Research and planning

Before I could start to create my coursework projects, I had to complete research so that I could get a better idea of the types of codes and conventions that were used in that particular media product, etc. as well it giving me multiply ideas and inspiration. I also had to plan my time as because there was a lot of work to compete, time management was essential to ensure that I was able to meet the deadlines.

For my first coursework project for AS I made a school magazine. For this magazine, I did minimal research into existing school magazine, but enough to get a rough idea of the features used and the general layout and format. I did not plan my time in this project as it was only the preliminary task which was completed in a short amount of time so there was no need. The main coursework task for that year was to make a music magazine. For this I has to create a front cover, contents page and double page spread. Before I began to produce my magazine pages, I analysed 5 existing music magazines in a similar genre to my own. Doing this enabled me to see the typical codes and conventions used within meaning I could then use and develop them in my own magazine. When analysing the magazines I looked at the colour schemes used, mise-en-scene in the photos, layout, fonts, camera angles, size of photos as well as others. I predominantly focussed on looking Q magazine as this was very similar to the type of magazine I was going to be making. In this project research was essential as without it my product would not have been marketable or similar to any existing products. For this project I also planned my time. As I had 3 pages to make I had to plan when I was going to take the photos included in my magazine as well as organising models to be in photos. Before I could begin taking the photos, I had to plan what types of shots to take as well as how I wanted the models to look. I also had to plan when I would create each page so that I had enough time to produce the three separate pages. I planned my time so that I was able to meet each deadline.

For my A2 coursework, I had to work within a group of 4 people and we have to create and music video with a digipak and advert to go with it. Once we had chosen a song to make a video for, we began looking at existing music videos and digipaks from music artists in the same or similar genre to the song we had chosen. We choose the song The Face by The Kings of Leon. We analysed these videos and adverts/digipaks so that we knew the typical codes and conventions that were used. Doing this meant that we would know what types of conventions to use in our project to make sure it fitted with the genre it was from. As well as looking at music videos we looked at stop motion art videos as we knew we were going to use stop motion in our video. Looking at these videos meant that we could see how to construct stop motion footage well. Stop motion is a feature not regularly seen in music videos so it really went against the typical conventions we had previously seen when analysing music videos. Because of this our video became a bit more unique and different to other videos within the same genre. We also completed many mind maps consisting of different initial ideas for both our video and digipak/advert. Doing this meant that we didn't forget any ideas we had and then we could go back adn expand on them further on in the project. We also had to plan our time very carefully. As there was limited time to the tasks set, I had to create a planning timetable which included each deadline and when we were going to film, edit, take photos, etc. Doing this was extremely important as we had to organise when the whole group was free and make sure we spend enough time on each part so we were not rushing towards the end of the project.