MEDIA PRODUCTION DESIGN (aka - the folio!)
 
This is undertaken in Term 1 and 2  in your A3 folio and is worth 10 marks
 
Separate to this resource kit, you will be given past examples of PDPs from students who got into VCE Top Screen and Top Arts (the best of the best VCE Media products). Make sure you look over them and absorb what makes them good examples of planning.

STAGE 1 - DEVELOPMENT
(Worth 10 marks)

This is the stage of your production design where you develop your idea and personal style based on influences from your chosen form. For each section you should be looking at what others have already done before you!.
In the beginning stage of your folio you will need to complete 4 major tasks:

Section 1 – structural and aesthetic qualities
Explore the structural and aesthetic of your chosen media form. (film, print, animation, radio, photography, mixed multimedia, etc)
For example, if you are working in film in what ways can AESTHETC QUALITIES like camera, editing, lighting, colour, sound, etc. be manipulated?
how can STRUCTURAL QUALITIES like cause and effect, opening - development and resolution, characters arcs, etc be used?
Start by making a list of about 8-10 major structural and aesthetic qualities belonging to your chosen form and then explore how they have been used by other practitioners throughout history. You dont need to stick to just the form you are working in. You can look at the use of structural and aesthetic qualities in other forms as well.
You dont need to know what you are going to make yet. This section is simply an exploration of your media form.
The big question you are answering here is - How have aesthetic and structural qualities engaged audiences in past media products?
 
Section 2 – genre and style
explore the chosen genre and/or style of your narrative, including the common tropes of the genre and/or style. For example, if you are making a romance film, have a look at romance literature, past romance films, etc and find out what are the expectations? What are the clichés? What do audiences expect? why do audiences choose to consume that type of genre? What is their relationship with the genre?
​Essentially here you are becoming an expert in your genre. You must know your genre inside out!
 
Section 3 – narrative
Whatever you make in Media Studies must tell a story. It must have a narrative.
Explore narrative in your chosen media form. What are the ways in which narrative stories can unfold in your media form? Explore differing ways in which narratives can unfold in your chosen media form. 
Essentially here you are looking at how stories are told. For example, if you are making a magazine, how have stories been told through magazines? If you are making a film, How are stories told in feature films? short film? here is a great place to start - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMqIQcTMlA0
 
section 4 – personal style
Develop your own personal style in accordance with an exploration of influences (at least 12) from many media forms. Media productions develop out of those which have come before us, so by the end of this section you should be able to identify your own personal style based on practitioners that have inspired you.
So in this section you are looking over the past 3 sections and picking the top influences that will inspire your film! Tell me what codes and conventions you will use and how you will use them. Tell me what conventions of the genre you will include. tell me how you will structure your narrative.
 
Once you have completed the development stage in your Media Production Design you will then pitch your idea to the class:

STAGE 2 - PRE-PRODUCTION
(Worth 20 marks. 10 marks for your statements and 10 marks for the rest!)
 
SECTION 1 – INTENTION, AUDIENCE AND NARRATIVE STATEMENTS
• Intention. Your intention should include a discussion of your purpose, impact and the desired outcome of your media product.
What do you hope to achieve by producing your media product? Again, it is useful to be specific. When writing your intention, think carefully about what you hope to achieve. Write about the purpose, impact and outcome of your media product. 
  • IMPACT - What do you intend to make your audience think or feel?
  • OUTCOME - What do you intend your product to look like? sound like? feel like? Do you have any references (source material) that you intend to match or appear aesthetically similar to?
  • PURPOSE - What messages (if any) do you intend to implant in your media product? Why are you making this this product? What do you hope to get out of creating it?

Audience. Your description of audience should cover their attitudes, expectations and knowledge. What kind of person are you making your product for? Be specific.
Who are you making your media product for? It may seem like a simple question but it’s something you have to put a great deal of consideration into when completing your production design plan. The knowledge, expectations and experience of your audience will inform every stage of the planning and production of your media product.
When you’re defining the audience for your media product, avoid generalisations. It’s not helpful to write that your intended audience will be ‘adults’ or ‘teenagers’. Simply referring to a particular age group doesn’t tell you much about the people who will be engaging with your media product. You need to have a clear audience in mind.
try to structure the statement as follows. For each audience demographic explain:
  1. Who is your audience? what are they like? what knowledge would they have? what do they expect?
  2. Based on what you wrote above, what are you doing in your product or narrative to ENGAGE that particular demographic? 

Narrative. This is a summary of how an audience will experience the story of the product. It could be a scene by scene description, or a treatment. Think about how you as a media maker are going to STRUCTURE the audience experience. Explain how your storyline will unfold. How will you structure the storyline? linear? circular? 3 act structure? How will the character or characters develop?

If you are working in print, photography, multimedia, radio etc... in what form will there be a storyline? Sometimes a story can be inherent in the themes. For example, if you are taking photos of the stars in space your storyline/narrative might be 'how we are so insignificant in comparison to the universe that surrounds us'

No matter which medium you are working in, try to map out the narrative structure from beginning to end


SECTION 2 – CONCEPT
This is where you begin to visualize your product and experiment with ideas
This should include a written and/or visual exploration of your ideas. It may include brainstorming, mapping, feedback, experimentation, reflection and evaluation. You might start by listing your idea for your production. These might simply be words or visual images. 

Then its time to develop a concept for your idea.

Concepts should NOT be final designs. Concepts explore OPTIONS. You should experiments with many options for your major media product. Some ideas to include in your concept section:
  • STRUCTURE. Try to structure your project. scene by scene, or photo by photo or page by page. if you are making a film, try to seperate it into acts. be visual... experiment with re-arrangement.
  • TRIALS - try things! make things! experiment and see what you can do! it all goes in your concepts. 
  • exploration of Codes and Conventions and how YOU will use them
    • Film and animation - lighting, sound, editing, camera, mise-en-scene, colour, setting, characters, acting, cause and effect, visual composition, storyline, PLUS MORE
    • Photography - line, pattern, colour, framing, composition, lens type, f-stop, aperture, balance, rhythm, emphasis, contrast, unity, movement, mounting PLUS MORE
    • Print - Layout, colour, typography, font, mastheads, pull quotes, graphics, headlines, coverlines, photography, composition, paper stock, splash, standfirsts, bylines, PLUS MORE
    • Radio/podcasts - intro and outros, music, sound effects, atmos, speech, silence, foley, PLUS MORE
  • Mood boards. These are an arrangement of images, materials, pieces of text, etc. intended to evoke or project a particular style or concept. You could mood board graphics, fonts, costumes, locations, styles, cinematography, character design, etc
  • Costume concepts. Sketches/cutouts/colours
  • Visual composition and framing. Here you could draw out key frames in your imagination – or photograph your location and draw your compositions directly onto them.
  • Colour correction. You could experiment with colour filters. Maybe through software editing or simply drawing and using see-through coloured gels to experiment.
  • Character designs. If you are animating (or even sometimes live action) you can conceptualize many different character concepts here. This can also include costume designs
  • Camera movement. You could experiment with long tracking shots by either hand-drawing what you would like to achieve or actually filming a test and screen capturing the results.
  • Lighting design. Perhaps you could collect many films stills that illustrate the type of lighting you want? Or even try to create it yourself and screen capture the results.
  • Film title, font and graphic overlay. Maybe you could illustrate or collect fonts that inspire your project and that fit in with the overall theme? Then visualise and trail how your title will be overlaid in your film.
  • Production design. Experiment with costume design, mise-en-scene and backgrounds, signage, environmental design, decorations, settings, etc.
  • Layouts. If you are making a print, magazine, web-based production trial differing layouts and styles.

Remember, you must annotate EVERYTHING. A picture is meaningless unless I know your thoughts on it!

SECTION 3 – ALL FINAL WRITTEN PLANNING
This can include:
  • Film. Script/drafts
  • Film. Logline (a one sentence summary of your film's plot.... examples here) 
  • Film. Treatment - Treatments read like a short story, except they are told in the present tense and describe events as they happen.
  • Film. Shot list (a shot by shot plan of the order you will shoot your film) – an example can be found below
  • Film. Actor descriptions
  • Film. Call sheets (video below)
  • Film. Shoot and editing timelines
  • Documentary. Script, pre-interview questions and responses, interview questions and anticipated responses, shotlist, call sheets, schedule, copyright clearance, location permissions.
  • Music video. Shotlist, call sheet, schedule, copyright clearance, location permissions.
  • Animation.  Log line, treatment, screenplay, shotlist, schedule, copyright clearance.
  • Radio drama. Log line, treatment, screenplay, call sheet, schedule, copyright clearance.
  • Print. Articles, interview questions.
  • Photography. Annotations, copyright clearance, model release forms, location permissions.

​SECTION 4 – ALL FINAL VISUAL PLANNING
This can include:
  • Film. Storyboards (this is a must for film and photography!)
  • Film. Costume design/makeup design
  • Film. Location design including location photos and possible camera angles
  • Film. Graphic design including titles, fonts, illustrations, character designs, etc.
  • Film. Special Effects design
  • Film. Lighting design
  • Film. Sound design
  • Documentary. Storyboards, animatic, lighting diagrams.
  • Music video. Storyboard, animatic, blocking diagrams.
  • Animation. Storyboard, animatic.
  • Radio drama. Flowchart detailing music, sound effects and dialogue.
  • Print. Mockups, typography, annotated lighting diagrams for photoshoots.
  • Photography. Mockups, lighting diagrams.
Depending on which medium you have selected, your production design plan should cover codes and conventions relevant to that media form.

Sample Storyboard:

How to make a callsheet

How to write a logline

How to write a film treatment

How to make a shotlist:

How to storyboard

How to format a screenplay