camera work for music videos in your video. At A2, your
camera work may have been more about being creative. Explain how you
pushed the boundaries with your camera work at A2? What did you do
differently?
Mise-En-Scene At AS, what mise-en-scene did you use that was
conventional of horror films? (costumes, locations, colours etc) and what
effect might these have had on the audience? At A2, give some examples
of mise-en-scene you chose that was conventional of your genre. You
could discuss how at A2 your mise-en-scene was likely to be more creative
because of how you have developed your sense of how elements can
communicate meaning to an audience. Where as AS was about what was
convenient and easy, at A2, you deliberately chose locations and
costumes that were more planned to signify a meaning, more creative etc.
Give an example of how you pushed yourself with your mise-en-scene at
A2? What did you do differently?
Editing At AS, what editing techniques did you use that were
conventional of horror films? (cuts, dissolves, flash to white, wipes, colour
grading, other effects etc) and say why you used them. At A2, give some
examples of editing you chose that was conventional of your genre. You
could discuss how at A2 your editing HAD to be more creative as when
you researched videos (give example) you discovered that most videos
have fast paced shots lasting less than 3 seconds which meant your
editing had to be faster, more visually interesting (to engage an audience
instantly) etc. Give an example of how you pushed yourself with your
editing at A2? What did you do differently?
Sound At AS, what sound techniques did you use that were
conventional of horror films? (diegetic, non diegetic, sound effects, sound
bridges, soundtrack, dialogue etc) and say why you used them. At A2,
you were very restricted with your use of sound as most of you just used
whatever came on the music track itself. However this forced you to

become more creative. If you did add sound / dialogue on, then give an
example of where you did this and why. If you did, you could explain how
actually, not being able to manipulate or cut the sound made the process
more difficult as you had to ensure all the miming of the lyrics complete
matched, at the right pace etc. Give example of how you did this or
problems you encountered and how you solved them. ]
Conclusion At AS, you were still learning about the concept of genre,
and felt as though conventions were very much easily identifiable and set
in stone. Many of you ensured that you followed lots of your genres
conventions in your AS work. However by the time you reached A2, you
learned that genre is much more of a fluid concept, less easy to define,
especially within music, and this led to you being confident enough to
both follow and challenge conventions of your genre, pushing the
boundaries throughout which impacted your creativity.