Research and Planning
1a. Explain how your research and planning skills developed over time and how they contributed to creative decision-making. Refer to a range of examples from your media productions in your answer.
First, decide what you think 'research and planning' and 'creative decision-making' is!
'Research' is all your work looking at previous film openings and music videos and learning the conventions. Use the Bentley quotation that creativity is "making of the new, rearranging of the old" - therefore you had to become very familiar with other work in the same genre in order to make something recognisable within the genre yet fresh and new for the audience.
Required research included:
AS Foundation Portfolio film opening:
- watching lots on YouTube/internet to become familiar with the chosen type product (give one or two examples for each of these bullet points). However, this only gave vague ideas so you:
- conducted analyses to learn about shot types and editing techniques (print and video);
- detailed analysis of key shots to learn what sorts of elements have been used in other film openings of a similar genre;
- creating a timeline/schedule of the product highlight changes;
- research into media company logos and fonts;
- research into media companies to find out how to produce, market and distribute your product.
Then AS planning included:
- audience survey to conduct a psychographic analysis of your target audience as well as what they expect from your chosen genre;
- pitching your idea to a focus group and taking feedback;
- storyboarding / sketching.
- location planning, practice shots, costume, props, mise en scene, shot lists, timetables, weather forecasts!
End result was a successful product which adhered to key conventions and received lots of positive feedback from your target audience.
A2 more advanced research included:
- completely new media - began again with the techniques used at AS such as watching lots of videos in your chosen genre;
- this time need to be more creative due to the need to provide something in a very demanding and competitive market, so lots more research into innovative techniques - greenscreening and effective lighting, stop motion, creative transitions;
- this time planning included much more analysis part-way through the project, taking feedback from audience focus groups and a music video director - needed to manage time very efficiently for this;
- additional new media for the ancillary task - magazines for the advertisement and digipaks. Lots more analysis of other magazine advertisements, digipaks, learning the conventions of what to include such as bar code and twitter/facebook logos, etc;
- planning included research into new technology to use for these media, such as Photoshop;
- also included ways to create synergy between the three products, taking key signs, colours, images and fonts across all three.
End results were a slick, professional-looking product, attractive ancillary tasks and successful advertisement which worked very well together as a package and received very positive feedback from the audience.
Basic essay structure for 1a (Write about your AS and A2 productions):
Paragraph 1 should be an introduction which explains which projects you did. It can be quite short, but should frame your response. Explain what you did and frame the essay with a quotation from a theorist that relates to the question.
For Paragraphs 2, 3, 4 and 5, pick up a skill area and suggest something about your starting point with it- what skills did you have already and how were these illustrated. Use examples. Follow this with ways you improved on those skills at A2, perhaps by using a more advanced piece of software or learning more advanced tools, always reflecting on how this improved your creative work.
Unless the topic is post-production you should cover three areas: pre-production, production and post-production. You could use those areas for a paragraph on each.
Paragraph 6 Short conclusion relating back to the question and summing up key skills you have developed in that area over the AS and A2 course. Frame your essay with another quotation from another theorist that relates to the question and confirms what you said in your introduction.
