1a) Research & Planning

Describe how you developed research and planning skills for a media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

For my AS Foundation Portfolio, I produced a film opening in the thriller genre, and for my A2 advanced portfolio, I created a music video to 'Mouthwash' by Kate Nash in the genre Indie Pop/Rock. Over this period two year period, research into the appropriate genres and using this information in my story board to create a realistic interpretation was essential.

At AS, I had limited knowledge of anything to do with filming a movie introduction, so learning and developing skills through my preliminary task enabled me to enhance shot types such as panning as my actor often lead the frame, especially when she approached the camera there would not be enough head room. Learning these new skills allowed me to include these more creative shots into my Foundation Portfolio, producing a more professional looking outcome.

For my A2 music video, having produced a second preliminary task to a music video by Snoop Dogg, I now understood the difference in amount of shots between a film opening and music video and complexity of editing. I could now use more complex shots through my enhanced technological skills  in my music video such as tracking shots, first person point of view shots and extreme close ups.

In order to further understand what shot types I would use in my film opening, I analysed other film openings. To learn these conventions, I did several semiotic frame by frame analysis of movies such as 'Taken' and 'Contagion'. Through this, I new wide shots were used so the audience could see the main characters surrounding, creating a sense of awareness and security, only to be broken abruptly through a drastic change in pace of editing and a quick introduction of tense music. To recreate this same mood in my foundation portfolio, I searched websites such as Jango for free, un-copywrited piano music.

With my new and confident skills in media, I was able to take more creative risks with my music video. The song I chose 'Mouthwash' by Kate Nash is of the genre Indie Pop/Rock, a genre which has no real conventions other than those described by Andrew Goodwin in his Music Video Theory. Because of this, I was allowed to branch away from the initial music video in my story boarding, and recreate my own concept and create new ideas from scratch. However, for inspiration, I looked at some award winning music videos from the past 5 years to see what they all had in common that made them so popular. I also looking more specifically at similar artists within the genre such as Lily Allen, in order to see how artists interpreted their own lyrics and created, like at AS, but more detailed 9 frame analysis of the songs 'Foundations' by Lilly Allen and 'Don't Stop' by 5 Seconds of Summer.

In conclusion, my prior experience at AS helped me to have a knowledge into how and what to look for when researching a genre of film or music however, my A2 Advanced Portfolio was made even easier by my in-depth research into music videos specific to my genre, allowing me to produce the create product I had planned for. Many of my ideas had stemmed from Kate Nash's 'Foundations' such as her literal take on lyrics as well as her use of stop motion of house hold objects.

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.

List of Theorists/theories

David Gauntlett
-"Identity is complicated, everyone thinks they've got one"

David Buckingham
-"Identity is an ambiguous and slippery term"

Anthony Giddens
-"What to do? How to act? Who to be?"
-theory of structuration, whereby individuals are shown to have the power to make changes and influence society as well as large powerful organisations such as governments and the mass media.

Michael Foucault
-techniques of the self
-identity is not a fixed thing within a person. Identity is conveyed through our interactions with other individuals, following a set of rules.

Judith Butler
-Gender doesn't exist.

Barthes
-Enigma Code - a part of the story that the audience strives for to be achieved/solved
-Semiotics - connotations of signs and symbols eg. Pink often used to represent female, blue male

Male Gaze
-Laura Mulvey
-camera is often positioned to reward the point of view of the male viewer, who is able to voyeuristically gain visual pleasure from viewing female characters in this way.


Marxism
-POWER

Uses & Gratifications - Blumler & Katz
-audiences use media texts = RIDS
R=create personal relationships with characters
I=having the media confirm our reality trough it being relatable reaffirming our identity
D=diversion, a form of escapism so we can forget about the present
S= surveillance, people feel better knowing they know what is going on in the world

Hypodermic Syringe
-mass media has a powerful effect on audiences
Hegemony

-things assumed by a large group, that conforms to conventions. ie. all women belong in the kitchen

David Gauntlet

"Identity is complicated - everybody thinks they've got one."

Judith Butler FINISH

Queer Theory - identity is not fixed and does not determine who we are.

You have a fixed sex (male or female) … upon witch culture builds a stable gender (masculinity or femininity)… which determines your desire sexually.

Judith Butler argues three unrelated points which effect none of the others;

You have a body, You may perform an identity, You may have desires.

This theory allows for transvestites, pansexuals, gay and bisexuals and the gender behaviours seem more 'natural' and therefore, equal in still his homophobic society.

Semiotics

The theory of signs and symbols.

Eg. In Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock portrays women as objects, something to be used and easily obtained by men.