Evaluation Help Sheet and Levels

Candidates will evaluate their work digitally. Where candidates have worked in a group, the
evaluation may be presented individually or collectively but the teacher must allocate a mark
according to the contribution/level of understanding demonstrated by the individual candidate.
Each candidate should give a clear indication of their role in the group evaluation by stating what
they did at the top of the post. Use my blog before you get started on your evaluation questions to
see which posts you created help support you. Remember the evaluation questions were written in
orange on the posts that related to any of the 7 questions below. Make sure you use ALL the
information you learnt in the posts you created to inform you when giving your answers. Even
discussing media theorists and how what they proposed informed your work.
The questions that must be addressed in the evaluation are:
1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
2. Who would be the audience for your media product?
3. How does you media product represent particular groups?
4. How did you attract/address your audience?
5. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
6. What kind if Media institution might distribute your media product and why?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression
from it to the full product?

Level 1
0-7 marks

Minimal skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.

Minimal understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms
and conventions in relation to production.
Minimal ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes.
Minimal understanding of their development from preliminary to full task.
Minimal ability to communicate.

Level 2
8-11 marks

Basic skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation

Basic understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms
and convention in relation to production.
Basic ability to refer to the choice made and outcomes.
Basic understanding of their development from preliminary to full task.
Basic ability to communicate.

Level 3
12-15 marks

Proficient skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.

Proficient understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation,
forms and conventions in relation to the production.
Proficient ability to refer to the choices made and the outcomes.
Proficient understanding of their development form preliminary to full task.
Proficient ability to communicate.

Level 4
16-20 marks

Excellent skill in the use of appropriate digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.
Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation,
forms and conventions in relation to the production.
Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes.
Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task.
Excellent ability to communicate.

General feedback from the examiner re answering these questions:

1. If you use Prezi it MUST be embedded films in as I am bored of Prezis I see.
2. I really like seeing the films you have made with running commentary to answer the
questions (do for one to two questions max)
3. I really enjoy listening to sound cloud.
4. Lino-it of Pinterest are good so long as they are in depth (screen shots of Pinterest are
required as well as the link.)
5. Try and impress me with something new! A different use of ICT from the norm!

Note - It is crucial that you show off your ability to use ICT and that for each question you use a
different type of ICT to show a range of your abilities. Make sure the ICT chosen is appropriate to
the question asked. The questions need to be answered fully. Remember that these 7 questions
bring the same amount of marks as wall of your posts to date, so they need to be really thorough.

Please also remember to take photos throughout the making of your opening title sequence as these
images will be really helpful in your evaluation.

Also, these answers need to be very visual and not like one long essay writing is essential but it
must be accompanied by ICT.

Help with answering the questions

Firstly go to Petes media blog to read his suggestions and look at examples given. You all met Pete
at the BFI.
http://petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/evaluation-for-ocr-coursework.html
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
I like Petes suggestion (as shown in his link above) as to how to answer this question and the idea of
breaking the images down into a mood board as seen on The Art of the Title. Be sure to discuss
genre for this question the conventions of your genre. Have you met with these conventions or
broken them? Explain why? You could also discuss conventions with regard to mis-en-scene,
camera, editing and sound. You will also need to discuss the conventions of titles and credits add
your timeline and compare it to another films timeline to show you have met with conventions of
credits. Is the font, the colour of the font and its style all in line with the conventions of your genre?
What special effects have you used that might meet the conventions of Thriller. Also, discuss the
convention of your narrative and the enigma it develops is this conventional? Are your characters
stereotypical or subversive?
Go through each of the items below stating whether you met with these conventions or subverted
them and why.

Details of cast and crew.

The film's title.
An introduction to character or character type.
Indication of place.
Indication of historical period.
Information regarding mood and tone.
Introduction to signature theme tune.
Information about genre.
Questions that the viewer finds intriguing.
Patterns and types of editing that will be echoed in the remainder of the film.
Mise en scene and cinematography that will be echoed or elaborated upon later in the film.

2. Who would be the audience for your media product?

It is crucial form the outset that you have a clear idea as to the demographic and psychographic of
your target audience. Petes blog is really helpful for this question but the approach is slightly
limiting.
Use IMdb to help you with this question, they have a breakdown of the audience for each film. Using
films similar to yours see what the results are for these films so you can make comparisons with
yours.
3. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This question is primarily about representation. You should be able to answer this question really
well on the basis that you have studied it in detail with me. Pete suggests that you take photos of
the characters in your films and relate them back to characters in films already made that have
helped influence your idea. A lot of students for this question tend to just discuss their costume and
make up. Please think broadly, this question is essentially the same as your TV Drama examination
question where you are asked to discuss the different elements of representation of all the
characters in your OTS (Ability/disability, race, age, gender, ethnicity, region, class and status,
sexuality and the values the characters represent) in terms of the mise en scene (lighting, location,
body language, facial expressions, props, costume, make-up), sound and lighting. You can now see
how much time this will take to do properly.
Webtools that can embed films work well because the characters from films that replicate the
characters in your opening sequence can be embedded as a film. You can then relate the social
group you depicted to a particular feature film.
Remember to only use PREZI if you do embed films as the examiner is slightly bored of them and the
films help add another creative element .

4. How did you attract/address your audience?

Clearly this comprises of 2 questions

How you attracted your audience

How you addressed your audience

You would have attracted your audience through the following techniques of pleasure:
Narrative/ Enigma to appeal to your audience/ climax/Cliff hanger/resolution you could mention
the theorists we learnt about here.
Genre selected - Thematic pleasures specific to genre also sub genres and hybrid genres to extend
the range of audience
Representational pleasures - Characters in your OTS and how they would appeal to your audience
through their age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality etc
Pleasure of the mise en scene - Costume, props, locations, make-up, body language, lighting, sound,
camera, editing (discuss style and aesthetic pleasures here.
Intertextual references that the audience can relate to
Audience positioning that gets the audience involved through feeling like they are in the film or
by encouraging them to feel tension, anxiety, love etc range of emotions that invest them
emotionally in the film, therebye giving them pleasure.

You would have addressed your audience by:

Continually asking for feedback and making alterations according to this. Add all questionnaires,
Q&A sessions, Survey Monkey info, log line feedback, treatment feedback etc to this section and
state how responding (or not) to the feedback affected your OTS.

Again, Petes blog will help you answer this question well. A film made to answer this question
would work extremely well. It would also be important to discuss getting audience feedback
(Questionnaires, Facebook, Q&A sessions, Survey Monkey (on-line survey site etc) so that you can
explain that altering the final cut of the opening sequence according to your target audience
ensured you were addressing their likes and dislikes. You would also need to state how many films
have pre-release screenings to get audience feedback and often make alterations if feedback deems
it necessary provide examples of films that have done this and state this is why you too thought it
important.

5. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Discuss the main technologies used for constructing these films edit suite, camera, dolly (tripod on
wheels), lights (dimmers for lights count as technology lights less so) etc. Please dont discuss
tripods as a form of technology because clearly it isnt!

I would be tempted to discuss this sequentially eg Research, then planning, then construction and
finally post production. Remember to refer to the webtools you used as well as blogger. If you had
Skype calls with your team members then discuss this and add the recorded Skype call to your
blog.
Put in screen shots of the film you did of a recreation of a thriller opening sequence. Also screen
shots of your prelim task. Also put in images of photos taken during filming your opening sequence
or even screen shots of the edit suite illustrating with arrows new items learnt.
How has becoming more competent in these areas allowed you to construct a really good opening
sequence? How have you progressed with the way you use technology from your preliminary task to
your OTS task? Has your knowledge expanded (state how) and has the type of equipment you used
become more advanced as your skills developed eg moving from a Canon Legria which is a basic
camcorder with an in-built microphone to a Canon SLR 700D with a professional 416 mic to record
more directional sound.
Now discuss sound discuss any foley you made in order to create a more multi layered track which
would create a more realistic and 3 dimensional sounding piece. Did you record in stereo? Discuss
the equipment used add photos taken during workshop. If you made and recorded your own music
rather than use copyright free music discuss the technology you used for this.
Editing did you use different editing packages? If so discuss the different packages and the benefits
of them. Which packages did you prefer and why? Was this the first time you used Premiere Pro
how did you overcome difficulties with new technology did you use any on-line sites to look
information up add the links if you did or take screen shots.
You should also discuss the use of ICT and how using this has helped with the constructionPhotoshop (for you production company titles screen shot these or if animated embed), using
Skype to get advice from a BAFTA nominated editor add the film clip of this interview. Discuss the
importance of research and planning with regard to different ICT used lino it, Pinterest, You Tube
(looking at other opening sequences for research, uploading your own films), Vimeo, Facebook
(using this to receive feedback from your target audience to learn what improvements they would
like to see on your rough cut of your opening sequence) or other sites to access your target audience
any clever clogs out there that can create a quick website that people can go to, to watch the film
and post feedback on?
Use the logos of Skype, Facebook, Pinterest, blogger etc. to help communicate the amount of ICT
you have used.
BE SURE TO ALWAYS REFER BACK TO THE QUESTION BY STATING WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNT.
6. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Start by discussing 3 major distribution companies and 2 independent production companies in
details. Then state the company you chose and what the ethos of the company is, who owns it,
when it was set-up, other films that it has distributed, films that it has distributed that are similar to
yours, profits made from these films, what success you think this distribution company will bring to
your film, where it might distribute your film and why. Does the company have synergy/convergence
with other sister/parent companies so more profits can be made through creating computer games,
phone apps and general merchandising so that your profits can be increased? Remember that more
money can be made from merchandising that from the actual film. It might be, on the other-hand,
that you are very artistically minded and your film wouldnt suit being released my a major

distribution company and instead art house cinemas would be more apt. Discuss all of this so it is
clear as to how you came to your decision.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from
it to the full product?
Put your preliminary task on this post beside your final opening sequence so that the examiner can
contrast the two. You could also use screen shots with annotated arrows to highlight key points or
create a split screen film to contrast the progress made.
I think one of the key areas of progression from one task to another is the composition of shots
often in the preliminary task the framing shows too much head space and a large portion of the
frame dedicated to the back of someones head as opposed to who you are talking to. You could
provide screen shots of how your framing has developed. You could also apply the lines of the Rule
of Thirds to the frames you think show have good composition. Possibly your amount of shots and
the variety of shots have developed to become more sophisticated you could say how this was
helped by researching and watching a lot of OTSs so that you could emulate them.
You could also discuss how you have progressed technically by using premiere pro and digital
cameras, tripods and lights (keep this very brief as this will have been partly discussed in the
question above).
You may want to discuss the role of different people on set and how important it was to have an
understanding of these roles so that everyone can communicate well and know what their
responsibilities are did you stick to the same role or try a different one for the opening sequence?
What were the benefits/downfalls of this? It might be having worked together with the same team
members on the preliminary task you got to learn what each others skill sets were and chose roles
and responsibilities according to yours and their known strengths. Add links to sites that define
different film roles. Refer to the link in your write up.
Points for Discussion:

Narrative
Genre
Audiences/Audience research
Distribution
Mise en scene (didnt consider for preliminary)
Sound (didnt consider music for Prelim)
Editing
Working in group how this developed/improved and why
Using new technology
Learning that images can substitute words 9iconography, body language etc)
Time management
Organisational skills
Overcoming problems/Compromising
Develop evaluation/analysis skills so products improved
Continuity and match on action without a doubt, you have all developed in this area
massively you now use a greater variety of shots so that there are greater opportunitiues

to cut round a scene using shot reverse shots, eye line matches, POV shots, cross cutting etc
which is all very sophisticated filmmaking.