Thursday, 14 March 2013
Uncool Playlist
1) Goyte - Somebody I used to Know
2) Mumford and Son -Little Lion man
3) David Guetta - She Wolf
4) The Strokes - Last Nite
5) Labrinth - Beneath Your Beautiful
6) Lana Del Rey - Radio
7) Les Miserable - At the End of the Day
8) Bruno Mars - When I Was Your Man
9) Fun - We are Young
10) Noah and the Whale - L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N
Saturday, 9 March 2013
Describe how your analysis of the conventions of real media texts informed your own creative media practice?
Across AS and A2, I used my research and planning to analyse real media texts and establish current conventions. Within the two years I have made a music magazine, music video and ancillary products(Poster and Digipak.) From the comparison of established brands I was able to grasps key concepts and elements that were constant across these products of a similar genre, and this provided me with a base for my own work.
For the production of my AS Music magazine I learnt from my analysis, the integral features of magazines. To establish conventions I considered current magazines of the same genre to my own, music magazines of a rock base, and so analysed magazines like NME, Rolling Stone and Kerrang. Some of the conventions I found were; Similar modes of address, typically quite informal and speaking directly to the reader. I try to emulate this in my own work, by having a model on the cover I believe the target audience could relate to, as he was a young male in simple dark clothing, similar clothes the audience would wear. My model was looking directly at the camera in a confident manner. The aim of this was to reflect the bold and confident side to rock and directly attract buyers attention by addressing them directly. Other elements that continued with this bold and eye catching theme was the use of paint effect behind my cover lines, in keeping with a casual messy look and the striking purple colour scheme to represent individuality. I also kept any writing on my cover short and simple, with catchy lines such as 'Top 30 downloads.' My double page spread was laid out like an interview and was based on quotes of the feature band with slang and informal speech. The intent was for the audience to feel they gained a personal perspective and the article was tailored to a young modern reader.
Further conventions I noticed included a similar layout of elements on all the magazine covers, the presents of the golden spiral theory was apparent. Most magazines had their masthead at the top, cover titles down one side, a central title and lower banner. I used this convention on the cover of my magazine because it draws the readers eyes to the important aspects of the issue and once their attention is gained is also hopefully sustained, so they read all the cover and are convinced to purchase. Real media texts informed me greatly in my own creative ideas, as when it came to considering my choice of fonts there was an abundance of options. What I noticed across magazines of a rock genre, is their fonts tended to be unusual, messy and bold. Such as that of 'Kerrang' magazine that has an effect on its masthead almost like shattered glass. This encouraged me to explore in the selection of my own font and download one from DaFont.com after many considerations. My final font fitted with the messy bold design and appeared aged and weathered. I only used a range of three fonts on my cover so it did not appear too disjointed and lose its focused style. Most importantly the details on my cover needed to remain in keeping with conventions, so as to stand up against competition and appeal to my target audience. Kerrang and NME both have very busy covers that reflect the crazy side of rock and appeal to an audience who want lots of info quick and easily. Within my own work I still included cover lines, large title and banner, however kept my cover a little more simplistic, such as a 'Rolling stone.' Although conventions helped me understand how current magazines achieve success, this convention also changed my creative path, as I believed by keeping it slightly more simplistic it would stand apart from current brands.
By A2 I believe my creative abilities had developed and I was able to identify and replicate conventions far quicker and more precisely. Unlike AS, where I feel I attempted to manipulate the conventions to make them my own e.g. with a controversial colour scheme and simplistic look. Over the time I released the necessity of the conventions in establishing genre, and selling a product to an audience who expect a certain type of product. Therefore I tried to more accurately replicate the elements I identified. My competence with the media equipment also greatly improved with time, such as my abilities on Photoshop and photography skills. This increased capability allowed me to recreate the sleek professional style of real media texts, and the comparison to them encouraged me to improve my skills further, such as mastering editing tools on Photoshop (making photos sharper with filters and feather edges with the blur tool.) I created my poster and Digipak based on a pop genre featured around a solo female artist. Within real media texts I noticed that an artist will attempt to achieve continuity across all their products, so their appearance, brand and style is recognisable to the public. This inspired me to use the teddy bear within our video on my Digipak, as a means of creating links between the related elements. For my poster, some of the conventions I noticed on similar products to my own, was a more formal and less direct mode of address, with minimal text and an image that is more sophisticated. Within my own work I tried to achieve this by keeping text informative and to the lower half of the cover and in a simplistic font that connoted more maturity and importance. The font used for my artists name and album title was also intended to appear feminine and sleek, I achieved this with a slightly hand written looking font in a red colour. One convention on all of the posters I analysed was the use of portraying the album cover on the poster so it would be recognisable to an audience. Also the album covers of female solo artists tended to be close ups of their face alone, to form their image. I also used a close up on my album to highlight my artists beauty and youth, her pose is of her looking off to the side, to connote innocence and a shyness. This then formed my poster background. The purpose of an album poster is to promote the artists album, therefore analysis of real texts highlighted crucial conventions, such as the presence of the album name, reviews, a release date and website address. Adhering to this I included these on my own poster, even setting up a twitter account for my fake artist, and including her twitter name at the bottom of my poster. These conventions aided my practice by making my product more true to real life texts and not just creative pieces.
To conclude, the analysis of real media texts inspired me to create my own products by providing guidelines that focused my creation and formed a basis for the elements of my own work. From AS to A2 I gained increased understanding of what conventions were within real media texts and became better at re-creating them. Although all pieces of my work were original and contain my own creative ideas, conventions informed me of how to make creative products that look professional and wouldn't be out of place in the real world.
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
Discuss why some people are not convinced by the idea of post-modernism?
Post-modern media, is media that originates from another time or existing piece, it defies the rules of context and meaning, by formulating creations that use any combination of components. Nothing can be wrong. Works can be full of depth and depth-less at the same time. They steal, change and warp current concepts and change people’s perceptions of reality.
Some people are not convinced by the concept of post-modern media as it suggests that nothing can be original and therefore everything is a copy. Theorist such as Kirby Fergusson, suggested everything is a remix. This is the concept that all new media projects are connected with no originality and creativity relies on the ability to copy, transform and combine current pieces. This idea of continuous transformation can be witnessed in real world texts, for example; The song 'Gold Digger' by Kayne West is a remix of the song 'I got a woman' by Ray Charles, which is in turn a remix of the song 'It must be Jesus' by The Southern Tones. Critics may argue that pieces such as these merely use elements of one another and are ultimately unique, however these pieces are regarded post-modern, as not only do they use elements of backing track etc. but they also warp the meaning of the song taking it out of context and completely changing the original message, this is an example of Levis Strauss 'Bricolage.' The original song goes from being about the wonderful acts of Jesus, to the kind acts of a girlfriend to the degrading song about a Gold digging girlfriend. No consideration of context is applied. This in itself is another area that post-modernism faces opposition, as it can regarded as disrespectful and mocking, such as with the use of parodies. With films such as 'Hobo with a shotgun,' the aim is to create projects that are purposely bad and highlight the failures of previous ventures. The acceptance of post-modern media allows and encourages people to seek such weaknesses and therefore can be seen as negative, as it influences audience’s receptions to new media.
A further issue of post-modern media is that it is thought to manipulate people’s perceptions of reality. For example; with the increasing quantity of advertisements on TV and online, people are bombarded with idyllic and aspirational lifestyles and scenarios that aim to sell a product. But theses adverts can actually be considered, by critics, to be unhealthy or even damaging. Adverts such as that for Nikon, are based on trying to re-create fake memories that have never been, but are represented as real. Hyper-reality was presented by Baudrillard and is described as the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality. An issue with its present within the media, is that this hyper-real representation of life, may actually replace people’s expectations and view of reality. People no longer aim to attain real individual experiences but replicate the aspirational events they view, and are actually disappointed when their exacting standards are unfulfilled. This media makes the real world inadequate.
Nowadays people aim to be post modern. Media containing Intertextual references are prevalent, such as Quentin Tarintino’s films like ‘Inglourious Basterds.’ The film is formulated on the bases of making it relate to past works and continuously mimic and warp current films. Tarintino aims for his audience to pick up on the references and take enjoyment from identifying the copies, such as; his opening scene, reminiscent of the sound of music and a shot almost identical to one in ‘The Dirty Dozen.’ In the past during modernist times the aim of media projects were to make them as original and unique as possible, often with daring and controversial ideas. The reason people may not be convinced by post-modernism, is that by accepting post-modernism to be inevitable, and that everything is a remix, it formulates the belief that we therefore no longer need to bother trying to make things unique or original. Post-modernism can therefore be argued, to be a mind-set as well as a category of classification. If people are in the mind-set that they can’t make anything new and set out to copy, then everything will be a copy. However critics may argue, that post-modernism is not an eventually for the future of all media.
To conclude, from the perspective of critic Jameson, postmodern media can be regarded as the creation of vacuous pieces that are trapped in circular reference. Therefore the creation of such media destroys the integrity of media, as it does not lead to the valuable work of the past. The influence of this post-modern world can be seen as detrimental to future generations; nowadays people don’t buy things from a shop and hold the product in their hand, they look at a virtual replica online and have it delivered. When someone wants to hear from their friend they don’t meet up for a chat, they virtually meet up through Skype. Although these elements of the modern world can be regarded as a step forward in the development of media, from another perspective it can be regarded as means to move away from what is real and develop into a world that is fake and therefore moving nowhere at all.
Some people are not convinced by the concept of post-modern media as it suggests that nothing can be original and therefore everything is a copy. Theorist such as Kirby Fergusson, suggested everything is a remix. This is the concept that all new media projects are connected with no originality and creativity relies on the ability to copy, transform and combine current pieces. This idea of continuous transformation can be witnessed in real world texts, for example; The song 'Gold Digger' by Kayne West is a remix of the song 'I got a woman' by Ray Charles, which is in turn a remix of the song 'It must be Jesus' by The Southern Tones. Critics may argue that pieces such as these merely use elements of one another and are ultimately unique, however these pieces are regarded post-modern, as not only do they use elements of backing track etc. but they also warp the meaning of the song taking it out of context and completely changing the original message, this is an example of Levis Strauss 'Bricolage.' The original song goes from being about the wonderful acts of Jesus, to the kind acts of a girlfriend to the degrading song about a Gold digging girlfriend. No consideration of context is applied. This in itself is another area that post-modernism faces opposition, as it can regarded as disrespectful and mocking, such as with the use of parodies. With films such as 'Hobo with a shotgun,' the aim is to create projects that are purposely bad and highlight the failures of previous ventures. The acceptance of post-modern media allows and encourages people to seek such weaknesses and therefore can be seen as negative, as it influences audience’s receptions to new media.
A further issue of post-modern media is that it is thought to manipulate people’s perceptions of reality. For example; with the increasing quantity of advertisements on TV and online, people are bombarded with idyllic and aspirational lifestyles and scenarios that aim to sell a product. But theses adverts can actually be considered, by critics, to be unhealthy or even damaging. Adverts such as that for Nikon, are based on trying to re-create fake memories that have never been, but are represented as real. Hyper-reality was presented by Baudrillard and is described as the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality. An issue with its present within the media, is that this hyper-real representation of life, may actually replace people’s expectations and view of reality. People no longer aim to attain real individual experiences but replicate the aspirational events they view, and are actually disappointed when their exacting standards are unfulfilled. This media makes the real world inadequate.
Nowadays people aim to be post modern. Media containing Intertextual references are prevalent, such as Quentin Tarintino’s films like ‘Inglourious Basterds.’ The film is formulated on the bases of making it relate to past works and continuously mimic and warp current films. Tarintino aims for his audience to pick up on the references and take enjoyment from identifying the copies, such as; his opening scene, reminiscent of the sound of music and a shot almost identical to one in ‘The Dirty Dozen.’ In the past during modernist times the aim of media projects were to make them as original and unique as possible, often with daring and controversial ideas. The reason people may not be convinced by post-modernism, is that by accepting post-modernism to be inevitable, and that everything is a remix, it formulates the belief that we therefore no longer need to bother trying to make things unique or original. Post-modernism can therefore be argued, to be a mind-set as well as a category of classification. If people are in the mind-set that they can’t make anything new and set out to copy, then everything will be a copy. However critics may argue, that post-modernism is not an eventually for the future of all media.
To conclude, from the perspective of critic Jameson, postmodern media can be regarded as the creation of vacuous pieces that are trapped in circular reference. Therefore the creation of such media destroys the integrity of media, as it does not lead to the valuable work of the past. The influence of this post-modern world can be seen as detrimental to future generations; nowadays people don’t buy things from a shop and hold the product in their hand, they look at a virtual replica online and have it delivered. When someone wants to hear from their friend they don’t meet up for a chat, they virtually meet up through Skype. Although these elements of the modern world can be regarded as a step forward in the development of media, from another perspective it can be regarded as means to move away from what is real and develop into a world that is fake and therefore moving nowhere at all.
Thursday, 28 February 2013
Applying audience theory to one of your products.
The product I created during A2 was a music video of a pop female artist Taylor Swift, which I made with my partner Shannon. The target audience for our video was primarily aimed at young females between the ages of 13-21 years old. We chose this age group as we believed that the pop/country genre of our artist was most enjoyed by this audience, and as our artist was a young female artist we believed they would be able to relate to her.
Aspects of our video that were aimed at our target audience was the the use of costumes worn by our artist, which primarily consisted of feminine floral and nude pastel colours. The connotations of such outfits is a sense of innocents and youth we wished to portray our artists as possessing. These outfits are relevant to our young audience as they are meant to emulate the clothes they too will wear and a look they aspire to achieve.The male actor within our video was also intended to appear attractive to our target audience, with the aid of his trendy smart outfit, depicting an aspirational relationship at the beginning of the video.
The narrative storyline of our video is also intended to appeal to our audience, as it expands on the meaning of the song and provides a story the audience can empathise with and relate back to their own lives. Narratives are a common feature of modern day pop videos, and so we purposely included this convention to clearly express our genre and provide a video the audience expects to see. Within our narrative our artist is depicted breaking up and fighting with her boyfriend, a situation we believe would be apparent to young girls. I believe, as suggested by the effects model, the audience may have been influenced by feelings of empathy but can passively absorbed the music and pleasant mise en scene. Our audience is however not intended to be a passive audience but actively gratified by our work. For example The Uses and Gratification Model suggests that the audience is active and receives gratification from the viewing of mediums. I think a way this model can apply to our video, is with the concept that the combination of music and narrative can provide the audience with feelings of pleasure and escapism. By becoming absorbed by the simple narrative and catchy tune of our video, they may be able to temporarily forget about issues in their own life, find the tune uplifting and may even be reminded their own life isn't so bad e.g. they're in a happy relationship. The smiling and friendly face of our artists may even provided hope for an audience, as they see her strong response to the bad situation and aspire to be the same.
The intended reception of our video is for our audience to appreciate the video on two levels. The physical appearance of our artist, admiring her beauty and talent and the pleasant aspirational surroundings. The audience then sees the narrative and becomes emotionally engaged with our female actor, and may be reflected of their own relationships. However Morley's theory suggests that members of an audience will always interpret media texts in differing ways, with also a negotiated or oppositional view. A potential oppositional view of our video would be that the audience regard it to be amateurish and evoking no emotion. The storyline may be seen to be so simple it is not captivating at all, and could be seen to follow a predictable pattern to other videos of the same genre, a cliché. Or a negotiated perspective may appreciate our video represents a sad story and may empathise with the narrative however they may also have conflicting opinions that the story is very simplistic and lacks realism. The repetitive nature of some of the scenes may appear to highlight the fake quality. However the fact our video presents a fictional situation allows the escapism of our audience.
The feedback we received from our target audience during the production of our video allowed us to formulate a product tailored to that market. Some of the comments we gained on our first draft were that some of the settings appeared unrealistic, some shots were blurry and did not contain enough star image. By incorporating and correcting these suggestions e.g. improving the quality of mise en scene with better lighting & props, using an HD camera and including more close ups of our artists face, we created a video that more successfully gratified the requirements of our audience. This in turn would allowed our audience to receive more pleasure and diversion from the video.
Overall I believe our video is appealing to an audience, as it takes the initial audio of our song and transforms it into a story that adds meaning and interest. The addition of the visuals provides the audience with a further medium to enjoy the song and engages their attention further. Our video is also applicable to most young girls and boys in many cultures across the world who will encounter similar situations in their own lives. Even to those who have differing values and relationship dynamics, the simple nature of the narrative makes it clear to understand.
Aspects of our video that were aimed at our target audience was the the use of costumes worn by our artist, which primarily consisted of feminine floral and nude pastel colours. The connotations of such outfits is a sense of innocents and youth we wished to portray our artists as possessing. These outfits are relevant to our young audience as they are meant to emulate the clothes they too will wear and a look they aspire to achieve.The male actor within our video was also intended to appear attractive to our target audience, with the aid of his trendy smart outfit, depicting an aspirational relationship at the beginning of the video.
The narrative storyline of our video is also intended to appeal to our audience, as it expands on the meaning of the song and provides a story the audience can empathise with and relate back to their own lives. Narratives are a common feature of modern day pop videos, and so we purposely included this convention to clearly express our genre and provide a video the audience expects to see. Within our narrative our artist is depicted breaking up and fighting with her boyfriend, a situation we believe would be apparent to young girls. I believe, as suggested by the effects model, the audience may have been influenced by feelings of empathy but can passively absorbed the music and pleasant mise en scene. Our audience is however not intended to be a passive audience but actively gratified by our work. For example The Uses and Gratification Model suggests that the audience is active and receives gratification from the viewing of mediums. I think a way this model can apply to our video, is with the concept that the combination of music and narrative can provide the audience with feelings of pleasure and escapism. By becoming absorbed by the simple narrative and catchy tune of our video, they may be able to temporarily forget about issues in their own life, find the tune uplifting and may even be reminded their own life isn't so bad e.g. they're in a happy relationship. The smiling and friendly face of our artists may even provided hope for an audience, as they see her strong response to the bad situation and aspire to be the same.
The intended reception of our video is for our audience to appreciate the video on two levels. The physical appearance of our artist, admiring her beauty and talent and the pleasant aspirational surroundings. The audience then sees the narrative and becomes emotionally engaged with our female actor, and may be reflected of their own relationships. However Morley's theory suggests that members of an audience will always interpret media texts in differing ways, with also a negotiated or oppositional view. A potential oppositional view of our video would be that the audience regard it to be amateurish and evoking no emotion. The storyline may be seen to be so simple it is not captivating at all, and could be seen to follow a predictable pattern to other videos of the same genre, a cliché. Or a negotiated perspective may appreciate our video represents a sad story and may empathise with the narrative however they may also have conflicting opinions that the story is very simplistic and lacks realism. The repetitive nature of some of the scenes may appear to highlight the fake quality. However the fact our video presents a fictional situation allows the escapism of our audience.
The feedback we received from our target audience during the production of our video allowed us to formulate a product tailored to that market. Some of the comments we gained on our first draft were that some of the settings appeared unrealistic, some shots were blurry and did not contain enough star image. By incorporating and correcting these suggestions e.g. improving the quality of mise en scene with better lighting & props, using an HD camera and including more close ups of our artists face, we created a video that more successfully gratified the requirements of our audience. This in turn would allowed our audience to receive more pleasure and diversion from the video.
Overall I believe our video is appealing to an audience, as it takes the initial audio of our song and transforms it into a story that adds meaning and interest. The addition of the visuals provides the audience with a further medium to enjoy the song and engages their attention further. Our video is also applicable to most young girls and boys in many cultures across the world who will encounter similar situations in their own lives. Even to those who have differing values and relationship dynamics, the simple nature of the narrative makes it clear to understand.
Monday, 25 February 2013
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