Project timeline

 EPQ

Timeline (Plan) 

Sep 15 – picked my question, picked which films and books I wanted to use to research

Oct 15 – evaluated the films, made case studies on each (estimate if any of them are accurate, no real evidence for/against yet though as haven’t studied the facts)

Nov 15 – looked at the historical side of the question, researched online and in books facts and figures about the era of the films and looked to begin to evaluate whether the films were accurate or not in depth

Dec 15 – cross examined historical events and films – took into account their purpose and whether or not they stuck to the facts

Jan 16 – began to plan/write my essay after I had gathered together all my information

Feb 16 – finished essay and moved onto evaluating product and planning presentation

This is a rough guide to what I hope to achieve throughout the months and how much work I need to do each month to keep on target, the workload is spaced out evenly to I can complete it to a high standard without it interfering with my other studies and meaning It isn't rushed.

Initial ideas (Part II) - Evaluating my project idea

EPQ

Initial ideas (Part II)

To begin my EPQ I had noted down all the possible ideas I have for what to base my project on, from there I evaluated it would be most beneficial to do my EPQ on something media related as those are the sort of courses I have applied to at university (film/media arts/creative writing/tv production). From there I came up with 5 main rough ideas of what I could base my investigation on and wrote pro's and cons for each: 

• Make a film?
• Edit something?
• Essay on films?
• Study of famous director?
• Narrative and character theory in films?

1) Make a film

+ something extra for my show reel

+ gain extra practice in creating media

+ relevant to the practical side of the media degrees I want to do at university

- a long process

- how could I tie in a research element

- what would my question be and how would I present this in a film

2) Edit something

+ something I enjoy and a specific part of media I hope to be involved in when I'm older (good practise)

+ something more unique and different (using digital media)

+ more diverse than just an essay

- how to include research element

- what could be my question

- how could I use editing to investigate something

3) Historical accuracy in films

+ something which interests me 

+ easier to think of question and how to include research element

+ example of written communication

- not very diverse

- very theory based, nothing to add to my practical work

- could be too simple

4) Study of famous director

+ interesting, providing me with new knowledge

+ related to university courses I'm interested in

+ could include new media as well as essay (more diverse)

- what could my question be

- too narrow (film/tv, couldn't do both)

- not something I'm as interested in (directing)

5) Narrative and character theory in films

+ something I'm very interested in

+ more original and diverse

+ good example of written communication

- too challenging

- hard to include digital media

- how to narrow it down, what could my question be

Over the next week I will evaluate these 5 options and choose one before beginning planning my question and starting my research into the topic I choose.

Initial Ideas

EPQ

Initial Ideas

The first task of my EPQ is too choose what I want to investigate, so far I have a few ideas and below I will list the pro's and con's of each:

1) History and film
+ two of my favourite subjects, would love to combine the two
+ something interesting and lots of resources to choose from
+ essay would be another piece of writing to add to my portfolio
- may be hard to incorporate digital/new media
- not specific to what I want to do at university (media but not history)

2) Behavioural patterns (Psychology)
+ very interesting
+ unique and specific
- what could the question be
- could be too advanced/scientific
- not relevant to what I want to do at university

3) Making a film
+ digital/new media
+ something to add to my portfolio
+ unique, different to essay
- long process (would need lots of work)
- how could I include research
- what could my question be

4) Writing
+ something which interests me
+ great to have more examples of my written work
+ something different
- what could I research (how could I make it an investigation)
- what would my question be

5) Design a website
+ digital/new media
+ different/unique
- what could I research
- what would my question be

From this I can evaluate that I will do something media related as although the others are interesting ultimately I wanted to choose a topic that is relevant to what I intend to study at university. Therefore I can exclude behavioural methods (as its psychology based not relevant to film), designing a website (too broad, more to do with digital media rather than film/tv) and instead choose between the other three. In another post I will look over the different options I have for investigations to do with media and then decide which topic to choose from there.

Why I have chosen to do an EPQ

EPQ

Why?

An EPQ (extended project qualification) is something I was keen to do once I found out about it for many reasons, most prominent of all may have been the added UCAS points but that is rather an added incentive rather than the core reason for me doing it. Not only is it an extra qualification and something extra to put on my personal statement but it is a way for my to do something extra in my free time and actually get graded on it and have it hopefully benefit my applications to universities.

From it I hope to gain a better understanding of which ever aspect I choose to investigate (probably media) and have an extra piece of work (written or digital) to add to my portfolio and show evidence of my writing/practical work.