1. Before you choose a genre….

2. You should…..
• Read examiner reports
• Watch loads of films in your genre – inc indie! Not just the
obvious blockbusters
• See what’s out there – youtube search!
Search:
-G321
-Film opening sequence or title sequence
-AS media
• Know what genre and subgenre you want to do……not just
‘horror’

3. Examiner reports – June 13
Video
There were several examples of highly proficient/excellent editing and more work is being done
on creating an opening with some sense of enigma rather than trying to create a condensed
narrative. There was still an over-reliance solely on actors’ names and film title to constitute film
titles, showing a lack of understanding of the range of titles expected of a film opening and of
their construction, appearance and timings. Candidates need to be encouraged to create their
own soundscape rather than sourcing an existing well-known track, which is not permitted for
this specification.
There were some excellent examples of film openings where candidates had clearly worked
hard to establish a sense of enigma and atmosphere. However, more often, candidates did not
focus well on what the narrative was. Many film openings ended abruptly; candidates had put
some thought into what they wanted to show in the opening sequence but not enough into how
they would close the sequence. The combination of effective use of images and sound, titles and
lighting worked extremely well in some of the better work. There were many examples of highly
proficient editing and excellent camerawork, the outcome of work on skills development.
However, in some cases there was little sense of control of the camera, with an over-reliance on
zooms and shaky material without tripods. Mise en scene was often well chosen, but weaker
candidates still tended to focus on the chase in the woods. Some submissions were very shortthe target should be as close to two minutes as possible; there is no penalty for being either
over-length or significantly under, but candidates cannot expect to do themselves justice in a
piece as short as one minute unless it contains immense complexity. Some openings contained
far too much action- centres could advise candidates not to be over-ambitious in this regard.
Titles were still often rather limited in terms of understanding of institutional conventions, and
often featured non-existent job roles.

4. Examiner reports – Jan 13
Video
There were several examples of highly proficient/excellent editing and more work is being done
on creating an opening with some sense of enigma rather than trying to create a condensed
narrative. There was still an over-reliance solely on actors’ names and the film title itself to
constitute all the titles in the film opening, showing a lack of understanding of the range of titles
expected of a film opening and of their construction, appearance and timings. Candidates need
to be encouraged to create their own soundscape rather than sourcing an existing well-known
soundtrack or resorting to familiar sounds attached to IMovie. Some candidates who imported
3 non-diegetic MP3 files from Garageband into Final Cut Pro need to be careful not to compress
files before sharing to ITunes; there were numerous examples of audio ‘popping/ticking’ sounds
connected to this import error which can be easily rectified by un-ticking the box.
There were some excellent examples of film openings where candidates had clearly worked
hard to establish a sense of enigma and atmosphere. However, more often, candidates did not
focus well on what the narrative was. Many film openings ended abruptly; candidates had put
some thought into what they wanted to show in the opening sequence but not enough into how
they would close the sequence. The combination of effective use of images and sound, titles and
lighting worked extremely well in some of the better work. There were many examples of highly
proficient editing and excellent camerawork, the outcome of work on skills development.
However, in some cases there was little sense of control of the camera, with an over-reliance on
zooms and shaky material without tripods. Mise en scene was often well chosen, but weaker
candidates still tended to focus on the chase in the woods.

5. June 12
Video
There were some excellent examples of film openings where candidates had clearly worked
hard to establish a sense of enigma and atmosphere. However, more often, candidates did not
focus well on what the narrative was, although the convention may have been clear there wasn’t
a clear idea about the story that was being told. Many film openings ended abruptly; candidates
had put some thought into what they wanted to show in the opening sequence but not enough
into how they would close the sequence.
There were some very short submissions, often less than a minute in length; such work is
unlikely to be developed sufficiently to score above level 2. At the other end of the scale, some
openings lasted four or five minutes, which meant that they tended to lack focus and made many
technical errors. This, and a tendency to tell too much of the story, demonstrated a lack of
relevant research.
The combination of effective use of images and sound, titles and lighting worked extremely well
in some of the better work. There were many examples of highly proficient editing and excellent
camerawork, the outcome of work on skills development. However, in some cases there was
little sense of control of the camera, with an over-reliance on zooms and shaky material without
tripods. Camerawork was often good, indeed excellent in some cases, but centres should
encourage candidates to check a shot is in focus, the frame is filled and that lighting is
consistent (and there’s enough light to see what is happening).
The most popular genres were thrillers, horror and rom-com. The better centres allowed
candidates freedom in their choice of genre and the process of pitching and selecting film ideas
(with teacher input) was clearly present in the research and planning. Mise en scene was often
well chosen, but weaker candidates still tended to focus on the chase in the woods or the school
grounds, with the white masked stalker. Soundscapes have improved, with original sound to
match original film in the best cases, but there were still relatively few candidates experimenting
with foley or using any diegetic sound. Many centres chose to ignore sound altogether- though
any film-maker will say it represents 50% of the production. Much attention is needed to this
area, to move away from the view that only music is needed and that sound editing can be an
afterthought.
Titles remain an area of concern. Given that the task is ‘the titles and opening of a new feature’,
a very high proportion of candidates showed no grasp of the institutional conventions of titles.
This reflects an absence of research in this area. Production company idents were much more
frequently seen, which was good, but in many cases this was the highlight of titling. Some
candidates appeared to include titles either as an afterthought or as a formality without
researching the conventional running order. Titles need to be integrated into the planning from
the outset. Where this is done, candidates show a clear sense of design and tend to include the
key production roles in an appropriate order. It was also very disheartening to see so many
careless spelling errors in titles, particularly ‘staring’ actors; not only is this a typographical error,
but films rarely, if at all, use ‘starring’ before an actor’s name.

6. June 11
Construction
There were a number of very strong submissions for both the video and print tasks. The best
candidates demonstrated a good understanding of generic conventions from their study of real
media texts, the ability to use artistic and creative flair to subvert or extend the conventions and
high levels of technical competence. There was still some serious over-marking within this area
with teachers pushing candidates too easily into level 4.
The film opening was the most popular task, usually submitted as a group project. Key to the
success of this project is a proper consideration of the function, purpose and conventions of
titles; the best projects had taken care to look closely at titles in real film openings and learnt
from them. A number of centres produced production company logos and idents which helped in
the process of establishing an institutional context. Soundtracks at best featured layered sound,
with foley work and attention to dialogue and atmosphere. Centres are reminded that audio
should be original or be from a copyright-free source. Where candidates had considered the
conventions of film openings rather than trying to tell too much of the story, the projects tended
to work best. The stalk and slash narratives usually lacked careful planning and consideration of
camera, editing and mise-en-scene. More creative productions thought carefully about the
impact of sound and lighting and variety of shot types as a way to create enigma and
atmosphere. Ideally, productions should be as close to two minutes as possible. Those which
are considerably over-length usually do not meet the needs of the task. In a few cases, openings
featured unacceptable language, given the context of an external assessment.

7. Youtube examples
Yikes!
Wow!
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=vDmzKmB-tHE
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=24nQdBL8M3w
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=DUPnSe7-UEQ
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=HH0_lPscsD0&list=PL426
C4E4F7D73EE3A
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=AZJzLzpkgaU
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=YRO6WxATptM (good
mark though)
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=vLsiGGF9DPc
http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=TzefKbMKMF0 ok

8. Others…..
• All videos on media magazine
http://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/mm/prod_co
mp/filmopenings_home.html
• All videos on OCR website
• http://ocrmediastudies.weebly.com/courseworkwith-levels.html
• http://examplesofwork13.weebly.com/as.html