Applying Narrative to Your Chosen Text - Music Video

How is the story structured and how are your audience positioned?
The narrative has a beginning, middle and end in chronological order but is interrupted with flashback scenes. Therefore we use a mixture of present and past tense. The conflict is established mainly by the lyrics and the external performance shots. The flashbacks back this up with a simple explanation of why the lead character feels the way she does. It is resolved at the end when the audience realise she is part of the band and music has become her 'escape'. The construction of the lead character is done through the use of close ups and high angle camera shots to make her look vulnerable. The audience is made to feel sympathetic towards the character and some may be able to relate to how she is feeling. We created this with the use of connotations such as the empty field representing loneliness and the gloomy weather to represent her overall mood. The narrative to my music video is closed because it has a resolution and does not carry on into a sequel.
Summarise the lyrics in your text.
'Save Me' is about someone having a secret that they are perhaps ashamed of but they know that they need to tell someone for peace of mind.
Are there any key lines that you chose to give visual dominance to?
'Confessing my sins to an angel.' - We used this within the video when the lead character is writing the letter she is in fact writing lyrics from the song and this is the first line of the letter.
'I've got a secret to tell.' - The video was based around the idea of the character telling her secret and the effect this would have.
What is the importance of the mise en scene?
The addition of instruments and the location in which the band performance shots were set adds authenticity to the band and makes it look as if they are really playing live. The lack of props is very important for the external shots because we wanted the field to look desolate to make the lead character look alone. The letter was key to the narrative and established the plot.
Can you apply any of Barthes codes?
Enigma code - The use of the letter and the obvious distress that the character is in leads to the audience wondering why and what happened previously.
Semantic code - The main connotation was the use of the desolate field to represent loneliness but the costume and make up also represented the genre and gave connotations of negative emotions.
Symbolic code - Assumptions would have been made because of the costume and dark make up. We used conventional costume and in doing this perhaps created expectations of the characters personality or attitude.
What category is your music video according to Andrew Goodwin?
Amplification.
Can you apply Steve Archer's theories?
Yes, our video did cut between both performance and narrative and the 'lead singer' was the also used as the main character within the narrative.
What role does the artist play in your music video?
Because the character is both the lead singer and the main narrative character she plays both the role of narrator and protagonist.
Did you choose a subjective or objective character identity in your music video and why?
Objective, because the lyrics of the song lent themselves to a personal and indepedent account.
What typology does your music video fit into?
Performance and narrative.

Genre Essay

'Media texts rely on audience knowledge of generic codes and conventions in order for them to create meaning.' Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to genre.

Laura Barsby

                Considering Andrew Goodwin’s method of categorising products my music video would be a mixture of performance and illustrative. This means that as well as having a ‘live’ band set up I also used a narrative. My idea was always to have these parts meet in the middle; giving a reason for the performance shots therefore we used the same character for the singer and the protagonist. This format of performance and illustrative as well as using the lead singer within the narrative is a convention of many music videos, especially within the rock genre.

This leads me to that the genre of our song was rock/pop, with an alternative acoustic sound and narrative lyrics. Knowing this then lead to research of rock/pop music videos in order to find conventions that we could recreate within our own product. The main convention that we used was using both the performance and illustrative categories that I previously mentioned which can also be seen in Flyleaf’s ‘Sorrow’ and Evanescence’s ’My Immortal’. We also used the black and white effect for the flashback scenes (which in itself is sometimes used within film). This added to the slightly ‘gothic’ and dark aesthetic and also made it easy to differentiate between scenes within the video. The video for both ‘My Immortal’ and Automatic Loveletter’s ‘Hush’ use black and white too but in a different way as the whole of each video is shot using that effect. This gloomy aesthetic convention was also met by the lighting we used which was mainly ambient (making sure that we shot the outside shots on an overcast day). As well as the setting other mise en scene was important in terms of convention such as costume. Within a lot of the music videos we researched the look was pretty similar and therefore easy to recreate. We used a feminine grunge style, pairing Doc Martens with a black lacy dress, a leather jacket and heavy eyeliner.

The lyrics of the song meant that we had a strong basis for a storyline as well as an idea about the emotion we wanted to portray. Theorist Tom Ryall suggested that the types of conventions found in genres might be grouped within certain categories. The first of these is narrative. My video has a clear narrative structure because there is a beginning, middle and end with a resolution. Also, my video is closed because the narrative does not carry on to a sequel. Another category is representations and my video adheres to this idea because there is one main character who carries the main narrative and there are two band members but that is all. I have used some conventions which could be seen as stereotypical for a female in this genre such as costume and make up. Also, the emotion portrayed fits with the genre and may be seen as stereotypical. The ideology within my video is that there is a sense throughout my music video that music can be a kind of 'salvation' because my protagonist character finds hope and overcomes her problem by singing.

Rick Altman argued that genre offers audience a 'set of pleasures' and emotionally I think my music video may adhere to this too.  The video is supposed to have a clear and relatable amount of emotion portrayed from the main character for the audience and this is depicted through camera angles such as close ups, location and the special effects as well as the actual acting.

Representation Essay

'Representations in media texts are often simplistic and reinforce dominant ideologies so that audiences can make sense of them.' Evaluate the ways that you have used/challenged simplistic representations in one of the media products you have produced.

      I am evaluating the representations within my music video and I feel that must videos often use ideologies according to their genre in order to relate and appeal to a certain audience. Often stereotypes are reinforced and the aesthetic will be very recognisable. My music video was in a rock genre and during the research stage of the project I looked at a lot of conventions.
     The character in my music video was female meaning that there was always a risk of adhering to the male gaze theory though because of the genre the character wasn't the 'typical' female character. I think it would be more likely for other females to look up to and relate to the character rather than her being used in a voyeuristic way. This challenges the stereotypical view of females within music videos but it fits with the way females in rock are usually seen more than they are in pop, as an artist rather than as an object. The costume and the personality we tried to portray helps to make this character fit the more 'alternative' genre.
      My representation of the rock genre (in terms of aesthetic, mood and personality) was quite conventional. All three of my characters we were wearing dark colours and the female especially was also wearing eyeliner and had a very grunge look. The mood, which was chosen because of the song, was negative which could fit the stereotype of 'emo'. Also the fact that I used both a narrative and performance within my music video means that the format was quite conventional for rock genre music videos. The idea that the front woman is the focus of the music video and the males of the band are just in the background is a feature of many female fronted rock bands such as Evanescence, Paramore and Flyleaf, whether this is intentional or not. This was used in my music video as the narrative followed one individual character and it made sense to use the singer.
     I think a lot of the representation used in my music video was conventional and I used the dominant ideologies that audiences relate with. This was probably mainly because when researching and planning I spent a lot of time looking at the conventions used in rock music videos in order to make my own realistic and as professional looking as I could.

Genre: Applying genre to your chosen text - Music Video

Which genre is your text?

Which genre category is it? (Performance, illustrative or disjuncture - Andrew Goodwin)
My music video was a mixture of performance and illustrative.
What genre is your music?
Rock/pop
Which generic conventions have you applied?

• Using both the performance and illustrative categories
• Black and white effect
• Feminine grunge costume
• Make up (Dramatic eyeliner)
• Panning
• Gloomy aesthetic

Tom Ryall suggests that the types of conventions found in genres might be grouped within the following categories:
Narrative: My video has a clear narrative structure because there is a beginning, middle and end with a resolution. My video is closed because the narrative does not carry on to a sequel.
Representations: There is one main character who carries the main narrative and there are two band members but that is all. I have used some conventions which could be seen as stereotypical for a female in this genre such as costume and make up. Also, the emotion portrayed fits with the genre and may be seen as stereotypical.
Ideologies: There is the idea throughout my music video that music can be a kind of 'salvation'.

Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audience a 'set of pleasures'. 
Emotion pleasures: The video is supposed to have a clear and relatable amount of emotion for the audience and this is portrayed through camera angles, location and effects as well as the acting.

How we define a genre depends on our purposes. (Chandler, 2001)
What was your purpose?
My purpose was to create a music video that linked with the song and that had both narrative and performance shots that a rock genre audience would watch.

Audience Essay Question

'Media texts will never be successful unless they are carefully constructed to target pre-established audience needs or desires.' Evaluate the ways that you constructed a media text to target a specific audience.

     In the research stage before we started to create our music video we spent time viewing existing music videos from the rock and rock/pop genre including 'My Immortal' by Evanescence, 'Sorrow' by Flyleaf and 'Jar of Hearts' by Christina Perri. This helped us to become aware of the conventions used within this style of music video. The main thing that we noticed was the costume and make up. The females in these videos had a feminine grunge style, usually pairing dresses with boots and eyeliner. This look definitely lends itself to the rock style and could be something that the audience can relate to or look up to. In our music video we developed this idea and the costume was a leather jacket over a black lace dress and docs. The styling was more focused on the female, meaning that the female audience would probably be more interested. Viewing existing music videos also helped us to decide to use both a narrative and performance shots because most of the other rock genre music videos did both. The story was basically about finding salvation in music and our audience would be able to relate to this because we are targeting big music fans and people that are involved in music themselves. Rock music fans tend to be very loyal and it is often more than
music to them, it's more about a lifestyle. Also, the feelings and emotion we tried to portray could also be something that the audience could relate to. If you think about the stereotype of rock fans as 'emos' and the connotations this has then the tone of the video very much fits.

     We thought it was important to have performance shots, not only for the narrative, but because a lot of other rock genre videos do and it is a convention that our target audience would enjoy and probably relate to. Rock music fans are the ones that spend a lot of time at concerts, gigs and festivals and are very into the live music scene. They may also play or sing themselves, whether it be in a band as a solo artist, meaning that the quality of live and 'real' music is very important. Therefore, we wanted to portray the live music aspect of the band within the video, making sure to give them an image as a 'real' band.

     We also created an audience profile which helped us to think about the shops that the audience would be likely to shop at which gave us ideas about what clothes they might wear. We looked at local shops such as Voodoo in Leicester, only stores like Disturbia and well known high street shops like New Look and River Island. During the research and planning stage I looked on Lookbook for some styling and aesthetic ideas too. The aesthetic is obviously very important for a music video and it is important that the artist is portrayed in a way that the audience can both relate and look up to. We wanted a strong female but not someone intimidating, meaning that the mixture of feminine and grunge worked well as well as being quite conventional for the genre of music.



 

G235: Critical Perspectives in Media - Theoretical Evaluation of Production: Representation (Music Video)

'All representations therefore have ideologies behind them. Certain paradigms are encoded into texts and others are left out in order to give a preferred representation' Levi Strauss (1958)
The main overall ideology for the music video was the feeling that music is a kind of 'salvation'. It portrayed the idea that music could give hope and the character prevailed because of music. The character therefore, was initially represented as vulnerable but gained hope and power throughout the video.

Richard Dyer (1983) posed a few question when analysing media representations in general:
1. What does it imply? Is it typical of the world or deviant?
The video gives a sense of the world as a slightly darker and unhappier place than perhaps most people see it. This is because it is from a personal point of view; from the eyes of one specific person, using their feelings (which are expressed in the song).
2. Who is it speaking to? For whom? To whom? What does it represent to us and why? How do we respond to the representation?
Literally, it is to the audience of the music video; people who are into rock music and that will relate to the feeling and lyrics of the song. The character in the video, however, is speaking to anyone who will listen while it also being like an internal monologue. You could argue that it speaks for the genre specific audience and therefore represents them in a slightly negative light.

Laura Mulvey (1975) argues that the dominant point of view is masculine. The female body is displayed for the male gaze in order to provide erotic pleasure for the male (voyeurism). Women are therefore objectified by the camera lens and whatever gender the spectator/audience is is positioned to accept the masculine POV. 
John Berger (1972) 'Men act and women appear'. 'Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.' 'Women are aware of being seen by a male spectator.'
The audience for the music video isn't gender specific and the character is female so you could expect there to be some aspect of the male gaze theory coming into it. However, the costume is not revealing and does not fit the typical style that can be seen in pop videos, because we were working to a rock genre. The way the character acts is nothing to do with being seen as a 'sex icon' and instead is to do with portraying emotion.

Audience

A2 Audience Presentation

Theories

John Hartley (1987)

• Create a relationship with the audience
• Know exactly what the audience want

Magazine - I created a questionnaire to gain feedback from my audience, therefore understanding what they wanted and applying it.
Music Video - Created an audience profile based on real people that were our target audience and used their ideas.

Julian Mcdougal (2009)

• Difficult to define a specific audience

Magazine and music video - With other genres moving into the mainstream our audience may be larger than it would have been before but there will still be a loyal 'rock' audience.

Ien Ang (1991)

• More sub categories
• Be very specific to your audience

I think that my audience is very specific and though anyone could read the magazine it is specifically geared towards females that are involved in rock music themselves, as well as just listening to it.

Hypodermic Theory

• Inject ideas into an audience

Pluralist (active) theory

• Our own interpretation

My audience can pick and choose which parts of the magazine they may read as well as whether they want to read it at all.

Uses and gratifications theory

• Escapism, relationships and surveillance

Magazine - I think my magazine fits with creating a personal relationship because the information about bands could become a talking point. It also identifies with the audience, aesthetically it would be appealing to the audience and may influence them. It definitely fits with the surveillance because it is giving information throughout.
Music Video - Music videos are used for entertainment as a form of escapism and they also may become a talking point between friends.

G235: Critical Perspectives in Media Theoretical Evaluation of Production - Magazine

Detail the target audience for your product.

My audience would be mainly made up of females because the magazine focuses on the females within rock music. They would probably be quite young; teenagers or young adults and they would be heavily into rock music, perhaps even playing themselves in some way.

Detail what the audience might identify with in your product?

The audience would recognise and probably like the music of the bands and artists I cover. The fact that it is focused on females means that female readers can identify with the artists they see in the magazine. My magazine also had a focus on how the music is made and this would be interesting for any composers that are reading.

What meanings/uses they might make from consuming/interacting with the product?

They may learn about composing and they will gain information about the bands/artists.    

Is your text popular for a mass audience?

I feel that because of the genre of my magazine my audience would be more likely to be a niche and alternative audience. Taking the term 'popular' into account I don't feel that my audience would fit with either the high or low culture in the fact that their style wouldn't be associated with the 'mass' culture. The other definition of popular meaning 'for the people' probably would fit my audience because they are a minority group that have gained popularity and still stay true to the values and are loyal to rock music.

Ien Ang (1991)
'Audiencehood is becoming an ever more multifaceted, fragmented and diversified repertoire of practises and experiences.'
Do you agree with Ang?
Yes, I think people are becoming a lot more open minded and are more willing to take on new things. I think a lot of this is to do with developments in technology.
Detail the social demographic of your target audience.
Mainly I think my audience would be female, around the age of 18 and working class.

John Hartley (1987)
'Institutions are obliged not only to speak about an audience, but - crucially, for them - to talk to one as well; they need not only to represent audiences but to enter into relation with them.'
To what extent do you agree with this?
I agree, I think that the audience needs to feel like they are gaining something and that they are being represented. They also want to know that there are likeminded people both producing and reading the magazine.
Hartley also suggests that institutions must produce 'invisible fictions of the audience which allow the institutions to get a sense of who they must enter into relations with.' (They must know their audience so that they can target them effectively.)
How did you do this with your magazine?
I created an audience profile based on people that I had talked to, these people were the kind of consumers I was targetting (female, teenager, liked rock music).

Audience Feedback
In order to gain feedback I read all the comments left by both teachers and students but in order to gain feedback from a different group I created a questionnaire and gave it to friends that are into rock music.

Can your coursework be linked in any way to the passive audience theory?
I suppose that the language used in the magazine articles could have an effect on the audience but most of the magazine is just informative.

How can your target audience be seen as active?  
My audience can pick and choose which parts of the magazine they may read as well as whether they want to read it at all.

McQuail's uses and gratifications theory.
I think my magazine fits with creating a personal relationship because the information about bands could become a talking point. It also identifies with the audience, aesthetically it would be appealing to the audience and may influence them. It definitely fits with the surveillance because it is giving information throughout.

Discuss the ways that you have used media language to create meanings in one of your media products (Music Video)

     For the music video we thought a lot about what camera angles and shots we would use and what effect these would have. We ended up using quite a large variety of camera angles and shots to portray different things. The long shots that show the character walking through the field and used with a straight angle and panning. This shows desolation which links with both the song and the band name and it makes the character seem small compared to her surroundings.  The close ups were used to show the emotion of the song and we used the camera at an eye level angle to make the emotion even more obvious. The mid shots used with a straight angle were used mainly for performance purposes; to capture any gesturing as well as body language and emotion. The other mid shots used with a high angle were used to show the character as vulnerable while also capturing body language, costume and emotion.

     The editing of the video was kept quite simple with mainly straight cuts between scenes and shots to keep the pace and to make the cuts clean. We did, however, use a dissolve cut between two of the scenes when the band shots are first introduced to differenciate them from each other. 

      The lighting was also simple because we wanted it to be natural because of the situation. All of the external shots used natural lighting to create realism and the internal shots use low key lighting to keep it looking natural and realistic. Because it was a highly narrative video realism was important and it wasn't apprporaite to use a lot of light and colours that may be used in more pop videos.

     All of the sound used was non-diegetic because the only sound used is the music track. When editing this was put in as a seperate audio line and the video was placed on top.

     We wanted the external setting of the field to connotes a sense of lonliness and desolation because this  fits with the song and the band name so there is a strong theme throughout. We used Barthes code for this which talks about the connotations that can be attributed to denotations, the denotation being the field. In these scenes there were no props used and this created a contrast between these shots and the internal shots where quite a few props were used. The letter in the internal scenes was a vital prop because it laced the narrative of the video together. We also used some props to dress the scene and make the internal set look realistic. The costume e for the external shots was a black lacy dress paired with docs and leather jacket, this meant that a mixture of feminine and grunge was used which is quite conventional for the genre of music and the style of the song. The make up was also very conventional and typical of a female rock genre artist. On the internal flshback shots the costume and make up was different because it was a different scene and they weren't 'performance' shots.

     We used some special effects during editing such as the 'cold steel' colour effect for the flashback scenes. This acted as a black and white kind of effect and was another way of differenciating the scenes from each other. This is a convention seen in films and music videos used for the same purpose. We sped up and slowed down some of the shots meaning the timings of the shots were changed to fit them with the pace of the music as well as to create atmosphere.

Analyse media language in one of your coursework productions - Music video plan

Camera:

• Varied  use of shots
• Long shot with a straight angle and panning used to show desolation
• Close ups with eye level angle used for capturing emotion
• Mid shots with a staright angle used mainly for performance purposes - to capture gesturing, body language and emotion
• Mid shots with high angle to show character as vulnerable while capturing body language, costume and emotion

Editing:

• Mainly used straight cuts to keep pace and to make the cuts clean
• Used a dissolve cut between scenes

Lighting:

• All external shots used natural lighting - realism
• Internal shots use low key lighting to keep it looking natural and realistic

Sound:

•  All sound is non-diegetic, the only sound used is the music track

Mise en scene (setting, costume, colour, props):

• Setting - External field shots connotes a sense of lonliness and desolation which fits with the song and the band name so there is a strong theme throughout.
•  Props - Using a field for the external shots also meant that no props were used in these scenes which creates a contrast between these shots and the internal shots where quite a few props were used. The letter was a vital prop because it laced the narrative of the video together. Props were used to make the internal set to make it look realistic.
• Costume - black lacy dress, docs and leather jacket - a mixture of feminine and grunge was used, conventional for the genre of music and the style of the song. The make up was also very conventional and typical of a female rock genre artist.

 Special Effects (visual, sound and lighting):

• Speeding up/slowing down shots - The timings of the shots are changed to fit them with the pace of the music as well as to create atmosphere.
• Colour - The 'cold steel' effect used for the flashback scenes differenciates the scenes from each other. It is a convention that is sometimes seen in films for the same purpose. 

Critical Perspectives in Media

Copy of Intro to A2 Course - G325 Critical Perspectives in Media - Question B -Final Copy

Theories to Include

Theories to Include in Question 1a

Post Production Essay

Detail how your post production skills developed throughout your AS and A2 coursework. 

At AS created a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a music magazine. To do this we used Photoshop which we imported our images to, enabling us to edit them. It also meant (especially for the double page spread) that we had a good template on which to work. For A2 we created a music video and two ancillary products; an advert and a digipak. For the music video we worked in pairs and we used Final Cut Pro and for the ancillary tasks we again used Photoshop. Through the more regular use of these programs my skills developed and I became more confident.

At AS we initially created a preliminary piece to get us started on Photoshop and this helped me to get used to the different settings, effects and tools that I could use. My lack of knowledge about Photoshop at that time meant that the preliminary magazine was very simple. I used the magnetic lasso tool to cut out the image for my front cover which took longer than it would now because I wasn't used to the technique. I also wasn't too sure about what order I should do things in to make it easier for myself but the layering part of Photoshop helped with that so it wasn't too much of a problem. I remember that I used the gradient tool and the rectangle tool to create a simple background in two colours. I used the text tool to create a heading and some strap lines for the front cover but the font I used was very simple. The preliminary task was helpful as an introduction to Photoshop but my product could have been greatly improved.

The next stage was to create a draft of each page of the magazine. I think I started with the front cover because it was what I had done for the preliminary task, so it wasn't too daunting to start with. I imported the image that I wanted on to a blank A4 page and layered it over a background I created with the rectangle tool. I then used the rectangle tool again to create a masthead at the top of the page where the title of the magazine would be and a box at the bottom where I later placed the barcode and a strap line. My layout was very simple but it was starting to take shape, in terms of style it was a lot closer to what I wanted than my preliminary task. I used a font from a website, but couldn't download it at the time, so simply print screened it and then imported it as an image. I changed the saturation on my main image to 'dull' it down a bit because I thought this would be more fitting for the rock genre I was trying to achieve.

The contents page of the draft was the thing that I changed the least because I was most happy with it. At this point I hadn't done too much research into conventions so it didn't look quite right but I was happy with the general style. I used a white background created by two rectangles and then I was able to use the layering tool to fit in a panoramic picture between the two. I was really happy with the way this looked and I wanted to use it in my final magazine contents page. I also used two vertical rectangles in black with an effect added to create the background for the text. I then used the same font as on the front cover.

The double page spread was probably the most simplistic of all the drafts because it was a very different layout and I was more hesitant with creating it. I again used the rectangle tool to create a black background and then I added another grey rectangle along the top of the page to try and fit with the convention of the header. I added another photo of my 'artist' on the right hand side of the page and I again slightly dimmed the saturation to try and fit with the genre.

On the final version of my magazine I again started with creating the front cover because it was something familiar. Instead of the black background I used a grey but I still used the rectangle tool to create it. I then added the image of my 'artist'. I used the magnetic lasso tool to do this and I was more used to using this tool by now so it didn't take as much time. I then used the spot healing brush tool to make it look more professional and I adjusted some of the effects such as the saturation again to change the brightness of the image. I was more experimantal with fonts this time and I layered a lot of the text too, to make it stand out. On the contents page I used the gradient tool that I had tried to use on my preliminary task and I was happy with how it turned out, it was definitely more succesful this time.

At the A2 post production stage most of the editing was just fitting the clips together. However, we had wanted the flashbacks sequences to look different and we had planned to use the black and white effect. We tried this initially but after looking through some more of the effects on offer we decided on using the 'cold steel' effect which had more of a blue tint. We also used the slow motion tool (which we could adjust ourselves) more one or two of the clips.

After using Photoshop a lot at AS I was more confident when making the ancillary tasks. It had been a while since I had last used it though so I had to get used to it again. The advert was quite simple to make but making the digipak was a lot different to the AS magazine task so I found it more difficult. Because of the six panels it was important to make sure everything was the right way around and that the images fit perfectly to the page. Getting everything in place was the hardest part but the layering tool definitely helped. I used most of the effects on the images because they were hand drawn and scanned in meaning that some of the colours were a little off.

I think I did improve from AS to A2 because I was able to take more risks rather than staying safe. My knowledge of conventions and the technology I was using also improved greatly so the products I created were considerably better at A2.

Digital Technology Essay

Comment on the digital technology you used for your ancillary products and how your skills have developed since AS.

• What are the pros and cons of the software and the hardware at AS in terms of skills development?
• What are the pros and cons of the software and the hardware at A2 in terms of skills development?
• How did you use your AS digital technology skills to aid the construction of your ancillary task at A2?
• What were the pros and cons of developing skills from AS print to A2 video production?

At AS we made a front page, double page spread and contents page for a music magazine. This meant using Photoshop predominantly as well as other technologies throughout the course. I wasn't very confident with using these at first because I had never created anything like this and it was all quite new. The preliminary exercise, though not very advanced, did help me to grasp the basics of Photoshop. For this task I used the schools camera but for my actual product I used my own, a Fujifilm Finepix AV camera. 

The things that I were able to achieve on Photoshop at this point were still very limited. I found Photoshop very difficult to use which initially put me off trying new things. A lot of my time was spent trying to figure out how to use the tools on offer rather than actually using them. I knew that Photoshop was good program and that it was only difficult to use because it was so detailed and there was so much you could do with it but being a beginner I wish I had had more time to build up my knowledge of the program. I think this meant that a lot of the work I did on my music magazine was very simple and I didn't take risks. I very much based my magazine on 'Kerrang!' instead of thinking more creatively and independently. I had the ideas but not the skills to carry them out. 

At A2, because we were creating a music video, we had to use another new program. I had used movie maker before (we also used it for the animatic) but it wasn't as advanced as we would have liked for the music video. At first me and Mae used a program on the PCs which was okay but we never really got to grips with it. We were recommended Final Cut Pro on the Macs which was a better program that was actually quite easy to use. 

Using blogger was a huge part of both the AS and A2 work and was very important for planning and evaluating. It was good to have chronological posts to refer back to when evaluating work and it was also useful to post initial ideas, planning and research for myself as well as teachers. For A2 it made working with Mae a lot easier because we could look on each other's blogs and it was easier to share ideas even if we weren't together. It meant that I could also embed documents from Prezi, Scribd and Animoto and videos from Youtube. All of these technologies were useful throughout AS and A2, enabling me to use a variety of different formats for my blog posts. 

Digital Technlogy: Software AS

AS -
What did the image manipulation program allow you to manipulate?
It was useful to be able to adjust the colour and lighting of the images. This meant that the aesthetic of the photos fit with the edgy style of the rock genre because before before they were manipulated they were slightly too clean cut. I was able to easily crop and resize the images too.

Explain how using layers helped organise your work and construct your front cover.
The layering system on Photoshop meant that I could work on one part of the front cover independently without having to move all the other parts out of the way. It was a very clear way of working and it also meant that after I had edited one part I could show the layers again to see what it would look like as a whole.

Explain how you created your double page spread.
I used a double page spread from Kerrang! as a basis to make sure I had all the conventions I needed. I firstly wrote the article to get a sense of how much space I needed for the writing. Once that was done I opened a new file in Photoshop and put one of the pictures of my model on to the left side of the page. I then edited this picture, added a background and the article. I then made some slight alterations to finish off.

How did you develop an understanding of the conventions of print layout?
I looked at a lot of existing magazines and analysed them to see what conventions there were and if there were any that were particularly used within the rock genre.

How did your blog help in terms of audience feedback?
It enabled both teachers and classmates to comment on anything I posted but most of the feedback I got was actually face to face in the classroom. I don't think the feedback I got given over the blog was as helpful as it could have been.

How did you upload the photographs to the desktop computers?
We used the camera's SD card once we had taken the photographs.

A2 -
Which editing software did you use to edit your music video?
We tried a few programs but settled on Final Cut Pro on the Macs.

You edited footage on a timeline - how did this enhance your knowledge of layering various video footage and audio?
The timeline made it very easy in terms of how long the shots should be and where they should go. It meant that cutting clips and ridding the video of overlap was simple. There were two separate lines, one for audio and one for video and if you wanted to add cut fades in then you could use another separate video line.

Identify a few of the edits you used in your music video.
We used slow motion and we sped up some of the clips to create a certain effect and to make them fit with the music.

How did you ensure the audio matched the video footage?
When filming I sung along to the track and then in editing we cut the sound from the video clips and matched it up to the audio instead.

Did you use any special effects?
We used black and white for the flashback shots.

Mark Scheme

Jan 2011 Mark Scheme by

Creativity Essay

Outline the Extent to Which You Were Creative in Your As and A2 Coursework Tasks.

Creativity is a very wide area and there are many ways to be creative within work. One of these is originality; creating something new and individual.  At AS I think that my music magazine was different to most because it had clear focus on the females within the rock genre without the male gaze used as an element too much. This also meant that it had more of a focus on a female audience too. I think that this was an original idea because I hadn't seen it done before and though there a lot of great female artists within the rock genre I feel that they aren't as widely known as others. Also, female fronted rock bands are mainly what I listen to so I had quite a wide knowledge of it before I started. 

                Another part of creativity is the imagination you put into a project or product and the vision that you have for it initially.  The imaginative part of the project came when I was planning the music magazine. I had to choose a colour scheme, fonts and an aesthetic theme that fit the genre and that I was happy with. Though a lot of this was inspired by other rock music magazines and existing products I definitely had my own ideas and the ideas brought up from audience feedback. At A2 the idea for the music video came to me very quickly and the vision that I had for it was very similar to the end product. There were a lot of creative elements to think about such as costume, location, shots and props. I was really happy with the aesthetics of the end product and this had all come down to the initial planning and vision.

Inspiration was a huge part of being creative, especially as at AS I hadn’t done anything like this before and it was important to get an idea of how products were created and how they looked before I began creating my own. As I said I was inspired by other rock music magazines, the main one being 'Kerrang!'. I was inspired a lot by this for the layout of my magazine and it was very helpful to have an existing product to refer back too. I think the inspiration helped me to be creative and in the end helped me to create a good product. At A2 the inspiration we had was from videos of female fronted rock and rock/pop bands and this had a huge influence on our video. It made it a lot easier to envision our own video and made the planning process quicker. It was also nice to have an existing product to refer back to, meaning that our product became more professional looking. For the ancillary products the inspiration came from quite conventional rock themes and dark imagery such as skulls. 

Another part of being creative is being resourceful and working around the boundaries and limitations we had with ingenuity. Because of the limited time we had to create the products it was a challenge but I made sure to plan well in advance and I tried to be as organised as possible. Because of timing I didn't get to take all the pictures I would have like too, meaning that some of the images I used were actually just from concerts I had been too, but worked well as thumbnails for 'posters'. Again, at A2, time was an issue, especially when shooting for the video. We had to work around our own schedules as well as weather and daylight. We usually shot the outside shots while it was still light and when it began to get darker we'd do any inside performance shots which evened it out and meant that we weren't wasting time.

Compared to my preliminary music magazine my work had improved greatly. Throughout the course I learnt about conventions that would help my product to look more professional. I also felt more confident using programmes such as Photoshop meaning that my editing was much better than when I first started.

Creativity Tasks

What is Creativity?

The thesaurus definition of creativity is:

Originality, imagination, inspiration, ingenuity, inventiveness, resourcefulness, vision and innovation.

Taking each of the words in turn, apply them to the pieces of coursework you have created at AS and A2. Create a list for each of your coursework pieces, justifying how you have demonstrated any of them.

AS:

• Originality - My music magazine was different to most because it focused on the females within the rock genre and had more of a focus on a female audience. I wanted to create this because I hadn't seen it done before and though there a lot of great female artists within the rock genre I feel that they aren't as widely known as others. Also, female fronted rock bands are mainly what I listen to so I had quite a wide knowledge of it before I started. 
• Imagination/Vision - The imaginative part came when planning the music magazine. I had to choose a colour scheme, fonts and an aesthetic theme. Though a lot of this was inspired by other rock music magazines and existing products I definitely used my imagination to create my final product. 
• Inspiration - As I said I was inspired by other rock music magazines, the main one being 'Kerrang!'. I was inspired a lot by this for the layout of my magazine and it was very helpful to have an existing product to refer back too. I think the inspiration helped me to be creative and in the end helped me to create a good product. 
• Ingenuity/Resourcefulness - Because of the limited time we had to create the products it was a challenge but I made sure to plan well in advance and I tried to be as organised as possible. Because of timing I didn't get to take all the pictures I would have like too, meaning that some of the images I used were actually just from concerts I had been too, but worked well as thumbnails for 'posters'. 
• Innovation - Compared to my preliminary music magazine my work had improved greatly. Throughout the course I learnt about conventions that would help my product to look more professional. I also felt more confident using programmes such as Photoshop meaning that my editing was much better than when I first started. 

A2:

• Imagination/Vision - The idea for the music video came to me very quickly and the vision that I had for it was very similar to the end product. There were a lot of creative elements to think about; costume, location, shots, props etc. 
• Inspiration - The inspiration we had was from videos of female fronted rock and rock/pop bands and this had a huge influence on our video. It made it a lot easier to envision our own video and made the planning process quicker. It was also nice to have an existing product to refer back to, meaning that our product became more professional looking. For the ancillary products the inspiration came from quite conventional rock themes and dark imagery such as skulls. 
•  Ingenuity/Resourcefulness - Again, time was an issue, especially when shooting for the video. We had to work around our own schedules as well as weather and daylight. We usually shot the outside shots while it was still light and when it began to get darker we'd do any inside performance shots which evened it out and meant that we weren't wasting time. 

How creative do you think you've been and what prevented you from being more creative?

Though there were constraints such as limited time, money and equipment I think I was creative in terms of vision. I always had a clear idea of how I wanted my product and I was happy with what I had created at the end of it all. Seeing as this was the first time I'd done this a lot of it was based on influences and existing products but I would like to think that if I did it again I would try to move away from that and let my creativity be more independent and less influenced. 

Has a set menu of tasks made it easier to be creative or would you have preferred a free choice on what you could make? Were you pinned down too much by the task or did it free you up to be creative within the boundaries of the task?

I don't think that the boundaries were a particularly bad thing and I was still able to be creative within that. I think it also helped  that I enjoyed the task we were given as it was tied to music. I think that if we had more time then there would have been no problem with letting us have more free choice but as it was I think the boundaries made it easier in the long run.

"A process needed for problem solving... not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people." (Jones 1993)
Everyone has an integral way to problem solve, though they may not all be the same, we all have it within us.

"The making of the new and the rearranging of the old." (Bentley 1997)
The way in which things are created. We can either create something completely new or we can reuse and modify old ideas.

"Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation." (Csikszentmihalyi 1996)
Creativity is shaped by culture (surroundings and the society), a person with an idea and somebody to recognise that idea as something special.
- Agree: Within our work our surroundings were our boundaries (budget, being students, time etc.), the person with the idea was us, the student, and the person to recognise that idea was the teacher. 

"There is absolutely no judgement [on creativity]. All judgements are comparisons of one thing with another." (Donald Larning)
If we judge something we are simply comparing it to something else.
- Disagree: I think that there definitely is judgement, and even if it is a comparison you still have an opinion on a certain thing. It's not, however, always a negative, because the feedback we got in our work helped us to develop. 

"Technology has taken all the creativity out of media."
New advancements have made it easier to create things but we now lack the capability to be creative and use our imaginations.

"A project that is too well planned lacks opportunities for spontaneity and creativity."

If you plan every single part of a project too well you will never break the boundaries, therefore never exploring something new and possibly better.

"Media producers can learn nothing from studying the conventions of old texts."
You won't learn anything new from looking at generic conventions of something already created.
- Disagree: Though I agree with this to a certain extent, especially if you are already well developed within media production, I think for our work it was always helpful to look back at conventions of already existing texts because it helped to make ours more believable. 

The creation of bringing something new into existence - "This particular understanding of creativity involves the physical making of something, leading to some form of communication, expression or revelation." (David Gauntlett)
There is always a reason behind creating something.

"If creativity is not inherent in human mental power and is, in fact, social and situational, then technological developments may well be linked to advances in the creativity of individual users." (Banaji, Burn and Buckingham 2006)
If creativity is to to with the individual situation of a person then the use of technology is still creative because how it is used is down to the person who uses it. 

- Agree: Though the whole class used Photoshop for their coursework the end results were all very different and some people's were definitely more creative than ours. It still depended on the skills of the individual person.

Rube Goldberg

How do Rube Goldberg's ideas fit in with what you have learnt about creativity? To what extent are they demonstrating creativity?
I think the creativity from Goldberg is different to the conventional way of thinking about creativity. It seems to be a lot more technical, and more for the reason that it looks good, rather than it really meaning anything.

Which theories could be applied to Goldberg's ideas? Explain why.
"Creativity results from the interaction of a system composed of three elements: a culture that contains symbolic rules, a person who brings novelty into the symbolic domain, and a field of experts who recognise and validate the innovation." - This kind of creativity has evolved from different aspects of our society within art and media, the person is obviously Goldberg and the recognition comes from the audience's reaction.

Which theories conflict with his ideas? Explain why.
"A project that is too well planned lacks opportunities for spontaneity and creativity." - This conflicts completely because the video wouldn't have worked at all if it wasn't planned out to the last detail.
"This particular understanding of creativity involves the physical making of something, leading to some form of communication, expression or revelation." - Though it looks good and something big was definitely created I don't think there was any deeper meaning behind it.

Creativity Grid by

Conventions Essay

How has your understanding of real media conventions developed over the past two years?

At AS we completed a front cover, a double page spread and a contents page for a music magazine with a genre of our choice. We used Photoshop to create these products. At A2 we created a music video for a song of our choice (I used 'Save Me' by Automatic Loveletter) and the ancillary tasks: a digipak and a magazine advert for the album.

First of all, for the research and planning, I looked at music magazines as a whole. There are some common conventions within nearly all music magazines. These include using a large and striking main image on the front cover, usually of the band or artist that the main story is focused around. Another prominent feature is cover lines. These give more information about the story or artist, making the reader want to know more. On the contents page there are often page previews using thumbnail images of certain pages within the magazine also to grab the reader's attention. The use of layering is important for the aesthetic of the magazine. It is the technique of overlaying images and text in order to prevent there being a lot of blank space on a page. There are some other obvious features such as the barcode, page numbers and page titles that you would see in any genre magazine that it was important not to miss.

The genre of the magazine, however, did influence some of the conventions I chose to use. This was an important element to look at because some features are used differently within different genres and I wanted my magazine to be a coherent rock genre magazine. The first thing was the colour scheme; it was usually a lot darker and simpler for rock genre magazines, usually using black or grey. My own colour scheme was black, white and red which was very conventional. Often the style of the font and images used within rock genre music magazines were very fitting, connoting themes that linked with the music such as anger or sadness. The language of the actual articles seemed to be very colloquial and conversational predominantly. While this could be true for many genres it seemed to be a feature more so of rock genre music magazines, and there was usually a fair amount of 'taboo' language within the writing too.

Being able to compare my own work to an existing product throughout the creative stages and using the conventions made the piece as a while more believable and professional-looking. This meant that understanding the conventions enough to manipulate them to fit my own product was important. It influenced the decision making process because I had to choose which conventions to use and which I could challenge or adapt without my product losing a sense of genre or how believable it was as a piece.

Understanding the conventions for a music video was a lot simpler because we see them on a daily basis and it becomes very recognisable. This meant that ideas I had for the music video formed almost straight away after choosing a song. I feel that I did use conventions for the music video, mainly in terms of styling. The mise en scene was very simple for the most part because a lot of it was shot outdoors. For these scenes I wanted it to seem lonely and isolated to fit with the song as well as the conventions of a lot of rock genre music videos. The costume and the make up were heavily based upon the look of a lot of female fronted rock bands such as Evanescence and female artists such as Christina Perri and were therefore quite conventional.

For the digipak and advert the imagery I used of skulls and skeletons fits with the conventional view of the 'darkness' of the rock genre. I also used a very basic colour scheme similar to the one I used within my music magazine. Compared to my AS work I think my understanding of conventions has developed and is now more of a second nature when creating something. I think my knowledge of conventions with the rock genre is very strong but maybe that I need to branch out into other genres too.

For the AS work I mainly used conventions because it was the first time I had created anything like that and I was very aware  of trying to make my piece as believable as possible. At A2 I was able to take more risks because I was more confident of my abilities. Therefore I challenged the convention of using a lot of band shots within the video. In a lot of cases a rock bands will be made up of at least four members (My Chemical Romance, Halestorm, Evanescence, Linkin Park, Escape the Fate etc.)and in the video there will be a lot of dramatic performance shots. In my video, however, the performance shots were a lot more laid back and limited - partly because there were only three members to the band I created (similar to Paramore's new line up).

I think that, especially when initially creating something, conventions are very important to use as guidelines. They help to steer you in the right direction and they give shape to your product. Once you have your initial idea you can then move away from the conventions and challenge existing ideas to make the product really your own. I understand now, that conventions are not always as strict as I previously thought and that you can allow yourself to break the rules every so often in order to be creative.