Planning and Research - Essay

When planning and researching at both AS and A2 level, I had to make micro and macro decisions. Progression between my foundation and advanced portfolio levels can be seen by how much time was spent on these decisions, as well as the complexity shown in making them. 

Time/Equipment/Actors/Locations

At AS level I managed my time and equipment through deadlines that were set, and to meet these I set my own personal deadlines to make sure that I was on track with creating the portfolio. I knew that I wanted to take high quality photos to be used within my magazine, and so I had to source a good camera, as well as some lighting to add the effect that I had planned when flat planning. Luckily, I had a friend that could lend me both, as well as a model who was local and really flexible with times when he was available to do the photo-shoot. However, I didn’t organise a deadline with myself for when I wanted the photo’s to be taken by, so this lead to me having less time to create and finalise the magazine once I managed to take the photos. If I had set a deadline for when I wanted the photos, this would have given me longer to manipulate them whilst creating the magazine pages.

When planning for my A2 coursework, the amount of planning and research rapidly increased. I planned in much more depth, for example, I made a shooting schedule which showed me what actors I needed, what location, any props etc. This helped me when filming as it meant I wasn’t repeating shots and had a time frame to follow to make sure all of the filming was done in time. This shooting schedule gave me deadlines to stick to for each day of filming, progressing from AS level as this was where I had problems in organising myself. It meant that I got myself organised to film on these specific days at specific times, and meant that I had to organised my actors for those days, meaning that I had to go by these arrangements so that I didn’t mess my actors around. This meant that I got the filming done for when I wanted, and could swiftly progress onto editing the footage together into the music video I had visualised.

Scripting/Flat-planning

At foundation level, I researched into magazines that already exist, and this helped me to understand the conventions of music magazines, giving me idea’s for what to include throughout the pages of the music magazine that I created. I also flat planned the pages of my magazines, allowing me to change and develop ideas as I drew them out. I could also adapt these designs when receiving feedback from my target audience after pitching to a focus group. I found this method of planning really effective as I could see how my ideas progressed, as well as how the brand identity I wanted to create developed. I found that putting my ideas down roughly on paper helped to inspire me with new ideas, which I could easily add to my plans. It also helped me to decide what composition of images I would need to take to professionalise the pages of the music magazine. However, this lead to me having problems when taking photos, as it meant I had to conform to these plans, and had to find a location that would work with the conventions I’d already decided on using. I could have improved this by roughly flat planning, then taking the photos I was going to use, and then make another flat plan to follow when creating the magazine using desktop publishing software. This could have helped me have a better idea of how to overcome the problems before going straight into producing the magazine electronically.

At A2, I used methods that I’d used before such as analysing previous similar texts and flat planning for my ancillary tasks. I also made a draft and final storyboard, both helping me to establish the sequence of shots that I wanted to use, whilst allowing me to gain inspiration when thinking ahead, and being able to come up with new and more exciting ideas to add into the sequence. To overcome the problems that I encountered at AS, I made sure that I went out and took shots of the location that I wanted to use, meaning that I could check for any lighting issues, and to make sure that the location was going to fit with the sequence of shots that I had already planned. This shows progression as it meant I didn’t have any problems with the location that I’d chosen, and so didn’t have to adapt it around the plans that I’d already made, so didn’t waste any time re-planning to make it work more efficiently.

Initial Target Audience Research

At AS level, I initially researched into my target audience by brainstorming with my partner, and taking these ideas and creating a mood board from this. Luckily, the other students in my class were part of my target audience, and so they helped me to find and collate images which enabled me to create an accurate reflection of the audience. Another form of research I used was a questionnaire asking my target audience about their preferences of music, relating to genres, magazines, prices etc. This was a form of primary research as I created it for this purpose, and personally gave out the questionnaires to make sure that it was only answered by my target audience. This research enabled me to see what my target audience would want from a new music magazine, and therefore helped me to adapt to their preferences, creating a magazine that would appeal to them in a range of different ways.

At A2 level, I used similar forms of research into my target audience, but also extended this research in order to increase accuracy when reaching out to the audience. I similarly used questionnaires, both to research into what my target audience would want from a music video, as well as what they thought after the video had been produced. This enabled me to see how effective my previous research had been, because it showed me the popularity and other opinions about the video once I’d created it. I also made an audience profile, looking at both demographic and psychographic factors that I would expect of my target audience, showing clearly who I was targeting and therefore enabling me to understand how to do this effectively. A way that my research progressed at advanced level from foundation level was by the way that I gained instant and direct feedback from my target audience whilst creating both my ancillary tasks and the music video. This occurred as I continually asked members of my class about what they thought of decisions that I’d made with both, and being open to their suggesting on how to improve. An example of this was when I asked a group of students what they thought of a sequence involving a clock in fast forward, and the suggested that the artist could be jump cutting in different positions in the background. I adapted to this, and then in my target audience feedback questionnaire, I had a large number of answers saying that this part of their video was their favourite scene.

Existing Media Practice/Products

At foundation level, the main way that I researched into existing media products/texts was by finding existing magazines, analysing their front page, contents page and double page spreads to show the main conventions that these pages of a music magazine include. This then gave me a range of conventions that I could identify across other similar music magazine, inspiring me with ideas for what to do with mine. At this level I only use primary research, and only really used this type of research into existing products/texts. However at advanced level, I similarly analysed existing media texts, specifically music videos that were of the same genre that I planned to use for my own music video. I also looked at existing magazine adverts and Digipaks in the same way, looking at conventions of both, and giving me ideas as to how to adapt this when creating my own. I also used secondary research, in that I researched into Goodwin’s theory to form a list of conventions that music video’s mainly abide by, and when storyboarding my own video I looked at this regularly to improve the professionalism of my video. It enabled my video to actually look like a music video, rather than just being a film, again helping me to attract my target audience.