Theoretical Evaluation of Production

Theoretical Evaluation of Production

1a) 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 AS I have produced a film opening sequence as a group about burglary which focused on the chase between burglars and detectives. In A2 I have produced a pop genre music video as a group along with a digipak and a website individually to promote the artist.

The research and planning process during the both of the project has helped contribute and shape our media production outcome a lot. During A2 research we have looked at some real media text that we could analyse so we can find the codes and conventions of the genre pop and we have also learned some theories such as Goodwin’s theory about voyeurism, intertextuality, the relationship between lyrics/visual and the music etc. Learning the theories behind music videos has helped a lot because it allowed us to have a model to follow in our project so we know we have the right codes and conventions whereas we had to guess what the codes and conventions were in our AS project because we did not have a model to follow through nor learn any theories. Doing research before any planning or production improved our knowledge as we know how to portray a real media text in that genre and what the codes and conventions are so we won’t waste time planning or producing something that is unnecessary in our product.

In our film opening sequence, we did not create an audience profile or use an audience questionnaire during our research stages because we though it wasn’t important. However, that was not the case and we have realised how much it has helped us for our music video in A2. We have decided to use an audience questionnaire for our music video because we wanted to know what our potential audience think about our idea and how it well it will work out. This research gave us an idea of what we should change and what we could include in our video so it will appeal to our audience more and this also saves time as we won’t be doing things that we don’t need later on.

During our planning stages, we have improved in many ways from the transition from AS to A2. We have created an animatic storyboard, used different communication methods such as Whatsapp/ Facebook Messenger, having an official schedule, test shoots, risk assessment forms and improved costume and location lists. All of these have allowed us to create an even higher quality outcome because all the planning made our filming shorter and easier as we already know what is happening and what we need on those shoots. It also helped us visualise our project and the process better with more planning techniques such as using animatic storyboard and a schedule so we know exactly what our project and process will look like. The test shoots has also supported us in our skills and filming technique developments. It has acted as guidance to how to film a music video and what works and what don’t.