Question 1a Research and Planning

1. Research and Planning What skills did we learn about the importance of R&P? G325: Section A: Theoretical Perspectives in Media Question 1a)

The Research & Planning within my AS preliminary magazine task, AS final magazine task and the Digipak/Poster task in A2 was vital. And the amount of R&P I did within each task had a correlation with the out come and the quality of the final product. 

Firstly, prior to and during the creation of my preliminary magazine I only partook in a very minimal amount of research&planning. I basically quickly created a school magazine in an hour or two, with only reading one blog post on the conventions of a magazine as part of the research and planning section of the coursework. This lack of R&P was evidently one of the key factors that caused the prelim magazine to lack quality and aesthetics.  

Carrying fourth the realisation of the importance of R&P in to my final magazine coursework, I spent a hugely greater amount of time doing so. For example I analysed 3 front covers, contents pages and double page spreads of existing magazines (NME, Q & Fantastic man). This gave me an idea of the conventions of existing magazines and what a 'real' magazine looks like. Thanks to this, I was able to using certain aspects and convention, such as the placement of the Masthead in the top-left hand side of the front cover, in my magazine. This made my magazine look realistic and like a 'real' magazine. Another aspect of R&P i partook in was looking at specific magazine genres, such as Indie-tronic, minimalism and dance punk. This enabled me to choose my preferred genre of 'indie-tronic'. After this I then researched in to the target audience of this genre of music, this allowed me to then go on and plan towards attracting this target audience. For example I looked at a lot of Clash magazine's work with the xx, and made sure that I included features of minimalism in order to attract my required audience.  

Schematic Differences between Modernism and Postmodernism.

Schematic Differences between Modernism and Postmodernism Modernism Postmodernism Romanticism/symbolism Paraphysics/Dadaism Purpose: Music video – To advertise a song. Play: Interactive – To engage with the audience. Design: A Scripted T.V drama – My Family. Chance: An unscripted improvised drama - Outnumbered (kids). Hierarchy: The Hierarchy of a traditional war film. Anarchy: Inglorious Basterds – Hitler dies in the wrong day Art object, finished word: Mona Lisa (finished artwork). Process, performance: When someone films the growth of a tree. Distance: At a Kanye West gig – not involved in the performance, merely watching. Participation: The D.O.T and Ghostpoet’s interactive video, where the live audience choose each scene. Creation, totalization: A Rom-com film, strictly within a genre. Deconstruction: Kill – Bill, PoMo film. Presence: The presence of a story running coincidentally with comedy, to tell a story and make the audience laugh. Absence: A load of random events/acts for a comedy show, no story running through it. Centering: Every genre has a centre (stereotype) traditional war films. Dispersal: Spreads out genres etc.… Inglorious Basterds is a combination of various ideas. Genre, boundary: A traditional war film with traditional conventions. Text, intertextual: Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds untraditional, intertextual references – Mexican standoff & Cinderella. Selection: A selection of a specific genre: Action, Drama, Rom-Com/ Combination: A combination of different genres and aspects of films – Tarantino’s Kill Bill. Or films like Scary Movie. Depth: A traditional film will be made with a moral and to convey a story. Surface: A postmodern film such as Jackass that has no depth and is just made to be funny. Interpretation: The morals in a traditional film are open for interpretation. Against interpretation: Sometimes in postmodern films something is there to be seen as what it is and not open for interpretation. Reading: A traditional piece of classical guitar music, is read as created by that artist. Misreading: For example a Kanye West sample could be mis-read as something he has created, when in reality he has ripped it off from someone. Narrative: There’s a conventional story. Anti-narrative: An unconventional order of clips. Grande histoire: Narrative - a fiction that locks readers into interpreting text in a single, chronological manner that does not reflect our experiences. Petite histoire: Anti Narrative -Postmodern texts may not adhere to traditional notions of narrative. Genital, phallic: A Freudian theory of psychosexual development. Polymorphous: Lots of different characteristics of certain genres/aspects within a film. Paranoia: Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself. Schizophrenia: A breakdown in conventional thinking/emotional responses. Origin, cause: The point, at which something begins, arises or is devised. Modernism topics always have an origin. Difference-difference: A point or way in which people or things are different – different from the accepted truth. Determinacy: Of the narrative voice. Indeterminacy: Of the narrative voice.