G325: Section A

Theoretical Perspectives in Media Question 1(a)

Digital Technology
What skills did you learn?

Weblogs
You used www.blogger.com to organise your planning materials. Blogger is an example of Web 2.0 technology (OReilly, 2004). This means that the technology is interactive audiences can post and edit content on the blogs it links to the idea of two-way communication, communication is no longer linear (one way). Web 2.0 software is collaborative.

 In terms of your film trailers it means that audience feedback was posted along with my comments, and you learned how to do this for others. You also uploaded planning materials and evaluations to your weblog. You used Final Cut Express to edit rough cuts, animatics, font tests and voiceover files that had been recorded on the internal microphone or the Boom Microphones. Final Cut Express introduced you to timelines, dissolve and fade transitions, and the layering of audio over images.

YouTube Many of you used YouTube to upload your videos. An example of Web 2.0. and of the We Media (Dan Gillmor 2006), YouTube means that again the technology is interactive because comments can be left but also that the relationship between producers (You) and audiences has changed you are now film makers with a potential audience of millions

Facebook
Many of you used Facebook to create a group that allowed audiences to feedback on your film trailer. This is a positive way to use social networking to find new audiences.

You used the digital video cameras to film your prelims. What are the benefits of the [mini-]DV camera? You then uploaded the footage using a Firewire cable to the Macs. Why Firewire? Whats the importance of connectivity?

You then used Final Cut Express to edit your footage. The prelim task helped you learn continuity editing and framing skills in terms of shot types/angles/positioning & how to use lighting

Filmmaker and designer Mark Towse (2002) details digital video (DV) to be one of the most important advancements in motion picture technology since television. Film production is now not only done by monolithic film production companies, but can be done at home owing to cheap software and hardware. Final Cut Express is one of the most widely used professional software for DV/HDV editing and is the lite version of Final Cut Pro and is a more sophisticated version of iMovie which is on most Macs. You edited footage on a timeline and this enhanced your knowledge of layering video and audio, uploading and using audio and video filters.

The non-linear editing software allowed you to edit footage, and the most popular edits you made in your trailers were split edits (which split the video and audio footage at different times) and cutaways or cross cuts (which were continuity techniques used to allow audiences to experience parallel action of events or receive more information in order to construct narrative).

You should write down the exact effects you used and explain why as part of your preparation for this section of the exam.

Think of these questions as the first part of your revision...

What were the good and bad things about the software and hardware you used at AS in terms of skills development? What are the the good and bad things about software and hardware at A2 in terms of skills development? How did you use your AS filming and editing skills to aid the construction of your main task at A2? What were the good and bad things about developing skills from AS video to A2 video, magazine and poster?

G325: Section A: Theoretical Perspectives in Media

Question 1(a)

Creativity
What skills did you develop?

 A work in progress skills development and future projects? A sense of future direction for other projects? Sense of stylish and artistic development? Challenging conventions or replicating / furthering knowledge of them? Is creativity something unambiguously positive / desirable?

What is creativity?

The making of the new and the rearranging of the old (Bentley, 1997).

Creativity involves thinking or behaving imaginatively. The imaginative activity is purposeful set against a meaningful objective. The processes must generate something original How does this relate to your coursework? This pragmatic approach suggests the creation or bringing something new into existence this particular understanding of creativity involves the physical making of something, leading to some form of communication, expression or revelation. (David Gauntlett) Is it about media language? Mediation: how you communicated a preferred meaning?

Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognize and validate the innovation. (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996) How does this apply to your experience of Media Studies A level?

Roberts Report: Nurturing Creativity in Young People creativity is not only related to the arts but to all subjects, including science and maths, andit should permeate everything children and young people do in, and outside, of school. (p67)
Do you agree?

Does creativity mean you have to shock?

Creativity and your Coursework

Creativity is often prescribed within social boundaries does it have to be controversial? Who is judging the creativity? Is there an agenda? What is the ideology embedded within this creativity? In Media Studies your coursework is influenced by your social / cultural / environmental / biographical background and ideas so how have you been influenced how have you tried to expand the boundaries of the expected?

For your coursework you could look at your creative application of: Composition & Framing (and all other media language elements) Abstract natures of ideologies, representations and identities Narrative Design & Layout Hypertext & Convergence You must take into account the technology you have used and how this has afforded you the opportunities of being creative in some of the above areas: If creativity is not inherent in human mental powers and is, in fact, social and situational, then technological developments may well be linked to advances in the creativity of individual users (Banaji, Burn and Buckingham, 2006).

There is no absolute judgement. All judgements are comparisons of one thing with another (Donald Laming). How could I judge your work? In terms of your work is it a knowledge object or an art object or both? What is its purpose and how have you communicated this?

Think of these questions as the first part of your revision...

1. 2. 3. Do you think you were creative or not throughout your coursework? Did 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/self-identity? Was your product influenced by your environment? Was it 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?

4. 5. 6.

G325: Section A: Theoretical Perspectives in Media

Question 1(a)

Research and Planning

What skills did you learn about the importance of R&P?

Learning research skills from AS to A2

1. Types of Research
Secondary research second hand information work on codes and conventions of texts, use of theory.

Primary first hand textual analysis, audience feedback: questionnaires, vox pops.

 Secondary research Google, class notes, library which textbooks did you use? Internet viewing figures, institution / audience research for film industry etc.
Primary Watching Internet Trailers, Television Trailers,

Write down briefly what you used for all pieces BUT this will require an in-depth assessment of your materials for the write up.

What are the pros and cons of secondary and primary research?

2. Advantages and Disadvantages of sources

The focus is on SKILL progression and changes in methods from AS to A2. You need to think about what you learned about the advantages/disadvantages of:

Expense/Cost
Books? Magazines?

how much did the research cost?

Accessibility Was the research easy to find? Time Was it time consuming? Reliability was the research measured to be

consistent did you find a trustworthy source, was it another students work?

Accuracy Bias

were the facts and figures correct? Did your audience feedback results provide a fair sample of overall opinions? textual analysis can be biased as it is subjective did you complete enough research to overcome this? Were any secondary sources biased?

Validity

was there a link between the particular research and final product? Was there a strong indication that this research effected the outcome of your work e.g you shouldnt have researched magazine covers if you were doing a film poster...

Usefulness

how relevant was this to your project (see validity). OR did any of your research methods prove to be completely useless and why? Could you have used BOOLEAN searches on the internet for example??

3. Organisation of Research
You used your blog to organise ALL of your research. What skills did you learn about organising and referencing materials? (Remember if your research isnt referenced correctly then you will not get full marks).

How did your skills of organisation develop from AS and A2?

4. Planning Pre-Production Requirements

For the planning section of this write-up: Adequate research link this to DIGITAL
TECHNOLOGY where did you find the research?

Drafting

storyboards and drafts for A2 - link to DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY and CREATIVITY how did you construct these? Animatics? Rough Cuts? Tests? Shooting Schedules? Again link to DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY if possible. How did you make sure you collated this what was the development between AS and A2?

Gaining Audience Feedback

 Organisation of time, personnel and equipment

Did you complete on time? Did you meet deadlines? What are the pros and cons of organising cast and crew? What have you learned about communication between cast and crew? Did your knowledge of shooting schedules grow? What could you have done better? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Did you utilise DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY to aid your organisation?

Working individually or as part of a group What did you learn about individual and group work? What are the pros and cons? What main things have you learned about group work at AS and A2 in terms of planning your product?

5. Organisation of Planning Materials

Link to DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY. How did you organise your planning materials?
Did you utilise the blog more at A2 level than at AS? How did you follow your animatics and storyboards what did you understand about changes to be made? Did your cast have copies of shooting schedules and storyboards? How did you explain what you were going to do?

 Did you complete regular blogs and/or work so far posts? Why might this be important in terms of planning both pieces of coursework?

Have you used any of the research and planning skills in other products?

6. Presentation of Research and Planning

How did you present your primary and secondary research on your blogs? We are talking about enhancing CREATIVITY and USE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY Did your presentation of audience feedback / rough cuts for example become more creative through your increased use of digital technology available for embedding on the blogs? Were you actually prompted to do more research and planning by your growing awareness of digital technology?

Think of these questions as the first part of your revision...

Only two questions this time 1. Detail how your understanding of the importance of good research and planning skills developed throughout the pre-production of your AS and A2 coursework. 2. How did your knowledge of digital technology aid your research and planning skills throughout the pre-production of your AS and A2 coursework?

G325: Section A: Theoretical Perspectives in Media Question 1(a)

Using Conventions from Real Media Texts

What skills did you develop in the understanding of the relationship between text and audience i.e. The creation of meaning in texts.

Mediation Encoding and Decoding, Open/Closed Texts You will need to investigate, across AS and A2, how you encoded meaning in texts to give a preferred meaning (Hall, 1980) or closed reading (Eco, 1981) for the audience based on your knowledge of the conventions of real media texts. This is going to involve an assessment of the micro and the macro aspects of your work in relation to your audience.

Macro Analysis
Pre-production: Ideology & Discourse (discussion or debate): Mediation of Ideas, Representation and Debates/Agenda. what were your intended meanings/messages?
Production and Post Production: Form and Style Postmodern? Hybridity, Intertextuality. Medium, Genre, Narrative? how were your meanings/messages communicated?

Micro Elements
What choices did you make in terms of the following in order to communicate your meaning to audience (mode of address)? Media Language: Mise-en-Scene, Camerawork, Editing, Sound

Macro Theory: Ideology and Discourse, and Audience Reception

Stuart Hall (1980) Dominant/Hegemonic reading. Preferred Meanings. Stuart Hall detailed that texts 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.

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 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.

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.

Macro: Meanings and Messages across AS and A2 coursework

TASK 1: What was the purpose of your text?

TASK 2: What were you trying to communicate to the audience? What was the theme? What was the discourse (point of view/agenda debated) in your texts? TASK 3: Who was your target audience and what was the main mode of address (voice)?

Macro Theory - Postmodernism, Genre, Narrative

Postmodern aesthetic: Irony, Parody, Pastiche, Bricolage, Intertextuality. Bricolage is the process of deliberately borrowing or adapting signs or features from different styles or genres to create a new mixture of meanings (OSullivan et. al, 1998). Pastiche: Bog standard copying of conventions or can be done for bricolage effect. Whichever, this ultimately reinforces their importance in culture and society. Parody is a kind of pastiche which makes fun of the subject. Intertextuality is the way in which media texts gain their meanings by referring to other media texts that the producers assume that the reader/decoder will be familiar with and recognise (OSullivan et. al 1998).

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 doesnt make any sense surrealism)?

NOW THINK BACK: Are there additions to the Creativity section now you have studied postmodernism?

TASK 1: How did you pastiche or parody any other media texts? (this includes bricolage and intertextuality).

TASK 2: In relation to the above, can you be more specific in terms of generic conventions of your medium?
TASK 3: In relation to the above, can you be more specific in terms of narrative theory of your medium?

Micro Theory advanced editing Editing is its most literal sense is to remove unwanted elements. In terms of production : for your A2 photographs: 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 (OSullivan, 1998). In terms of post-production: You didnt just decide what elements to put in your images it was what to leave out/take out in order to create meaning.

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).

Think about your trailers and their use of juxtaposition, of montage, of using text and graphics alongside music and images Apply this to your own product : What conventions across AS and A2 did you adhere to? Use the editing theory as part of your answers.

Think of these questions as the first part of your revision...

It is impossible to create a media product that is entirely original. From your own experience discuss the extent to which you used conventions of real media texts to produce your media products and/or to the extent they allowed you to be creative. 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.

G325: Section A: Theoretical Perspectives in Media Question 1(a)

Post Production
What skills did you develop at the stage of post production?

Production and Post Production

Production at AS consisted of filming the prelims and title sequence. Post Production at AS consisted of editing the timelines and putting all the text and graphics and sound together in iMovie 06.

TASK
You have 5 minutes to brainstorm everything you did for your main product at AS at the stage of postproduction. This must be detailed in terms of tools used, the software pros /cons, your strengths /weaknesses.

Production and Post Production

Production at A2 consisted of filming the music video. It also consisted of things like taking photos for your ancillary texts.

Post Production at A2 consisted of editing the footage and audio in Final Cut Express. It also included manipulating the photographs and putting all the text and graphics together on Photoshop.

It may also be useful to consider the videos you produced for your Evaluations as part of your postproduction work

TASK
You have 5 minutes to brainstorm everything you did for your main product at A2 at the stage of postproduction. This must be detailed in terms of tools used, the software pros /cons, your strengths /weaknesses. You should also detail your progression of editing skills at stage of post production between AS and your A2 ancillary tasks.

 Try to think about how you have become more technically competent in terms of your use of digital technology to present work creatively at the stage of post-production.

All of your work should make reference to your knowledge of the KEY MEDIA CONCEPTS.

MEDIA LANGUAGE* REPRESENTATION AUDIENCES INSTITUTIONS

*incorporates Genre + Narrative

So if you were to state that you used FCE solarize tool as a transition you need to explain why you did this in terms of communication/meaning/mode of address for the audience.

E.g. At the stage of post-production there were more advanced transitions effects in the video effects bin on FCE. I used the solarize tool as a transition that would signify a new character in the narrative for the audience. This connotes that this character is important, giving more information about X, enhancing their representation of X. It is also a convention of the teaser trailer to highlight one character, especially the antagonist and/or protagonist.

TASK
You have 5 minutes to link 6 post production choices you made to one or more of the key media concepts.

Links between the areas?

It is vital that you understand that for Q1(a) of this exam that you will be required to answer an evaluation of skills between AS and A2 on either one or two areas. So far we have considered: 1.Digital Technology 2.Creativity 3.Research and Planning 4.Post Production

TASK
We need to start recognising links between these at the different stages of production and there is a choice of 3 essay questions. You therefore have 10 minutes to identify how each area might fit with the others in terms of SKILLS development. e.g. start with DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY in the middle and write the other three areas around it, make notes on how they fit. e.g Research and Planning technology of blogger.com

Choice of 3 questions...remember they start with a statement as below for you to ultimately answer as part of your evaluation.
A media product is primarily created at the stage of editing. In your own experience detail how far the meaning of your product was constructed at the stage of post production.

Creativity is something that is inherent and cannot be learned. In your experience detail how the post production of your media products developed your creative skills.
Consumers are now media producers. In your experience detail how far the post production of your work was enabled by the digital technology available to you.