Research you should have done

1. Identify 5-10 films in the genre you have chosen and analyse the opening sequences (ideally, title sequence and first film). This can be done using Prezi, Slideshare, Storyboard This! or similar tools, or you could just do blog postings. You should go into detail and mention the following things:

• Institutions - studio and distributor
• Representations - social groups/ places
• Audience - who is it aimed at and how do you know
• Media language [macro features] - what sort of shots/ edits/ angles/ movement etc. are used? How is sound/ colour used?
• Narrative - how is the story introduced? What kind of narrative elements (for example enigma codes, disequilibria etc.) are put in place?
• Genre - how is media language used to create a sense of genre. Are there typical ("generic") elements

For each analysis, you should create as detailed a deconstruction as possible. As you produce more, you should log differences and similarities between the sequences you have looked at. At the end, you should produce the following plenary blog posts:

• Overview - your findings in terms of differences/ similarities. Is there a template for an opening sequence in your genre of choice, or do you have a range of options to choose from. What are your initial ideas (feeding into planning)
• Institutions - are there "typical" studios/ distributors for your kind of film? Are they mainly big studios or independents? Which studio/ distributor are you going to use? Create a profile of your institutional source, outlining why this is appropriate for your project. If you decide to create your own independent studio, justify this choice based on your research
• Representations - is there a typical social group or place represented in your genre, or a range? How is this influencing your planning?
• Audience - what have you discovered about your target audience? Is there any primary research you can do? Have you found information about audience figures (for example, using IMDB or Box Office Mojo - what does this tell you about audience? What about age ratings (particularly in the UK and US - you can use the BBFC website to help with this). Who are you going to aim your film at? What does this mean about content?
• Media language - what typical/ atypical features have you identified? Which might you use for your piece? Why?
• Narrative - what kind of storytelling is typical? How are you going to use these ideas in your piece?
• Genre - which generic elements are you going to use?

If you do all of this, you should set yourself up to complete your planning effectively and efficiently.