Unit 2 Pre-Production Exam

Unit 2 Pre-Production Exam

A brief is defined (within media terms) as a resource which outlines objectives, the target audience, budget and other additional criteria that are important to the client in the production of a media product.

Product Brief

Ultimate Astronomy would like Livewire to create an interactive kiosk game that helps children learn about the elements of the Solar System through a series of tasks and quizzes. They would like Livewire to create a fun yet educational game that will test key information, such as the names of the planets and the distance of each planet from the Sun. As part of the game an avatar will be travelling across the solar system. The avatar will take the form of an astronaut character and will travel to different planets in each level of the game. 

The game must embed short reviews at the end of each level and a piece of narrative to allow the children to test their knowledge in quizzes. The game should contain images and sound effects/speech that will help the children learn the facts. The app should be bright, colourful and engaging so that children want to access the content. The game is aimed at 7-13 year old's. Ultimate Astronomy hope that the content will be engaging enough to appeal to a range of cultural groups. Ultimate Astronomy would like the game to be available and ready to be installed in the center in six months’ time. 

The main highlights of the brief is to create an educational interactive product aiming at a target audience of 7-13 year old's which must completed and planned within a 6 month time period. This product must have dialogue accompanied by text which quizzes the audience on what they have learned through the natural progression through the game. These quizzes must be based on astronomy (on subjects such as the order of planets, their names and distances between them, that younger demographics can understand) just like the rest of the game. The style must be bright, colourful and engaging to the younger audience. 

Could check national curriculum for 7-13 year olds about space and astronomy.

Could use to plan:

• Mind map
• Mood board
• Wireframe
• Decision Tree
• Storyboard

Production Schedule

• Pre-production - Planning, organising resources, gathering talent and skill.
• Production - The making of the product e.g. filming, capturing photos or writing
• Post-Production - Editing and testing the product with audiences 

Constraints of Production

• Budget
• Time
• Legal and Ethical
• Feasibility
• Skill set
• Physical/environmental constraints (uncontrollable)
• Resources

Production Scheduling

• Timescales
• Deadlines
• Tasks
• Activities
• Resources
• Milestones
• Contingencies

Why does market and competitor research help media companies?

Market Research allows for media companies to target specific audiences, discover what is being viewed or used on what platform and when, which also tells you the primary audience of the platform. What your market/demographic want. Competitor research allows for a company to research and therefore, stand out against their competitors by using their weaknesses and turning them into their own strengths. An example of this would be that you can watch sport on Amazon Prime which no other streaming service allows for. 

Strengths - what your company does well, qualities that separate you from competitors, internal resources such as skills, tangible assets like intellectual properties and technologies.

Weaknesses - What your company lacks, things your competitors do better than you, resource limitations, unclear selling propositions.

Opportunities - Underserved markets for specific products, few competitors in your area, emerging need for your product or service, press coverage of your product or company (reputation).

Threats - Emerging competitors (CDPR challenged Bethesda), changing regulatory environment, negative press coverage, changing customer attitudes towards your company. 

Site Map Purpose - A plan for an app/website's structure and layout. The home page always being the first thing the user arrives at. 

Visualization Diagram:

• Does it feature what has been asked
• Fitness for purpose - features relevant to the brief

Planning For a Given Media Product - Fight Club

Costs

1. Casting - A List Actors like Brad Pitt and Edward Norton - These actors are A list therefore, high cost

2. CGI - Buildings exploding - requires staff to create CGI and money to pay them and find them with the CGI being expensive at the time due to it's infancy and therefore, lack of experts

3. Location - Derelict Manor, Basement, Airport, planes, office - costly due to renting out certain places or paying to film somewhere like an airport, bar or an office however, other locations like the basement where Fight Club takes place are less of a problem since it's already unoccupied.

4. Set Props - Vehicles 

5. Props - Handgun, soap (made specifically for the film)