Exam essay - for Tuesday

Following our discussion/group planning exercise in class today, please write the following essay for homework:

Discuss how your interpretation of the conventions of real media texts has developed between your Foundation and Advanced portfolios and how this has enabled you to be more creative in your own work. You need to refer to both portfolios in your answer.

Please hand your essay in to Mr Stapley on TUESDAY so that I can mark them and get them back to you for our lesson on THURSDAY. It's vital that you do this as the work we are doing in that lesson will be focused on that essay.

Exam question: deadline passed

You should have handed your essays into Mr Stapley or myself today (Tuesday). So far I have THREE.

I need to mark these essays before our lesson on Thursday as the work we will be doing in that lesson will be based on you reflecting on what you've written and my feedback.

If you haven't already handed in this essay (well done to Milly, Dylan and Kim, who have), please make sure I get it before the end of school on Wednesday AT THE LATEST.

To remind you, the question is:

Examine how you used the conventions of real media texts in your own practical work and how this developed between your Foundation and Advanced Media portfolios.

You need to complete this essay in 30 minutes, in exam conditions.

Successful introductions for Q 1 a)

Here are some examples (written by you!) of how to write a successful introduction for Q 1 a) of the A2 exam.

Look at how they:

• say what they were able to do at a technical level (though not in too much detail)
• demonstrated how their skills developed between AS and A2
• kept it concise and to the point

This was the essay question that referred to the use of digital technology.

1.

In our Foundation Portfolio, we used amateur digital technology, which allowed us to create a simplistic thriller genre through techniques such as soundtrack disonance. In our Advanced Portfolio, more professional software was used, allowing us to create a synergy between the media elements in our music video.

2.

For our AS production, we used digital technology to allow us to conjoin clips together with fluidity and the supporting use of editing and sound. We developed this into our A2 productions by really using the ability, given by Final Cut Pro, to match sound to the visual in the video. We have clips move in time to the beats in the song.

3.

In our AS project, digital technology aided our efforts in creating a film opening with a tense and palpable atmosphere, akin to a psychological thriller. For our A2 piece, we developed these skills to create a music video, digipak and magazine advert that had a threat of continuity running throughout them.

4.

For my Foundation Portfolio I used media technology, mainly in the post-production process, to enable me to create a fast-paced opening sequence to a psychological thriller, using techniques such as fast cutting to reflect the conventions of our chosen genre. For my Advanced Portfolio, I challenged myself by using more advanced technologies, when creating a house music video.

Exam essay - for Tuesday 26th April

Based on the work we did in class today, your homework is to write an answer to the following exam question:

Examine how you used the conventions of real media texts in your own practical work and how this developed between your Foundation and Advanced Media portfolios.

Do this essay under EXAM CONDITIONS:

30 minutes

No interruptions/talking/etc

Please hand this essay into Mr Stapley on Tuesday so I can get it off him and mark it in time for our lesson on Thursday.

FINAL coursework deadline - for EVERYTHING

I will be coming into school on Tuesday 5th April to mark your coursework portfolios. This means that EVERYTHING needs to be done and ON YOUR BLOG by the end of MONDAY 4th APRIL.

School will be open over the Easter holidays and you can get into the Mac Suite using your ID badge so you can continue to work on your blogs up until the deadline. If your ID badge doesn't work on the Mac Suite door, make sure you take it to the Finance team before the holidays to get it updated.

The mark I give you on that date will be the mark that will be sent off to the exam board. ANY WORK SUBMITTED AFTER THAT DATE WILL NOT BE MARKED/ELIGIBLE.

Other Evaluation examples

Here is another example of a successful Evaluation section. Have a look and see what they have done in order to get the marks - and what ideas you could take for your own Evaluations:

cheneya2media-shaianegallardo.blogspot.com

Evaluation examples

You should all be starting your Evaluation sections by now. To help you get an idea of the kind of thing that will get you marks in this section, take a look at the two blogs below. In your groups, look at their Evaluation section and use the mark scheme in the previous post to give them both a mark out of 20.

What made one more successful than the other?
What ideas/techniques/strategies do you want to take and use in your own Evaluation?

Remember: the deadline for EVERYTHING is the last day of term: Thursday 24th March.

Example 1: 

http://alstonjay.blogspot.co.uk/ Example 2: http://cheneya2mediakaisir.blogspot.co.uk/

Evaluation - mark scheme deconstruction

Here is the mark scheme for the Evaluation section of the Advanced Portfolio:

Level + Marks	Skills
Level 1 (0-7 marks) ‘Minimal skill/understanding’	Use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation Understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions Understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production Understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts Understanding of the significance of audience feedback Skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation Ability to communicate
Level 2 (8-11 marks) ‘Basic skill/understanding
Level 3 (12-15 marks) ‘Proficient skill/understanding
Level 4 (16-20 marks) ‘Excellent skill/understanding

As you can see, the SKILLS are the same across all four levels, the only difference is how effectively you implement them.

Looking at each skill in turn, there are a number of things you can do to help raise your grade:

Use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation
Don't just present a written response to each of the four questions, use multimedia platforms to present your ideas. This could include:

• Videos of audience feedback
• A director's commentary to your video, discussing the decisions you made and the thinking behind them
• Annotated screen shots from your video so that you can analyse camera angles, lighting, mise-en-scene, etc, but also discuss representation and genre conventions
• Annotated copies of your ancillary tasks discussing similar ideas

Understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions
Compare and contrast your media productions to other media products within your genre. How do your productions fit into that genre? Are they typical or have you tried to defy some of the normal conventions and twist the genre?

Bringing in comparative images/screen shots/videos from other artists would be a useful exercise here.

Understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production

Make sure your blog is complete and up-to-date. One of the things that the examiner is looking for is the blog being a continual working document.

Also, think about how you could use new media to garner audience feedback: YouTube comments, Twitter, online feedback surveys, etc

Understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts

One of the main differences between the Foundation Portfolio and the Advanced Portfolio is that you are establishing a brand across three different productions. This skill is mainly marked in Q2 of your Evaluation (How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?)

Things you can discuss:

• The 'brand identity' of your artist. How have you tried to position your artist within the music industry and how do your three productions contribute to this?
• Have you gone for a consistent brand identity across all three productions? Are there elements/motifs that appear in more than one of your productions? Or have you deliberately created productions that are inconsistent, to create a multifaceted brand identity?

Understanding of the significance of audience feedback

Make sure you get some audience feedback on your productions. Get friends/family/teachers to view them and give you their opinion on them. Use the same questions for all contributors so that there is consistency in terms of how they respond. These can be done as questionnaires or feedback videos. This skill is mainly tested in Q3 (What have you learned from your audience feedback?)

Most importantly, make sure you DO something with this feedback: do an evaluation of the strengths/weaknesses of your three productions in light of this feedback and make a list of things you might do differently next time (or if you were to make future productions for this artist).

Skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation

This links back to the use of ICT. Don't just WRITE your evaluation (although you will want to include written elements), think about other multimedia forms you could use. (See the 'Use of digital technology and ICT' for ideas of what you could do.)

Ability to communicate

Whatever forms you use to complete your evaluation, make sure that your expression (written and recorded) is formal, accurate and academic:

• Read over all written work to ensure spelling and punctuation are correct - failure to do so makes your work look sloppy and amatuerish
• Refer to appropriate media terminology
• Bring in media theory and theorists and discuss how they link to the work you  have produced

Practical work FINAL deadline + Evaluation

So...you've all had some feedback on the practical work you did before half-term. The deadline for the FINAL draft is Friday 4th March - make sure all improvements are made by this date and your final productions (all three) are uploaded onto your blogs.

When you've done that, it's time to start turning our thoughts towards the Evaluation section.

This is similar to the Foundation Portfolio, in that you are asked to reflect upon the process of production and also analyse your productions as Media texts. However, there are fewer questions to frame your response - but you are expected to go into much more depth as a result:

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
• How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
• What have you learned from your audience feedback?
• How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

When you have finished putting the final touches to your practical work, you need to start making some notes about how you intend to respond to these questions.

I'll put a post up shortly deconstructing the mark scheme for the Evaluation and how you can make sure you maximise your marks for this section (it's out of 20, so it represents a massive opportunity to pick up marks and boost your grade).

Practical work deadline is fast approaching

The deadline for your practical work is STILL Friday 12th Feb. This is an INSET day - anyone who hasn't finished their practical work and uploaded it to their blog will need to come in on this day and complete all their practical work.

Practical work

Right then...time to get practical.

You have SIX weeks until the 1st draft deadline for your practical work (all THREE productions). You need to have a clear plan of how/where/when you are going to be working on these productions in order to meet this deadline.

This is where the bulk of your marks are won/lost so make sure you are producing work of a really high standard.