Resources for WJEC A Level Film Studies on MediaEdu

This page should provide you with an index to the information we have on MediaEdu which relates directly to WJEC A Level Film Studies.

This page also contains external links to support materials on the WJEC site.

Cinematic New Waves

Studying Tsotsi

Further Reading & Support

The primary source for authoritative information & support is the WJEC Film Studies website.

WJEC Film Studies GCE...

Resources for WJEC A Level Media Studies on MediaEdu

This page should provide you with an index to the information we have on MediaEdu which relates directly to WJEC A Level Media Studies.

It also contains external links to support materials on the WJEC site.

AS Schemes

WJEC AS MS1 Scheme

WJEC AS MS2 Scheme

A2 Schemes

WJEC A2 M2 MS3 Scheme

WJEC A2 MS4 Scheme

British Pop Music A2 Scheme

Associated Resources

Advertising

• How To Analyse...

An Overview

As with all the new specifications in Media A Levels there are 4 units.

AS has 2 units and A2 has 2 units.

MS1 or Unit 1 - The Exam

The WJEC Unit 1 is called MS1 and is 25 % of the complete 4 unit A level.

The AS UNIT 1 exam paper is 50% of the total AS mark. This is an externally assessed 2½ hour written paper on the topic of Media Representations and Responses.

MS1 is marked for 2 assessment objectives AO1 and AO2.

AO1...

Unit 1 Media Representations and Responses

• 50% of AS, 25% of A Level
• 2 hour 30 minutes Written Exam Paper
• External Assessment

Three compulsory questions, including one question on unseen audio-visual or print-based material (interactive media will be presented as print-based) (40, 30 & 30).

Paper raw mark total: 100
Paper UMS total: 100

Unit 2 Media Production Processes

• 50% of AS, 25% of A Level
• Internal Assessment

Three components:...

We Study Media by Rob McMinn

The Student Room & Media Studies

Setting up a Radio Station on Mediaed.org.uk

Modern Mechanix: examples of vintage advertising

Technorati on Ideology

Ideology for Kids: Decoding the Kremlin’s Website

The End of Cyberspace

Kinoeye on Media Studies

Bluegrass Film Society

Kids Gobble Up Interactive Junk Food Marketing

Continental Philosophy: Key Notes on Theorists

Dr. Mabuse’s Kaledio-scope: Four Models of...

Television and film crime/cop drama is very popular with a wide audience. Crime dramas seek to anchor the representations of all types of police officers, criminals and victims as ‘believable’ characters, with ‘realistic’ plot lines, set in urban locations.The genre has been taken up in the US under the heading of American Quality Televsion (AQT) - see under heading AQT.

Codes and conventions

Crime dramas:

• are constructed realities
...

Synopsis

The Winchester, a typical London pub. Shaun (Simon Pegg), his girlfriend Liz (kate Ashfield), her two friends David (Dylan Moran) and Diane (Lucy David) are in the pub. Shaun’s best friend, the foul mouthed (and minded) overweight layabout, Ed (Nick Frost) plays the slot machines. Shaun is getting a hard time from this girlfriend; she wants to spend more time with him, be more exciting and do more than sit in The Winchester with Ed....

Denotation and Connotation

These are two important words concerned with the way an audience understands the meaning of a media text. These can also be called the signs and signified meaning, or the micro and macro features.

Denotation / sign / micro feature is the basic, literal meaning of what is in the picture or scene.

Connotation / signified meaning / macro feature means different interpretations suggested by the text, often associated...

Associated Resources

• Semiotics Glossary.doc

Anchorage

The fixing of a set of meanings, often found in a photograph or advert, usually through captions or other written text

Arbitrary Sign

Where the signifier has no connection to the signified e.g. Snow and Christmas

Codes

A system of signs, languages or symbols that allow audiences to decode meaning e.g. Technical and Symbolic codes or Narrative codes

Content Analysis

A way of decoding...

Associated Resources

• Moving Image Terminology and Semiotics.doc

Semiotics/Semiology

The study of signs that help us to deconstruct Media Texts

Signifier/Denotation

The physical form of the sign, without deeper meaning

Signified/Connotation

Meaning associated with the relationship between signifier and signified. Connotation is open to interpretation

Mythical Connotation

Meaning which is subjective interpretation, yet untrue

Anchored...

Associated Resources

• Representation Theory Simplified Handout.doc

The media literally re-presents the world to us. Dominant and oppositional arguments conflict e.g. on one hand the media is showing us how things actually are, on the other hand they are telling us how things should be (dictating representations, not just reflecting society).

The main representations we study in the media are:

• Masculinity
• Femininity
• Social Class
• Sexuality
...

Associated Resources

• Narrative AS Terminology Revision Sheet.doc

Overview

• Narrative
• Narrative Enigmas
• Narrative Themes
• Narrative Structure
• Narrative Theory

Narrative

• The structure and organisation of media texts e.g. story
• Narrative chain of cause and effect – the plotlines in a story that are triggered by action and enigma codes (something happens that causes something else to happen)
• Narrative is correlated...

Associated Resources

• Genre Revision Test.doc
• Genre Test Answers.doc

1. What does the word genre literally mean?  1 mark

2. How does the concept of genre help audiences understand media texts?  2 marks

3. Give three ways audiences can identify genre.  3 marks

4. Using two examples, identify how can genre be understood in terms of narrative themes and structure.  4 marks

5. What are generic codes and conventions?  1 mark

6. Explain the...

Contemporary Examples

• The Rite Mikael Håfström, 2011
• Paranormal Activity 2 Tod Williams, 2010
• Saw (6 films in franchise) James Wan, 2002-2009
• Blair Witch Project Daniel Myrick + Eduardo Sánchez, 1999
• Dog Soldiers Neil Marshall, 2002
• Urban Legend Jamie Blanks, 1998
• I Know What You Did Last Summer Jim Gillespie, 1997
• Hostel Eli Roth, 2005

Codes and Conventions

• Split into sub genres (see below), often hybridised
• Primary target audience –...

Recommended Reading

• ‘Spectacular Bodies’ - Yvonne Tasker (Routledge) 1998
• ‘Action’ – Richard Dyer, 2000
• ‘Action Women: Muscles, Mothers and Others’ – Yvonne Tasker, 1998

Contemporary Action Films

• Your Highness (Adventure/Comedy Hybrid) David Gordon Green, 2011
• Inception (Action/Sci Fi Hybrid) Christopher Nolan, 2010
• Quantum of Solace Marc Forster, 2008
• Die Hard 4.0 Len Wiseman, 2007
• Tomb Raider Simon West, 2000
• Mission...

Examples

• Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003)
• Harry Potter (Chris Columbus, 2001-11)
• Chronicles of Narnia (Andrew Adamson, 2005)
• Tron (Kenneth Branagh, 2011)
• Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)

Codes and Conventions

• High production values
• Younger target audience although significant older appeal
• Wide/saturated distribution (normally by an American Studio e.g. Warners or Disney). Mainstreamers and Aspirers
• Dedicated, sometimes...

Cultural Context

• “Television is the Drug of the Nation”
• “Like Religion Television is a form of Social Control”
• “Television has a disproportionate status in our lives”
• “Television is cool, there’s loads of great programmes and those massive HD, LCD/Plasma screens are so awesome. I’m gonna get a 3D TV and sit in my front room with the silly glasses on, woo-hoo!”

Marshall McLuhan

• “The Medium is the Message” – Like the...

Overview

• Directed by Stephen Frears
• Shot on location in Dorset and at Pinewood Studios
• Adapted screenplay by Moira Buffini (Jane Eyre, 2011) from a Graphic Novel by Posy Simmonds (The Guardian). Ready made Storyboard.

• Produced by BBC Films (Exec Production), Ruby Films (Production Company) and West End Films (Sales Agents/Casting)
• Ruby Films (Fish Tank 2009, Jane Eyre 2011) are an independent production company that specialise in literary...

Shifty is an independent social realist film that borrows (in terms of genre conventions) from the Crime Thriller/Gangster film, although arguably is not a hybrid genre. The film was produced with key funding from fledgling organisation Microwave who offer grants to film makers if they can keep the production budget under £100,000 and can execute filming in less than 18 days. Additional funding for distribution came from the UK Film...

Overview

• Independent Film – CULTURALLY and INSTITUTIONALLY
• Writer / Director – Andrea Arnold (b.1961, Dartford)

• Part funded / Executive Production by BBC Films
• Produced by Kasander Films (Arnold’s Production Company)
• Additional funding: UK Film Council (Prints and Advertising Fund - £70,000, New Cinema Fund - £644,000 and Development Fund - £20,000)

• Nominated for the Palm D’Or at Cannes 2009
• Winner of Jury Prize at Cannes
• 2010...

Associated Resources

• British Film and Hollywood Essay.doc

British Film has been dominated by Hollywood since WW1. Any essay that discusses UK Film has to reference the cultural and ideological dominance of the Hollywood Film Industry to such as point that many cinema goers often will never see a film in any other environment than a multiplex cinema. They may also fail to recognise that many other countries have very successful film industries...

Associated Resources

• Atonement Case Study.doc

Overview

• Director – Joe Wright (Pride and Prejudice): experience of big budgets, high production values and of the genre Costume Melodrama. Novel written by Ian McKewan (critically successful author)
• Genre Costume Melodrama – critically and commercially successful (‘safe’ genre). Arguably Atonement is a hybrid genre – Romance/War Film (built sets, contextual background). Gosford Park,...

Institutional Factors

• Campaign sequenced by DLKW (Delaney, Lund, Knox and Warren). Full Service
• Vauxhall Opel - re-brand the Corsa from one of function and cheapness only to Style, Form, Fun and Vibrancy – “Put the fun back into Driving” (imperative command)
• Adverts combined product image and product demonstration format
• Adverts have international/global appeal
• USP – Cmon’s puppets (live in Barcelona)
• Extensive Viral Marketing
• Cross...

In the MS4 exam or any form of external assessment you will be analysing the Advertising Industry as a Media Form, just like Film and Television.

Advertising can be deconstructed like any other Media form. The key relationship with Advertising and other Media forms however it that it is often (advertising) the essential funding that underpins their very existence. All of the following rely on advertising revenue:

• Commercial Television –...

• Dramatically reduced advertising spend during 08’-10’ recession
• High production values
• Wide global distribution

• TA – ABC1, Male skew, Aspirer, Urban.City living, 25-45 but dependent on model
• E.G. Honda Diesel “Grrr” targets liberal, environmentally conscious families (advert 5 months in production)

• Filmic representations e.g. The Impossible Dream

• Key Focus – TV Advertising
• Many adverts have become part of popular...

Associated Resources

• Barnardos Believe Campaign.ppt

Institutional Factors

• Campaigns sequenced by BBH (Bartle, Bogle, Hegarty, Full Service Agency) since 2000
• 2001 – Emotional Death (adults and violent death)
• 2002 – Stolen Childhood (superimposed heads of adults on children)
• 2003 – Silver Spoon (babies)
• 2005 – New Life (children back in the womb)
• Prior campaigns – more ‘shock advertising’ (one Silver Spoon advert – ASA regulated)...[ read full article ] »
  

Associated Resources

• Advertising and Regulation Industry Key Points 2011.doc

Key Points

Advertising in the UK is regulated by the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority).

• TV Advertising
• Radio
• Newspapers
• Leaflets
• Billboards/Posters
• Internet
• Magazines

Ofcom regulate Television and Radio (Broadcast Media).

Cinema Advertising is regulated by BBFC (British Board of Film Classification).

Adverts in draft form (rough cuts, designs) are sent to...

Explore the impact of Digital Technologies on Advertising

Key Teaching Areas

• The impact on Production (identify new digital forms of advertising and the effect on traditional media forms)
• Advertising and Media Convergence
• Narrative vs. Interactive Narrative (new technology)
• Changes to Target Audiences e.g. the Internet and Narrowcasting
• New forms of Distribution
• Case Study e.g. ad2-one – the relationship between text, industry and audience

• Declining media revenues including Advertising since mid 2008 (start of recession)

• Advertising spend is an indicator of confidence in a brand e.g. current low production value Honda advert (Feb 2010) compared to 2003-2007 Power of Dreams campaign (Wieden and Kennedy) Car companies like Honda have dramatically reduced advertising spend.

• Argument 1 – short term reduction in advertising spend can be costly in the long run.

• Argument 2 -...

Text Based

1. The Advertising Handbook – Sean Brierley (Routledge) 2000

2. How to get into Advertising – Andrea Neidle (Thomson) 2002

3. The Language of Advertising – A Goddard 1998

4. Promotional Culture – A Wernick 1991

5. Decoding Advertising: Ideology and Meaning – J Williamson (1978)

6. No Logo – Naomi Klein 2000

7. Advanced Level Media – Bell et al (Hodder and Stoughton) 1990: Chapter 10 Advertising

Journals

1....

• We can organise half-day or full day courses on any aspect of Media Studies at your school or college.

• We can also provide keynote speakers for conferences and training events.

Contact MediaEdu

Programme Details

• We come to you.

• Where possible assessors from leading awarding bodies lead our courses.

• Each revision course is 3 hours in length and is delivered in both whole group and seminar-style workshops. We can run a full-day course, if...

Introduction

All three A Level Media Studies exam specifications emphasise the study of the representation of difference.

AQA suggests:

A case study of refugees in British newspapers for example, would involve research into, and documentation of, the treatment of refugees in a variety of British newspapers (or possibly just one) to pinpoint the political and social reasons for the construction of such media representations and the possible...

There are a few scenarios under which you may find yourself using the film Tsotsi in an examination or assessment. You, or your teacher may perhaps choose the film when given an open ended assignment in a GCSE film assignment for media studies but the most likely circumstance under which you will be using the film is for the WJEC GCSE Film Studies Paper 2, titled ‘Films From Outside Hollywood’ where the film is currently one of the focus...

Associated Resources

Using Tsotsi in Examinations and Assessments

This guide is aimed at WJEC Film Studies students who are studying Tsotsi for their focus film on Paper 2 (Exploring Films Ouside Hollywood)in the GCSE examination.

Tsotsi was made in 2005 and is based upon Athol Fugard’s novel of the same name and was directed by Gavin Hood. With the dialogue a mixture of Zulu, Xhosa and Afrikaans, the film won the Oscar for Best Foreign...

The films which tend to be classed as new wave fall out of most film audience’s natural comfort zone and may not be their films of choice for watching. This helps to define the term cinematic new wave and to place a new wave movement into a context relative to other films.

A new wave film is by definition different to the other films which are normally produced, or to put it another way, new wave film movements are distinct from those films...

Functions of the Title Sequence

The functions of the title sequence in a film may seem to be fairly obvious. They are designed to tell the audience the names of the people and organisations involved with the making of the film and in this respect they do the job well.

Irrespective of the genre, there is a conventional way of presenting this information in the credit sequence. This information and the order in which it is presented follows a...

Click on the link below to download a PDF booklet you can print out.

Film Genre - Thrillers.pdf

Click on the link below to download a frame for analysing the opening of the film ‘Children of Men’.

Film-Opening-Children-Of-Men.doc

‘It’s just an idea for group work deconstructing an interesting text (especially because, unusually, this one starts in the middle of the disequilibrium, rather than establishing an equilibrium first of all, so is good for narrative theory.  Also, our “hero” is rather unheroic (he doesn’t return to the...

MediaEdu provides access to the following resources:

A Level Media Studies

• Schemes of work for AS and A2
• Topic Information
• Interactive Quizzes
• Image Gallery

GCSE Media Studies

• Schemes of work for GCSE
• Mock Exams
• Topic Information
• Interactive Quizzes
• Image Gallery

Key Concepts & Skills

• Skills Tutorials
• Production Zone
• Key Concept Guides
• Media Language Glossary

Other Resources

• YouTube Playlist

Support Community

• Our colleagues are always...

What are the components of star identity?

In media studies we understand ‘stars’ through the semiotics approach. In this approach stars should be studied as clusters of signs, as systems of signifiers or texts that communicate meaning to a spectator.

These ‘star texts’ are obviously grounded in the lives of real human beings. Then the more complex process of ‘star construction’ takes over. Let’s try to answer the question: ‘...

This is not in any way prescriptive, but offers some suggestions for a scheme of work aiming towards the MS1 2 ½ hour exam.

WJEC suggests that for a typical two sessions per week AS class, the basic plan for Term 1 is to start with an introduction to Media Studies and particularly textual analysis (MS1) and slowly introduce the key concepts: Genre, Narrative, and then after about November teach Representation and responses and textual examples...

• MS2 is 25% of complete A level. 50% of the AS level.
• This is internally assessed MEDIA PRODUCTION PROCESSES.

Students are required to demonstrate:

• their ability to research and plan for a media production
• their ability to produce a technically competent media production
• their ability to evaluate their own production work

There are three pieces of linked work, with no research notes.

1. Pre-production (20 marks) typically a script or a...

Andrew Moore / Universalteacher.org.uk Studying Feature Films

BFI or British Film Institute. An excellent site which incorporates an online media glossary.

BFI / BT Screenonline Archive Interactives

BFI Screenonline Tours

BFI Film and Media Schemes of Work

BFI Film and Media Studies Resources for Teachers and Students

BFI on Using Film in the Classroom

Cinemaspace - University of California, Berkeley

Film Underground

Film Analysis...

A typical A Level exam production task is to create a trailer for a film.

This is the type of task you will be asked to do:

Make a 3 minute trailer for a 15 rated film in a genre of your choice suitable for a teenage audience with a budget of about £10 million (the approximate budget for Slumdog Millionaire).

Before making your trailer you need to fully understand what a film trailer is, how it works and what it aims to do.

Definition

A...

• We can organise half-day or full day courses on any aspect of Media Studies at your school or college.

• We can also provide keynote speakers for conferences and training events.

Contact MediaEdu

Programme Details

• We come to you.

• Where possible assessors from leading awarding bodies lead our courses.

• Each revision course is 3 hours in length and is delivered in both whole group and seminar-style...

Click on the link below to download a frame for analysing the opening of the film ‘Children of Men’.

Film-Opening-Children-Of-Men.doc

‘It’s just an idea for group work deconstructing an interesting text (especially because, unusually, this one starts in the middle of the disequilibrium, rather than establishing an equilibrium first of all, so is good for narrative theory.  Also, our “hero” is rather...

MediaEdu provides access to the following resources:

A Level Media Studies

• Schemes of work for AS and A2
• Topic Information
• Interactive Quizzes
• Image Gallery

GCSE Media Studies

• Schemes of work for GCSE
• Mock Exams
• Topic Information
• Interactive Quizzes
• Image Gallery

Key Concepts & Skills

• Skills Tutorials
• Production Zone
• Key Concept Guides
• Media Language Glossary

Other Resources

• YouTube Playlist

Support...

This is not in any way prescriptive, but offers some suggestions for a scheme of work aiming towards the MS1 2 ½ hour exam.

WJEC suggests that for a typical two sessions per week AS class, the basic plan for Term 1 is to start with an introduction to Media Studies and particularly textual analysis (MS1) and slowly introduce the key concepts: Genre, Narrative, and then after about November teach...