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.

read the blog, two power points

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.

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?

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?

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.

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.