As mock exam outline

1. AS MOCK EXAM: 11AS MOCK EXAM: 11THTH
DECEMBERDECEMBER
COMPARATIVE opening ANALYSISCOMPARATIVE opening ANALYSIS
Discuss and compare how the media language in these film openings is shaped by the need to target specific
audiences and the institutional contexts of their production.
TOTAL TIME: 75 minutes, including two screenings of edited 2.5minute clips from the openings of Bridget
Jones’s Diary and This is England (which you have access to in advance), with a 5-minute gap between
screenings.
TIMING OF SUMMER EXAM: To ensure you’re clear on this: in your 2 hour summer exam, you first see a
4-5 minute clip from TV drama (not revealed before the exam) 4 times in 30 minutes, with gaps between the
2nd
/3rd
and 3rd
/4th
screenings. You can start note-taking after the first complete screening. You then have 45
minutes for your essay; you also have 45 mins for your British Cinema essay.
MOCK/SUMMER EXAM MARKING: You will be marked on three criteria, requiring you to back up points
(EAA) with examples (EX) and use specific media terminology (T).
[EAA] EXPLANATION, ANALYSIS, ARGUMENT: 40/100
[EX] USE OF EXAMPLES: 40/100
[T] USE OF TERMINOLOGY: 20/100
You cannot take notes into the exam, but have one week to research and prepare your analysis.
MEDIA LANGUAGE: The AS exam breaks this down to four key areas: camera work (framing, lighting,
shot selection); editing; sound; mise-en-scene. These overlap, and the best analysis will consider how these
work together – use the semiotic concept of anchorage to help identify how these work together. You need to
provide very precise denotation, employing accurate shot type/angle names, for your EX marks here. You can
refer to narrative theories and terms.
REPRESENTATION: In your summer exam you are also tasked with discussing the representations in the
clip. For your mock you can consider age, gender and sexuality, though national or regional identity is the
most important category of representation to consider (that includes places/mise-en-scene as well as people).
AUDIENCE: Film producers have to consider age ratings; we’re focussing on the UK (BBFC) ratings: U, PG,
12, 15, 18 (and R for specific adult films). Language and the inclusion/realism (or not) of violence and sexual
depictions are important, but ‘tone’ is too, and themes like abuse and drug-taking can cause higher ratings.
There will always be an intended primary audience with some consideration of a secondary audience too. A
text may be mainstream (commercial) or niche (difficult, arthouse). Production decisions (cast, genre and
hybridity, link to any pre-existing material/audience, director profile, soundtrack, budget etc) all impact.
AUDIENCE + INSTITUTION: All of these choices influence the prospects for distribution. Your EX should
also include some reference to the range of distribution, and the data behind this: box office – including screen
count and the length of run if you think it is relevant. Box office figures might be given for the UK, US and
world. Consider the Gant rule; exceptions, with hit movies, are often because a movie has a particularly
British character more strongly appealing to a UK audience than US-produced hits.
TERMINOLOGY: At this stage, you are most familiar with semiotic and media language terms. Use
whatever cinema industry terminology you can too.