1b) Analyse one of your productions in terms of media language

In terms of music videos, media language is the way in which key messages are conveyed to the audience.My A2 advanced portfolio was a music video in the genre Indie Pop/Rock, to the song 'Mouthwash' by Kate Nash. I am going to talk about four different ways in which media language was used within my music video.

Godwin states that music videos rarely point to the lyrics; that they serve to set a mood and convey a message. My music video amplified the meaning of the lyrics through literal representation and interpreted. I represented lyrics literally over the lines 'I use mouthwash', where a bottle of mouthwash is seen to be emptying, showing its use. Whereas, I also used the mise en scene of the woods. Although there is no mention of woods in the lyrics, we saw a setting of a wooded area to represent freedom, a key element of the song's meaning we wanted the viewer to also identify.

Blumer and Katz's 'Uses and Gratification' was prominent in my music video. My artist easily created a relationship with the audience through breaking the fourth wall in close up shots at which she looks into the camera, making eye contact with the viewer. The audience can identify with my artist because of her young, normal, humorous personality portrayed through a set of blooper shots in the middle of the video, showing that she is just an average girl, who makes mistakes just like the audience. Ideas of diversion and escapism were exampled through ideas of my artist skipping away into the trees, extreme low angle shots of the sky in first person, allowing the audience to imagine themselves as the artist in the music video.

The sky and ground exampled a use of Binary Oppositions. The ground representing her being tied down by society, and also a very literal shot of her being physically tied to a tree with rope while singing 'you cannot confine me' juxtaposes and is a literal message to audiences members that feel as though society's constraints on our target audience, of power and independence. The artist often looks up to the sky, an analogy of freedom and breaking free.

The shots of tea cups filling an emptying with tea are a use of Barthe's semiotics. Although the line is 'and I drink cups of tea' which the tea cups shots are shown over, this filling and emptying also represents time passing, linking to the mood of the chorus of regretting being 'alone on a Friday night' and not letting the constraints on society enable her to enjoy her life.

In conclusion, my music video represented my interpreted meaning of breaking free from the constraints of society through this meaning being represented by multiple use of media language, a key part of music video production in order for an audience to be receptive.

1b) Analyse one of your productions in terms of narrative

Narrative enables the audience to read and make sense of a text, essential for any media piece. My foundation portfolio was a film opening in the genre horror. I am going to talk about four different ways in which narrative applied to my work. 

The theorist Todorov broke down the concept of narrative that could be applied to any text: from equilibrium to disequilibrium to a new equilibrium. Although my film opening was only two minutes long, their was evidence of at least the first two stages of Todorov's idea through my use of music. At the beginning, calming, slow and sweet piano music can be heard as an innocent looking artist is setting up her studio to paint. This state of peace and equilibrium is present until the music and shot changes with black and white cross cutting of someone burying a plastic bag. With this dramatic visual change, there is also a change in the music. A sinister sounding musical piece can be heard over top, with eerie tweezing birds and thunder adding drama.  This change in the mood of the film alarms the audience, leaving the idea of why has this drastic altercation occurred? 

Character typology plays a key part in narrative as Propp established a number of character types, classic to a range of texts. In my film opening, it was obvious a villain had been introduced through the use of blood splattering and the burial of a plastic bag. However, not so sure as to who is this villain.

Our understanding of the word "villain" depends on the difference between that word and the opposing word "hero". Strauss’s Binary oppositions are used often in the horror genre to give the audience a form to work against. I used the typical good vs. evil concept which was well displayed through the innocent act of painting, and contrastingly, the suspicious burying of plastic bags to the alarming use of a bloody knife, making the possibility of an evil character more prominent. Black and white plays a key part in expressing this parallel narrative as it shows them as unconnected, although the audience can work out this puzzle of how the narrative fits together. 

One of the other elements of the horror genre is the enigma that attracts the audience. Roland Barthes’ enigma code applies to my film opening as the audience is trying to solve the mystery of the identity of my villain. This complex plot line is expressed clearly through my use of cross cutting, allowing the audience to view both parallel narratives of the villain's and possible hero. Although, a question still remains as to whether the villain is my artist, or if she is in trouble. This engages the audience and allows them to solve the puzzle which we, as viewers love to solve.

In conclusion, narrative was necessary as it is the way for audiences to be able to watch a film because our lives work in a similar way of events happening in concession. I displayed a typical narrative of my horror genre through the use of good vs. evil which enabled the audience to engage to the piece through fear.

1b) "Analyse one of your coursework productions in terms of audience"

"Analyse one of your coursework productions in terms of audience"

plan:

• state audience target interests, style and how that is reflected in music video
• mise en scene (costume, 
• editing (in rhythm, 
• lighting (natural)
• use of silly humour, she is content in herself therefore she can be silly, audience are your friend so you can act like you like and be playful wit them
• physiographic profiling
• audience research 
• confident identity female individuality (Mollie) its okay to me, i dont have to be like everyone else - who is you, reassuring herself that she is ok in herself, shouldn't change into something else for someone else - link to audience (determined, not to be dictated to by society
• qwirky
• freedom of expression
• tried to make as different, imaginative as I could
• Hidden messages (symbolic references) in the video - number of cups of tea symbolises glass half empty half full, ypu have to keep constant in your life and surrounding change, audience can recognise it and translate as the main message, this applies to me also humorous  
• Why people watch music videos: escapism, idealism, encouraging being yourself
• Am both the audience and the producer so easier to communicate effective ideas on the screen, had to appeal to ourselves as a n audience but also connect to a wider audience
• Hybridisation – indie Pop/Rock necessary to maximize target audiences
• All positive research, met target audience effectively, applied demographic research I learnt earlier
• make sure audience could recognise through synergy of digipack, music video and magazone advert by using...cloud pic - connotes freedom and independance, plane flying away to a distant future of peace and relaxation 
• editing pace
• audience feedback
• Theorists: Goodwin iconography that appear accross their work
• Barthes – theory of semiotics – the use of signs and symbols in texts – denotation and connotation. white=innocent, red=danger
• Andrew Goodwins music video theory [lyrics and visual connection (Strong), close up of artist, intertextual refernces (records)]

For my A2 Advanced Portfolio, I made a music video if the indie pop/rock genre to Kate Nash’s song ‘Mouthwash’. Hartley's Classification states that like a record company, I had to create invisible fictions of the audience to accommodate to my target audience as neither of us spend the majority of my time listening to the genre of Indie Pop/Rock, so target audience research was essential during the pre-production stages. 

The hybridisation of Indie Pop/Rock allowed us to maximise my target audience, it being mostly female although I can expect to see younger males of my age range of 14 - 27 listening to this genre. Typically, this target audience would be un-married, living a very care free life. This reflects the song and genre's core message of 'being yourself', showing the forest setting - a place people tend to visit for relaxation (ie. country walk) and also mirroring the idea of escapism, a key reason for an audience member to be watching a music video. 

Synergy was created through the iconography of the cloud  picture on my digipack, magazine advert and music video connote this idea of freedom and confidence in independence, from the judgemental grip to conform our audience typically feel today from society: and the plane represents an escape to a distant future of true inner peace. Using a confident female actress who is qwirky emphasises this idea of being content in yourself, as the song speaks about being happy about the things oyu do and how you do them. De to this message, my actress was allowed to portray a silly persona, allowing the  artist to connect with the audience through humour, creating a friendly relationship between both parties. Both these points link to Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratification Model as my music video was used by my audience to create a role model whose personality and care free attitude they could aspire too. 

We included symbolic references in my video to help convey a more powerful messages with the audience because they recognise the symbols and can relate to them. For example, the cups of tea resembles the ideology of the glass being half full/empty, and that you have to keep a constant in you life while your surroundings change (the tea spoon stays whereas the levels of tea rise and fall), always staying happy and positive, a main message of the songs lyrics.

There is strong use of Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory in his 1992 book 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory', as he states there is usually a relationship between the visuals and lyrics. This is very sting in my music video as I decided to stay very literal, especially with my stop motion work. My work also consists of many close ups of the artist during lip syncing sequences, as record labels insist and intertextual references such as the records.

In conclusion, the relationship between the audience and my artist is strong in my music video, shown by the feedback I was able to collect easily as the target audience, I was easily accessible to due to age and sex, and social medias such as Facebook and twitter. The feedback showed that my music video was quirky, different and intriguing: what I had intended, therefore I think a possitive audience is a necessity when creating any form of media.

Jan 2012: Describe now your analysis of the conventions of real media texts..

Describe now your analysis of the conventions of real media texts informed your own creative media practice. Refer to a range of examples in your answer and show how these skills developed over time.

For my AS foundation portfolio I made a thriller film opening and for my A2 advanced portfolio, I made a Indie Pop/Rock music video. As Bentley wrote ' creativity is the rearranging of the old, among of the new', a principal I adhered to whilst making my two production pieces.

When I began my AS course I created a blog to record all my research into film openings and the genre of a Thriller. By using YouTube, I was able to analyse other successful film openings in order to gain ideas for my own. I was able to source my information from websites and books and collated all my findings into one, easily accessible place. I was bale to make a collage of images sourced from the internet of films in the genre to exemplify use of the colour in thriller films, typically dark and cool toned: and mise en scene which tended to be dark colours, very normal settings and plain, to inform my planning. I conducted several 11 shot analysis of well-know films in my genre such as 'S7even' (1995) and 'Taken'(2008).  This was useful to understand how shot types were used to create suspense, and also to know how the start of a movie was introduced and gave me ideas on how I could use the conventions to produce a much more professional product such as the use of music: often none or, a very sinister piece of classical music like I used.

At A2 I continued blogging as I needed to research the conventions of a completely new topic area of media : music videos. i made use of Survey Monkey to find out what my target audience thought of the key conventions of music videos and used feedback from this to help me to act on expectations. A particularly strong portion of feedback suggested that our video should be slightly quirky and original. I did this by choosing a variety of different locations (Italy, forests and road) as well as the use of stop motion which features heavily in my music video and to follow a story line: this I kept to by translating the lyrics visually through the music video's plot. These overall results from the survey lead me to emend my original draft plan to make sure my finished product would appeal to fans go the Indie Pop/Rock genre. It was particularly useful to find out about the other artists my audience enjoyed listening. It was interesting to learn about the variety of music with the genre that our target audience listened to, and reenforced the fact that our music video had to be innovative to appeal to a wide range of tastes.

One area where I built on my skills from AS was that I wise media theory to inform my research and planning. In particular, I applied Andrew Godwin's theories on the conventions of music video from his  1992 book 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory'. This enabled me to focus on key conventions such as the way the record labels require close ups of the artist and the inclusion of symbols and iconography such as (….).

Additionally at A2, I needed to research the conventions of two further media products, these being a magazine advertisement and an album digipak. While most of this could be found online, I went out and found magazines which as Indie Pop/Rock band album advertisements to ensure mine was truly reflective of the real thing. This ensured I included all the key conventions such as a bar code, record label logo and song list. Furthermore, I noticed that synergy was usually created within a brand, using stills or photos from the music video or photo shoot and similar colours and fonts.

By the time I moved into the production stages of both portfolios, I had a clear idea of the conventions I needed to apply. Whilst filming I had both my storyboard and shot list with me at all times to ensure I was able to include my analysis of real media texts. This was particulary useful at AS when I was planning what camera angles to film of my actress painting such as different types of close ups which would each add suspense and mystery: a common convention of thriller films is to show extreme close ups of the main character. At A2, my skills further developed in the application of conventions. I was aware that at AS, my narrative was too 'long winded' so when filming the music video at A2 I was able to refer to a more detailed storyboard so I did not have to re-film.

At the post-production stage of my film opening, I was able to refer back to my shot-by-shot analysis of other films to ensure I applied the key conventions appropriately. For example, during the editing stage, I spent some time altering the mood of shots by adjusting the exposure, brightness, contrast and saturation as well as the colour hues of certain shots to give them a cold feel; giving them the appropriate creepy effect I wanted to achieve. With another scene, I made the shots black and white so it contrasted with these cold blue, coloured shots when cross-cut so it was clear I was switching between two linked narratives to create tension. Because of the conventions of a contemporary music video, I over filmed so I had multiple shots of the same action, meaning during this editing process, I would have choice and find it easy to make my music video fast pace and overall create a more professional product.

In conclusion, Bentley's 'rearranging of the old, making of the new' was key to both my film opening and my music video; at A2 my in-depth analysis of a huge number of music videos of the Indie Pop/Rock genre enabled me to create a really successful product which was confirmed by my audience feedback.