This document outlines a course of study for advanced portfolio development in media production. Over four weeks, students will conduct research and planning for promotional materials for a music or film project. They will analyze similar existing products, research target audiences, and develop planning documents for their own promotional package and ancillary products. The document provides assessment criteria for evaluating students' research and planning work, as well as their technical skills in video production. It details weekly homework and tasks focused on genre research, audience analysis, concept development, and pre-production planning.

1. A2 Media– AdvancedPortfolio – ResearchandPlanning – June-July 2015
Name:
A2 Blog Address:
Coursework Briefs
1. A promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, and
two ancillary products:
• a digipak for the album’s release;
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak.
2. A promotion package for a new film, to include a trailer, together with two ancillary
products:
• a film magazine front cover, featuring the film;
• a poster for the film.
Assessment Criteria – Research and Planning
Level 4 16–20 marks (A/A*)
 Planning and research evidence will be complete and detailed.
 There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
 There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
 There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
 Time management is excellent.
 There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.
 There are excellent communication skills.
 There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning.
Assessment Criteria – Main Task – Video Production
Level 4 (A/A*)
The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the
following technical skills:
 shooting material appropriate to the task set; including controlled use of the camera,
attention to framing, variety of shot sizes and close attention to mise en scene
 editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer and making selective and
appropriate use of shot transitions, captions and other effects
 recording and editing sound with images appropriately.
Where a candidate has worked in a group, an excellent contribution to construction is
evident.

2. Week One
Preliminary Task
You will plan, film, and edit the opening sequence of a film or a 30 second extract from a
music video making effective use of the four technical elements. You need to consider
carefully how you use the following areas:
 mise-en-scene – consider use of settings, props, costume, lighting
 camerawork – consider composition, shot types and angles, camera movement
 sound – consider us of diegetic sounds, sound effects, non-diegetic music
 editing – pace of editing, using editing to create meaning, use of effects, titles, etc.
Homework – evaluate your preliminary task. What are the strengths and weaknesses?
What do you need to do to improve yourproduction skills?
Assessment – your preliminary task will be assessed in relation to the assessment criteria
for video production work(see above), and a grade recorded on GO.
Week Two
Research into Similar Products
Genre Research – conduct research into your chosen genre (of film or music). Complete a
timeline identifying key events. Identify key texts, styles, conventions.
Detailed Analysis – complete a detailed analysis of a similar product to your main task
production. You should analyse the effect of camerawork, sound, editing, and mise-en-
scene. You should also identify the conventions of both genre and form. Consider how
characters are represented and what the narrative is about.
Still Image Analysis – analyse seven key frames from a similar product to your main product
in relation to camerawork, mise-en-scene, conventions, narrative, and representation.
Video Analysis – annotate a similar product to your main task production using iMovie. You
should focus on the effect of technical elements, conventions, representation, and
narrative.
Homework – Analyse a promotional package for a product similar to yours – e.g. how do a
music video link with album artwork and advertising; how does a film trailer link to
posters and other forms of advertising.
Week Three
Research into Similar Products and the Target Audience
Ancillary Analysis 1 – analyse two similar products for your first ancillary product. You
should focus on the use of typography, images (including camerawork and mise-en-scene),
colour, layout, and conventions of genre and form.
Ancillary Analysis 2 – analyse two similar products for your second ancillary product.
Questionnaire – write a questionnaire to find out about your target audience in relation to
demographics, psychographics, expectations, and how to make your products appealing to
the audience.
Focus Group – plan a focus group to investigate your target audience. You should ask a

3. small number of members of your focus group to discuss why they like the genre, their
expectations, and what make a product appealing to them. You may also want to show
them examples of similar products and ask them to discuss what they like/dislike. This
should be videoed and uploaded to your blog.
Audience Research Summary – summarise your questionnaire results, and focus group.
Create an overview of your audience research.
Assessment – your research into similar products and the target audience will be assessed
and a grade recorded on GO.
Week Four
Production Planning
Production concepts – develop your ideas for your production work. What narrative ideas
do you have? What conventions will you use? What ideas do you have for use of technical
elements? You should get feedback on your ideas in the form of a short survey, or
interviews.
Production Outline – once you have decided on your production concept write a detailed
outline of your ideas.