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.
Final Cut Pro / Express in comparison to I Movie 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. 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 : Live Type, Blogging, Prezzi, Internet

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
At AS we were creative coming up with ideas
by

At A2 we were more creative coming up with

How it helped us

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

At AS we used questionnaires to

At A2 we improved our use of questionnaires

by

How it helped us

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

How it helped us

At AS we knew this about Photoshop

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.