Exam Preparation – Section B Question Essay Plan

‘Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and services to national audiences’.
To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Planning: Main Outfit

We want our costume to be plain and simple, with a retro feel to it. To begin with, we were thinking of a white dress and plain black shoes and schoolgirl white socks, but when Jess mentioned a vintage looking black dress, we decided that also seemed to fit.

Nevertheless, we kept researching and ransacking wardrobes – however, the only white dresses we could find were either too short and therefore not suitable, or just nothing like we were picturing.

In the end, we decided that the black dress was by far the best, which we’ll team with tights and a cardigan due to the cold weather. We asked our actress to try it on today, and she looks great in it! We also did a practise run of how we want her make up to be, and the black of the dress contrasts nicely with how pale her face is, making her eyes stand out, which gives her a much more gaunt, slightly vacant look.

Some of the other ones we looked at looked more like the ones below (made of either lace or linen), and more white and plain. However, we don’t think these are right for our character.

 

Planning: Our Ident

We decided very early on that we wanted a simple but effective ident (like Spyglass Entertainment, for example), preferably in black and white, as the overall feel of our film opening is quite grey and plain.

At first, we thought of having a single daisy as our ident, and making it so a petal falls off, or maybe all the petals. However, after searching Google images for a suitable picture, we decided none were quite right, which is when we had the idea of the dreamcatcher. This lends itself nicely to the name ‘DreamCatcher Productions’ or ‘DreamCatcher Studios’, which we like because it implies both something mysterious, in a way, and also the idea of literally capturing dreams. We are currently working on animating our ident, so a feather falls off the dreamcatcher, or maybe turns to dust and just blows away…

Researching our Target Audience

To find our target audience and shape our film to their requirements, I have created an online survey using SurveyMonkey to reach a wider range of people. I then shared the survey on Facebook, because social media can be a useful way of reaching people. Hopefully, with my survey on three websites, I’ll get a decent set of results.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HGX22Q2

I read some examples of other AS media surveys on Slideshare to get an idea of what I should be asking and how to set out the questions.
The questions I eventually decided on are:

1. How old are you?

2. Are you male or female?

3. On a scale of one to ten, how much do you enjoy thrillers?

4. How often do you watch thrillers?

5. What makes you want to watch thrillers? (Select all that apply)

6. Do you enjoy complicated storylines?

7. What is your favourite subgenre within a thriller film?

8. What is your favourite thriller film and why?

9. Which other film genre do you most enjoy?

Planning: Initial Ideas (Location, Costume, Props)

The key to succeeding in filmmaking is to plan meticulously, and to stick to it. Jess and I have had several discussions about the kind of ‘look’ we want our film opening to have, and we’ve got a rough idea of aspects such as costume, location and props, and we have an idea of who we want our actress to be too.

In my study period today, I wrote up our initial ideas in a mind map, because I find them a useful way of getting my thoughts down, and it will give us something comprehensive to refer to, rather than the hastily scribbled notes in our books.