WS - Marking an A2 Blog

Last week we were asked to mark an A2 Music Video product. This week we are looking at the mark scheme and attempting to mark the blog of one of last years A2 Media students.

The blog I have looked at is by Joel Colborne. The song that Joel and his group (Callum Moreman and Jonny Hughes) used for their music video was "Disorder" by Joy Division.

Below is my marking for Joel's blog from looking through the mark scheme.

• Research into similar products and a potential target audience. Excellent. The research into the song/band/similar material evidenced on the blog is in depth. A number of posts stand out in this category and show the overall excellence of this blog. Existing Videos For Ideas & Similar Bands - New Order case study.
•  Organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props. Excellent. One example in particular of this is absolutely brilliant. The overall organisation also seems to be fantastic, leading me to give the grade 'excellent' for this section. The best example of this is Call Sheets and this post including a Vodcast, Locations.
• Work on shot lists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboards. Excellent. Again, all of this is evidenced well on the blog. There is a great example of what a Storyboard should be like, including some very impressive drawings to demonstrate how the shots will appear. As well as this there is further evidence in the form of this Production Diary.
• Time Management. Excellent. The time management by the group seems to be excellent from what I can see on the bog and there are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, because there does not appear to be any particular time where the work has been crammed into. The work, including the time for production seems to be evenly spread out showing great time management. Secondly, and arguably more importantly, the use of storyboards, call sheets and other such materials shows the planning and management that has gone into the blog and product. Signs from the blog show excellent time management.
• Level of care in the presentation of the research and planning. Excellent. Like the Time Management part, the evidence for this part can be seen from looking down the blog. There are a number of different types of media used and the presentation is close to perfect. The blog looks neat and is very well set out, easy to navigate around and posts are clearly labelled.
• Skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation. Excellent. This was touched on in the previous point, but I will discuss it further here. A good example of the blog showing off ICT skills and use of technology is with the Treatment. This shows ICT in the way that the document has been created, showing great skill in the organisation, presentation and quality of the product. By embedding this document with Scribd, this post also shows the use of digital technology. Examples like this can be seen throughout the blog, leading me to conclude that the blog is 'excellent' in this category.
• Communication Skills.

The overall quality of the Research and Planning of the Blog is EXCELLENT. The quality is fantastic, as is everything about it from the presentation to the standard of the posts. If I were to give this blog and overall mark for research and planning, I would give it as high a mark as 19 or 20/20/