RevisionSection A1a

Question 1Synoptic question: reflection on all your practical work from AS A2Digital Technology Creativity Research and planning Post-production Using conventions from real media texts

Sample Questions 1aRESEARCH AND PLANNINGHow have your research and planning skills progressed and allowed you to makemore creative decisions?CREATIVITYIn what ways have you become more creative over the course and how has this led toyour media products becoming stronger?DIGITAL TECHNOLOGYHow have your skills at using digital technology improved over the course andallowed you to take a more creative approach to media production?POST-PRODUCTIONHow have your post-production skills improved over time and how has this led togreater creativity in your treatment of material?USING CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTSIn what ways have your skills in applying the conventions of real media productsimproved over the course and allowed you to take a more creative approach to mediaproduction?

Digital technologiesWhat technologies did you use?How did you create your effect?Why did you create that effect?How did digital technology help you create your product?

Your production and Digital technologyHow many different technologies did you use for this one product?What type of editing?What effects did you use?What transitions did you use?What titles did you use?What sound effects did you use?How did digital technology aid your creativity?How did you develop? (AS-A2)

Exemplar Essay level 4In Narrative booklet:

Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

Digital Technology L4 Answer hasClear vision for their productionDiscussion of video and print tasksDetailed descriptions on techniques usedClear purpose to how and why they intended to use the technologyHow their skills improved from AS to A2?What they learntHow digital technology enabled them to be more creative?

Research and planning

Research and PlanningWhat primary and secondary research was undertaken? How did it inform the production?

What quantitative and qualitative analysis methods were employed? How did the results from these inform the production?

How did the pre production aid your production? What changed? What did you learn?

Research essayResearchRecognise conventionsUnderstand genreUnderstand style and techniquesVisualise your productAttract your audienceInspiration of techniquesRe-createUnconventional representationsHow did your research skills develop from AS to A2? (e.g analysing print AV, paper questionnaires to vox pops/social networking)

Planning essayPlanningTime to organiseConventionsTechnologyCreative process A process needed for problem solvingVisualise (character casting/location scouting)Apply the conventionsRecreate genreRepresentationsCreate existing and new styles and techniquesHow did your planning skills develop from AS-A2? (e.g. print planning to AV planning?)

Post production

Post productionsWhat editing decisions were made? How did they inform the production?

What particular editing tools were used and to what effect?

How did the post production process enhance the overall production?

Post-Production EssayPost ProductionWhat was your visionWhat styles and techniquesHow did you create these styles and techniques with digital technology?Be specific what tools did you use?What effect did you create in post-production?How did post-production help you create your product?Was your initial aim successful/unsuccessful with the use of post-production?How did your post production skills develop from AS to A2? (e.g. using photoshop premiere)

Generic conventions What did you learn from your real media texts?What are the generic conventions of your real media texts?How did that help you produce your production?What generic conventions did you use?Did they work?

Generic conventions In what ways were media conventions adhered to? For example did a music have fast paced editing? Did your music video have a performance?

What representations did you use that were appropriate to the product?

Real media texts EssayHow did research and planning aid your understanding of generic conventions?What were the generic conventions?What inspiration did you take from the real media texts?What conventions did you challenge from the real media texts?How did digital technology allow you to become to creative with the generic conventions learnt from the real media texts?How did your understanding of real media texts develop from AS to A2? (e.g. print to AV music mags horror/music video?)

Question 1a essay structureparagraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short. paragraph 2 should pick up the skill area and perhaps suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. use an example. paragraph 3 should talk through your use of that skill in early projects and what you learned and developed through these. again there should be examples to support all that you say. paragraph 4 should go on to demonstrate how the skill developed in later projects, again backed by examples, and reflecting back on how this represents moves forward for you from your early position. paragraph 5 short conclusion Remember it's only half an hour and you need to range across all your work!