Playlist

This playlist features quite big sounds. I chose the songs as sort of build up songs that would get someone hyped up for something. I listen to these types of songs to get me going before a football match for example, some are played in various football montages on the TV and some I have even discovered when they are played at football grounds.



Block Rockin' Beats - The Chemical Brothers
Blue Monday '88 - New Order
Aerodynamic - Daft Punk
We'll Live And Die In These Towns - The Enemy
Genesis - Justice
Underdog - Kasabian
It's Not Over Yet - Klaxons
Helicopter - Bloc Party
Always Like This - Bombay Bicycle Club
Mardy Bum - Arctic Monkeys
Fot I Hose - Casiokids
No You Didn't, No You Don't - The Courteeners
Not In Love - Crystal Castles ft. Robert Smith
Bang A Gong - T-Rex
Come Closer - Miles Kane
Me And You - Nero
Come With Me (Instrumental) - Puff Daddy & Jimmy Page
Supreme - Robbie Williams
Black Wax - Dananananakroyd

Digital Technology

Adobe Photoshop
- the programme allowed image manipulation. I used the lasso tool to cut around images, the colour changes to posterize my image for digipack.
- I used the lasso tool to select around the image to change a certain part of the photo to tweak it to make it fit my own needs.
- The gradient tool is something I used in my magazine to give a more interesting background than plain white .
- the colour presets were helpful in my digipack as it allowed me to give a good effect on my photo's to make them look professional and in a bit more of an interesting aspect then maybe normal black & white.

iMovie
- I used this to edit my music video. It is very easy to use but give a very professional look as opposed to something like Windows Movie Maker which is very poor for editing video.
- I used the clip editor to change the length of shots and cut transitions for the video. With the song being quite fast and upbeat we had to make the cut and shot speed fit this.
- I used the frame crop tool to make our frames smaller and zoom in to the picture more to leave less blank space on-screen.
-

Kramer's theory examples

11. Embraces contradicitons



For this characteristic I have chosen Atlantis To Interzone by The Klaxons, this song begins with an electronic sort of beat, similar to a futuristic keyboard rhythm. This beat continues through the song and it becomes more like rock music as the heavy baseline and drum beat kick in.

14. encompasses pluralism and eclecticism


This is a mash up of

Blue Harvest Postmodernism Prezi

Blue Harvest - Postmodern Elements on Prezi

6 post production choices.

Choices I made that link to media concepts:

Representation
- In our music video we decided that we wanted our lead singer to have an almost 'iconic' look and feel. Therefore we had to make sure he was highlighted in a certain way and we needed plenty of shots of him. Although the band was in the britpop/indie, the music video was not totally within this genre. Two music videos we were inspired by with low lightin were The drums - Let's go Surfing! & The Horrors - Sheena is a Parasite. Two contrasting bands, The Drums being more indie/pop and The Horrors in goth-rock. So the video was challenging a convention that th genre of the band must have a completley matching video. Although the video is dark-lit, the mood is quite cheery - from the feel to the song.


Audience
- When I produce work, I look to make something that I enjoy myself. This doesn't always fit with the feel of the audience. As all products ae designed to fit an audience I must make the products fit a wider audience than just me. Through audience feedback I was able to improve my work to fit the audience.

Evaluation AS vs A2

AS
- Blogger
At AS I only really posted evaluation questions as essay-type answers posted into blogger with a few pictures.

A2
- iMovie
As a group we used this to present an answer to question 1, we had our video playing and clips of videos that we were inspired by and was speaking over the top.
- Prezi
This was used as a more creative way to present work. I used it to evaluate my digipack, so it was helpful to be able to move around it and comment on specific sections
- Photoshop
I used this in question 4 where we had to describe and evaluate how we used technology. I made it look like a catalogue so there was a big image of all our hardware and software that we used and then each had a description of how it was used to go with it.
- Blogger
I used this to post some questions in draft form, just to get a feel for the written part of them.

An obvious conclusion I can draw from this, in terms of how I have improved, is that at A2 I have used a wider range of methods when posting the evaluation questions. I got a lower grade in my AS coursework than I expected, but I think my evaluation is where I let myself down. Just doing blog posts was a boring method. in A2 I used a wider range of technologies in y evaluation work and I feel this was a lot more effective.

Post Production Task A2

Post Production at A2:
-iMovie
I used iMovie to edit my video footage into the music video
- cutting the clips to fit the storyboard and make them right with the song
- cropping shots to frame them right
- getting the cut speed right to make it fast paced
- fading the start from black
- sped some shots up slightly to fit music

-Photshop
I used photoshop to produce my digipack at A2
- changing the colour of my image for black and white effect - posterize
- adding a coloured pattern background
- layout of text on page
- adding different images of the band

Post Production Task AS

Post Production at AS:
-Photoshop
I used photoshop to produce my magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread.
In post production I used this to:
- change my image to black and white
- lasso tool to cut out my image
- playing with fonts and colour schemes
- shaping text boxes and trying different layouts
- cropping images on contents page

Planning and research essay

Planning and research. 

When planning for my work, I used a range of research methods. I’d say that I used secondary research more as I was influenced by existing texts in most pieces. For the magazine, music video and digipack I had to familiarise myself with the conventions of each of these. For magazine examples, I looked through my own existing collection of music magazines and then at examples on the internet. I used a similar approach to the digipack, I scrolled through my iTunes and looked at album covers to draw inspiration. I had a fairly big collection of album covers but again I searched the internet for existing examples. When researching music videos I used mainly secondary research, in that most research was done through watching videos on youtube. The main primary research I used was through audience feedback, I found this very helpful. If I liked my work then I would be happy, but I was producing it for a wider audience so other’s opinions helped me in seeing what I needed to improve. I also trusted the opinion of my teachers who themselves had good knowledge of existing texts in magazines, music videos and digipacks. Most of my research was very useful, it was also good in that it didn’t cost me anything or I had no trouble accessing it. 

In terms of organising my research, blogger was the main factor. This allowed me to keep a journal of all my work and was easy to find examples that I had posted through the labels I had put on them. An element of blogger that I used more effectively at A2 was the use of labeling, which I had too as I posted many different examples of music videos in particular. I used websites such as Scribd to let me post directly from Word or Pages, so that if I had analysed some research on those programs I could post it without having to try and convert it into the blogger posting page. There were some problems that I encountered throughout my coursework with blogger, for example sometimes youtube videos could not be embedded, which wasn’t too much of a hinderance but an annoyance to not have all examples I needed in one place. 

Once I had finished researching the existing texts, I had built up a knowledge and began planning. This is a process I used in all pieces of work. I had to produce drafts for each piece of work, for my magazine I focused on the layout and images as I could put the article itself in on the final draft. I played around with photoshop to come up with 2/3 of each section; cover, contents page and double page spread. From audience feedback I saw what was the most effective layout or image and this factored into my final piece. I did a very similar thing with my digipack. For the music video, however this was a different process. Filming and editing a video takes longer than making a magazine or CD cover on photoshop. For the draft, in our group, we decided to try and make our video as close to a final draft as we could, so we put a lot of effort into our draft. Our audience feedback was very positive, this made us feel like we had made a very good decision to go full-out for the draft instead of messing about and risking relying on a final draft that we wouldn’t have had as much to time to improve. Rather than have to go through the hassle of re-filming, we only had to re-edit parts of the music video as we had planned. 

The music video was the first time that there was multiple personnel needed. This meant we had to be a lot more organised than in AS work, where we had to organise with one person for a photo shoot. We had to go through relative hassle in making sure everyone was available at the same time, we had to change 2 people in the band as they were simply too busy to film for us. Luckily we had some good replacements. 

Our music video featured 2 different types of shots, ones where the band had instruments and ones without. This meant we had to come up with a way of scheduling the shots, we did this so that we didn’t shoot in the order of the storyboard but in an order so we could be time effective. We filmed at night, we didn’t have to worry about losing light but we did have to potential problem of the weather changing, as there was heavy rainfall in the days leading up to filming. This would have been disastrous as it would have ruined continuity for the whole video and been dangerous for the electronic equipment. 

Overall, I think I used one critical part of producing the work, research and planning to good effect. Even though we had to stick to a schedule made by our teacher which included research and planning, if I was to try and produce a piece of work like the magazine, digipack or video I made I would probably use similar research and planning methods. I think the planning, for the music video in particular, was perfect and allowed us to comfortably produce a music video in the time allowed and to a good standard. The use of drafting is a skill that is very useful, particularly combined with audience feedback as you can improve your work on someone else’s opinion, rather than just your own. 

Work that is create based (entirely or in part) on older material.

Fatboy Slim uses samples of other songs in may of his tracks; Rockafeller Skank is a good example of this:



Voice sample:




Other Samples:










Norman cook had the rights to each song and all the royalties went to the artists he sampled from and none to himself.

Anything can be considered cool in an ironic 'I know it's bad, but it's so bad it's good' way

Postmodernism and music

Postmodernism and Music V2

Inglorious Basterds Post Modern Essay Response

IB Postmodern Essay

Playlist CD cover

Creativity Essay

Creativity 

For my music magazine, video and digipack I feel I used my creativity to good effect. One clear limitation in all of the projects were they were in the music genre. I am interested in music and read music magazines fairly regularly so I did have an existing knowledge of magazines, music videos and CD digipacks. 

The theory ‘Media producers can learn nothing from studying the conventions of old texts’ is one that I disagree with. From other texts and further research a became aware of the conventions and features of each type of work. For example when researching music videos, Radiohead music videos were ones that broke the conventions, I realised this would have been difficult to emulate in my own work. 

For my magazine I looked at some of the popular indie music magazine, as that was the music genre I aimed my magazine to fit. NME, Q, Clash were a few examples of ones I looked at to get a feel for the conventions. I then looked at other magazines from different genres/topics. I looked at mens magazine Esquire and even the football magazine Fourfourtwo to get a wider aspect of magazine layout, conventions, images etc. These examples gave me a better knowledge to put different elements in my work. 

I used a fairly unconventional full-length body shot of my model for the front cover, this was difficult to fit cover-lines and other text around. I used a fairly simplistic colour scheme also. I used Adobe Photoshop in my magazine production, this allowed me to do anything really, the range of tools and it’s easy interface allowed me to show my creativity in full and I was not limited in this way. There is a theory: ‘‘technology has taken all the creativity out of media production’’. In the example I have given with my experience of photoshop I disagree with that theory as I believe it enhances creativity in media production. 

My music video was where I felt I was most creative. It was recommended to film in light conditions as lightning up a band would be hard. A decision was made to use car headlights for lighting, this would be a cheap and easily accessible alternative to professional studio lighting for example. Another difficulty with filming in dark conditions is that a poor quality camera would make the end product look grainy, therefore not professional. The camera that was available was a Canon 500D fortunately, which has superb video recording abilities. 

The fictional band that we created in our group was first intended to be ‘indie’. Leading up to the filming of the video we decided to change this. Rather than try and make our band members look unnatural and try to emulate an ‘indie’ vibe we decided to let them be like themselves a bit more. This led to them being more like a ‘britpop’ genre band, in particular our lead singer. Where other people may have tried to make their band members imitate a certain genre or artist, our creativity allowed us to come up with the idea of challenging this and allowing the band to be completely natural. This led to a more authentic end product. 

For my digipack and poster I decided to emulate and was inspired by Razorlight - Razorlight’s album cover. This cover features the 4 band members standing in a very simple black & white colour scheme. I used the feature of the 4 band members on the cover, I feel this gave an iconic look to the band. I was arguably most creative in this production as I feel I was most spontaneous, as a sort of impulse decision I decided to use a pattern on the inside covers. I had used a blue and red theme throughout so I decide to use these colours for the pattern. I repeated a block-shape on photoshop and was very pleased with the end product. 

For all my pieces of work in Media, I feel as though I have been creative in many different senses. I am definitely inspired by existing work, as I learn the elements and features of each type of product. I am also inspired in the way that, if I see something I like or feel will work well in my work, I will try and emulate or use that element or feature in my work. Rather than copy it completely and not be creative at all, I had to adapt these features to fit my work. 

Creativity

What is creativity?
Thesaurus:
Originality, imagination, inspiration, ingenuity, inventiveness, resourcefulness, creativeness, vision and innovation.

Originality:
It's hard to be completely original in a magazine, music video or digipack. I developed and used conventions and tried to challenge them as much as I could and keep all the products looking professional.

• My magazine cover featured elements that were fairly rare in modern examples but not too dissimilar. e.g Full length shot, black & white, few cover lines etc. 
• Music video was filmed at night, few examples out there of night time outside video. Original camera angles, e.g behind drummer. 
• Digipack, I used similar covers (e.g Razorlight) but used colour text and colourful inside cover.

Imagination:

• Had to use imagination to create artists and band for magazine and music video. 
• Had to get a basis for music video plot/outline. 

Inspiration 

• Builds up knowledge, looked at many magazine covers for AS. Music videos and digipacks A2. 

Ingenuity 

• Coming up with clever ideas that will help to bring elements of the work together. Finding a way for a certain element of the idea to work well for the intended purpose. 

Inventiveness 

• Thinking of new ways to create work. Inventiveness implies an invention, this means being completely original. Which will be very hard. 

Resourcefulness

• Using existing examples to good effect. Creation will be brought up from a knowledge of previous works. Texts will not be copied but inspiration will be brought up from them. 

Creativeness

• How 'creative' someone is. Using all the potential creativity to good effect. Whatever the subjective definition of creativity is, creativeness means how well someone is using it. 

How creative do you think you have been?

For all products created in my coursework I feel I have been very creative. I have used elements in other texts to create products that I feel looked professional and ones that I have enjoyed myself. 

What has prevented you from being more creative?

The limits to what we could create limited me in what products I could make. I had to build up a knowledge of music magazines for example, whereas I myself am usually a reader of mens or sports magazines. In creating a video, we were limited to just a music video. When there are many other types of video that we could have made that could have been more suited to our own personal abilities. 

Creativity Theorists

''A process needed for problem solving...not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people'' Jones 1993

This theory suggests that there is no unique creativity. A common ability is what is described as. To an extent I agree, everyone has the ability to be creative, but in their own unique way. Someone will create something that fulfils a purpose, wether it be to enjoy themselves or for a specific audience.

''The making of the new and the rearranging of the old'' Bentley 1997

This could be two different types of creativity; the making of the new refers to being original with your own ideas. Which is very hard. Rearranging of the old is using well-practiced techniques or conventions in work. Proof that techniques work will be the previous use in professional texts.

''There is no absolute judgement (on creativity) All judgements are comparisons of one thing or another.'' David Larning 

The theory argues that creativity is subjective, nothing is wrong or right. A judgement of someone's creation will be based on other pieces. Someone who will judge something will have an idea what is 'good' or 'bad' but this can change through time and trends, it could also completely compose another person's opinion.

''Technology has taken all the creativity out of media production'' 


This could be arguing that access to existing texts is too easy. Therefore people's minds will be flooded with these existing ideas and may not be able to be original and create their own ideas.


''A project that is too well planned lacks opportunities for spontaneity and creativity'' 


This argues that being spontaneous allows a better chance of being creative. I think that it's hard to create something that is planned down to the last detail and 100% stuck to. I believe that trial and error is something that should be used, if something doesn't work then try something else that will. Maybe go a completely different way with something using you r own knowledge, being creative.

''If creativity is not inherent in human mental powers and is, in fact, social and situational, then technological developments may well be linked to advances in the creativity of individual users'' Banaji, Burn and Buckingham 2006


In simple terms, I believe this means that if creativity is something that is created by a persons experiences of media texts then the advance in technological developments will increase the creativity of individuals.

Links to coursework blogs

http://harrysimmonslcasmediacoursework.blogspot.com/ - AS Magazine
http://millssimmonsa2media.blogspot.com/ ft. Pat Mills. A2 Music Video, Digipack and Magazine Advert

AS and A2 coursework summary.

AS - Magazine Cover, Contents page, double page spread.
        Indie music magazine, aimed at audience interested in this genre 18 - 35.
A2 - Music Video, Digipack, Magazine advert.
        Band created to fit these products. Based around the indie/britpop genre.

Section A: Skills Evaluation of Production - Question 1 (a)

Describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of your production work.

Describe - say what they are, outline them

Evaluate - Good + bad points, how you have done it. Self-critical

Skills - your own abilities - in technologies e.g camerawork, creativity, editing

Development - how you've got better and progressed

Over the course - all of A level Media - past 2 years

Production work - magazines, videos, digipack, preliminary tasks etc.



Digital Technology
- Technologies used in media work, all software and hardware used. e.g. Photoshop, Camera, Computer
Creativity
- Personal flair built up through researh and existing knowledge that allows someone to produce good, original pieces of work e.g. thinking up an idea for a music video
Research and Planinng
- Searching through the internet, existing texts etc. to build up a knowledge for creating your own text
Post-prodution
- After all products have been created. Evaluate and asses your work and improve time.
Using conventions from real media texts
- Drawing inspiration from existing videos, digipacks, magazines etc. to get an idea of what works well and look proffesional.