Project management leaflet -

What is project management?

• Keeping track
• Decision-making
• Organise
• Pre-prod-post
• Plan
• Manage
• Discipline 
• Time management 

Management tasks during a project: 

Project management is a job role to ensure a process is in place and follow to, in order to achieve the objectives of the project. A project manager may use a number of different tool to do this. 

Project management is an art form.. 

• Project management is the effective planning and running of a project, from the ideas point to the end product and evaluation 
• Planning requires an outline of the tasks, deadlines and milestones that will be required to manage the project efficiently 
• A project timeline schedule would need to be created for the creation of the media product, to include

1. Tasks that need to be done

2. Deadlines for each task

3. Milestones within the tasks and the overall project. 

Gantt charts - 

Designed by mechanical engineer Henry Gantt in 1910, the Gantt chart has had a relatively long run as a project management tool.

Uses horizontal bars to illustrate project completion dates, progress and milestones and dependencies. 

Other management tools - 

• Production schedule 
• To do lists
• Workflow tool: Split by team member so that it is clear who is doing what, when.

Documentation needed to aid project management: 

• Initial pitch or treatment
• Call sheet
• Budget proposal form
• Budgets
• Contract
• Storyboard
• Set diagram
• Editing log
• Camera shot list
• Talent release form
• Location release form
• Recce/scouting sheet 
• Daily progress report
• Continuity sheet
• Equipment log
• Shooting script
• Visual effects (FX) breakdown
• Audience questionnaire for product testing 
• Asset log 
• Risk assessment

Why are production management tools useful during pre-production?

Production management tools are so useful during pre-production as they are usually there and in place to ensure that everything runs smoothly and is more organized. It helps with producers and important people on sets schedules to run smoothly and to know exactly what tasks they have to complete and at what time.

Exam Questions

1. Who can do/does audience research?

Primarily the main people that will take out audience research are media producers that want to find out information about their audiences for their productions. Media producers often research other production companies to determine how they budget, plan and market their prodcuts to a target audience. Also there are specific people where there job is too take and find out about different types of audience research for differenrt productions. 

2. When should audience research be done?

Audience research must be taken place throughout the production. Research is needed before, during and after. It is taken out before the project too help the producers get a better taste of the target audience. It will help the producers to know what to produce to meet the target audiences best needs. The audience research is one of the most time consumong stages as alot of detail has to go into it too ensure that the correct information is being gathered. If the audience research is not carried out correctly then the production will end up being a watse of time and money. Knowing who your target audience helps to create a bigger and better variety of ways to advertise your production that is create. Having a good amount of audience research is also to help get the best feedback possible.

3. Why should audience research be completed?

Audience research should always be completed because it helps to iscover information about the audience we are looking at. It helps us to gain information to be able to plan budgets, fundraising, promotions, merchandising etc. It helps to manage organisations effectively and prioritise what we should be spending on facilities and services. It also helps us to understand current audiences and identify potential new audiences. 

4. What research methods can be used?

There are so many different types of research methods that can be used. All research methods have their own strengths and their own weaknesses. Qualitative data is an in depth analysis into why your auidence behaves in such a way. This data cant be measured as easily but is very useful because it gives context. Quantitative data deals with quantities and numbers, and is easy to measure. This data would be useful for statistics to show clear graphs of audience behaviour. Mixing these two together helps define the findings and then describe the findings.

Surveys and questionnaires are one of the best ways to gather data together. This is because it can provide you with quantitative data that is easy to measure and to analyse. They can be created online and sent by email, social media and advertised on websites. Websites online such as survey monkey, zoomerang or Polldaddy all create surveys and questionnaires. However, they can also be created in person. If you post a survey online, there is no control over who takes part in it.
There are many advantages such as they are quick and easy to make and send out, they are large sample and they are easy to measure. There are also some disadvantages which are not able to gain detail behind the responses and it doesn't ensure responses from relevant participants.

Interviews is usually a conversation that  takes place between two people. This interviewer is the one that asks questions to develop in depth insight into audience behaviours. Interviews gather qualitative data and are usually conducted in person, texting or on the phone. Skype and GoToMeeting are also used for interviews if it is not possible to speak to your participants in person.
Interviews are really good for finding out the story behind the data. Advantages of taking part in an interview are being able to gain in depth responses and they ensure the participants that what you are speaking about is relevant to your research. The disadvantages are that they are not as easy to measure and to analyse, and the participants could be influenced by the person intervieiwing.

Focus groups 

Observations 

Target audience Profile - M&S

The website that i have chosen to analyse is Marks and Spencer.

http://www.marksandspencer.com

I think that the target audience of this website is adults, parents and grandparents. Marks and spencer's are targeted at an older variety of people. I estimated that this website would be ages between 30-80. 

• Colour Scheme - Black, white, gold - Gold connotes 'The best" about quality
• Layout - Simple and easy to use. Busy layout. Lots of images
• Fonts - Basics fonts that are eye catching and easy to read. 

Images - Christmas stocking and gifts There is an image on the home page of a label with '3 for 2 mix&match'. This shows that the website may be aiming towards people that like bargains and deals.

"Inspire me' Section shows that it is strongly aimed at women. This is because in this section there is a lot of us of makeup and home sections, which is likely that women will click on rather than men.


The front page is full of offers and deal's, such as 50% off star buys, 10% of all food to order, 20% off selected hampers and Buy 2 Wines cases save 25%. All of these offers may indicate that M&S are trying to target towards people that have money but also are trying to save money.

• This is Katie 
• She is 38 years old
• She has 2 children. One is 10 and one is 8.
• She is currently christmas shopping for her children and family and loves shopping in M&S

"I have bought a lot of my presents for my husband and parents this year at M&S because of the fabulous deals there and there cloths are lovely quality. buying from the M&S is fabulous, has everything on there and is so simple to use!"

This is a screenshot of the Marks and Spencers front home page. As you can see it is a very busy home page which has positives and negatives to it, depending on the person shopping on the website. For example, an older person may find it difficult to use because there are so many different sections on the website. Whereas, a young peson maybe in their 30s or 40s may find it very simple to use because all the secions are extremely broken down into caterogies. 

Homework - Road safety game

Part 1: 
http://www.ipa.co.uk/Document/The-Client-Brief-summary-best-practice-guide#.Wg1fn4SZ5G8

Question 1: Why do clients write briefs? 
There are three main reasons as to why clients write briefs.
1. It leads to better, more effective and measurable work
A brief is the most important piece of information that is issued by a client to an agency. Everything stems and flows once the brief has been written. It is essential that all effort is taken to prepare the best brief possible to achieve what is required. 79% of clients and agencies agreed that "it is difficult to produce good creative work without a good brief".


2. It saves time and money - 
The biggest waste of agency resources is to put them through the process of developing  a solution repeatedly without a concrete direction. It is costly in wasted staff time.
"Agencies need to get more work right first time. That saves time and money. A proper written brief makes the process a lot more efficient" - that's good for clients and agencies.
Both clients and agencies say that time pressures are the main reason for inadequate client briefs. Not writing a brief to try and save time is a false analogy, because more often than not it leads to re-working . 75% of agencies and 55% of clients agreed that 'the briefs that we work on are often changed once the project has started'

3. It makes remuneration fairer - 
One of the main criticisms that marketing people face is that they lack accountability for the significant sums of money they spend. Over 90% of agencies and 84% of clients agree that 'payment by results is impossible without fully agreed business objectives'. Given the increasing prevalence of a PBR component in so many remuneration agreements, this is another compelling reason for a proper written brief.
However a written brief that includes 'objectives' and 'success criteria' is still the foundation stone for accountability and demonstration of the effectiveness of advertising media, PR, direct marketing, sales promotion and indeed all forms of commercial communications. Without the ability to demonstrate our effectiveness , no one will receive the remuneration that they deserve.

Question 2: Outline the 3 principles behind a good brief
The three principles behind a good brief are:
1. Written briefs -

Both clients and agencies believe there many benefits starting with a written document that is produced by the client, which is analysed by the agency and debated between the two teams. A written brief is preferred because it forces the client to consider their request.

The process of developing, discussing and agreeing the brief in itself adds value.

Writing a brief sets focus on what it is expected from the activity and what our agencies can  contribute with. 

By discussing the written brief both parties have opportunity to build on the brief, challenge it and buy into it which makes an effective team.

2. Clarity of thinking -

• The best kind of brief is the one with the most clarity and focus that creates the platform for a good strategic leap, a building customer insight and an effective solution. 
• A brief is a summarisation of an individuals thinking which has to include relevant supporting  information.
• Relevance and context are more important than reams of data.
• The main difference between a good brief and a bad one is that good briefs leave you with a clear understanding of what you are trying to do. A bad brief can drown you in contradictory information and objectives. 
• The brief should focus on setting out the objectives of your product that commercial communications can play a key role in achieving. 

3. Clearly defined objectives.

The point of communication is to get people to do things. You have to start by making sure that the objectives are clear. Use concert business objectives rather than vague terms such as 'to improve brand image'. The clarity of the objectives is the most important part of a good written briefs


Question 3: What elements should a good brief contain?
Key section headings of a best practice client brief:
These headings should be completed for every brief that is given to an agency. The detail of each section will vary depending on the circumstances of the brief.

• Project management - Ensuring that the basic facts about the project are provided. (e.g date, project name, company, brand etc.)
• Where are we now? - Describing the current position of the brand, its background and key issues it faces defines the  start point for the journey which will the brand will take.
• Where do you want to be? - What is the desired destination. The goal should be set in context of the overall business and marketing plan. Have a single minded and measurable objective for success.
• What are we doing to get there? - Have a marketing strategy because it is unlikely that advertising or other communications will achieve the defined objective alone, so it is essential for the agencies involved in developing these communications to have a good understanding f the total marketing and communications strategy. Also have a campaign strategy. This is to so you can think about what direction you can give to your agencies' creative briefs.
• Who do we need to talk to? - All communications are designed to form a response for a particular group of people -  meaning these target groups should be defined and prioritised as accurately as possible by demographics, lifestyle, product usage, attitudes etc.
• How will we know we've arrived? - You and the agencies need to know what success and failure both look like. Measures should be put into place to see whether or not the campaign delivers against its desired objective.
• Practicalities - The agencies responses to your brief will have many implementational consequences. Key practicalities are important to include in your brief. The main three areas are BUDGET,  TIMINGS and OTHER CONSIDERATIONS.   
• Approvals - Who has the authority to sign off the work that the agency produces. This person should be the one to sign off the brief before its given to the agency to present. 

Part 2 - 
What is a SWOT analysis?
A SWOT analysis is a useful technique for understanding your strengths and weaknesses , and for identifying both the opportunities open to you and the threats you face.
SWOT analysis's analyse the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats facing a business. An honest SWOT analysis helps to identify what is doing well, where it can improve and where it fits in the competitive landscape.

SWOT analysis for ROAD SAFETY COMPUTER GAME

STRENGTHS - 
There are many strengths of this brief.
1. One of the main strengths is that one of the mains aims of the brief of the game is for it too educational for children. It is good for a game to be educational as well as entertaining because it will bring families into wanting to buy/download the game for their children.
2. The fact that the game is going to be used to promote road safety is also a huge strength. It will be an enjoyable way to teach children that road safety is so important to know about.
3. Its also very good that the game is going to be instructional in how to use roads safely.

WEAKNESSES - 
1. only used on touch enabled devices
2. You can only create one level (not able to show different ideas and skills)
3. Have to avoid making it too complex and difficult to understand
4. Have to think about the cost of the app/game

OPPURTUNITIES - 
1. Parents/carers would be willing to spend money on buying the app if they believe it is useful
2. Its helpful for the community
3. Changes in technology can help the designers as it may be easier to create

THREATS - 
1. If there is a game with similar aims
2. Making sure that everything in the brief that the client wants is in the game to an acceptable standard
3. The cost

MoodBoard - 
This moodboard includes ages, genders, interests and the types of people i think the taget audience is off this specific brief.

Target Audience Profiling

Target Audience -

• Intended group of people that a media product is aimed at
• Demographics - age, gender, ethnicity, class and race
• Psychographics - (psychographics table) - Film industry will use psychographics to target what their audience would typically go for.
• NRS social grade 
• Primary, Secondary and Tertiary

Where is your target audience located?
What is there gender?
How old are they?
What are their common interests?
Average income range?


Attitudes
Behaviour
Relationships
Qualifications
Professions

How would you conduct research?

• Speak to your customers
• run surveys
• Examine your websites usage
• Run focus groups
• Request feedback 

Audience research - 

Quantitative audience research - 

• This is when companies collect large amounts of information from groups of people.
• This is done by emails, phone calls, face-to-face surveys which helps determine how their product will appeal to the target audience
• For films and marketing this is done by questionnaires. 
• A paper questionnaire is a closed question survey but people can still write their own thoughts and opinions.
• Digital questionnaires collect extra data and desk research is secondary research. 
• Quantitative research is numerical data and is best explained in graphs and charts. 

Qualitative audience research - 

• Qualitative data gives more wordy answers and explains more why people would chose what particular thing

Socio-economic status - 

• This means for some people to predict behaviour based on how much a person earns, where they live and their type of education and the characteristics a person may have. 
• In research this data is sued to estimate what influences this person may have. 
• Socio-economics are based on the class systems, from rich to poor. 
• This should help explain the class system. 

Geode-mographics - 

• From our socio-economic criteria, geode-mographics tell us about the type of people marketing. 
• Their age, gender, area they grew up in or live in and their financial class tells us a lot about the type of audience they would be. 
• This links to psychographic profiles or the seven stereotypes
• We rely on these stereotypes because even though people claim they are not stereotypical people they are in their psychology and they don't even realise it. Geode-mographics are based on where the target audience live. 

Age and gender - 

• Depending on the type of industry results in research into the age group target audience. 
• Its not age and gender that people are researching nowadays because we live in a multi-cultural society and everything has to be fair sex, non sexist and race and age appropriate. 

Mainstream/Alternative/Niche Audiences - 

• Mainstream audiences are stereotyped for the 'popular culture' because of their social group.
• The majority of people tend to like the same things, think the same way and do similar things and this is accepted as normal or typical of the mainstream 'popular' culture.

• Alternative audiences are different from the mainstream culture because they opt for the seemingly second best thing to a mainstream audience 
• This group of people tend to think 'outside the box' are more creative and are the opposite of mainstream. 
• However, what is popular with the alternative audience will gradually gain in popularity and this will soon become part of the mainstream category. 

• Niche audiences are what make up a small part of social culture.
• They have unique interests that people neither follow or know about.
• It can be very profitable to target a specific audience because they are a minority social group their culture and some themes may be popular with other social cultures and this will cause the ideas to grow in popularity. 

EXAMPLE 1 - TARGET AUDIENCE: KIDS 4-11

The channels on the left have smaller audiences, a low cost per shot and a high percentage of kids 4-11 watching their programmes. The channels on the right have large audiences, a high cost per spot and provide higher volumes of kids 4-11 per broadcast. 

The low cost per spot on some of the smaller channels like Cartoon Network, Nick JR, and nickelodeon provide the opportunity to show kids 4-11 viewers an advert multiple times for a small budget. 

The high cost per spot on some of the larger channels like ITV, channel 4, five, CITV and ITV2, enables advertisers to reach high numbers of kids 4 to 11 with a single broadcast. 

Digital TV both widely accessible and regularly consumed, TV advertisers can target kids ages between 4-11 with ease. Toys are the dominant area of interest that brands look to promote e.g. lego, barbie and Toy R us are key players in the children market. 

Brands such as Kellogs and Nestle seek to create advertisements with a fun and interactive element.

Why is it important to break down TV audiences into groups? 

KIDS 4-11

• Targeting their specific needs E.G Educational, promoting, and entertainment
• Advertising - Approriate adverts for the target audience. 
• High viewing figures = 1 time advert 
• Low viewing figures = multiple times an advert will be shown  

EXAMPLE 2 - ABC1 MEN 

The TV channels above all provide the advertiser a route to reaching men ABC1.

The channels on the left have smaller audiences, a lower cost per spot and a high percentage of men ABC1 watching their programmes.  The channels on the right have large audiences and a high cost per spot and provide higher volumes of men ABC1 per  broadcast.

The lower cost per spot on some of the smaller channels like Motors TV, Sky atlantic and The races all provide the opportunity to show men ABC1 viewers your advert multiple times for a small budget.

The high cost per spot on some of the larger channels such as sky sports news, ITV, channel4, comedy central and Five all enable advertisers to reach high numbers of men ABC1 with a single broadcast.

ABC1 men are often materialistically inclined and are known to strongly engage with advertisements. Products of interest include cars, holidays, technology and luxury products such a aftershave, BMW and Apple.

Within the ABC1 demographic, 12.8 million are male, which represents over a quarter of the adult population in the United Kingdom. The ABC1 male, as a result, represents a sizeable target audience for TV advertisers seeking to communicate with specific demographics.

Why is it important to break down TV audiences into groups? 
MEN ABC1

• 35% Friday and Saturday when ABC1 men consume TV
• Sky atlantic, high quality drama
• TV catch up - multi campaigns (billboards, campaigns everywhere)
• 
  

Client Briefs - LO2

FORMAL BRIEF - 

• Written documents
• Technical and specific language 
• Focused/in depth
• Majority of briefs are formally written.

INFORMAL BRIEF- 

• Can be as straight forward as a chat over a drink
• Non/limited documentation supporting
• No direct contractual agreement
• No specific requirements outlined initially 
• These tend to be undertaken and then fleshed out at a later date.

CONTRACTUAL (Formal)- 

• Typically formal
• Tasks are accepted under legal obligation (signed document)
• The clients desires and deadlines outlined must be met
• Both the client and the media producer must abide by the brief 

These briefs are more beneficial because they are

- less time waisting 

- deadlines have to be met otherwise will be fired or fined

- copy right

NEGOTIATED (formal) - 

• Both the client and the media producer make decisions 
• Through negotiations the brief may be altered

What discussions might producers like to have with a client? 

Discussions on actors and locations.

Discussions on how the money is split up. 

COOPERATIVE BRIEF (Formal)- 

• Two or more media producers/production companies working together to meet the brief
• e.g. film producers and different a post-production house

What issues might arise from a co-operative brief?

Any element of the production and pre-production. Such as Script, edits, shots, money, locations, actors and so on. 

COMPETITION (formal) - 

• The brief is advertised/given to multiple media producers
• The producers don't have to pitch
• All the different producers create their product
• The client then picks which one is the best 
• The reward is often just the prospect of getting your project published/distributed

Can you think of any examples of a competition brief?

Competition for film rights

Competition for creating an app

COMMISSION (formal) - 

• A media company employs an independent company to produce a product for them on their behalf
• The brief is not negotiated between the media producer and their employer/commissioner
• However the commissioner might negotiate the brief with the client
• The independent company is paid and may receive royalties. 

Factors that could impact the potential project management of a brief : 

• explicit requirements  - Strict requirements that must be met
• implicit requirements - Requirements that don't have to met but would help the production
• requirements that are open to interpretation - Able to interpret the brief the way you like (relate to North London music magazine) 
• constraints - Financial, personall and time constraints. 

One way of approaching the initial project details would be to create a mood board exploring the ideas. 

Prezi Links

W3C and IPSO
https://prezi.com/p/hymjsuwbpo0j/

ASA and PRS
http://prezi.com/p/jigxqbznvouy/

BBFC + PEGI +OFCOM
http://prezi.com/vicw/TF5AF0zm7RLrFpW4Uear/

Perfect and Reflect exam questions

1. Identify two costs that you may need to consider when developing a new phone app and explain how these costs impact on the project. (6 marks)
One cost of making a new phone app would be by paying the staff especially the graphic designer. They would usually have been paid on an hourly rate or a monthly rate. Pre production research (market research) are also taken out which have to be paid and funded for the people that take them. This is usually funded by either the individual or the company. However, this would have a positive impact by knowing who the clear target audience is. The costs of props and costumes also have to be paid and funded. These are going to help create the production as whole because they help to make the storyline or just give the production an effect. Copy rights is also a huge factor and has to be paid for to ensure the security and safety of the product.

2. Identify one act of legislation that is applicable to the creation of a new national newspaper and explain what impact it has. (3 marks)
The Human Rights Act 1998 has legal obligations to stick to the 8 principles of the act. The newspaper has too stick to this piece of legislation to make sure that there is no issues with the public about what the news paper includes in it. The impact usually relates to the stories that they are able to be in the publics best interest.

3. You have been offered a job as an apprentice for a company called Align Media. When they offered you the apprenticeship, you were required to sign a a form giving the intellectual property rights of any work you produce to Align Media. 
Explain why you were required to sign this form. (3 marks)
I was required to sign this form because it is in place to ensure that any products i personally design or create will legally be the property of the company Align Media. The contract is in place to make sure that copyrights and design rights are being kept to so that they own the rights to there own products and therefore would not have to worry intellectually.

4. Identify one type of revenue stream that you could consider to make a website profitable and explain why this might be an effective method. (6 marks)
One type of revenue stream would be the money made from selling merchandise. Merchandise is created to be sold on the website or in shops and it usually promotes the product. Merchandise can include cups, t-shirts, posters etc. It provides advertising as the products would most likely be branded with the website/logo name.

5. Identify two ethical issues that you would need to consider before your team develops ideas for a documentary on refugees. Explain how these will impact on the project. (8 marks)
One ethical issues that would be considered would be the exploitation and misrepresentation we have to ensure fair representation of the refugees and the whole system. Also there are likely to be language barriers which means that it would be having children being shown in the documentary whit having some kind of parental consent because some parents may not want to give consent.

6. Identify one regulatory body which could provide guidance with regard to creating a new advert fora children charity. Explain your choice (2 marks)
The ASA stands for the advertising standards authority. There job is to give advice on what would be appropriate to show on TV in regards to adverts.

To The Bone: Ethical Issues

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jun/26/netflix-to-the-bone-anorexic-mental-health-eating-disorders-iliy-collins

To The Bone is a Netflix original series and it is about a young women dealing with anorexia. She meets an unconventional doctor who challenges her to face condition and embrace life.

• Mental health experts have said that this Netflix original could trigger serious psychological issues for sufferers and should come with a warning.
• Netflix recently was at the centre of controversy over its series '13 reasons why', because it was a portrayal of a teenagers suicide that critics said could encourage young people to kill themselves. Psychiatrists have said that 'To the bone' has similar criticisms. 
• To the bone is potentially risky to two groups of people including those who have not yet developed an eating disorder and just the risk of glamorising it. 

• There have been calls to ban the film because of the fears that the film may promote eating disorders. 
• Viewers that may suffer with eating disordering may be in a vulnerable state to the power of the media and some of the images in the film. 
• There is a debate over 'To the bone' that girls can be infected with anorexia by looking at images of slim (starved) bodies which is where anorexia lies. 
• There are objections to "To The Bone claim"  that it glamorises anorexia and stereotypes of going girls.
• The chair of the eating disorders faculty at the Royal College of psychiatrists Dasha Nicholls said that her "main message for people who will be vulnerable to this is to consume with caution." She also said that a trigger warning would be a sensible idea as well a parental advisory note. 

• Psychologist Dr Carolyn Keenan said that " it is possible that some viewers may find the content distressing and triggering and netflix and viewers will need to take responsibility for what they do with that. 
• Some of the images in the trailer could trigger emotional distress in those with anorexia because the main character counts calories and looks extremely thin.\
• There is a lot of concern about the use of imagery from patient and carer groups. 

However even though there are so many ethical issues, a lot of people also support the media in raising awareness of eating disorders however can trigger negative behaviours in people who are affected by there mental health issues. 

Leveson Inquiry

• The Leveson Inquiry was a public, judge-led inquiry.
• It was set up by Prime Minister David Cameron to investigate the press after journalists at the The News of the World were accused of illegally accessing the voicemail messages on other people's phones, without their knowledge or consent.
• They were also accused of bribing police officers.
• Some of those who had their mobile phones 'hacked' into in this way were celebrities, sports people and politicians.
• The News of the World was closed down by its owner, News International, when this information became public.
• Lord Justice Leveson, on the evidence presented at the Leveson inquiry, stated his recommendations on how the press should be regulated.

·

            They were:

1.   Newspapers should continue to be self-regulated and government should have no power over what newspapers publish.

2.     A new press standards organisation, with a new code of conduct should be created by the press industry.

3.     Legislation should be provided to ensure this new press standards organisation would be independent and effective in dealing with public complaints.

crowdfunding Video -

https://youtu.be/js1mpLwG00c

This is the youtube link to the information video made by myself, Lauren and Lielle