''Analyse one of your media productions in relation to Media Language.'' 25 Marks
Andrew Goodwin believes there are 5 points that you should follow to ensure you make the best production possible. Using Thought Beats that move in time with the audio, for my video precisely I decided to use thought beats to add interest and tension to various scenes. Narrative and Performance this is important as viewers need to know exactly what roles each of the characters play and the story line must be easy to follow. The 'Star Image', this is when the 'main' character is focused on throughout the production as they bring the most to the table for example in my personal music video, the lead female character is a cannibal who doesn't feel like she can tell her secret to the world and spends the video trying to pluck up the coverage to reveal her true identity. This shows the Star Image is my main aspect of thought throughout the production process. Relation of visuals to the Song, this means what ever is shown in the video is represented in some way by the audio. I believe I linked my visuals to the 'amplification' side of things which means some of my visuals did match up to the audio, however I was more focused on how the story line would flow, so I did take a risk when deciding which scenes would go where but it paid off when revealing the outcome. for example 'use your finger to stir my tea' the female points her finger to the camera in a swirling motion which links exactly. But then another scene may say 'then when I'm thirsty I drink there blood' it's a scene of her looking malicious, suggesting she is going to attack but not actually showing the blood in the scene. Finally the Technical Aspects, this includes the camera work, editing, mise en scene e.t.c which I thought about prior to production. Camera work was mainly focusing on meat shots of the main character to keep up with usual conventions seen in a pop/dance video, I knew I wanted the editing to be fast paced in order to link well with audio with various transitions to keep the audience interested and the outfits and locations would link to usual conventions in some ways but challenge others.
I believe Goodwin gives these 5 points in the hope that people follow them correctly as they can result in creating a successful production if some of these points are used. I think I took influence from each of the 5 points in my own work and this hopefully influenced the 'media language used' throughout. The production I am going to discuss in this answer is my A2 Music Video. I chose a Kesha song named Cannibal, which is from the pop/dance genre. Although I have spoke in detail about Goodwin's theory I am going to compare and contrast the ideas of how I showed a successful amount of media language through my work by analysing the ideas of'; Carol Vernallis, Stuart Hall, Barthes and Fiske & Hartley.
Carol Vernallis links to some of the points I have made above regarding Goodwin's theory. She talks about ideas regarding the narrative of the production, the editing, camera movement and framing and diegesis. The narrative is easy to follow and has a realistic story line that I believe any age or any gender could link too in some way, maybe they have identities regarding sexuality, likes and dislikes that they are afraid to share with the world and this story line could influence them to pluck up the courage and live their life to the full. Threw the editing stages I mainly conducted lots of jump cuts to make sure my scenes cut to the beat of the music and actually had some sort of relevance of being there, I also used juxtaposed shots during the overlapping of two scenes showing the male and female character and how their feelings would be the total opposite due to the current situation they were in (female - happy because she is attacking the males and getting her food) (male - upset/scared because he has already been attacked by the cannibal and doesn't know whats left in store). The camera techniques where thought about professionally and I mainly conducted meat shots to focus the whole video around my main character, but also use a mixture of others for example a running scene contained long shots to make sure the audience could feel and understand exactly what the male actor was doing. Diegesis is the idea of some frames/scenes in a production being more important than others depending on what's included in them. for example a scene that plays a main part in showing the revolving ideas of the narrative would have major importance to the whole video compared to some section showing my camera techniques just to fill in some duration of the video would not be as visually important to the audience As I have discussed about Goodwin's theory I believe each one of these points Vernallis talks about are 'essentials' in the production stages of a music video so I have focused on each of them similarly and without them the outcomes of the video wouldn't be as professional.
Stuart Hall believes that all music videos have a 'encoded' message hidden inside that can be found by the audience easily. Our message was that the female character had a hidden identity that she wasn't comfortable sharing with the rest of the world and she used her confident and dominant ways to attack her prey (males) to satisfy her needs. However just because that was the meaning I have given to the audience doesn't mean everyone took it that way. I believe many of them will have got the 'oppositional' meaning from the video which means had some clue about what the original idea was but also having their own personal influences that they believed to be true. e.g they could think she has mental problems and is physiologically disturbed through the video, because of her jolted body movements and scary personality. I do believe Stuart Hall's theory can link to my own work regarding media language because viewers are bound to see the video in 1 of the 3 ways he talks about and I do believe that everyone would be different which is why this point is so interesting to talk about.
Barthes believes that the audience can get the connotative or denotative meanings behind what the producers are trying to show in their production. Connotative is the direct influence they have taken from what they can personally visualize from the screen, whereas denotative is thinking deeper into the story line and thinking of various other problems or ideas that could broaden the reasons why it's been used in a certain scene. For example linking to my own music video, the connotative idea would be that my female character who is seen a lot through the video is a cannibal and she likes to eat men. However a denotative meaning would be that she has mental problems that have caused her to attack these men, this could mean she is lonely and cant find love. Or she is acting in such a broad way because she likes the attention she would be receiving from the males in the video but the audience watching due to her confident personality and revealing clothing. Although some of these denotative ideas could be some valid exact reasons why I picked a certain character to look and act a certain way in specific scenes, there would only be one main reason which is signified through the connotative ideas. I believe a variety of sections in my video can relate to these two meanings and some interesting responses could come from them, as the denotative responses could link more to the realistic scenes I produced because I had tried to be more unique e.t.c each element would be a different meaning.
Finally Fiske and Hartley discuss the same connotative and denotative meanings however they see it as a 'third order of signification' this means that both meaning are thought about together to reveal an ideology. So basically the thing that is 'signified' is the outcome when the connotative and denotative meanings are put together. For example in my music video, the female would be seen as a cannibal type character (connotative) who could have personal problems that could make her emotionally and physically upset to deal with various day to day situations, which could mean she needs mental help and guidance as she is not stable enough to be alone (denotative). This result shows I have pulled two different types of ideas together about the same topic which sounds much more professional and actually brings together the whole narrative part of my music video. If this is the type of responses that would be collected and given I do think this theory could relate to my work personally, as there are so many different scenarios occuring throughout different people would have different ideas about what I am trying to explain and I do believe some of these detailed outcomes could be correct like what I have just created above.
Each of these theorists ideas play a big part in the media language section of my production of my music video, I believe each one of the areas being discussed links in some way to my own video personally because being able to deliver a product that will retrieve a variety of feedback is exactly what I had hoped for because it could help me develop my skills in the future but also inform me about what I had done well.
Wednesday, 16 May 2012
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Section 1B - Representation
''Analyse one of your media productions in relation to Representation.'' 25 Marks
Stuart Hall explains that representation is ''shown through careful mediation'' this means that messages are 'encoded' somewhere in the production that I tried to show through various camera techniques to make sure my audience get the dominated or preferred reading from my music video. The message I tried to show through the video was that the main character is a subvert stereotype as this would usually be expected from male characters, however because she is a cannibal she has to have a dominant act over the males in order to get what she wants (their blood). The production I am going to talk about my A2 music video, I chose to focus on the artist Kesha and the song Cannibal, which is from the pop/dance genre.
When discussing how I represented each of my characters through my production of the music video I will refer to the ideas of theorists such as; James Baker, Dick Hebdige, Laura Mulvey, the idea of Post Modernism and Judith Butler.
James Baker explains that mediation works in 3 ways. Through a selection process, which is whichever scenes are chose to be shown on our screens in the final outcomes of the production, however this would mean that much more footage would have had to be cut out. It would then move onto the organisation
process which would consider looking at various elements carefully in the way that real life situations are not. for example many scenes in music videos are not about real life scenarios because the quality of the production wouldn't be as high. Finally it's all about focusing, which is all about the audience being encouraged to concentrating on one aspect of the production and forgetting about the other parts. This could involve concentrating maybe on the camera techniques or narrative and forgetting about editing techniques that have been included or the clothing worn.
Relating this theory to my own production would be the fact that when recording each scene I made sure I captured the same scene multiple times so I had a lot of footage to chose from, so when it came to the selection process I only put a side the best ones to then include in my final cut of the music video, the main reason I selected this type of story line to film is because I wanted to challenge the usual conventions of a pop/dance video by having the female take full control of the scenes and making sure the audience knew about it. I then organised these clips into the order in which they would be shown through the video and this give me chance to realise if the clips I was using had any relevance to the representation of my female character or the story line. If this wasn't the case major chances had to be made. This would then allow the audience watching my music video when finished to focus on the dominance of the female and how she had major empowerment over what each of the male characters did, which is a shortened expression of my narrative. Aslong as these things where followed the rest of the music video would fall into place.
I do believe I followed Baker's three stages when putting my production together but I don't think the processes where something I intended on using, they each just happened when I was putting my video together. But if others didn't seem to use any of these processes then I don't think the idea of representation of their final product had been thought about and this could result in it being interpreted in a different way to what they had hoped.
Dick Hebdige had the idea of subcultures, that are used through production to 'develop a sense of identity of each of the characters used' . I don't think each of the characters in my music video production could be catergorised under any type of stereotypical group e.g chav, goth, indie because their dress sense was very 'normal' as well as the way they acted. So I don't believe any 'given' sub cultures where targeted, however the idea of my female character being seen as a strong dominant female would be a way of determining her identity to viewers, I tried to dress her typically like the artist Kesha because the short outfits and 'tramp' look is what they expect from her type of videos and I wanted to keep the conventions similar. Hebdige also talked about sub cultures being a 'ideological basis for fans' this basically means making sure each of the characters are easy to describe and remember and by giving each of them simple attributes their identity would stand out and also make fans more interested. I do believe I made each character I had in my video, be made recognisable in their own way whether it be looks, clothing, personality e.t.c but I don't think that I thought about sub cultures in particular when thinking about ways to represent each of them, as I do believe they all looked like 'average actors'.
Laura Mulvey had the idea regarding the 'male gaze theory' which is the objectification of woman that will stand out instantly to men and by using various attributes on screen will capture their eyes throughout. This theory is one that can link directly into my music production because my main character was in fact a female and had a dark secret, I wanted to give her the chance to wear revealing clothing to live up to expectations of 'pop/dance' conventions but also entice the audience (males especially) to want to watch her and hopefully find out her story. I believe the outfits where revealing but in a tasteful manner as her dignity was not taken away from her as these outfits where chosen to show her curves which would be seen as attractive through her performance via the way she moves herself around the male actors, but also the confidence she lets off throughout the scenes will be another point to attract 'the male gaze' into my production. Without adding these outfits to my main character or getting her to portray this fiery confident character, I don't think she would have been represented in the best possible way. But overall this theory was a constant thought throughout the process to keep the audience interested.
Post Modernism is becoming more common in music videos now and it's things like parody's (taking existing music videos and making them more comical to add USP's to your video or intertextuality, which involves referencing ideas from other music videos in your own but portraying them in a totally different light. For my own music video I don't believe these points where thought about in depth because I wanted my narrative to be shown clearly without any distractions from referencing other productions that had already been created. However I did look back to existing texts to include their story lines that would work along side mine. For example Alice in Wonderland's link to the tea party had no real link to the reason why I set up an 'Alice in Wonderland themed tea party' because mine was to give my female character chance to open up about her 'secret identity' to the world, however the males around the table are already dead so she is messing around with them and pretending to herself they are still here, the real adaptation of Alice in Wonderland had a more simple meaning which shows I have thought about post modernism in my own work, but only a small fragment as my story line was easy to follow and was a very unique thing to think about and I didn't want existing texts to take any real interaction away from that.
Finally Judith Butler had the idea of the queer theory, this linked to 'switching boundaries of masculinity and femininity' I think this means when one of the characters used in a production has the factors/features of both sexes. I believe this can be said for only one of the characters in my video. The female character is shown as a woman due to the revealing clothing she wears to attract the males attention by flaunting her curves, but she has the male attributes in the way that she is seen as powerful and dominant over the other males in the video. This would usually be a role played by a male character but she pulls it off well due to her strong performance. However I don't think this theory can apply to the males used in the video because I think they cover more of the female features due to how scared and timid they are when the female character is ordering them around and attacking them and also how weak they are shown because they don't fight back, these are all points people would situate with females. So Butler's theory does play a part in the representation of the lead character in my music video and the points connect well.
Out of all these points I have discussed, my music video either links directly to what the theorists idea's linking to the representation are or challenge the ideas in some way. But either way they always link back to the variety of ideas each of the theorists talk about and I believe in a timed exam I would understand the points I would need to make in order to get the highest possible grade.
Stuart Hall explains that representation is ''shown through careful mediation'' this means that messages are 'encoded' somewhere in the production that I tried to show through various camera techniques to make sure my audience get the dominated or preferred reading from my music video. The message I tried to show through the video was that the main character is a subvert stereotype as this would usually be expected from male characters, however because she is a cannibal she has to have a dominant act over the males in order to get what she wants (their blood). The production I am going to talk about my A2 music video, I chose to focus on the artist Kesha and the song Cannibal, which is from the pop/dance genre.
When discussing how I represented each of my characters through my production of the music video I will refer to the ideas of theorists such as; James Baker, Dick Hebdige, Laura Mulvey, the idea of Post Modernism and Judith Butler.
James Baker explains that mediation works in 3 ways. Through a selection process, which is whichever scenes are chose to be shown on our screens in the final outcomes of the production, however this would mean that much more footage would have had to be cut out. It would then move onto the organisation
process which would consider looking at various elements carefully in the way that real life situations are not. for example many scenes in music videos are not about real life scenarios because the quality of the production wouldn't be as high. Finally it's all about focusing, which is all about the audience being encouraged to concentrating on one aspect of the production and forgetting about the other parts. This could involve concentrating maybe on the camera techniques or narrative and forgetting about editing techniques that have been included or the clothing worn.
Relating this theory to my own production would be the fact that when recording each scene I made sure I captured the same scene multiple times so I had a lot of footage to chose from, so when it came to the selection process I only put a side the best ones to then include in my final cut of the music video, the main reason I selected this type of story line to film is because I wanted to challenge the usual conventions of a pop/dance video by having the female take full control of the scenes and making sure the audience knew about it. I then organised these clips into the order in which they would be shown through the video and this give me chance to realise if the clips I was using had any relevance to the representation of my female character or the story line. If this wasn't the case major chances had to be made. This would then allow the audience watching my music video when finished to focus on the dominance of the female and how she had major empowerment over what each of the male characters did, which is a shortened expression of my narrative. Aslong as these things where followed the rest of the music video would fall into place.
I do believe I followed Baker's three stages when putting my production together but I don't think the processes where something I intended on using, they each just happened when I was putting my video together. But if others didn't seem to use any of these processes then I don't think the idea of representation of their final product had been thought about and this could result in it being interpreted in a different way to what they had hoped.
Dick Hebdige had the idea of subcultures, that are used through production to 'develop a sense of identity of each of the characters used' . I don't think each of the characters in my music video production could be catergorised under any type of stereotypical group e.g chav, goth, indie because their dress sense was very 'normal' as well as the way they acted. So I don't believe any 'given' sub cultures where targeted, however the idea of my female character being seen as a strong dominant female would be a way of determining her identity to viewers, I tried to dress her typically like the artist Kesha because the short outfits and 'tramp' look is what they expect from her type of videos and I wanted to keep the conventions similar. Hebdige also talked about sub cultures being a 'ideological basis for fans' this basically means making sure each of the characters are easy to describe and remember and by giving each of them simple attributes their identity would stand out and also make fans more interested. I do believe I made each character I had in my video, be made recognisable in their own way whether it be looks, clothing, personality e.t.c but I don't think that I thought about sub cultures in particular when thinking about ways to represent each of them, as I do believe they all looked like 'average actors'.
Laura Mulvey had the idea regarding the 'male gaze theory' which is the objectification of woman that will stand out instantly to men and by using various attributes on screen will capture their eyes throughout. This theory is one that can link directly into my music production because my main character was in fact a female and had a dark secret, I wanted to give her the chance to wear revealing clothing to live up to expectations of 'pop/dance' conventions but also entice the audience (males especially) to want to watch her and hopefully find out her story. I believe the outfits where revealing but in a tasteful manner as her dignity was not taken away from her as these outfits where chosen to show her curves which would be seen as attractive through her performance via the way she moves herself around the male actors, but also the confidence she lets off throughout the scenes will be another point to attract 'the male gaze' into my production. Without adding these outfits to my main character or getting her to portray this fiery confident character, I don't think she would have been represented in the best possible way. But overall this theory was a constant thought throughout the process to keep the audience interested.
Post Modernism is becoming more common in music videos now and it's things like parody's (taking existing music videos and making them more comical to add USP's to your video or intertextuality, which involves referencing ideas from other music videos in your own but portraying them in a totally different light. For my own music video I don't believe these points where thought about in depth because I wanted my narrative to be shown clearly without any distractions from referencing other productions that had already been created. However I did look back to existing texts to include their story lines that would work along side mine. For example Alice in Wonderland's link to the tea party had no real link to the reason why I set up an 'Alice in Wonderland themed tea party' because mine was to give my female character chance to open up about her 'secret identity' to the world, however the males around the table are already dead so she is messing around with them and pretending to herself they are still here, the real adaptation of Alice in Wonderland had a more simple meaning which shows I have thought about post modernism in my own work, but only a small fragment as my story line was easy to follow and was a very unique thing to think about and I didn't want existing texts to take any real interaction away from that.
Finally Judith Butler had the idea of the queer theory, this linked to 'switching boundaries of masculinity and femininity' I think this means when one of the characters used in a production has the factors/features of both sexes. I believe this can be said for only one of the characters in my video. The female character is shown as a woman due to the revealing clothing she wears to attract the males attention by flaunting her curves, but she has the male attributes in the way that she is seen as powerful and dominant over the other males in the video. This would usually be a role played by a male character but she pulls it off well due to her strong performance. However I don't think this theory can apply to the males used in the video because I think they cover more of the female features due to how scared and timid they are when the female character is ordering them around and attacking them and also how weak they are shown because they don't fight back, these are all points people would situate with females. So Butler's theory does play a part in the representation of the lead character in my music video and the points connect well.
Out of all these points I have discussed, my music video either links directly to what the theorists idea's linking to the representation are or challenge the ideas in some way. But either way they always link back to the variety of ideas each of the theorists talk about and I believe in a timed exam I would understand the points I would need to make in order to get the highest possible grade.
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Section 1B - Audience
''Analyse one of your media productions in relation to Audience'' 25 Marks
Julien Mcdougall explains that 'in the online age of today its harder to conceive media audiences as a stable identifiable group' this shows that the people in society don't have their own ideas about what audience of specific music genres they want to be a part of. My specific production consisted of a music video which was of the pop/dance genre. The song I chose was Cannibal by the artist Kesha, when producing this I made sure that I understood who my target audience were, by using a variety of research methods I found out that females aged from 17-25 where the most common profile that I would go onto focus my whole video production around.
When discussing how I considered the audience in my production of my music video I will use the ideas and views of a variety of theorists. I will be referring to the ideas of Denis Mcquail, Ien Ang, Dick Hebdige, Clark Et Al and Stuart Hall.
Denis Mcquail believes the audience are a ''temporary collective'' of people, meaning the audience that I have targeted my music video to now in the present day, may not consist of the same group in the future years because people's tastes and interests change over time. However because the song choice I chose is of the pop dance culture, it would be classed as 'mainstream' and therefore a large quantity of people would be a part of my specific audience. I believe in this day of age females would be more swayed to my music choice because they will be able to link to my main characters story line and understand what emotions she would be feeling, I would also say the age group would be around 17 - 25 which starts from the actual age of my character and because they are of the older generation compared to smaller children I think they will have an easier understanding of what path I was trying to take when recording this video. However in the future I think this video may be attracted by both sexes because there is a male and female divide in the video and some males may want to view it to see how they would be being portrayed as the opinions would be divided because some males may agree with the interpretation and understand the dominating actions of the female, whereas some other males may not see how that is realistic because they are usually the ones dominating the female to do whatever they say. The variety of outlooks of my video is what's most interesting from the audience and that is why I believe it could be open to a variety of people, ages and sexes because its such a general story line.
Ien Ang believes that ''audiences are imaginary and are constructed'' this means that in the planning stages of production, the creators would simply think of a 'typical audience profile' that they believe the production they are creating will attract, however this won't always be the exact same type of group when the final outcome is released. Basically Ang is trying to explain that audiences are not 'set in stone' and can be changed and altered to different tastes/expectations easily. For my music video personally I believed that the audience would be mainly females because they would be able to relate to the narrative of the story well, but also females are usually the ones who are targeted to listen to music of the pop/dance genre, especially if there is a female based story line that some of the female audience could relate to. However this was my set idea during the planning stages, when time went on I grouped my audience to females aged 17-25 because I believe going from the age of my main character to late 20's would be the type of women who could relate to her story line.
The idea of sub cultures being used in music videos came from Dick Hebdige, these are specific groups of people who are associated with in these 'sub cultures' by there backgrounds. for example goths, emo, indie, burlesque e.t.c Because my music video is of the pop/dance genre I believe the smaller sub cultures could be of a 'hipster' group and because of the up beat tempo to the song possibly seen as 'ravers' these two sub cultures could be interlinked as it's the expressions I would take for the type of music I am focusing on. I also think the females who would have interest in this video would be seen as 'tramps' because they make take influence from Kesha's style which consists of ripped clothing and largely backcombed hair, usually artist's supporters look up to them in every way and if they like their music it usually means they take inspiration from other elements. I do believe that Hebdige's ideas link to any type of music video because any type of genre can have a variety of sub cultures involved within it. These sub cultures where interesting to look into when researching my audience profiles for my production because it meant I could understand the variety of elements that comes with each sub culture and how some of my female audience could be a part of them.
Clark Et Al explains that to find the correct audience you are looking for through production stages ''regular audience research'' needs to be conducted. I believe this is to make sure that you are targeting the correct group of people for the product you are trying to sell and by doing it on a regular basis means it's easier to see the changes and trends that develop over time, this is to make sure the target audience has stayed the same and no drastic problems have occurred. When conducting my personal audience research regarding my music video I used blogs and forums to share my ideas and images to see what people thought of them and hopefully give honest feedback, I was hoping this would come from a variety of people, some including females in my target group. I also used Facebook to ask what they thought about my final product and if it fitted with the usual pop/dance genre conventions that they are used to seeing and if not how well I have challenged them, this would help me determine who exactly appreciated my video and who didn't which signifies my audience. Finally I conducted a feedback lesson with class mates to see if I had followed or challenged conventions as part of my music video and all of these research methods together helped me determine the audience I would be aiming my product at, I changed from only female to a male audience as well because through my research I found that males had some sort of link with the story line I had followed, this shows this theory can apply to any type of production.
Finally Stuart Hall talks about how audience's can read the video you have created, it could be a preferred - a reading which you as the creator want the audience to get the real meaning of the story, negotiated - audience getting some of the meanings, but also making their own choices about what they think the narrative behind it is and finally oppositional - this means the audience don't get any of your real basis of the story line and instead interpret it in a completely different way. I think the audience of my personal music video got negotiated meaning in the way that they knew my main character was the dominating female who had total control over what the male actors did and also that she was hiding behind an obvious identity that she didn't want to share with others, however other points have been altered and seen by them for example that women shouldn't be in charge of society and themselves and men should be the dominating ones and also that I was only concentrating on the females. These points are not in anyway what I wanted my video to perceive but this is where Hall's theory comes into play, because all of the viewers who look at the video won't always have the same feelings and ideas about what story I am trying to portray.
Overall the theorists ideas I have chosen to talk about have related to the stages I have gone through to ensure I know exactly who my target audience is and make sure I focus on specific elements to attract the correct type of people. Most of the theorists will link to most productions as they are generic ideas and I do believe they can back up my audience focuses well.
When discussing how I considered the audience in my production of my music video I will use the ideas and views of a variety of theorists. I will be referring to the ideas of Denis Mcquail, Ien Ang, Dick Hebdige, Clark Et Al and Stuart Hall.
Denis Mcquail believes the audience are a ''temporary collective'' of people, meaning the audience that I have targeted my music video to now in the present day, may not consist of the same group in the future years because people's tastes and interests change over time. However because the song choice I chose is of the pop dance culture, it would be classed as 'mainstream' and therefore a large quantity of people would be a part of my specific audience. I believe in this day of age females would be more swayed to my music choice because they will be able to link to my main characters story line and understand what emotions she would be feeling, I would also say the age group would be around 17 - 25 which starts from the actual age of my character and because they are of the older generation compared to smaller children I think they will have an easier understanding of what path I was trying to take when recording this video. However in the future I think this video may be attracted by both sexes because there is a male and female divide in the video and some males may want to view it to see how they would be being portrayed as the opinions would be divided because some males may agree with the interpretation and understand the dominating actions of the female, whereas some other males may not see how that is realistic because they are usually the ones dominating the female to do whatever they say. The variety of outlooks of my video is what's most interesting from the audience and that is why I believe it could be open to a variety of people, ages and sexes because its such a general story line.
Ien Ang believes that ''audiences are imaginary and are constructed'' this means that in the planning stages of production, the creators would simply think of a 'typical audience profile' that they believe the production they are creating will attract, however this won't always be the exact same type of group when the final outcome is released. Basically Ang is trying to explain that audiences are not 'set in stone' and can be changed and altered to different tastes/expectations easily. For my music video personally I believed that the audience would be mainly females because they would be able to relate to the narrative of the story well, but also females are usually the ones who are targeted to listen to music of the pop/dance genre, especially if there is a female based story line that some of the female audience could relate to. However this was my set idea during the planning stages, when time went on I grouped my audience to females aged 17-25 because I believe going from the age of my main character to late 20's would be the type of women who could relate to her story line.
The idea of sub cultures being used in music videos came from Dick Hebdige, these are specific groups of people who are associated with in these 'sub cultures' by there backgrounds. for example goths, emo, indie, burlesque e.t.c Because my music video is of the pop/dance genre I believe the smaller sub cultures could be of a 'hipster' group and because of the up beat tempo to the song possibly seen as 'ravers' these two sub cultures could be interlinked as it's the expressions I would take for the type of music I am focusing on. I also think the females who would have interest in this video would be seen as 'tramps' because they make take influence from Kesha's style which consists of ripped clothing and largely backcombed hair, usually artist's supporters look up to them in every way and if they like their music it usually means they take inspiration from other elements. I do believe that Hebdige's ideas link to any type of music video because any type of genre can have a variety of sub cultures involved within it. These sub cultures where interesting to look into when researching my audience profiles for my production because it meant I could understand the variety of elements that comes with each sub culture and how some of my female audience could be a part of them.
Clark Et Al explains that to find the correct audience you are looking for through production stages ''regular audience research'' needs to be conducted. I believe this is to make sure that you are targeting the correct group of people for the product you are trying to sell and by doing it on a regular basis means it's easier to see the changes and trends that develop over time, this is to make sure the target audience has stayed the same and no drastic problems have occurred. When conducting my personal audience research regarding my music video I used blogs and forums to share my ideas and images to see what people thought of them and hopefully give honest feedback, I was hoping this would come from a variety of people, some including females in my target group. I also used Facebook to ask what they thought about my final product and if it fitted with the usual pop/dance genre conventions that they are used to seeing and if not how well I have challenged them, this would help me determine who exactly appreciated my video and who didn't which signifies my audience. Finally I conducted a feedback lesson with class mates to see if I had followed or challenged conventions as part of my music video and all of these research methods together helped me determine the audience I would be aiming my product at, I changed from only female to a male audience as well because through my research I found that males had some sort of link with the story line I had followed, this shows this theory can apply to any type of production.
Finally Stuart Hall talks about how audience's can read the video you have created, it could be a preferred - a reading which you as the creator want the audience to get the real meaning of the story, negotiated - audience getting some of the meanings, but also making their own choices about what they think the narrative behind it is and finally oppositional - this means the audience don't get any of your real basis of the story line and instead interpret it in a completely different way. I think the audience of my personal music video got negotiated meaning in the way that they knew my main character was the dominating female who had total control over what the male actors did and also that she was hiding behind an obvious identity that she didn't want to share with others, however other points have been altered and seen by them for example that women shouldn't be in charge of society and themselves and men should be the dominating ones and also that I was only concentrating on the females. These points are not in anyway what I wanted my video to perceive but this is where Hall's theory comes into play, because all of the viewers who look at the video won't always have the same feelings and ideas about what story I am trying to portray.
Overall the theorists ideas I have chosen to talk about have related to the stages I have gone through to ensure I know exactly who my target audience is and make sure I focus on specific elements to attract the correct type of people. Most of the theorists will link to most productions as they are generic ideas and I do believe they can back up my audience focuses well.
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Section 1B - Narrative
"Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to Narrative" 25 Marks
Tim O'Sullivan identifies that ''media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves'' in relation to narrative. He believes that this can be shown through traditional story lines which would require full narratives for example film sequences. However because I am focusing this essay around my A2 music video production, the narrative is more fragmented which means only specific segments of a storyline are included through the duration of my 4 minute production. This video was to the song Cannibal, by artist Kesha.
Throughout this essay I will discuss the ideas of a variety of theorists and how they can link into my narrative of my personal production. I will look at the ideas of Pam Cook, Todorov, Levi - Strauss, Andrew Goodwin and Sven Carlsson.
Pam Cook believes the 'standard hollywood structure' should have a high degree of narrative closure which means an actual realistic ending that the audience can follow aka 'pathway to resolution' instead of leaving the production with no real intention of giving the audience information about what has happened in the end scenes. I believe this can be included and followed in my music video because it's still a production that the audience watch all the way through and my video personally has an easy to follow narrative and does follow Cook's idea of a pathway to resolution in the way that my main character finally releases her true identity as a cannibal through the tea party scene and from then on, the audience can see that she is comfortable in her own skin and isn't afraid who knows about it. I also think it's quite a realistic type of 'resolution' I have included in my music video because many people could be in my main characters position with a variety of different identities they are hiding from society for example their sexuality, hobbies, ambitions e.t.c and hopefully adding reality into it will make them realise that they don't have to hide away and it's ok to admit the truth.
Todorov believes there is 5 parts to a narrative 1)Calm 2)Disrupted Stability 3) Recognition takes place 4)Action happens 5)Restoration, this is usually linked to films because of the duration, so obviously in my own music video it wouldn't be possible to include every point. I believe the narrative of my video started from stage 2 as I don't believe it could be ever seen as 'calm' due to the fierce and chilling opening frames of my main character walking away from a dead body to growl at the camera with blood all over her face, suggests that she has killed him, from then on I don't believe the stages where linked perfectly as stage 3 was never really shown and stage 4 of the action happening, happened throughout the whole video because she had been attacking the males to feast on their blood because of her 'secret cannibal identity'. Although she does express her secret at the end of the video I don't believe mine personally enters stage 5 because no real ending is shown for example you never see what her life is like now she has admitted to being a cannibal or whatever happened to the males she was attacking e.t.c. But I do believe some of Todorov's points link in exactly to the running of my music video.
Levi - Strauss has the idea of binory opposites being used throughout a narrative to single out each character for example good vs evil or rich vs poor to show the divide between each person included (this is usually the case again of films) however it can relate to some types of music videos depending on the narrative. Good vs Evil would definitely be the case for my video as the main character would be seen as the evil one because she is attacking the males for no real reason just so she can drink their blood which they haven't really given any consent too. Whereas the males would be seen as the good characters because they are really the 'princess's' in this whole situation who are waiting to be rescued to escape being viciously attacked any longer by the female, however because the males and the single female are the only people included in the video they are never actually saved, which makes the sense of evil stronger on the main characters behalf. Although this theory links to my video personally I don't think it would work with some of my other class members final productions because the story lines simply don't have that type of divide through their characters.
Andrew Goodwin is an influential theorist who can link to a variety of elements regarding a music video. Linking only to narrative he discusses that ''narrative relations are highly complex'' which means that ideas can surface from other genres and don't have to be fully linked to the specific type of genre your working in. I took ideas from the more alternative types of genres by having quite a dark and mysterious story line which isn't usually seen in a pop/dance video. The fact that my main character is dwelling on a identity problem compared to thinking about having a night out on the town with her best girlfriends shows that the relations from other narratives/genres can be linked together if its done in the correct way because there is such a variety of genres out there today all of them link in someway depending on the type of story line that is going to be followed, I wanted to make mine more unique and let the audience feel inspired by my main character rather than just look at her as a party girl. This theory is of a generic type and could link to any type of music video genre because they all interlink to create the finished product.
Finally Sven Carlson says that narrative comes from either 'performance or contextual clips' performance narrative consists of mainly the artist where as contextual clips are more artistic references. I believe my video personally referred to the performance type of clip because throughout the duration of the video it consists of mainly shots focused on the main character to show that she is the main attraction and the whole narrative performance is about her life, which is her trying to express her real identity being a cannibal to the world then the rest of the video consists of dance performance as dance routines are a main convention during pop/dance genre music videos and plays a main part of her 'coming out' of her identity stages which is converted into a dance sequence to give the audience something they are used to seeing as well as developing the interest on the narrative. I do believe Carlson's theory links to my music video because the performance clips are what my video consists of throughout, so it is true that music video's are either all about the characters/performers or all about artistic imagination.
Overall I have chosen to discuss these 5 theorists because I believe they can all link in some way back to my own personal music video production because of me choosing such a unique type of story line/narrative to work with, however I don't believe this would have been the case for other groups in my media class as there videos consisted of a different genre and narrative which will have focused on different conventions which could initially mean other theorists would be the one for them to link back their production too. Furthermore I believe I have discussed how each theorist's ideas links to my idea of narrative in greater detail and also linked it back to the question.
Tim O'Sullivan identifies that ''media texts offer a way of telling stories about ourselves'' in relation to narrative. He believes that this can be shown through traditional story lines which would require full narratives for example film sequences. However because I am focusing this essay around my A2 music video production, the narrative is more fragmented which means only specific segments of a storyline are included through the duration of my 4 minute production. This video was to the song Cannibal, by artist Kesha.
Throughout this essay I will discuss the ideas of a variety of theorists and how they can link into my narrative of my personal production. I will look at the ideas of Pam Cook, Todorov, Levi - Strauss, Andrew Goodwin and Sven Carlsson.
Pam Cook believes the 'standard hollywood structure' should have a high degree of narrative closure which means an actual realistic ending that the audience can follow aka 'pathway to resolution' instead of leaving the production with no real intention of giving the audience information about what has happened in the end scenes. I believe this can be included and followed in my music video because it's still a production that the audience watch all the way through and my video personally has an easy to follow narrative and does follow Cook's idea of a pathway to resolution in the way that my main character finally releases her true identity as a cannibal through the tea party scene and from then on, the audience can see that she is comfortable in her own skin and isn't afraid who knows about it. I also think it's quite a realistic type of 'resolution' I have included in my music video because many people could be in my main characters position with a variety of different identities they are hiding from society for example their sexuality, hobbies, ambitions e.t.c and hopefully adding reality into it will make them realise that they don't have to hide away and it's ok to admit the truth.
Todorov believes there is 5 parts to a narrative 1)Calm 2)Disrupted Stability 3) Recognition takes place 4)Action happens 5)Restoration, this is usually linked to films because of the duration, so obviously in my own music video it wouldn't be possible to include every point. I believe the narrative of my video started from stage 2 as I don't believe it could be ever seen as 'calm' due to the fierce and chilling opening frames of my main character walking away from a dead body to growl at the camera with blood all over her face, suggests that she has killed him, from then on I don't believe the stages where linked perfectly as stage 3 was never really shown and stage 4 of the action happening, happened throughout the whole video because she had been attacking the males to feast on their blood because of her 'secret cannibal identity'. Although she does express her secret at the end of the video I don't believe mine personally enters stage 5 because no real ending is shown for example you never see what her life is like now she has admitted to being a cannibal or whatever happened to the males she was attacking e.t.c. But I do believe some of Todorov's points link in exactly to the running of my music video.
Levi - Strauss has the idea of binory opposites being used throughout a narrative to single out each character for example good vs evil or rich vs poor to show the divide between each person included (this is usually the case again of films) however it can relate to some types of music videos depending on the narrative. Good vs Evil would definitely be the case for my video as the main character would be seen as the evil one because she is attacking the males for no real reason just so she can drink their blood which they haven't really given any consent too. Whereas the males would be seen as the good characters because they are really the 'princess's' in this whole situation who are waiting to be rescued to escape being viciously attacked any longer by the female, however because the males and the single female are the only people included in the video they are never actually saved, which makes the sense of evil stronger on the main characters behalf. Although this theory links to my video personally I don't think it would work with some of my other class members final productions because the story lines simply don't have that type of divide through their characters.
Andrew Goodwin is an influential theorist who can link to a variety of elements regarding a music video. Linking only to narrative he discusses that ''narrative relations are highly complex'' which means that ideas can surface from other genres and don't have to be fully linked to the specific type of genre your working in. I took ideas from the more alternative types of genres by having quite a dark and mysterious story line which isn't usually seen in a pop/dance video. The fact that my main character is dwelling on a identity problem compared to thinking about having a night out on the town with her best girlfriends shows that the relations from other narratives/genres can be linked together if its done in the correct way because there is such a variety of genres out there today all of them link in someway depending on the type of story line that is going to be followed, I wanted to make mine more unique and let the audience feel inspired by my main character rather than just look at her as a party girl. This theory is of a generic type and could link to any type of music video genre because they all interlink to create the finished product.
Finally Sven Carlson says that narrative comes from either 'performance or contextual clips' performance narrative consists of mainly the artist where as contextual clips are more artistic references. I believe my video personally referred to the performance type of clip because throughout the duration of the video it consists of mainly shots focused on the main character to show that she is the main attraction and the whole narrative performance is about her life, which is her trying to express her real identity being a cannibal to the world then the rest of the video consists of dance performance as dance routines are a main convention during pop/dance genre music videos and plays a main part of her 'coming out' of her identity stages which is converted into a dance sequence to give the audience something they are used to seeing as well as developing the interest on the narrative. I do believe Carlson's theory links to my music video because the performance clips are what my video consists of throughout, so it is true that music video's are either all about the characters/performers or all about artistic imagination.
Overall I have chosen to discuss these 5 theorists because I believe they can all link in some way back to my own personal music video production because of me choosing such a unique type of story line/narrative to work with, however I don't believe this would have been the case for other groups in my media class as there videos consisted of a different genre and narrative which will have focused on different conventions which could initially mean other theorists would be the one for them to link back their production too. Furthermore I believe I have discussed how each theorist's ideas links to my idea of narrative in greater detail and also linked it back to the question.
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Section 1B - Genre
"Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to Genre." 25 marks
Daniel Chandler explains that 'Genre is a distinctive type of class/text used by audiences' to make for example music videos easier to distinguish. Barry Keith Grant introduced the idea of specific 'sub genres/hybrids' that audiences identify through characteristics. The music video I produced came under the pop/dance genre, the song title was Cannibal from the artist Kesha.
In this specific essay I am going to discuss the ideas of each of the theorists I have investigated; Goodwin, Altman, Mittell, Abercrombie and Bordwell then apply their ideas to my own piece of work to understand if I have applied their idea or challenged conventions to make it more unique.
Andrew Goodwin's theory includes 5 characteristics that should be used in a typical music videos; the first was thought beats which is when the visual is cut to beat of the audio, in the pop sub genre this is a common convention that is included, that I found through my research stages. In the chorus of the song the main character says 'cannibal' numerous times, which is where the jump cuts would fit in suitably because each shot would be different and eye catching to the audience. The star image is about focusing a high percentage of the scenes around the lead singer/character by capturing meat shots and making sure the audience understand the main storyline is about them. This was the exact case of my own music video because the character was a 'cannibal' and the only scenes that included others was the beginning and end where the male actors could be seen to distinguish they were her 'victims', but because she was the only female her leadership and dominance could be shown clearly. Relating the visuals to the actual song is another one of he's ideas and this can be found in 3 different ways Illustrate, Amplify or Disjuncture. My video specifically linked into the Illustrate and Amplify because in some scenes like the lyric 'you better run' is shown a male actor is shown running away from the cannibal. However I have slightly Amplified my idea by the leopard print screen the character is stood infront of and the variety of dance moves, but this still links into the idea of her being a cannibal.
Although all of these ideas show I have adhered to the specific conventions David Buckingham discusses how 'genre is not given, the process is negotiated and changed'. I used class feedback to find out what type of conventions each of them thought I had challenged and the main response was that the dance routines were only contributed by the male actors and it's usually the females that take part in dances so shows I took risks in order for the video to look unique. Also the main conventions of a pop music video are bar scenes, these were not used in my video as I used derelict buildings and landscapes to relate to the background of my main character (cannibal) as these would be the locations she would stay in to hide away from society. A bar scene would have no relevance to my character because she feels like her secret won't let her be herself around other people, so that type of location being used would totally contradict my storyline and the outcome of the video wouldn't have had a real structure to follow.
Altman then talks about how 'genre gives the audience pleasure' there are 3 different types of 'pleasure' that the viewers of a music video can feel. Emotional - which means the audience actually have real emotion or feelings towards the video, Visceral - the physical feeling for example sickness and excitement you feel from a roller coaster ride through the conventions used in the video and Intellectual - the idea of trying to figure out a puzzle that has been added to the video by the creators to keep the audience interested. My personal video includes an emotional pleasure that the audience will pick up on because the main character is seen as a dominant female who seduces then attacks the males to feed off because of her 'cannibal' background, this shows that if she goes about it the right way then she gets the outcome she was hoping for. So the audience watching this video - especially females would feel like if they want something in the future they should be more confident and demanding of it because our main character has played with their emotions and made them realize that if you want something you need to be determined enough to get it, which will differ depending on the person as each of them will have things they want to achieve, our music video would hopefully be able to guarntee to help them in the right direction. The reason Altman's theory is so compatible with my own music video is because the more they can interact and understand the story line the easier it will be to 'sell it to them' and hopefully enjoy it.
This then relates back to Mittel's idea of how 'genre is used to sell products to audiences' this can be transferred through the story line, camera skills, mise en scene e.t.c.really any sort of element that you have to conduct yourself through the production stage in order for your video to stand out from the others but also include the correct conventions usually seen in the pop/dance genre that I am personally working in. For me to relate back to this idea with examples of my own work the camera skills I used would be the easiest to explain. Most of the effects or clips that were completed in different scenes of my music video are usually common conventions anyway so it shows that I thought about what exactly needed to be added in order for it to be classed as the correct genre. Jump Cuts were used precisely through the duration of scenes in the video because I used a fast paced song, matching the clip to the beat of the music meant the audiences attention would be successfully captured throughout. For example the last chorus of the video, when the males and the main character are singing I decided to cut when it said cannibal to show only the males in a scene then the female alone to give them allotted screen time to themselves but also for the audience to see exactly who the characters where and see they were lip syncing in time. Super imposing of two scenes was detected through my thorougher research techniques and decided in the running scene in my video where the male has escaped from the cannibal's grasp I over layered it with a clip of the main character expressing an evil laugh as if to say that she would actually find him as she always gets what she wants, this could interest the audience and although you don't see her actually catch him again in the video suggestions can be assumed. Finally the slow motion affects added to some of the clips to add to the creepy and un lifelike personality of the main character as well as the fear and uncertainty of the male character who was running away from the torture she had already put him through. It added more drama to the sequence because the audience wouldn't have known if she was going to run up behind him or he was going to actually get away. Without adding all of these elements my video wouldn't have been half as successful and may not have been 'sold' to much of my target audience who consist of 17-25 year old females because they would look for the conventions and understand the story line correctly.
This finally leads onto Abercrombie who says that 'boundaries between genres are shifting and become permeable - merge together' this can mean bringing in a variety of sub genres to 'mix up' the usual conventions of a specific music video you would instantly follow. for example in a pop video usually a dance routine is always scene including the main character and lots of girly colours, however if shots of the instruments used to create the sounds used in the video which are usually only shown in rock music videos this would show the merging of two together and the outcome could work if it was directed correctly. In my video personally I didn't feel like there was room for other conventions from various genres to be included in a pop/dance video as it would confuse the target audience as it's not something they would be used to seeing but also mean a lot of planning to make sure the other conventions would actually fit into the story line I was hoping to achieve because changing it was not something I wanted to do. The main thing I believe I did challenge that are usually typical pop conventions is the locations I filmed my video in, typical bar and nightclub locations are used where I used alleyways and forestry but I believe to get my story across to the audience in the best way the clubs wouldn't have worked because the main character is already hiding away from the social aspect of her life because she feels like she cant be herself so if I did show her in a nightclub setting it would go agaisnt the story I was trying to tell.
Overall I believe each of the theorists I have spoken about can relate back to my music video personally in some way, whether it be I have followed what they say perfectly in conjunction or totally challenging their points to make mine seem more unique and interesting to view.
Daniel Chandler explains that 'Genre is a distinctive type of class/text used by audiences' to make for example music videos easier to distinguish. Barry Keith Grant introduced the idea of specific 'sub genres/hybrids' that audiences identify through characteristics. The music video I produced came under the pop/dance genre, the song title was Cannibal from the artist Kesha.
In this specific essay I am going to discuss the ideas of each of the theorists I have investigated; Goodwin, Altman, Mittell, Abercrombie and Bordwell then apply their ideas to my own piece of work to understand if I have applied their idea or challenged conventions to make it more unique.
Andrew Goodwin's theory includes 5 characteristics that should be used in a typical music videos; the first was thought beats which is when the visual is cut to beat of the audio, in the pop sub genre this is a common convention that is included, that I found through my research stages. In the chorus of the song the main character says 'cannibal' numerous times, which is where the jump cuts would fit in suitably because each shot would be different and eye catching to the audience. The star image is about focusing a high percentage of the scenes around the lead singer/character by capturing meat shots and making sure the audience understand the main storyline is about them. This was the exact case of my own music video because the character was a 'cannibal' and the only scenes that included others was the beginning and end where the male actors could be seen to distinguish they were her 'victims', but because she was the only female her leadership and dominance could be shown clearly. Relating the visuals to the actual song is another one of he's ideas and this can be found in 3 different ways Illustrate, Amplify or Disjuncture. My video specifically linked into the Illustrate and Amplify because in some scenes like the lyric 'you better run' is shown a male actor is shown running away from the cannibal. However I have slightly Amplified my idea by the leopard print screen the character is stood infront of and the variety of dance moves, but this still links into the idea of her being a cannibal.
Although all of these ideas show I have adhered to the specific conventions David Buckingham discusses how 'genre is not given, the process is negotiated and changed'. I used class feedback to find out what type of conventions each of them thought I had challenged and the main response was that the dance routines were only contributed by the male actors and it's usually the females that take part in dances so shows I took risks in order for the video to look unique. Also the main conventions of a pop music video are bar scenes, these were not used in my video as I used derelict buildings and landscapes to relate to the background of my main character (cannibal) as these would be the locations she would stay in to hide away from society. A bar scene would have no relevance to my character because she feels like her secret won't let her be herself around other people, so that type of location being used would totally contradict my storyline and the outcome of the video wouldn't have had a real structure to follow.
Altman then talks about how 'genre gives the audience pleasure' there are 3 different types of 'pleasure' that the viewers of a music video can feel. Emotional - which means the audience actually have real emotion or feelings towards the video, Visceral - the physical feeling for example sickness and excitement you feel from a roller coaster ride through the conventions used in the video and Intellectual - the idea of trying to figure out a puzzle that has been added to the video by the creators to keep the audience interested. My personal video includes an emotional pleasure that the audience will pick up on because the main character is seen as a dominant female who seduces then attacks the males to feed off because of her 'cannibal' background, this shows that if she goes about it the right way then she gets the outcome she was hoping for. So the audience watching this video - especially females would feel like if they want something in the future they should be more confident and demanding of it because our main character has played with their emotions and made them realize that if you want something you need to be determined enough to get it, which will differ depending on the person as each of them will have things they want to achieve, our music video would hopefully be able to guarntee to help them in the right direction. The reason Altman's theory is so compatible with my own music video is because the more they can interact and understand the story line the easier it will be to 'sell it to them' and hopefully enjoy it.
This then relates back to Mittel's idea of how 'genre is used to sell products to audiences' this can be transferred through the story line, camera skills, mise en scene e.t.c.really any sort of element that you have to conduct yourself through the production stage in order for your video to stand out from the others but also include the correct conventions usually seen in the pop/dance genre that I am personally working in. For me to relate back to this idea with examples of my own work the camera skills I used would be the easiest to explain. Most of the effects or clips that were completed in different scenes of my music video are usually common conventions anyway so it shows that I thought about what exactly needed to be added in order for it to be classed as the correct genre. Jump Cuts were used precisely through the duration of scenes in the video because I used a fast paced song, matching the clip to the beat of the music meant the audiences attention would be successfully captured throughout. For example the last chorus of the video, when the males and the main character are singing I decided to cut when it said cannibal to show only the males in a scene then the female alone to give them allotted screen time to themselves but also for the audience to see exactly who the characters where and see they were lip syncing in time. Super imposing of two scenes was detected through my thorougher research techniques and decided in the running scene in my video where the male has escaped from the cannibal's grasp I over layered it with a clip of the main character expressing an evil laugh as if to say that she would actually find him as she always gets what she wants, this could interest the audience and although you don't see her actually catch him again in the video suggestions can be assumed. Finally the slow motion affects added to some of the clips to add to the creepy and un lifelike personality of the main character as well as the fear and uncertainty of the male character who was running away from the torture she had already put him through. It added more drama to the sequence because the audience wouldn't have known if she was going to run up behind him or he was going to actually get away. Without adding all of these elements my video wouldn't have been half as successful and may not have been 'sold' to much of my target audience who consist of 17-25 year old females because they would look for the conventions and understand the story line correctly.
This finally leads onto Abercrombie who says that 'boundaries between genres are shifting and become permeable - merge together' this can mean bringing in a variety of sub genres to 'mix up' the usual conventions of a specific music video you would instantly follow. for example in a pop video usually a dance routine is always scene including the main character and lots of girly colours, however if shots of the instruments used to create the sounds used in the video which are usually only shown in rock music videos this would show the merging of two together and the outcome could work if it was directed correctly. In my video personally I didn't feel like there was room for other conventions from various genres to be included in a pop/dance video as it would confuse the target audience as it's not something they would be used to seeing but also mean a lot of planning to make sure the other conventions would actually fit into the story line I was hoping to achieve because changing it was not something I wanted to do. The main thing I believe I did challenge that are usually typical pop conventions is the locations I filmed my video in, typical bar and nightclub locations are used where I used alleyways and forestry but I believe to get my story across to the audience in the best way the clubs wouldn't have worked because the main character is already hiding away from the social aspect of her life because she feels like she cant be herself so if I did show her in a nightclub setting it would go agaisnt the story I was trying to tell.
Overall I believe each of the theorists I have spoken about can relate back to my music video personally in some way, whether it be I have followed what they say perfectly in conjunction or totally challenging their points to make mine seem more unique and interesting to view.
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
Section 1A - Real Media Texts
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. 25 Marks
Without having the use of prime examples of real media texts referring to my specific briefs I wouldn't have been able to collect any inspiration to add into my own creation of work. Throughout this two year course I have been able to understand the impact that these existing videos would have on my production stages so could collect only the most realistic that related to my chosen genre as I knew these would be the ones I would be referring too most of the time to enhance my level of creativity in the long run. Over the two years two separate briefs where set; In AS we were asked to create a 2 minute film sequence from either a Film Noir or Horror Genre including titles, I personally chose Horror because I knew I would be more successful at it. In A2 we were asked to create a music promo package which included; Music Video, Digipak and Advert I personally chose the Pop Genre and chose to use the song Cannibal by Kesha.
In this question I will explain the texts that were inspirational to me throughout pre production, production and post production and then explain the same answers for A2, however will explain how I have developed a range of skills to take the most influence from each.
Before actually filming my horror sequence a lot of research was done for me to see exactly what existing horror films story lines where and what conventions they where following or challenging. I firstly looked at nightmare on elm street because I knew it was a slightly more violent horror and although I didn't want to go down that route I knew the whole idea of from the beginning of the film right up until 5 minutes had past the camera angles focused mainly around a girl - who could be seen as the main character, even when titles where flashing up onto the screen, shots of her would follow and this is the exact idea I had for my sequence because I would want the audience to understand exactly who she was and that she played the main part. In that film the scene only showed the girl in her home, which didn't suggest any violent acts would occur and although I want my film to be of the horror genre I would like it to be slightly more discreet in the way this film doesn't have a real story line till the middle scenes.
The next film I looked at was scream, although it's slightly more comedy than horror I knew some of the scenes where very memorable and could fit into my ideas and plans easily. Such as when the 'villain' calls up the girl who is alone in her house seeing he can see her and is coming to get her which she responds in a way that shows the audience how worried she is that a strange man is watching over her. Although this is interesting research to look in to I don't necessarily want to follow this lead because I want my sequence to be unique, however showing the worry from my character being approached or 'caught' by the villain in a different sense would show I have took the inspiration and transferred it into my own ideas.
Finally in pre production stages of my AS brief I looked at Orphan, which is a much more modern version of a horror film compared to the other two and the main reason I looked into this was because the girl was again the main character and she has physiological problems which stops her being able to be loved by any sort of family. This problems involve her hurting family members to make sure she is getting all of the attention however I think this is way too much story line to include in such a small sequence because a lot of detail would need to be shot, however my male character could seem to be shown as quite 'gone in the head' for the things I want him to do to my main character by keeping her hostage and taking images which could suggest that he has problems and could work.
Production stage of my brief was much more important to find the best texts to refer to as they would influence my overall filming techniques. The film wolf creek supports a specific scene at the end of the film where the girl runs off into the Australian desert to get away from this killer, however he does end up finding her and the end is un certain. But the variety of shots that are conducted in that one scene make the audience feel like they are actually running with the character as you can hear the high level of panting as well as see the fear from her facial expressions using meat shots and then how tired she begins to look by the long shots used to show the whole scene. Because at the end of my short sequence I want to show a running scene of my main character actually becoming free from this killer she thought she was caught by, I hope to incorporate this variety of shots that cut a lot to keep the audience interested and also feel the fear of what could happen next.
The lovely bones was the next film that inspired me mainly because the female character who is a part of it is very quite and 'normal looking' which indicates the girl next door image as well as the person who she befriends (her next door neighbor) actually becomes her killer, which the audience wouldn't expect from the beginning. At the beginning of my sequence I hope to capture my female character looking just like a usual teenage girl who has no care in the world. However this perception can suddenly change when the flashback begins as they would be shown her tied up by this 'unknown man' who seems to be very fond of her in a uncomfortable way.
Finally the film Descent's main story line shows the 'alpha male' being the more dominant character giving out all the orders and actions because he is superior to anyone else, whereas the female is more vulnerable and would actually be afraid to speak her true feelings. I would transfer the idea of male vs female into my own sequence as in many horror films the woman is seemed to be very scared of what the male will do to her and will listen to any orders given. In mine my female will be tied up and ask to be released with the response of the male replying no and laughing as he will know himself she will soon give up because she knows he's opinion will always come first.
Post production mainly consists of the editing stages and discussing why I captured each of the shots in my own sequence. I had the idea of scary movie and how the humor overwrites the actual idea of horror to not be so full on, so for some of my scenes I tried to make it slightly more mediocre in the way that it wouldn't scare anyone but still be a shock, for example I captured a scene where my main character is running and she looks away and double takes a girl sat on the swings to be her. This would be very unexpected to the audience and because the other girl we used looks nothing like her then it's even more unusual. Although it's not as joke like as scary movie, the aspects are still there.
Once again I used orphan as a main part of my inspiration and a lot of various scenes where inspired by that film alone. For example Ester the main character in Orphan is seen as quite an angelic cute little girl who looks as though she wouldn't do any harm however as the film goes on her whole personality changes, this doesn't actually happen in my film but the whole angelic type of character is the part that I established in my own sequence because I thought the female is the vulnerable victim here so I want the audience to grasp a relationship with her from the start. This also isn't a common type of element to be included in every type of horror film so if many people hadn't actually seen Orphan then they would grasp my idea as more unique.
Also the various scenes in Orphan where Ester is seen singing a very creepy and spine chilling tune that entails the lyrics ' that's the glory of love' this would definitely make the audience think that she wasn't actually stable by the way she was expressing each of the words. In my own sequence I took this inspiration but actually found existing sound effects of children laughing and slowly portraying different words 'if you go down to the woods today' and by linking that to the female character running away it would worry the audience about visiting woods again this is the type of scenario I would want to create as these are all horror conventions that they are used to seeing which would make the sequence more professional.
In A2 my whole creative stream seemed to develop as I actually took inspiration from the videos I watched very seriously and tried to establish them in my own perfectly. In the pre production stages of my work I looked into a variety of music videos that actually linked to my specific genre. Pixie Lott's all about tonight was one of my main inspirations because you could significantly see who was the main character by the large amount of meat shots that where contained in the 4 minute video, although there was a selection of group shots where Pixie could be seen with a group of dancers whilst singing the lyrics she was still distinctive as her outrageous outfits screamed sex appeal compared to the rest. This is exactly the type of thing I hope to achieve in my own video because the camera angles are very important - meat shots mainly used if wanting to focus on one single person.
Rihanna's video for hard shows her dominant character compared to the males used in the video as she is seen as an army cadet bossing the rest of the army soldiers around to her every order, she is also wearing quite a revealing outfit which indicates the sex appeal available with pop stars in every music video they conduct. Because my main character in my video is seen as a cannibal who likes eating humans I hope to make her boss around her victims before she pounces to get what she wants, she will also be wearing a revealing outfit to live up to these conventions linked to the genre.
Because I was following a Kesha song I thought looking over her previous videos may give me inspiration I need to conduct a one of the same standard, We R who we R includes a lot of diamonds, colours and dramatic make up because Kesha is quite a unique character compared to anyone else in the music industry as her 'trampish' looks stand out to her fans. The only similarities I would probably use in my own video however is the lack of clothing she actually tends to wear because I am planning on using a female character with attractive features who can pull off this idea without looking overly revealing.
Without just planning these simple ideas like in AS I actually conducted detailed drawings that I would later conduct into a storyboard because the ideas where too detailed to forget. Also by making mood boards of outfits and different make up types would help me in the production stages when these will be needed.
Production stages meant I would need videos I could look to and help with camera skills but also story lines that I could personally follow. Rihanna's disturbia was one I used quite a lot because she doesn't really look stable throughout the video as it's all very surreal as she has humans dressed as animals as they sit and obey her also the amount of affects used such as jolted head movements, dramatic outfits that add to the dark incite of her character and the in sync dance movements that are very disjointed and unique. All of these elements I hope to incorporate in my own video because my main character is a cannibal she wants to just portray who she is to the real world but she knows she cant, however in the middle of the video 'she comes out as who she really is' as scenes can be shown of her going mad with hiding her identity when the jolted head movements could come into it as well as a creative dance routine including the victims.
Lady Gaga's paparazzi was mainly used in my production stages because she looks very simple and pleasant towards the end of the video with her painted on black lipstick, however this is when she does actually add poison into her boyfriend's drink to instantly kill him. The same idea will be used in my video however she will have already killed them but now joking around with their dead bodies actually acting as though they are alive and can complete day to day activities with her, this suggests she isn't stable as scenes such as a Alice in Wonderland themed tea party where each of the males are sat around in positions she has put them in otherwise they would flop down as they are actually dead. This scene came directly from Jessie J's nobody's perfect video as she is the head of the table but doesn't actually feel like she is being accepted, where as in mine my female character is taking orders and because the males are dead she can effectively be who she wants as they can't judge her cannibal role.
From AS I actually just had these ideas from the videos but didn't actually use them to my full potentional but for my music video the existing inspiration from these music videos I recorded exactly into my own but because of the different story line it had no immediate link because I made it my own with different set ups, costumes, actors e.t.c.
The post production of A2 was the most difficult as it included a lot of different elements to actually make a successful music video. Looking at Rihanna's Rude Boy video for inspiration was really what give me the whole idea to use a projector screen for scenes that would cut into my video all the way through, because her video was very Jamaican themed with all of the Rasta colours as well as distinctive symbols e.t.c in my own video I used leopard print for my brand identity through my digipak and advert and thought by incorporating that flashing from plain to pink leopard print would show I had thought about my music video on a more professional scale. I also added it in small chunks throughout the video although Rihanna's themed video was all the way though mine only needed tiny bits to be included in various scenes to show a quite distinct shot of my main character as it only concentrated on her face.
Jessie J's do it like a dude was inspiring by the variety of jump cuts that where included throughout the whole video as not one shot stayed on the screen for more than 3 seconds because it was such a fast paced song, like mine I knew that I would have to include many shots in my own video, when recording various scenes where filmed numerous times to show the different shots e.g medium close ups, long shots, aerial shots so I had a lot to work with, especially in the chorus it meant I could use shots from various locations to keep the audience interested just like Jessie did.
Finally Rihanna's only girl in the world video was a inspiration only for the fact that she was the only person included in the whole video which ensured that she could be distinctly seen as the artist and 'main character' in the video, even though various locations where used it was only her that could be seen, this was not the case in my own video because I had the victims she had attacked due to her being a cannibal, however it did mean I thought about more meat shots or general shots of her in various locations to make sure most of the footage was of her because the story line behind the video was about an average teenage girl who had a secret that she was too scared to release, but through music she expressed it so there was not much need for other characters but to get the point of her 'secret' across the cannibalism had to be recorded in some way.
Overall in A2 I have used my research skills in the best way possible to collect the right sort of media texts I need to refer to for the inspiration I need to actually conduct and complete my coursework brief, in AS I looked at other people's work but I didn't exactly incorporate it into my own, which is in fact what let me down and give me the lower grade because all of my ideas where not specific conventions. But because I knew how much harder it was to get the better grades in A2 I made sure what ever artists video I looked at I either added to my own in the same way but made it more unique or referenced it in some way to show that I couldn't have actually created a successful music video without the information received from those.
Without having the use of prime examples of real media texts referring to my specific briefs I wouldn't have been able to collect any inspiration to add into my own creation of work. Throughout this two year course I have been able to understand the impact that these existing videos would have on my production stages so could collect only the most realistic that related to my chosen genre as I knew these would be the ones I would be referring too most of the time to enhance my level of creativity in the long run. Over the two years two separate briefs where set; In AS we were asked to create a 2 minute film sequence from either a Film Noir or Horror Genre including titles, I personally chose Horror because I knew I would be more successful at it. In A2 we were asked to create a music promo package which included; Music Video, Digipak and Advert I personally chose the Pop Genre and chose to use the song Cannibal by Kesha.
In this question I will explain the texts that were inspirational to me throughout pre production, production and post production and then explain the same answers for A2, however will explain how I have developed a range of skills to take the most influence from each.
Before actually filming my horror sequence a lot of research was done for me to see exactly what existing horror films story lines where and what conventions they where following or challenging. I firstly looked at nightmare on elm street because I knew it was a slightly more violent horror and although I didn't want to go down that route I knew the whole idea of from the beginning of the film right up until 5 minutes had past the camera angles focused mainly around a girl - who could be seen as the main character, even when titles where flashing up onto the screen, shots of her would follow and this is the exact idea I had for my sequence because I would want the audience to understand exactly who she was and that she played the main part. In that film the scene only showed the girl in her home, which didn't suggest any violent acts would occur and although I want my film to be of the horror genre I would like it to be slightly more discreet in the way this film doesn't have a real story line till the middle scenes.
The next film I looked at was scream, although it's slightly more comedy than horror I knew some of the scenes where very memorable and could fit into my ideas and plans easily. Such as when the 'villain' calls up the girl who is alone in her house seeing he can see her and is coming to get her which she responds in a way that shows the audience how worried she is that a strange man is watching over her. Although this is interesting research to look in to I don't necessarily want to follow this lead because I want my sequence to be unique, however showing the worry from my character being approached or 'caught' by the villain in a different sense would show I have took the inspiration and transferred it into my own ideas.
Finally in pre production stages of my AS brief I looked at Orphan, which is a much more modern version of a horror film compared to the other two and the main reason I looked into this was because the girl was again the main character and she has physiological problems which stops her being able to be loved by any sort of family. This problems involve her hurting family members to make sure she is getting all of the attention however I think this is way too much story line to include in such a small sequence because a lot of detail would need to be shot, however my male character could seem to be shown as quite 'gone in the head' for the things I want him to do to my main character by keeping her hostage and taking images which could suggest that he has problems and could work.
Production stage of my brief was much more important to find the best texts to refer to as they would influence my overall filming techniques. The film wolf creek supports a specific scene at the end of the film where the girl runs off into the Australian desert to get away from this killer, however he does end up finding her and the end is un certain. But the variety of shots that are conducted in that one scene make the audience feel like they are actually running with the character as you can hear the high level of panting as well as see the fear from her facial expressions using meat shots and then how tired she begins to look by the long shots used to show the whole scene. Because at the end of my short sequence I want to show a running scene of my main character actually becoming free from this killer she thought she was caught by, I hope to incorporate this variety of shots that cut a lot to keep the audience interested and also feel the fear of what could happen next.
The lovely bones was the next film that inspired me mainly because the female character who is a part of it is very quite and 'normal looking' which indicates the girl next door image as well as the person who she befriends (her next door neighbor) actually becomes her killer, which the audience wouldn't expect from the beginning. At the beginning of my sequence I hope to capture my female character looking just like a usual teenage girl who has no care in the world. However this perception can suddenly change when the flashback begins as they would be shown her tied up by this 'unknown man' who seems to be very fond of her in a uncomfortable way.
Finally the film Descent's main story line shows the 'alpha male' being the more dominant character giving out all the orders and actions because he is superior to anyone else, whereas the female is more vulnerable and would actually be afraid to speak her true feelings. I would transfer the idea of male vs female into my own sequence as in many horror films the woman is seemed to be very scared of what the male will do to her and will listen to any orders given. In mine my female will be tied up and ask to be released with the response of the male replying no and laughing as he will know himself she will soon give up because she knows he's opinion will always come first.
Post production mainly consists of the editing stages and discussing why I captured each of the shots in my own sequence. I had the idea of scary movie and how the humor overwrites the actual idea of horror to not be so full on, so for some of my scenes I tried to make it slightly more mediocre in the way that it wouldn't scare anyone but still be a shock, for example I captured a scene where my main character is running and she looks away and double takes a girl sat on the swings to be her. This would be very unexpected to the audience and because the other girl we used looks nothing like her then it's even more unusual. Although it's not as joke like as scary movie, the aspects are still there.
Once again I used orphan as a main part of my inspiration and a lot of various scenes where inspired by that film alone. For example Ester the main character in Orphan is seen as quite an angelic cute little girl who looks as though she wouldn't do any harm however as the film goes on her whole personality changes, this doesn't actually happen in my film but the whole angelic type of character is the part that I established in my own sequence because I thought the female is the vulnerable victim here so I want the audience to grasp a relationship with her from the start. This also isn't a common type of element to be included in every type of horror film so if many people hadn't actually seen Orphan then they would grasp my idea as more unique.
Also the various scenes in Orphan where Ester is seen singing a very creepy and spine chilling tune that entails the lyrics ' that's the glory of love' this would definitely make the audience think that she wasn't actually stable by the way she was expressing each of the words. In my own sequence I took this inspiration but actually found existing sound effects of children laughing and slowly portraying different words 'if you go down to the woods today' and by linking that to the female character running away it would worry the audience about visiting woods again this is the type of scenario I would want to create as these are all horror conventions that they are used to seeing which would make the sequence more professional.
In A2 my whole creative stream seemed to develop as I actually took inspiration from the videos I watched very seriously and tried to establish them in my own perfectly. In the pre production stages of my work I looked into a variety of music videos that actually linked to my specific genre. Pixie Lott's all about tonight was one of my main inspirations because you could significantly see who was the main character by the large amount of meat shots that where contained in the 4 minute video, although there was a selection of group shots where Pixie could be seen with a group of dancers whilst singing the lyrics she was still distinctive as her outrageous outfits screamed sex appeal compared to the rest. This is exactly the type of thing I hope to achieve in my own video because the camera angles are very important - meat shots mainly used if wanting to focus on one single person.
Rihanna's video for hard shows her dominant character compared to the males used in the video as she is seen as an army cadet bossing the rest of the army soldiers around to her every order, she is also wearing quite a revealing outfit which indicates the sex appeal available with pop stars in every music video they conduct. Because my main character in my video is seen as a cannibal who likes eating humans I hope to make her boss around her victims before she pounces to get what she wants, she will also be wearing a revealing outfit to live up to these conventions linked to the genre.
Because I was following a Kesha song I thought looking over her previous videos may give me inspiration I need to conduct a one of the same standard, We R who we R includes a lot of diamonds, colours and dramatic make up because Kesha is quite a unique character compared to anyone else in the music industry as her 'trampish' looks stand out to her fans. The only similarities I would probably use in my own video however is the lack of clothing she actually tends to wear because I am planning on using a female character with attractive features who can pull off this idea without looking overly revealing.
Without just planning these simple ideas like in AS I actually conducted detailed drawings that I would later conduct into a storyboard because the ideas where too detailed to forget. Also by making mood boards of outfits and different make up types would help me in the production stages when these will be needed.
Production stages meant I would need videos I could look to and help with camera skills but also story lines that I could personally follow. Rihanna's disturbia was one I used quite a lot because she doesn't really look stable throughout the video as it's all very surreal as she has humans dressed as animals as they sit and obey her also the amount of affects used such as jolted head movements, dramatic outfits that add to the dark incite of her character and the in sync dance movements that are very disjointed and unique. All of these elements I hope to incorporate in my own video because my main character is a cannibal she wants to just portray who she is to the real world but she knows she cant, however in the middle of the video 'she comes out as who she really is' as scenes can be shown of her going mad with hiding her identity when the jolted head movements could come into it as well as a creative dance routine including the victims.
Lady Gaga's paparazzi was mainly used in my production stages because she looks very simple and pleasant towards the end of the video with her painted on black lipstick, however this is when she does actually add poison into her boyfriend's drink to instantly kill him. The same idea will be used in my video however she will have already killed them but now joking around with their dead bodies actually acting as though they are alive and can complete day to day activities with her, this suggests she isn't stable as scenes such as a Alice in Wonderland themed tea party where each of the males are sat around in positions she has put them in otherwise they would flop down as they are actually dead. This scene came directly from Jessie J's nobody's perfect video as she is the head of the table but doesn't actually feel like she is being accepted, where as in mine my female character is taking orders and because the males are dead she can effectively be who she wants as they can't judge her cannibal role.
From AS I actually just had these ideas from the videos but didn't actually use them to my full potentional but for my music video the existing inspiration from these music videos I recorded exactly into my own but because of the different story line it had no immediate link because I made it my own with different set ups, costumes, actors e.t.c.
The post production of A2 was the most difficult as it included a lot of different elements to actually make a successful music video. Looking at Rihanna's Rude Boy video for inspiration was really what give me the whole idea to use a projector screen for scenes that would cut into my video all the way through, because her video was very Jamaican themed with all of the Rasta colours as well as distinctive symbols e.t.c in my own video I used leopard print for my brand identity through my digipak and advert and thought by incorporating that flashing from plain to pink leopard print would show I had thought about my music video on a more professional scale. I also added it in small chunks throughout the video although Rihanna's themed video was all the way though mine only needed tiny bits to be included in various scenes to show a quite distinct shot of my main character as it only concentrated on her face.
Jessie J's do it like a dude was inspiring by the variety of jump cuts that where included throughout the whole video as not one shot stayed on the screen for more than 3 seconds because it was such a fast paced song, like mine I knew that I would have to include many shots in my own video, when recording various scenes where filmed numerous times to show the different shots e.g medium close ups, long shots, aerial shots so I had a lot to work with, especially in the chorus it meant I could use shots from various locations to keep the audience interested just like Jessie did.
Finally Rihanna's only girl in the world video was a inspiration only for the fact that she was the only person included in the whole video which ensured that she could be distinctly seen as the artist and 'main character' in the video, even though various locations where used it was only her that could be seen, this was not the case in my own video because I had the victims she had attacked due to her being a cannibal, however it did mean I thought about more meat shots or general shots of her in various locations to make sure most of the footage was of her because the story line behind the video was about an average teenage girl who had a secret that she was too scared to release, but through music she expressed it so there was not much need for other characters but to get the point of her 'secret' across the cannibalism had to be recorded in some way.
Overall in A2 I have used my research skills in the best way possible to collect the right sort of media texts I need to refer to for the inspiration I need to actually conduct and complete my coursework brief, in AS I looked at other people's work but I didn't exactly incorporate it into my own, which is in fact what let me down and give me the lower grade because all of my ideas where not specific conventions. But because I knew how much harder it was to get the better grades in A2 I made sure what ever artists video I looked at I either added to my own in the same way but made it more unique or referenced it in some way to show that I couldn't have actually created a successful music video without the information received from those.
Section 1A - Research and Planning
Describe how your understanding of the importance of good research and planning skills developed throughout the pre - production of your AS and A2 coursework. 25 Marks.
When given my two briefs over the two year Media course I knew that without excelling in my research and planning stages I couldn't create a successful and professional outcome. I knew how important it was to use a range of different programs and create a variety of different methods to ensure that I had covered all elements needed in the pre production stage before filming could begin, the more tasks I completed the more creative I become in the way that my ideas started to surface and plans fell into place. Over the two year course I was given two separate briefs; In AS we were asked to create a 2 minute film sequence from either a Film Noir or Horror Genre including titles, I personally chose Horror because I knew I would be more successful at it. In A2 we were asked to create a music promo package which included; Music Video, Digipak and Advert I personally chose the Pop Genre and chose to use the song Cannibal by Kesha. Throughout this question I am going to talk about what skills I used in my AS brief and explain how each of them had equal importance before analysing how I developed these skills along with others in my A2 Brief.
In AS one of the first tasks I completed was a mind map showing the genre conventions of Horror films, this was created in PowerPoint but meant that I could gather all of my ideas together in note form to understand the type of concepts I would need to take into account when creating my own. This was the best way to input this specific task because I could set out each different convention with a detailed amount of points to back it up. Without making this I wouldn't be able to have the deeper understanding of what sorts of elements need to be included in my actual sequence, it also made me think of my own unique ideas that I could add so my work looked more creative.
I then created a titles timeline which meant watching a specific film that fits exactly to my chosen genre and watching just the title sequence noting down the specific times when each of the titles are shown for example names of the director, producers, actors in the film and finally the name of the film. This was noted down on paper however it helped me realise how long my titles should be for my own sequence, because only a few people will be acting in it and my overall film should only be two minutes long it made me think of ways I could make sure the titles and my opening to the film could all be covered, so I decided that thinking about speeding up the time in which the titles are shown may save space for more of the film. Without completing this task in my research stages I don't think I would have been able to plan out accurately how much time to give specifically to my titles so it did come in useful.
Creating documents regarding Audience and Institution research meant I had to look in depth to understand what different points are thought about regarding creating a horror film. For audience research specifically I looked into the interest in various horror films from the 60's to now and the story lines behind each to understand what impacts each of them have on the audience they are trying to attract. In the institution research I started to talk about the variety of popular production companies that support specific genre's of films. So to give me an insite into the type of companies that distribute horror films in particular I looked into the companies Warner Bros who produced a smaller company named Dark Castle Entertainment who only distributed films of the horror genre, the 2011 film named The Unknown was a box office hit who made $136,123,083, so I personally decided that this would be the distributor for my own horror sequence, which was only determined by the research otherwise no actual real decision could have been made. As I wouldn't have understood the meaning of what distributers and film producers are.
I then went onto creating a pitch, this included an overview of the storyline as well as an in depth description of the variety of shots needed in order to capture each separate scene and also as in site into the funding and distribution companies that will be used to support my sequence and why. I believe this got me thinking directly about what the major ideas would be to create my storyline with the various conventions needed in order for it to be of the horror genre. Without actually completing this activity in the research stages I don't believe I would of had a clear plan of my outcome whilst filming.
Creating an audience profile meant I could actually visualise the aspects of the exact audience type that my sequence would attract. This information included the age, gender, hobbies and interests and favourite existing films. Collecting this type of information meant I had a clear idea of how I could promote my sequence in the future to attract these people to watch. I knew by creating profiles for both male and female audiences that it could attract more of a interest. This task played a huge part in the filming of my sequence as I now had the clear idea of how to conduct the scenes in order to affect my 'typical audience'.
The planning part of AS was much more thorougher and detailed than the research elements as these contributed quite a high percentage to my production value. The main elements where the storyboard/anamatic I created which included each separate scene that I will film in my sequence and also had a voice over completed on top which was created using the Flash Mic. This meant I could explain each point in detail for the examiner to know that it would be a task I would follow completely during my production stages and also for me to personally refer back to encase I am unsure about a certain camera technique for a scene e.t.c.
I had to complete 2 separate call sheets which included the location, actors contact details and camera equipment I would need for both locations. This was a useful element to refer to on the days of filming as I could get in touch with actors who may have been late or use it as a checklist to ensure the details of the location I was filming where correct but also that I had collected the exact equipment I was going to need.
Production schedule was a task created to keep to my time management of when exactly I would film each scene of my sequence in the allocated time given. This was especially useful to print out and keep a copy at home so I could check it each day and know when my next film day would be, however if I hadn't planned and created this schedule I may not have met all of my deadlines on time.
For my own personal use I conducted a separate photo shoot of the two main locations to ensure it would be of sufficient use for my actual sequence to link to the conventions I would need to cover in order for it to look of the horror style, the forest area was like a blank canvas but also very realistic which meant I could use up as much space as I need to capture the perfect shots and also the media studio was of a large size and could hold the 2 characters that would be acting in that scene, however if I didn't hold this small timed photo shoot then I could have turned up on the day in both locations and they may not have been up to the standard I need, so this planning activity was a crucial part of my production filming and although it wasn't compulsory it still came in useful.
In A2 my priorities where of a fixed standard as I knew the workload was of a higher level and much more detail would need to be added to each task. Even if I used the same tasks as AS they were much more developed to ensure my skills were shown to the examining body in a much more professional and organised way. The first main task I completed was researching into my specific genre of music to find the conventions that are specifically used in them types of videos, which is similar to the task completed in AS however because this brief meant I was filming a full music video compared to a small sequence I had much more of a large amount of conventions to write about which I used for personal use to refer to throughout the rest of my research and planning tasks as this was a starting point. The development from AS to A2 was the fact that I understood the priority to create such a high level piece of work was crucial and that the more conventions that I came across the easier it would be to incorporate them into my music video, this was actually used throughout the production process however I didn't use my AS mind map at all.
A shot count task was then completed to see how many different angles and camera changes where in one single music video, I made sure I used a video linking to my chosen genre which was also upbeat like the Cannibal song I had chosen, this task had to be checked over around 3 times before I settled on a number and I believe the whole reason for completing it was to realise how much variety I would need to add to my own video in order for it to look interesting to the audience. Although this task wasn't completed in AS I do believe the whole idea was to think about the different shots needed during the filming stages to get the highest level which I made sure I captured in A2 but at AS I just thought about ideas as the process went on and didn't really have much variety to work with.
I then completed a lyric breakdown of the whole song to explain what would actually be shown on each line of the song that plays, this was a long process however it helped me realise the timing I would need to consider between each of the shots because it is so fast paced a lot of jump cuts and cutaway techniques would need to be used in order for the video to flow easily with the audio. It also made me actually imagine the lyrics being sang and visualising my idea together with them in order to achieve the best outcome, although some of the ideas didn't start to look right without this task I wouldn't have even known the difference and when it come to filming that's when the problems could have started, once again this task wasn't completed in AS because not much words where spoken however the detail that this task made me think of meant I was a lot more creative and imaginative with each of the scenes to captivate the audience.
Various mood boards where then created regarding the clothing, make up, scenes that were going to be used to make it easier to visualize how each of them would come together, I believe this was another task that brought my creative side out as the original outfits I planned to put together didn't actually work with my main characters identity when shown in pictures so I had to re think a few plans however without these I wouldn't have been organised enough to dress my character in the best way as in AS everyone's outfits in their sequences where similar because of the genre so mood boards weren't a necessity however in A2 because I was planning to create a variety of different scenes creating a photo filled document helps the ideas come to life.
By creating draft ideas it meant I could fully understand the plan of action for my video and how each of the scenes would look, comparing this to AS it was of a much larger scale as this video had longer timings and hundreds of different shots to think about. Although these weren't my final outcomes for the filming of the music video it meant I had solid ideas that I could refer back to when it came to the production level, if anything then needed changing I would know what type of scene I would be working in e.t.c. The workload is the main development of my ideas being drafted because in AS I was only generating small ideas for a sequence but my input needed to be more detailed in A2 to ensure I spoke about each of the scenes, camera skills, wardrobe and characters used.
In the planning stages I made call sheets however the locations where more imaginative this time and there was a precise few more than in AS because I wanted to make the settings look more realistic and interesting to the audience rather than just using the media studio for the whole shoot, although I did use this again it was more discrete and meant I could get away with it being a studio room. I also added much more camera equipment as I wanted this whole music video to look of a professional level, compared to only using a small handheld camera in AS some of the shots where wobbly and it was easy to spot, however here I asked for tripods and better quality cameras in order to get the best results. The A2 call sheets had much more detail added to them compared to AS as this time I had to explain each of the outfits that would be worn listing each element which was minor detail for the AS sheets, without creating these locations and ideas would not be understood by tutors.
The treatment sheet is something used only in A2 which is a small overview of a background to the artist, the specific wardrobe of clothing my character would be wearing in each of the scenes, the variety of locations and also the influences in which I took ideas from to incorporate into my own music video. This was one of the planning methods that I made sure was most detailed in order to refer back when needed because it was a small document that included all the most important information. This shows how much more organised I was at A2 and developed my imaginative skills in order to come out with the best outcome.
Compared to AS I captured a selection of test footage that showed my main character in the decided outfit in also the specific location to see if it would match up on camera and look of a professional level. Although they were only small 30 second clips it give me the sense of how the real footage would look and in one specific location (forest area local to college) I decided it was too risky as it's a popular place so I may never pick a correct time to visit, but without actually going to the location and setting up I may never have came across this affect and it could have ruined the chance of getting high marks, I didn't even think about testing footage in AS, this just shows how much more committed you have to be in A2 to get the higher marks in the course. The Anamatic I created in A2 was of a much more bigger scale than in AS, when completing my storyboard for my horror sequence it was made up of 12 separate frames compared to 80 frames in A2. This was all because of the longer duration that the music video took as the scenes are much longer and have much more of a variety compared to the basic story line created for AS. Just by looking at the extended piece of workload from 12 to 80 shows how many tasks need to be completed in the beginning to ensure that everything is covered before the production starts, this being the main one because without an actual storyboard showing specific dance routines or camera angles it would be a very blank canvas when it came down to filming priorities as no real ideas would have been 'set in stone' to refer back too which is what I seemed to feel like a lot in AS because of the limited amount of sketches I actually created.
Overall from the two years I think I have developed in a variety of different fields including time management, organisational structure, detailed analysis and production value. In most of the research and planning tasks I felt like in AS I had successfully completed each of them but in A2 I developed on these types of answers to make sure they were detailed enough for the higher level criteria to be met.
When given my two briefs over the two year Media course I knew that without excelling in my research and planning stages I couldn't create a successful and professional outcome. I knew how important it was to use a range of different programs and create a variety of different methods to ensure that I had covered all elements needed in the pre production stage before filming could begin, the more tasks I completed the more creative I become in the way that my ideas started to surface and plans fell into place. Over the two year course I was given two separate briefs; In AS we were asked to create a 2 minute film sequence from either a Film Noir or Horror Genre including titles, I personally chose Horror because I knew I would be more successful at it. In A2 we were asked to create a music promo package which included; Music Video, Digipak and Advert I personally chose the Pop Genre and chose to use the song Cannibal by Kesha. Throughout this question I am going to talk about what skills I used in my AS brief and explain how each of them had equal importance before analysing how I developed these skills along with others in my A2 Brief.
In AS one of the first tasks I completed was a mind map showing the genre conventions of Horror films, this was created in PowerPoint but meant that I could gather all of my ideas together in note form to understand the type of concepts I would need to take into account when creating my own. This was the best way to input this specific task because I could set out each different convention with a detailed amount of points to back it up. Without making this I wouldn't be able to have the deeper understanding of what sorts of elements need to be included in my actual sequence, it also made me think of my own unique ideas that I could add so my work looked more creative.
I then created a titles timeline which meant watching a specific film that fits exactly to my chosen genre and watching just the title sequence noting down the specific times when each of the titles are shown for example names of the director, producers, actors in the film and finally the name of the film. This was noted down on paper however it helped me realise how long my titles should be for my own sequence, because only a few people will be acting in it and my overall film should only be two minutes long it made me think of ways I could make sure the titles and my opening to the film could all be covered, so I decided that thinking about speeding up the time in which the titles are shown may save space for more of the film. Without completing this task in my research stages I don't think I would have been able to plan out accurately how much time to give specifically to my titles so it did come in useful.
Creating documents regarding Audience and Institution research meant I had to look in depth to understand what different points are thought about regarding creating a horror film. For audience research specifically I looked into the interest in various horror films from the 60's to now and the story lines behind each to understand what impacts each of them have on the audience they are trying to attract. In the institution research I started to talk about the variety of popular production companies that support specific genre's of films. So to give me an insite into the type of companies that distribute horror films in particular I looked into the companies Warner Bros who produced a smaller company named Dark Castle Entertainment who only distributed films of the horror genre, the 2011 film named The Unknown was a box office hit who made $136,123,083, so I personally decided that this would be the distributor for my own horror sequence, which was only determined by the research otherwise no actual real decision could have been made. As I wouldn't have understood the meaning of what distributers and film producers are.
I then went onto creating a pitch, this included an overview of the storyline as well as an in depth description of the variety of shots needed in order to capture each separate scene and also as in site into the funding and distribution companies that will be used to support my sequence and why. I believe this got me thinking directly about what the major ideas would be to create my storyline with the various conventions needed in order for it to be of the horror genre. Without actually completing this activity in the research stages I don't believe I would of had a clear plan of my outcome whilst filming.
Creating an audience profile meant I could actually visualise the aspects of the exact audience type that my sequence would attract. This information included the age, gender, hobbies and interests and favourite existing films. Collecting this type of information meant I had a clear idea of how I could promote my sequence in the future to attract these people to watch. I knew by creating profiles for both male and female audiences that it could attract more of a interest. This task played a huge part in the filming of my sequence as I now had the clear idea of how to conduct the scenes in order to affect my 'typical audience'.
The planning part of AS was much more thorougher and detailed than the research elements as these contributed quite a high percentage to my production value. The main elements where the storyboard/anamatic I created which included each separate scene that I will film in my sequence and also had a voice over completed on top which was created using the Flash Mic. This meant I could explain each point in detail for the examiner to know that it would be a task I would follow completely during my production stages and also for me to personally refer back to encase I am unsure about a certain camera technique for a scene e.t.c.
I had to complete 2 separate call sheets which included the location, actors contact details and camera equipment I would need for both locations. This was a useful element to refer to on the days of filming as I could get in touch with actors who may have been late or use it as a checklist to ensure the details of the location I was filming where correct but also that I had collected the exact equipment I was going to need.
Production schedule was a task created to keep to my time management of when exactly I would film each scene of my sequence in the allocated time given. This was especially useful to print out and keep a copy at home so I could check it each day and know when my next film day would be, however if I hadn't planned and created this schedule I may not have met all of my deadlines on time.
For my own personal use I conducted a separate photo shoot of the two main locations to ensure it would be of sufficient use for my actual sequence to link to the conventions I would need to cover in order for it to look of the horror style, the forest area was like a blank canvas but also very realistic which meant I could use up as much space as I need to capture the perfect shots and also the media studio was of a large size and could hold the 2 characters that would be acting in that scene, however if I didn't hold this small timed photo shoot then I could have turned up on the day in both locations and they may not have been up to the standard I need, so this planning activity was a crucial part of my production filming and although it wasn't compulsory it still came in useful.
In A2 my priorities where of a fixed standard as I knew the workload was of a higher level and much more detail would need to be added to each task. Even if I used the same tasks as AS they were much more developed to ensure my skills were shown to the examining body in a much more professional and organised way. The first main task I completed was researching into my specific genre of music to find the conventions that are specifically used in them types of videos, which is similar to the task completed in AS however because this brief meant I was filming a full music video compared to a small sequence I had much more of a large amount of conventions to write about which I used for personal use to refer to throughout the rest of my research and planning tasks as this was a starting point. The development from AS to A2 was the fact that I understood the priority to create such a high level piece of work was crucial and that the more conventions that I came across the easier it would be to incorporate them into my music video, this was actually used throughout the production process however I didn't use my AS mind map at all.
A shot count task was then completed to see how many different angles and camera changes where in one single music video, I made sure I used a video linking to my chosen genre which was also upbeat like the Cannibal song I had chosen, this task had to be checked over around 3 times before I settled on a number and I believe the whole reason for completing it was to realise how much variety I would need to add to my own video in order for it to look interesting to the audience. Although this task wasn't completed in AS I do believe the whole idea was to think about the different shots needed during the filming stages to get the highest level which I made sure I captured in A2 but at AS I just thought about ideas as the process went on and didn't really have much variety to work with.
I then completed a lyric breakdown of the whole song to explain what would actually be shown on each line of the song that plays, this was a long process however it helped me realise the timing I would need to consider between each of the shots because it is so fast paced a lot of jump cuts and cutaway techniques would need to be used in order for the video to flow easily with the audio. It also made me actually imagine the lyrics being sang and visualising my idea together with them in order to achieve the best outcome, although some of the ideas didn't start to look right without this task I wouldn't have even known the difference and when it come to filming that's when the problems could have started, once again this task wasn't completed in AS because not much words where spoken however the detail that this task made me think of meant I was a lot more creative and imaginative with each of the scenes to captivate the audience.
Various mood boards where then created regarding the clothing, make up, scenes that were going to be used to make it easier to visualize how each of them would come together, I believe this was another task that brought my creative side out as the original outfits I planned to put together didn't actually work with my main characters identity when shown in pictures so I had to re think a few plans however without these I wouldn't have been organised enough to dress my character in the best way as in AS everyone's outfits in their sequences where similar because of the genre so mood boards weren't a necessity however in A2 because I was planning to create a variety of different scenes creating a photo filled document helps the ideas come to life.
By creating draft ideas it meant I could fully understand the plan of action for my video and how each of the scenes would look, comparing this to AS it was of a much larger scale as this video had longer timings and hundreds of different shots to think about. Although these weren't my final outcomes for the filming of the music video it meant I had solid ideas that I could refer back to when it came to the production level, if anything then needed changing I would know what type of scene I would be working in e.t.c. The workload is the main development of my ideas being drafted because in AS I was only generating small ideas for a sequence but my input needed to be more detailed in A2 to ensure I spoke about each of the scenes, camera skills, wardrobe and characters used.
In the planning stages I made call sheets however the locations where more imaginative this time and there was a precise few more than in AS because I wanted to make the settings look more realistic and interesting to the audience rather than just using the media studio for the whole shoot, although I did use this again it was more discrete and meant I could get away with it being a studio room. I also added much more camera equipment as I wanted this whole music video to look of a professional level, compared to only using a small handheld camera in AS some of the shots where wobbly and it was easy to spot, however here I asked for tripods and better quality cameras in order to get the best results. The A2 call sheets had much more detail added to them compared to AS as this time I had to explain each of the outfits that would be worn listing each element which was minor detail for the AS sheets, without creating these locations and ideas would not be understood by tutors.
The treatment sheet is something used only in A2 which is a small overview of a background to the artist, the specific wardrobe of clothing my character would be wearing in each of the scenes, the variety of locations and also the influences in which I took ideas from to incorporate into my own music video. This was one of the planning methods that I made sure was most detailed in order to refer back when needed because it was a small document that included all the most important information. This shows how much more organised I was at A2 and developed my imaginative skills in order to come out with the best outcome.
Compared to AS I captured a selection of test footage that showed my main character in the decided outfit in also the specific location to see if it would match up on camera and look of a professional level. Although they were only small 30 second clips it give me the sense of how the real footage would look and in one specific location (forest area local to college) I decided it was too risky as it's a popular place so I may never pick a correct time to visit, but without actually going to the location and setting up I may never have came across this affect and it could have ruined the chance of getting high marks, I didn't even think about testing footage in AS, this just shows how much more committed you have to be in A2 to get the higher marks in the course. The Anamatic I created in A2 was of a much more bigger scale than in AS, when completing my storyboard for my horror sequence it was made up of 12 separate frames compared to 80 frames in A2. This was all because of the longer duration that the music video took as the scenes are much longer and have much more of a variety compared to the basic story line created for AS. Just by looking at the extended piece of workload from 12 to 80 shows how many tasks need to be completed in the beginning to ensure that everything is covered before the production starts, this being the main one because without an actual storyboard showing specific dance routines or camera angles it would be a very blank canvas when it came down to filming priorities as no real ideas would have been 'set in stone' to refer back too which is what I seemed to feel like a lot in AS because of the limited amount of sketches I actually created.
Overall from the two years I think I have developed in a variety of different fields including time management, organisational structure, detailed analysis and production value. In most of the research and planning tasks I felt like in AS I had successfully completed each of them but in A2 I developed on these types of answers to make sure they were detailed enough for the higher level criteria to be met.
Section 1A - Post Production
Describe how you developed your post production skills for media production and evaluate how these skills informed your creative media practice. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time. 25 Marks.
During Media Studies over the last two years I have expanded my knowledge and understanding of the skills needed during the Post Production stages of my coursework modules, which has also developed my interest in the creativity elements which make my work stand out from the rest. Over the two years we were given two different briefs; In AS the brief was to Create an opening sequence which lasted 2 minutes including titles, we were given the choice to use either a Film Noir or Horror genre, for mine personally I chose horror because I thought the conventions where more interesting. In A2 the brief was to Create a music promo package that included a Music Video, Digipak and Advert. In my specific group we chose the artist Kesha, the song was Cannibal and the genre the catergory it would be outlined under would be Pop. To give the most detailed answer I can I am going to talk about 7 examples from each of the years of study and then explain the pros and cons for each before commenting on how I have developed the use of these skills from AS to A2.
Post production is a significant part of each coursework module as it is any program or software used after the filming stages of the project. In AS I used Final Cut editing software to create my Horror sequence as I believe it is a much more developed program compared to I - Movie in the way that there are a lot more features available to make the final product have a much more professional feel.
The main elements I focused on using was the marker tools to ensure that the different sound effects that were added on top of the clips where in line with each other and fitted well, this was a positive point of the software because it meant the fittings of the clips and audio where done instantly and by using the markers you can see that when you select a certain part of a clip that would be the only piece that would be edited. Because of this tool it meant I was more open to using a variety of audio to back up my clips to give my sequence a creative flare it needed.
Also to add to the conventions of a horror film we changed most of our scenes to a black and white format which could be selected easily through the filter section, the only one of the negative points of this program is that no preview can be seen when adding these effects so means you have to take a risk and hope the outcome turns out successfully. The rest of our editing stages when putting our film sequence together only consisted of putting the clips into a running order.
The titles for our horror sequence where created using Livetype, this program allowed you to make your own type of font that suited your preference of work, however the options available to use where not of a large variety but I was lucky enough to find one that fit in with my genre correctly. It allows you to pick the colour, font, font size and filters which was a pro point to me comparing to using Final Cut or Photoshop as they don't have as big of a range as they are mainly very clear and readable fonts whereas I wanted mine to be a sketched font to have some actual link to the work I had created.
When picking my font it then made me think of backgrounds that I could use to present my work on which I edited in Photoshop, this allowed me to use a variety of editing techniques including altering the brightness and contrast of the image, the colour format and again the filters. This meant I had to crop the image down to make sure there was enough width for my titles to fit before converting them back into the beginning of my sequence in Final Cut. However if I had just created my titles in that program compared to Livetype I don't think I would have had a justified deeper thought into adding a background because a plain average font wouldn't have give me the inspiration. Using Photoshop for my background meant I could manipulate it to how I personally wanted it to look to give it that 'horror themed' edge, this is not the type of thing you can do in other photo editing software which is why I use it so often as it has so many pro points about it. You can also convert the images you edited to a variety of different files which means they can be of the best quality depending on the program it's going to be associated with. In this case I converted them to JPEG as I wanted the highest detail to be brought out and stand out to the audience to make them interested into what will follow in the sequence.
I had used the program I - Movie previously at the beginning of my AS year for a variety of tasks but because of it's basic elements that are on offer to use I tried to stay away from using it in my actual coursework brief because I wanted my outcome to be more of a professional standard by using the advanced settings available in Final Cut. However there was a particular scene in our sequence when our main character has a 'flash back' and I wanted to add a selection of flashing lights on top of the clip to ensure the audience clearly noticed what I was trying to achieve. This exact type of affect could be found on I - Movie so I simply transferred the single clip along and edit in the effects I wanted and because it's such an easy program to navigate around it was completed instantly, but because this type of effect looked so simple to create by adding it to my clip I think I could have maybe made the 'flash back' scene myself in Final Cut with the range of effects available the brightness of the flashes for example could be moved to the spots that I feel look more realistic e.t.c
Using programs such as Garageband didn't give me as much inspiration or input to my final product because the software available was too complicated for the simple sounds like a girl screaming and a door closing because using this program meant you could create a full soundtrack which didn't stand out to me because it's not something that I initially wanted to create and I also found it really difficult to use as I think only people who have a music related background of interest could use it to the best of their ability, so for them it would have a selection of positive points as they can create tunes to suit them but because the software was too confusing to use I couldn't get any inspiration or the overall interest that I would need.
Moving onto my post production in A2, I used many of the same types of programs but just developed my skills to make the outcome even better than in AS. Once again Final Cut was used to put my music video together because I had used in previously in AS and I knew all of the futuristic settings that were available could essentially make my video look realistically like the rest of actual singers around today, the markers where used again in A2 but a lot more often because I filmed shots of my main characters in one scene in a variety of different angles I had to use the markers to select sections from each of the clips to make up one full scene, for example selecting a medium close up clip, marking from the start and end part I wanted to use before positioning it in the timeline below. Being able to do this meant I could showcase my skills first hand like a montage of all the different angles by using just one technique, which I could use easily now as I had time to practice. The only negative point about using Final Cut for such a distinct part of our music video was that it took a lot of time to render the clips after even just moving them along, because the scenes where so long some of our lessons where used just rendering clips, however I had the idea of cutting down the clips in order for the time to be shorter and that indeed meant I got more done.
On one particular section I wanted the main character to stand out but because it was filmed in a Photography Studio the colours where very bland, so I was able to find an effect that made each of the clips in that scene move around and jolt sort of like a jump cut as I knew this would catch the audiences attention. Being able to alter how fast or slow the clip moves to make it contrast agaisnt the effect was a pro for the program because it meant I could personally make changes till I thought the clips looked of a high enough standard for my overall final video. This showed my development from AS because I was able to navigate around the program easily and actually change the settings to meet my criteria, however in AS I just used whichever settings the effects where on because my confidence with the program wasn't there.
Because I had to make a digipak and advert to go along side my music video, Photoshop was used a lot in these stages, however because I am a photography student I did develop these skills a lot into the second year and meant I found new techniques that I didn't know existed before. I conducted a separate photo shoot for the covers of the advert and digipak so meant I used the spot healing tool a lot to give my main character the flawless skin that all the pop stars have on these covers, I did have to alter the size of the brush at times depending where I was getting rid of the blemishes. Just by concentrating on her face looking perfect it give me the idea to add extra elements such as eyelashes and whitening her teeth to give her that overall 'pop star edge' that is thought about on every CD cover and advert. I used the brush tool to add the eyelashes however they wouldn't work on some of the images because it all depended on how my model was looking at the camera, because if her head was positioned too far back they wouldn't bend round enough. The dodge tool was used to whiten her teeth, but I only used it very lightly as I didn't want to over do it and make them look fake. Both of these techniques are what I have learnt through practice in my second year so in the AS brief I would have only used the original images and maybe edited through the brightness and contrast however the overall finish would not have been to this sort of standard.
Compared to trying out Garage band like in AS I resorted to using I tunes in A2 because I knew that I only really needed the audio to my chosen song and no extra sound effects would be needed, so I downloaded this from YouTube and then converted to an MP3 file in the program ZamZar before adding it into Final Cut on top of my clips to make sure that the lip syncing was correct. This saved time and meant I was being original by using the actual song, however I couldn't have used any other program to create a tune as it wouldn't have been the same whereas in AS the tunes that we used where optional.
In the evaluation stages of my briefs I used different programs. Both in AS and A2 I used Prezi to present some of my evaluation answers because it was on a much more advanced level to using Microsoft PowerPoint as it meant I could branch off into a range of different points regarding one specific topic and by adding pictures and graphs made the answer look more eye catching. The main comparison was in AS I made a 'path' the movement of a variety of points of around 10-20 but in A2 I made around 90 points on my path, this shows how much more detail and explanation is needed in A2 to get into the higher level mark band. The theme I used in AS was also very simple black to relate to my conventions however I just selected the colour of the chart available however in A2 I used the actual theme wizard which meant I could select the background colour, title colours, arrow colours and box colours which I chose to match my digipak and advert so the brand identity was shown fluent throughout.
Then for the rest of my questions in AS I used the Flash Mic to conduct audio to play on top of my PowerPoint to make my question seem more interesting and show the viewers first hand how I can speak in detail about each of the small points I had made on the PowerPoint. This was easy to use as the only settings on the actual mic included play pause and record so it meant I couldn't conduct the audio I was recording badly, because these were the only settings and they were very basic I didn't want to re use the mic in my A2 evaluation questions as I wanted to challenge myself a lot more which is why I used ScreenR. This software meant I could record my voice on the computer whilst navigating around various programs websites I was speaking about using the mouse. This would allow the audience to see exactly what programs I used and how my skills had developed through the brief to achieve the outcome, it was a very quick and easy program to use but I believe it looks much more professional than using the flash mic as the audio and visuals can be seen together as one unit on ScreenR and give me the opportunity to explain about such a wide range of elements in one short section.
During Media Studies over the last two years I have expanded my knowledge and understanding of the skills needed during the Post Production stages of my coursework modules, which has also developed my interest in the creativity elements which make my work stand out from the rest. Over the two years we were given two different briefs; In AS the brief was to Create an opening sequence which lasted 2 minutes including titles, we were given the choice to use either a Film Noir or Horror genre, for mine personally I chose horror because I thought the conventions where more interesting. In A2 the brief was to Create a music promo package that included a Music Video, Digipak and Advert. In my specific group we chose the artist Kesha, the song was Cannibal and the genre the catergory it would be outlined under would be Pop. To give the most detailed answer I can I am going to talk about 7 examples from each of the years of study and then explain the pros and cons for each before commenting on how I have developed the use of these skills from AS to A2.
Post production is a significant part of each coursework module as it is any program or software used after the filming stages of the project. In AS I used Final Cut editing software to create my Horror sequence as I believe it is a much more developed program compared to I - Movie in the way that there are a lot more features available to make the final product have a much more professional feel.
The main elements I focused on using was the marker tools to ensure that the different sound effects that were added on top of the clips where in line with each other and fitted well, this was a positive point of the software because it meant the fittings of the clips and audio where done instantly and by using the markers you can see that when you select a certain part of a clip that would be the only piece that would be edited. Because of this tool it meant I was more open to using a variety of audio to back up my clips to give my sequence a creative flare it needed.
Also to add to the conventions of a horror film we changed most of our scenes to a black and white format which could be selected easily through the filter section, the only one of the negative points of this program is that no preview can be seen when adding these effects so means you have to take a risk and hope the outcome turns out successfully. The rest of our editing stages when putting our film sequence together only consisted of putting the clips into a running order.
The titles for our horror sequence where created using Livetype, this program allowed you to make your own type of font that suited your preference of work, however the options available to use where not of a large variety but I was lucky enough to find one that fit in with my genre correctly. It allows you to pick the colour, font, font size and filters which was a pro point to me comparing to using Final Cut or Photoshop as they don't have as big of a range as they are mainly very clear and readable fonts whereas I wanted mine to be a sketched font to have some actual link to the work I had created.
When picking my font it then made me think of backgrounds that I could use to present my work on which I edited in Photoshop, this allowed me to use a variety of editing techniques including altering the brightness and contrast of the image, the colour format and again the filters. This meant I had to crop the image down to make sure there was enough width for my titles to fit before converting them back into the beginning of my sequence in Final Cut. However if I had just created my titles in that program compared to Livetype I don't think I would have had a justified deeper thought into adding a background because a plain average font wouldn't have give me the inspiration. Using Photoshop for my background meant I could manipulate it to how I personally wanted it to look to give it that 'horror themed' edge, this is not the type of thing you can do in other photo editing software which is why I use it so often as it has so many pro points about it. You can also convert the images you edited to a variety of different files which means they can be of the best quality depending on the program it's going to be associated with. In this case I converted them to JPEG as I wanted the highest detail to be brought out and stand out to the audience to make them interested into what will follow in the sequence.
I had used the program I - Movie previously at the beginning of my AS year for a variety of tasks but because of it's basic elements that are on offer to use I tried to stay away from using it in my actual coursework brief because I wanted my outcome to be more of a professional standard by using the advanced settings available in Final Cut. However there was a particular scene in our sequence when our main character has a 'flash back' and I wanted to add a selection of flashing lights on top of the clip to ensure the audience clearly noticed what I was trying to achieve. This exact type of affect could be found on I - Movie so I simply transferred the single clip along and edit in the effects I wanted and because it's such an easy program to navigate around it was completed instantly, but because this type of effect looked so simple to create by adding it to my clip I think I could have maybe made the 'flash back' scene myself in Final Cut with the range of effects available the brightness of the flashes for example could be moved to the spots that I feel look more realistic e.t.c
Using programs such as Garageband didn't give me as much inspiration or input to my final product because the software available was too complicated for the simple sounds like a girl screaming and a door closing because using this program meant you could create a full soundtrack which didn't stand out to me because it's not something that I initially wanted to create and I also found it really difficult to use as I think only people who have a music related background of interest could use it to the best of their ability, so for them it would have a selection of positive points as they can create tunes to suit them but because the software was too confusing to use I couldn't get any inspiration or the overall interest that I would need.
Moving onto my post production in A2, I used many of the same types of programs but just developed my skills to make the outcome even better than in AS. Once again Final Cut was used to put my music video together because I had used in previously in AS and I knew all of the futuristic settings that were available could essentially make my video look realistically like the rest of actual singers around today, the markers where used again in A2 but a lot more often because I filmed shots of my main characters in one scene in a variety of different angles I had to use the markers to select sections from each of the clips to make up one full scene, for example selecting a medium close up clip, marking from the start and end part I wanted to use before positioning it in the timeline below. Being able to do this meant I could showcase my skills first hand like a montage of all the different angles by using just one technique, which I could use easily now as I had time to practice. The only negative point about using Final Cut for such a distinct part of our music video was that it took a lot of time to render the clips after even just moving them along, because the scenes where so long some of our lessons where used just rendering clips, however I had the idea of cutting down the clips in order for the time to be shorter and that indeed meant I got more done.
On one particular section I wanted the main character to stand out but because it was filmed in a Photography Studio the colours where very bland, so I was able to find an effect that made each of the clips in that scene move around and jolt sort of like a jump cut as I knew this would catch the audiences attention. Being able to alter how fast or slow the clip moves to make it contrast agaisnt the effect was a pro for the program because it meant I could personally make changes till I thought the clips looked of a high enough standard for my overall final video. This showed my development from AS because I was able to navigate around the program easily and actually change the settings to meet my criteria, however in AS I just used whichever settings the effects where on because my confidence with the program wasn't there.
Because I had to make a digipak and advert to go along side my music video, Photoshop was used a lot in these stages, however because I am a photography student I did develop these skills a lot into the second year and meant I found new techniques that I didn't know existed before. I conducted a separate photo shoot for the covers of the advert and digipak so meant I used the spot healing tool a lot to give my main character the flawless skin that all the pop stars have on these covers, I did have to alter the size of the brush at times depending where I was getting rid of the blemishes. Just by concentrating on her face looking perfect it give me the idea to add extra elements such as eyelashes and whitening her teeth to give her that overall 'pop star edge' that is thought about on every CD cover and advert. I used the brush tool to add the eyelashes however they wouldn't work on some of the images because it all depended on how my model was looking at the camera, because if her head was positioned too far back they wouldn't bend round enough. The dodge tool was used to whiten her teeth, but I only used it very lightly as I didn't want to over do it and make them look fake. Both of these techniques are what I have learnt through practice in my second year so in the AS brief I would have only used the original images and maybe edited through the brightness and contrast however the overall finish would not have been to this sort of standard.
Compared to trying out Garage band like in AS I resorted to using I tunes in A2 because I knew that I only really needed the audio to my chosen song and no extra sound effects would be needed, so I downloaded this from YouTube and then converted to an MP3 file in the program ZamZar before adding it into Final Cut on top of my clips to make sure that the lip syncing was correct. This saved time and meant I was being original by using the actual song, however I couldn't have used any other program to create a tune as it wouldn't have been the same whereas in AS the tunes that we used where optional.
In the evaluation stages of my briefs I used different programs. Both in AS and A2 I used Prezi to present some of my evaluation answers because it was on a much more advanced level to using Microsoft PowerPoint as it meant I could branch off into a range of different points regarding one specific topic and by adding pictures and graphs made the answer look more eye catching. The main comparison was in AS I made a 'path' the movement of a variety of points of around 10-20 but in A2 I made around 90 points on my path, this shows how much more detail and explanation is needed in A2 to get into the higher level mark band. The theme I used in AS was also very simple black to relate to my conventions however I just selected the colour of the chart available however in A2 I used the actual theme wizard which meant I could select the background colour, title colours, arrow colours and box colours which I chose to match my digipak and advert so the brand identity was shown fluent throughout.
Then for the rest of my questions in AS I used the Flash Mic to conduct audio to play on top of my PowerPoint to make my question seem more interesting and show the viewers first hand how I can speak in detail about each of the small points I had made on the PowerPoint. This was easy to use as the only settings on the actual mic included play pause and record so it meant I couldn't conduct the audio I was recording badly, because these were the only settings and they were very basic I didn't want to re use the mic in my A2 evaluation questions as I wanted to challenge myself a lot more which is why I used ScreenR. This software meant I could record my voice on the computer whilst navigating around various programs websites I was speaking about using the mouse. This would allow the audience to see exactly what programs I used and how my skills had developed through the brief to achieve the outcome, it was a very quick and easy program to use but I believe it looks much more professional than using the flash mic as the audio and visuals can be seen together as one unit on ScreenR and give me the opportunity to explain about such a wide range of elements in one short section.
Monday, 23 April 2012
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
Section 1A - Digital Technology
Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time. 25 marks
In A2 my skills in a lot of the tasks had developed on a larger scale as I understood how to use the programs at a higher level. When using Blogger this time I knew how to make my blog look of a professional standard by changing the various themes to suit the genre of music that I had based my own video on. I also posted a lot more posts compared to my AS brief as the whole production value was of a larger quantity. I documented 89 posts in A2 compared to only 22 in AS, this is over double the amount however in A2 a lot more preperation was needed as the brief we had was to complete a full music video that had lots of aspects to record in order to make it look as realistic as possible. We again created a storyboard which consisted of the different scenes that would be in our music video, the same Nikon D80 SLR camera was used, however because I am also a photography student it meant I developed a deeper understanding of how the camera works and meant I could change the settings to capture the 'perfect version' of the paper drawing, so by altering the aperture to the correct setting it meant only a slight amount of light was allowed through to ensure the drawings could be seen clearly and the examiner could understand. I also used Photoshop to edit scenes from exisiting music videos together, they each consisted of parts that I believed were most influential and would help me generate better quality ideas for my production.
When it came to the post production of my A2 brief I was much more focused on the end result and because I had completed the same type of tasks in AS I knew that a lot of work needed to be done in the evaluation stages to pick up the highest marks. So instead of only using word processed documents I was much more creative and for one of the questions my group used the Tricaster Studio once again to record an evaluation video where we also used the Auto Cue to read off our script as it looked much stronger than looking down at a piece of paper, we also ordered out who would say what in our group which meant the process went quicker as the writing was so easy to read. This was also chance for us to use the green screen which played our finished music video on a continuous link as we explained the processes we went through to complete it in as much detail as possible and because I actually talked about different elements on video it looks more professional than writing it down. After filming the whole duration of the clip it was then converted to a DV file before being uploaded to Final Cut where a lot of editing took place to add extra images and separate clips of our music video that linked to what we were talking about. By again using the razor tool to take out less important parts I used the different extra's to the best of my ability to make each of my evaluations as strong as the rest. Overall throughout the process of both of my coursework briefs I believe the different technologies I used in AS where of a average standard and I think I developed how I used them to a more professional standard in A2.
Throughout my 2 years of media studies coursework I have used a range of different digital technologies which has influenced my creativity in many ways. In AS I created a 2 minute film opening sequence, including titles from the Horror Genre. Whereas in A2 we were asked to create a music promo package; including Music Video, Digipak and Advert. Throughout this essay question I will explain in depth about what digital technologies I used throughout my AS year of this course and then back that up with how I have developed my skills into my A2 year.
When beginning my AS coursework I used blogger, a web2.0 application, the term was coined by Tim O'Reilly in 2004 and means that it's a socially interactive site available for anyone to use. This program was used throughout every stage of my coursework, however during the pre production stages most of my posts where created as research and planning was the part of the coursework that included the most written detail. Because all of my work was documented in one place it meant I could focus on the most important factors that would influence me in the correct way to make a unique horror sequence. When planning my film sequence I created a storyboard that effectively planned my film, I then took images of my storyboard using a Nikon D80 SLR camera, imported these using a USB cable onto the Emac computers to edit together in I-Movie. When the anamatic was then put together it showed my creative ideas behind what the sequence would be about and by adding various effects it made it much more realistic. The video was then uploaded to blogger, which I followed with a detailed paragraph on how it was created and how it give me more creative ideas that I would follow on into my filming stage.
When beginning my AS coursework I used blogger, a web2.0 application, the term was coined by Tim O'Reilly in 2004 and means that it's a socially interactive site available for anyone to use. This program was used throughout every stage of my coursework, however during the pre production stages most of my posts where created as research and planning was the part of the coursework that included the most written detail. Because all of my work was documented in one place it meant I could focus on the most important factors that would influence me in the correct way to make a unique horror sequence. When planning my film sequence I created a storyboard that effectively planned my film, I then took images of my storyboard using a Nikon D80 SLR camera, imported these using a USB cable onto the Emac computers to edit together in I-Movie. When the anamatic was then put together it showed my creative ideas behind what the sequence would be about and by adding various effects it made it much more realistic. The video was then uploaded to blogger, which I followed with a detailed paragraph on how it was created and how it give me more creative ideas that I would follow on into my filming stage.
In A2 my skills in a lot of the tasks had developed on a larger scale as I understood how to use the programs at a higher level. When using Blogger this time I knew how to make my blog look of a professional standard by changing the various themes to suit the genre of music that I had based my own video on. I also posted a lot more posts compared to my AS brief as the whole production value was of a larger quantity. I documented 89 posts in A2 compared to only 22 in AS, this is over double the amount however in A2 a lot more preperation was needed as the brief we had was to complete a full music video that had lots of aspects to record in order to make it look as realistic as possible. We again created a storyboard which consisted of the different scenes that would be in our music video, the same Nikon D80 SLR camera was used, however because I am also a photography student it meant I developed a deeper understanding of how the camera works and meant I could change the settings to capture the 'perfect version' of the paper drawing, so by altering the aperture to the correct setting it meant only a slight amount of light was allowed through to ensure the drawings could be seen clearly and the examiner could understand. I also used Photoshop to edit scenes from exisiting music videos together, they each consisted of parts that I believed were most influential and would help me generate better quality ideas for my production.
The production of my AS coursework involved using the Sony Digital Handy cams which have 60x optical zoom and 80GB of memory. This was used to film the whole of my horror sequence but also the prelim task that was set at the start of the year, however I only knew how to use the basic settings which is why both sets of work where of an average quality. But I did acknowledge the other settings in some parts of the filming which is seen through the obvious change as both clips process. Some of this filming was captured in the Tricaster Studio 2.5 m.s, however we only used the basic grey screen (which is usually used as a green screen) to add suspense and realistic settings to our own horror sequence and we thought by using this studio it would look of a more professional production. As the scene shows the killer tormenting the victim who is tied up and by placing her in a dark room it shows we have thought of the usual conventions that are included in our genre. After again transferring all of our clips onto the E Mac's via the USB cable, it was then time to think about adding the titles as they were also part of our marks, these were completed using Live Type, a program which gives you a variety of options to change the colour, size, font and shape of your text, I wanted my text to look of the genre so I settled on the slashed text that looked like someone had scratched it out themselves and I believe the outcome would have looked so much better compared to using basic font available on word.
The production of A2 brief was a lot tougher as so much more elements had to be considered. We used a Sony Handy cam for the off site scenes which is the same type of camera that was used in AS however the settings where much easier to work with as we had chance to use them multiple times in the first year so our filming for the music video was much cleaner and meant we could use the zoom controls correctly for example in one scene the main actress is seen behind bars as she moves around intensely the camera had to follow her and different shots had to be captured in order for her to look professional. We also used the Sony HD camera this time around too as one of our scenes was conducted in the Tricaster Studio 2.5 m.s and the apparatus where put to use, a range of lights where positioned around the room for our scene to be lightened correctly and the camera itself meant we could create a much clearer video as the camera had a higher number of megapixels compared to the handy cam. After filming we added the footage to the I Mac computers which are much faster than the original E Mac's we used in AS because they are newer models, the files were transferred via USB and then converted from MPEG to DV files so the sound and footage could be seen as one when editing, the program used to carry out this task was Streamclip as DV files are mainly used in Final Cut because they are of the highest quality, this did take some time however the outcome was of a better standard than previous footage I have filmed. When it came down to editing I had a better understanding of Final Cut and mainly used the in and out markers to cut down the 'best bits' of clips we filmed and also the razor tool to cut out unwanted parts, I also found out how to add video effects and filters such as the Strobe Lighting and Slow Motion that we used throughout our video, overall this was done to give our video a professional look as we wanted our actress to stand out and give viewers a surprise comparing the knowledge to AS where no imaginative effects where added shows how I have developed a deeper understanding of the digital technologies available to me.
The production of A2 brief was a lot tougher as so much more elements had to be considered. We used a Sony Handy cam for the off site scenes which is the same type of camera that was used in AS however the settings where much easier to work with as we had chance to use them multiple times in the first year so our filming for the music video was much cleaner and meant we could use the zoom controls correctly for example in one scene the main actress is seen behind bars as she moves around intensely the camera had to follow her and different shots had to be captured in order for her to look professional. We also used the Sony HD camera this time around too as one of our scenes was conducted in the Tricaster Studio 2.5 m.s and the apparatus where put to use, a range of lights where positioned around the room for our scene to be lightened correctly and the camera itself meant we could create a much clearer video as the camera had a higher number of megapixels compared to the handy cam. After filming we added the footage to the I Mac computers which are much faster than the original E Mac's we used in AS because they are newer models, the files were transferred via USB and then converted from MPEG to DV files so the sound and footage could be seen as one when editing, the program used to carry out this task was Streamclip as DV files are mainly used in Final Cut because they are of the highest quality, this did take some time however the outcome was of a better standard than previous footage I have filmed. When it came down to editing I had a better understanding of Final Cut and mainly used the in and out markers to cut down the 'best bits' of clips we filmed and also the razor tool to cut out unwanted parts, I also found out how to add video effects and filters such as the Strobe Lighting and Slow Motion that we used throughout our video, overall this was done to give our video a professional look as we wanted our actress to stand out and give viewers a surprise comparing the knowledge to AS where no imaginative effects where added shows how I have developed a deeper understanding of the digital technologies available to me.
Post production in AS was the part of the course when the evaluation questions are completed and the Flash Mic was used to voice record over one of our presentations we put together to make it more interesting to watch because extra information would be given. You simply speak into the mic for as long as you need to and then stop it, the clips can be transferred separately through a USB cable and this time we opened our files up into I - Movie to give each of them a listen to make sure they were useful before then overlapping the sound with the slides in Final Cut. This process was only completed for a small number of our evaluation questions and I believe it was because I was new to all of the technology available to me that I took the safe option and created word processed answers, however my creative potentional would have been developed if I did decide to think of more ways to present my questions.
When it came to the post production of my A2 brief I was much more focused on the end result and because I had completed the same type of tasks in AS I knew that a lot of work needed to be done in the evaluation stages to pick up the highest marks. So instead of only using word processed documents I was much more creative and for one of the questions my group used the Tricaster Studio once again to record an evaluation video where we also used the Auto Cue to read off our script as it looked much stronger than looking down at a piece of paper, we also ordered out who would say what in our group which meant the process went quicker as the writing was so easy to read. This was also chance for us to use the green screen which played our finished music video on a continuous link as we explained the processes we went through to complete it in as much detail as possible and because I actually talked about different elements on video it looks more professional than writing it down. After filming the whole duration of the clip it was then converted to a DV file before being uploaded to Final Cut where a lot of editing took place to add extra images and separate clips of our music video that linked to what we were talking about. By again using the razor tool to take out less important parts I used the different extra's to the best of my ability to make each of my evaluations as strong as the rest. Overall throughout the process of both of my coursework briefs I believe the different technologies I used in AS where of a average standard and I think I developed how I used them to a more professional standard in A2.
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