A2 course overview

OCR A2 FROM SEPTEMBER 2009:
Advanced Portfolio in Media

[text from specification]

The purpose of this unit is firstly to assess candidates’ ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills (AO3);

secondly to assess candidates’ application of knowledge and understanding in evaluating their own work, showing how meanings and responses are created (AO2);

and finally to assess candidates’ ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research (AO4). The unit requires candidates to engage with contemporary media technologies, giving them the opportunity to develop their own skills in these technologies. It also
enables them to develop the skills of presentation that are required for further study at higher levels and in the workplace.

This is a coursework unit. Centres must set the brief from the menu below, though they may define more precise details in negotiation with candidates. From this brief, candidates will produce:

• a media portfolio, comprising a main and ancillary texts;

• a presentation of their research, planning and evaluation in electronic format.

The media portfolio will be produced through a combination of two or more of the following media:

• Video
• Print
• Web-based
• Audio
• Games Software

The presentation of the research, planning and evaluation may take the form of any one, or combination of two or more, of the following:

• a presentation using slideshow software such as Powerpoint;
• a blog or website; we are doing this
• a podcast;
• a DVD with ‘extras’- and we may do this as well for the films

Production work for the main text in the Advanced Portfolio may be in the same medium as AS work (in order to allow for the development of skills within a particular medium) or a different medium (in order to allow for breadth of experience of different media forms). The ancillary tasks will ensure that all candidates have the opportunity to explore a different medium at some point in their production work.

The production element and presentation of research, planning and evaluation may be individual or group work (maximum group size is four candidates). Where candidates have worked in a group, the evidence for assessment may be presented collectively but centres will still assess candidates on an individual basis for their contribution to aspects of the work, from planning, research and production to evaluation.

Though there is no formal individual essay component for this unit, in the G324 examination, candidates will be asked to write about the work undertaken from this unit and from the AS coursework unit. It is therefore recommended that candidates undertake some form of written reflection as practice for the exam.

G324 is marked and internally standardised by the centre and marks are submitted to OCR by a specified date, a sample is then selected for external moderation. The unit is marked out of a total of 100 marks: 20 marks for the planning and research and its presentation; 60 marks for the construction; 20 marks for the evaluation.

In the evaluation the following questions must be answered:

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

• How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?

• How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

To avoid excessive overlap with AS briefs and to ensure an appropriate level of demand as a step up from AS, the following form the menu of set tasks at A2. All briefs require the production of
three media products, one major piece and two ancillary products. The menu allows candidates to work in just two media, or to explore three different media.

The Brief

2. A promotion package for a new film, to include a teaser trailer, together with two of the following three options:

• a website homepage for the film;

• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film you made a trailer for;

• a poster for the film [A3].


A2 Unit G325: Critical Perspectives in Media

[text from specification]

The purpose of this unit is to assess candidates’ knowledge and understanding of media concepts, contexts and critical debates, through their understanding of one contemporary media issue and
their ability to evaluate their own practical work in reflective and theoretical ways.

The examination is two hours. Candidates are required to answer two compulsory questions, on their own production work, and one question from a choice of six topic areas. The unit is marked out of a total of 100, with the two questions on production work marked out of 25 each, and the media theory question marked out of 50.

There are two sections to this paper:

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 marks)

Section B: Contemporary Media Issues (50 marks)

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Candidates answer two compulsory questions. The first requires them to describe and evaluate their skills development over the course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. The second asks them to identify one production and evaluate it in relation to one theoretical concept.

Question 1(a) requires candidates to describe and evaluate their skills development over the course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced Portfolio. The focus of this
evaluation must be on skills development, and the question will require them to adapt this to one or two specific production practices.

The list of practices to which questions will relate is as follows:

• Digital Technology
• Creativity
• Research and Planning
• Post-production
• Using conventions from real media texts

In the examination, questions will be posed using one or two of these categories.

Where candidates have produced relevant work outside the context of their A Level media course, they are free to additionally refer to this experience.

Question 1(b) requires candidates to select one production and evaluate it in relation to a media concept. The list of concepts to which questions will relate is as follows:

• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media Language

In the examination, questions will be set using one of these concepts only.

In some circumstances, candidates will be expected to select the production that appears to relate most effectively to the specific concept that arises in the exam question. However, the requirement
for candidates to evaluate one of their productions in relation to a concept does not assume that the concept will necessarily always fit easily and in an orthodox way.

Thus in some cases candidates will be describing their productions in terms of them not relating straightforwardly to the concept. For example, a candidate producing three websites over their two portfolios might describe ways in which websites cannot be understood easily through applying conventional narrative theory.

Whether the candidate applies the concept to the product or uses the production to challenge the concept, it is essential that candidates are sufficiently knowledgeable about the concept for either approach.

Candidates may choose to write about work undertaken at AS or A2,
main task or preliminary/ancillary.

Section B: Contemporary Media Issues

One question to be answered from a choice of six topic areas offered by OCR. There will be two questions from each topic area.

The topic areas require understanding of contemporary media texts, industries, audiences and debates.

Candidates must choose one of the following topic areas, in advance of the examination and, through specific case studies, texts, debates and research of the candidates’ choice, prepare to demonstrate understanding of the contemporary issue.

This understanding must combine knowledge of at least two media and a range of texts, industries, audiences and debates, but these are to be selected by the centre / candidate. The assessment of the response will be generic, allowing for the broadest possible range of responses within the topic area chosen.

Each topic is accompanied by four prompt questions, and candidates must be prepared to answer an exam question that relates to one or more of these four prompts. There should be emphasis on the
historical, the contemporary and the future in relation to the chosen topic, with most attention on the present. Centres are thus advised to ensure that study materials for this unit are up to date and relevant.

Candidates may choose to focus on one of the following contemporary media issues:

• Contemporary Media Regulation
• Global Media
• Media and Collective Identity - we are doing this option
• Media in the Online Age
• Post-modern Media
• ‘We Media’ and Democracy

Topic Content Prompts

Candidates are free to study any media texts, theories, case studies, debates and issues, providing they relate to the four prompts for the topic area selected. The exam question will relate to one or more of the prompts.

Media and Collective Identity

.How do the contemporary media represent nations, regions and ethnic / social / collective groups of people in different ways?
.How does contemporary representation compare to previous time periods?
.What are the social implications of different media representations of groups of people?
.To what extent is human identity increasingly ‘mediated’?

Candidates might explore combinations of any media representation across two media, or two different representations across two media. Some examples are:
National cinema, television representations, magazines and gender, representations of youth and youth culture, post-9/11 representations of Islam, absence / presence of people with disability in two media.