Assessment Criteria

Assessment Criteria and Guidelines

The aim of these guidelines is to ensure that all members who attain accreditation will have shown that they understand, and have knowledge of, the basic technical and artistic conventions of video production. A Glossary of Terms has been provided at the end to help clarify certain points.

1. Fellowship and Master Membership assessment productions should predominantly be the work of the person applying for qualification. This is not to say that it all has to be the work of one person; the governing rule is that the ‘major influence’ should be the person applying. With Corporate Membership the qualification is given to the Production Company.

2. All submissions must be clearly labelled. This includes the production title, applicant’s name, membership number (where applicable), and contact details. The work has to be submitted online using Vimeo. All submissions should be accompanied by a completed Assessment Form emailed to assessment@iov.co.uk and once submitted an invoice will be raised by the Institute of Videography for the assessment fee which must be settled by the applicant.

3. All submissions should be accompanied by a completed Assessment Form and assessment fee (£45.00 for Master Membership/Fellowship and £87 for Corporate). See the Assessment Application Form attached to the bottom of this page.

4. DVDs will not be assessed.

5. The assessment entry can be on any subject matter.

6. The entry can either be produced specifically for assessment, or it can be a previously commissioned piece of work, provided that the programme submitted conforms to the required criteria.Work previously shot but re-worked to meet the assessment requirements is perfectly acceptable.

7. The submitted work must not exceed a maximum duration of more than 15 minutes. The total duration of the opening and closing titles/graphics should not exceed 90 seconds.Full screen graphics (e.g. animation sequences, charts, diagrams and maps) may be used throughout the programme but may not make up any more than 50% of the programme’s total duration. Any programme exceeding any of these timings will be considered ineligible for assessment.

8. The assessment is divided into five (5) categories (maximum achievable percentage of the total mark shown in brackets). Each criteria description gives details of what is required for a minimum basic qualification mark in each category:

• • Titles & Graphics (10%)
    Applicants should ensure that titles are readable, with correct spelling, grammar and layout, and conform to recognised ‘safe’ areas on the screen. Any graphics used additionally within the programme should also be clear and readable and should also have correct spelling and grammar.

 

• • Camerawork & Lighting (20%)
    Applicants will be expected to demonstrate correct shot exposure, white balancing, focus and framing. The applicant will need to show full manual control of the camera. Evidence of a camera’s ‘auto’ facilities adjusting on shot (e.g. auto focus ‘hunting’ or auto iris adjusting) will not be looked on favourably. Unless artistically justified within the programme, shots are expected to be steady and level; long pans, tilts and use of the zoom ‘on shot’ are to be discouraged. The programme must include a minimum of two shots demonstrating a relatively shallow depth of field, one of which must be outside in daylight. Although not compulsory, the assessors will look favourably on work also including other forms of artistic shot development, e.g. tracking, crabbing, craning and use of mobile camera support systems. Although not compulsory, applicants should attempt to include some interior shots or situations under mixed lighting conditions to demonstrate lighting skills, as this will also attract additional marks if executed correctly.

 

• • Sound (20%)
    Programmes must include a reasonable quantity of ‘live’ audio. This is sound which has clearly been recorded at the time of acquisition and not dubbed on in post production. This audio must be clear and undistorted with particular attention being paid to excluding unwanted ambient sound, including wind rumble.

 

• • Post Production (20%)
    Applicants are to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of basic editing skills and fundamentals. The applicant will attempt to edit the programme using straight ‘cuts’ and ‘dissolves’. The use of any other kind of transition, especially those of the ‘special effects’ variety, unless justified, is to be discouraged and will not attract favourable marks.  Shots will be expected to be correctly colour matched to each other particularly if two or more cameras are clearly being used. Applicants must also demonstrate their ability to correctly mix and balance audio of two or more sources (e.g. a music bed/ambient background sounds and a voice over).

 

• Overall Production Quality (30%)
  Applicants will be marked on their ability to ‘tell a story’ and to introduce pace and flow into the production. The applicant’s artistic interpretation, capacity to remain relevant to the programme’s subject matter and the overall quality of the programme will be taken into consideration.

 

9. These criteria only apply toAssociate members who are seeking Master Membership qualification and current Master Members who are looking to obtain a Fellowship Recommendation.Corporate applicants and those who have already been awarded a Fellowship Recommendation may submit work of their own choosing and not necessarily that which has been specially prepared according to the above criteria.

10. As part of the Institute of Videography’s commitment to continuing professional development of its members the Institute of Videography may call upon members to submit further work within 3 years of successfully gaining full accreditation and periodically afterwards to ensure that professional standards are maintained.

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Assessment FAQ
Glossary of Terms