CIE EVALUATION Q1a CONVENTIONS

you can find more on the Evaluation overall in this hub post.

CIE Q1a 'how does your product use or challenge conventions' 
OCR Q1 CONVENTIONS: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
 
ILLUSTRATING YOUR ANSWER
Its a good idea to use screenshots of blog posts and links lists as well as from film openings - keep making it clear how much you've researched and how well you've applied this! SHORT clips from existing texts are legally fine under the fair usage copyright law, but longer clips just risk your video being blocked. Only use the sound from a clip if its absolutely necessary - and consider cutting in and out of the clip's sound, or editing the audio levels to make sure your voiceover is clear.
It is good practice to clearly identify films - but if you're covering too many it may be too time-consuming to keep adding titles. I discuss vodcast design in this post.

There are many excellent examples of UK OCR answers on the related Q1, e.g. Molly: plain post, but detailed. Poppy: vodcast + transcript. Kate: vodcast + transcript. Here's Kate's (2013):

Below: a playlist of some of my vodcasts on film openings; you can see how you can quickly go into considerable detail on seemingly small topics if you wish to.


Below: the opening shot of the trailer shows a 9-way splitscreen effect I used for my 2014 documentary film; you can use this technique for any number of screenshots/clips too (with or without a freezeframe behind)
 

2 SUGGESTIONS FOR ANSWERING THIS QUESTION

NOTE: These aren't especially creative approaches, but both do require useful application of technology. You might want to think of more creative approaches, or simply include a segment which is creative (like an ad break during your vodcast, ads for movies from/a book on your genre etc - neatly gets across conventions?!).

1: THE SHORTCUT
The quickest way of doing this is to work through your production and insert direct comparisons with existing texts you researched - obviously make sure you copy the entire project into a new project file first!!! You can freeze-frame at each significant point, cutting in the comparison/s (with a voiceover and/or titles) - which can be resized: you could put multiple clips or screenshots in one shot using Final Cut's transform tool (see 2nd video above). Thorough illustration is vital, as is making clear the GENRE-SPECIFIC conventions.


2: IN-DEPTH EVIDENCING OF YOUR RESEARCH
This will be considerably longer than the above option, but this helps ensure you get full credit for APPLYING YOUR RESEARCH ... and in large part should be a repeat/re-edit of earlier vodcasts (you can always fill in gaps with work on Evaluation Qs to boost earlier research and planning sections):

STEP 1: DEFINE CONVENTIONS OF 'FORMAT'

The words format and genre aren't used in the question, but its useful to tackle both. by format I mean film openings: never mind specific genres, what do we expect to see from film openings generally? In any combination (work across groups!) or by yourself, list the relevant features of any 5-10 film openings from genres other than the one you're working in! Simply list the features, don't waste time analysing their meaning (connotations). From this, create a list (perhaps the top 10?) of the key conventions of film openings.

Bear in mind that ANY example you note may eventually help you justify a choice you make, whether from your genre or not.

You should be noting aspects such as these - NOT an exhaustive list; use your own research + findings to make your own list of major factors:

• length! you have 2mins, but there is MUCH variation in how long this will be
• idents
• titles (which, when, animation?, where on screen - leave consideration of fonts to later analysis of genre; what precise language is used (including companies)? sequence? specific treatment of director? titles are a complex topic, don't skip over this!). Are titles used also for exposition (as with the opening shot of This is England)?
• opening shot (ELS? fade in? how much/little exposition is provided?)
• final shot of opening sequence (do more titles/main title follow? fade out? how is the transition to the main body of the film managed?)
• shot types + variation
• focus on a main character ['mode of address']? (pro/antagonist?) PoVs?
• editing (its especially useful to closely examine how the pro/antagonist are signified through editing) continuity editing (eg following 180 degree rule?)? pace + variation of pace (long and short takes?)
• mise-en-scene (genre signifiers?) + verisimilitude
• sound/music (non-/diegetic; audio bridge?; ambient sound; voiceover?)
• narrative (which part/s of Todorov's structure: equilibrium, dis-equilibrium, new equilibrium?); use of binary opposition; exposition (dialogue, titles on screen, mise-en-scene etc); stereo/arche/counter-typical characters

Work through your examples and note the commonly recurring aspects (ie conventions) - these might be seen in some, but not all (again, not 'rules'). Its advisable to limit this to a top 10 (or other number).

STEP 2: COMPARE YOUR TEXT TO GENERAL CONVENTIONS OF FILM OPENINGS

Basically, work through the conventions you've noted, and discuss how and why your text does(n't) match up to these conventions. Once you've made any notes you need (including clip timings and gathering screenshots), work back and edit the comparisons in for each general convention you listed. A brief summary would be useful. You should also check that your earlier blog posts had highlighted the specific elements you intended to use from the existing texts you posted on.
Essentially, you will be scripting a voiceover along the lines of ...

...the fifth general convention I observed was...as seen in these examples
...I reflected [OR challenged!!!] this convention at these points in my film...

STEP 3: SUMMARISE KEY GENRE CONVENTIONS

This should be easy as it should already be covered within your R+P!!!!
A list of bullet points, with 1+ specific eg for each one, would be an idea.

You might want to get into the concept of genre; there is a links list on this, and plenty of useful material in various books (not least the official OCR AS Media Studies student book) in F6/Lib.

Again, you could do a simple table to compare yours to these, but perhaps better is to...

STEP 4: EVALUATE YOUR TEXT AGAINST GENRE CONVENTIONS
You could use each listed convention as a sub-heading (or section in a video).
IT IS NOT A PROBLEM IF YOUR TEXT DOES NOT MEET EVERY CONVENTION!!!
Just discuss why you have opted against using some features (you might conclude that you should have; being honest will not lose you marks!).
Remember: specific, precise well-illustrated examples using specific, precise media language!

STEP 5: REFLECTION + SUMMARY: DID Audience Feedback MATCH UP TO YOUR PREFERRED READING?

Again, do be honest! However, as there's a related question (Q2a) on this later, be brief.
Did test audiences respond in the way you'd hoped? Did they follow your encoded meaning, what Stuart Hall describes as the preferred reading?
Did you achieve verisimilitude in terms of a convincing overall film opening; for your genre?
Are there conventions you should have paid closer attention to? Be specific with this - it is useful to clearly show (self-)CRITICAL REFLECTION.