Important points to consider when doing coursework (from
moderators report on last years NEA):
-The strongest work had clearly been supported by
focused research, detailed planning, attention to detail and a strong,
sustained central concept based solidly on the requirements and details of the
brief, as reflected in focused, unambiguous Statements of Intent.
-
Considering that the products are each worth the
same number of marks and that there is an obvious effect on the mark for
digital convergence, it was to be hoped that a comparable amount of time would
be spent developing both. Websites in particular seemed to suffer here, with
some seemingly created in a short amount of time and being overly reliant on
platform-provided templates with limited extra content from candidates.
-Statements of Intent varied in quality. Some
were incredibly detailed, going into great depth about how and why particular
effects would be created and how these ideas linked to ideas explored elsewhere
in the course (for example, theorists or particular products). The very best
made clear links between the two main products and explained how digital
convergence would connect the two. These also tended to go through the brief in
depth, demonstrating how every requirement and detail was to be addressed.
Specific to music videos:
-Camerawork/ camera movement which did not
demonstrate the level of skill, finish or excellence required for Level5 marks
to be secured –although this is less important than it was for the legacy
specification, the criteria relating to this uses the descriptors
‘sophisticated’ and ‘accomplished’; where shots are out of focus or the
camera-operator is reflected in glass, it is difficult to agree that these are
appropriate terms to use.
-Representation is a named criteria for this
specification but lots of work was submitted featuring young people in ‘normal’
clothing, making no attempt to follow conventions and create messages via the
costume.
-The best sites exhibited effective, bespoke
photography and copy, often capturing a tone appropriate to the needs of the
intended audience, with a degree of sophistication being clear (as well as a
wide range of representations).
-Top end work ensured that traffic was driven
between the website and the television programme, radio programme, magazine or
music video with well-designed consistent branding.
-It can be an idea for candidates to
have to work from a ‘blank’ template (Wix lets you do this) or insist nothing
is left from a template. However, as might have been expected, weaker websites
relied heavily on the templates provided in Wix without personalising them.
-Websites for the
Music Video brief tended to draw heavily on the video style and content rather
than promoting the (fictional) artist’s identity. Some of the ‘Wix’ sites used
a generic music promo template which included identical tour venues and dates
which were inappropriate for an artist producing a video with relatively modest
production values. Some music video websites in particular had been built
around the song rather than the artist, which did not really meet the
requirements of the brief.
-Links between the
two products needed to be stronger than just placing the product on the website
and listing social media in order to be marked as Level4 or Level5;there could
be examples of tweets, or Instagram posts, a newsletter, examples of
merchandise for the brand, or discussion of other products available to buy such
as tracks, tour books, subscriptions, etc.
-Where the
convergence was well-considered it was effective; the use of imagery/ logo/
models/ colours/ themes across products clearly demonstrated that the overall
branding had been considered -there had to be an emphasis on mutual promotion:
promoting one product across the other form; thus, products were often overt in
using the ‘call to action’ to direct readers/ listeners/ viewers to content on
the website (for example, a shout-out on the radio or television show, a link
at the end of the video or copy on the cover/ contents pages of the magazines),
while the websites were very effective in their use of cross-media links (for
example, featuring the front page of the current edition/ embedding the video/
radio show) and highlighting specific content in the partner product). There
was also some very effective consideration of how to interact with the target
audience (for example, bespoke contact forms, subscriptions, exclusive offers,
social media feeds, etc.).
-However, in many
cases the convergent nature of the work did not seem to develop further than
shared fonts and colour schemes and there were a number of examples where there
was a real lack of convergence, such as analogue products which did not mention
the website at all (most prevalent in music videos, where even a caption at the
end would have worked).
