MONDAY, 23 APRIL 2012
Exam tips for AS students
With just three weeks to go to the exam, here are a few tips for the OCR AS G322.
1. Practice a bit of writing on TV Drama and particularly in organising your notes. You'll find a whole presentation of tips on that part of the exam in my presentation from an earlier post on Feb 29. There I suggest that you go into the exam knowing how you will organise your notes, so that you have a structure to look out for things and to ensure that you maximise the note-taking time. After the first screening, if you draw a grid in the answer booklet, like this:
It will give you all you need for the four categories- mise-en-scene, camerawork, editing (continuity editing, at least) and sound. Down the side are the three categories P- point, D-data (or example) and Q- question (how to relate point and example to the question set). This model was suggested by Vicky Allen at Thomas Rotherham College, who gets good results every year, so she should know!
When revising for the exam, fill out a grid like this with the points you are going to be looking for on the day, then regardless of the extract, you will have things to look for. You won't be able to take one in to the actual exam, but you will have fewer things to memorise to cover!
So, under mise-en-scene, you might be looking for key examples of setting, costume, props, colours, makeup, hairstyle, lighting, posture, gesture. For camerawork you want to make points about angles, shot distances, camera movements, framing and focus. For continuity editing you want examples of the 180 degree rule, match on action, shot reverse shot, eyeline match, insert shots. For sound you will want examples of music, dialogue, sound effects, use of foley, counterpoint, sound bridges. If you have lists like this that you can then remember, that gives you plenty to look for.
Once you have watched the extract through, during the second screening you can very quickly note down your grid and start to put in examples to support your points and then as you watch it a third and fourth time, you can start to relate the examples you find back to the question, by asking what they contribute to the representation under scrutiny. So, for instance, how is the setting being used, how are camera angles being used, how are features of continuity editing used to help establish differences between characters. You'll have 30 minutes in total for the note-taking, so make the most of it!
Remember, the more you do in preparation for the note-taking, the better your chances in the essay itself. A well-organised answer in the 45 minutes for writing, supporting points with examples, will go a long way towards getting you a good mark!
1. Practice a bit of writing on TV Drama and particularly in organising your notes. You'll find a whole presentation of tips on that part of the exam in my presentation from an earlier post on Feb 29. There I suggest that you go into the exam knowing how you will organise your notes, so that you have a structure to look out for things and to ensure that you maximise the note-taking time. After the first screening, if you draw a grid in the answer booklet, like this:
When revising for the exam, fill out a grid like this with the points you are going to be looking for on the day, then regardless of the extract, you will have things to look for. You won't be able to take one in to the actual exam, but you will have fewer things to memorise to cover!
So, under mise-en-scene, you might be looking for key examples of setting, costume, props, colours, makeup, hairstyle, lighting, posture, gesture. For camerawork you want to make points about angles, shot distances, camera movements, framing and focus. For continuity editing you want examples of the 180 degree rule, match on action, shot reverse shot, eyeline match, insert shots. For sound you will want examples of music, dialogue, sound effects, use of foley, counterpoint, sound bridges. If you have lists like this that you can then remember, that gives you plenty to look for.
Once you have watched the extract through, during the second screening you can very quickly note down your grid and start to put in examples to support your points and then as you watch it a third and fourth time, you can start to relate the examples you find back to the question, by asking what they contribute to the representation under scrutiny. So, for instance, how is the setting being used, how are camera angles being used, how are features of continuity editing used to help establish differences between characters. You'll have 30 minutes in total for the note-taking, so make the most of it!
Remember, the more you do in preparation for the note-taking, the better your chances in the essay itself. A well-organised answer in the 45 minutes for writing, supporting points with examples, will go a long way towards getting you a good mark!
- Pete Fraser
http://www.blogglebox.co.uk/blogglebox/?p=3440 - follow this link to revise for key concepts for class and status
View more PowerPoint from jessicaa2
I found a presentation about the representation of regional identity in British TV dramas on SlideShare this should come in handy for revision.
I found a presentation about the representation of regional identity in British TV dramas on SlideShare this should come in handy for revision.
British TV drama bosses from across the main channels are to take action to ensure that more disabled actors are cast in their programmes. Some of the most senior representatives from drama departments at ITV. BBC, Channel 4, Sky, Five, Welsh channel S4C, and a number of independent production companies came together with disabled actors for a workshop hosted by ITV and the BCIDN. Producers and commissioners discussed some of the difficulties they had encountered in finding disabled actors suitable for scripts, and offered a number of suggestions for how they could ensure more disabled talent makes it through to the screen.
This is taken from an article on the Employer's forum on Disability, the article is from 2009 click the link to read the whole article http://www.efd.org.uk/media-centre/bcidn-latest-news/tvs-drama-bosses-put-more-disabled-actors-on-screen
This extract is from 'A touch of Frost' other British TV dramas that include disabled people are:
Channel 4's- Cast offs
This is an extract from Casualty and i will explore the representation of disability through camera angles, editing, sound and mise- en - scene in four key parts of the extract
EDITING is often considered invisible, editing can be tricky to write about, but you must explore how it aids the construction of meaning about representation. To help you, here are some goodies
Editing is a way of compressing time and space or creating the effect of a dream sequence or flashback; it usually is ‘seamless’ and natural-seeming such that we tend not to even notice it.
- Editing is the cutting and joining of lengths of film to place separate shots together yet still manage to suggest a sense of a continuing, connected and realistic flow of events and narrative
- A montage is an edited series of shots that works as an ‘individual unit’ of meaning greater than the individual mise-en-scenes from which it is created.
- Continuity editing refers to editing techniques that keep the sense of narrative flow such as matched or eye-line cuts. A jump-cut is a dramatic edit that breaks time / space continuity yet still appears continuous and ‘natural’; an MTV edit is a rapid sequence of fast jump cuts that creates a conscious effect such as in music videos; a cross-cut follows action in two separate scenes; a follow-cut follow action to its consequence, e.g. a character looking out cuts to what they look at.
- Fades (sometimes to black) and dissolves create the sense of scenes moving forward. A sound-bridge carries sound across shots.
- Parallel action allows two scenes to be viewed yet still retain the continuity and realism and uses cross cuts. A sequence is a series of shots (i.e. a montage) that leads up to a climax as in a story sequence.
Daniel Chandler's Grammar of TV site is great for supporting in developing my vocabulary and extending/reinforcing the things needed for TV production techniques:
Luther Meets His Nemisis
Mac 2's short presentation on the way Youth are represented in the media
Representations of Age - Key word Bank
Camera Angles and Editing
How Gender is Represented in TV Dramas
