Rules on non original material

Learners are required to create original material for the production itself, although found material can be used for planning. In certain circumstances, it may be necessary to include non-original, found images or footage, for example where the conventions of the genre include the use of found material (e.g. a documentary using archive footage) or where it would be impossible or impractical to produce the image or footage (e.g. a shot of an explosion or a background setting of a desert). In such cases, found material may be used provided it is not the main focus of the product (i.e., found images or material only support the main focus).

The use of non-original images or footage is limited to 30 seconds of found footage in an audio-visual product – learners can be rewarded for selecting appropriate images or footage, but not for creating the image or footage. Found footage must be additional to the time limit (e.g.the minimum duration is 3 minutes, but if there is 30 seconds of non original material, then it should be at least 3:30 in duration). Candidates who do not use original footage, images or text for the majority of the production may only be awarded marks up to the top of band 1 of the marking criteria.