Research Proposal Feedback

Two days ago I received my grade and feedback for the research proposal submitted before christmas; I was relatively disappointed with the grade I received (14/20) however upon reading the feedback provided there is no doubt this is the grade I deserve for the work I submitted. I think I realised my research proposal wasn't focused appropriately while I was trying to create mock-up score for James Calderwood's video clip. For example my research proposal stated that I would carry out a case study focused on the technologies available to assist film composition; although an understanding of the tools and technologies available to assist composition is fairly important it wouldn't have helped my create score submitted in my Pre-Production Portfolio.

The following post will examine the feedback provided and identify the steps I will take to make the project more relevant:

• "The introduction is relatively brief, and could be benefited with examples/citations to help demonstrate the need for the project to be carried out and to illustrate the topic for the reader more clearly. As you jump to the aim and objectives fairly quickly, the topic itself is not very well established."

My current project introduction is only a page long and focus's quite heavily on the technology aspects of film score production which I no longer feel is the most important area to be researched. The introduction will be updated so that it provides a more detailed overview of the research aim; focusing on developments in the film scoring industry and where my project will fill gaps in information. 

"Try to structure the lit review by clear categories rather than as responses to questions, which is much more informal and less coherent. It would be good to see these laid out for easier reading and also to help you to establish your critical framework. As you indicate in the methodology, the aim is to develop a practical framework based on your research, but some form of critical framework is required prior to the case study in order to give you the language (and means) to analyse and deconstruct an example of soundtrack production in the case study. So the lit review should really serve to clearly establish criteria for analysis at all stages of research, probably under the following headings; Film and Film Score (this isn't really discussed at length, but some foundation of the aesthetics of film scores in relation to the film is really needed - i.e. a theory of film score aesthetics, how to align music to visual content, narrative, characters, plot etc. Without this, you can discuss how to align music with film and the tools, but the inexperienced user will have no concept of the artistic qualities of the work they are producing. Why do films have scores?) Film Score Composition (a section on process, drawing on your discussion of techniques, practices etc.) and Tools, Technologies and the Inexperienced Composer (where you discuss the free or cheap tools that can be used by inexperienced users, and the knowledge they will require before commencing an production - there must always be some basis in sound and music production, presumably?)"

I plan on redoing the literature review in a way that is becomes a critical framework which can be used to analyse the worth of film score. The sentence "there must always be some basis in sound and music production, presumably" Was a real eye opener for me, and has led to the decision that instead of attempting to create a framework which someone with absolutely no musical abilities can use to create film score the project will focus on creating a practical framework to be used by musicians with no previous experience in creating film score. 

"I'd expect a case study to be of an applied example, e.g. analysis of the process and outcome of scoring a film by a relatively inexperienced composer using readily available tools. In this case you'd need to identify examples of amateur or low budget films where there is sufficient information on the film score production for you to examine."

 

Rather than doing a case study on the tools and technologies available to assist in film score creation I plan on researching small/low budget films and emailing composers to discuss their methods of composing and base a case study on this. 

"What fllm footage will you use? The focus group needs some explanation, in terms of; who the participants are, what levels of experience they will have, whether one focus group is really valid for proper evaluation, how they will be given a chance to use the framework within the timeframe of the project and whether the method is valid if they are simply being asked to read and discuss the framework."

I plan on using more film footage provided by director James Calderwood to test my practice based research on; as for the focus group this really needs to be thought about, perhaps a focus group isn't the best method of analysing the value of my practical framework?