Retrospective post

My advanced portfolio is beginning to take shape as I work towards getting all of my planning together for my final piece. As a whole compared to my foundation portfolio, I think that I have gone into a lot more detail in my research leading up to my final products.

I started by exploring the genre, history and theory behind pop music and their videos in detail and tried to  deconstruct existing music videos to discover what conventions and patterns were common.  I would say that my deconstructions of my music videos are more detailed and in depth than my deconstructions of my opening titles were. I found that there was more to explore in terms of linking the visuals of the videos to their lyrics and liking the content to theorists that I had researched. However, I think that I could have gone into a lot more detail linking the videos to the theorists but the research that I did do was very helpful in explaining and helping me understand why some content is featured in music videos and how this can link to the audience and their interaction with the video.

After my initial research I completed a mini task where I created a trial music video. This is something which is significantly different from the work I did at AS as we didn't create a trial title sequence. I think that this trial has been really useful for me to start thinking about how I want to set up my final piece. It also got me back into the swing of how to plan my shoot, thinking carefully about every shot. I would say that I was a lot more methodical with my approach to planning this video compared to the videos I made at AS. I think that this could be to do with disaster I had with my title sequence shoot where I had to re-shoot twice. If my planning had been tighter then I wouldn't have had to go back and re-shoot so many times. The shoot therefore for my trial music video went very smoothly, as I'd taken more time to consider elements such as shots, location and the overall set up of the shoot. I aim to have the same level- if not even more detailed- of planning for my final music video shoot.

As for the rest of my research/planning I have done a lot of research into existing advertising products and digipaks from a range of genres, with the obvious main focus on pop music. I think what would be a big improvement on this research would be to take this research and link it to how it will influence and form the basis of my own promotional products. Whilst I have started to do this I think it certainly needs to be more detailed. I will do this through creating more of my own trial designs and surveying them with my target audience. This was definitely an area that lacked depth in my AS project and I intend to try to widen this area so that my ideas have more relevance and backing. I have then looked at branding and the specific branding of my chosen artist Ed Sheeran. I've found that his branding is quite quirky in it's style but I like its uniqueness. From this I have done some very brief design ideas and tested them on members of my target audience. To expand on this more I need to start taking more of my own photography and developing my designs to suit the needs of my target audience members. This was something that I could have done better in my AS work. Listening to the ideas and thoughts of target audience members to improve my work is vital, especially in this project when considering the existing identity of the artist.  

Compared to last year I think I have been stronger with my ideas and I haven't changed my mind as much as to what I'm doing. However I think I need to be quicker with my work so that I'm being more productive and managing my time better to get my work done. This is my main focus for improvement and I will need to maintain a high level of detail in my planning and research if I am wanting to make my work/blog better than it was in my foundation project. Whilst this is a personal challenge I am sure I rise to it to get my work to a high standard as I move into my planning stage for my shoot.