Have just submitted the assessment for the course, and I think we've managed to find a fair way of looking at what students have learned during the course. Here're a few things about it:
- The final project will consist of film made to one of 8 briefs, a behind the scenes documentary and a treatment. This allows the student to present information about how a film was made, as well as the end result.
- The grade will be based on 4 components. The first three are the core skill areas for the course: creative, organisational and technical. The last is looking at the production as a whole and includes the question "Would we spend money on this or on more like this?"
- The briefs range from making a tutorial to making an ident to give as much scope as possible for individuals to follow their own interests.
- Marks will be for work that is appropriate to the genre - a DIY tutorial to play in a store has a different aesthetic to a TV ident. We're looking for evidence that students are making work that matches the audience.
- The whole thing has been designed to be as manageable as possible. Total run length of both pieces of media is no more than 5 minutes, and the treatment is up to 600 words with a template and worked example provided.
- We get students to look at the assessment early on in the course so that it's at the back of their head while they're learning. The last 4 weeks of the course are given over to producing the project, with plenty of help and guidance on making the different parts.
- We've left the door open for students to collaborate with one another or others if they want (film-making is social after all). The behind-the-scenes documentary and treatment need to be their own work and describe the role they took in the production.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how this works out now.
