(This guide is based on work found the wicked media blog by Pete Fraser.)
The main things to note here are that for 1a you can write about ALL of your work across the course (and you can write about anything else you might have made on other courses or in your spare time too!) and for 1b you just write about ONE of your productions. Try not to overlap too much, so that each answer is different.
1a is entirely concerned about SKILLS DEVELOPMENT, but the area that comes up will be quite specific.
Research and planning
Digital technology use
Post-production
Use of real media conventions
Creativity
It is possible that a question might refer to two of these categories, so be prepared to talk about any/all of them!
A few tips on what they mean:
Digital technology refers to hardware, software and online technology, so the cameras, the computers, the packages you used and the programs online that you have worked with. It is worth considering how all this inter-links.
Post-production would actually fall under digital technology as well, so if that comes up it would probably represent an expansion of points you'd make in one section of digital technology. It is really about everything you do after constructing the raw materials for your production; so once you have shot your video, what do you do to it in editing.
Research refers to looking at real media and audiences to inform your thinking about a media production and also how you record all that research; planning refers to all the creative and logistical thinking and all the organisation that goes on in putting the production together so that everything works and again gives you the chance to write about how you kept records of it.
Creativity is the hardest one in many ways because it involves thinking about what the creative process might mean. Wikipedia describes it as "a mental process involving the discovery of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the existing ideas or concepts, fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight." For your projects it might involve considering where ideas came from, how you worked collaboratively to share ideas, how you changed things or even how you used tools like the programs to achieve something imaginative.
Use of real media conventions involves consideration of other texts that you looked at and how skilfully you were able to weave their conventions into your work or ways in which you might have challenged them.
You will notice that most of the above were areas that you covered in the evaluation task at the end of each of your productions. This time, you are putting together ideas from evaluations and standing a bit further back to look across your production work and reflecting on how you developed across the course. You should feel free to acknowledge weaknesses and to reflect upon how you learned from them and how you overcame problems. It is not a place to be defensive about your work but to really reflect on it!
so how would you organise an answer?
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.
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
Remember it's only half an hour and you need to range across all your work!
Past Questions
Jan 2010
1 (a) 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 youranswer to show how these skills developed over time.
June 2010
1 (a) 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.
Jan 2011
1(a) Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for mediaproduction 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.
G325 Mark Scheme – for the above question
There is a clear sense of progression and of how examples have been selected, and a range of articulate reflections on technical skills. There is a fluent evaluation of progress made over time.Candidates offer a broad range of specific, relevant and clear examples of digital technology inrelation to creative decisions and outcomes.The use of media terminology and research, planning and production terms is excellent