Levi-Straus - Binary Oppositions

Levi-Straus - Binary Oppositions

Symbols and ideas that exist in relation to their opposite

• Normal/Strange
• Good/Bad
• Us/Them

Todorov's Movement of Equilibriums

Todorov's Movement of Equilibriums

• Equilibriums
• Disequilibriums
• New Equilibriums

The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We connect events and interpretations based on those connotations.

Barthes and Propp’s Theory.

Barthes and Propp’s Theory.

Bathes suggested that all narrative is made up of props, sequences and images. The plot will use ‘cardinal functions’ which are main events that structure the story.  Also they will use ‘catalyses’ which are there to change the course of the narrative to make it less predictable for the viewers. This theory is seen in my music as I have used cardinal functions such as the use of bright colours for the artist costumes and natural lighting and locations, which are the main focus in my video to represent my artist in a positive and independent way. Also another cardinal function I have used in my music video to represent a main event is in the picnic seen, where the artist is having a picnic with a wasp, this is to show and reveal to the audience more about the song and the isolation the artist feels. In my music video I have also used catalyzes to make my video less predictable for example in the beginning seen of the artist running down the stairs which has been fast forwarded this was to create mystery and draw the audience.  I also created this panic by adding in an alarm going off in the background. Another way I have created catalyses is in a close up shot of the artist sitting alone in a café, where I slowly reveal in a long shot of exposing the reality of the way she feels such as being entirely on her own.

Propp’s suggested that there are 8 types of characters in a narrative, that are interchangeable characters that have clear functions in order to fuel narrative. In my music video the artist can be identified as the hero as she is on her own quest in order to find her own identity as she is finding a way of fitting in and being part of a group.However, the artist may also be seen as a ‘princess’ as she is in a vulnerable position of being alone for example in the lyrics “In this lonely atmosphere”. This also can be seen in the close up shots of her direct contact with the audience looking emotional and isolated. Another example of the artist being identified as a ‘princess’ would be in the slow motion dancing in circles, which I edited in a ‘dream’ effect to resemble that she is not changing. 

The Male Gaze - Laura Mulvey

This explores the idea that camera 'sees' images through males eyes


I challengage this theory because i have dominantly portrayed women in a power, independent way from using one female character as there are no men in the main subject. I used this through the natural lighting with the artist is portrayed to look strong for example in the picnic scene the artist is talking to the bee, then there is a fade to a man running away from the bee which can suggest weakness. 

Judith Butler: Gender Performance

Gender is an a performance. It is what you do at particular times, rather thanks about who you are.
Example from my music video:

• The faded transitions between scenes signify a female appearance as it appears more natural and softer than if i have used more straight cut transitions. Also the use of different video effects such as 'dream' where i used this when my artist is dancing with the broom this suggest a more feminine performance as it can signify a more child-life girly fantasy of wanting a traditional boyfriend/relationship. The miss en scene also represents a female performance, as i have mostly used natural lighting and locations outside with open spaces to signify isolation. I also used props such as the hand made bee for the iconic scene which can suggest a more feminine 'homemaker' approach. Also throughout my music video the artist is dress in bright pinks, yellows and pastel colours which can relate to a female performance. The lyric 'lonely' supports a feminine performance, as females are known to be more sympathetic and emotional than men her, where they could easily relate to the artist and lyrics of the song. The close up of the lips changing colours also can signify a female performance  as i have used bright and bold colours.

Verisimilitude

This video creates reality:-

• They used a hand held camera, which makes it look like a documentary of their life as a band.
• It is filmed around London where the target audiences are familiar with. 
• They behave like a teenager would, misbehaving not talking life so serious
• The spilt screen could also represent their 'double' life for example hanging out with your friends/messing about and then your job. 

How far does your music video encourage audiences to reconfirm or challenge who they are when they are watching your music video?

In my music video I have strongly portrayed teenagers in a positive way when looking at the difficulties in growing up or not being able to fit it because your appearance is different to other social groups. I have promoted independence in a way that audience can be encouraged to relate to the artist, for example the way the artist is enjoying her self in certain scenes such as when she is dancing with the broom or the close up scenes I shot of her smiling. This makes the audience empathize with the artist, when listening to lyrics such as “lonely” and relate their own experiences to the music video, and from this they are reconfirming their identity to the music video. However, it may challenge the audience who have not experienced this feeling, for example males watching my music video may not relate as it is mainly targeted at females and as I have used child like props, settings they may not understand the promotion of independence I am portraying and therefore may not understand the representation of the music video.

Audience Theory.

Linear Models –

Effects/Hypodermic syringe theory – 1920’s

Audiences accept the messages that are injected into them

Audiences are passive, just sit back and accept

We are manipulated by media – power over us

Two step flow theory

Sender  - Message – Receiver

Ideas travel through mass media – to opinion leaders

Passive individuals to society

The messages may be misinterpreted

The message may not be accepted

(Too simplistic, unreliable)

Uses and Gratifications theory – 1960’s

Audiences are more active, make more choices

Bulmer & Katz – We choose text and use it for a particular need/purpose (relax and entertain) Audiences want to escape from everyday life (diversion)

• Personal Relationships – use media for emotions and other interactions
• Personal Identity – finding yourself, learning values and behaviour
• Surveillance – spreading the news

Stuart Hall – Encoding and Decoding texts: Suggest that we understand the technical codes of different media because we learn to read them. Encoded by the producers and then decoded or interpreted by the viewers.

David Gauntlett – Constructing Identity: Suggests that your identity is not fixed; you are shaped by the media. Audiences use media representations to check own identity, identity can be seen as a project – audiences choose the tools to make their own identity.  For example in my music video audiences can relate to the artist independence that is promoted in my music video.

Cultural Positioning: Whether an individual’s cultural positioning could include gender, social group or individual experiences determine the reading of my music video. For example women would be able to sympathize and relate to the difficulties of growing up as a teenager.

Louis Althusser - Reinforcing the values of society: Individuals believe that they are free to form their own opinions and values, my music video reinforces ideas and values that are found in popular culture of promoting independence. Individuals are interpellated, those in power unconsciously control them, and audiences are manipulated.

Audience Theory Essay Plan

Audience Theory

APPLY THE THEORY - DO NOT DESCRIBE. 

Example:

Gauntlett theory on constructing identity suggests that audience’s identities may be shaped through accessing media texts. My music video involved an isolated and lonely young teenager, which was representing the difficulties in growing up or being accepted. In a long shot in the café scene I was able to show the artist in vulnerable position, and was able to capture the isolation she felt being on her own. This relates to Gauntletts theory on ‘checking identity’ by choosing and selecting feelings and message that the long shot portrayed, so the audiences can compare their real experiences and emotion towards this specific scene. If my audience accepts this as the preferred readings, as on which allows them to be assured this is a ‘normal’ experience and feeling that young teenagers feel, the audience are then able to shape their identity through my music video.

Cultural Positioning

• I have represented wealth in a subtle yet positive way in my music video; I did not intend to make this a strong feature in my music video, as it was mostly to represent women in an independent way. Also as I am using a young teenager who wears glamorous clothes and bright colours, other children watching this may interpret it in that you need to be happy only if you have nice clothes or be surround by houses, a lot of land.
• People with different ethnic backgrounds may not be able to relate to the music video and artist, as I used a British actor. However, they may be able to relate themselves to the lyrics and the settings of the music video.
• As I have used a young teenager in my music video, my target audience of 15-24 may be inspired and relate to the lyrics and the settings of the music video. As they may have been experiencing the same sort of feelings or would be able to recognize the Intertextuality references I have added in my music video such as Alice in wonderland, Ed Sheeran - Lego house music video.
• I think that women would appreciate this music video as I have represented them in a independent way, where although it may be tough growing up, not being able to fit in – I have shown a positive way of getting through it – making the artist looking happy with her life.

Audience 1(b)

Conventions Essay Planning Notes

Real Media Convention Notes

Conventions Essay

How have you used real media conventions to produce interesting or effective coursework productions?

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

Throughout my two products of making my music magazine and music video I have adhered to many set conventions and I have also challenged the conventions. As I have followed these conventions, this has also helped me to adapt my creative ideas. Whereby improving them to make my ideas more interesting for my viewers. I think that you could agree or disagree with this statement as I feel that keeping with conventions you can still produce successful products, however, you could reject some conventions and still produce an interesting product.

When I started my foundation portfolio, I analysed real media magazines such as NME, Q and MOJO magazines to guide me to build my own magazine using inspiration from each of the magazines to follow my brand identity of alternative/indie. The main conventions I used when creating my front cover was having middle sized direct image with headlines around the image of my artist, this is to symbolize the importance of the artist, to show viewers that she is the main feature of the magazine.  In my advanced portfolio I was more willing to explore different techniques and take more risks when creating my music video. The conventions of a music video I followed Goodwin’s Principles to the best of my ability to follow my brand identity such as using notion of looking, Intertextuality, and visuals to lyrics and sound and by using these conventions it helped me have a starting point in creating my music video when planning using my lyrics before I started to film. For example I used Intertextuality where I used an Alice and Wonderland reference where I had my artist come out of a dolls house in my beginning and ending scene to add to my child like theme. However, I challenged Goodwin’s principles by rejecting to use his convention of voyeurism as I felt that this did not suit my brand identity or the ideology of my artist or song. This gave me a better understanding of conventions and how we can benefit from them and how we might not. This shows my progression as I was more confident in taking risk’s at A2 as it shows that I did not have to use all the conventions with benefited my music video to follow my brand identity.

In my music magazine double page spread I used bold headlines for my article to make it stand out and be eye catching for the viewers. I put the headline in different positions of vertically and horizontally; this was to add a unique way of presenting the headline.  As I had not seen this is the real media magazine I analysed it may have challenged the convention in a small way of using headlines in articles. When I started my music video, I thought that using a narrative based music video suited my artist and song to keep in with my genre characteristics. By using this it would make the music video more effective as when I was analysing my lyrics I felt that it represented a story rather than a performance or concept based music video. When creating my music video I felt I was more decisive and decision that I made would benefit my music video. Where as, in my foundation task I lacked experience in producing a music magazine and did not fully understand the conventions I needed to maintain my genre characteristics and felt that my music magazine did not follow a specific a brand identity correctly. This shows my progression from foundation as I adapted in making important choices to follow my correct brand identity of a child like film.

In my foundation portfolio, I followed a convention of house colours where I used blue, white and red. I used these colours as I wanted my magazine to be suitable for females and males and also this enabled to make my magazine recognisable to viewers. However, I was more willing to explore different ways in presenting my house colours in my advanced portfolio for example in the locations I had used such as my garden scenes, the props I used were brightly coloured with followed my house colours of white, blue and green. This shows my progression from foundation as I have adapted to new ideas in showing more detail in showing my house colours. This made my music video more interesting and exciting for viewers, as they are able to recognise the reference to the colours.

In conclusion, I have progressed from foundation in different ways as I have explored in following the correct conventions and how I have challenged them to follow my brand identity to create a successful product. 

iMovie Editing - Meanings

Task 2 – Post Production

I used iMovie to edit my music video and enabled me to use different effects to represent more meaning for my scenes featured in my music video for example;-

I used aged film effect in the picnic scene featuring my artist and a bee, this enabled me to symbolize the artist telling a story, to give the impression it is old and of her looking back in the past and by using aged film it emphasized the meaning of her story for the audiences. It also gave it a vintage look, which added to the representation of the scene. This effect also followed the ideology of the artist and the image I wanted to create of a child – like and unique look.

In my advanced portfolio I also used an editing technique of jump cutting, this was to show that the artist could teleport to different positions matching to lyrics to visuals which followed Goodwin’s principles, this enabled me to add more interesting visuals for my viewers to create more eye catching scenes and also by using precision editing I was able to precisely edit each move on the beat to create a fast cut montage.

Using iMovie enabled me to use a fast forward effect; I used this for the beginning scene to give the impression that the artist is evacuating a house where I filmed in point of view shot running down a staircase and out of my house. I was also able to add an alarm sound on top on the footage, which created more meaning so the viewers can easily identify what it symbolizes.

In my music video I used a stop frame animation where I used scrabble pieces to spell out lonely, this was produced by taking individuals photos of each scrabble piece moving, and on iMovie I was able to speed up the pace of the photos to match the tempo of that specific section of the song. This worked really effectively as it enabled me to explore new ways of presenting different meanings to portray my child-like theme. 

Essay Plan - Creativity

Essay Plan - Post Production

Research Notes - Digital Technology

Research Notes - Planning and Research

Essay Plan - Research and Planning

Planning and Research: Essay

Planning Essay:

In my foundation portfolio task I managed my time and equipment by using micro decision such as flat planning how I will present my magazine front cover, contents page and my double spread, this enabled me to save time when producing my products and it also developed my ideas in creating new ways that would benefit in matching it for my target audience. This aspect was very effective in my planning as it showed how I had changed my ideas for example the fonts I was going to use and then when producing my product I changed it in order to follow my brand identity. In creating my brand identity it was helped by analysing other magazines, which enabled me to decide what factors I need to consider in the making of my magazine. However, in my advanced portfolio for making my music video, I was able to increase the amount of organisation and plan the equipment I needed for example I created a shooting schedule which explained when I was filming, the equipment and people I needed, this enabled me to see the sequence of shots I needed to film for and what I need for each of those days, and from this I was able to check off the footage I have made so I was not repeating scenes. I showed my progression through A2 portfolio due to the amount of time I put into making of my music video as I had to consider the different factors I needed such as props or locations for example I had to take still location shots before I started to begin filming so I could eliminate any problems like lighting that could occur.

At AS I used a macro decision as I organised a photo shoot of my chosen artist The Ghost Of Samantha, which I used for my main article in my magazine. I made choice of the props and clothing I wanted to her look like, as I wanted the artist’s appearance to be unique and different as it was to promote an unsigned artist so she needed to stand out and be eye catching. A problem I encountered was that I did not plan on a specific location and was not able to solve any lighting problems that occurred, this would have been improved if I organised where I planned and from this I ensured myself that would do this before filming or taking photos at A2.

When organising the props, actors and settings for my advanced portfolio I was able to plan in detail when I was analysing my lyrics this was so that I would be able to match visuals to lyrics for example the picnic scene and therefore it enabled me to plan in advanced the type of props I would need and what will be a suitable location and also if I needed any extra characters in my footage. This shows my progressions as I have learnt that by planning locations, equipment it saves time and developed my ideas as I was come across different locations and props that made my ideas grow and be more creative with them.

In foundation I used very little storyboarding in the making of my magazine, which effected the time spent on creating of my magazine, as I did not plan in detail the factors I wanted to present in my music magazine, which may have affected the outcome as I could have missed key features out. In addition I did do a draft layout of my pages this enabled me to know where text and images could be positioned which benefited me when taking photos as I could use my artist in different positions. However, I used storyboarding in my A2 coursework to create a sequence of scenes I wanted to portray in my music video this enabled to over come restrictions I may have wanted to use and to develop my ideas in to more creative ways, which I felt benefited me as it helped me to produce ideas where I would know which scene started and which scene ended. Also from looking back at my storyboard compared to my final product it shows how dramatically ideas can develop or change. This show my progression from my foundation portfolio as I used detailed planning in order to over come problems that may have occurred and how I have addressed them for example my initial idea for my beginning scene was for my artist to disappear in front of a house and after I did this I felt it was not strong enough to grab the audience attention, however I addressed this by the artist coming out of a ‘dolls house’ which lead me to the Alice and wonderland reference which followed Goodwin’s theory of Intertextuality.

I used primary research using questionnaires to find my target audience for my foundation portfolio I found this really effective as it was easy to give to a range of different ages and genders and enabled me to establish what target audience my magazine would relate to and what factors I would need to consider to maintain their interest such as the type of music I will be promoting.  However, I would improve on the type of question I used in my questionnaires, as they were more quantitative data rather than qualitative as I think it would have benefited my research if there were more detailed answers giving me a range of opinions and response’s. In my advanced portfolio I again used questionnaires as I felt they were more useful in finding information and easy to replicate, for example when showcasing my music video I gave out questionnaire feedback sheets to give to my focus group where by I could evaluate and see which factors of my music video they liked or suggest ways of improvement. For this specific research I used more qualitative questions to enable me to assess more in detail with the suggestions my target audience gave me. I also used survey monkey as I felt I needed more people to watch and write there suggestions from this I was able to get a range of different genders and ages which enabled me to write an effective evaluation. This shows progression as I have adapted in to new ways of software to develop my research.

In my foundation portfolio I used media practice in analysing different genres of music magazine to compare different conventions and then again when I chose my genre of music magazine I was creating. I analysed similar products such as NME magazine, this enabled me to see the various factors I needed to consider to follow my target audience. This was effective as it taught me how to analyse in more detail in to why a specific colour or a type of text was added to create a meaning for the front cover.  I used this in my advanced portfolio where by I used this to analyse real music videos to explain why I did not like certain parts for example in the Camus and cat video they used limited locations and props and how I was inspired by Daisy dares you video of her Alice and wonderland reference. I used secondary in my advanced portfolio for example following Goodwin’s theory such as genre characteristics, Intertextuality etc. this enabled me to help me see the conventions of a music video and what I needed to follow in order to make my music video successful and by pervious planning of my lyrics I could match visual to lyrics to create eye catching scenes. This shows my progression of detail in analysing similar products and how it can benefit your work in terms of creating similar ideas that I could use for my own music video.