BBC Bitesize Commissioning Brief – KS3: ENGLISH WITH MEDIA EDUCATION
Commissioning Brief Key Stage 3, Northern Ireland, ENGLISH WITH MEDIA EDUCATION
Overview
BBC Bitesize is commissioning content for students studying Key Stage 3 ENGLISH WITH MEDIA EDUCATION in schools in Northern Ireland. Key Stage 3 students are aged 11 to 14 years old and are in Year 8, Year 9 and Year 10. The first three years of secondary.
While KS3 English with Media Education sits within the compulsory area of Language and Literacy it contains both statutory and non-statutory requirements as well as requiring cross curricular skills.
KS3 teachers should enable children to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in:
• Effective research and information management; • Thinking critically and flexibly, solving problems and making informed decisions; • Creativity and initiative when developing ideas and following them through; • Working effectively with others; • Self-management by systematic working, persisting with tasks, evaluating and improving own performance; • Effective communication in oral, visual and written formats. Awareness of audience and purpose and attention to accuracy creativity and information management
We are making content for pupils who have just left primary school while accommodating those about to begin their GCSE’s. In this case it is difficult to cover all levels, and we appreciate that what works or is fun for year 8 may not work with a 14 year old. Learning should be pitched at bringing less able students to a passing grade, while still being of use to all; taking key concepts across the three years, at the appropriate level when they meet them and making the content work for all.
This content should capture their imagination whilst being age appropriate. Content will be used for independent learning in the first instance, by teachers in the classroom and to improve understanding of the subject matter.
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Summary of deliverables We require the following content for ENGLISH WITH MEDIA EDUCATION:
Video: approximately 25 minutes of original video or animation. This could break down to 16-20 short films of roughly 1:30 duration on average. Films can be shorter or longer, we are flexible on the final number.
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Bitesize brand values and tone
• quality learning resources with high production values, tailored to the needs of the audience • clear, concise delivery of the key educational points in bite-sized chunks • accessible to every level of academic ability and learning style • factually correct, high-quality and curriculum-relevant • simple, straightforward language • funny, quirky or irreverent tone where appropriate • innovative educational media format
Audience
The flexible framework at KS3 allows teachers to establish foundations for key stage 4 study by providing opportunities for pupils to demonstrate deeper understanding; pupils to become more independent learners who will be more adept and experienced in managing their own learning. (CCEA)
Key stage 3 students are aged 11-14 years old and in years 8 to 10
Audience research shows that: • the majority of the push to bitesize will come from teachers, especially for less able students through recommendations. • teachers value high quality video content and acknowledge it as a key content offer from the they particularly value BBC video content as being trusted and high quality, safe and relevant.
(BBC Audiences)
Teachers have told us: o KS3 students are digital natives and used to interactivity o poetry and language is especially difficult and seeing and hearing poetry performed and read would be very useful. o when it comes to media researching online, evaluating fake news and being responsible are the things most often taught. o students may benefit from seeing their peers in video. actually taking part and doing some of the activities talked about o while bitesize might once have functioned as a useful backup for students, during pandemic-induced learning from home the resources will now be much more heavily relied upon…for some pupils who may have scant alternative support.
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The subject
ENGLISH will be broken down into the following topics. Potential films are listed for each topic where relevant.
Topics Potential films Details (areas identified as key for the target age group) Fiction texts No films required
Non-fiction No films required texts
Spelling, Grammar: how to Overall Objective: to make explicit the features punctuation write a complex of a grammatically correct complex sentence, and grammar sentence model a variety of these for students (with clauses shown in different orders) and offer them ways to check for themselves that they have written a complex sentence correctly.
NB: can also be used in the ‘Writing Skills: Sentences’ section
Shakespeare No films required
Understanding Language: provide Overall Objective: Make poetry accessible and poetry examples of ways give students a good grounding in basic poetry into poetry. Looking concepts such as language, tone and structure. at colour or accents This grounding will prepare students for further etc. analysis in their GCSE years. (NB Performing modern poetry may not be possible due to rights issues, but
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showing a poem and annotations on screen may be ok)
Structure: look at the shapes and layouts of poems and how that may contribute to meaning
Reading skills Critical reading: how Overall Objective: to break down and show to compare fiction stages of comparing two texts texts
Critical reading: how Overall Objective: to make explicit the process to use evidence of using evidence to inform and support a from a text critical essay
Critical reading: how Overall Objective: making explicit the possible to compare non- comparative aspects of non-fiction texts and fiction texts how to discuss these critically
Critical reading: how Overall Objective: to make explicit what to investigate features form structure in a text, which are structure in non- useful to be discussed critically and how they fiction texts can approach this
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Writing skills Non-fiction writing: Overall Objective: to show a variety of valid how to write an methods of planning writing, step by step. essay
Non-fiction writing: Overall Objective: to help students understand how to write an what is useful/appropriate and what is introduction to an redundant/ineffective in an essay introduction essay
Non-fiction writing: Overall Objective: to help generate ideas and how to write a open up ‘ways in’ that assist students in writing speech their own speeches
Fiction writing: how Overall Objective: to draw attention to the to use structure for impact structure can have on how a text is effect read, and offer ideas of aspects of structure students can confidently play around with in their own writing
Fiction writing: how Overall Objective: to demonstrate ways in to use linguistic which figurative language can affect a reader devices in your and possibly generate interesting ideas for writing approaching use of metaphors or similes in their own writing
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Non-fiction writing: Overall Objective: to help students understand how to write a what is useful/appropriate and what is conclusion to an redundant/ineffective in an essay conclusion essay This can form a companion piece to the clip of writing an essay introduction
Spoken English Speaking Overall Objective: to reassure students about S&L tasks and give them strategies to succeed in these
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MEDIA EDUCATION will be broken down into the following topics. Potential films are listed for each topic.
Topics Potential Films Details (areas identified as key for the target age group) Introduction Introduction to Overall Objective: to make explicit the ways to media media: analysing images are used communicate with us and images draw students’ attention to the meanings they already understand through basics like colour and gesture codes.
Introduction to Overall Objective: to give a basic media: what is understanding of what representation means representation? and why it matters
Analysing No films required media texts
Moving image No films required arts
News and No films required journalism
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Media No films required industries and institutions
News values No films required
Production No films required and evaluation
The commissioned films will cover content from each of the topic areas. A total of approximately 20-25 minutes of material will be split between the topic areas. The 20-25 minutes could break down to 16 short films of 1:30 on average. Some films can be shorter or longer than others, so we are flexible on the final number. Assets from films will be used to create activities.
You can view CCEA requirements for English with media education here –
• language and literacy - key stage 3 - CCEA • non statutory guidance for English with media education • statutory requirements key stage 3 - language and literacy
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Content for delivery
Video/animation
Original video
o We require a total of approximately 20-25 minutes of original video or animation. Each separate video/animation is likely to be between 1 and 2 minutes in duration and should contextualise or give an overview of the topic. o Videos should be age-appropriate and deliver clear learning outcomes. o Videos can be presenter-led or narrated. o We will require delivery of animation assets or high quality stills photographs from any live action in order to create activities for the article pages.
*For more detail, see appendix item C: video spec for delivery
What we’re looking for…
Creative proposal
Companies are invited to submit a creative proposal detailing their approach to creating video content for Key Stage 3 ENGLISH WITH MEDIA EDUCATION. Additionally you may provide links to showreels and company information
Your proposal should include:
Content/editorial plan
You should include an overview editorial plan which sets out how your creative approach to covering the key learning outcomes as listed in appendix: item A and item B, and how this incorporates the Bitesize brand values.
This should include a mood board to show visual approach, a storyboard of the video content and a draft script to outline how you would approach a film or animation covering ‘FICTION WRITING: HOW TO USE LINGUISTIC DEVICES IN YOUR WRITING'. This sits within the topic ‘WRITING SKILLS’.
For example, pupils at this age might benefit from seeing their peers tackle some of the activities mentioned. Almost a ‘how to’ video, and explaining their thought processes etc
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Fiction Writing: how to use linguistic devices in your writing
Overall Objective: to demonstrate ways in which figurative language can affect a reader and possibly generate interesting ideas for approaching use of metaphors or similes in their own writing.
A way to get students thinking about their own use of figurative language and how it can shape a writer’s voice. This is at least partially about idea generation, emulating the kind of class discussion/peer suggestions that can help fire a student’s imagination before they engage in a creative writing task
We know that you will not be able to cover all of these points in one film or animation. The above is for guidance only. And of course you will have your own creative response which may differ from our suggestions.
Please refer to the appendix item B to view curriculum information.
It would be beneficial to include images or illustrations to give an idea of the look and feel of any video or animation content proposed.
Budget
Within your budget, you will need to make allowance for the following:
Adviser
An education consultant is essential to advise and offer guidance on the content during each stage of the production. They should work or have worked in the education sector in Northern Ireland.
Your education consultant will need to have approval from the BBC production team before production starts.
BBC have already started working with a consultant in identifying what parts of our current bitesize schema is suitable for reuse, identifying opportunities for video and rewriting where necessary. While it is up to you which consultant you may want to approach, we would be happy to pass on any details should you require.
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User testing
In normal circumstances we would ask for at least two user-testing sessions during the course of the production. These would usually involve working with at least two different schools teaching Key Stage One Language & Literacy.
However, given the current situation with Covid-19, we are happy to consider novel ways of user-testing which do not involve face to face meetings with pupils.
Working with the BBC
There will be a minimum of four meetings during production, (depending on current restrictions these will probably be via teleconference, such as Zoom). In addition, we require a weekly content report/update (via email, phone or teleconference).
Project initiation meeting – this first Zoom meeting will be a chance to meet the production team in Belfast. We will discuss the editorial scope of the project, confirm the timeline for delivery and hear content plans and ideas.
Meeting #2 – this Zoom meeting will take place at the mid-point of the pre- production process and will focus on
o proposed video content (scripts, storyboards, talent, style and tone) o production schedule/milestones o input from the Education Consultant and user testing
Meeting #3 – this Zoom meeting will be scheduled for the mid-point of the production process and will assess content produced to date and next steps including:
o production schedule/milestones o feedback from the Education Consultant and user testing
Meeting #4 – this final Zoom meeting will be scheduled around the end of the production process to focus on how the content fits together within the Bitesize framework as well as delivery of content.
(Feedback post-delivery – within a few weeks of final delivery there will be a feedback session between the BBC and you to focus on issues encountered and best practice. There will also be a feedback survey link issued.)
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Company and project team profile
We want to hear from companies who are passionate about learning and enthusiastic about creating content for one of the BBC’s premier online brands.
Please include a link to your website and showreel.
Links to relevant portfolio examples Please send links to content you have produced which you think are relevant to this commission.
Budget £40,000
Working together
Who is responsible for what? You will be responsible for:
• project management and production of deliverables to agreed deadline and budget • chairing regular production meetings and communicating project plans and status • post-production paperwork to be completed in Silvermouse.
We will be responsible for:
• sharing project documentation • collaboration throughout the production and delivery • enabling access to any relevant BBC archive • sign-off at milestones on all content, and on final delivery – within an agreed timeframe
We will be jointly responsible for:
• ensuring the learning outcomes are met • ensuring that content is best-fit for the bitesize audience • quality assurance of content
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The BBC Learning team • David Monahan - Editor • Emma McIlveen & Louisa McCartney – Producers • John McAliskey – Assistant Producer
Schedule/project management
• All Bitesize productions follow an iterative development process and we will feed back throughout the project • Final delivery and sign off for the project is Wednesday 9th February 2022
This project is highly dependent on specific delivery dates that will be defined in the contract. As such we would like you to give particular attention to clause 9 in our standard terms which states the following:
If you fail or are due to fail to deliver a Deliverable (or any part thereof) due at any stage specified in Schedule 2 for any reason not directly and solely attributable to the BBC, the BBC shall (without prejudice to any other rights or remedies available to the BBC under this Agreement or at law) be entitled to terminate this Agreement Should this situation arise and the BBC is forced to terminate, the BBC would only be liable to you for anything delivered prior to termination. For this reason we would ask that you give timeframes and delivery the highest priority.
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The pitching process
Shortlisted companies will be invited to pitch their proposals via Zoom.
Learning experience is not a prerequisite, but a thorough understanding of the needs of the Bitesize audience and clear approach to addressing those needs is expected.
Deadline for submissions, pitch deliverables and selection requirements are outlined below:
Commissioning schedule
Commissioning brief published Friday 30th July 2021 th Deadline for creative proposal submission Tuesday 24 August 2021 Deadline for notification of shortlisted proposals Thursday 26th August 2021 Pitch meetings (via Zoom) Monday 13th September 2021 Commission decision Tuesday 14th September 2021 Project initiation meeting (via Zoom) Monday 20th September 2021 Full delivery of commission Wednesday 9th February 2022
Proposal deliverable list
• content/editorial plan with a mood board showing visual approach. • draft script for film or animation covering ‘fiction writing: how to use linguistic devices in your writing’ • link to website and showreel
Selection
The BBC will use the following standard criteria to evaluate the pitches submitted:
• quality of the idea proposed – suitability for Bitesize audience • prior experience of company • ability to meet editorial requirements • core staff experience • project management / production plan • pricing / value for money • presentation of response
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Next steps
All proposals should be submitted via email to [email protected] by Tuesday 24th August 2021. Please use Submitted Proposal: KS3 English with Media Education (Bitesize) as the subject line.
This is an open brief published on the BBC Learning Commissioning website. Please note that this document is for information purposes only and does not form part of a contractual agreement with the BBC. This is a stand-alone new media commission and the BBC will require all rights in the content, worldwide and on all platforms. The commission will be contracted using the BBC’s New Media Rights Framework 2 agreement. Further information on the BBC New Media Frameworks can be found here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/technology-online/how-we-work/new- mediarights-framework.shtml
Bitesize diversity and inclusion commissioning guidelines BBC Bitesize has produced guidelines for all suppliers, setting out how we will work together to meet our ambitions for diversity and inclusion. Suppliers should consult these guidelines when responding to Bitesize commissioning briefs. BBC Bitesize Diversity and Inclusion Commissioning Guidelines
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Appendix
Three items
Item A: suggested content breakdown Some topics may require more than one video where others may not. The 20-25 minutes of film or animation do not need to be spread evenly across the topics. This suggested breakdown includes video options that are of lesser priority than in the previous suggested breakdown.
Topics Potential films Details (areas identified as key for the target age group)
N/a Fiction texts
Non-fiction N/a texts
Grammar: how to write a complex Overall objective: to make explicit the features of a grammatically Spelling, sentence correct complex sentence, model a variety of these for students (with punctuation clauses shown in different orders) and offer them ways to check for and grammar themselves that they have written a complex sentence correctly.
NB: can also be used in the ‘writing skills: sentences’ section
Grammar: modal verbs Overall objective: to clearly define modal verbs and demonstrate how they are used and what their effect can be
This could comprise a video of someone explaining/demonstrating what they understand modal verbs to be and modelling how they would use them, possibly using the humour of incorrect uses of modal verbs in inappropriate contexts to draw students’ attention to the importance of the correct modal verb in a particular register
Grammar: what is a noun? Overall objective: to clearly identify types of noun and their place(s) in a sentence
This could be as simple as a video showing examples (clearly written and spoken, perhaps held on large cards) of nouns, abstract nouns and proper nouns, and these being shown placed in a sentence as subject and object.
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Grammar: what is a verb? Overall objective: to clearly identify what a verb is, its uses and place in a sentence
This would be a short explanatory video covering similar ground to the text of this page (eg: students talking about what they know about verbs or spotting verbs in a piece of text). It could equally touch on how verbs help us understand the tense of a piece of writing and when it has happened or will happen.
Grammar: how to use subordinating Overall objective: to provide clear explanation and demonstration of use conjunctions of subordinating conjunctions
A video in which someone explicitly models the skills of selecting and arranging an appropriate conjunction, with various examples to enable students to confidently apply these to their own writing.
Shakespeare N/a
Understanding Language: provide examples of ways Overall Objective: Make poetry accessible and give students a good poetry into poetry grounding in basic poetry concepts such as language, tone and structure. This grounding will prepare students for further analysis in their GCSE Structure: look at the shapes and years. layouts of poems and how that may contribute to meaning This might include but certainly isn’t limited to: • Video or animation of poems being performed (Performance of contemporary • Video or animation of poetry accompanied by visuals to help poetry may be prohibitively make meaning clearer or raise questions for discussion expensive to gain rights, however it • Video of poets discussing their work or what poetry means to may be possible to ‘show’ a poem if it them is being analysed or critiqued) • Video of students talking about poems they like • Videos of students discussing approaches to studying poetry
Useful poems may include (this is not a prescriptive list): • Half Caste – John Agard • Unrelated Incidents – Tom Leonard • On My First Sonne - Ben Jonson • Song of the Old Mother - William Butler Yeats • Havisham - Carol Ann Duffy • The Charge of the Light Brigade - Alfred Lord Tennyson
Reading skills Critical reading: how to compare Overall objective: to break down and show stages of comparing two fiction texts texts
A step-by-step process showing how a student can personally tackle a question/task of comparison across two fiction texts could be extremely helpful in making the process less opaque and more readily attainable. • Planning is important- show how to gather comparable aspects in note/bullet point form • Underline that the structure of a comparative piece means the aspects that are being compared to each other (eg: a character/event, or a particular use of language or structure) should be dealt with one at a time so the essay contains multiple comparisons – students should never write all about one piece then all about another and compare them at the end. • Remind about comparative connectives such as likewise or contrastingly
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Critical reading: how to use evidence Overall objective: to make explicit the process of using evidence to from a text inform and support a critical essay
A video teaching students step by step how to find quotes, annotate them helpfully in the text and then turn them into analytical sentences (please note examples below partially refer to the text used in the video on the page, ‘the art of being normal’, but any suitable text could be used and use of another text might be advisable to enable students to see a range of examples). This should include:
• Responding to the question – reading it, underlining key words and deciding what sort of evidence they need to look for to prove the point the question asks about. • Finding the evidence – eg: filming a student finding and highlighting words and annotating them in response to the specific question. (please note that the annotation itself is useful to draw attention to – in the example, we want to see not just the word ‘growl’ being underlined, but a student explicitly saying words to the effect of “that makes me think of a dangerous dog about to attack” or similar, and noting this impression next to the highlighted word.) • Writing a sentence or two in response to the question – again this could be illustrated by having someone do it and talk us through the process. “they’ve asked about the relationship, so I’m going to start by saying these characters don’t have a good relationship…” and so on. This video could also feasibly include: • Drawing attention to how they can embed the quotation and make it make sense in the context of the analytical sentence (explicitly addressing punctuation etc; possibly showing more than one way they could use the evidence they have in a sentence). Showing their finished written answer and going back over it to point out where they’ve used evidence, referred to the effect on the reader and actually answered the question
Critical reading: how to compare Overall objective: making explicit the possible comparative aspects of non-fiction texts non-fiction texts and how to discuss these critically
• I’d suggest a video in which people, maybe even students their own age, explain/model/discuss/demonstrate with others how they tackle a comparison task and what they try to look out for in doing so; this could obviously be approached differently but however it’s tackled, a step-by-step process made explicit throughout the clip would be most beneficial.
Critical reading: how to investigate Overall objective: to make explicit what features form structure in a text, structure in non-fiction texts which are useful to be discussed critically and how they can approach this
• This could offer talking heads discussing features they would look for when they analyse structure in non-fiction, perhaps modelling underlining and annotation on a page or board featuring a suitable text extract. They should make explicit the fact that they are linking what they see to its supposed or intended effect on the reader, and how they can start to imagine what the purpose of the writing might be by looking at the context of the piece (an advert/ article/ autobiography etc).
Reading skills: sentences Overall objective: to briefly consolidate knowledge students already have about sentence types and offer them accessible video examples of how sentence variety can be used for effect.
The material already on the page is good, with some useful tasks, but sentence structure is extremely important and using a video to help students access and understand the topic better would be greatly beneficial.
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Writing skills Non-fiction writing: how to write an Overall objective: to show a variety of valid methods of planning writing, essay step by step
To emphasise that planning is a key skill and a part of the essay-writing process that cannot be skipped, a video demonstrating different/individual ways to plan (spidergram, post-its, lists etc) for the same question would be extremely useful for helping students adopt an approach that suits them. The video should show the actual process of finding quotes from a text, organising them into useful groups based on one point each (this can use any/many of the approaches above, eg: spidergram) and then extrapolating some basic analytical information (which they can expand on in the essay) from these
Non-fiction writing: how to write an Overall objective: to help students understand what is introduction to an essay useful/appropriate and what is redundant/ineffective in an essay introduction
A video in which ways to write an intro are discussed/modelled will help immensely since everyone can use a slightly different approach. Students, especially younger students, can find it really helpful (with fairly rigid tasks like the rules of writing an intro) to be shown bad examples that break the rules, especially humorously bad ones. This could be a video or animation of people reading out wrong, irrelevant or boring intros and another speaker criticising them.
Non-fiction writing: how to write a Overall objective: to help generate ideas and open up ‘ways in’ that speech assist students in writing their own speeches
This could be:
• Video of people, possibly students’ peers or older role models, modelling how they approach writing a speech, techniques they favour etc.
Animation or video of ‘bad’ speeches or speech techniques, humorously shown
Fiction writing: how to use structure Overall objective: to draw attention to the impact structure can have on for effect how a text is read, and offer ideas of aspects of structure students can confidently play around with in their own writing
A video showing someone undertaking the suggested task of writing story events on post-its and rearranging the order, discussing the advantages of starting a narrative in different places and hopefully reiterating that the story itself happens in order but the storyline could be told in any order. These could even be events from a well-known story like Cinderella where they discuss the merits of different starting points. Likewise they could discuss stories they love and suggest other characters from whose perspective these stories could be told, theorising how this would change things for the reader.
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Fiction writing: how to use linguistic Overall objective: to demonstrate ways in which figurative language can devices in your writing affect a reader and possibly generate interesting ideas for approaching use of metaphors or similes in their own writing
• A video of people reacting to/explaining ‘chandlerisms’ they’re shown (eg: the tarantula on a slice of angel food cake) could be a nice way to get students thinking about their own use of figurative language and how it can shape a writer’s voice. This is at least partially about idea generation, so a video in which various people fill in their own suggestions for the same metaphor, trying to make their answer interesting or unusual (as red as… or as big as…) might go some way towards emulating the kind of class discussion/peer suggestions that can help fire a student’s imagination before they engage in a creative writing task
Non-fiction writing: how to write a Overall objective: to help students understand what is conclusion to an essay useful/appropriate and what is redundant/ineffective in an essay conclusion
This can form a companion piece to the clip of writing an essay introduction (eg: with videos of people talking about how they write conclusions, examples of bad ones with humour or even annotated sample text) or could use a completely different approach.
Fiction writing: how to draft your Overall objective: to demonstrate a drafting process, normalising it and writing highlighting its benefits
This could be video of a writer discussing how they approach redrafting, or even a ’10 tips’ type countdown to help students develop a checklist of their own to tackle and improve aspects of their writing in a new draft. Basically anything engaging and clear about drafting will be beneficial – the more students normalise the practice, the better.
Spoken english Speaking Overall objective: to reassure students about S&L tasks and give them strategies to succeed in these
A video of people (possibly young people, ks3 peers?) Talking about their feelings on speaking in front of people, their tips for doing it well or getting over nerves and, equally importantly, tips for being a good supportive audience when classmates are making a speech – this can make a real difference to people’s ability to perform and how well they do so.
Topics Potential Films Details (areas identified as key for the target age group)
Introduction Introduction to Media: Analysing Overall Objective: to make explicit the ways images are used to Media Images communicate with us and draw students’ attention to the meanings they already understand through basics like colour and gesture codes.
A solid overview of/intro to what we understand about imagery and how it communicates to us, beginning with basic colour associations (eg: blue can mean sad, cold, peaceful; green can mean eco-friendly or be associated with jealousy or naivety) to marketing and demographic colours (eg: blue for boys; primary colours for little children) and even film genres (eg: action films often use fire based colours). Aside from colours, useful to have some basic rules about: • placement, eg: important things go in the centre of an image; looking down on something (high angle) makes it seem small
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or vulnerable, looking up to something (low angle) makes it seem huge, important or threatening. • body language – the stances and gestures of people featured, eg: action heroes in a poster usually mid-movement; what facial expressions show about how characters feel • direct address – in writing it’s ‘you’, in images it’s whether someone is looking us in the eye • background – where are we, what is shown, what mood does the background show
Main rules: what detail can you see? What does it make you feel or think of? Introduction to Media: What is Overall Objective: to give a basic understanding of what representation Representation? means and why it matters
An overview of what representation is in the media, what might be a positive or negative representation, why that matters, and why representations of minorities (eg: LGBTQ+, disability or minority ethnic representations) are significant across an array of media.
Introduction to Media: What is Media Overall Objective: to explain media as essentially a study of images, its in English? place in our increasingly visual culture, and why we study it/why it’s important to be able to understand and critique it
NB: Particularly given its placement within English at KS3, this will be most helpfully framed in comparison to English. As such, a video should emphasise Media as a study of how images communicate in the same way English is a study of how words communicate.
Introduction to Media: What is Overall Objective: an overview of genre, covering how it helps create Genre? audience appeal and how it relies on conventions that we recognise, even if we aren’t aware of recognising them.
NB: This could certainly rely partly on film genres as a way in but should acknowledge that young people increasingly engage with media other than films and find a way to discuss a variety of genres relevant to children and young students across other media platforms.
Introduction to Media: What is Overall Objective: an overview of basic narrative form and structures Narrative? This can feasibly cover a few basic character archetypes, the concept of conflict/resolution as the form of all stories and maybe even a little simple reference to binary opposition – good vs evil, old vs young, empire vs rebellion etc.
Analysing N/A Media Texts
Moving N/A Image Arts
News and N/A Journalism
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Media N/A industries and institutions
News values N/A
Production N/A and evaluation
Item B: Learning outcomes for English with Media Education as set out by the NI Curriculum
Teachers should enable pupils to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in:
(Key Stage 3 Non Statutory Guidance for English with Media Education CCEA)
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Item C: Video Spec for Delivery
Video
Short titles / opening idents (max 3 seconds) to be used - please use
• RELEVENT BITESIZE TOPIC/SUBJECT start and end Bumper; there will be no credits either at the beginning or at the end of the Films;
and
• each Film will fade in from black and then fade down to black at the end of the clip. A three (3) second fade is the advisable length.
Deliver on a hard drive (exFAT) or via fileshare/cloud storage (Dropbox preferred or mediashuttle, the BBC will make a folder available) two formats of each video (one compressed and one uncompressed).
Compressed:
▪ Container format: .mp4 or .mov ▪ Maximum file size, 50GB ▪ Video Codec: H.264 / QuickTime
If your system gives you the option to choose between baseline, main and high profile for H264 export, high is preferred.
▪ Frame size: 1920 x 1080 ▪ Frames per second: 25 (progressive scan) ▪ Bit rate/ Quality: Constant/100%
Audio
▪ Codec: AAC ▪ Channels: Stereo ▪ Bit rate: 320 kbps ▪ Sample rate: 48 KHz ▪ Sample depth: 16 bit
For online there is no set level – if it is consistent and you can hear the voice over the music mix and it is not too low or distorted, it is fine.
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Uncompressed:
▪ deliver an uncompressed version on separate channels. ▪ this can be the source files used within the editing system, with Video, Voice, Music, SFX and Graphics on separate channels or legs. ▪ deliver final non mixdown project files from edit system (FCP/Premiere/Avid) ▪ graphics must be rendered on separate channel for translation. ▪ video codec is AVC Intra Class 100. Premiere and FCP you can use the DPP AS-11 HD export setting. ▪ if delivering animation, use the uncompressed Animation Codec. ▪ H264 source footage from dslrs is acceptable.
Please refer to this link for output https://www.digitalproductionpartnership.co.uk/what- we-do/technical-standards/programme-delivery-standards/
The separate animation assets (as psd or eps files) or good quality still photographs from live action should also be supplied in order for the Bitesize team to build activities to sit alongside the videos.
Images
High resolution (HD Quality – 1920x1080 or higher – 16:9 ratio) as JPEGS (100% quality), and an uncompressed TIF LZW or PNG; dimensions for the images shall be as follows;
(a) 1024 x 576px for 16:9; (b) 1024 x 1024 px for square; and (c) 1600 x 648 for 200:81
NB: THE SEPARATE ANIMATION ASSETS (AS PSD OR EPS FILES) OR GOOD QUALITY STILL PHOTOGRAPHS FROM LIVE ACTION SHOULD ALSO BE SUPPLIED IN ORDER FOR THE BITESIZE TEAM TO BUILD ACTIVITIES TO SIT ALONGSIDE THE VIDEOS.
Music
Commercial music should only be used in the videos if there is an editorial reason to do so and this needs to be agreed with the BBC prior to inclusion.
The music used shall be audience relevant: where used, music should be production/mood music rather than commercial and should reflect the action and characters on-screen;
The music should be fully cleared in respect of any exercise by the BBC of the rights granted to it under this Agreement; and MCPS Production Music Library, Non MCPS Production Music Library and Specially Composed Music is covered as there are no restrictions on this audio.
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Subtitles
▪ To deliver an XML for subtitles for each video (English SDH) ▪ Using a form of XML called TTML EBU-TT-D (Time Text Markup Languages)
For file format please refer to this link http://bbc.github.io/subtitle-guidelines/ from section 23. There are other useful guides in this file but a basic style guide and example will be supplied later.
Documentation
The following Post Production Documentation must be completed within seven days of the delivery date:
▪ metadata for each video written by a teacher/educational consultant ▪ 2 x post production transcript for each piece of video – one timecoded and one without timecode ▪ complete post production Silvermouse form. new users to Silvermouse can obtain a login by visiting the Silvermouse website and clicking ‘new user’. Existing Silvermouse users (including those who use the system for other broadcasters) can use the same login details as previously. There is no cost associated with account creation.
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