Postmodern meida essay (Ford)

Discuss why some people are not convinced by the idea of postmodern media.

There are mnay reasons why some people may not be convinced by the idea of postmodern media as for mostpeoplepostmodern media is very confusing. If people do not understand the intertextual references then they will find it hard to understand post modern media and postmodernism is very hard to define. There are many different definations of postmodernism in that it isweird for the sake of being weird and so is unconventional. The main aim of postmodern media is that it aim is to allow the audience to understand that although they are watching a film, everything is completely fiction. However they do it in a way that is not easily noticed by the audience but allows them to understand.
There are many arguements for and against understanding some forms of postmodernism. The thoery from Fredrick Jameson gives off critizisms of postmoderism, but postmodernist do not completly disagree to his thoery. Jmeson explains how postmodernism is just selfreferential jokes that do not particularly have a deep meaning or purpouse. For example, this is used a lot in the horror film Scream. Scream plays jokes on its own genre and although it is a horror movie, things said within the film are selfreferential jokes. An example within the filmis when all the teens are at aparty and go through the rules of whats normally happens within a horror movie. Like the pretty girl is killed first, and the vigins are left to live because they are pure. This is the same in nearly all horror movies, however the film scream explains this and so relatesto the audience by letting them understand that horror movies are fiction. Therefore, Fredrick Jameson sees that the output from postmodernism is purposful and so will remain in a modernist society.

Genre essay (Hammond)

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

Genre is a big part of my music video that i produced as it had everything to do with connecting to the audience. The genre of a media text is vital for connecting and pleasing an audience and genre is a type of text as Daniel Chandler explains.

I would say that my music video is a mixture of the genres of performance and illustrative. This is because in the video, throughout we are telling a story of the female singer and showing what she is going through. But then we are also giving a performance as we have shots of the band together in the band room and have the main female singer singing to the audience through the camera. The genre of the music of our video would be soft rock and i have used many generic conventions throughout the video. Examples of this would be a close up of lip-syncing as we needed lots of close up shots in our video to get across the emotion of what the song was showing us. Also for the performance of band shots we had mimed playing of instruments to fit in with the music and make it look professional. We had a wide variety of camera shots in the video and the most unusual we had would be when Laura lay down and we had the camera above her. We did this because the definition of her face looked good and it fitted in with the genre as other media texts used these kind of weird shots in the music videos of the genre soft rock.

One of the important parts of my music video was the connect with the audience and so a main thing me and Laura did was ask questions of people that listened to soft rock so we could understand the sort of things they liked to see within a music video so we could keep to the genre and allow the audience to be happy.  By doing this it allowed the audience to feel comfortable when watching the music video as we could structure it to fit the genre and also keeping to what the audience know and like, which in ours was telling a story and connecting with the audience emotionally. Rick Altman as he argues that genres give audiences a set of pleasures. In my music video i had both emotional and intellectual pleasures for the audience. This is because we had emotions from the female singer to connect with the audience and and to create a response from the audience  for example, questioning what the female did to be in this position and what she is going to do about it. The intellectual pleasure was that it left the audience wondering the plot of the story being explained throughout the music video and so made them relate to their own life and how they handle situations.

To make sure that we stuck to our genre we looked at other media texts and the music videos that they did to look at the kind of dress and colouring of shots to make sure we connected to the audience. Also by talking to our audience we got a grasp of the type of things they wanted to see in the way of dress and make up. For example many people said they liked to see the singers as being strong and powerful in what they were saying and to get the emotions across so it linked to the song. So by concentrating on what the audience wanted and still sticking to our genre we managed to create a music video that fit the expectation of generics that were used by other artists with the same genre.

Applying audeince (Hammond).

Is your text popular for a mass audience?

I would say that my text is not particularly popular for a mass audience. this is because the band is not as well known and only certain types of people like the style of music and so not lots of people will know about it. Also the design of it is not to suit a mass audience as i only wanted to connect to a small group of people who has big interests in that type of text. Our media texts are not seen to be cheesy and has little detail but stand out to the type of audience we were going for and would connect to the smaller type of auience as the usic choice is not a partiuclarly popular one and is not hear much on radios or anything it is more  band that you would only listen to them if you knew about them on your own.

Detail the target audience of your product

Our choice of music was set to please both female and male, mainly teenagers, and for people who like rock type of music. We did generally try to please everyone by not going too over the top and keeping the costume to everday people so that we could apply the music to engage new people. But we were mainly targeting teenagers as it is there type of music because the lyrics can go in to detail.

Ien Ang

to what extent do you agree with Ang?  I partly agree as there are lot more different types of audeinces now and people are looking for different types of things.

Postmodern media (Ford).

How do postmodern media differ from other media?

Post modern media is different from other media because it goes against traditional modernism. Post modern media rejects what is normal to be seen within a media text, for example a film. Post modern media is different as it plays with the audience and plays with what is seen to be as a norm and so is unexpected.

One film that can be seen to be post modern would be the thriller film Scream which was made in 1996 and directed by Wes Craven. One post modern aspect of the film would be reflexivity as it is a horror film and knows its a horror film and so makes fun of this. One example of this would be when one of the main female characters states what happens in a horror movie and says 'What's the point? They're all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some big-breasted girl who can't act who is always running up the stairs when she should be running out the front door. It's insulting'. This shows that the film is self reflexing on what is happening and to what normally happens in a horror movie and this is not normally expected. The film Scream mocks its own genre of it being a horror movie by what characters say and do within it. For example when the girl runs up the stairs away from the killer instead of running out the door. This creates a humour for the audience and acknowledges them that it is a fiction story, and this is a element of post modernism.

However, although Scream has humour within it, it still sticks to the normal horror theme and still keeps itself a horror movie instead of it being a comedy. This then creates a new type of horror movie and and supports the theory that there is no more originality and so everything is now a mix of bricolage and intertextuality. The way in which Scream use bircoloage is that it still uses scenes from other scary movies for example virgins are not killed, and that the pretty girls are the stupid ones who run the wrong way towards the killer. However Scream uses this as bricolage as they change it around as the tell the audiecne of what they are doing a that they are aware if it. Another way in which bicolage is used is the setting of the movie in that it is in a isolated place where not many people live and that the killer is not known because the identity is hidden by a mask. This is used in many horror movies, but Scream uses this to their advanatage in that they change it around a bit.

The intertextuality of the film Scream is when the director, Wes Craven, appears qucikly on screen looking like freddy kuger, but is not easily seen by the audience. This then follows on from the aspect of the film not taking its self seriously and being aware of other horror scene and using them. A reason that the director does this is because the characters in the movie are always talking about other scary movie and so it was convineint for there to be a showing of other horror movies within the film. Another example of this would be when they are at a party and the film 'The exorsist' was spoken about as are many other horror films throughou the film. By doing this it makes the film relate more to real life and so this is how Scream keeps its horror genre as it is still able to scare the audience. This relates to modern society in how everything is now a representation from other things.

Postmodern media differs from modern media as it includes things that an audience would not expect to see normally for example on the film Inglorious Basterds. An audience would expect to see lots of fighting and for the soldiers to be rough and dirty. However in Inglorious Basterds the soldiers are seen to be clean and well dressed and for a war film there is not lots of fighting going on, more the odd disagreement and bits of gore. This shows how it is post modern as this is not the norm expected by people in a war film. Also the music that goes with Inglourious basterds is spagehtti western and so mixes cultures together. This relate to Kramers music theory of that the music is on some level and some way ironic. This meaning it doesnt really connect to the type of film Inglourious Basterds is and doesnt really have any meaning to it. However it sounds right and the director used the nusic well to link in with the film without the audience thinking it doesnt match.

Representation (Hammond).

Laura Mulvey (1975) - I disagree with the view that women are used for erotic please. This is necause in my music video the girl was not dressed to come across like that and also did not have lots of makup on the make her come across as this perfect woman. In our music video we had Laura as a vunerable yet powerful woman and so came across dominant and was not there to please the audince in a secual way.

John Berger (1972) - In some ways i agree that woman are aware that hey are being looked at by male specktaters. However this does not mean that they dress to please for example in our music video we had plain clothing and not much makeup and the type of camera angles we had were not there to make Laura be shown off sexually.

" 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 feel that i have both used and challenged simplistic representations in my media product in a variety of ways. In my music video i chose to have a band with a female singer however i challenged representations of female singers to that i wanted mine to look powerful and not be seen as a sexual object. i wanted her to attract the audience by being powerful and a difficult situation and show that she can over come things. I felt this was different to many female artists in modern society.

This links to the Martin Barker theory in that women are stereotyped to be seen as sex objects, which they should not be because like anyone else females can be seen as powerful and independent  This shows that i have challenged other media products in that i have not used the dominant idealogical of a female singer being helpless with not much clothing on and to be there for male watchers. Also within our music video we wanted to concentrate more on the storyline to give off a different representation of music. In most music video of the genre like the one we chose the female although are dressed nice, they seem to have body parts on show and have lots of make-up to make them come across more attractive. For my music video i did use the style of look but we put our own twist on it that we wanted a more natural look so we could give off a better emotion and also allow our audience to concentrate on what we were representing.

Another way in which i challenged representation of other media products was the limitation of things in the background. i did this because i wanted the female to be the main focus and also by having a plain background it helped to give off the effect of loneliness. however in other media texts there is normally lots going on in the background to create a scene or to make something look more exciting to the audience eye. On the other hand i did use some other media texts ideas for the set and angles of the shots to make sure it did not look boring by having nothing much in the background. I looked at videos by evanessance as that was the same genre and style of music as to what we chose.

I did use the idea of having a story to a song for example like Beyonces song if i were a boy. i chose this because i liked the way in which lyrics can represent how a person is feeling and also by portraying this across on a music video. By using this idea it helped me to keep to the representation of Laura and how we wanted our band and female singer to come across. By sticking to a story line it helps to keep into contact with the emotions expressed on the lyrics.

Essay (Hammond)

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

The media product in which i have chosen is my music video as i created many different meaning through media language and the moving image. I did this through the camera, editing, sound, lighting, mise en scene, and special effects.

The way in which the camera work helped with the media language was in many different ways such as the angles used and the variety of shots used, therefore this is the posistioning and the movement of the camera itself. By posistioning the camera to where i want it to be it means that the audience has to look at that particular shot, rather than being able to look at whatever they want, unless it is a long shot. The types of shots in which i used was, extreme close up, close up, mid shot, and long shot. I used extreme close up quite a lot on Lauras face and she had a good bone structure that fiilled the shot, also the song had a lot of emotions being expressed within it so to use an extreme close up was the best idea to get the true emotions across. I used close up shots to get across not just emotion but to show the use of hand movement to portray emotion so it was not just her face giving off the emotion. I think this works well as allows the audeince to connect to her and view how she is handling the situatin in which she is in. The mid shots that i used were to show the costume of the character off because then the audeince could then see the type of person she is and connect to the way she looks and uderstand her body language. Also using a mid shot alows there to be a quick shot of the surrondings. As for the long shots i used that to show how deserted she is and show her emotion through the wide shot of lonliess. I also used a variety of angles such as, behind the shoulder, and to get a sort of birds eye view feel by being higher that Laura. I did this to mix up the look of the shots so it did not get boring but also to shows things from Lauras point of view e.g. behind her shoulder when walkin to give her letter away.

I used lots of media launguage through editing for example, the use of colours, putting video clips together, editing in the sound, and adding in different effects to match the type of shot. this also links to sound in that we had to edit out the background noise to allow the song to play and then had to match everything up so that laura was synced into the same words being said on the csong. The use of colours was used for my flashbacks as i used to colours black and white with a cold metal effect over it to make it look more emotional and allow the audeince to understand that it is a flashback. The main part of editing was fitting the videos i had taken on my camera and getting them in order of the storyline and also by matching it up to the music so that it was sycned properly. Without this all of the shots would have been mixed up and not been in time and wouldnt match the storyboard that me and my partner had created. As for the different effects on the shot, this was not used much, we used a slow motion tool to match with the music but also to match with the emotion that we were giving acros which was lost. I also used a face out at the end of the video and it was fading out from a close up and lauras face and this then showed that it was the end of the song and also the end of the characters journey. This links to special effects that we added as these effects gave across different emotions. For example the scene f when singer walks towards the person to give the letter, it goes slow, this was to both match with the music but also to match with the feelings as it was a big thing for the character as the song explains.

This then leads us on to the use of lighting within the video as all of the outside shots were used in a natural light as we went quite early in the morning to allow us to be able to get a good light souce that complimented Laruas face. As for when we were inside, i had a band room at my house which we used for the band shots. In that room we have had very bright lights installed to create the effect of it being a clear room for thinking and creating music. Therefore when we were shooting in that room we had the lighting on full so that everything was highlighted. By doing this it then created a different scene of joy and the main character was no longer on her own and was in real life with her band and so it cuts from her outside problems that she is singing about. As for the other shots of the flashback, we just used completly natural light as this worked best with the camera amd also helped with the feel of emotions in the shot.

As for mise en scene, we more used the natural background to give off effect and as for props we mainly used these when shooting the band shots and the flashbacks. As when Laura was singing we wanted to give off the feel of lonliness and so by having no props with her it just shows more of how on her own she is. The props used for the band shots included a guitar, and guiatr stool, a piano, and also a microphone for Laura to give off how it is normal life and this is where they practice all of their music. As for the flashbacks we used a chair and desk for when she was writing her letter so it gave off the feeling that she was at home but wasnt particularly happy to be there. There wasnt a great deal of mise en scene used because of the emotion of the song was to be alone so we used this throughout many shots to give off that feeling.

Theories (Hammond).

John Hartley

• Create a relationship with the audience
• Understand what the audience want
• Understand both points of view

Music video- For our music video we created an audience profile that was based on a real person that would like the type of music that we chose. We also poke to people were interested in that type of music and asked what type of things they wanted to see, for example the type of costume.

Music magazine- Looked up the same type of music and look at what people in those audience wanted and saw what they like and so then i could relate the style of my magazine to it.


Julian McDougal (2009)

• Difficult to define specific audience.

Music video- People have a prefered type of genre of music and how they like they to come across, however everyone is different and so like different things within a music video. I tried please all the type of people that i spoke to in order for there to be something that appealed to everyone.

Music magazine- Again with this i wasnt setting out to a specific age, i was at a range of ages between 16-30 so it wasnt neccersarily spacific. I tried to please people of all ages and abilities of music.


McQuail (1972)

• Changing niche

Ien Ang (1991)

• More sub categories

Hypodermic theory

• Injects ideas into audiences heads- not necessarily in a bad way

Music video- i would say that this theory relates well to my music video as i didnt have the female come acoss sexy or suductive to a male audeince. i had her come across as a powerful yhet vunerable girl so it injected the idea of that women have feelings and not all of them need to sing in tight clothes with lots of makeup.

Music magazine- i didnt so much try to inject ideas into the audeinces head it was more to do with giving them information about music and bands and things. i didnt necercarilly portray people to inject ideas as i left it up to the audeinces interpreations and what they thought so my music magazine does not relate to this theory.


Pluralistic (active) theory

• Own interpretation

Music video- this also relates to my music video as i have a story line to go with it and then what the story is, or the problem that the singer is running away from the audeince can decide and interperate it themselves.

Music magazine-



Uses and gratification theory

• escapism, relationship, and surveillance

Vampire Weekend (Ford)

Postmodern media essay (Ford).

Why are some media prodcuts described as post modern?

Media products' means the 3 films that you have studied. Read through the posts on my blog (especially the theory), your presentations, your Inglourious Basterds essay and any research you have completed. Remember to refer to modernism at the start of the essay and keep referring back to the words from the question.

The three films that i looked at as post modern films were Inglorious Basterds, Drive, and scream. All of these films have post modern aspects in them. Post modern aspects within them can be the music, the costume or the way of filming.

Inglorioious Basterds has many post modern aspects in it for example at the start of the film there is a spaghetti western music used which was out before the time of the film is based. The music used is on some level ironic. This is because it works with the film and how the film is represented. Therefore this is a postmodern aspect to the film as the time periods do not mix together. This spaghetti western music is used throughout the film. Another postmodern feature to this film is the use of the chapters in that it goes through the film as though it was a book. This shows it is most modern as i shows that it is only a film and isn't real and so relate to the audience by doing this. There are many parts of inglourious basterds that are seen to be post modern like the simple bit of the uniform for the characters. This is Post modern because in normal war films the soldiers are all messy with mud and blood everywhere and their uniform is all scuffed up. However a in this media product all the soldiers uniform stays pristine even after they have been fighting. Therefore Tarrentino goes aginst what is a stereotypical war soldier look and so this is another bit of most modern that has been described in the film.

As for the film drive again the music is a type of spaghetti western music in that the soundtrack links to the name and story of the film. This is because the name of some of the songs are about cars and danger and so links to the film well even though they were set in different time periods. For example one of the songs on the track list is called 'after the chase' by Cliff Martinez who was an 80's style artist however the film drive seems to be more modern than this music so the time periods are different. Again with the use of font for 'Drive' is like a game and so people are able to react to recognising it. Another post modern aspect that is describe in drive is the lack of dialogue that the main character has. This is post modern as it links for the real life in that you are able to watch a story without hearing much dialogue but still understand it. it is post modern as we are used to have the main character talk the most but he hardly says anything, he more narrates the film rather than speaks within it. A way in which INglourios basterds connects to drive is the use of bold colours for the title of the credits. For example in Drvie a bright pink is used which is not to be expected, whereas in inglouious bastered the yellow is used throughout which is another post modern element.

The third film that i research that has post modern aspects described within it is Scream. Scream was the first horror movie to create a new type of genre of horror called 'post modern slasher flick'. This is because the directors knew what people wanted and what people were expecting from a horror movie and so he changed i up. He did this by actually have the characters within the story tell the story. For example one quote from the main character about horror movie was that 'They are all the same, some stupid killer stalking some big breasted girl who cant act, who is always running up the stairs, when she should be going out the front door, its insulting'. This show that the film is post modern  because it actually tells the audience that they know who all horror stories go and that the characters within the horror story know what normally happens. Therefor it is postmodern because the audience then know that it is only a film. Scream also took a new approach to how horror movie are shown in that instead of have a dark and scary caste like normal horror stories, Scream actually took the story closer to the audience by including the safe place of a home being the main scare place instead of the stereotypical castle. This then bring the post modern reality to the audience. This links to Inglourious Basterds in that both films use the set to show that it is only a film. The music used in scream also connects to the film drive in that the name of the songs connect to what the film is about for example the song 'Dont fear the reaper' by Gus. By using the songs to connect with the film it is expected. However inglouious basterds do not do this and so this shows the post modern element to it.

The reason that some media products are described as post modern is because they are not what you would class as a say a normal media product. this is because they differences that are post modern. For example the music that goes with the film may not seem to fit with the type of film or the time period it is set in. But for the director it fits in well and so could be used as a type of bricolage. Music within a film can have a big impact of if it is post modern or not. For example in Inglourios Basterds the spaghetti western music is used throughout the film and so seems to fit but really it doesn't and so is a form of post modernism. Media products are usually decribed as post modern because it is not what an audeince would expect or it is different to the norm of what that type of film should be like. for example in inglourious basterds, for a war film and audeince would expect more gore and dirt. Also for a war film it is quite slow. The main post modern aspect of it is that it change history and so changes what the audience expects completly. This is the same with Scream in that the horror movie stereotype is completly changed and so it is not what an audience would normally expect.

David Bowie (Ford)

David Bowie

• Born: 8th Jan 1947
• His actual name was David Robert Jones and David Bowie was just a stage/character name.
• He had a short lived Ziggy Stardust persona which was just on facet of his career.
• Renowned as an innovator for his work in the 1970's.
• Space oddity caught the public eye first and came in the top 5 UK singles chart.
• He then re-emerged in the glam rock era of 1972 with his hit single 'Starman'.
• David Buckley, "challenged the core belief of the rock music of its day".
• David Bowie made his first major American success in the single 'fame' where he characterised as a plastic soul.

New album -The Next Day

This album is David Bowies first studio album in a decade and the album include 14 tracks with 3 bonus tracks and is the 24th album made by Bowie. The Next Day is a dense, angry, complex rock album with songs such as the song 'Where are we now'. Bowie is obsessed with timing and it's a major theme in his work, from the five years he imagined Ziggy Stardust having on Earth to the signal line from his Berlin Trilogy 'we can be heroes'. The next day is not an easy album to absorb but it easy to listen too. Postmodern features of the album is that some songs on the album are like reading the middle of a chapter in a book you just found. Other songs are more personal and it is more a like a biography of David Bowie. The album is a mixture as it also has a dance song and a love song that do not really connect to the rest of the album and this is another postmodern feature. The album acts as a narrative to the brain. David Bowie created a whole persona for his album that wasn't him and based it around a character. Although now a lot of people have copied this idea and have done it since. Bowie was the first creator of a character within an album. His new album is placed on postmodern and modern culture.

Scream.

Digital technology essay (Hammond)

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

The Digital technology i used for my ancillary products were mostly photoshop and a camera as this was what i needed to make my products work. Also as i was brand new to everything i was only introduced to one program so i did not get confused with what i was doing. My skills have massively developed since AS and i shall explain this throughout my essay.

The use of photoshop for me was quite confusing as i had never used anything like that before and to get used to how to use all the different tools and apply it to my work was hard. As i started getting the hang of it i found it very useful and it helped to make my photos and the layout of my ancillary look more professional. I also used my own camera which was easy to use as i used to it and knew what lighting and angles worked best with it.

There are both pros and cons of the software and hardware in terms of my skill development. For my software the pros would be the image manipulation on photoshop for my ancillary tasks as this helped me to fit the layout and my images to make them look good and fit in with how i wanted my music magazine to look. Another pro of the photoshop tool would be the use of the colour variations. With this it allowed me to change my pictures around to let them fit in well with my colour scheme and make the people in my photo look good so that i have a professional look to my AS work. As for the fonts on my music magazine i used google and went on to a site called 1001 fonts and this was a good site as evertime i went on to it everything was saved so i made sure i had the right font each time and that i didnt mix fonts us and so this saved me a lot of time. The cons of the software i used for my music magazine would be parts of photoshop as it would freeze if i wanted to to something big and so this became frustrating. Certain tools were hard to find and so wasted time and also because i was new to the program i thought that i could be a little more clear to help with things. As for the hardware to pro were that i was able to use my own camera and so i knew the best way to use it. The only cons of the hardware i used would be the use of a memeory stick as it was a bit time consuming to keep loading the photos on to my laptop to then put on to the school computers and it became very back and forth a lot but was the best was to do things safely.

The software that i used for A2 was both photoshop for my ancillary tasks and final cut pro for my music video. However this time with photoshop i found it much easier to use as my skills had developed on it. I was able to uderstand the tools on it a lot better and also i could apply them better to give off a more professional look. As for final cut pro, because of how used to these programs i became, i was able to get the hang of it very quickly and so i didnt waste time in finding out what different things did. The pros of the software would be that i didnt waste my time getting used to them because i was much more confident of how to use things and had more of a idea of how i wanted it to do. The software on the comuters had been improved and also the school had bought some macs and so these were very fast and made everything much better. The sons of the software would still be that i had a couple of freezing problems on the computers on photoshop but i knew more how to handle it this time. The pros of the hardware would be that because we had new macs it meant that i didnt have to mess around with a memory stick and that i could just upload the photos and videos straight away. However the cons would have to be my camera. This is because the cold really got to it and because most of our shots were outside it meant that my camera got over cold and so the battery life would just suddenly die. Therefore being on a time limit this became frustrating and we needed to get out videoing done.

The pros of developing my Skills in AS to A2 was good as i meant i could be more confident with things that i changed and also to use to software and hardware became easy to me. When i started i didnt have much experience of that kind of software and so for me to be doing most of the music video and to get on with things on my own showed how much my skills had improved. I personally dont think that there are any cons for me to have improved on my skills as it meant i was able to get on with things much better.

Post production. (Hammond)

AS- Task one

I used many tools for my AS including photoshop. I had never used this program before so getting used to the tools on it was. But after my teachers showed me what to do it worked well. The pros of this is that it helped to make my product look professional and helped with tidying things up. However the cons of Photoshop is that the program kept freezing or stopping and so this became very frustrating for me as i meant i had to do the same piece of work over and over again. Other tools i used would be cameras and computers. I used my own camera for the photos on my music magazine and my camera worked well and made my shots come out to be the best that they could be. However uploading them and using the computers was a slow process but in the end it was fine and i was able to use my photos easily. The main tools that i used for AS photoshop were tools uch as redeye. I found this tool very helpful  as it made the people in my pictures ook so much better and also they looked proffesional and you could see the emotion that i was trying to get across in the picture. The other tools i used were tools that helped to brighten up the mages and make them sharper so that they looked the best they could and so they also fit in with the look of my music magazine. As for tools that were not for my images i used a paint bucket to fill in the spaces with different colours and the pant bucket helped me to pick the specific colour hat i wanted.

A2 - task two

For A2 we created a music video and with it we did anciallary tasks which were to create a digipack and a magazind advert. The soft ware that was mainly used was final cut pro and photoshop. Final cut pro on the macs was brilliant to create our music video on. It was quick and very easy to use, everything was simple and was obvious of what i needed to do. I found i less stressful than photoshop as it automatically saved the work once something was changed. However photoshop was a weakness for the software. This is because i found it confusing a frustrating to use. It froze a lot which meant i lost bits of my work. Also the tools were not very clear to get used top but once i was used to it it was fine to use. My skills on phptoshop from AS to A2 have improved dramatically. This is because at AS i panicked and didnt know what to do if it froze and i was more scared of trying things out. However in A2 i was much more confident with it and i didnt need to the help of my teachers as much. The tools that i used within final cut pro were mainly the use of the colour for the flashbacks as for all the other shots i made surei had either got the natural lighting i wanted or i used a high end of light for the band shots. This is because i wanted my video to be as natural as possible. As for Photoshop i mainly used the same sort of tools as AS i just used some more artistic tools. For example, with the cricle on the back of my digipack, this was originally a painted circle, whereas when i used the artistic tool i made it look as though it had been messily drawn as this looked much better and fit in with the disign of my digipack much better.

Task three

Main task- The post production for my music video would be to change the lighting for where laura stood and what they day was like to weather we chose to film or not. As for the inside we had a band room anyway which was light and had many lights in it which made th videoing easier. We then uploaded the videos and changed some of the colours of some opf the videos for the flash backs as we neede them to be black and white to show that they were flashbacks.

Ancilary task- I took all of the photos myself again a plain white wall for the band and had them stand a a specific way as i wanted them to look coll but also have their personalities come across. As for the front cover i use a photo tent as this made laura stand out better and made it look more proffesional for the front. As for the other band photos inside th digipack i used the band room from the video so that the audeince could recognise them and also show what they do as a band. I them uploaded them all on the photoshop and mainly messed around with thr brightness, saturation, and the sharpness.

750 essay write up

Detail how your post production skills developed between your AS ad A2 coursework.

I learnt and used many thing for the post production of my media products in both AS and A2. This  includes both soft ware and research before actually completing my main products.

For AS the post production skills i used was photo shop. I was very new to this as i had never encountered it before and so to use a program like this was hard. As i went along my AS year in making my music magazine my skills did improve a lot as i got used to the program and i also had help of my media teacher to help me improve what i was doing on the program. As for A2 my skills on the photo shop program improved dramatically and i was able to get on with the tasks on my own. An example of a tool in which my skills improved would be the way i changed the brightness and the saturation of my pictures as before i just left them to how they were and did not experiment that much.
My post production skills improved massively on using a camera for my media work. In AS i just took some shots and didn't use a variety of angle or settings on the camera i just stuck to what i knew.

However for A2 i used many angles for the camera and i looked more deeply in to the way the image looked on the camera face and so i changed the lighting in the room of which i was taking the video or photo. This shows how my skills had developped as i was thinking about what i was doing more and was thinking of how i can make it better. Whereas in AS i would just take the shots and not be confident enough to think about anything else.  As for my skills in A2 on photoshop in A2 i managed to use my skills very well on the different tools within photo shop. For example the magnetic laso tool, for this i cut out images to make them fit better to the layout. Before i had never used this tool before and so when i did it was brand new to me but because me skills in post production had improved i was able to get the hand of the magnetic laso tool quickly and easily.

In As we made a prctive music video and this was to help get used to how we shot a music video and then to help us get used to using the video editing program for when we were to come and do our own media videos in A2. Some of the tools on the program that we used were very confusing and the program seemed to be quite slow and confusing. It also took us a long time to do but was good. It was good as it allowed me to get used to the way of how to upload the videos onto the computer and then the main bit was the lip syncing as this was hard to do. So to get used to it was the best part of doing that task. Then when it came to making our own music video in A2, we were actually given a completly new program to use for the video. However this was not a bad things as the program worked better and also i already new how to upload and do the small simple things because of the practice in AS. Therefore when it came to doing my music video in A2 it was muc easier as i got to use different kinds of tools on the program. Some of the tools i  used were tools such as slowing the speed of a video. For example on two occations in our video did we decied to have a slow motion and to be able to use this tool easily and make it work well shows how much my skills in post production have developed. Another way in which my skils have developed is that way of how quickly i adapted to the new program that i had never been on before and i used it fine. Also by being more coonfident about how to use the programs, i was able to look for more things to helps make my video better. For example, finding different colour effects to add to the emotion we were trying to give off in the video. In my AS task i did not look for any tools like this is just uploaded and synced the video as i did not feel confident enough to do much more than that. Whereas for A2 i was able to do much more because of how comfy i was with using the programs. This shows how my skills then developed from post production in AS to then my post production skilss in A2.

Digital technology (Hammond)

Software AS

The image manipulation program allowed me to manipulate and change my magazine to the way that it needed to look. It did this as it gave me graphics they were necessary for the magazine. I also used a number of crop tools for this. An example of a crop tool would be red eye, this was good for my magazine as it meant that i could make my photos look professional and make sure that the people in the pictures look good. Another example would be colour variations. This tool allowed me to change the colour of my images so that they best fit into the colour scheme of my magazine.

The tools that i used to match my fonts were websites on Google, for example 1001fonts was the one i mainly used. This was because every time i went on it, it made sure that it saved the last font that i had used so i didn't have to waste time looking for a font or picking the wrong one.

I used photo shop to house the style of my magazine by using a range of tools that were on it to help. Examples of this would be picture boxes to help outline my images when they are surrounded by text.

I used manipulation tools for my images too, this is because it helped to make them look better and also look more professional. An example of a tool that i used would be the use of brightness to make my images stand out more and make them have more light as some of them were quite dull. I also used the contrast tool to make sure different colours stood out and also to make the image clearer.

By using layers in my work it helped me to sort out the way of my magazine so that i knew the order of things and it also meant nothing messed with each other. Using layers also split my magazine into different sections so that i knew which bits did and didn't need working on and i could lock the layers that had been done.

Desk top publishing - DTP

I created my DTP by getting a range of texts and pictures to put on it so i could get a taster of what it would look like. I added frames and backgrounds to make it look more professional and stand out more. By doing all of this it helped me to understand the conventions of print layout. This meaning that i was more used to seeing how things work for example have text anchored over and image, I help me to view the type of layouts that look good with the use of columns too. I ensured that the layouts of the house style of my magazine were the same by working on each of them a bit at the time. I did this as it meant i could remember the colours i was using and also do the same layouts for each of them so that they all stayed connected. I engaged with print conventions by not using more than one font as i had picked my two fonts first so that i knew which ones i was going to use and then didn't look at the fonts again so that i stuck with those two fonts.

Weblogs

My blog helped with audience feedback as people were able to access it with ease and also it was easy to use. I also made sure i asked people to look and to use my blog was the best way to do it as i could access it from anywhere. I used movie maker to upload short videos onto my blog as it was the easiest thing for me to use. This is because my laptop already had the program installed and i had used it before and so doing it was no problem. The use of this technology introduced me to the use of effects for example fading in and out of shots which in the end we use on our real media video. Also the layering of audio and this was useful as it meant that when i came to my real music video i didn't need to worry about these little things as i knew the sort of thing to look for so that it was sorted.

Hardware AS

The camera that i used to take the images for my preliminary magazine of the school magazine was the school camera. To upload the images i used a school memory stick so that it would work quickly with the computers.

Software and Hardware A2

The editing software that i used to edit my music video was Final Cut Pro and this program was very quick and easy to use and i got on with it well. By editing my footage on a time line it helped me to layer my videos with the footage of the video and the audio. Also by doing this it made me move a couple of videos around so that it would fit the audio more. Also by having a time line it made the use of timings of the video footage much easier.

A few edits that i used in my music video were parallel editing and i also use a fade out to give an effect that the video was ending. I made sure that my work was precise by checking all the last bits i had done when i logged back on and also listening to it over and over again to make sure everything was in time. I ensured that the audio fitted the video footage by watching it over and over again and i didn’t stop editing it until it was perfectly timed. I used many special effects for my music video and these were by using a cool metal black and white colour for the flash backs to outline to the audience that they were flashbacks. I also use a slow motion effect for when Laure was spinning and also when she was confessing her sine in the flash back as i thought it added a good dramatic effect.

A2 Blogs

My skills using the blogger have improved as i have gotten more used to going on it frequently and so by being on it more i learn more things about it. When i first went on it just posting a blog seemed confusing but now i am able to change the dates and make sure it can look neat. The main things that i learnt about using the blog was uploading different programs onto it for example, uploading YouTube clips or my work from scribd and slide share. Before i would not know how to use this but by the end of A2 i was uploading things onto it quickly without a problem.

Technology

The technology that i used in A2 was better than AS because i knew more what i wanted out of it so i used my own camera and also i was better at using the different technology. Although i did not changed much of the technology i used from AS to A2 i was much better at using it be the end of A2 and i also changed things so i could use it to the best of its ability. For example with the camera on some shots we used lighting so that it showed up a better picture on the camera. I have gotten better at using the technology as i have had to use it all the time and so now i am much quick with it than i was in AS. A great example would be the use of Photoshop. This is because in AS i really struggled with Photoshop, i had never used it before and i just couldn’t get the hang of it. But then at A2 it clicked and i was able to get on with my task much quicker and i was able to sort any problem that i ad quickly.

Scream trailer (Ford).

Convention essay plan (Hammond).

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

Instruction- task completed over the past 2 years

Essay plan:

For my first year the task that i had to complete first was to make a school magazine. This was to help me get used to the use of photoshop and also to get used to the type of things i would be doing. This then lead me on to make my music magazine. With this i had to create a front cover, a contents page, and also a double page spread. We also had to learn how to make a music video and so made one with the teacher to make sure we got used to how to do things. I then went on to my second year and within this then came to main music video in which we had to make up and do all in our own time by ourselves. Then to go with this were the ancillary texts in which we had to create a magazine advert and also a digipack to be able to put our CD into.

Instruction- discuss first big project of music magazine (fc,c,dps) by using conventions

Essay plan:

• first big project was the music magazine
• FC- used layout, photo, from real media products
• FC- challenged colours, and font of real media products
• C- Used layout, and pages from real media products
• C- challenged photos, fonts, colours of real media products
• DPS- used use of questions and layout from real media products
• DPS- challenged photo, colours, and main font of real media products

Instruction- understanding and knowledge of conventions for decision making

Essay plan:

• Knowing the conventions helped because it meant i was able to use them quickly and relate it to my work
• Help with my decision making as i could clearly see how to either use or challenge the conventions of the real media products.

Instruction- discuss A2 coursework

Essay plan:

• I established the conventions by looking at other music videos of the same genre and having them show what type of things look good in music videos and also to help spring off ideas.
• Used them to help with ideas and also to look at what has been done so i don't copy what is already out there.
• i used conventions for my digipack and advert too as i struggled with things to fit in with my type of layout and genre.
• Comparing this to my AS i found it much easier to get hold of the conventions and also i was able to use them better as i knew what i was capable of.

Instruction- Conventions challenged? conventions followed? why?

Essay plan:

• I challenged mostly the music video as i wanted to make something different but also i wanted to connect to the storyline. This is why we picked a song that had no video with it so that we could completely think of something to go with it by ourselves.

Instruction- conclusion

Essay plan:

• Conventions were useful as they allowed me to look a different media texts and relate it to my own work.
• I understand conventions better now that i have used it on my own work and have gotten used to how to work with it

Essay

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

For my first year the task that i had to complete first was to make a school magazine. This was to help me get used to the use of photo shop and also to get used to the type of things i would be doing. This then lead me on to making my music magazine. With this i had to create a front cover, a contents page, and also a double page spread. We also had to learn how to make a music video and so made one with the teacher to make sure we got used to how to do things. I then went on to my second year and within this then came to main music video in which we had to make up and do all in our own time by ourselves. Then to go with this were the ancillary texts in which we had to create a magazine advert and also a digipack to be able to put our CD into.

In the first year my main big project was the music magazine and in this is had to create three different pages and these were a front cover, a contents, and a double page spread. It all had to be on one artist and my choice of genre. For my front cover i used real media convention for my main photo. this is because it original came from a real photo of john mayor and i wanted to base my artist and genre of music on that. I also used the layout from conventions of real media products as they looked the most professional and so decided it would be best to base the layout of my front cover the same way. I looked at magazine such as 'Mojo' and 'NME' as this were the ones that best fit to my style and genre. things that i challenged on my front cover were the colours that i used. This is because i didnt follow the norm of have black, white and red. But instead i went for black, yellow and red. Therefore i challenged real media conventions. this was also the same for my contents as i used real media ocnventions for the look and style of it and only really changed things so that they best suited to my magazine. As for my double page spread i both used and challenged my use of questions to my artist as i wanted it to look real but also connect to what my target audeince would want to know. Whereas for this i challenged the use of my picture as i did a long shot which was not the norm for real media conventions.

Knowing how to use and look for real media conventions helped with this as i was able to look for what i wanted and convert it to my work quick and easy and so it saved me a lot of time whihc was good as i had many problems with the technology when i was creating my music magazine. Doing this also helped me to make my decision on how to design my final music magazine as i could see what i was going to use and see what i was going to challenge with the conventions of real media products.

For my A2 work i needed to make a music video of my own and also create ancillary texts to go with it. I established the conventions of real media texts by looking at other msuic videos of the same genre. By doing this i could then see the type of things that looked good and went with that genre so that i could make sure i got the look right to go with my genre. This also helped me to spring off different ideas. Althought i was looking at music videos that had been done before with my genre i was also making sure that i didnt copy any of the conventions exactly as i want to make sure i came up with some of my won ideas. As for my ancillary texts of the digipack and the music advert i found it difficult too find things that fit with y genre as most of the things that had shown up were more to go with hip hop and the modern look. By comparing this with my AS work i found it much easier to look for the type of media conventions that i wanted and so it was better for me to come up with more ideas as i had more of a variety of things to look at.

I challenged mostly the music video as i wanted to make something different but also i wanted to connect to the storyline. This is why we picked a song that had no video with it so that we could completely think of something to go with it by ourselves. Also the song choice and choice of band was not popular and so we knew that it would completely be us thinking it through and that we will not have copied a real media product. I wanted to change certain aspects of my work as i wanted it to be my ideas and to just copy something then it would not be my ideas and it will just be a copied piece of work with minor changes. Howver some bits i did follow, for exaply the costume as i thought it looked more profissional.

The conventions of real media products were very helpful towards my work as they gave me inspiration but also helped me to make my work look professional. Now that i have been looking and useing and challenging conventions i now undersand them alot better as i have gotten used to how to work with it.

Conventions of real media texts (Hammond)

Task one:

All of the conventions used for AS/A2;

Music magazine

Inside and general

• Album reviews
• Live gig reviews
• Up coming album reviews
• Interview with new band
• Competitions to whin prizes
• Tour dates
• tours that are coming up

Front Cover

• Front page
• masthead
• Cover-stories
• pictures
• captions
• Quotes
• Stand out colours and fonts

Contents

• Title
• Eyecatching colours and fonts
• Pictures
• page numbers
• information of what on the pages

Double page spread

• Headline
• Picture of new artist covers one page
• Article staring with big first letter
• Pulled out quotes
• Interesting questions
• INterview with new artist

Music Video

• Narrite
• story line
• Good performance
• range of shots
• Animation to give off effect e.g. slow motion
• Lip syncing
• Cuts
• female singer with male band
• Props e.g. guitar, piano
• Costume e.g. black dress, yellow boots
• Location relevant to storyline and lyrics in the song

Ancillary texts- Digipack, Magazine advert

Digipack

• Name of Album
• Name of band
• Pictures of band
• Track listing
• Credits
• recoding information e.g. Producer, where it was recorded
• Logo
• Bar code
• CD Logo
• Colours
• style to fit
• Unfolds
• sleave

Magazne advert

• Name of the band
• Picture of the band
• Name of the album
• Band website
• Logo
• Song scanner

Task two:

Applying theories to your work in AS/A2

Music magazine

• Logo
• Photo ideas
• Costumes ideas for genre
• colour scheme

Music video

• Costume ideas
• location ideas
• Use of colour in animation
• Use of shots

Ancillary texts

• Logo
• Brand
• Photos
• Layout
• Colours

Task three:

Conventions of real media texts for AS/A2:

Music magazine

Convention 1:

Challenged use of colours as the normal was to go with Black Red and White. I change this to a Maroon Red, Mustard Yellow and Black. This is challenging real media products as not many wuold have a colour scheme like that but i chose it as i thought that it fit in with my genre the most and also the look i was going for.

Convention 2:

I used many conventons from real media products as i was more unsure of the type of things that i needed to do and so by using things from real media products it helped me to make my own product.

Convention 3:

I used the conventions of real media products by using a quesiton for my artist and i used some of the questions avalible so that i could make my questions realistic.

Music video

Convention 1:

I challenged form and convention from real media products by coming up with a different kind of band and story line for the genre of the music that we changed.

Convention 2:

I used convention from real media rpoducts for the style of costume for my band as the genre that we chose. The costume fitted well and also fitted with what we wanted to get across.

Convention 3:

I challenged convention from real media products as i used a storyline to go with the song and challenged the way of how songs are set to a story.

Ancillary texts

Convention 1:

I used convention from real media texts as i was struggling to layout how my advert would look and so looked at layout of real media products and went from there.

Convention 2:

I challenged real media products by have just the lead songer of the band on the front of my digipack where as real media products would have the whole band on the front. However i did this for the advert.

Convention 3:

I used conventions from real media products as i added in important information of who produced the CD and i used this from other digipacks that we have in the class.

Inglourious Basterds essay (ford).

In what ways can Inglorious basterds be considered post modern?

 At the start of the film the credits shows that the film is going to be post modern and it also shows that the style of Tarantino will be throughout just from the opening of the film. We can tell it is going to be a Tarantino film because of the use of yellow in his credits as this is used throughout many of his other films. Also the music used at the beginning which was 'the green leaves of summer' is a spaghetti western style music. This piece of music was released much later than when the time of the movie is based up on and this shows how Tarantino used bricolage in his film. This brickolage style is used also at the opening scene in that it days 'Once upon a time' and this links to old fairy tales in that they are fiction. This is what tarantino likes to do as he likes to make sure people know its not real and that it is a film. However the style of music used helps to set up the type of film it is going to be and that there will be anger and arguments in it.

Chapter one is also set as brickolage as it has chapters as though it is a book then linking to the fairy tale feeling again. Again in this chapter we see that there is yellow text used again and shows that it will be used throughout the film. Another thing that shows that Inglorious basterds is a post modern film is that the camera shows that the house is a set for the film and not actually real. It does this by scanning down the building and we can see all of the levels. This is also a style used by Tarantino because he likes to keep his films fiction. Although we as the audience know that it is a film and is not real we cannot help but feel alert about what is going to happen now we know that there are people hiding underneath the floor boards. Therefore this shows that although we know that it is not a real house but set for the film we still have tension building up.

As we can clearly see that Inglorious Basterds is a war film, However it is not a normal or recognisable like other typical war films. this is because in Typical war films the actors will be messy and will be scruffy with blood and dirt on them for example  in the film 'Saving private Ryan'. In this film all the actors are in a Grey dull place and their uniforms are all messed up. However in Tarantinos film Inglorious Basterds all the men in the war have pristine uniforms and their hair is always shiny and not messy. This creates a false look to the film in that Tarantino likes to get across. Another part of chapter one that shows it is a post moidern film and is done by Tarantino is that large focus on the glass of milk which really is irrelevant the the scene. The start of the chapter was very long and it took a long time for there to be any action which you would expect right at the start of a war film. Like we have IN 'Saving private Ryan' we have action from the start and get what we would expect from a war film. However with Tarantinos Inglourious basterds we do not get this and so it is a not a typical war film.

These unrealistic features of the film also follow into the way the characters are viewed and also how they act. One example of this would be the main German officer Hans Landa. This is because he over reacts with his motions and the way that Tarantino focuses on things such as the milk. This actor then exaggerates the way in which he drinks the milk which shows how he is going to over exaggerate throughout the film. So because of his weird actions it creates tension with the audience in that we know he is going to be a main and bad character through out the film. Also near to this shot of when shoshana escapes is another post modern feature. As we can see when she escapes the shot is framed by the door and we see that Hans Landa is standing there and the door frame is used to outline the shot. This is used in many Taratino films and also is a post modern feature.

After chapter one we again have to story book feeling as chapter two comes on and it is just a black screen with white text showing it is chapter two. Tarantino did this so that we know it still is just a film and a fairly tale and it is not real. Again in this chapter a character called Lieutenant Aldo Raine who's American accent is overly exaggerated. This fits in with the film in that the acting is over the top and that this characters accent sounds fake. He is the leader of the basterds as this is shown as soon as we meet him and we can see that his character is going to have a main part in the film. This also links ot that Inglourious basterds is not a typical war film as in typical war films we learn more about the characters and the backgrounds of them. However in Tarantinos film we can see that we do not know much about the background of any of the characters but more of what and who they are now. Therefore because of this we then go back to understanding that it is just a film and that these people are not actually real.

However this film does have a small humor to it in the way that some of the characters and how different scenes are done. This is done through the character Hitler. This is because we can see that  Tarantino has sterotypically dressed him and he is seen in a humerous way rather than a serious way because of the over top acting he does. This then shows that the film is again not link to normal ar films that we would think of as all the characters are seen as important and are not there to be laughed at. This also links to a another way of why Inglourious Basterds is a post modern film. This is because it shows how the genres are different in that some parts of it are old but it is then mixed with modern genre ith things such as costumes and the soundtrack. Another way this is done is through the use of violence and gun fire. In typical war film we hear lots of gun shooting going on all the time and see certain graphics but the graphics of the violence does not go into too much detail. Whereas in Tarantinos film Inglourious Baterds he uses more gun shots and more graphics violence int hat we see more of what is being done to the people. This then creates more excitement towards the film for the audience and makes it more interesting to watch because ofthe graphics and use of shooting. An example of this wold be that the basterds put the nazi sign into the nazi's heads and this shows of graphics. But also it does not give off lots of emotion which then goes back tot hat it is just a film and that the characters are not real and so the audience will not feel too heavy of emotion.

In chapter three again we see the use ofnd post modern features as this is when Shashona goes to meet Fredrick who is now a new character to the story. When we meet him we can see that he is a German solider and that we can feel the tense atmosphere because we now know this. A big part of this scene is that we can see hat fredrick has a huge interest in Shoshona and that the audience views that he likes her. There are also two other people there that are there for Hitler and so we Know that this is a weird situation and that Tarantiono has wanted to show this so the the audience could understand what sides people were on and so that we could understand the situation of the story at the point. This scene then come to a stop when we are introduced to the new character called Josef Goebbels. Throughout this conversation in this scene the yellow subtitles are shows to link back to reminding the audience that this is still a film. A post modern showing of this scene is when Josefs interpreter woman shows a flash back of them having sex but i comes across in a humerus way.This is postmodern of tarantino because of how he focuses on that rather than the flash back of shoshano wich is more important. with this scene it then follows to Shoshona and her parter discussing how they are going to blow up the cinema with the old video material as it is highly flammable.

Then as we go on to chapter four we are introduced to the British character which again are shown to be completely over the top. In the scene everything is very stereotypical of British people in that we live in large posh houses and talk with a posh voice. They speak fast and politely like you would expect of a British person stereotypically. This then links with Tarantinos directer way of being stereotypical and being over the top. this then leads on to the tavern pub scene in which we are then introduced to the character Bridget von Hammersmark in which you would not normally expect in a traditional war film. This is because she doesn't really have much to do with the fighting in that we just firstly see her as a actress. We then see a soldier who is not represented in a good way but shown as though he messed up in the war and was not a hero and so when we listen to him we get idea of the type of character he is. this scene then dramatically  changes when the British officers come in and a big shooting goes off and we see lots of gore which a again is a post modern trait of Tarantinos.

In chapter five we can see again how Tarantino brings in his own thing of the foot fetish he has into his film. This is both done when hans landa asks for the actresses foot and also when he is strangling her. We do not see her actually being strangled but we see her feet. This brings in the bricolage of Tarantino in that he wants to bring his self into the film by doing this. The use of Tarantinos foot fetish is that it is used throughout his films and so it is something that the audeince can recognise.

Over all Inglourous Basterds feature a large amount of post modern features exspecially with the use of the music and the actual theme of it being a war film.

Research and planning (Hammond)

A2 coursework

All of my research and planning was completed and i also did a bit extra to make sure i had a clear picture of the type of thing i was going to create.
Primary research
Below is a list of the primary research that i did to help with my music video and ancillary texts.

• feedback
• self assessing
• text analysis through student exemplars
• TV
• blog comments

Secondary research

• websites- you tube, google, band sites, NME website
• blogs- I looked at other peers blogs to get ideas of what type of research they were doing and also what type of things they were researching so it could maybe inspire me.
• class notes- looking through what was said in earlier lessons and going back a reviewing what needed doing.

The pros and cons of doing primary and secondary research vary.
feedback- the pros of feedback is that it can be detailed and it is from people that are thinking around the same lines as you as they are experiencing the same. The cons are that people can be bias towards the work as they may not know the full picture and also may be a bit unrealistic.
Self assessing- Pros of self assessing is that i am able to take a step back and look at my work properly and i can decide myself what does and what doesn't look good. The cons of self assessing is that i may be too critical to myself and may end up changing too many things.
Text analysis- Pros of this is that i can get ideas of others work that has been done before and can view what i can be capable of. The cons are that they could give of bad influence and programs may have changed since their work.
TV- pros of this is that i can get a wide range of ideas off the TV and different media texts can inspire me. Cons of this is that there is such a wide variety i could get things mixed up.
Blog comments- this links back into feedback

AS coursework

Below is a list of primary research that i did to help with my music magazine and film opening:
Primary research

• feedback
• self assessing
• blog comments
• text analysis through student exemplars

Secondary research

• websites- google, NME, Mojo, Band sites, Music magazine sites
• Blogs- i looked at blogs from the year before so i could get a rough idea of what i was aiming for.

To compare the extent to the research and planning i carried out for my AS and A2 coursework is very different. Although i did do a lot of research and planning in AS i did not do as much as i did in A2. this is because i wasn't exactly sure what i wanted to look for or where the best places where to look. However in A2 i managed to do much more research and planning as i knew the best ways to do it and i was more confident in what i was looking for. My research and planning skills improve a lot as i became more comfortable with using the technology. Proof of this would be to compare my AS and A2 blogs as you can see that the planning on my A2 blog ties together better and that all my research and planning links in. Whereas in my AS there are some bits of random things that didn't fit in anywhere.

Advantages and disadvantages of sources

Expense/cost- I learnt a lot about this as i had to realise that being a student i do not have the most money ever and so i have to find different ways of making things look good. An advantage of this is that it enabled me to be much more careful in the way i budget money and that there are other things out there to help me that do not cost as much. Disadvantages of this is that i was hard for me to make my coursework always look as good as it could be because i was deprived of better things.
Accessibility- A lot of the research was very easy to find however some sites where blocked from the school which meant it was very hard to research certain things. advantages of this was that it was very quick and easy to get hold of things i wanted and also it gave me lots of new ideas. Disadvantages of this is that it limited me as some images and sites were blocked and so there could have been ideas for me but i was unable to access them.
Time- Research and planning was not time consuming as i managed my own time to do it. Advantages of this is that i was able to look up everything i wanted to and do it quickly because the ideas were already there. Disadvantages of this is that it was limited to time so if i did want to spend a long time on research and planning i wasn't really able to as we had to make our media products soon after we started.
Reliability- This would be when i was to look on google for music magazine and other students work would pop up which would not be reliable. Advantages of this would be that it showed me what i could be capable of and inspire ideas to use before starting my own. Disadvantages of that would be that i only wanted to see the professionals as students work will not be real and so will not be a reliable source for me.
Bias- this is meaning that some of the text that i researched can be bias but i overcame this by doing lots of it so then i had different responses. Advantages of this is that i can see and pick out witch one is subjective and also get a large quantity of sources. Disadvantages of this would be that it will be impossible to take out all of the bias sources because of the limited time and how many of them there could be.
Validity- There was a strong connection between the Mojo music magazine website and my music magazine and also other students exemplars and my ancillary texts. Advantages if this shows that i was able to view something but take it up and do it in my own way but make it look professional. Disadvantages of this is that it means i have stuck to a basic product that i liked and not gone an viewed other things i could have added in.
Usefulness- The research i did was very useful. Advantages of this is that it inspired me and i was able to use the research to help make my products better. Disadvantages would be that i could have been more creative if i did not have any research and planning to go off to help me.

Organisation of research

I learnt a lot about organising and referencing materials and this helped me to be better at my coursework as i had to keep everything organised and make a note of what i was doing. My skills of organisation developed a lot from AS to A2. An example would be with blogger. In AS i had never used it before but because of the organisation and the way the blog was set out it meant that for A2 i was able to do things a lot easier and quicker.

Planning- pre-production and requirements

Drafting- We did drafts for both AS and A2 and by doing a draft it helped me to see how something was going to look and what bits needed changing and improving. For AS We did a draft music magazine but as it was my first ever time of completing something like this doing a draft helped me a lot to see how to use the program and what sort of thins needed to be done. For A2 it allowed me to view what my product was going to look like and helped with what i needed to change with my product and look at the layout and see what other things i could change.
Gaining audience feedback- I made sure i collected this in time for me to make improvements to my work. I went around and asked people to view my products and also got the teachers to look at them so that i was able to get feedback from them too. I have improved with getting audience feedback from AS and A2 as i know more ways of being able to do it and also am more confident to show my products so i can get more feedback and improve them more.

750 word essay

Detail your understanding of the importance of good research and planning skills developed throughout the pre-production of your AS and A2 coursework.

My understand of the importance of research and planning and risen from AS to A2 and i have also gained more of an understanding to why it is so important and how it helps me. Research and planning skills need to be improved as the better i became at it the research and planning the better me products became.
In AS i knew that it was important to research and plan but i couldn't really understand why there needed to be so much done. This was because i was unsure of what was the best kind of thing to be looking for and how the best way was to go about it. As i did more and more i could see how it was helping me and in the end i stared finding a pattern of things that i wanted and what type of things i wanted to look for. As for planning this was very helpful in my AS as it allowed me to see what needed doing when and i was able to go through it how i wanted and i could tick off what needed doing and so it helped me manage my time with what i did when with my AS coursework. I only really used the Internet for my research in AS as i didn't really know how to link other things in properly as my imagination could not go that far. My planning got a bit messy at times but overall i managed to keep it together. I was able to create a few tings but it seemed that once i had thought of one idea i seemed quite reluctant to changing anything which meant i couldn't plan ahead until i became happy with something.
For my A2 work my skills in research and planning had improved vastly. This is because i was more used to using technology and i had experience of it before. I was able to know the best site to go on for the best things and because i knew about more media sites it meant i didn't waste time looking for other things. I am more skillful with my researching skills as i know more what i need to be looking for and also my knowledge is better and so i found it easier to start with something. Also i was able to look at things other than the Internet for example the TV and shopping sites. Even if i saw a top i liked i was able to pick out the colours or style and then link it back to how i wanted my band members to be. Therefore my skills have improved as i am aware of things all the time that could help with my coursework. As for my planning i was much more organised especially with my music video as in AS we did the busted video and this helped me to know how to structure a plan properly. This then meant in A2 me and Laura were able to produce a plan quickly but with detail so that when i came to doing our video we were well planned out and so this meant it saved time with how we were going to do things. My planning also improved with my timing of when i would do things as well as planning what i was going to do. The way i got better at planning things i was going to do was my creating a mind map of ideas and then looking through them and also setting my work out and looking at it and then re planning in it a few ways so i gave myself some choice of what i was going to do. As for planing the timings of when i was going to do things it harder in A2. This is because we need more people to come together but everyone lived in different places and some people worked and so me and Laura had to plan carefully when we were going to do certain things. Therefore from this my skills have improved a lot as i had to work hard to plan and organise everything for the coursework. I know for sure i would not have been as good at it in AS so that shows i have improved. But because of how i was broken into it steadily it didn't seem too hard and i was able to deal with it easily. I mainly took charge in how we were planning to do things for the music video as i seemed good at it and also also the places we needed to do shots were around were i live and so it was easier for me to do it.
Overall i would say that my research and planning skills have improved over both years and i have just got better with handling how i do things with my work.

Creativity (Hammond).

AS
Originality- I came up with a lot in my AS work as it was all new to me and so the only way i could get things to work was by being more creative with they way i did things.
Imagination- My imagination could have been more creative for AS but as it was all new to me i was unsure of how my i couldlet my imagination go and so did not have to confidence to go far with it.
Inspiration- There were many texts that i got inspired by but it was mainly the internet as i didnt really know how to look at things.
Creativness- I was most creative with the use of text and name of my magazine in AS this is because i wanted to think about the the genre and look at what type of things i could create that could match well with it
Recousfulness- i mainly used the internet and photoshop in AS as that was the most that i new how to use and so i was best with sticking what i knew for my first year.
Ingenuity- I mangaged to invent a lot for my AS and was happy with my results
Vision and innovation- I had a good vision of what i wnated and so i was able to follow it but added in little bits as i wnt along.

A2
Originality- I came up with a lot more different ideas for my A2 work and i was able to be more flexible with my ideas.
Imagination- I was able to imagine things a lot easier for my A2 work as i knew i more cabale to use the programs and so i could think of things more outside the box.
Inspiration- I got a lot of my inspration off of music videos that i like as they helped me to see the type of coulrs and layouts used.
Creativness- I was nuch more creative for all of my A2 work i came out of my comofrt zone and tried new things.
Recousfulness- I used many more resouces such as the internet and tv and other digpakcs to look at as this gave me more inspiratins.
Ingenuity- I invented a lot more different things of how to lay parts out and what type of colours i needed to use.
Vision and innovation- i had a better vision of how i wanted my products to look in my A2 as i knew more how to use the prpgrams.

I have been very creative throughtout AS and A2 as i have been able to come up with ideas and have tried them out. I was more creative in A2 but that was because my confidence was higher and i new i could easily change things back if i did not like them.
There were many things that stopped me from being more creative. An example is that the resouces we had were not as good as our school does not have propper shooting equipment or studios and so it is harder to find other things that wokr as well. Other things that restricted me was the time as i did not have lots of time to keep on thinking up new ideas for everything as i was limited. If i did keep on thinking of new ideas and trying them out i would run out of time and my final peice would not be as good.
 I personally liked the idea of having a set of tasks to do as it meant i had something to work on and i was able to make it to the best of my ability. Some things would have been better for me to make my own choice as i could be more creative. I was not pinned down too much by the task as it still allowed me to go out and do my own things and organise myself to the way i wanted to be.

750 word response:

Outline the extent to which you were creative in your AS and A2 coursework tasks.

I was creative in boht my AS and A2 courseworktaks i was just creative in different ways for the tasks.
The technology for my AS did not enhance my creativity at all as i had many probleams with it and so it meant that some of creativiness could not be done because the program would mess up. As for ym A2 coursework the technology was much improved and soi was able to create more things as i went along as i could see what had been done and what i could be capable of if i changed my ideas around a little bit. It gave me more options to do things and also inspired me to try other things. When i didn someting wrong on photoshop sometimes it actually looked good and so inspired me to be more creative with the way i used things.
The two theories that supports my view would be "Media producers can learn nothing from studying the conventions of old texts" and "If creativity is not inherent in human mental powers and is, in fact, social and situational, then technological developments may well be linked to advances in the creativity of individual users". The first comment links to my work because i did not learn anything from the old programsi used and i was more beneficail from the new programs i used as i was able to come up with better ideas. The second quote links with my coursework because i was more advanced in the second year in that the developmetns of the technologies helped me a lot and allowed me to be more creative.
The theories that i could challenge are "A project that is too well planned lacks opportunities for spontaneity andcreativity." and "Technology has taken all the creativity out of media production". I challenge the first quote because i think that if i project is planned well it means that it can be done well and people can never stop being creative and so just because they have a well planned schedule does not mean they are not creative as they have had to create that schedule in the first place. I challenge th second point because i think that technology just allows people to be more creative it does not stop them from being creative. It enhances their chances of thinking of new things as technology allows them to do that.
Research abd planning helped a lot with my creativeness in both AS and A2 as it meant i could veiw things that i would never have thought of before but i could then expand them and change them so that there were able to fit into my coursework tasks. In AS research and planning helped me to start off as everything was new and soi didnt really no where i should start from and so it wasnt until after i stared research and planning that i knew what i wanted and so i was able to go from there. As for my A2 th research and planning stepped up and i knew where to go if i wanted to be inspired and also i had to use the planning better because of the task that we were given. Because i used it more it meant that i had more time for me to be creative and so my work is now much more improved because of this.
Another thing that helped with my creativity was the stylist techniques such as msie en scene and camera angles. In my AS this helped as i was able to look at other students work to see how much stuff i could use and that was avalible to me. The camera angles meant that i could be much mroe creative as i knew how to work a camera and knew about all the different types of angle and so all my images used in mu music magazine were creative as i was able to look at the different igages and see what did and what didnt work. The mise en scene meant that i could create things that i could use to make my coursework look better and show off a better image to meet my genre which was the guitar i used to go with the indie acoustic musici chose. For my A2 that camera andgles were essential for my music video as it meant that the more variety i had to choose from the better my video could look and i could also create new things to have goig on within the shots. The mise en scene was also impartant as i needed my band to be protrayed well and so i had to chose my probs and places well so that it all fitted to the msuic the band and the story that i wanted to get across.