AS 91460B Annotated exemplars

This annotated exemplar is intended for teacher use only. Annotated exemplars are extracts of student evidence, with commentary, that explain key parts of a standard. These help teachers make assessment judgements at the grade boundaries.

Download all exemplars and commentary [PDF, 138 KB]

TKI Visual Arts assessment resources (external link)

For Excellence, the student needs to produce a resolved work that demonstrates mastery of skills appropriate to a visual arts cultural context.

This involves the critical selection and command of art making processes, procedures, materials, and techniques to achieve an accomplished outcome.

This student has produced an original music video that demonstrates sustained mastery of conceptual and technical skills appropriate to the specific visual arts cultural context. The video demonstrates a wide range of post-production conventions include stop motion (1), reversing sequences (2), extreme closeups (3), overlaid imagery (4), fragmented elements (5), and vignetting (6).

Each technical strategy is directly linked to the soundtrack. For example, the black and white in the opening sequences, followed by desaturated muted tones, reflect the historic era of the soundtrack. This then evolves to full colour in the final sequences (7) to align with the chaos and intensity of the musical score.

The use of recurring symbols (flower, eyeball, fluids) enhances the lyrics in an evocative rather than literal way. The diversity of imagery and assured direction of the central character show a high level of critical selectivity in the conception, and command in the making, of the video outcome.

For a more secure Excellence, the student could possibly reconsider some of the peripheral elements to enhance focus on the central narrative. For example, the jerky cabbage trees (8) are potentially distracting and less well aligned with the British nature of the song.

For Merit, the student needs to produce a resolved work that demonstrates refined control of skills appropriate to a visual arts cultural context.

This involves the deliberate, independent selection and proficient use of art making processes, procedures, materials, and techniques to achieve a particular outcome.

This student has demonstrated assured camera and digital editing skills to produce an effective promotional video for an eye sensor technology product. A cohesive branding style is achieved using consistent colour values, with the intense blue of the font matching the eye graphic and helmet, while all other areas are neutral or warm to enhance contrast.

The self-generated graphics use motion tracking to align with the movement of the pupil (1). An appropriate soundtrack has been considered in relation to the visual elements, with the pulse of music and image synchronised in the opening sequence (2).

Purposeful decision making is demonstrated in the extreme close-up off-centre framing, which is used in the second part to eliminate distracting elements and provide space for typographic elements (3).

To reach Excellence, the student could demonstrate mastery of a wider range of camera and scripting skills. This might involve more dynamic moving sequences to communicate the functionality of the heads-up-display in the helmet.

The final product logo (4) could be reconsidered to integrate more seamlessly with the preceding visual style of the video.

For Merit, the student needs to produce a resolved work that demonstrates refined control of skills appropriate to a visual arts cultural context.

This involves the deliberate, independent selection and proficient use of art making processes, procedures, materials, and techniques to achieve a particular outcome.

This student has demonstrated very high camera skills in terms of framing, lighting, and focus. The tight close-up framing eliminates all distracting elements to focus exclusively on the principal content of movement and transformation.

The solid camera mount, necessary for the slow-motion approach, is supplemented with edited zooms (1) to accentuate key moments. The freeze frame of the popping balloon (2) captures the decisive moment of that sequence.

The ambient soundtrack includes specific sound effects that synchronise with the visual elements such as the flash of the lighter ignition (3), and echoing plop of the drip (4).

For a more secure Merit, the student could move beyond episodic sequences to build a more cohesive conceptual or narrative progression to show more refined management of scripting skills appropriate to video contexts. For example, the cracking of an egg, mixing yolk and white, lighting of burner, and frying of the omelette, could be arranged in a single storyline culminating with the served breakfast.

For Achieved, the student needs to produce a resolved work that demonstrates purposeful control of skills appropriate to a visual arts cultural context.

This involves the deliberate, independent selection and use of art making processes, procedures, materials, and techniques in a resolved work.

This student has presented a rich variety of visual devices and typographic options, showing knowledge of motion graphic conventions of designers such as Saul Bass and Paul Rand, to present a clear message about making healthy food choices. The high saturation palette and use of strong primary colours means the outcome retains a strong stylistic unity despite the range and diversity of visual elements.

The inventive use of graphic devices, such as the orange being a lightbulb (1), and considered relationship between text and image, such as the fruit being wheels in the ‘fast’ frames (2), show consistent consideration of how imagery relates to typography and message.

To reach Merit, the student could consider adopting one visual style, either photo-imagery or simplified digital graphics, to further enhance the unity of the outcome. The less convincing passages such as the ‘restrictions’ section (3) could also be revised to show greater critical facility.

For Achieved, the student needs to produce a resolved work that demonstrates purposeful control of skills appropriate to a visual arts cultural context.

This involves the deliberate, independent selection and use of art making processes, procedures, materials, and techniques in a resolved work.

This student has presented a coherent narrative about making a dress, using a variety of technical conventions with consistent skills at all stages of production.  Specific video conventions include panning (1), zoom out (2), and rotating freeze frame (3) to retain visual interest. Camera conventions include close-up (4) and birds-eye viewpoint (5).

The framing, focus and lighting in each section is crisp and clean, with all visual elements essential to the narrative. The consistent colour and tonal values, and sympathetic soundtrack, contribute to a unified and complete finished work.

For a more secure Achieved, the student could develop a more sustained and complex narrative structure and/or attempt more ambitious technical conventions in terms of editing or post-production effects. This may include text elements such as title or credit sequences, or sound effects appropriate to sewing.

Some sections of the video, such as the speed of the opening pan (1) and reasoning for rotated freeze frame (3) could be reconsidered to enhance the fluency of the outcome.

For Achieved, the student needs to produce a resolved work that demonstrates purposeful control of skills appropriate to a visual arts cultural context.

This involves the deliberate, independent selection and use of art making processes, procedures, materials, and techniques in a resolved work.

This student has selected and scripted key points to deliver a message about the suffering of animals. The accompanying imagery supports the message and includes a variety of compositional, viewpoint and pictorial techniques such as the cage (1) and truck (2) using the frame to contain the cows.

The considered editing of text content, delivered with appropriate font selection, size and pacing, enables easy reading of key messages.

Each scene contains the essential visual elements and is sequenced logically to deliver a specific message. This includes effectively economical visual metaphors such as the cow transformed into a hamburger (3).

To reach Achieved, the student could show more consistent technical skills appropriate to the stop motion cultural context. For example, a tripod or other stabilising strategy would eliminate the jerking of the red frame in the truck sequence (2). Additional frames per second, with finer transitions between stages of movement would result in more fluid motion.

More consistent focus and more precise modelling of plasticine elements would also enhance the sample’s opportunity to meet the expectations of the standard at New Zealand Curriculum Level 8.