Detail how your understanding of the importance of good research and planning skills developed throughout the pre-production of your AS and A2 coursework

Detail how your understanding of the importance of good research and planning skills developed throughout the pre-production of your AS and A2 coursework

I learnt that the importance of good research and planning incorporates numerous elements. Research and Planning holds great importance as it can help substantially in the latter parts of the coursework. I learnt this from AS and A2 as I feel that my research and planning improved substantially at A2 standard as thus I realised how it can help later in production.

I did learn that for the most effective research and planning the sources that are used for primary and secondary sources must be analysed to decide whether they are trust worthy to provide reputable research. At AS this was more of a problem considering searching for magazine covers often produced previous students work. At A2 fortunately YouTube made it easier to be certain that they were the official video as they were published on the artist or bands respective channel.

As the ultimate aim of research and planning was to make production easier, the organisation of the work would help with this. AS level was the first time I had used blogger and as the course developed I developed ways to improve my organisation. For example, I learnt the importance of reordering my blog so that the posts grouped together. I also used  labeling so that each post fell into the correct category. This made production significantly easier as I could click on the category and include all the relevant information. I developed into A2 through my better understanding of Blogger and my use of functions provided such as polls and playlists. Alongside this I made better use of guidance given in organising my work, making myself aware of what I needed to do for when, ensuring I completed all work to the appropriate deadlines.

I found at both AS and A2 that the use of a draft is to improve your ideas and receive useful feedback. At AS I produced drafts for my magazine’s front cover, contents page and double page spread and the feedback I received allowed me to make thorough relevant changes to my work and improve it substantially. At A2 I used feedback in the same way, especially that which I received concerning the digipak and magazine adverts. I was again able to rethink my original ideas and allow me to work them into the next stage of production.

At AS my planning wasn’t structured very efficiently, however my planning significantly developed into the A2 course. It was structured via the use of my storyboard which allowed me to be aware of what shots needed doing and where, ensuring that I used my time efficiently. I learnt the importance of structuring my plans and work and thus incorporated this throughout my later work. At AS I used the plans and mocks that I had made loosely, referring to them mainly as guidelines rather than strict structures. This developed significantly into A2 when I found that following the storyboard that had been constructed made production far easier. This is something that I realised as vitally important in Research and Planning as it made production far easier than it had been at AS. 

The presentation of my research and planning was also something which I discovered as important. At AS and A2 it was primarily constructed as Blog Posts, allowing me to place them all together and organise my blog efficiently. At A2 this developed into more creative presentations of my work, such as the use of Prezi on our coursework pitch or embedding YouTube clips. The importance of this was to allow the work to look more creative and in some circumstances, to highlight areas of research and planning which were of particular importance to the production of work.

Research and Planning at both AS and A2 level heavily influenced the work that I created during production. For example, my research into genre at both levels influenced the style of Mise en scene I created, firstly for my photo shoot and secondly in how I filmed and dressed those within the music video. The importance of my research and planning became particularly obvious during in production, when the use of the guidance I had developed became vital. For example, the structured shot list at AS or the storyboard at A2 were vital to the efficient production of my final pieces.