CCEA GCE - Moving Image Arts Summer Series 2016 Chief Examiner’s Report and Principal Moderator’s Report

Foreword This booklet outlines the performance of candidates in all aspects of CCEA’s General Certificate of Education (GCE) in Moving Image Arts for this series.

CCEA hopes that the Chief Examiner’s and/or Principal Moderator’s report(s) will be viewed as a helpful and constructive medium to further support teachers and the learning process.

This booklet forms part of the suite of support materials for the specification. Further materials are available from the specification’s microsite on our website atwww.ccea.org.uk

Contents

Assessment Unit AS 1 Creative production: Foundation 3 Portfolio Assessment Unit AS 2 Critical Response 10 Assessment Unit A2 1 Creative Production and Research: 12 Advanced Portfolio Assessment Unit A2 2 Critical Response and Specialisation 15 Contact details 19

CCEA GCE Moving Image Arts (Summer Series) 2016

GCE MOVING IMAGE ARTS Principal Moderator’s Report Assessment Unit AS 1 Creative production: Foundation Portfolio

The following report outlines the main points arising from this year’s moderation process. These are: • positive outcomes from the Summer 2016 series; • suggestions for improved learning and teaching; • teacher assessment; and • submission of work for moderation.

Positive outcomes from the Summer 2016 series

Some fascinating work was produced again for Moving Image Arts in 2016, which successfully embraced the full spectrum of the subject, ranging from high production values to sound understanding of the complexity of film language with clear demonstration of creative purpose. The quality of work produced mainly showed consideration of a wide range of themes and genres provoking a variety of intended audience responses with evidence of a progressive approach to teaching this subject. A variety of filmic styles and directors were referenced and, at their best, final film projects often showed mature creative thinking and high technical accomplishment. In a number of cases candidates did illustrate complex understanding not only of film classics and other art forms, but also of the possibilities film offers them to make a statement about their personal experience of difficult issues rather than simply create a commercially viable product. The sophistication of the work produced by many centres is to be commended as seen through the excellent understanding of film language techniques, creative work and skilled technical control. There was clear evidence again that candidates in most centres had engaged with work from a wide variety of genre resulting in the continued selection of auteur film-makers such as Alfred Hitchcock, Lynne Ramsey, Martin Scorsese etc. The sound understanding of the complexity of film language was often most evident in the expressive framing of shots where some beautiful focus control was demonstrated with intentional variation in the depth of field. Clear consideration of settings and mise-en-scéne by many candidates is also to be commended, and it is an aspect of candidates’ visual storytelling and creativity which is improving year on year. Finally, the increased access to DLSRs and further advanced editing tools continues to be apparent, leading to a rise in the technical and aesthetic quality of many film products. However, the moderation team are very careful to ensure that no candidate is disadvantaged through lack of access to high end equipment. The number of centres forming collaborative partnerships for resource sharing is growing and is a positive feature of our qualification’s network. A number of teachers from more experienced centres are assisting centres that are just starting out, leading to not only a comforting sense of community and collaboration, but also to raised standards of performance.

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Suggestions for Improved Learning and Teaching 1 MIA forum It should be noted by any teachers new to teaching Moving Image Arts that a Moving Image Arts Forum is operative and available both to teachers who teach Moving Image Arts and to those who may wish to teach it in the future. The address for the group is: http://groups.google.com/group/MIATeachers Please note that you must register with Googlegroups and sign in using your username and password to join the MIA Teachers group. Once you have joined the group you will be able to email the group with any film/MIA related queries using the following email address: [email protected] 2 Creative Learning Centres: Nerve Centre, Nerve Belfast, Amma Centre The three CLCs offer a range of training throughout the year and at the end of the Summer Term (MIA Teacher week), which is essential in skills building for teachers. In addition, they have a number of discs available which are invaluable for the delivery of Moving Image Arts. These include 15 discs compiled by Marty Melarkey, Chief Examiner, which contain extracts from documentaries and a wealth of tips and information. Help, I’m a MIA teacher discs containing teaching materials and exemplars, and Cinémathèque Française discs which contain deep studies of a particular area of focus, for example, “camera movement” or “show/hidden” (examination of what is shown within the frame or withheld from the audience). These materials provide an invaluable grounding in film language and practice and can be accessed from Nerve Belfast, and if you arrange with them in advance to leave a hard drive in overnight they will transfer the digital files for you. Teacher Assessment Coursework Elements and Assessment Objectives The standard of work produced by this year’s candidates was once again noted as being impressive and talented by the moderation team. It was evident that a significant number of candidates produced some unique work in response to the specification and clearly demonstrated strengths across a range of film language areas. However, in this section advice will be provided on how improvements could be made in individual components of the coursework. 1 AO1 – Statement of Intention The Statement of Intention sets the scene for candidates’ overall approach to their practice, and it is the analysis of filmic techniques and their application to practical film-making that forms the basis of the entire portfolio. Overall, the standard of submission within this element of the portfolio has improved each year with the majority of candidates illustrating sound knowledge and understanding of film theory and film language, where they have clearly linked their intentions to the works of others and analysed and discussed the effects they hope to achieve upon their audience. In addition, there continued to be more evidence this year of relevant screen shots being included to demonstrate understanding of film language, however there remains a tendency, especially at the lower end of the marking scale to not analyse actual filmic techniques with objective descriptive language being evident and the candidate’s own creative intentions remaining unclear. Instead in such instances, candidates are identifying filmic techniques but are not going on to analyse the purpose of these techniques or intended effect on the audience. Doing so will assist both in the selection of techniques for study in their experimental work, elements to include within their final films, and help in the analysis of how successfully a candidate has been able to achieve their intentions when completing their final evaluation.

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Candidates must ensure they clearly state their creative intentions and personal goals, which must be connected to the work of others. In some cases, candidates analysed the work of multiple directors but made tenuous connections to their own intentions. Conversely, a candidate may be clear when establishing their own creative intentions but may not have been able to relate this successfully to the work of others. Occasionally, candidates focus on biographical information and/or the plot of the film they are choosing to discuss, which is not a requirement of this task. It is the combination of analysis of the work of others and relating it to creative intentions and personal goals that will provide access to the higher mark bands. It may be beneficial for some candidates to focus their research and analysis to a specific genre or style, and allow this to inform their creative intentions. A number of centres this year made excellent use of subheadings throughout the Statement of Intention to help ensure that candidates were addressing all areas of film language. Formatting the document in this manner may assist those candidates who find composing lengthier, analytical pieces of writing challenging. Finally, centres must be vigilant regarding cases of plagiarism. Research and reading around candidates’ chosen directors and techniques is necessary to allow more perceptive and knowledgeable discussion when composing a statement of intention, however full referencing is required in the form of quotation marks where direct quotations have been used in the body of the document and finally a bibliography at the end needs to be included. Pupils may also benefit from greater exposure to successful short films as the short film genre often presents realistic blueprints of what can be achieved in a 3–5 minute film, both technically and conceptually. There are a range of excellent short films available on the net including Virgin Media Shorts, Vimeo staff picks, BBC film network, Channel 4 film etc. or attendance at shorts package screenings at local film festivals e.g. Cinemagic, Foyle Film Festival, Belfast Film Festival, Mid Ulster Film Festival etc. The use of episodic television series should be avoided as invariably these have less in the way of stylistic traits. Whilst it is recognised that the selection of filmic techniques and inspirations can sometimes be as challenging for teachers to facilitate as it is for the pupils themselves (an issue that the upcoming specification revision will address), the standard of work submitted has improved greatly and the majority of centres are clearly providing excellent teaching and opportunities for learning in this regard with the influences cited showing increasing originality.

2 AO2a – Pre-Production Exercise Levels of experimentation for this Assessment Objective continue to be varied. In places it was evident that candidates who were achieving marks in the higher mark bands were experimenting with innovation and being highly creative. Their work demonstrated a range of experimentation with camera framing and movement, multi-layered sound, cinematography and mise-en-scène used in combination to explore the creation of meaning through either the successful development of a specific mood and/or narrative. Where candidates achieved marks in the higher mark bands the tended to demonstrated their experimentation through a mini-narrative that related directly to the creative intentions they had outlined in their Statement of Intention, focusing primarily upon the creation of a particular mood and emotive response. Candidates in the lower mark bands addressed limited film language areas in their experimental film with the tendency towards obvious, safe and process-driven investigation of shot size and simple camera techniques, sometimes including hand-held footage and a lack of work with sound and light.

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On occasion, it was observed that some candidates for their experimental piece used clips from their final film, or shots that had not been included in the final film but which appeared to have been shot at the time. The former is not acceptable and the latter is not encouraged; the purpose of the exercise is the opportunity to experiment with a variety of techniques, including a multi-layered soundtrack and the use of light and mise-en-scène to create atmosphere and mood before creation of the final film, where these elements are vital to the final product. In addition, candidates should be encouraged to view this part of their portfolio as an opportunity to try out some of the techniques discussed within their Statement of Intention. In turn this may help to aid those candidates who discover that some intended techniques are very challenging and seem to not have the desired effect, whilst others may be able to see how improvements could be made during the production process of their final film. Some centres chose to include captions explaining what is being experimented with and the intention of the investigation, which, depending on the style of the experiment may be a useful approach. Candidates should be encouraged, however, to use the one minute purposefully to experiment with visual and auditory techniques, and overall take creative risks. 3 AO2b – Pre-Production Materials Work produced for this assessment objective has continued to be predominantly of high quality, with a significant number of candidates demonstrating an impressive ability to plan and organize their work. The majority of centres exhibited complete and sustained pre-production materials with a concise synopsis, comprehensive and correctly formatted screenplays, shot lists which detailed all aspects of consideration i.e. sound, props, actors required, dialogue, lighting etc. and drawn or photographed . Some candidates appear to have benefited from creating photographic storyboards to help visualise their shots and explore locations. Occasionally, a candidate may reverse engineer their storyboards using frames from the final film. This is not acceptable; the purpose of the is to plan for shooting the final film so this practice does not serve the purpose and will not achieve marks. There was an increase in visual enquiry (a feature which is more predominant in the new specification), with a high standard of creative photography work produced which often assisted candidate in their decision making for camera position and lighting set ups. The production of a visual planner enables candidates to explore personal interests and techniques and allows for creative development, and many schools opt to include this work for submission but this element is not compulsory. It is encouraging to see so many centres with correctly formatted scripts with a number of candidates referring to Celtx and the advantages of correctly formatting a script in their written work. However, some students are still failing to format scripts using industry standard conventions meaning that it is impossible for students to correctly assess the finished length of the film they are planning. Storyboards may be in either drawn or photographic format, but in either case should be correctly labeled using numbering, shot type and description. Shot lists and storyboards should correspond. Shot lists with time codes from the final film are not evidence of pre-production planning. With reference to submission, all pre-production documents should be joined to create a single PDF document (there are a range of programmes which can be used to achieve this including Adobe Acrobat). Documents may also be set up in different sections, which allows for both landscape and portrait documents to appear correctly within the same document. This would alleviate any difficulty for moderators in reading landscape storyboards, which have been saved in portrait format. In addition, care should be taken with drawing and labelling in light pencil which when scanned is then difficult to see.

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4 AO3 – Final Product This year, there continued to be some quite remarkable examples of candidates using visual storytelling techniques creatively, and in cases attempting advanced film-making techniques with a broad range of themes explored and some lovely attempts to study creative mise-en-scéne. In the stronger final products, evidence of effective use of multi-layered sound, detailed consideration of mise-en-scéne and creative lighting were used to enhance mood and meaning. For a significant number of candidates, there were instances of some very beautiful and thoughtful compositions where the production values had been very carefully considered leading to visually exciting and imaginative final films. There were, once again, some fabulous examples of demonstrating high technical control and ability in a range of skills such as 2D, 3D, claymation and pixilation products though the number of these submitted this year was once again much smaller than in previous series. Visual storytelling continues to be the significant area for determining the success of a filmic product. Candidates’ whose work demonstrated great emphasis on visual story-telling techniques and employed the approaches evidenced in pure cinema often developed narratives that were original but also accessible and achievable, thereby enabling them to access the higher mark bands. Many candidates are favouring more and more complex plots by often exploring recurring themes of self-esteem and steroid abuse; some of which rely heavily on dialogue rather than visual storytelling which diminishes the production values of their work especially when the casting of characters or choices regarding locations have not been well-considered. In addition, there is a high level of cinematic and technical skill particularly in the recording and editing of sound which is of paramount importance when choosing to include significant amounts of dialogue. More often, a clearer, straightforward narrative helps to create a more accessible final product with a clear emphasis on employing visual storytelling techniques that allow for technical and creative skill to be shown be thoroughly throughout. On the other hand, some higher achieving candidates successfully presented non-linear narratives, with flashbacks, voice- overs and twist endings that allowed them to expressively communicate their creative intentions. However, centres are discouraged from adopting formulaic approaches to the structure of candidates’ films which could make the assessment of creativity challenging. Sound continues to a crucial element in determining successful filmic products. Candidates who have properly considered, planned and designed sound as a key element of film language have usually accessed the higher mark bands. Diegetic sound lends atmosphere and life to film products and is an essential component for engaging an audience. Arguably, the use of sound design is even more important in animated products, and it is disappointing to see candidates who put a lot of time and effort into producing an animation allowing the overall effect to be diminished due to a lack of sound, which could have been used to bring their animated world to life. It is rarely advisable for all diegetic sound to be stripped from the final product and replaced with a single music track. More in-depth consideration of lighting design would benefit many candidates, for example, it was on occasion difficult to discern evidence of the use of the lighting techniques described from the film products, and on occasion it was difficult to see the action on screen. It was evident this year that a significant proportion of candidates had placed higher emphasis on the choice of locations and overall detailed exploration of mise-en-scéne. In the majority of cases, this aided the overall production values of candidates’ final films and was typically demonstrated by those who achieved within the higher mark bands. This was further evidenced by the careful choice of age-appropriate actors who convincingly portrayed the roles such candidates had given them. Some final products

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continued to be set within the school environment and featured school uniforms and therefore did not appear to be using mise-en-scéne appropriate to the creative intentions of the piece. Candidates should be discouraged from filming in school unless sufficient effort has been made to create creditable and realistic mise-en-scéne. Editing is a vital component of film-making and skilful editing can have a great impact on the success of the final piece. Candidates who achieved grades towards the lower end of the mark range often demonstrated a lack of understanding of continuity editing (or it’s deliberate subversion for specific effect) and/or pace and timing of shots and their effect on the audience. In addition, centres should also advise students to properly match footage formats to editing sequence formats. There was evidence to suggest that some candidates may have made their editing harder by not following correct sequence setting instructions. 5 AO4 – Evaluation Whilst the standard of work submitted for this assessment objective has improved steadily in recent years, it is clear that some candidates can find it challenging to evaluate their own practice in terms of the conventions they explored and their stated intentions. Candidates who use a descriptive manner and/or list difficulties they encountered, e.g. rain, actors not turning up, are unlikely to achieve the higher mark bands. In order to attain the higher mark bands, students may wish to evaluate and reflect upon their practice, decision making processes, how obstacles were overcome and, by referring back to their creative intentions and cinematic influences stated in AO1, how those intentions were achieved or modified and what the effect was on their audience. Candidates whose Statement of Intentions lack detail regarding creative intentions and making analytical connections to the work of others generally find the completion of AO4 more difficult. Therefore, whilst there is clearly an understanding amongst candidates generally that there is the need to refer back to their stated intentions and justify their creative decisions in order to enter the higher mark bands for this assessment objective, the connection between AO1 and AO4 needs to continue to be firmly established. The evaluation does not need to outline the pre-production process as this is well covered within AO2, rather it should focus on the production and post-production phases. Photographic evidence of work put in by candidates during the production phase can help the moderator to build up an accurate picture of the work involved in the production which may not be available from viewing the film product alone e.g. where a candidate has removed all the furniture from a room to lay down tracks. Similarly, photos and or screen-grabs from the final film which compare a technique that the student has emulated or modified to the original directorial technique by which they were inspired, may also be useful particularly when combined with evaluation of the effect on the viewer. In addition, some centres this year included feedback sheets from their peers which was refreshing and added to the candidates’ own observations regarding the technical and creative successes of their final filmic product. Whilst some candidates within the lower mark range continue to critique their own practice in a superficial manner, a growing number evaluate and reflect upon, not only their practice, but also their response to obstacles and constraints and their decision- making processes. Centres should continue to be commended for the progress made in developing candidates’ self-evaluation skills in this manner.

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Submission of Work for Moderation

When submitting coursework, it should be formatted, saved and compressed according to CCEA instructions to centres and submitted, at the latest, by the final coursework deadline. One pen drive containing coursework should be submitted for each assessment unit/GCE Level. Each student’s folder should be named with their student number, centre number, and should contain five documents:

• a Statement of Intention of 800–1200 words in PDF/Keynote/PowerPoint format of no more than 300MB in total (if submitted in Keynote or PowerPoint format, a PDF version should be included in addition); • an Experiment compressed in accordance with the CCEA guidelines; • Pre-production materials (Synopsis, Script, Shotlist, Storyboard. Visual planner is optional) within a single document NOT as separate jpgs); • a film Product of 3–5 minutes, compressed in accordance with the CCEA guidelines; and • an Evaluation of 800–1200 words in PDF/Keynote/PowerPoint format of no more than 300MB in total (if submitted in Keynote of PowerPoint format, a PDF version should be included in addition).

In order to understand the impact of late submissions, it may be useful to understand the internal mechanisms within CCEA. Immediately after the coursework deadline the pre-pre-moderation period in CCEA begins. During this period, work received is transferred to a central hard drive by a small and committed team working to a very tight deadline. If work is received in an incorrect format, time is taken up as the team attempt to contact the appropriate teacher in the appropriate centre to ask for re-submission of work. Likewise, if work is submitted on individual discs for every student in a class, this takes much longer to transfer and the allocated time is quickly used up. Other issues at this stage include uncompressed Keynote and PowerPoint presentations (each individual film clip used should be compressed before being included in presentations) with no PDF version of the presentation provided alongside them. Conversely, there are also centres who over-compress work, leading to a serious loss in quality. All coursework should be submitted in the appropriate, correctly compressed format as outlined in the Instructions to Teachers guidance, which is available from the CCEA Moving Image Arts microsite in January each year. In conclusion - thank you The quality of much of the work submitted by candidates this year has once again proved how the subject continues to thrive, and this is simply attributable to all of you who believe in this fascinating and challenging subject. Together we recognize that MIA is a uniquely complex school subject, offering inimitable avenues for self-learning, time management, teamwork and also, importantly, self-expression. The challenges presented are considerable, ranging from the purely logistical to the management of emotive content. However, considering the achievements of the huge majority of candidates, it is clear that the subject offers many candidates opportunities to reach remarkable visual, creative and intellectual standards and all students an opportunity for considerable personal growth and development. As a result, MIA promotes sophisticated visual literacy and communication, both of which play such a crucial role in active citizenship and cultural participation in our contemporary world. Thank you very much in continuing to work so hard to support a subject which offers unique opportunities to our young people and helping to provide them with a range of important skills that are vital in our ever-changing and complex world.

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Chief Examiner Report Assessment Unit AS 2 Critical Response

This year’s AS examination prompted some impressive responses from candidates, the majority of whom engaged well with the three film sequences and the stimulus provided, to demonstrate technical knowledge and analytical ability. Most candidates are showing more balance in their responses, which shows a more prepared approach to the exam. This is a welcome improvement on previous examinations. Lack of precision in the use of film language is still an issue in the analysis of lighting, sound and editing, with many candidates still often missing out basic terms such as ‘diegetic’ or ‘low-key lighting’. “Dark lighting”, for example is an imprecise term that candidates should avoid when they are discussing cinematography. Incorrect use of camera terminology continues to hamper the performance of some candidates, as in these examples: “The director used an above shot to show all the Santas’ in the room.” “American shots are used to let the audience see the full action of the kidnapping.” “the camera cuts showing a CU of the boys face as he glares into the deep cherry red of Santa’s suit.” The major error that a considerable number of candidates made this year was failure to read the question properly. A worrying number of candidates discussed areas of film language in their responses which were not required by the question. No marks could be awarded for this. Q1 Sequence 1 The bodyguard of a young girl senses danger. Study the following sequence. How does the director use camera technique, editing and sound (including music) to create a mounting sense of anxiety and suspense? The majority of candidates engaged well with the frenetic visual style of this sequence and were able to identify key features of the director’s technique. There was a wealth of detail to analyse and unpick. Most candidates were able to comment on the visual and aural disorientation in the sequence and how it was created. Many candidates noted that the piano was contrapuntual. The best candidates showed real insight into how the director manipulated time in the sequence. Less able students, however, were still able to give adequate responses. Consequently, the majority of candidates achieved their highest score for this question, although there is evidence that some candidate’s perhaps spent more time than they could afford answering it, leaving less time for later questions. The main reason for candidates not achieving a higher mark in Question 1 was lack of balance between the three areas of film language. Editing was frequently discussed quite superficially. Editing was also where candidates made the most frequent error in this question. For example, “Firstly, the director uses a succession of quick jump cuts.” “These cuts and jump cuts speed up the sequence and propel the action of the scene forwards. The jump cuts from the licence plate to the bodyguard...”

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Some candidates did correctly identify the abrasive editing style as an example of Eisenstein’s technique of Montage. Q2 Sequence 2 A child’s nightmare at Christmas. Examine the following sequence. Discuss the contribution of three of the following elements of film language to conveying the changing mood of this scene. Camera technique, Editing, Cinematography, Mise-en-scene, Sound (including Music). This question format, allowing candidates to choose which three areas of film language they wish to analyse, has appeared each year on the AS examination. Candidates need to be careful that they select only three areas of film language to discuss. A considerable number of candidates discussed four or five areas of film language rather than the required three, losing themselves valuable time. The choice of film language area has a significant impact on performance. Most candidates chose to write about camera technique, editing and sound. When mise-en- scene was addressed it was much less in-depth than the other areas and often missed key features of the Christmas mise-en-scene. Very few candidates chose to write about cinematography. Those candidates who selected camera technique and sound as two of the three areas to analyse tended to score higher than those candidates who selected editing or lighting. A considerable number of candidates choose to discuss editing. Many of these candidates did not discuss the pace of the editing, while others employed the incorrect term “jump cut” to describe the editing style of Question 2, as in these examples: “at the start of the scene the editing is flawless and it shows a sequence of jump cuts between the characters which shows a joyful and playful mood.” “The scene jump cuts in between Santa and the boy to show his reaction to what is happening.” Another inaccuracy under editing that is being increasingly common is for the candidate to attribute the colours of the mise-en-scene to colour correction in post production. “In post production they have also used bright colours in the scene like yellows and reds to show that it is a happy joyful scene.” Most candidates were able to identify the use of the warping effect on the images and discussed this either as an editing technique or in-camera effect. As it was unclear exactly how this effect was created, marks were awarded under whichever area of film language the candidate choose to place it. However, sometimes candidates got areas of film language conflated and were in fact analysing two areas of film language, instead of one. This resulted in the loss of marks as only one area could be rewarded, as in this example: “In terms of editing, the clip starts with a warm editing style which is slow and peaceful. The editing pace is slow which is representational of the boys anticipation for Santa and all of the gifts that he is going to receive. A warm, orange toned filter is used, creating a very homely feel to the clip and it heightens the Christmas colours and decorations around the room, giving a clear sense of the time of year. This warm tone creates a false sense of security as it radiates warmth and security for the young boy as he is unaware that this is going to turn into a nightmare for him symbolising the naivety and innocence of the child. As the child comes to realise that this is turning into a nightmare. A very distorted effect is placed over the clips creating a dream-like yet horrific tone to the piece. This makes the child seem helpless as many clones of Santa begin to crowd the room and we aren’t sure of what is going to happen next,

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indicating that there is an impending sense of doom in the clip. The editing pace gradually increases as the child tries to escape the room, gradually increasing the sense of panic and this is done by the director to create a shock factor as the warm filter remains throughout the clip, creating a sense of contrast and disorientation.” The colour of the décor or costumes should only be analysed under mise-en-scene. The sepia tone look of a film should be analysed under cinematography. Q3 Sequence 3 Imprisoned toys attempt a daring escape. Study the following animated sequence. How does the director use camera technique, lighting and mise-en-scene to generate comedy and suspense? Many candidates seemed to enjoy discussing Question 3 on Toy Story, and appeared to be already familiar with the narrative of this sequence. Mise-en-scene proved a greater challenge to candidates than camera technique or lighting. Candidates found it easier to write about the suspense of the sequence rather than the comedy aspects. Many candidates struggled with the comedy aspect of the mise-en-scene and why it was humorous. A surprising number of candidates chose to ignore the requirement to discuss camera technique, lighting and mise-en scene and proceeded to analyse all five areas of film language. Many candidates analysed music in some depth and dropped valuable marks. Here is one of the more obvious examples. “The director uses a toy with a deep voice to indicate that the toys have a problem. The directer then uses a fast pace music track that makes the monkey intimating also the dark lighting in the room with the monkey makes it more scary. The director uses a close up of the monkeys face with his red eyes making him same scary for the children to watch. There is face face music when the fluffy toy tries to escape from the play room and the monkey starts screaming down the microphone to indicate to the audience that the monkey is a powerful toy that watches what all the other toys are doing at nights. The is no music as the toys try to get the monkey this informs the audience that it is silence in the room. As the toys come down the wall with a bag there is soft music played that builds up when the toy gets closer to the monkey. The toys both stop and look at each other when the microphone drops on the floor, this informs the reader that the two toys are gonna try fight or race to the microphone to get it first. The is fast paced music played as the two toys fight for the microphone, this builds up the tension of the fight. The dog then grabs the type and runs towards the monkey and the monkey screams, this gives the audience a feel that something is going to happen to the monkey.” Principal Moderator’s Report Assessment Unit A2 1 Creative Production and Research: Advanced Portfolio

The following report outlines the main points arising from this year’s moderation process. These are: • Positive outcomes from the Summer 2016 series. • Suggestions for improved learning and teaching. • Attendance at Agreement Trials. • New Technology and authorship. • Submission of work for moderation. • Teacher Assessment.

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The coming academic year will be the last series of the current specification at A2 level with first teaching of the new, revised specification commencing in September 2017. Positive outcomes from the Summer 2015 series

Of particular strength this year were the Illustrated Essays (AO1) from a number of centres that reflected an increasingly informed and film history focused approach within centres. Overall quality of portfolios remained strong. At A2 level, we expect to see areas of study become more specialised. That is, we expect the student’s interest in film to have taken them beyond well-exposed auteurs such as Tim Burton and Martin Scorsese. Happily, we can see clear evidence in centres of the study of lesser known but culturally significant cinematographers, directors and other creative professionals. Interdisciplinary links have also shown mature study of photographers and artists and inventive connections have been made. The incoming specification will give an increased importance to pre-production materials and it is encouraging that a number of centres have chosen to give time over to the creation of beautifully executed storyboards which lend a professional and artful feel to portfolios. There is a discernible pattern (as would be expected) of improvement in centres, which have offered the subject for a number of years with consistency of staffing. This would be most evident in the variation of approaches of film concepts, maturity of study areas at A2 and evident photographic skill. The skills base of MIA teachers has been boosted by the Creative Learning Centres’ course programme which ranges from 2D and 3D animation to Video compositing and Special FX. The afford-ability of DSLR and high quality HD camcorders continues to improve. This has raised the bar in terms of Cinematography which is hugely important in AO3 where production values and creativity form the main assessment criteria. While some challenges are presented using DSLR equipment such as noise in low light (which some lesser camcorders will auto correct), this is far outweighed by the quality of the resulting product. That the solution to low light problems involves understanding of manual camera settings is only a benefit to the mature study of camera technique. The increased availability of small action cameras such as the GoPro hero series shows increasing evidence of a versatile approach to camera position (action cameras can be attached to moving surfaces, used underwater and can deliver high fps resulting in smooth and creative slomo work). Unsurprisingly given the similar price falls, this year we saw the first submissions of aerial video work using drones. However, it should be noted that this approach works best when integrated with more conventional and static camera work. Tripod dollies have continued to be used for smooth tracking alongside more experimental approaches using trolleys, skateboards and the like. Film outcomes continue to move away from animation (although we have had some extremely impressive animations this year) towards live action drama. It should be noted that drama outcomes could be enhanced considerably through the subtle use of colour correction and compositing. This year has seen the continued improvement of the online moderation system. The moderation team widely agrees that it now forms an effective and central role in the moderation cycle.

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Suggestions for improved learning and teaching The situation has continued where the two film exercises (AO2a) have not received the attention allocated to the other pieces of coursework. Again, we have received exercises made up of ‘leftover’ shots from the main film or where the creative intentions have been tenuous (i.e. applying an iMovie filter) or else not outlined in the essay. A small number of candidates produced exercises that used identical shots from their main film. It may be helpful to set this exercise as a formal class work or homework unit with clear guidelines on location, costume, etc. as the allowable 5% of total marks could easily be the difference between grades. Guidelines for pre-production materials have to date been deliberately un-prescriptive because of the broad nature of possible outcomes with the general idea that there be a written and a pictorial element and evidence of time management. A submission without visual planning should be marked as incomplete. Software like Toonboom storyboard and Celtx have been a boon to this process and many centres have chosen to present their pre-production as a neat PowerPoint or keynote. Note that this should then be exported and submitted as a single pdf.

Attendance at Agreement Trials

Attendance at Agreement Trials is still very much recommended to enable teachers to view a range of portfolios and participate in table marking exercises to assist with standardisation of marking in the summer.

New Technology and authorship The advance and availability of creative technology is central to this subject and it is healthy that the subject progresses in the context of changing creative industry practices. With all Autodesk titles (Maya, 3DS Max, etc.) being free to schools and being open source and free to all, there have been some excellent submissions made in this CGI format which reflect the key assessment criteria of ‘creative purpose and production values’ in a coherent and admirable way. Last year, we had a situation where the use of this technology was less successful in a small number of centres yet was marked highly within the centre. These submissions were characterised by: • the use of downloadable models which were not the student’s own work (many sites such as TF3DM and Turbosquid provide free models); • the use of downloaded, fully rigged characters which were then animated in a very basic way; and • (for a few candidates only) the submitted film being made entirely with the pre- visualisation software ‘MovieStorm’. Using this software involves simply choosing characters and costume and pre-set animation moves from a menu and raises the serious question of authorship. This year we did not receive any CG outcomes but it is worth re-iterating what is not permissible. When considering use of CGI animation centres must: • contact the Subject Officer to verify if their proposed software is permissible; • make students aware of the steep and time consuming learning curve involved; and • provide evidence of the student’s own authorship of models used (i.e. through screen- grabs of the modelling process).

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Submission of work for moderation

This year saw an improvement in the effective submission of work from centres. Though there was still a number of centres who needed to be contacted to resubmit their work, making this an on-going issue. The CCEA microsite offers clear guidance on the compression of video that will be easy to repeat once familiarised. Guidance can also easily be found online. At A2, a portfolio consists of 3 x pdfs and 3 x video files. Yet we are still receiving written work in Word format, original keynote or PowerPoint files and pre-production material consisting of multiple files. Several centres also combined the three written elements into one (which hinders the moderation process). The change to submission by USB device has improved the ‘drag and drop’ stage of moderation greatly (where all centres work are collated to one drive). While it is hoped that video will eventually be submitted online, this is not likely to happen in the next few years.

Teacher Assessment

There was some degree of adjustment to around half of centres with significantadjustment to approximately a third. As in previous years, this has mainly been due to generosity regarding AO3 final films. All centres have been excellent at placing their candidates in the correct rank order however for the highest scoring film to be placed in Level 5, it should show consistently high production values and creative purpose as outlined in the marking grid and demonstrated in the Agreement Trial exemplars. Where adjustments have been made to Illustrated Essay marks, this has arisen mainly from the candidate’s reluctance to fully address the three elements, which make up the essay’s purpose: 1 A personal investigation of a chosen subject or individual within the art form of film making. 2 The making of an inter-disciplinary connection between that subject and another art form: This can be an established and known connection, a connection that the student identifies or even a study of the two subjects where there is no clear connection except that which the student will make in their practical work. 3 An outline of the student’s own creative intentions. To summarise, the 2016 MIA A2 session has produced a creative body of work that strongly affirms the subject’s rubric and potential but also raised some smaller concerns that need to be addressed within the subject community. As already stated, it is highly recommended that teachers take the opportunity to attend Agreement Trials each year in order to gain the opportunity to view and mark a range of exemplar material. Chief Examiner Report Assessment Unit A2 2 Critical Response and Specialisation

In this examination, the pattern of previous years was repeated with the performance of candidates in Part 1 of the A2 examination (unseen sequences) noticeably stronger and more confident, than in Part 2 (the set text).

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The majority of candidates demonstrated an impressive level of technical knowledge and analytical ability in the comparative evaluation of two moving image sequences, but struggled to maintain the same level of response in their analysis of the set text.

Structure and Style of Answers

In the structuring of responses to Question 1 and Question 2, the majority of the more successful responses discussed the two sequences separately, but managed to cover all five areas of film language one by one, placing added emphasis on the most obvious features. A small number of the more successful candidates managed to compare Sequences 1 and 2 in parallel, while still covering all five areas of film language. There were two typical patterns of response for Raising Arizona and The Age of Innocence, both of which produced successful responses. Some candidates focused solely on two scenes as specified in the question and reached considerable depth in their analysis. Other candidates referred to more than two scenes, but still convinced with their analysis and awareness of context.

Time Management

While there are still examples of candidates spending too long on Question 1 and running out of time on Question 2, the great majority of candidates managed their time well and were able to provide the required balanced comparative analysis in both Question 1 and Question 2 within the 90 minutes available in Part 1 of this examination.

Common Errors

A familiar recurring issue is the misapplication of film language terminology. The most common example of film language terminology being applied incorrectly was the mixing up of the terms “diegetic” and “non diegetic sound”. Other common errors were misidentifying camera tracking and panning and incorrect use of the term “jump cutting” to describe an example of rapid editing. Part 1

Q1 Sequence 1: A man is stalked by a werewolf. Sequence 2: Singers become the prey of a supernatural fiend. Study these two sequences in which a predator strikes. Compare and contrast how each director uses film language to create a mood of fear and horror. The great majority of candidates engaged well with Sequence 1 correctly identifying key camera techniques such as POV shots, the extended long take and tracking camera movements as well as correctly interpreting the importance of non-diegetic sound in the creation of fear and suspense. Candidates were able to apply their knowledge and understanding of horror genre conventions in their analysis, noting where the sequence conformed to these conventions (the sudden switches to the POV of the monster, the claustrophobic setting of the underground tunnels) or departed from them (the naturalistic lighting, the use of only diegetic sound). Many candidates provided an in-depth analysis of Sequence 1, but left themselves less time for a balanced analysis of Sequence 2. While the majority of candidates picked up on the realism/formalism contrast in the two sequences, a surprisingly high number of candidates failed to analyse many of the expressionist techniques employed in Sequence 2, such as the use of high and low camera angles and unconventional framing.

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Good examples of independent thinking in the analysis of Sequence 2 included references to the Gothic horror tales of Edgar Allen Poe. Q2 Sequence 1: A man descends into paranoia. Sequence 2: A woman retreats into isolation. Study these two sequences in which a character withdraws from the world. Compare and contrast how both directors use film language to convey each character’s deteriorating state of mind. Question 2 presented candidates with a different challenge than Question 1. While there was less opportunity to apply knowledge of genre, the parallel situation of the characters in both sequences, isolated and alone, invited candidates to discuss the contrasting ways in which the state of mind of each character was revealed. Most candidates engaged well with the detached emotional state of both characters and demonstrated good insight into the two visual approaches to showing a deteriorating mind. While most candidates noted how the directors drew upon stylised techniques such as fast and slow and a disturbing, ambient soundtrack, fewer candidates discussed the importance of mise-en-scene and the expressionist use of colour in both sequences. Good examples of independent thinking in the analysis of Sequence 2 included references to the sterile and decaying environment of the apartment as a visual metaphor for the character’s mental disintegration.

Part 2

Considering that this was the second year featuring these set texts and candidates had the opportunity to peruse last year’s questions and mark scheme, there was little evidence of improvement in the performance of the majority of candidates. The majority of candidates are continuing to under perform in this part of the A2 Examination compared to their standard of performance in Question 1 and Question 2. In numerous cases, candidates from the same centre analysed the same scenes and referred to the same details of contextual knowledge which illustrated the degree of in-class preparation. However, in some cases this had been prepared in a fairly basic way with a number of candidates simply trotting out information about the text and knowledge about the director in a general way. While a considerable number of candidates were able to demonstrate contextual knowledge of both films, many candidates struggled to provide the depth and balance of analysis of film language and thematic content required by the set text question across two or more selected scenes. In some cases, candidates confined their analysis solely to the trailer provided, rather than selecting two or more scenes for sustained analysis. This may be an indication that they had not studied the film at all. Q3 Raising Arizona plays with the conventions of the crime genre. Discuss how the Coen brothers employ genre and the unconventional use of film language to create two or more of the film’s memorable sequences. Of the two set texts, Raising Arizona was the most popular choice for candidates. While greater attention was given to the analysis of film language than was the case in last year’s examination, a considerable number of candidates struggled to find adequate balance between the analysis of visual style and the Coen Brothers’ play with genre conventions.

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Q4 How does Martin Scorsese use film language to convey the repressed Feelings and romantic longing that Newland and Ellen demonstrate fo each other? Discuss with reference to at least two sequences from The Age of Innocence. While there were some highly impressive responses to this question, there was evidence of candidates selecting scenes which did not offer the best opportunity for stylistic and thematic analysis. Consequently many candidates failed to discuss Scorsese’s expressive use of camera technique and bold use of colour in key scenes. Some candidates underperformed because their answer focused primarily on the storyline’s illustration of the characters’ repressed emotions, rather than Scorsese’s visual communication of the repression.

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Contact details The following information provides contact details for key staff members: • Specification Support Officer: Nola Fitzsimons (telephone: (028) 9026 1200, extension: 2235, email: [email protected]) • Officer with Subject Responsibility: Ingrid Arthurs (telephone: (028) 9026 1200, extension: 2398, email: [email protected])

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