Cross-posted from my A2 musividz blog; written for A2 coursework but the assessment criteria are essentially the same for AS Research and Planning, so these same points apply:
I still need those progress checklists back,
with dates added where you think each point has been covered.
Looking
at several, its clear that there are common issues that may prevent
many of you from attaining high-end marks (ie as 'excellent' rather than
proficient or even basic in some cases).
Before listing the main
points, remember that you should resfresh your memory on the assessment
criteria fairly often - I wouldn't expect you to memorise these, but
re-read say once a week (Sunday/Monday) to ensure you're keeping these
in mind as you work. As you're going through checking your own blog, you
can be looking at others (including last years and students elsewhere) +
re-reading relevant sections of the coursework guide.
I'll organise points below using the main R+P assessment criteria (abbreviated as on the Progress Checklist front):
SIMPRODS
Most of you have undertaken extensive analysis of egs (some need more for ancillary texts). BUT, need to ensure you distinguish
GENERAL and
GENRE examples.
No matter how many detailed posts you have on individual egs, I can't give EXC marks on this unless you provide clear, detailed
summaries of your findings. For
each of the 3
text formats
you should be providing two summaries. Do this as a vodcast to help
with marks for UseICT/Pres'n (and include a sep discussion on which
aspects best fit your aud for TgtAUD).
There are arguably no more important posts in your entire A2.
The
knowledge you evidence from this should be reflected in later posts on
drafting (changes/new ideas/multiple edits noted in brief posts in which
you cite examples you've seen).
If you don't do this, your Eval
will either be poor or you'll have to backtrack and fill in these
blanks; you'll struggle to ensure your Product marks are high (as you're
not working from a secure, evidenced knowledge of the M.Lang of the
format/genre), and exam prep for Q1a/1b is also made much harder than it
should be.
Again, keep referring to your knowledge of specific
examples ('existing texts') as you post on drafts, new ideas etc; this
encompasses
all aspects of M.Lang (shot selection, lighting, mise-en-scene, framing, editing etc).
TGTAUD
This
is a particularly glaring gap in many blogs - I've suggested a links
list on your Aud-focussed posts and would reiterate this (such links
lists help exam board to easily see evidence of how you deserve high
marks...).
You must clearly set out a primary
and secondary target audience (generally 12 or 15-24, with younger
and older
[the existing aud] as secondary). You must keep showing/discussing how
your design choices are guided by this TgtAud (including evidencing
AudFeedback - see Eval Qs!!!).
Think about the purpose of many of
the posts/tasks. For example, the 'cultural footprint'/online profile
etc are intended to furnish evidence of appropriate target audience
s. If your act appears on a TV show with a youth aud, that helps justify your tgtAud; if they appear on ITVs
Loose Women that helps to suggest/evidence a
secondary aud of mature women (same principle for magazines).
The
point is: MAKE YOUR CONSIDERATION OF tgtaud EXPLICIT AND CLEAR IN A
WIDE RANGE OF POSTS (including discussions of conventions). Make sure
AudFeedback is suitably evidenced (a links list is again useful).
ORGANISATION
This
is not just about gathering people, locations and objects but how
you've manipulated/directed these: what have you brought to these raw
ingredients?
Have you any filmed evidence of rehearsals/shoots where you provide explicit direction?
Any
filmed evidence of director and cinemtaographer communicating to help
organise shoot (and perhaps producer too, organising with call sheet)?
How
have you evidenced selection + manipulation of mise-en-scene? Consider
set dressing and costume/make-up. Have you evidenced how your choices
link to existing conventions (if different, you still need to know +
show the existing conventions before discussing why you're
challenging/developing these)? Have you tested out choices - especially
costume/make-up/hair - with a sample target audience, using pics and/or
vid to show them alternatives you're considering? We've seen with
screenings of rough cuts that clothing can be a really key aspect in
reflecting
or breaking the verisimilitude of characters and even genres.
DRAFTING
Should be really simple...
Keep
publishing evidence of drafting; don't wait for full rough cuts but
instead target short sequences (or parts of digipak/ad) and publish
before-and-after (where the after can actually be 2 or 3 alternative
takes) - again, link in AudFeedback.
Keep 'vanilla', basic edits
of sequences, play around with FX/re-sequencing and publish (maybe using
shot-in-shot) these as a video; it makes sense to use
stills/screenshots to add a brief commentary, make it into a simple
vodcast - try to incorporate AudFeedback)
Keep reflecting too on what tools/tricks you're learning from the software (P'shop + FCE, + any others)
TIMEMGMT
It
will be difficult to give high marks on this if post ordering is
illogical: tweak the publish date of your posts and build a more logical
order. For example, don't have a batch of podcasts published on the
same day.
Its not just the blog overall; reflect on the timescale
and management of the production from initial idea to final cut. Reflect
on means
critically discuss how it went; what could/should you have done differently.
In
my written comments for the exam board I'll often put something such as
'initially poor time management, but this picked up considerable and a
good capacity was shown to work under restrictive and demanding
deadlines imposed by this slow start'. So, I'm not saying to disguise
poor time management, but instead to reflect on this and to highlight
more positive periods.
Its worth considering a blog post
explicitly on TimeMgmt towards the end of your blogging, as part of a
general reflection on and evaluation of your own work.
PRES'N
Hopefully obvious...
Look for
small text;
courier font;
highlight colour
(generally not a good idea, it mostly looks awful, but if you insist on
using it take care to check its legible on your blog given the
background image/colour);
random space between lines; broken
links or URLs which aren't made into links - http://en.wikipedia.org/
[try clicking on that! In general, its as well to use words:
Wiki on Propp];
videos that have been removed by YouTube; dailymotion vids (blocked not
just here but by many schools where examiners will be marking); posts
with lots of text but no pics/vids (and use the caption tool where
useful for pics); pics or vids that go beyond the blog's main frame and
block out the links lists etc on the side frame; check all Word/ppt docs
+ pdfs are properly embedded.
The small details are important: group pic, embedded mp3 of track, top links list etc
gadgets
Especially important are links lists which make your blog easy to navigate, and also highlight results of research.
Accurate, descriptive post titles, and basic written info on pod/vodcast content within a post also help.
USEICT
All the
design features listed in the Progress Checklist P2+P3. Again, those
links lists are vital, but there are many gadgets you should utilise,
several of which (eg Polls) link nicely to AudFeedback too.
Podcasts
+ vodcasts are absolutely vital - make sure you highlight these with
links lists. That means using these to reflect on drafts + aud feedback (
this topic in particular can be covered informally + quirkily), as well as the various topics of location scouting etc.
Have you considered using a
Prezi in place of PowerPoints (and even instead of one or two vodcasts)?
Use
that top links list to press home the other media tools you've used:
Facebook, QR codes, Twitter, company blog etc. A post summarising your
use of technology is useful prep for Evaluation + exam, and will help
justify high marks if given.
I
think thats fairly comprehensive; if you yourselves have any
suggestions/further queries, publish a comment and I'll add to this
post.
