Special Subject Investigation at Eastleigh College

Unit 4: Special Subject Investigation for Creative Media Production

Unit code: M/601/8572 QCF Level: 5 Credit value: 15

This unit aims to enable learners to develop their knowledge and understanding of a chosen aspect of creative media production and their skills in researching and presenting an individual investigation.

• Unit abstract

The creative media sector provides a wide range of technical, professional and academic areas of interest for development.

This unit provides the opportunity for learners to identify a particular area of study or practice and develop a proposal and set specific objectives for investigation.

Learners will apply research skills to the identification and selection of materials and resources and present the results of this investigation in a way that suits the chosen subject and their own learning style.

They will review and evaluate their work considering improvements in learning and performance, the professional context of the work and the process by which the presentation is produced.

• Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit a learner will:

Be able to present and justify planned proposals for investigations into creative media production

Proposal: subject; methodology; identification of resources; identification of technologies; research plan; presentation, eg method, medium

Justify: purpose; suitability, eg achievability, availability of research materials; vocational relevance
Be able to research and select appropriate materials for investigations into creative media production

Research: archives; libraries; internet; type, eg primary, secondary, qualitative, quantitative; research log; costs

Select materials: evaluate suitability; establish currency; collate; select appropriate materials Investigation: develop investigation; apply technology; develop content, eg writing, video, audio, images; edit; review; revise
Be able to present results of investigations into creative media production

Present: technical accuracy; language skills, eg clarity, precision, vocabulary, register, grammar, punctuation; vocational context; format, eg printed dissertation, broadcast work, show reel, demonstration, website; referencing, eg Harvard, Modern Languages Association (MLA), Modern Humanities Research Association; acknowledgements

citethisforme.com neilstoolbox.com Belfast
Be able to reflect on own performance and learning

Performance: compare completed work with original proposal; quality of research; presentation of results, eg medium, format, style, effectiveness

Learning: development of knowledge; development of understanding; development of skills; process, eg time management, research techniques

Recommendations: planning for further development, eg career potential, application to projects and industry practice, vendor certification; alternative ideas, eg technology, subject

Learning outcomes On successful completion of this unit a learner will:	Assessment criteria for pass The learner can:
LO1 Be able to present and justify planned proposals for investigations into creative media production	1.1 present a well focused proposal for an investigation into creative media production 1.2 present a comprehensive implementation plan for an investigation into creative media production 1.3 justify choice of subject for investigation
LO2 Be able to research and select appropriate materials for investigations into creative media production	2.1 carry out research for proposed investigation effectively 2.2 critically evaluate research material gathered 2.3 produce well developed results of an investigation into creative media production
LO3 Be able to present results of investigations into creative media production	3.1 present the results of an investigation into creative media production clearly and effectively
LO4 Be able to reflect on own performance and learning.	4.1 critically evaluate the presented investigation against the proposal 4.2 critically evaluate learning against agreed criteria and make recommendations for further development.

printable page

This War of Mine by 11 Bit Studios

TWoM has a different take on the war experience - you are not an elite soldier, you are trying to keep a group of civilians alive in a city under siege. Based on the situation in Sarajevo during the Bosnian war. 83 on Metacritic, available on Windows/Mac/Linux from Nov 2014. Released on iOS and Android July 2015 with PS4 and XboxOne slated for Jan 2016 release of The Little Ones - your group includes kids....

Pirates of the Caribbean - The Black Pearl

Intro scene (fog) Lt. Norris, Mr Gibbs and a miniature Kiera Knightly find a survivor

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Knights of the Fallen Empire

	Jamie F Y1	Warcraft (games franchise with film release June 2016) how-blizzard-can-save-the-business-of-world-of-warcraft/
	Theo G Y1	Halo (games franchise) Hunt the Truth tumblr
	O H Y1	Resident Evil (film franchise + games?)
	Nathan H-W Y1	Doom (games franchise + 2005 Film)
	Jeevan P Y1	Dark Souls (games franchise)

	Aaron C Y2	Lord of the Rings (film franchise + games)
	Owen C Y2	Transformers (film franchise + games?)
	Dan H Y2	The Hobbit (film franchise + games?) corrigan
	Joe R Y2	Elder Scrolls (20 year games franchise)

Example subject with links:
Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists/Band of Misfits

(US release name sometimes differs, as with "Philosopher's Stone" and George III type names)

Check Internet Movie DataBase imdb

VFX breakdown on YouTube and Vimeo

VLogs and Production Logs: Pirates Tumblr production log

Facebook pages often have 'in progress' updates, either 'official' or personal

Twitter accounts are great for 'in progress' updates - Peter Lord of Aardman posted greenscreen images and other production notes and has now put up over 1000 pics on Twitter

Review sites: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/54169 (Pirates)

Tutorial sites will often break down scenes and encourage you to recreate them: 3DWorld StarWars

Also see: Box Trolls end credits, (+ making of talk at Google), Sky Captain, Sin City

Your presentation tools

OCR slideshow example

Prezi or Sway.com

Microsoft PowerPoint / Apple Keynote

Create a Website / blog using Wix, WordPress, Tumblr, BlogSpot...

Word Document (not good for presenting clips)

more control over YouTube clips (not working for Prezi)

Edit YouTube clips online with clipconverter.cc or keepvid then download as mp4 and upload to Prezi (limit of 50MB) or upload to your own YouTube account and link from there.

For quick Web presentations from an iPad see Slate

Presentation skills:

Garr Reynolds presentation tips

Guy Kawasaki secular evangelist for Apple etc.

Copyright is automatic unless waived

If you'd like people to be able to use your images or music in their own projects (or want to use other's work for your project) consider a Creative Commons License. A computer programmer turned singer-songwriter, Jonathan Coulton aka 'JoCo' made his songs available to anyone who wanted to use them as a soundtrack for their videos, and as a result a huge number can be found on YouTube providing him with free publicity.
Nickelodeon's parent company Viacom sued Google/YouTube and provided evidence that the founders were happy to exploit copyrighted material to grow their popularity and user base. Nickelodeon themselves went against the trend of issuing cease and desist orders against people who put up YouTube clips, and instead ran ads under the clips along the lines of 'if you enjoyed this, watch more at Nickelodeon'. The mash-up Gotye has edited together from fan videos for his hit Somebody that I used to Know.
Kevin McKleod at incompetech is becoming well known as a composer of atmospheric music for film-makers, and is a favourite of my son Jamie for his Lego animations. Free or cheap licensed music from Jamendo.
Digital Millenium Copyright Act. DRM (Digital Rights Management) issues. Peer to peer filesharing rights, wrongs & risks of using the likes of Pirate Bay & BitTorrent.

While you can use Photoshop to add a © text layer with reduced opacity to your images to deter online theft (handy for eBay) you can also add an invisible digimarc from the bottom of the Filters menu. On Windows you can get the © symbol by holding down Alt and typing 0169 on the numeric keypad, or Alt g on a Mac. no right click
royalty free photography - stay within copyright laws using stock photography, it can be surprisingly cheap (or indeed free if you find the right site). My current favourite is 123RF, you pay about £29 to buy enough credits for 29 Web sized images, or a fewer number at a higher resolution for magazines. You can also download images at low resolutions and watermarks for use in 'comping' - putting together a mock-up to show a client prior to spending money/dreits on an image that may be rejected by your customer. If you are a photographer then consider uploading some of your own images to earn commission.
Other good stock photo sites include: istockphoto.com; www.shutterstock.com; www.corbisimages.com and Adobe has relaunched its own offering, integrated with its CreativeCloud.
Free options include Google advanced image search (hidden under the gear wheel)

with licensing options at the bottom of the list set to free to use.
Flickr Commons
Classic books are available from project gutenberg

Unit 4: Special Subject Investigation for Creative Media Production

Unit code: M/601/8572 QCF Level: 5 Credit value: 15

• Unit abstract

• Learning outcomes

Be able to present and justify planned proposals for investigations into creative media production

Be able to research and select appropriate materials for investigations into creative media production

Be able to present results of investigations into creative media production

Be able to reflect on own performance and learning

Learning outcomes

Assessment criteria for pass