Soon , you will be evaluating your Advanced Portfolio Production... before you do this, here are some words of advice from one of the Chief Examiners, Pete Fraser (whose blog I would recommend you follow, by the way, not just for coursework but for the next unit – see the blogs that I’m following on blogger):

The key principles for OCR are that there are a number of questions which must be specifically addressed in the evaluation and that you should think of it as a creative reflection task rather than a written essay. The evaluation has to be presented digitally, but it can take a number of different forms and you are actively encouraged to be experimental with this. It may be that your school or college restricts the options you can use but you should note that the best marks go to those who really try to engage with digital formats as enthusiastically as possible!It is important to note that the evaluation element is worth 20 marks, which is a fifth of the marks for coursework overall, so it is important that you take it seriously and do it well.

At A2 there are four questions, which as you can see, contain some overlap with AS, but for which there is an expectation of a greater level of sophistication.

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

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

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

4.How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The evaluation can make use of any digital format, but in order to get top marks, will need to really engage with the potential of the medium, so if it is on a blog, we would expect to see lots of use of pictures, links and video, for example. If it is on a powerpoint, the same would apply, but we would probably see even less written text, as we would expect the powerpoint to be presented by someone, so any writing would be just there as prompts. If the evaluation were all to appear on a DVD, the likelihood is that much of it would be in video form. I am going to suggest some ways of approaching each of the questions as tasks, which make them more creative and more fun to do, but which also involves more planning and thought than a straight written answer would involve.

For both AS and A2, question 1 is the same - it's about forms and conventions of media texts. Students from other colleges have had great success using something nicked from www.artofthetitle.com . This involves selecting nine frames from your opening and presenting them as a grid, just like they use on artofthetitle to illustrate openings. In this case, however, each of your frames has to represent a different aspect of the film you have made. So you might select nine frames, each of which represents one of the following:

The title of the film Setting/location, costumes and props Camerawork and editing Title font and style Story and how the trailer/music video/advert sets it up Genre and how the trailer/music video/advert suggests it How characters are introduced Special effects? (if any – this include effects you have applied from Adobe Premiere Pro)

*** Consider how you could do this; which frames could you use? ***

Question One: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Have a look at this blog and look at how the student approached this question -

http://crossley-ameliaa2.blogspot.com/

1. I’d encourage you to use screen shots from your trailer/music video/advert and professional texts (use texts you initially researched as part of your pitch/summer work) and annotate, highlighting the use of or the challenging of the genre’s typical codes and conventions, which can include:

- iconography- narrative- character types- themes & representations- cinematic style

2. Discuss narrative by making a video of yourself talking, inter-cut with extracts of your trailer and professional trailers. Discuss how you used or challenged typical narrative set pieces, incorporated expected narrative themes, used binary oppositions, Propp's theory of character types and how you structured your trailer and why.

3. For your print work you could create a prezi ( http://prezi.com/ - because unlike a PowerPoint it can be given as a

web address that you can paste into your blog & shows excellent use of technology) that compares your work to that of professionals. How have you applied your understanding of genre/narrative? What specific aspects of the medium have you incorporated and why? To what effect?

Question Three: What have you learnt from audience feedback?

1. To answer this question successfully you could film a focus group and conduct a facebook focus group.

2. You should first discuss any ongoing feedback that you've been doing throughout the process, include screenshots and discuss how the feedback that you've received and whether you’ve amended your products.

Consider the questions you will ask of your audience; these could include:

What genre do you think my products are?What makes you think this?How have I met your expectations of this genre?Have I used archetypal characters successfully?How do you feel when you watch the trailer?

and of course your own

Remember to probe your participants – don’t settle for one word answers, they won’t help you – get the detailed feedback you need by asking your audience questions that will encourage more depth to their answers and not just yes or no replies). You should outline who you've interviewed and why (relate to your initial target audience research and ensure that you have a representative sample).

4. You need to create a conclusion - This should be done creatively: this could be a video podcast/podcast, mood board of ideas for future projects or a prezi. In your conclusion state what your audience think you did well / didn't so well and try to be reflective - what your thoughts are on their findings and what you'd do in future productions.Throughout this question make sure you use appropriate media language.