Research and planning level 4

Emma Miller 13GXD Explain how your research and planning skills developed over time and contributed to your media production outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer.

During my AS production, a significant piece of research I did was research into the titling of real media products. For example, our research of Easy A lead to the writing being placed within the shot like an object rather than over the shot, which allowed for the titles to be more engaging to the audience as they had to keep up with the titles. Easy A also inspired us to use mainly white writing with a red accent so as to represent a transition from purity and innocence to promiscuity and romance, appealing to a teenage audience. I also took inspiration from Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging which led us to shoot in central London so as to appeal to a British demographic similarly to Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging in which they have shots of Eastbourne so as to appeal to a specifically British audience. The titling research was significant as the titling is the most eye-catching part of the production; this was also influenced by our research in our choice of bright text. Overall this developed my research skills as prior to AS I hadn’t watched films for the purpose of analysis and therefore developed my analytical skills as I can now take in a lot of information in a few seconds or few shots.

A key part of planning within my AS production was developing the skill needed to effectively plan key locations and the production’s shooting materials. Taking photos of the locations before shooting allowed us to pick out the locations we wanted to use and evaluate how effective each location would be.

This led us to pick landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben as well as Westminster Bridge and the London Eye as we found that they all had flat planes on which we could fit the titles and also appeal and engage a British audience, whilst still being globally recognisable. We however ruled out locations such as the flower shop as the area was too crowded, the shard as it would reflect too much light back into the camera on a sunny day, and also a cafe near the shard as it was glass. This caused us to rule out the cafe as the glass would reflect the camera and ruin the diegesis of the film, the locations were significant as it highlighted that our production was a British Rom com, therefore appealing to our core audience of British teenage girls. This developed my planning skills as I have never had to do location research prior to AS meaning I have learnt how to evaluate a location for filming suitability.

Within the research and planning stage of my A2 production, a part of research that stood out was the audience research. I asked my target audience what they expected a pop artist to look or be like. Overall the answers were fairly negative with replies such as “generic”, “fake and plasticy” as well as “can sometimes be unpleasant”. This led us to go against what the audience expected and instead create an artist that was more unexpected, this therefore led us to portray the artist as having more individuality e.g. we dressed the artist in bright clothes whilst avoiding logos and brands to avoid being generic as an attempt to ‘break the mould’. This also links to the message of our track. Another part of audience research, which was significant, was the audience’s expectations of a pop video. Responses included expectations of “fun dancing”, “bright light, maybe tells a story” along with “an element of singing or performance”, this led us to incorporate a mix of both performance and narrative elements, for example, the narrative of our music video is the artist’s conflict against the popular girls who represent the mainstream, despite attempting to conform initially. Clips of our artist singing and performing are intertwined with the narrative so as to balance the two aspects. This appealed to our audience’s expectations and therefore was more engaging to them. This developed my research skills as taking audience surveys is a research skill I have developed at A2 as I had only conducted surveys after the production stage, therefore it was helpful to know the audiences expectations, which allowed me to fulfil or challenge them.

An important planning task within my A2 production was scripting. For the process of scripting we took a copy of the lyrics and annotated it with what came to mind, one particularly noteworthy annotation was “illustrative – trips up, laughs and takes off shoes- carefree”. This moment was significant as it shows the artist to be loveable and also make the audience laugh, adding to the warm tone of the video, this would please the audience based on their negative view of generic and perfect pop artists as well as these moments being visually pleasing as added an element of comedy. Whilst some moments were left unused,

Emma Miller 13GXD the scripting process led us to significant moments within the video such as when the artist cuts the mean girl’s hair and pushes her over. These moments were key as they show the artist’s triumph over the mean girls, whilst also being fun and entertaining. The scripting process was also helpful to our final production as it informed our storyboard by using the lines to indicate each shot. We however changed our mind about the sadder ending that our script had directed and instead went with a fun feel as the overall tone.

My scripting skills have been developed since AS because during my AS production the emphasis was more on the tilting as a film opening whereas we had to pay close attention to the lyrics so as to make the visuals correlate with the music, therefore I have developed more detailed scripting skills.

During the production of our digipak we did an initial photo-shoot as a planning task, using locations in school as well as on stage to show our artist in performance. We initially planned the costuming so as to fit with the video, for example muscular leggings and school uniform. This resulted in the album complimenting the single. This led us to instead use locations that were not seen in the video, such as the outside stairs, we also used the non- video images as the covers; this drew the digipak away from the video and instead represented the whole album. The shots of the artist on stage and on the stairs do not appear in the video and therefore creates the idea of a larger body of work. This is appealing to fans as it indicates a larger body of work, meaning that fans have access to a larger body of work, allowing the audience to be engaged as they have a range of work to engage with. I developed my planning skills with this task as it is the first time I have worked with an actress I did not know before, this task therefore allowed me to familiarise myself with the artist and continue planning based on how the artist came off on camera.

Finally, throughout the research and planning stages, research of other products were significant in creating our website. I researched the websites of artists such as Selena Gomez, Nicki Minaj, and Avril lavigne and all three had links to social media, which connects the audience with the artist, leading us to making this choice also, as well as each website displaying the artists work including music videos. This developed my research skills as I had not previously used artists websites as a source previously. As a result we placed the music video on the homepage so the audience immediately sees the video, this markets the single. In addition all three artists displayed tour dates, which led us to market a tour also, this promotes the artist to the audience. These findings led us to use these features on our own site therefore allowing the website to be recognisable as one belonging to a pop artist.

EAA

7/10

(Explanation/analysis/argument)

EG

9/ 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 4 (21–25 marks) There is a clear sense of progression and of how examples have been selected, and a range of articulate reflections on research and planning. There is a fluent evaluation of progress made over time. Candidates offer a range of specific, relevant and clear examples of research and planning and creative decision making. The use of media terminology and research, planning and production terms is excellent.

Complex issues have been expressed clearly and fluently using a style of writing appropriate to the complex subject matter. Sentences and paragraphs, consistently relevant, have been well structured, using appropriate technical terminology. There may be few, if any, errors of spelling, punctuation and grammar.