Digital Technology
1A)'Digital technology turns media consumers into media producers.' In your own experience, how has your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete your coursework productions?
In year 12 we produced a film opening, the EZ life. In year 13 we created a cross promotional campaign for a new artist, our artist was C.DOT. This included a music video, a website and a digipak. As a digital native, I have always being a media consumer. My A levels media studies course has given me a wide range of creative skills at which has turned me into a media producer. This has helped throughout the last two years as I have used a variety of digital technology such as different software’s, the internet and the online and presentational skills.
Before starting A level media, I used a small amount of software’s that I had basic knowledge on. Therefore my creativity was limited to the amount I knew. PowerPoint at this stage was the software which I used the most as it was simple to use. However after taking media at AS level, I used a new advanced software known as Photoshop. I had no experience using this software when I first took media as I was used to creating posters on word or PowerPoint, which was a simple form but not as effective as Photoshop. Photoshop allowed me to have a variety of different layers at which I could all mix together. To practise on this software I created a moodboard for our AS film opening. This process took me a long time to figure out as I was intrigued to find the right effects and make sure that when I uploaded a photo and merged it onto another photo, that it was in pristine condition. I did this by using a variety of tools to blur an image onto another one, aswell as colour correcting certain parts of the image in order for it to look like a shadow behind our star in our film. I continued to use Photoshop for my AS and A2 posters. This gave me vital experience on this software and now after my first year of using this software, I felt very confident. At A2 I combined Photoshop with a variety of different software’s in order to enhance the effect and improve the overall quality of the media product. One software which I combined alongside Photoshop was Graffiti which we generated the text for our magazine article, something at which made the font match our genre of our music video, hip hop. This was a website which allowed me to personally write the text in the method which I wanted aswell as having a series of effects, like changing the opacity of the text and you could have up to three background effects behind or on top of the font. This website also allowed me to place this onto Photoshop and I was also allowed to enhance the font itself, on Photoshop. This has enabled me to explore various methods at which could improve my media product. For our digipak, I used Photoshop alongside adobe premiere after affects at which I created a parallax, the 3D effect was created by putting our artist into a crowd, with the camera panning left to right getting a different angle from the artists view. I then added the parallax to Photoshop to create our digipak.
When I started the course I had no skills in editing using the software Adobe Premiere Pro. However, from AS to the end of my coursework in A2 my creativity skills have developed due to my knowledge of technology being broadened. I used a new software Adobe Premier at which over that year I progressed my skills and teached myself various different editing skills, from creating a dancing bear sequence which required cutting a variety of blackouts between scenes at which had to be timed to a perfect rhythm in order for the shots to flow into a nice controlled pattern. We also created aa Juno task, where we had to create a identical 30 second clip of the opening sequence. This was challenging at the time as we had to change the background to a cartoon effect and this was done by continuously working out the different style of effects which can work together to enhance the image and portray a similar opening sequence. Also in AS we created a prelim task at which we had to colour correct certain shots in order to increase the quality which took a lot more detail, as we used two main effects, the three way colour scheme, aswell as brightness and contrast. At the beginning of A2 my ability to use premiere was at a good level and I felt confident in trying out new methods. Although this year we felt as though we wanted to increase the amount of effects as in a music video there are a higher amount of shots which we would incorporated. I did a banana phone task at which I created a stop motion animation alongside a cloning shot. This turned out to be very useful for our music video at which we used a cloning shot for our CCTV shots in our music video alongside a slow motion reverse shot which our artist C.DOT moving forward and backwards in time with the beat of our song.
As a media consumer before I took Media at A level, I used to use YouTube by just watching small videos. However over the last two years I have not only used YouTube as a way of watching videos, but also as a way of uploading various videos and tagging them in labels. The use of labels allows videos to be seen in a particular section such as the media tag on YouTube. This enables viewers to select a certain label and have a whole host of videos which target a specific audience. From this in A2 I am now using YouTube as a presentational device which can enhance the video itself this is through the use of annotations at which I have used to portray various messages across. I also played around with some series of effects which YouTube has like the enhancements which change the image through different colours. For my A2 coursework, I created a Director’s cut through the use of YouTube at which I could insert a running commentary on top of the video.
I used the internet before I took media although it was mainly used for research for educational or recreational uses, or for social media accounts such as facebook and twitter and in year 11 I was given a step by step guide at how to create a small website. In year 12 I began to get involved in presentational tools on the internet such as Prezi. Prezi was a tool at which it was a level above in anything I had seen before, it has nice transitions aswell as a variety of methods to show information on such as the variety of boxes. The layout on Prezi was very easy to use once I got the hang of it and it allowed me to be as creative as I wanted, I could make the transitions which I wanted. However, in year 13 I had to create a website which correlated with our music video, I used a website called Wix at which I had to create a website by myself without a step by step guide. This although I found difficult this allowed me to produce the website as I saw fit, it allowed me to be more creative. In the past as a media consumer I would have been looking at other websites however after the last two years I have been able to create a website.
Monday, 11 April 2016
Saturday, 20 February 2016
Question 1B Genre
Discuss how you used Genre in one of your coursework productions to create meaning for the audience (25 marks)
For my A2 media project we created a music video which conveyed the genre of hip hop. This allowed use to be creative inside our genre although we had to stick to a certain amount of specific genre conventions, to make sure our audience understood what we were trying to convey. In our video we conformed our genre in multiple ways to create a variety meanings for our audience.
I have decided to choose Steve Neale's theory of genres being created through instances of repetition and difference to analyse the ways in which different genres of music videos have developed and how the genre of my music video can be established by an audience. In my music video their are a short amount of urban locations such as barbican, shoreditch and the O2 arena. This is something which is seen continuously throughout the video of our artist in similar urban locations. When we constructed our research we found that many English rap artists have used some of these locations for example, Skepta's shutdown music video is solely filmed in barbican. In our genre there are lots of camera shots where the artist is centre of the frame, as he is considered as being the most important. In our music video our artist, C.DOT is in the majority of our shots as he is considered as the most important person, he is also found in the centre of the frame, in many shots such as the car shot with C.DOT singing with his back up group behind him in front of the car, which is seen mutiple times throughout the video. This is also used a lot in rap artist's music videos, for example ASAP Rocky's music video 'Peso' has a wide range of shots with him and his group of friends in the background, although ASAP is always in the centre of the fram showing that he is the most important.
The majority of our shots were centred and focused around our star performer, C.DOT. We did this by having a series of close ups and through the use of editing, we slowed down the pace of the shot on some close up where our artist was the only person in the shot. This was something that we learnt from Andrew Goodwin's theory that star persona is important and companies use close ups to sell them to the audience. As this was our artist's first release we felt as though we would constantly have C.DOT centre of the frame, aswell as having a large share of the attention. In our music video, C.DOT is seen by himself, this was because we wanted our audience to be focused on the artist as a whole. Camera is really important to the genre and it enables to create very quick certain atmospheres. We made sure that our camera work sticked within our generic conventions. We had a variety of low angle shots, where our artist is pointing down towards the camera in an aggressive manner. This therefore throughout the music video, we encoded this to evoke genre conventions of rap videos, this helps the audience understand the genre of the music video.
Mise en scene was a media language method which we used alongside our camera work. We had a series of props which all fitted towards the stereotypical hip hop genre, such as the gold grill. The gold grill can be seen throughout the video, although at the start we did a slow motion, close up shot of our artist C.DOT wearing a gold chain, whilst showing off his gold grill. We wanted to stay with our genre conventions. The close up of the gold chain and gold grill was a method which we felt as though we wanted our artist to stand out, as gold is represented as high class and expensive. In our genre hip hop the fashion industry is becoming increasingly popular, as it no longer a genre where artists videos are found in run down places. We wanted to create an image to our audience through the use of the props such as the long shot of our artist alongside a variety of different stylish cars. This would then enable our audience to have a different perception on our artist C.DOT.
For my A2 media project we created a music video which conveyed the genre of hip hop. This allowed use to be creative inside our genre although we had to stick to a certain amount of specific genre conventions, to make sure our audience understood what we were trying to convey. In our video we conformed our genre in multiple ways to create a variety meanings for our audience.
I have decided to choose Steve Neale's theory of genres being created through instances of repetition and difference to analyse the ways in which different genres of music videos have developed and how the genre of my music video can be established by an audience. In my music video their are a short amount of urban locations such as barbican, shoreditch and the O2 arena. This is something which is seen continuously throughout the video of our artist in similar urban locations. When we constructed our research we found that many English rap artists have used some of these locations for example, Skepta's shutdown music video is solely filmed in barbican. In our genre there are lots of camera shots where the artist is centre of the frame, as he is considered as being the most important. In our music video our artist, C.DOT is in the majority of our shots as he is considered as the most important person, he is also found in the centre of the frame, in many shots such as the car shot with C.DOT singing with his back up group behind him in front of the car, which is seen mutiple times throughout the video. This is also used a lot in rap artist's music videos, for example ASAP Rocky's music video 'Peso' has a wide range of shots with him and his group of friends in the background, although ASAP is always in the centre of the fram showing that he is the most important.
The majority of our shots were centred and focused around our star performer, C.DOT. We did this by having a series of close ups and through the use of editing, we slowed down the pace of the shot on some close up where our artist was the only person in the shot. This was something that we learnt from Andrew Goodwin's theory that star persona is important and companies use close ups to sell them to the audience. As this was our artist's first release we felt as though we would constantly have C.DOT centre of the frame, aswell as having a large share of the attention. In our music video, C.DOT is seen by himself, this was because we wanted our audience to be focused on the artist as a whole. Camera is really important to the genre and it enables to create very quick certain atmospheres. We made sure that our camera work sticked within our generic conventions. We had a variety of low angle shots, where our artist is pointing down towards the camera in an aggressive manner. This therefore throughout the music video, we encoded this to evoke genre conventions of rap videos, this helps the audience understand the genre of the music video.
Mise en scene was a media language method which we used alongside our camera work. We had a series of props which all fitted towards the stereotypical hip hop genre, such as the gold grill. The gold grill can be seen throughout the video, although at the start we did a slow motion, close up shot of our artist C.DOT wearing a gold chain, whilst showing off his gold grill. We wanted to stay with our genre conventions. The close up of the gold chain and gold grill was a method which we felt as though we wanted our artist to stand out, as gold is represented as high class and expensive. In our genre hip hop the fashion industry is becoming increasingly popular, as it no longer a genre where artists videos are found in run down places. We wanted to create an image to our audience through the use of the props such as the long shot of our artist alongside a variety of different stylish cars. This would then enable our audience to have a different perception on our artist C.DOT.
Wednesday, 17 February 2016
1B - Media Language
Discuss how you used Media Language in one of your coursework productions to create meaning for the audience (25 marks)
In year 13 we created a music video which conveyed the genre of hip hop. In our video we used media language deliberately to create a series of meanings for the audience.
Camera is really important to the genre and it enables to create very quick certain atmospheres. We made sure that our camera work sticked within our generic conventions. We had a variety of low angle shots, where our artist is pointing down towards the camera in an aggressive manner. This therefore throughout the music video, we encoded this to evoke genre conventions of rap videos, this helps the audience understand the genre of the music video.
Mise en scene was a media language method which we used alongside our camera work. We had a series of props which all fitted towards the stereotypical hip hop genre, such as the gold grill. The gold grill can be seen throughout the video, although at the start we did a slow motion, close up shot of our artist C.DOT wearing a gold chain, whilst showing off his gold grill. We wanted to stay with our genre conventions. The close up of the gold chain and gold grill was a method which we felt as though we wanted our artist to stand out, as gold is represented as high class and expensive. In our genre hip hop the fashion industry is becoming increasingly popular, as it no longer a genre where artists videos are found in run down places. We wanted to create an image to our audience through the use of the props such as the long shot of our artist alongside a variety of different stylish cars. This would then enable our audience to have a different perception on our artist C.DOT.
We supported the view of Steven Neales theory that genre's are constantly evolving and changing. Our genre was hip hop, which as talked about above we have stayed within some of our generic conventions. This was through the use of our costumes, props, camera work and the way we edited our music video. Although there was some genre conventions which as a group we did not include. In the genre hip hop, women are normally associated in videos and are portrayed in a negative way. Laura Mulvey believes that media texts often encourage the audience to objectify women and look at them with the male gaze. Although this is usually conveyed in hip hop music videos, this is something which as a group we would steer clear from. Steven Neales theory is something which we looked at and realised that we could have an effect on the audience if we did not support all of the genre conventions in hip hop.
Friday, 12 February 2016
Narrative
Discuss how you used Narrative in one of your coursework
productions to create meaning for the audience (25 marks)
In Year 12 for my AS Media studies coursework, we created a film opening, the eZ life. This film opening conveyed our genre which was Thriller. We researched a variety of different film openings such as Zombieland and Project X. From each of these films we found a lot of ideas which we could incorporate into our film opening. Our film opening is non-linear narrative in different parts of the opening itself. We generated different meaning this through the use of camera, editing, sound and Mise en scene throughout our film opening.
The editing in our video was deliberately constructed to create meaning for the audience. We used a number of fast cuts and transitions to create pace at the start of our music video. In the first refrain, we included Levi Strauss' theory Bionary opposites - we included some quick snapshots of festival shots which symbolise having a good time with everyone having a good time together, whereas at the end of our film opening, there are riots with flashing lights where chaos is erupting. This shows the audience the quick transition between violence and peace which enhances the feelings of the audience. Our first refrain has fast transitions of our main character illegally getting drugs off a drug dealer, we did this to show our audience that he did not think before what he acted and this happens so quickly in life. This gives the audience a sense of realism. We also used Allan Cameron's where we had a anachronic narrative. Through the use of editing we included various flashforwards, where we had a flashing danger sign when he got given the drugs. This was to give the audience an idea of what went wrong at the time.
The use of the camera allowed us to create a variety of meanings for the audience. Throughout our film opening we used Barthers theory with the same close up of the eye where the pupils dilate. This was a symbolism in our film as it shows the transformation into a zombie. The close up to the pupils gives the insight to the audience that the transformation is so sudden. We created a worms view shot, where our main character walked over the camera. This was something which we felt would confuse the audience and leave them disorientated. We also generated a time laspe at which we had to keep the camera still and in the same position for every photo taken.
The main use of sound from our film opening was the song which was used for the first 2 minutes. This was a song which we felt fitted well with our film as our film was concerning the use of drug use in teens. This gave the audience a sense of realism as young teens across the world are experiencing this situation.
The main use of sound from our film opening was the song which was used for the first 2 minutes. This was a song which we felt fitted well with our film as our film was concerning the use of drug use in teens. This gave the audience a sense of realism as young teens across the world are experiencing this situation.
Friday, 5 February 2016
Audience Question 1B
Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to
the concept of audience. (25 marks)
In Year 13 we created a cross promotional package which
included a Music Video, Digipak and a website. The cross promotional package is
important to appeal to a specific audience in order to reach the right
audience. For example my music video was a Hip Hop genre related video at which
our primary target audience was ages 16-24 years old. This is a wide target audience as rap can
attract many younger people and with the increasing ageing population, it is
seen as anything up to 30 is still young.
Our secondary target audience is male's aged 12-15 years
old. This is a young audience for the genre rap however with children using the
internet from a young age and the genre itself becoming more popular in the
charts, in time this age group could become an important fan base for many rap
artists. The internet is a source of information and this could persuade the
younger generation to become more interested in rap at an earlier age rather
than listening to the charts. Female's at this young age are normally still
heavily into pop music, into the main stream charts.
We took out some extensive, primary market research in which we wanted to find out what hip hop genre fans like in a music video.
We took out some extensive, primary market research in which we wanted to find out what hip hop genre fans like in a music video.
An audience for a music video wants the video to memorable
and a method at which attracts them towards the artist themselves in order to
buy the album or track. It is also there to entertain the viewer. In our music
video we tried a variety of different editing techniques such as the scribble animation effect which is seen throughout our video on different shots, this creates a theme throughou
A music video or song
video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional
or artistic purposes.
To get a C/D grade
Intro: Why is it important / essential for a media product
like a film or a music video to appeal to an audience?
Who was your target audience for your production? Gender,
age, class, hobbies and media interests.
To get the A&B grades, try and describe their social demographic
groups (ABC1C2DE)
What did you do to research what your audience wanted? What did you find out about what they
wanted? To get the A&B grades, don’t
just describe what they wanted, try and comment on why they might want these things
– use theory here.
Main: How did you use the following things to attract /
engage an audience?:
• Camera
• Editing
• Sound
• Mise-en-scene
What feedback did you seek AFTER your production and what
was it like? How did a “real audience”
react to your product? Did they react in
the way you thought they would? Why?
Conclusion: How
important it is to consider your audience in depth and how this changed /
affected your production overall.
Tuesday, 2 February 2016
1A) Abode Premiere - Video Effects
Opacity – See through
After Effects
Static Generator
Fade in, Fade Out
Non, Scale Zoom
Opacity overlap
Ultra key
Text
Warp Stabilizer
Balance and contrast
Slow Motion Change speed 80%
Photoshop frame by frame drawing
Repeat Shot
Reverse Shot
Gaussian
Duplicate shot
Change to colour
Colour Grading
10 point overlap
Bukkake Effect
Shot rotate
Fast Blur
Screen Wipe
Billboard Effect
Parallax Effect
1A) Research and Planning Info + Practise
Research:
1a) Explain how your research and planning skills developed over time and how these decisions contributed to your media productions outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer.
In year 12 we produced a film opening, the EZ life. In year 13 we created a cross promotional campaign for a new artist, our artist was C.DOT. This included a music video, a website and a digipak. Over the last two years I have developed my research and planning skills, at which I feel have overall increased the level of both my media productions from year 12 to year 13.
For my Primary research, in year 12 I created some survey’s using the website surveymonkey for audience feedback on my film opening the EZ life. It was very easy to use as it gave a step by step guide at how to create a survey. It also correlated data in a certain way which was helpful at the time, in graph formats, however it did not really express my skill as it was all done for me. However in year 13 I found that it did not present data in the way that I liked, therefore I used anthor online survey for primary research for receiving feedback on Quicktime survey, this method allowed me to present data at which I would like it this could be on a pie chart, scatter chart or bar graph, I decided on various graphs which the data suited better. The survey website also allowed me to make the survey more appealing to the audience as I could upload various images which made the survey relevant towards what we wanted to find out.
Secondary research, was something which I felt my skills were already at quite a high level. At the beginning of year 12, we had to research a variety of media texts and describe and explain the genre of different films. At the start I found it difficult to find the right websites, and whether or not I could filter certain information in order to get the right specific information I wanted. For our prelim task we were given a family drama task at which we did not know about the genre family drama. This was something at which I did not do in year 12 I did not filter the information, I would pick the first thing which appeared on a search engine, this ended up being a comedy film rather than a family drama, therefore our prelim task we found difficult as we did not give ourselves enough time to research in detail. However in year 13, I found it a lot easier to filter information through the use of websites and that I would find the specific research which I wanted that would help improve my music video, such as the Justin Bieber effect, at we researched a wide variety of hip hop songs to get a wide range of views of different videos. By doing this it enabled us to get a better understanding of the genre itself, and to see whether we could implement some of our ideas into our music video or whether it did not fit, the billboard was an example of this. By researching Kanye west’s song flashing lights, this showed us that we can have a variety of concepts in our music video.
- Primary Research that we did ourself, LOOK AT BLOGS Audience ( Yr 13 Q3, Yr 12 Q4) Distribution, Institution
- Secondary research, real media products themselfs, Genre, Semitotics, Theory, Conventions, ancilalry texts over both years, website, digipak, magazine article, posters
- Skills research - Youtube tutorials, trail and errors how has skils improved due to research over the 2 years.
Planning:
- Storyboards
- Location reece
- Shooting Schedules
- Props
- Costumes
1a) Explain how your research and planning skills developed over time and how these decisions contributed to your media productions outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answer.
In year 12 we produced a film opening, the EZ life. In year 13 we created a cross promotional campaign for a new artist, our artist was C.DOT. This included a music video, a website and a digipak. Over the last two years I have developed my research and planning skills, at which I feel have overall increased the level of both my media productions from year 12 to year 13.
For my Primary research, in year 12 I created some survey’s using the website surveymonkey for audience feedback on my film opening the EZ life. It was very easy to use as it gave a step by step guide at how to create a survey. It also correlated data in a certain way which was helpful at the time, in graph formats, however it did not really express my skill as it was all done for me. However in year 13 I found that it did not present data in the way that I liked, therefore I used anthor online survey for primary research for receiving feedback on Quicktime survey, this method allowed me to present data at which I would like it this could be on a pie chart, scatter chart or bar graph, I decided on various graphs which the data suited better. The survey website also allowed me to make the survey more appealing to the audience as I could upload various images which made the survey relevant towards what we wanted to find out.
Secondary research, was something which I felt my skills were already at quite a high level. At the beginning of year 12, we had to research a variety of media texts and describe and explain the genre of different films. At the start I found it difficult to find the right websites, and whether or not I could filter certain information in order to get the right specific information I wanted. For our prelim task we were given a family drama task at which we did not know about the genre family drama. This was something at which I did not do in year 12 I did not filter the information, I would pick the first thing which appeared on a search engine, this ended up being a comedy film rather than a family drama, therefore our prelim task we found difficult as we did not give ourselves enough time to research in detail. However in year 13, I found it a lot easier to filter information through the use of websites and that I would find the specific research which I wanted that would help improve my music video, such as the Justin Bieber effect, at we researched a wide variety of hip hop songs to get a wide range of views of different videos. By doing this it enabled us to get a better understanding of the genre itself, and to see whether we could implement some of our ideas into our music video or whether it did not fit, the billboard was an example of this. By researching Kanye west’s song flashing lights, this showed us that we can have a variety of concepts in our music video.
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