Describe how you developed research and planning skills for a media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.
For my AS Foundation Portfolio, I produced a film opening in the thriller genre, and for my A2 advanced portfolio, I created a music video to 'Mouthwash' by Kate Nash in the genre Indie Pop/Rock. Over this period two year period, research into the appropriate genres and using this information in my story board to create a realistic interpretation was essential.
At AS, I had limited knowledge of anything to do with filming a movie introduction, so learning and developing skills through my preliminary task enabled me to enhance shot types such as panning as my actor often lead the frame, especially when she approached the camera there would not be enough head room. Learning these new skills allowed me to include these more creative shots into my Foundation Portfolio, producing a more professional looking outcome.
For my A2 music video, having produced a second preliminary task to a music video by Snoop Dogg, I now understood the difference in amount of shots between a film opening and music video and complexity of editing. I could now use more complex shots through my enhanced technological skills in my music video such as tracking shots, first person point of view shots and extreme close ups.
In order to further understand what shot types I would use in my film opening, I analysed other film openings. To learn these conventions, I did several semiotic frame by frame analysis of movies such as 'Taken' and 'Contagion'. Through this, I new wide shots were used so the audience could see the main characters surrounding, creating a sense of awareness and security, only to be broken abruptly through a drastic change in pace of editing and a quick introduction of tense music. To recreate this same mood in my foundation portfolio, I searched websites such as Jango for free, un-copywrited piano music.
With my new and confident skills in media, I was able to take more creative risks with my music video. The song I chose 'Mouthwash' by Kate Nash is of the genre Indie Pop/Rock, a genre which has no real conventions other than those described by Andrew Goodwin in his Music Video Theory. Because of this, I was allowed to branch away from the initial music video in my story boarding, and recreate my own concept and create new ideas from scratch. However, for inspiration, I looked at some award winning music videos from the past 5 years to see what they all had in common that made them so popular. I also looking more specifically at similar artists within the genre such as Lily Allen, in order to see how artists interpreted their own lyrics and created, like at AS, but more detailed 9 frame analysis of the songs 'Foundations' by Lilly Allen and 'Don't Stop' by 5 Seconds of Summer.
In conclusion, my prior experience at AS helped me to have a knowledge into how and what to look for when researching a genre of film or music however, my A2 Advanced Portfolio was made even easier by my in-depth research into music videos specific to my genre, allowing me to produce the create product I had planned for. Many of my ideas had stemmed from Kate Nash's 'Foundations' such as her literal take on lyrics as well as her use of stop motion of house hold objects.
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