Evaluating your AS coursework

First of all read this:

http://petesmediablog.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/evaluation-for-ocr-coursework.html

The first question is: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products (film openings)?

To answer this question, you could use http://www.artofthetitle.com/  First of all use your 9 frame analysis of an influential film opening to show the forms and conventions of: the titles (including style, typefaces, positioning, timing, how they appear and what they say), setting and locations, costumes and props, camerawork, the 'setup' of the story, the creation of genre, how characters are introduced, editing and effects, music, sound and dialogue.  You should use each frame to write about a different aspect of the opening; e.g. one frame could be about the title of the film and the next frame could be about how genre is created (see the example on petesmediablog to see how this is done).

Then do a 9 frame analysis for your opening.  This time in your analysis compare your opening to the influential film.  Explain which of the conventions from the influential film you 'use' (i.e. things that are very similar).  Also explain which conventions you have 'developed' (i.e. given your own slant or interpretation).  Finally, also consider how you may have 'challenged' the conventions of your influential film (i.e. adopted an approach that is very different from the norm).

See here how a 9 frame layout can be created in Photoshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUmdaRTZ_PA

The second question is: How does your media product represent particular social groups?  Use images from the mainstream media that represent your social groups and compare them to images showing your representation in your media product.  Before you do your analysis, read this: http://howardschoolmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/what-is-representation.html  A word file or powerpoint would be fine for this part of the evaluation, then add jpeg images of the documents to the blog. Alternatively, just do the analysis straight onto the blog.

The third question is: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?  First of all you need to understand what distribution is; this post and link will help you: http://howardschoolfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/what-is-film-distibutor-fm2.html
http://www.launchingfilms.info/step-step-guide/
Next, you need to find out who distributed your similar films (if your film is similar then maybe they would distribute your film too).  If your film is a UK one then here is a list of UK distributors: http://howardschoolfilm.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/fm2-uk-film-distributors.html
Although this question asks about distributors, you could talk about all of the institutions involved with your film: production companies, financiers and distributors.  Record a voiceover over the video of your film's titles, explaining about logos, the institutions whose names we see, the roles they play and why they would be involved in your film.

The fourth question is: Who would be the audience for your media product?
For this question, you could produce a profile for a typical audience member.  The profile could include information such as:

Age
Gender
Ethnicity and cultural background
Education
Religious and political affiliations
Economic status
Employment
Sexual orientation
Family background
Marital status
Group membership
Interests, pastimes and favourite media products (this is the most important section of the profile and the part you should write most about)

Add photographs of this typical audience member or you could make a video of an actor playing the role and either talking about him/her-self or being interviewed.

The fifth question links to the previous one and is: How did you attract/address your audience?  You could use the youtube 'annotate' function to annotate your video.  You could also link this to audience audience feedback you have received and any questionnaires you have done, e.g. http://howardschoolmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/audience-research-some-ideas.html

The sixth question is: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Technology can usually be represented visually.  This question is ideal for an annotated photo collage or montage put together in an editing program with music or you could do a cool photoshop arrangement of images with text to show how you used technology.  Don't forget that technology is software and hardware, websites and everything that helps you research, create and distribute, however small...even memory sticks!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Y0GGt3Ww4

The seventh and final question is: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the main product?
One way of doing this question would be to look at one (or more) ways you have developed your skills in four key areas - camerawork, editing, mise-en-scene and sound.  You could edit together a video example of each from your preliminary and main task that show an improvement in technique from the earlier task to the later one.  Then add a voiceover or annotations that explain the progress you have made.