Unit 4 LA A | creativelevel3

UNIT 4
Pre-production planning Assignment 1

Learning Aim A: Understand the requirements of pre-production
of a digital media product.

Click here for the Assignment Brief for Learning Aim A

Click here for the standard of a PASS, MERIT and DISTINCTION
(for Unit 4 Learning Aim A only)

I have listed the tasks below with an explanation. There are links at the bottom that

should help you (if the links work...) As you are developing a magazine, your

focus will be on Magazines. You need to write about all the points below. It can be

written in any format as long as you cover all the points.

Requirements and sources of the magazine

Equipment - (What do you need to create a magazine?)
Crew - (who do you need? What roles do people have in magazine production?)
Transport - (of equipment, locations)
Materials - (designing and planning layouts)
Clearances - (permission to photograph and locations)
Contributors to the content - (expert people who can give quality information - endorsements from celebs)
Facility hire - (photoshoots or offices to create magazine)

Finance for the Magazine

Advertising space in your magazine. (this will help you get income because
you will charge people to advertise)
Investments from business relating to your theme. (they will invest money
upfront, the benefit is you are promoting their business)
Crowdfunding. (lots of people make small donations, this makes it a
low-risk investment.

Costs and logistics

Costs of producing the magazine for each stage
(pre-production/Production/post-production)
Costs of copyright material.
The expense and implications of running over budget.
Why it is important to consider costs and logistics
(Logistics - "the detailed organization and implementation
of a complex operation")

Deadlines

Write briefly about why deadlines are important, you don't need lots of detail

but mention the points below, why meeting deadlines are important.

Short term - planning, collecting resources, collating, editing. Working as a team.
Long term - Major deadlines such as publishing deadlines (print and digital)
Proof deadlines, leaving time for changes (meetings)
The order of production and how long each process might take:

Pre-production - (planning the magazine) How good you planning is
Production - (writing articles and taking the photographs, collecting the research)
Post Production - (creating the magazine on photoshop)

Regulatory requirements

You need to understand that regulation is something you need to consider, both in the content that your magazine produces (IPSO) and the adverts you have in your magazine (ASA) Again, you only need to write a few paragraphs explaining that you need to consider regulation.

The two sections below (IPSO and ASA) are the two main regulatory
organisations for the Publishing sector.

Legal and ethical considerations. (what you can and cannot have in your
magazine, copyright, representation, ethical issues) CLICK HERE for info on IPSO
ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) Links to help you:
Useful poster for ASA
List of recent rulings from the ASA

The established industry formats used within the preproduction processes.

What does established mean? - having existed or done something for a long time
and therefore recognized and generally accepted. You need to write about the

way people plan a magazine using the right documents.

Established means - having existed or done something for a long time and

therefore recognised and generally accepted.

TASK - Click on the image on the right to help you with this task

Write about the way production companies plan a magazine using the established

pre-production documents.

So you need to write about how there is a traditional (established) way of planning

something like a magazine, or any other media product.

Mention some of the documents below to help you evaluate the established

pre-production documents.

Templates for resources (questionnaire - Primary research, production log)
Page Layout Designs (templates - preset photoshop layouts)
Layout design research (existing examples - what is the competition?)
Thumbnail sketches and mood boards (quick sketches to work out designs)
Page mock-ups (photoshop layouts - digital versions of sketches of page layouts)

Reasons for undertaking pre-production documentation (mention each point)

Revising and discounting ideas. (developing and improving your work)
Visualising content. What will your product look like? How do you know what it should look like?
Establishing feasibility (expertise, costs, timescale, logistics) Is this a realistic product to create? Will it cost too much? Is there a need for the product?

CLICK HERE to read a blog on how a magazine page layout and content can be planned out. Look at the way the plan goes from written, to page layout and then the digital mock-up.

The purposes of pre-production documentation (mention each point)

What is the purpose (the reason for which something is done) of creating these pre-production documents?

It's all to make sure you don't forget anything in your planning, making sure you consider all the planning requirements.

"Proper preproduction communicates the purpose of the project to everyone involved and ensures they are all operating from the same playbook. This view is important to maximizing its benefits to your project. ... Preproduction is the glue that fosters the teamwork necessary for a project to come in on time and in budget."

Adherence to codes of practice and regulation. (the purpose is to keep your product safe, for the public and your team)
Administrative requirements, e.g. record keeping, sharing of information among relevant parties. (Your team can refer to the documents created, also there needs to be a paper trail in order be professional in your business approach)
Auditing compliance. (you must make sure you answer to the client brief, is it what they wanted? Also, Auditing is where you can be checked by regulators such as the ASA)