Friday 21 December 2012

Research

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6j4f8cHBIM
I looked at this video for some ideas for my own video, it is by Nicki Minaj who is the artist for the song I am doing, I had a look at this video and saw how unique and weird Nicki Minaj can be, this video is really random and abstract it does not really relate to the lyrics but it still makes a really effective video. It gave me some good ideas for mine:
From watching this video, I have decided I should use bright colours such as in this video a bright pink and a bright blue are used a lot. Her makeup is also really bright and colourful as well as her clothing so I will apply this to my video and artist.

The effects I like from this video is the silhouette of people dancing and I would like to re-create this effect when filming, this e difficult and time consuming but I think overall it will look really effective so would like to include this.

I also like the editing and the way it flickers and fades in-between shots, I would like to research and find out how this is done so I can use it when I come to my next draft as it looks really good in this video.

Evaluation of the first draft of my music video:

For my first draft I did the filming in Pozition night club which before seemed like a good idea as it would give a real life nightclub setting and atmosphere, however once the filming was finished and I had looked over it I realised it was all slightly too dark and unclear. The reason I chose the night-club was too use strobe and colourful light however looking back at the footage I feel I could recreate this in the theatre at Wyke using their strobe lighting and smoke affects which can create the look of a nightclub even though I won’t be in an actual nightclub. This will also improve the quality of the video as it will be clearer and brighter giving a more professional look and shows identification between characters and audience so the audience can relate and interact with artists throughout video getting a clear and detailed image of the artist that they most likely admire.

In the theatre I also will be able to have the song playing whilst we are doing the filming so the lip-sync will be in time with the artists as we had some trouble with the speed which meant it did not quite match the lyrics. From my first draft I have found that there are thing that could be improved if the setting was changed, therefore I am going to be redoing my video in the theatre, some of the footage from the other location was really good and my actors managed to play the role really well so I will take the knowledge and apply it to my actual video. 

I also found that I did not have enough footage to fill the whole of the song which I thought I would so I now know to do a lot more filming to make sure that there is enough clips to cut and edit and will have more than enough to fill the entire song.  I’m glad I began filming early as I had plenty of time to edit which seemed to take up the majority of the time and I managed to finish well before the deadline. This gave me chance to look over the video and evaluate and look for improvements and now I also have the next few months to recreate a whole new improved video.

The first draft of my music video has been really helpful for me and has given me some good ideas on ways to improve and re-make a better more professional and successful looking video. It has been a good contribution to the planning process and now I have a clear idea on what needs to be done in order to achieve a better grade.

Friday 30 November 2012

Start of filming:

Here is me doing some filming at Location 1 : Pozition night club
I began my filming in November as I felt starting it early would give me time to make improvements







Thursday 29 November 2012

Cost

Fake Eyelashes: £3.99
Outfit one: Pink Dress - £15.00
Outfit two: Already owned - no price
Male outfit Already owned - no price
Petrol to get to venues: £10.00
Entrance: £5 per person - x3 £15.00
Glass of champagne - £5.00 per glass

Total Cost: £48.99



Monday 26 November 2012

Analysing Media Texts 2


The next shot is of Kayne West – camera focused on face in a medium close up, female hands all over him, goes with the monster theme but also connotes sex and lust as well as this. The red nail varnish has the same effect as it can mean blood and horror as well as love and passion. Nails perfectly done shows glamour and style which is related to RnB genre and money. Kayne West the artist in this shot just carries on singing un-phased by the hands on him, gives a cool image.    

Analysing other media texts

This is another video from the YMCMB label which features Nicki Minaj with Rick Ross, Kayne West, Jay Z and Nicki Minaj. This song is called Monster and has a theme of horror however we can still recognise the codes and conventions of RnB genre music videos. For example the video opens with a woman in lingerie(hanging from the roof to match the theme of the song) who looks thin and model like which then moves down to her black heels which gives quite a glamorous image.
















Then the title of the song 'Monster' is shown in a graphic image which often occours in music video so I shall include a title when I create my music video. We then have a small clip of Nicki Minaj screaming which makes the audience expect to see her do a verse at some point in the song. The next shot we have is of Rick Ross in a room full of the girls in lingerie, he is sat in a big chair almost like a throne and smoking a cigar, wearing nice clothing represents wealth and power, this is expected in an RnB video.


Audience Profile


Audience Profile:

The images of the people below of my cast: Kabi Meka and Laura Beet  both have the image of what the audience for the genre of music would like. I know that both of these people are an audience to Nicki Minaj’s and 2 chainz music. They also reflect a similar image to the artist, this is called gratification. It is where the audience like the same clothes, music and style of the artist and therefore reflect a similar image to the artist. As you can see they have a similar look to the artists in the video with similar bright clothing, glamour, dressed nicely, styles and attitudes which reflects the RnB expectations.

The majority of Nicki Minaj’s audience are female listeners often teenagers and young adults however this can be varied as Nicki Minaj is also part of the label YMCMB which the majority of fans are males so Nicki Minaj does have a large varied audience for her music. 2 Chainz is also part of the same label and most of his audience are young males, the rappers are from America and therefore a big part of their audience is in America as well as the UK. They are from unprivileged backgrounds in America which means other people who are in a similar situation may relate to them, seeing someone from the same situation as them to become millionaires is inspiring for young people. Often RnB rappers have come from a background like this which they refer to as ‘the hood.’ As they had very little growing up they like to show off how far they have come, this is why they often have bling, money, cars, clubs, smoking, drinking and girls in their videos to show everything they have managed to achieve.

 As both these rappers are ethnic minorities a large percentage of their audience will also be ethnic minorities this may also make the audience feel like they can relate to the rapper due to things that they have in common.  

Monday 19 November 2012

Male outfits / costumes

This is some possible outfits for my male model - after researching some of the other RnB artists clothing I came up with these few options:









male outfits and costumes

Here is some RnB rappers who often are featured in Nicki Minaj's other music video so therefore can be used to create some ideas for the male models look, here are some images:







outfits/ costume

I took my female model Laura Beet and tried to re-create some of these outfits shown below, here are some images of possible outfit options:







costumes/outfits

Nicki Minaj the artist of my song usually has bright unusual clothing in her videos, often bright pink colours. These outfits can also be revealing, here are a few examples:









Location


One of my locations for my music video is the Wyke College theatre, which also has professional lighting, strobe lighting and a smoke machine. I sent Andy Feetom an email requesting permission for access to these things.

Equipment / Props List:


For filming: Professional video camera, professional still camera, strobe lighting, smoke machine, disco ball, glitter, lots of money and a tripod

For female artist:
Bright, revealing clothing, heels, false eyelashes, nails and hair done, hair extensions and makeup

Male Artist: Gangster type clothing including baggy trousers ‘bling’ and chains, snapback, inhaler to create fake smoke and the illusion that he is smoking and a snapback hat.

Questionnaire

After watching my animatic do you think that the cuts and editing matches the pace of the music’s beat?
Yes the song is fast and in time with lots of quick cuts. The words on the video are also in time with the music’s lyrics.

Do you think this is the type of video you would expect to see for this genre of music? (RnB)
I do because in music videos you often have women in revealing clothing and images of money, smoking, drinking and clubs which all occur in your animatic.

What age group do you think this video will appeal to?
A younger generation as they are more familiar with RnB and rap.

What is your age?
17 years old

Have you got any suggestions on how to improve our music video when we come to filming it?
It is quite repetitive, however so it the song so it does work but you could maybe mix it up a bit and include a bit more variety of shots.

Thank-you for your time

Risk Assessment


Risk Assessment

Hazard
Who is at risk?
Chance of injury
Risk
Severity of injury
Controls
Lights in the theatre could cause a fire.




Falling objects and equipment
The whole
of college




Myself and Alicia
and my actresses and actors who will play ‘the artist’

 Low





 

 Low
Low







Low
Serious







Minor
Do not leaves lights on for a long period of time and be careful when moving and carrying lights

Make sure equipment is carried and set up safely and properly.

The car journey to arrive at locations
Myself and two artists/actors
Low
Low/Medium
Serious
Take care driving and ensure passengers are following safety procedures e.g. seal-belt.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Friday 16 November 2012

Animatic




This is an animatic video I created for my music video with group member Alicia Baldwin.

This outlines our plan for the music video and has showed us the different shots and timings in order to help create the actual video outcome. I have learnt from making this that our song was longer than we anticipated so we had to make some more storyboards this gave us an idea of how much filming is required this has made me feel a lot more prepared for filming and editing as we have a clear plan.
 

Saturday 10 November 2012

Filming Plans

Rough plans and arrangements of things to do before filming

Dance Research

Grinding, also known as freak dancing or freaking or, in the Caribbean, whining,[1] is a type of close partner dance where two or more dancers rub or bump their bodies against each other, especially a male dancer rubbing his crotch against a female dancer's buttocks.. A more explicit form of the dance is known as daggering. Grinding gained its initial popularity in night clubs, and shown  mainly within HipHop and R&B style music genres.
Grinding is a sexually-charged high-contact social dance, often very street and unconventional.
Genres it is suited to include: Break-dancing, Street, R&B, Hip-Hop, Disco and House.
Popular between young African-American rap artists due to a lot of focus being put on the body part



From this research I am going to try and include this type of dancing in my video as it is the type that is suited to my genre of music and to my artist. I think this is part of the codes and conventions when creating an RnB style video. When creating story-boards and anamatics I will include the type of dance moves I hope my actors will be able to re-create when making my own music video. This will hopefully make the genre and video theme clear.

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Evaluation of Taylor Swift Video Remake

For this task we had to create a storyboard for a music video, then we had to get into a group and remake 30 seconds of the  video trying to keep it as close as we could to the real version. For ours we did ‘Taylor Swift – You Belong With Me.’ This was to give us an idea of how to create a realistic and professional music video, the problems we may face and furthermore experience in using the editing suites and camera equipment.

We worked in a group of five. I thought this made the task quite difficult because our group was quite large, it was hard to organise days and times in which we was all free to make and edit the video. In my actual music video coursework I will be working in a group of two which I think will make it easier to organise. Once we had made arrangements, times, place and props we began filming.

For the setting we used group members Lydia Barrett’s bedroom as it was similar to the setting in the Taylor Swift music video. I enjoyed filming but we had some difficulties along the way. Firstly the actual Taylor Swift video was a shot from outside looking into the bedroom window, we was not able to do this so instead we created a fake window, by getting a big piece of see-through plastic and drawing window lines on to it. I think it did look like a window and wasn’t a bad idea however it did not look very realistic or professional,  I have learnt from this that I will need to consider my props and settings beforehand to ensure that they are effective. It took about 2 hours in total to complete the filming, this was just for 30 seconds of a music video which made me realise how long it is going to take me to complete a full music video which could be up to 5 minutes long. I will have to plan my time efficiently in order to complete my video before the deadline. I didn’t realise before this task how much time filming can consume.  

When we moved on to editing I realised that the filming was not as good as we had originally thought. Firstly when we did some filming in the mirror we had not realised at the time part of the camera was on display as well as other members of the group where in the background and items which were not part of the video. This did not look very professional and did not fit in with the mise-en-scene which means everything in the setting has been placed in the scene for a reason. I think in my own music video I will have to be more thorough when checking that everything in the shot is perfectly in place and necessary to the video.  Another error we noticed when editing was that we could not make out what our artist for the video was singing. This made the lip-sync very difficult and once we had completed the video the lip-sync and song was not in time on some parts. I have learnt from this that I should take lots of shots of the same scene over and over to make sure I have several options to use. I will also have to watch the filming several times before taking it to the editing suite. I will ask the protagonist in my song to make sure that they are very enthusiastic and over-pronounce when they are singing to make it very clear when it comes to editing.

From this task I think I have learnt lots of useful knowledge on planning, editing and filming which can be applied to my own music video when I come to creating it. I think it has given me a good idea of the kind of difficulties and problems I may face when it comes to the editing and made me realise how thorough and specific attention is needed in order to make my video successful. I will also have to have good time management so that I have plenty of time to fix any errors.

Thursday 18 October 2012

Music Video research

Techniqual and symbolic

Music video allow the audience to become accustome to seeing certain genres and conventions of this genre

performance band and artist
narrative: includes a story
camera: variety of shots depending on genre
Crane shots: hovering over stage
low angles: show dominance
long shot/extreme long shot
close up/extreme long shot
pans/tilts
tracking
rhythmic editing / pace



Costume: specific outfits related to genre
Locations: Wyke theatre, Pozition night club, streets and facial expressions

editing, camera work, character, narrative theme, location, mise-en-scene and sound
what is the song about?

DIFFERENT GENRES HAVE LEXICAL CONVENTIONS
high mimetic
revearse zoom

Three influential texts questions continued



Out of these two videos which would you say is more closely related to RnB genre and what kind of music and music videos do you enjoy?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWpsOqh8q0M –Beyonce- If I were a boy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekAXPCphKXQ – Trey Songz ft Nicki Minaj – Bottoms up


Audience feedback videos

Remake of Taylor Swift Video



This is our attempt of recreating the song 'You Belong With Me' by Taylor Swift

Monday 8 October 2012

Codes and Conventions of selected brief : Music Video


Beez in the trap - Nicki Minaj ft 2 Chainz
This video begins with arrhythmic editing which is in time with the beat of the song. It has quick flashy cuts between different images of the artists, graphic text images of artists name and connotations to the artists such as chains for artist ‘2 chainz.’ This editing is related to the form of the song.  It gives and upbeat, fast rhythm and sets the tone of the song as being a ‘party’ type of song. We have fast cuts to a club which also connotes this and gives us an impression of the type of genre of the video.

From the mise-en-scene we can see that the song genre is RnB or hip-hop related due to the connotation of the location. For example the location is within a club, filled with glitter, disco balls, money, dancing and drinking. From this we assume they have a good, fun lifestyle which is often related to this genre usually ‘going out’ ‘party’ songs with a fast beat. Smoking, drinking and drugs are also strongly linked within this genre.

For the outfits the artists are covered in jewellery or ‘bling’ holding money which connotes a good wealthy lifestyle, showing how successfully they have become. Stereotypically from underprivileged background and now are living the high life so want to show off how well they have done. A lot of attractive women in revealing outfits have close-up shots in the club dancing. Practically naked so sex is also a big code convention within this genre of music
.

The audience for my chosen song would be possibly someone who can relate to or aspire to be like the artists, for example someone who is living in a deprived area may relate to this to see someone similar to themselves become successful and wealthy. The audience is mainly younger generations possibly because they are more tolerant or even find the vulgar and explicit language use within the songs more tolerable than older generations. As well as this younger generations are more commonly going out clubbing on a regularly basis or to ‘student nights out’ which is when  music from this genre would be played so it is mainly aimed at an age group of about 15-30 years of ages.

Throughout the video the cinematography shows how the main focus is Nicki Minaj and 2 Chainz as the shots including single shots of both artists, firstly close-up shots of Nicki Minaj followed by long shots and medium long shots which get her body in the shot. Nicki Minaj has a curvy body and wears revealing and little clothing throughout the video, this shows how she is willing to put it ‘all out there’ and does not care. Connotes a confidence and independence, shows a strong female image that some girls may admire this kind of attitude. Similarly 2 Chainz is seen as cool and laid back seen in the video with lots of girls which boys may admire and shows as rich and smoking which could be possibly drugs.  This again shows a care-free rebellious attitude that some teens may be impressed by which shows how it relates to the target audience. These are typical conventions we would expect to see within an RnB or hip-hop related music video.  

Friday 5 October 2012

Three influential texts: questions for my audience

I showed my audience my chosen song and then asked this question:
This is the song for
This is my chosen song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_0kgqMn6ZI

After listening to this song what conventions would you expect to see within this video? (this is RnB genre what things would usually be shown in the video?)

What genre do you think Nicki Minaj falls under?




What type of audience would usually listen to this type of music?



  

NICKI MINAJ
TAYLOR SWIFT
KATY PERRY

Audience Key Terms

Qualitative data: This is in-depth data which gathers detailed answers often including the audience’s thoughts and feelings, leading questions.

Quantitative data:
This is data which is measured in numbers and groups, answers are often recorded as yes/no type questions which can be put into graphs and easy analysed.

Psychographic Data:
This data includes people’s thoughts and feelings, interest’s lifestyles, answers questions with varied opinions and in-depth detailed answers.

Demographic Data: This is ‘pure’ data, for example a question such as “are you male/female?” easy to answer because it is either one or the other, not expectations or different opinions.

Tuesday 2 October 2012

Genre


Genre is the main starting point when creating a media text
Point, type, kind, category, codes and conventions
Refers to the codes and conventions: different media texts appealing to different audiences
Rules of the text for each genre
Conventions: expected and predictable signs we read which make expectations
Codes: a system which signs are organised ---> connation’s and denotation
They create meaning to the audience
-Technical codes
-Symbolic codes

RnB Genre Conventions

Taylor Swift Storyboard



Taylor Swift's genre of music is a complete contrast with the RnB genre, it is good to compare the differences between the two to get a clear ideology of the codes and conventions within a genre.

This is a storyboard of the song 'You belong with me' by Taylor Swift.
We will be recreating this video in a group in order to get an idea of how to use the filming and editing equipment.










 

Monday 1 October 2012

The Lyrics

Yo, Man, Man, Uhh

[Chorus]
Bitches ain’t shit and they ain’t saying nothing
A hundred mothafuckas can’t tell me nothing
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap

Bitches ain’t shit and they ain’t saying nothin’
A hundred mothafuckas can’t tell me nothin’
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap

[Nicki Minaj]
Man I been did that, man I been popped off
And if she aint tryna give it up she get dropped off
Let me bust that U-ey, Bitch bust that open
Might spend a couple thou just to bust that open
Rip it off, no jokin
Like your name Hulk Hogan
Niggas move weight and sell but live in Houbouken
Bitch, I spit that crack like I’m in that trap
So if you need a hit then I’m with that bat

[Chorus]
Bitches ain’t shit and they ain’t saying nothing
A hundred mothafuckas can’t tell me nothing
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap

Bitches ain’t shit and they ain’t saying nothin’
A hundred mothafuckas can’t tell me nothin’
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap

[2 Chainz]
Okay now Nicki Nicki Nicki, put it in your kidney
Got a new LS 450, ain’t no keys in this do-hicky
If I weren’t rappin’ I be trappin’
If I weren’t trappin’ I be pimpin’
If I weren’t pimpin’ I be gettin’ it, period
I don’t smoke no Bobby, but my denim be from Ricky
Got your girl Amalie and we smoke loud and drinkin’
Got my talk back so you can see what I been thinkin’
If you know me then you know I’ve been think Franklin
Money, thousands, True Religion trousers
Got a private home, started from the public houses
Hair weave killer, causing her arousal
Audi A8, told them Audi 5000, uh

[Chorus]
Bitches ain’t shit and they ain’t saying nothing
A hundred mothafuckas can’t tell me nothing
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap

Bitches ain’t shit and they ain’t saying nothin’
A hundred mothafuckas can’t tell me nothin’
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap

Damn, damn what they say about me?
I ‘unno man, fuck is on your biscuit
If I get hits swingin on a big bitch
I ‘unno man, I’m shittin on your whole life

Bitches aint shit and they ain’t saying nothin’
A hundred mothafuckaz can’t tell me nothin’
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap

[Nicki Minaj]
Man, I’m out in Texas
Man, I’m out in A-Town
Then I’m up in Chi-town or Miami shuttin it down
This that New Orleans, it’s LA or the Bay
It’s New York, Philly
And the whole DMV
I’m a Detroit playa, man it’s north south cats
Ohio Pittsburgh, got St. Louis on deck
It’s Delaware, Connecticut, it’s New Jersey got hella bricks
It’s Queens, Brooklyn and yeah they wildin’
Bronx, Harlem, and Staten Island

[Hook]
Bitches ain’t shit and they ain’t saying nothin’
A hundred mothafuckas can’t tell me nothin’
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap
I beez in the trap, be-beez in the trap

Damn, damn what they say about me?
Iunno man, fuckers on your biscuit
If I get hits swingin on a big bitch
Iunno man, I’m shittin on your whole life

Damn, damn what they say about me?
Iunno man, fuckers on your biscuit
If I get hits swingin on a big bitch
Iunno man, I’m shittin on your whole life

Chosen Song: abstract lyrics therefore will be creating an abstract preformance based video: Lyrical Meaning: Nicki Minaj stated in an interview with Graham Norton "It just means, 'I am always...' you know, that's our slang way of saying, 'I beez doing such-and-such-and-such.' So it's really like, 'I am always in the trap.' Now, the trap, ladies and gentlemen, relates to anywhere where you get your money”

not clear will make the video abstract with hidden meaning also to relate to the artists lyrics - very perfirmanced based and will relate to the R&B genre

Production Plan

Production Plan for Taylor Swift video:

Location: Lydia’s House – Lydia’s room mise-en-scene of a teenage girls bedroom.

Equipment needed:  video camera, tripod, change of outfits for Alicia Baldwin including: geek glasses, big white signed tshirt, checkered pjs,  pen and paper.

Actors: Rob Gibbs and Alicia Baldwin

Time/Date to start filming: Sunday 7th October at 7.00pm – till however long it takes

Storyboard for 'Beez in the trap' song







Thursday 27 September 2012

Deconstruction and Recontruction of a media text

Taylor Swift: You Belong With Me - this is the one of the songs we have created a storyboard for. We are going to take 30 seconds from the official video and try and recreate it. This will give an idea of how to create a music video and represent the codes and conventions of this genre. The genre for this is contry-pop. The target audience for this genre and video imparticular is young female as the song is quite girlie and cheesy and therefore catchy.

Job Roles:
Cast: Alicia Baldwin as Taylor Swift
         Robert Gibbs as Lucas Till

Director: Lois England and Alicia Baldwin

Producer: Megan Coggin

Camera/Editor: Lydia Barrett and Sophie Marshall

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bKAaKwX5aA

Thursday 20 September 2012

The Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmZvOhHF85I

Nicki Minaj ft. 2 Chainz

This is the song I have chosen to do for my music video, this is the original video for the song which I am using for inspiration. Nicki Minaj's genre of music is RnB. The codes and conventions for the genre often are related to having lots of money and 'bling.' I like this video and song because it is a fast tempo and the video has a good flashy edits throughout which link in with the rhythm of the song. The main focus throughout the video is on the artist's. The video opens with a close-up shot of Nicki Minaj’s face which also flashes between the name of the producer of the song. Followed by more images of Nicki Minaj including a medium long shot which shows her crouched down in a pink leotard outfit and heels, these images flicker between a disco ball, coloured lighting glitter and her name in pink. Then the same is repeated for 2 chainz with a flicker of the artist, actual chains with is a connation to wealth, glitter and his name. The rest of the video flicks between close-ups of the artist singing and then people and artists in a club. All females in the video are wearing very revealing outfits and heels whereas all the males are wearing baggy clothes, chains and bling, they are shown smoking and drinking which is all related to the RnB genre. For my video I plan to create a similar setting to conform with the genre.

 

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Skills Development Essay



During my AS media course I created a music magazine for my foundation portfolio. I firstly began this by making a college magazine; I did this to get an idea of the different conventions of making a magazine and to also practise using the technology such as the camera equipment and Photoshop.  At first I found this difficult and the magazine was not very successful but eventually I got used to using the different technology. I then began to plan my music magazine. I chose ‘indie-rock’ as my genre and researched magazines such as ‘NME’ which is also this genre. I discovered the different conventions for a music magazine and this particular genre. Therefore I used a similar colour scheme as NME magazine to create a similar ‘indie-rock’ theme. For my front cover I asked a friend of mine who is in a band if I could come along to one of his gigs to take photographs, he is in an indie-rock style band so this worked really well and I created a similar image as the one which was on the NME magazine I was researching. The image was of my friend Harry playing the guitar on stage which made the magazine look more realistic and professional. Harry fitted in with the genre really well as his codes and conventions were suited to ‘indie-rock’ for example long hair, baggy jeans etc. I used a black and white image which showed a good contrast of light and dark between him and the background of the stage.  I then took these images and edited them on Photoshop to make them look more professional by blurring out the background and making the contrast dark and light more obvious. I then began to place text onto the image, to make it look like a magazine I used the conventions such as: header, barcode, subtitles, pull quote and price. I learnt on Photoshop how to fade the text into the image, for example I faded Harry’s head so that is was still visible but so that you could see the text placed behind it this was a new skill I learnt as I had not used Photoshop I was unaware how effective it could be by edits throughout the different ‘layers.’ 

Pervious to this I did have other media skills as I took the creative and media diploma before I came to Wyke. In this course I learnt how to use camera equipment in order to take successful and professional looking photos, was introduced to a MacBook and how to use it, I learnt how to appeal to a target audience and what codes and conventions are needed for certain genres, I also learnt the purpose of media texts and advertising techniques. For example my media course was a longitudinal course which was carried out over 2 years, as part of the diploma we had to produce, market and sell a CD. This meant as a team to create a CD front cover which involved photography, so I gained skills from this, I learnt that to produce a good image everything in the image had to be put in it for a reason, the whole setting was part of the image so everything in it had to be suited and related to the genre or theme. For our front cover we used a man playing a guitar with a wall of graffiti in the background as the genre was ‘indie’ which means unique which we thought this was quite a rare and genre related image. We then downloaded the bands (a local band from Cottingham high school who volunteered) tracks onto the CD which gave me some experience in moving music files, this will help me when creating my A2 music video.  I also required advertising skills by doing things such as ‘flash advertising’ which is small adverts with just one word for example that doesn’t give anything away but creates a ‘buzz’ effect, we successfully managed to make £63 pound selling CD’s and this was divided out between the band and our shareholders which gave me experience in advertising and business management, overall I got a B in my diploma.

So I did already have some varied skills within media but in the making of my foundation portfolio these skills developed massively as I became a lot more used to the technology and computer equipment that was available at a higher standard than I had originally used. I had already been introduced to a MacBook and shown the basics I needed to understand to use it but within my AS course I learnt how to use certain programmes in more detail and now have a good experienced knowledge when using the Mac or any other similar equipment. I am now familiar with all of that but will still have more to learn within my A2 course about moving images rather than still. I have also covered in more details the different codes and conventions within genre and the important of genre. I have developed a lot more skills for more technical l media terms such as ‘mise-en-scene’ cinematography (and all the different camera angles, shots and movements that go with this, editing and all the correct and professional terms for that and sound. This has really developed my skills further and broaden my knowledge on what is involved in creating just a single shot. When preparing for my exam I learned a lot more about the media industry as we was educated on disruption and consumption of media products and how digitalisation has affected this.  This has developed a lot from last year’s knowledge of the industry.

To conclude I think I already had some good but vague skills from my media diploma, within my foundation portfolio I developed these skills in more detail and learnt the proper technical terms which are important to have a well-educated and superior understanding of media and what is involved.  Now I feel more confident and informed on media including the technology and all other aspects involved.