Thursday, 28 February 2013
Digital Technology Question
MARKS
Explanation/Analysis/Argument - 10/10
Examples - 10/10
Terminology - 5/5
Total - 25/25
Tuesday, 26 February 2013
Real Media Conventions Question
MARKS
Explanation/Analysis/Argument - 7/10
Examples - 5/10
Terminology - 3/5
Total - 15/25
Digital Technology Tasks
Software in AS Coursework:
PHOTOSHOP AS: - Tools I used: Cropping Tools (Marquee/Wand Tool, Lassos), Colour Converting Tools (Red Eye Corrector, Colour Variations, Colour Dropper, Dodge and Burn), Typography, Shape Tools, Brightness, Contrast, Saturations, Shadow Effect, Bevel, Grid View, and Layers.
- What these tools allowed me to do: Using this program allowed me to suitably manipulate images in order to create my music magazine. It allowed me to insert text using different and interesting typography, insert images and manipulate colours, contrast, brightness and layout of all elements. Whilst producing and editing my magazine I made use of the tools within Adobe Photoshop. For example, the various cropping tools, such as Marquee (Magic Wand) and Lassos, allowed me to accurately crop my images and move elements around within the overall layout. Using these tools effectively also helped me to produce a much more realistic and professional finish on the images. Other tools within Photoshop were also useful, like colour converting tools, such as Red Eye Corrector, Colour Variations, Colour Dropper, Dodge and Burn, these tools helped me to adjust colours to match the overall colour pallet, as well as improving the overall quality of the images by removing red eye. Font tools helped me to manipulate the text within my magazine to appeal to my audience as part of mode of address, the changes I made included typography, colour, and layout of the font. Making considerations regarding these elements allowed me to effectively adjust them to my audience and conventions. Matching up the typography throughout all elements of my magazine also helped me to create a house style; other areas of Photoshop allowed me to also create a house style through the use of colours, photo framing and shape tools. The photographs themselves could be easily manipulated using brightness and contrast features, saturation tools and shadow effects. These tools could also be used on other elements, such as the masthead, as I could manipulate shadows and bevel within the text. Matching these elements also helped to create a house style; matching layout was also useful, as the use of the conventional rule of thirds helped me to both clearly layout all content and elements of the magazine and match the elements together. Using layers within photoshop allowed me to keep my work organised and separated into sections and managable areas. It also allowed me to edit individual elements without interfering with others. When creating my double page spread I also used the 'Grid View' fuction as this allowed me to allign the content of the pages and seperate my A3 page accurately into two. This improved the overall layout of the page and helped me to line all the elements up.
- Website I used: www.blogger.com
- How I used this website: Whilst doing both the AS and A2 coursework I kept a blog to help me record all my research and planning materials. The website that I used (www.blogger.com) is an example of 'Web 2.0 technology' (O'Reilly, 2004), this means that the technology is intereactive, making it a two-way and collaborative. This website was therefore really useful as it encouraged audience feedback through the comment feature on the blog, which allows other bloggers to post comments on individual elements and easily give feedback. This provided extra feedback and was therefore useful within my coursework. Having feedback on research and planning elements also helped me to make decisions early on.
- What I uploaded: Whilst in the planning stage I also uploaded elements to my blog such as short videos and presentations. These included YouTube videos, Animoto videos and my animatic storyboard, draft videos and final video for my A2 coursework.
- How I created these: The YouTube videos were embedded into my blog and were not created by me. However, the Animoto video was created on www.animoto.com and used for my pitches at both AS and A2, these were then embedded onto my blog. Creating this video involved placing images, music and text into a basic, pre-made format, this meant that the skill level involved was minimal. To create my animatic storyboard I used iMovie, this program allowed me to insert the images from my hand drawn storyboard and place them in timed frames alongside the audio file, this was more advanced than the Animoto video, however it was still quit basic. Creating the drafts and final music video took much more skill. For this, I used Adobe Premiere Element 11, this program allowed me to insert the clips from filming, cut them down to time and place them in the correct order on a timeline. I also was able to mute the clips and lip-sync them to the audio track; both these elements where similar to those within iMovie. However, Premiere Elements also allowed me to make more specific and advanced changes. For example, I was able to edit the look of the shot, e.g. lighting, saturation, brightness, tint and tone, and contrast. I could also apply fade transitions between shots and at the begining and end of the video. At A2 my blogging skills improved considerably, as I blogged more frequently and recieved more feedback.
- AS: Within the AS coursework I used a compact digital camera to take photographs for my preliminary task, these were of a moderate quality that I felt could be improved. Therefore, within my media product, I used a digital SLR camera to take my final photographs. I used USB connectors to transfer the photographs onto the desktop. When creating my preliminary task, I had to crop and frame these images within Photoshop. This inital task helped me to adjust to the program and learn the basics before starting my coursework; it also helped me to see areas that I didn't understand, couldn't use or needed help with. It also helped me to understand the importance of framing the photographs themselves, as certain considerations can help to improve the quality of cropping, for example, taking photographs against a plain/white background will help.
- A2: At A2 I did not take photographs within my ancillary products, so I did not use a camera. However, I did use a video camera to create my music video. The camera that I used was a digital HD camera. To take the shots off of the camera we used a SD card reader and copied them onto a External Hard Drive as the HD video required a large amount of memory space. To edit the video I used Adobe Premiere Elements 11, this program allowed me to place cut clips on a timeline and layer audio and video together.To ensure my work was precise I spent a considerable amount of time on lip-syncing to make sure it was accurately matched; this also helped to match the audio to the video. Another way of matching both elements was to make sure shot changes came on the beats within the music. I also used other adjustments within the program, such as saturation, black and white, contrast, and brightness.
Monday, 25 February 2013
Real Media Conventions Essay Plan
How has your understanding of real media conventions developed over the past two years?
Essay Plan:
Essay Plan:
Real Media Conventions Tasks
Each of your media production tasks had a specific set of conventions – whether it was the music magazine, the music video or the ancillary tasks. In each case you researched real media to establish conventions and guidelines to aid you in the production of your own work.
For this topic you need to consider how your understanding of these real media has developed over the last two years.
TASK ONE
TASK TWO
TASK THREE
Friday, 22 February 2013
Postmodern Theories (For Real Media Conventions)
Postmodern
style: Irony,
Parody, Pastiche, Bricolage, Intertextuality
- Bricolage is the process of deliberately ‘borrowing’ or adapting signs or features from different styles or genres to create a new mixture of meanings (O’Sullivan et. al, 1998).
- Pastiche: Bog standard copying of conventions or can be done for bricolage effect. Whichever, this ultimately reinforces their importance in culture and society. Parody is a kind on pastiche which makes fun of the subject.
- Intertextuality is the way
in which media texts gain their meanings by referring to other media texts that
the producers assume that the reader/decoder will be familiar with and
recognise (O’Sullivan et. al 1998).
Thursday, 21 February 2013
Research and Planning Question
MARKS
Explanation/Analysis/Argument - 8/10
Examples - 8/10
Terminology - 3/5
Total - 19/25
Wednesday, 20 February 2013
Postmodern Theories
PRESENTATION ON THEORIES:
Key Theorists: FISKE and LEVI-STRAUSS
FISKE CODE THEORY: 9/11 ' LIKE SOMETHING OUT A MOVIE'
Fiske postulated that we make sense of the world not through our own experiences but through the media's portrayal of them. We use 'codes' to create meaning, this footage of 9/11 is a good example of that idea.
Sunday, 17 February 2013
Saturday, 16 February 2013
Inglourious Basterds Research
Biography.
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and occasional actor. In the early 1990s he began his career as an independent filmmaker whose films used nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence. His films include Reservoir Dogs (1992), Pulp Fiction (1994), Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill (2003–2004), Death Proof (2007) and Inglourious Basterds (2009). His films have earned him an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA and a Palme d'Or and he has been nominated for Emmy and Grammy awards.
Filmography.
1987 My Best Friend's Birthday
1992 Reservoir Dogs
1994 Pulp Fiction
1995 Four Rooms
1997 Jackie Brown
2003 Kill Bill: Vol. 1
2004 Kill Bill: Vol. 2
2005 Sin City
2007 Death Proof
2009 Inglourious Basterds
2012 Django Unchained
Reviews of Inglourious Basterds.
'Tarantino swaps fact for pulp fiction; Quentin Tarantino has made a glorious, silly, blood-spattered return' - BBC
'QT is rediscovering his form: Basterds is a tense, punchy and darkly funny film.' - FHM
'The endless twists and turns coupled with Tarantino's trademark black comedy help take the edge off the violence a little' - Sun Online
If the accomplishment of this 'first scene were upheld throughout then we might have a masterpiece on our hands. Alas, it is uneven as well as unpredictable.'-Anthony Quinn, Independent
Music used in the film.
1."The Green Leaves of Summer" - Nick Perito (Originally in The Alamo)
2."The Verdict (La Condanna)" - Ennio Morricone (mislabled "Dopo la condanna")
3."White Lightning (Main Title)" - Charles Bernstein (Originally in White Lightning)
4."Slaughter" - Billy Preston (Originally in Slaughter)
5."The Surrender (La resa)" - Ennio Morricone
6."One Silver Dollar (Un Dollaro Bucato)" - Gianni Ferrio
7."Davon geht die Welt nicht unter" - Zarah Leander
8."The Man with the Big Sombrero" - Samantha Shelton & Michael Andrew
9."Ich wollt, ich wär ein Huhn" - Lilian Harvey & Willy Fritsch
10."Main Theme from Dark of the Sun" - Jacques Loussier
11."Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" - David Bowie (Originally in Cat People)
12."Tiger Tank" - Lalo Schifrin (Originally in Kelly's Heroes)
13."Un Amico" - Ennio Morricone
14."Rabbia e Tarantella" - Ennio Morricone
Description of Blaxploitation.
Blaxploitation is a film genre that emerged in the United States circa 1971 when many exploitation films were made specifically (and perhaps exclusively) for an audience of urban black people; the word itself is a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation". Blaxploitation films were the first to feature soundtracks of funk and soul music. These films starred primarily black actors. Variety magazine credited Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, released in 1971, with the invention of the blaxploitation genre. below are some examples of blaxploitation films:
Description of Spaghetti Western and Western.
Spaghetti Western
also known as Italo-western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western film that emerged in the mid-1960s, so named because most were produced and directed by Italians, usually in co-production with a Spanish partner and in some cases a German partner. The partners would insist some of their stars be cast in the film. The typical team was made up of an Italian director, Italo-Spanish technical staff, and a cast of Italian and Spanish actors, sometimes a fading Hollywood star and sometimes a rising one like the young Clint Eastwood in three of Sergio Leone's films. The films were typically shot in inexpensive locales resembling the American Southwest, primarily the Andalusia region of Spain, AlmerÃa, Sardinia, and Abruzzo. Because of the desert setting and the readily available low-cost southern Spanish or southern Italian extras, typical themes in spaghetti westerns include the Mexican Revolution, Mexican bandits, and the border region shared by Mexico and the United States. below is an example of a typical spaghetti western film:
Western
The Western is a genre of art that may be found in film, television, radio, literature, painting and other visual arts. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 but most are set between the end of the American Civil War (1865) and the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. There are also a number of films about Western-type characters in contemporary settings, such as Junior Bonner set in the 1970s and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada in the 21st century. below is an example of the western genre of films:
Ennio Morricone.
A classmate of director Sergio Leone with whom he would form one of the great director/composer partnerships (right up there with Eisenstein & Prokofiev, Hitchcock & Herrmann, Fellini & Rota), Ennio Morricone studied at Rome's Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he specialized in trumpet. His first film scores were relatively undistinguished, but he was hired by Leone for A Fistful of Dollars (1964) on the strength of some of his song arrangements. His score for that film, with its sparse arrangements, unorthodox instrumentation (bells, electric guitars, harmonicas, the distinctive twang of the jew's harp) and memorable tunes, revolutionized the way music would be used in Westerns, and it is hard to think of a post-Morricone Western score that doesn't in some way reflect his influence. Although his name will always be synonymous with the spaghetti Western, Morricone has also contributed to a huge range of other film genres: comedies, dramas, thrillers, horror films, romances, art movies, exploitation movies -making him one of the film world's most versatile artists.
A Simple World War 2 Timeline
Tarentino being a very skilled filmmaker uses many postmodern features within his film to connect with the audience, whilst highlighting the fact that they are watching is only a film.
Film within a film- Nation’s Pride, the film the Germans are watching at the cinema, is a film Tarantino made as an Intertextual reference to be quite obviously post modern. However, within this film, there are also elements of intertextuality such as the ‘baby in the battle’ scene from Battleship Potemkin and the man being shot in the eye.
Text On Screen- In important scenes, to highlight parts of the movie and emphasizing the fact that the audience is watching a movie, it mirrors that of the propaganda movie which uses text on screen, where there are the leaders of the country such as Hitler. Tarentino uses of text and arrows on the screen pointing at certain people, which on one hand highlights again the sense that this is just a film not reality, and that the audience can establish a connection with the people in the cinema, as they know more about them.
Costume: Within Inglorious Basterds, the characters' costumes are always in pristine condition, which conveys a sense of unrealism, for example Brad Pitt's character Lt. Aldo Raine, has had a bag over his head, been thrown to the floor, and got in many fights within the film, however, in the end of the film, after enduring all of this ‘floor time’ his white tuxedo looks as if he’s just got t back from the drycleaners! And also, his hair stays perfect throughout the whole movie.
Hitler's Death- in the real world war, it is well known that Hitler had a pact suicide with his girlfriend Eva and therefore both died. Whereas in Inglorious Basterds, we see the American kill squad the basterds succeed in killing him in the cinema, drawing the audiences attention to how this film cannot be seen as reality, as the Americans who directed this in a way wanted to do what the propaganda film ‘Nations Pride’ did to the Nazis, this film had a clear message of ‘we are Americans, we won the war on our own’ showing their superiority.
Filmography.
1987 My Best Friend's Birthday
1992 Reservoir Dogs
1994 Pulp Fiction
1995 Four Rooms
1997 Jackie Brown
2003 Kill Bill: Vol. 1
2004 Kill Bill: Vol. 2
2005 Sin City
2007 Death Proof
2009 Inglourious Basterds
2012 Django Unchained
Reviews of Inglourious Basterds.
'Tarantino swaps fact for pulp fiction; Quentin Tarantino has made a glorious, silly, blood-spattered return' - BBC
'QT is rediscovering his form: Basterds is a tense, punchy and darkly funny film.' - FHM
'The endless twists and turns coupled with Tarantino's trademark black comedy help take the edge off the violence a little' - Sun Online
If the accomplishment of this 'first scene were upheld throughout then we might have a masterpiece on our hands. Alas, it is uneven as well as unpredictable.'-Anthony Quinn, Independent
Music used in the film.
1."The Green Leaves of Summer" - Nick Perito (Originally in The Alamo)
2."The Verdict (La Condanna)" - Ennio Morricone (mislabled "Dopo la condanna")
3."White Lightning (Main Title)" - Charles Bernstein (Originally in White Lightning)
4."Slaughter" - Billy Preston (Originally in Slaughter)
5."The Surrender (La resa)" - Ennio Morricone
6."One Silver Dollar (Un Dollaro Bucato)" - Gianni Ferrio
7."Davon geht die Welt nicht unter" - Zarah Leander
8."The Man with the Big Sombrero" - Samantha Shelton & Michael Andrew
9."Ich wollt, ich wär ein Huhn" - Lilian Harvey & Willy Fritsch
10."Main Theme from Dark of the Sun" - Jacques Loussier
11."Cat People (Putting Out Fire)" - David Bowie (Originally in Cat People)
12."Tiger Tank" - Lalo Schifrin (Originally in Kelly's Heroes)
13."Un Amico" - Ennio Morricone
14."Rabbia e Tarantella" - Ennio Morricone
Description of Blaxploitation.
Blaxploitation is a film genre that emerged in the United States circa 1971 when many exploitation films were made specifically (and perhaps exclusively) for an audience of urban black people; the word itself is a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation". Blaxploitation films were the first to feature soundtracks of funk and soul music. These films starred primarily black actors. Variety magazine credited Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, released in 1971, with the invention of the blaxploitation genre. below are some examples of blaxploitation films:
Description of Spaghetti Western and Western.
Spaghetti Western
also known as Italo-western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western film that emerged in the mid-1960s, so named because most were produced and directed by Italians, usually in co-production with a Spanish partner and in some cases a German partner. The partners would insist some of their stars be cast in the film. The typical team was made up of an Italian director, Italo-Spanish technical staff, and a cast of Italian and Spanish actors, sometimes a fading Hollywood star and sometimes a rising one like the young Clint Eastwood in three of Sergio Leone's films. The films were typically shot in inexpensive locales resembling the American Southwest, primarily the Andalusia region of Spain, AlmerÃa, Sardinia, and Abruzzo. Because of the desert setting and the readily available low-cost southern Spanish or southern Italian extras, typical themes in spaghetti westerns include the Mexican Revolution, Mexican bandits, and the border region shared by Mexico and the United States. below is an example of a typical spaghetti western film:
Western
The Western is a genre of art that may be found in film, television, radio, literature, painting and other visual arts. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of the Alamo in 1836 but most are set between the end of the American Civil War (1865) and the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890. There are also a number of films about Western-type characters in contemporary settings, such as Junior Bonner set in the 1970s and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada in the 21st century. below is an example of the western genre of films:
Ennio Morricone.
A classmate of director Sergio Leone with whom he would form one of the great director/composer partnerships (right up there with Eisenstein & Prokofiev, Hitchcock & Herrmann, Fellini & Rota), Ennio Morricone studied at Rome's Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he specialized in trumpet. His first film scores were relatively undistinguished, but he was hired by Leone for A Fistful of Dollars (1964) on the strength of some of his song arrangements. His score for that film, with its sparse arrangements, unorthodox instrumentation (bells, electric guitars, harmonicas, the distinctive twang of the jew's harp) and memorable tunes, revolutionized the way music would be used in Westerns, and it is hard to think of a post-Morricone Western score that doesn't in some way reflect his influence. Although his name will always be synonymous with the spaghetti Western, Morricone has also contributed to a huge range of other film genres: comedies, dramas, thrillers, horror films, romances, art movies, exploitation movies -making him one of the film world's most versatile artists.
A Simple World War 2 Timeline
Tarentino being a very skilled filmmaker uses many postmodern features within his film to connect with the audience, whilst highlighting the fact that they are watching is only a film.
Film within a film- Nation’s Pride, the film the Germans are watching at the cinema, is a film Tarantino made as an Intertextual reference to be quite obviously post modern. However, within this film, there are also elements of intertextuality such as the ‘baby in the battle’ scene from Battleship Potemkin and the man being shot in the eye.
Text On Screen- In important scenes, to highlight parts of the movie and emphasizing the fact that the audience is watching a movie, it mirrors that of the propaganda movie which uses text on screen, where there are the leaders of the country such as Hitler. Tarentino uses of text and arrows on the screen pointing at certain people, which on one hand highlights again the sense that this is just a film not reality, and that the audience can establish a connection with the people in the cinema, as they know more about them.
Costume: Within Inglorious Basterds, the characters' costumes are always in pristine condition, which conveys a sense of unrealism, for example Brad Pitt's character Lt. Aldo Raine, has had a bag over his head, been thrown to the floor, and got in many fights within the film, however, in the end of the film, after enduring all of this ‘floor time’ his white tuxedo looks as if he’s just got t back from the drycleaners! And also, his hair stays perfect throughout the whole movie.
Hitler's Death- in the real world war, it is well known that Hitler had a pact suicide with his girlfriend Eva and therefore both died. Whereas in Inglorious Basterds, we see the American kill squad the basterds succeed in killing him in the cinema, drawing the audiences attention to how this film cannot be seen as reality, as the Americans who directed this in a way wanted to do what the propaganda film ‘Nations Pride’ did to the Nazis, this film had a clear message of ‘we are Americans, we won the war on our own’ showing their superiority.
Tuesday, 5 February 2013
Reasearch and Planning Tasks
TASK 1
TASK 2
Advantages and Disadvantages of Sources
- Expense/Cost -researching was free as I could use the internet to source information, however accessing first hand examples meant buying music magazines.
- Accessability -accessing online information was fairly easy, however certain types of information, including that about companies and audiences, was harder to source.
- Time - Research and planning was time consuming, especially when information was hard to locate. Having a set deadline on areas of research and planning also meant it was time consuming in order to get it done.
- Reliability - sometimes information found could be unreliable as you do not know the source of the information, e.g. students work/company info, and whether data is correct.
- Accuracy - it can be hard to know if facts and figures are correct, but generally if they are similar to your own findings and audience feedback than this helps to see how accurate it is.
- Bias - information found can be bias or subjective depending on where it's sourced, for example a company may display bias figure to improve their companies credibility.
- Validity - generallly their was a strong link between the research I did and my final product. For example, research on existing products and genres helped me to understand the fundimental elements of the products and where changes and adaptations could be made.
- Usefulness - Some research methods were more useful than others; for example, sourcing real versions of media texts, which is both expensive and time consuming, was somewhat pointless and unnecessary as many of these products could be sourced, for free, online.
TASK 3
Organising Research - www.blogger.com
Whilst doing my research and planning for both the AS and A2 coursework, I used www.blogger.com to blog all my findings and evidence. This helped me to keep track of all my research and made it easy to refer back to later on in the coursework.
Using the 'Labels' feature on blogger allowed me to group and better organise different areas of research and planning, and distinguish between research and planning for different products (e.g. the video, digipak and advertisment at A2).
I also learnt to reference the source of all research as well as label it, this helped to ensure it would be recognised as research and counted towards my marks.
My skills of blogging developed over the two years as I learnt to use more, varying functions on blogger, some of which I was not aware of at AS when I first used the program.
TASK 4
Planning - Pre-production Requirements
- Drafts - For my AS coursework I created draft products involving different ideas that were inspired by my research; these helped me to visualise my ideas and make better decisions about what did or didn't work well. At A2 I similarly created draft products, however I also created several mock-ups of small sections of my products to make decisions on a wider amount of individual elements.
- Audience Feedback - Within both the AS and A2 coursework I was able to use www.blogger.com to recieve audience feedback through the 'comments' function on my blog. However, I also collected audience feedback in other ways, for example, I created a pitch to present to and audience who would then be able to ask questions and give feedback, I recorded this so that I was able to analyse and evaluate the feedback.
- Organisation:
- Working individually/as part of a group:
TASK 5
Organisation of Planning Materials
Monday, 4 February 2013
Creativity Question
Write up a 750 word response outlining the extent to which you were creative in your AS and A2 coursework tasks:
Within both my AS and A2 coursework I had to be creative in order to create an original and believable product within the restrictions and rules applied by the course. In both my AS and A2 projects I was limited by the requirements of the coursework, as I had to create specific products that both fitted into the music industry, therefore, within both I was restricted by elements required within the industry, such as legal information. I also had to select a genre to work with in both cases and was therefore also limited by conventions. In both my AS and A2 coursework projects I researched current and old texts to help understand conventions for the products I was creating. Although conventions place restrictions on the products was creating, it also allowed me to see what would help make my product convincing. It also allowed me to see where I could be original in what I created by challenging and changing conventional ideas. Within my A2 coursework, I also looked at products outside of my chosen genre and found characteristics and conventions from other genres and explored these to alter and change them to fit the pop genre that I was using for my final products.
Within both coursework projects I also created mood boards and mock ups as part of my research and planning. Doing this helped me to visualise ideas and decide what worked best with specific features such as colour pallet and typography, it also helped me to assess how far I could push rules and conventions.
The production stage of both projects required and restricted creativity in different areas. For example, camera work in the coursework allowed me to think creatively about framing, angles and shot types as well as the miss-en-scene within them. For the AS project, the photography required me to consider positioning, colours, costume, make-up and lighting. These were all extremely important elements as the models positioning would have an effect on my layout and possibly restrict the placement of other elements in my magazine. The costume, colours and make-up were also important as I had to consider what would best match my overall colour pallet and whether to match or contrast this, I had to also consider whether or not to conform to the conventional colour choices used within the pop genre. Lighting was also important as good lighting would help create good quality photographs. Similarly, in my A2 coursework, costume, make-up and colour choices all had to be considered from a creative point of view as these would determine how effective the connection between all three products would appear. The additional use of a theme based on the 1950's era meant that I had to combine the 1950's style with conventional colour and on-trend ideas within my work, this required creativity and originality to make the combination work effectively. Lighting was, again, also important, however, as the A2 work involved filming as opposed to photography the lighting could be used more creatively and altered in order to create varied effects, moods and atmospheres throughout the video, for example, contrasting darkly lit and brightly lit scenes and using spotlights to create specific point of light within a frame. Some other areas of filming required creativity and originality where the AS photography did not, as the A2 work required me to consider shot length and camera movements that do not apply to still shots.
Post-production provided several restrictions but also areas in which I could have the freedom to do what I wanted. Rules applied within the briefs of all the products, both AS and A2, restricted me to sizes and certain requirements; for example, I had to incorporate a barcode, the date and price within my magazine cover, and legal/copyright information within my digipak packaging. However, the layouts, colours, images, typography and enhancement to these were all free to be done as creatively and originally as I liked.
Within both my AS and A2 coursework I had to be creative in order to create an original and believable product within the restrictions and rules applied by the course. In both my AS and A2 projects I was limited by the requirements of the coursework, as I had to create specific products that both fitted into the music industry, therefore, within both I was restricted by elements required within the industry, such as legal information. I also had to select a genre to work with in both cases and was therefore also limited by conventions. In both my AS and A2 coursework projects I researched current and old texts to help understand conventions for the products I was creating. Although conventions place restrictions on the products was creating, it also allowed me to see what would help make my product convincing. It also allowed me to see where I could be original in what I created by challenging and changing conventional ideas. Within my A2 coursework, I also looked at products outside of my chosen genre and found characteristics and conventions from other genres and explored these to alter and change them to fit the pop genre that I was using for my final products.
Within both coursework projects I also created mood boards and mock ups as part of my research and planning. Doing this helped me to visualise ideas and decide what worked best with specific features such as colour pallet and typography, it also helped me to assess how far I could push rules and conventions.
The production stage of both projects required and restricted creativity in different areas. For example, camera work in the coursework allowed me to think creatively about framing, angles and shot types as well as the miss-en-scene within them. For the AS project, the photography required me to consider positioning, colours, costume, make-up and lighting. These were all extremely important elements as the models positioning would have an effect on my layout and possibly restrict the placement of other elements in my magazine. The costume, colours and make-up were also important as I had to consider what would best match my overall colour pallet and whether to match or contrast this, I had to also consider whether or not to conform to the conventional colour choices used within the pop genre. Lighting was also important as good lighting would help create good quality photographs. Similarly, in my A2 coursework, costume, make-up and colour choices all had to be considered from a creative point of view as these would determine how effective the connection between all three products would appear. The additional use of a theme based on the 1950's era meant that I had to combine the 1950's style with conventional colour and on-trend ideas within my work, this required creativity and originality to make the combination work effectively. Lighting was, again, also important, however, as the A2 work involved filming as opposed to photography the lighting could be used more creatively and altered in order to create varied effects, moods and atmospheres throughout the video, for example, contrasting darkly lit and brightly lit scenes and using spotlights to create specific point of light within a frame. Some other areas of filming required creativity and originality where the AS photography did not, as the A2 work required me to consider shot length and camera movements that do not apply to still shots.
Post-production provided several restrictions but also areas in which I could have the freedom to do what I wanted. Rules applied within the briefs of all the products, both AS and A2, restricted me to sizes and certain requirements; for example, I had to incorporate a barcode, the date and price within my magazine cover, and legal/copyright information within my digipak packaging. However, the layouts, colours, images, typography and enhancement to these were all free to be done as creatively and originally as I liked.
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