Evaluation (20%)

Each of you must evaluate and reflect upon the creative process and your experience of it. You will evaluate your 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:

1. A series of podcasts2. DVD extras / Director’s Commentary3. A separate blog or website4. A Prezi5. An annotated YouTube extract6. Vox pops – Q37. Filmed Focus Group – Q38. Contact sheet with annotations / annotated poster

In all cases, you are 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.

In the evaluation the following questions must be answered:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (AML)

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback? (Audience feedback via Screening on Wednesday 12th March in EAB01)

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? (All with MFG.)

Exemplar evaluations:

http://hallge.wordpress.com/ - (15/20 Level 3 - Generally a proficient with some questions being answered in more detail than others. Clear engagement with technology and sufficient evidence of reflective evaluative skills evident here. Response four tends to be quite text heavy especially considering the expectation of the response to be centred around the use of technology.)

http://www.slaa2mediagwpahs.blogspot.co.uk/ - from 2010

http://alleynsmedia-desalis.blogspot.co.uk/ - from 2012http://alleynsmedia-macdowall.blogspot.co.uk/ - from 2013

1

Level 4 - 16–20 marks

There is excellent understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions.

There is excellent understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production.

There is excellent understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts.

There is excellent understanding of the significance of audience feedback.

There is excellent skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation.

There is excellent ability to communicate.

There is excellent use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.

2

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK – How to get top marks for this question…

What is recommended for audience research for AS/A2? How can this be presented? Should we discourage the numerous questionnaires approach?

DON’T JUST GIVE OUT questionnaires and put all the returned examples as evidence on your blog.

The main problem with this approach is not the survey method but the LIMITED NATURE of the questions and the claims made for the responses. EG - asking ten fellow students their favourite genre of film, finding that seven out of ten say ‘horror’ and then using that to justify making a horror film opening as a result. SEE THIS AS A STARTING POINT.

Audience research is more productive if it addresses the following:

·      What do real audiences consume? RESEARCH

·      Who are the specific audiences for particular products? RESEARCH

·      How do media industries target those audiences? RESEARCH

Those questions require research of a DIFFERENT kind to the questionnaire method; initial research online looking for data about the industry students are dealing with, such as box office figures for films or circulation figures for magazines would be a good starting point. Part of research involves looking for examples of how marketing works across a range of media- for films this includes considering posters, trailers and their selling points, for example.

Later audience research should be considered in a series of stages, each involving formative qualitative feedback. So, for example:

1. Pitching the product to the rest of the group and taking feedback, noting the responses from this and deciding how to act as a result.2. Showing early drafts of the work (such as an animatic of the storyboard or a mock up front cover) and asking some carefully framed questions about them to get a sense of the audience’s understanding of the product rather than just a measure of whether the audience liked it.3. Taking peer feedback (FACEBOOK PAGE?) at later stages and then again on the finished product; asking things like “can you tell me what happened in that sequence, what the relationship between the characters is and what do you think will happen in the rest of the film?” to look for audience readings of the work.’

These approaches can be presented in a variety of ways - video extracts with framing commentary from the makers; audio, written. All would help MOVE AWAY from the pie-chart of responses model which tends to be fairly unproductive.

3

Target Audience Research FOR MAGAZINES

LOOK at the adverts - that's should tell YOU loads about what publishers off these MAGS thinks is their audience.

Show examples of you analyzing adverts on your blog…

Research in how different fonts work together http://www.will-harris.com/typepairs.htm

http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/typography-articles/a-beginners-guide-to-pairing-fonts/

Also here's a website which is useful for font researchhttp://www.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

4

5

6