Exam answer

Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use research for production developed over time.

My two years studying media has enabled me to become increasingly aware of the importance of using real media texts in order to make products of a professional standard. At AS I created an indie music magazine and at A2 I created a promotional film package for a paranormal horror film. The main stages of my work were pre-production, production and post-production, at these stages I feel I made use of real media texts at all stages.

For my AS prelim, I did little research into real media texts as it was more of a practice to become more familiar with the style of magazines and the use of the software to create one. I created a college magazine, so before creating it I looked at one professional magazine and was made familiar with the main elements of one e.g. a Mast Head, sell lines, main image, sky line and then using a bar code and issue number to make the magazine look more professional. At the AS prelim I replicated a professional trailer, which gave me an idea of what shots work and also familiarised me with using a video camera for this sort of filming as I have never practiced it before. We had to watch the tailer many times and did so whilst filming to make sure we got an accurate shots.

Moving on to my main ancillary tasks at AS, of making the indie music magazine, I felt I knew how I could create a professional looking product. At the pre-production stage, I looked at two professional music magazines and completed a textual analysis so I could see if their was any similarities of different music magazines and characteristics I could include in my own product. In terms of research I asked students what they thought of these professional magazines and their likes and dislikes so I could have a better idea of how I could appeal to my target audience. I also learnt about semiotics through looking at the theory part of the AS course therefore I had a good idea of what colour pallets and fonts work in this sort of context. However, at A2 I had to create three products rather than just one and at a professional level there would have been hundreds of people working on a promotional package for a film, therefore being only me creating this, I had to do a lot more research, especially on the trailer and the poster as I was familiar with creating a magazine due to A2. I did a textual analysis, like at AS but I went into more detail and looked at double the amount of real media texts, for the trailer and the print work. I felt this deepened my knowledge on narratives and gave me broader knowledge on horror fils, as I have never really enjoyed watching them before doing this task. Like at AS I asked my target audience what they thought of real media texts that I felt would be similar to the narrative I had an idea of, but this time I felt I was more knowledgable about magazines therefore I concentrated more on the trailers and posters. but again because of going into so much more detail on the textual analysis for the three products I felt more confident therefore I asked more specific questions only where I was slightly unsure. Making my research more refined and useful.

During the production stage, whilst shooting for my images, I looked at images on front covers of magazines and on the contents and DPS' so I could make sure that my images were successful as I only had one chance to get the photos for my magazine, I also was experimental with shot distances that I learnt about at the theory stage of the course, therefore I had plenty of options to chose from, even though this did take longer. At A2, due to the fact I was shooting my trailer in my house, I had access to the internet so I could re-watch parts and shots of trailers, similar to AS with the magazine, so I could try get effective shots that would heighten the professional look of my trailer, I did the same with shooting my images for the print work and also asked for feedback from my actors as I was doing it as they were the age of my target audience therefore, I knew I was getting successful images. When it came to shooting I wanted to challenged real media conventions as my protagonists was the girlfriend therefore going against that masculine representation and I did this by keeping her to the left of shots and leading the conversation the majority of the time, whereas when doing the prelim there wasn't much thought of representations through cinematography, therefore I felt it was developed due to looking at the semiotics and other factors of real media texts in more detail was helpful.

At the post-production stage of AS, I had a real media text next to me on the table whilst I was editing and kept looking back at the comments from my target audience to make sure I was creating the correct representation that would appeal to my audience and match my genre, as being a fan of the genre of music myself I had  good idea of how to create representations though factors like colour pallets and typography already.  Moreover, at A2 like AS I kept looking back at real media texts during the editing for all three products, however this time, I used textual analysis to compare as I edited, to give me a closer look into what I could change, I also got feedback as I edited and I did extra research of a wider variety of real media texts for all three products. This then resulted in a lot of drafts of my work and quite a lot more time than AS, however I feel this benefitted me in many ways, especially creatively as I have been able to broaden my knowledge of this particular genre, as I was initially out of my comfort zone, and made more creative decisions concerning the aesthetic appeal of my products for my audience.

Overall, I feel that my progress from AS to A2 has been successful as I have had a lot more research to do, not only as A2 I had to create more products, but I didn't know much about my chosen genre so had a more difficult job in creating this promotional package, I do think I could have got more professional shots and editing however I didn't have as much time to work on these products, but if I had more time I feel I could keep improving.