This guide will provide some insight into what you should be including in your blog
You must take responsibility and ownership of your assignments and the study time you apply to them in order to achieve a high grade.
Posts
Title each blog entry in relation to your current assignment: e.g. MUSIC VIDEO (Unit number and criteria number) - Production Log
It is important that you do this so that the tutor marking the work can see which parts you believe are meeting the criteria of the assignment.
You then need to add a label into the bottom right box called labels
The labels you add are to aid you to track what criteria you are meeting. Your criteria that you need to track can be found in your 'Assignment Brief’. If you haven’t got this it can be found on the blog.
You must ensure in the design tab on the blogger you have to add a gadget called LABELS which will then allow you to stack up each criteria with the number of times you FLAG it in brackets. This will be done automatically by the computer.
For BTEC the labels will be P (PASS) , M (MERIT) and D (Distinction) with the relevant number to match your criteria sheets. This way of tracking your work is very beneficial in that you can target criteria and label which ones you meet or need to add more value to obtain a higher grade.
Practical Assignments
During practical assignments, your blog will need to contain entries that do the following;
- Show research into the area of your current assignment
- Show that you have planned the production before filming (the date of your blog posts will tell us this)
- Document the process of production (blog posts stating what you have done day-by-day.
- Evaluate the final product - reflect back on what went well and how you would improve your work for next time (Lindsay will be undertaking sessions in relation to how to write evaluations)
Please be sure to read individual assignment briefs to ensure that you are doing the right work!
1. Research
Research before any assignment is important - how do you know whether you are making something original if you don't know what has been done before?
By posting examples of work that you have researched, you can start to write about what it is you like about that piece of work, what you have discovered about that type of filmmaking through your research and how that information will benefit you when you create your own film.
Sources of information can be from magazines (such as Empire, Total Film) books, the internet or the library. It may be that you have been watching a series of documentaries on TV, or saw a guest speaker at an event. You need to reference where your research has come from and put links on your blog where required.
Example
You should check your assignment brief to make sure that you are meeting the specific requirements of that unit but, as an example, Unit 29: Music Video point 1 requires you to identify:
Conventions: lyric interpretation; extending or consolidating song’s meaning; allusion; links to other artists
Techniques: cutting to beat; effects; miming and lip sync; playback and lip sync; multi-image; camera movements; camera angles; chroma key
Below is a music video by Kings of Leon
Here is a short piece that ticks some of the criteria listed above
Lyric Interpretation - the video is a literal interpretation of the song lyrics. It depicts a nostalgic and sentimental view of the American Deep South. The video, therefore, further enhances the songs' original meaning - the song is a loving homage to the bands roots. This is an image that they are attempting to promote recently, as they also released a documentary film called Talihina Sky, which documented their childhood
Further to this idea of the Deep South, the band perform in a fairly quiet field, which is different than the bands current image, which is that of stadium selling mega-group (see Use Somebody for an example of this)
The video uses a common convention of music videos, which is to include a performance (in this case, by the band) and a narrative. The way that the narrative has been edited in a fragmented way means that the laws of time and space do not to apply (a common convention of music videos) - we see the band performing during the day, whilst the narrative occurs during the night....etc.
Therefore by checking your brief you will be able to meet specific criteria through your research into existing products
2. Planning
This is a crucial stage during the three production stages
An example of planning would be blog posts that do the following:
show that you have originated ideas
selected one idea
researched locations, props, copyright clearances as appropriate
scripted and storyboarded the idea
created schedules, done location recces, completed risk assessments, gained permissions and clearances.
3. Documenting the production (planning/filming/post-production)
Posts throughout the process should allow tutors to follow your progress
Posting your work
Once completed, you need to upload your video productions onto Vimeo
4. Evaluation
The written work also needs to be reflective or looking back on what you did, what you feel went well, what kit you used and in what way. Also what you feel you could do better next time by improving the weak areas.
Also you need to be comparing your productions to that of the ones that you have researched, ie other filmmakers work. Contrast and compare what you have done, what went right, what you struggled with and what you would do next time to improve your work.
Theory Assignments
Theory assignments will be delivered by Lindsay Blackshaw.
You should create a separate page on your blog for posting your theory assignments (name the page 'theory')
Post your essays on your theory page and Lindsay will give you feedback
NOTE: Your theory work is as important as your practical - anyone not undertaking this work will be jeopardising their place on the course
Blog Stuff...
Following
The gadget you need to add from the design area is the one called ‘Followers’. This will allow you to see who is following your work and also allow a direct link onto other blog sites within the group.
The way to add yourself to this system is to get their blog address so you can visit their site. Make sure that you are signed into your own site as well.
At the top left of everyone’s main site page is a follow button, just click and add yourself on.
The whole point of following is for you to start to communicate with each other and leave comments on each other’s videos in a constructive way. Under each blog entry is a comments box, and its here that you can leave your messages. It is a vital part of this course that you comment and critique each other’s work as you will learn from me and your fellow students as well.
Recent Comments
Another useful gadget to add is the ‘Recent Comments’ gadget from the design layout.
The course you are on requires you to evidence everything you do - if the tutors cant see it they cant mark it! Evidence is important as it needs to be captured to ensure what you have done and when you did it.
For example, if a tutor comments on your blog and gives advice to improve your work or grade then the blogger will date and time when that advice was given and allow you to improve your work. So at the end of the course you cannot say that advice wasn’t given to allow you time to improve and target a higher grade.
Each time the tutors sit with you to talk through your whole project, you will need to open a new blog entry and type the advice into your blog as soon as its given. This will ensure that we evidence all comments and advice live before they are forgotten.
