Tom Halkyard

Throughout our media studies course we have been set a number of tasks and challenges which have all, in their own way, required an element of research and planning in order for it to be completed at the required level of quality. This is the case with tasks such as researching genre conventions which we had to do as part of our music video project, thriller project and opening sequence project so we could create a more convincing and fitting product for the song we chose or for the task criteria. We utilised important sources such as youtube and wikipedia to find out about our chosen genres so that we could choose to either follow them or challenge them in order to create our desired finished product with the desired effect on the audience. Another example is when we chose to research existing products to find out how our product should be and what it had to include in it. This had to be done when creating our ancillary products as we needed to know what contents are traditionally used on music posters and on digipaks. The type of contents included: Artist Name, Album/ Song Title, Track listings, Record Label, ETC. Planning is also a key part of completing any task. It means that you can better manage your time, get a bigger picture of the whole project and more easily complete tasks that are planned for. Throughout our whole time at Long Road, we have been publishing web blogs at all the stages of the projects we have completed so we had a record of the work we have done. This also allows us to plan for different stages of a product so when it comes to the time we need to complete it we are better prepared and know what to do. I have come to better appreciate the need for research and planning in a project as it makes tasks easier to complete in the time given and generally leads to a finished product of overall better quality.