Weekly Lessons

Activity 1 - The Rationale

Task 1

Look at all three and see where each of the bullet points above are fulfilled. Are there any of them that are missing from the brief? Why do you think this is so?

Addition: Here is a really good BBC brief that is an excellent example.

Task 2

Have a look at the websites of the following three charity organisations. I want you to make up imaginary briefs for at least one of them. Each brief must cover the SIX bullet points and you have to include what medium/s the product must consider for creation (video, website etc). Think carefully about whom the charity will want to appeal to for the target audience, and use the website to research the background to the charity and the context for the products that need to be made.

Remember, that for the exam you will NOT need to create a brief as you will have one provided for you. BUT understanding what goes into making a brief is essential if you are able to deconstruct the brief properly when you eventually receive PART A.

Charity One: Barnardos

Charity Two: Scope

Charity Three: Acorns

Part 2: Making a Moodboard 

Now that you know who your typical target audience actually is, you need to consider their needs, aspirations, and desires in a visual way. This should be done via a moodboard but it will only work if you take into account the client brief. So think about appropriate footwear, the colours and the types of camera angle and position that would suit the 8 to 14 year old audience.

ACTIVITY

Create the moodboard in PowerPoint on a single slide. It should be outputted as a jpeg with a written justification of your choices after you have finished.

Tasks  - AF Group 05/11/20 - CE Group 10/11/20

Below you will find last year's exam paper and some sample student work (pass, merit and distinction grades) Use these to complete the following tasks:

1. Read through the past paper for January 2019. Write down all of the important information that you need to consider in the brief (e.g. deadlines, timings, description of brief etc.)

2. If you were to complete this exam, which brief would you choose and why?

3. Create a list of all tasks that you would need to complete and submit for the exam

4. Read through the three examples of student responses for "Activity 1 - The Rationale" 

5. Identify why you think each student got the marks that they did for that activity.

6. What are the main differences between the pass response and the distinction response?

Past Paper - January 2019

Sample Marked Work

Pass

Merit

Distinction

Mock 1

Using the sample exam paper above, complete your own response to "Activity 1: The Rationale" 

• Complete on a Google Doc and link to your blog
• You may use the sample answers above as guidance for structuring your response
• Due 24/11/20

______________________________________________________________________

Activity 2: The Pitch

We are now going to look at activity 2 which is a written pitch. Before we start, let's have a look at some sample responses from previous exams...

Tasks

1. After reading the two examples above, what are the main differences? Explain why you think the first one got a higher score. 
2. How could the second pitch be improved - what do you think was missing?

For activity 2 in the exam, you need to write a pitch that persuades the client that you should be the team they hire to produce the commission. The pitch needs to communicate your idea in a clear and persuasive way. In this document you really 'sell' the idea to the client, you would do this by including an overview of the content and style of your production

What is a pitch?

A pitch is the way to sell an idea to a commissioning company. The pitch needs to grab the attention of the company and make them excited about the idea.

A pitch should be concise and to the point - don't waffle. It needs to be persuasive - encouraging the producers to pick your idea.

The pitch should include clear details about the content, aims and target audience.

Have a look at the mark scheme from the January 2020 exam...

Tasks

1. Break down the band 4 response above - what are the most important things to consider? 
2. How can you make sure that you achieve these marks in your pitch?

Mock 2

Activity 3 - The Proposal

This section is one of the longer and more valuable tasks in the exam - it is worth 20 marks! It will involve multiple tasks (just like the rationale). You won't be able to prepare for this until we get the actual exam paper but we will be practicing what is involved using past papers...Here is what needs to go in your proposal (using the film brief as an example):

Let's look at the individual sections in more detail...

(PPT source - Writing the proposal from colesmedia)

Here's everything broken down for you in a bit more detail...

Content Overview

The whole product broken down - section by section, in enough detail to make it clear what you will see/hear, including cinematic ideas, layout, technical language etc.  Obviously you only need to think about the techniques that are going to be relevant to your plans.

Contributors – Locations – Assets – Equipment (CLAE)

• Where are you going to shoot/record? Why there? How will you do a recce? Why?
• Risk Assessment – You don’t have to produce a standard risk assessment form in the actual controlled assessment but you do have to demonstrate that you know that you need risk assessments, why you need them, and how you will carry them out, and you have to identify what you will do
  • For example – “My video will be feature a group of men sitting in armchairs trying to play football against a younger group standing up and running around. One of the issues for Risk Assessment is safe handling and moving of the armchairs.  Bad handling procedures can cause serious injuries.  Chairs must always be moved by more than one person, must not be moved unless it’s necessary, and anyone involved must have basic manual handling training.”
•   There are stages to this work – identify likely locations, carry out a recce, decide on locations, risk assess the production activity in each and every location and produce a risk assessment and a plan to minimise risk.  The purpose of a risk assessment is to identify any likely risk of harm or damage to people or equipment that could happen through carrying out production activity in that location, using a system to estimate the likely risk of harm occurring and the likely extent of that harm, making plans to minimise the risk of harm occurring and to minimise the extent of any harm that could still occur, and then to use that Risk Assessment as a working document on set to keep cast, crew and the public safe.  Risk assessments would need to consider slip and trip hazards, electrical equipment and trailing leads, makeup sensitivity, photo-sensitive epilepsy and any other existing medical conditions of the staff 
• Equipment lists – what are you going to need to use – be precise and don’t forget about editing, or about contingencies (spare battery packs, for example). We will produce a list of our available equipment for you.
• Contributors – what people will need to be involved behind and in front of the camera?
• Assets – what else do you have or might you need?  Make up artists? Costumes and props?  Music?

Legal and Ethical Issues

You should include all legal and ethical issues relevant to your product - you don’t need to discuss things that are irrelevant to your project – there’s no need to discuss protecting children from extreme material if there’s no extreme material in your plans, for example.  

Technical Considerations

• Identify any specialist equipment or locations you might need – both media production equipment (smoke machine?) or something specialist needed as a prop or setting (a gym machine in a public gym of some kind would produce more than the usual health and safety needs, for example. A car on a public road might be another example).
• Identify any on camera or post-production special effects that will be needed
• Identify any requirements for voice-over

Scheduling/Planning

• You need a detailed production plan that ties into the key dates you have been given in the commission brief.
• You need to plan to be finished in advance of the required date so that your work can be presented to the client for approval  before it’s needed
• You don’t need the kind of extraordinarily detailed time planning you do for other units. A day by day plan for the shoot and the edit, breaking down shooting plans for different locations, and a week by week plan for the preproduction, is okay.
• You need a realistic budget. Use your equipment list, and we can help with a cost list if needed.

Activity 4 - The Treatment

This is the final task and the second of the longer, more valuable ones - also worth 20 marks. It is a two - part task depending on the brief that you choose (e.g storyboard and justification.) Your treatment can be up to 6 A4 pages and only has to include a sample or "taster" of the product. You will be given a table similar to the example below and you can include one or more in your treatment. Once you have included your sample/s you then need to provide a justification.

Here is an example of a storyboard for a film brief and justification below.

Justification example:

Frame 1

• The brief is aimed at teenagers so my setting of a school will speak to them in a clear and obvious way

• My film opens with a wide shot of the classroom to establish the setting immediately. In a 30 second commercial there isn’t time to add an external establishing shot of the school itself.

• Although it doesn’t show on the drawn storyboard a key mise en scene aspect of the shot will be all of the rectangles of light coming from the phone screens that students are holding around the room.  This will be instantly recognisable to my target audience and establishes the key theme of the film – screentime.

• Just the diagetic sound of the teacher talking – part of creating a real world atmosphere for the audience

• This location is practical and straightforward for me to shoot in, doesn’t involve travel or complicated bookings.  The one practical production issue to be addressed is checking ages in case there is a need for parents/guardians to sign consent forms and contributor release forms.

**Remember you need to write a clear, detailed justification for all samples you have included.

Practice Time!

Now that we have learnt about all parts of the exam, it is time to put this all into practice so I can give you some feedback before the actual exam is released. We will be completing these tasks over the next 8 weeks. I have put everything you need in a learning pack and you will need to submit each week's tasks to Moodle by the deadlines given for tracking. In the next lesson, we will be setting up folders on OneDrive to complete all tasks. 

CLICK HERE FOR YOUR UNIT 8 LEARNING PACK