GCSE Digital Media and Film
Digital Media and Film is a high literacy GCSE: learners analyse film, game and news texts including an unseen extract, write comparative and evaluative answers, research and write a Welsh industry case study, script productions and keep a reflective log. Numeracy is light and never calculated in the examination, limited to reading audience and success figures and handling timings for editing, trailers and release schedules. The single biggest thing Key Stage 3 should build is analytical writing about moving image, where pupils name a technique precisely and explain its effect on an audience.
- Awarding body
- WJEC
- Level
- Level 1 and Level 2
- First taught
- September 2026
- Amount of literacy work
- High
- Amount of numeracy work
- Low
- Specification
- Open the specification
How this qualification is assessed
- Unit 1: Exploring key concepts and issues: On-screen examination 1 hour 30 minutes, 60 marks, 30%
- Unit 2: Distribution and exhibition strategies of digital media and film industries in Wales: Non-examination assessment, portfolio based, 18 hours, 72 marks, 30%
- Unit 3: Creating digital media and film content: Non-examination assessment, assignment based, no time restriction, 96 marks, 40%
Skills that use Connectives and syntax
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Comparing and evaluating films in extended answers
Learners compare their pair of set films, one Welsh and one global, and analyse and evaluate how contexts, representations and narrative devices shape meaning. The examination includes extended answers, so learners need to organise a sustained, evaluative argument.
Literacy: Understanding, response and analysis, Planning and organising for different purposes, audiences and context, Connectives and syntax
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils complete a Venn diagram comparing the openings of two animated films, then turn it into one paragraph using comparative connectives such as whereas and similarly.
- Year 8
- Pupils write a two-paragraph comparison of how a Welsh setting and a non-Welsh setting are represented in two film clips, linking each point to a named shot.
- Year 9
- Pupils plan and write a 30-minute comparative essay on how two short films use binary oppositions and endings, reaching a judgement about which is more effective.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit 1, Section 1.1.5, page 13
“Learners should be able to compare the pair of films selected from the list of films set for study”
Progression step 3
I can collate and make connections, e.g. prioritising, categorising, between information and ideas from different sources including digital and audio-visual texts.
I can use paragraphs and make links between them.
I can use an increasing range of connectives to organise my ideas in sentences, paragraphs and whole texts.
Progression step 4
I can compare and contrast themes and issues across a range of texts including digital and audio-visual texts.
I can organise and construct my writing effectively, connecting and developing my ideas for a range of different contexts.
I can use a range of connectives specifically when organising my ideas in whole texts for different purposes.
Progression step 5
I can confidently compare and contrast themes and ideas in a range of texts, including digital and audio-visual texts, exploring how they vary in purpose and effect.
I can organise writing in an appropriate form, ensuring content is detailed within and between paragraphs or sections, developing and sustaining ideas coherently.
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Scripting screenplays and cutscenes
Unit 3 options include an extract from a screenplay or a script for a cutscene, and all learners plan through scripts and storyboards. Learners must write in script conventions, with dialogue and stage directions that embed genre, representation and narrative devices.
Literacy: Planning and organising for different purposes, audiences and context, Punctuation, Connectives and syntax
Getting pupils ready
- Year 7
- Pupils rewrite a short scene from a class novel as a one-page screenplay, setting out scene headings, character names and dialogue correctly.
- Year 8
- Pupils script a 60-second video game cutscene that introduces a hero and a villain, using punctuation such as ellipses and dashes in dialogue to control pace.
- Year 9
- Pupils write a two-page screenplay opening in a set genre, including an inciting incident, then storyboard six key shots from it.
Show the specification wording and the LNF statements
Where it is in the specification: Unit 3, Section 3.1.2, page 23
“extract from a screenplay”
Progression step 3
I can use and adapt different structures within my writing, e.g. reporting an event, investigation or experiment.
I can use a range of punctuation accurately (including apostrophe for possession) to clarify and expand meaning.
Progression step 4
I can adapt my writing style, choosing and using the best structures for different contexts and purposes, e.g. to successfully describe, explain, persuade, discuss.
I can use the full range of punctuation accurately (including colons, semicolons and parenthesis) to clarify, organise and expand meaning.
Progression step 5
I can show sustained awareness of different readers by selecting from a range of styles and structures, and adapting my use of language confidently.
I can use the full range of punctuation in order to vary pace, clarify meaning, avoid ambiguity and create deliberate effects.
Good to know
- Unit 1 is an 'On-screen examination: 1 hour 30 minutes' worth 60 marks, with 'objective responses, short and extended answers' including 'unseen media works' (Summary of assessment, page 5), so pupils type their extended answers.
- The specification awards no separate marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar or accuracy of language, and says nothing about calculators, dictionaries or word limits (checked across the whole specification).
- Unit 2 is a portfolio under time control: 'Learners will have 18 hours to complete the assessment' (Section 3.2, page 27), so research and writing must be efficient.
- Unit 3 has 'no restriction on the amount of time candidates spend on the assessment' and requires learners to 'Produce a reflective log' alongside two production pieces (Section 3.2, pages 27 and 28).
- Assessment Objective 3, 'Reflect on, analyse and evaluate own work and the work of others', carries 30% of the qualification, split 15% Unit 1, 10% Unit 2 and 5% Unit 3 (Section 3.1, page 26).
- Pre-production planning such as 'storyboards, scripts, hand drawn or digital mock-ups' may be handwritten or digital (Unit 3, Section 3.1.1, page 23).
- Appendix A (page 32) flags literacy (listening, reading, speaking, writing) in all three units but flags numeracy only against the non-examination units.
Links with other qualifications
At Key Stage 3 this reading and writing work overlaps closely with English film and media units, and the news reliability work links to Humanities and Digital Technology, so a shared analytical paragraph frame across departments would help.
Source: WJEC GCSE Digital Media and Film specification, teaching from 2026, for award from 2028, Version 2, September 2026.