Research & Planning

M.Raja

Intro: Why is Research & Planning important?

Research and planning is crucial to Media Studies and has a direct influence on the end result of the media product. Researching allows us to identify similar media products and ideas that we can use as a plan and guide for our own media product. Through researching, we learn about our genre, conventions and key decisions we need to make in the future. Planning is also important for any media project. Planning begins after researching because it is during this process that we consolidate our research and make decisions as to how we go on about completing our media product. If we have a successful plan than this will help and ease the task because everyone will know what he or she are doing.

What programme did you use?

For my research and planning, I used a range of different programs. For example I used Microsoft Word to simply keep written information in one place. Later I used Scribd to get an embed code for my Word document. I needed an embed code because the code allows me to embed the Word document on my Webs, which is an online website where I store all my Media work. Similarly, when I used Microsoft PowerPoint, I had to also use Slideshare to get an embed code to publish it on Webs. Other websites I used were Youtube. Youtube helped me a lot in terms of researching because Youtube is a well known website and has all sorts of videos on there. Therefore it was easy researching other movie openings instead of having to go and rent DVD’s from a movie store. I also used IMDB and Pearl and Dean. Both websites were useful for providing information about movies, for example I learnt who the target audience was for a particular movie.

What kind of research did you do?

I researched into movie openings that had the genre I wanted to do. For example my group wanted to make a social realism and urban style movie opening. We found that this genre is common within independent cinemas as it isn't a mainstream genre. This type of genre is a frequent and common genre for the British Film Institution. Common movies that we researched that belong to the urban/social realism genre were; Kidulthood, Adulthood, Attack The Block and Anuva hood.

What planning did you do?

I had to plan the locations, the costumes and the narrative of the movie opening.

After researching the locations a social realist/urban style movie is set in, I had to plan where I will film my movie opening and how I will use the settings to communicate the narrative to the audience. The research helped me to understand what settings make up my chosen genre. I planned to film in locations where there were brick walls, footpaths and houses.

After researching what type of clothes a typical character wears for this type of genre, I decided that the actors for my movie opening would wear tracksuits, hoodies and trainers because these are the conventions of that genre.

I realized through my research that most movies in this genre depict drug abuse, violence, hardships, and have a natural gritty theme about it. It is the realistic settings and the real life issues people face that make this a social realist genre. Therefore I had to plan a narrative that would depict such issues. I used a storyboard to plan each shot for the movie opening. The storyboard helped me organise my narrative and this made filming easier.

Conclusion – How effective was this?

I believe my research was done well, because I learnt a lot about the social realism/urban genre. But I could have been more effective in my planning for the actual movie opening. I think I didn’t use my time effectively, hence why the planning became rushed and the quality of the coursework decreased.