The purpose of this unit is firstly to assess students’ ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills; secondly to assess students’ application of knowledge and understanding in evaluating their own work, showing how meanings and responses are created; and finally to assess their ability to undertake, apply and present appropriate research .The unit requires students to engage with contemporary media technologies, giving them the opportunity for development of skills in these technologies.

This is a coursework unit, internally assessed and externally moderated. Students produce a media artefact in response to briefs set by OCR plus some appropriate evidence of research and planning. The task provides progression from a pre-production, preliminary exercise to a more fully realised piece in the same medium. This offers the opportunity for skills development to be assessed, as well as a final finished piece.

BRIEF: Video

Preliminary exercise: Continuity task involving filming and editing a character opening a door, crossing a room and sitting down in a chair opposite another character, with whom she/he then exchanges a couple of lines of dialogue. This task should demonstrate match on action, shot/reverse shot and the 180-degree rule.

Main task: the titles and opening of a new fiction film, to last a maximum of two minutes. All video and audio material must be original, produced by the candidate(s), with the exception of music or audio effects from a copyright-free source. Both preliminary and main tasks may be done individually or as a group. (Maximum four members in a group)

Students will be required to present their Foundation Portfolio electronically via an electronic platform and the following questions must be answered:

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

The production element and presentation of research and planning may be individual or group work (maximum group size is four candidates). Where candidates have worked in a group, the evidence for assessment may be presented collectively but centres will still assess candidates on