Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.

During my coursework a close attention to real media texts for inspiration was an important concept for both AS and A2. For AS the brief was to create a 2 minute film opening sequence including titles for the genre horror. For A2 the brief was to create a music promo package including music video, digipak and advert within the genre pop. Various horror films and pop music videos were used to gain inspiration for the storyline, production and editing of both products.

In the pre production of my horror sequence at AS I began to look at how horror sequences worked and used certain ideas for effect. To do this I began to look at real media texts such as the "turning of the screw" for which I found that sound and a lack of diolog is highly effective for creating a horror sequence. I also looked at media texts and payed close attention to their titles as this was a key aspect needed such as "An nightmare on Elm Street" which was directed and written by Wes Craven in 1984 and was a sequence which helped me discover the order a title sequence should come in such as the Directors name last of all the titles. At A2 my research into the genre was of a much deeper level researching and anaylising a wide range of music videos and the editing, narrative and techniques. I had completed many 9 frame analysis's of videos such as Katy Perry's "Hot and cold" Pink's "So what" and Bruno Mars's "Lazy song" which all fit with the genre and helped me realise the typical conventions of a pop video. Doing a wide range of 9 frames at A2 unlike AS helped me identify how the artist should be positioned, the type of outfits and locations of a pop genre and the common types of shot needed. I also did in depth analysises of videos such as the Saturdays "Natorious" and Avril Lavignes "Smile" so I was familar with the type of outfits, locations and shot types used in videos and creative ways of representing.

During the production of my coursework at AS a lot of real media texts helped with the plot and storyline but also with shot types for my horror sequence. The media texts I used for inspiration into the storyline were Saw and Jeepers Creepers. These helped me discover the attributes to a horror such as within Saw the mystery of what is happening to the protagonists and why they are put into that type of situation is not revealed till the very end of the film and key aspects of the narrative are kept from the viewer. This was a key element used within my film sequence as certain information was hidden from the viewer. Within Jeepers Creepers the creepy feeling of the antagonist being made aware of by the viewers but not by other characters was another aspect which I wanted to display with shots of "the killer" in the back behind the protagonists in the majority of the shots. The Blair Witch Project is famous for its handheld camera scenes which I wanted to portray in my sequence and so had various shots from the antagonists point of view running through the trees to grip the viewers into the storyline. In A2 various music video's gave me inspiration which I developed further as to reasons why I used them through theory and representation. For example I used the shots of shoes walking to the beat of the music from The Saturdays "Natorious" video within my video as I thought it was a great way to link the video with the lyrics as often within the song I had chosen the lyrics say "tomorrow doesn't matter when you're moving your feet." Also having a dance routine was a key element used in the original video which I wanted to portray in my video.The "Natorious" video also helped me with the storyline as during their video it shows them first at a work setting then a party setting which is a theme I went with in my music video but taken a step further to add creativity by making the work scenes black and white and having various settings which the party was located. I also took inspiration when filming from the original video "Its all about tonight" by how the actress should look with similar styles of clothing and bright lipstick aswell as the storyline of not caring about anything but the night itself. The original video also helped us with the shot types ranging from longshots to extreme close ups throughout the video.

During post production various real media texts helped with my ideas of editing techniques and soundtrack. During AS I look at horror films such as "The Shining" and "Jaws" focusing mainly on the soundtrack and how they both use dramatic music as a key source to create suspence and tention among the viewers. In "The Shining" the characters have very little diolog and the majority of the film entails the characters acting normal but with terrifying music in the background indicating that something bad is about to occur. I used "The Shining" as inspiration for my soundtrack by it being dramatic and full of suspence when the characters have very little diolog. My soundtrack had some similarities to "Jaws" through it being a very low drummimg sound and a certain type of music which only occurs when the killer is present so that the viewer relates that specific sound with the killer. Though I did focus on real media texts for the soundtrack at AS I didn't really for the editing unlike A2 in which I used various media texts as inspiration. For example when the music for my video became very fast paced at a specific point flipping from all the different locations which I got the idea from Rihannas "We found love" and found it gave a feeling of that there was alot going on, something I wanted to portray in my video. The jumpcuts to the beat of the music was taken from Katy Perry's "ET" in which they changed to the beat of the music, I also used an idea from this video of the artists eyes opening to the beat of the music which I thought was a good way to relate the music to the video. "Domino" by Jessie J also showed these jump cuts flipping from each location quickly. The artist in my video was shown through the male gaze which I found was a common trait within the pop genre and so was an idea I decided to go with in my video after researching media texts.