Q1a: CREATIVITY

creativity

**don't forget to have a look at the list of posts linked to creativity**  NB: edited for CIAE spec

9 BASIC POINTS

Some general advice on how to approach the 1a topics:

1. DON'T write out the question - good practice in a longer essay, but not when you've only got 30mins
2. Any plan should be very brief, simply the themes or topics (see point 5) you intend to explore (hopefully remembering the examples won't be a problem)
3. Clearly state the AS + A2 briefs you followed [opening 2 mins of feature film; MVid]
4. Provide a BRIEF synopsis [narrative outline] of each, including title + genre - you MUST enable the marker to have a sense of what you produced
5. Pick out anywhere from 2-5 themes or topics [ANALYSIS, ARGUMENT] to use as frameworks for comparing and contrasting AS + A2 
6. For each of these it is absolutely vital you provide specific, detailed denotation [USE OF EXAMPLES] from both texts
7. Use semiotic TERMINOLOGY as you do so, but also concepts such as convergence, web 2.0 etc
8. As you finish each topic/paragraph, double check: have you provided specific denotation/examples to illustrate your point? If you don't you could potentially lose all the marks for examples as the examiner will have nothing to go on - you have to make it easy for them to visualise what you mean
9. For many of the DCRUP topics its worth addressing some of the things you rejected; giving a sense of your decision-making process, or of quality control if you like

FURTHER BRIEF POINTERS

Do read the much more extensive detail below, but here's a few briefer points to guide you on this:

CREATIVITY WITH... - Q1a will feature 1 or 2 CRUD concepts; it isn't necessarily helpful to prep this one in isolation, but rather prep 4 answers, combining Creativity with the remaining CRUD in turn. Nonetheless, when doing this consider...

CREATIVITY IS... - Your decision-making process, spanning from early research (espec influence of existing texts/[Use of] conventions + your target audience) + planning (how did available locations, cast, props + other mise-en-scene to name but 4 influence your work?) R+P: Whats the relationship between almost bureaucratic efficient time management + shot-by-shot planning + more spontaneous creation through taking coverage/seeking inspiration whilst on set/location? (see the eg quotes from filmmakers like Loach + Considine below; without too much effort you could find such quotes from music vid directors too). For both R+P and Post-Production analyse the role of audience feedback and how it altered your creative vision (improved? expanded? complemented or supplemented? think too of examples where you stood by your creative ideas despite negative feedback). How did Digital Technology facilitate gathering audience feedback, and how did you make this more useful/pertinent than at AS (think web 2.0 here)? With both Digital Technology and Post-Production how did software and hardware (separate points really) influence your creative process; did editing/filming see your ideas change from storyboard/animatic stage? Did any superior equipment, or experimenting more with manual controls, widen your options? Was the influence of Use of Conventions limited to early planning stages, or did you employ some new influences at a late (Post-Production) stage, perhaps as a result of experimenting with the software (Digital technology)? Did you Research a wider range of texts (and text types or formats) to seek useful Use of Conventions at A2?

You can see from the above paragraph that the CRUD concepts are tightly interlinked.

AUTEUR/INFLUENCES: BINARY OPPOSITION OR INEVITABLE IN POSTMODERN AGE? - As repeatedly flagged up below, look for specific influences (Use of Conventions/R+P), especially an individual director. You need to be clear on their individual hallmarks. At AS its hard not to spoon in bits of Carpenter and Craven especially (or other relevant directors for your genre); the potential range of influences is massively increased for the A2 brief. Do consider too though what are the early signs of YOUR distinct/unique style, looking across all the work (incl. practice projects) at AS + A2? Do you see certain editing styles; themes (maybe aspects of representation: feminist aspects for example); quirkiness or other features emerging - do you think you can begin to define your style, or is it still too early? Are there common features across your AS/A2 despite working with different people? [Use of.../R+P:] The pomo point is simple enough: is it possible to make a media text today that isn't a form of bricolage (assembling existing ideas but trying to be distinctive by juxtaposing contrasting elements)? [NEGUS could also be applied here: basic: generecist; developing: pastichist; distinctive: synthesist] Was there any idea, no matter how oddball it initially seemed, you couldn't justify with an existing example [Use of.../R+P/Dig.Tech]? You might even address the point to what extent you've created a simulacrum (Baudrillard) of place/gender/age; artist; character archetypes etc across the two years.

ART V COMMERCE/AUDIENCE: ANOTHER BINARY OPPOSITION? - What I'm driving at here is the tension between making something which works commercially (a film which attracts a sufficiently large audience; a video/d'pak/ad that sells the product) and something which is an individualistic (within the group context) artistic statement. Can these be reconciled, or is the need to reflect [Use of] Conventions so overwhelmingly vital that your wilder, more expressive ideas had to be abandoned? Its worth considering how you developed non-linear aspects + probably enigma codes (open ending?) in A2.

MORE THEORY? USE http://prodeval.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/characteristics-of-music-video.html - There's plenty of pertinent brief quotes from a range of media theorists in there. Some selected material on audience or genre theory (just make sure you don't repeat yourself in 1b or you risk being marked down) might be useful. Web 2.0 and postmodernism really should feature.

BOTTOM LINE... - Its only 30mins, so you can only cover a few points in any detail; for any point you're considering pick out specific AS and A2 examples to very clearly + precisely illustrate your point, stressing the development from AS to A2. 1b is the more theory-packed, but even so a 1a answer should be citing at least three theories/theorists.

For this particular topic its important to give some sense of process - a sense that there was a decision-making process. So, give some examples of possibilities you considered but rejected as well as addressing what ended up in your final cuts.

Also, don't get hung up on trying to prove everything you did was original; factors which mitigated against your creative expression are relevant to the question, and you could of course use the postmodern argument. Assuming much of your work was directly inspired by certain films/shows/directors/scenes, how did you manage to (re-)create similar effects?

You could combine aspects of the list below into possible themes or topics (Media Language stands out as the key concern) such as:

• EDITING/SFX/USE OF ICT
• HARDWARE (camera/s + manual controls, dollies etc)
• TITLES
• DIRECTING/CAST
• MISE-EN-SCENE (incl COSTUME, PROPS, SETS etc)
• CINEMATOGRAPHY
• SOUND/MUSIC
• R+P; INTERTEXTUALITY
• (links into) GENRE
• (in turn links into) NARRATIVE

[ORIGINAL POST]
I'll remind you firstly of some of the prompts suggested earlier:

•     What features of your work would you say are original to you?
•     Which media texts and producers have influenced your creative decisions?
•     How successfully does your work engage its audience and provoke its interest?
•     Consider some of the creative choices you had to make during the course of your production – how to use cameras, lighting, dialogue, colour etc. How did you make these decisions, and how did these contribute to the final production?

Spider diagrams are one useful way to approach your notes in preparation for this. We will practice at least one timed question, in class, for Q1a + Q1b, so be ready for this, though you should also start practicing this at home, perhaps swapping with a colleague to mark and feedback on these. (It would make sense to work closely with your group partner/s at AS/A2 to help each other work out which examples from your work best illustrate the various points below)

Some broad concepts to consider for this topic:

AUTEUR?

LIMITATIONS

THE TASK/REMIT

GENERIC/FORMULAIC v ORIGINALITY

PROGRESSION

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
PLANNING v SPONTANEITY?

There is overlap between all 5 DCRUP topics, so detailed preparation for any one will help with preparation for any other. There is again clear overlap between all the 7 broad headings above

Sample marked Q1a essays

This is a compilation of all the sample answers provided to date by the exam board, brought into one single document for convenience. Where available, I've included examiner comments.
You should find these useful - not just the examples that happen to coincide with your own AS/A2 briefs, but all of them - for ideas on how to successfully approach this section and this specific question.
Take note that you'll need to think carefully about the question - do not expect to see the exact DCRUP terms being used; you'll often have to tease out which are relevant for the question.

   Q1a Exam Board Sample Answers With Marks

Web 2.0 + Fan-made vids: Applying YOUR work

See http://prodeval.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/digitisation-face-book.html and other posts on digitisation/convergence
 
The concept of web 2.0 is absolutely central to the philosophy of this exam board, and how the examiners perceive the media and your relationship to/with it. [see simple Ppts added to end]

The term is used to denote a shift from the initial top-down, static, one-way traditional mass media approach of the early web. Traditional 'analogue' media companies were swift to dominate.

Web 2.0 marks a decisive shift away from such analogue models to truly new media, with the web as much produced by as consumed by the likes of yourselves. You've all used the web for entertainment, and accessed film for research ... but you've also all created web content (blogs etc) and published work on the web.

Moreover, you've all used new/social media for:

• research (including on conventions and audience) 
• generating ideas (for this + above point: fan forums/sites especially important)
• teamworking (sharing posts, + keeping in touch with planning)
• feedback on drafts/final cuts (blog, FB, YT, Twitter, ...? your vids have been viewed by many in the US/Can/NZ/Aus/Irl, as well as various European nations, and even the likes of Saudia Arabia according to the YT analytics data)

Remember, Q1a is all about the progress from AS to A2: You can reflect on how FB + Twitter icons (+ QR codes?) became part of your A2 work, actually featuring in your products.

There are a range of theorists attached to the concept, which is useful not just for DCRUP but also the remaining 4. The term is linked to O'Reilly (2004) because he organised the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 Conference in 2004. Sociologist and postmodern theorist David Gauntlett has adapted the term to write of Media Studies 2.0, as detailed below; he argues for a new approach to research which 'asks participants to make something as part of the research process'.

To push into the top end of marks it helps to not just cite a theory, and show how it applies to your work, but also to evaluate and critique it. The following, taken from my Q1a pack which has been available on the prodeval blog since May 2011, provides you with an example of this:  

Whilst web 2.0 increasingly seems characterized by media giants providing platforms for such interactivity, the original concept was partially intended to denote a shift away from the dominance of mass media. Your work illustrates the tensions here: you’ve created new unique material, but used many mass media sites/resources to do so: Guardian for research; Blogger + YouTube … both owned by Google, which you used; Amazon, now the world’s largest book-seller, etc.

The following is also taken from this same (rather good!) guide. The point from this is that you should seek to link your work, especially how it progressed through A2, into industry practice. I give several examples below, but the MusiVidz blog is full of posts highlighting uses of new media forpromoting vids/albums etc:

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK & MARKETING – How did new media help you gain aud feedback? Discuss any issues with this. Some of you got unhelpful, even personal, comments on YouTube (& probably some spam). What about Facebook? Your blog? Vimeo? Link to real world practices: the film Snakes on a Plane made considerable use of online feedback: ‘Taking advantage of the Internet buzz for what had been a minor film in their 2006 line-up, New Line Cinema ordered five days of additional shooting in early March 2006 (principal photography had wrapped in September 2005).While re-shoots normally imply problems with a film, the producers opted to add new scenes to the film to change the PG-13 rating to R and bring it in line with growing fan expectations.’ [Source: wiki – contains more useful info] Drip-feeding rushes, pre-production news (casting etc), teaser trailers etc is all part of the film biz’s buzz-creating technique (to what extent do music vids reflect such practices? The notion of ‘premieres’ at least is prevalent: C4 often heavily trail premieres of music vids)

The web 2.0 Wiki:

The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. A Web 2.0 site allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue as creators (prosumers) of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where users (consumers) are limited to the passive viewing of content that was created for them. Examples of Web 2.0 include social networking sites, blogs, wikis, video sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, mashups and folksonomies.
The term is closely associated with Tim O'Reilly because of the O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in late 2004. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specification, but rather to cumulative changes in the ways software developers and end-users use the Web. Whether Web 2.0 is qualitatively different from prior web technologies has been challenged by World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, who called the term a "piece of jargon", precisely because he intended the Web in his vision as "a collaborative medium, a place where we [could] all meet and read and write". He called it the "Read/Write Web". [Wiki]

See also http://beauchampcollegemedia.com/2011/04/07/web-2-0/ which contains useful videos on this

http://www.alevelmedia.co.uk/page14.php contains the following vid, and highlights Gauntlett (writing about Media Studies 2.0), a useful theorist as he writes on postmodernism - a concept you can apply to all 5 DCRUP areas:

David Guantlett, who is a reader in Media Studies, recently categorised this term, read the full article here.  Summary points below:

• There is a leaning towards disregarding old theorists in favour of more relevant/contemporary examination of media texts
• Mash-ups now form the replacement of classic texts
• Diversion from examining Western dominated media texts
• The Web/Internet is fundamental to subject study
• Students enter the course already media literate
• A replacement of conventional research methods
• Awareness is given to the media industries competitive nature besides government & organisation, eg. Google vs China, Fox vs Obama, News International vs Labour)

Gauntlett launched his own Media Studies 2.0 website to highlight the key theories/concepts he considers part of the changed Media Studies teaching/learning environment: http://www.theory.org.uk/mediastudies2.htm



A range of further resources are hyperlinked here: http://webdesign.about.com/od/web20/Web_2_0.htm


[ORIGINAL POST BELOW]
This is an article which gets right into issues around web 2.0 (tho' its not for a media studies audience, but a newspaper, so it doesn't use theory terms or jargon); the rise of the amateur or fan film-maker and how new media is making such people (as you!) into serious contenders drawing in serious audiences...

Note: I've added some emphases (highlighted some passages in bold)

SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/may/13/fan-films-wes-anderson-spiderman

The new wave of fan films

A couple of clicks away on the web are scores of films made by fans – by turns hilarious, ingenious and ambitious. Lurking among their makers might be Hollywood's next generation.

Jane Graham guardian.co.uk, Thursday 13 May 2010

Wes Anderson Spider-Man … 750,000 viewers and counting

Many still regard them as flatulent waste products of the socially deficient unemployed-layabout community. In most cases, they're pretty much right. But it looks increasingly likely that some of the amateur fan films that pervade YouTube and other online broadcasters will one day be cherished by movie-lovers as the formative works of the next generation of cutting-edge film-makers.