The student conducted research for both their AS and A2 media productions. For AS, they analyzed horror film openings to understand how to build tension. They took inspiration from films like Nightmare on Elm Street and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. For A2, the student researched expository documentaries on YouTube and Channel 4 to inform their documentary on cosplayers. Key sources of analysis included conventions, editing techniques, and use of music to set mood. The research processes were similar in analyzing techniques and atmosphere/tension, but differed in genres and depth of analysis between AS and A2.

1. Evaluation 4; How did you used
media technologies in the
construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
By Katie Wright

2. As research and planning
• For my As production, I looked into horror film
openings for my product.
• What particularly caught my interest was
slasher films as they didn’t require fancy
special effects and was purely based on
building up tension and atmosphere.
• This worked well based on my skill level in As.

3. As research and planning
• To get an idea about the codes and
conventions of a slasher film opening, I
researched into some classic horror film
openings from media texts.
• I choose older films as the build up and use of
incidental music was more imminent and the
effects were a lot more achievable than
modern day slasher film openings.

4. As research and planning
• I used slasher openings from horror films such as
nightmare on elm street, Halloween and Texas
chainsaw massacre as my inspiration for my
opening film
• What inspired me to do this was that each film
had a unique approach to building up the tension
and atmosphere to create tension as well as
unique characters in which have their own iconic
instrument of torture e.g. Freddy Cougar and his
claws from nightmare on elm street

5. As research and planning

6. How did As research and planning
inspire me to create my product?
• With my As I took ideas from media texts
relating to slasher films and adapted them to
create my own
• The idea to create a dual narrative came from
the 1970’s edition of Nightmare on Elm street
• The concept of a dual narrative is frequently
used in slasher films, in which I particularly
took interest from this certain film

7. How did As research and planning
inspire me to create my product?
• For my As work, I also took inspiration from The Texas
chainsaw massacre.
• In the opening sequence, there are bright sudden flashes
that work with the incidental music to expose the body
being mutilated.
• The idea of these shots was to fill the audience with unease
and also leave them in the dark about what is going on.
• I took the idea of sudden bright flashes as an effect to work
with when filming
• I used a flashing torch when I was filming the antagonist
during the opening sequence and combined it with the
opening from Nightmare on Elm street so you could see the
antagonist preparing his torture weapons in a dark location
only through the bright light flashes.

8. A2 research and planning
• For my A2 coursework I created an expository
documentary looking into the social groups of
cosplayers and geeks.
• I used resources from Youtube and 4OD to
discover short documentaries, with channel 4
shorts being the main source of inspiration.
• Channel 4’s Youtube channel has a listing of short
expository documentaries between 3-5 minutes
each focusing on different social groups with
different stories.

9. A2 research and planning
• For my A2 coursework, I looked into various short documentaries using
Channel 4, as well as amateur documentaries made by independent
companies on Youtube.
• The analysis I did of 4OD’s short films were;
- Pro gamers
- Rich kids go shopping
- Disabled fight club
- Circus girls
- Black lesbian handbook
• Analysis I did from other documentaries were also;
- Another me (a cosplay documentary)
- The art of self expression (cosplay)
- In the closet (cosplay)
- Dress to express (cosplay)
- Cosplay Schmosplay
- A place like this (sound analysis)

10. A2 research and planning

11. How did my A2 research and planning
inspire me to make my product?
• Looking into the 4OD short documentaries is
what inspired to make an expository
documentary.
• The editing techniques as well as the music that
fitted with the dialogue and the effects and
cutaways were all helpful guidance to how I could
use my media skills to my advantage to persuade
my audience.
• Having got a social group in mind to which I am
familiar with based on my surroundings, I decided
to create a documentary following their activities
and showing my audience what I see in my
personal surroundings.

12. How did my A2 research and planning
inspire me to make my product?
• I further used this inspiration and invested
into documentaries that looked exclusively
into cosplay.
• By doing this, I was able to see how amateur
production companies with skills set like my
own had taken the expository documentary
genre and recreated to reflect upon a subject
they were passionate about.

13. How did my A2 research and planning
inspire me to make my product?
• By investigating into cosplay documentaries, I was also
able to see how they laid out their product in terms of
the atmosphere created using lighting, sound, camera
and mise en scene.
• What I learned from this was the majority of the
documentaries I looked into used uplifting and happy
music to generate a positive vibe, a long with the topic
being discussed and the attitude and enthusiasm from
the interviewees.
• Not only that, but the documentaries used high key
lighting to contribute to the positivity and also
costuming and props which was key for showing the
audience what cosplay was about.

14. How did my A2 research and planning
inspire me to make my product?
• Based on the documentaries I watched about cosplay,
the general convention was to create a positive
atmosphere for the audience which is what I did for my
product.
• During the process of creating my product, I did
experiment with certain ideas from other
documentaries which didn’t make it to the final cut.
• For example, in the documentary the art of self
expression they used speed up footage from
conventions, in which I attempted to recreate at con but
failed in doing so and hence didn’t make it.
• However, in that documentary, they used lots of slow
motion editing which I took inspiration and used for
myself.

15. What was similar regarding
researching with As and A2?
• The platform I used to find these products (Youtube)
remained helpful for both As and A2 with my research.
• Regarding research planning, my analysing techniques
didn’t change and I always divided it up into sections to
making analysing easier (a technique I developed in As).
• Both my As and A2 productions were formed based on
atmosphere and tension which I learned from my research.
The incidental scores I was particularly focused on
investigating in both productions as that would’ve been the
difference between creating the right and wrong
atmosphere.
• The productions were also very dependent on costuming
and mise en scene, in which the research into the codes
and conventions of these was vital in order to create a
quality product.

16. What differs from As research to A2?
• The genres I researched were two completely
different atmospheres.
• The A2 research was much more intensive, in
which I did analysis on 12 different products
including exclusive sound analysis’.
• The As work required attentive research into
stereotypes and codes of conventions of popular
media texts in which these conventions were
fixed, whereas the idea of A2 was redefining
these conventions and so the research and
importance of the codes and conventions wasn’t
as important.

17. What did I learn from As research that
I brought into A2?
• As taught me:
- about developing my analysis skills and handling it in
sections of mise en scene, sound, etc; rather than handling
it all at once.
- about the conventional standards of society as well as the
codes and conventions, in which could be refined in my
documentary.
- That a soundtrack is important for setting mood and
atmosphere and a production that uses it poorly or not at
all isn’t the same.
- How to properly use Photoshop, Premiere Pro, LiveType
and GarageBand.
- Everything within the mise en scene can be used to tell the
audience about a character, not just costume and props.