1. Evaluation (20%)
Each of you must evaluate and reflect upon the creative process and your experience of it.
You will evaluate your work electronically, this evaluation being guided by the set of key
questions below. This evaluation may be done collectively for a group production or
individually. Examples of suitable formats for the evaluation are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
A series of podcasts
DVD extras / Director‟s Commentary
A separate blog or website
A Prezi
An annotated YouTube extract
Vox pops – Q3
Filmed Focus Group – Q3
Contact sheet with annotations / annotated poster
In all cases, you are discouraged from seeing the evaluation as simply a written essay and
the potential of the format chosen should be exploited through the use of images, audio,
video and links to online resources.
In the evaluation the following questions must be answered:
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products? (AML)
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback? (Audience feedback via
Screening on Wednesday 12th March in EAB01)
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages? (All with MFG.)
Exemplar evaluations:
http://hallge.wordpress.com/ - (15/20 Level 3 - Generally a proficient with some questions
being answered in more detail than others. Clear engagement with technology and sufficient
evidence of reflective evaluative skills evident here. Response four tends to be quite text heavy
especially considering the expectation of the response to be centred around the use of
technology.)
http://www.slaa2mediagwpahs.blogspot.co.uk/ - from 2010
http://alleynsmedia-desalis.blogspot.co.uk/ - from 2012
http://alleynsmedia-macdowall.blogspot.co.uk/ - from 2013
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2. Level 4 - 16–20 marks
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.
There is excellent use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.
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3. AUDIENCE FEEDBACK – How to get top marks for this question…
What is recommended for audience research for AS/A2? How can this be presented?
Should we discourage the numerous questionnaires approach?
DON‟T JUST GIVE OUT questionnaires and put all the returned examples as evidence
on your blog.
The main problem with this approach is not the survey method but the LIMITED
NATURE of the questions and the claims made for the responses. EG - asking ten fellow
students their favourite genre of film, finding that seven out of ten say „horror‟ and then
using that to justify making a horror film opening as a result. SEE THIS AS A
STARTING POINT.
Audience research is more productive if it addresses the following:
·
What do real audiences consume? RESEARCH
·
Who are the specific audiences for particular products? RESEARCH
·
How do media industries target those audiences? RESEARCH
Those questions require research of a DIFFERENT kind to the questionnaire method;
initial research online looking for data about the industry students are dealing with, such
as box office figures for films or circulation figures for magazines would be a good
starting point. Part of research involves looking for examples of how marketing works
across a range of media- for films this includes considering posters, trailers and their
selling points, for example.
Later audience research should be considered in a series of stages, each involving
formative qualitative feedback. So, for example:
1. Pitching the product to the rest of the group and taking feedback, noting the responses
from this and deciding how to act as a result.
2. Showing early drafts of the work (such as an animatic of the storyboard or a mock up
front cover) and asking some carefully framed questions about them to get a sense of the
audience‟s understanding of the product rather than just a measure of whether the
audience liked it.
3. Taking peer feedback (FACEBOOK PAGE?) at later stages and then again on the
finished product; asking things like “can you tell me what happened in that sequence,
what the relationship between the characters is and what do you think will happen in the
rest of the film?” to look for audience readings of the work.‟
These approaches can be presented in a variety of ways - video extracts with framing
commentary from the makers; audio, written. All would help MOVE AWAY from the
pie-chart of responses model which tends to be fairly unproductive.
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4. Target Audience Research FOR MAGAZINES
LOOK at the adverts - that's should tell YOU loads about what publishers off these
MAGS thinks is their audience.
Show examples of you analyzing adverts on your blog…
Research in how different fonts work together
http://www.will-harris.com/typepairs.htm
http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/typography-articles/a-beginners-guide-to-pairingfonts/
Also here's a website which is useful for font research
http://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/
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