Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how your skills developed over time.

Throughout this essay I will be discussing the ways in which I developed my research and planning skills for media production and how these skills contributed to the process of creative decision making during the course of my AS and A2 advanced portfolio.
In my research of the urban youth culture genre films for my AS production, I discovered that 5/5 of the urban youth culture films I researched were set in London and more precisely an urban, gritty estate. The4 impact that this research had was that we were able to follow the conventions of the urban youth culture films and use these conventions in the opening two minutes of our product. However we didn’t completely follow this convention and opposed it slightly by comparing every shot of the grimy estate with a similar shot of a fairly well kept football training ground. We found the effect of this portrayed to the audience the comparison of the privileged and the un-privileged. We also decided, converse to our research, that we would have an underlying plot of a gang war, however not one displayed in the opening two minutes as we just wanted to show the contrast between the lives of the two main characters.

I felt there was a huge progression in my research and planning skills at A2, for our music video. I researched more music videos and begun by simply focussing on a certain genre, ours being the pop genre. We were trying to portray our artist as sophisticated and classy. The decision that we made was to challenge a specific convention of the pop music video genre by having our artist not dancing throughout the entire music video, which is a generic convention of the pop music video genre. This was discovered after analysing and researching numerous music videos from the pop genre, including; Ariana Grande’s “Baby I” and Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me.” We choose to use a park as the location for our music video as we decided to portray our artist in an almost angelic way and we collectively felt the setting of a park portrayed innocence and specifically wanted to focus on the theme of nature.

Additionally another technique I learnt which I would not have learnt if I had not followed the research and planning steps in AS, is that films use either diegetic and non-diegetic sounds in their opening two minutes. This was extremely influential knowledge in the development of our final media product as throughout the opening two minutes we used both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. We wanted to use the technique of non-diegetic sounds to emphasis the struggle and perseverance our main character in our film was feeling. Although the heavy breathing could be heard it is largely emphasised and over exaggerated, this makes it non-diegetic rather than diegetic.

In the opening two minutes of our film what we wanted to achieve was a portrayal of the social and class divide between the two sets of characters and the different lifestyles they lead, who both live in an urban society. We contrasted both sets of characters and their varying attitudes towards their individual skills. We hoped to convey that both sets of characters showed determination in their field of expertise, however completely in opposites they were. The way in which we tried to portray this was by contrasting a shot of the football player with the exact same shot opposing to the gang members. We hoped that this would help the audience realise that both sets of characters are from similar backgrounds, this was also done by the similarity in the backgrounds of every scene. We chose to do this as we believed it was an effective way of contrasting the two sets of characters differing attitudes and approaches to life yet sharing a innate need to succeed in whatever field in life.

For our A2 media coursework we made a 'pop' music video which contained the generic conventions of the 'pop' music video genre. Seeing as our music video was in the 'pop' music genre a lot of my research was based around and focussing on 'pop' music videos and the analysis of them. We were trying to portray our artist as sophisticated and classy. The decision that we made was to challenge a specific convention of the 'pop' music video genre by having our artist not dancing throughout the entire music video, which is something I found as a generic convention of the 'pop' music video genre in my research. We choose to use a park as the location for our music video to show her humane and wholesome nature and we collectively felt the setting of a park portrayed innocence and specifically wanted to focus on the theme of nature. Another aspect of our research for our music video included the research of album covers and their digipak, this was important as we created our own digipak therefore we needed to research and look into the album covers for the 'pop' genre. Without this research we would not know whether we wanted to challenge the forms and conventions set by the pop industry or if we wanted to convey them with our own twist. As a creative decision we choose to use a male actor to be playing our artists love interest as the lyrics illustrate a love story between the artist and a lover.

Mock Exam

A2 Media Studies Mock Exam

Theo White

1. Explain how your research and planning skills developed over time and contributed to your media production outcomes. [25]

Over the course of my AS and A2 media studies coursework the technique of research and planning was essential in developing my coursework to the best of my ability and presenting it in such a way where it could be related to actual pieces of media. When first introduced to media my knowledge was very limited on the subject and I almost began from scratch. Comparing that to where I am now suggests to me how vital the research and planning processes were in order to develop my understanding of the subject.

For my AS coursework I created an opening two minutes to an urban British thriller movie. Therefore throughout the research and planning process of this piece of coursework I felt it was essential to evaluate and analyse the opening two minutes from movies from the same genre. Over time my understanding became more in depth of what was required to create an urban British thriller as I was becoming more accustomed with the genre. I analysed the opening of films such as; Kidulthood, Adulthood, Shank and Trainspotting. I believe although a lengthy process this was one of the most effective research tasks I did as I picked up on generic conventions from the urban British thriller genre which we could then portray in our media production.

In my A2 coursework I furthermore believed that the research and planning steps were constitutional in contributing to our media products outcome. Seeing as my music video was in the pop music genre a lot of my research was based around and focussing on pop music videos and the analysis of them. Whilst analysing I would refer to Goodwin's theory to deepen my understanding of what is expected of different genres of music videos. This also allowed to to focus on the characteristics and generic conventions of each music video genre. His technique included the analysis of performance, concept and narrative based music videos.

Additionally another technique I learnt which I would not have learnt if I had not followed the research and planning steps in AS, is that films use either diegetic and non-diegetic sounds in their opening two minutes. This was extremely influential knowledge in the development of our final media product as throughout the opening two minutes we used both diegetic and non-diegetic sounds. We wanted to use the technique of non-diegetic sounds to emphasis the struggle and perseverance our main character in our film was feeling. Although the heavy breathing could be heard it is largely emphasised and over exaggerated, this makes it non-diegetic rather than diegetic. It took a while before we found the perfect clip on Youtube as many sounded as if they were in pain which was not the sound we were going for. We wanted to find a heavy breathing sound effect which created the sense of tiredness yet willingness to continue. I chose to play this over the opening titles and quotes to create a sense of mystery as the audience would not know what was making the noise.

Another aspect of my research for my music video included the research of album covers and their digipak, this was important as we created our own digipak therefore we needed to research and look into the album covers for the pop genre. Without this vital research we would not know whether we wanted to challenge the forms and conventions set by the pop industry or if we wanted to convey them with our own twist.

I believe research and planning was a necessary part of finalizing our media product as it contributed heavily to the decision making and our productions outcome. Without the use of research and planning we would be completely oblivious to the generic conventions of our genre and what our target audience wanted to see or hear. Although we didn't use Todorov's narrative theory of equilibrium I felt this was a very useful technique to learn as it developed our understanding of what is expected from the film industry.

2. Describe how your analysis of the conventions of real media texts informed your own creative media practices. [25]

My analysis of the conventions of real media texts informed me massively of my own creative media practices as I believe everything is in some way a copy of something else. Not meaning to degrade anyones work but the way I see it is that every piece of media in some way has a reference to another piece of media, that is probably more often the case then it was say 20 years ago. However my analysis of the conventions of the real media texts was extremely beneficial as I had real media texts to reference back to and compare my work to. Firstly, the opening 2 minute scene in my media production for AS was heavily influenced after analysing the opening two minutes of films such as Kidulthood, Adulthood, Trainspotting and GOAL! Our media product can be seen to have used and developed many conventions of real media products from the British Youth Culture genre. However there are many ways in which we have questioned and challenged the forms of this genre.

Commonly in British Youth Culture films they are set in a London estate where everything looks quite run down and in need of repair. We found the perfect place to film our opening two minutes as we felt it had everything that portrayed the working class. We filmed the opening two minutes to our film by a stairwell with a rubbish bin in the shot to establish the audience with the films setting. The mise en scene and props used effectively portray the gang from a working class background and are similarly used in films such as Kidulthood and SHANK. However when you are first introduced to the two main gang members we decided to challenge the forms and conventions used by other films from our genre and use techniques we had developed to portray the characters in our own way. We filmed the two characters from a slight low angle to convey their power, but the characters begin sitting behind bars which we felt would represent them being in a ‘mental prison’ even in their own territory.

For A2 my media product mainly uses and develops the forms and conventions of real media products rather than challenging them. We believed that whilst challenging the conventions of a real media product could prove to be effective, it is a risky strategy and the examiner could portray our interpretation as something completely different. Therefore we decided to develop the forms and conventions of real media products. For example we analysed several different music videos in the pop genre, including; Taylor Swift's 'You Belong With Me,' Katy Perry's 'The One That Got Away,' and Ariana Grande's 'Baby I.' All these music videos followed the same generic conventions of Goodwin's theory. Both Taylor Swift's and Ariana Grande's music videos followed the generic conventions of pop music videos and were mainly narrative based and loosely performance based. Whilst Katy Perry's music video for 'The One That Got Away' challenged the forms and conventions of pop music videos and used a concept based music video. Without being able to refer to these music videos it would have been extremely difficult to create our music video as I wouldn't know the conventions.

Website

http://stefanking41.wix.com/kirstie-mayweather

Digipak

Brand New Day

Audience Research

In what ways is our music video similar to a music video from the same genre?

If the volume was turned down could you tell this was a pop genre music video?

What is your impression of our artist?

Do you believe there was a narrative?

Who well do our ancillary texts link?

What do you think about quality of filming/editing?

Who would be our target audience?