OCR revision exam question

• Creativity

Colour

Vignette 

Locations 

Film Treatment 

Costumes

Lighting

• Research and Planning

Focus Group

Audio Permissions 

Audience research Gears & Rubicam

Questionnaire

Storyboard

Textual Analysis 

Timed Analysis 

• Real Media Conventions

• Digital Technology

Indesign

Online surveys

Photoshop

Premier Pro

Camera 

Youtube

Social media for feedback                                               

• Post Production

Example

Over the two year media course we had to produce both a foundation portfolio of a
school magazine and music magazine as well as an advance portfolio of a horror
teaser trailer, film magazine – developing foundation skills further and a poster to
advertise our trailer.
 In the first year we researched existing music magazines and analysed each one so 
that we could gain knowledge of particular layouts, fonts and key elements that need
 to be contained in our production to make it successful. Research and planning
 allowed us to recognise ‘mastheads’ on magazines as being the most important and
 therefore the need to focus on a font more detailed to keep continuity with the
contents page and double page spread which we also had to create. Personally I
 researched ‘Rock’ magazines such as Kerrang, NME and others because I had chosen
 after carrying out a questionnaire to use Rock music as my theme. The real life media
 texts allowed me to visualise my favourite parts from each magazine – wripped
 sticker graphics and broken font on my own work which I then attempted to recreate
 within Photoshop CS4. In year one we were limited to what we could research 
because magazines were the only theme however, in the second year I was able to
 develop my ability to  research real life media texts much further because we had a
range of products we needed to create all under the ‘horror’ genre this time. I was able
to research teaser trailers analysing my favourite and least favourite parts allowing me
to plan with a mood board which I produced from a range of stills from previous
 horror films my ideas for my own trailer which helped me to develop my production
 of my products in relation to real life media texts and techniques such as restricted
narration and handheld camera found in the ‘Blair Witch Project’ trailer which
inspired my trailer ‘Laquem’ which is also set in the woods. Research into film
documentaries like the ‘American Nightmare’ inspired me to create a product which
reinforced fear and went against usual horror conventions to make it more interesting.
Over the second year research became so important to achieving a product which was
realistic and is now like my own distributed on on youtube as a real life media text of
its own.
Real life media texts like advertising film posters were able to help me develop my 
Photoshop skills further because I was able to push myself with the ‘colour burn’
filters and want to create the scary atmosphere of my trailer from just an image and
text which I found really fun.
Research into film magazines allowed me to develop my work from AS level so much
 further because I was able to produce a high standard piece of work in two weeks this
 year when the magazines took over 3 months last year which shows how much my
 skills have improves just by being able to constantly refer back to real life media texts
 for inspiration and even colour schemes that work well together such as black and red
 which in the first year I just found experimenting with. Research into horror trailers 
allowed me to recognise different styles of film and how we like Alfred Hitchcock
 could be an auteur creating new angles and ideas using generic conventions as well as
unconventional representations that I have picked upon when watching films and
 analysing certain techniques which I have then attempted to do in Final Cut Pro when
 editing certain shots together to create collision cutting and changes in pace which my
trailer does extremely well. I was inspired initially by the hand held camera in the 
trailer REC and the fact I want as an auteur to change the stereotyped representations
to be able use a female psycho killer.
Research also allowed me to produce text and intertitles that shook in order to capture
my audience but narrating the story slightly so the shots when together made sense.
Research into types of camera movements needed were really helpful and allowed me
 to completely change the pace with tracking shots and handheld camera which I
noticed was used in Silent Hill and American Werewolf in London which I analysed
 and placed on my blog for reference as some pieces of footage I wanted to recreate
including the final girl representations.
EAA 8
EG 8
T 4
(20)

1 (a) 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. [25]

Over he past two years in media our task was to produce a magazine cover and film opening in the foundation portfolio and a music video in the advanced portfolio. Within the first year our research and planning consisted mainly of researching our target genre for the film opening, as a group we decided on horror. In order to research this I completed a timed analysis of the opening credits to 'American Horror Story: Coven' from this I collected specific features which I then used in my final product. These features included low-key lighting, frequent use of jump cuts and eery music in the background. I also completed a textual analysis on the same opening to look at specific mise-en-scene within the film. From this we took inspiration on the costumes used, in which the characters were dressed in all black with minimalist makeup. We also took inspiration from the use of twigs to represent satanic symbols, this would come under Barthes narrative theory of semantic code. A big part of our research and planning helped us to pin point our target audience in order to get feedback on our ideas. As a group we put forward our own individual idea and allowed the target audience to pick their favourites. From this we decided to use different parts of each idea in order to make an original idea which took parts from our target groups favourite ideas. These skills were used in our second year within the advanced portfolio, this time the use of online surveys which were distributed throughout social media platforms allowed us to gather a range of different peoples opinions rather than the opinions of those who were available to us at the time. In this example you can see how our skills developed, from simple questionnaires to online surveys which produced raw data. Something that we did in year 2 which wasn't used in year 1 was a focus group. We decided that we wanted to engage with our target audience and fully grasp what they looked for in a music video. From this we can confidently say that our music video would appeal to our target population, as many of the ideas used come from the audience themselves. When choosing the target audience of our music video we paid close attention to Gears classification systems. Through looking at gender, ethnicity, age, religion and socio-economic status of what we imagined to be the target audience, we could select who we wanted to be in our focus group. When it came to planning for the foundation portfolio we first started out with a storyboard, this showed us the camera angle and also what would be in the scene. For the storyboard in the second year we took this one step further and added time points for each scene, this enabled us to have a clear vision of how our music video would unfold. In both first and second year the planning included a risk assessment and location scouting. In the first year we shot our film opening in a public space which meant that we were faced with risks that were hard to suppress, such as traffic noise and the public. However in year two our location was at a house, which meant that the risks became much easier to control and therefore the risk assessment sheet was more thoroughly completed. This meant that when it came to filming we knew exactly what to do before hand in order to prevent hazards and what we would need to to if a hazard occurred. Unlike year 1, year 2 required us to contact the producers of the song we wanted to use, and gain audio permission. This was important as without permission, or at least acknowledgement of permission, we would not have been able to go ahead with the filming of the video. For both final products we had envisioned two very different results, the foundation portfolio needed to be darker and more scary, whereas the advanced portfolio was based around a party and so the use of colour was very important. Therefore when we sat down to think about planning for the editing of the product our skills were very different from the previous year as we had to work with different effects