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.

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.

Editing in our music video was consistently used in different manners to generate different audience feelings. At the start of our music video we included all of 10, locations that C.DOT our artist is featured in, in the whole music video itself. We did this to create a number of effects for the audience. The majority of our locations were urban, this is seen a lot in hip hop music video's, this gives the audience something to relate to. We also used Vernallis’ theory of thought beats during the video – we encoded this into our video to evoke genre conventions of rap videos, and enhance meaning for the audience. This worked particularly well with the chorus, where we used reverse shots in time with the song.

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.

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.       

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. 

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.

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:

• 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.

1A) Post- Production Info + practise question

Post - Production is about everything you do after filming to complete your media product.
How has post -production skills improved over time, FIND EXAMPLES FROM BLOGS at AS and A2

• Image manipulation
• Video Editing
• Sound Production
• Sound and video mixing

Can talk about:

• Photoshop
• Abode premiere
• After effects
• Audacity

1A) Describe a range of creative decisions that you made in post-production and how these decisions made a difference to the final outcomes. Refer to a range of examples in your answers to show how these skills developed over time.

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 enabled me to improve my creative skills in post-production.

For my AS post-production I used a software called adobe premiere pro to enhance the shots at which we got for our film opening. At this stage I had only developed basic skills in using the tools on premiere pro. Therefore I had to use my basic knowledge for editing the final film opening, at which consisted of cutting shots, changing the colour of certain shots and some blur shots which I had previously done on the software. For my production in year 12, I needed to put a shot into anthor shot we had to do this by using a green screen, as well as descaling the image in order for the image to appear on the TV. I researched a variety of techniques in order how to do this in the best possible way through YouTube tutorials. I had to make a frame by frame adjustment when the camera moved slightly, this required a frame by frame movement onto anthor shot. This is something which I did not feel comfortable with doing at the time however after playing around with certain tools I found my own adjusted way to the YouTube tutorial, I created a split screen, with two TV’s on in the background. Although I had done this very well, there was a slight blur across the right hand screen, where the shot did not scale into the TV when I saw our final film opening. This taught me that I needed to double check the editing at which I did. In year 13, I had a bigger task for post-production at which I used Adobe premiere pro after effects in order to create an animated billboard on a zooming shot. This was something at which after AS I could learn quickly. After effects improves the quality of the shot aswell as it allows the animated billboard to look realistic and it matches the shot very well. Instead of descaling the shot, instead I had to create the animation on the billboard itself. My overall skills levels have increased the speed at which I can work, aswell as I feel comfortable with using new software’s.

In AS we had to create a film poster in our group. I created our poster on Photoshop at which I had little knowledge on 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. For my AS poster on Photoshop we generated the text from a website called graffitier, something at which made the font match our genre of our film, thriller. 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. In my second year of taking media, I felt confident in my ability to play around with different softwares. 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 aritist 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.

1A) Digital technology Info + Practise question

Digital Technology -

Asks about your progress over AS to A2. Look at evalutaions questions from last year and this year.

Software:

• Adobe Premiere - Skills used in AS dancing bears, james bond, Juno, prelim, film opening and then skills used in A2 Banana Phone, Prelim, Music video. Skills on adboe could be cuts, export,frame size, camera angles, green screen, animation, colour correcting (FIND MORE IN DETAIL)
• After effects - Links to one above, did this in A2
• Photoshop
• Powerpoint 

Internet:
Presentational tools: how i have learnt about limitations aswell as positive

• Prezi
• Powtoon
• Emaze
• Slideshare
• Padlet
• Examtime
• Wix
• Social media
• Blogger
• Youtube - how we have used this to a better effect
• Audacity

Examples of Digital technology

• Camera
• Lighting
• Wordle
• Steal O matic
• Cloning
• Lego stop motion
• Photobucket
• Vistaprint
• Warp stabliser

Exam GUIDE
What did you do?
How did you do it?
How did you skills develop?
All supported with SPECIFIC examples
In relation to the areas in the question

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 softwares 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 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 lots of cutting to our prelim task at which we had to colour correct certain shots in order to increase the quality which took a lot more detail than just cutting shots. 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 I still didn’t really have much knowledge about the effects that premiere could do. I did a banana phone task at which I created a stop motion animation alongside a cloning shot. This was very useful for our music video at which we used a cloning shot for our CCTV shots. Also in A2, I began to test myself on Adobe premiere after effects, at which I was able to create a billboard for our music video into anthor shot. Adobe after effects was a lot more complicated and it is now something at which after the last two years I feel comfortable using.

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. 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.

The internet for was before media was used for research, 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. 

Feedback on this Essay
12 or 13 out of 25
Good intro
Need to be more reflective, dont just focus on what you did but HOW WELL YOU DID IT AND HOW YOU DEVELOPED IT.
Explore it in relation to codes + conventions and media products.
Consider creativity side more
Your structure is an issue it stops you exploring development

Past questions for 1A and 1B

A2 MEDIA G325 SECTION A PAST QUESTIONS from Graveney School

Overview of A2 Exam

G325 - Critical Perspectives in Media - 8th June 2 hours exam

Section 1 : 2 questions

1A) 25 marks, 30 mins

• Digital Technology
• Research and Planning
• Post-Production
• Using conventions from real media texts
• Creativity (will only be used with anthor one, NOT ON IT's OWN)

1B) 25 marks, 30 mins

• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media Language

(Theories needed)

Section 2: 1 question
2) 50 marks, 60 mins

a2 exam from Great Baddow High School Media