Practice Essay's Part A and B

a)    Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.

For my foundation portfolio I created a music magazine. After research into what interested people, I found out they would prefer the classic rock genre, so that is what I centred my magazine towards. To ensure this was as realistic as possible, I planned the whole magazine in order to clearly link the cover, contents page and double page spread. I am now currently planning a horror movie trailer. This is going to be a teaser trailer in order to allow me to include faster cuts and give less of the plot away. To make sure I get the right shots and that my trailer makes sense I am planning the entire film. To go along with my trailer, I am creating a promotional poster and magazine cover.

When planning my magazine, the main research I done was primary. This was because I had to create the magazine around the audience, and therefore carried out research such as questionnaires and focus groups to get information on what they wanted such as colours, artists featured, and genre. I carried out this research finding out what the audience wanted and what ideas were most popular as there was no point in me planning and creating a magazine that is what I wanted but would not attract the audience or sell.  Although I carried out a lot of primary research, I also relied heavily on second research into existing magazines of the similar rock genre such as NME, Kerrang and Classic Rock. This was so that I could identify key conventions in the layout, colours, features and adverts of the magazines. These were vital so that I could draw in the audience and show then what they wanted and also to put in the correct content. This secondary research was on going throughout the whole process, referring to it when planning and creating. When planning, I looked at existing magazines for layout and content ideas such as where to position adverts in correspondence to features. For example; a feature on festivals then next to it a advert for tents. Then, when I was creating the magazine I looked at it more creatively in terms of colours and the features. When it came to features I analysed the content such as interviews and timelines as well as how they were written, with different magazines using different language to attract different audiences in terms of age and social class.

With my current planning for the film trailer, although I have done some primary research in the form of a questionnaire, I am mainly relying on using secondary research. This is in the form of statistics, and analysing existing film trailers for horrors. The statistics are helping me to see what is popular and what is not when it comes to horror films such as the sub genres and content like haunted houses or blood and guts, and also who to aim the trailer at such as teenagers, or adults and how to aim it towards these audience groups. The film trailer research has been very helpful, giving me ideas on my plot and, conventions and camera work. I chose the trailers specifically to suit my sub genre of slasher films in order to collect the right information, as there would be no point in me looking into documentary style horrors as they would not really benefit my work. I divided the research into trailers into different sections to make sure I spent enough time looking into each idea and understood the concepts fully in correspondence with theories. This research helped me to plan my trailer as I know from it what attracts the audience, what grips them not only in the film but in the way the trailer is edited.

In comparison, my research skills have increased from since my foundation project. For example, when it came to my primary research, the questions I asked were very broad and I did not direct them at the right audience. Whereas, with my film trailer questionnaire, I made the questions more specific and went into more detail with them. I also distributed the questions better, sending them to people aged 15-19 as they are more likely to watch a slasher film. Another way I distributed this better was through social networks and the internet meaning more people could access it. The secondary research for my current is also a lot better than previously as I knew where to look, what to look for and now have better analytical skills.

Overall, research has been a big part of both my magazine and my trailer projects as it is crucial in order for me to get a professional result that will attract the target audience. This meant considering creative and technical aspects through reference to different existing products similar to mine. Due to the importance of research, it was crucial for me to improve for this project in order to get a better understanding of the genre and film trailers as a whole. 

a)    Apply theories of narrative to one of your coursework productions

For my advanced portfolio project I have decided to create a trailer for a horror film, as well as two ancillary tasks alongside of it being a poster and a magazine cover. Although the trailer is a horror, it more specifically fits the sub genre of slasher. To show this clearly throughout the trailer and keep it obvious in the narrative, I am going to use typical conventions such as blood, violence and torture as they are easily identifiable when it comes to slasher films.

Narrative refers to the story that is being told and the order it is being told in, and this applies to all media texts. The narrative is the presentation of the elements of the plot, and has to be in an organised way to appeal to the audience and make sure they don’t get disorientated. This does not mean the narrative has to be linear, it just has to make sense and contain the key narrative sections. This can be explained with Tvzetan Todarov’s theory that all narrative has to contain an equilibrium (start point), disruption, then a new equilibrium (end point). This can be applied to all media texts as unless there is a change in events and a climax, then the audience will no longer be interested. This can be expanded further to show; equilibrium, disruption, recognition of disruption, attempt to repair the disruption and new equilibrium. This can describe the overall layout of all narrative, but can especially relate to films. In relation to trailers, this is also relevant as you would only include the first two points of Todarov’s theory and leave out the new equilibrium. Another key theory with narration is Roland Barthe’s which states that there is different codes given to the audience in order to make the narrative work. These are; enigma codes, action codes, symbolic codes, and cultural codes. A key thing to consider with narrative is how it is put across to the audience. This means that elements such as mise en scene, camera work, lighting and sound are crucial to presenting the narrative to the audience in the intended way.

The plot I have created shows a lot of relation to various different narrative theories as I wrote it after looking at the theories to ensure I ordered and linked the events together well. Overall, my plot can be related and analysed in correspondence to most narrative theories. Although it can be related to and shows evidence of the use of theories when writing, I have not yet filmed the trailer so visual and sound elements cannot be discussed or looked at critically. One of the theories that my plot strongly relates to is Todarov’s theory. With the initial equilibrium being the three girls getting lost and finding somewhere to stay. The disruption being them getting taken and killed off, and the new equilibrium being the last girl surviving. Another theory that can be applied to how I aim on presenting my trailer is also from Barthes. This states that there are two different narrative codes in order to keep the audience hooked and wanting more. These are; Hermeneutic code that refers to a plot element that raises questions that the audience wants answers to, and the other is Proairetic code which refers to actions that lead to other actions. During my trailer there will be evidence of this theory quite a few times. For example, in relation to the Hermeneutic code, in my trailer I plan on adding the question as to whether the last girl gets out alive. In relation to the Proairetic code, the decision the girls make to stay in the abandoned building leads to them losing their lives.  Another theory that relates to my plot more generally is Claude Levi Strauss’ theory on binary opposites, stating that to every element or idea there is an opposite present. There are a few examples to this in my plot. For example, the obvious contrast between the murderer and the last girl standing, and the contrast between the last girl standing who is not sure about staying at the building and at first appears weak to the two other more confident girls who decided to stay there and get drunk.

In conclusion, I think it is fair to say that my narrative is based around and show various uses and clear examples of narrative codes throughout, which I hope will also be evident visual in my trailer. I also think that without looking at and applying narrative codes to my plot it would not be as good and not translate well into a film and be received as well by an audience.