G325

G325 Critical Perspectives in Media


This is a written paper sat during the summer exams. It is synoptic in that it draws together all that will be learnt during the course.


Section A is entirely devoted to production work (G324) throughout AS and A2.


1. Research tasks carried out.

• Audience research in the form of a series of short interviews.
• Viewing similar examples of film openings and writing analysis on blog.

2. Planning activities.

• Storyboards.
• Location shots.
• Shot list.

3. Challenges which arose during post-production.

• How to strike up a balance between subtlety and interest.
• Maintaining video quality.
• How best to use the software to achieve the desired effect.

Assess the impact of the activities/tasks/challenges you have outlined above on the success (or otherwise) of your finished foundation portfolio.


Audience research and viewing professional examples allowed me to identify the key themes and conventions that appeal most to my target audience. Planning ensured that the whole production ran fairly smoothly and minimized the time spent filming during fading light. Whilst overcoming the challenges created problems, it also encouraged me to think creatively and often resulted in an overall better result.

• My previous piece lacked a sense of continuous narative. Whilst this is less applicable to the A2 task, I should aim to maintain interest.