Unit 5 (Certificate), 3.1 "Use appropriate research methods and techniques to carry out research for a proposed media production" and 4.1 "Present research results."

The proposed media production that I am going to carry out research for is an idea for a film that I thought up a couple of years ago, using Google (search engine) and Youtube (website) as my main sources of research.

In the vain of David Lynch's surrealist vibe, the film, Someone to Watch Over me (named after an Ella Fitzgerald song), takes place in the 1930s, with a noir/ Femme Fatale feel running through it. The story centres around a woman and dancer, Frances, who witnesses the murder of a man at the beginning of the film. We then are guided through the story of how she ended up at that place, where the man was murdered, (a hotel in New York City), which turns out, it was a place she had been performing nightly with her dancing troupe. However, things are, as always, not what it seems, and the question remains in our minds whether what she is telling us is the truth (we get two versions of the film and the events that took place).

As a part of my research for this proposed media production (my film idea) I have listed a couple of actors, style of locations, costumes and music that could be used for the film. 

Actors:

                                                               Joseph Gordon-Levitt 

                                                                   Carrie-Anne Moss

Naomi Watts 

The reason for the selection of these particular actors boils down to what they have previously starred in, and the audience that would be attracted to a film like this.

Firstly, when thinking about the audience for the film, though it would be geared towards the independent cinema-goers who are more used to non-straight forward narratives, the success of films such as Black Swan over the past year have made a gateway to independent cinema that can branch out and make money, albeit not on a Hollywood level, but to make a decent profit. 

Having actors that are recognisable to both the mainstream and independent audience would also help the film's profile, which is something I thought about when conducting the research for the actors I have listed. 

Joseph Gordon Levitt has starred in the crime/noir thriller Brick, while also playing a major role in the trippy-Hollywood blockbuster, Inception. Both of these kind of genres are themes that I had been intending to try and evoke with Someone to Watch Over Me, and, for audiences, he would be recognisble from not only a commercial level, but an independent one too. 

Carrie Anne-Moss hasn't been anything notable of recent times, but she was a lead character in the game-changer (and one of the many films that inspired Inception) The Matrix, and the surreal mind-bender Memento. Like Joseph Gordon Levitt, her appearance in the film would benefit it on a commercial and independent level as she is not an unknown to audiences. 

For David Lynch fans, Naomi Watts will be remembered for her performance in Mulholland Drive back in 2001. She has been in many high profiled films since then such as King Kong, and has worked for prolific directors like Woody Allen and Clint Eastwood. Out of all the other actors listed here, because the film is going straight for a David Lynch-inspired vibe, Naomi Watts would be the perfect gateway into getting the audience that this film would attract. 

Costumes:

Music:

Setting:
Why the period setting? Well, we're all aware that period films, particularly in the British film industry, is something that we are notoriously good at. Take The King's Speech for example, a period film that became a blockbuster smash. Though Someone to Watch Over Me wouldn't tap into the wide audience that The King's Speech did, the period setting, I believe, would definitely cause intrigue for the audience that I am trying to attract, and would also benefit the story on a stylistic level, too. 

Box office takings:
The one thing that a lot of independent films struggle to do is make their money back. Over recent years, though, independent cinema has proved to break through the mainstream.
See a list of independent films I have made below, that, even with similar themes to Someone to Watch Over Me, have been able to make their money  back at the box office. 

Black Swan
Year: 2011 (UK release)
Star power: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbra Hershey and Winona Ryder
Themes: Psychological, Surreal
Budget: $13 million
Gross (worldwide): $329, 398, 046
Reference: Box Office Mojo

Requiem for a Dream
Year: 2000 (UK release)
Star power: Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Ellen Burstyn and Marlon Wayans
Themes: Psychological
Budget: $4.5 million
Gross (worldwide): $,7,390,108
Reference: Box Office Mojo and Wikipedia 

Mulholland Drive
Year: 2002 (UK release)
Star Power: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring and Justin Theroux
Themes: Psychological, Surreal, Non-linear narrative
Budget: $15 million
Gross (worldwide): $20,117,339
Reference: Box Office Mojo and Wikipedia


The Tree of Life
Year: 2011 (UK release)
Star power: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Jessica Chastain
Themes: Non-linear narrative, surreal 
Budget: $32 million 
Gross (worldwide): $54,303,319
Reference: Box Office Mojo

Winters Bone
Year: 2010 (UK release)
Star power: Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes
Themes: Crime, Neo-noir
Budget: $2 million
Gross (worldwide): $13,831,503
Reference: Box Office Mojo 




So, to round up Unit 5 3.1 and 4.1, I believe I have been able to demonstrate that I can use appropriate research methods (the internet) and techniques (searching key words such as Mulholland Drive box office gross into Google) to gather my research. 
On top of this, I have been able to present my findings through a detailed list of actors, music, costumes, settings for the proposed production, and to back up how I believe the film would be able to earn its budget back, have selected successful (money wise, and critical) independent films over the past 12 years that deal with similar themes. 

Unit 5 (Certificate), 1.1 "Outline research methods and techniques."

Unit 5 (Certificate), 1.1 - "Outline research methods and techniques."

There are many researching methods and techniques that can be used when you are trying to source something out. These can range from using what you are probably reading this on now (the internet) to the old fashioned non-digital ways.

I have outlined some ways that you can go about researching whatever you need to find information on:

Internet search engines:

There are a number of search engines we have the choice of using. Yahoo and Bing are two of the competing engines to the internet world. The one search engine that I know I use on a daily basis, and one that the majority of the internet-using world have on their computer is Google *stats here.

Social networking sites: 

Social networking sites are a great tool for researching, too. I have found many things through our work Twitter feed (particularly when it came to London riot bulletins), and, of course, Facebook.

The problem with social networking is, that, it is a lot like Chinese whispers, and you can't take everything that is said seriously.

An example of this is when both Justin Bieber and Kanye West  were apart of a hoax, trending over Twitter, saying that the two artists were dead. 

Publications:

The internet isn't the only way you can get information, though. Magazines, books, and so forth are other great ways to research something. Though very few people go to libraries now, the option to read up on topic when it comes to research is always there, whether that be in a physical book-type format, or on the computer screen.

Websites:

Depending on what you are researching, there are many specialist websites dedicated to all kinds of things. The one website that springs to mind when I think of anything and everything to do with film is imdb. IMDb is the home to all things related to film (and also TV). There, you have things that can be useful for someone researching a film (budget, cast, producers, etc). IMDbpro is the 'real' industry website, though. The differences between the pro version of IMDb are extremely significant. Where on the free version of IMDb you can't find out agents of actors for example, on PRO you have that option, along with contact details and more. IMDBPro, especially in my work place, is used quite a lot, particularly when it comes to adding credits and new projects on the site, which cannot be done on the free version.

People:


People are an excellent source of research, something that we seriously take for granted. Experience, in most cases, can equal knowledge - invaluable knowledge.  In terms of knowing about the film industry, people that have lived and breathed it would probably be able to tell you a lot more than you could read online or in a magazine, and it also comes from a place of experience, too. 

Unit 5 (Certificate), 2.1 "Use appropriate research methods and techniques to carry out research into an existing media product."

Unit 5 (Certificate), 2.1 - "Use appropriate research methods and techniques to carry out research on an existing media product."

All the research methods and techniques that I previously spoke about in 1.1 of this unit, I am going to put into practice, and try and find out all I possibly can about an existing media product - the iPod.

The first port of call on the internet for me is usually Wikipedia, and that goes for mostly everything I end up researching. Even though it is a website that is edited by your everyday user, the site has become a lot more reliable over the last few years as more and more people begin to use it. Really, it has become an encyclopedia for the internet generation.

The next place that I visit is Apple's site. Here, in terms of getting information about the actual products that Apple sell, and the kinds of things they can do, it is probably the best website to retrieve all the technological details that are needed.

Because Apple are such a well known company, there are many websites dedicated to their products, and of course, that includes the iPod, so, for my next task in order to find out as much as possible about the iPod, I start with a search engine, Google, and carry out my last part of the research this way.

Here are the list of websites and search engines that I used to carry out my research:


Wikipedia 

Apple

Google

iPodHistory (google search)

Crave.cnet (google search)


And here is the important information, using these techniques and methods, that I have found out about the ipod:

• Ordered by Steve Jobs to create a music player that wasn't "big and clunky and small and useless", the Apple CEO assigned his engineering chief, Jon Rubinstein, and the team of his choice, to create the iPod 
• It took just over a year to invent the iPod. 
• The iPod name was invented by a man who was asked to help Apple market the product, Vinnie Chieco. 
• The name for the iPod came from the the quote in 2001: A Space Odyssey "Open the pod door, Hal!"
• 23rd October 2001 was the date, month, and year, that Apple introduced their first generation of the iPod.
• The first Apple iPod was priced at a steep £300, and had the storage capacity of either 5 or 10GB.
• Since 2004, Apple has dominated the sales in digital music players, with 90% of the market for hard-drive based players, and 70% for all types of players. 
• To date, there have been six generations of the 'Classic' iPod, the MP3 that is notoriously known for holding the most amount of data, two generations of the Mini iPod, six for the Nano and four for the Shuffle and Touch. 
• The current generations of the iPod, fourth for the Touch and Shuffle, sixth for the Nano and Classic, and second for the Mini, have all have progressed from their former versions significantly in terms of the amount of GB's of data they can hold. 
• The classic iPod now can hold either 80GB, 120GB or 160GB of music, photos, videos, etc.  
• As of October 2011, Apple have sold 300 million different types of iPods worldwide since it's inception (2001).

There is so much information out there to do with the iPod and its different generations, but, I believe, I have put into bullet points the most vital and valuable details about the infamous MP3 player out there.