- Director - Alx Southerington.
- Producer - Louise Smith.
- Camera Work - All. (Alx Southerington, Louise Smith, Jennie Brighton, Blue Stephenson, Danny Mail)
- Editor - All.
- Cast - Danny. (Main miming character)
Thursday 27 September 2012
Deconstruction and Reconstruction of a Media Text
Twin Atlantic - Make a Beast of Myself
Expectations of Audience
The following are more detailed interviews about the conventions of particular vidoes, and their expectations of my chosen song. The first two videos are what was shown to the interviewees as point of discussion, and the third my chosen song. Both of the music videos offer contrasting styles to promote each artist, so I thought it was useful to gage my target audience's opinions on each, and their expectations of my song's video.
Audience response:
I am largely influenced by the below video. I love the fast-editing techniques used by the producer and the 'care-free' feel that is created with the various settings. I enjoy how the artist is not featured in the video at all as the primary focus is the effect the music has on the characters featured and on the audience. Those featured reflect my teen target audience and also has a similar genre of indie/rock to my chosen song.
Wednesday 19 September 2012
When asking the following people; "Now that you've heard my chosen song, what do you expect the music video to look like?" these are their responses:
I consider these people to be part of my target audience of my music video (aged 16-24) so it seemed useful to gage their responses.
I consider these people to be part of my target audience of my music video (aged 16-24) so it seemed useful to gage their responses.
Below; the example music video Rebecka used in her explanation.
Friday 14 September 2012
Audience key terms definitions
Qualitative data
Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. The qualitative method investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, when.
Quantitative data
Collective data that can be measured by numbers. Often more specific data which can be compared and put into statistical analysis.
Demographic data
Current statistical characteristics of a population. Mainly used in areas such as sociology, public policy and marketing.
Psychographic data
The study of personality, values, attitudes, interests and lifestyles. Can be valuable in the fields of marketing, demographics, opinion research, futuring, and social research in general.
Qualitative researchers aim to gather an in-depth understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. The qualitative method investigates the why and how of decision making, not just what, where, when.
Quantitative data
Collective data that can be measured by numbers. Often more specific data which can be compared and put into statistical analysis.
Demographic data
Current statistical characteristics of a population. Mainly used in areas such as sociology, public policy and marketing.
Psychographic data
The study of personality, values, attitudes, interests and lifestyles. Can be valuable in the fields of marketing, demographics, opinion research, futuring, and social research in general.
Skills development essay
In my Foundation Portfolio I first did a preliminary
exercise which consisted of the creation of a front cover and a contents page
of a college magazine. With this, I had to decide on a college to base the
magazine on - in which the students would be the target audience, and research
into 3 existing college magazines; analysing each one fully. A price and a
frequency of publishing then had to be established from this before I began
planning my initial ideas.
For the main task I decided to create a front magazine cover, an adjoining contents page and a double page spread using a featured artist suitable to that genre. The genre I decided to base my music magazine upon was the Alternative genre, which included bands such as Bloc Party, Bombay Bicycle Club and Vampire Weekend. Similar to the preliminary task, I had to decide on a price, a frequency of publishing and also the main publisher of the magazine depending on their background and suitability. All these decisions were made after fully analysing 3 existing music magazines of a similar genre (eg. Q magazine and Spin) in order to establish conventions and effectively apply them to my magazine. With the OLYMPUS digital cameras, I had to take all of my images myself for both of the tasks and use Photoshop CS5 to place and edit them.
Before I started AS media studies, I had no previous skills or experience with Photoshop CS5 so when it came to the preliminary task, found it very difficult to successfully place and edit my taken photographs. This is clearly evident with the poor lighting in the front cover photograph (preliminary task) and the poor stance of the model. It is also clear in the preliminary task work that I wasn’t fully aware of the convetions of successful college magazines, as the front page doesn’t contain a barcode, the price and date are loosely at the top, there aren’t clear cover lines to sell the magazine and a teasing splash or puff is not evident. As well as this, the contents page does not have numbers clearly listed and the content is not conventionally listed down the left hand side of the page – again increasing the difficulty of reading and understanding.
During the process, I learnt how to use the quick selection tool precisely to cut the model out of the background and an editing process which allowed my model’s skin to look flawless. This process involved the spot removal tool, a blur tool, darkening and lightening techniques, an eraser tool and a merging tool. I used the flawless editing process on the model in the front page for my music magazine as this was a close-up image and needed to look professional. All of these tools to create this effect I had no previous experience with, so are something which I picked up during the editing process.
I also became more aware of how to take my photographs more successfully and was much more organised with time management; ensuring that if my shoot images didn’t go as successfully as I’d hoped, I had enough time to reshoot and perfect the images. This made sure my items appeared more professional and the shadowing that was previously evident in my products now non-existent. I also became much more aware of the specific conventions of a music magazine and was then able to effectively apply them to my products; including a realistic barcode containing the date of publication and price of magazine. I was also able to apply other effective conventions such as the capital font throughout (typical of NME), the ‘quirky’ look of the images (displays an alternative principle to the audience), the splash, skyline (at the bottom) and a sell line.
I also learnt how to effectively create a connection with the artist on the cover and its target audience. Although my preliminary task front cover image had geek-like props (specs) in order to fit in with the ‘Good to be Geek’ theme, I don’t feel this image makes as great a connection as the music magazine front cover image does. This image gives a rebellious impression, reinforcing the idea of an alternative genre; successfully appealing to the alternative audience. This is shown through the expression on my model’s face and the alternative clothes she is wearing.
I also used audience feedback on my first drafts of my music magazine products (as well as video recordings of public feedback on my finished products) in order to improve my products appropriately by discovering which parts were of better quality to others and therefore meeting the needs of the target audience. This established a much larger connection with my products and its audience, altogether making it a much more successful piece of work.
I feel these skills that have developed through Photoshop C5 represent a move forward as without this development of skills through the process; I would have never been able to create successful music magazine products as the results would have been of poor quality. The skills that I was able to pick up during the creation of the products gave me the confidence to be able to achieve successful portfolio products as I was able to feel confident about the conventions and what was expected in the tasks. Simply comparing the outcome of both the preliminary task and the music magazine products singularly shows how these developments of skills have been such a significant move forward, as the quality of both the images, the layout, the style and the typical conventions of each are widely contrasting.
To conclude, I feel I have developed a large number of skills during the process from the preliminary task to the main task, primarily with the use of Photoshop C5 and the OLYMPUS digital cameras as I had no experience with both of these aspects of the task previously. Therefore the significant development in both of these areas has allowed me to create final pieces of work that deemed triumphant for my portfolio.
For the main task I decided to create a front magazine cover, an adjoining contents page and a double page spread using a featured artist suitable to that genre. The genre I decided to base my music magazine upon was the Alternative genre, which included bands such as Bloc Party, Bombay Bicycle Club and Vampire Weekend. Similar to the preliminary task, I had to decide on a price, a frequency of publishing and also the main publisher of the magazine depending on their background and suitability. All these decisions were made after fully analysing 3 existing music magazines of a similar genre (eg. Q magazine and Spin) in order to establish conventions and effectively apply them to my magazine. With the OLYMPUS digital cameras, I had to take all of my images myself for both of the tasks and use Photoshop CS5 to place and edit them.
Before I started AS media studies, I had no previous skills or experience with Photoshop CS5 so when it came to the preliminary task, found it very difficult to successfully place and edit my taken photographs. This is clearly evident with the poor lighting in the front cover photograph (preliminary task) and the poor stance of the model. It is also clear in the preliminary task work that I wasn’t fully aware of the convetions of successful college magazines, as the front page doesn’t contain a barcode, the price and date are loosely at the top, there aren’t clear cover lines to sell the magazine and a teasing splash or puff is not evident. As well as this, the contents page does not have numbers clearly listed and the content is not conventionally listed down the left hand side of the page – again increasing the difficulty of reading and understanding.
During the process, I learnt how to use the quick selection tool precisely to cut the model out of the background and an editing process which allowed my model’s skin to look flawless. This process involved the spot removal tool, a blur tool, darkening and lightening techniques, an eraser tool and a merging tool. I used the flawless editing process on the model in the front page for my music magazine as this was a close-up image and needed to look professional. All of these tools to create this effect I had no previous experience with, so are something which I picked up during the editing process.
I also became more aware of how to take my photographs more successfully and was much more organised with time management; ensuring that if my shoot images didn’t go as successfully as I’d hoped, I had enough time to reshoot and perfect the images. This made sure my items appeared more professional and the shadowing that was previously evident in my products now non-existent. I also became much more aware of the specific conventions of a music magazine and was then able to effectively apply them to my products; including a realistic barcode containing the date of publication and price of magazine. I was also able to apply other effective conventions such as the capital font throughout (typical of NME), the ‘quirky’ look of the images (displays an alternative principle to the audience), the splash, skyline (at the bottom) and a sell line.
I also learnt how to effectively create a connection with the artist on the cover and its target audience. Although my preliminary task front cover image had geek-like props (specs) in order to fit in with the ‘Good to be Geek’ theme, I don’t feel this image makes as great a connection as the music magazine front cover image does. This image gives a rebellious impression, reinforcing the idea of an alternative genre; successfully appealing to the alternative audience. This is shown through the expression on my model’s face and the alternative clothes she is wearing.
I also used audience feedback on my first drafts of my music magazine products (as well as video recordings of public feedback on my finished products) in order to improve my products appropriately by discovering which parts were of better quality to others and therefore meeting the needs of the target audience. This established a much larger connection with my products and its audience, altogether making it a much more successful piece of work.
I feel these skills that have developed through Photoshop C5 represent a move forward as without this development of skills through the process; I would have never been able to create successful music magazine products as the results would have been of poor quality. The skills that I was able to pick up during the creation of the products gave me the confidence to be able to achieve successful portfolio products as I was able to feel confident about the conventions and what was expected in the tasks. Simply comparing the outcome of both the preliminary task and the music magazine products singularly shows how these developments of skills have been such a significant move forward, as the quality of both the images, the layout, the style and the typical conventions of each are widely contrasting.
To conclude, I feel I have developed a large number of skills during the process from the preliminary task to the main task, primarily with the use of Photoshop C5 and the OLYMPUS digital cameras as I had no experience with both of these aspects of the task previously. Therefore the significant development in both of these areas has allowed me to create final pieces of work that deemed triumphant for my portfolio.
Thursday 6 September 2012
Summary of summer work
Over the summer period, I chose the promotional package brief and began researching numerous music videos and genres. After coming up with a general genre, I researched artists of that genre until I found a video with an idea similar to the one I would like to create. I then created a storyboard of that particular music video with detailed descriptions of the action that took place, took pictures of the storyboard and put them onto my blog. Now, I feel that I have established a clear starting point of where to go with my video. However, I also have some other ideas of where to go with my music video involving an altogether different genre, but I have decided to stick with my first idea until further notice.
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