Mark Scheme

Construct and Evaluate	(AO4 30 marks)
Level 6 (Construct 17-20, Evaluate 9-10) Candidates' demonstrate flair and creativity to construct an impressive product which would engage a potential audience. They demonstrate the ability to handle technology confidently, including ICT, and use the techniques and conventions of the chosen medium and genre creatively and convincingly. They evaluate their production making cogent and critical connections between the experience of carrying out the production and all the key concepts. The evaluation is concise and well-organised, using accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar.	25-30 marks
Level 5 (Construct 13-16, Evaluate 7-8) Candidates demonstrate competence to construct an effective product which would be likely to appeal to a potential audience. They handle technology competently, including ICT, and use the techniques and conventions of the chosen medium and genre effectively. The evaluation shows an informed understanding of the key concepts. The evaluation is concise and well-organised, using mainly accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar.	19-24 marks
Level 4 (Construct 9-12, Evaluate 5-6) Candidates demonstrate appropriate skills to construct a satisfactory product which a potential audience might find interesting or engaging. They utilise technology, including ICT, and use appropriate techniques and conventions of their chosen medium and genre. They meet all of the requirements of the task. When evaluating their products they are able to discuss how some of the key concepts have informed their production. The evaluation uses some accurate spelling punctuation and grammar.	13-18 marks
Level 3 (Construct 5-8, Evaluate 3-4) Candidates demonstrate some appropriate skills and mostly meet the requirements of the task to construct a product which might have some limited appeal to a potential audience. Some conventions of their chosen medium and genre are evident. The evaluation may be largely descriptive but some key concepts may be addressed. In the evaluation, communication, including spelling, punctuation and grammar, may not be wholly effective.	7-12 marks
Level 2 (Construct 1-4, Evaluate 1-2) Candidates construct a recognisable media product. In their evaluation, they provide a simple review of the production. Communication, including spelling, punctuation and grammar, may be limited.	1-6 marks
Level 1 (Construct 0, Evaluate 0) No work worth the award of a mark.	0 marks

Deadlines

All of your trailers must be finished and uploaded to your blog by -

25th March 2014

This gives you 2 weeks!!!

If you do not think you will be able to meet the deadline, you need to speak to Mr Ambrose this week!!

Your blog should now contain -

Ideas
Storyboards
Plans
The Treatment
Research into Representation
Research into Locations/Props etc.
Initial Videos
First edits

Plan

Some more examples of schedule/plans

The Treatment & More on Storyboards

The Treatment

Now it is time to get your story and characters together with an idea for a setting, and write a treatment. This is a detailed outline of your idea. It is not the same as a treatment for a factual programme. It tells the story, showing clearly the structure of events. It will definitely show the beginning, middle and end of the story. This is the basic three-act structure. It is amazing how many people don’t follow it, then wonder why nobody takes up their screen play.

Some movie producers think a story treatment should be just one sentence. It is not a bad exercise to see if you can put your story idea into one exciting sentence. Try it first with a film you know. The story of Star Wars in one sentence –not easy.  Now try to write down the story of your film in a just a few lines. Does the premiss of that story excite you? If not, try another angle.

Treatment checklist

Your treatment should answer these fundamental questions:

1. Have you created a distinctive main protagonist who is a rounded, believable character?
2. What is his or her goal?
3. Who is stopping him or her achieving this goal?
4. What is at stake and why?
5. Where does the film take place?

Above all the treatment must show the structure of the film – what happens when and why. A well-structured film is often a good film.

Storyboard

The important part of a storyboard is the story. It is a way of telling your video story visually, rather like a cartoon strip. Essentially a storyboard tells the story of your video in small hand-drawn pictures. The great thing is you do not have to be a good artist. Pin men drawings are fine.

The importance of a storyboard is to see how all the shots fit together to tell your story before you go out and shoot the video. This is like having a visual script.

A storyboard should show the:

• Position of people in each shot – who is on the left and who on the right of the frame. The girl is on the left and the boy on the right as you are looking through the viewfinder of the camera, and as you see on the screen. This is known as camera left and camera right.

• Shot size. This is the size of the person in the shot. It tells you how much of the person is showing in a shot. This picture shows the head and shoulders and is called a Medium Close Up. It is the most popular shot size on television.

There are traditional shot sizes such as Close Up, Medium Close Up, Medium Shot and Long shot – see attached chart.

Draw on the storyboard any important background buildings or locations which may be essential for the scene. This image of palm trees and a swimming pool are essential for this scene from a travel documentary.

It could be a haunted church cemetery if it is a spooky horror story and you need a suitable background.

Make sure you include in the storyboard drawings of important things that happen. If a character is sitting at a desk and an assassin comes into the room threatening to kill him unless he hands over important documents then you need a close up of the desk drawer open with a gun inside.

You will need this shot in the film. The next frame of the storyboard after the close up of the gun might be the assassin collapsing mortally wounded onto the floor. This keeps up the pace of the story.

So the storyboard is showing the main shots in the video and how they go together to make up the story.

Representation

Representation Theory

The media literally re-presents the world to us. Dominant and oppositional arguments conflict e.g. on one hand the media is showing us how things actually are, on the other hand they are telling us how things should be (dictating representations, not just reflecting society).

The main representations we study in the media are:

 Masculinity
 Femininity
 Social Class
 Sexuality
 Race and Ethnicity
 National Identity
 Age

So -

How did you represent social groups?

How did you ‘construct’ your characters? - Costumes, props, mise-en-scene

Task

1 Define Representation  

2 Talk about how you will represent your characters,

Using the very limited pieces of information you have been about your characters, describe the mise en scene of that character:

•        What would they look like

•        What would they wear

•        Where would they live

•        What props might you expect to see them with

•        What other visual information might you see related to this character

•        What other social group labels would they have?

Film Ideas!!

Your task is to post 1 or 2 movie outlines.....

You need to set out your work with the following titles or blog posts -

A Title 

(Or maybe a few different titles?) - Why you like them

Theme & Genre

What have you chosen - why?

The narrative or story

Tell me the basic story. Remember to use a beginning, a middle and an end or even better use Todorov and his 5 parts...

Remember Todorov and his narrative theory

1. There is an equilibrium (Normality/Balance)
2. Some sort of problem or issue disrupts this equilibrium
3. The characters realise that there is a disruption of equilibrium
4. They attempt to fix the problem
5. Returns to equilibrium or new equilibrium

Characters & Representation

Who are they? Whats their background? How are you going to represent your characters? what conventions are you going to follow? Why?

Opening and Closing shot

The first image introduces your story to your audience, so make it a good one! Ideally, the first image is a visual representation of your entire story, especially its theme.

Your closing image is your last contact with your audience, so make it strong. A good closing image, like the spinning top in Inception, can even change our interpretation of the entire ending.

Genre

 Genre is a French word that means type or kind. Genre is a way of classifying media to tell us something about it.

The first thing to ask about a text or movie is what is its genre. Film and television shows usually come under a few major genre such as: thriller, action, scifi, western, romantic comedy,horror, sport, soap opera, or comedy.

Many modern films are hybrid genres with elements of say thriller, comedy and maybe horror.