Research and Planning Checklist...

Research into Similar Media Texts - Magazine Analysis

Make sure you do: 1. Institutional analysis - who makes your magazine and who buys it? 2. Magazine Front Cover analysis 3. Magazine Review page analysis

A2 media empire magazine cover and review1 from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Notes from the Board on you Research & Planning

Year 12 Research and Planning

Research and planning constitutes 20% of your final coursework marks and 50% of your final AS grade.


There are several areas you need to consider. The first is what genre of film you are making and who the target audience might be.


You will be making a thriller, but this is a very general concept. What sub-genre of thriller might your film be labelled with?


DONE! Analysis of Film Openings (3-5) - This should be included as an additional source of research and planning – you should begin to focus on films similar to yours. Use this format to find inspiration but also to help present your ideas...  http://www.artofthetitle.com

DONE! 1. The Pitch or the Outline – like high-concept cinema, try and summarise your film in one or two sentences.

Describe the genre and setting of your idea. How will your opening be constructed? Work through your opening in some detail. Give the longer narrative some definition.

JUST STARTED...

2. Audience Research - Who are your target audience? Find out if they're going to like your idea. How do you find that out? I know, you ask them. Try a survey. all the cool kids love an online survey. Try surveymonkey. Then some vox pops. Follow up data collection of quantitative data with some qualitative data. 

Then consider the certification. Who are the BBFC? Click on the link to find out more. http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

Who are the target audience of most thrillers – how is your film likely to be the same? How different?

You will need to do both primary and secondary research…this means writing questionnaires, interviewing people about their ideas, maybe a focus group or some vox pops…

3. Firm up the Narrative / Plot based on your audience research - SHOW HOW YOUR IDEAS HAVE CHANGED – what is the ‘story’ of your whole film. You only need to be very general about this.

4. What is likely to be the style and tone? - What atmosphere or mood are you attempting to create in your opening scene? Explain how you’ll go about this? What particular camera shots are you hoping to use? How are you going to use lighting and the camera to create tension? Are there any film openings that have influenced your idea? Include some images from films that have influenced you and explain why. Define the genre of your film by referencing other films a little bit like it...

5. Characters – Costume – Props - describe the characters that will appear in the opening of your film. List their age, appearance, hair, eyes, general demeanour – whatever’s relevant to your idea. Include images of actors that have influenced your idea and explain why you think they would be appropriate for your opening – have they appeared in similar films?

6. Graphics – not all title sequences are the same. What titles do you intend on including in your opening? What fonts do you plan on using – include examples. Have you based your ideas on any particular films? What kind of ident are you going to produce for your production companies?

7. Sound – will you be using non-diegetic soundtrack in your opening? What diegetic sounds will the audience hear? Will there be any dialogue (there should be!)? Any use of voiceover? Will the sound be parallel or contrapuntal? What effect are you trying to create? Give examples from particular films you’ve seen to help explain your ideas.

NOW THINK ABOUT HOW ARE YOU GOING TO PRESENT YOUR RESEARCH? How can you use technology to make your presentation interesting....

Consider the benefits of different online presentation software...

Consider using ideas from students in previous years as a resource for your work.

WHAT COMES NEXT?

Detailed planning: layout, shotlists, scripts, drafts, storyboards…these will all come after your initial research…

Christmas Work for Year 13

Your mission is to complete all research into similar media texts for your film posters in a variety of presentational formats, complete your institutional research for your magazine (Empire/Little white Lies/Soight & Sound) and your analysis of at least 2/3 magazine covers each - that means 6-9 for the group of three and 3 for Blake - (they need not all be the same magazine but they should, perhaps be in a similar style).

You need to have an understanding of your audience for both poster and magazine (and trailer as well!).

A2 media film poster analysis from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Empire 2013 media_pack_fina_lv6 from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Little White Lies Black swan example from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Total film target_audience from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

A2 media Empire magazine cover and review from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Exemplar Blog Posts for Year 12 Research and Planning

Now you have started your research and planning it is a good idea to use the work of students over the last few years to guide you as to what constitutes top level work.

Here's an example of a blog that received 19/20 for their planning:

On Max's Coursework sheet I wrote up the following:

Max demonstrated excellence in all of the Level 4 skills. Whilst he worked in a pair with Charlie, a lot of the Research was undertaken individually. Throughout the whole research and planning process he was tirelessly committed to the project. His research of the thriller genre is particularly impressive, analysing the more main stream thrillers alongside film noir openings and creating notes and mood boards on his influences in terms of stylistics and tone– including colour palate and lighting. The audience research was thorough including survey, analysis, vox-pop interviews, key focus interview on the film ‘Drive’, investigation into certification, industry and representation. Planning was equally detailed involving photographic stills, shotlist, edited location recee with v/o, storyboard animatic with sound. Max researched sound himself from older noir films and Hitchcock, creating a playlist on Final Cut of influences. He also investigated a range of idents and studios in order to plan his own ident and graphics. The pair working together shared all decisions, rehearsed with the digital audio recorders to make decisions on sound and managed their time over this process, with schedules, very efficiently. Each blog entry is very detailed and well organized which is true to this student’s approach to the project overall.

For you to get similar marks you need to do similar things.

It begins with Research into Similar Media Texts - he writes about 8 separate films overall.

His Pre-Production Proposal was details and illustrated with images and clips from films that were influencing him - Max Twyman's Pre-Production Proposal

Here's Willa Hope's version from the year before: Pre-Production Proposal

What's the Definition of a Thriller? How does your film conform to those expectations? Definition of a Thriller

What's your Narrative? Tell us your story and how the opening sequence fits into the story. Here are a couple of examples: Willa Hope: Narrative - Max Twyman: Narrative

Film Script - This is a good example of how to layout a Script...

Location Research - this should include photos of your intended locations with reason why you are using them and what effect they have on the script/idea. Max has 4 separate entries for his Location posts.

Willa Hope - Max Twyman - Christoph MacDowall

Location Recces - This is where you take a camera to the locations and do some filming to see if your ideas can work in real life. Southbank Recce -

Character Profiles - introduce each character including their costume and name/role - Protagonist/antagonist etc.

Max Twyman - Protagonist -  Willa Hope - Character Costume - Props and Actors 

Audience Research - you're going to need to know what Certificate your film is:

Questionnaire - Survey Findings - Interview - Vox Pops - Summary

Style and Tone - Here's an example of a thriller opening heavily influenced by Film Noir...

Graphics / Titles / Idents - Titles/graphics practice - Graphics research -

Soundtrack / Music - Max posted several times exploring issues around soundtrack - here is his main post. Here are some other posts on Sound to help give you ideas...

Shotlist - Here are two examples of very good shotlists - Willa and Bea - Max and Charlie

Storyboard - Here is the storyboard posted onto the blog - and here is the storyboard turned into an animatic - you should do both these things...

Shooting Schedule - This is where you organise what you are going to shoot on what days/dates and times. Here is a good example - Willa and Bea -

Year 12 Research - Ancillary Tasks - Film Posters

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to prepare a detail analysis of 3 to 5 film posters in a variety of genres and styles, from teaser poster to post-release poster, from horror to heritage film.

Your analysis should use the vocabulary of textual analysis presented to you in our last lesson.

You need to use at least three different technologies to present your analysis.

A2 media film poster analysis from Alleyn's School Media Studies Department

Blog post, Powerpoint, Prezi, annotated Flickr page or still image on YouTube, Photoshop, Final Cut timeline, Indesign page…etc...

Use previous students work as a starting point and obviously you can ask me for assistance at any time.

Here's a good example from last year to help get you started…

Here is the poster for a recent British indie film to give you some ideas…