Process Evidence and Reflection
How you prove you made the thing, and what you say about it afterwards. Two of the five C1 marking criteria attach directly to this material, and the evidence layer is the part of the coursework that most often caps an otherwise strong product.
Which spec applies to you: G11 sits the 2027 spec (blog + creative critical reflection). G12 sits the 2028–30 spec (slide portfolio + ~2000-word evaluative essay). Everything below is the 2027 regime unless marked. See Media Studies.
The blog (2027 spec)
You must set up and maintain your own blog, individually, at the outset of the research stage, and maintain it regularly. In group work, each member keeps a separate blog including details of their individual role in the group task.
What must be in it
- the process of research, planning and production
- refinement, changes or edits and reflections on key moments
- all individual contributions to group tasks
- evidence of any preliminary exercises
- the final finished product, clearly labelled
- the creative critical reflection, clearly labelled
You must also engage with the key areas: forms and conventions, production contexts, the role of technologies, audiences and representations.
The blog should narrate this process chain: set up the blog → determine groupings and select the brief → research codes and conventions → storyboarding, casting, scripting, recce reports, risk assessments → carry out production → reflect and edit → evaluate in light of the contemporary media landscape.
Dating and freezing
Update your blog regularly so it shows a continuous narrative of the production process. There is no minimum post count or frequency — “regularly” is as specific as the requirement gets.
The freeze rule is hard: your blog must be accessible online for the whole moderation period, and no changes may be made during it. So the BNDS rule is: post-date each entry to the day it happens, and never backfill. A blog assembled retrospectively cannot show a continuous narrative, and there is no chance to fix it after submission.
Why a thin blog caps a good product
Research and planning is criterion 4 of the five C1 criteria, and the mark scheme judges the blog, the product and the reflection together at every level. Level 5 requires research “drawn on to inform the production and explored in the creative critical reflection”; Level 2 describes a blog that “may make reference to the research but may not fully engage with it.” A strong product with a thin blog cannot reach the top band, because the evidence for the top band lives in the blog.
Group work
Maximum four candidates, with clearly defined roles.
When forming groups, consider skill set rather than friendship. Each member should adopt an area of expertise — not necessarily the only person working on it, but the one who leads on that part of the production. Suggested roles — director, technical, creative, editor — are examples, not a required set.
Authentication is tighter for groups: enough work must be carried out under direct supervision for your teacher to authenticate the marks with confidence, and your teacher comments on your own contribution on the record card.
For the 2027 magazine option, each group member produces a unique edition in the same house style, with a minimum of four images per candidate.
The creative critical reflection (C1, 2027 spec)
Individual, in any digital format you choose — director commentaries, a presentation with voiceover, podcasts or screencasts — and you may use a different format for each question.
The four compulsory questions
- “How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?”
- “How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?”
- “How did your production skills develop throughout this project?”
- “How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?”
Note the shape: Q1 is Language + Representation, Q2 is Audience + Industry, Q3 and Q4 are AO3 process. The four questions are the Four Key Concepts wearing a different hat.
The CCR must also state the role you adopted if working in a group and draw on evidence from the research, production and editing stages. It sits before the final post in your blog.
Avoid the blow-by-blow account
There is often a tendency to give a blow-by-blow account of the production process instead of a genuinely critical evaluation of the final work and how it was developed. One way round this is to focus on critical incidents and turning points.
Useful prompts: What were the breakthroughs in developing a story opening? How were particular technical challenges overcome? What new understanding was gained at key points? Is the final product successful? According to what criteria?
That last question is the one most students never answer, and it is where AO2 marks live.
There is no word count or duration for the C1 CCR. The 1000–1500 word figure belongs to C3, not C1.
The C3 critical reflection (2027 spec)
An evaluative essay of around 1000–1500 words, individual even if you collaborated on the products, guided by four compulsory questions:
- “How do your products represent social groups or issues?”
- “How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?”
- “How do your products engage with the audience?”
- “How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?”
The exact word count will be confirmed in class.
How it is marked (C1, 2027 spec)
Five criteria, 10 marks each, 50 total:
| Criterion | AO |
|---|---|
| Analyse and evaluate own work | AO2 (10 marks) |
| Use of media language | AO3 |
| Use of technical skills | AO3 |
| Research, planning and application of key concepts | AO3 |
| Creative Critical Reflection skills | AO3 |
AO3 Practical Application = 40 marks; AO2 Evaluation = 10 marks.
Evidence per AO: AO2 is evidenced solely by the reflection; AO3 is evidenced by the blog, the finished product, and — at AS only — the reflection as well. So at AS the CCR feeds both objectives. Marking is best-fit against generic grids, with part marks rounded up.
AO1 is not assessed in the C1 grid at all — it is taught, not marked, at this component.
What changes for G12 (2028–30 spec)
Under the 2028–30 syllabus: evidence moves from an online blog to a dated chronological slide portfolio on Submit for Assessment; the reflection becomes a single ~2000-word evaluative essay; the coursework AO split changes from AO2 20 / AO3 80 to AO1 20 / AO2 20 / AO3 60; C3’s third medium becomes a website home page; and the C1 magazine task becomes individual only.
The habits transfer — dated evidence, decisions traceable to research, turning points over blow-by-blow (the turning-points advice above applies directly to the evaluative essay). The format does not. Don’t carry blog-shaped assumptions into a slide portfolio.