Q1.b. Representation - 2nd draft

At A2 I created a cross promotional package which included a digipak, a website and a music video to promote a new music video, Buried Alive by iSO. Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective. We had to use various representations in order to convey our genre and make the music video successful in terms of including all the noticeable features. We used different representations in order to illustrate the genre, gender, locations and the reality of the video, as well as the digipak and website inclusively. The music video aims to represent a form of reality for the protagonist within the linear narrative.

Throughout my A2 music video, the representations that have been shown do come through our own ideologies, values and beliefs. When representing a new artist we wanted to portray star image, which Goodwin suggests is essential for a music video to be successful, through the use of close up shots. We were able to repeat close ups, of iSO’s face but also body parts as he was being buried alive, continually through the music video so that our audience are able to become familiar with our new artist. Another part of our cross promotional package was the website which was very important in promoting and representing our new artist in the correct way we wanted him to be seen by the nation. Through the use of the image of iSO’s face on the gallery of the website page we were able to represent him in the way we wanted by creating star image with appropriate images we felt portrayed the personality we aimed for. When portraying his identity we wanted it to look as though he was more than a ‘dead end’ rap artist, we wanted him to represent someone who had intellectual thoughts as shown in some shots, whereby the light captures the outline of his body making him look bright yet natural.

Levi Strauss said that media texts often represent characters in terms of binary opposites such as good vs. evil and weak vs. stong. In our music video we showed vast amounts of juxtaposition between reality and concept as our music video shows our main character in real life and then contrasts to the concept of him being buried alive. We used this through showing a mixture of shots of our artist being buried alive, whereby the concept was his soul was being buried, compared to the shots of iSO in search of his soul where the camera follows him through the graveyard. Using the binary opposites in the music video, it creates a highlighting effect of each personality of the character he portrays which contrasts the two.

In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory he states that audiences may watch media for self-identification. This is relevant to our production as our target audience is that of older teenagers, 15-22 year olds that will be able to recognise the struggle between being the person people think you are and trying to find your real soul.

We represented a dystopian/ utopian theme throughout the video with the use of effects on Adobe Premiere when we edited our final music video. We decided to use this as we felt within typical rap genre music videos usually you see the main artist with either alcohol or reference to drugs, therefore we were able to represent this through our editing. By doing this we challenged the stereotypes as usually rap artists have a reputation for drinking and doing drugs at some point throughout their video which we found from extensive research.

Challenging the stereotype of rap artists being black and masculine with a strong build meant that we had to still target our audience of the rap fan base who wouldn’t be used to seeing this. Firstly, our main character was white and British which immediately went against the stereotype and challenged it however, we felt this worked. We went against the stereotype of including women in our rap video as we didn’t feel it was appropriate or necessary however, this is unusual for a rap video. Laura Mulvey’s theory describes how the audience, or viewer, is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male. Mulvey believes that women should enjoy the attention of attracting the gaze, and put themselves in positions to be looked at. The concept of ‘the gaze’ is one that deals with how an audience views the people/person presented. Angela McRobbie says that men and women are often represented through stereotypes in the media and are often shown in traditional roles. In terms of the genre we were representing, we didn’t show our artist as the stereotype you would expect yet so we challenged this through using different shots and clothing to suit our artists so that he looked appropriate. Although, we didn’t use women in our video we still wanted iSO, our main character, to represent masculinity so we chose to do this through the variety of shot types. In order to make him look empowering and important we used many lower angled shots looking up at him whilst he looks down at the camera.

Q1.b. Representation

Apply the concept of representation to one of your coursework productions (25 marks)

At A2 I created a cross promotional package which included a digipak, a website and a music video to promote a new music video. Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective. We had to use various representations in order to convey our genre and make the music video successful in terms of including all the noticeable features. We used different representations in order to illustrate the genre, gender, locations and the reality of the video, as well as the digipak and website inclusively. The music video aims to represent a form of reality for the protagonist within the linear narrative.

Throughout my A2 music video, the representations that have been shown do come through our own ideologies, values and beliefs. For example, one representation that we chose to use throughout the music video was various shots of close ups and extreme close ups of the characters face. Roland Barthes suggested the idea of enigma codes in any film opening or music video is significant. We used this to create an enigma coding for the audience to see. For example, we had shots of the characters feet, legs and torso because this type of coding and representation would give the video a mysterious effect throughout the beginning, middle and end, making the audience think about what is going to happen continually and why. We used many different shots but particularly several wide shots when establishing the locations which were all mostly urban as this was stereotypical to a rap genre music video.

When representing a new artist we wanted to portray star image, which Goodwin suggests is essential for a music video to be successful, through the use of close up shots. We were able to repeat close ups continually through the music video so that our audience are able to become familiar with our new artist. Another part of our cross promotional package was the website which was very important in promoting and representing our new artist in the correct way we wanted him to be seen by the nation. Through the use of images of our main characters face on the gallery of the website page we were able to represent him in the way we wanted by creating star image with appropriate images we felt portrayed the personality we aimed for. When portraying his identity we wanted it to look as though he was more than a ‘dead end’ rap artist, we wanted him to represent someone who had intellectual thoughts as shown in some shots, whereby the light captures the outline of his body making him look bright yet natural.

In our music video we showed vast amounts of juxtaposition between reality and concept as our music video shows our main character in real life and then contrasts to the concept of him being buried alive. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory he states that audiences may watch media for self-identification. This is relevant to our production as our target audience is that of older teenagers, 15-22 year olds that will be able to recognise the struggle between being the person people think you are and trying to find your real soul.

We represented a dystopian/ utopian theme throughout the video with the use of effects on Adobe Premiere when we edited our final music video. We decided to use this as we felt within typical rap genre music videos usually you see the main artist with either alcohol or reference to drugs, therefore we were able to represent this through our editing. By doing this we challenged the stereotypes as usually rap artists have a reputation for drinking and doing drugs at some point throughout their video which we found from extensive research.

Challenging the stereotype of rap artists being black and masculine with a strong build meant that we had to still target our audience of the rap fan base who wouldn’t be used to seeing this. Firstly, our main character was white and British which immediately went against the stereotype and challenged it however, we felt this worked. We went against the stereotype of including women in our rap video as we didn’t feel it was appropriate or necessary however, this is unusual for a rap video. Laura Mulvey’s theory describes how the audience, or viewer, is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male. Mulvey believes that women should enjoy the attention of attracting the gaze, and put themselves in positions to be looked at. The concept of ‘the gaze’ is one that deals with how an audience views the people/person presented. Although, we didn’t use women in our video we still wanted iSO, our main character, to represent masculinity so we chose to do this through the variety of shot types. In order to make him look empowering and important we used many lower angled shots looking up at him whilst he looks down at the camera.

Q1.b. Media Language

In my music video, Buried Alive, we used media language to create meaning for the audience. We created a music video to the song ‘Buried Alive’ which tied into our cross promotional package also including a digipak and website as well as the music video in order to promote our new artist. Ever since the early days of rap the media has negatively represented the music genre through stereotyping and over exaggeration.

 The editing in our music video was deliberately constructed to create meaning for the audience. We used a number of fast cuts and transitions to create pace. In the first refrain, we included 20 cuts in a 10 second period, which jumped through 4 locations. We did this to create a number of effects for the audience. The fast transitions symbolised the pressure the character in the video is under – iSO sang about his life spinning out of control which helps to create disorientation along with the purposely blurry shots we put filters over where the main character is walking through the graveyard. The editing follows the pace of the song in order to make sense to the audience so as the song starts slow, so does the pace of the transitions and shots, therefore as the song speeds up in the chorus, so does the speed of the editing. The fast chorus with the though beats in place enhance audience engagement. However, there is a dramatic pace change within the song where the main character raps at a particularly faster pace than normal. In order to keep up with this pace we put 37 shots in a 25 second time frame so the transitions were quick which conveyed pressure and confusion to the audience.

We used all the different aspects of sound to our advantage throughout our music video in order to enhance it and keep it interesting for the audience. Firstly we used the soundtracks rhythm and beat in order to cut the shots in terms of editing so that it looked smooth and fit to the song. We did this by listening carefully to each beat and fit each shot in time. We also used Andrew Goodwin’s theory whereby we used thought beats throughout our music video to create realism by making it easy for the audience to see the sound, including the relationship between the music and the visuals which illustrate the music. We contradict Andrew Goodwin’s theory whereby he states that music videos tend to ignore narrative as they’re potentially advertisements as we did have a linear narrative within our music video as we felt it was appropriate and would help to explain the context. We also chose to use some diegetic sound within our music video as it would help to bring a sense of realism and reality into the video which fit with the narrative and locations of the shots, as well as helping the narrative to flow. The church location and church bells helped with our videos concept as it was for the main character to discover his own soul and the use of interruption with the diegetic sound bought him back to reality and the location helped to amplify this as he was surrounded by the thought of death.

Using Mise En Scene within our music video enabled us to project the ideas behind our narrative and concept. Throughout our music video we used a variety of locations which is common within the rap genre as the shots are all fast paced and they all jump from location to location. The Graveyard location is the most iconic location in our music video as it enhances the narrative and helps the audience to understand the visuals which supports Goodwin’s narrative concept. Stuart Hall’s theory was important for us as we chose to create a preferred reading for the audience which we wanted them to encode. We used high and low key lighting throughout to contrast the good vs evil as our artist searches for his soul. The settings we used were mostly urban as this was typical to a rap music video, especially having several different urban locations too. Our representation of our rap music video was to aim it at young teens to appeal to their idea of reality for a Chav. 

Q1.b. Narrative

Discuss how you used narrative in one of your coursework productions to create meaning for the audience (25 marks)

At AS, I created a short film opening which included a film opening and a film poster. My film opening came under the teen drama genre as this was suitable for the themes and narrative within my short film. We found this out by researching film opening that we categorised under the same genre as ours. We looked at a real life text such as the film ‘Restless (2011) whereby a terminally ill teenage girl falls for a boy who likes to attend funerals and their encounters with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII. My production was very much a linear production as the order of narrative was clear and followed a chronological order.

In my opening 2 minutes of my AS production, Amnesia, my main character starts a journey to the neurological unit at the specialist hospital in London with a voice over explaining previous conversations had with the doctors about the un-named illness. On her journey, she tries to bring memories back by looking through old scrapbooks of previous events within her life. The camera fades into a picture of a memory and it comes to life.

With reference to Todorov, who is well known for his theory of chain events in the narrative, my short film opening distinctly follows his theory. The chain of events involve, equilibrium, disruption, possible solutions, climax and resolution. In my AS production my character starts out with her usual repetitive journey to the hospital via the train, which represents her equilibrium. However, at this point, the character is established and everything looks normal, but what we don’t know is that the scrapbook full of memories disrupts her memory and brings back certain trips and memories. In the end, she has her memory back, being the resolution as she is a changed person from before and can finally remember everything.

Levi Strauss argued that all narratives could be reduced down to binary opposites. Throughout my production, I used binary opposites and showed contrast within my opening scene. When establishing the setting and background of the character, the initial emotions were sad and upset as she was a sufferer of this awful illness, through which we portrayed through using higher angled shots to give the effect of looking down on people which connotes sadness and being inferior. Then in the shots we used towards the end of our opening scene, the character was happy and enjoying life with her friend, pre diagnosis without any cares. We also showed binary opposites in my AS production through using another character to represent the illness in the main character which contrasted against the second character who was perfectly healthy and didn’t suffer with Amnesia.

Propp suggested that every narrative has eight different character types to which they should include in order to make sense. Every narrative has a hero and we followed this to a certain degree, yet we only had 2 characters throughout our entire opening scene, though the aim was to introduce more characters later on in the film. The heroin in our film is the main character and her journey to overcome amnesia and retrieve her memories. As she is successful in doing so, she fits Propp’s theory. Another fit to Propps theory is the second character in our opening scene, she acts as ‘the helper’ as she helps to retrieve her memories by reliving them and creating them in the first place, without the memories she would have no way of getting them back.

We used Barthes' theory in order to create enigma codes within our music video. Roland Barthes suggested the idea of enigma codes in any film opening or music video is significant. We used this to create an enigma coding for the audience to see. For example, we had shots of the characters feet, legs and torso because this type of coding and representation would give the video a mysterious effect throughout the beginning, middle and end, making the audience think about what is going to happen continually and why. We used many different shots but particularly several wide shots when establishing the locations which were all mostly urban as this was stereotypical to a rap genre music video.

　

Theorist Revision

Q1.b. Genre

Discuss how you used genre in one of your coursework productions to create meaning for the audience (25 marks)

The word ‘genre’ comes from the French word meaning type or class. Media genres appear within a medium (film, television) such as the horror film or the television ‘situation comedy’. A genre can be recognised by its common set of distinguishing features such as codes and conventions. At A2, I, along with 2 other group members researched, planned and constructed a cross promotional package promoting a new artist. During the production of my advanced portfolio, genre contributed a massive part in how we would create meaning for audience through the use of the rap genre.

I have chosen 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 A2 coursework can be established by an audience. Steve Neale theorised that it is repetition of certain elements of media products that creates a genre. In my music video, you could identify the use of explicit language as a repetitive element of the rap genre. Similar use of bad language within a music video can be identified in Wiz Khalifa’s songs, similar songs within the genre. This repetition of lyrics associated with the rap genre would provide audiences with an innate understanding of the genre of my music video due to their familiarity with this convention of the genre. Steve Neale stresses that ‘genres are not systems: they are processes of systematisation’. Traditionally, genres (particularly literary genres) tended to be regarded as fixed forms, but contemporary theory emphasises that both their forms and functions are dynamic.

Goodwin’s theory stated that in order to make a music video successful, it need to have at least 3 of his key components within it at some point, the relationship between the music and the visuals being one. This therefore meant that we used our relationship between the music and, what we wanted to portray as, the visuals, to dictate the pace of the cuts as this would affect the speed of editing in order for the sequence to make sense and feel real. The speed of our editing would also relate to our genre as typically the rap genre is a relatively fast pace throughout the entire music video apart from one or two specific points within the music video where it really slows down and so do the visuals. This is evident within my own music video, as I have edited the footage so that certain shots cut on the beat of the music creating a smoother flowing sequence making for an easier watching experience.

An iconographic element of the mise-en-scene is that in rap genre music videos, they tend to be set in an urban location, often around graffiti and big buildings. Therefore I wanted to incorporate this into our music videos to make sure this was obvious and clear to the viewer which would reinforce our genre through the use of urban locations. Conventionally, a lot of low angle shots are used to make the artist be shown as superior and powerful, as well as asserting authority. We made use of this low angled shot a lot throughout our music video as we wanted to do just this, when we shot some of these low angled shots we were on the stairs, whereby the camera was at the bottom and the protagonist was at the top as this, I feel, emphasised this greatly. Even if there is a strong narrative and it is not all performance based, the lead artist tends to be featured a lot, which we incorporated into our music video as we wanted to stick with the conventions of the genre as well as creating star profile which was another of Goodwin’s key components to this theory.

When producing both my digipak and website, to support the promotion of my new artist, iSO, I wanted the genre to be visually clear even at a glance to all of my audience. After carrying out some research, I found that most commonly, rap artists’ website were very minimalistic, and only focused on promoting one single/album at a time. We tried to replicate this as we thought it was a good way of advertising our artist and we thought it would get the message across simply, rather than bombarding our audience with lots of new information, music and media. I also tried to stick to a fairly dull and dark colour scheme throughout the process of creating the album cover, website and digipak so that they were all relatable. This also made my product fit the genre as the typical colours most common throughout the genre are black, white and grey which are 3 colours used continually within my ancillary texts to keep this consistent. As part of our research, I identified that Black was very common in our genre but also in similar artists products. So many of the products, especially the clothing, are black which links to the genre research I gathered in relation to clothing; identifying similar conventions. Offerings on G-Eazy’s website were mainly types of clothing so we decided that our store should also largely feature clothing. 

Exam Checklist

• You must refer to at least two types of media 

• You must include reference to the past and the future

• Most of the focus of your essay should be on contemporary texts

• Use theory throughout and accurately 

• Make links between texts, theorists

• Coherent argument - different viewpoints

News Articles

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35858169

"Sexting among under-16s skyrocketing, says Labour" - BBC Online - 22nd Marc 2016

• http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/16/hoodies-goodies-teenagers-makings-good-citizens-young

"From hoodies to goodies: today's teenagers have the makings of model citizens" - Guardian - 16th Februrary 2014

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3504130/Teenage-thug-jailed-terrifying-haul-weapons-garden.html

A2 Media Studies Revision

Q1.b. Audience

Analyse the coursework production in relation to the concept of audience (25 marks)

At A2 I created a cross promotional package which included a digipak, a website and a music video to promote a new music video. I launched a new advertising campaign which must be clear in order to target my specified audience. It is essential that a music video appeals to the audience as being a new artist it’s important to make a good impression in order to sell records and promote my artist further. When creating my music video for the song ‘Buried Alive’ by Logic, I thought extensively about the kind of people I was appealing to and how I would do this. My target audience was predominantly males, as stereotypically the rap is a genre more appealing to males, in the age range of 16-22 due to the volume of explicit language. My target audience would mostly fit into the E category of the social demographic model as it’s aimed mostly at students who have a particularly low individual income compared to adults who are typically on a much higher income. I researched some music videos which clearly fall into the rap genre and made notes to compare to my video the typical conventions they included. I decided that they wanted fast cuts and transitions between shots as this would keep up with the pace of the song and keep them interested. They also wanted black and baggy clothing as this would ensure the music video would fit into the current genre of rap videos allowing them to make a clear connection. Throughout the construction of making my music video, I asked members of my target audience so that I could ensure that it was specifically tailored to the wants and needs of my target audience.

We can apply Bulmer and Katz’ Uses and Gratifications theory to my music video, which has four parts as to why audiences consume media texts: Personal identification which suggests that the audience can relate to the characters and situations, Information which is for the purpose of people obtaining an understanding, entertainment which is for the purposes of escapism and diversion and finally, social interaction which suggests that the audience look to the media text as a way of connecting with those around them. We can deduce that the audience would use my music video for primarily personal identification and social interaction, as the music video enables people of similar interests and hobbies to interact, also as music videos are often talked about as much as television programmes or films, particularly those that are especially controversial, provocative, or innovative. However, the other two points of the theory – entertainment and information – do not really apply to music videos necessarily, although it could be argued that some viewers may see the music video as an escape from reality.

Another way of looking at how audience consume media is reception theory, which is based on Stuart Hall’s encoding model. It argues that producers encode meaning into a media text and audience then in turn decode it. When creating my music video, I encoded meaning in many ways. For example when we shot the black and white scenes this is meant to symbolises the protagonist trying to find his soul as the lyrics of the song directly tell the audience he is being buried alive. We used some diegetic sound in the middle of the video to connote realism and a sense time being stopped and then rewound. The clothing that my character wears is typical for a rap artist as we decided we wanted our protagonist to fit in because this would make our genre clear to our entire audience.

In our music video, in order to keep our target audience engaged and interested, we used close-ups continually as we wanted to create a star profile image. This would mean that our character will be easily recognisable and it would make our advertising campaign much easier as he will be well known to our audience. Andrew Goodwin’s theory of multiple close ups of the main artist/ vocalist helped to amplify the creation of star image to promote a recognisable brand image. We tried to replicate this by ensuring we had many varied close-ups of our protagonist, meaning we could create star image. Goodwin identified that the star image is another key aspect within music videos. He believes that an iconic star image can increase the audience awareness of the artist and can show development of a star over time.

Another key aspect of Goodwin’s theory is ‘thought beats’ as this is what he thought was vital to make a music video successful. Seeing the sounds (the relationship between the music and visuals, which illustrate, amplify or contradicts the music) – chorus, verse and instruments. He categorised this aspect in 3 steps:

1.  Interpret the music by looking at verses and choruses
2. Goodwin says this is the ‘voice within the song’ – this is when the artists voice is extremely unique and can be recognised for this quality
3. Goodwin states this steps where the artist is telling a story within their songs as therefore generates their reputation as a ‘storyteller’. The music video is therefore create to emphasize.

We included thought beats in our music video through the use of sound and editing. In the middle of our music video we have some church bells ringing which are non-diegetic however, they were added to create a sense of realism for the audience. The bells rung in time to the transition of the shots which changed to different shots of the church and the graveyard. 

Media Languages Notes

Discuss how you used media language in one of your coursework productions to create meaning for the audience (25 marks)

1. Editing        2. Sound       3. Mise En Scene        4. Camera Work

Intro

• state production and what it was
• use words of the question  

Sound

• lyrics and song choice
• beat/rhythm (thought beats - vernallis
• Diagetic - church bells - helps narrative flow

Mise En Scene 

• Graveyard location - most iconic - enhances narrative and helps audience understand with visuals - Goodwin linking narrative concept 

C - costume

L - lighting

A - actors

M - make-up

P - props

S - settings

Editing

• Creating disorientation
• Starts slow
• high/ low angle shots - creates star profile 
• blinking
• dramatic pace change 
• fast chorus -  thought beats - enhance audience engagement 
• quick transitions convey pressure and confusion to audience

S - Screen Time

T - Transitions

O - Order of Narrative

P - Pace

Audience Notes

Analyse one coursework production in relation to concept of audience (25 marks) 

• Attracting audience - how?
• Targeting audience - who? - Gender/age/class/hobbies & interests
• Audience Feedback
• 2 theories - uses and gratification & vernallis & Goodwin & Blumler + Katz

Intro

• cross promotional package - digipak, website and music video for new artist
• launching new advertising campaign, must be clear
• target audience 
• social demographic model 

1. E - underclass 
2. D - working class
3. C - teachers, sales assistants
4. B - managerial roles
5. A - CEO's & Executives

• Students on little income - compared to adults 

Main

• Camera - how did it attract target audience? 
• Editing - how did it attract target audience? 
• Sound - how did it attract target audience? 
• Mise En Scene - how did it attract target audience? 
• How did a real audience react to your product?

Conclusion

• How important it is to consider your audience in depth and how this changed// affected your production overall

Post Productions Notes

After filming

• image manipulation 
• video-editing (from cutting shots and placing them onto the timeline to all special effects) 
• creating and editing titles and graphics 
• Sound production
• Sound and video mixing

Skills 

• adding transitions 
• organising clips on timeline
• using particular effects

• Digipak
• Website (Wix)
• Editing

Research and Planning Notes

Research

• Genre 
• Semiotics                              - Real media products
• Theory
• Conventions                                                            *increased detail in A2

Ancillary Texts

• Conventions 
• Content
• Photos 
• Layout
• Font Style 

Primary Research 

• Audience (Q4 yr 12 + Q3 yr 13)
• Institution/ Distribution

Skills Research

• Premiere - YouTube tutorials
• After Effects
• Trial & Error (Wix website creation)

Planning 

• Storyboard
• Location recce
• Shooting Schedule 
• Props
• Costumes

Q1.a. Real conventions of Media Texts

Explain how far your understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way you created your own media products. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this understanding developed over time (25 marks)

Throughout my 2 years of studying media, I have produced a film opening for my AS product, titled Amnesia, and during my year in A2 I, along with 2 other group members, produced and created a cross promotional package promoting a new artist, named iSO. During the production of both my foundation and advanced portfolios my understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced my choices often.

At AS, we had to research the typical conventions of teen drama’s as this was our chosen topic for our AS film opening, Amnesia. In order to understand how our characters should act or behave we researched the most common symptoms and the ways in which an Amnesia sufferer can cope. This helped us to relate the narrative to the behaviour and reactions our character would have. When researching this topic and theme we discovered the film Memento, which helped us to portray the behaviours and typical reactions of an amnesia sufferer as the protagonist in this film was dealing with amnesia presently. The theme of the film also stuck to memory loss which meant we were able to understand the thoughts and processes the character would go through so that our protagonist knew how to relate.

I looked at the opening of Toy Story where Andy and the toys are introduced to us who are the main focus of film. It focuses on the representations within this opening scene and the ideas of how the toys are portrayed. In the opening scene Andy is initially introducing the toys to us as the audience. We get to meet Andy and more importantly we are introduced to the toys who are the main focus of the film. Firstly, we learn Woody has some importance as he is featured more often and is played with more by Andy. The ideas and representations are made to seem true to the audience by taking the concept of children making up stories with their toys actually coming to life and having their own independent adventures. Richard Dyers theory is appropriate in relation to the opening of Toy Story as he believes that stereotype comes down to power and that those who have power stereotype those who don't. We also looked at the influence of camera shots within this opening sequence as the wide variety and frequent use of different shots enabled us to experiment with the types and amounts of shots. We realised the pace of the shots kept up with the pace of the narrative so we tried to replicate this in our film opening as it made sense to the audience.

When researching the titles for my film opening, I looked at the titles of Paranorman which is typically more of a children’s film so the titles were mostly cartoon and animated with a character matched to each title. However, from watching this title sequence we took away the order in which the titles appeared which mostly indicated the importance of the role. We also took note of the timings as they appeared and how long they stayed on screen as this was important so that our audience were able to gain an insight as to who produced, distributed and edited our film opening. 

At A2, we decided that our music video and new artist would be classified as the rap genre. However, as my knowledge into this genre was limited, my research into the genre and to the music videos was vital for my understanding of the conventions. I researched several artist who were in the same genre as the one we wanted to portray for our new artist. Kendrick Lamar is an American rapper born in Compton, a city known for producing great rappers like Dr Dre, Coolio and Tyga. He then went on to release Good Kid, m.A.A.d city which was one of the biggest Hip-Hop albums of the decade and has already been dubbed a classic album by many reviewers. With singles like Swimming Pools (Drank), Kendrick managed to reach a global audience to people who don't even particularly like Hip-Hop music but liked the singles. We discovered another rap artist who was less known; Logic is an American rapper born in Maryland, where he gained a lot of fans through the internet and is part of the RattPack group. He is signed to VisionaryMusicGroup and DefJamRecordings. His latest album Under Pressure received wide critical acclaim. Logic is one of the less commercial rappers still releasing a lot of his tracks on SoundCloud for fans to listen to for free. From this we were able to identity record labels that they were signed to and we could relate this to our artist as we wanted to make everything realistic.

For the website, we researched similar artist’s websites so that we were able to identify what were common features were important to keep and what weren’t. Logic's website is like heaven for Logic fans as it has everything they could ask for all in one place. I really like the blog on the home page as I think it's a great way of keeping fans updated but it's also personal. However, I thought the Home Page was too text/content heavy so when we create the iSO website we will incorporate a blog into it but on a seperate page like a news page for example.  We liked the layout of the store page, Logic doesn't have many products but we thought the way they are shown is good. He also liked the header image for the store. After doing a photoshoot, he will edit something similar for iSO's. We then looked at G-Eazy’s website as it has a very simplistic effective layout, which I liked. We will use G-Eazy's home page as a template when creating iSO's as it has everything necessary and looks professional. The other pages also had a great layout but didn't have much content. G-Eazy's store is exceptional and we will refer to it when designing iSO's store and the products in it. The range of products on G-Eazy's store is huge and they are all high quality items.  

Q1.a. Post-Production

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 (25 marks)

Throughout my 2 years of studying media, my post production skills have improved especially, editing as I have gained a better understanding of the programme, Adobe Premiere and how to use it. I have used creative decisions during post production to produce a film opening for my AS product, titled Amnesia, and during my year in A2, I, along with 2 other group members, produced a cross promotional package promoting a new artist, under the name of iSO. During the production of both my foundation and advanced portfolios, post production was an important feature as it enabled me to develop my skills further in terms of editing and creativity along with that. At AS, my skills using all software were limited and basic whereas at A2 I was able to use my knowledge and gain even more technical ability to achieve a more professional and industry standard level of production of my work.

At AS post production stage, it gave me a chance to put my editing skills into practise. Before AS I was unfamiliar with the software therefore I had to start fresh and learn how to use the programme and then put the effects to use.  At AS, our first task was to familiarise ourselves with, the editing programme we would use throughout the two years, Adobe premiere, by creating a video of dancing bears. This included the basic skills of importing clips and placing them onto the timeline using the simple cutting tools. We then had the opportunity to recreate the opening scene of Juno with a partner. We had to be able to reproduce an identical version of it including the filming, costumes and editing. This enabled me to become familiar with using transitions and effects on certain clips in order to get the desired effect to the original clip. I used a programme called Adobe Premiere to create my film opening, Amnesia. This allowed me to start with a blank timeline and rearrange shots to fit an order which I felt was appropriate. This involved me using my basic skills for this programme. The pace of the film opening was relatively slow, therefore I didn’t need to cut the shots often which allowed me to place longer pieces of footage. When I placed the footage onto the timeline, I was able to apply basic filters onto the footage, for example black and white filtering, by applying a black and white filter over selected clips. I was able to add more simple transitions such as ‘Dip to Black’ and changing the speed. For my film opening I needed to add some titles over the shots for it to look realistic, therefore I learnt how to add still titles and rolling titles. I learnt about the pace of narrative for film opening but my skills developed drastically when editing my music video.

At A2, my skills were still fairly limited but I was able to apply simple effects and transitions onto the clips placed into my timeline. We were given a task whereby we had to film 5 different shots and then edit them using Adobe Premiere which was really useful to me and helped me as it gave me an insight into all the different shots and effects we can use in our music video to keep it interesting. It also helped as I was able to practise and expand on my editing skills when I had to edit a cloning shot, split screen, reverse shots, stop animation and depth of field. It enabled me to develop my skills as I used YouTube tutorials to expand skills and then be able to put them into practise in my music video. I was able to progress because the advanced portfolio was less restricting in terms of genre as our rap genre is quite broad which enabled me to use different tools and effects which wouldn’t have been appropriate at AS. My preliminary task also helped me to develop my skills as I had to edit an exact copy of Britney Spears’ ‘Hit Me Baby One More Time’. However, this video limited me from showing off the new skills I had developed as it only need some simple transitions and cutting. I sped up the occasional shot too so that the shot would fit in with the timing of the original video. My music video enabled me to develop my skills, particularly in editing as it was suitable to add more effects, transitions and cuts. The pace of the song was a lot faster than my AS film opening so I needed to make sure I cut the shots a lot faster to keep up with the pace and to make it look realistic.  I used several effects including dip to black which was a simple effect that I already knew how to use along with speeding some of the shots up. Although, I developed my skills by learning how to use some new effects for example an animation which creates a blinking effect. To create this I needed to put two shots together and have them move up and down at the same time, this creates the ‘blinking effect’. Some of footage wasn’t too wobbly when we filmed it so I decided to add a new effect I’d learnt to use which was a warp stabiliser onto some shots which made them look more professional. In order to show of the skills I’d learnt throughout the year but also the ones I had developed, I added a feathering effect which blurred the outline of the shot to give the shot an edgy effect. Changing the colour of the background was a new editing skill that I put into practise for my music video and it worked well in my video because the short bursts of colour contrasted the darker colours and background within my digipak and website. The base colour was yellow and so you need to select the clip and chose the eye dropper tool which allows you to change the colour from yellow to whichever colour you wish. We used this several times throughout the middle of the video as we decided it was effective. I altered the brightness and contrast levels in my music video so that all the shots looked the same as looking back at my film opening, the brightness changes on most shots which doesn’t look professional.

At AS, I produced a film poster for which I had to use Adobe Photoshop. Before creating a film poster, I had to create a production logo using the same programme I would use for my film poster. When creating my production logo, I changed the levels of the brightness and contrast so that the logo and text looked together. I also changed the shadowing of the original image so that it looked effective yet recognising. At AS, I produced a film poster for which I had to use Adobe premiere. My skills were basic when it came to using this programme but from watching YouTube tutorials, I soon learnt some simple yet effective techniques I could incorporate into my film poster. I was able to create simple layers when making the poster as I wanted a background image but then I also wanted some writing to feature over the top. I applied a black and white filter effect to the image so that synergy was created between my products. I then added text over the top to create a realistic film poster. In the post production of this ancillary text, I gathered all the basic skills I would need in order to create a simple yet effective film poster.

At A2, I produced a digipak, using Adobe Photoshop, and a website, using a new programme, Wix. I had to use Photoshop much more than at AS so I decided to teach myself some specific skills through watching YouTube tutorials. This meant I could incorporate some more complex effects into my digipak and album cover which would make them as good as they could be and interesting to look at. For my album cover, I added some colours around the outside of the image of iSO which represented the coffin outline as we tried to include this from the video, whereby the character is being buried alive. I also added some text onto this album cover, but experimented with the way in which it was displayed on the cover as we wanted it to stand out but didn’t want it too appear to large. We were able to apply effects which made the title change shape and adjust the shadowing and colour to it. For my digipak, we also used adobe premiere as it allowed us to experiment with new effects to make our digipak unique. This enabled me to add layers to my image with text on top and I added different effects to change the brightness of the background. At A2, I also used Wix in order to create my website, however I was new to using this programme but I discovered how to use it through trial and error as I was able to experiment with the layout, style, fonts and content. 

Q1.a. Research and Planning

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 (25 marks)

Throughout my 2 years of studying media, I have researched for and planned for a film opening for my AS product and during my year in A2, I, along with 2 other group members, researched for and planned a cross promotional package promoting a new artist. During the production of both my foundation and advanced portfolios, research and planning contributed a massive part in allowing me to develop my ideas and understanding of the topics studied.

Research plays a big role when it comes to producing any media product or ancillary texts and is vital in order to ensure your product is suited to your intended target audience. When starting AS secondary research was important for us as media students so that we could gain an understanding of the specific theories involved. We researched theories and theorists and applied them to our film openings. We also researched into the genre of our film opening as we didn’t initially fit into any specific genres. After researching the conventions of Teen Drama we decided we would fall into this category as the props, narrative and costumes we wanted to use linked more clearly to this genre. We learnt about semiotics and how we could apply them to our film openings or how the audience could perceive our video. This helped us to understand all the different connotations of shots and locations within our film opening. For my ancillary texts, I had to research the layout and content of advertisement and which style of advertising would be suitable for my product. This helped me to develop my skills as I gained a further understanding of what conventions would link with certain genres. The font research was important to my product as when advertising I wanted to make sure the font was simple and clear so that it could be easily read from afar of near. I carried this out by experimenting with different fonts on a website and then asked people what they thought.

In A2 all of my research was carried out with increased detail and specific details were massively important to my music video and ensuring it falls and is perceived to be in the right genre. Research into the genre was important because it plays a vital role in being the main referral point for all of my research. We also did some research into theories of music videos, for example Andrew Goodwin and Carol Vernallis, and how their theories have been applied to previous music videos. This helped me to understand what content a music video should contain and what stages are involved, that I should follow, in order for my music video to be successful. The research that we carried out as to who would distribute our artists album was thorough as we felt this would be an important decision to how successful our marketing campaign would be. We didn’t want to promote our artist through mainstream distributors, so we researched similar white rappers in order to compare the ways in which they distributed their products and who distributed them. When researching our audience, looking into which ages our artist would target was difficult as it meant we were limited because of the bad language so we decided, after researching similar artists with similar use of bad language, that we would aim it at 15-22 year olds but anyone younger with a particular interest in the rap genre was welcomed. Skills research played a vital role in my A2 portfolio as I had to make sure I was able to include new skills and effects into my music video to show off everything I had learnt to make it the best I could. When researching most effects to use on the editing programme, Adobe Premiere, I used YouTube to search for tutorials which would guide me through the process of adding new effects to my work. This was the simplest and least time consuming way as I was able to watch a video and follow it step by step, which I could then apply to my music video. However, when using Wix became more trial and error as it was a fairly easy site to navigate and use and I just wanted to be able to experiment with different layouts, styles and content. This meant I could update and change my website to fit in with whatever promotional events and seasonal advertisements were current at a particular time.

At AS, my planning wasn’t very detailed and didn’t relate to my final film opening as we changed our original concept for the opening more than once therefore the planning was mixed. For our AS, the location recce was difficult to get at first as we filmed in Southend which wasn’t local to any of us so we had to rely on google earth images for us to choose where exactly we wanted to film. Once we were there and filming we were able to see the places for ourselves and we had to change some locations as they didn’t look as though they did in previous images which suited our film opening. The prop we used in our film opening was a simple scrapbook which we used to tie into our narrative. Planning the use of the prop was much easier than actually filming with the scrapbook as when it came to editing, some shots featured the scrapbook and some shots didn’t because of the order we actually filmed in. This should have been resolved through the use of the shooting schedule and storyboard as we had completed both of these and taken them with us. However the shooting schedule didn’t fit after the morning of filming as we had to adapt the footage we shot because one of our original chosen locations was unavailable to be filmed at. The shooting schedule needed to be filled out in much more detail so that we were aware of which types of shots we wanted as well as angles and the position of our characters. My storyboard was too detailed with the length of shots that we didn’t have the important things written on it such as when the character did and didn’t have the scrapbook on her as this became confusing once we’d shot all of our footage. I also needed to make sure that the shots were all individual as when shooting this was mixed up and very time consuming having to go through each shot individually.

At A2, my planning was undertaken with extended detail and specific aim in order to stay on task with all the things we needed to discuss and plan so that we didn’t waste time and get tasks wrong. My storyboard at A2 included detail about important factors which would help us when filming the shots. I made sure that I had included what type of shot each of them would be and the location. I also added a short description of what I wanted the character to do or feel so that each shot was filmed like we’d planned. To make sure we planned the locations right, especially the graveyard, we went out as a group to search the locations to check they were appropriate and then we were able to place which shots we wanted to shoot in more precise places within a location.  For example when researching for costumes of similar rap artists, we wanted to get this just right so we compared the colours and items of clothing white rappers wore. We also researched in great detail about the conventions of the rap industry as this was important for us to execute correctly as we wanted to portray the correct image for our new artist. We wanted minimal props in our music video as we felt this wasn’t all that common to see in rap music video. However, we did plan for our character to place a flower on a grave. In order to execute this correctly we needed to plan the shots we wanted which would involve the flower. 

Stuart Hall

Encoding and Decoding tests AND preferred, negotiated and oppositional readings. Thinks that audiences will react in different ways to media products. 

In the 1980's and 90's, a lot of research was undertaken on the way individuals received and interpreted a text, and how their individual circumstances (gender, class, age, ethnicity) affected their reading. The text is encoded by the producer, and decoded by the reader, and there may be major differences between two different readings of the same code. However, by using recognised codes and conventions, and by drawing upon audience expectations relating to aspects such as genre and use of stars, the producers can position the audience and thus create a certain amount of agreement on what the code means; known as a preferred reading. 

Frankfurt School

Hypodermic needle theory. Thinks audiences might be directly influenced by media products. 

The hypodermic needle theory suggests that audiences passively receive the information transmitted via a media text, without any attempt on their part to process or challenge the data. This theory was developed when the mass media was still fairly new - radio and cinema were less than 2 decades old. Governments had just discovered the power of advertising to communicate a message, and propaganda to try and sway populations to their way of thinking. 

Blumler and Katz

Think that audiences want media products that gratify particular needs (uses and gratifications) e.g escape, entertainment etc. Individuals might choose and use a text for the following purposes:

- Diversion - escape from everyday problems and routine 
- Personal Relationships - using the media for emotional and other interaction, e.g. substituting soap operas for family life
- Personal Identity - finding yourself reflected in texts, learning behaviour and values from texts
- Surveillance - Information which could be useful for living, e.g weather reports, financial news, holiday bargains 

Richard Dyer

Thinks that audiences want media products that offer them Utopian solutions to their problems.

Dyer’s Utopian theory is linked with the Uses and Gratifications theory:

- audiences consume media products with a clear set of pleasures to draw from that experience

- Utopian theory = gratification that allows people to escape from their real lives

- reality = full of negatives and unfullfilment

- the ‘mediated‘ world represents an escape

Digital Technology Notes

Q1.a. Digital Technology

“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? (25 marks)

Throughout my 2 years of studying media, I have produced a film opening, titled Amnesia, for my AS product and during my year in A2 I, along with 2 other group members, produced and created a cross promotional package, which included a website, digipak and music video, promoting a new artist, named iSO. During the production of both my foundation and advanced portfolios digital technology played a massive role in allowing me to develop my ideas and in turn, developing my creativity.

As a digital native I have always been a media consumer, but throughout my A-level media course I have developed many skills in order to become a media producer. When I joined media my skills were limited, I was especially a novice when it comes to editing. At AS, our first task was to familiarise ourselves with, the editing programme we would use throughout the two years, Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, by creating a video of dancing bears. This included the basic skills of importing clips and placing them onto the timeline using the simple cutting tools. We then had the opportunity to recreate the opening scene of Juno with a partner. We had to be able to reproduce an identical version of it including the filming, costumes and editing. This enabled me to become familiar with using transitions and effects on certain clips, for example placing an animation effect over the clip so that it looked animated to match the original, in order to get the desired effect to the original clip. After completing this, we got into groups for a preliminary task as our last practise for editing and filming before our final film opening.  During editing my prelim task, I was able to put into practise all the things I had previously learnt, for example slowing the speed of the clip or making it faster.

In my year 12 foundation portfolio, I had very little experience using Photoshop, so creating a film poster was quite difficult as adding layers to my canvas was something I’d never done before, but this was where my creativity took over and allowed me to experiment with different filters on images and fonts for the text on the image. I learnt how to import images onto Photoshop, layer texts and images and add effects to the images or text, all of which were new skills. During AS, using Blogger restricted my creativity as it was limited in the ways you could lay text and images out and present posts, but I soon taught myself how to upload PowerPoints onto slide share, which enabled me to share them on my blog. I was able to use another presentational tool, Prezi, in order to share my creativity, after a few weeks. The site was fairly simple but allowed me to present my research in an interesting format with different themed templates, which in turn, enhanced my creativity.

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Throughout the planning and production of my AS product, the Internet was a key feature in my research as it enabled me to develop basic skills I previously had when searching for things by refining searches. When using the internet I was able to enhance my products creativity as I was able to choose from a range of creative sites in which I could display and present work, or search for funky font websites to enrich my film poster. Before AS, I would only use YouTube to consume media whereas in AS, YouTube became a site I used a lot more than when I was a media producer and I became familiar with uploading videos and then sharing them to other places, for example, my blog, using the embed code. I was able to use YouTube at A2 for research and evidence, it also enabled me to take inspiration and influence from specific videos and clips. I also used Survey Monkey as I needed to some feedback on what went well within my film opening and what I could improve on. This was an easy site to navigate but a useful tool to present my findings which allowed me to use the results creatively and present them in a different format.

In my A2 coursework I have used digital technology as a consumer and a producer because I have used the Internet e.g. YouTube and Google, to take in information about the rap genre that my cross promotional package was based on. From what I found and learnt, I took ideas forward and turned them into a product; music video, digipak and website. Through using software such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere, I was able to develop my creativity and turn it from an idea into reality, allowing me to experiment with ideas and from the experience I gained through research and planning, I was able to judge how effective and successful this outcome was. I created a steal-o-matic on Adobe Premiere which was created as a visual moodboard, whereby I placed all of my basic skills I’d learnt from the previous year into practise as this was more of a creative presentational task compared to an editing task. Editing my final music video meant that I needed to show off all the skills I had learnt to use and even new skills too. I learnt how to apply a warp stabilizer to make sure my footage was of good quality and didn’t look messy by wobbling. We also used reverse speed which enabled us to be creative with our footage so that we could make shots rewind and look effective as well as interesting. I used another effect called feathering which made our shots interesting. We also incorporated black and white filters into our video as it tied in with our concept.  I discovered how to export a video and upload it to YouTube for media consumers, something which I never would have been able to do before starting media. The conventions of rap music video editing usually consist of lots of jump shots from one environment to another, this was something we applied consistently throughout our music video as well as making sure the editing kept up with the pace of the song. In rap music videos, the shots are often short but repetitive, this was another technique that we made use of continually throughout our music video, especially during the chorus.

In A2, I decided to create an account with photo bucket as this was a much easier format to share groups of photos but also meant I could separate them into separate albums which made it easy for anyone to look at my photos. By using the embed codes, I was able to transfer these albums onto the appropriate blog posts. I was able to use the internet as a more creative tool this year as I learnt how to create a GIF on the internet which was another presentational device that I could use to improve the creative layout of blogger. I was able to create a GIF whenever I wanted to talk about a specific shot which was useful as the GIF gave a visual demonstration too. Being a presentational tool I was unable to use last year, this enhanced my blog as it made any passage of writing much more visual so it fit with the explanation. When creating the website on Wix, I used mostly trial and error in order to learn how to use the website as it was new to me, however I had created a website on dream weaver in year 11, being mainly a teacher led task, which meant I knew what layout I wanted and how to create links to buttons and I knew how to insert social media links. However, creating the website on Wix independently was totally different as I wasn’t familiar with the programme and all the different features of it.  Another presentational tool I learnt to use in order to enhance the appearance of my blog posts, was Emaze. This site was similar to prezi but is a useful device as it allowed me to present information in a ‘journey like’ format which was simple yet effective which further developed the creativity of my blog.

In A2, I became familiar with Photoshop as it was the main programme I used in order to create my digipak and tour poster which enabled me to show off my creativity. I advanced in Year 13 as I already had a basic understanding of the software programme and I knew how to use the layers, which enabled me to experiment by using different effects on the images and fonts. We stayed with a darker colour scheme and background as this was typical in the rap genre as our research disclosed. Stereotypically, the rap genre in one way or another contains drugs and violence and this is common internationally, therefore we wanted to link this to our ancillary texts as well as our music video. We did this by being able to create shadowing effects around the text on my ‘tour dates’ poster and add a smoke effect to the image that was on my canvas already.