Friday, 27 April 2012

Explain how far 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.



For my As production I decided to create a Y2k opening for a film, which was to portray youths in a stereotypical manner which will conform to the conventions of real media texts. Within my A2 production I worked within a group to create a retro/vintage music video with ancillary products which will portray youth culture in a more positive light, this appeal remained consistent throughout production. I found this a great way to develop my skills further because in comparison to As the codes and convention I followed were different to the ones in A2. Therefore in both years looking and analysing real media texts provided to be really helpful.

For my As coursework I concentrated on determining who the target audience would be by  conducting various research on the internet , creating a questionnaire on survey monkey and placing it on a web 2.0 like Facebook for people to give their opinions on what they would like to watch. Also by examining many different TV shows so that I could deconstruct the product to a certain key convention e.g. sticking to the codes developed by Prop 31 conventions  and Todorov narrative and equilibrium. From this I determined that the opening scene need to be youth related so we decided to create a gang culture opening for the basis of the TV show. Because from the internet research it was clear that successful production work centred on creating moral panic among society concerning teenagers, the most popular was gang culture. This allowed me to experiment with stereotypes and compare with existing products on the market.

Google proved to be helpful in finding Y2k synopsis for us to follow one in particular is the Kidulthood one “a day in the lives of four poor youths living in an impoverished neighbourhood in West London, where the pressure and desperation of poverty propels each of them towards the choice between a life of bleakness, violence, and crime, and the terrifying prospect of striving for a better life”. The opening which I viewed on YouTube, demonstrated this effectively, through the codes and codes and conventions presented, there was evidence from the Mis-en-scene of bleak, dark environments, urban flats etc. 
Through my group and I endeavoured to use the same effects and have similar codes and conventions into our film opening. Therefore in our filming for opening we shot in the setting of an urban landscape among council flats. The main character dressing was due to the influence we saw in shank, Kidulthood and fish tank, so in the opening you see him living the estates in a hoodie. 

For the A2 production I again used Google to conduct research of songs and the codes the music videos follow we gathered the idea for the concept of our music video by looking at Diggy Simmons music video called 'Do it like you', as the rap video was rather similar to the type of music video we wanted to create in order to appeal to the demographics of 18-49 year old more in particular towards young niche audience, using a range of camera angles.
For our music video I think it's clear to see that we decided to stick to the most obvious codes and conventions of presenting a narrative and cameo. The reason why a cameo is presented is because during certain parts of the video the narrative is actually not part of the story line that the music video presents at particular times. A specific area that this is seen in our music video is when the song starts to sing the chorus and a skateboarding scene is presented for the audience to watch.

We gathered the idea for the concept by looking at different examples of music videos, for example Diggy Simmons music video called 'Do it like you', as the rap video was rather similar to the type of music video we wanted to create in order to appeal to the demographics of 18-49 year olds more in particular towards young niche audience, using a range of camera angles.
For our music video I think it's clear to see that we decided to stick to the most obvious codes and conventions of presenting a narrative and cameo. The reason why a cameo is presented is because during certain parts of the video the narrative is actually not part of the story line that the music video presents at particular times. A specific area that this is seen in our music video is when the song starts to sing the chorus and a skateboarding scene is presented for the audience to watch.
But our music video allows us to develop and conform to the conventions of narratives, because the chosen song for the music video is describing the infatuation a man has for a woman. Our music video shows that, through the use of Alex and Aimee relationship that develops from just strangers to what we would presume a couple. This links back to the Diggy Simmons video because he was able to convey his charms openly to win over the girl, portrayed more obviously through the use of different camera angles, which we were able to copy.
The codes and conventions in a website is very brand oriented in that, it portrays a creative way of giving you an impression of the band or artist genre and identity. They have tabs on websites to allow people to browse through further information about the artist, tour dates, pictures and music video.
By using these real media texts we were able to incorporate the same elements into our website. Our website has a bio, picture gallery and contact information for booking enquires. The website matches the retro/vintage colour scheme and has a dominant image the artist.

No comments:

Post a Comment