Monday 27 January 2014

Using conventions of real texts


Whilst creating my AS coursework of a magazine, I had to analyse multiple different kinds of magazines. In order to gain a clearer understanding of the typical conventions of music magazines, I looked at all different genres and then focussed on ‘indie-pop’ in which I found there was a slight gap in the market. My magazine was based upon the idea of originality hence name being ‘Idiosync’ taken from the term ‘idiosyncratic’. Although it was original, I used the extremely popular magazine Q as my influence; this way I were able to use the conventions of this magazine in order to make it look as professional as possible. Especially for my contents page, I looked at the overall layouts of many different magazines and then adapted this for me own. I created an ‘Artist Index’ on the left hand side of my contents in order to allow easy navigation throughout the magazine. I also noticed that one main convention of contents pages, are a higher quantity of text to images. I decided to put a collection of different images within the centre of the page which will attract readers to the page. Surrounding the images was text supporting the text within the entire text.


All media products must have reasons as to why they are made containing specific conventions that are catered for the specific audience. These will differ from genre to genre for example, a pop video would focus mainly on the performer themselves and you would expect it to be very bright, quick paced and cheery linking to the song. This then contrasts to a typical rock video in which you’d expect to see a live performance with some sort of narrative following. ‘Roar’ by Katy Perry would be the perfect example as a pop genre and ‘Dance Dance’ by Fall Out Boy would be perfect for a rock genre video. Before creating my music video, the first aspect I had to consider was whether I wanted to use or challenge the typical conventions of the genre. I decided to stick to the sort of style that Kodaline use; they steer away from showing the band at all and focus mainly on the song, the meanings of the song and a narrative to go with it. For example, within the song ‘All I Want’ we follow the narrative of a man with a facial disfigurement and the troubles he faces within his everyday life.

 

Although I have not followed such as deep storyline as this, I still wanted to follow Kodaline’s typical conventions of a narrative. The narrative of my music video shows the life of both a male and female performer who were dancing partners in the 50s. The end scene then ties the music video all together as we see an older lady sat within a modern day household watching her and her partner’s dance routine back on the television. The photo frame next to the television is what tells the audience that this is what she was doing but is now alone and no longer with her partner. As ‘Love Like This’ was a

 

This relates to Andrew Goodwin’s theory and the six points her states all music videos should have. One point being that all visuals illustrate the lyrics- “a love like this won’t last forever”. Moreover, Goodwin also stated that the visuals and music intertwine on another as well. As the song is an acoustic version, it means it is much slower that the original and the pace is very calming and soft- in order to keep the music linking to the visuals I slowed every piece of footage down half speed so the shots did not look too quick and overwhelming as this would not have gone with the music.  

Wednesday 22 January 2014

Post Production

Describe how you developed your skills in the use of post production for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time. The use of post production has significantly improved the style, form and professionalism of both my AS and A2 coursework.

Digital software has allowed me to create both immaculate images for my AS magazine and footage for my A2 music video. The use of hardware such as the cameras, Canon 600D, allowed me to take professional pictures which I could then use within my AS magazine. I was able to change the settings to a 1/100 shutter to ensure I could take pictures with movement without them becoming blurred. This worked effectively as I could easily produce photos of my model moving her hair and body to create more life within the images.

I also increased the ISO on the camera so my photos were very bright and vivid to stand out more as I believed that high key lighting was essential for this particular photo shoot and style of magazine. My initial skills that I acquired during AS were then developed when it got to A2 as I was required to now create a moving image text rather than print. I used the same camera of a Canon 600D as I was familiar with this camera however, I had to adjust the settings once again to fit the style and tone of my music video. As my video has quite a mellow, calming tone to it, I decided to use low key lighting therefore meaning I had to have a lower ISO. I also had to experiment with the movement of a camera compared to just taking pictures- in order to do so I used a SteadiCam.

When it comes to editing, the software I used was essential. For my AS coursework I used Adobe InDesign CS6 which allowed me to have a clear structure and layout for easy navigation and creation. One essential feature for my magazine was the ‘Master page’ in which I can add anything such as text or an image and this will then be repeated on every page- for this I added in a strip at the bottom of each page illustrating the magazine name and issue number. InDesign also allowed me to easily move between pages to ensure it all flows.

Wednesday 15 January 2014

Creativity


Due to the increase of technology and the number of artists that are currently on the market within the media, creating an innovative music video proved to be difficult. Similarly, the number of magazines available has significantly increased. Whilst creating my AS magazine, I used ‘Q’ magazine as a stimulus which allowed me to use elements of this and adapt them to fit my style. For example, my contents page was heavily influenced by Q- the use of boxes and easily identifiable sections allowed for easy navigation and looked appealing to the eye. I decided to use this layout because it would ensure a reader could go straight to the page they were looking for rather than looking through the entire magazine; one element especially being the artist index which would direct them straight to specific artists.

The main element of my images from the photo shoot I conducted was the t-shirt I made for my model to wear; I got a plain white t-shirt and decorated it using brightly coloured paints drawing images such as hearts, peace symbols and musical notes and writing lyrics from top iconic songs. This looked very unique and creative making my model stand out on the pages intriguing readers in. This worked effectively within the images as readers would get to know the artist just from this and see that she likes to stand out and is different which would make them want to read all about her.

Similarly to the creativity of costume within AS, this then followed onto A2 as I recreated the 1950’s era through costume. I styled the actors in a way which would strongly suggest it was set in the 50s such as a circle skirt for the female and straight trousers, a shirt and braces for the male. The female costume was especially made which allowed me to carefully choose the correct material and patterning that I felt would look the most effective within my music video. Furthermore, the make-up and hair was essential to further enhance the mise-en-scene from the 50s era.

During the editing process, I added RGB colour adjustment layer which allowed me to play around with the brightness, contrast etc. I created this so that the footage all looked very saturated and removed a lot of the brightness of the colour e.g. the red lipstick. This made the overall music video look more like an actual video from the 1950s further adding to the tone and styling of the video.

Monday 13 January 2014

Digital Tech


Describe how you developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to your creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

 

The use of digital technologies has significantly improved the style, form and professionalism of both my AS and A2 coursework. Digital software has allowed me to create both immaculate images for my AS magazine and footage for my A2 music video. The use of hardware such as the cameras, Canon 600D, allowed me to take professional pictures which I could then use within my AS magazine. I was able to change the settings to a 1/100 shutter to ensure I could take pictures with movement without them becoming blurred. This worked effectively as I could easily produce photos of my model moving her hair and body to create more life within the images. I also increased the ISO on the camera so my photos were very bright and vivid to stand out more as I believed that high key lighting was essential for this particular photo shoot and style of magazine.

 

My initial skills that I acquired during AS were then developed when it got to A2 as I was required to now create a moving image text rather than print. I used the same camera of a Canon 600D as I was familiar with this camera however, I had to adjust the settings once again to fit the style and tone of my music video. As my video has quite a mellow, calming tone to it, I decided to use low key lighting therefore meaning I had to have a lower ISO. I also had to experiment with the movement of a camera compared to just taking pictures- in order to do so I used a SteadiCam.

 

When it comes to editing, the software I used was essential. For my AS coursework I used Adobe InDesign CS6 which allowed me to have a clear structure and layout for easy navigation and creation. One essential feature for my magazine was the ‘Master page’ in which I can add anything such as text or an image and this will then be repeated on every page- for this I added in a strip at the bottom of each page illustrating the magazine name and issue number. InDesign also allowed me to easily move between pages to ensure it all flows.