Postmodernism and my text

The idea with postmodernism is that there is nothing new; everything has already been done before and now we are getting round to the stage where trends and fashions are re-emerging into todays society. Also, the distinction between reality and the media representation of things has become blurred but in some cases nearly entirely invisible. Post modernists claim that we are immersed in the media world 24/7, whether it is being at home, work or on the move.  To find originality, people have to mix two olds to make a sort of new. 

Mixing two olds together to make a new is not just consigned to fashion. Media uses this technique in the form of intertextual references. An example of this is the use of references to the film Airplane! in various episodes of Family Guy. With Airplane! being quite an old film, the audience would have had to watch it to understand reference, otherwise it would just be a joke without meaning. Also, the photo where the characters from Family Guy are lining up with weapons is another scene included in the film which is referenced. This use of intertextual references is very postmodern because the ideas have already been done but they have been recycled ready for reuse. My text does not follow the conventional performance video or standard clichéd love story. Instead, it is a song that does have lyrics but is doesn't have any lip syncing included. This could be considered post modern in a sense that it is something different to the norms. However, it does have a narrative which many other music videos do have, so that is an idea which is not new and different. The video creates an idea of escape; the setting is enclosed and is like a creation within a creation. This, in a sense, simulates reality, so this could be considered a post modern style in my text.

Audience Feedback

Here I am going to show you my audience feedback. I was very happy with the response and was also happy that some people gave me some areas to improve because I too agreed with them that my work was not perfect.

"I liked the way that the video is telling a story and that it follows it all the way through. The sequence of events give the audience enough information to understand what is going on throughout. One element I would change is that there is a lot of time spent on single events, such as the bike riding for example. Maybe more shots of other activities or nature, but overall I enjoyed watching the video and I would give it 4 of out 5 stars!"

"Loved everything in it, the editing was perfectly cut to the beat of the music and the setting was picturesque. I would give this 5 out of 5."

"The video was interesting to watch and the fireworks being played in various different ways at the end was very effective to the eye! I would give it 4 out of 5 stars!"

"I thoroughly enjoyed the video. The setting of the video made it interesting and the editing was good because the video shots were cut to the beat of the music. The use of two cameras also worked well because it differed from just using a standard lens. I would give this video 4 out of 5 stars!"

"I did not find the video interesting and the editing was poor. However, the shots and angles were good at some points. I would give this video 2 out of 5 stars." 

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition, Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, Canon 650D, Microsoft PowerPoint, Pixlr, Apple iMac, GoPole, Blogger, Google and YouTube.

These are the technologies which I used during researching, planning, filming, editing and evaluation my media A2 coursework. I started with the Apple iMac and I can say it is the most important piece of technology in my whole coursework process. I started by using it to research on various music videos on YouTube, both professional and works of students. YouTube was a great source of information for me; I was able to see full mark student videos and compare them to the real thing and get an idea of what gets the top marks. I was then able to look at real music videos created to an industry standard and also see how mainstream music videos were very high budget and how alternative videos had to work with what they had and also the wacky ideas which the alternative music videos had. My findings could then be uploaded to Blogger and then analysed, but also saved for reference at later dates if needed. Using Blogger helped me also to look at other students in my class and see how they were interpreting videos and this meant ideas could be shared between one another with a simple comment at the bottom of a post. The other pieces of technology came into play at later dates, such as the cameras. I first used the Canon and GoPro (sometimes with the GoPole) to capture all of the shots needed for my video and then imported the many gigabytes of video onto Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 which is an editing suite. After going through and editing my work together, I was able to add effects such as the film count down at the start and the lens flares. The ancillary tasks were next to be tackled, so after using my DSLR to capture the images required, I added them to PowerPoint and edited them in there and added the text and logos required. Some images needed more touching up so this was done on the online photo editing software Pixlr. Finally, everything was exported and cut to size; the video was uploaded to YouTube and the digipak and poster was uploaded here on Blogger. All of the programs worked with each other; without one, a piece of the puzzle would be missing and the whole process would have failed.

Microsoft PowerPoint served to be most useful to me. Although it did not contribute to my main video, it did everything required for the ancillary tasks. (Pixlr was used on other ideas but never used in the final tasks.) I was able to use it to edit the photos; this being changing the saturation, cropping them, adding text and logos over the top of them etc. There is one feature on the program which proved very useful; the background removal tool. This came into play when working on the digipak and I used to it remove the sky from the shot looking out of my garden and I could then easily paste in the sunset over the sea shot. 

I was heavily dependant on my iMac and the range of programs it holds and has access too. Throughout the whole process I used it, from researching videos on YouTube to editing my video, uploading it and now evaluating my entire portfolio. Having all of the main programs such as Premiere Pro and PowerPoint on my own iMac, I was not so reliant on using the facilities in the media suite at school, meaning I could do internet based tasks at school but the main editing of video and image was done on my own personal computer. I was least dependant on the iMac when I was filming, which took place on holiday when I was away from home. When the memory cards became full, I was able to transfer the raw clips onto my laptop which I took with me and then I transferred them too the iMac when home. 

Overall, from my experience I have learned how to use Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 more effectively, be it editing techniques such as adding video layers over the top and having to change the opacity or adjusting levels of sound for example. I feel working with two different types of cameras also extended my knowledge of camera shots and angles. I say this because the GoPro has a permanent wide angle lens so it captures a wide view of the action, where as the DSLR was a more widescreen angle, so changing between the two sometimes proved tricky as I would not realise that the DSLR had not got a wide angle lens on and vice versa, but I soon overcame this problem in then end. 

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

Here we have the poster advert I made next to a real poster, Mac Miller's "The Blue Side Park Tour". Mac Miller does not really have a logo, so the next best thing is his name bright and bold, clear to the reader. I have tried to take a similar approach and have the logo of the band I have created central on my poster. It is clear that the name of the band is why because the colours I have used are bright and the light rays which are coming from behind the logo make it really stand out. My poster includes tour dates, where as Mac Miller's poster is just about the tour. I feel that giving the information of when the artist is touring is key because it makes it simple for the reader to see there and then if they may be able to attend any of the events or if the event is local to them it is easier to go to. Also, if there are no dates on the poster like Mac Millers, then there is more chance that a person would have to research themselves the date and if it cannot be done at that moment then they may forget to do it. Mac Millers poster informs the reader that tickets are "ON SALE NEXT WEEK". This is good because it builds up anticipation about the tour and that it is letting you know early ready to order them. However, it does not say where to order them from, which is why I have notified the reader of the website which belongs to the band and also that more dates of the tour will be coming soon. I chose to do this because having the band website gives a way for the reader to access further information and also let people know that the concerts may possibly be popular, so there will be more tour dates added. The final piece of information lacking from Mac Miller's poster is any reference to an album; however I understand that there is not a digipak involved with his promotional item. The digipak is available on the website as stated; people may see the tour and think about attending then while looking for dates choose to purchase the digipak to know more about the band, or be looking at the digipak and then see the tour. The main artwork on the Mac Miller poster is the best feature on the poster. The vivid colours really make it stand out and attractive to the eye and the cartoon style makes it alternative because it does not follow trend and have a real life image such as the one on my poster. Overall, I like the poster which Mac Miller has used, from the vivid font colours to the cartoon main image. However, it lacks information. This is why I have chosen to add more information on my poster, but have not filled it up too much because I think the back image has an effective use of lighting and is quite an interesting image in itself. 

Here we have the digipak which I created and next to it is another four panel digipak. One of the most common things which stood out while researching digipaks is that lyric books are often included on left hand inside next to the CD on the right. However, with my digipak only including the same song with various different versions on, I felt that a lyric book would not be necessary. Also, I did not want to just create something that everyone else is doing, so I chose to take the route of having a special autographed editing in place of the lyric book. I am glad I chose to do this because I feel it makes my work more unique than others which has been created. The digipak which I found as a comparison is firstly crammed full of information which is something I did not really want to have. The front is mainly just the design, however the inside left panel is an image of the artist surround by text and this I feel does not work. There is too much text and it is too small for the reader to see. The colours of the images on the inside are very warming where as the outside images are rather dull; I think it is quite a boring digipak, with too much information in. The images on the inside are the best points in this digipak. Looking at this, I did not want to create anything that would send my audience to sleep, however I did want to keep it looking quite neat and tidy. The images which I used for the front and back covers both had the saturation changed; more so on the back to make sure the text stood out. The photos themselves are opposite ends of a path so it is like a view from both ends when the digipak is turned over which is an effect I am very pleased with. The inside right is an edit which I did on the program PowerPoint. I took a photo of the view from my back garden and then took out the sky and replaced it with the sea and a sunset. I am very happy with this blend because it looks like it could be real. The inside left is a signature over the top of a photo of pink clouds. I chose the clouds for a background because it makes the text stand out clearly.  Overall, I think that too much text makes the digipak look untidy. There is enough text on my digipak ie tracklisting, record label and limited edition slogan, however I maybe would have put the website for the band on the back or on the inside of the left square. 

In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My Music Video

For my music video, I wanted to show a journey, a "Pursuit of Happiness". I challenged convention in many ways. Firstly, I did not want to create a performance video like many other bands. Also, I wanted to challenge the convention of having lip-sycning within the video and instead at certain times having text on the screen when the words are said. One example of this is when the fireworks are exploding. I  used a bright coloured text to explode onto the screen then slowly fade out like a firework does. There is a narrative in my video and I have created a montage of footage which tells a story of travelling to a destination which is ultimately 'Happiness' and this is another way I have challenged convention.

Looking at lots of real music videos gave me an idea of what I wanted to do. One video I used for inspiration was 'The Scientist - Coldplay'. Even though this video is in reverse, it tells a story from beginning to end and end to beginning. I like this type of video because it gives closure and the audience can feel like the story has ended and has not been left unresolved. Also, like The Scientist, I chose to use filters over my videos and I chose to do this because I wanted to accurately portray my artistic vision; which matches the colour of the woodland which is a quite dark colour. My idea is similar to Coldplay's of having a montage, and this is one convention which I used. I feel that this works effectively when in reverse and also went playing normally.

Chris Martin in Coldplay's "The Scientist". 

The thing I chose to develop in my coursework was my use of camerawork. I did not want to film everything with a DSLR which is my main camera. Instead, I used a GoPro which is an action sports camera and it was I used underwater and while cycling. I also used it when leaving the house and a special stabilising handle. I decided to use camera angles with a GoPro because after looking at lots of examples of student works and even professionally made videos, I saw that there was a lack of action shots with this type of camera, so I decided to proceed and use mainly the GoPro.

GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition - The camera used for swimming/cycling shots

Using editing techniques, I managed to include lens flares as transitions. I like the idea of lens flares because it gives the coursework a warm feel; with the title being "Pursuit of Happiness", the video needed to feel positive and make the viewer feel happy too. I also used the technique of slow and fast motion and also reverse. The slow motion featured twice; once at the beginning when the main character is leaving his home and at the end with the fireworks. I chose to use slow motion at the beginning because it is the start of the video and the music is just beginning to build up. I used slow motion too on the firework shots because the effect they give going off in slow motion is quite hypnotic. Another technique which I feel was effective was reversing the footage of the fireworks being set off and exploding; this idea was given to me by "The Scientist" as previously mentioned. However, if I was to do this section again, I would take my main DSLR or I would take something which would stabilise the shot, as it is quite shaky and the GoPro moves around a lot.

An example of one of the lens flares used in my video.

My Digipak

With my Digipak, I chose to keep to convention and have a main image on the front with a logo of the band and the record label. Also, because it is a digipak, I wanted to have something which made it more special than a normal CD album. I made the digipak with a signature so it is like it says on the front a "limited edition'. I also included a parental advisory sticker and a barcode which many other digipaks use.

Although many other digipaks use signatures, there is also more use of lyrics inside digipaks. I did not want this so did use a band autograph inside the cover.

Lots of other student work examples used lyrics inside their digipak and I chose not to and challenge the convention.

My Poster

My poster for my coursework is very similar in the way that it challenges, uses and develops forms and conventions of real media products. I used filters on both my poster and digipak and kept both quite plain in design, but with enough information to keep the readers and listeners informed. 

A2 Music Video - Final Piece

Here is my media coursework, my music video. I will deconstruct it fully in my evaluations.

Music video poster advertisement

Here is the poster that I have created for my music video and it will go along side the digipak which I also made. I will deconstruct the poster fully in my evaluation.