B2 Handbook 2024

B2: Creative Industry Response Handbook

Contents

Introduction

AC1 Informing ideas for creative practice

AC2 Problem solving

AC3 Technical skills for advanced practice

AC4 Professional skills for creative practice

AC5 Communication of meaning, purpose or function of outcomes

Project management Tools- Planning Your Work

Starting the Creative Industry Response

The role of the Project Supervisor

Start date: 11th January 2024

Completion date: 26th April 2024

The Creative Industry Response makes up 66% of your final qualification grade.

It is a major piece of work.

For assessment unit B2, you will respond to an industry brief by undertaking research, developing a project proposal, producing outcomes and presenting them appropriately for the client and audience.

It is a self-directed project which means you set your deadlines and your own plan of work.

You will put into practise some of the skills that you learnt last year: technical skills, research skills, problem solving skills, communication and professional skills.

Your work must be clearly recorded, organised and prepared for assessment. It should be presented in the most appropriate format to reflect the qualities of the work in either a physical or digital/online portfolio. Portfolios of work and outcomes may also be presented in a final exhibition.

Types of evidence you may produce could include:

• physical work/artefacts e.g. radio show, graphic products, photographs, film, TV show, social media products

• scans and photographs

• written annotation/ audio commentary

• presentations

• audio recordings

• video files/clips

• planning, research and proposal documents/ files and links.

Your work will demonstrate that you can:

B2.1 Inform ideas for a response to a creative industry brief

B2.2 Apply problem solving practice to develop solutions in response to a creative industry brief

B2.3 Apply technical practice in response to a creative industry brief

B2.4 Demonstrate professional practice and behaviours in response to a creative industry brief

B2.5 Apply communication skills in response to a creative industry brief

NB: these are not linear tasks and that any piece of work may contribute to more than one criteria, for example a storyboard or taking test shots could work for B2.2 Problem solving or indeed B2.4

Demonstrating professional practice.

AC1 Informing ideas for creative practice

Here is guidance on the evidence you could produce to meet the criteria.

○ Research: – Range of sources and depth of information–methods, e.g. theoretical analysis, qualitative and quantitative, identifying patterns, thematic research

What does this mean?

Researching the theme, topic and message you want to communicate in your product.

Examining existing professional products to find out what is missing in what they offer or how they communicate.

Deciding how you might fill the gap in existing products with your products.

Conducting your own research for your idea looking at e.g., how well a product communicates, how easy it is to decode, style, techniques used in existing products.

–Using valid, relevant and legitimate sources of information, e.g. triangulating/crosschecking, references making sure the websites used are legitimate authentic and valid.

What does this mean?

Use a variety of research methods and when using the internet make sure you cross check any research you do with valid and reliable sources. Write a bibliography.

–Observation, e.g. data and resource collection, first-hand/ primary experience

What does this mean?

e.g., observing audience reaction to your prototype products or existing products. Collecting data and researching the theme, other products, researching first-hand experience.

–Understanding of audience, e.g. profiling – demographics, geographical, behaviouristic etc

What does this mean?

You can identify and profile who the target audience are by conducting valid research such as surveys, social media interviews, virtual interviews, email questions, interviews etc.

–Market research and USP development. – using research to find out what makes your product’s unique selling point

○ Critical analysis-

–background reading, e.g. visual theories, media theories, textual analysis

–exploring significant issues/topics, codes, conventions or traditions

–consideration of personal views and the views of others

–comparing forms and styles

–making contextual links and relationships

–interpreting messages in work

–deconstructing ideas and intentions in work.

What does this mean?

This asks you to apply media theories to your analysis of successful work by other media makers. E.g. how have generic conventions been used? How have photographic techniques been used? How have sound elements been used and combined? Is the product linear or non linear? Are there binary opposites? How is the topic/theme represented? What connotations does the product have? How has this been achieved?

AC2 Problem solving

Problem solving for creative practice

○ Iteration in development processes:–developing proposals, e.g. intentions, visuals, plans, concepts, timelines, resources, audience, presentation, design document

–test theories

–experimentation and investigation

–recognising potential and limitations of ideas, media and processes

–developing personal language, e.g. visual, sound, narrative, voice, form

–review, e.g. market feedback, peer review, client feedback, user feedback

–suitability of purpose, e.g. commercial, public, domestic–material or media qualities, properties and associations

–production considerations

–project monitoring

–conformance or consistency

–risk assessment and management.

○ Critical reflection:

–appraisal, consultation or feedback

–identifying barriers and severity of issues

–design reports or project evaluations

–feedback channels and feedback loop

–quality control, e.g. reliability, safety, precision, fit, tolerance, performance measures

–observable and measurable outcomes

–building on opportunities.

What does this mean?

This outcome tests two things:

a) How well you can manage your own product management by planning time, resources, crew/people. Identifying issues and solving them (see notes at the back of this booklet)

b) How well you manage the production process by testing throughout the process, using feedback from target audience, improving the products, reviewing work to date, improving the quality of the work. How well you can critically assess your own work – perhaps in comparison to existing professional work or in terms of meeting the client’s needs.

AC3 Technical skills for advanced practice

○ Efficient processes:

–automation or simplification of steps

–redundancy, contingency and backup, e.g. extra production in case of malfunction or loss

–use of standard processes in production and making

–industry techniques.

○ Advanced practices:

–combining systems and production processes in workflow

–exploiting key features and qualities of media

–working within limitations of media

–utilising advanced features of software and equipment

–taking risks by combining media and/or practices in unexpected ways.

What this means is that you show that you have developed or acquired new techniques and skills. You are experimenting technically. You have saved your work in the appropriate formats and have set up back up files. You have labelled and stored files appropriately. You have combined and managed workflows.

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AC4 Professional skills for creative practice

○ Contingency and backup plans:

–responding to failure and issues–self-direction and ownership of projects

–backup or alternative solutions–consideration of client and user needs.

○ Strategy:

–workflows – plan for different streams of work

–project management methods, e.g. waterfall, agile, Kanban, scrum (see below)

–planning, e.g., targets, objectives, costings

–forward thinking and oversight of stages of projects ( see guide notes on following pages)

–consideration of uncertainty and use of contingency

–implementation, e.g. logistics, who, what, when, practical execution

–presentation of ideas in response to client brief, e.g. written proposal, visual treatment

○ Legal and ethical:

–legislation, e.g. copyright, regulations, liability and indemnity

–ethics and representation

–accessibility

–sustainability

–codes of conduct

–expectations, e.g. frameworks and standards.

What this means:

You provide evidence of production planning, understanding of legal and ethical issues, risk paperwork, recces, issues of representation, sustainable practice, address issues of accessibility whilst working and with products. Produce proposals/ treatments for products. Have contingency plans in place at each stage of production. You understand the responsibilities of the industry you are working within e.g. OFCOM regulations, ASA regulations, BBFC regulations.

AC5 Communication of meaning, purpose or function of outcomes:

–formal communication, e.g. pitches, presentations, written, verbal, preparation/rehearsal

–technical documents, e.g. proposals, statements, specifications–balance of personal intentions and industry needs

–industry-standard presentation software

–hierarchy of information, e.g. visuals, text, audio, object

–selection and editing of content.

○ Delivery of outcomes, distribution and release:

–output or outcome, e.g. executed build, publish for platform, saved, compressed, formatted, broadcast, distributed, shared

–forum, e.g. marketplace, space or place

–structure, e.g. personal information/credentials, project background, ideas, development, tests, outcomes, technical documentation

–style and format suitable for client and audience–community/public feedback.

What this means

You deliver a formal pitch/presentation.

You have formatted your work appropriately for publishing.

Your work shows you have considered the clients’ needs but you have also added a personal ‘voice’ or value.

You have selected for your product and edited in work that meets the clients’ needs and communicates with the audience.

The style and format of your products meets the clients’ needs.

Project management Tools- Planning Your Work

Waterfall Method

Measure twice – cut once is the saying when making a product. It refers to checking before you make. The Waterfall method means you check carefully and research what the client wants then you design it taking into consideration all your research to ensure that the product meets the requirements. At the implementation stage you produce the product but because you have researched and planned this should take little time. At the testing and verification stage you check that the desired meaning is being communicated and for technical quality.

Agile and Scrum

A different way of planning is using the SCRUM approach.

Agile project planning allows you to keep producing different versions of products until you produce one that meets the clients’ requirements. You will have a short work cycle (sprints) which means you set yourself short targets for developing your products so that you can review the products to ensure that at each stage you are meeting the customer’s requirements. If you are working in a team you will appoint a scrum master who will organise the resources for you and the team. Each member of the team will work towards the next sprint (target). Each team member will have a different job to do for each sprint. During a sprint the team reviews the work against the requirements and is critical of each piece of work done with improvements suggested. It is important everyone is open to comments.

Working on Your Own?

If you are not working in a team – you will be responsible for conducting all the phases of the production process :

• What do I need to achieve in this project? You may have some feasible ideas and some not so feasible. You can put your not so feasible ‘it would be nice if I did… ‘ideas into the icebox until later when if you have time remaining you can add them in.

• Once you have set your project you then break it down into smaller tasks which you can then organise into short blocks of work.

• Plan your work into short blocks. Block out the number of hours you are going to work on a task. Reflect on your work at the end of each block and check your progress on the Kanban board (see below)

• Focus on one block at a time e.g., researching existing products. Allow no distractions, or interruptions until you have finished.

• Always work towards clearly defined goals.

• Constantly self-reflect and measure the outcome not the output. You reflect after every block of work. This means you may create a variety of iterations of your product before you actually make it.

Throughout the scrum process you will use the scrum values to help you Scrum Values - Focus, Respect, Openness, Commitment, and Courage

Kanban board for Scrum

When you have planned your work into small blocks you can use Kanban to help you visualise your progress on each block by breaking it down into small tasks or use the Trello App which works in a

similar way. Here is an example of a Kanban chart. It gives a visual overview of where you are in a project.

At the end of each block you can review your own work and seek feedback to improve upon it.

Apps you can use to plan your work:

Trello App

Evernote

Starting the Creative Industry Response

What do you need to do?

Identify all tasks that need to be completed and (if using agile/scrum) separate into short blocks of work and allocate hours you will spend on each task or block.

Prepare a plan of the overall project.

Research: client, theme, purpose of product, ideas for your product, analysis of existing products using media theories, the target audience.

Develop initial ideas – based on client needs and target audience and research-

Review ideas – collect feedback

Produce another iteration

Produce proposal and pitch

Produce another iteration based on client feedback

Now you can consider what other tasks you will need to undertake to complete the Creative Industry Response.

The role of the Project Supervisor

Meetings with your supervisor are professional, supportive discussions to coach you through your project. The meetings allow you to discuss your creative ideas and progress on B2.

During the meeting your supervisor will want to see evidence of your work so far. You should bring your work with you or have access to it. Before the meeting check your project plan and product production schedules to make sure you and they are up to date. Your supervisor will ask questions about your progress, your future plans for the project and may ask about the feasibility of your plans. They may ask questions about how you think you could improve the quality of your work and make suggestions for looking at other practitioners’ work. They will support you through the project.

There will be a minimum of 3 supervisor meetings during your project although your supervisor may ask for more.

Supervisor expectations:

Your supervisor will expect you to:

a. Attend on time

b. Have up-to-date project plans and production schedules.

c. Actively discuss your work to date and plans.

d. Critically review your own work against industry standards.

Student expectations:

Students can expect to discuss in an open and supportive atmosphere the plans for their project. Students can expect guidance on interpreting assessment criteria and support with critical review and technical skills.