Intro to a2 course g325 critical perspectives in media adapted from Mr Smith slide show.

1. Dictionary Definition
• The ability to do something well; expertise.
• A developed talent or ability
Taken from
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/skill &http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/skill

2. QuestionA Skills Evaluation of Production

3.  The next 5 weeks will introduce you to part of
theA2 exam which is worth 50 marks.
 You will be evaluating your AS coursework in
terms of the skills you have developed and
theories.
 In the A2 exam you will have 1 hour to answer
2 compulsory questions

4.  Describe and evaluate your skills development
over the course of your production work – this
can include the preliminary tasks, your actual
c/w and any other pieces you have created in the
past year. In the exam 1 or 2 of the following
areas will be selected for you to write about:
 DigitalTechnology
 Creativity
 Research and planning
 Post-production
 Using conventions from real media texts

5.  There is some cross over between the 5 areas e.g. for
Research and Planning you had to research other
music magazines, which clearly links to “Using
conventions from real media texts” , the final bullet
point.
 In pairs brainstorm what you think the 5 areas mean.
 Your task is to produce a detailed evaluation of your
coursework using all 5 areas.The documents you
produce will be vital revision aids for the exam next
summer.
 You must use a variety of ICT/digital technology skills
when creating your revision documents.

6.  As a media student, it is expected that you are up to
date with technology.Therefore you should aim to
use a different format for each of the 5 questions.
 SlidesharePrezi http://prezi.com/
 Flickr,Tubechop, Scribd, Jing
http://www.jingproject.com/?gclid=CN_R9K_WlaICFY
-X2AodnGedE
 A Film and upload toYouTube
 Voice record / read the words/voki /xtranormal
http://www.xtranormal.com/
 Post it note film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUUh9KROqf4

7.  You need to consider the skills you have learnt duringAS
with the following software:
 Adobe Photoshop.The image manipulation program
allowed you to manipulate graphics necessary for the
magazine. E.g. crop tools such as Marquee (magic wand),
Lassos, and colour converters such as Red Eye Corrector,
ColourVariations, Colour Dropper, Dodge and Burn, text
tools, picture boxes, shape tools, photograph
manipulation, layers etc
 Weblogs e.g. tumblr which allowed you to regularly post
about your research & planning, progress and to display
your final piece. It also enabled you to leave comments
(audience feedback) on each other’s blogs.(This is more
for A2)

8.  You need to consider the skills you have
learnt during AS with the following hardware:
 Digital stills cameras
 USB cables
 Lighting
 Tripods
 PC/Mac

9.  What are the pros and cons of the software and
hardware(equipment) you used at AS in terms of skills
development?
 How did you use your skills to aid the construction of
your task?
 How has digital technology helped you capture your
ideas for media production?
 In what ways did the technology constrain or enable
the production to be developed?
 How did digital technology allow you to be creative?
 What benefits do digital technologies offer over
analogue? Are they any disadvantages?

10.  Creativity involves thinking or behaving
imaginatively. It might involve challenging
conventions or replicating / furthering
knowledge of them – what did you do in your
c/w?
 You need to think about the decisions that were
made for you (the restrictions put on you by the
exam board) e.g. you must make a music
magazine.Then consider the creative choices
you made e.g. which type/genre of music
magazine? etc

11.  How creative do you think you were in the decisions you made
when creating your c/w?
 Did the technology enhance your creativity or not?
 What ideas did you communicate and what stylistic techniques did
you use?
 How did it relate to your interests/vision of identity?
 Was your product influenced by your social environmental?
 Was this original or did you add something extra to an original
media text?
 Would you take any creative skills into future projects or have you
been influenced to engage these skills in any other projects?
 What was the intended outcome of the production? (Assessment
Objectives, preferred readings, promotional purpose etc.)
 How were these outcomes achieved in terms of page layout and
camera shot choices (codes and conventions)?
 What stylistic techniques were used to appeal to the audience?

12. Think about the types of research you carried out:
 Primary –magazines, internet, questionnaires,
audience feedback
 Secondary – internet, textbooks, blogs for
theories
Advantages/Disadvantages of your sources:
 Cost of magazines etc.
 Accessibility – easy to find?
 Time consuming?
 Reliability of sources?
 Accuracy of sources?
 Usefulness of sources?

13.  How did you organise your research and planning? E.g.
labels, contents page, blog etc.
 What did you research?
 How did drafting help you?
 How organised were you?
 What quantitative and qualitative analysis methods were
employed? How did the results from these inform the
production? (Effectiveness of these kinds of research)
 How did audience feedback improve your planning?
 How effectively were draft flat plans followed?
 What did you learn about working as part of a group or
independently?
 How did you present your research and planning? E.g.
wordle, moodboard, flickr, scribd, slideshare etc (This will
be for A2 as we presented research as a hard copy)

14.  Post Production at AS might have consisted of editing
images and putting text together on Photoshop.
 This is very similar to the software listed as part of Digital
technology (see previous slide).
 You need to identify all of the steps you took once you had
photographed – to do this accurately it will be helpful to
look at your work and make a list of everything you did in
order to get to the finished stage.
 What editing decisions were made?
 How did they inform the production?
 What particular editing tools were used and to what
effect?
 How did the post-production process enhance the overall
production?

15.  What conventions of music magazines openings did you
apply to your c/w?
 Identify real media texts and explain how your text is
similar and different.
 In what ways were media conventions adhered to? For
example, did your short film have little or no dialogue?
 What media theories were utilised?
 Were the representations involved appropriate to the
product?
 Specific and in depth description of the skills in question
must be included, e.g. how was the marquee tool used in
Adobe Photoshop to edit a photo for the contents page?
 “Creativity is always constrained by generic conventions”.
To what extent did you adhere to or subvert generic
conventions in the creation of your media products.

16.  DigitalTechnology
 Research and planning
 Post-production
 Using conventions from real media texts
 Creativity
Your poster must include the following:
1. A definition (tip – refer to your skills development
grid from AS)
2. What you did for your coursework that comes under
this category.
3. Examples of skills you may have in this area.
4. Images to illustrate all of the above.

17.  You have until the end of this summer term 5
weeks – to complete this task.
 Set up an A2 MediaQ1A Blog.
 Send me the link to so that I can access it and
add it to the our A2 blog
 http://a2mediaq1a.tumblr.com/

18.  http://www.slideshare.net/naamah/as-to-a2-
intro-22478250?from_search=1 media mag
and interesting slideshare
 http://petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/2010/0
1/creativity-g325-questions-on-
production.html creativity
 http://longroadmusicvideo.blogspot.co.uk/
 Overview of research and planning