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).