Q1.a. Research and Planning

Explain how your research and planning skills developed over time and how these decisions contributed to your media productions outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer (25 marks)

Throughout my 2 years of studying media, I have researched for and planned for a film opening for my AS product and during my year in A2, I, along with 2 other group members, researched for and planned a cross promotional package promoting a new artist. During the production of both my foundation and advanced portfolios, research and planning contributed a massive part in allowing me to develop my ideas and understanding of the topics studied.

Research plays a big role when it comes to producing any media product or ancillary texts and is vital in order to ensure your product is suited to your intended target audience. When starting AS secondary research was important for us as media students so that we could gain an understanding of the specific theories involved. We researched theories and theorists and applied them to our film openings. We also researched into the genre of our film opening as we didn’t initially fit into any specific genres. After researching the conventions of Teen Drama we decided we would fall into this category as the props, narrative and costumes we wanted to use linked more clearly to this genre. We learnt about semiotics and how we could apply them to our film openings or how the audience could perceive our video. This helped us to understand all the different connotations of shots and locations within our film opening. For my ancillary texts, I had to research the layout and content of advertisement and which style of advertising would be suitable for my product. This helped me to develop my skills as I gained a further understanding of what conventions would link with certain genres. The font research was important to my product as when advertising I wanted to make sure the font was simple and clear so that it could be easily read from afar of near. I carried this out by experimenting with different fonts on a website and then asked people what they thought.

In A2 all of my research was carried out with increased detail and specific details were massively important to my music video and ensuring it falls and is perceived to be in the right genre. Research into the genre was important because it plays a vital role in being the main referral point for all of my research. We also did some research into theories of music videos, for example Andrew Goodwin and Carol Vernallis, and how their theories have been applied to previous music videos. This helped me to understand what content a music video should contain and what stages are involved, that I should follow, in order for my music video to be successful. The research that we carried out as to who would distribute our artists album was thorough as we felt this would be an important decision to how successful our marketing campaign would be. We didn’t want to promote our artist through mainstream distributors, so we researched similar white rappers in order to compare the ways in which they distributed their products and who distributed them. When researching our audience, looking into which ages our artist would target was difficult as it meant we were limited because of the bad language so we decided, after researching similar artists with similar use of bad language, that we would aim it at 15-22 year olds but anyone younger with a particular interest in the rap genre was welcomed. Skills research played a vital role in my A2 portfolio as I had to make sure I was able to include new skills and effects into my music video to show off everything I had learnt to make it the best I could. When researching most effects to use on the editing programme, Adobe Premiere, I used YouTube to search for tutorials which would guide me through the process of adding new effects to my work. This was the simplest and least time consuming way as I was able to watch a video and follow it step by step, which I could then apply to my music video. However, when using Wix became more trial and error as it was a fairly easy site to navigate and use and I just wanted to be able to experiment with different layouts, styles and content. This meant I could update and change my website to fit in with whatever promotional events and seasonal advertisements were current at a particular time.

At AS, my planning wasn’t very detailed and didn’t relate to my final film opening as we changed our original concept for the opening more than once therefore the planning was mixed. For our AS, the location recce was difficult to get at first as we filmed in Southend which wasn’t local to any of us so we had to rely on google earth images for us to choose where exactly we wanted to film. Once we were there and filming we were able to see the places for ourselves and we had to change some locations as they didn’t look as though they did in previous images which suited our film opening. The prop we used in our film opening was a simple scrapbook which we used to tie into our narrative. Planning the use of the prop was much easier than actually filming with the scrapbook as when it came to editing, some shots featured the scrapbook and some shots didn’t because of the order we actually filmed in. This should have been resolved through the use of the shooting schedule and storyboard as we had completed both of these and taken them with us. However the shooting schedule didn’t fit after the morning of filming as we had to adapt the footage we shot because one of our original chosen locations was unavailable to be filmed at. The shooting schedule needed to be filled out in much more detail so that we were aware of which types of shots we wanted as well as angles and the position of our characters. My storyboard was too detailed with the length of shots that we didn’t have the important things written on it such as when the character did and didn’t have the scrapbook on her as this became confusing once we’d shot all of our footage. I also needed to make sure that the shots were all individual as when shooting this was mixed up and very time consuming having to go through each shot individually.

At A2, my planning was undertaken with extended detail and specific aim in order to stay on task with all the things we needed to discuss and plan so that we didn’t waste time and get tasks wrong. My storyboard at A2 included detail about important factors which would help us when filming the shots. I made sure that I had included what type of shot each of them would be and the location. I also added a short description of what I wanted the character to do or feel so that each shot was filmed like we’d planned. To make sure we planned the locations right, especially the graveyard, we went out as a group to search the locations to check they were appropriate and then we were able to place which shots we wanted to shoot in more precise places within a location.  For example when researching for costumes of similar rap artists, we wanted to get this just right so we compared the colours and items of clothing white rappers wore. We also researched in great detail about the conventions of the rap industry as this was important for us to execute correctly as we wanted to portray the correct image for our new artist. We wanted minimal props in our music video as we felt this wasn’t all that common to see in rap music video. However, we did plan for our character to place a flower on a grave. In order to execute this correctly we needed to plan the shots we wanted which would involve the flower.