Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to narrative
A music video usually has a fragmented narrative which shows a mixture of narrative and performance in order to relate to the song and reveal something to the viewers. As Tim O Sullivan states "media texts offer a way of telling stories as it allows us to read things in a particular way." For my coursework project I have chosen to discuss my music video in relation to narrative which is Pixie Lotts "Its all about tonight" and relate to various theorists such as Propp, Michael Shore, Andrew Goodwin and Sven Carlsson which we both challenged and adhered.
Propp states that there is generally a hegemony narrative during a media text in which typical characters are shown such as the protagonist, antagonist and damsel in distress. However, during our video a key concept which we went with was empowerment of women whilst getting rid of the past and getting over an ex boyfriend and focusing solely on having a good time with a night out. As of this we decided to challenge this convention and go against the stereotypical "princess" idea showing a strong confident women for the viewers to be able to relate to the narrative by feeling positive about themselves after a breakup. The narrative is a feeling felt by most women which are our target audience meaning the narrative of the video will appeal to them making them want to watch the video. The artist is shown centrally within every shot to show her importance and stength to go against Propps idealogy as she is shown to be very femine and fashionable yet a strong confident women with her mannerisms. Steriotypically a woman is seen as weak but we wanted to go against this convention specifically for women to feel empowered.
Michael Shore states that often narratives are "surface without substance" and don't go into alot of depth which we felt fit with our genre of video which was pop/dance as it needed to have an easy to understand narrative so that the viewers could understand it easily and be able to dance or get ready for a night out while watching it (its main purpose when to be enjoyed.) The storyline of the video is easy to follow and straight forward involving a girl (the main artist) having a party night out with her friends after a breakup. The narrative is extremely upbeat and fun to fit in key with the lyrics and music which is a recycled style as its a convention within a narrative which is often used as we as a western culture associate parties and going as very positive aspects of life. Which leads to Andrew Goodwins theory that videos "are post modern and have been done before" as the audience expect certain things within a music video because of our society within the western culture. These aspects include a female artist seen within the male gaze and provocatively throughout each video which we decided to portray within our video by using an attractive female in appropriate clothing such as a swimsuit as the main singer in order to be seen as an attraction towards the viewer and be something they are familiar with.
Sven Carlsson states that each media clip involves performance or narrative. Our video "It's All About Tonight" offers a mixture of both performance and narrative together within alot of fragmented shots put together to the beat of the music. We offer a performace by having a wide range of locations were the artist is always centrally focused such as in a bar, a sports car and hot tub in which she associates with the viewer through actions such as pointing to the camera and nodding her head at the appropriate times of the video. The artist offers song performance with lip syncing and facial expressions aswell as dance performance by dancing with her backing dancers within the various locations. The actress herself shows a modern mythic emboliment of a confident, strong and empowered persona who is getting over a breakup for the viewers to be able to relate too. The narrative is easy to follow and makes the video relate to society and the artist by being a common narrative of a party setting and the events happening throughout.
Tuesday, 8 May 2012
Monday, 7 May 2012
Describe how your understanding of the importance of good research and planning skills developed throughout the pre-production of your AS and A2 coursework
During my coursework productions my AS brief was to create a 2 minute opening sequence for a horror film including titles and my A2 brief was to create a promo package including video, digipak and advert for the pop genre. For both these projects research and planning were key concepts in order to develop into gaing my final products which were an opening horror sequence titled "Twisted" and a pop music video titled "It's All About Tonight" by Pixie Lott. Im going to discuss my progression from AS to A2 within my Research and Planning.
At AS I began my project with researching into conventions of the genre horror and what is involved in various horror films which would be a good concept for my own sequence. To do this I began to look at other horror films such as "Jeepers Creepers" and "Saw" which helped me discover various conventions I wanted to include within my video. The feeling of an antagonist after you within "Jeepers Creepers" is its key concept particularly showing shots from the antagonists perspective with the characters being unaware of his wareabouts or intentions. This was an idea we wanted to portray within our horror film as we felt it was a good way to scare the viewer to see points of view from the killer as if it was them themselves. We acheived this by using a handheld camera of the killer walking towards the couple within our video who are the main actors to show suspence and mystery as to who he is and why he's following them. Whilst looking at "Saw" we realised that an important factor was to keep key factors of the storyline hidden from the characters and viewers. This occurs within "Saws" opening sequence as a man awakes in a bath within a dark room unaware of where he is, how he got there or what is going on. The audience are also revealed a key go down the plug hole as he struggles which they are unaware of its significance. Within my video I took inspiration from this as the two main characters are unaware that the killer is behind them throughout the sequence until he attacks and the plot as to why the killer attacks is not made aparent throughout the sequence to leave mystery to the viewer. I also analysed 9 frames of existing horror films such as "Saw" and titles timelines such as "The Shining" and "A Nightmare On Elm Street" which I discovered that centrally framing is important in giving the viewers infomation yet having a hand held camera out of focus like of "The Blaire Witch Project" makes the viewers feel uneasy. The timelines shown me the order in which the titles should come in and how to show them in an effective way in order to fit with the genre for example both movies had the directors name last and dramatic music within the background, two traites which we decided to add to our film sequence to help it fit the genre and create suspence. These films both also revealed slight links of the narrative while showing the titles which we knew was an important part to our sequence, the titles being simple as the main focus would be towards the narrative so they are never centrally focused but generally to the side. Once we had researched many films within this genre we needed to plan our sequence with the various ideas we had chosen and so began writing a pitch entailing the storyline of what we planned to achieve, then we had to think of suitable locations creating a call sheet with the addresses and places such as the land behind a pond for the filming and contact numbers for our three actors and adresses. We also needed a risk assessment sheet of possible things that could go wrong such as actors becoming ill and how we would deal with the situation such as rescheduling or having stand by actors. A sketch of each shot was then drawn paying close attention to the framing and actions made and were then taken photos of with a stills camera and uploaded onto Imovie to be made into an anamatic so that we were aware of the shot order and how they would be filmed with the positioning of characters and the way in which the narrative was presented. This planning helped with our final product as it helped us work out how to involve the horror techniques we needed and make our sequence look professional.
During my coursework productions my AS brief was to create a 2 minute opening sequence for a horror film including titles and my A2 brief was to create a promo package including video, digipak and advert for the pop genre. For both these projects research and planning were key concepts in order to develop into gaing my final products which were an opening horror sequence titled "Twisted" and a pop music video titled "It's All About Tonight" by Pixie Lott. Im going to discuss my progression from AS to A2 within my Research and Planning.
At AS I began my project with researching into conventions of the genre horror and what is involved in various horror films which would be a good concept for my own sequence. To do this I began to look at other horror films such as "Jeepers Creepers" and "Saw" which helped me discover various conventions I wanted to include within my video. The feeling of an antagonist after you within "Jeepers Creepers" is its key concept particularly showing shots from the antagonists perspective with the characters being unaware of his wareabouts or intentions. This was an idea we wanted to portray within our horror film as we felt it was a good way to scare the viewer to see points of view from the killer as if it was them themselves. We acheived this by using a handheld camera of the killer walking towards the couple within our video who are the main actors to show suspence and mystery as to who he is and why he's following them. Whilst looking at "Saw" we realised that an important factor was to keep key factors of the storyline hidden from the characters and viewers. This occurs within "Saws" opening sequence as a man awakes in a bath within a dark room unaware of where he is, how he got there or what is going on. The audience are also revealed a key go down the plug hole as he struggles which they are unaware of its significance. Within my video I took inspiration from this as the two main characters are unaware that the killer is behind them throughout the sequence until he attacks and the plot as to why the killer attacks is not made aparent throughout the sequence to leave mystery to the viewer. I also analysed 9 frames of existing horror films such as "Saw" and titles timelines such as "The Shining" and "A Nightmare On Elm Street" which I discovered that centrally framing is important in giving the viewers infomation yet having a hand held camera out of focus like of "The Blaire Witch Project" makes the viewers feel uneasy. The timelines shown me the order in which the titles should come in and how to show them in an effective way in order to fit with the genre for example both movies had the directors name last and dramatic music within the background, two traites which we decided to add to our film sequence to help it fit the genre and create suspence. These films both also revealed slight links of the narrative while showing the titles which we knew was an important part to our sequence, the titles being simple as the main focus would be towards the narrative so they are never centrally focused but generally to the side. Once we had researched many films within this genre we needed to plan our sequence with the various ideas we had chosen and so began writing a pitch entailing the storyline of what we planned to achieve, then we had to think of suitable locations creating a call sheet with the addresses and places such as the land behind a pond for the filming and contact numbers for our three actors and adresses. We also needed a risk assessment sheet of possible things that could go wrong such as actors becoming ill and how we would deal with the situation such as rescheduling or having stand by actors. A sketch of each shot was then drawn paying close attention to the framing and actions made and were then taken photos of with a stills camera and uploaded onto Imovie to be made into an anamatic so that we were aware of the shot order and how they would be filmed with the positioning of characters and the way in which the narrative was presented. This planning helped with our final product as it helped us work out how to involve the horror techniques we needed and make our sequence look professional.
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre
Daniel Chandler states that "Genre is a distinctive type of class/text" used to identify or establish something to its audience. Barry Keith Grant continues that "genre allows audience to identify them specifically by what they are familiar with and what becomes recognizable to them." The genre I have chosen was pop with a sub-genre of dance in which I both challenged and adhere various conventions of pop during our take on Pixie Lott's video "Its all about tonight."
Firstly, we knew it was important to look at existing media texts to understand the conventions of pop and found that typically the genre gives the audience a set of pleasures and realized that we could give our audience emotional pleasure by relating to the narrative and artist by feeling happy that she's getting over her ex boyfriend and is off for a night out (a common emotion felt by most women at some point). We looked at videos within the pop genre such as Rihanna's "Take a bow" in which the videos focused on female empowerment aswell as having the "male gaze" from Laura Mulveys theory and wanted to represent this feeling during our video. We also wanted to relate our video to its audience using familiar codes and conventions that make references to the audience and their society by having familiar cloths, makeup and shoes shown throughout the video to appeal to its main target audience of young women. We also wanted to follow the genres typical conventions by having over exaggerated features to give an escapism towards the viewers by having the hottub and sports car involved in the music video which are things which are possibly not things which the audience are familiar with but are shown for entertainment purposes. The video has a star persona of the main artist who is shown centrally in every shot through thought beats to show her importance. The main purpose of a promo package within the pop genre is to "promote the star" as Richard Dyer states so it was important to use lots of meat shots of the star and make her the centre of focus within every shot at each location.
A mixture of narrative and performance is also a key convention of the pop genre which we wanted to show within our video having lots of fast paced shots and thought beats to keep in pace with the music and flip from both narrativeand performance. Fragmented shots throughout which reveal the narrative involve shots within a bar, a sports car, at work and at a house party which allow a clear party narrative for the viewers but also allows the star to show performance with dancing to the beat of the music and lip syncing. We did lack various conventions of pop however by not including a choreagraphed dance routine with the artist and backing dancers as we just had them dancing and not in a fixed designed way. We let them dance freely as a new convention in order to represent a free and fun night as part of the genre of being a happy, upbeat empowering video for women. The range of costumes and hair styles fit the genre by being popular but also are used to keep the audience entertained. Each location has a different outfit which fit with the location in order for the audience to differentiate between them. With the main star being shown alot and the storyline being easy to follow the video fits the genre of being something that can be watched by viewers while getting ready for a night out or with friends.
Daniel Chandler states that "Genre is a distinctive type of class/text" used to identify or establish something to its audience. Barry Keith Grant continues that "genre allows audience to identify them specifically by what they are familiar with and what becomes recognizable to them." The genre I have chosen was pop with a sub-genre of dance in which I both challenged and adhere various conventions of pop during our take on Pixie Lott's video "Its all about tonight."
Firstly, we knew it was important to look at existing media texts to understand the conventions of pop and found that typically the genre gives the audience a set of pleasures and realized that we could give our audience emotional pleasure by relating to the narrative and artist by feeling happy that she's getting over her ex boyfriend and is off for a night out (a common emotion felt by most women at some point). We looked at videos within the pop genre such as Rihanna's "Take a bow" in which the videos focused on female empowerment aswell as having the "male gaze" from Laura Mulveys theory and wanted to represent this feeling during our video. We also wanted to relate our video to its audience using familiar codes and conventions that make references to the audience and their society by having familiar cloths, makeup and shoes shown throughout the video to appeal to its main target audience of young women. We also wanted to follow the genres typical conventions by having over exaggerated features to give an escapism towards the viewers by having the hottub and sports car involved in the music video which are things which are possibly not things which the audience are familiar with but are shown for entertainment purposes. The video has a star persona of the main artist who is shown centrally in every shot through thought beats to show her importance. The main purpose of a promo package within the pop genre is to "promote the star" as Richard Dyer states so it was important to use lots of meat shots of the star and make her the centre of focus within every shot at each location.
A mixture of narrative and performance is also a key convention of the pop genre which we wanted to show within our video having lots of fast paced shots and thought beats to keep in pace with the music and flip from both narrativeand performance. Fragmented shots throughout which reveal the narrative involve shots within a bar, a sports car, at work and at a house party which allow a clear party narrative for the viewers but also allows the star to show performance with dancing to the beat of the music and lip syncing. We did lack various conventions of pop however by not including a choreagraphed dance routine with the artist and backing dancers as we just had them dancing and not in a fixed designed way. We let them dance freely as a new convention in order to represent a free and fun night as part of the genre of being a happy, upbeat empowering video for women. The range of costumes and hair styles fit the genre by being popular but also are used to keep the audience entertained. Each location has a different outfit which fit with the location in order for the audience to differentiate between them. With the main star being shown alot and the storyline being easy to follow the video fits the genre of being something that can be watched by viewers while getting ready for a night out or with friends.
Wednesday, 25 April 2012
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
During my coursework my post production skills developed significantly from AS to A2 and were key elements which helped my creativity in each of my projects. The brief for AS was to create an opening sequence to a horror film lasting 2 minutes including titles and the A2 brief was to create a promo package including video, digipak and advert for the pop genre. During AS my post production helped with my creativity such as being able to use Final Cut, Garageband and Photoshop. These helped us make our product original and creative by combining the things produced from each together to produce a sequence that has never been produced before. Within Final Cut we were able to create transitions such as fading in and out at the correct times to create a horror type feel and using text to show titles of specific actors and members of the production to make the sequence as creative as possible. With sound being an important part into being creative Garageband was a key element which helped make our sequence unique. We added sound effects from Garageband at specific points in the sequence to make it more dramatic to the viewer such as when the attacker is directly behind the couple and when the title of the film began. Being able to create our own soundtrack at the correct places made our sequence creative and exactly how we wanted it to be to create atmosphere and suspense. However though we were able to choose specific music to fit the genre Garageband only has a certain amount of loops so often this restricts the creativeness available. Using Photoshop also helped with our creativity to design a unique logo specifically fitting with the horror theme and which we included in our video to creatively show our production. However at this point my Photoshop skills were fairly limited and I was only able to create a very basic logo and title page for the video. These did both fit with the genre though and helped with the creativity of the sequence.
Using Web 2.0 Blogger to show all my post production work helped me show them creatively all in one place and fitted to the theme of horror with a black background and red text to give it that professional look. My evaluation questions were completed on Prezi within post production of AS which enabled me to analyse my work in a creative and quick way. Prezi was easy to learn and use so I was able to insert photos, videos and make the text and background fit with the rest of the theme with this. The progression into A2 enabled me to be more creative with my use of technology in post production using similar programs but in a much more developed and creative way. Using Final Cut was a massive factor into the creation of my project by creating my music video. As I wanted the music video to be fast paced in order to fit the song chosen Final Cut aloud me to do non linear editing and use a wide range of effects such as text flying in to the beat of the music stating the lyrics heard at the time. I also was able to use jump cuts of the actress in various locations throughout the video fitting with the beats of the music. Final Cut enabled me in A2 to progress and do the creative things I planned to in my music paced such as adding markers to aid the lip sync and get the footage of the actress and actions made to fit with the lyrics and cut footage to create a very fast paced changing shot video.
My use of Photoshop also progressed and became more creative within A2 by me producing a digipak, advert, flyer and logo for my project on it. Photoshop in second year helped me to create layers with a professional looking logo which was shown at the end of the video and was perfectly suited to the genre stating "smoking hot records" production which was shown on the digipak and advert too to help with the creativity of my project. Though Photoshop can be quite difficult to use the practice in it helped my skills massively and I was able to design a range of products for my coursework. These fitted with the genre perfectly and showed various layers of text and professional photos of the artist take from a previous photoshoot. I was able to creatively make the digipak and advert original through Photoshop by adding backgrounds and texts to fit our song such as a night sky background on the cd to fit with the song title "It's all about tonight" and stars on the advert around the artist on a black background to continue with this theme and link the three projects together. To gain the music for my video I used the secondary source of Itunes as this gave a professional soundtrack for my video and gave me a starting point for my creativity in which I could use any footage I wanted in order to portray the lyrics and music given. I used Prezi also in A2 to display my evaluation questions but in a much more developed way. Showing videos I had filmed of myself speaking about the audience and what was good and could of been developed about my project showed a development from AS as I used my own primary footage within my evaluation which I edited on Final Cut instead of secondary videos. I also added a much wider range of information into the development of my project and the theories behind it such as Laura Mulveys theory of every video seen from the male perspective throughout my Prezi presentation. Several more photos were shown on the Prezi presentation from the photoshoots and on set as well as the background and text being bright and colourful to fit in with the genre.
During my coursework my post production skills developed significantly from AS to A2 and were key elements which helped my creativity in each of my projects. The brief for AS was to create an opening sequence to a horror film lasting 2 minutes including titles and the A2 brief was to create a promo package including video, digipak and advert for the pop genre. During AS my post production helped with my creativity such as being able to use Final Cut, Garageband and Photoshop. These helped us make our product original and creative by combining the things produced from each together to produce a sequence that has never been produced before. Within Final Cut we were able to create transitions such as fading in and out at the correct times to create a horror type feel and using text to show titles of specific actors and members of the production to make the sequence as creative as possible. With sound being an important part into being creative Garageband was a key element which helped make our sequence unique. We added sound effects from Garageband at specific points in the sequence to make it more dramatic to the viewer such as when the attacker is directly behind the couple and when the title of the film began. Being able to create our own soundtrack at the correct places made our sequence creative and exactly how we wanted it to be to create atmosphere and suspense. However though we were able to choose specific music to fit the genre Garageband only has a certain amount of loops so often this restricts the creativeness available. Using Photoshop also helped with our creativity to design a unique logo specifically fitting with the horror theme and which we included in our video to creatively show our production. However at this point my Photoshop skills were fairly limited and I was only able to create a very basic logo and title page for the video. These did both fit with the genre though and helped with the creativity of the sequence.
Using Web 2.0 Blogger to show all my post production work helped me show them creatively all in one place and fitted to the theme of horror with a black background and red text to give it that professional look. My evaluation questions were completed on Prezi within post production of AS which enabled me to analyse my work in a creative and quick way. Prezi was easy to learn and use so I was able to insert photos, videos and make the text and background fit with the rest of the theme with this. The progression into A2 enabled me to be more creative with my use of technology in post production using similar programs but in a much more developed and creative way. Using Final Cut was a massive factor into the creation of my project by creating my music video. As I wanted the music video to be fast paced in order to fit the song chosen Final Cut aloud me to do non linear editing and use a wide range of effects such as text flying in to the beat of the music stating the lyrics heard at the time. I also was able to use jump cuts of the actress in various locations throughout the video fitting with the beats of the music. Final Cut enabled me in A2 to progress and do the creative things I planned to in my music paced such as adding markers to aid the lip sync and get the footage of the actress and actions made to fit with the lyrics and cut footage to create a very fast paced changing shot video.
My use of Photoshop also progressed and became more creative within A2 by me producing a digipak, advert, flyer and logo for my project on it. Photoshop in second year helped me to create layers with a professional looking logo which was shown at the end of the video and was perfectly suited to the genre stating "smoking hot records" production which was shown on the digipak and advert too to help with the creativity of my project. Though Photoshop can be quite difficult to use the practice in it helped my skills massively and I was able to design a range of products for my coursework. These fitted with the genre perfectly and showed various layers of text and professional photos of the artist take from a previous photoshoot. I was able to creatively make the digipak and advert original through Photoshop by adding backgrounds and texts to fit our song such as a night sky background on the cd to fit with the song title "It's all about tonight" and stars on the advert around the artist on a black background to continue with this theme and link the three projects together. To gain the music for my video I used the secondary source of Itunes as this gave a professional soundtrack for my video and gave me a starting point for my creativity in which I could use any footage I wanted in order to portray the lyrics and music given. I used Prezi also in A2 to display my evaluation questions but in a much more developed way. Showing videos I had filmed of myself speaking about the audience and what was good and could of been developed about my project showed a development from AS as I used my own primary footage within my evaluation which I edited on Final Cut instead of secondary videos. I also added a much wider range of information into the development of my project and the theories behind it such as Laura Mulveys theory of every video seen from the male perspective throughout my Prezi presentation. Several more photos were shown on the Prezi presentation from the photoshoots and on set as well as the background and text being bright and colourful to fit in with the genre.
Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Describe the ways in which your production work was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.
During my coursework a close attention to real media texts for inspiration was an important concept for both AS and A2. For AS the brief was to create a 2 minute film opening sequence including titles for the genre horror. For A2 the brief was to create a music promo package including music video, digipak and advert within the genre pop. Various horror films and pop music videos were used to gain inspiration for the storyline, production and editing of both products.
In the pre production of my horror sequence at AS I began to look at how horror sequences worked and used certain ideas for effect. To do this I began to look at real media texts such as the "turning of the screw" for which I found that sound and a lack of diolog is highly effective for creating a horror sequence. I also looked at media texts and payed close attention to their titles as this was a key aspect needed such as "An nightmare on Elm Street" which was directed and written by Wes Craven in 1984 and was a sequence which helped me discover the order a title sequence should come in such as the Directors name last of all the titles. At A2 my research into the genre was of a much deeper level researching and anaylising a wide range of music videos and the editing, narrative and techniques. I had completed many 9 frame analysis's of videos such as Katy Perry's "Hot and cold" Pink's "So what" and Bruno Mars's "Lazy song" which all fit with the genre and helped me realise the typical conventions of a pop video. Doing a wide range of 9 frames at A2 unlike AS helped me identify how the artist should be positioned, the type of outfits and locations of a pop genre and the common types of shot needed. I also did in depth analysises of videos such as the Saturdays "Natorious" and Avril Lavignes "Smile" so I was familar with the type of outfits, locations and shot types used in videos and creative ways of representing.
During the production of my coursework at AS a lot of real media texts helped with the plot and storyline but also with shot types for my horror sequence. The media texts I used for inspiration into the storyline were Saw and Jeepers Creepers. These helped me discover the attributes to a horror such as within Saw the mystery of what is happening to the protagonists and why they are put into that type of situation is not revealed till the very end of the film and key aspects of the narrative are kept from the viewer. This was a key element used within my film sequence as certain information was hidden from the viewer. Within Jeepers Creepers the creepy feeling of the antagonist being made aware of by the viewers but not by other characters was another aspect which I wanted to display with shots of "the killer" in the back behind the protagonists in the majority of the shots. The Blair Witch Project is famous for its handheld camera scenes which I wanted to portray in my sequence and so had various shots from the antagonists point of view running through the trees to grip the viewers into the storyline. In A2 various music video's gave me inspiration which I developed further as to reasons why I used them through theory and representation. For example I used the shots of shoes walking to the beat of the music from The Saturdays "Natorious" video within my video as I thought it was a great way to link the video with the lyrics as often within the song I had chosen the lyrics say "tomorrow doesn't matter when you're moving your feet." Also having a dance routine was a key element used in the original video which I wanted to portray in my video.The "Natorious" video also helped me with the storyline as during their video it shows them first at a work setting then a party setting which is a theme I went with in my music video but taken a step further to add creativity by making the work scenes black and white and having various settings which the party was located. I also took inspiration when filming from the original video "Its all about tonight" by how the actress should look with similar styles of clothing and bright lipstick aswell as the storyline of not caring about anything but the night itself. The original video also helped us with the shot types ranging from longshots to extreme close ups throughout the video.
During post production various real media texts helped with my ideas of editing techniques and soundtrack. During AS I look at horror films such as "The Shining" and "Jaws" focusing mainly on the soundtrack and how they both use dramatic music as a key source to create suspence and tention among the viewers. In "The Shining" the characters have very little diolog and the majority of the film entails the characters acting normal but with terrifying music in the background indicating that something bad is about to occur. I used "The Shining" as inspiration for my soundtrack by it being dramatic and full of suspence when the characters have very little diolog. My soundtrack had some similarities to "Jaws" through it being a very low drummimg sound and a certain type of music which only occurs when the killer is present so that the viewer relates that specific sound with the killer. Though I did focus on real media texts for the soundtrack at AS I didn't really for the editing unlike A2 in which I used various media texts as inspiration. For example when the music for my video became very fast paced at a specific point flipping from all the different locations which I got the idea from Rihannas "We found love" and found it gave a feeling of that there was alot going on, something I wanted to portray in my video. The jumpcuts to the beat of the music was taken from Katy Perry's "ET" in which they changed to the beat of the music, I also used an idea from this video of the artists eyes opening to the beat of the music which I thought was a good way to relate the music to the video. "Domino" by Jessie J also showed these jump cuts flipping from each location quickly. The artist in my video was shown through the male gaze which I found was a common trait within the pop genre and so was an idea I decided to go with in my video after researching media texts.
During my coursework a close attention to real media texts for inspiration was an important concept for both AS and A2. For AS the brief was to create a 2 minute film opening sequence including titles for the genre horror. For A2 the brief was to create a music promo package including music video, digipak and advert within the genre pop. Various horror films and pop music videos were used to gain inspiration for the storyline, production and editing of both products.
In the pre production of my horror sequence at AS I began to look at how horror sequences worked and used certain ideas for effect. To do this I began to look at real media texts such as the "turning of the screw" for which I found that sound and a lack of diolog is highly effective for creating a horror sequence. I also looked at media texts and payed close attention to their titles as this was a key aspect needed such as "An nightmare on Elm Street" which was directed and written by Wes Craven in 1984 and was a sequence which helped me discover the order a title sequence should come in such as the Directors name last of all the titles. At A2 my research into the genre was of a much deeper level researching and anaylising a wide range of music videos and the editing, narrative and techniques. I had completed many 9 frame analysis's of videos such as Katy Perry's "Hot and cold" Pink's "So what" and Bruno Mars's "Lazy song" which all fit with the genre and helped me realise the typical conventions of a pop video. Doing a wide range of 9 frames at A2 unlike AS helped me identify how the artist should be positioned, the type of outfits and locations of a pop genre and the common types of shot needed. I also did in depth analysises of videos such as the Saturdays "Natorious" and Avril Lavignes "Smile" so I was familar with the type of outfits, locations and shot types used in videos and creative ways of representing.
During the production of my coursework at AS a lot of real media texts helped with the plot and storyline but also with shot types for my horror sequence. The media texts I used for inspiration into the storyline were Saw and Jeepers Creepers. These helped me discover the attributes to a horror such as within Saw the mystery of what is happening to the protagonists and why they are put into that type of situation is not revealed till the very end of the film and key aspects of the narrative are kept from the viewer. This was a key element used within my film sequence as certain information was hidden from the viewer. Within Jeepers Creepers the creepy feeling of the antagonist being made aware of by the viewers but not by other characters was another aspect which I wanted to display with shots of "the killer" in the back behind the protagonists in the majority of the shots. The Blair Witch Project is famous for its handheld camera scenes which I wanted to portray in my sequence and so had various shots from the antagonists point of view running through the trees to grip the viewers into the storyline. In A2 various music video's gave me inspiration which I developed further as to reasons why I used them through theory and representation. For example I used the shots of shoes walking to the beat of the music from The Saturdays "Natorious" video within my video as I thought it was a great way to link the video with the lyrics as often within the song I had chosen the lyrics say "tomorrow doesn't matter when you're moving your feet." Also having a dance routine was a key element used in the original video which I wanted to portray in my video.The "Natorious" video also helped me with the storyline as during their video it shows them first at a work setting then a party setting which is a theme I went with in my music video but taken a step further to add creativity by making the work scenes black and white and having various settings which the party was located. I also took inspiration when filming from the original video "Its all about tonight" by how the actress should look with similar styles of clothing and bright lipstick aswell as the storyline of not caring about anything but the night itself. The original video also helped us with the shot types ranging from longshots to extreme close ups throughout the video.
During post production various real media texts helped with my ideas of editing techniques and soundtrack. During AS I look at horror films such as "The Shining" and "Jaws" focusing mainly on the soundtrack and how they both use dramatic music as a key source to create suspence and tention among the viewers. In "The Shining" the characters have very little diolog and the majority of the film entails the characters acting normal but with terrifying music in the background indicating that something bad is about to occur. I used "The Shining" as inspiration for my soundtrack by it being dramatic and full of suspence when the characters have very little diolog. My soundtrack had some similarities to "Jaws" through it being a very low drummimg sound and a certain type of music which only occurs when the killer is present so that the viewer relates that specific sound with the killer. Though I did focus on real media texts for the soundtrack at AS I didn't really for the editing unlike A2 in which I used various media texts as inspiration. For example when the music for my video became very fast paced at a specific point flipping from all the different locations which I got the idea from Rihannas "We found love" and found it gave a feeling of that there was alot going on, something I wanted to portray in my video. The jumpcuts to the beat of the music was taken from Katy Perry's "ET" in which they changed to the beat of the music, I also used an idea from this video of the artists eyes opening to the beat of the music which I thought was a good way to relate the music to the video. "Domino" by Jessie J also showed these jump cuts flipping from each location quickly. The artist in my video was shown through the male gaze which I found was a common trait within the pop genre and so was an idea I decided to go with in my video after researching media texts.
Tuesday, 17 April 2012
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.
Over the last two years of my coursework productions I used a range of digital technologies which helped with my creativity. My AS brief was to create a two minute film opening sequence including titles for which I picked the genre horror. My A2 brief was to create a promo package including music video, digipak and advert for which I chosen the genre pop. Throughout the two years my development within technology improved and I became more inventive, creative and skilful into representing my work.
The coursework was displayed on Blogger which is an example of Web 2.0 media and which was used both years in order to display my research, planning and final products. In AS my blog was fairly limited as I was new to the technology with a minimum of 22 posts and plain black background the blog could of related much more to the genre in a creative way. Within A2 my progression in the use of Blogger improved massively and I furthered the skills through creative ways such as changing themes to fit the genre, use of the different features by adding the logo and photoshoot photos and having a much larger amount of posts at 65. All of these things as well as the blog having bright colourful backgrounds to fit in with the genre gave it a professional look much more superior to my AS blog. The tasks available also improved to fit the genre by us creating extra posts such as flyers, kimtags, QR codes and promotional packs in A2 using blogger and making the promo package much more realistic. Research into the genre was also displayed in a much greater depth within A2.
All my work within my AS was completed on a low grade of Imac and as I progressed to A2 began to complete my work it was on the Imac’s of a much higher spec so that the prosess of rendering and editing was much faster and much more work in the time period giving creating a much better video in A2 compared to AS.
In AS the storyboard lay out was done using the flash mic to record the narrative of the open sequence and shown on Imovie. Photos were taken by a stills camera and installed onto Imovie which they were put into order to show the events of the movie sequence planned. Though this shows creative media skills the use of Imovie for my storyboard at A2 showed much more advanced skills through having the track of the song chosen "Its all about tonight" downloaded and installed on Itunes to be put onto Imovie and a much larger amount of photos cut to the beat of the music showing quicker editing. My skills on Imovie were fairly basic at AS it taking a while to learn how to upload the photos where as at A2 I already knew how to upload them efficiently and so could spend my time getting the shots in the exact right order with the right pace ready to film and give myself an idea of the type of footage needed.
During the production of my coursework filming at AS involved a Sony digital Handycam 60x optical zoom 80gb camera for which we filmed the footage within a day. At A2 the production involved a varied amount of technologies and a much longer process in order to receive the large amount of footage needed. A Sony digital Handycam 60x optical zoom 80gb camera was used on a schedueled 5 days, during the production the technology of a smart phone was used to play the song in order to get the lip sync just correct and give the video the maximum professional look. Photoshoots were also done at A2 which were not at AS using a Fuji S3300 camera which were in theme with the genre and were used to give professional looking final products of a digipak and advert. With a range of different technologies during the production of the A2 production used it helped give a varied amount of products helping with the creativity of my coursework.
Post production helped me use a variety of different technologies within both AS and A2. To help with the horror film sequence in AS Final Cut was used to edit the footage and garage band was used to create a horror soundtrack to fit the footage and the genre of the clip. Within Final cut I became familiar with the razor tool and transitions to move from each clip. The razor tool helped me get rid of certain bits of footage which I felt was not appopriate or right for the genre as during filming not everything went to plan as hoped. Transitions included fading in and out at the correct moments to create a horror type feel. Showing the titles was also an important part of the sequence for which Final cut gave me access to the different texts and transitions with them available. In A2 Final Cut was also used to create the pop music video. This was a much more intense task given in which the razor tool was used but much more frequently showing a much larger amount of clips within a short space of time to fit with the fast paced beat of the song. The in and out markers were also used at A2 to get the lip sync exactly correct and a much wider range of transitions were given including bright coloured texts which came in to the beat of the music, black and white clips during the work scenes, and jump cuts or transitions placed in the correct place to fit with the music. Photoshop was also a key element into digital technology for both AS and A2 in the progression of my creativity. Within AS I designed a logo and title screen for my horror sequence which both fit the genre and showed horror type text and photos. Though I did try and relate these to the genre they were fairly basic with a minimal ammount of layers, detail or a professional look. Within A2 I used Photoshop much more frequently creating a logo, digipak, advert and flyer on it developing my skills masively in how to use the software though it may seem difficult. My digipak and advert were highly detailed showing all the information needed such as logo, songs available and release date and real primary photos were used on each to make them look professional. The logo showed my unique production of smoking hot records showing creativity as it was shown on each of the tasks given.
Over the last two years of my coursework productions I used a range of digital technologies which helped with my creativity. My AS brief was to create a two minute film opening sequence including titles for which I picked the genre horror. My A2 brief was to create a promo package including music video, digipak and advert for which I chosen the genre pop. Throughout the two years my development within technology improved and I became more inventive, creative and skilful into representing my work.
The coursework was displayed on Blogger which is an example of Web 2.0 media and which was used both years in order to display my research, planning and final products. In AS my blog was fairly limited as I was new to the technology with a minimum of 22 posts and plain black background the blog could of related much more to the genre in a creative way. Within A2 my progression in the use of Blogger improved massively and I furthered the skills through creative ways such as changing themes to fit the genre, use of the different features by adding the logo and photoshoot photos and having a much larger amount of posts at 65. All of these things as well as the blog having bright colourful backgrounds to fit in with the genre gave it a professional look much more superior to my AS blog. The tasks available also improved to fit the genre by us creating extra posts such as flyers, kimtags, QR codes and promotional packs in A2 using blogger and making the promo package much more realistic. Research into the genre was also displayed in a much greater depth within A2.
All my work within my AS was completed on a low grade of Imac and as I progressed to A2 began to complete my work it was on the Imac’s of a much higher spec so that the prosess of rendering and editing was much faster and much more work in the time period giving creating a much better video in A2 compared to AS.
In AS the storyboard lay out was done using the flash mic to record the narrative of the open sequence and shown on Imovie. Photos were taken by a stills camera and installed onto Imovie which they were put into order to show the events of the movie sequence planned. Though this shows creative media skills the use of Imovie for my storyboard at A2 showed much more advanced skills through having the track of the song chosen "Its all about tonight" downloaded and installed on Itunes to be put onto Imovie and a much larger amount of photos cut to the beat of the music showing quicker editing. My skills on Imovie were fairly basic at AS it taking a while to learn how to upload the photos where as at A2 I already knew how to upload them efficiently and so could spend my time getting the shots in the exact right order with the right pace ready to film and give myself an idea of the type of footage needed.
During the production of my coursework filming at AS involved a Sony digital Handycam 60x optical zoom 80gb camera for which we filmed the footage within a day. At A2 the production involved a varied amount of technologies and a much longer process in order to receive the large amount of footage needed. A Sony digital Handycam 60x optical zoom 80gb camera was used on a schedueled 5 days, during the production the technology of a smart phone was used to play the song in order to get the lip sync just correct and give the video the maximum professional look. Photoshoots were also done at A2 which were not at AS using a Fuji S3300 camera which were in theme with the genre and were used to give professional looking final products of a digipak and advert. With a range of different technologies during the production of the A2 production used it helped give a varied amount of products helping with the creativity of my coursework.
Post production helped me use a variety of different technologies within both AS and A2. To help with the horror film sequence in AS Final Cut was used to edit the footage and garage band was used to create a horror soundtrack to fit the footage and the genre of the clip. Within Final cut I became familiar with the razor tool and transitions to move from each clip. The razor tool helped me get rid of certain bits of footage which I felt was not appopriate or right for the genre as during filming not everything went to plan as hoped. Transitions included fading in and out at the correct moments to create a horror type feel. Showing the titles was also an important part of the sequence for which Final cut gave me access to the different texts and transitions with them available. In A2 Final Cut was also used to create the pop music video. This was a much more intense task given in which the razor tool was used but much more frequently showing a much larger amount of clips within a short space of time to fit with the fast paced beat of the song. The in and out markers were also used at A2 to get the lip sync exactly correct and a much wider range of transitions were given including bright coloured texts which came in to the beat of the music, black and white clips during the work scenes, and jump cuts or transitions placed in the correct place to fit with the music. Photoshop was also a key element into digital technology for both AS and A2 in the progression of my creativity. Within AS I designed a logo and title screen for my horror sequence which both fit the genre and showed horror type text and photos. Though I did try and relate these to the genre they were fairly basic with a minimal ammount of layers, detail or a professional look. Within A2 I used Photoshop much more frequently creating a logo, digipak, advert and flyer on it developing my skills masively in how to use the software though it may seem difficult. My digipak and advert were highly detailed showing all the information needed such as logo, songs available and release date and real primary photos were used on each to make them look professional. The logo showed my unique production of smoking hot records showing creativity as it was shown on each of the tasks given.
Tuesday, 3 April 2012
Sket analysis
Sket is an urban retribution thriller film set in East London which is an extreme and controversial look at the world of girl gangs. The director and writer Nirpal Bhogal states that he wanted to make a film for gang members rather than about them showing a realistic view of gang members lifestyle towards the public. Though it may seem to show a negative representation of gang members who are abbusive and violent, the film reveals backstories for each of the characters revealing a reason for their anger which the director hoped to create sympathy from the viewers. The characters are representation of real life gang members which viewers may not of been able to sympathise with in the past and may change peoples opinions of. As the story line unravels the aggressive gang members appearance is scratched away and fragile states are revealed as girls who have had noone and who have built up this posteria in order to survive within the rough areas of London.
Stereotypes of youths within the riots are highlighted throughout the film with the characters actions and mannerisms. The four girls are always seen together within a gang wearing hoodys and similar clothing throughout the film showing that similar to Jimmy and the mods within Quadraphinia youths like to feel part of a culture by dressing the same. The mannerism of speach and body language also represent typical representation of youths for example banging into passers by or beating people up and using language such as "sket" and "slut." These mannerism could be represented in order to set the scene of youths similar to those interviewed during the riots, which the audience are use to yet the backstory of the film helps indicate why youths may do these things showing their actions sympathetically and in a less sceptical positive light. The film gives a chance to show answers for behaviour given and go against the reasons behind these actions rather then what was thought that the youths are just bad people.
Throughout the film footage is rarely shown of police or authorital figures. This could be an indication that they are not really present within a gang members world and are seen to not be able to do anything. This is shown further when Kayla is asked if she has rang the police and she states "can they do anything?" which shows a negetive representation of the police as a group which youths feel do not do anything when people go against society so there is no real reason or threat why they can't go against society. This links in with the London riots as people took the opportunity to loot simply because they could and they felt no consequences would be given to them by going against society and breaking the law.
Stereotypes of youths within the riots are highlighted throughout the film with the characters actions and mannerisms. The four girls are always seen together within a gang wearing hoodys and similar clothing throughout the film showing that similar to Jimmy and the mods within Quadraphinia youths like to feel part of a culture by dressing the same. The mannerism of speach and body language also represent typical representation of youths for example banging into passers by or beating people up and using language such as "sket" and "slut." These mannerism could be represented in order to set the scene of youths similar to those interviewed during the riots, which the audience are use to yet the backstory of the film helps indicate why youths may do these things showing their actions sympathetically and in a less sceptical positive light. The film gives a chance to show answers for behaviour given and go against the reasons behind these actions rather then what was thought that the youths are just bad people.
Throughout the film footage is rarely shown of police or authorital figures. This could be an indication that they are not really present within a gang members world and are seen to not be able to do anything. This is shown further when Kayla is asked if she has rang the police and she states "can they do anything?" which shows a negetive representation of the police as a group which youths feel do not do anything when people go against society so there is no real reason or threat why they can't go against society. This links in with the London riots as people took the opportunity to loot simply because they could and they felt no consequences would be given to them by going against society and breaking the law.
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