CIE EVALUATION overview with UK comparison guide

NOTE: This is formally named the CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTIONYou are marked not just on answering the question, but also for:

• creativity in how you do so
• using critical theory and self-critiquing
• use of technology to do so

In practice, you should take 1 of 2 approaches:

1. Create one SUBSTANTIAL creative text for each answer, AND/OR...
2. Recycle a format or spread it across multiple Qs so you've got multiple creative approaches for each Q.  It makes sense if you've spent any time on creating a set!

These often won't be ideal for actually answering the question, so make sure you fill in any gaps with some combination of well-illustrated:

• PowerPoint/Prezi
• blog post content
• video/vodcast

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This is a 'hub' post for BOTH the CIE version of the AS Media Evaluation AND the UK (OCR) spec on which its based.  Use the hyperlinks below to find specific posts/guides on the 4 CIE/7 OCR questions. See here for CIE blog guide.

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IN THIS POST:

• The 4 CIE AS Evaluation ('creative critical reflection') questions
• A suggestion to split both Q1 and Q2 into two (though presented in one post for each full question)
• Comparing the UK OCR and CIE Evaluation questions so you can make use of past students' responses to get pointers and inspiration
• The 3 'AOs' (assessment objectives): how its marked
• The level descriptions (L5 = A, L4 = B/C, L3 = D/E)
• A list of some terms/concepts you could try to include somewhere within your evaluation
• Ideas for 'creative' presentation and for evidencing/using a range of technologies (linked to marks!)

THE FOUR CIE AS EVALUATION QUESTIONS

In practice I will consider these as SIX questions, splitting Q1 + Q2 into two; in short (click hyperlinks for individual guides): 

Q1a: how you used or challenged CONVENTIONS
Q1b: REPRESENTATIONS of social groups/issues
Q2a: how you engaged with AUDIENCES
Q2b: how might it achieve DISTRIBUTION
Q3: DEVELOPMENT of production skills throughout the entire process
Q4: how you integrated TECHNOLOGIES (software, hardware, online) in the project
 

THE UK OCR + CIE AS EVALUATION QUESTIONS COMPARED with hyperlinks
So you can grasp how these will link with your FOUR questions I've plotted below how these link. In time there will be more CIE blogs to compare with, but for now UK OCR blogs are a key resource for you

SUMMARY COMPARISON (= means very similar to!)
CIE Q1a CONVENTIONS =  OCR Q1 CONVENTIONS
CIE Q1b REPRESENTATIONS = OCR Q2 REPRESENTATIONS
CIE Q2b DISTRIBUTION = OCR Q3 DISTRIBUTION (+ exam links post)
CIE Q2a AUDIENCES = OCR Q4/Q5 AUDIENCES
CIE Q4 TECHNOLOGIES = OCR Q6 TECHNOLOGIES
CIE Q3 DEVELOPMENT = OCR Q7 DEVELOPMENT

OCR Q1 CONVENTIONS: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

- CIE Q1a 'how does your product use or challenge conventions'

OCR Q2 REPRESENTATIONS: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

- CIE Q1b 'how does it represent social groups or issues'

OCR Q3 DISTRIBUTION: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

- CIE Q2b 'how would it be distributed as a real media text'

OCR Q4 AUDIENCE: Who would be the audience for your media product?
OCR Q5 ATTRACT AUDIENCE: How did you attract/address your audience?

- CIE Q2a 'how does your product engage with audiences'

OCR Q6 TECHNOLOGIES: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

- CIE Q4 'How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project?'

OCR Q7 DEVELOPMENT: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

- CIE Q3 'How did your production skills develop throughout this project?'

CIE blog improvements summary

Research + Planning improvement points

(1) review/proofread, especially for presentation: well illustrated? hyperlinks? embedded material [not links to this]? no small text? clear sub-headings? embedded material? any 'TBC'? logical post order/date? 

sans spacing!

This is obviously a HORRIBLY presented post!!! Text should never be allowed to dominate on a blog post, especially a long one. It was worse until I at least added some space between points! [see screenshot fragment] Oh ... and tags! No hyperlinks, almost no imagery, nothing embedded (though clear sub-headings, font + colour + size variation...)

(2) ****is your journey clear?**** have you reflected on shoots, edits, feedback? posted alternative versions you tried in editing? evidenced FCPX tools you used over time? is there detail on each shoot? DETAIL on each edit (what changes, why; evidence of experimenting: short scenes with different edits [eg FX]; any feedback on this cut; how this cut reflects previous feedback; tools used; planned further changes...); have you used podcasts to anchor the sense of journey? 

(3) are post titles clear and specific? have you used a numbering system? are links lists absolutely comprehensive? (examiners often skim, so links lists really help secure marks) 

CIE EVALUATION Q4 integrating TECHNOLOGIES

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

CIE Q4
HOW DID YOU INTEGRATE TECHNOLOGIES - SOFTWARE, HARDWARE AND ONLINE - IN THIS PROJECT?

***You MUST analyse your technology use in the Evaluation, including this question, in your answer!!!***

****You also MUST consider how you INTEGRATED technologies - combined and used these for multiple purposes (eg editing and YouTube for R+P and Evaluation, not just for the final film opening)**** 

Consider how YOUR COMPANY might benefit from or be penalised by digitisation - apply your exam-centred work, all that instiutional knowledge on how the highly converged, digitally disrupted film industry works...

scroll to the bottom for examples of UK-equivalent answers

creativity and technology TiP ... green screen yourself into the shots! As we did with my Media Technician John in this example:

CIE EVALUATION Q3 DEVELOPMENT OF PRODUCTION SKILLS

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

CIE Q3
HOW DID YOUR PRODUCTION SKILLS DEVELOP THROUGHOUT THIS PROJECT?

See this post for a list of points you can consider, and also a suggested framework.

This is quite similar to the UK Q7 - have a look at Kate's answer  or Curtis' (both a plain blog post). Molly's was very thorough and more multimedia - here's her 3-part answer:

Tilly, who reflects here on having delivered an unsatisfactory AS production (she produced a new film and blog the following year), provided vodcast and well presented transcript; this may inspire you - its a simple but effective way to achieve most of the filming required, a fairly easy job to later edit in screenshots and clips etc

More guidance below the line...

CIE EVALUATION Q2b DISTRIBUTION

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

OCR Q3 DISTRIBUTION: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

- CIE Q2b 'how would it be distributed as a real media text'

**I've just added a lengthy post specifically using the horror distribution example...**

This is a key Q for exam prep, not just coursework, so obviously keep going back to the WT/Warp comparison with specific examples (but you'll be drawing on more for wider contexts). I've given a new (2019) 8-part stepped guide, but retained 2 older versions below as well. Use cinema blog tags etc to find useful posts, but also make use of handouts, not least the WT + Warp distribution packs, which have distributor, budget etc etc listed + brief distribution summary paragraphs. There are multiple tags + links list screenshots at the end, + some good egs of past student vids.

'how would it be distributed as a real media text'

A (2019) STEPPED GUIDE TO ANSWERING WHO WOULD DISTRIBUTE YOUR FILM

A NOTE ON THE CREATIVE ASPECTS

I highly recommend using the ...Millionaire quiz template for this as the creative part of the answer (perhaps add a director Q+A at festival or Curzon member screening). Then clearly address the question in any combination of blog post, ppt/Prezi, video, following the points below. We'll look at an example in a lesson.

1: SHOW YOU UNDERSTAND THE TERM
How is distribution distinct from the other parts of the film cycle (production, exhibition)? What does a distributor do that is different from what a production company, or a cinema, does?

2: IF IT WAS A TENTPOLE MOVIE; BIG 6...
Before exploring how it might work for your (presumably) low budget film, look at who dominates film distribution. Look for a graph/stats on the big 6 (7? 5? its a fluid industry: Lionsgate; Universal/20C Fox merger) and their share of UK, US, global box office. Explain the tentpole strategy, what Elberse calls the Blockbuster strategy (any quotes from her book would be good, she does include a film industry case study).

Screenshot UK/US/global current weekly or annual top 10 that includes a column for distributor to help establish their utter dominance as an ongoing fact. Make sure you check ownership of any names you're not familiar with (they'll probably be a big 6 subsidiary!!!).

CIE EVALUATION Q2a AUDIENCES

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

OCR Q4 AUDIENCE: Who would be the audience for your media product?
OCR Q5 ATTRACT AUDIENCE: How did you attract/address your audience?

- CIE Q2a 'how does your product engage with audiences'

Marketing is part of distribution, but you can also consider marketing here, explore how your film MIGHT be marketed. It is advantageous if you have set up any spin-off social media, but can also think about your blog and YouTube channel as 'real-world' means of engagement.

Consider the active steps that might have helped promote and gain publicity for, awareness of, your film.
Attracting an aud doesn't just mean using glamorous actors! How did you publicise, promote your film? Did you engage in viral marketing, releasing entertaining snippets during production? Teaser clips? Preview screenings with a sample target audience (perhaps hoping that they'd generate more publicity through word-of-mouth, as well as providing key feedback on what was/wasn't working for the target aud)? Behind-the-scenes featurettes? Interactive blog features? What social media did you use? Use screenshots from FB (just ensure you protect any personal info!!!), Twitter etc, + from YouTube showing comments/no. of views (you can include my channel too for this).

A good starting point, one you will have blogged on from existing films: how you framed (and communicated to the audience) who the central protagonist is - point-of-view shots, central framing, angles...

Have you used narrative enigma to draw in and 'hook' your audience?

Have you used humour (perhaps a false scare)?

What knowledge would a viewer need to follow your preferred reading?

Have you employed regional accents, dialect? Slang [aka 'teen skatz'; give specific egs!]?

Remember: representations are relevant here - briefly note how your choices here touch on your audience.

Presumably you've provided the audience with a 'priviliged pov' (they can see more than any single character can; s-rev-s is one common eg, but also opening est. shots), but perhaps you've included specific pov shots (or others, eg tracking) to signify the protagonist? Are we encouraged to identify and/or sympathise with one particular character (perhaps they're on screen first/more often; we get their povs?)

Is there any focus on the body? Laura Mulvey, a feminist critic, argued that audiences are typically positioned as male; the camera lingering on a female body positions us as a male, heterosexual viewer.

Have you used specific genres of music?

Have you used sound to lead the audience, but (espec for horror) also as an example of genre signifiers which much of your target audience might enjoy? Which other genre signifiers have you used?

Have you employed gore or (within the limitations of a school production) sexual content to attract an aud (refer back to the male gaze)?

Have you used intertextuality? (references to existing texts, eg posters within a room you've shot in; character names - if you want to explore some theory, this is an example of postmodernism)

You can AND SHOULD add some self-critique: 'here we tried to ... but this wasn't completely successful'

UK-EQUIVALENT STUDENT EXAMPLES:
Poppy: vodcast which could be much better illustrated, but is a succinct breakdown of the target audience:

Here Poppy uses YouTube's annotation tool to good effect!


Molly: blog post that isn't so well presented but is thorough and clearly demonstrates a lot of exam-centred learning too.
Here Molly uses the YouTube annotation tool - and its a smart move to make this clear as she does!!!


Use p.12-15 of guide:

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?!).

Eval Q7 Learnt since Prelim

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Time to reflect ... and impress!
You're trying to highlight how limited and primitive your prelim is compared to your months-in-the-making film opening!

Make sure you embed the actual prelim!!!

As ever, there are plenty of past posts you could look at to help with this, eg: swede/prelim; treatments; evidencing/assessing aud feedback thru vids; online views of your work; Polldaddy; slasher franchise task; researching recent horror egs (+ presenting as vid); casting + creativity; genre vodcast (+ instructions); good eg of post on sample film opening; openings post style eg1/eg2/eg3/eg4; film opening presentations; slasher franchise task; screenplays + narrative; soundtracks; mise-en-scene task (+ decon); being creative with blog vids; IGS work screened at film fest; BoxOfficeMojo; quoting/referencing sources; [ALL egs FROM THIS BLOG ONLY; MANY MORE ON DBHORROR + BRITCINEMA BLOGS; UPDATED 8TH APRIL 2012]

2014 UPDATE: SIMPLE, FAST FRAMEWORK FOR A VIDEO RESPONSE
Use the guide below, which sets out how you could do this as a single-take (or with very basic, quick editing) video. If its not displaying properly in the browser, you can access it directly from Scribd here.

   Q7 Progression From Prelim Interview Questions

SAMPLE PAST STUDENT ANSWERS

Roam's: good detail ... but v little multimedia/illustration!

Becky's: same points as for Roam's, BUT a nice, quirky touch with the mock newspaper article. Generally you should avoid embedding Word docs except for tables and mocked-up reviews or mag/paper articles like this!

Rob's: done as a simple webcam vid. Good detail, and while the addition of stills or even clips would greatly improve this its important to note that Rob's not working off a full script; he has a list of points to make and isn't stilted in the way he makes them.
Chris': Recorded in F6 with other students pulling faces behind him ... BUT, Chris does edit in video/stills to illustrate many of his points.

Some aspects to consider/compare + contrast; this is neither an exhaustive nor prescriptive list - and you could easily combine several of these in one point/go, so use whatever headings you think best fit:

RESEARCH - how important is this to constructing a genre piece? There was NO research for prelim, but for opening you've looked at many general openings then genre examples, and broken down aspects such as titles, idents, SFX, mise-en-scene, locations, characters and how scenarios (eg sex, violence, false scare) have been handled in existing texts (ie shot types, framing, m-en-s, dialogue, music/sound, shot variation, editing pace, SFX etc)
PLANNING DOCS - s'boards, call sheets, treatment etc. Simple job for prelim: single sheet prepared in a few mins, but longer, bigger task and probably redrafting of these). Call sheets used on opening shoots?
TIME MANAGEMENT - Prelim a brief shoot & quick turnaround. Opening a bigger project needing planning for gathering cast, managing multiple shoots, dealing with weather changes, starting soon enough to enable reshoots...
PITCHING - None for prelim; 1st major step of opening.
CASTING - each other for prelim; wider cast for opening? Casting session? Did you provide cast with script, and/or rehearse before shooting? How complicated was casting; what were you after (gender, age, appearance, acting ability, availability for shooting, accent etc) and how difficult/big a job was it to cast? If you acted in your own opening, compare to experience of 'acting' in prelim.
PROPS, COSTUME, SET-DRESSING + GENERAL MISE-EN-SCENE - List what you added to mise-en-scene for prelim then for opening, presumably a vast difference in length of list! SFX (eg blood) is part of this. Briefly link to research.
LOCATION SCOUTING - Prelim simply school; outline complexity of getting right location/s.
SAMPLE SHOOTS - For prelim it was shoot & edit; for opening there's early test shoots to trial ideas and identify issues before full costume/SFX shoots.
ROUGH CUTS - Some prelims may need re-editing, but these weren't intended as r.cuts for aud feedback (note how many & hyperlink each).
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK + USING NEW/SOCIAL MEDIA TO GET THIS - The only feedback on prelims was whether they were shot & edited correctly or not; feedback for openings was critical, and directed changes including reshoots or even re-thinking of the idea/part of the narrative. Did you actively seek feedback from peers via YouTube, FB etc?
SOUND/EDITING; CREATING ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACKS - iMovie sound files and copyright music used in prelim? Original compositions for opening (Garageband)? Multiple music pieces, more fading up/down sound? Re-recording and over-dubbing any diegetic sound?
COMPANY IDENTS - Major task for opening, not done for prelim.
RANGE OF FX USED - Detail any used for prelim + any for opening (even a simple table will show up the difference), perhaps going into detail on how you also tweaked (and combined multiple?) one or more FX.
RANGE OF SHOTS USED - Consider the shot variation for just 1 scene from opening + compare to prelim: a simple list would suffice (eg MS boy1, MS boy2, CU knife, MCU boy1...)
HOLDING A SHOT STEADY [re-read the assessment criteria for the Production, and try to discuss most of these!] - Prelim was a quick shoot at a time when you were inexperienced with cameras and had to get it done quickly. You know from feedback how important a steady camera is; detail shaky shots you've taken out/reshot after feedback (or simply viewing back yourselves) and how your filming work changed over time in this regard.
INDIVIDUAL ROLES - Prelim was shot with little detailed discussion over who did what; were there clearer, more distinct roles for opening?
WORKING IN A GROUP - Narrative idea was simple for prelim; how much discussion and collaboration was involved in finalising the opening's narrative? Have you taken on tasks you didn't in the prelim group? Is there any aspect involved in the opening production that you haven't done to some extent?

CONCLUSION: Could be a bulleted list of what you've learnt, or a simple video message (still basically a list!) of what you've learned about film production. As this is the last Eval Q you should briefly state what overall lessons you've learned.