Q: Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research has developed over time...
I am going to talk about the ways in which I have done various forms of research over both my AS and A2 years, using both primary and secondary methods. Through using both forms of research, I am able to get a much better understanding of audiences and how they would view a particular piece of media text. Based on the information I gather from both forms of research, I can conduct a detailed analysis into making the product the most appropriate for the target audience.
Firstly for my foundation portfolio that I created throughout my AS year, I had to conduct a great deal of research into finding out the types of magazine that were already out there and how I could create my own to fit in with the ever changing media market and also how I could create a unique product. When it came to actually thinking of an idea behind the type of magazine that I wanted to create I wanted to base the majority of my decisions around entering a niche type of market so that I could direct my magazine that I was going to create at a very specific audience. Once I had conducted an initial questionnaire on the type of magazine my target audience would like to see on the shelves (primary research), it was decided that I would produce a festival magazine, as there aren't any real magazines like this out there. After looking into more mainstream types of music magazines such as NME and Q, it was clear the type of layout and styles they decided to go with. I wanted to use this type of example because I thought that seeing as they were most popular, they would therefore have traits that would be useful in my own work. Through conducting this type of primary research I was able to gain a greater understanding of the types of audiences that would most likely be the ones to read the media text. Once I knew the type of audience I was going to be aiming my product at, I conducted another questionnaire (primary research) to develop my understanding of what the specific target audience would like to see. The responses I got from this helped me a great deal when it came to actually constructing the magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. It helped me decide the overall colour scheme of the magazine and things such as fonts and layouts. In regards to secondary research, I thought that it would be a good idea to look at figures, regarding the types of people that would most likely want to buy my magazine. Even though I had already conducted my own research, I still thought that it would be a good idea to incorporate some outside ideologies so that I would have more of a range when it came to letting the creativeness flow in creating the magazine. All of this research has helped me develop the entire research skill so that I can conduct research in greater depth when it comes to researching for my film trailer production.
So far for my second year of media, I have began researching various forms of trailer so that I have gained a greater understanding of the types of films that people are most likely going to want to watch. I conducted an initial questionnaire (primary research), to find out the types of films that people of all ages are going to want to watch. After looking over the results, it was clear that a lot of the people that I had spoken to either preferred, drama, thriller, action or horror. It was clear that the majority of teenagers were more in favour of the horror genre which was expected after looking at the viewing figures for horror movies. Even so, the majority of the people that I questioned said that they would most likely be inclined to watch a drama film as there are many sub-genres to explore and a drama film can take on many different ideologies to draw in a wide range of audiences. After looking into each of the genres that the audience most preferred, I narrowed my specific target audience down to 18 - 25 year olds, mainly females. I thought that this would be a good audience to stick to as they have a wide range of opinions. After looking at the preferences for this target audience I have decided to go with a drama film as I think that they would be able to relate to the issues that are generally covered in these movies. I have looked a lot into the types of drama films that I could use for inspiration (secondary research), making sure that the majority of the films that I have looked at would match the type of film that I want to create. I have decided to take a deeper look into the works of 500 Days of Summer, The Great Gatsby and The Blind Side, as I thought that they showed the types of drama films that could be created and how the majority of them focus around the idea of some sort of friendship or relationship between two people. This deeper understanding of researching and understanding the different types of drama film trailers, has allowed me to think about how I could incorporate a variety of different techniques that are shown, into my own work.
Throughout the entirety of my A - Levels I think that I have developed my researching skill a great deal as I now know the different ways that I can gain valid and informative data on all of the things that I need to know. I feel like everything that I have done, has contributed a great deal when it comes to actually creating my own media work and without the knowledge that I have gained I may not have been able to create the professional work that I feel like I have produced throughout the entire year.
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