Tips from the exam board

5. Monitor the work of students throughout the whole process and get them to revise work continuously - use the central hub to make this easier and cut off when the time is right.

4. Actively encourage candidates to regularly compare their work with real products - look at what it says on the tin approach. Plan these comparative activities in to SOW from the outset.

3. Create a 'Look what I found' board to encourage candidates to share digital tools they have found and their experiences with them - discuss relevance and appropriateness for task. Think carefully about the format used.

2. Invest time in working out how to use sound/lighting/camera equipment yourself prior to letting candiadtes loose with it - create a set of youtube links for quick reference/anti-models for students to 'criticise'!

1. Use today's materials as a benchmark for you own moderation - build in opportunities for students to moderate in order to reduce low end mark submissions.

Evaluation Feedback from exam board

• Vast majority used digital technology but still a number producing essays
• Balance between innovative and ccurate and detailed and concise
• Make sure they are not so far removed that they don't suit the purpose.
• Group evaluations were problematic - cannot just allocate the questions out. All candidates must take part in all four questions or answer individually. Teachers must make sure that they clearly explain contribution on the cover sheets, especially if candidates do not appear directly on videos for example.
• Useful to have photos of candidates and names on evaluations for moderators to refer to for contribution purposes where necessary.
• Q3 tended to be quite weak. Q4 often descriptive.

You need to look here for ideas on the evaluations. 

Ancillary Tasks Exam Board feedback

• Digipaks generally improved
• Need to be several pages not just a CD front cover and Backing page.
• A template can be found here for a 4 page digipack and backing. Please use these and don't forget to do the research for this too.
• Still a number of candidates not using templates causing folding errors
• Do not send the mock ups to the moderator
• Some submitted as individual panels rather than a whole digipak
• Magazines need to have developed a house style
• Websites need to be live and links working
• At least 3 links need to work e.g:
• Merchandise page
• Photoshoot page
• News Page/Behind the scenes shoot
• Requirement for attention to detail for all tasks.

Construction Feedback from exam board

• Some outstanding work this year - candidates becoming much more aware of real conventions
• More advanced use of software in use - Premiere Pro, Final Cut (Express and Pro), Audacity, Cubase, Garageband, Photoshop, In Design and Dreamweaver
• At the lower end of the scale, some ver poor work which demonstrated few technical skills
• Music and film briefs still continue to be the most popular briefs - still some issues linked to pace with theses briefs which need furhter work
• Some issues with ballads - you need to make sure your editing is fast paced, don't have any clip lasting longer than 5 seconds really
• Lots of music videos missing performance - heavy reliance of narrative making them more like short films which did not suit the song choice.
• Short films generally successful - less horror films which tended to end up in the woods!
• Handful of centres entering the other tasks
• Often over-generous marking

Research and Planning Feedback from Exam Board

• Generally good research and planning but a reminder for need to research industrial examples of ancillary tasks
• Need to do research into websites and digipaks, can't just do research on music videos...make sure that you are doing an equal amount.

• Research into target audience is largely absent from research yet expected as a key response for the evaluation
• Textual analysis needs to be more detailed and technically accurate - too vague at times
• MORE DETAIL THE BETTER
• Still evidence of retrospective R&P and evaluations - one powerpoint with everything on YOU HAVE TO BLOG AS YOU GO!
• Research and planning needs to feed into the final product - can have generalised research and the start as ideas are developed but needs to become tailored as the project becomes more bespoke. 
• The research you've done has to be reflected in your music video
• If you haven't analysed something which is similar to what you've done then you have to make sure you do one. You will loose marks as it won't show the journey that you have done.
• Research and planning marks can only be allocated on what is presented to the moderator and not what can be assumed from the final task.

Direct from the Exam Board: Something to consider!!!

The practice of students giving out questionnaires and putting all the returned examples in their evidence has been discouraged for a long time. The main problem with this approach is not the survey method per se but the limited nature of the questions and the claims made for the responses. For example, 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. Audience research is more productive if it addresses the following:

·      What do real audiences consume?

·      Who are the specific audiences for particular products?

·      How do media industries target those audiences?

Those questions require research of a different kind to the local 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:

·      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.

·      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.

·      Taking peer feedback 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.

Key Findings from June 2013: A2 coursework

• Number of clerical errors - please use the onlne candidate record forms
• Centres who had completed detailed candidate record forms were usually also those who had applied mark schemes accurately
• Group work - marks should be differentiated to match contribution and comments should clearly inform how individuals have contributed to final products.
• Most centres using central hubs - must send typed urls
• All work must be submitted electronically/digitally - nothing on paper. Print work must be uploaded on to a blog
• Marks adjusted for work which was not original - images on digipaks etc...
• Try to create you're own logos for record labels
  
  • Only parental guidance label should be used. 
• Reminder of the need for robust internal standardisation against set standards.

Research and Planning Help from the exam board

• Best centres encourage balance of the two elements: 
• Must do a mixture and a clear balance of both...need to make sure you are planning as well...not just doing what you are being told.
• Create sense of journey
• You need to show your progression.
• Candidates reflect upon the production and impact during the process
• Don't just analyse the front cover: say what you have learnt from it. What does this mean for your construction?
• Retrospective planning to be avoided completely- clearly obvious
• Teacher- led class work was often the only form of research for some candidates
• You need to do research beyond that of what is done in class. 
• If we teach you the basics of analysis using an NME cover for example you need to choose a cover from your own genre. You also need to make sure if we do NME and you're doing NME then you need to  do an extra piece of work. 
• BE INDEPENDENT
• Specific research into the actual products being produced is needed - music magazines and Videos
•  Look at the specifics of everything:
• Fonts
• titles
• layout
• Edits
• Audience needs more consideration at this stage rather than just in the evaluation
• Need to consider who is the audience?
• What are the background?
• Not just a questionnaire!

Direct from the Exam Board: Something to consider!!!

The practice of students giving out questionnaires and putting all the returned examples in their evidence has been discouraged for a long time. The main problem with this approach is not the survey method per se but the limited nature of the questions and the claims made for the responses. For example, 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. Audience research is more productive if it addresses the following:

·      What do real audiences consume?

·      Who are the specific audiences for particular products?

·      How do media industries target those audiences?

Those questions require research of a different kind to the local 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:

·      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.

·      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.

·      Taking peer feedback 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.