Final Draft Animatic

Research Statistics

As part of my research towards making my documentary, I need some interesting statistics to keep the audience hooked into watching my documentary. Here is a few that i have found and am going to consider using in the voiceover of my documentary.
The ones in bold are statistics I plan to definitely use and other are just potential statistics that I will use where I need to fill up space.

- Anorexia is the third most common chronic illness among adolescents.
- 40 – 60% of high school girls diet.
- 50% of girls between the ages of 13 and 15 believe they are overweight.
- 80% of 13 year old girls have dieted.
- 40% of 9 year old girls dieted.
- Reports show girls as young as five years of age have weight concerns, and think about going on a diet.
- About 40 percent of people with anorexia recover completely.
- Approximately 10 percent of cases of anorexia arise in men.
- On average, anorexia occurs between the ages of 16 and 17.
- An identical twin has a 50 percent chance of developing anorexia if their twin has it.
- A history of sexual abuse is seen in 3 out of 10 people with anorexia.
- Currently, in developing countries and black communities, anorexia nervosa appears to be somewhat rare.
-15 per cent of young women have significantly disordered eating attitudes and behavior.
- Around 30 percent of anorexia sufferers continue to experience the illness long-term.

Listing Magazine Articles

Listing magazine articles tend to be different to normal magazine articles because they are all about a film, a TV programme .etc
Whereas other magazine articles can be about anything, they could be about celebrities, real life stories .etc

A TV article in a listings magazine is different to an article in, lets say a celebrity magazine, because in a listings magazine it seems to be more advertising the programme to you and what is going to happen.

My article is going to be a mixture of a review of my documentary, so it promotes it and also something that interests people to watch it. I will put this in a listings magazine the week that it is going to be showing on TV. The examples I have shown use large texts as headlines and small text for the actual article columns. This is a common layout and works well because it allows you to read the headline from a distance and grab the readers attention. I feel personally that it is better to have thinner columns because it tends to look less worse to read. It also gives it more of an article feature rather than a large text box with no columns. Two of these examples use the picture as the background for their text and I feel this works better because it doesn't make it look as basic, I find its more exciting than a blank white text background. My article will have a large photo collage of different things in the documentary that advertises different interviews, different footage. The picture will be the whole page and have text overwriting it. The main headline will be large and short, whereas the subtitle will be a bit longer and explain a bit more about what the article is about.

Newspaper Advertisements

 Newspaper Advertisements are usually quite plain and basic. Most often black and white, with a bit of text and sometimes an image. Some of these examples are advertising things about weight, whereas some are advertising TV programmes. I am going to buy The Sun newspaper and take a look at any of the advertisements in there and also use the TV magazine I get free with it to look at example of magazine page spreads.

The advertisements that advertise products tend to be more basic than TV programme advertisements. However the last example I have is very basic as it only has a picture, the time of the programme, the title, the channel and a logo.

As with any sort of article or advertisement, the title has to be big, bold and often a catchy headline. This is because it tends to be one of the first things that someone sees when looking at an advertisement. Therefore if reader isn't attracted by the title they won't want to read the rest.

One of these examples could be described more of an article but it gives me a taster of how newspapers present things. After research from the internet I have decided that I want my advertisement to have the title, possibly a picture, a brief summary and the time and channel. This is because I want my advertisement to be quite basic so that people take information in when glancing at it, rather than studying it and reading it thoroughly.

I will definitely put my advertisement in a tabloid newspaper because if you get any teenager reading a newspaper it would The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Mirror. I know that The Sun comes with a free listings

magazine and would therefore put my advertisement in the same newsaper that has the same listing magazine with my double page magazine spread.

I think that the best example is the bottom one, and I plan to do mine like the structure of this, however I am debating whether to have the background as an image or just plain white.

I feel that maybe an image could put people of

because not everyone would want to see an image of someone anorexic when flicking through a magazine, and may get the impression that my whole documentary will be as graphic as that. Whereas it will not be, it will have some images in it, but it won't be jam packed full of them.

The headline of my documentary will probably be the same as the title of my documentary, this is to prevent confusion and extra text that perhaps isn't needed on my advertisment. I will obviously have the time and channel of the documentary and perhaps mention to reading the article in the attached listings magazine for more information about it. This will then give my audience the choice of reading more about it.

Proposed Running Order

- Text - What Makes The PERFECT Body?
- Talking Heads - Are you happy with your body? Which bit of your body are you not happy with?
(Music loud on text and quieten it down over talking heads) - Fast-ish music

- Voice of God - 'In society today body image is becoming more of an issue, I will explore this is this documentary. Many factors have been blamed for this - the media, the fast food industry, lack of education at schools.
(Still images of various pictures of over weight and underweight people, magazine pages of articles of over/underweight people)

- Archival footage of stand up comedians talking about weight issues, something humorous and light that I can then juxtapose with something heavy.

- Voice of God - 'Unfortunately it is not such a funny issue for some people..' (followed by statistics)

- Interview with anorexic teenager - Reconstruction
(Slow music throughout the whole thing)

- Talking Heads - Show picture of the teenager I just interviewed - Do you think this person is overweight, underweight or average?
(Back to the track that was at the beginning of the extract)

- Interview with Psychiatrist

A Useful Website

I spoke to the psycharitrist that I plan to interview in my documentary yesterday and she recommended a website that she uses for her patients. I have looked at this website and feel that this will be a good example to use in my statistics or any archival footage. I feel that even the URL of the website (http://www.b-eat.com/) has a good name for an eating disorder website. This is because it is about 'beating' an eating disorder. The main target audience for the website is the carers, parents, friends and family of people who suffer with anorexia. It gives them advice and support information to help them.

Research On Magazine Double Page Spreads.

 

I like this magazine spread because the text is only about a 1/3 of the two whole pages, and not everyone wants to read lots of text. The picture and the headline are very large and therefore grab the attention of the readers.



 I also like this one for the same reason as the previous one. However this looks more like a magazine than a newspaper one because it is in colour. The colour has a different effect because the can make things stand out more. For example, the pink speech marks grab my attention, to probably think about reading that quote first.

I also like this one because of the picture taking up half of the page so that there isn't too much text. The reason I don't want much text is because I don't want to bore my audience with too much reading, I want to get the point across about my documentary in just a few paragraphs.


I like the layout of all three of these magazine double page spreads, but for my subsidiary task, I need to create a double page spread for a listings magazine. Such as Radio/TV times, TV Quick or a TV magazine within a newspaper.

First Draft Animatic

This is the first draft of my animatic, I may change the running order, or decide to add or remove extra bits. So I'm sure I will have another draft of an animatic posted soon.

Today's Progress

I have written the two talking heads questions and the interview for the anorexic teenager and the psychiatrist. I have also started to make my storyboard anamtic, I have filmed each scene I wish to include, my next job is to work out the timing and find the music I would like to put over each interview. On each of my post it notes for my animatic, I have put what sort of music I want to use in the section. I have also decided on a title for my documentary and decided what title sequence I am going to use. My next job is to finish my animatic and speak to the people I am going to interview. The first thing that I plan to film is the talking heads of the teenagers. I feel today has been very successful and I next plan to do the majority of this work next week. Up until then I am going to plan my further actions.

My Title

I know it seems a bit late to be thinking of a title for my documentary at this stage, considering I have done all of my target audience research .etc
But now I am about to make a storyboard, I feel it is about time to think of a proper title for my documentary. I know that it is obviously about teenage anorexia, and more concentrating on female anorexia issues. However I need to think a title that will immediately interest my target audience to watch it.
A lot of documentaries are called things like 'ANOREXIA - THE TRUTH', for example. I was going to put a question in my questionnaire asking my audience what title they think I should have, however I decided not to because I feel it is my job to think of a title for my own documentary.
After a lot of decision making and research, I have decided to call my documentary..
'WHAT MAKES THE PERFECT BODY?'
I have decided this because 'perfect' is a powerful word that immediately grabs people attention, to compare themselves to something that is supposedly 'perfect'.
I want to make my opening title sequence and my credits at the end, as if someone is handwriting it. This is because I like the effect, after you have sped it up. For example, I will write the title, any of the interviewees name and ages. I have looked at the Napolean Dynamite title sequence because it uses the similar technique that I want to use.

Interview Scripts

Interview for Psychiatrist
- Could you summarise the role of your job?
- How many clients do you see on average every week?
- Are the majority of your clients female and what sort of age range do they fall under?
- Do they all have similar lifestyles?
- Why do you think that its important to involve the clients families?
- Do you think it is becoming more of an issue over the past years?
- What do you think are the contributing factors of anorexia?

Talking Heads
- Are you happy with your body?
- Which bit of your body are you not happy with?
- Show picture of anorexic teenager that is being interviewed - Do you think this person is overweight or underweight or average?

Interview for anorexic teenager
- How old were you when you were diagnosed with anorexia and how old were you when you were told you were getting better?
- Were you indenial about being ill before you were diagnosed?
- What has been the hardest stage for you during your illness?
- Do you feel confident enough to say that you're getting your life back on track?
- Did your illness have an effect on your school work?
- Did it also have an effect on the relationships with your friends and family?
- What do you think is the biggest factor that pressurised you with anorexia?

Plan/Do/Review

On November the 18th, I have a two hour slot to do some practical work, and this is my plan:
- Draw out a rough storyboard that tells me the camera angles, sound, transitions .etc
- Look at questionnaire and decide who I am going to interview, book slots with them to give me the opportunity to film them
- Write a script for the interviews, so I know the exact questions I plan to ask, and predict answers so I can think of leading questions
- Look for music and start to write a script for my voice over by researching statistics
- If I still have time left I may consider to start filming my two planned talking heads - What size boys prefer, and one word summary of what teenagers think of anorexia

Questionnaire Analysis

Looking at the results, the most popular for the base of the documentary was to concentrate on a few individuals, however as my documentary is only allowed to be maximum five minutes, I am going to concentrate it on just one teenager in this five minute extract. A big majority of my target audience said they would prefer it to be on TV, and the majority of them said Channel 4, 8pm. I also feel that Channel 4 is the most popular channel to show documentaries, and 8pm is a suitable time for my target audience (teenagers who are unaware of the problems with anorexia). I am also going to do talking heads of teenager's opinions on anorexia and interview an anorexic teenager. I also know a psychatrist who always works with anorexic people, therefore I am going to interview her.

Supersize Me

This film follows the conventions of a documentary because it uses statistics, follows Spurlock's day to day life of his new diet and happens over a certain period of time. This gives us the feeling that we are with him throughout his journey of seeing what it is like to be 'supersize'. It has a different effect to what a normal film would because we feel connected to Spurlock and he is taking part in this documentary to show us what it is like.

I feel that this is relevant to me making my documentary because it is on the subject of eating disorders. However I am not going to make my documentary in film style mine is going to be more television, factual like.

My Questionnaire

Female [ ] Male [ ]

13-16 [ ] 17-20 [ ] 21+ [ ]

Do you watch documentaries? Yes [ ] No [ ]
If so, how often? Once a year [ ] Once a month [ ] Once a week [ ]
Other ……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Does the subject anorexia interest you? Yes [ ] No [ ]
If so, why? ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Would you prefer a documentary to be shown on TV? Yes [ ] No [ ]
If so, what time and what channel? …………………………………………………………..
Or would you prefer it to be online? Yes [ ] No [ ]
If so, why? ……………………………………………………………………………………………..

Do documentaries interest you more if
They concentrate on a few individuals [ ]
Whether it is a statistical documentary that concentrates on lots [ ]
It is about just one person the whole documentary [ ]
It just interviews professional people and doesn’t involve true stories [ ]

Tick if you would be interested in seeing a certain person be interviewed in the documentary
Doctor [ ] Nurse [ ] Psychiatrist [ ] Teenagers opinions on anorexia [ ]
Anorexic teenagers [ ] Anorexic teenager’s parents [ ] Teachers [ ]

What is your opinion on anorexia?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Do you know anyone that suffers with anorexia and how does this affect you?
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

What do you think causes people to have anorexia?
The pressure of models [ ] Magazine obsessions of diets [ ] Worried what people think [ ] The media in general [ ] Impressing the other gender [ ]

Would this documentary interest you in the slightest? Yes [ ] No [ ]
If so, Why? ……………………………………………………………………………………………..


THANK YOU FOR USING YOUR TIME TO FILL OUT MY QUESTIONNAIRE 

My Next Job

I plan to make a questionnaire next and get some ideas from my target audience.
I need to ask what style they would like the documentary to be in.
What sort of time they want the documentary to be shown/or whether they want it on a website where it is accessable at all times.
Whether they want the documentary to concentrate on one or two people with anorexia or for it to be an all round statistical documentary about lots of people with anorexia.
What sort of people they want to be interviewed.
Their opinion on anorexia and what interests them about it.
What they think causes people to be anorexic.
And whether they know anyone who suffers with anorexia and how does it affect them.

Report on Bowling for Columbine

I've studied this documentary to look at how bias is used in documentaries as a convention.
Bias through selection and omission was used by them showing a clip of Michael Moore bending down to Charlton Heston's intercom, this proves that Charlton Heston is too important to see without asking and he is a big man, (he is made inferior). The music is from roundabout 1940's, it is a jolly, jazz piece. It is a piece of 'black' music and this created irony when becomes evident to Charlton Heston as a racist.
Bias through placement was used for Charlton Heston's posters behind him; they make him look glorious and a hero. His employees clearly put them there because they want people to think certain things through positive connotations.
Bias by headline/title was used by Michael Moore saying that he is a member of the NRA (American Gun Club) and that is the reason why Charlton Heston agrees to see him.
Bias through choice of words by interviews, Michael Moore used a lot of open/closed questions.
Bias by captions, photos, edits, lighting and camera angles was used by cutting out the rubbish and keeping the good, so it makes it go question...answer, alternatively. He also shows Charlton Heston the photo of the 6 year old girl that was shot and killed by another 6 year old. He came with this photo, knowing that the interview would get out of hand. The documentary was edited well and if you aren't expecting edits, you can't notice it at all. Statistics were used a lot, they are the truth and they are a good way to be bias because the person that they are aimed at, cannot argue back and it made Charlton Heston angry. Statistics are powerful and you cannot argue back because you know that they are the truth.
Leading questions work in the way that you have already decided what you are going to talk about and you know where it will lead to.

Deconstruction of Documentary

The documentary that I have chosen to denotate and analyse is, 'Supersize vs. Superskinny.' I have chosen this because I enjoy watching it and find it interesting how they have to swap diets. I also feel it is relevant because it is to do with diets, and eating habits, therefore I may find some inspirations to put into my documentary. In this series, the location, in the feeding clinic are two women at opposite ends of the weight spectrum but with one thing in common; they both want to look wonderful in their wedding dresses. They are swapping diets so they can learn some home truths about their diets. Dr. Christian Jesson is in charge in the five day feeding clinic diet.
The skinny woman is thirty-one year old mum, Jeanette, she is six stone eight. To introduce her, there is a picture of her very skinny, anorexic body. She looks very unhealthy and this shows one side of the extreme food diets.
The narration is a woman telling us all the information that we need to know. She doesn't have much tone to her voice and isn't very exciting to listen to, but she is an expert so it is good to listen to her.
The obese woman is thirty and is called, Rosemarie, she is twenty-one stone. Over three times the weigh of Jeanette! To introduce her, there are pictures of her obese body. She looks very overweight and this shows the other side of the extreme food diets.
This documentary shows the two very extreme diet sizes on the scale of diet. As this film doesn't show an average weight it is shocking to see the obese and anorexic person be put together. This is because the only people we can the women with are each other and they are on completely opposite sides of the scale of diets. They make the documentary like this because the women's diets are supposed to be shocking.
It is bias from one diet to another, saying how skinny or how obese people can be. When the women meet and are put together, you can tell how bad food diets really are. This is because they are going from one extreme to another and it isn't a very pretty sight.
There is Archival Footage of them living their normal lives are shown at the beginning when we are introduced to them. Documentaries use Archival Footage because it shows you what the person looked like before they came on this documentary, so that you have some idea of how they have improved/not improved.
There aren't any interviews in this documentary; they are just face to face interviews with Dr Christian talking to the women about their diets. They talk to him because he is an expert and he will give good advice that will help them improve their diets. This advice can also be useful to the people who are watching the documentary if they suffer with diet problems.
Narration is happening through out the documentary and we are told lots of information. The narration works because it informs the audience about what is happening and it also helps the audience if they want to go on a diet. The information that is given is about the women's lifestyle and how they are coping with their five day diet. The narration is also given because it makes the audience want to carry on watching the documentary because it is educational and you learn lots about diets from it. I think personally that the idea of swapping diets is great and it is very interesting. If I find it like this, I am sure others do too. I think that this documentary has the theme that targets many women. This is because all women care about how they look and what people think of them.
As well as many narrations there is also music in the background, it isn't emotional it is to keep the pace of the documentary going. The music is normally played when the women are talking about how hard the diet is. This is because it is hard for the women to change their diet so dramatically and when they explain their feeling and thoughts to us, the music is there for the background.
There is a lot of editing by text coming up on the screen because it also gives us information. For example - they say how many calories you should have each day and how many calories the women have each day. It also tells you about the exercise that the women have. The camera angles are different in every scene. This is done because it makes it exciting instead of using the same camera angle in every scene. The camera shot that is mostly used is the medium shot.
A camera technique that isn't used is, 'wobbly camera'. It is because the 'wobbly camera' is normally used in films that are filmed as you would see life and not in documentaries about size. I think they used medium shots most of the time because it is a camera angle that fits in every mise-en-scene in that you need to see.
We can tell by the characters that Jeanette finds it hard to force food down her, especially when it is an obese person's diet. Rosemarie finds it hard to not eat too much and she is obviously starving and Jeanette is obviously bloated. This scene is constructed so that we can see how each person is suffering with their new diet.
Apart from when we see their bodies at the beginning of the documentary, the camera shots are mostly medium shots.
The documentary is full of information about being healthy/unhealthy. This is for people who want to put on weight or loose weight. I think that most of the audience watches this documentary is because they want to focus on their own weight and they want some tips and advice on how to do this.
The documentary does look like it has been edited so that the women look unhealthier than what they actually are. This is done by editinjg around their eyes, to make the look black and more tired like, however this could be done to show the emotion and feeling that the women are going through. They may even look like this is real life, but it is a real bad look and it keeps the audience interested to keep watching the documentary.
Another thing that makes people want to still carry on watching the documentary is how people want to know how the women have got on with their new diets. This is why this is always shown in a documentary (2 months - 1 year onwards). They show this because people are interested in how much the person(s) have improved over their time being in the documentary.

Sub Genres

There are five sub-genres for a documentary.


The expository mode is characterised by the 'Voice of God' narration directly addressing the viewer. There is a direct relationship between images and the voice-over and interviews are used to only support the film's argument. it has a conventional narrative structure and the narrator tends to appear as a character in the documentary. Typical documentaries that follow this sub-genre tend to be nature documentaries.


The observational mode is characterised by a non-interventionist or fly-on-the-wall style of presentation, unobtrusive camera work, appearing to offer a 'window on the world'. They tend to be relatively long takes connoting that nothing has been 'cut out' and zoom lenses and hand-held cameras follow the action. They are edited in a way to give the impression of 'lived' or 'real' time and there is speech which is overheard and not directed to camera or audience. There is synchronous sound and only diegetic music is used because it originates in the documentary's world. Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity tend to follow this documentary sub-genre.


The interactive mode is characterised by the acknowledged presence of the camera and crew. The film-maker also speaks directly to their subjects and an emphasis is used on monologues and dialogues. There is a representation of multiple viewpoints, contributing different information and editing which maintains logical continuity. In this sub-genre there is no definitive argument which leaves the audience to decide and develop their own opinion. Typical documentaries that follow this sub-genre are ones such as Embarrassing Bodies.


The reflexive mode is characterised by acknowledgement of the medium to problematise it and discussion of the problems of making the documentary. They also make it explicit about the process of representation and make it explicit on institutional issues (such as who is funding it)


The performative mode is where the maker 'stars' in his/her own film, is also self-reflexive, such as Kurt & Courtney (1998)


After getting more into my documentary, I have decided that it will be a bit of an 'expository' and a bit of 'reflexive' documentary. This is because there is a voice of God narrating the documentary, but I'm not necessarily being part of the documentary or arguing as such.

Yasmin analysis

Summary (back of DVD case): Yasmin is a spirited woman whose life has become a precarious balancing act as she attempts both to please her traditional Pakistani family and enjoy the freedoms of Western life. Having rebelled against her family as a teenager, Yasmin yields to the demands of her widowed father and agrees to marry a cousin 'from home'. The omens are not good when she the goat-herder from a Pakistani village meets the vivacious, Westernised Yasmin. After the shocking event of 9/11, Yasmin's life begins to change; her innate sense of confidence starts to evaporate and she becomes increasingly ostracised at work. Yasmin is only jolted out of her crisis of identity when she witnesses a brutal internment of her husband under the draconian rules of the Anti-terrorism Act. The injustice of this event forces Yasmin to re-evaluate her faith, her culture and her relationships. The scene is set for a compelling and topical personal drama of what it means to be Asian, Muslim and British in the 21st Century.

My own analysis: The down that this is set is in a mainly Muslim-dominated town, that involves racism, for example, graffiti on a shutter door. Non-diegetic music is played throughout the film to create emotion and show the culture they live in. In the film Yasmin goes to the pub with a 'friend', but still sticks to her religion and has a non-alcoholic drink. Extreme close-ups are used in this film a lot to show the emotion of the characters. Diegetic sound is played across the town of Muslim prayers and speeches. Yasmin seems like a totally different person when she is under the influence of her Pakistani family.

Although Yasmin is a film, it relates to a documentary because it deals with real life every day situations. I feel it has helped me watching and analysing this because the film could actually be made into a documentary, because of the situations they have used.

My Initial Ideas

Documentary

View more presentations from lydiaruthearl.

Wikipedia Definition of Documentary (film)

Documentary film is a broad category of moving pictures intended to document some aspect of reality. A "documentary film" was originally a movie shot on film stock—the only medium available—but now includes video and digital productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a television programme. "Documentary" has been described as a "filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception" that is continually evolving and is without clear boundaries.

Brief

I will be combining the roles of producer, director and writer to create a documentary that will explore the theme of anorexia.
My target audience for my selected product will be female teenagers, and possibly parents of teenagers. Primarily my documentary will be aimed for people for most classes, such as working, middle and possibly upper class. This is because I think any person from any of those classes could have some sort of relation or interest towards anorexia.
My documentary will be approximately ten minutes long and will include interviews from anorexic people themselves, talking heads and experiments of people's opinions (such as teenage boys), I may also try to talk to people that specialise in this subject to give some useful information to my audience.

Coursework Project

We have been given a choice on a number of different projects that we are able to do our coursework on. I have chosen to make a five minute documentary, along with a double-page spread from a listings magazine focused on the documentary and a newspaper advertisement for the documentary.

The reason I have chosen to do this is because I made a documentary when I studied BTEC Media a few years ago and therefore are aware of the conventions. I am going to concentrate my documentary on anorexia and how the media effects those who develop eating disorders. I am going to do this project on my own as I have in mind exactly what I want to do and would prefer the independence, responsibility and not having to rely on others.

Tomorrow we have been asked to do a presentation infront of the class, that demonstrates our ideas and inspirations as to why we have chosen this project. This will be uploaded soon :)

'Lady GaGa ft. Beyonce - Telephone' Animatic

Instead of making storyboards for our extracts of making a music video, we were set the task of making an animatic to show what shots are used and when the shots are changed. However as my drawing is very very poor, I decided to printscreen certain shots in the video and put them together to make an animatic. Hope you enjoy it :)

Although I am not doing a music video for my set brief, I still feel that an animatic is a good idea to express your ideas on a storyboard. I plan to do an animatic for the story board of my documentary.

Animatic Storyboards

Animatic storyboards are simplified mock-ups of storyboards. These give an idea of how the scene will look and give a proper feeling of the motion and timing. They are a series of images that are displayed in sequence and are edited together. To test whether the sound and images work well together in an animatic, a rough dialogue or soundtrack is added. The sound is usually taken from a rough storyboard.

Doing this allows the directors and animators to work out screenplay, shot list, camera positioning and any timing issues that may exist when using the current storyboard. The storyboard and soundtrack are amended so that a new animatic can be produced until the final storyboard is perfected.

Storyboards & Animatic from Genius Film on Vimeo.

Menu of Set Briefs

When centres choose from these set briefs for candidates, they should be guided by their strengths in terms of resources and expertise. Centres should also bear in mind the key areas: forms and conventions, production contexts, the role of technologies, audiences/users and representations. Further details on the briefs for this unit will be available in Guidance Notes.
To avoid excessive overlap with AS briefs and to ensure an appropriate level of demand as a step up from AS, the following form the menu of set tasks at A2. All briefs require the production of three media products, one major piece and two ancillary products. The menu allows candidates to work in just two media, or to explore three different media.

Suggested Resources

As noted above, centres should be wary of embarking on offering this specification without adequate equipment, software and staff training. Candidates entering production coursework for this specification will be at a serious disadvantage if teachers are unable to provide training for them in the use of the particular software and technology. They will be at a further disadvantage if there is insufficient technology for them to use. The minimum resourcing requirements for the delivery of the media portfolio units are suggested as being:
Digital technology suitable for the construction of media texts within the briefs set.
Digital technology suitable for the presentation of research, planning and evaluation of the text produced.
Suitable Internet access for research and where necessary presentation of student work

Advanced Portfolio In Media

The purpose of this unit is firstly to assess candidates’ ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills (AO3); secondly to assess candidates’ application of knowledge and understanding in evaluating their own work, showing how meanings and responses are created (AO2); and finally to assess candidates’ ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research (AO4). The unit requires candidates to engage with contemporary media technologies, giving them the opportunity to develop their own skills in these technologies. It also enables them to develop the skills of presentation that are required for further study at higher levels and in the workplace.
This is a coursework unit. Centres must set the brief from the menu below, though they may define more precise details in negotiation with candidates. From this brief, candidates will produce:
a media portfolio, comprising a main and ancillary texts;
a presentation of their research, planning and evaluation in electronic format(s).
The media portfolio will be produced through a combination of two or more of the following media:
Video
Print
Web-based
Audio
Games software
Each candidate will evaluate and reflect upon the creative process and their experience of it. Candidates will evaluate their work electronically, this evaluation being guided by the set of key questions below. This evaluation may be done collectively for a group production or individually. Examples of suitable formats for the evaluation are:
A podcast
DVD extras
A blog
A powerpoint
In all cases, candidates should be discouraged from seeing the evaluation as simply a written essay and the potential of the format chosen should be exploited through the use of images, audio, video and links to online resources. Marks should be supported by teacher comments and may be supported by other forms such as audio or videotaped presentations.
Production work for the main text in the Advanced Portfolio may be in the same medium as AS work (in order to allow for the development of skills within a particular medium) or a different medium (in order to allow for breadth of experience of different media forms). The ancillary tasks will ensure that all candidates have the opportunity to explore a different medium at some point in their production work.
The production element and presentation of research, planning and evaluation may be individual or group work (maximum group size is four candidates). Where candidates have worked in a group, the evidence for assessment may be presented collectively but centres will still assess candidates on an individual basis for their contribution to aspects of the work, from planning, research and production to evaluation.
Though there is no formal individual essay component for this unit, in the G325 examination, candidates will be asked to write about the work undertaken from this unit and from the AS coursework unit. It is therefore recommended that candidates undertake some form of written reflection as practice for the exam.
G324 is marked and internally standardised by the centre and marks are submitted to OCR by a specified date, a sample is then selected for external moderation. The unit is marked out of a total of 100 marks: 20 marks for the planning and research and its presentation; 60 marks for the construction; 20 marks for the evaluation.
In the evaluation the following questions must be answered:
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Ideas for the format for the presentation of the evaluation can be found in the Guidance Notes.

Assessment Criteria

Film/Television/Video
Level 1
Work likely to be unfinished.
There is evidence of minimal ability in the creative use of any of the following technical skills:
the ability to hold a shot steady;
framing a shot appropriately;
using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
shooting material appropriate to the task set;
selecting mise-en-scène;
editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately;
using sound with images and editing appropriately.
Where a candidate has worked in a group, there is only minimal evidence of a contribution to construction.

Level 2
There is evidence of a basic level of ability in the creative use of some of the following technical skills:
holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
shooting material appropriate to the task set;
selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;
using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.
Where a candidate has worked in a group, a basic contribution to construction is evident.

Level 3
The candidate is expected to demonstrate proficiency in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
shooting material appropriate to the task set;
selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;
using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.
Where a candidate has worked in a group, a proficient contribution to construction is evident.

Level 4
The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:
holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
shooting material appropriate to the task set;
selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately;
using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task.
Where a candidate has worked in a group, an excellent contribution to construction is evident.