G325 exam questions – real and imaginary

Real 1a questions

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.

“Digital technology turns media consumers into media producers”. In your own experience, how has your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete your coursework productions?

Invented 1a questions

Discuss how using different forms of digital technology to aid you with your research and planning work and consider how your use of digital technology has developed during the course of your studies.

How has knowledge of the conventions of real media texts helped or hindered your ability to be creative with your coursework productions?

In what ways have you drawn upon the conventions of real media texts when working in the post-production stages of your coursework projects?

How useful have different forms of digital technology been in the pots-production of your coursework projects and how has your ability to use these forms of digital technology evolved as you have progressed through the course?

1a – generic essay structure

1)Establish what coursework you have done and what other practical projects you are going to refer to

2)AS work example 1 – detailed use of example from an AS production and directly relating to question focus areas

3)A2 work example 1 – detailed use of example from an AS production and directly relating to question focus areas

4)Evaluation of skilld evelopment in the focus areas from AS to A2

5)AS work example 2 – detailed use of example from an AS production and directly relating to question focus areas

6)AS work example 2 – detailed use of example from an AS production and directly relating to question focus areas

7)Evaluation of skill development in the focus areas from AS to A2. Also discuss non-coursework productions – Judge Dredd , Girls Talk

8)Conclusion – what you have learnt so far and what you have still to learn

1b questions

Real 1b questions

“Media texts rely on cultural experiences in order for audiences to easily make sense of narratives”. Explain how you used conventional and / or experimental narrative approaches in one of your production pieces.

Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.

Invented 1b questions

“Genres are systems of expectation that circulate between industry, audience and text”. Discuss how your work confirms or contradicts this statement.

Choosing one of your coursework productions, discuss how you have attempted to please your target audience.

In what ways do various elements of media language contribute to the process of communicating to your audience?

1b generic approach

1)State what coursework production you are going to discuss and what your argument is going to be.

2)Example 1 – focused example dealing with the question

3)Example 2 – focused example dealing with the question

4)Example 3 – focused example dealing with the question

5)Evaluate – what do your 3 examples show?

6)Conclusion – summary of argument

Postmodern Media – real questions

Discuss two or more media texts that you would define as ‘postmodern’ and explain why you would give them this label. Cover at least two media in your answer.

Consider the ways in which postmodern media challenge conventional relations between audience and text. Refer to at least two media forms in your answer.

What is meant by ‘postmodern media’?

Explain why the idea of ‘postmodern media’ might be considered controversial

Postmodern Media – generic essay structure

1)Introduction – what texts are you going to discuss, what broadly are you going to argue

2)Theoretical base – what do you underdstand by the term postmodern? Different approaches, different theorists

3)Medium 1 Example 1 – detailed discussion of how this text is postmodern – also tailor to demands of the question

4)Medium 2 Example 1 – detailed discussion of how this text is postmodern – also tailor to demands of the question

5)(Medium 3 Example 1 – detailed discussion of how this text is postmodern – also tailor to demands of the question)

6)Evaluate – are all postmodern in the same way? Are some texts more serious than others? Relate to the question

7)Medium 1 Example 2 – detailed discussion of how this text is postmodern – also tailor to demands of the question

8)Medium 2 Example 2 – detailed discussion of how this text is postmodern – also tailor to demands of the question

9)(Medium 3 Example 2 – detailed discussion of how this text is postmodern – also tailor to demands of the question)

10)Evaluate – are all postmodern in the same way? Are some texts more serious than others? Relate to the question

11)Conclusion – summary of your argument

Points 5 and 9 required if you are aiming for high B or above, not if your not.

Postmodernism exam prep

For each text that you want to be able to write about in the exam, answer the following questions:

1)Thinking about the different versions of postmodernism, how can this text be identified as post-modern?

2)Is it easy or not to position this text into a single genre or not?

3)Does the text play with genre conventions?

4)Does the text employ a classical approach to narrative structure?

5)Does the text challenge old notions of text-reader relations? If so, how? If not, why not?

6)What kind of cultural capital do you need to best understand this text?

Narrative theory - Todorov

Theorist: Todorov

Theory: 3 act narrative structure

What it means: Narrative are composed of 3 acts – equilibrium / disruption / new equilbrium

Equilibrium – all is well, there is no conflict

Disruption – An event happens to introduce conflict and problems into the narrative

New equilbrium – all of the conflicts have been resolved and new state of order and balance come to exist

Levi-Strauss - binary oppositions

Theorist: Claude Levi-Strauss

Theory: Binary Oppositions

What it means: A conflict between two opposing forces, e.g. good versus evil, on versus off, land versus sea

Any narrative has binary oppositions – these exist to – produce drama and sustain interest

Conflict is the engine of any successful narrative – no conflict, no story

Narrative theory - Vogler

1)Ordinary World The hero's normal world before the story begins

2)Call to Adventure - The hero is presented with a problem, challenge or adventure to undertake

3)Refusal of the Call - The hero refuses the challenge or journey, usually out of fear

4)Meeting with the Mentor - The hero meets a mentor to gain confidence, advice or training to face the adventure

5)Crossing the First Threshold - The hero crosses the gateway that separates the ordinary world from the special world

6)Tests, Allies, Enemies - The hero faces tests, meets allies, confronts enemies & learn the rules of the Special World.

7)Approach - The hero has hit setbacks during tests & may need to reorganize his helpers or rekindle morale with mentor's rally cry. Stakes heightened.

8)Ordeal - The biggest life or death crisis – the hero faces his greatest fear & only through “death” can the hero be “reborn” experiencing even greater powers to see the journey to the end.

9)Reward - The hero has survived death, overcome his greatest fear and now earns the reward he sought.

10)The Road Back - The hero must recommit to completing the journey & travel the road back to the Ordinary World. The dramatic question is asked again.

11)Resurrection - Hero faces most dangerous meeting with death – this shows the hero can apply all the wisdom he's brought back to the Ordinary World

12)Return with Elixir - The hero returns from the journey with the “elixir”, so everyone in the world can use to heal physical or emotional wounds.

Narrative theory - Propp

Narrative – Propp’s character types

Characters

The villain — struggles against the hero.

The donor — prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.

The (magical) helper — helps the hero in the quest.

The princess and...

her father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative.

Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father can not be clearly distinguished.
The dispatcher — character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.

The hero or victim/seeker hero — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.

False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the prince

Postmodern Media – the arguments for and against postmodernism

Prompt question 2 - What are the arguments for and against understanding some forms of media as post-modern?

Jean-Francois Lyotard & Jean Baudrillard – the 2 Jean’s

Advocates of postmodernism

Lyotard – societies are now post-industrial, cultures are now post-modernism

Postmodern era – from the end of the 1950s onwards – postwar reconstruction of Europe
End of grand narratives /meta-narratives – science, religion

Rise of micro-narratives

Postmodern – aesthetic not historical – historical is easier but is it more useful to take the aesthetic approach?

Baudrillard – earlier societies – communicate face-to-face or in print

Now we communicate through electronic media

Our lives are now shaped by simulated events and opportunities (media-saturated society) – TV / internet shopping

The simulations have become dominant – more real than real (‘more human than human’)
Blurring of the lines between the real and the unreal – the hyperreal

The critics of postmodernism – Habermas and Jameson

Habermas – links ‘the modern’ to the Enlightenment (‘The Enlightenment was less a set of ideas than it was a set of values. At its core was a critical questioning of traditional institutions, customs, and morals.’)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment

The era of modernity / the Enlightenment project is not yet complete – no need to talk about postmodernism

Rejects the Baudrillardian approach about the dominance of simulacra – there is meaning to cultural artefacts

Jameson – the postmodern era is the era of late capitalism (Marxist approach)

In the postmodern era, the people are far removed from the economic system they serve
Postmodern culture – flatness, depthless, superficial

Marked by the rise of pastiche and nostalgia