AS Reflection - Research and Planning

How did they inform your thinking about your media production?

The audience did play a role in the production of both our AS and A2 productions. They informed us of what they expect to see in action film. We conducted audience research through the use of a questionnaire which was hugely helpful in allowing us to get a full understanding of what to include in our opening scene. They informed us on what sort of action films were favoured and what they particularly looked for in an action film. They also allowed us to make assumptions on what characters to include in our production and what role certain types of actors should play e.g. a male hero. They also enabled us to get a sense for how important music is to any production and highlighted the necessity for music as a main feature of our production.

How did you record all that research?

We recorded the research through a questionnaire where we asked a select few people, who were fairly different in terms of background, ethnicity ect. This allowed for the results to be more generalizable to the population as we can assume that the participants were representative of our target audience. We used a mixture of open and closed questions to receive more detail on some of the answers we deemed particularly important. All the results were recorded and placed on our Bloggers which were then further analysed for any sort of pattern or trend we could use in our AS production.

What primary research was undertaken?

Questionnaires were our main source of primary data as they gave us the best insight into what sort of films people in our generation watched and what they expect in them. We also ensured that we got significant information from other groups in the class as they allowed us to compare the preliminary production plans so that we could ensure particular focus was placed on conventions in our opening scene. We did also use interviews to an extent to further our understanding on what people expected to see within the genre and this allowed us to develop our ideas substantially.

What secondary research was undertaken?

We also used some secondary data. Mainly on the internet, we researched what general features you could expect to see in an action movie and what sort of scenes we could place depending on the rating of our opening scene. The internet also gave some rough ideas on how we could implement a chase and fight scene with the relevant tutorials for fight scenes being researched to make ours seem as realistic as possible. We also looked at various opening scenes to movies which allowed us to generalise what we could see in them. We put focus on the action movie genre as a whole and looked at what conventions were highlighted in the opening scenes of movies like the Dark Knight for example.

How did it inform the production?

The data informed us on what we needed to include the make our trailer standout as an action film and enabled us to figure out what to include if we wanted to emphasise the qualities to the audience. The tutorials allowed us to implement a fight scene with relative ease as it gave us a rough idea on what to include. It gave us an insight into how fight scenes work, especially when involving a 2 vs 1 situation.

What is the effectiveness of these kinds of research?

These types of research allow in depth qualitative data to be gathered relatively quickly. The data was easy to analyse in terms of looking for patterns or trends in our questionnaire. We could look through the details gathered in the questionnaire and base our scenes in the opening scene on what the audience suggests is conventional in an opening scene of an action film. Or we could base the opening scene on what conventions we see in actual films which could make ours seem more professional.

What Quantitative and Qualitative analysis methods were employed?
We used interviews to a great extent in our AS production as it gave us qualitative data in which we could use to create the necessary plot to  our production which would be both unique but recognisable to the genre. We also did this in A2 as we wanted to ensure we got as much detail as possible when creating our action movie trailer. 
We also employed questionnaires to further our understanding, this gave us quantitative data as it mainly consisted of closed questions as to allow for more people to take part as it took less time to complete.

How did the results form these inform the production?

The results from our questionnaires and interviews allowed us to develop the production substantiallly, especially in terms of what to include. The plot was shaped with what people wantted to see in an action movie including a fight and chase scene. We also got an idea of what sort of shots should be included, this mainly revolved around closeups and dynamic moving shots.

How effectively were storyboards/shot lists/script followed?

We originally created a storyboard for our production which was very basic in terms of details but allowed us to work on it. We roughly followed the storyboard for most of the shots as we generally agreed on what to include in the opening scene and in what order. The storyboard was developed slightly as we went along as we changed the emphasis on a fight and chase scene together to doing them separately and so had to change a few as we go along. The script was pretty lacklustre in terms of what was on it as we didn’t particularly want that much dialogue. So we focused on what the music would entail and what shots were used for our opening scene. We discussed shot ideas as a group and then attempted to incorporate them accordingly in an order which made the storyline of the opening scene develop. We also decided to include a range of shots in our production which we thought would be effective. This included high and low angle shots during the fight scene, a dolly shot in the chase scene and a two shot in the beginning to highlight the two main protagonists of the opening scene. Most of the shots selected were chosen because of their supposed relevance to our scene and we attempted to showcase them in our conventions.

How have you developed these skills at A2?

In terms of gathering data for our production we ensured we got two questionnaires in our A2 production. We got one specifically for the action genre and one for the thriller genre as our film during the preliminary stages had conventions form both genres. This allowed us to develop an understanding of both genres in terms of what they include, whilst ensuring we can look at similarities the two share. We managed to get more of an idea of what characters we should incorporate and what is generally included in both which we could place in our trailer. The storyboard was developed further to a great extent as well. It featured the individual shots we were going to have, including the type of shot e.g. establishing shot of London. The storyboard allowed us to develop the story more but was ultimately changed along with production much like the AS production as our plot developed and changed as we went along.