Your intention statement creates your rationale and outlines your vision for your media product. This is an important statement that should give a clear picture of what your product is and what it is setting out to say.
The intention statement is something that is looked at closely when marking the product when assessing how close the finished product is to the planning. You should draft this statement early and then finalise it when you have clarified more what your final product is.
Your intention statement should include an outline of your product, the purpose of the product, discussion of themes / ideas / exploration of media form, discussion of style / genre.
You should be aiming for 800 - 1000 words, maybe longer.
Use the structure and questions below to guide what your intention statement should look like.
Basic Outline
- Give a description of what your finished product will be
Purpose of Product
- Describe why this product should exist.
- Why does your target audience want or need this product?
- What is this product offering that similar products aren’t?
- Why is this media product important to you? Why is it important to other people?
Themes / Ideas / Concepts
- Explain the main theme, or idea of your product
- What is your narrative's moral? What is the take away message you want to give?
Media Form
- What media form will you be working in? - be specific
- Why will you be working in this media form to tell this story?
- How will this media form have an effect on the purpose, themes, style and audience of the product?
Genre / Style
- What genre is the narrative in? How will this have an effect on the narrative and product?
- What style characteristics does the product have? How will this have an effect on the narrative and product?
Assessment
The Intention is often the first and last thing your assessor will read when marking your work. Specifically, the intention is used to mark these two assessment criteria:
Criteria 3
To get a very high, an intention needs to:
Describe an intention
Describing an intention means the document should clearly, and in detail, give information about the media product you plan to make.
Justify an intention
Justifying an intention means giving a good reason why it should exist. This means there should be lots of links in your intention to your specified audience and lots of detail in your purpose section.
Elaborate on Ideas
To elaborate on an idea means that you fully explain them. For example, Your intention should be able to make a connection between the narrative of the product and the theme or moral of the story in the product.
Criteria 9
Criteria 9 is all about having a close connection between your planning and your finished product. This is why it is important that you revisit your intention at the end of your pre-production to ensure that it still matches what you want to achieve.