Media Studies Islay

The SQA have just published their annual External Assessment Reports. These give details of where candidates performed well in last year’s exams, as well as where they didn’t fair too good. I’m pasting it here becuase it makes for some good reading and will also give you pointers in relation to what examiners are looking for - I’ve highlighted key bits in bold. Please do take note of these comment.

Intermediate One:

Areas in which candidates performed well:
In the Unseen Analysis, answers on Language were better than those on Categories. In the Question Paper,
well-prepared candidates were able to achieve high marks in both Sections of the paper.
Areas which candidates found demanding:
Knowledge of how the chosen media text was funded caused difficulties for candidates. In Unseen Analysis,
some texts or excerpts from texts caused the candidates difficulties - being either too long and therefore
demanding in the time available, or else too “thin”, that is, offering too few opportunities for developed
answers.

Intermediate Two:

Areas in which candidates performed well:
In the Unseen Analysis, as has been the case for many years now, answers on Language were better than those
on Categories. In the Question Paper, well-prepared candidates were able to achieve high marks in both
Sections of the paper.
Areas which candidates found demanding:
There tended to be a re-telling of the experience of making a media product in the reflective essay in Section 2,
Media Production rather than attempting to construct an answer guided by the specifics of the question.
In Unseen Analysis, Markers commented on the difficulty candidates experienced when writing answers to
questions on the Medium of the text. Perhaps candidates find it too challenging to relate specific textual details
in the (short) unseen text to questions on the medium, and tend to make only general observations unrelated to
the text.

Advice to centres for preparation of future candidates
In the examination paper, Section 1 Media Analysis, questions ask candidates to explain how one named key
aspect and one other of the candidate’s choosing from the permitted range are linked in a specific way as
directed by the question. Candidates’ responses must attempt to answer the specific question rather than
offering to explain the key aspects in an unrelated way.
Candidates should practise linking two key aspects in when preparing writing essays for Section 1, Media
Analysis.
In preparation for the reflective essay in Section 2 Media Production, candidates must be guided by the
specifics of the question to structure their answers rather than re-telling the experience of making a media
product.

Further to today’s lesson, here’s the grid of key words that should be utilised in your writing on film poster analysis:

Please ensure that you understand the meanings of these terms in relation to media studies - most of the explanations for them will be in your glossary.

A couple of sites that are very useful in relation to posters are:

www.impawards.com

www.listal.com/list/melhores-posteres-de-2009 (a good list of some posters from this year - be sure to check out the animated Saw VI poster: although it’s by no means the first animated film poster, but do you think that this form could become more popular in the future?)

Here’s the superb Dark Knight teaser poster that I referred to:

Further to the lesson where we briefly looked at a few film openings, you can now find videos of Lost Highway, Rear Window, and The Untouchables on ‘Public 2′. If you are going to grab these, please ensure that you save the files into your Convenience Folder.

Remember that I want you to write a full analysis of the opening that you have chosen to examine, focusing on Technical and Cultural Codes and also to some of the Key Aspects that we have covered. Please refer to all of your notes when compiling your analysis pieces and also ensure that you are using the Glossary that you’ve memorised off by heart!

I want this piece of writing uploaded to your blog by Friday 6th November. Remember that the skills that you are writing about in this piece will be utilised in your practical work.

I mentioned a pupil’s blog as well and here is the link to that http://latymerfoundationtanya09.blogspot.com/ She writes an excellent piece of analysis on the opening to The Descent here http://latymerfoundationtanya09.blogspot.com/search/label/Opening%20Sequence%20Analysis Please browse through her blog for inspiration.

As always, if you are experiencing any problems please just holler.

Looks like there are major problems with embedding video - meh

If a solution can’t be found it might be worth transferring our blogs over to edublogs or something

This blog will be used to keep pupils updated on task developments throughout their Media Studies course at Intermediate One and Intermediate Two levels.

There will also be links to blogs created by pupils in relation to the Media Production Unit of the course.