L1/2 Lead Examiner Report 1906 · 2020-01-14 · flatplans. Extensive essays/reports to accompany the planning materials were not required. Centres are reminded that materials/assets

L1/2 Lead Examiner

Report 1906

June 2019

L2 Tech Award Qualification in Creative Media Production Component 3: Create a Media Production in Repsonse to a Brief (21153K)

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L2 Lead Examiner Report 1906 Creative Media Production

Edexcel and BTEC Qualifications

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June 2019

Publications Code 21153K_1906_ER

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Grade Boundaries

What is a grade boundary?

A grade boundary is where we set the level of achievement required to obtain a

certain grade for the externally assessed unit. We set grade boundaries for each

grade, at Distinction, Merit and Pass.

Setting grade boundaries

When we set grade boundaries, we look at the performance of every learner who

took the external assessment. When we can see the full picture of performance, our

experts are then able to decide where best to place the grade boundaries – this

means that they decide what the lowest possible mark is for a particular grade.

When our experts set the grade boundaries, they make sure that learners receive

grades which reflect their ability. Awarding grade boundaries is conducted to ensure

learners achieve the grade they deserve to achieve, irrespective of variation in the

external assessment.

Variations in external assessments

Each external assessment we set asks different questions and may assess different

parts of the unit content outlined in the specification. It would be unfair to learners

if we set the same grade boundaries for each assessment, because then it would not

take accessibility into account.

Grade boundaries for this, and all other papers, are on the website via this link:

http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/results-certification/grade-

boundaries.html

Component 3: Create a Media Product in Response to a Brief

Grade Unclassified

Level 1 Level 2

Pass Merit Distinction Pass Merit Distinction

Boundary

Mark 0

11 15 19 23 35 48

http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/results-certification/grade-boundaries.html

http://qualifications.pearson.com/en/support/support-topics/results-certification/grade-boundaries.html

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Introduction

Component 3: Create a Media Product in Response to a Brief is mandatory for all

learners on this qualification. It is a synoptic component that provides learners with

an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to apply and develop their media

production skills to create a media product in response to a specified client brief.

There is one assessment opportunity each year for this component.

For this series the client, a local careers service, required learners to produce a

media product to inform 14-16 year olds about one of the opportunities open to

them in the creative industries. Learners were able to select the medium of their

product from three sectors: Audio/Moving Image; Publishing; Interactive.

The paper has three activities. Each activity requires learners to demonstrate their

understanding and skills in a different stage of the production process. The

activities are weighted differently with 15 marks each for Activities 1 and 2, and 30

marks for Activity 3.

Learners are given a total assessment period of 15 weeks to complete this

assessment. This assessment period comprises Activities 1&2, followed by a

preparatory period where learners can generate materials and assets with which to

complete Activity 3.

Activity 1 requires learners to produce an ideas log for their product, and prior to

attempting this Activity learners should have time to research the topic of the brief,

the target audience and develop their ideas. Learners have 2 hours under

supervised conditions to complete their ideas log and should not have access to

any notes, assets/materials or the internet during this time.

Activity 2 requires learners to produce planning material for their product, which

is specified as a storyboard for a moving image product, script for an audio

product, layout and design for publishing and interactive products. Learners have

3 hours to complete this Activity under supervised conditions where they should

not have access to any notes, assets/materials or the internet.

It is acceptable for Activities 1 and 2 to be completed together in a 5-hour

assessment period giving learners flexibility with the timings. Once Activities 1 and

2 are completed, they cannot be revisited by learners and must be kept secure.

However learners are entitled to a copy of the material they produced in these

Activities to assist them in the preparatory period and in Activity 3.

Following the completion of Activities 1 and 2, learners should spend a period of

time individually generating assets and materials with which to produce their media

product. This might be filmed footage, audio recordings, photographs or original

graphics. Learners may have assistance from peers in the creation of their assets in

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the sense that they can act as interviewees, assist in holding microphones or a

second camera, for example.

In Activity 3, learners will create their media product from their materials and

assets and should export this in a suitable file format. A suitable file format is one

which can be viewed without proprietary software, for example MP3/MP4, PDF,

HTML.

Learners should submit 3 files for assessment, one per activity, each in an

individual folder. Folders of raw footage, images, assets etc are not required.

Introduction to the Overall Performance of the Unit

As Component 3 takes the form of a client brief, learners need to understand how

to read a brief to extract key information about the intentions of the client, the

target audience and the purpose of the required media product. The 2019 brief

required learners to create a media product to attract 14 to 16 year-olds to a career

in one specific creative industry of their choice. The majority of learners focused on

between one and three specific careers within one specified sector.

Media products were submitted in response to all three sectors, with Publishing

being the most popular, Moving Image being relatively popular and the Interactive

sector less so. Those learners who were confident with using the equipment and

software tools available to them and who understood the process of developing a

media product in their chosen medium were in the best position to use their ideas

to produce a creative media product that met the specific requirements of the

brief.

Most centres focused wholly on one sector, with all learners producing products

from that sector, for which they had been prepared through their work in

Component 2. Occasionally individual learners would choose a different pathway

where they had specific individual skills – for example in a centre producing

magazines, one individual learner produced an exceptional moving image product –

and this is not to be discouraged as long as Activity 3 can be carried out under

supervised conditions within the Centre. Conversely, in one centre producing

Moving Image products, there was a talented learner who wrote, recorded and

produced an excellent rap which was presented as a music video. The visuals let

the piece down, and so in this instance the individual learner may have been better

to present the rap as part of an audio product despite the rest of the Centre

focusing on Moving Image.

Most learners submitted their evidence for assessment within three folders, one for

each activity, as required. Those learners who were clear about the evidence that

was required for submission produced the most coherent and focused

submissions. For example, some learners spent time writing essays/reports to go

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with their planning material for Activity 2 and this is not required – much of the

content seen in these instances would have been better placed within the ideas log

for Activity 1, with time spent during Activity 2 on a more detailed storyboard or

annotated flatplan.

Most learners approached Activity 1 as a typed report or Powerpoint. Learners

were most successful where they had a clear structure for this, many using

subheadings to organise their work. However, centres should avoid giving learners

a generic template to follow as this could be restrictive for learners and in some

cases could be considered malpractice.

Most successful learners demonstrated how their product would meet the

requirements of the brief and were specific and detailed in terms of the content

and style of their proposed product. Learners in the top mark band referred to

their initial research and how their idea/s had been influenced by other products.

However, centres are reminded that learners cannot have access to notes/files or

the internet during the supervised period and as such internet research,

screenshots, prepared material should not be appearing in Activity 1 as this

constitutes malpractice. A small number of learners hand-wrote Activity 1 and this

gave them limited opportunity to edit and improve their work during the 2 hour

supervised assessment period.

Planning material submitted for Activity 2 was variable. For Moving Image products,

most learners understood the basics of producing a storyboard. Most successful

learners understood that they were only required to produce a key 30 second

scene and did this in a detailed way, using a variety of shots, camera movements,

and appropriate durations. Scripts were not an option for Moving Image products,

but in the few scripts seen for Audio products, learners did not appear to

understand the conventions of scriptwriting. The most effective planning material

seen for Publishing and Interactive products were hand-drawn/coloured, annotated

flatplans. Extensive essays/reports to accompany the planning materials were not

required.

Centres are reminded that materials/assets for Activity 3 should not be produced

until after Activities 1 and 2 are completed and secured, and therefore

materials/assets for the final product should not appear within submitted planning

material.

The most effective products for Activity 3 relied on self-generated assets/material

with limited assets/material from secondary sources. Although learners must

create their own individual product in response to the brief and cannot generate

assets/materials as a group, many learners successfully enlisted the help of others

to create material, in roles such as models, actors and interviewees. However,

centres are reminded that learners must not collaborate on their productions, as

this is an external assessment. For example, learners must not work together to

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shoot footage and then use this same footage in their individual projects, as this

will be treated as malpractice.

Centres are free to choose the most appropriate software for their learners to use

for Activity 3. However there were some learners who used software which was

inappropriate for the supervised, timed conditions and which did not allow learners

to demonstrate their production skills. For example, use of Wix or other template

website building sites are not appropriate and compromise the security of the

assessment as learners could work on this outside the supervised time. Similarly,

the use of Scratch for developing games did not allow learners to demonstrate the

skills required to get into the higher bands of the mark scheme, and products

cannot be exported in a suitable format as required in the brief. There were some

publishing and interactive products produced within Powerpoint and the suitability

of this as a software choice is dubious as it limited learners in terms of

demonstrating their media production skills.

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Individual Questions

The following section considers each question on the paper, providing examples of

learner responses and a brief commentary explaining why the responses gained the

marks they did. This section should be considered with the live external assessment

and corresponding mark scheme.

Activity 1 – Ideas Log

To fully meet the criteria, learners were first required to demonstrate effective

understanding of how the proposed media product will meet the requirements of

the brief. In the example below, the learner has a clear focus on the brief from the

start and is very clear on how the proposed product will meet the requirements of

the brief and target the audience.

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Learners were also required to demonstrate how their product has been

influenced by other media products/trends. This tended to be the weakest part of

this activity with many learners failing to demonstrate that they had researched

specific genre conventions which they were now planning to utilise in their own

productions. However, more successful learners had clearly conducted secondary

research into existing texts. For example, the learner below has summarised two

specific moving image products they have researched, and explained which

aspects of these have influenced them. Although this learner would have

benefitted from better use of media language, this is an appropriate approach:

This second example (below), while in need of paragraphing, shows a very

thorough understanding of the conventions of a range of different magazine

genres. The learner has cross referenced their findings with the requirements of

the brief, the target audience, and their own content and style ideas. While no

specific media texts have been referenced, it is clear the learner has analysed a

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wide range of magazines in preparation for this Activity and used this to develop

and inform their own ideas:

Some learners carried out primary research into their target audience as part of the

preparation for Activity 1. This was not required but was useful where it was focused

and targeted. As learners are not allowed notes or access to the internet in the

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supervised assessment, learners should not be expected to have lots of data from

primary research to remember and recall during the assessment period.

The following learner is an example of one who focused their primary audience

research to one question to back up their idea:

Some learners also produced pages of research into the different media sectors or

job roles. This was not required within the ideas log. In some cases the content

formed the basis assets/materials for Activity 3, and in some cases the source of this

research (within the context of supervised conditions) was dubious. Both raise

questions around malpractice.

To fully meet the criteria, learners were also required to make effective decisions

about both the content and style of the proposed media product with fully logical

connections to the brief. Generally, learners were uneven in these respects, with

some focusing more on content and some focusing more on style. A best fit

approach was taken in the marking of these.

Some learners chose to begin with three proposed ideas, and then further develop

the content of the most appropriate idea. Some learners chose to spend their time

outlining the content of one chosen idea in detail. Both approaches have merit.

The following learner was strong on developing the content of their idea but less so

on the style, bringing the response into Band 3. The production detail was not

required although the learner does touch upon aspects of style within this section:

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The following example is an extract from an overall Band 4 response, despite being

slightly more biased towards the style of the magazine than the content. Tables,

bullet points, uses of fonts and blocks of colour are all appropriate ways to

communicate ideas within the context of Activity 1.

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Overall on Activity 1, examiners adopted a “best fit” approach as learners focused

on one strand of the mark scheme more than others. Essentially there are 3

elements for learners to consider and they should devote equal time to each in

order to achieve the highest marks:

● Ideas which demonstrate an effective understanding of the brief and how they have

been influenced by other product/trends;

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● Ideas which demonstrate effective development of content in relation to the brief

and audience;

● Ideas which demonstrate effective decisions have been made about style in relation

to the brief and audience

Activity 2 – Planning Materials

To fully meet the criteria, learners were required to produce planning material

which showed effective development and understanding of how the idea will be

realised in response to the brief. The materials should show effective understanding

and use of conventions, and should demonstrate creative use of the skills and

techniques of the chosen sector.

For a learner to get towards middle marks or higher for this Activity, the Planning

Materials should be such that an independent person would be able to produce the

media product from the planning materials. In many cases this did not apply and

therefore the learner was restricted to the lower mark bands.

For Moving Image, generally learners understood the conventions of storyboards.

Many chose to storyboard the entire product and for many this meant that they did

not give sufficient attention to detail, for example the shot durations were

inappropriate and there was limited or no variety of shot types. Those in the higher

mark bands understood that only a 30 second key scene was required and were

able to demonstrate understanding of the effect of different shot types, transitions,

camera movement, alongside creativity and adherence to the brief, such as the

Band 4 example below:

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For the Publishing and Interactive sectors, there were many examples of the

Planning Material being text based, within limited or no supporting designs or

flatplans. Learners are not required to produce an essay or report on their planning

material. The most effective Planning Materials were those which had been hand

drawn and annotated. The following examples exemplify the contrasting

approaches of hand drawn plans and computer generated flat plans, both of which

are inclusive of annotations, which works well:

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Below is a Band 1 example from an Interactive product, which was less effective as

it was not clear from the planning materials what the learner was intending to

produce:

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This Planning Material for a website was a top Band 3 response. The learner

needed more detail within the annotations and imagery in order to demonstrate

the creativity that would secure Band 4 marks. Nonetheless it demonstrates

understanding of the conventions of the planning materials and how the idea will

be realised.

Overall on Activity 2, there are 3 elements for learners to consider:

● Effective development and understanding of how the idea will be realized – ie: could

someone else actually make this product?

● Effective understanding of the conventions of planning materials – ie: are camera

shots usually 20 seconds long?

● Creative use of skills and techniques for the chosen sector to adequately shape the

final idea – ie: will people engage with this?

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Activity 3 – Create a Media Product

NB: please note that the learner’s identity has been removed by covering their face in the images below.

There are two mark grids for Activity 3, which is worth 30 marks in total and so 50%

of the assessment. The first grid deals with skills – creation of assets/materials;

combining assets/materials; and use of equipment and software – and is worth 12

marks. The second grid deals with ideas – interpretation of the brief/planning

materials; use of the conventions of the sector to engage the audience; a realised

final product which meets the technical requirements of the brief – and is worth 18

marks.

The majority of learners within the Publishing sector produced a magazine, the

most effective with a front cover and a double page spread. Those with a good

understanding of the conventions of magazines, and the skills with which to use

those conventions produced the most effective products, although in some centres

there was evidence of ‘templating’ which stifled creativity. Too many publishing

products relied on secondary images/assets and this prevented them from

accessing the top mark bands. While some secondary assets are appropriate,

where learners can produce their own primary images/assets, they should.

Below is an example of a learner who achieved full marks on activity 3. The learner

has a clear understanding of the conventions of magazines. The learner has taken

their own images and these are effective and well edited. The learner has also

written an effective interview and created other assets such as the “How to get a

career in film” checklist on page 3. The learner has combined their assets in an

effective way and clearly demonstrated sophisticated use of software. The use of

colour schemes and fonts are consistent and effective. There is a very clear focus

on meeting the requirements of the brief in terms of content, suitability for target

audience and the technical requirements of the brief. Overall it is a sophisticated

product which demonstrated an accomplished interpretation of the brief and

would not look out of place on sale as a professional product.

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This example achieved the bottom of Band 2 for both skills and ideas. The learner

has produced some original assets by way of the two images (one repeated) which

are appropriate. The learner has also created the spotlight graphics for the corners

of the front cover. The learner has attempted to stick to a colour scheme and has

considered different ways to present information to engage the audience. The use

of equipment and technology is competent. The conventions used are only partially

effective, however there is evidence that the learner has understood the brief. The

product is only partially realised, but does meet some of the technical requirements

of the brief – that being it is 3 pages and was exported in a suitable format (pdf).

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Within the moving image sector, the majority of products used the format of

interviewing actors (or in few cases, real media professionals) discussing their

routes into their career. Alternatives to this were the learner themselves recording

pieces to camera in the role of a media professional, use of a voiceover, or a

combination of the three. More effective products used cutaways, music and

graphics on screen to engage the audience. Less effective products included one

long interview with no editing.

Of the three sectors, Moving Image was the one where learners were more likely to

go “off brief” and often the resulting products did not bare any resemblance to their

storyboard or ideas log. Quality of footage was varied. Footage recorded on mobile

phones is acceptable if required by the centre, but learners should be encouraged to

record in landscape format and make use of a camera grip on a tripod.

In the following example about the TV industry, it starts with the subject doing a piece

to camera and then changes to appropriate inspirational music and a well written

voiceover as smooth tracking shots follow the subject around the “workplace”.

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There is a wide variety of shots demonstrated throughout the piece and the editing

is effective, with shots not lasting for an inappropriately long duration. Audio and

visuals are combined in an effective way.

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The product below is a “game of two halves” however, as the second half of the piece

is overly reliant on one piece of found footage, which has not been shot or edited

by the learner, although the well written voiceover continues, the graphics at the

end are basic and uninformative. This product, overall, therefore achieved at the top

of Band 3 for both skills and ideas.

In this example below, the piece starts with a montage of young models and

photographers on location in an urban setting, accompanied by Frank Ocean’s

“Nights” which is an appropriate choice of song and would instantly engage the

audience.

The piece then has a series of short interviews with different “professionals” or

students who explain the routes into different careers. The music continues

throughout and the editing ensuring the montage feel continues throughout.

The quality of the camerawork and editing continues throughout, with the editing

of the audio and visuals being sophisticated and effective. The piece does end very

suddenly however, with the music and visuals simply stopping. The lack of an

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effective ending prevents this from achieving full marks, but it is a high Band 4

product for both skills and ideas.

Far fewer learners chose to complete an Interactive product, and many who did,

chose inappropriate software. For example, some centres chose to use Wix or other

template website building sites, which are not appropriate and compromise the

security of the assessment as learners could work on this outside the supervised

time. Similarly, the use of Scratch for developing games did not allow learners to

demonstrate the skills required to get into the higher bands of the mark scheme,

and products cannot be exported in a suitable format as required in the brief.

In the example below, the learner has generated an image, logo, and a small

amount of content, and has combined this content into a functioning website

showing competent use of software. For the skills element the learner achieves the

middle of Band 2. The website is only partially effective and does not engage the

target audience, although it has met some of the technical requirements of the

brief, and therefore achieved the top of Band 1 for the ideas element of the mark

scheme.

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Summary

Based on their performance in this paper, learners should:

● ensure that they have understood the brief, and maintain a focus on the

requirements of the brief

● carry out specific and targeted research into their target audience and into

other media products/influences prior to attempting Activities 1 & 2

● ensure they are secure in their understanding of the conventions of the

sector and genre they have chosen to work within

● for Activity 1, ensure that they give equal focus to consideration of style and

content

● for Activity 2, ensure that their product could be effectively produced from

their planning materials

● individually generate original primary assets/materials for their media

product – footage/images/graphics. A limited amount of secondary

materials may be used but as a general rule, only where it is not possible for

the learner to produce those materials themselves

● ensure they have chosen software which is appropriate to the sector and

that will allow the learner to demonstrate effective use of a range of

appropriate skills and techniques

● develop a media product that engages with the target audience and meets

the requirements of the brief

● save, export or publish their final media product in an appropriate file

format – this meaning one where the product can be viewed without the

need for any proprietary software

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Documents

L1/2 Lead Examiner Report 1906 · 2020-01-14 · flatplans. Extensive essays/reports to accompany the planning materials were not required. Centres are reminded that materials/assets