Section A: What do I need to know?

You will be expected to link textual analysis (using technical terms from the four areas) of the TV Drama extract to analysis of how a particular social group is represented.

Technical terms you need to use
Camera Shots, Angle, Movement and Composition:
• Shots: establishing shot, master shot, close-up, mid-shot, long shot, wide shot, two-shot, aerial shot, point of view shot, over the shoulder shot, and variations of these.
• Angle: high angle, low angle, canted angle.
• Movement: pan, tilt, track, dolly, crane, steadicam, hand-held, zoom, reverse zoom.
• Composition: framing, rule of thirds, depth of field – deep and shallow focus, focus pulls.

Editing
Includes transition of image and sound – continuity and non-continuity systems.
• Cutting: shot/reverse shot, eyeline match, graphic match, action match, jump cut, crosscutting, parallel editing, cutaway; insert.
• Other transitions, dissolve, fade-in, fade-out, wipe, superimposition, long take, short take, slow motion, ellipsis and expansion of time, post-production, visual effects.

Sound
• Diegetic and non-diegetic sound; synchronous/asynchronous sound; sound effects; sound motif, sound bridge, dialogue, voiceover, mode of address/direct address, sound mixing, sound perspective.
• Soundtrack: score, incidental music, themes and stings, ambient sound.

Mise-en-Scene
• Production design: location, studio, set design, costume and make-up, properties.
• Lighting; colour design.

You will be asked to analyse how this technical stuff is used to represent a particular social group - or, as the specification puts it; Candidates should be prepared to discuss, in response to the question, how these technical elements create specific representations of individuals, groups, events or places and help to articulate specific messages and values that have social significance. Particular areas of representation that may be chosen are:

• Gender • Age • Ethnicity • Sexuality • Class and status • Physical ability/disability • Regional identity

And that's it! If you know all the above technical terms and you are confident at linking them to how a social group is represented, you will ace section A.