2. What is required from this question?
• This question will be very much about looking
at your skills development over time (AS & A2
work), the process which brought about this
progress, 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!
3. • There are five possible areas which can come up
in the exam
1.Digital technology
2.Research and Planning
3.Conventions of Real Media
4.Post-Production
5.Creativity.
• Creativity will usually be asked about along with
another area.
4. Where to Start
• So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff? I would suggest that you begin by setting out, on cards or post-
its, a list of answers to these questions:
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.
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
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.
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
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
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.
5. Task
• Use a sheet of paper for each of the questions
and make notes to answer them. You could use
post-it notes, create a mind-map or brainstorm
etc.
1. What production activities have you done?
2. What digital technology have you used?
3. In what ways can the work you have done be
described as creative?
4. What different forms of research did you do?
5. What conventions of real media did you need
to know about?
6. What do you understand by ‘post-production’
in your work?
