Hubert research and planning essay

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. Hubert At AS Media, my task was to create a short 2 minute opening sequence for a new film whilst at A2 I was assigned to create a unified campaign for a new upcoming artist which involved a music video, digipak and a website. During these tasks my research and planning skills improved throughout. Here is how.

When making ‘The Verge’, my AS Media opening sequence, my group and I first had to research and plan before we even thought of filming the opening sequence. For planning, we decided to use a website called StarNow, which is a website that allows you to hire actors (sometimes professional) for free. This was really handy as me and my group couldn’t find adults who would star in our opening sequence and as our opening sequence was for a thriller involving guns and violence, it would have been unrealistic if the boss in the opening sequence was a 17 year old. We hired William to be our adult antagonist as it created a more realistic feel for our opening sequence. At GCSE Media I had no idea that this website existed, so finding this website allowed me to use people who are comfortable in front of camera which makes filming more fluid.

When researching how to shoot and what genre we wanted our opening sequence to be, we used Amazon and YouTube to help us. YouTube came in hand when it came to researching about the thriller and action genre. Watching a Russian first person action film on YouTube called ‘Bad MF’ by Biting Elbows gave us inspiration on how we would storyboard the opening sequence and it also taught us that we have to buy a GOPro styled camera in order to convey the first person effect. Amazon, the massive retail conglomerate came in hand when looking for an action camera. As Amazon includes reviews of their products by consumers, it gave me an idea which action camera was worth the money. As we had to buy a camera this time rather than renting one from our school’s media department, it conveys that me and my group had improved our independent planning and that we were taking matters into our own hands.

A year later, my task alongside my group members was to create a unified campaign for a new upcoming artist. For the creation of our music video, we can see clear indications of how my research and planning skills developed since AS Media. At AS Media, me and my group’s time management and date scheduling was below par. We filmed the opening sequence in one day, which turned out to be very windy and cold, effecting the performance of our actors.

However, at A2 me and my group members produced our own calendar which features on our blogs and we also used TFL to plan how long transport would take to get to our desired destinations. In addition, we used Google Maps to get to the locations we wanted to film beforehand, as it helped us decide whether the location was suitable enough to be part of a R&B music video.

Something that sets me and my group apart from the other groups in my media class was that we were given the privilege to choose our own song for our new and upcoming artist. This privilege gave us motivation to prove to our teachers that they didn’t make a mistake by letting us put matters into our own hands yet again. Me and my group had a top 5 list for songs we could choose for our campaign. This top 5 list resulted in 5 different storyboards. The storyboarding of five different songs allowed us to choose the song, which was realistically possible with our low budget. Each song having a storyboard of its own, allowed us to see problems that wouldn’t be visible without a storyboard. We found out that some locations wouldn’t be available, including codes and conventions would be a problem due to low budget etc. For AS Media we only planned one idea so this clearly indicates that for A2 me and my group wanted as many ideas as possible which would allow us to choose from a variety and pick the song which was most suitable.

Digipak wise, I researched about page design, layout and typography. I did this by using Google to search for artist digipaks. For example, I found a digipak for Rihanna, which gave me and my group ideas on where to position text, what should be on our front cover of the digipak, and where specific symbols should be placed, such as the Saskia Ortiz logo or the record label logo.

When creating the website for our artist Saskia Ortiz, planning activities included the drafting of… I drafted many of my initial ideas and then converted it onto programmes such as WIX. On my blog, I posted a template I designed for the website. Producing this template allowed me to plan/ draft elements of layout and design, navigation of website, use of social media, pages, colour scheme etc. For example…. in picture the way the website would look when converted onto WIX. I knew where I wanted things to be placed and what I wanted where even if I didn’t have it yet. For example the music video was the last of all products completed in the unified campaign, but by creating the website template, I knew I wanted the music video on the home page of the website, hence the idea of leaving space dedicated for the music video.

In conclusion, I believe that my research and planning skills developed a lot since the creation of my two-minute opening sequence. At AS, my group and me rushed a lot of things such as filming, time scheduling and editing. However, at A2 we had a lot of time for post-production as we had a schedule we stuck to throughout the making of our campaign. Finally, a clear indication of how my research and planning improved is the fact that at AS I had around 20 posts on my blog, but at A2 I managed to hit 64, three times the amount.

EAA 7/10

(Explanation/analysis/argument)

EG 7/ 10

(Range of examples used)

TERM 4 / 5

(Accuracy/ range of media terms )

A* 22.5

A 20

B 17.5

C 15

D 12.5

E 10

Level 3 (16–20 marks) There is some sense of progression and of how examples have been selected, and some useful descriptions of research and planning. Progress made is described and evaluated with clarity.

Candidates offer a mostly clear, mostly relevant and reasonable range of examples of research and planning in relation to decisions and outcomes. The answer makes proficient use of media terminology throughout, with research, planning and production terms handled very well.

Straightforward ideas have been expressed with some clarity and fluency. Arguments are generally relevant, though may stray from the point of the question. There will be some errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar but these are unlikely to be intrusive or obscure meaning.