Creativity Digital Technologies Research & PlanningResults of research and planning.

Used Codes & Conventions Post Production-

AS Production - Opening Convey the psychological thriller genre. Convention of creating suspense through the use of tense background music and a deep red font to connote fear, darkness and tension similar to that demonstrated in ‘Secret Window’ and ‘Hannibal’. We went against the convention in terms of setting and characters; in films such as ‘Cold Creek Manor’ and ‘The Butterfly Effect’ storylines were adult driven and based on families whereas the storyline for my production is based on the psychological problems of a high school student. From my research, I found that audiences want to be scared as many pay to go and watch horror/psychologically challenging movies. However, instead of creating another story about an adult’s battle with the world they live in, we decided to appeal to a younger audience by focusing on a student in a high school with typical high school features such as the school, popular girl and her association with popular cliquesdemonstrated this through Horatio writing an article echoing Mia’s popularity whilst looking at pictures of Mia with friends.

IMovie- Used IMovie to edit our film. Used various tools such as the titling tool, audio tool, lighting tool.

Youtube- Used to research 6 of my films and highlight codes and conventions.

PowerPoint- display my research on Slideshare and refer back to it when developing my product. More attractive than a simple blog post.

Blogger- create posts detailing the stages of my production- research, planning, post production. Easier to cross-reference my work and go from post to post without any difficulty.Embedded pictures, videos and various documents and this made it easier for me because I could access all of my work through one location rather than going through various files on my computer to find them thus saving time.-Web 2.0 technology (O’Reilly, 2004)

2/6 films used red titling developed convention.

6/6 films use diegetic and non-diegetic sound in the opening 2 minutes.

6/6 films featured mature characters and the film was shown from their point of view. 6/6 appeared to use Todorov’s narrative theory of equilibrium in the first 2 minutes.

3/6 films used dark lighting from the offset (The Secret Window, Hannibal and The Butterfly Effect)

Studied ‘Secret Window’ and ‘Memento’ titles and found that all the titles were 1 or 2 seconds apart however ‘Secret Window’ was more erratic titles were spaced 2 seconds apart in the beginning but 11-14 seconds towards the end.

red titling developed convention.

Use of diegetic sound and non-diegetic developed convention.

Went against convention by focusing story on a teenage character.

We used Todorov’s narrative theory of apparent equilibrium, disruption to the equilibrium however we only used the first 2 stages as it was the opening 2 minutes of the film. Also used Levi-Strauss’s ‘binary opposites’ theory dark (Horatio) and light (Mia). Debunked convention by using two types of light. Used bright light when Mia was on screen and used dark lighting when Horatio was on screen.

Used convention howeverspaced the title 6 seconds apart to follow the music and what was on screen.

Edited using Imovie titling tool. Also used blurring tool to blur the title ‘Neurosis’ and make it appear shaky to reflect the main character’s mind.

Editing using Imovie audio tool to include non-diegetic sound.

Used footage from our camera, imported into IMovie. Hannah edited the clips and put them in order to start off with Horatio’s following Mia.

Hannah used the lighting tool on IMovie to adjust the lighting on the footage to make the beginning lighter and Horatio’s scene in the computer room darker.

Used the titling tool to create the font of the titles and space them apart.

Uploaded edits of our film on Facebook to get feedback. Feedback enabled us to make further adjustments e.g. make lighting darker (both AS and A2).

We wanted to make a film that left our target audience in suspense and caused them to question the motives of the main character, Horatio. We were successful in this as we found during our audience feedback that audiences wanted to know what happen next.

A2 Music VideoGroup and I aimed to create an emotional narrative and a vibrant performance element in order to appeal to our target indie audience who like going to gigs and emulating the style of their favourite bands. During my research, I found an indie music website called ‘XFM’ which has a ‘find a gig’ section where indie audiences can search their favourite bands and buy tickets, this tells me that audiences enjoy live music and having fun. Therefore, in our music video we used the performance convention and included a performance to make it seem like the audience are watching a gig like in Kasabian’s video for ‘Underdog’ where we see actual footage of audience’s enjoying their gig. We made our band wear simple, laid-back clothing such as v neck shirts and jeans in order to emphasises the ‘Do It Yourself’ ethos indie genres base their music on so it looks they chose the clothes

Youtube- allowed me to play, replay, pause and screen grab various moments of music videos so that I could highlight various codes and conventions and analyse the affect of the codes and conventions, the relationship between lyrics and visuals etc. Also used youtube to upload our music video.

Facebook:Uploaded rough drafts of our music video on facebook to gain feedback. Helped during post production stage as our target audience helped us to determine further change to our music video e.g. stabilise shots, adjust lighting etc.

Screen grab tool: to grab moments from screen to display the relationship between lyrics and visuals, music and visuals, close up of band members.

IMovie: Used IMovie to essentially put the music video together. Used tools such as the

5/5 video included a performance element.e.g. Snow Patrol, Razorlight, The Enemy.

4/5 wearing laid back clothing (jeans, v neck shirts, jackets etc). Interpol wore suits to stand out more.

0/5 used a narrative element mainly performance driven.

3/5 features relationship between the lyrics and visuals on screen.

5/5 featured strong relationship between music and visuals.

Used convention in our music video. Vibrant performance element with microphones, drumkit, guitars etc.

Used convention. Our band wore simple v neck shirts, jeans, jackets etc.

Challenged convention by including a performance element and a narrative element.

Developed convention by including an illustrative relationship between lyrics and visuals on screen.

Used convention however it was not possible all the time as we had to include a narrative element. However, when there was a particular strong drum beat or guitar rhythm we included it on screen along with the lead singer singing.

Edited music video so that there would be an equal balance of narrative and performance.

Edited so that lyrics would match performance at times e.g. when lead singer sings “this is not out of reach” he extends his hands to the camera. Edited so that music matched visuals on IMovie.

Used IMovie ‘stabiliser’ tool which helped stabilise shaky shots. Used hand held shots to make the music video look more ‘indie’ which heightened

themselves rather than someone else chose for them (like with mainstream artists). We also used tools such as Facebook and IMovie to creatively enhance our music video. For example we used Facebook to gain feedback from our target audience and used IMovie to apply their feedback onto music video to make it more aesthetically pleasing.

‘stabiliser’ tool, crop tool and colour wheel to adjust the music video. Also used the time on IMovie to create quick cuts in the music video.

5/5 used close ups of band members

5/5 music videos had quick cuts and used over 200 in the music video.

1/5 bands used notion of looking in their music video.

0/5 made intertextual references to videos.

Used convention in order to establish the band as individuals as well as whole.

Used convention. Included over 200 cuts in our music video.

Developed convention and included a close up of female looking at the picture of the couple on her phone.

Challenged convention by making two references to videos we watched which helped us with our narrative. Keira Knightley campaign for domestic violence (she is pushed to the floor, in our video female is pushed to the floor difference is that it is implied, not shown)‘Love The Way You Lie’- Eminem and Rihanna (Megan Fox looks straight into the camera, so does the female in our music video)

the ‘stabiliser’ tools importance.

Used Crop tool on IMovie to frame shots better.

Used IMovie to create quick cuts.

Hannah used the ‘colour wheel’ to lighten some shots and darken some shots for example lighten for the female character and darken for the male character good/bad (Propp).

Creativity Digital Technologies Research & Planning Used Codes & Conventions Post Production

A2 DigipakFor our digipak, my group and I wanted to create a product that conveyed the image of the band as well as what their interests are. I was unable to find a digipak of any indie band therefore I had to make do with album covers of bands such as

Developed creatively as I used a professional camera for the first time.

Canon SLR professional Camera: Borrowed from media teacher. Allowed me to adjust the lighting on the camera to create

3/3 used a contrasting colour scheme.

3/3 used the same font on the digipak.

Slightly developed convention. Used black and white against blue. E.g. band jumping in the air, band members are in colour whereas the background is in black and white.

Used conven

tion. We used ‘planet estyle’ on

Used colour enhancer tools on Adobe to create this contrast. Used the colour palette to select colours.

Embedded font into the computer then added the font

‘Razorlight’, ‘Franz Ferdinand’ and ‘Snow Patrol’. From my research, I found that the band members were featured on the front cover of the album therefore we did the same for our digipak-I took a picture of the band together to feature them on the front cover. We also included pictures of the band having fun and playing their instruments to emphasise their dedication to song writing and playing music like in The Kooks album where there are images of the band playing their instruments. My group and I developed in creativity as we used Adobe Photoshop for the first time in many years to create a product that we did not create in our Foundation Portfolio. Creating a digipak allowed me to develop my skills on Adobe and it also allowed to me to channel my creativity which resulted in the creation of vibrant and aesthetically pleasing digipak.

a visually pleasing photo. Also used the zoom on the camera to zoom in on members and adjusted the lens for a more professional outcome of the photo. Professional camera allowed me to produce clear pictures in contrast to a normal digital camera that is only suitable for everyday activities- not photo shoots.

Dafont:Used Dafont to find a cool, edgy font. Narrowed font list down to 4 fonts and went with our gut instinct and chose ‘planet estyle’. Dafont allowed us to use more bolder fonts than the ones available to us on the MACs as they were very simple and not edgy enough for an indie band.

IPhoto- Used IPhoto on MAC to upload the results from the photoshoot. New technology as I didn’t use IPhoto for our Foundation Portfolio as we had no need for it.

Adobe Photoshop: Allowed me to use various tools such as the ‘Blur’ tool, colour palette, text tool and hue/saturation tools to make our digipak aesthetically pleasing. Adobe was vital to our digipak as the software allowed us to create a digipak that was colour vibrant, unique and looked professional. Adobe

3/3 used Logos, barcodes, band introduction, readable font and a copyright notice.

3/3 digipaks featured bands that are wearing the same clothes or wearing one part of the colour scheme.

the name of the band, copyright notice and song name and band introduction however we used ‘hand of sean’ font from dafont to make it look like the band’s signature.

Used convention. Included an introduction on the inside left of the digipak, readable font, a copyright notice on the band and the record label’s logo on the front.

Used convention. All of our band members are wearing blue- blue jeans, blue hoodies, and blue scarf.

into Adobe fonts to use it. Used the colour palette to give the font a colour that matches the colour scheme of the digipak.

Used the ‘text’ tool to create short message from the band. Also used the colour palette to select the colour blue to keep in with our colour scheme.Used the copy, paste and positioning tools to position the logos, copyright notice etc.

Used the ‘blur tool’ on the background of one panel to make it look more aesthetically pleasing.

IPhoto- Used the black and white tool to adjust the inside left of the digipak. Used the black and white tool give it an edgier effect and then edited it further on Adobe.

Uploaded the digipak onto Facebook and asked for feedback in order to aid us in post-production. We found that our target audience liked the overall appeal of the digipak nonetheless we made adjustments to the lighting on the digipak etc to make it more aesthetically pleasing.

developed my creativity and allowed me to create a product that I could never produce without the software.

A2 Music AdvertCreatively, we wanted to construct a vibrant music poster that conveyed the band’s image and details of their album and release dates to their fans. During the research stage, I found 4 music adverts that informed me of what an advert should look like and it also allowed me to highlight the key conventions of a magazine advertisement. By researching into music adverts, I and my group were able to create a music advert that looked professional and was aesthetically pleasing with the aid of Adobe Photoshop and tools such as the text tool, colour tool, stamp tool and a professional digital camera. We utilised this convention and included the album’s release date, ratings from music magazines, the album’s name and the fact that it is available on ‘ITunes’ thus recognising new media technologies and audience movement as audiences now buy their music online rather than go to CD stores. Adobe Photoshop allowed me to develop creatively as it exposed me to new tools that helped me in

Google- Used Google to find music adverts of the band. Google also gave me links to other sites where I was able to download music adverts and highlight their key conventions.

Dafont: Allowed me to the find the right font for all of my products (same as digipak)Adobe Photoshop:Adobe Photoshop allowed me to change the size, colour, saturation and brightness of the image. It also allowed me to add texts such as the copyright notice and introduction of the band along with the band’s signature using the “hand of sean” font I downloaded from dafont.com (same as digipak)

4/4 magazine adverts included the name of the band.

4/4 included the name of the record label

4/4 included the release date of the album

4/4 included the name of the album

4/4 included key colour theme that links to the album.

0/4 band included the ‘available on itunes’ sign and star ratings.

Used convention. Included the name of the band on our magazine advertisement in order to drive publicity and make the band known to the public.

Used convention. Included the logo of the record label in order to highlight the band’s management.

Used convention. Included release date in order to inform our target audience of when they can buy the record.

Used convention. Included the blue colour motif from our music video and album to link all of our products together and give the band a colour that is associated with them.

Included ‘available on itunes’ to highlight new technology within the music industry and in order to access a wider demographic.

Used the ‘text’ tool on Adobe to type the name of the band onto the advertisement.

Copied and pasted the band’s logo on Adobe and then used the stamp tool to create a stamp out of it. We then stamped the logo onto the magazine advertisement. Used ‘text’ tool to input the release date of the album. Also used the colour palette to highlight the text in blue.

Used the colour palette to adjust the colours on the magazine advertisement so that it would fit in our without colour motif.

Used the stamp tool to recreate the ITunes stamp.Also used the ‘symbol’ tool to draw out starts to create the star writing.

Uploaded magazine advertisement onto Facebook and asked for feedback in order to change elements in post-production. Main comments were that the ‘Q’ below the 5

creating the digipak as well as giving me insight into how to help Hannah create the music advert.

star rating needed to be moved however we picked up on that before the comments but moved it nonetheless.