Evaluation of Previous Students Work

Analysing other students work

In order to gain a wider understanding of what is required to attain the top grades in our coursework, I observed and analysed previous Year 12 students work, at Shenfield High School. The blog I chose to analyse was the ‘Twisted Nature’ group, who attained a grade ‘A’ for their coursework, therefore a good model to analyse. Using the official mark scheme, I observed the marking criteria for each presentation.

Video: I felt that the shots used throughout the thriller were appropriate when needed, and showed a range of skills and camera techniques. Some of the shots used at the beginning of the thriller made you ask a lot of questions as to what was going on, adding to the suspense and thrill of the opening. I thought the introduction of the cast was done in a stereotypical, thriller themed way, as they appear in a typewriter style theme, making for a tense and mysterious opening. On this note, I believe that the video techniques were excellent and kept me on the edge of my seat- everything you need in a good thriller. Therefore I would give ‘Twisted Nature’ a Level 4 for Video, as I believe it meets the guidelines of excellent creative use and correct shot transitions, as well as editing and sound.

Research and Planning: Each of the four group members produced sufficient and good quality work, sharing out a good proportion of work. I have highlighted this below, as all members of the group were invloved in many different tasks. When looking at the blog, I get the general gist that the students genuinely enjoyed working on the foundation project, and took time and care in writing and publishing their work. There were many ways used of publishing their work, such as videos, PowerPoints, and Prezi’s and almost all the work was detailed, good quality and relevant to the task. Therefore I would give another Level 4 to ‘Twisted Nature’.

Evaluation: I thought that ‘Twisted Nature’ addressed the evaluation task very well, highlighting their problems and struggles when filming their thriller, such as starting from the beginning mid way through the course. However I felt they dealt very well with this, and went on to produce a very good video and blog. They clearly had the appropriate IT and technological skills throughout the task to produce the final film, as well as a strong understanding of their target audience. Though there was one video where they were clearly unplanned and stuttered through it, I would give them another Level 4 for evaluation.

Overall, I would agree with the Exam Boards final evaluation of an A, due to a very good blog, marketing pages and the final video. The blog post's were all excellent, however I felt some of them were not diverse enough and needed more media products to present their work. Though I enjoyed 'Alice' I found it confusing and I didn't really engage with it. Due to these two negative factors, I would grade the group a mid ranged level 4, as I thought these two points were the only points that hindered the groups excellent coursework.

I enjoyed the thriller opening and I admit it was one of the stronger openings from the year group. I look forward to seeing the groups Advanced Project work in the future.

Film Influences

Before filming, I scoured the internet for similar thriller openings that we could employ to our own production. Our specific demand needed to be some sort of chase or stalking scene, as this is very common placed in our opening. The film we decided to base our thriller on is the 1991 film ‘The Silence of the Lambs’. The opening of the film is extremely relevant, as it shows Jodie Foster running through a deserted forest, with the camera tracking her, creating an air of anticipation and excitement as the audience is expecting something to happen, therefore tensing themselves and being drawn in. this relates to our thriller opening as we plan to film James walking alone down the near empty streets of Romford. However, after 1:40 of anticipation the audience discover infact that Foster is training for her FBI intuition, almost giving the audience a mixed sense of relief and disappointment, as nothing happened. (Known as a 'Dummy Scare.') This could signify a thrilling and exciting event to occur later on in the film, drawing in the audience and making it an effective thriller film. The dark, eerie background of the forest also plays on the stereotypical setting of a thriller, giving the character a sense of Impending doom and adding to the suspense of the opening. The camera shots used, such as mid shots, also present Jodie Foster as alone and isolated, making her appear vulnerable and helpless. The violin themed, high pitched music also adds to the mysterious and threatening opening to the thriller, keeping the audience glued to the screen in the simple thrill of the opening, an atmosphere we aim to create in our thriller.

Poster Influences

I researched and discovered these two appropriate thriller posters to base our own work on.  Due to the recent release and success of the Batman ‘Dark Knight’ films, I chose to model our poster on these designs, as they both share a relatively simple but powerful message, as both posters portray Batman standing away from the camera, masking his identity. This is relevant to our original idea of a poster, as James is standing on the train platform awaiting the oncoming train, whilst a man in a black hood is standing behind him, oblivious to James and instantly telling the audience that the film follows the conventions and iconography of a stereotypical thriller- mystery, death and excitement. Like Batman, I am dressed in a black hood, symbolising death and danger, and signalling I am a powerful character throughout the thriller. The Mise en scene of the posters are also based in a dark environment, linking to our thriller poster in which we have James standing isolated on a desolate platform, unaware of my presence.

On the left hand side, the poster shows batman looking out over the city. This could symbolise that Batman is in control and owns the city, similar to my character in our thriller, who knows exactly what he wants to do and is in control of his territory and surrounding area.

I have also noticed the slogan at the top of the poster on the right hand side. This short sentence is effective and powerful, as it gives the audience a taste of what to expect in the film and adds to the poster, in an attempt to engage with whoever reads the poster and encourage them to watch it. We are considering adding this technique to our poster, as it gives a short synopsis of what to expect in our film, and should draw the reader in.

 Joel Guest

Soundtrack - Initial Ideas

With filming complete and the editing process underway, the next stage for us was to start searching for a soundtrack. After an hour of browsing through both the internet and the iPhones of our group we thought we had found a great backing track for the opening credits of our Thriller when Joel suggested the song "No Church in the Wild" by Jay-Z and Kanye West featuring Frank Ocean & The-Dream. After informing our subject teacher of our choice, she voiced her concern about copyright infringements. We as a group hadn't considered this problem and so we had to find a copyright free soundtrack to use in our film.

I then came across a great website called Imcompetech which allows users to download copyright free music directly from their site. As of this moment we are considering a number of different tracks and have not decided on a specific one to use.
More information on soundtracks will be posted both on here and on our official Twitter page.

Joe Alborough

100 Followers

We are proud to say we have attained 100 followers on Twitter! Check out the page now for up to date news, views and pictures on our upcoming film now confirmed as 'Underpass'.

@MediaJJJ

Risk Assessment

I designed a risk assessment to ensure maximum safety whilst filming 'Underpass'. This assessment ensures that all group members are as distant from any danger as possible whilst filming.

Joel Guest

Characters PowerPoint

Characters PowerPoint

Characters PowerPoint from JJJMedia96

Joel Guest

Location

Location- Marketplace                 Location- Underpass

The above links show a short walkthrough of two of our locations for our thriller production. . Recorded by Joel Guest, on the 8th March 2012.

Joel Guest