GREETINGS – getting started!

Include: My hopes...and fears!; My favourite film; The Brief; The Evaluation (CCR); The assessment criteria; thoughts on past AS coursework; … 

Basically, the basics!

Start your post with MY HOPES...AND FEARS!

Type that as a sub-heading, and press return.

Now highlight the heading; make these formatting changes:

• FONT: Arial
• FONT SIZE: medium
• FONT: bold
• FONT COLOUR: red

Now type Greetings! into the blank line. Press return. 

CMD+A, then CMD+C

Make sure you're on the bottom, blank, line.

CMD+V (5 times)

Now highlight each sub-heading and type in the sub-heading from the list at the top (My hopes...and fears!; My fave film; The Brief; The Evaluation (CCR); The assessment criteria; thoughts on past AS student vids).

That's TIP1 - do this to save time with formatting! You can have tabs open and copy formatting across posts too. TIP 2 is to always apply clear headings to make posts, some of which will get long, easy to navigate (including for YOU!).

notes on all the sections are included under the read more link if you didn't access the post by the direct hyperlink

MY HOPES...AND FEARS!

Just a few sentences (starting with Greetings!) setting out precisely that - what you hope to learn/gain/develop from the course, and what makes you most nervous! Don't use your name at any time in the blog. You should note any prior media experience in or out of school.

State briefly what type of film genre/s you think you're most likely to work on for your coursework.

MY FAVOURITE FILM
Don't agonise over the choice - just quickly pick a recent movie (last 10 years) you like. Explain why in a few sentences (and if you think your coursework might take any influences from it, say so - and add a short note to the JOURNEY... post).

Now add the following:

• the budget and global box office according to BoxOfficeMojo, hyperlinked like this:
• Yesterday (dir. Danny Boyle, prod. Working Title + Perfect World, dist. Universal, 2019). $26m budget, $153m global box office (BoxOfficeMojo). BBFC 12.     
•  ---- The film title is the Wiki link, a quick + easy way to see the budget + main production/distribution company/ies. I googled: yesterday wiki film; yesterday boxofficemojo 2019 and bbfc yesterday 2019 to get the links I wanted.
• poster
• trailer (embedded)

THE BRIEF: 

create the opening two minutes of a new feature film including titles. Here's the exam board's fuller statement (copy this into your post):

Option 1: Film opening task (video)
Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film (to last a maximum of two minutes). Titles should follow the institutional conventions of commercial cinema. The task may be undertaken individually or as a group. There should be a maximum of four members to a group.
All images and text used in the main task must be original, and produced by the candidate(s). Sound should be predominantly original (dialogue and atmospheric sound), though music taken from an acknowledged source may be used as part of the soundtrack.

CIAE go on to explain the basic requirements of how to achieve this:

Each candidate must complete an individual blog which is started at the beginning of the project. Each blog should contain:

• the process of research, planning and production
• any refinement, changes or edits made, and reflections on key moments
• all individual contributions to any task undertaken as a group
• evidence of any preliminary exercises
• the final finished product, clearly labeled
• the creative critical reflection, clearly labelled.

Some production elements such as storyboards may be shared by all members of a group. Collaborators who worked with the candidate on research, planning and/or production must be listed on the Individual Candidate Record Card under ‘other group members’.

THE EVALUATION (CCR)

Note carefully the three terms: creative critical reflection (CCR). Here's the exam board description (you can find guides for each Q on my blog). Copy this onto your blog, using sub-headings like me

Creative critical reflection
On completion of the product, candidates must creatively reflect upon their work. Candidates may use any digital format, such as director commentaries, a presentation with voiceover, podcasts or screencasts. Candidates may use a different digital format to explore each of the compulsory questions. The creative critical reflection should be produced and presented individually.
Candidates must explore the following compulsory questions:

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

Its never too early to start thinking about the CREATIVE ways you can answer these. You need to scroll quite far to find it, but there's a long section with ideas in the Eval overview post.

 

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA 

This includes 2 of the 3 assessment objectives split into 5 parts:

AO2:. Analyse media products, and evaluate their own work, by applying knowledge and understanding of theoretical and creative approaches.

AO3: . Research, plan and construct critically informed media products using appropriate technical and creative skills.

Here's how that breaks down (each phrase is marked /10 for a total /50):

AO3: PRACTICAL APPLICATION

PRODUCTION SKILLS:

Use appropriate media language to communicate meaning to an intended audience

Use technical skills effectively to express and communicate ideas

APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF KEY CONCEPTS TO A PRODUCTION:

Research, plan and apply knowledge and understanding

CRITICAL CREATIVE REFLECTION SKILLS:

Use technical and creative skills to express and communicate ideas

AO2: EVALUATION 

ANALYSE AND EVALUATE OWN WORK:

Explain how meaning is created, supported with relevant textual evidence

I've copied in as pics the detailed grade descriptors. Save these to embed into your own post. The individual marks/10 don't quite relate directly to grades, which break down as follows (the terms don't tightly match grades but give you an idea):

• A 80%+ (A* = 90%+ on A2 and overall A-Level 80%+) sophisticated, highly, wide range, insightful
• B 70-79% effective, mostly, thorough, a range, thorough
• C 60-69% clear, mostly, more than one, appropriate
• D 50-59% limited, simply, complete, generally
• E 40-49% limited, simply, complete, generally
• U 0-39% basic, may lack evidence, minimal evidence/understanding, only one

Ask me for a paper copy of this now please!

THOUGHTS ON PAST AS COURSEWORK

You can find past years' blogs both through my hub page (which also has links for YouTube playlists of coursework) and the blog for student blogs...

So, have a look; in Ppt use the 1st name + year (eg Sophie 2016) as a hyperlinked slide title (so, Sophie 2016), adding screenshots + comments of what strikes you (use multiple slides for any 1 blog where you've multiple observations). It would be useful to add key hyperlinks underneath the to-be embedded Ppt (as Slideshare embeds don't enable links to work) as you go (rather than after you've finished the Ppt).

Again, you should add a short note to the JOURNEY... post on any specific ideas this has given you.