Postmodernism: a definition

Label given to Cultural forms since the 1960s that display the following qualities:

Self reflexivity: this involves the seemingly paradoxical combination of self-consciousness and some sort of historical grounding

Irony: Post modernism uses irony as a primary mode of expression, but it also abuses, installs, and subverts conventions and usually negotiates contradictions through irony

Boundaries: Post modernism challenges the boundaries between genres, art forms, theory and art, high art and the mass media

Constructs: Post modernism is actively involved in examining the constructs society creates including, but not exclusively, the following:

• Nation: Post modernism examines the construction of nations/nationality and questions such constructions
• Gender: Post modernism reassesses gender, the construction of gender, and the role of gender in cultural formations
• Race: Post modernism questions and reassesses constructs of race
• Sexuality: Post modernism questions and reassesses constructs of sexuality

A2 G325: Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production

A2 G325: Critical Perspectives in Media


Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production (50 marks)


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.

Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Post Production: A2 question 1a

What decisions did you make in the post production stage of your products at AS and A2? Evaluate your skills development as well as the success of the decisions-Refer to as many of the post production elements as possible.

Post production elements:

sound
CGI
effectsvideo
commentaryfeedback - roughcutmenu for DVD
creditstransitions/effects
subtitles
marketing (digi-pack)
editing
consumption/exchange

Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Using Conventions From Real Media Texts: A2 Question 1b

In question 1(b) you need to choose one of your media productions to write about. (b) Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.



Question 1 - How has your understanding of real media conventions developed over your a level media studies

The codes and conventions in media can be separated into 3 distinct groups - technical (camera techniques & shots), symbolic (ie clothing, colours) written and audio (music etc). These give the text meaning and determine the response of the viewer. They can be used as a basis for simple text analysis.

G325 January 2010

Postmodern Media

Explain why the idea of ‘postmodern media’ might be considered controversial. [50]

G325 January 2010

Section A: Theoretical Evaluation of Production

You must answer both 1(a) and 1(b).

In question 1(a) you need to write about your work for the Foundation Portfolio and Advanced Portfolio units and you may refer to other media production work you have undertaken.

1 (a) Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time. [25]

In question 1(b) you need to choose one of your media productions to write about.

(b) Analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions. [25]

Section A Total [50]

What is creativity? (G325 questions on production work)

Taken from Media Magazine blog.

One of the possible areas you could be asked about in the exam is creativity. The projects you have undertaken will hopefully have felt like an opportunity to display your creativity, but you will need the chance to discuss what you understand by creativity and what it might mean to be creative.

The assignment options at AS and A2 all offer constraints for your work, whether it be making pages for a music magazine, the opening of a film or the packaging for an album; one of the reasons why you aren't offered total free choice is because people often find that working within constraints gives them something to exercise their creativity, whereas total freedom can sometimes make it really difficult to know where to start. It's why genre can be interesting- how has something been created which fits with certain structures and rules but plays around with them to give us something a little bit different?

The word 'creative' has many meanings- the most democratic meaning would really suggest that any act of making something (even making an idea) might be seen as a creative act. In more elitist versions of the term, it is reserved for those who are seen as highly skilled or original (famous artists, musicians, film-makers etc). an interesting third alternative is to think about how creativity can be an unconscious, random or collaborative act that becomes more than the sum of its parts.

A great shared site for creative random art with some effort is on Flickr with the shared CD meme pool. This is a game where you create a CD cover for an imaginary band and upload it to Flickr; the trick is you have to create it from 'found' materials, again following a set of rules.

1. Generate a name for your band by using WikiPedia's random page selector tool, and using the first article title on whichever page pops up. No matter how weird or lame that band name sounds.
2. Generate an album title by cutting and pasting the last four words of the final quote on whichever page appears when you click on the quotationspage's random quote selector tool. No matter what those four words turn out to be.
3. Finally, visit Flickr's Most Interesting page -- a random selection of some of the interesting things discovered on Flickr within the last 7 days -- and download the third picture on that page. (Even better: Click on this link to get a Flickr photo that's licensed under Creative Commons.) Again -- no cheating! You must use the photo, no matter how you feel about it.
4. Using Photoshop (or whatever method you prefer), put all of these elements together and create your very own CD cover, then upload it to the CD memepool

My version:

Band name: Margarita Rosa de Francisco

Album Name: Milk's Leap Toward Immortality

Image:


The final version:





The key question to consider is: how has something been created which fits with certain structures and rules but plays around with them to give us something a little bit different?


Ideas and theories to help you.


"A process needed for problem solving...not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people" (Jones 1993)


"The making of the new and the re arranging of the old" (Bentley 1997)


"Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation." (Csikszentmihalyi 1996)


"There is no absolute judgement [on creativity] All judgements are comparisons of one thing with another." (Donald Larning)

LINK