Media Studies:
Evaluation – its time to wrap up!
By the end of the lesson I will:
Know: what the evaluation of my portfolio entails
Understand: what needs to be included in my
evaluation
Be able to: complete my evaluation for my practical
production portfolio
Today is the Evaluation!
Evaluation (20marks):
For the evaluation you will reflect upon the creative process
and your experience of it.Your evaluation must be done
electronically and may be done individually or collectively.
Possibly formats are:
 A podcast
 DVD extras
 A blog
 A PowerPoint
 Scribd (www.scribd.com)
You should not simply produce a written essay and the potential of the format
chosen should be exploited through images, audio, videos and links to other
websites and online resources.
In your evaluation the following questions must be answered:
A. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions
of real media products?
B. How does your media product present particular social groups?
C. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
D. Who would be the audience for your product?
E. How did you attract/address your audience?
F. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
G. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
FINALLY YOU MUST INCLUDE EVIDENCE OF AUDIENCE FEEDBACK IN YOUR EVALUATION
EVALUATION
Working with existing forms and conventions – reworking the familiar
1.
At a micro, technical level, how well did you observe the conventions of
continuity, the language of film and the grammar of the edit?
2.
How many mistakes did you make, and did you improve in the main task
having made errors in the preliminary exercise?
3.
At a more symbolic, macro level, how does your fiction film reflect or challenge
the conventions of the genre or type you are working in? Will it fulfil the
'contractual' nature of film genre or will it subvert expectations deliberately?
4.
Are there any elements of deliberate pastiche or parody, where you ‘play’ with
the genre's codes and history? Are there any intertextual moments where you
hint at a reference to another film?
5.
What kinds of audience pleasure are you trying to provide, and how confident
are you that you have delivered on this promise?
EVALUATION
Representing—constructing 'the real'
1.
Who and what (people, places, themes, ideas, time periods)
have you represented and how in your film?
2.
Who is included and excluded by the text you have created?
3.
What form of ‘realism’ have you constructed, and why?
4.
What role do the mise en scene, acting, dialogue, music and style
of camera work (micro elements) play in the construction of
verisimilitude (the macro level of the textual world)?
EVALUATION
Working in media production contexts – professional practice
1.
How did you manage the group dynamics, equipment and
resources, interim deadlines and the necessarily collaborative
nature of film-making?
2.
What health and safety and logistical problems did you solve?
3.
How did you organise your human resources—the people
involved in the production?
4.
How did you manage actors, locations, costumes and props?
Remember that deciding not to use a particular strategy (e.g.
not to use any props) is also a creative decision.
5.
How did storyboarding and creating a shooting script work in
practice? Did you make creative decisions to depart from the
original plan? For what reasons and with what outcomes?
6.
Although time management may seem a less exciting aspect of
creative media practice, it is possibly the most important—how
did you manage your time, and with what success?
EVALUATION
Using technology—creative tools
 You will have used digital cameras, microphones, lighting
and editing resources. Some of these will have been
closer to industry standard (for example, Final Cut
Express) than others (for example, using a torch to light
a scene).
 How did digital technology enable you to develop
creatively and are there examples of the technology
obstructing or preventing your creative flow?
EVALUATION
Thinking about audience—making meaning
1.
How did you respond to the initial brief with the audience in
mind?
2.
How did your analysis and research into the type of film you
selected impact on the creative process in pre-production?
3.
In filming and editing, how did you ensure that the meaning
would be apparent to the audience? What creative decisions
did you make in planning, rehearsing, filming and editing that
were influenced by your sense of the audience and possible
layers of interpretation?
4.
How did the audience respond when you trialled aspects of
your film? Are there a variety of different possible interpretations of your
opening sequence that will depend on the cultural situation of the viewer?
Bibliography
Author
James, A (2005)
Title
A History of film form
Websites
www.filmform.com – accessed 10/09/2010
Filmography
Year Film
Director
1979 - Star Wars (George Lucas)