Post Modern elements

Post Modern Elements
·         Borrowing images from other media
·         Represent a variety of realities; represent fragmented realities
·         No definitive definition of reality
·         Emphasises the signifier (sign) rather than the signified (sign)
·         Blurs the boundaries of genre: Bricolage
·         Confuses space & time; what seems real & recognisable can become unrecognisable
·         Resist the viewer forming a definite interpretation
·         Confusing ending
·         Style over content; no deeper meaning
·         More human than human
·         Altered states
·         Flattening of affect: no emotional response
·         Metafiction: rejection of modern explanations; religion, history ect
·         Parody: copying in jest
·         Pastiche: copying in tribute
·         Self-referentiality : text openly reflects upon own processes
·         Simulacra: copies that are replacing ‘real’ artefacts
·         Eclectic : effected by a wide range of influences
·         Lyotard; takes our beliefs and contradicts them
·         Baudrillard; Simulation: unreal becomes more important than what is real
·         Baudrillard: We have no sense of the difference between real things & images of them
·         Baudrillard: We live in a media dominated world and meanings are mediated for us. Lives gain meaning through consumption and we ‘become’ products
·         Baudrillard; Hyperreality: physical manifestation of a world that is not real yet we believe in it
·         Rejects the idea that any media text is of greater value than another. All judgements are merely taste.
·         Distinction between media and reality has collapsed’ we now live in a ‘reality’ defined by images and representations
·         The distinction between reality and the media representation of it becomes blurred
·         Reaction to modernism

Theories and theorists 1b

Uses and Gratifications Diversion: an escape from our routine and problems, emotional release Personal relationship: companionship, part of a social group Personal identity: reinforcing own values through comparison with other’s values e.g. celebrities Surveillance: constant supply of information about the world	Audience
Preferred Readings Dominant: fully accept preferred reading; social and cultural values Negotiated: agreeing with some but not all of preferred reading Oppositional: understand preferred reading but use alternate values to construct interpretations Aberrant: does not understand the preferred reading
Hypodermic Syringe Messages injected into passive audience Audience have no control over what they consume
Two Step Flow Linear Information from the media moves in two stages Opinion leaders gain information from mass media Opinion leaders are in social contact with individuals and hand out information
Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs Human behaviour reflects range of needs ranked in order When one need has been fulfilled the next emerges Unsatisfied needs motivate our behaviour Can be influenced by a whole range of motivations
Stuart hall Modern culture is saturated with images Representation is the way in which something is given meaning Gap of representation: space between what is the real meaning and what meaning has been taken and used from the media Media represents something that has already been there Represent culture or ‘us’ the consumer (society/sections of society) Re-present through media	Representation
Hart (1991) Representation is in the reading not the text
Areas to be considered Mise-en-scene Narrative Sound Conventions Theories; open and closed, verisimilitude, male gaze
Rick Altman (1999) Genres are defined by producers and easily identified to the consumer All texts belong to a genre Genre develops in predictable ways Texts in a particular genre share characteristics Genres are ideological Genre not specifically located in history (rooted) Genre critics distance themselves from the practise of genre ‘is genre a noun or adjective?’	GENRE
Mark Reid How something is categorised is determined by who does it, whom, where and when ‘if tomato puree was put on a different shelf in the supermarket would it change the ‘thing itself’
Areas to be considered Genre is currently circulating between: producer, audience and media

Research on Representation

'The male gaze':

•  Occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. 
• For example, a scene may concentrate for extended periods on the curves of a woman's body,
• In mainstream cimena, the male gaze is typically dominant over the female gaze.

'The notion of looking':

Goodwins suggested that in every music video there is some reference to looking, this technique includes;

• screens within screens
• Telescopes
• Eyes
• Mirrors
• Looking glass
• Voyeurism

The notion of looking can help differentiate different characters in a music video and help the audience connect with what's being presented:

• If an artist or character was to not look directly in the the camera throughout the video it would give the effect of the audience being passive to the action as they are not being addressed directly
• If an artist or character was to look directly into the camera it would act as a way of bringing the audience into the video as it seems that the viewer is being recognised directly
• Through an eye-line match the notion of looking is also created as the audience is yet again brought into the video via seeing exactly what the artist/character can see.

John Fiske 'open and closed texts'

'Closed texts' show a strong tendency to encourage a particular interpretation in contrast to more 'open' texts. Mass media texts tend to be 'closed texts' because they are broadcast to an array of audiences that will decode information too differently if presentation was 'open'.

Conventions essay

“Sometimes, working within constraints produce the most interesting work” (Branston and Stafford)
How have you used real media conventions to produce interesting or effective coursework productions?

Conventions have always been present as producers have created work.  They lead the way to as how people can create similar pieces of work in the attempt to pastiche and attract a specific audience. However it could be argued, now especially in the contemporary world that there is a need to break free of restraints and boundaries in an act of coming up with something original yet still attracting the same targeted audience.

With my foundation portfolio thriller opening I stuck to a number of conventions as I thought that by doing this, it would make my targeted audience aware of the messages I intended on sending. I used the conventional use of the flashback via creating a scene with distinctively more grainy and dark colour that partially gave an insight into the history of my characters struggle. By using the flashback I copied the same techniques as successful films such as ‘Flight Plan’, and by doing this, it acted as a link of the thriller genre. My advanced portfolio music video differed as I decided to contradict some conventions that were present within a lot of music videos. I deliberately done this as I felt that contradicting rules would make my project more original in oppose to using techniques other producers have already used successfully. One convention I contradicted was the use of creating a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals; I noticed that the music I had selected was slightly distorted and if I was to create this relationship it would disrupt the viewing as it would make less sense. This shows how I used conventions to fit my ideas instead of working my ideas around conventions.

My foundation portfolio incorporated a lot of conventions that I used to form my ideas and narrative in oppose to my advanced portfolio where my ideas were formed initially. My thriller opening conformed to conventions such as a unreal situation disguised within a plausible setting, I created this via my opening location in which my character was doing her make-up in a clean, bright bathroom mirror, the plot unfolded in the later stages of the production as more complexity was presented. I think because of way I was able to use conventions to create my ideas in my AS production it amplifies the argument that working within constraints can produce the most interesting work, (Branston and Stafford.) I think that without the guidelines I researched about for my foundation portfolio I wouldn’t have been able to present my opening with features that would provoke a sense of tension, dismay and confusion which I wanted to give to my audience.

However my advanced portfolio incorporated less guidelines and I believe that it created even more impact with my audience. As referred to before with the contemporary world in which we live, audiences are now more then ever looking to find new trends, currently there is a desire to search for small, unsigned bands and follow them for as long as possible until they become famous! I think this idea of having something new fits in with my music video production as I have crossed over guidelines and created a hybrid that meets the demands of the new audience. The narrative – concept cross over was created by using elements of a constant running theme through the music video which was the handing out of love hearts by my character. I decided to add more depth into the character by adding some narrative elements and made my audience ask questions such as why the character feels the need to give out love hearts and what is she looking for. This was adapted through the use of a voice over and multiple locations yet still making reference to the initial concept. Anthony Storr stated that creativity was ‘bringing something new into existence’ and I believe that by using genre cross over via breaking from pre set guidelines, this was achievable.

"conventions"

"Once could... argue that no set of necessary and sufficient conditions can mark off genres from other sorts of groupings in ways that all experts or ordinary film-goers would find acceptable" (Bordwell 1989, 147.)
Not possible for someone to write conventions that everyone agrees with

1. Do you think it is hard to agree on a set of 'rules' to follow when making a product?
2. How far have you followed any set of 'rules'?
3. To what extent did you break 'rules'?
4. Did you make any rules of your own?

1. I think having a set of rules will help establish framework and a basis to as how a production can be made can be seen as hard in the sense that to would contradict brining something new into existence
2. For my AS thriller I incorporated as many rules as I could to help my own ideas form. In my A2 work I came up with my own ideas and picked up rules that would fit well with what I wanted to create. I was also able to take rules and include them in a subtle way so I was able to fit in as many conventions as possible such as the notion of looking via the use of a close up shot of my character using a phone, without contradicting and impairing my preliminary ideas.
3. I believed that a lot of rules had links with each others so I incorporated a lot of linking conventions with each other such as the use of dark lighting as well as the masking of identity within my thriller opening production.

"Sometimes, working within constraints produces the most interesting work" (Branston and Strafford)

1. Do you think you produced better work because you stuck to the conventions of the genre?
2. Would you have produced more creative work if you had not known what the guidelines were?

1. To a certain extent I believe that sticking to the conventions hindered the quality of my work. With my AS thriller production I stuck to a lot of the conventions that helped me such as the use of the flashback and the abnormal situation placed within a plausible mise-en-scene. I think by adding conventions that have been used by real media products it takes away the credibility of a persons own work as it could be compared to a product that's used the technique better.
2. I think having the guidelines were good for me to have an idea as to how to alert my audience to the type of production I was making. An audience would understand features a thriller film entails such as a twist in narrative and a character that provokes a sense of enigma, so I attempted to include as many conventions as possible so that I could make my audience as aware as possible. With my A2 production I took a number of conventions to make my audience aware of the type of media I wanted to produce, but added my own techniques to emphasise my own creativity and attempt to bring something new into existence.

"Conventions give the producers a framework to work with a set of guidelines" (McQuail)

1. Was it helpful to work within a set of guidelines?
2. Did you feel more secure knowing what the guidelines were?
3. were you happier breaking the conventions once you knew what they were?

1. For my AS production the guidelines helped as I knew exactly what a majority audience would expect a thriller opening to feature therefore my production was created so that my work could be easily identified within that genre. I used conventions such as a twist within the narrative, the use of the flashback and the sustained build up of tension within my thriller opening in the attempt of making my production fit the label of 'thriller'.
2. By understanding what the conventions of the thriller genre were I was able to reference them through my creation stage. I enjoyed knowing that if I included these conventions within my production, the overall piece would be easily identified as a thriller opening in oppose to a different genre that would carry different conventions.
3. Subverting conventions I had found about about during my A2 production were done in the act of wanting to create a more 'original' production. I think understanding the conventions around the music video such as the type of base video's available, helped me to go about creating something new as I could pick certain rules I intended to amplify such as the creation of relationship between audio and visuals, which would help the audience understand what type of media they're consuming but however by contradicting some conventions such as a constant feature to the notion of looking. By doing this I was able to bring something new into existence as the techniques I used were straight from me.

"The conventions of eachh genre shift, new genres and sub-genres emerge and others are 'discontinued'" (Chandler)

1. Have you stuck to genre conventions in your production work?
2. Have you created a hybrid piece?
3. Have you used intertextual references?

1. During my AS production I stuck very closely to the conventions of the thriller genre as I feared the audience would not understand what they were being presented if the rules weren't met. I made ideas that worked well within the conventions such as creating a character who brought up a sense of enigma, I emphasised this rule via using a lot of dark images and obscuring his facial features. With my A2 production I picked conventions that would work well with my pre existing ideas and subverted rules that I thought would ruin them. I used characteristics such as matching audio to visuals via precision editing and using a variety of close up shots to notify my audience of the image motif. However I contradicted the rule of featuring constant notion of looking or creating a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
2. Creating a hybrid piece involved the cross over of music video characteristics which I completed. For my A2 production I initially had a concept of distributing sweets and 'sharing the love' which then crossed over into a narrative that involved my character provoking questions such as why is she lonely, and why is she searching for love.
3. For my A2 production I was able to fit in a small frame of intertextuality via my character using her phone as a GPS therefore presenting intertexuality with technology. I wanted to have a lot of my own ideas within my music video production however I thought that if I was able to add conventions in subtly it would increase the amount of ways my audience could identify the genre production. 

Plan a detailed response to the exam style question following.

"Sometimes working within constraints produces the most interesting work" (Branston and Strafford) How have you used real media conventions to produce interesting or effective coursework productions?"

• what does the quote mean and do you agree or disagree?

-the quote describes how conventions followed gives the cornerstones for producing media
-by addressing the conventions of a media piece you can easily target an audience and know how to move     them
-with media productions put together, comparing them along the same conventions helps to see which ones address the genre more successfully
-by working via conventions previously set specific for a type of media it means that by sticking to it will be a sure way of creating an impact


-I agree to a certain extent as there is the opportunity to create interesting pieces of work via amplifying conventions as it's the conventions itself that give an essence of how something should present itself


-I disagree more as people are constantly demanding change with what they see and now with so many sub-genres of film and TV there is a need to break free from conventions to create new interesting work
- true inspiration doesn't come from a pre existing convention. Someone's creativity maybe hindered by the acting of conforming to conventions
-want to start fresh and address a new audience
-breaking outside of the box and offering a fresh media product can only be done by contradicting conventions

conventions from my Foundation Portfolio

• The use of flashbacks
• The use of obscuring a characters facial features
• The use of music to create a feeling of tension
• Adding a twist in narrative plot

conventions from my Advanced Portfolio

• Creating a relationship between the audio and the visuals
• Using the notion of looking 
• Using an image motif
• Intertextuality within the music video

Post-production essay

"How important has the post-production stage been in your foundation and advanced portfolios and how have your skills developed over these two years?"

The post-production stage for me has been very instrumental in the production of my foundation portfolio thriller opening and advanced portfolio music video. I believe that the opportunities to edit my raw footage really enhanced the ideas I wanted to create.

For both my projects I used the software apple imovie to put the pieces together. During my thriller opening production, imovie allowed me to add transition effects such as the fade to white. This was a effect I used predominantlyfor my thriller opening in the hope that it would represent my character about  to reflect on her previous experiences; the use of a flashback is a convention of thriller films that I decided to amplify to match my project to real products. From the use of the flashback I could allow the audience to gain some incite into the character's history and suggest further themes in my proposed thriller movie. The transitions I used for my advanced portfolio were predominantly for style over content. I realised that the use of transitions within my music video should be minimalistic and not intended to provoke an emotional response therefore I incorporated a lot of straight cuts and quick fades that would initiate fast cut montages. Instead of creating connotations simply through my transitions I was able to create connotations via the linking of the frames via the transitions and by doing this I could address the relationship between the visuals and the audio. By understanding more about transitions and the effects they have on the audience it helped me develop my skills in terms of awareness of where to include them within my music video production.

Eisenstein was a theorist who believed that editing was the foundation of film art. One of his editing styles he created was the 'intellectual montage' a technique that incorporated editing style that stimulated thought. This editing style is only effective when juxtaposed with other frames to create metaphoric meaning. I believe that this is a style that I contradicted with my thriller opening as many of the frames that were edited together were done so for continuity and a simple jump to the next location. My advanced portfolio music video however did incorporate Eisenstein's intellectual montage technique. Some of my shots involved my character handing out love hearts to the public followed by close-up shots of the recipient smiling and accepting the offer. As these shots were juxtaposed it creates the metaphoric sense of happiness and love generated from my characters actions. I believe the use of theory within my post-production was more evident within my advanced portfolio as I could link the processes and outcome to the theories I had previously researched.

My knowledge and use of colourisation was evident within both my foundation and advanced portfolio. With my thriller opening I used the preset image effect 'bleach bypass' which worked really well. The use of this effect created an emphasis on the dark brown and black colours which aided me in obcuring the identity of my character. When juxtaposed against other scenes within my thriller opening, the bleach bypass effect really stood out and created a sense of enigma which I intended to provoke. I took more control with my music video via the use of changing the raw image properties in oppose to using a preset effect. By doing this I could boost the saturation and contrast to really make the colours I wanted stand out. I believe editing the selected clips was relatively easy and it allowed me to make decisions specific to the clip in order to offset any excess lighting, by doing this I was able to create a music video with frames that all had the same colours. By boosting the colours within my advanced portfolio I was able to address the quirky feel to the music as the overall project looked more fun; because I further enhanced the relationship between the audio and visual it allowed my audience to consume the media with more ease.

Both my foundation and advanced portfolio featured the effect of speed alteration to increase appeal. My thriller opening incorporated two scenes where the real-time speed was slowed down. Imovie allowed me to select my desired frame and specifically reduce the speed to suit my preferences. By doing this I hoped that it would add emphasis to the action; the frames I slowed down included a character running away from the camera and another character dropping onto the floor. I believe that by slowing down the action it created the feeling that the efforts of the character running where becoming less impacting and his task seemed harder; whereas for the second character hitting the floor I attempted to create a sense of giving up by adding the slow motion to elongate the falling action.

Digital technology and Creativity essay

“Digital technology turns media consumers into producers”. In your experience, how has your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete your coursework productions?”

The digital technology at hand helped me to develop my creativity through both coursework tasks. The foundation portfolio was where I was initially introduced to the ‘Imovie’ software and blog to present my work. By getting to know the abilities of the software it helped me to develop my thriller movie opening as I was aware of what I could produce therefore the digital technology helped enhance my creativity. For example I was enabled to use transitions such as the fade that provoked a sense of continuity that built up to the conventional twist in narrative. As I was more aware of the capabilities of Imovie approaching my advanced portfolio it allowed me to produce the music video with less time taken figuring out what I could and couldn’t do. I also came into the second project with a lot of my own ideas that I knew could be achievable on the Apple Mac such as the boosting of colour. The visual colourisation effects tab allowed me to boost the saturation and contrast of each of my selected frames; by doing this my images stood at more and increased the emphasis on my red and white house colours which are a convention of music promotion.

I believe that my creativity for the Advanced portfolio was initially sparked by my own inspiration so would amplify the theory by Anthony Storr, “The ability to bring something new into existence.” My creativity allowed me to come up of the idea of a narrative/concept of a character going on a journey and handing out love heart sweets in an act of gaining appreciation and sharing love. I didn’t knowingly gather this idea from past real products and therefore shows how true creativity comes from the mind and is merely enhanced by digital technology. I enhanced this idea through digital technology via synchronising the audio and visual. Creating this relationship between audio and visual, the pace of the frames shown could be matched to the music therefore not creating a mismatch in the themes, allowing the audience to digest the music video easier.

The relationship between the audio and visual is a principle of Goodwin’s that I strongly decided to amplify. In my foundation portfolio I also decided to amplify some conventions to show my understanding and reflection of a real production. I completed techniques such as creating scenes portraying flashbacks by using a ‘graining’ image affect on the Apple Mac; I also used edgy, ‘dark’ music that provoked a sense of enigma and hostility. Reflecting on my foundation portfolio I think that by amplifying so many conventions of thriller film openings, it restricted my creativity as I gave myself less original ideas to push the boundaries of my work. This factor was very different in my advanced portfolio as I had the initial ideas for the music video that were enhanced by a smaller amount of amplified conventions instead of my ideas being based on the existing principles.

David Fincher’s ‘Seven’ was a film that incorporated the convention of obscuring the characters facial features. In my foundation portfolio I was able to copy elements of this real media product by using the Canon DV to create images that cut out the characters face. I used a Sony HD hard drive camera to record my advanced portfolio project. I used this opportunity to my advantage as I could enhance the picture quality to tie in with my ‘quirky’ music feel and use the ‘steady shot’ feature that allowed my recording process to occur with the footage being less jumpy. Because of this my tracking shot footage was smoother therefore the newer technology allowed me to create a better music video. Knowing that this feature had helped me create a successful music video, I could go onto to create more projects with the digital technology as I would know the footage would be smooth therefore not disrupting viewing due to shaking of the camera shot, promoting continuity.

  

Planning questions

(A)   Planning: The organisation of time and equipment

The foundation portfolio task was completed at a steady pace as homework and class work provided me with stimuli to post blog pages in moderation.

 Planning included a list of blog content that needed to be included with set deadlines of when each post needed to published. Because of this I was constantly aware of how much I had progressed during the portfolio stage and could compare my efforts against the other students so the planning was very effective.

Problems I encountered were figuring out how much content was needed and deciding which information provided was reliable. The combination of content and reliable sources would help me with my portfolio so were issues I needed to address. A recommended list of websites that included the ever improving Wikipedia and IMBD helped me to construct my work via their information and I was enabled to pick out key elements that I could elaborate.

Just like the foundation portfolio task, a list was provided with a time scale explaining the content needed within the portfolio. This allowed me to cross reference my progress with the list and make sure all my posts were delivered on schedule.

My progression occurred as I was more frequently publishing posts on my portfolio and going further than the suggested titles in the sense that I was adding pages explaining features unique, yet relevant to my production. This was different to my foundation portfolio task as I only posted pages that I was asked to.

(B)   Planning: The efficient choice and organization of actors, settings and props.

 The actor I chose was within the post production team so it made things easier in terms of getting together and filming the thriller opening. By finding locations around the local area I was able to generate an idea of how to shoot my production taking into account the setting.

My video included a lot of isolated frames of my character so external factors didn’t affect the process of my filming.

There were some problems with my actors willingness to act certain scenes due to being shy. This was combated by assuring that the thriller opening would turn out better if some sense of plausibility was sustained by good acting. Different levels of exposure for filming at different times of the day potentially ruined the continuity of the production. Post production helped this as I was able to change the colourisation levels.

There was more planning in my advanced portfolio through the use of drafting and re-evaluating plans before going out to film. I had multiple options for my shooting locations and by doing this it gave me the potential to find the best area possible for my video. I used the general public  within my music video so I was careful to incorporate the correct camera angles for each frame of involvement.  I also took into account my actors wardrobe in more correspondence with the overall image of the product. This meant that I made sure the actor was wearing clothes with colours that represented the brand.

I progressed a lot through my planning of locations. I set out a more varied list of locations for my music video and ran a trial and error assessment to make sure that the area would be the best for filming whereas in my foundation film, the locations picked were less analysed. My influence on my character developed more as I took more control of how the actor looked and was presented on the video; by doing this I could have created more of my intended effect.

(C)   Planning: Scripting and/or storyboarding

The foundation task storyboarding process involved creating proposed frames of action, camera angles,  transitions and effects that would make up the whole music video. These would be based on the narrative of the thriller opening so were very much one of the cornerstone pieces of planning. I didn’t include my non diegetic soundtrack with my storyboard final draft so I found it difficult to sync the visual and audio together in post production.

Although I didn’t include my soundtrack to accompany the storyboard, the planning was still effective as it allowed me to shoot my thriller opening frames consecutively.

There was a problem with the way some of the frames were shot due to the failure to secure a suitable location. This could have been improved through better planning of shot locations.

I completed 2 drafts of my storyboard for my advanced portfolio task. I also took into account the non diegetic sound that would be playing throughout my video. The basics of the process were completed in the same way, this allowed me to easily go through the filming process without making mistakes and missing frames.

Progression occurred as I realised that by completing 2 storyboards I could go through a self evaluation of my 1^st draft and change features that may not work and add in elements that could be produced better, even through research and new ideas I could have learnt after the 1^st draft. Because i selected and incorporated my audio within the storyboard I was able to write up some features that I wanted to synchronise between the visuals and music.

(D)   Research: Initial target audience research

I researched my target audience by matching my content ideas to the descriptions of thriller genres I looked up on websites; this seemed the most efficient way of coming across my target group.

This was effective as I was able to match an audience to my production in progress without having to change my foundations of work. By having a target audience I could evaluate my work in relation to the emotions provoked.

I did have a problem with this part of my production process as deciding what my target audience would be without feedback during the creation lead me to make the video without much guidance to as what elements were more appealing towards my targeted group.

I researched my target audience by looking at the themes of videos and matching them to the proposed target audience. Features of music videos such as denotation and connotation could be analyzed and categorized to see what kind of images appear in what kind of music videos. After I had constructed some of my ideas, I took part in an organized feedback session where I proposed my ideas and possible locations so far in my production to an audience I wanted to attract. From this I was given responses on how to further create an appealing video and continued support for my current ideas. To see if i had truly captured my target audience’s interest, my target audience questionnaire was given out to my target audience at a showcasing event and also via social networking site facebook. Using Facebook allowed me to simultaneously  release my final music video as well as contact a mass of my target audience with the questions quickly and efficiently.

This shows progression as I was able to reach my target audience more efficiently meaning time wasn’t lost collecting up questionnaires; taking full advantage of new technology. The use of the feedback session early in my production allowed me to update my work without going back and changing a lot of my project.