Mark Schemes etc

Brief for A2 Coursework-
A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:

a poster for the film;
a radio trailer for the film;
a film magazine review page featuring the film. 

0. RESEARCH MARK SCHEME
   Level 4 16–20 marks
   
• Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed.
  
• There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
  
• There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
  
• There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
  
• Time management is excellent.
  
• There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.
  
• There are excellent communication skills.
  
• There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning. 
1. 
   
2. POSTER & FILM REVIEW MARK SCHEME (10 Marks for each piece)
• 0. The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
     
  • awareness of conventions of layout and page design
    
  • awareness of the need for variety in fonts and text size
    
  • accurate use of language and register
    
  • the appropriate use of ICT for the task set
    
  • appropriate integration of illustration and text
    
  • framing a shot, using a variety of shot distances as appropriate
    
  • shooting material appropriate to the task set; selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting
    
  • manipulating photographs as appropriate, including cropping and resizing.
    Where a candidate has worked in a group, an excellent contribution to construction is evident.

  
  

  
  

  FILM MARK SCHEME (40 marks available)

  Level 4
  

  The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
  

  • shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot sizes and close attention to mise en scene
    
  • editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions, captions and other effects
    
  • recording and editing sound with images appropriately.
    Where a candidate has worked in a group, an excellent contribution to construction is evident. 
    
    
    
    Marking Criteria for Evaluation
    Each candidate will evaluate and reflect on the creative process and their experience of it. Candidates will evaluate their work digitally. The format of the evaluation has some flexibility and its form can be negotiated between teacher and student: it may take place with individual candidates or with the production group as a whole, or each individual candidate or production group may make a formal or informal presentation to the whole class. The teacher must allocate a mark according to the contribution/level of understanding demonstrated by the individual candidate. Each candidate should give a clear indication of their role in any group evaluation and the presentation must be evidenced by the Centre.
    The four questions that must be addressed in the evaluation are:
    

    • 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?
      
      
      Level 1 0–7 marks
      
      • There is minimal skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.
        
      • There is minimal understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions.
        
      • There is minimal understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production.
        
      • There is minimal understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts.
        
      • There is minimal understanding of the significance of audience feedback.
        
      • There is minimal skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation.
        
      • There is minimal ability to communicate.

    
    
    
    
    Level 2 8–11 marks
    

    • There is basic skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.
      
    • There is basic understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions.
      
    • There is basic understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production.
      
    • There is basic understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts.
      
    • There is basic understanding of the significance of audience feedback.
      
    • There is basic skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation.
      
    • There is basic ability to communicate.
      Level 3 12–15 marks
      

    • There is proficient skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.
      
    • There is proficient understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions.
      
    • There is proficient understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production.
      
    • There is proficient understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts.
      
    • There is proficient understanding of the significance of audience feedback.
      
    • There is proficient skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation.
      
    • There is proficient ability to communicate.
      Level 4 16–20 marks
      
      • There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.
        
      • There is excellent understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions.
        
      • There is excellent understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production.
        
      • There is excellent understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts.
        
      • There is excellent understanding of the significance of audience feedback.
        
      • There is excellent skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation.
        
      • There is excellent ability to communicate. 
        

Question 1A Program of Study

Try and spend at least one hour per day one Media, this way you will be in control of your revision and will be more productive.

The areas you need to study:

Question 1A (to be applied to ALL work from preliminary through to A2 main & ancillary)

1. Digital technology
2. Research and Planning
3. Conventions of Real Media
4. Post-Production
5. Creativity.

Sample Questions: 

Q1
Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

Q2
Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.

Q3
Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

You will notice that each of these begins by asking you to 'describe' and then goes on to ask you to reflect in some way: "evaluate", "how you used" "how your skills developed". herein lies the key to this part of the exam! You only have half an hour for the question and you really need to make the most of that time by quickly moving from description (so the reader knows what you did) to analysis/evaluation/reflection, so he/she starts to understand what you learnt from it.

If you look through those questions above, you will see that they all contain at least two of the five- creativity is mentioned (as 'creative decision making') in two of them alongside the main area (digital technology on one, research and planning skills in the other). In the third of those past questions , research is combined with conventions of real media. So as you can see, the question is likely to mix and match the five, so you HAVE to be able to think on your feet and answer the question that is there.

So, how do you get started preparing and revising this stuff? I would suggest that you begin by setting out, on cards or post-its, a list of answers to these questions:

What production activities have you done?

This should include both the main task and preliminary task from AS and the main and ancillaries at A2 plus any non-assessed activities you have done as practice, and additionally anything you have done outside the course which you might want to refer to, such as films made for other courses or skateboard videos made with your mates if you think you can make them relevant to your answer.

What digital technology have you used?

This should not be too hard- include hardware (cameras, phones for pictures/audio, computers and anything else you used) software (on your computer) and online programs, such as blogger, youtube etc

In what ways can the work you have done be described as creative?

This is a difficult question and one that does not have a correct answer as such, but ought to give you food for thought.

What different forms of research did you do?

Again you will need to include a variety of examples- institutional research (such as on how titles work in film openings), audience research (before you made your products and after you finished for feedback), research into conventions of media texts (layout, fonts, camera shots, soundtracks, everything!) and finally logistical research- recce shots of your locations, research into costume, actors, etc


What conventions of real media did you need to know about?

For this, it is worth making a list for each project you have worked on and categorising them by medium so that you don’t repeat yourself

What do you understand by ‘post-production’ in your work?

This one, I’ll answer for you- for the purpose of this exam, it is defined as everything after planning and shooting or live recording. In other words, the stage of your work where you manipulated your raw material on the computer, maybe using photoshop, a video editing program or desktop publishing.


For each of these lists, your next stage is to produce a set of examples- so that when you make the point in the exam, you can then back it up with a concrete example. You need to be able to talk about specific things you did in post-production and why they were significant, just as you need to do more than just say ‘I looked on youtube’ for conventions of real media, but actually name specific videos you looked at, what you gained from them and how they influenced your work.

This question will be very much about looking at your skills development over time, the process which brought about this progress, most if not all the projects you worked on from that list above, and about reflection on how how you as a media student have developed. Unusually, this is an exam which rewards you for talking about yourself and the work you have done!

Final tips: you need some practice- this is very hard to do without it! I’d have a crack at trying to write an essay on each of the areas, or at the very least doing a detailed plan with lots of examples. The fact that it is a 30 minute essay makes it very unusual, so you need to be able to tailor your writing to that length- a tough task.

ONLINE AGE THEORY

PLEASE WATCH AND MAKE NOTES ON THE FOLLOWING VIDEOS:







    

Worth checking the prophetic nature of his ideas from the 60s and 70s





Poses some interesting challenges to how great the internet has been by way of contrast to the other

 videos
   

Representation theory

Hi folks, if you could watch the videos and read the links and then prepare an essay on applying Representation theory to one of your coursework pieces please.

Even though this is media language, it's completely linked to representation:
http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/downloads/filmanalysis.pdf

Here is a really useful introduction to the overview of Media Representation theory:
 


It's really worth your while watching this lecture  from leading theorist Stuart Hall. It is also interesting to think of who constructs representation of race, gender, politicians etc too.
 
This presentation is very useful as it gives a short synopsis of the dominant critics/theories. It is very important that you try and see if these theories apply to your own production work so far, or if not, how not. It is fine if a theory doesn't apply, but you must articulate and argue why you think it doesn't.


David Chandler's introduction to Representation
http://www.scribd.com/doc/14165439/Media-Representation-David-Chandler

Laura Mulvey: The Male Gaze

Laura mulvey, the male gaze from christimothy12

http://study.com/academy/lesson/the-male-gaze-definition-theory.html

Apply the theory of Representation to ONE of your coursework productions. 
25 Marks: 10 Explanation/Argument, 10 Examples, 5 Terminology
30 Mins

Examiner's Report:

Once again, marks for 1(b) were often the lowest awarded but there was a significant increase in the application of theories to the candidates’ own chosen text. A large number of candidates were able to access the question by focusing on the extent to which they had reinforced or

challenged gender stereotypes usually by applying Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ and Propp’s ‘spheres of action’ (other concepts are available). Representations of class and ethnicity were frequently discussed in terms of hegemony. There was also a sense of how active audiences might decode the representations that had been created using Hall’s dominant, oppositional and negotiated. All this was pleasing but there are two important points to make – firstly, candidates need to ‘switch register’ from 1(a) to 1(b) to move from talking about what they did to how the text can be analysed. Still only a small number of candidates manage to this, with the majority writing about how they applied the theory, as opposed to how the theory can be applied to the text. Much more disturbing was the overwhelming acceptance of the ‘male gaze’ as a neutral fact of life, something to be straightforwardly ‘applied’ in the production of a text, with the objectification of women accounted for as no more than a convention. Although candidates would not be penalised for describing their own text in these terms, if Mulvey’s theory was appropriately applied, centres are encouraged to support candidates in taking a rather more critical perspective on representation.