Exam Style Question Plan

"Sometimes working within constraints produces the most interesting work" (Branston and Strafford) How have you used real media conventions to produce interesting or effective coursework productions?

Key questions I must cover in my essay:

What does the quote mean and do you agree or disagree?

- The quote means that sometimes working within media conventions can produce the most interesting work.

- I disagree, as creating innovative products is just as important as creating innovative products, which most of the time means thinking outside the box and breaking the conventions. Going against the norm is what modernises products.

4 conventions from each media piece:

Thriller - typically went along with the conventions as it was my first production piece and was apprehensive about breaking the mold. Conventions used were:

• Creating a sense of fear/apprehension/anticipation
• Using a realistic setting to create a sense of 'the unusual' occurring within a normal setting
• Twists and unexpected turns
• Establishing mood and atmosphere

Music video - was able to break more conventions and experiment more. Conventions used were:

• Music and visuals are related
• Lots of close up of artist
• Intertextual references
• References to voyeurism

Broke the convention of using a particular video style for particular music (e.g. rock music using live performance) and was able to encompass the 3 main video styles into one music video - performance, narrative and concept.

Also did not use images of instruments or mouth close ups to emphasize sounds because it was not relevant with my video idea.

Has this made your products more interesting, convincing or effective?

- Following conventions in thriller made it more convincing, and following conventions in my music video made it more effective, however breaking conventions in my music video made it more interesting.

How does your use or challenging of these conventions show progression?

- The fact I was able to challenge more conventions in my music video shows progression by showing how I had become more comfortable with experimenting with different ideas and wanting to make something original rather than following the conventional techniques of a music video.

Did you have a better understanding of the conventions in the advanced portfolio?

- Yes and they were more subtle conventions that were easier to challenge without drastically changing the theme of the music video, unlike with the thriller where if you didn't use the convention of eerie music your thriller would lose its suspense.

Did you think more carefully about which conventions to follow and which to ignore?

- Yes because some conventions fitted certain genres of music and I didn't want my music video to be generic to a typical genre of music, therefore chose to stay away from genre specific conventions and focus on the more generic conventions in order to keep my music video more original.

Did you look at a more specific set of genre specific conventions?

-Yes but chose to ignore them.

How did this make your product more effective?

- It made it more original as I used the knowledge I had learnt from the different genre conventions to try and encompass them all into my music video in order to not be labeled as a specific type of video, giving the audience more variety and making it more interesting to watch.

Did you take more risks in challenging the conventions in your advanced portfolio and why?

- Yes because I was more comfortable about thinking outside the box to make a more original and innovative product. I believe these risks were beneficial in making a media product that my target audience and others could enjoy as it helped my product be relatable to all genres.

Real Media Conventions

Conventions I have used in my as Thriller opening

A typical convention of the thriller genre is creating a sense of fear/apprehension/anticipation. I was able to do this by using eerie background music (another convention) which increased in pace as the thriller built up to the action. I felt this would be beneficial to my thriller opening as it would create an intense atmosphere keeping the audience on the edge of their seat as the unsettling feeling the music created gave the audience the idea that something was going to jump out at them. This was effective as I found in my audience feedback that people were actually scared when watching my thriller opening sequence and this was intensified by the eerie background music. I also feel my thriller would not have been as successful without the music as this created a heightened sense of fear and anticipation that wouldn't have been felt if I had used happier music or no background music at all.

Another convention I used was using a realistic setting to create a sense of 'the unusual' occuring within a normal setting. As my thriller was set in a family home where two girls were just having a quiet girly night in when they were suddenly attacked by a known serial killer, I believe that fits this convention well. I used a natural setting because I felt this would create more fear and apprehension amongst my audience as they would start to think that this could happen to them in their home, therefore making the thriller seem more realistic and relatable. Many people noted in my audience feedback that they felt the location was realistic and they also felt more afraid because of how realistic it was, therefore I think my use of this convention in my thriller opening was successful.

A further convention used was twists and unexpected turns. In my thriller there was a scene where the 'intruder' (the known serial killer) was in the house without the girls knowing. They heard glass smash in the next room and went to investigate the noise, finding the window wide open and a picture smashed on the ground. This led them to believe that the intruder had escaped through the window after dropping the picture and so they went to call the police. However, as the turned to leave the room the intruder was standing behind them with a knife. I used this twist in the plot to create a false sense of the audience feeling like the girls were safe, an then suddenly showing them that the intruder was still there to put them back on the edge of their seat. This made the audience jump and create a more intense sense of fear as after it had been shown that the intruder was still there the screen faded to black to show the film title. This implored the audience to keep watching to find out what happened to the girls and to see if the intruder was ever caught, therefore successfully keeping the audience on the edge of there seat and creating suspense.

I was also able to use all the conventions above and more in using the convention of establishing mood and atmosphere throughout my thriller opening. My use of eerie music, unexpected twists and turns and use of a realistic setting all created an unsettling atmosphere however the use of lighting and colours also did this. I used dark, shadowy lighting in the scenes where the intruder was included, so establish a fearful, unsettling atmosphere and to make it clear that he was the antagonist. Effectively creating a dark atmosphere whenever he was around. I also used bright, light colours in the scenes with the girls to give connotations of purity and innocence, and to give them an almost angelic feel, so that the audience felt sympathy for them. In the scene where the intruder and the girls finally meet I continued to use the bright lights but used a vignette editing effect on a close up of the intruders face to represent the mixture of good and evil coming together. 

Conventions used in my music video

Music and visuals are related

Lots of close up of artist

Intertextual references

References to voyeurism

Timed Essay

“The post-production process can be the most important part of the filming process.”

How important has the post-production stage been in your foundation and advanced portfolios and how have your skills developed over these two years?

Across the two years I have studied Media I have been able to use post-production techniques for three products – my preliminary task at AS, my thriller opening title sequence at AS, and my music video production at A2. The post-production stage has been vital in these products, as it has given me the opportunity to provide meaning through creative editing techniques.

In my thriller opening title sequence at AS, post-production was important when trying to give the product a horror undertone. I was able to use sound effects such as eerie background music (a convention of thriller films) throughout to set the tone and make the audience feel on edge, creating suspense. This was vital as engaged my audience and made them want to continue watching. I also used the sound effect of glass crashing when the vilain dropped a picture frame, this enabled me to use a loud, shocking sound effect to frighten the audience and, again, keep them on edge.  

I was also able to use slowly increasing cuts in order to set the pace of my thriller opening. When editing in iMovie I was able to create quick cuts towards the end of the product to increase tension and show the terror that the victims felt in the situation they were in. These increasingly fast cuts symbolised the increasing heart rates of the girls, symbolising their fear and anxiety.

Another editing technique I was able to use in post-production for this product was titles. I was able to use the ‘titles’ tool on iMovie and splice these in between scenes to show that this was an opening title sequence to a thriller film. For these titles I was able to use an eerie looking font that marqueed from left to right to go with the horror undertones of my thriller, making the colours of the fonts red, black and white which are conventional colours of a thriller film. I found in my feedback this was very succesful in maintaining a creepy atmosphere.

In my second production at A2 (my music video) I was able to use more creative editing techniques in post-production than in my AS product. This is because I had almost used my AS production as a way of becoming comfortable with the editing software (iMovie) and was now more confident in pushing the mark with this product.

In my music video I was able to use split screen to show a girl in one situation with two different outcomes, showing her expectations and the reality of the situation. This, I found in my audience feedback, was particularly effective as I had used many different situations which implored my audience to keep watching to find out whether the girls reality was ever better or as good as her expectations. I had also intertextuality when it came to the split screen effect, as it was inspired by the film (500) Days of Summer which features split screen showing the main characters expectations of a situation and the reality.

Much like my AS thriller opening I was also able to use titles in my music video, however these were used in a more interesting and creative way. In order to convey the meaning of the expecations and reality sides of the split screen, I added titles at the bottom of each side of the screen to make it clear with ‘Expectations’ being on the left and ‘Reality’ on the right. My audience feedback showed that this was succesful  in conveying the meaning and my audience particularly liked this effect.

Also in my music video I was (again, like my AS thriller opening) able to use increasingly fast cuts. I feel this was more succesful in my music video, as I created quick cut montages (a convention of music videos) to show flashbacks of the main character and was able to quickly splice together many different angles of the same shot to give a variety of shots which kept my audience entertained.

I also used colourisation in my music video to convey that the expectations and reality situations were actually flashbacks. I did this by adding a black and white filter over these shots in iMovie during editing to make the meaning more clear to my audience. I also used a vignette filter over scenes of my artist lip sycning in order for it to stand out among the situations. This was important as it distinguished the two different sides of the music video.

I have found that although I used similar post-production techniques in both of my products, I was able to use them more creatively and effectively in my A2 music video, enabling me to convey the meaning behind the video more clearly and making it look more realistic.

How I've been creative over my two pieces of coursework

• In the words of Bentley, creativity is "The making of the new and the rearranging of the old". I was able to do this in my A2 music video by using intertextuality in the way of movies, taking inspiration from the film '500 Days of Summer' but rearranging the idea to make a new product in my own way. I took inspiration from the idea of using a split screen to show what would happen in a situations regarding expectations and reality. I did this in my music video, however in the film this is used so show the expectations and reality of a relationship whereas I used it to show the expectations and reality of general life events. I was also able to do this with my thriller opening sequence as part of my AS coursework, using dialog which I had seen in previous thriller/horror films such as 'Scream' but rearranging how it was presented to fit the plot of my own thriller.

• I was also able to use rule breaking/boundary testing to challenge the conventions in both my thriller opening sequence and my music video. Again with the topic of using dialog in my opening sequence, I found that this was not a typical convention of thriller films with the opening sequences usually consisting of random images such as those seen in the film Seven or digitally constructed images as seen in the film Hostage. I also had a story in my opening sequence which is not typically seen in thriller films, and therefore challenged the conventions. Regarding my music video, I found that it was typically seen that a music video would be performance based, concept based, narrative based or sometimes a mix of two. However my music video has elements of all three, with shots of my artist lip syncing to the music to represent performance, the character having a story representing the narrative but making it conceptual by not giving the story a beginning, middle and end, rather using random general situations from her life.

• Anthony Storr says creativity is "the ability to bring something new into existence", meaning to create a modern, innovative and original product. I was able to do with with my music video and promotional ancillary tasks for my A2 coursework using the star image motif of split screens. I used split screens in my music video to show how a certain situation would turn out in the characters life regarding expectations and reality, something original that I had not seen in any other music video that I researched. I also carried this theme through to my ancillary tasks using a split screen on my digipak cover through a close up of my artists face, the left side looking visibly upset and the right side looking visibly happy, representing both the song I used and the album name "Heartbreak Beautiful". This, again, was not something I had seen on any other album cover I researched and therefore feel it was a modern, innovative and original idea.

(I have not included my thriller opening sequence in the above paragraph because I have yet to see how I can relate this.)

Media Theorists

Here are just three theorists and an overview of their theories. Try to find out about at least 10 - 15 media theories for G325 Question 1 (a) and (b) and have them at your fingertips for the exam. Remember - you must apply them to your own work.

Roland Barthes:

Roland Barthes concentrated some of his work on a discussion of how myth operates in society and he discussed this in the context of denotation and connotation.
Connotation and denotation are often described in terms of levels of representation or levels of meaning.
Denotation - the literal, 'obvious' or 'commonsense' meaning of an image.
Connotation - is used to refer to the socio-cultural and 'personal' associations (ideological, emotional etc.) of the image. These are typically related to the interpreter's class, age, gender, ethnicity and so on. Images are more open to interpretation - in their connotations than their denotations.

Stuart Hall

Stuart Hall suggests that there are three different positions that the reader of a text can occupy when trying to interpret a text, they are:

Preferred Reading

Negotiated Reading

Oppositional Reading

Preferred reading is when the reader fully shares the text's codes and accepts and reproduces the preferred reading i.e. the most dominant reading.


Negotiated reading is when the reader partly shares the text's codes and broadly accepts the preferred reading, but sometimes resists and modifies it in a way which reflects their own position, experiences and interests - this position involves contradictions.

Oppositional reading is when the reader, whose social situation places them in a directly oppositional relation to the dominant code, understands the preferred reading but does not share the text's code and rejects this reading, bringing to bear an alternative frame of reference (radical, feminist etc.).

In this instance a 'code' can be interpreted as what a text says.

Ferdinand de Saussure:

Semiotics is the study of the social production of meaning from sign systems. Saussure stated that a sign could be made up of something which physically resembles the object in some way (icon), or has a direct link between it and its object, it is somehow connected i.e. smoke indicates fire (index) or it can be something with no resemblance at all and it communicates only because people agree that it shall stand for what it does (symbol).

The reading of a sign is determined by cultural experience of the reader. Semiotics pays great attention to the role of the reader in realising and producing meanings out of texts.

Useful web link
http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html

Mark Scheme for Question 1A

Explanation/ analysis/argument (9-10 marks) 
There is a clear sense of progression established by the answer, and a range of articulate reflections on the production process are offered.

Use of examples (9-10 marks) 
Candidates offer a broad range of specific, relevant and clear examples in relation to creative skills development. 

Use of terminology (5 marks) 
The use of both production terms and conceptual media terminology applied throughout is excellent.

G325 Exam Overview

The purpose of this exam is to assess your knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates, through your understanding of one contemporary media issue and your ability to evaluate your own practical work in reflective and theoretical ways.
The examination:
• two hours
• two compulsory questions
• Total marks available: 100 (two questions on production work marked out of 25 each, and the media theory question marked out of 50.)

There are two sections to this paper:

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 marks)
Section B: Contemporary Media Issues (50 marks)

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production
2 compulsory questions.

Question 1(a) describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of your production work, from Thriller Opening (AS) to Music Video (A2). The focus of this evaluation must be on skills development, and the question will require you to adapt this to one or two specific production practices. The list of practices to which questions will relate is as follows:

• Digital Technology
• Creativity
• Research and planning
• Post-production
• Using conventions from real media texts

Question 1(b) requires you to select one production and evaluate it in relation to a media concept. The list of concepts to which questions will relate is as follows:
• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media language


EXAMPLE QUESTION

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production
You must answer both 1(a) and 1(b).
In this section you need to write about your work for the Foundation Portfolio and Advanced Portfolio units. You must answer both 1(a) and 1(b).

1 (a) “Digital technology turns media consumers into media producers”. In your own experience, how has your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete your coursework productions? [25]

(b) “Media texts rely on cultural experiences in order for audiences to easily make sense of narratives”. Explain how you used conventional and / or experimental narrative approaches in one of your production pieces. [25]