RESEARCH AND PLANNING ESSAY

I have developed my research and planning skills across two years with the production of my AS music magazine and A Level coursework of making a horror trailer. I understand that research is essential for knowing how to construct my work by using specific software and design but it also helped me understand what conventions to follow for an accurate and successful final product in both years.

In AS my preliminary task was to design the front cover of a college magazine to demonstrate my creativity and understanding of conventions. In order to do this task I was given a template to follow but I also had to learn the components that form a magazine such as the masthead, subheadings, dominant image etc. However, for this preliminary task there was no planning done into the type of audience I would be aiming my magazine at except the fact it was for college so I couldn’t be as imaginative with the parts like the framing of pictures I took, as they had to be mid shots. Also the colour scheme was given to me and it had to be mainly unisex colours in order to appeal to a general audience.

In my second task for AS which was to make a music magazine I was given more creative choice. I could choose the genre I wanted to convey, what type of images, the font and the layout independently. In terms of research and planning I had to look at similar examples of my chosen genre (R&B) to get an idea of how I wanted to present my magazine. I constructed a mood board for the colours, I researched into the common iconography that appears within the R&B genre and on the magazines. I learned that R&B have a common convention of having a main dominant image and a large masthead with minimal cover lines in order to draw more attention to the image of the person on the front so I incorporated those conventions into my own magazine.

In my A2 film trailer I had to research into each sub-genre of horror and learn what type of props, location, character and situation happens in each film in order my trailer to be realistic and accurate. I looked at trailers from multiple sub-genres such as Scream, Night of the Living Dead, Saw and The Human Centipede to know the conventions of the films and which sub-genre I would like my trailer to be. I also had to make a horror movie magazine and poster for my trailer and to do this I looked at popular horror magazines such as ‘Scream’ as it was the most modern and I analysed how the layout of the page appeals to its target audience. Ultimately for the poster, since our chosen sub-genre was a slasher I looked at posters for films such as Carrie, The Grudge, Scream and April Fools’ Day and they all had a similar conventions such as the eyes of the person on the poster standing out and blood appearing on the victims. This research and planning also had to be presented in on a blog and with structure. This has shown development because I was able to successfully organise my work into clear sub headings and it also made me improve my analysis skills because I’m able to look at a range of sources that will improve my creativity.

In comparison I think my planning for my A2 Trailer was significantly better than my AS Music Magazine partly because the work was split within the group so everyone had their own view on what was beneficial to the final product. Also I believe I spent a lot of time researching into conventions, by doing short essays and watching horror trailers, therefore I know that they help shape the meaning of a film but also to convey the sub-genre.

In conclusion I think I have developed as a post-modern media producer because I am able to examine past work and use influences to enhance my own creativity. By doing this I am able to create my own ideas and have the independence to choose how to produce and achieve them.