2. The Five Areas
Digital technology
Research and Planning
Conventions of Real Media
Post-Production
Creativity.
Two of these will be combined.
3. Past Questions
• Describe how you developed research and
planning skills for media production and
evaluate how these skills contributed to
creative decision making. Refer to a range of
examples in your answer to show how these
skills developed over time.
4. • Describe the ways in which your
production work was informed by research
into real media texts and how your ability
to use such research for production
developed over time.
5. • Describe how you developed your skills in
the use of digital technology for media
production and evaluate how these skills
contributed to your creative decision
making. Refer to a range of examples in
your answer to show how these skills
developed over time.
6. • Explain how far your understanding of
existing media influenced the way you
created your own media products. Refer to
a range of examples in your answer to
show how this understanding developed
over time.
7. • Describe how your analysis of the
conventions of real media texts informed
your own creative media practice. Refer
to a range of examples in your answer to
show how these skills developed over
time.
8. Advice
• You have to think on your feet as
you do not know what two areas
might come up and in what
combination
• Prepare heavily but don’t learn
essays
9. Digital Technology
• What have you used over the TWO
years?
• Weigh up the advantages and
disadvantages
• Relate these to all other areas.
10. Research and Planning
• Have a wide range of examples i.e.
• Institutional research
• Audience research (before and after)
• Research into real texts
• Logistical research (locations,
costumes, actors etc.)
11. Conventions
• Make a list for each project you
have worked on and categorise
them by medium so that you don’t
repeat yourself
12. Post-production
• This 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 i.e.
Photoshop, Picnik, Premiere Pro,
After Effects, Illustrator etc.
13. Creativity
• There is no definitive answer for
this one, therefore…
WHAT IS CREATIVITY?
14. What are they looking for?
• The examiner is interested in the
journey/process you have made
over the two years and about
reflection on 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!
15. What do you need to do?
• 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.
16. Essay Structure
• 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.
17. • 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
