Existing product research

For your existing product research, you need to complete the following:

Research a minimum of five TV programme openings (aimed at a teenage audience).

Watch around two minutes for each show. If you can find the beginning of season 1, episode 1 for any programme that will be particularly helpful. YouTube is an obvious place to start to find clips but Art of the Title is also a brilliant resource to watch iconic film and TV opening sequences.

For each clip, you need to focus your research and analysis on a particular area:


Clip 1: NCIS analysis
Clip 2: Camerawork, editing, sound and mise-en-scene analysis
Clip 3: Target audience analysis
Clip 4: Representation of young people analysis
Clip 5: General/combination of the above

Remember: your research is individual. You need to complete all of your research independently of your group.

Assignment 3 - initial tasks

You should now have a good idea about who you working with for Assignment 3 and what kind of TV programme opening you plan to make. The first stage of the project is Research and Planning and is worth 15 marks. You'll need to complete the following over the next two weeks:


- Research into similar products (annotated screengrabs from existing TV opening scenes aimed at teenagers
- Research into your target audience, which must include audience research (interviews, focus groups or questionnaires)
- Clear organisation of project schedule and mise-en-scene: casting, costumes, props, lighting and locations.
- Clear drafting: script, storyboard and shot list.
- Note: Research and planning is entirely individual and no more than 12 pages of research and planning can be submitted.

Initial tasks

In today's lesson you need to complete the following three tasks:

Task 1: Start your production blog

This will help you keep a record of all the work you have completed. Your first blog post needs to cover the following:

1. What your initial thoughts are about the brief: what kind of TV programme do you plan to make?
2. Who you plan to work with
3. What you hope to achieve in this assignment

Task 2: Planning your planning

Make a list of all the research and planning work you need to do for your project. Remember: this is individual. Example:

1. Research existing TV programme openings
2. Decide on target audience and design audience profile
3. Design and use audience research questionnaires
4. Write script...

Task 3: Project schedule

Produce a project schedule for the next seven weeks. You need to be organised and make sure you complete every part of the project: Research & planning, filming, editing and evaluation. The Excel spreadsheet template is on the VLE in Media Studies > Shared documents.