Planning and research - assessment

This week, you will need to finalise the first stages of your planning and research so that we can mark the blog so far. The deadline for this will depend on your teacher - for my group, it is Wednesday 29th Feb.

To achieve a L4, we will be looking for:

• All required posts to be completed to a high standard
• Excellence in use of ICT in presenting work on the blog
• Thorough analysis, showing understanding of forms, conventions, representation, ideology as well as technical knowledge
• REFLECTION on what you have learnt from each task (including preliminary task, wilderness woods and pitch)
• Collaboration and discussion in your group - through comment feature, clear division of roles, a clearly well organised planning process

Your planning grade is not finalised until the project is finished, and will include storyboarding, use of risk assessments/call sheets, reliability in using kit, time management, posts reflecting filming/editing contributions, further research and concept development.

Reflection on pitches

Well done for completing your pitch. We were very impressed this year with the creative ideas and thoroughness of the pitches.

To ensure that you maximise on this planning process, you need to post a reflection on the pitch; including the following:

1. embedded slides/prezi (you can use slideshare or slide boom to upload PPT)

2. bullet points summarising key feedback

3. What NEXT? What will you now do in your group to further develop and refine your concept?

Preparing for the pitch

You need to prepare the following for the first week back- ready to pitch your film to the group and get the green light... this should be prepared on Powerpoint or Prezi and you should take real care in its presentation, not posting a script on the slides, but instead using the notes pages for your script and images / key words on the screen. Your pitch slot will be 10 mins, including questions so aim to speak for 5-6 mins. I suggest you divide up the sections and prepare slides over half term - ready to compile and rehearse in your first lesson.

Pitch (in any order):

• treatment including outline of your opening sequence idea
  


• summary of findings from film analysis/research



• moodboards to show visual ideas / generic conventions you will meet
  


• What would the instutional context of your film be? (budget, distributor, production company etc)



• summary of findings from audience research (questionnaire on surveymonkey)
  


• Location reccie



• Information on characters / costume / props



• Specific shot / technical ideas
  


• Font / title ideas
  


• any other information / research which will convince us that your concept is well thought out, feasible and set to be a successful piece
  

The pitch is a formal part of the coursework and we will need to be contacted in advance if there are any absences.

Sample pitches - using prezi.com:

Film idea pitch on Prezi

Preliminary task

Embed your clip and evaluate the following:

• how did you successfully meet the brief?


• What did you learn about shooting to edit for continuity?


• Are there any shots / edits which didn't work as successfully as you had hoped?

12C - tasks for next week

By Monday 23rd, your blog should have evidence of the following (per student)

1. Reflections on horror, thriller and noir genres and their conventions - based on classwork

2. Concept development - initial ideas

3. Ideas on which films you may analyse as inspiration for your own concept

4. Film opening analysis 1 - covering 2 out of the 6 question sections

5. Comments on each other's posts

Remember, your blog posts need images / stills /embedded clips where possible, key terminology highlighted, neatly presented using bullet points / section headings.

You should start to have a rough idea of a possible concept by the beginning of next week. We then start our first practical filming task - continuity edited conversation.

GOOD LUCK!

Exemplar evaluation

It is vital that you use ICT effectively to communicate your ideas. At the moment, quite a few of the posts are very text heavy and do not exhibit L4 presentation skills. Here are some examples of good practice:

Timo's excellent example of how to use PPT/Sliderocket to present individual questions
Group 2's excellent navigation post at the top of the blog to organise evaluation
Kitty's excellent blog post on representation - both in terms of content and use of ICT
Group 11's well presented audience research

Blog as production log

Now that the key background research is over, you must look at using your blog as a record of the production process. You should post on:

• every process - from discussion, storyboarding, animatics, researching sound
• Always state your own contribution to the process, how this has moved your work forward, problems encountered, use of digital technology
• Each shoot should be evaluated
• Record any references to found sound files
• Record any editing techniques used - very specifically

There should be a post 4-5 times a week as your project moves forward.