During production of my products since AS, research has been an important aspect to how my Magazine turned out to be, how the music video is going to look and be presented in terms of its cover etc. Looking into music magazines such as NME and Q, it has given me inspiration on appearance, structure and how my magazine will generally look like. Because these are based on rock and pop culture, I set out to create something similar; themed as a rock magazine as of its dark colors, choice of model and colloquial sort of language used in my articles.

Moving to A2, the research I've done has been much more detailed than of those in AS; having 3 case studies and two tracks of choice for the music. This is because further investigation was needed as there's much more to it than a video, including camera angles, editing, cover art etc. Therefore I've chosen 3 completely different music videos so that I will get varied options and use certain aspects of each one. Such as the slow motion effect from 'You are not Lonely' and the camera angles from 'Stressed Out' which were also used in my preliminary task.

Adding on to the preliminary task, I've learnt many skills that were crucial for my main product; including AS, the practice for the magazine and music video were very informative. However, for the purpose of gathering an idea on how to create my product, I feel that I've improved my analytical abilities. This is because I've gone more in depth on the music videos, describing how and what certain things connote such as Eminem's 'Headlights', where her actions in first person show loneliness and anger. Overall, I have incorporated many features from all my case studies in both projects but because of the in depth detail and quantity of reaserch I have done, I feel that I have improved. 

As for demographics, I've mostly aimed my projects to fit younger audience with similar stereotypes; although it could be fit for all as my research has a lot of rock, pop and grunge culture in AS and A2. This is simply because of the popularity in these trends that give me ideas to implement into my own product; looking at AS, case studies like NME and Q have rather similar target audiences. I've found out through the media kits that described certain aspects of the magazines that tend to fit their targeted audience.

Overall, the music magazine had many compliments on its appearance and how it stood out to look like an actual rock magazine because of the choice of colors, models etc. It met my expectations as I've combined features from my case studies and avoided negatives from the preliminary task, where I analysed amateur, home-made college magazines. So, it consisted of dark colors such as red from NME, the contents page and vibrant colors in the Q magazine which can help reach out to those who like pop.

Moving on, A2 has a more focused approach to the audience that we've researched; having similar styles to my magazine, video will have the type of culture that you'd find in most rap/hip-hop music videos. This meant I had to analyse similar genres, Eminem, 21 pilots and a few other videos and music tracks that had similar attributes to fit in with our demographic.

During our pitch, where we had our class fitting with out targeted audience of 16 and over, they said that it sounded like a good idea as they listen to similar songs and genres. 

Creating products such as music videos requires a lot of effort in terms of planning, as attributes such as props, actors, locations etc, need to be considered in the design process; being the storyboard. Having the base of the project, the storyboarding and lyric analysis was very helpful as we were able to pick out certain requirements  in order to shoot the scene. This meant we had to create various sheets of specific data that reminded us of what and who we need for the day of filming. This was placed in the recces and release forms and call sheets for the meetings which rendered us as organised and were able to get our shoots in the allocated time which was very useful.

Risk assessments were also handy as we could avoid any issues during our filming time, such as falling down high, wet places and fatigue or loss of time due to poor management in transport choices or meeting times regarding to availability and bookings. Relating to booking appointments, we've contacted those at our planned location, Sky Garden , to save a space for us to go up the building and proceed with our shoot. Also sending out an email for filming authorisation as well as to our featured aritst, Logic for the music track. This was done to prevent any legal issues between us and the use of his song.

Compared to AS, the music magazine had less of a plan and was built up throughout the project and therefore feel like I have also improved my use of planning in A2. However I did manage to get all the requirements of the magazine in time, such as the photoshoots and editing times. The main model was photographed in the scheduled time in the studio whereas my other models posed out of the studio with no scheduel or time, but with quick snaps that were not in the plan.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Looking towards our storyboards we found that it was throughly planned and had a lot of connections with our chosen song, as it had connotations linking with the lyrics. This made out to look clear as I was assigned to do the drawings as I was thought to be fit for it, while another member helped with how the visuals should look like. However, as we did not know the song as much as our lead actor, this went to poor understanding and some confusion. Because of this it called for improvement so we had to familiarize ourselves with the song and its meaning in order to become a stronger team.

Although there were a few difficulties, we managed to address the problems and therefore can say that this is a bigger improvement compared to AS because of the lack of management I did with the music magazine. On the other hand, mock-ups were useful as the technical elements of the project were easier to understand in the first round, being the college magazine. This meant that the production of the final, music magazine became much easier and quicker as I did not need to experiment with the softwear and its tools again.