Research and Planning Question 1. Answer

A2 Coursework

Primary Research -

• Analysing exsisting music video in terms of technical camera angles used, mise en scene etc. aswell as in terms of my personal opinion of my likes and dislikes about the videos.
• Researching my initial ideas in the existing world and how they could be applied in an effective way.
• Initial market research through a facebook and twitter page for the fictional band I created.
• Audience Profile research.
• Choosing a genre and researching the genre to see if I could apply it to my initial ideas.
• Analysing my pitch feedback from my peers which gave me another example of market research.
• Research into my mise en scene - e.g. personal trips to locations where I took photographs which is another example of primary research as well as going to vintage stores.
• Creating a mini test shoot video in order to research how to use the camera and how good my final video shots would be.
• Analysing 1960's album artwork.
• Analysing album magazine adverts.
• Practicing the styling of my artists beforehand.

Secondary Research -

• Researching songs and reading about 1960's inspired bands of today.
• Researching David Bailey's techniques as a 1960's photographer.
• Watching and posting about 'Factory Girl', a film made in 2006 on the subject of my music video.
• Watching countless documentaries about Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgewick.
• Researching and compiling videos and photographs of Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgewick and the Warholian Factory.
• Read and re-wrote Edie Sedgewick's Biograhy.
• Researching Edie Sedgewick's style and re-creating her famous 'Butterfly earrings'.
• Researching 'star Image' and applying it to my own artists.

AS Coursework

Primary Research -

• Analysing exsisting music magazine covers, contents pages and double page spreads in terms of the media conventions they use including things such as the 'three colour rule' and the use of a 'masthead'.
• Colour Paletting and creating mixes of colours and analysing them in terms of whether they work or not and what genre of music they connote.
• Audience Profiles.
• Analysing Different texts and fonts from dafont.com in terms of whether or not they would work for my magazine.
• Research into my chosen genre of music, for example, what a music magazine of that genre would traditionally look like.
• Researching and analysing exsisting magazine shoots.
• Analysing my test shots. By taking them, this would also could as primary research aswell as analysing whether they work or not.
• Analysing my magazine pitch from comments made from my peers.
• Researching into the representation of social groups.
• Researching and taking initial shots of my magazine shoot.
• Analysing my teacher feedback of my first draft.
• Researching exsisting magazines in order to justify my magazine design choices.

Secondary Research -

• Researching the 'Golden Spiral of Photography'.
• Researching 'Markus Klinko', a photographer and reading through his biography and body of work.
• Researching 'RANKIN', a media photography phenomenon in the world today and reading through his biography and body of work.
• Reading through many magazines, as well as controversial ones such as 'Dazed & Confused' and 'LOVE'.

The Pro's and Con's of carrying out my research -

Pros's -

• If primary research is not carried out beforehand then a media text may risk lacking credibility in the real world and will also risk the review it may get from an audience as well as the professional. Therefore, primary research increases the chances of a good reception.
• By applying secondary research to your media text, i.e. applying theorists to you work, you can add credibility in the real world and you know in yourself that you feel confident in what you produced and that that the reviews wil be positive.

Con's -

• Primary research may be carried out effectively beforehand, although there is a risk of directly 'sampling' exsisting work without realising it and therefore the reviews from a professional may be seen as 'copycatting'.
• If you apply secondary research to your media text, you can sometimes risk your work being directed only at a niche audience and not by most. Even though you can add theory to your media texts etc. not ll audiences will have the background knowledge of intertextual features and therefore, your media text would not be recieved well by all.

With both years body of work, I put a huge effort into the research andplanning stages for each but although I put in equal amountsof effort, the huge demand for a more impressive body of work at A2 level left me with a larger number of posts on my blog around research and planning. I get involved with any project I do and let it literally control my life for a couple of months however, this was particularly apparent at A2 level and therefore left me to produce more research and planning in preperation for my final media text.
Over the two years, I have loved getting involved with my media work and I don't feel that my determination has changed over time, but I feel that my capabilities and willingness into the depth of research I am willing to go has grown. For example, my A2 media work was my life for the three months of research and planning and I think I could answer anything about Andy, Edie and any intertextual feature I included in my work as I wanted to make it as real as possible and in order to do this, I felt like I needed to know everything there was to know. Proof of this could be the fact that I wrote an entire biography for Edie Sedgewick from memory here.