1. G325 – Critical Perspectives in Media Section A , Question A – Skills Evaluation of Production

2. Breakdown of Section A The next 3 weeks will introduce you to part of the A2 exam which is worth 50 marks You will be evaluating your AS coursework in terms of the skills you have developed and theories. In the A2 exam you will have 1 hour to answer 2 compulsory questions

3. Section A: Skills Evaluation of Production Question 1(a) describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of your production work – this can include the preliminary tasks, your actual c/w and any other pieces you have created in the past year. In the exam 1 or 2 of the following areas will be selected for you to write about: Digital Technology Creativity Research and planning Post-production Using conventions from real media texts

4. Section A: Skills Evaluation of Production There is some cross over between the 5 areas e.g. for Research and Planning you had to research other film openings/music magazines, which clearly links to “Using conventions from real media texts” , the final bullet point. In pairs brainstorm what you think the 5 areas mean. Your task is to produce a detailed evaluation of your coursework using all 5 areas. The documents you produce will be vital revision aids for the exam next summer. You must use a variety of ICT/digital technology skills when creating your revision documents.

5. ICT/Digital Technology As a media student, it is expected that you are up to date with technology. Therefore you should aim to use as many ways as possible in which to create and display your work: Slideshare Prezi http://prezi.com/ Visio Flickr Tubechop Scribd Jing http://www.jingproject.com/?gclid=CN_R9K_WlaICFY-X2AodnGedEA Film and upload to YouTube Voice record / Xtranormal http://www.xtranormal.com/ Post it note film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUUh9KROqf4

6. Digital Technology You need to consider the skills you have learnt during AS with the following software: Adobe Photoshop. The image manipulation program allowed you to manipulate graphics necessary for the magazine. E.g. crop tools such as Marquee (magic wand), Lassos, and colour converters such as Red Eye Corrector, Colour Variations, Colour Dropper, Dodge and Burn, text tools, picture boxes, shape tools, photograph manipulation, layers etc I-movie enabled you to edit your films/audio files and introduced you to timelines, dissolve/fade transitions, sound effects, Garage band and the layering of audio over images etc Weblogs e.g. blogger which allowed you to regularly post about your research & planning, progress and to display your final piece. It also enabled you to leave comments (audience feedback) on each other’s blogs.

7. Digital Technology You need to consider the skills you have learnt during AS with the following hardware: Digital stills cameras USB cables Lighting Mini DV cameras Tripods Fire wires PC/Mac Mini DV tape

8. Digital Technology What are the pros and cons of the software and hardware you used at AS in terms of skills development? How did you use your skills to aid the construction of your task?

9. Creativity Creativity involves thinking or behaving imaginatively. It might involve challenging conventions or replicating / furthering knowledge of them – what did you do in your c/w? You need to think about the decisions that were made for you (the restrictions put on you by the exam board) e.g. you must make a music magazine or film opening. Then consider the creative choices you made e.g. which type of music magazine or genre of film? etc

10. Creativity How creative do you think you were in the decisions you made when creating your c/w? Did the technology enhance your creativity or not? What ideas did you communicate and what stylistic techniques did you use? How did it relate to your interests/vision of identity? Was your product influenced by your social environmental? Was this original or did you add something extra to an original media text? Would you take any creative skills into future projects or have you been influenced to engage these skills in any other projects?

11. Research and Planning Think about the types of research you carried out: Primary – films, magazines, internet, questionnaires, audience feedback Secondary – internet, textbooks, blogs for theories Advantages/Disadvantages of your sources: Cost of magazines etc Accessibility – easy to find? Time consuming? Reliability of sources? Accuracy of sources? Usefulness of sources?

12. Research and Planning How did you organise your research and planning? E.g. labels, blog etc What did you research? How did drafting help you? How did audience feedback improve your planning? How organised were you? What did you learn about working as part of a group or independently? How did you present your research and planning? E.g. wordle, moodboard, flickr, scribd, slideshare etc

13. Post-production Post Production at AS might have consisted of editing the material and putting all the titles and music together on I movie or editing images and putting text together on Photoshop. This is very similar to the software listed as part of Digital technology (see previous slide). You need to identify all of the steps you took once you had either filmed or photographed – to do this accurately it will be helpful to look at your work and make a list of everything you did in order to get to the finished stage.

14. Using conventions from real media texts What conventions of music magazines/film openings did you apply to your c/w? Identify real media texts and explain how your text is similar and different. “Creativity is always constrained by generic conventions”. To what extent did you adhere to or subvert generic conventions in the creation of your media products.

15. Deadline You have until the new timetable commences (w/b 5th July) – 3 weeks – to complete this task. Save all of the documents in your area ready to upload onto your new A2 blog with your new A2 teacher.