Student Video Marking

Today in class we looked at this year's mark scheme for the first time. We began to look at the difference between each of the Levels and what we would expect to see from a music video of each of these standards. We particularly looked at what is expected from a Level 4 standard of work, which is a step up from last year, because the idea for this year is for it to be professional and be able to survive as sufficient advertisement for a song in the real music industry.
Along with this we also learnt that the marks are more split this time. This is because marks are also awarded for a website and a digi pack, alongside the music video production, which is due to the task being a promotional package task, rather than just a production task.
However, this lesson we only looked primarily at past student's music videos and looking at the mark scheme, mark them out of 40. This is what is required, from the mark scheme, in order to do well
The video that I have decided to mark is Insomnia:

I thought that the video started very strong with the drops of water falling from the tap because it involved thought beats and therefore created an intense and well thought about opening. However even though I did understand the narrative, therefore showing it was portrayed clearly, it became a bit boring after a while as it was all in extremely dull colour tones with a greyish feel throughout all the narrative clips. I think that the lip syncing was completed really well by the performer, but when it was on the performer there needed to be more variation of shot and more movement, especially as it was just him on a black background.Also it would have been even better if you could have been able to see more of his face, as the lighting was poor causing you to only see half his face.

Overall I think that the music video was proficient, and held much of the appropriate camerawork and visuals to be a music video, along with conscious editing. This meant that it showed signs of being a good video. However at times it felt a little bit more like a short film to me and the locations and long length of certain shots made it obvious that it was not a music video of professional standard.
With all this in mind I awarded this video a Level 3 and 23-25 marks.