Planning: casting

One of my first Choices for my main actor was Sam Peace. Sam is 18 years old and is currently being cast for a film due to be released in 2018, he is also a very good guitarist  which is also the main reason i would of chose him, this is due my music video being a mixture of performance and narrative. Furthermore Sam has had lots of experience of being infront of a camera meaning he would not feel nervous under pressure. However the the main reason i chose him is that in the past he has done music videos before for some smaller groups, acting as a guitarist and just covering the song. He also has a very strong voice meaning that he would easily carry the words throughout the production. He listens to a wide range of music and dresses in a similar manner to the artists who he will be partly portraying in the performance sections. Also Sam owns a 2 guitars which makes it easier as will not need to purchase any of them for props. Below is a video of him miming the lyrics to the chosen song 


 Another actor i am thinking of being in my production would be Sams girlfriend. The main reason is that i would like to show a story within my music video and it would be easier if they are actually together in real life. This makes it easier to find certain props such as a picture of them together which would b used within the video, Furthermore she has also done some acting as well which helps the fact that she wouldn't by camera shy (Picture coming soon)

For some scenes that involved the use of a car i needed someone who could drive and sam cannot drive. For this i used one of my other actors choices Daniel Smith. Daniel looks similar to Sam and has the same sort of hair style, plus he can drive which is needed for some of my scenes.  For these reasons this is why i chose him to be used as a double for Sam within my music video. In his spare time he enjoys playing the guitar which could become useful if I needed him to play some parts within the video. 

  

Planning: Audience Feedback

After completing my animatic i then showed it to a number of people and asked for the opinions on it a how it could be improved. I asked a large amount of people so i would be able to cover a wide basis of opinions and to also cover the correct demographic of which my music video is based. I will try and incorporate all of there opinions into my finished music video 

One persons opinion was that "I really enjoyed the animatic and could easily tell the story within it. However to improve i think you could have a little less of the lip syncing scenes and focus more on the story. But overall i would definitely recommend this song a music video to a friend." In the final product i will focus more on the story part while still having some parts of performance.

Another person said "I liked the concept of your video, but with the amount of lip syncing required you will need to get someone who is comfortable in front of a camera and is good at lip syncing"  For this i asked for a clip of my chosen actor lip syncing to the chosen song to make sure he was good for the music video. Below is that practise video 

Planning Props

As my music video is part performance, i will be needing a guitar for Sam to play. I was looking for the same guitar which George Ezra uses in his other music videos, however after doing some research the price of the guitar is very high, being over £2600, which is way over my budget for my production. 






                                                  This is the final guitar i used for filming. This one is the exact same one the sam actually owns, so it is very easy to use this in the actual video.  







This is the final guitar i used in the CD digipack and music magazine advertisement. The reason i used this one is that the colours is a lot more vibrant than Sams one and therefore it would stand out more to an audience 

Planning: Storyboard and Animatic

The image to the left shows the individual pictures that i made and used in my animatic, i scanned these using my phone then imported them into my compute. 



















During the making of my animatic i did encounter some problems, such as the pictures i had taken would not fit the length of the song. As seen below.













Too get around this problem i had to shorten the length of the song using adobe audition and extend the time each individual picture was on the screen for, so that it would cover the entire of then song, 











Below is my finished animatic.

Research and Planning Self Assessment

• My time management at the current moment in time has not been very good, with a large space of time in between my last 2 posts, even though we have been doing work on the exam in class. This is no excuse, and i need to improve upon this if i am going to pass this subject.
• I feel that my use of digital technology in my blog is good. This is because i have used a range of software throughout my blog since starting it. These include but are not limited too; Prezi, for making presentation for my chosen artist. GoMoodBoard, for creating an online about the artist, and how this can influence my music video. Finally there is Premiere Pro, which i used to practise lip syncing and green screening. This was then put into youtube and uploaded to my blog, with evidence of the process.
• The communication skills on my blog feel to be quite good. The reason for this is because i feel i have put a fair amount of detail into each post, with evidence shown about how the task was done. I feel this has been an improvement from last year when i forgot to put photo evidence on my blog when i was editing the main task. 
• I feel that my current research into existing music videos could be improved upon. This is because after looking at A grade examples of this, mine do not compare with the amount of work they have put into it. Ways i could improve upon in this is to make another research post into one of his current music videos or another similar artist and then post this on my blog
• I feel that my current research into potential target audience has been quite basic. This is because I only have a limited amount of content on my blog about the audience that like my chosen artist
• As I have not yet posted about my storyboard, it is still at a minimal level on my blog, but once it has been posted I feel it will be good or proficient
• I feel that my current level of detail in my work is quite good, because I have been using photo evidence to support my posts within my blog. This has been shown with the lip syncing post where I posted evidence within premiere pro, showing how I removed the green screen  

Green Screen Lip Sync Test

Using premier pro, i practised using the green screen and playing around with lip syncing using Rolling In The Deep. During this process there were some problems with the green screen. The problem was that there were creases in the green screen and these became visible in certain parts of the test video. Screenshots from the editing process can be seen below.

With the image to the left, i made a rough cut out  of the green screen and then used the colouring tool to identify which colour to take out of the scene






With the image to the right you can clearly see the creases in the green screen, if i choose to use this piece of equipment i will need to make sure it is flat and crease free so they do not appear in the video

Planning: Music video pitch for George Ezra - Coat Of Armour

Lyric analysis. Coat Of Armour - George Ezra

Using Microsoft word i analysed the lyrics for Coat Of Armour. this can be seen in the above image with the captions for each part of the song. The song itself is quite repetitive. i also used the website word it out, this can be seen in the image below and create a word board with the lyrics and how often the are said within the song. The larger the word the more it was said, an example of this would be the words hoping and change   

George Ezra - Coat Of Armour

Research : Who Are The Target Audience For My Artist?

Geoff is 20 and resides in london currently studying music technology and music performance at the university of west London. He enjoys many things in life from football to hanging out with friends, but his real interest is with music. Any spare time he gets at home is on his guitar learning new songs and experiment with other ones. He enjoys all kind of music from grime with artists such as Stormzy and JME, too hip-hop by artists such as Xzibit and Dr.Dre, but his passion lies with rock. Any type of rock. From the likes of Led Zepplin to Bruce Springsteen. He always goes to local gigs at pubs in his hometown with his mates, but he dreams of going to bigger festivals such as Glastonbury and Reading, however as he has just lots his job, the financial implications means he cannot go.

He is very active on the main social network sites/apps including snapchat, instagram, twitter and of course facebook. He follows his favorite artists on these keeping up to date with all the latest news. He is very tech savvy, using pretty much just his phone for music, and streaming services such as spotify when he’s on his computer. He rarely uses itunes to buy his music as the little money he gets, gets spent on more important things. He is an avid gamer, and listens to music when he plays game, such as counter-strike and League of Legends, but he doesn't listen to music when he is studying as he finds it distracting

Geoff and his friends all have interests in different types of music and enjoy listening to each other's type of music to see if the enjoy it, and they're all pretty open about trying new types of music. He performs at some ,local gigs, just playing covers of more well known songs, such as Wonderwall by Oasis and Fast Car by Tracy Chapman. His friends believe he should make a band because of his skills on the guitar.

Research: existing music video - James Bay - Hold Back The River

Research: in-depth artist research

George Ezra is a British solo singer/songwriter. Born on June 7th 1997, Ezra grew up in Hertfordshire but in 2011 he moved to Bristol to study at the British and Irish Morden Music Institute. He started his mainstream music career in 2013. In October 2013 he released his debut EP (Extended Play) titled 'Did You Hear The Rain'. Sometime after, Ezra released his debut album 'Wanted on Voyage'. The album was met with positive reviews. The leading single on the album would be 'Budapest' his most well known song. He has a very distinctive voice very different for someone his age (22). He is also signed to Columbia records owned by Sony Music Entertainment.

The Album peaked at number 1 in the charts in in the UK and Scotland, and charted in several other countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland. It made 1,011,073 sales in the UK making it triple platinum and at the year end charts it finished 3rd behind 'The lonely hour' by Sam Smith and 'X' by Ed Sheeran 

Website
Instagram
Twitter
Facebook



He also has a very different play style in all his song such as in 'Blame It On Me' (below) it is one of his louder songs with a wider vocal expression, and more power behind the lyrics, as compared with another one of his songs 'Listen To The Man' (far bottom), this different to 'Blame It On Me' because of the play style. 'Listen To The Man' has a lower vocal range and isn't not as loud as 'Blame It On Me'


He has given many interviews and played for many mainstream chat shows including Ellen and the Graham Norton show. Both witch can be seen below

Research: 3 Potential artists

Research : Steve Archer 'How To Study Music Videos'

Steve Archer wrote an article in Media Magazine in 2004 in which he suggests five essential criteria which should help you to evaluate music videos.

Pessimists often complain that music video television has made pop superficially image-based. But my description of MTV and music video in MediaMag 6 failed to address what is still its most central and significant element, beyond the control of MTV, Viacom and Motorola: the appeal and power of pop sounds!

I’d like to suggest that the sounds are the basis of a process of visualisation that serve to enhance, not restrict, the original pop sound effect. Pop music theorist Andrew Goodwin claims that a good music video is:

"..a clip that responds to the pleasures of music, and in which that music is made visual, either in new ways or in ways that accentuate existing visual associations."
(Dancing in the Distraction Factory 1992)

If we accept the theory that pop songs on their own are not enough to create sufficient meaning and pleasure in the audience, the ‘added value’ of star image created by CD covers, live performance and music videos can be enough to inspire the consumer to buy into the whole intensely romantic myth of it all – and therefore actually buy the pop music. 

Certainly, the whole music business is sustained by the few star guarantees of profit in an unstable market. This maybe explains the somewhat fetishistic behaviour of fans who will buy the CD even if they can easily get the tracks for free on some P2P provider – we want all the packaging, the sacrosanct details in the booklet, the assurance it really belongs to us, not just the ‘stacking up’ of sounds that is the song itself. 

However, I am keen to keep these sounds as the primary pleasure and driving force of the music industry. This focus, therefore, is reflected in the order of my ‘Top Five Things to Look for’ when deciding if a music video is any good. 

Five things to look for …

I’ve turned the ideas in Goodwin’s book, Dancing in the Distraction Factory, into checklist form for you to test out on the current crop of music videos. 

At number 1 ... 

‘Thought Beats’ or seeing the sounds in your head

The basis for visualising images comes from a psychological process called synaesthesia, where you picture sounds in your mind’s eye. This idea is absolutely central to understanding music video as they build on the soundtrack’s visual associations in order to connect with the audience and provide that additional pleasure. 

To use this approach you need to start with the music, sorting out the way the song works, taking into account the way it has been stacked up with sound. To begin, lyrics don’t need to be analysed word for word like a poem but rather considered for the way they introduce a general feeling or mood. Very rarely do song lyrics have a coherent meaning that can be simply read off; but they are important in at least creating a sense of subject matter. So key phrases or lines (and especially those repeated in the chorus) will have a part to play in the kind of visuals associated with the song. 

Here, Roland Barthes’ theory of the ‘grain of voice’ is relevant – this sees the singing voice more as an expressive instrument, personal, unique even, to the singer, like a fingerprint, and therefore able to create associations in itself. The voice of a song may even possess trademarks that work hand-in-hand with the star image – so Michael Jackson’s yelp is a trademark sound that immediately sets him apart from other singers.

Finally, if songs are stories, then the singer is the storyteller and this obviously makes music videos stand out on TV, as they feature a first person mode of address rather than the invisible ‘fourth wall’ of television narration. 

Goodwin interestingly compares pop singers to stand-up comics in the way the personal trademark or signature dominates the performance. The music – or arrangement of the song, including instrumentation, the mix and effects, including samples – generally works with the lyrics and grain of voice. Generally we can look at key sounds, like the tempo (or speed of the song) and structure of the song in terms of verse and chorus. To give an example of how instruments can create visual associations, the slow twang of the steel guitar could create geographically-based visual associations from the Deep South of the US – a desert plain, a small town, one road out, men chewing tobacco … We all share a memory bank of popular culture imagery (intertextuality), a sense of shared cultural history without which these references would make no sense. Places, people, feelings, situations leading to mini-narratives – all these can be summoned from the sounds of popular music. 

These visualisations can arise from more personal, individual responses, sometimes even tied to a place or part of your own autobiography, the specific details of your life story and emotions. A combination of these shared and personal images tied to the words and instrumentation form the basis of music video creativity. 

At number 2 … 

Narrative and performance

Songs rarely tell complete narratives; we are used to studying them with other visual texts like film. The narrative fuzz in songs affects the way stories are used in music video representations of a song’s meaning. So, often we get the suggestion of a story, a hint at some kind of drama unfolding. 

There is another important reason why music videos should avoid a classic realist narrative, and that is their role in advertising. 

Music videos need to have repeatability built in to them. We need to be able to watch them repeatedly in a more casual way, with a looser approach to their storytelling. I’d suggest that more important than narrative is the way that performance is used in video clips, a point I’ll look at again in number 3. Often, music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be a part of the artist’s performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor. Sometimes, the artist (especially the singer) will be a part of the story, acting as narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip-sync close-up and the mimed playing of instruments that remains at the heart of music videos, as if to assure us that the band really can kick it. 

Remember that pop music is a romantic art, all about truth, talent, and magic, so we need to believe in the authenticity of the performance first and foremost. The supposed individual and original qualities of these performers leads me to my next point, the source of all profit in the business … the star!

At number 3 … 

The star image

The music business relies on the relatively few big name stars to fund its activities; it usually fails to connect with popular audiences – only about one in ten acts put out by the industry actually makes any money. Therefore, what we can describe as the meta-narrative of the star image will have an important part to play in the music video production process. 

Meta-narrative is a term that describes the development of the star image over time, the stories that surround a particular artist. 

Michael Jackson – a mini case study

(Note : this article was written before Jackson's death)

Michael Jackson’s meta-narrative has been a long, sometimes difficult journey and one he has lost control of in recent years. 

There have been a few crucial moments in Jackson’s meta-narrative of pop stardom. The first was the successful move from being one of a group – even if acknowledged as its central talent – as child member of The Jackson 5, to becoming a solo artist. 

He was then able to negotiate one of the most successful solo careers ever through developing both his trademark sound and image. The ground-breaking music videos for Thriller and Beat It were an important part of this mega-stardom. 

At some point in the 90s, though, this meta-narrative took a wrong turn and his unique ‘star image’ became ‘freakish’ and self-indulgent; we are reminded that this child star has never grown up. Thus, the Jackson talent, his natural birthright it seems, becomes the reason for his adult weirdness. His younger self – black, funky, energetic – is constantly held up to condemn his current abnormality – withdrawn, of no ethnicity, over-produced to the point of ceasing to exist. And yet, all this means he is still talked about, the object of mass media fascination and so, in a very real sense, still a star. Whether the most recent allegations of child abuse will finally render that stardom invalid remains to be seen.

Meta-narratives of star image are not simply a matter of manipulation, but a dialogue or negotiation of what the music business asserts about their star, and what we accept! Still, in each new video, Michael Jackson tries to regain control over his meta-narrative but he can’t just switch off all the different associations he’s accumulated during his career, whether good or bad. So music videos can best be seen as one of the most important ways that the image of the artist is ‘managed’. 

At number 4 … 

Three ways in which music videos relate visuals to the song

We can identify three ways in which music videos work to support or promote the song. These are illustration, amplification and disjuncture and I find them extremely useful in attempting to generalise the effects of individual music videos. 

• Music videos can illustrate the meaning of lyrics and genre, providing a sometimes over literal set of images. Here, then, is the most straightforward technique and the classic example of visualisation, with everything in the music video based on the source of the pop song. 

• However, as with all advertising, the most persistent type of video adds to the value of the song. Amplification is seen as the mark of the true music video Auteur, the director as artist, and an increasingly common way to view music video creatives (VH-1’s Best 100 Videos clearly placed Spike Jonze in the Auteur category with his work always amplifying the original song’s meaning and effect, usually through surreal humour). Crucially, though, and what separates it from disjuncture, is the fact that amplification music videos retain a link with the song and work to enhance or develop ideas, rather than fundamentally changing them.

• Disjuncture is a term used to describe those music videos that (normally intentionally) seem to work by ignoring the original song and creating a whole new set of meanings. This is quite a radical technique and used by arty bands in order to assert their difference and originality. Usually, disjuncture videos of this type don’t make a lot of sense and may be based on abstract imagery. For example in Spike Jonze’s video for Daft Punk’s ‘Da Funk’ we see a man with a dog’s head and his arm in a cast walking round New York, ignored by all, with dialogue completely unrelated to the song itself. Sometimes though, disjuncture videos are just bad, ill-conceived and self-indulgent mistakes. 

And finally at number 5 ... 

Technical aspects of music video

The last really essential aspect of music video to study is technical. This includes camerawork, movement and angle, mise-en-scène, editing, and sound. 

It is important to remember the more general features of music videos already mentioned when trying to work out the technical effects, especially those which are post-production, effects. Broadly, the technical conventions can be summed up as follows: 

1. Speed! 

Speed is visualised by camera movement, fast editing (montage) and digital effects.

Camera movement is often motivated by running, dancing and walking performers.

Fast-cutting and montage editing creates a visually decentred experience necessary for music video consumption, with the images occasionally moving so fast that they are impossible to understand on first viewing and thus need to be viewed several times (repeatability). 

Post-production digital effects – a staple of music video where images can be colorized, multiple split screens appear, and so on, all to complicate and intrigue, providing pleasure again and again. 

Not all camera movement is about speed though and some use slow pace through dissolves or static shots. This kind of editing – like Sinead O’Conner’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ – is striking and effective in setting the song apart from the hustle and bustle of most pop activity. 

2. Meat! 

The meat of most music videos is the cut to the close-up of the singer’s face. This is because the voice is seen as the most important part of pop music. 

3. Beats! 

Often, the video will try and represent the music through the use of the cut to go with the beat or key rhythm. This is called 'cutting to the beat'.

4. Lighting and colour 

...may also be used to emphasise key moments in the song, using methods from lighting live performances for dramatic effect. Colour may be used to show a development in the song, going from colour to black and white or vice versa when the chorus comes in. Equally, any change in the mise-en-scène or camerawork can signal the same type of thing.

5. Mise-en-scène 

Obviously the setting for music videos is important, often to guarantee the authenticity of the clip rather than anything else. So mise-en-scène for many music videos is the concert hall or rehearsal room to emphasise the realness of the performance or the grit and practice that goes into attaining star quality. Increasingly, CGI is used, especially for dance songs, which don’t rely so much on being ‘real’ like rock, soul and rap acts. 

Steve Archer : Media Magazine 2004

Research : Andrew Goodwin's Features Of Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin’s 6 Features of Music Videos

In his book Dancing in the Distraction Factory (1992) Andrew Goodwin points out characteristics and features that can be found in music videos. 

1.    Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.

(e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop). 

2.    There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. 

The lyrics are represented with images - either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting them. 

3.    There is a relationship between music and visuals. 

The tone and atmosphere of the visuals reflect that of the music - either illustrating, amplifying or contradicting. 

4.    The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). 

5.    There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. 

6.    There are often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc).

(From Andrew Goodwin, DANCING IN THE DISTRACTION FACTORY, 1992.)

Hypodermic Needle Theory - Audience Theory

Reception Theory - Audience Theory

Cultivation Theory - Audience Theory

Uses and Gratifications - Audience Theory

Two Step Flow - Audience Theory

Research: Features Of Music Videos

We were asked to look at a different number of music videos from different genres of music. Then while watching these we took notes on various things that were common in these videos, such as handheld camera shots, and long shots of all band members. However we had to look for the videos on vevo rather than YouTube.

1. Colour. Colour in music videos depends on what type of video it is. for example, a song that has a sad story or meaning behind it might be in black and white. such as ' Take me to church - Hozier' And then there would be other songs which are more upbeat and such as 'If you wanna - The Vaccines' in which the background changes in beat with the music

2. Close up of band members is another common convention i found, the camera mainly focuses on the lead singer or front man of the band and rarely ever focus on someone such as the drummer. This can be used to show there facial expressions. This example is from 'Fire - Kasabian'

3 Story. Most music videos i looked at had some sort of story behind This is a useful feature as it allows the audience to identify which characters. it also helps because the audience wants to watch until the end of the video to see what happens to the characters. one clear example of a story within a music video is 'Give you hell - The All-American Rejects'. This video shows the conflict between 2 neighbours   

 

4. Cuts and transitions. Cuts are used in time with the tempo of the music. This helps show the audience the beat and pace of the music. On the other hand, transitions are rarely used within music videos. only being used at the beginning or end of the music video.

5.Band members nearly always appear in the music video, either in a musical role were the are performing the song, an acting role where they act out someone from the song or finally a cameo role where they just appear as an extra within the video

6. Camera Shots. Music videos make use of many different camera shots, for use in different stages. for example if the music video features a previous festival of the band they might use and extreme long shot to get the entire audience of that festival in the frame

History of popular music

Below is a link for a timeline of popular music, running from the 1940's up to present day

http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/477442/History-of-popular-music/

Research : The UK's Digital Music Landscape

BPI stands for the British Phonographic Industry.

The BPI represents the UK’s recorded music industry, which is one of the most exciting and thriving music sectors in the world. 

British artists account for one in eight albums purchased by fans around the globe.

As a trade body, they champion the interests of their membership which includes more than 300 independent music companies and the UK’s major record companies – Universal Music, Sony Music, and Warner Music. 

Together, BPI’s members account for 85% of all music sold in the UK.
BPI organises the BRIT Awards show and the Classic BRIT Awards show.

The BPI publishes a range of documents in relation to the music industry within the UK.

CLICK HERE to open the BPI's 2013 report titled ' Digital Music Nation'.

You will need to use this document for an activity completed in class as part of your initial research into the music industry in the UK.

Advanced Portfolio - How Is It Assessed?

In order to achieve the highest grade possible for your coursework it is important that you understand how it is marked.

You will receive a total mark out of 100 for your Advanced Portfolio. Grade boundaries work out (roughly) as follows:

A grade = 80+

B grade = 70+

C grade = 60+

D grade = 50+

E grade = 40+

The mark is broken down into 3 areas:

Research and Planning = 20 marks

Construction = 60 marks (Music Video 40, CDD 10, MMA 10)

Evaluation = 20 marks

How to Reach Level 4

Your research and planning has to meet the following criteria to be deemed as level 4.

• Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed. This means for your main task and your 2 ancillary tasks.
• There is excellent research into similar products. Again, you have to have evidence of carrying out research into existing music videos, CD digipaks, music magazine advertisements or artist websites.
• There is excellent research into a potential target audience. This has to happen after you have chosen your artist but before you start the planning of your products.
• There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, scripting and storyboarding. You will need to have this for all 3 components of your portfolio.
• There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes and props. The quality of your actors 'acting'is not marked but you need to bear in mind that the people you choose need to be comfortable in performing for the camera.
• Time management is excellent. This is seen by the trail of posts on your blog and reinforced the importance of managing your time effectively.
• There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation of research and planning. This links to the idea of making your blog as media-rich as possible.
• There are excellent communication skills. Your blog isn't assessed for the quality of your use of English but real weaknesses in this area can affect your mark.
• There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning. 

To get a level 4 for the construction element of your coursework then bear the following in mind. 

You get a mark out of 40 for your music video's construction and then a mark out of 10 for the construction of each of your ancillary products. 

This actually makes it easier to score highly IF your products are of a high standard. 

Level 4 candidates are expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills:

• shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera, attention to framing, variety of shot sizes and close attention to mise en scene
• editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and appropriate use of shot transitions, captions and other effects
• recording and editing sound with images appropriately.

The evaluation is critical to your success. It is important that you know the questions in advance so that you can relate to these as your production work develops. There are only 4 questions as opposed to the 7 you had to answer for AS. They are:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

In order to reach Level 4 the following criteria have to be met:

• There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.
• There is excellent understanding of the forms and conventions used in the productions.
• There is excellent understanding of the role and use of new media in various stages of the production.
• There is excellent understanding of the combination of main product and ancillary texts.
• There is excellent understanding of the significance of audience feedback.
• There is excellent skill in choice of form in which to present the evaluation.
• There is excellent ability to communicate.