Unit G325: Section A Theoretical Evaluation of Production

1a) Essay Guidance

There is no formal structure for this answer as it is personal to your skills
You must, remember, however that you are going to have to evaluate the statement
within the
exam answer as part of your evaluation.
You must also remember that consideration of the key media concepts is vital as this
is a
synoptic unit (brings everything together).
Brief Introduction
• Give your answer to the statement.
• State what you produced at AS and A2 and target audience (and any other
media
experience if applicable).
• Sentence that you are going to structure answer by assessing effects of (XXXX -
option(s) that you are writing about e.g. research and planning and creativity etc)
on/at the stages of pre-production, production and post-production.

Pre-Production
Things to include for all questions to discuss development between AS and A2:
• Textual analysis and information gathering,
• Blogger and organising materials,
• Presentation and other technology/software used,
• Brainstorming,
• Drafting and Storyboards,
• Audience Feedback,
• Location scouting and production design,
• Production schedules and call sheets
• Re-drafting after production rushes/feedback.

Link to statement, Remembers pros/cons, strengths weaknesses

Key Concepts & theorists
Form, style, conventions, ‘intertextuality’, Post-modernism, bricolage,
pastiche, audience reception
Genre:Was it a hybrid? Did it have a sub-genre?
What were the stereotypical elements of real media texts that you encoded into your
video?
Narrative: Is it an open / closed narrative? Did it have a beginning, middle and end
or not (i.e. follow a classic narrative structure)? Linear or non-linear? Anti-narrative
(deliberately doesn’t make any sense – surrealism)?
Umberto Eco (1981) – Open and Closed Meaning. Texts aimed at large audiences
(mass) will be encoded so that the majority of the audience can only decode a very
preferred meaning. This is known as a closed text.
An open text is one that has many meanings, or is deliberately ambiguous, and can
be understood in different ways by a number of different audience members.
Macro: Ideology and Discourse, and Audience
Reception
Stuart Hall (1980) – Dominant/Hegemonic reading. Preferred Meanings. Stuart Hall
detailed that texts do have preferred meanings, but the decoder will not always
necessarily read them as intended by the producer as everyone has a different
social/ cultural background. Texts that are meant to communicate hegemony will be
encoded so that they are easily interpreted and understood by a mass audience.
For the ‘Research and Planning’ question this would need great consideration.

Production
Things to include for all questions to discuss development between AS and A2:
• Equipment,
• Filming ,
• Principal photography for posters (filming) and rushes,
• Recording audio,
• Creating banners, design, text shapes,
• Writing articles,
• Camerawork,
• Directing personnel,
• Lighting

Link to statement
Remembers pros/cons, strengths weaknesses
Key Concepts
Composition, depth of field, mise-en-scene, directing the action, using your planning
documents, 180 degree rule in filming, continuity of action, recording sound, using
lighting techniques – source, direction, intensity, colour, the rule of thirds,

Post-Production
Things to include for all questions to discuss development between AS and A2:
• Arranging production materials to create preferred meanings
• Editing footage and audio – tools and specifics used
• Special effects
• Layout design in Photoshop
• Photograph manipulation

Link to statement
Remember: pros/cons, strengths weaknesses

Key Concepts & theorists –

Micro Elements
What editing choices did you make in order to communicate your meaning
to audience (mode of address and persuasion)?
Micro Elements – advanced editing theory
Editing is its most literal sense is to remove unwanted elements.
In terms of production : AS and A2 for your photographs/images: “a
photograph Barthes claimed, involved a mechanical process where the
image – that which is denoted – is recorded, but there is also an expressive,
human and cultural process that involves the selection and interpretation
of such elements as camera angles, framing, lighting and focus”
(O’Sullivan, 1998:33).
In terms of post-production: You didn’t just decide what elements to put in
your images – it was what to leave out/take out in order to create meaning.
What sound did you use to add to the meaning communicated?
Roland Barthes (1979) – Anchorage and Myth
Images can be polysemic and Barthes argued that the meaning of images can be
pinned down to give a preferred meaning through the process of anchorage
(text/music).
Barthes also argued that all texts are encoded in such a way to reinforce dominant,
cultural ideologies or values. The way that a text is encoded makes the
representation seem ‘natural’ or ‘common sense’. This is the concept of ‘myth’.
Editing and Sergei Eisenstein (1920s)
Sergei Eisenstein was a Marxist film maker and teacher of film theory.
Intellectual/Dialectical Montage – process of putting images together so that a
new meaning is created through the juxtaposition. It identifies a struggle between
opposites. It is like putting an image of bankers quaffing wine next to an image of
pigs in swill –it creates a meaning: bankers are like pigs (metaphorical).
Vertical Montage - Create meaning through the juxtaposition of an image with
some other element (text (anchorage) or music).

For the ‘Post Production’ question this would need great consideration.
Therefore for the particular option(s) you would need to adopt a best fit approach and
how
each has an effect on the areas e.g. how did research and planning effect production,
how
were post production decisions affected by pre-production decisions above.

Conclusion
• Round up your learning – strengths and weaknesses.
• Link to statement.
• Future projects link?