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Lydia Eykelestam
Tom Jarvis
Ellie King
Amy Patchett
Jacob Sznober
George Taylor
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Flora Ballantyne
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AS Photography Coursework

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AS Art and Design: Photography

Structure of assessment

F413 Coursework Portfolio 60% 100 marks

One unit of coursework based on themes and subject matter developed from personal starting points. All work will be selected, evaluated and presented for assessment by the candidates. Critical contextual understanding may be demonstrated through written, visual, oral or other appropriate forms.

To be internally set, internal assessments to be sent to OCR by mid May and externally moderated in June.
Deadline: 1st February 2013

F423 Controlled Assignment 40% 100 marks

One unit that comprises an externally set assignment presented to the candidates at the start of the preparation period for the controlled test that will be a continuous period of focused study of five hours.

All work will be selected, evaluated and presented for assessment by the candidates. Critical contextual understanding may be demonstrated through written, visual, oral or other appropriate forms.

To be externally set on 1st February, internal assessments to be sent to OCR by mid May and externally moderated in June.

The same mark scheme is used to assess both units and this is attached at the end of this document.

F413 ASSIGNMENT

Stage 1

Choose one of the following themes as the starting point for your work:

Moving

Journey

Order

Repetition

Childhood

Reflection

Conflict

Hidden

Light

Everything you do from now on must be recorded on your blog.

Stage 2

Now you’ve chosen your theme you need to develop a personal investigation which will be the basis of your work.  It is entirely up to you how you interpret the theme.

A good starting point would be to do all of the following:

Ø  Produce a mindmap of your chosen theme

Ø  Look up the word in a dictionary and write down the definition

Ø  Look up the word in a thesaurus and write down all the suggestions

Once you have done this you need to decide on an initial focus for your work.

For example, if the theme was Nature, depending on their personal interests, people could choose as their focus:  global warming; the concept of Mother Nature; nature versus nurture; lifecycles; the seasons; urban versus rural; or organic to suggest just a few!

At this stage you do not have to think of what your final outcome will be, just decide on a focus which interests you and which you can begin to research and develop ideas for.

Once you have decided on the focus for your investigation write a brief statement of what you intend to do.  This should basically take the form of a flow diagram showing how you initially think your work is going to develop.  However, this is not set in stone and you could find that at some point in your work things take on a completely different direction to that which you initially planned.

The important thing is that there must be a logical flow to your investigation where things clearly link together.  A study which just constitutes different random pieces of work will not score highly.

Once you’ve done this show it to your teacher who will discuss it with you and might raise issues you hadn’t considered.  Once you’ve had this discussion you are ready to begin your work.

Stage 3

Get on with it!

At this point it’s important to have a clear understanding of how your work is assessed as you need to make sure that your work is detailed and meets all the requirements in order to achieve the best possible result.

Your work is assessed in four areas:

Develop - AO1 Develop their ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

Experiment - AO2 Experiment with and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes reviewing and refining their ideas as their work develops.

Record - AO3 Record in visual and/or other forms, ideas, observations and insights relevant to their intentions, demonstrating an ability to reflect on their work and progress.

Present - AO4 Present a personal, informed and meaningful response demonstrating critical understanding, realising intentions and where appropriate, make connections between visual, written, oral or other elements.

So what are the sources you can use?

Well that depends on what your personal starting point is, but things it must include are:

Ø  Analysis of existing images

Ø  Analysis of appropriate photographers.  For example if the topic is nature you might analyse the work of photographers who specialize in photographing landscapes or animals.

Don’t just think about photography though!

Ø  You might need to research a topic and draw out the issues or facts from the topic which you want to explore further.

Ø  You might analyse works of art such as paintings or sculptures if this is relevant

Ø  You might visit a particular location to get information

Ø  You might go to a museum or art gallery or photography exhibition

Whatever research and investigation you do, this must be detailed in your sketchbook; and you need to reflect on your research.

You must clearly indicate what are the important aspects that you are going to explore further or use to incorporate in or influence your work.  For example your analysis of the work of a particular photographer might identify a particular technique which you are going to utilize in your own work.

YOU MUST NOT SIMPLY CUT AND PASTE FROM THE INTERNET OR COPY FROM A BOOK.  USE YOUR OWN WORDS!

AS Unit F410–F416: Coursework Portfolio

For this unit candidates need to produce a portfolio of work that derives from initial starting points, topics or themes that are determined by the centre.

The focus here is to produce, and select for submission, work that shows how the candidate has both:

Ø  developed their knowledge, skills and understanding;

Ø  explored, researched and acquired techniques and skills.

The portfolio is assessed holistically through all the AOs, but there is an emphasis when marking on AO1 (develop) and AO2 (experiment).

Candidates are expected to:

                   

Ø  record observations from sources relevant to intentions;

Ø  develop ideas and techniques appropriate to their chosen specialism(s);

Ø  produce work that is appropriate to their intentions.

Candidates should be aware that in practical or written work all references and sources should be correctly acknowledged.

The portfolio can comprise:

Ø  a single, sustained project, theme or course of study;

Ø  a number of smaller projects;

Ø  a combination of work presented in sketchbooks and/or mounted on sheets, or any other appropriate format.

The portfolio must be presented in an appropriate format and aim to have sufficient work to satisfy all the Assessment Objectives.

Sketchbook Requirements

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AS Photography Coursework

Sketchbook Contents

For the Photography qualification, you are required to submit a sketchbook that records the progression of your ideas throughout the completion of the coursework. It is important that you explore all your ideas thoroughly and document everything as you are going along. To ensure that you are satisfying the requirements of the exam board, use the following to guide to help you.

1.     Choose one of the ten starting points listed on the blog. (Stage one of the task sheet).

2.     Then move on to stage two of the task sheet. This is:

·       Produce a mindmap of your chosen theme

·       Look up the word in a dictionary and write down the definition

·       Look up the word in a thesaurus and write down all the suggestion

3.     Choose three ideas from your original mindmap that you will research in more depth.

4.     You then need to write a brief paragraph about why you’ve chosen the ideas you have and how you plan to research them.

5.     For each of the three ideas, you must find 3 or 4 images that you will analyse in detail using the guidance on the blog.

6.     You must then write a review of your research, talking about what you learnt from your analyses, how you will use them in the rest of your work and which of the three ideas you will look at further.

7.     When you’ve chosen the idea you want to look at in greater depth, write a brief outline of the idea you think you might want to do. You then need to find additional photos that explore your planned idea further.

8.     You must then write a list of experimentations you’d like to conduct in order to find out about the sorts of techniques you might use in your final photographic piece.  This could be exploring the effect of different lenses or filters; or how framing impacts on the meaning of an image; shutter speed; Photoshop techniques; video etc.

9.     All the experimentations that you undertake must be recorded visually in your sketchbook with annotations.

10.  You must then write a review of your experimentations, talking about what you learnt from them and how you will use them in your final photographic piece.

11.  Before you start on your final piece, you must produce a brief plan of how you will go about shooting and presenting your work.

12.  Finally, you need to write a review of your finished photographic piece, explaining how your initial research and experimentations have been used in its completion.

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REMEMBER, YOU ARE MARKED ACROSS FOUR ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES (AO):

AO1 – RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

AO2 – EXPERIMENTATIONS AND EXPLANATION

AO3 – RECORDING OF IDEAS, OBSERVATIONS, INTENTIONS AND HOW WORK IS PROGRESSING

AO4 – THE FINAL PIECE AND HOW IT’S BEEN INFLUENCED BY THE RESEARCH AND EXPERIMENTATIONS

STUDENTS WHO DID NOT ACHIEVE THE GRADE THEY WANTED HAD NOT DONE ALL THE WORK REQUIRED TO SATISFY THE ASSESSMENT OBJECTIVES AO1, AO2 AND AO3.

Image Analysis Guidance

Throughout the course not only will you need to complete detailed analyses of images taken by established photographers, you will have to analyze the images within your own portfolio of work. Use the following to help you structure any analysis you do:

1.    Write a brief introductory description of the image you are analysing: - ‘This image was taken by the well know photographer Cindy Sherman. It is a self-portrait of the photographer herself taken with a domestic environment’.

2.    Begin the analysis by identifying what you find most striking about the image. Say what it is that particularly makes it stand out for you.

3.    Talk about how the image is framed. Firstly, write about what is included within the camera frame (what you chose to go into the photo when looking through the view finder). Secondly, discuss how objects in the photo itself have been used to direct the viewer’s eye to specific points in the image.

4.    You will need to write about the composition of the photograph. Explain what is in the foreground, mid-ground and background and what impact they have on the image e.g. depth, confinement. This should lead on to depth of field.

5.    You need to discuss how much of the image is in focus. The more of the image that is in focus, the broader the depth of field. A narrow depth of field is when only a small portion of the image is in focus. Light levels directly affect depth of field. The more light the greater the depth of field and vice versa.

6.    You can talk about lighting in different ways – high contrast lighting (extremely dark shadows and really bright light), low contrast lighting (a greater range of tones that subtly change from light to dark) and the amount of warmth created in the photo by the use of colour and diffusion (orange sun set, cold diffusing mist).

7.    You must talk about the quality of the image you are analysing. The more light that is available when a photo is taken, the crisper the photo. Lines between shadow and light will be well defined, colours will be more saturated and the quality will be ‘extremely good. Lower light levels will result in a ‘grainy’ image with objects being less defined from the objects around them. The colours will also be desaturated.

8.    Shots and angles need also to be addressed. What size shot is used? What angle has the image been taken at? What meanings have been created through the use of these shots and angles.

AS Photography Induction Task

AS Photography Induction Task

1.    Conduct research on a photographer of your choice, identifying their style and their influences. This must be in your own words.

2.    Select one image the photographer has taken and analyse it – State why you like the image. What techniques have been used? What is striking about the photo.

3.    Take four – six photos in the style of the photographer you’ve chosen. Print these off.

4.    Write a review of your photos and how they are like those of the photographer you chose.

Specification