This evaluation template guides students to evaluate their year two projects at an advanced diploma program in creative media production and technology. It prompts students to concisely analyze their projects, including outlining their goals and themes, research process, development of ideas, collaboration, outcomes, challenges faced, and reception from peers. Students are also asked to critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their projects and identify skills and areas for future development.

1. L3 Creative Media
Production & Technology
Year Two Evaluation Template

2. Evaluation Overview
This evaluation form is designed to assist you in the evaluation of your projects.
When using this form it is good practice to:
• Use appropriate terminology.
• Stay concise and focus on key points.
• Evaluate and analyse your statements.
• Focus on judgements about work rather than telling a story of how it was made.
Please find the grading matrix here to help you assess you are working at the right level.
Level 3 Extended Diploma Grading Matrix - https://bit.ly/2Jnqj3v

3. Project Overview
In this section you will outline the aim of the project/task and give an
overview of the activates you undertook to complete it.

4. What was the theme of your project and
what attracted you to it?
• The theme was a sort of fusion between hippy culture and simply
content that young people who identify with that might like. For
example another member of my team made a horror film which isn't
directly related however is certainly something that audience will be
interested in. The visual themes definitely relate to the hippy
aesthetic the most. We decided on this theme due to the given
topics, of future time and illusion. We concluded that these topics
relate to the sort of big questions of our reality which the hippy thing
is all about too. I personally am very interested and passionate about
this theme, and most of the group was too. Also, with it being
directed at young people, I think these topic are ever more relevant
due to the current negative situations in the world.

5. What research did you undertake and how
did it help develop your project?
• I looked at heavily at existing products, notably other social media
services used by young people. I believe in exploring these products I
gained good knowledge on what social media young people use and
what they look at and why. One area that stood out to me as being
greatly beneficial was my research on 'BBC three'. I found this
interesting as it’s a branch of a mainstream company that focusses on
content for younger people, and its often quite niche. I liked the way
they differentiated it from their media channels directed it at older
people, with their branding etc. This definitely influenced our project
as it showed me how to direct something at young people, but also
with it being the BBC they keep it informative and professional. This is
something I wanted with our project.

6. How did you develop and improve your ideas
throughout the project?
• I began by intending to create a guided meditation, which I did make
however my initial ideas were for a much less developed product. I
began by considering a guided mediation but simply as an audio
project. As I progressed through research, I concluded a visual aspect
would further develop my idea and make it more interesting overall.
The video ideas also developed as I worked, as I firstly wanted it as a
one take, no cuts and for it to be minimally edited. I developed a set,
and some extra aspects like lighting incense at the beginning and
giving a brief explanation of why to do that. This I felt definitely
helped as it sets a feel for the whole video, and provides space for an
introduction to the guided meditation.

7. What was the outcome of the project/task?
The overall project was to make a platform and content for young people who are
interested in hippy culture. We have been quite broad with the term hippy when it
comes to the content, with some of it not directly relating, however the branding of
the platform certainly does. The intended outcome for this was to create quite an
alternative and niche platform that would attract people who are maybe less
interested in mainstream media. My section of the project was to create a guided
mediation. I want to firstly create a piece of content that’s very positive and
empowering, but I also want it to be useful for the viewer. For example due to it being
interactive (I direct the viewer on how to meditate) I hope that some viewers might
watch it again whenever they need to relax. I also hope to introduce young people to
practicing meditation as from my experience its very beneficial. I think in the time we
live humans and especially young people feel quite disconnected or lost, I hope to
allow them to reconnect with themselves via my video.

8. Personal Response
This section will explore your thoughts and feelings about the
experience. This will help gain a understand of how your personal
feelings may have impacted the final outcome.

9. How did you feel about the project before
you started?
• I was optimistic as I liked the given themes in the brief. We chose time
future and illusion which I thought were very interesting. I had my
idea instantly as its something I had wanted to make for a while
anyway. I was slightly confused about the aspect of the project
involving the actual platform, for example logos and idents as I wasn’t
sure if we had to actually make say a webpage design and put the
content on it. Once I had my idea for the content and the platform
related jobs were allocated I felt very confident and enthusiastic to
get on with the project.

10. What do you think about your project development and
how did it help you to refine your idea?
• My main adaption to my initial idea was changing from an audio
project to a video one. I made this decision very early in the project
before I had actually started any planning. I think this decision
drastically developed my idea and allowed me to make a much more
detailed product. I also developed my video idea, initially I wanted it
to just be me in front of a set reading my script. However, upon
editing my video I decided it was visually lacking, so I added some
royalty free footage of nature scenes that regard my dialogue. I think
this made the project look more developed and professional, and it
provides more context for what I'm saying.

11. Did you collaborate on your project or engage
contributors, etc?
• We did the majority of joint work in the research, planning and
audience profile. We collectively researched existing social medias
that young people use, then gathered our findings into one
powerpoint. We also looked at audience profile together and shared
that info. The grid branding we also divided between each other, with
one member of our group doing the logo and another working on
idents.

12. How did you feel when the project was
completed and why?
• I felt quite happy with the overall project; however it wasn’t
something id usually make so I wasn’t overly proud of it. The branding
of the grid I felt was good and relative to the theme, however I feel
our content could have correlated more. I feel I achieved everything I
intended with the content I made, yet I feel its still quite an
undeveloped video.

13. Evaluating the project
In the previous sections, you have been commenting upon the project development. The
evaluation may include some similar information but it will also include critical comment.
An evaluation must include information about the good and bad points of the project and it
is important to be honest. Finally, you should make a judgment about the effectiveness of
the success of the project

14. What were the good points about the project/task and what did you
learn from them? [try and think of at least 3, more if possible]
• A good point was my script, I wrote a guided mediation myself and
felt it was actually beneficial and an effective meditation. I used my
own knowledge of how to mediate and what the guided mediations
usually say. I think I also learnt how to deliver dialogue better, as with
it being a meditation I put added effort into making it sound relaxed.
• Another was my filming, I feel the set and lighting looked great and
set a relaxed vibe which is what I wanted. I also liked the depth of
field I achieved. I learnt how to format aperture and achieve a bokeh
effect.

15. What challenges did you face and how did you
respond to them? Try and think of at least 3...
• My first challenge was props. In my plan I intended to use a few items that I
couldn’t acquire in time for filming. I wanted a Tibetan singing bowl and a
soft box light. I couldn’t get either as shipping times were too long,
therefore I added Tibetan singing bowl sound effects to the intro, and used
natural light. This unfortunately meant I didn’t achieve my desired lighting,
but it was actually still very effective.
• Another challenge was editing as my copy of premiere pro had expired and
I was editing at home. To overcome this I researched the best free software
options and decided to use 'lightworks'. This software wasn’t as capable
as premiere pro but for this project it did everything I need.
• I also struggled with audio as my camera mic is fairly low quality and I
wanted the audio to be very clear and almost have an 'asmr' effect. I
overcame this by recording my audio separately on another mic and
syncing up in edit.

16. What were the negative points about the
experience, and what could you have done to
improve them?
• I prefer to work alone as I feel it’s a lot easier to create a project that
sustains a common style and theme across all aspects. I feel when
working in a group and allocating jobs, without continuous
communication the work will often look pieced together and not as
one. I think our content creation was the most negative aspect. We
allowed each other to make whatever we wanted, but as long as it
broadly fit our theme. This resulted in pieces of content that do fit the
theme, but doesn’t really relate. I would have preferred us to make
the content with more communication.

17. How would you rate the final piece? [think along the lines of
poor, satisfactory, good or excellent...justify your rating]
• I would say our final piece is good, as we all worked to a high
standard with our individual jobs and created developed products. I
think our initial research document was very good as that’s where we
worked together the most. The reason its not excellent is as of our
content. As I explained on the previous slide, our content is all good
however it doesn’t really relate and seems like a bit of a random
selection.

18. What is your opinion of your final piece? What
elements do you think are successful and why?
• My overall opinion of my final piece (my individual content for the
grid) is that its alright. I think my concept had great potential,
however I just felt somewhat limited due to my planning. I should
have planned more extensively to achieve a more developed video. I
do however think my filming was very good and my script. My script
of the guided mediation I feel actually sounded quite professional and
relaxing, despite me never writing something like that before. Also I
think my camera work came out well, as I achieved a nice level of
depth of field and it looked of a very high quality.

19. How well did your project apply the characteristics
and conventions of the medium you worked in?
• I feel that our branding fit the medium (time, the future and illusion)
as we gathered those topics under the hippie aesthetic as we felt they
would appeal to the audience of that. Our logo/ idents use aspects of
the hippy art style, with lots of bright colours and abstract shapes. I
also feel some of the content fits with it well, with mine being a
guided meditation which is commonly practiced by hippies and
another being a collection of images that use the hippy/psychedelic
art style.

20. How did you design apeal to your target
audience?
• Our use of doodle style text and abstract shapes with our logo is the
main design aspect that appeals to our audience. I also incorporate
this style into my set for my video by having the background as a
psychedelic piece of art. Another bit of content we have is some art
that conforms to this style too. My set design also conforms to the
hippie aesthetic we chose, as I used a backing of a psychedelic art
style tapestry.

21. Analysis
In this section, you will focus on the details of the project and make
sense of what happened in the project. You should demonstrate how
your decisions informed the project development and the success of the
outcome.

22. In what ways was the overall project a
success?
• I think the overall project was a success due to our intentions of
making quite a niche and unique platform, and our execution of this.
There isn't really an existing platform like ours, and I feel that by
combining characteristics of common social media channels, with
our alternative theme and content style we created a product that
really stands out. I feel that even though our content was slightly
varied, for example one item was a horror film and one a guided
meditation, it made for quite an effective combination of content.
They do all relate at a broad level, and when seen together with our
grid branding it does feel like a seamless product.

23. What elements did not go well and why?
• I think the content I produced could have been drastically better. I
made the guided meditation which is an idea I was and still am very
enthusiastic about, yet I feel my final product was not what I
envisioned. I feel my video is somewhat underdeveloped, and also my
planning. I think if I factored in more elements to the video in
planning, I could have produced something a bit more interesting. I
also feel we swayed from our overall theme, as we targeted a hippie
market but when it came to content creation this seemed less
apparent. I think this is possibly due to a lack of communication in the
group, with some members being unsure of what our target audience
and intended theme was.

24. How did your skills develop during the portfolio? [remember,
skills aren't just technical, remember things like organisation,
time management, communication, etc as well]
• I think the main skill I developed was my delivery of dialogue. Due to
my content being a meditation, I had to deliver it in a relaxed way. I
had never really thought about how my voice can affect the intended
outcome of the dialogue, but when recording I found it really does.
When listening back to my first recording, I felt my tone of voice was
too monotone and aggressive for this style of video. To overcome this
I watched other mediation videos and analyzed how they spoke. I
found that its important to speak slowly and softly, with frequent
pauses. After evaluating what I needed to change I recorded again in
the style of the videos I watched and found it to have a much greater
effect.

25. What meaning and messages did you want to
convey and were you successful?
• Our overall message was that of the hippy lifestyle. Things like
expanding consciousness and mind-bending topics. We wanted to
make content that appeals to young people, yet also benefits their
thinking. All of our content is quite thought provoking and
unconventionally interesting. We didn’t want to conform to the
content aspects of popular social media as we feel its quite damaging
to young people. In research we explored how social media effects
young people negatively, and we wanted to totally go against this. We
wanted content that was interesting, yet completely innocent in
terms of its effect on young people. I think our final product did
achieve this as all of our content is sophisticated, we didn’t focus on
things like fashion or trends.

26. What feedback did you get from your peers
and viewings?

27. What would you do differently in the future
and why?
• I would plan my content better and try communicating more with the
group. As I explained on previous slides my content felt
underdeveloped and lacked visual variety. I also think that with more
commination we would have ended up with content that feels a bit
more similar and relating to the theme.

28. What knowledge have you gained that would help you in the
future to improve your project? Also, what knowledge from
academic literature and professionals has helped and why?

29. Action Plan
This section will identify what you would do differently in the future and
identify ways you could develop.

30. If you were making a similar project in the
future, what would you do differently?

31. How could you develop your skills for future projects? Please
identify the appropriate resources and courses. For example,
webpages, tutorials, books, short courses and qualifications.

32. What personal attributes could you develop to
ensure you are working at a professional level?