Research and planning

Research helped me to make sure that my products in both AS and A2 were realistic and looked professional.

I did various research on exisiting magazines for my AS coursework, to ensure that my magazine would look professional as well as interesting enough to gain an audience. I had to research existing music videos for my A2 coursework so that I could also gain some inspiration, and to try and understand what music videos consist of.

For AS and A2, I had to research the codes and conventions of music magazines and videos, to ensure that my magazine and music video would include all of the key codes and convetions of the genre I chose to follow. Other information I had to find out about for both AS and A2 included what my target audiences would be interested in and their characteristics. This included their age range, what acitivies they like, and what forms of media they may use.

To collect my research, I used many different methods. The internet was a major source of my research due the vast amount of information available via websites. I used magazine websites such as Kerrang's and Q magazine's when I wanted to look at magazine examples and see what forms of media they used to advertise the magazines. This helped me to create my own magazine as I could get a sense of the style I needed to use to make it look realisitic. I used the website youtube to look at music videos which allowed me to look at things such as camera movements and shots used in music videos. This helped me to create my own video as I could use the shots I saw within my own.

Without research, I would have found it difficult to create my own magazine and music video. I believe that they would not have looked as real and professional without the use of research. This is mainly due to the fact that the research allowed me to explore more into what should be included, rather than just what it should look like. The use of reseach enabled me to go into more detail which made my final results look better.

The use of analysising what I created helped me to continuously make progress with my work, and during the analysis I could compare my magazine or music video to the examples or information I had researched. This made spotting a possible improvement a lot more easier, and highly improved my final products. I could see where I had made faults and also see what I had done well in which was really beneficial as it could show my products strengths and weaknesses.

I used a lot of different methods of analysing my magazine and music video. I used different media such as videos and prezi's depending on the nature of what I was analysis. If I was making an improvement, I would display this by using before and after pictures, or if I was changing something like the narrative to my music video, I would speak about this using a video. This made analysisng more clear and easy to understand what I had to do to improve my work.