Research and Planning This area is worth 20% of the marks and over the period of a project should involve the collection of a considerable amount of evidence. A blog post every other day for three months would amount to 45 in total and this should be a reasonable expectation for candidates. In the best cases, such posts were varied and included images, video and links. The best centres provided an easy-to-navigate hub containing all of the work, well signposted and with each candidate’s work clearly marked. They also encourage candidates to make good use of blogs, using them to give feedback, mark progression and encourage a variety of means of communication and expression. There were many examples of candidates who have clearly enjoyed and made the most of communicating in this medium, for their planning and research. Where centres used VLEs for blogging, there were often more difficulties in accessing the work and there were many more files to open individually. At its best, research focused tightly on relevant, similar products, with an analytical, rather than purely descriptive approach. Research into audiences worked particularly well when a triangulated approach was used, which for film openings included analysis of film classification, audience statistics and primary interviews. As in previous sessions, the multiple questionnaire approach had little value. Institutional research was especially effective when linked to exploration of similar products, rather than treated as a standalone feature. Research for magazines was often confined to the front cover whilst research for films often needed more focus on titles and soundtrack. The best centres considered research as an ongoing process, not just something to be done at the start of a project. Some of the less relevant research included candidates who had deconstructed trailers in preparation for their film openings and this discrepancy showed through in their finished pieces, which had the feel of trailers rather than openings. The best blogs recorded the journey of the production and gave real insight into the evolution of the product. Evidence of planning of locations, actors and costume tended to be better for film openings than for magazines. The quality and the depth of the planning evidence presented varied considerably; it was clear from the quality of the final construction that, in some cases,
candidates had done detailed and relevant planning but that not all had been presented as evidence in the submissions. In some cases, the material for planning was submitted retrospectively, which meant that explanations for decisions made were often missing. Group blogs ought to reflect the input of all members and should be tagged to attribute contributions. In marking research and planning, centres need to clearly distinguish the contributions of individuals and differentiate accordingly. It is worth considering that if an individual blog contains 40 or more posts, a group blog might be expected to contain considerably more. Construction There were a number of very strong submissions for both the video and print tasks. The best candidates demonstrated a good understanding of generic conventions from their study of real media texts, the ability to use artistic and creative flair to subvert or extend the conventions and high levels of technical competence. There was still some serious over-marking within this area with teachers pushing candidates too easily into level 4. The film opening was the most popular task, usually submitted as a group project. Key to the success of this project is a proper consideration of the function, purpose and conventions of titles; the best projects had taken care to look closely at titles in real film openings and learnt from them. A number of centres produced production company logos and idents which helped in the process of establishing an institutional context. Soundtracks at best featured layered sound, with foley work and attention to dialogue and atmosphere. Centres are reminded that audio should be original or be from a copyright-free source. Where candidates had considered the conventions of film openings rather than trying to tell too much of the story, the projects tended to work best. The stalk and slash narratives usually lacked careful planning and consideration of camera, editing and mise-en-scene. More creative productions thought carefully about the impact of sound and lighting and variety of shot types as a way to create enigma and atmosphere. Ideally, productions should be as close to two minutes as possible. Those which are considerably over-length usually do not meet the needs of the task. In a few cases, openings featured unacceptable language, given the context of an external assessment.
