Wednesday, 24 April 2013
Describe how you developed research and planning skills contributed to your creative descision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time
Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.
Wednesday, 27 March 2013
Analyse one of our products in relation to narrative.
Narrative is very important to films as it drives the story forward, " A narrative draws your audience into your story and keep them focused on your storyline until your final conclusion." At AS I produced a crime thriller called "Mind Games" as part of my foundation portfolio. My thriller follows a linear narrative structure with a beginning, middle and end. However, I have veered away from a typical opening as, right at the start, we are thrown into the world of the antagonist; in other words, a typical film following a linear narrative structure would start with something happy and cheerful, representing normality, and then build up to a disruption, in Todorovian terms, followed by attempts to repair that disruption, and in the end, it's all resolved - a new equilibrium is achieved. In my thriller, there is not a happy and cheerful start; we are instantly put into a totally opposite atmosphere which is malevolent and claustrophobic. We see this as a kind of equilibrium, although it is the normality of this psychotic villain's life and therefore unusual. Others might see it as a Todorovian disruption as the policeman's life is threatened by arriving at the antagonist's place withing the first 2 minutes of the film. An example of film that starts similiarly to mine is the "Machinist." This film also veers away from the typical structure by starting in the world of the antagonist. Therefore the audience's narrative expectations would be that the disruption will be repaired an an equilibrium is established.
Levi - Strauss suggested the idea of binary opposites i.e. hero vs villain, evil vs good etc. In my opening it is very clear who the the opposites are - protagonist and antagonist. The mise - en - scene i surrounding each character helps indentify the binary opposites. The antagonist is shot in dark poorly lit room and the protagonist is shot in bright lear daylight dressed as a n authority figure. The reason i chose to use binary opposites is that both characters rely each other. For example the villain feels thrilled that he has somebody to run away from and in turn the hero can not possibly be a hero without defeating the evil. The fact that the policeman is the protagonist and is an authority figure, the audience empathize with him and feel sympathy for him. I have used high angle shots of the policeman to make him feel minute and help build sympathy for him. The narrative expectations for the audience is that the protagonist defeats the antagonist and an equilibrium is reached. However, i did not really convey this as at the end i have made it seem like the policeman got killed by the villain or the policeman has knocked on the wrong door. Now the question has arised that is he the real protagonist.
Roland Barthes talks about enigma codes and action codes. An enigma code is a question that is not immediately answered and thus draws an audience into a text, and action code is an event thats rives the story on. Above i mentioned that the audience are questioning whether or not the policeman is the real protagonist. The enigma code that i have used at the end creates this question. At the end of my thriller opening, i ended on a cliffhanger with the shot of the policeman outside a door and the sound of him knocking on that door. There are two possible outcomes which could have happended, these are that either the policeman has been killed or the policeman has knocked on another door not even coming to look for the villain. The evil laugh right at the end reinforces both cases. I feel as that i ahev surprised the audience bec
Levi - Strauss suggested the idea of binary opposites i.e. hero vs villain, evil vs good etc. In my opening it is very clear who the the opposites are - protagonist and antagonist. The mise - en - scene i surrounding each character helps indentify the binary opposites. The antagonist is shot in dark poorly lit room and the protagonist is shot in bright lear daylight dressed as a n authority figure. The reason i chose to use binary opposites is that both characters rely each other. For example the villain feels thrilled that he has somebody to run away from and in turn the hero can not possibly be a hero without defeating the evil. The fact that the policeman is the protagonist and is an authority figure, the audience empathize with him and feel sympathy for him. I have used high angle shots of the policeman to make him feel minute and help build sympathy for him. The narrative expectations for the audience is that the protagonist defeats the antagonist and an equilibrium is reached. However, i did not really convey this as at the end i have made it seem like the policeman got killed by the villain or the policeman has knocked on the wrong door. Now the question has arised that is he the real protagonist.
Roland Barthes talks about enigma codes and action codes. An enigma code is a question that is not immediately answered and thus draws an audience into a text, and action code is an event thats rives the story on. Above i mentioned that the audience are questioning whether or not the policeman is the real protagonist. The enigma code that i have used at the end creates this question. At the end of my thriller opening, i ended on a cliffhanger with the shot of the policeman outside a door and the sound of him knocking on that door. There are two possible outcomes which could have happended, these are that either the policeman has been killed or the policeman has knocked on another door not even coming to look for the villain. The evil laugh right at the end reinforces both cases. I feel as that i ahev surprised the audience bec
Wednesday, 20 March 2013
analyse one of our coursework production in relation to genre
In this essay, I
am going to write about my foundation portfolio thriller opening, "Mindgames," in relation to genre. My product is a crime thriller about a serial killer who is the most wanted person by the police who comits murders to random people, My group and i decided to classify this movie as a 18 due to the gore and violence. Our target audience consists of males and females aged between 18-29. In order to create a successful product, it is important for myself and
producers generally to consider the genre before beginning
the task,as this is key to attract the important target audience.
The first theorist I am going to discuss is Barry Keith Grant. His theory is that within a genre, you see familiar and recognisable characteristics which indicates to you the type of genre it is. For example, within my thriller i had a slow pan of some drugs on a table, and the shot of my antagonist holding the knife. When the audience sees the drugs and knife they are lured into the direction of a thriller/horror/action genre. A thriller has set generic conventions which include: violence, suspense and tension, suspensful soundtrack and fast paced editing. I included all of these conventions into my thriller for example: the soundtrack which i manipulated to sound more suspensful, the violence with the knife and the fast paced editing and suspense and tension mixed all in one when i used cross cutting and parralel editing towards the end of the opening to show tension building.
Neale states that genres are made up of not just groups of films, but also audience expectations. In my case, i produced a questionniare asking questions as to what they expect to see in my thriller. The audience already had in thier minds prior to watching my thriller what they want and expect to see for example, the most common answer was violence followed by suspense. Here we can clearly see how important genre is, the audience are coming to see this film knowing that it should include thier fundamental elements.
Another theorist ryall, says that different genres of products are produced to appeal to different target audiences. As i mentioned above, the audience for a thriller have different expectations for a film that say an audience for a comedy. The producers can take advantage of this and specialise thier product according to the target audiences needs. Having included their expectations about the genre they can make thier film much more appealing to ther intended audience.
The first theorist I am going to discuss is Barry Keith Grant. His theory is that within a genre, you see familiar and recognisable characteristics which indicates to you the type of genre it is. For example, within my thriller i had a slow pan of some drugs on a table, and the shot of my antagonist holding the knife. When the audience sees the drugs and knife they are lured into the direction of a thriller/horror/action genre. A thriller has set generic conventions which include: violence, suspense and tension, suspensful soundtrack and fast paced editing. I included all of these conventions into my thriller for example: the soundtrack which i manipulated to sound more suspensful, the violence with the knife and the fast paced editing and suspense and tension mixed all in one when i used cross cutting and parralel editing towards the end of the opening to show tension building.
Neale states that genres are made up of not just groups of films, but also audience expectations. In my case, i produced a questionniare asking questions as to what they expect to see in my thriller. The audience already had in thier minds prior to watching my thriller what they want and expect to see for example, the most common answer was violence followed by suspense. Here we can clearly see how important genre is, the audience are coming to see this film knowing that it should include thier fundamental elements.
Another theorist ryall, says that different genres of products are produced to appeal to different target audiences. As i mentioned above, the audience for a thriller have different expectations for a film that say an audience for a comedy. The producers can take advantage of this and specialise thier product according to the target audiences needs. Having included their expectations about the genre they can make thier film much more appealing to ther intended audience.
Genres and other classifications
Genre is often thought to be restrcited within certain boundaries which makes unable to change," Once you've seen one, you've seen them all. However, there is always both repetition and difference at play in genre products. Genre describes way in which companies producing the media goods group and sell thier goods through expectations.
genre theory: Neale - 1980 " a regulated variety"
Genre theory is to do with a circulation of expectations between industries, media texts and audiences. This leads to a " regulated variety."
Hartley - 1999
A contract between the producer and audience which," disciplines' choices and reduces desires.
Genre as idealogical?
The genre film offers a lesson in how to act within society and how to deal with current problems and anxieties. But it does no offer neutral ways of dealing with social problems; instead it prescribes a preffered set of values.
genre theory: Neale - 1980 " a regulated variety"
Genre theory is to do with a circulation of expectations between industries, media texts and audiences. This leads to a " regulated variety."
Hartley - 1999
A contract between the producer and audience which," disciplines' choices and reduces desires.
Genre as idealogical?
The genre film offers a lesson in how to act within society and how to deal with current problems and anxieties. But it does no offer neutral ways of dealing with social problems; instead it prescribes a preffered set of values.
Friday, 15 March 2013
How napster has effected the music industry
Napster is an online peer to peer file sharing service which enables users to share and download music. Napster was developed in 1999 by Sean Parker and Shawn Flanning. However, this service was short lived as it was shut down in february 2001 after going through court. The main reason as to why it was shut down was due to the fact that it offered an illegal service by letting people download tracks without having to pay for it, this had a direct impact on the music industry.
Thursday, 14 March 2013
Discuss one of your media productions in relation to the concept of audience
When producing a product such as movies and music videos, audience plays a key role in developing and producing the product. I am going to talk about my first product which is my thriller opening for my foundation portfolio. While producing this crime thriller, i had to take into account what the audience expect of the product and how they will affected. I will now talk about my thriller " Mindgames" in relation to the concept of audience. My target audience are people aged between 18-28. I found this information on the pearl and dean website which displayed data that showed what particular age groups watch which genre of film.
Referring to the uses and gratifications theory, my thriller offers "escapism" where the audience after a long tiring day at school or at work just want to esacape reality and relax and watch the thriller. My thiller is full of nail bitting scenes providing the adrenalin rush and the thrill. Additionally, it can be social as the cliffhanger/enigma codes can cause conversations between friends as to perhaps what will happen next.
The " hyperdermic needle" effect theory suggests that we are passive audiences and that we are directly effects by media texts that we are presented. In my thriller there is gore, use of semiotics such as the drugs, violence, strong language and killing scenes. This theory suggests that these actions will be replicated. In reality, people are old and mature enough not to replicate what you see, hence my target audience. in conjuction to the cultivation theory, if the audience are exposed to these scenes, i think that they will still resist to replicate what they say.
The "reception theory" is when the producer/director encodes a text and the audience decode this text in relation to stuart halls theory. Different people will decode the text differently according to thier status for example, age, gender or personal terms. By the way i have reprsented the antagonist, some people may think of him as a rebel and someone eho should be punished severaly, however other may think of him as sneaky and michievious as he avoids the police numerous times. The enigma code in my thriller such as the laugh at the very end suggests that the antagonist has possibly killed the policman or the policman has not come to look for him at and knocked on someone elses door. The oppositional reading of my thriller is that there are fewer and fewer female protagonists and that they have less important roles in films like this. From a feminist point of view, males are more dominant than females and that the antagonist and protagonist are males.
I also used audience research such as a questionniare and a draft viewing so i can get feedback along the way, this ensures that i make my thriller as best as possible for my audeicne. Out of 30 people, most of them wanted to see more violence and more suspense. The cross and parralel editing in my thriller where the policman enters the flats and the antagonist realises he is there. This scene is shot purely to create suspense and tension in the audience.
Referring to the uses and gratifications theory, my thriller offers "escapism" where the audience after a long tiring day at school or at work just want to esacape reality and relax and watch the thriller. My thiller is full of nail bitting scenes providing the adrenalin rush and the thrill. Additionally, it can be social as the cliffhanger/enigma codes can cause conversations between friends as to perhaps what will happen next.
The " hyperdermic needle" effect theory suggests that we are passive audiences and that we are directly effects by media texts that we are presented. In my thriller there is gore, use of semiotics such as the drugs, violence, strong language and killing scenes. This theory suggests that these actions will be replicated. In reality, people are old and mature enough not to replicate what you see, hence my target audience. in conjuction to the cultivation theory, if the audience are exposed to these scenes, i think that they will still resist to replicate what they say.
The "reception theory" is when the producer/director encodes a text and the audience decode this text in relation to stuart halls theory. Different people will decode the text differently according to thier status for example, age, gender or personal terms. By the way i have reprsented the antagonist, some people may think of him as a rebel and someone eho should be punished severaly, however other may think of him as sneaky and michievious as he avoids the police numerous times. The enigma code in my thriller such as the laugh at the very end suggests that the antagonist has possibly killed the policman or the policman has not come to look for him at and knocked on someone elses door. The oppositional reading of my thriller is that there are fewer and fewer female protagonists and that they have less important roles in films like this. From a feminist point of view, males are more dominant than females and that the antagonist and protagonist are males.
I also used audience research such as a questionniare and a draft viewing so i can get feedback along the way, this ensures that i make my thriller as best as possible for my audeicne. Out of 30 people, most of them wanted to see more violence and more suspense. The cross and parralel editing in my thriller where the policman enters the flats and the antagonist realises he is there. This scene is shot purely to create suspense and tension in the audience.
Tuesday, 26 February 2013
How has digital technology aided your creativity to during your coursework products
Over the two years of studying media and producing my foundation and advanced portfolio's, digital technologies have had a key rold inb contributing to my creativity during the making of my products.
At AS, i created a thriller opening of a crime thriller. At the pre-production stage, i created an animatic on final cut from a camera which had taken the shots of my thiller of which i drew by hand. I uploaded each shot onto the final cut timeline in chronological. This gave a brief idea as how the visuals will look and how well it synched with the actual soundtrack. After seeing this on the timeline, it allowed me to realise that i can do much more with what i have in terms of add new shots or change the duration of them etc. Using final cut really helped me be more creative and help improve my product.
Secondly, i used garageband to create and manipulate a soundtrack for my thriller. The main convention of a thriller soundtrack is that it had to create suspense and tension. To create this effect i qweaked with the volume, texture and the track itself to create this atmoshere and most importantly complement the visuals. For example, when the police officer enters the flat and approaches the villains door, i used garageband to cut a part of the track with a loud "bang " sound and add it to the track at the point where the police officer is on the second floor. Using garageband to manipulate the soundtrack also helped m be more creative as i have taken a track and changed it to accomodate the visuals.
Additionally, i used youtube alot for searching for inspiration and tutorials on how to use advanced functions on final cut. For my thriller, i wanted to include a scene with fast parralel editing to show the suspense and tension escalating i.e. when the officers enters the flat. Having seen the film " four lions," it has a parralel edited scene within it which was exactly what i wanted to replicate. So i went on youtube and searched for this particular scene. After finding it, i grabbed the ideas from it and incorporated it into my own thriller. In relation, i wanted to use youtube to search for a final cut tutorial on how to increase the duration of a shot to make it seem like a "slow motion" effect shot. The shot of the villain getting the knife out if his draw is the shot where i used this slow motion effect. From getting ideas from youtube i wa able to be more creative with my work and learnt how to use functions on final cut which i did not know about.
At A2 level, i created an indie rock music video. Produing this piece of work also required use of digital technologies.
One of the main digital technologies i used was the camcorder. I used a canon camrecorder which had lots of buttons and fuctions and i did not know what even half of them did. So i referred to the users manuel and found out the basic functions. I wanted this music video to be filmed on black and white, so all i did was enter the visual settings on the camcorder and set it to black and white. Secondly, i wanted to include a focus pull in the video, following the same procedure i found out how to do it. This focus pull can be seen in the second last shot whre the artist moves away from the mic and out of the shot and the mic defocuses and then focuses. The use of these fuctions on the camcorder improved my creativity and the creativity of the product itself.
Moreover, after a year of using final cut i am know more better at using it and know how to much more things on it, e.g. shot duration, transitions, visual effects and general editing. I have different transitions between shots and various visual effects such as colour corrector and the "earthquake" effect throughout my video. This shows that i can use final cut properly and making use of its functions, also on top of that final has aided my creativity towards my product.
Another digital technology i heavly used was the internet. I used this for about 70% of my planning and also all of my inspirtation. I had come across a website which showed typical music video shots and also some really unusual ones, e.g. canted angles, dutch angles and tracking shots. The use of these shots shows variation and creativity of the visuals. In comparison the last years product, i used basic shots like close ups, point of view and long shots. In this product i have used more creative and unusual shots.
In conclusion, digital technologies have been very imporntant in aiding my creativity towards my products, and also helped me improve from last year in terms of using these technologies to make my work better and most importantly, more creative.
At AS, i created a thriller opening of a crime thriller. At the pre-production stage, i created an animatic on final cut from a camera which had taken the shots of my thiller of which i drew by hand. I uploaded each shot onto the final cut timeline in chronological. This gave a brief idea as how the visuals will look and how well it synched with the actual soundtrack. After seeing this on the timeline, it allowed me to realise that i can do much more with what i have in terms of add new shots or change the duration of them etc. Using final cut really helped me be more creative and help improve my product.
Secondly, i used garageband to create and manipulate a soundtrack for my thriller. The main convention of a thriller soundtrack is that it had to create suspense and tension. To create this effect i qweaked with the volume, texture and the track itself to create this atmoshere and most importantly complement the visuals. For example, when the police officer enters the flat and approaches the villains door, i used garageband to cut a part of the track with a loud "bang " sound and add it to the track at the point where the police officer is on the second floor. Using garageband to manipulate the soundtrack also helped m be more creative as i have taken a track and changed it to accomodate the visuals.
Additionally, i used youtube alot for searching for inspiration and tutorials on how to use advanced functions on final cut. For my thriller, i wanted to include a scene with fast parralel editing to show the suspense and tension escalating i.e. when the officers enters the flat. Having seen the film " four lions," it has a parralel edited scene within it which was exactly what i wanted to replicate. So i went on youtube and searched for this particular scene. After finding it, i grabbed the ideas from it and incorporated it into my own thriller. In relation, i wanted to use youtube to search for a final cut tutorial on how to increase the duration of a shot to make it seem like a "slow motion" effect shot. The shot of the villain getting the knife out if his draw is the shot where i used this slow motion effect. From getting ideas from youtube i wa able to be more creative with my work and learnt how to use functions on final cut which i did not know about.
At A2 level, i created an indie rock music video. Produing this piece of work also required use of digital technologies.
One of the main digital technologies i used was the camcorder. I used a canon camrecorder which had lots of buttons and fuctions and i did not know what even half of them did. So i referred to the users manuel and found out the basic functions. I wanted this music video to be filmed on black and white, so all i did was enter the visual settings on the camcorder and set it to black and white. Secondly, i wanted to include a focus pull in the video, following the same procedure i found out how to do it. This focus pull can be seen in the second last shot whre the artist moves away from the mic and out of the shot and the mic defocuses and then focuses. The use of these fuctions on the camcorder improved my creativity and the creativity of the product itself.
Moreover, after a year of using final cut i am know more better at using it and know how to much more things on it, e.g. shot duration, transitions, visual effects and general editing. I have different transitions between shots and various visual effects such as colour corrector and the "earthquake" effect throughout my video. This shows that i can use final cut properly and making use of its functions, also on top of that final has aided my creativity towards my product.
Another digital technology i heavly used was the internet. I used this for about 70% of my planning and also all of my inspirtation. I had come across a website which showed typical music video shots and also some really unusual ones, e.g. canted angles, dutch angles and tracking shots. The use of these shots shows variation and creativity of the visuals. In comparison the last years product, i used basic shots like close ups, point of view and long shots. In this product i have used more creative and unusual shots.
In conclusion, digital technologies have been very imporntant in aiding my creativity towards my products, and also helped me improve from last year in terms of using these technologies to make my work better and most importantly, more creative.
Wednesday, 13 February 2013
Tuesday, 12 February 2013
Evaluate how your research and planning informed your productions
Research and planning are two vital steps needed in making producrions such as movies and technology etc. For my foundation and advanced portfolio's, research and planning were the two main things i had to do to complete before starting to produce my products.
One piece of research i carried out was into genre. As my thriller opening was a crime thriller genre, i researched typical conventions and characteristics of a crime thriller. Rsearching into the conventions of a crime thriller helped in contributing to my product as i knew what i had to include, for example: an antagonist and protagonist, a suspense and tension filled soundtrack, fast paced editing and dark-gloomy mise - en scene. I wasted no time in searching for a sutiable soundtrack as i knew that it had to create suspense and tension. I think that he research i did into the genre really informed my product.
Secondly, i researched into my target audiecne which enabled me to know what they expect to see in a crime thriller. My target age group was people aged between 18-28, on asking random people within the age boundary i was able to retrieve things to include in my opening. For example, the thing that my audience most wanted to see in a crime thriller was suspense. Knowing this made a huge difference because i knew that for my audience to enjoy it i had to include alot of suspense. Taking this into account, i manipulated the soundtrack to create nore suspense and also used parrelel editing between the police officer and the villain. Taking everything on board, reasearch really informed my product.
At A2, i created a music video. The genre of this video was indie rock. When talking about planning, i had to do alot of pre-production planning in order for the process to run smoothly and make my product successful. One example of this is a stroyboard. I created a stroryboard of illustrated pictures and shots of exactly everyshot i wanted to do in chronological order. This helped me out as when the time came to film i was well prepared as in where to position my camera/artist and what type of shot i was i.e long/tracking. I think this planning stage helped towards my final product.
Additionally, i had bee given feedback from my audience whist my work is in progress. Again this helped me as for example, if had not included a shot/ effect that my audience wanted, i could easily put in exactly what they wanted. Its good that i new this whilst my work was in progress because any later than u would not have had the time to do so and also gave me a chance to make my work that much better than it already was. This heavily informed my product becuase i was able to act upon feedback and make my work better.
Overall, from AS to A2, i think i have improved significanltly in terms of research and planning, and how they inform my productions. At AS i could have widened my planning and research skills to inform my product better for example, using questionaires for my target audience, and getting feedback along the way. At A2, i used a stroryboard, used a questionnaire and got feedback whilst i was working. This shows that my research and planning skills have improved over the two years. At A2 the expectation is higher and i think that i have met this expectation.
One piece of research i carried out was into genre. As my thriller opening was a crime thriller genre, i researched typical conventions and characteristics of a crime thriller. Rsearching into the conventions of a crime thriller helped in contributing to my product as i knew what i had to include, for example: an antagonist and protagonist, a suspense and tension filled soundtrack, fast paced editing and dark-gloomy mise - en scene. I wasted no time in searching for a sutiable soundtrack as i knew that it had to create suspense and tension. I think that he research i did into the genre really informed my product.
Secondly, i researched into my target audiecne which enabled me to know what they expect to see in a crime thriller. My target age group was people aged between 18-28, on asking random people within the age boundary i was able to retrieve things to include in my opening. For example, the thing that my audience most wanted to see in a crime thriller was suspense. Knowing this made a huge difference because i knew that for my audience to enjoy it i had to include alot of suspense. Taking this into account, i manipulated the soundtrack to create nore suspense and also used parrelel editing between the police officer and the villain. Taking everything on board, reasearch really informed my product.
At A2, i created a music video. The genre of this video was indie rock. When talking about planning, i had to do alot of pre-production planning in order for the process to run smoothly and make my product successful. One example of this is a stroyboard. I created a stroryboard of illustrated pictures and shots of exactly everyshot i wanted to do in chronological order. This helped me out as when the time came to film i was well prepared as in where to position my camera/artist and what type of shot i was i.e long/tracking. I think this planning stage helped towards my final product.
Additionally, i had bee given feedback from my audience whist my work is in progress. Again this helped me as for example, if had not included a shot/ effect that my audience wanted, i could easily put in exactly what they wanted. Its good that i new this whilst my work was in progress because any later than u would not have had the time to do so and also gave me a chance to make my work that much better than it already was. This heavily informed my product becuase i was able to act upon feedback and make my work better.
Overall, from AS to A2, i think i have improved significanltly in terms of research and planning, and how they inform my productions. At AS i could have widened my planning and research skills to inform my product better for example, using questionaires for my target audience, and getting feedback along the way. At A2, i used a stroryboard, used a questionnaire and got feedback whilst i was working. This shows that my research and planning skills have improved over the two years. At A2 the expectation is higher and i think that i have met this expectation.
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
Investigating Media Effects Theory
What is propaganda?
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed towards influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position by presenting only one side of an argument and ignoring the other side.
This is a world war one propaganda poster aimed directly to the population to join the armed forces and help thier country. This poster is targeted towards the males .
What is the cultivation theory?
Cultivation theory is a social theory which examines the long-term effects of television. "The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend "living" in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television.
On the whole this theory suggests that the television can effect our behaviour.
What is the hypodermic needle theory?
A passive audience is an audience that are easily affected. Great emphasis is placed on the text itself and its power to directly influence the audience. Meanings in the text are readily available and easy to find.
To what extent can media texts be blamed for our behavior?
The two-step flow model describes how firstly, certain individuals considered to be opinion leaders receive and interpret information directly from mass media. They in turn pass on their interpretations along with the media information itself, thus influencing the wider population.
This diagram shows exactly what the two step flow model works. The mass media i spread via the opinion leader to individuals in social contact with the opinion leader.
What is David Gauntletts theory?
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed towards influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position by presenting only one side of an argument and ignoring the other side.
This is a world war one propaganda poster aimed directly to the population to join the armed forces and help thier country. This poster is targeted towards the males .
What is the cultivation theory?
Cultivation theory is a social theory which examines the long-term effects of television. "The primary proposition of cultivation theory states that the more time people spend "living" in the television world, the more likely they are to believe social reality portrayed on television.
On the whole this theory suggests that the television can effect our behaviour.What is the hypodermic needle theory?
The Hypodermic Needle
Model theory suggests that the media ‘injects’ ideas into a passive audience,
like giving a patient a drug.
A passive audience is an audience that are easily affected. Great emphasis is placed on the text itself and its power to directly influence the audience. Meanings in the text are readily available and easy to find.To what extent can media texts be blamed for our behavior?
The two-step flow model describes how firstly, certain individuals considered to be opinion leaders receive and interpret information directly from mass media. They in turn pass on their interpretations along with the media information itself, thus influencing the wider population.
This diagram shows exactly what the two step flow model works. The mass media i spread via the opinion leader to individuals in social contact with the opinion leader.What is David Gauntletts theory?
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
Explain how you used, developed or challenged real media conventions in your productions
Over the course of studying media, i have produced two main products. These are the foundation portfolio consisting of my thriller opening and my advanced portfolio with my music video. In planning, researching and producing these products, i have used, developed and challenged real media conventions.
Firstly, one of my main conventions of a thriller is suspense and tension. In our opening when our antagonist realises that the policeman is entering the flats where he lives, i used quick and fast parallel edits between the policeman entering and the antagonist panicing inside his room. I think a parralel edit really emphasises the tension building in a movie also the escalating storyline and i think i used it very effectively in this situation. Moreover, another convention is the suspense and tension like soundtrack. I had found a soundtrack with the right characteristics to fit in with this genre which consisted of soth sounds with it gradually building in volume and texture. I used this throughout the opening and i manipulated the track so that when the track starts to escalate is the exact point in the opening when the tension starts to build i.e when the police officer enters the flat. I feel that i have succesfully used this soundtrack to depict real media products.
Secondly, i challenged a convention by not showing the antagonist. Usually both antagonist and protagonist are shown in the opening, in my opening, i just show the prtagonist. The police officer is just a minor character who further enhances the role of the protagonist. In addition, at the end of the opening i ended it as an enigma or cliffhanger. The audience is in deep thought as the whether the police officer has been after someone else or if he has been killed by the protagonist. The laugh at the end really makes them think as to what really has happended.
In AS media, i have stuck to typical conventions but i think i can do much better by including more representations of the genre and making more use of what i have.
In conjunction, in my advanced portfolio, i created an indie rock music video. The main conventions for this are mise - en scene, lip syncing, fast paced editing and intertextuality etc.
One successfull convention i used was mise - en - scene. The conventions said the artist is usually dressed very casual smart, with scruffy hair and usually has a live band in the video. Although i did not include a live band in my video, i included everything else. When looking at this convention in particular, you can clearly see in my video that i have followed the mise - en - scene in terms of the artist. Another convention comes from Andrew Goodwin. He states that there should be a relationship between visuals and lyrics, i acknowledged this and used it in my video. When we hear the lyric, " head might explode," at the same time i had put an effect on the visuals called "earthquake" which would shake the shot as if an earthquake was occurring which made it look like " his head might explode." I think i have incorporated this convention well by the use of effects and editing.
Following on, i included numerous close ups of my artist which is really right up there in terms of real music video media conventions. I has close ups of his face, body parts etc and also used various types of shots for example, tracking, panning and canted angled shots to really make my video interesting. In indie rock music videos generally, a canted angle is rarely seen, i feel that i have developed this by adding in a canted angle and also used other various shots to represent real media products.
In conclusion, from AS to A2 media, i know that my skills have definitely improved in terms of incorporating real media conventions into my work, especially in my advanced portfolio which is expected as you have had experience in the previous year and now know exactly what should be included.
Firstly, one of my main conventions of a thriller is suspense and tension. In our opening when our antagonist realises that the policeman is entering the flats where he lives, i used quick and fast parallel edits between the policeman entering and the antagonist panicing inside his room. I think a parralel edit really emphasises the tension building in a movie also the escalating storyline and i think i used it very effectively in this situation. Moreover, another convention is the suspense and tension like soundtrack. I had found a soundtrack with the right characteristics to fit in with this genre which consisted of soth sounds with it gradually building in volume and texture. I used this throughout the opening and i manipulated the track so that when the track starts to escalate is the exact point in the opening when the tension starts to build i.e when the police officer enters the flat. I feel that i have succesfully used this soundtrack to depict real media products.
Secondly, i challenged a convention by not showing the antagonist. Usually both antagonist and protagonist are shown in the opening, in my opening, i just show the prtagonist. The police officer is just a minor character who further enhances the role of the protagonist. In addition, at the end of the opening i ended it as an enigma or cliffhanger. The audience is in deep thought as the whether the police officer has been after someone else or if he has been killed by the protagonist. The laugh at the end really makes them think as to what really has happended.
In AS media, i have stuck to typical conventions but i think i can do much better by including more representations of the genre and making more use of what i have.
In conjunction, in my advanced portfolio, i created an indie rock music video. The main conventions for this are mise - en scene, lip syncing, fast paced editing and intertextuality etc.
One successfull convention i used was mise - en - scene. The conventions said the artist is usually dressed very casual smart, with scruffy hair and usually has a live band in the video. Although i did not include a live band in my video, i included everything else. When looking at this convention in particular, you can clearly see in my video that i have followed the mise - en - scene in terms of the artist. Another convention comes from Andrew Goodwin. He states that there should be a relationship between visuals and lyrics, i acknowledged this and used it in my video. When we hear the lyric, " head might explode," at the same time i had put an effect on the visuals called "earthquake" which would shake the shot as if an earthquake was occurring which made it look like " his head might explode." I think i have incorporated this convention well by the use of effects and editing.
Following on, i included numerous close ups of my artist which is really right up there in terms of real music video media conventions. I has close ups of his face, body parts etc and also used various types of shots for example, tracking, panning and canted angled shots to really make my video interesting. In indie rock music videos generally, a canted angle is rarely seen, i feel that i have developed this by adding in a canted angle and also used other various shots to represent real media products.
In conclusion, from AS to A2 media, i know that my skills have definitely improved in terms of incorporating real media conventions into my work, especially in my advanced portfolio which is expected as you have had experience in the previous year and now know exactly what should be included.
Through my expirience in studying media, i feel that my creativity has developed working within the conventions of real media products. At AS level in my foundation portfolio i created a thriller opening and at A2, i produced a music video as my advanced portfolio.
From researching the conventions of the thriller genre, i came across the main conventions which occured on every webpage i visited. One of the main conventions was mise - en - scene. I used this cnvention in my thriller by manipulating the room to make it look dark and gloomy. In addition to this convention i made the room consist of low key lighting to further enhance the convention. Looking at the mise - scene in the opening i think i really used it well created a thriller like setting. Another convention of the thriller genre was the soundtrack. As like the mise - en - scene it had to be gloomy and dark, also to create suspense and tension. Generally, orchestral instruments are used in thrillers, so i looked for a soundtrack accordingly. In my opening the soundtrack started off with a one note synth occurring then as the tension started to build up i.e when the cop starts to enter the building the texture and volume of the track increases in conjunction with the suspense and tension. I thought this soundtrack was good at the part where the tension started to build but i think at the beginning i could have used something more substantial that created a dark atmosphere. One convention that i challeged was the introduction of the antagonist. I did not really indicate an antagonist, the cop was just a minor character who's role was to reveal the protagonist and develop the stroryline. I real media products the real hero or antagonist is clearly shown but in my opening i have not shown the true antagonist. I think this really was effective as it made the audience think and showed my creativity. Another convention was he use of close ups of main characters. In my opening i had plenty of close ups of both the protagonist and cop. I think the use of close ups in my opening was really good.
For my A2 advanced portfolio i produced an indie rock music video. The conventions for this acoording to vernallis and goodwin are, a relationship between lyrics and visuals, a relationship between music and visuals and intertextuality etc. Looking into the indie rock genre, i found out that the main representations were a casual dressed scruffy artist typically with a live band playing live. Although i did not have a band, i incorporated the scruffy casual look onto my artist. Observing goodwins point of relationshop between lyrics and visuals, i had an example of that when the lyric said "head might explode" i had an effect put onto the shot of my artists head called earthquake. This effect shook the shot as if an earthquake was happening and looking like his head was going to explode. I think this is a great example of goodwins point, and i think i used it well. One convention that i challenged was the intertextuality. I did not include any intertextuality reference to movies, programmes etc. This is beause this was the only track that had a video to it so there was nothing the artist could do or say to advertise himself more than he already is. Another convention i heavily used was lip synching, i successfully used lip synching in my video to show the artist singing in unison with the track. I think i used great editing skills to get the lip sync right.
In comparison over the two years i think that my creativity improved dramatically by using a variety of programme which was expected in my advanced portfolio.
From researching the conventions of the thriller genre, i came across the main conventions which occured on every webpage i visited. One of the main conventions was mise - en - scene. I used this cnvention in my thriller by manipulating the room to make it look dark and gloomy. In addition to this convention i made the room consist of low key lighting to further enhance the convention. Looking at the mise - scene in the opening i think i really used it well created a thriller like setting. Another convention of the thriller genre was the soundtrack. As like the mise - en - scene it had to be gloomy and dark, also to create suspense and tension. Generally, orchestral instruments are used in thrillers, so i looked for a soundtrack accordingly. In my opening the soundtrack started off with a one note synth occurring then as the tension started to build up i.e when the cop starts to enter the building the texture and volume of the track increases in conjunction with the suspense and tension. I thought this soundtrack was good at the part where the tension started to build but i think at the beginning i could have used something more substantial that created a dark atmosphere. One convention that i challeged was the introduction of the antagonist. I did not really indicate an antagonist, the cop was just a minor character who's role was to reveal the protagonist and develop the stroryline. I real media products the real hero or antagonist is clearly shown but in my opening i have not shown the true antagonist. I think this really was effective as it made the audience think and showed my creativity. Another convention was he use of close ups of main characters. In my opening i had plenty of close ups of both the protagonist and cop. I think the use of close ups in my opening was really good.
For my A2 advanced portfolio i produced an indie rock music video. The conventions for this acoording to vernallis and goodwin are, a relationship between lyrics and visuals, a relationship between music and visuals and intertextuality etc. Looking into the indie rock genre, i found out that the main representations were a casual dressed scruffy artist typically with a live band playing live. Although i did not have a band, i incorporated the scruffy casual look onto my artist. Observing goodwins point of relationshop between lyrics and visuals, i had an example of that when the lyric said "head might explode" i had an effect put onto the shot of my artists head called earthquake. This effect shook the shot as if an earthquake was happening and looking like his head was going to explode. I think this is a great example of goodwins point, and i think i used it well. One convention that i challenged was the intertextuality. I did not include any intertextuality reference to movies, programmes etc. This is beause this was the only track that had a video to it so there was nothing the artist could do or say to advertise himself more than he already is. Another convention i heavily used was lip synching, i successfully used lip synching in my video to show the artist singing in unison with the track. I think i used great editing skills to get the lip sync right.
In comparison over the two years i think that my creativity improved dramatically by using a variety of programme which was expected in my advanced portfolio.
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
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