Unit B321: The Individual Media Studies Portfolio
This is a controlled assessment unit, 25–30 hours, internally assessed and externally moderated.120 marks, 30% of the total GCSE marks.
Candidates produce an individual portfolio containing a COMPARATIVE ANALYTICAL ASSIGNMENT, a production exercise and a planning and evaluative commentary. The comparative analytical assignment is based on at least two media texts from a selection of set topics produced by OCR.
Choose ONE.....
Compare the representation of gender in Outkast's Hey Ya (2003) and Haim's The Wire (2013)
Compare the representation of gender in Outkast's Hey Ya (2003) and Haim's Forever (2013).
Compare the representation of gender in Outkast's Hey Ya (2003) and Haim's Falling (2013).
This is a controlled assessment unit, internally assessed and externally moderated.
Candidates will produce an individual portfolio containing:
• a comparative analytical assignment (60 marks), based on at least two actual media texts
• a production exercise (40 marks) linked to the assignment
• an evaluative commentary (20 marks) on the planning process and the production exercise,
together with evidence of planning.
You will be working with a particular genre of music to produce a CD cover. This will entail you (individually) designing and producing a CD cover (using original photography) and showing some familiarity with Photoshop, Illustrator and In-Design.
A minimum of two media areas must be covered in the portfolio as a whole. The assignment will focus
on the following media key concepts:
• media language
• representation.
file:///Users/christopherlynch/Desktop/Microsoft%20Word%20-%20Media%20Language%20Hey%20ya.docx.pdf
How to answer the analytical question.
For example:
There are moments in both videos
where the actions of women de-stabilise men to provoke different
representations of masculinity. (TOPIC SENTENCE). In Hey Ya! the keyboard player, ‘Benjamin
Andre’ is shown –in close up- to be shy when one female fan picks him for her
special attention.[i] A
parallel moment in The Wire is where
the first boyfriend realises that he is being rejected. In both examples the
men react in unplanned, emotional ways: the first in pleasure the second in
distress. The contiguous shots in Hey Ya! are linked by a young woman blowing a
kiss from the right of the frame towards the left cutting to Benjamin Andre in
the left of his frame receiving the sent kiss. His masculinity is not cool and
self-contained; it is emotional and modest rather.
Contiguous shots
at 4.34-4.36
Part A
to
Part B
This dolly zoom is held for nearly five seconds (from 2.08
to nearly 2.13) to emphasise his emotional disquiet. Of course this is a music
video and its soundtrack advises ‘Always keep your heart locked in’. This is a
representation of masculinity that says men should learn from women how to
manage their feelings.
Both of these
representations of masculinity are unconventional in the history of the music
promo (1983-2014)
RESEARCH & PLANNING
