The purpose of this unit is to assess your knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates, through your understanding of one contemporary media issue and your ability to evaluate your own practical work in reflective and theoretical ways.
The examination is two hours. Candidates are required to answer two compulsory questions, on their own production work, and one question from a choice of six topic areas. The unit is marked out of a total of 100, with the two questions on production work marked out of 25 each, and the media theory question marked out of 50.
There are two sections to this paper:
Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 marks)
Section B: Contemporary Media Issues (50 marks)
Section A: Skills Development
You answer two compulsory questions. In 1a you describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of your production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. 1b asks you to identify one production and evaluate it in relation to one theoretical concept.
For Question 1(a) you have to describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. The focus of this evaluation must be on skills development, and the question will ask you to adapt this to one or two specific production practices. The list of practices to which questions will relate is as follows:
- Digital Technology
- Creativity
- Research and planning
- Post-production
- Using conventions from real media texts
Where you have produced relevant work outside the context of your A Level media course, you are free to additionally refer to this experience.
For Question 1(b) you have to select one production and evaluate it in relation to a media concept. The list of concepts to which questions will relate is as follows:
- Genre
- Narrative
- Representation
- Audience
- Media language
You may be expected to select the production that appears to relate most effectively to the specific concept in the exam question. However, the concept might not fit easily with your production. So you might be describing your productions in terms of them not relating straightforwardly to the concept. For example, if you have produced three websites over their two portfolios, you might describe ways in which websites cannot be understood easily through applying conventional narrative theory. Whether you apply the concept to the product or use the production to challenge the concept, you must be sufficiently knowledgeable about the concept for either approach. You may choose to write about work done at AS or A2, main task or preliminary/ancillary.
Link to a very helpful structure for revision and preparation for the exam: http://ncalmedia2010.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/a2_ocr_critical_perspectives_-_revision_guide_to_question_1a_and_1b.pdf
Basic essay structure for 1a (Write about your AS and A2 productions):
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 examples.
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. Unless the topic is post-production you should cover three areas: pre-production, production and post-production.
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. Again, cover three areas: pre-production, production and post-production.
Paragraph 5 Short conclusion relating back to the question and summing up key skills you have developed in that area over the AS and A2 course.
Remember it's only half an hour and you need to range across all your work!
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 examples.
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. Unless the topic is post-production you should cover three areas: pre-production, production and post-production.
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. Again, cover three areas: pre-production, production and post-production.
Paragraph 5 Short conclusion relating back to the question and summing up key skills you have developed in that area over the AS and A2 course.
Remember it's only half an hour and you need to range across all your work!
Basic essay structure for 1b (Choose only ONE product to write about):
Para 1 Intro: Start with a statement about the area you have been asked to evaluate, quoting one or two relevant theorists. Explain which of your projects are you going to write about. Briefly describe it.
para 2: Using the theorists, describe some of the key features of the concept you are being asked to apply. Outline two or three of the theories/ideas of particular writers, relating them to your production.
para 3: Start to apply the concept, making close reference to your product and to other examples to show how the concept is evident in it.
para 4: Show ways in which ideas work in relation to three areas of your product - production, distribution and exchange - and also ways in which those ideas might not apply/could be challenged.
para 5: Conclusion - Sum up by returning to the question and, having discussed key issues, say how your product follows or challenges the conventions of that issue.
Again remember you only have 30 minutes and that you really need to analyse the finished production, rather than tell the marker how you made it
Past Papers Questions
January 2010
1a. 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.
1b. Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
June 2010
1a. 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.
1b. Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre.
January 2011
1a. 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.
1b. Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
June 2011
1a. Explain how far your understanding of the conventions 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.
1b. Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of audience.
January 2012
1a. 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.
1b. Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
June 2012
1a. Describe a range of creative decisions that you made in post-production and how these decisions made a difference to the final outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
1b. Explaining how meaning is constructed by the use of media language in one of your coursework productions.
January 2013
1a. 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.
1b. Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
June 2011
1a. Explain how far your understanding of the conventions 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.
1b. Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of audience.
January 2012
1a. 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.
1b. Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.
June 2012
1a. Describe a range of creative decisions that you made in post-production and how these decisions made a difference to the final outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
1b. Explaining how meaning is constructed by the use of media language in one of your coursework productions.
January 2013
1a. Explain how your research and planning skills developed over time and contributed to your media production outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer.
1b. Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of narrative.
June 20131b. Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of narrative.
1a. Explain how your skills in the creative use of digital technology developed over time. Refer to a range of examples from your media productions in your answer.
1b. Apply the concept of representation to one of your coursework productions.
June 2014
1a. Describe the most important post-production decisions you made for your different media productions and explain why these decisions were significant . Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how your skills in post-production developed over time.
1b. Apply the concept of genre to one of your coursework productions.
June 2015
1a. Explain the most significant ways in which your media productions were informed by your understanding of the conventions of real media texts . Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this understanding developed over time.
1b. Apply the concept of narrative to one of your coursework productions.
June 2016
1a. Explain the importance of research and planning to your media production outcomes and
how your skills in this area developed over time. Refer to a range of examples from your
media production process in your answer.
1b. Analyse the ways in which one of your coursework productions communicates meaning to
the audience through media language.
For Mark Schemes, Exemplar Answers and the Examiners' Reports on these exams, see the OCR website.
WHAT THE EXAMINERS SAID
In the January 2010 report, the examiners emphasised that:
- 'A level 4 candidate will need to sustain theoretical conviction over the span of the three responses - theorising your own production processes, analysing your own outcomes using key concepts and discussing a contemporary media issue with the use of a range of theoretical arguments.'
- 'Strong answers to 1a manage to select a range of relevant examples of creative decision making informed by research and planning... It is best practice to prepare examples that demonstrate more or less successful decisions as this gives scope for higher levels of critical reflection."
- You need to reflect on processes, logistics and the mechanics of production - research and planning cannot be reduced entirely to looking at real media texts or discussing audience needs.
- 'Better answers offer a broader range of pre-production activities and decisions arising with a clear sense of how the more "glamorous" idea of creativity is often a product of serious "nuts and bolts" operational care in the process."
- For 1b, you MUST adapt your essay to the concept in the question. For example, if the concept is representation, you must discuss how your media product can be analysed as representational, referencing reading you have done in this area in relation to specific examples from your product.
Using your photocopied revision notes, study each page and make a spider diagram on how the information on that page (a key theory, a key theorist, advertising theories, etc) relates to your production task.
