Bethany Volante's Favourite Previous Student Work

My favourite previous student work is group 6’s work.

First, I watched their title sequence, and I found it very effective for multiple reasons. One thing that was great about it is the parallels they drew between the character’s old life and then their new ones – for example, here, the contrasts between praying in their own country, safe, and praying in London as a homeless refugee. The transitions between the two locations were seamless and had an impact.

Figures 1 and 2: the contrast between the character praying in both places, from her past and her present.

Another aspect of the opening that was successful was the music. It was quite minimal, a melancholy piano piece which reflected the sombre, thought-provoking and emotional tone of the film as it was very low and elegant but still sad. The simple, slow actions of the character onscreen worked very well in conjunction with the music, which was also slow, and simple, in some ways.

 Furthermore, the group used a variety of shots which created a sense of intrigue for the audience. They were creative with the ways in which they used the camera, but they also ensured it was coherent and smooth.

Figures 3, 4, and 5: three examples of the shots used in the title sequence, all adding contrasts and variety.

All in all, less is more in this project, and the minimalism and simplicity of the opening as a whole created the desired effect – an image of sadness, loss and loneliness.

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 Afterwards, I went on to look at the blog the group had produced. Upon studying this, I decided that this was also my favourite blog I had looked at.

They used a variety of media forms and applications to display their efforts. This variety made the blog interesting to look through. There were many different types of media here, from gifs to vlogs to Prezi PowerPoints. As well as making the blog interesting to read, these also allows an audience to see the creativity that the group used, as they didn’t choose the monotonous ‘text, text, text’.

Figures 6, 7, and 8: three examples of the media forms/applications used on their blog.

What was also particularly valuable on this coursework blog was the fact that, when they evaluated their work, they admitted that they did make mistakes, but they successfully learned from them and explained the process fully. It’s important not only to identify the mistakes you make, but also to realise how you can benefit from them in the future.

 Finally, the group went into detail, but did not make their work tedious to read. They created a balance between sufficient written analysis and media forms to complement that. Their posts were neither too brief, nor too long and repetitive – they were satisfactorily in the middle.


 Overall, I think that there were many effective aspects of this project. This is the kind of quality project I want to aspire to achieve within my group’s coursework process.