Here are the key points to cover in your genre analysis of your production for Section A Question 1b: - State the genre of your production (e.g. horror, comedy, thriller etc.) - Identify the codes and conventions typical of this genre (e.g. for horror - scary music, dark lighting, violent scenes etc.) - Explain how these codes and conventions are established in your production through specific examples from it - Analyze how the mise-en-scène (sets, props, costumes, locations etc.) support and signify the genre - Discuss any themes commonly associated with the genre that are present - Consider if your production adheres to or subverts

1. G325 -
The Exam
Theoretical Evaluation of
Production

2. Intro
 The whole exam will be marked out of a total
of 100 marks, with two questions on
production work marked out of 25 each, and
the media theory question marked out of 50.
 Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Student
Production (50 marks)
 Section B: Contemporary Media Issues (50
marks)

3.  The purpose of section A is to assess your
knowledge and understanding of media
concepts, contexts and critical debates. You
are to show your understanding of one
contemporary media issue and evaluate your
own practical work in reflective and theoretical
ways.

4. Section A Question 1a skills
development
 Question 1a students are asked to write about
their work for the Foundation Portfolio and
Advanced Portfolio units. Students need to
describe how they developed research and
planning skills for media production and evaluate
how these skills contributed to creative decision
making. They should refer to a range of examples
in their answers to show how these skills
developed over time.

5. The focus of this evaluation is
on skills development
 The question will require students to adapt
this and focus on one or two specific
production practices from this list:
 Digital Technology
 Creativity
 Research and Planning
 Post-production
 Using conventions from real media texts

6.  Specific and in depth description of the
skills in question must be included
 E.g. how was the razor blade tool used in
Premiere to edit a clip placed in the timeline?
 Explicit descriptions of progress between
the two units MUST be shown.

7. Section A Question 1b-
Production evaluation
 The second question 1(b) in section A of the exam
asks students to identify one of their productions
and evaluate it in relation to one theoretical media
concept from:
 Genre
 Narrative
 Representation
 Audience
 Media Language

8. Question 1a
 Paragraph 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

9. Production
 What production activities have you done?
 This should include both the main task and
preliminary task from AS and the main and
ancillaries at A2 plus any non-assessed activities
you have done as practice, and additionally
anything you have done outside the course which
you might want to refer to, such as films made for
other courses or skateboard videos made with
your mates if you think you can make them
relevant to your answer.

10. Digital technology
 What digital technology have you used?
 This should not be too hard- include hardware
(cameras, phones for pictures/audio,
computers and anything else you used)
software (on your computer) and online
programs, such as blogger, youtube etc

11. Creativity
 In what ways can the work you have done be
described as creative?

 This is a difficult question and one that does
not have a correct answer as such, but ought
to give you food for thought.

12. Research
 What different forms of research did you do?

 Again you will need to include a variety of
examples- institutional research (such as on how
titles work in film openings), audience research
(before you made your products and after you
finished for feedback), research into conventions
of media texts (layout, fonts, camera shots,
soundtracks, everything!) and finally logistical
research- recce shots of your locations, research
into costume, actors, etc

13. Conventions
 What conventions of real media did you need
to know about?

 For this, it is worth making a list for each
project you have worked on and categorising
them by medium so that you don’t repeat
yourself

14. Post-production
 What do you understand by ‘post-production’ in
your work?
 This one, I’ll answer for you- for the purpose of
this exam, it is defined as everything after
planning and shooting or live recording. In other
words, the stage of your work where you
manipulated your raw material on the computer,
maybe using photoshop, a video editing program
or desktop publishing.

15. How to start…
 For each of these lists, your next stage is to produce a set of examples- so that when
you make the point in the exam, you can then back it up with a concrete example.
You need to be able to talk about specific things you did in post-production and why
they were significant, just as you need to do more than just say ‘I looked on youtube’
for conventions of real media, but actually name specific videos you looked at, what
you gained from them and how they influenced your work.
 This question will be very much about looking at your skills development over time,
the process which brought about this progress, most if not all the projects you worked
on from that list above, and about reflection on how how you as a media student
have developed. Unusually, this is an exam which rewards you for talking about
yourself and the work you have done!
 Final tips: you need some practice- this is very hard to do without it! I’d have a crack
at trying to write an essay on each of the areas, or at the very least doing a detailed
plan with lots of examples. The fact that it is a 30 minute essay makes it very
unusual, so you need to be able to tailor your writing to that length- a tough task!

16. Questions
 What production activities have you done?
 What digital technology have you used?
 In what ways can the work you have done be
described as creative?
 What different forms of research did you do?
 What conventions of real media did you need to
know about?
 What do you understand by ‘post-production’ in
your work?

17. Today we are
 Learning the requirements of Question 1
section b of the exam
 Developing our knowledge of genre in film
and using it within our evaluations of our
productions

18. So far we have studied
 Section A, Question 1a
 This question asks you to describe and evaluate your skill development over
the course of your production work. The focus of this evaluation is on skills
development, and the question will require you to adapt this to one or two
specific production practices, out of the following:
 Digital Technology
 Creativity
 Research and planning
 Post-production
 Using conventions from real media texts
 The exam question will be posed using one or two of these categories,
for example: ´Digital technology turns media consumers into media producersµ.
In your own experience how has creativity developed through using digital
technology to complete your coursework productions.

19. Section A Question 1b
For Question 1(b) students will have to choose one
of their productions, either the AS production, the A2
main task, or any of the two ancillary tasks. The
question will focus on only one of the following:
 Genre
 Narrative
 Representation
 Audience
 Media language

20. Decisions
 First of all, you need to decide which project
you would be most confident analysing in the
exam. I believe that any of the five can be
applied to moving image work, so if you did a
film opening at AS, a music video, short film
or trailer at A2, that would be the safest
choice.

21. So what do you do in the exam?
 You need to state which project you are using
and briefly describe it
 You then need to analyse it, making reference
to relevant theory throughout
 Keep being specific in your use of examples
from the project

22. Genre
 How would you define genre in media terms?
 It is the way of classifying a film to help the audience identify
it.
 It can describe the way that companies producing and trading
in media goods try to minimise risk by grouping and selling
their products through established expectations.
 Daniel Chandler
 (2001) argues that the word genre comes from the French
(and originally Latin) word for 'kind' or 'class'. The term is
widely used in rhetoric, literary theory, media theory to refer to
a distinctive type of ‘text’.

23. Examples:
 Animation,
 Comedy. Fantasy,
 Musical,
 RomCom,
 Western,
 Action/
 Adventure, Thriller,
 Horror.

24. There are three types of genre:
 Major genre
 A dominant, important category –it should be
relatively obvious and easy to define or spot
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoAPKt7kb
D0
 Unforgiven (1992) -
 Western

25. 3 types of genre.....
 Subgenre
 A minor category or subdivision that is very closely
related to its major genre by being a specific type
in its own right.
 Subgenres define a specific version of the genre
by refining it with an adjective, e.g. ´spaghetti
western
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLyYYHqVTsE
 The Sixth Sense (1999) -Psychological Thriller

26. 3 types of genre....
 Hybrid genre
 Acombination of major genres that
sometimes creates another type of film
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-
eIpvZsEky4
 Alien (1979)
 Science Fiction and Horror

27. How do we use the concept of
genres?
 Particular audiences like certain types of film
 It helps to analyse films and to see how they are constructed and
marketed
 To give a film an identity
 To attract a mainstream audience
 To attract a niche audience
 To inform an audience of the type of storyline or characters
 To sell the film
 To play with variations on a formula which works
 To deliver an audience to advertisers
 To give audiences what they expect
 To create historical progression (e.g. Directors make films of genres that
they enjoy)
 To make it safe or easy for a specific audience
 To avoid disappointment

28. How do we recognise genre?
Looking for generic codes and conventions(signifiers) that
have been established through time and should be
recognised in mise-en-scene,the characters and the
storyline
 Signifiers are what we see and hear.
 We interpret these signifiers to create meaning
 Signified (what we think it means).
 With genre because we know the visual and aural
codes and conventions we know the film is a .....

29. Generic Characteristics
 across all texts share similar elements of the
below depending on the medium...
 Typical Mise-en-scène/Visual
style(iconography, props, set design,
lighting,temporal and geographic location,
costume,shot types, camera angles, special
effects).
 Typical types of Narrative (plots, historical
setting, set pieces).
 Generic Types, i.e. typical characters (do
typical male/female roles exist,archetypes?).

30. Generic Characteristics
 Typical studios/production companies.
 Typical Personnel (directors,
producers,actors, stars, auteursetc.).
 Typical Sound Design (sound
design,dialogue, music, sound effects).
 Typical Editing Style.
 KEY: Important elements, less
importantelements, elements of minimal
importance.

31. Genre Theory
David Bordwell : ‘any theme can belong to any genre’
Steve Neale declares that 'genres are instances of repetition and
difference' (Neale 1980, 48). He adds that 'difference is absolutely
essential to the economy of genre' (ibid., 50): mere repetition would
not attract an audience (so in what ways does your film create
difference or subvert genre conventions?)
Andrew Tudor notes that 'a genre... defines a moral and social
world' (Tudor 1974, 180). Indeed, a genre in any medium can be
seen as embodying certain values and ideological assumptions (so
what values does your film seem to sponsor?)

32. Over to You.....
 What genre is the production?
 What are the codes and conventions of the production?
 How is the genre established in your production?
 How does the mise-en-scène support the genre? What is the role
of the specific elements of the mise-en-scène? Refer to props,
costume, makeup, location, theme etc.
 What themes have been used?
 Have generic conventions been adhered to or subverted?
 How will the generic elements of production appeal to the
audience?