What do I post?
Introduction:
The expectations of the A2 coursework are far greater than the AS thriller. To this end you need to make sure you blog regularly to gain the higher grades. Blogging regularly means that you should be starting to blog posts from this week, right through to the early January deadline. Remember that two years ago, students’ work was moderated ‘down’ by 6 marks due to the increased expectations of the A2 course and you need to bear this in mind when you plan and write your blogs. As a Head of Department I don’t want this decrease in marks to happen again. We were again criticized last year because of the lack of the variety of media that the students used within their blog, although marks were not taken down we have to make sure that you use a wider variety of tools to help you achieve A grades (see the attached list of websites for you to use and explore to help you with this necessity.)
OCR expect to see a ‘journey’ through your planning, research, construction and evaluation and also want your blog to be ‘media rich.’ This means that detailed Microsoft Word essays posted into your blog all of the time will not suffice, be creative and use photos, videos, powerpoints, podcasts etc to again access the top marks. The moderators report made mention of ‘ensuring research on real media is reflected in the planning and construction of candidates own work.’ This means you have to have analysis of similar short films or music videos to your work to illustrate that you can use the correct codes and conventions. This is also the case when you work on the two ancillary tasks after half term.
(More on the ancillary tasks and the evaluation questions soon)
As a Media department we appreciate your problems with accessing YouTube etc, however the question of school access is out of the department’s control. As candidates who are entering the ‘real world’ through either UCAS or work you must rise to the challenge and work together to make sure the Blog you create is one which demonstrates your own creative and innovative use of digital technology. Only when you do this will you access the higher grades.
For examples of fantastic Blogs from the past, please use Peter McLaughlin’s short film blog to illustrate what an A grade blog looks like (the group scored 92 out of 100) For those students who are creating a music video please use Rebecca Young’s blog as your example (the group scored 78 out of 100) From last year Brad Hart’s music video scored over 80 and Harvey Young’s and James Moss’s groups were also of a very high standard. Remember however that your year group really upped the standard of blogs last year so as long as you don’t get complacent you should be pleased with your result, especially as if you take as much care as you did with their final video product as well.
More examples can be found on this site: http://getaheadocrmedia.blogspot.com/
Scroll down to the post entitled ‘A2 Blogs’ and click on the relevant link for some great A grade examples of blogs from other schools.
My only other advice is to make you sure you actually work as a team. Share the responsibility and appoint one of your team to be a ‘quality control expert’ on the blog who oversees the journey. A good coursework mark is absolutely vital to your chances of gaining your overall desired A2 grade. The exam is tough, very tough and any points you pick up here will help you succeed overall.
Good Luck!
Handy guide to what to post
Your coursework mark is split into five different areas:
1. Planning and Research - 20 marks
2. Music Video/short film - 40 marks
3. Evaluation - 20 marks
4. Ancillary Task number 1 - 10 marks
5. Ancillary Task number 2 - 10 marks
Your class teacher will go through the marking criteria of these five different areas of the production, however if you are serious about getting an A Grade (80-100 marks) the following guide on what to post for the planning and research stage of the task will help you get started in achieving this goal.
1. Evaluation of AS Blog – What went right? What could have been improved? Start your new Blog with a look back at your Year 12 coursework. I advise that you ‘Print Screen’ the parts you want to praise and ones where you could have made an improvement. OCR require a ‘journey’ in your Blog and this is an excellent starting point for that journey because you are evaluating your own work and being honest about it. You could write about problems with the editing, the product itself or highlight any real strengths of the blog. Using the website www.wordle.net you should also produce a thematic word cloud which you can then put onto your blog with the intention of writing an analysis of certain repeated words and why they were so important. I also expect to see a SWOT analysis of your Year 12 work at the start of your blog, a visual representation of your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats your group have going into Year 13
2. ‘What is a short film?’ Or ‘What is a music video?’ – Short Blog post where you define, in general terms, the basis of your chosen requirement. (Microsoft Word Document would do for this.) I will provide you with written definitions to work from.
3. If you are doing the music promo coursework your third post must be a copy of the email/letter that you have sent to the record company to get permission for using an artist's'/band song. This covers you for copyright issues. Look at previous student’s blogs for example and remember to print screen yours for evidence that you have sought permission for the use of that song.
4. Codes and conventions of a Short film/music video - Post a summary of the codes and conventions you would typically find in a music video/short film. You should include knowledge of mise en scene, sound, editing, narrative structure and cinematography. This post proves you have a knowledge of the 'nuts and bolts' of the two genres.
5. Codes and conventions of chosen genre – You are free this year to choose the genre of both the short film and music video so you need to write a blog post about your chosen genre and what the audience expects in terms of the generic codes and conventions of the chosen genre. This needs to include examples from similar products to the one you’re creating.
6. Mood Board of initial ideas – A Mood Board is quite simply a collection of images which summarize the main themes and emotions that the short film/music video will try and convey to the intended audience. You could film the board and record your ideas or take a photo of it and write down your feelings. Make it visual however.
7. Textual analysis of a short film/music video done in class. To prove your knowledge of what constitutes a good short film/music video and to reinforce the fact that you have learnt the ‘nuts and bolts' of the theory behind short films/music videos, post your analysis of the opening chosen by your teacher. I also advise you include images which highlight particular points of the analysis to break up the essay.
8. Brief/Synopsis/Pitch - This is quite simply an outline of either the plot of the short film or the ideas behind the music video. This could be recorded as a video, in the form of a ‘walk through’ of the main ideas or has a short written piece of writing
9. Textual analysis of two more short films/music videos. This will provide further evidence that you know what the conventions are of the music video/short film genre that are similar to the style of film/music that you are filming. (post them into your blog and write the analysis underneath)
10. ‘Intended Audience’ –The Examining Board are very clear that they expect students to know what who their audience for the product actually is right from the start of the coursework. To achieve this students could use an image which illustrates this audience in the same way that they did for their AS evaluation and then introduce this ‘person’ to the examiner through a psychographic/demographic evaluation of them. Students also need to do either a focus group or questionnaire to make sure that they making a product that will fulfil audience expectations. A copy of the questionnaire and a video of the focus group should be included on the Blog.
11. Intended Institution analysis - Once a group has decide on the genre of music video they are going to make students must write a post which examines what institution would play their video and why. This will require students investigating the target audience of a music channel for instance and then analysing why their music video would be suitable for that channel. This could include students pasting a schedule of the channel on the blog and relating these programmes to the purpose/style of their video For the students doing the short film pupils must address the problems of getting a short film shown on an institution. There are no real 'specific' institutions that show short films, so the students must investigate online platforms that will showcase their work, or even analyse the London Film Festival, in terms of what it can offer a short film maker. Film 4 may offer a short film programme so students can also investigate this.
12. Risk assessment form – All A2 Blogs now require a ‘risk assessment’ form where you explain what the risks are when you film and how you are going to prevent people from getting hurt. This has the same principle to the one you created for last year’s thriller. (THIS IS A REQUIREMENT AND YOU WILL FAIL THE UNIT IF YOU DON’T COMPLETE THIS/
13. Storyboarding - This is a must. Storyboards are crucial because they demonstrate the fact that you have planned your short film/music video. Upload the whole storyboard and explain the purpose behind camera shots, angles etc. Examiners require a lot of evidence for this so video a short presentation of the storyboard which explains you decisions. You could also draw some on the board to go through (Harvey’s group did this last year) The demands of Year 13 mean you have to show you have planned the whole piece of coursework.
14. Inspirations/Influences - You will be influenced in some way by films/videos that you have seen. In this section of the blog post your influences on your space and explain the reasons behind your love for this media product. This could be quite simply a post of a relevant short film or music video followed by a summary of why you it has influenced you. Remember you will be influenced by more than one artist etc so this should be reflected in the number of posts you do for this.
15. Planning diary - As you formulate your ideas, have a person responsible for writing how the project has changed over time. Collate unused storyboards, ideas, influences and write blog posts which explains the different ideas that didn't come to fruition. A Planning Diary must also be created for each day of filming. This will comprise of a ‘shooting schedule’ (see below) which shows, amongst other things, who is needed for filming that day, props and costumes required and what time should everyone be ready to commence shooting. All unused ideas, storyboards etc must be placed on the blog.
16. Shooting schedule - To prove you have actually planned your filming; write a shooting schedule which explains the dates, times and scenes shot in one day. A Shooting schedule must be produced for every day of filming.
17. Diary of a day's shooting - Take a mobile phone/digital camera onto the shoot and document what you actually did. Any problems? What went right? What went wrong? The expectation is that you do a Diary for each day of shooting.
18. Settings and Locations - You must do a post which explores the choice of location/setting for your music video/short film. You are marked on planning so you need to write (and have photos) of the locations and the reason behind their choice. Relate this knowledge to specific media terms such as mise en scene and your intended audience. Film a video maybe, which explains the choices behind your decisions. Make sure you include any locations you may have disregarded.
19. Props and costumes - In the same vein as the above post have a blog entry which has pictures/vidoes of the props and costumes that you have used in the making of your portfolio. Again you have to write the reasoning behind the selection of the costumes etc and relate these findings to media terminology such as mise en scene and iconography. Again relate to your knowledge of institutions and audience expectations.
20. Script - If there is any dialogue in your short film you must provide the script on the blog, the script could change and any changes must also be on the Blog in a separate blog.
21. Music – You must have a Blog post which examines the process of deciding what music you need to convey the required mood. Sample clips can be pasted into the blog to be discussed. Any music not chosen should also be discussed. For the short film you must use non-copyright music.
22. Reshoots - If you have to do extra filming explain the purpose behind these 'reshoots.’ Do a video diary or written diary for this.
23. Editing diary - Post an entry which explores the choices you made in the editing room. What was dicscarded? What changed? Did it go smoothly?
24. Rough Cut – Compile, burn and upload a rough cut of the your project. Explain what will change in the final product
25. Final Product – Your finished work on the blog.
26. Audience Feedback - Have audiences watch your short film/music video and get constructive feedback from them which will inform your four evaluation questions.
27. Social Media – Create pages for Facebook, use Twitter, Google + etc to spread the word about your product and to get instant feedback which you can use for evidence on your blog.
The above posts are a guide and can be added to. Be creative and original and you will succeed.
This is the basis of the planning and research of your product. Do not forget that you will also have to produce two more ancillary tasks that will also need their separate blog posts + four evaluation questions that need to be answered. More on this just before half term when you start to think about the ‘brand’ you will be promoting.
Good Luck!
