“Research and planning is essential for success”. How have your productions been informed by the conventions of real media products?
Throughout my studies at A level, research and planning has been extremely helpful and beneficial. It has allowed me to develop my production skills whilst learning about professional production practices. In ASlevel Media Studies I produced print work. My initial project was to create a CDcover for a fictitious band. This opportunity allowed me to research CDlayout and design from a wide range of bands, including the Paramore cover and the cover for Fall Out Boy. From this research I was able to formulate ideas for my own CDcover. My first project consisted of lots of research but minimal planning so I found myself continually changing fonts, brushes and picture saturation to adapt different ideas which were more spontaneous rather than planned. For my college magazine project however I found research a lot more vital as I have little knowledge of what makes a good college magazine as I have never purchased or read one. I used my research to figure out some of the key codes and conventions of a magazine front cover. I learnt that mainstream magazines have a masthead (normally positioned top left) as well as cover lines, a lead article and a pull quote. I also learnt that the model used on the front cover often embodies the Values, Aspirations and Lifestyles of the target audience. My final project for ASMedia was a music magazine. This relied not only on personal individual research carried out by myself, but I also researched into my target audience using surveys on surveymonkey.com. This allowed me to gain ideas and inspiration from other people who would (in theory) be reading and purchasing my magazine. I produced a Reader Profile which outlined my target audience’s preferencesand spending habits. This is something I noticed during my research that NME, Q and Mixmag all produced. The Reader Profile also gives the advertisers valuable information about the target audience and may encourage them to advertise in my magazine. A2 Media allowed me to experiment with music videos. Initially I looked into music videos on You Tube and MTV. I researched Andrew Goodwin and began to spot that many existing music videos have similar codes and conventions. One of the common codesand conventions I noted was the relationship between the visuals and the lyrics. This was particularly true in the Paramore video I looked at which had the artists performing ‘as live’. After researching existing music videos and getting inspired by the shots, lighting and generic conventions I made a storyboard illustrating my ideas which had flowed from my research. This helped me to plan not only what was going to be in my music video, but what props I would need and where we would film the video. Research into existing music videos clearly indicated that these aspects of mise-en-scene are important as they communicate meaning to the audience. This year I also produced a DVD digipak and a print poster. I researched Digipaks and found inspiration in the layout, colour schemesand designs of existing products such as the Digipak for Kasabian. I experimented with a more complex use of layers and the eraser tool to create more complex effects. My print poster was initially unplanned which lead to a messy and unrelated
poster. To fix this I researched other posters and quickly managed to see the links between the Music Video, the DVD and the poster – I began to get a better appreciation of the ways in which these elements combine to give a senseof brand identity. In conclusion my work generally worked better with detailed research and planning as I was more informed with what to do with my work. I found that by researching existing media products I was better able to notice certain codes and conventions and decide whether I wanted to use or challenge those codes and conventions in my production pieces.