Example question

 “Sometimes, working within constraints produces the most interesting work” (branston and strafford)
How have you used real media conventions to produce interesting or effective coursework productions?
 
Plan

·         Conventions used in both years

·         Media concepts

·         Structure Point how did you make use of conventions or subverted in comparison to your music video, evidence specific evidence from your film in both AS and A2, Explain how did you use this was beneficial.

In both my AS and A2 I have used a variety of conventions which have helped me make my thriller and music video. In this question I will be talking about what I have used and have I have used convention wise.

I made use of allot of thriller conventions such as the use of dark shadowy atmosphere which why we used a wooded area that allowed our characters to look more mysterious and adds to the atmosphere of a thriller. We specifically used a walk way that was hidden to the public and seemed very shady and suspicious we used a path that then went into a ditch. We very much used to our advantage these conventions we didn’t subvert very many as we were new to these conventions whereas in A2 we became much more confident and we subverted much more. Such as in our A2 we didn’t use any close up within our music video this is a genre convention and we subverted this as we felt more confident with the media convent ions and what was allowed and what wasn’t. By challenging this convention this allowed us to be more creative and really make almost a convention of our own. Which is why i used more tracking and establishing shots which for our music video was essential as we were using the countryside.  Also in our song it was talking about “long walks” which is why we felt that it was important to have a lot of tracking scenes.

This is one of Goodwins theories to show the notion of looking and music to visuals such as in our music video we showed a girl walking away from us with her guitar when our artist said I’ll just keep taking long walks also our artist say by myself. In this lyric we show a girl walking away from her friend. The statement above “Sometimes, working within constraints produces the most interesting work” is a statement that I agree with very much so, it is only when you know the rules you can break them.

This statement works,  I know this because in my work I have broken the rules and I have come out with a better more interesting outcome for example in my thriller the convention where you delay showing your characters face was broken in our thriller. As we showed his face quiet early on when our actress is walking down into the ditch the camera pans in to a figure in the shadows and you only just see his face. This challenged the convention but caught the audience’s eye and made them all the more worried, this has made a better thriller in my eyes. This has definitely made my thriller much more interesting and convincing.  

I took risks in both my pieces of work but I have definitely learnt a lot from this processes and have developed my skills within media conventions and media technology. Taking risks in my eyes is what makes a good media product, I would happily say that my pieces of media are all the better for the risks I took. For example I have taken risks within my music video by not using close up the close ups in my genre of music would not make sense which is why I took the decision not to have close ups and to concentrate on the notion of looking and music to visual, references.

PRACTISE EXAM QUESTION

“The post-production process can be the most important part of the filming process.”

“How important has the post production stage been in your foundation and advanced portfolios and how have your skills developed over these two years?” 
I am going to be talking about my works through AS (thriller opening) and A2 (music video)  over these two years I have learnt a lot through the use of technology and also through the use of research on different theorists.

Firstly I will be talking about my thriller opening and what I have gained in knowledge and also what I have gained in research from doing this thriller opening. Through the planning of my thriller I storyboarded this allowed me to use my time effectively when going out filming and also allowed me to know what shots I needed. Allowed us to structure our time and get the shots we needed in the time we were out at our location. Also in the planning stage we took pictures with a digital camera this allowed us to asses the location more thoroughly and allowed us to look at lighting and use the natural environment around us. The planning enabled me to discover how useful the planning stage is and how it organises the time we have out filming, also in the planning we found that having a record of everything we do on blogger is very helpful as we do not repeat anything and we keep track of our work.

In the final making stage we used the Macs which were very helpful as we couldn’t find the Polaroid effect we wanted and therefore had to compromise and used an effect on the Mac which was a scrap book effect .One theorist once said that “what a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that is having ever come up wit. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds (Steve Jobs). In this instance I agree with what he has said as we wouldn’t have had such a good effect if it wasn’t to the Mac software.

The planning stage of our music video was very important as this allowed use to use flat plans and storyboards and location shots for us to plan and we also changed location also we made a shooting schedule. This all enabled us to structure our time and also be much more organised.

We also pitched our video to our target audience and they all gave us feedback this was very helpful and allowed us to make any changes if needed and also helped us share ideas and gain some. We had a quiet clear vision to what location we wanted and through our research we found a music video by Eillie Gouldining called your song. This video was exactly what we envisaged and we used allot of there idea on the; location and also the use of animals in there video.

we looked at a theorists called Goodwin and he used theory’s such as the notion of looking and music to visuals. This meant that we went out we purposely made someone walk out of the shot when the lyrics said “I’ll keep taking walks by myself” with is using his music to visuals concept.
 
we looked at another theorists that talked about the importance of the editing stage Kasimir Malevich said that technology never as creative as your own mind and in this A2 production I agree with this statement the location and overall scene of our video was it’s highlights and

Homework

To pst your answer in 5 (A)-(E) paragraphs on your blog explaining the planning and research

Research:

• Primary show casing (qualitive research)
  Unableed you to: example: comments make some negative and therefore helping you to improve.
• Ancillary magezine and CD cover what would work image motives and brand identity, plan out where they were going to go (released visual clutter.   

Theory relating to our works.

A process needed for problem solving... not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people.(statement said by Jones, 1993)
This theory applies to our work as we have come across many different problems and had to overcome them with other creative idea's. Such as in our music video A2 work we were thinking of having an ongoing theme throughout the video which was going to be polaroids. For example: every time we cut to a different shot a polaroid being placed down as our brand identity. So we overcame this by using a scrap book effect instead as this would be more convenient and accessible as the default effect was already on the Apple Mac's.
This theory also applies with the Thriller opening sequence we made in AS year as we had a dilemma on the location as we wanted our location to be dark and still yet visible to see the character in the bushes. As it was winter this also caused and little problem but we solved this by filming during the day but in a heavily wooded area so it was sheltered and still light enough. Also our first location took allot of time to travel to and this was a problem as by the time we got there it was much too dark. This creative move of location allowed us to organize better and time manage more efficiently.

The making of the new and the rearanging of the old (statement said by Bentley, 1997)
This theory applies to our music A2 video as we took inspiration from an already made video and rearranged the format to fit our song. We took Ellie Gouldings "Your Song" and used the ideas and concepts into our own. such as the shots with Miss Goulding playing by the piano made us use our actress playing guitar. Also the use of animals made us use a dog running towards the camera. we have obviously not used all of the ideas from Miss Gouldings video such as we have used less close ups and we have used more establishing and tracking shots walking through the country side. This theory also applies to my thriller as we looked at Alfred Hitch-cock and his techniques of using the setting as the main focal point and the mis-en-scene such as scream the setting really sets the mood of a thriller and that something is going to happen. So finding out location was our top priority and this idea was used from the Alfred Hitch-cock film scream. we changed the set that Mr Hitch-cock had by making it in a woodland area but still making it very sheltered and hidden.

Rule breaking/boundary testing (statement said by Miss Eveliegh, 2010)
We used this theory in our music video by going against Goodwins theory of the Notion of looking we still used aspects of this but we specifically asked our actress to not look into the barrel of the camera. This was going against the conventions and using indirect looking i feel this made the actress more interesting and made her look more mysterious. We have used this convention as this makes our video unique and dangerous in the scene that we haven't used all the conventions, controversial.