Thursday 6 October 2011

Examiners' Feedback - Essential for you to read!

Examiners’ Reports – June 2011

Planning

The best research and planning was evidenced through ongoing blogs, demonstrating the real processes undertaken by the candidate. Such blogs included embedded video, such as work they had analysed or of audience interviews, experimental footage, perhaps with an audio track explaining the process, or animatics. This was uploaded via providers such as You Tube (often using the annotation facility), Muzu or Vimeo. The best blogs also included audio such as podcasts, audio commentaries or audience interviews (which could be recorded on or uploaded from their phones via Soundcloud, for example). The most effective blogs had images of a wide range of things, including drafts of print materials, storyboards, mind maps, recce shots, make up tests, permission request letters for the music video brief, risk assessment forms. The best ones were thoroughly hyperlinked to the range of sites visited and referred to. Blogs also allowed teachers and classmates to be able to comment on the work in progress, giving invaluable feedback and suggestions for further exploration at every stage.

All the best research was focused, relevant and analytical, rather than descriptive, and looked closely at a range of similar products which then informed the candidate’s planning of all of their own products. It proved vital that candidates researched and planned all three of their products carefully, the main task and the two ancillaries.

Audience research was done well in those centres that did more than just questionnaires and graphs. Social networking sites were used to good effect by some candidates undertaking both audience research and audience feedback. Others used online survey sites. The most detailed audience research produced more effective productions, in terms of being genre products, and were more appropriate for their selected target audience.

Drafting is essential for all productions, not just because the assessment criteria says it needs to be there – but also because it produces the best constructions;, storyboards help identify potential problems before production starts. This can also help in more effective deployment of the Centre’s resources – less time will be needed re-filming, for example, if an animatic shows early on that there is a gap in a narrative that needs to be filled. Storyboards completed after filming have no use. All three tasks benefit from careful research and planning.

Stronger candidates also included shooting schedules and call sheets. Risk assessments were undertaken by a small proportion of centres. The best blogs were also well labelled, tagged and titled so that the moderator could easily identify each of the relevant entries.

Construction

Video was the most popular medium for Centres and the most successful work clearly resulted from careful training in the technical capabilities of the cameras, consideration of sound, lighting and the use of a tripod. Weaker work was marked by frequent unsteady panning and zooming.

In the Music Promotion brief this session, there was an increase in the proportion of lip-synched performance over a purely narrative approach. This development is to be encouraged, as the narrative videos look more like short films and tend to lose function as a promotional tool for the artist. Some of these responses, as in previous sessions, have shown real flair and imagination combined with technical control; more candidates seemed to show more of the visual aesthetic with some excellent shot choices and mise en scene. A greater number of candidates submitted the required number of panes to be a digipak (ie at least four) and had clearly been taught the technical skills to be able to manipulate their images and combine effectively with text, although a surprising number did not include basic institutional elements such as a barcode and copyright information.

Not all candidates evidenced the requirement to ask the rights holders of the music track for permission to use it in their video.


Evaluations

The best evaluations were clearly well planned in terms of using a variety of methods of
presentation and choosing the right method to explore each of the four set questions in an explicit and reflective manner.

The most successful Evaluations tended to be on blogs and were media rich, using the right medium for the right question. However, there were also some highly successful PowerPoints and these used embedded video and audio, hyperlinks and incorporation of other methods such as Prezi. Heavily text-based PowerPoint responses were rather too much like essays and missed the extensive opportunities to explore the questions and show their understanding and skills that a media-rich approach to PowerPoint or Prezi can take.


A proportion of filming in the Evaluation is good – but some candidates produced their
evaluations as one video and these tended to be overlong. Some of the most unsuccessful presentations were half an hour long with a whole group of unidentified candidates talking directly to the camera, answering the questions without cutting in any images, other footage, clips, captions etc to help evidence their words. This was a difficult format to moderate. In other cases presentation took precedence over content. Candidates used variety and skill in the presentation of the work but the responses to the questions were brief and lacking sufficient detail.

Many responses were detailed, reflective and informed. On the other hand, there were some very brief responses that could not reach the higher levels; Question 4 in particular elicited a number of list-like answers, illustrated with software logos, social network icons, photos of equipment etc, and this was rarely a high-level approach.

A Grade Video

A Grade Video

B Grade Music Video

EVALUATION QUESTIONS

As INDIVIDUALS you will complete the 4 evaluation questions and a “summing up” of your answers as well at the end. ALL answers must include a variety of multimedia content, in particular screen shots of your video, clips of your video, images of your digipak and advert, photos from the filming, editing etc.. You will be marked on the following things:

· Your understanding of music video style and conventions
· Your understanding of how technologies have helped you with this unit
· Your understanding of how you have linked your music video with the digipak and advert
· Your understanding of the importance of audience feedback
· The structure and communication of your evaluation
· Your use of images, videos, and other embedded multimedia content in your evaluation

QUESTION 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For this question you need to discuss the following
· What did you learn about what the conventions were of real music videos? And what music video conventions you have included / not included and why
· What did you learn about real music genre conventions and what genre conventions have you included / not included and why
· What did you learn about real Digipak conventions and what digipak conventions have you included / not included and why
· What did you learn about real Advert conventions and what advert conventions have you included / not included and why
· How your use of conventions might attract or appeal to an audience
· Have you adapted any conventions on any of your three products and if so, why?
Whilst answering this question you could include pictures / screen grabs of real products, along with pictures or screen grabs of your products to compare and contrast the similarities and differences.

QUESTION 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

For this question you need to discuss the following:
· How have you created a “brand identity” across your music video, digipak and advert? Similar images, colours, wording, style etc?
· How do you think your digipak design will “sell” the song / album to the audience?
· How do you think your advert will “sell” the digipak to the audience?
· What elements of your advert and digipak communicate the genre of the music video and the style of the band?

Whilst answering this question you must use screen grabs / images from your products to show the clear links, and analyse how they will appeal to an audience. You could even complete a radial analysis of the digipak and advert to show the appeal in more detail.

QUESTION 3
What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For this question you need to discuss the following:
· What positive comments your peers, teachers, focus group had about your video
· What negative comments were made by your peers, teachers, focus groups
· How those comments might change the way you work in the future as a group or an individual
· What the comments taught you about the process of producing and editing a music video

Whilst answering this question you could use screen grabs and clips from your focus group, screen grabs of comments left on your blog by other students / teachers, quotes from your friends etc. If they comment on something specific they liked or disliked you should include an image or clip of this to demonstrate what they are talking about.

QUESTION 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
For this question you need to discuss the benefits, and difficulties of using the following technologies. How have they helped you as students to produce better work? Remember to focus on all 3 parts of the process from planning, to production and through to evaluation:

· Blogger
· Prezzi
· Wordle
· IPads / Mobile Phones
· Digital Cameras
· Digital editing like Final Cut
· Digital photo manipulation like Photoshop
· Digital Audio recorders for Director’s commentaries
· Web 2.0 sites such as You Tube, Facebook, etc

Whilst answering this question you need to include pictures of the technologies, images of you and your group using them, screen-grabs of the software in use, print screens of websites you have used etc

SUMMING UP
Using Prezzi, produce a presentation that sums up your answers to all 4 questions, with images included. This should be the last entry on your blog.

FINAL FOCUS GROUP

As a GROUP, you need to carry out one final focus group to find out what your audience thought of your finished video. You will show the group of people your finished video, digipak and advert and then sit them down to discuss it on camera. You will have around 5 key questions prepared that are “open “ questions allowing for descriptive answers and then film the group discussing what their opinions are about these questions.
To do this you will need a camera and tripod, a quiet room, and 4-6 people willing to take part on camera (not people from your group).

Good questions to ask are things such as:
· What did you like about our video? (repeat for digipak / advert)
· What did you think could be improved in our video? (repeat for digipak / advert)
· What were your favourite parts and why?
· What sort of image do you think we have given the artist / band?
· Would you buy this album as a result and why?
And so on…

You need to make sure the camera is as close as possible to the group to pick up their audio clearly. This focus group video then needs to be uploaded into Final Cut (edited if you wish) and then exported as a video clip (see Jason for help). The video clip then needs to be embedded into your blog.

As INDIVIDUALS you then need to add a comment in afterwards summing up:
· What you have learned from your focus group about your video
· What you might do differently next time

DIRECTOR’S COMMENTARY

The next entry on your blog will be a version of your final music video that has an audio commentary track over the top where your GROUP comments on the reasons behind various creative choices made in the final video.
In order to do this you should watch the video several times and with your group write a script. Divide this script up between you, book a camera OR the digital audio recorder, and ask the technician Jason to help you. Record you and your group reading out the comments, clearly and accurately and then upload these to Final Cut and edit them over the top of the right clips of your video. Use the audio levels to ensure that the sound of the song is not too loud and that we can hear your comments properly. Export this clip and upload it to You Tube.