Research and Planning Question 4. Answer

For the planning part of this write-up:

• Drafting - What drafts did you produce?
• Gaining Audience Feedback - How did you make sure you collated this - what was the development between AS and A2?
• Drafting - At AS, we were required to produce a draft for a cover of our music magazine, a contents page and a DPS. At A2, we were required to produce a draft of firstly the ancillary tasks which were a magazine advertisement promoting our band and the album and a draft digipack for the CD album artwork. Also, we were required to produce a draft music video. In preparation for my draft, I was uncertain that I had never used the editing software before, so I produced a mini 'test shoot' music video to a track by 'Blur' in order to prepare.
• Gaining Audience Feedback - In order to develop audience feedback, I posted my drafts and asked my peers to comment on what the thought the good points and bad points were about them. I also asked my teacher to analyse each of my drafts and give me a rough grade and points that I need to improve on. The development of my drafts over AS and A2 would be that at A2, I had to produce a lot more draft work which required more time and more feedback from my peers and teacher. 

Organisation of time, personnel and equipment:

• Did you complete on time? did you meet the deadlines?
• What were the pros and cons of organising personnel?
• What have you learnt about communication between personnel?
• Did your knowledge of production schedules grow?
• What could you have done better?
• What were your strengths and weaknesses?
• For my draft work over both years, I succeeded in completing the work on time and meeting the deadlines. This sometimes included me producing extra draft work for analysis from my teachers, for example, at AS, I produced three magazine covers instead of one as I was unsure of which one would succeed in getting me better marks as well as A2, when I produced two album artwork digipacks instead of one.
• The pros of organising personnel would be that I could organise and plan where and when we would shoot, when we would test out things such as styling etc. It also helped that the personnel in my music video live in close distance to me. The cons of organising personnel would be that finding a time when all three artists were free to shoot proved a hard task although at AS, I only had a solo artist which made it easier.
• I have learnt that in order to communicate with personnel and rely on them in a situation like this, you need to talk and plan with them in a professional way, letting them know that this is important to you and could affect a grade etc. if they did not oblige and appreciate what you are doing.
• My knowledge of production schedules definitely grew over the two years as in my A2 year, I planned out time schedule on paper as there were more dates and things to do in preparation for my music video. I definitely think this was the case as well because of the fact that my A2 year proved more challenging to produce an ancillary task as well as a music video so therefore, more work and time had to be put in. 
• I believe that I could've possibly planned a bit more ahead and starting production a little earlier than I did,  due to this, I was a little pushed for time however all filming and photography was completed to schedule.
• My strengths would be my organisation skills and abilities to multi task and think about more things than one at any given time. This was a particular asset when filming and doing the shoot for my A2 coursework as travelling to the studio and planning before hand about where it is, maps, styling, time etc. was challenging. My weaknesses would be perhaps that I could only carry out one task at a time, due to the fact that I was producing both media texts by myself, however I think that I preferred this in the end.

Working individually or as part of a group:

• What did you learn about individual and team work?
• What are the pros and cons?
• What main things have you learnt about group work at AS and A2 in terms of planning your product?
• For my main products I worked as an individual as I felt that this was the best way to work for me as I always seem to have multiple ideas and love getting myself involved in them. If I work within a team, I find it harder to do so and end up taking over everything and every detail which would be a downside of working in a group. However, for both of the Preliminary tasks over both AS and A2, I found that working in a team helped the production flow better in some ways as everyone had a job and I didn't have to think about everything all at once and I could just concentrate on my own designated area.
• The pros of working in a group would be that I could rely on other people as well as myself and if something messed up or went wrong then everyone would want to help and sort the problem whereas if your on your own, you only have yourself to rely on and yourself to blame. The pros of working as an individual would be that you can carry out any idea that comes to mind without consulting your group first, there is no compromise needed. The cons of working in a group would be that you have to talk about everything with the rest of your group before carrying out an idea into production, it needs to be a 'group' effort and a 'group' piece of work. The cons of working as an individual would be that you have to multitask and think about everything all at once, otherwise, if something went wrong then you have only yourself to rely on to sort it out. 
• The main things I have learnt about group work at AS and A2 would be that at the start, you can share ideas and come up with an idea and concept that you would've not thought about yourself. I have also learnt that it is okay to trust others with something as someone else is just as capable of doing something as you are yourself and that everyone else has a vision also.