Read the letters your teacher has scribbled on your essay, and match them up to see how you can improve next time...
A - Try to avoid description. Instead of explaining what the Z-line or rule of thirds is, focus instead on how it creates meaning for the audience
B- Make sure to make consistent reference to explicit examples, for example costume, colour, elements of
mise-en-scene
C - Try to avoid generic, unhelpful statements 'it's easy to remember' or 'it really makes it stand out', it 'draws the audience's attention' or 'it attracts the audience'. Instead, how about 'the bold lettering forms a serious and challenging mode of address, directly appealing to the target audience'
D - Be emphatic. Avoid words like 'maybe' and 'perhaps', and instead present your opinions as fact
E - Explore genre, and when you do, identify a range of explicit generic conventions
F - Consider writing shorter, snappier paragraphs. The golden rule: one point per paragraph!
G - Make specific reference to the sexual connotations of the poster. The connotation of the word 'kiss' and the proairetic code of the low cut costume suggests both sex and sexuality and is specifically intended to appeal to a heterosexual male audience.
H - Instead of 'people who see the advert', it's always 'audience' (or potential audience or target audience... we'll move on to audience specifically next week!)
I - When writing about font, don't just put 'it's bold'. It's also serif, and highly stylised, with a serious, threatening mode of address. It's also highly iconographic of the horror genre (circa 1963)
J - Instead of 'makes it stand out', you may wish to reference binary oppositions instead
K - Make sure to concentrate on issues of representation, particularly how the producer constructs representations for the purposes of ideology
L - Explore how the use of codes and conventions can create
multiple meanings
M - Avoid a conversational tone
N - Use an introduction to establish the themes of the essay to the reader
O - Be careful when writing about codes and theoretical issues. Producers don't 'use hermeneutic codes'. Instead, they use conventions and aspects of media language that
function as hermeneutic codes. This is tricky to get your head round at first, but you'll get used to it with practice!
Here's the mark scheme for the A2 music video production. Please note that if you started Media at Long Road in 2017 or later, then this does not apply to you, and you can safely ignore it!
1) There are a few slides we have not covered because we simply did not have the time. These ideas will be addressed at a later point.
