Another Essay...

Explain how far your understanding of the conventions of existing media influenced the way you created your own media products. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how this understanding developed over time.

When I joined the AS Media course, I was strongly unaware of how demanding the conventions of media products are and how lie everywhere within the media of today without us even realising (had I not done the research, I would still be unaware). However, my knowledge of the obvious conventions helped me greatly when I was put into the position of being a prosumer.

During my Advanced Subsidiary portfolio, I did much background research and planning into theories for magazines such as Mulvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ and other theories such as ‘The Golden Spiral’ and ‘The Rules of Thirds’. I also looked into colour schemes, mise en scene and the type of shot a music magazine would require (which I discovered to be a mid-shot). However, having progressed into my second year of A-Level, my photoshop skills have increased and my ability to meet the demands of media conventions has come on no end, as you will see in my digipak. Originally, with my magazine, I used a plain wall to place my ‘artist’ against to ensure easier photoshopping, however, during my digipak, this was not necessary as my skills had improved enough for me to do so otherwise.

In AS, I knew that simplicity was a key element to use in my magazine as the theory of using only three colours in your magazine was obvious during my research. I used this by matching the artist’s colour top with the title and then the icon placed on her shirt was featured throughout the magazine and the use of purple was used in other titles (just as NME did in their special edition magazines). The double page spread had a lowered opacity image over the top of the writing to keep the theme of purple running throughout and to give the artist a sense of branding. All of this was easily changed as photoshop allowed me to log on instantly and change whatever I wished, which was advantageous in comparison with film making in A2.

During the A2 project, we were advised to work in groups on the music video we created. Once we had spent weeks creating our draft video, we were given extensive feedback from both teachers and students on how to both improve the quality of the video and the quirkiness, allowing us to fit more directly into the indie genre. We defied Andrew Goodwin’s theory in some parts of our video (linking the visuals to the lyrics) as we featured disjuncture, a key element of the indie genre. However, this disjuncture caused a few problems for the group as during the feedback some parts had to be re-filmed and other parts completely disposed of. Re-creating the film was not a simple process like AS as a whole new project would have to be created – this, then, limited our creativity and ability to use our full potential.

Towards the creation of “The Skeleton Boys”’s video, we researched into many bands videos such as ‘Foals – Cassius’ and ‘Two Door Cinema Club – What You Know’. We then used research outside of music videos such as Benny Hill for the chase scene and Innocent Smoothies’ adverts for the stop-motion. We did this research through the likes of Youtube and Daily Motion. This research came from far wider resources than in my AS, which I think was down to working in the group of 4 that we did. I believe this to be more successful than in my AS level portfolio..

In A2 media the mise en scene of my video was considered in more detail than in the AS magazine as there was so much more effort and research put into it from all four individuals in the group. In ‘One Night In October, we made many posts about how we wished the appearance of the band to be and even changed this for the final video. We looked into places to go and took location shots and even waited for feedback from the class. Also, as the band are called ‘The Skeleton Boys’ we had to dress Georgia up more as a boy so that she would fit in with the band more and would not stand out – therefore not going against conventions and being unsuccessful. We drew influence for this from ‘The Joy Formidable’ as she dresses up mostly in what would be considered ‘boys clothes’. In AS, I did create a t-shirt that was designed specifically for the artist, but I do not feel that it worked as well as it could of if I had done more background research like we did in A2 with Georgia’s appearance.

In conclusion, I think that my A2 portfolio was more successful as I was more specific in what I used in terms of media conventions. We were also more able to work as a group and so more ideas came together, although we were not always able to put those into practise. In contrast, in AS I was confused for a set style for my artist so she ended up having a more ‘rock’ appearance than indie which was down to me not looking at the wide spectrum, like we did in A2.