OCR Revision exam question 1(a)

• The focus group
• Questionnaires
• Timed Analysis
• Textual Analysis
• Timelines
• Test Shoots
• Editing treatment
• Using indesign for the creation of my digipaks 
• questionnaires of digipak

Creativity-

 Film treatment 

 Location Adaptions

 Vignette

 Colour treatment 

Camera techniques

 Lighting

Costumes/ makeup 

Research and planning-

 Time Analysis

 Textual Analysis

 Timeline

 Focus group

 Target audience research- Four Cs model 

 Questionnaires

 Storyboards/ shot lists

Real media conventions (different types of media) 

Digital technology-

 indesign

 photoshop

 Questionnaires 

 Premiere Pro

 Camera

 Lighting 

 Youtube

 Social Media 

Post production 

1a)

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)

• Showing how the improvement has taken place
• Use of correct terminology 
• References of films and mediums which helped influence their work
• Their research has helped their final piece.

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 the first year of the media coursework, I was required to produce a film opening for my media portfolio, whereas my second year task was to create a music video of any type. The genre we had chosen for our film opening was a horror because as we found out from our focus group and questionnaires, this was the most popular genre and therefore we thought it was fitting to include this genre. The music video genre was of an indie theme because when looking for different songs, the ones that we were able to picture a video alongside was mainly of the indie genre. 

In the creation of the task in the first year, I was enabled to research different aspects of previous films already made- for example my timed analysis. The examples I used for my timed analysis included Annabelle, Insidious and Child's play. However, unlike this year, the way I gained all three of my timed analysis' was through different people in the group- we each did one timed analysis. Now looking back at my timed analysis from last year, I do not think I went into nearly enough detail in order to help the production of my work. For example there was a lack of key terminology such as camera settings- establishing shot, pull focus, panning shot etc. However, for the music video, myself and the other person in my group each individually completed 3 timed analysis’. I thought this was much more successful as it gave me more diverse examples of what I should be including in my final music video piece. The second year also differed from the first year research because this time every time there was a new shot, I recorded it down which subsequently has helped my progression in the creation of a media piece because I have been able to pull lots of ideas together to form a final production.

Another way I planned the creation of my film opening last year through the use of focus groups and questionnaires. I found these successful in the production of my media piece last year because it showed me what my target audience would like and expected to see within a horror video, through the use of open questions, I gained lots of data in order to help sort out the main ideas. For example; “What do you think of our idea?” which I personally do not think is a useful question because it shows the audience didn’t have any input of the idea which was chosen. However, this differs from my use of focus groups and questionnaires from this year because I relied a lot more on my answers I received in order to create a music video my target audience would appreciate and therefore watch. An example of this was through the use of closed ended questions, I was able to gain fixed quantitative data which has been much more useful that the qualitative data in which was received last year. For example- what idea is your favorite? What digipak is your favorite? Furthermore, questions in my online surveys included my audience to choose their favorite idea and the idea that was more favorable was the idea that was chosen; unlike last year how I picked the idea that I had wanted because I thought that was the best one, without any audience ideas.

Furthermore my research and planning has developed overtime because I believe the use of textual analysis were included much more in the creation of my work in the second year of a music video than they were in the first year for my film opening. Much like the timed analysis, last year my group spilt the number of textual analysis between us so we each individually looked only at one film in deeper detail. Although through the research of the music videos in the second year, I gained a wider use of examples of mise-en-scene, lighting props and camera angles to include. For example, the detailed textual analysis I done on Wolf Alice “Fluffy” I looked at aspects such as the key selling points and the target audience; The audience for this music video would have been the fans of those who were shown across the video- the band.

Real Media Conventions: 
Horror conventions...
Slow zoom
creepy music
creepy props
Quick jump shots 
creepy locations

Youth conventions...
Smoking
"Dirty" locations- parks
fast paced shots 
hand held shots
drinking