Embedded Files
If Chuck Norris were to travel to an alternate dimension in which there was another Chuck Norris and they both fought, they would both win.
PART A – SHORT ANSWER PRACTICE QUESTIONS
PART A – SHORT ANSWER PRACTICE QUESTIONS
(Approx. 1.5 pages handwritten – 25–30 mins)
These should require precision, terminology and close reference to specific scenes. There are some tips, but they are not exhaustive by any means.
1. Analyse how manipulation of time shapes audience interpretation in at least one media work you have studied.
1. Analyse how manipulation of time shapes audience interpretation in at least one media work you have studied.
What this is really testing:
What this is really testing:
Media languages (narrative structure)
Audience positioning
System of communication
High-quality answer should include:
High-quality answer should include:
Knowledge
Define linear vs non-linear narrative
Identify flashback, reverse chronology, repetition
Understanding
Explain how time manipulation alters meaning
Show awareness of restricted narration
Application
Specific scenes:
Dictaphone confession (Double Indemnity)
Reverse colour sequences (Memento)
Repeated staircase in Meshes
Analysis
How structure creates psychological alignment
How fragmentation forces active spectatorship
Evaluation
Which film most radically destabilises audience certainty?
Is fragmentation a stylistic flourish or thematic necessity?
2. Discuss how Film Noir aesthetics construct themes of moral instability.
2. Discuss how Film Noir aesthetics construct themes of moral instability.
What this tests:
What this tests:
Media aesthetics
Codes and conventions
Representation
High-quality answer should include:
High-quality answer should include:
Knowledge
Chiaroscuro lighting
Urban setting
Voiceover
Femme fatale
Understanding
Noir as style rather than just genre
Application
Venetian blind shadows (Double Indemnity)
Stark interiors (Memento)
Expressionist framing in Meshes
Analysis
Light and shadow as moral metaphor
Enclosed spaces as psychological entrapment
Evaluation
Does Neo-Noir intensify or dilute classical Noir themes?
3. Analyse how technology is used as a narrative device in media work.
3. Analyse how technology is used as a narrative device in media work.
Tests:
Tests:
System of communication
Narrative framing
Representation of truth
High-quality answer should include:
High-quality answer should include:
Knowledge
Dictaphone, Polaroids, tattoos
Understanding
Mediation of memory and truth
Application
Walter’s confession device
Leonard’s documentation system
Analysis
Technology as false objectivity
Evidence as constructed rather than neutral
Evaluation
Is recorded truth more reliable than memory?
4. Analyse how industry contexts influence the construction of media art.
4. Analyse how industry contexts influence the construction of media art.
Tests:
Tests:
Industry
Production contexts
Regulation
High-quality answer should include:
High-quality answer should include:
Knowledge
Hays Code
Studio system
Independent financing (Memento)
Understanding
Regulation vs creative freedom
Application
Moral ending of Double Indemnity
Narrative freedom in Memento
Analysis
Constraint shaping aesthetic innovation
Evaluation
Do constraints strengthen artistic creativity?
5. Analyse how masculinity is represented in media work you have studied.
5. Analyse how masculinity is represented in media work you have studied.
Tests:
Tests:
Representation
Cultural context
Audience values
High-quality answer should include:
High-quality answer should include:
Knowledge
Insurance salesman trope
Male authority figures
Understanding
Crisis of rational masculinity
Application
Walter’s moral collapse
Leonard’s self-deception
Analysis
Rational profession vs irrational behaviour
Evaluation
Does Neo-Noir critique or reinforce masculine instability?
PART B – EXTENDED ANSWER PRACTICE QUESTIONS
PART B – EXTENDED ANSWER PRACTICE QUESTIONS
(Approx. 3–4 pages handwritten – 50–60 mins)
These require synthesis across texts. There are some tips, but they are not exhaustive by any means.
1. “Media art evolves by reworking existing forms rather than rejecting them.”
1. “Media art evolves by reworking existing forms rather than rejecting them.”
Discuss with reference to film movements and narrative experimentation.
High-quality response structure:
High-quality response structure:
Knowledge
German Expressionism
Film Noir
Neo-Noir
Understanding
Stylistic inheritance
Application
Expressionist influence in Meshes
Noir style in Double Indemnity
Structural disruption in Memento
Analysis
Evolution of narrative manipulation
Changing audience expectations
Evaluation
Is Neo-Noir dependent on Noir literacy?
Synthesis
Show lineage across decades
2. Evaluate how manipulation of narrative structure challenges traditional audience expectations.
2. Evaluate how manipulation of narrative structure challenges traditional audience expectations.
High-quality answer:
High-quality answer:
Define
Classical Hollywood structure
Compare
Confessional framing (Double Indemnity)
Psychological looping (Meshes)
Reverse chronology (Memento)
Analyse
Shift from passive to active spectatorship
Evaluate
Does fragmentation enhance engagement or alienate viewers?
3. To what extent do industry controls and constraints shape the artistic outcomes of media work?
3. To what extent do industry controls and constraints shape the artistic outcomes of media work?
High-quality answer:
High-quality answer:
Knowledge
Production Code
Independent production context
Application
Moral closure in Double Indemnity
Freedom in Memento
Analysis
Constraint as creative catalyst
Evaluation
Which film demonstrates greatest industrial influence?
Synthesis
Compare regulatory vs economic constraints
4. Compare how themes of truth, memory and reliability are constructed across the films you have studied.
4. Compare how themes of truth, memory and reliability are constructed across the films you have studied.
High-quality answer:
High-quality answer:
Knowledge
Voiceover
Restricted narration
Subjective framing
Application
Walter’s confession
Leonard’s documentation
Fragmented repetition in Meshes
Analysis
Truth as constructed rather than discovered
Evaluation
Does any film offer stable truth?
Synthesis
Link narrative structure to epistemological uncertainty
5. Discuss how media aesthetics construct psychological interiority in media art.
5. Discuss how media aesthetics construct psychological interiority in media art.
High-quality answer:
High-quality answer:
Knowledge
Chiaroscuro
Framing
Editing
Sound design
Application
Shadow in Double Indemnity
Distortion in Meshes
Fragmentation in Memento
Analysis
Style as externalisation of mental state
Evaluation
Which film most successfully represents psychological instability?
Synthesis
Connect aesthetics to movement (Expressionism → Noir → Neo-Noir)
What a High-Band Extended Answer Must Do
What a High-Band Extended Answer Must Do
Across all extended responses, high-quality work should:
1. Establish conceptual clarity
1. Establish conceptual clarity
Define movement/style precisely
Use accurate terminology consistently
2. Demonstrate close textual analysis
2. Demonstrate close textual analysis
Reference specific scenes
Explain how techniques construct meaning
3. Integrate context meaningfully
3. Integrate context meaningfully
War/post-war anxiety
Regulation
Postmodern uncertainty
4. Compare, not just describe
4. Compare, not just describe
Move beyond single-text analysis
Identify patterns and evolution
5. Make evaluative judgments
5. Make evaluative judgments
Use language such as:
“Arguably…”
“More significantly…”
“While X appears…, it ultimately…”
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