Research and planning essay

The task which we had to complete in AS was to construct a music magazine in the genre of our choice. My magazine was based upon dance music, a very bright and colourful theme runs throughout this genre and the conventions were very generic. In A2 the task was to create a horror trailer, alongside a magazine and poster which had similar aspects to the AS task. Both tasks needed a lot of deep analysis which came from researching general conventions to looking at other magazines and watching different trailers. 

Both the AS and the A2 work included individual research based upon the genre of the magazine and the genre of the horror trailer. My independent research skills have greatly developed from AS to A2 due to the fact that at AS, in the preliminary task I only looked at one magazine that was poorly done by another student meaning that I was not able to research that well. However in the horror trailer research I watched over 12 trailers and around 4 full length movies to gain more ideas for research. In addition to this, I also researched the background of horror films in my genre research which gave me even more knowledge before starting my trailer. The fact that I was able to incorporate theories to match up to the horror research made it easier to recreate the trailer and I had more creativity due to looking at more examples. This shows that over the course of the two years my research skills have developed greatly. 

The second skill that I feel I have developed since AS is the ability to plan before I complete a task. This is shown in the magazine task when we had to do drafts for the magazine before starting it on photoshop. The planning allowed me to put a few ideas on paper but they did not really help me when completing the magazine. However in A2 I needed to plan a story board before going out to shoot as well create recces which would help us when filming. Planning the story board help a lot when filming due to the fact that it gave us an outline to follow rather than trying to film it straight from our heads. The recces also show that there was more in depth planning put into it compared to the magazine in AS. This shows that from the magazine to now my research and planning skills have developed greatly. 

To conclude I feel as though my research and planning skills have been improved since the beginning of the course. This is due to the detail that I have learned to put into this section as it does pay off in the final outcome.

Analysis of real media texts essay

1.      Describe how your analysis of the conventions of real media texts informed your own creative media practice. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

I feel the analysis of conventions of real life media texts has greatly helped me over the course of the media A-level. In AS the task was to create a magazine front page and double page spread which was based upon dance music in the UK which consisted of all the latest DJ’s which would appeal to a wide audience. My A2 work consisted of a horror trailer as well as a poster and magazine which would be used to promote my film which was about the darkness attacking and killing the teenage victims due to their rebellion against society.

My analysis of real media text conventions in my AS work consisted of looking at real life magazines to see where I could gain ideas to put in my magazine. This involved creating mind maps of the magazines and then annotating them to see where they have or haven’t followed the generic conventions. In addition creating textual analysis’s which I also did at A2 when analysing different horror films. I then furthered my research to look at certain DJ’s websites and the way that they promoted themselves, this allowed me to base my magazine on Photoshop around this. My Photoshop skills were developed through this as I continuously had to change aspects of the magazine to suit the music genre such as image manipulation and text font and placement. This then furthered into A2 when I had to create a film poster for my original idea which meant I had a greater depth of knowledge about how to use Photoshop and how to create a realistic poster. I think that without the use of Photoshop from AS to A2 I would not have been able to create such realistic work especially without doing the original analysis of real media texts.

Secondly, my drafting skills have also developed a lot during the course as in AS the task was to draft magazine ideas to help us create the final product. The drafts that I completed did not really differ and I did not add much detail at all when it came to drawing the images on the drafts. However, in A2 my task was to create a storyboard that consisted of around 30 images of the trailer and they had to be detailed. I have been able to use a lot more shading as well as creating more lifelike images to make it easier for me to shoot the actual trailer based on the storyboard. I did the drawing by focusing completely on the drawing alone and using pencils to add detail rather than colouring pens which I did at AS. 

research and planning

Today I called St Dunstans in the east and souhtwark cathedral to check the availability for filming within the sites.

Car Park and Woods test shot locations