Using conventions from real world texts
By conducting research and completing planning tasks before creating my products, I was able to understand the conventions of both magazines for AS and music videos for A2.
For my AS coursework, I researched the conventions of each page of a magazine including the front page, contents page and double page spreads. I did this by analyzing existing music magazines which allowed me to pick out specific, reoccurring conventions. One of the conventions that I found was becoming increasingly popular in magazines was a double page spread that consisted of one landscape image and just a short amount of text. I decided to develop this convention when creating my own magazine by having the double page image as an introductory page which would give readers an idea about the contents of the article that would continue on the following pages.
Once I had completed that task, I researched what makes and urban music magazine different from music magazines of other genres. This allowed me to understand the conventions that are specific to urban music magazines such as graffiti, the costume of the models and the types of topics written about in the articles. For example, an urban music magazine like my own is more likely to have information about the artist's career and their life I the music industry, whereas a pop magazine may choose to focus more on the artist's personal life and their love interests. Understanding these conventions allowed me to choose the layout, images, content of the article and overall aesthetic look of my music magazine which met the target audience's expectations and therefore ensured that the product was fit for purpose.
A2
Using conventions from real world texts
By conducting research and completing planning tasks before creating my products, I was able to understand the conventions of both magazines for AS and music videos for A2.
For my AS coursework, I researched the conventions of each page of a magazine including the front page, contents page and double page spreads. I did this by analyzing existing music magazines which allowed me to pick out specific, reoccurring conventions. One of the conventions that I found was becoming increasingly popular in magazines was a double page spread that consisted of one landscape image and just a short amount of text. I decided to develop this convention when creating my own magazine by having the double page image as an introductory page which would give readers an idea about the contents of the article that would continue on the following pages.
Once I had completed that task, I researched what makes and urban music magazine different from music magazines of other genres. This allowed me to understand the conventions that are specific to urban music magazines such as graffiti, the costume of the models and the types of topics written about in the articles. For example, an urban music magazine like my own is more likely to have information about the artist's career and their life I the music industry, whereas a pop magazine may choose to focus more on the artist's personal life and their love interests. Understanding these conventions allowed me to choose the layout, images, content of the article and overall aesthetic look of my music magazine which met the target audience's expectations and therefore ensured that the product was fit for purpose.
Post-production is the tasks completed once the initial
product has been pieced together. It includes any editing, final touches and
re-shoots that may need to take place.
AS
For my AS coursework I created an urban music magazine. One
the layout of my magazine had been decided and the photographs had been taken,
and the article written, I had to look through my contact sheet and all of the
photographs that had been taken in order to choose the best ones. Firstly, any
that were out of focus were eliminated as well as duplicate shots.
I had already decided through the planning process that one
of my double page spreads would be covered by one landscape image and a short
introduction to the article. Therefore, I looked through the landscape
photographs and narrowed it down to the best one. I did the same with other
photographs for the double page spreads, contents page and front cover. Once
all the photographs had been chosen, I decided to try out some of the image
effects on Photoshop on the photographs that had been taken in a graffiti park as
I wanted the vibrant colours to stand out, but in an artistic way. After
looking through some different effects, I chose ‘Cool Water’ which increases
the saturation of the images whilst still making them look classic and
editorial.
Once the images had been edited, I re-linked them on Adobe
InDesign (the software that was used to create my magazine). Once I had
completed this, I inserted my article and had to proof-red it for spelling
errors, grammatical mistakes and correct alignment (to ensure that words were
not being cut off at the end of a column). After all of that was complete, I
went through all of the pages and used the colour picking tool to ensure that
the same shade of teal had been used throughout the entire magazine to ensure a
sense of continuity.
After I felt like everything had been placed in perfectly, I
looked back over my magazine as a whole rather than the individual pages and felt
like the photographs on the contents page were too similar, making them look
slightly monotonous and taking away from the effect of the striking photographs
on the double page spreads. I therefore decided to gather some other photographs that
I had taken previously and edit them in Photoshop to make them look different, then
placed them on the contents page to ensure that there was a variety of images.
A2
For my A2 coursework, post-production consisted of taking my
footage and placing it on a timeline in Adobe Premiere CS6.
Firstly, I went through my shots and put them all on a timeline. I then cut the shots using the razor tool to eliminate any bad footage such as instability and blurriness. Once these parts had been taken out, I pieced together my Hyde Park footage to create a straight narrative in sections, for example, one section of my actress finding the letter would be in one sequence alone.
Once this was done, I did the same with the footage from the studio scene, however this time I had to line up the footage miming with the actual original song. Once it had all been lined up, I copied the Hyde Park footage onto another layer on the same sequence as the studio footage and split it up so that it looked like flashbacks that were dispersed throughout the entire music video.
I also cut the song and faded the end of it as I felt that the original version was quite long and did not want to extend my video by that extra minute.
Firstly, I went through my shots and put them all on a timeline. I then cut the shots using the razor tool to eliminate any bad footage such as instability and blurriness. Once these parts had been taken out, I pieced together my Hyde Park footage to create a straight narrative in sections, for example, one section of my actress finding the letter would be in one sequence alone.
Once this was done, I did the same with the footage from the studio scene, however this time I had to line up the footage miming with the actual original song. Once it had all been lined up, I copied the Hyde Park footage onto another layer on the same sequence as the studio footage and split it up so that it looked like flashbacks that were dispersed throughout the entire music video.
I also cut the song and faded the end of it as I felt that the original version was quite long and did not want to extend my video by that extra minute.
I then treated this as a first draft and gained feedback
from my target audience as well as fellow media students who are aware of the
key concepts of a music video.
Once I analysed my footage, I realised that most of the feedback suggested that the studio footage looked slightly too static, therefore I decided to re-shoot some of the shots using a crane. Additionally, the audience seemed to really like the Hyde Park footage due to the interesting location, therefore I decided to go back to Hyde Park and film some more scenes there that could be added into the video in order to make the narrative stronger.
Once both of these scenes were shot, I did the same as I had done with my original footage by lining up the miming and dispersing the Hyde Park footage but ensuring that a linear narrative could still be understood.
Once all of this was complete, I checked my video for any small mistakes that I may have missed, such as the timing of the miming. I then colour corrected my Hyde Park footage using the auto levels tools on Premiere as it was all filmed using natural lighting. The colour correction definitely made the footage look more crisp and cinematic as well as whimsical and fairy-like which is exactly what I needed in order for it to be consistent with my entire theme.
Once I analysed my footage, I realised that most of the feedback suggested that the studio footage looked slightly too static, therefore I decided to re-shoot some of the shots using a crane. Additionally, the audience seemed to really like the Hyde Park footage due to the interesting location, therefore I decided to go back to Hyde Park and film some more scenes there that could be added into the video in order to make the narrative stronger.
Once both of these scenes were shot, I did the same as I had done with my original footage by lining up the miming and dispersing the Hyde Park footage but ensuring that a linear narrative could still be understood.
Once all of this was complete, I checked my video for any small mistakes that I may have missed, such as the timing of the miming. I then colour corrected my Hyde Park footage using the auto levels tools on Premiere as it was all filmed using natural lighting. The colour correction definitely made the footage look more crisp and cinematic as well as whimsical and fairy-like which is exactly what I needed in order for it to be consistent with my entire theme.
For my ancillary products, the main post-production task was
to add images of my actual model in place of other images that I had used when
creating the layout. Furthermore, I also had to change some of my fonts as the
design font that was used to frame the image was not copy-right free (which I
was only made aware of when I tried to export the products). Furthermore, I
also decided to ad effects on the images inside the digipak as my model was
wearing a bright coloured top which stood out too much, therefore using
Photoshop to decrease the saturation, then re-linking the photographs in InDesign
allowed them to fit in well with my authentic and minimalist theme.
RESEARCH AND PLANNING
For the majority of my AS research I referred to sources online
as well as existing magazines, whereas for A2 I took this research slightly
further. Rather than just researching existing products and their conventions,
I researched music videos created by Haydon School Media Studies alumni and did
research into theorists such as Goodwin and how his theories can be applied to
my potential music video.
Furthermore, I did not only present this research in PowerPoint or Prezi format as I had in AS, but instead tried to use a variety of media platforms such as videos and presentations as well as essay formats.
Additionally, when looking back on my planning work, I have
realised that not only is my writing a lot more concise and coherent, but my
ideas are also a lot stronger and the idea of a ‘journey’ being shown through
my planning is more evident. I have tried to give more detail in ever planning
task this year as looking back on my AS research and planning, I felt as if I
could have linked it to my own idea a bit better and explained my ideas more
coherently. This helped me more for A2 as I realised that with a magazine you
are just replicating conventions that you have learnt whereas with a music
video, it is your own unique idea. Therefore, when conducting feedback on my planning,
I realised that my idea has to be extremely detailed and clear so that my
potential audience were able to picture it in their heads as well as I can in
order to give me constructive feedback.
My planning and research in terms of my target audience was
carried out in a similar way as I felt this went successfully last year. I
decided to break down my target audience using social groups, personal
preferences and psychographic and demographic information. I believe that this
gave me a clear understanding of who my target audience is and helped me stay
focused on my audience last year and therefore decided to use the same method
this year, however I wrote about my
audience in a more academic way, rather than creating a ‘target member’ and
describing them as I did with my AS work.
I believe that research and planning is an extremely vital
aspect of Media Studies coursework for both AS and A2 and I am glad that I had
the time to learn how to improve my research and planning, not only by changing
the types of media that I present them on, but also by improving the quality of
the information that I gather as well as the quality of the planning that I
create. Strong planning and research is extremely important for any media
product, but more so for a video which is time consuming to film and edit, and
therefore needs to be planned extremely well to ensure that the final product
is of the highest quality possible.
CREATIVITY
I believe that my own sense of creativity has developed well
from AS to A2. Firstly, in AS Media Studies, we created a music magazine, which
therefore meant that we had to gather research and learn about the conventions
of a hip hop, rock or pop music magazine and replicate those conventions to
create our own. However for A2, having to create a music video, along with 2
ancillary products has really challenged my sense of creativity and helped to
develop and strengthen it.
For the A2 course, I not only had to research the conventions of music videos through my research and planning, but also had to think of my own idea for a music video by picking out re-occurring themes in music videos of the same genre, as well as coming up with my own visual interpretation of the lyrics.
As the song ‘A Thousand Years’ was originally written for the Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part 1 film, I decided to stay away from the ‘supernatural’ element by avoiding things like Vampires who live forever. Rather than playing on ‘a thousand years’ as eternal love, I decided that my interpretation was that a love so strong could last through anything, even time apart that felt as long as a thousand years. This idea of a long time frame and two lovers being parted sparked the idea of a woman finding old clues that remind her of her lover. Coming up with this idea alone challenged my creativity as I had to ask myself questions throughout this creative process such as why are the particular clues that she finds so important to her, and how this will be conveyed to the audience.
I felt as if my creativity was not as challenged in AS, as
the most creative thing I believe I accomplished was taking the photographs in
such an amazing location. It was by chance that I came across the location, but
through my creative skills that I allowed this location to spark an entire idea
that helped to create the theme of my magazine. However, even when taking photographs
and trying to think of poses for my model, I was being slightly creative but
was mostly following conventional poses that were typical of the urban genre.
Differently, this year I had to use interesting camera shots and angles that
were unique to my video and used to convey a particular message. For example,
the shot of Monique’s feet from the side is a wonderful example of my
creativity as the slow-motion, combined with the almost bare feet adds to the authentic
feel of the entire product package, and this shot was not replicated from anywhere
else.
DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
AS
For my AS coursework, the majority of my research and planning was done using PowerPoint and Prezi. A few of the posts may have used videos, however these would have been created on Windows Movie Maker, whereas for A2 I used Premiere instead, as well as recording myself for Production Diaries.
To create my product I used Adobe InDesign. It was the first time that I had used such a professional software system as my preliminary task was made purely on Photoshop. Using Adobe InDesign taught me many different skills such as how to re-link items, place photographs and create new pages with the same layout, i.e. having the page numbers in the same places.
On of the main things that I learnt in AS was how to edit my photographs properly and how to take them in such a way that they looked more stylish and professional. Using a 550D Canon camera and a 1.8 50mm aperture lens allowed me to take images in a place with a busy background without the attention being taken away from my model. For example, the majority of my photographs were taken in a graffiti park, therefore the aperture lens focused on the model, whilst still showing the urban background in shallow focus.
I used the 'affects tool' on photoshop CS5 to add a 'cool water' effect to all of my photographs which increased the saturation slightly and made them look more artistic.
A2
For the majority of my research and planning software such as Prezi, PowerPoint and videos has been used. Prezi is an online presentation website which allows you to type information into different text boxes in a variety of styles and is presented by zooming into each text box on the page. This is a more effective way of presenting information as you can easily break up the text, rather than writing it all as an essay.
PowerPoint presentations were used for a few of the planning and research tasks too, but the most effective was when it was used to show the several drafts of the ancillary products and how they had progressed. On the presentation, it was possible to line up the images to show the progression of each ancillary product and using a text box, an explanation of the changes that had been made could be written very easily.
This year, videos seemed to be a very effective way of recording production diaries on the go. The front camera on an Apple iPhone 5S was used to record reflections of the work that had been completed at different stages and this method of creating production diaries was especially useful when trying to track the thought process that went into creating these products.
This year, videos seemed to be a very effective way of recording production diaries on the go. The front camera on an Apple iPhone 5S was used to record reflections of the work that had been completed at different stages and this method of creating production diaries was especially useful when trying to track the thought process that went into creating these products.
To create the Digipak and Magazine Advert, Adobe InDesign CS6 was used. Using the page layout tool, an A4 size was chosen and the main image was placed onto the page using the File-Place action. Once the image had been inserted, the text tool was used in order to type out the name of the artist and the title of the album. Before typing this text, different fonts were downloaded using Fontspace and dragged into an application called NexusFont which allows one to open several different fonts at once and use them on different documents. Using InDesign, the correct font was chosen and ‘Monique Todd’ and ‘Lovestrong’ was written out. After placing these at the top of the page, a different font that typed out floral borders was used to create a frame around the image. After readjusting the sizing and position, reviews were typed out and stars were created using the shape tool to show the rating of the album.
To create the A3 version of this poster, the action ‘Create alternative layout’ was used and the correct page size was chosen. Once this was completed, everything that was on the A4 poster was now also on an A3 version, therefore the only thing to do was to re-arrange the text and images to fit a landscape view.
Creating another alternative layout to the size 120mm x 120mm created a page that was the size of an album cover or digipak and just like with the A3 poster, this action had copied everything from the first A4 page too, therefore there was no need to re-type the information or place the same images in again. Some of the information that was unnecessary on a digipak front cover was deleted and others repositioned. Using the ‘add another page’ tool, it was possible to create the remaining three pages of the digipak that were the exact same size. This was more efficient as having to create each page separately then to edit the size of the pages would have been time consuming.
Once the other pages were created, the circular shape tool was used to create an outline of a CD. By clicking inside this outline then using the action ‘File-Place’ it was possible to fill just the CD shape with a photograph of an orchid. The opacity of this was changed using the ‘Image – Adjustments – Opacity’ action to make the orchid look more subtle.
The text tool was used to type out the letter of thanks from the artist and the ‘centre text’ tool allowed for the text to be aligned in the centre of the page. Additionally, by using the floral font, a border on the side of the page was easily created by typing the correct letter, and then rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise using the rotate button.
To create the A3 version of this poster, the action ‘Create alternative layout’ was used and the correct page size was chosen. Once this was completed, everything that was on the A4 poster was now also on an A3 version, therefore the only thing to do was to re-arrange the text and images to fit a landscape view.
Creating another alternative layout to the size 120mm x 120mm created a page that was the size of an album cover or digipak and just like with the A3 poster, this action had copied everything from the first A4 page too, therefore there was no need to re-type the information or place the same images in again. Some of the information that was unnecessary on a digipak front cover was deleted and others repositioned. Using the ‘add another page’ tool, it was possible to create the remaining three pages of the digipak that were the exact same size. This was more efficient as having to create each page separately then to edit the size of the pages would have been time consuming.
Once the other pages were created, the circular shape tool was used to create an outline of a CD. By clicking inside this outline then using the action ‘File-Place’ it was possible to fill just the CD shape with a photograph of an orchid. The opacity of this was changed using the ‘Image – Adjustments – Opacity’ action to make the orchid look more subtle.
The text tool was used to type out the letter of thanks from the artist and the ‘centre text’ tool allowed for the text to be aligned in the centre of the page. Additionally, by using the floral font, a border on the side of the page was easily created by typing the correct letter, and then rotated 90 degrees anti-clockwise using the rotate button.
Next, in Photoshop, images of Monique were edited by adding an affect that lowered the saturation of the images. These images were then placed into small squares on the second page of the digipak and one in a rectangle across the back page. The corners of these squares were rounded to soften the look of the images. Using the text tool, the track list was then typed up and aligned correctly using the ‘centre text’ tool. This list was then dragged and placed under the photograph. As the background looked slightly too plain, it was decided that the same orchid image that was used on the CD should be used on this page as a low-opacity background therefore it was placed, sent behind the text and image and the opacity was dropped to around 30%.
All of the images used were taken using a 550D Canon camera and a 1.8 50mm aperture lens. This camera made it much easier to view and check the images as soon as they were taken to ensure that the images to be used were of the highest quality.
All of the images used were taken using a 550D Canon camera and a 1.8 50mm aperture lens. This camera made it much easier to view and check the images as soon as they were taken to ensure that the images to be used were of the highest quality.
To create the music video itself, this same camera and lens was used, along with a tripod and crane. The aperture lens focuses on anything in the foreground, placing the background in shallow focus which automatically adds a more cinematic feel to the aesthetics of the video. During the studio shoot, two freestanding studio lights were used to create that spotlight effects and to ensure full focus was on Monique.
Using the 550D Canon, the ISO and shutter speed was changed as and when needed and the camera was put into manual mode, which meant that it was easy to ensure that the footage was well focused, even when the camera had moved position. When the filming took place in Hyde Park, the natural lighting could not be controlled; therefore it was helpful that the ISO could be easily altered to ensure that the footage looked as high quality as possible. The shutter speed could also be adjusted to ensure that small imperfections were not easily recognisable when watching the footage back, making the footage look more professional. When recording the studio footage, Monique was able to read the lyrics off of a screen while a lyric version of the song played on YouTube, which made the shooting process easier and made the miming look more fluid and natural.
Using the 550D Canon, the ISO and shutter speed was changed as and when needed and the camera was put into manual mode, which meant that it was easy to ensure that the footage was well focused, even when the camera had moved position. When the filming took place in Hyde Park, the natural lighting could not be controlled; therefore it was helpful that the ISO could be easily altered to ensure that the footage looked as high quality as possible. The shutter speed could also be adjusted to ensure that small imperfections were not easily recognisable when watching the footage back, making the footage look more professional. When recording the studio footage, Monique was able to read the lyrics off of a screen while a lyric version of the song played on YouTube, which made the shooting process easier and made the miming look more fluid and natural.
Once all of my footage had been shot, I uploaded it to my computer from the SD card and dragged all of the shots into Adobe Premiere CS6. Using Premiere, each clip could be viewed and the ones that were of a high enough quality to use were dragged onto the timeline. The most helpful tool on Adobe Premiere CS6 was the single frame advance as it made it easier to match up the miming of the lyrics to the song itself. The ability to place footage and sound on different layers made it a lot easier to not only match the miming, but to know when to break up the studio footage by placing in a clip from Hyde Park as the length of each shot was easily visible. Therefore, if there was a clip from the studio that seemed particularly long, it was easy to place an external clip above it, on another layer.
Using the effects tool on Premiere, decent shots that looked too similar could be adapted by zooming in slightly and adding a horizontal flip which made the shots look like they were from various different angles and ensured that the video was not too monotonous for the audience to watch. For some shots from Hyde Park, or the ones in which Monique was twirling in the studio, the shot was slowed down by decreasing the percentage using the ‘speed/duration’ tool. This was done to add emphasis on certain parts of the video, for example when she takes a step on the line “one step closer…”
Lastly, once the video was complete, in the sense that all footage and sound was correctly placed on the timeline, the colour correction tool was used to ensure that all of the Hyde Park footage looked vibrant and that the studio footage looked professional and lit up by the spotlights.
The music video was rendered and exported then uploaded to a video website on the internet called Vimeo where it can easily be embedded, watched and shared.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Digital technology
Creativity
Research and planning
Post-production
Using conventions for real text
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