Unit 01 Exam

 

Unit 01 – Visual Recording and Communication

Needless to say being an exam there’s not a lot we can say about this and we certainly can’t help you once it’s under way. But in general terms there’s some advice that might be useful.

*The exam carries the most points with regards your overall grade, so you should aim to do it to your best abilities and use the time allocated to produce as much work as possible and select the best of it to include in your final submission.

If the exam doesn’t change you’ll be limited to 8 sides of A3 (Equivalent to 4 x A2) with a final A4 side for writing up the commentary. 

In previous years we’ve *advised that you allocate the A3 sides as follows…

·        1 – 2 sides – Research – primarily images.

·        4-5 sides – of developmental work, test shoots, trials and experiments figuring out the best method to produce your final images and exploring ways to convey the narrative through a combination of MTP’s and image content.

·        2 side – final images; This can be 2 x A3 finals, 4 x A4 finals, 8 times A5 finals or some other combination that you see fit.

*”Advised”, you don’t have to follow the instructions above, but you must conform to the submission rules on the brief below.

Usually, there is a suggested limit to how much written work you can produce in the main 8 sides and generally the feeling is that BTEC would rather see your images illustrate your processes and ideas rather than have loads of written work. If you do feel compelled to write keep it short and to the point. Some students avoid potential word count issues and the chance of being penalised (Not that there’s any evidence that this happens) by scanning written content and using it in the design as an image. That way it’s not able to be counted once the work is converted to a PDF.

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Activity 1

The exam is divided up into three stages. Each stage become progressively more controlled. The first stage Research and preparatory stage involves 25 hours in college researching, shooting experimenting and trialling ideas. The brief advises using primary research - this involves primary research as in going and see real art in galleries, but also research through doing e.g. testing and trialling - practical work (Empirical research). 

Note - You have to produce an observational recording e.g. a drawing or sketch relating to one of your ideas which must come from a primary source. You have to draw something from life - a place, person, object. 

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It's essential that your approach to producing the work demonstrates at least three different approaches in order to communicate the theme/idea/narrative visually. For example through style/medium/technique/interpretation. 

Make sure you record/document all your research and exploration of materials and methods used during this first stage. 

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The best approach during this first phase is to produce far more work than you could possibly need exploring a multitude of methods and approaches.

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Activity 2

Now look at all the different ways you've explored, tested and trialled - which one is best suited and most appropriate through the combination of image content, and use of MTP's exemplifies (Responds to) Juxtaposition. 

Produce the final product e.g.

2 x A3 images

4 x A4 images

8 x A5 images 

Or some other combination that fits the 2 x A3 sheets.

With regards how you do this and what you focus on, you’re advised to keep in mind the criteria you’re assessed against below…

AO1 Understand how recording is used to communicate visually in the work of others (Research analysis).

AO2 Demonstrate understanding of visual communication through exploration and application of different methods of recording. (The use of appropriate imagery and MTP’s to communicate narrative and meaning).

AO3 Demonstrate ability to record to communicate intentions (Planning and meeting intentions).

AO4 Evaluate visual recording and communication skills (Final Evaluation).

 

It may be worth using the criteria coding… AO1, AO2 etc as headings when you produce the work knowing that it actually addresses the criteria in a direct way. We would advise that if you have grasped how this works and can see the benefit of this approach it might be worth adopting throughout the work? For instance if you write up a plan you might head it “AO3 Intention”.