Question 1a - Planning an answer

1. Read the mark scheme for Question 1a and the student exemplar which achieved a high Level 4. Both are provided below. 
2. Discuss in pairs what makes the exemplar a Level 4.
3. Using the exemplar as a basis for your own work, plan your response to the same question.
4. If finished, attempt to write the first paragraph of the exam answer. 

In Question 1(a) you need to write about your work for the Foundation Portfolio and Advanced Portfolio units and you may refer to other media production work you have undertaken. 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 demonstrate how this developed over time. [25 marks]

Real media texts were an essential influence for both my AS and A2 productions. They allowed for an understanding of the conventions of the genre, for example, as well as a form of inspiration. My use of real media texts progressed from copying to inspiration. My group and I produced a teen drama film opening for the film ‘Consequences’ and dance music ideas for the song ‘My Head is a Jungle’.

At AS we researched into film openings by watching them on YouTube. By watching the openings for ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Attack the Block’ we found the genre conventions of a male protagonist and an urban setting. Thus our film opening follows these conventions, being set in urban backstreets and having a male protagonist. In addition, we found that dramas often have a flash forward beginning, for example ‘Trainspotting’. This flash forward was recreated in our opening by beginning with the teen boy running away from something. Specific shot types such as a close up of feet came from watching ‘Trainspotting’s’ chase scene. In addition, the use of titles came from watching various film opening titles on ‘Art of the Title’ and thus we produced titles similar to ‘This is England’ by using plain white writing so as not to distract from the action. At AS, the final product was heavily influenced by real media texts.

At A2, the music video brief meant that our research of real media texts had to be much more extensive. We watched videos of the dance genre on ‘You Tube’ such as Clean Bandit -‘Real Love’- and ZHU -‘Faded’. However, watching videos of the genre led us to note the different forms of performance and narrative. Therefore, we had to research further into videos of these types as the concept of real media was much less genre defined at A2. Thus like Clean Bandit – ‘Rather Be’, our music video was a combination of performance and narrative as we understood this was a new and creative type of music video that is more contemporary. In addition, we watched videos outside of the genre whereas we didn’t do this sort of research at AS. Having watched REM –‘Bad Day’ and Madonna –‘Material Girl’ we found that intertextuality is common in videos. Therefore we applied this to our music video. We researched outside of music videos into other media texts, which we didn’t do at AS. We watched media texts that we found from research, that the audience would enjoy.

Thus our music video became inspired by real media texts like ‘Alice in Wonderland’. This is shown in our music video in overlays of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ type footage as well as mise-en-scene such as playing cards and giant mushrooms. The narrative also closely parallels that of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ with an Alice-like protagonist. Therefore at A2 level, the use of real media texts became more complex. We did still use the basic conventions, for example varying shot types and contrasts that we had seen in Aluna George – ‘You know you like it’ with a close up next to a long shot repeated in our performance. However on top of these basic conventions came more advanced and varied use due to the complexity of music videos as well as the professional standard expected.

At A2 the brief required us to produce ancillary products of a digipak and website. Thus we had more use of real media texts than at AS. We found on real websites, the importance of interactivity, for example the competition on the ‘Chase and Status’ website. We created our own competition on our website to mirror this. In addition, we found basic conventions such as a ‘tour’ page on the Disclosure and Clean Bandit websites which provided the audience with purchasing opportunities. Thus we created our own tour page and widget on the homepage. We also looked at common places for Dance acts to perform and so placed a concert at ‘Fabric’, similar to the one of Disclosure. The digipak was also influenced by real media texts. From looking at other debut albums such as Ellie Goulding – ‘Lights’ and ‘Katy B’ we found that a focal image of the artist allows for a creation of star identity. Thus we applied this to our digipak, having the focal image of the band on the front cover. The more basic conventions such as tracklisting also centred on the basic and were in plain legible font. Furthermore, at AS synergy was not a concept we had to consider with the one product. However this was essential at A2. We looked at the campaign of ‘Disclosure’ and found they had used a face graphic on all three products. Thus we used powder point on all three: during ‘a fight’ in the video, on the font of the digipak and on the banner on the website.

Overall, real media texts became a huge part of our understanding of professional media products. Their use was essential at AS, but became more advanced and widely researched at A2, helping up produce an incredibly professional product for the brief.