Audience Theory

MUSIC VIDEO

1. Who is your target audience? How did you choose this audience?
Teenagers aged 13-16. The genre of music will appeal mostly to them along with the video concept.

2. (a) What expectations (gratifications) might they have of your text?
-LINEAR MODELS
-HYPODERMIC SYRINGE THEORY (might not be relevant - more active audiences now instead of passive)
-TWO STEP FLOW
From the start the audience would expect the video to produce a fun / playful mood and a story involving the camper van that matches the lyrics in the song.
(b) How have you tried to meet these expectations?
I tried to meet these expectations by creating a journey for the toy camper van which is the story, matching music / lyrics to visuals and introducing a concept for the fun / playful mood.
(c) What is their motivation for accessing texts like yours? (uses)
A different approach to creating a music video produced something original and new for an audience with the same elements that would be expected to be seen.
-USES AND GRATIFICATIONS THEORY (also out dated - more than four uses now)
DIVERSION - the fun feel of the video allows an audience to forget about everyday life and just enjoy watching something care-free. Because of the location is a familiar setting (inside a house) the audience can relate to this and feel involved in the video by perhaps imagining the toy camper van in their own home.
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS - The target audience would be the people watching the video therefore they can talk about it amongst each other.
-MASLOW'S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS
SOCIAL - linking to personal relationships in Uses and Gratifications the target audience is able to talk about the video among each other and friends. By talking about this other members of the target audience will be accepted.

3. Under Stuart Hall's theory what type of 'reading' might your target audience give to your text?
-STUART HALL 'PREFERRED READINGS'
Dominant
Negotiated
Oppositional
Aberrant
My target audience would probably give my text a negotiated 'reading'. This would be due to it not being a typical music video in the sense that it involves a concept and no actual performance. Although it was my intention to not include a band performance, my target audience still might expect to see one which could be where they disagree. However, they should enjoy the story, concept and song which is the part they hopefully will agree with.

Twin Peaks

How can ‘Twin Peaks’ be considered postmodern?

The term ‘postmodern’ describes an approach to culture which sees all texts as being intertextual and having meaning shown in a media conscious way, rather than representative of a realistic state. As reality is increasingly mediated, the boundaries between reality and media-reality are blurred. ‘Postmodernism’ can be referenced to describe a number of concepts such as visual style over content, fragmentation, genre blurring and confusion over time and space.

            One particular American television drama called ‘Twin Peaks’ can be described as postmodern due to many of the characteristics it contains. Audiences would describe this cult classic as ‘confusing’ but that is a major element concerned with postmodernism, and confusions over time and space is a recurring feature that is pushed to the limits. There are very sudden cuts between scenes throughout episodes of ‘Twin Peaks’ meaning that in some places they are stopped short and there becomes a jump to the next one. This alone causes confusion for the audience over what is happening at what time, and whether all of these situations are taking place at once, it also disrupts the audience’s viewing. Lyotard’s postmodern theory concerning meta-narratives can be applied to ‘Twin Peaks’ because in this instance they do not work. The meta-narratives that appear in the television drama are not believable or viewed as particularly realistic which links to the postmodern characteristic of confusion and blurring boundaries.

            Intertextuality appears in ‘Twin Peaks’ frequently. Intertextuality describes the inclusion of texts that refer to or reflect each other, in other words a text within another media text. However in this television drama it might not be obvious to the audience when intertextuality appears. It is introduced mostly through character names which are taken from existing beings, for example the series murder victim Laura is loosely based around a character from the 1950’s noir film ‘Laura’. Despite just the name being the same, a number of their characteristics are also similar. Another example is the brothers Ben and Jerry, named after the ice-cream called ‘Ben and Jerry’s’ and ironically these brothers are food-obsessed. A character called Audrey Horne, who is used to getting her own way, has a style and appearance which reflects that of Marilyn Monroe. She is only supposed to be a teenager, so for a girl of this age to be dressing in such a way and having that particular style is not something that is recognised in many other television dramas in different eras. ‘Twin Peaks’ was broadcast in the 1990s; a long time after Marilyn Monroe was on our screens.

            Other ‘postmodern’ characteristics appear throughout the episodes such as taking a dream and making it appear to be real. FBI Agent Cooper dreams about who murdered the character Laura Palmer, but the whole thing is very fragmented and confusing because none of it makes much sense, however it is still realistic to an extent. The concept of visual style over content can be applied to the brothel scene because there is no actual content, but the flesh-baring women are visually pleasing for the viewer, particularly men, which is why only male characters enter the brothel in the scene. The music is repetitive with only slight changes that keep returning to the same part which is typically ‘postmodern’. This can either become boring for the audience or they get drawn into it and forget about the music, in some ways it enhances the action because of the general feel of the programme and the music matches this. Early on in one episode when Laura Palmer had recently been murdered, Agent Cooper was trying to solve the crime by throwing rocks at bottles. If he hit the bottle, then whoever had been associated with it was a suspect. This is a completely unrealistic and ridiculous way to solve a murder, especially when it is such a serious crime.

            Most people would say that ‘Twin Peaks’ is confusing, strange and not realistic at all, but that is just due to the charming ‘postmodern’ qualities and characteristics it contains. Media texts which have these ‘postmodern’ elements within them are becoming increasingly more popular with audiences after the creation of other television programmes such as ‘Lost’, ‘X Files’ and ‘Mighty Boosh’. In essence these characteristics are almost expected by the audience because we are so used to seeing them; this just was not the case for ‘Twin Peaks’ at the time it was broadcast so they were not appreciated.

Question 1(b)

AUDIENCE

Audience

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REPRESENTATION


'The Male Gaze' - represents women as if through the eyes of a male heterosexual.
Related to thriller: hero / heroine in situation of threat - easily led.
'The Female Gaze' - women's answer to this theory.
Notion of looking, voyeurism.
John Fiske 'open / closed' texts' - how much of the text is left to our own interpretation?
Verisimilitude - how close does a media text get to reality?
Anti-realist films - opposite to verisimilitude.
Stuart Hall - TV 'fills in' our picture of the world through its representation.


NARRATIVE


Barthe's Theory (5 'codes') - setting up 'codes' or enigma (mysteries) and then solving them.
Related to productions: building tension to raise suspicion with audience.
Connotations and denotations within a media text.
Meanings arise out of conflicting ideas.


LANGUAGE


Stuart Hall - describes language as communications or anything that can communicate meanings.
Encoding / decoding texts.
      Encoding - instruction
      Decoding - interpretation
'Preferred Readings' - dominant (agree)
                                  oppositional (disagree)
                                  negotiated (agree in parts)
Saussure - semiotics: symbols to create meaning e.g. image motifs.


GENRE


Tom Ryall - 'a framework of structuring rules'.
Stephen Neale - repeated characteristics AND different characteristics not always expected to be found within that genre.

Conventions Timed Response

“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?

Across my two productions (thriller opening at AS and music video at A2) including typical conventions found in both of these helped to create convincing work, and having to work around these enhanced my creativity. Essentially, the quote means that by having to include certain conventions the outcome is better than it would be without them, and if you challenge them the reasons for doing so must be justified. The audience expects to see these conventions within productions.

In my thriller opening a build up to the action is the first predominate convention that features and this was created in a number of ways. This is a typical thriller genre convention so by including it I was following what was expected. To achieve this build up and tension, there are many scenes of the protagonist walking on his own through a particular location at night time. This raises questions for the audience such as why is he on his own, where is he walking to and for what purpose? Therefore this creates anxiety because the audience is waiting for these questions to be answered and should be wondering whether something might happen to this character. This was not a particularly adventurous use of a convention, but it is often found in existing thriller films.

In comparison to this safe use of a convention, I was more able to experiment in my music video after not doing so very much in my thriller opening. I challenged a lot of conventions here by first of all using stop frame animation throughout the video, a feature which is not often found in music videos. Along with this stop-motion effect a concept was introduced, which again is challenging because music videos are often performance or narrative based. The concept was a toy camper van embarking on a journey through a house while a band member was out. I feel that this whole idea with the genre of music which matched the concept perfectly expressed how creative and adventurous I can be with production. By challenging conventions alone has proved progression from my AS production because I was not brave enough to do so then. I wanted to create something more exciting and original than a typical music video, but still containing other music video conventions.

I also followed the conventions in my music video by sticking to Goodwin’s principals. A distinct relationship between music and visuals was created and the use of stop frame animation exaggerated this. The shot cut exactly on the beat and the fast-paced genre of music matched the speedy cuts. A blackout appears at a particular point in the music when it stops and the images appear again when it starts, the action is also slowed down with an instrumental to highlight part of the song. By following these principals very closely here I was more able to experiment elsewhere in the video with other elements to create a vibrant production. This shows progression from my thriller opening because the guidelines in some ways were tighter and more restricting, at least that is how I felt creating it unlike with my music video. I realised with my A2 production that it was ok to subvert conventions as long as I justified my reasons for doing so.

By including a flashback scene in my thriller opening this again shows that I followed the conventions closely. I used a black and white colourisation effect to connote this element. The flashback featured the protagonist having a conversation with his sibling and giving her a present. However, he does not have a job so how did he afford to pay for this? The answer follows with the introduction of the ‘main dealer’, whose face is never shown, so this is another use of a thriller film convention. Although I did what was expected by using the conventions, I did not express much creativity like I did in my music video. If I had somewhere included something unexpected to throw the audience off track then it could have been a more exciting production. For example, somebody about to watch a music video would not be expecting it to be a concept idea built from still images in a stop-motion effect.

Close ups of the main vocalist often feature in performance based music videos but instead I used close-up shot of the toy camper van which means that another convention was challenged. This was a positive thing because it helped to create a personality for the vehicle and almost make it appear to be in place of a main vocalist.

Conventions

Conventions of a Music Video

Goodwin's:

• Lyrics and visuals are related (visuals might illustrate, amplify or contradict lyrics)
• Music and visuals are related
• Particular music genres may have their own music video style and iconography (heavy rock videos often use live performances) CHALLENGED
• Lots of close-ups of the main artist/vocalist CHALLENGED
• References to voyeurism especially in the way women are treated, but also by using screens, cameras, binoculars etc.
• Intertextual references (to other music videos, films or TV texts)

Pete Fraser:

• The tempo/pace of a track might be matched by editing (e.g short cuts to match a fast pace)
• Images of guitars, keyboards, a mouth etc. might be used to emphasise a particular sound in a track.



Conventions of a Thriller

"Settle them down and create a sense of anticipation. . hit the ground running"

(Complexity within simplicity) Saul Bass

• A build up to the action
• Creation of fear / apprehension / anticipation / unsettling feeling / confusion / doubt over a character
• Dark, shadowy atmosphere (use of light and dark images)
• Establishing mood and atmosphere throughout the film
• Delay in showing the face of a significant character, or the action of an important event by first showing the hand of the character for instance or a reaction of someone watching the event
• Creation of suspense using soundtrack music - eerie innocent music?
• Morally ambiguous central character - film noir (Seven)
• Murder encouraging a suspecting audience
• Realistic settings to create a sense of 'the unusual' occurring within a normal setting
• Flashbacks
• Hero(ine) in situation of threat or struggle
• Red Herrings (Hitchcock movies)
• Twists and unexpected turns (The Usual Suspects)
• Making and keeping the audience tense and on the edge of our seats.

"the conventions of each genre shift, new genres and sub-genres emerge and others are 'discontinued'" (Chandler).

In my thriller opening I stuck very closely to the conventions by including flashbacks, a dark, shadowy atmosphere and morally ambiguous central character... In my music video I challenged the conventions a lot more by including close-ups of a toy camper van instead of the main vocalist... I took more risks by using a concept idea with the camper van and use of stop frame animation...

"one could... argue that no set of necessary and sufficient conditions can mark off genres from other sorts of groupings in ways that all experts or ordinary film-goers would find acceptable" (Bordwell 1989, 147).

I think it is good to have a set of 'rules' there to provide guidelines when making a product, however as long as you are aware of the conventions it is ok to subvert or challenge them... My creativity would have been more restricted making my music video if I was not able to break the 'rules'... I followed them in the production of my thriller opening but felt a lot more confident to not follow them with my music video... Ibroke them a lot in my music video by using googly eyes on the toy camper van in relation to the concept of the notion of looking instead of real eyes...

"conventions give the producers a framework to work with - a set of guidelines" (McQuail).

I was able to work within a set of guidelines to produce a convincing product but also work against them to be more creative...It was helpful but also allowed for creativity...I felt more secure knowing what I had to do to create something convincing...

"sometimes, working within constraints produces the most interesting work" (Branston and Strafford).

I think breaking the conventions actually allowed me to express more creativity by not producing something predictable with my music video...In my thriller opening I didn't challenge them as much which I regretted.

The Mighty Boosh

(Taken from an existing analysis for revision purposes)

The Mighty Boosh, at first glance is more surreal than anything else, with the main characters being (in the first series) two zookeepers - Howard Moon and Vince Noir, the zoo owner - Bob Fossil, one shaman and strangest of all, a gorilla. Many other minor characters are also played by Noel Fielding and Julian Barrett, which in itself could be considered postmodern, as a form of bricolage, but also because some of the characters they play are direct references to other people, both real and fictional (e.g. the Spirit of Jazz can be seen as a representation of Slash from Guns and Roses, and also Papa Lazarou from the Leage of Gentlemen). This is not only intertextual, but it also draws attention to the celebrity-obsessed culture that we live in, as many references made are to celebrities. Vince also craves fame, and will constantly re-invent himself in order to do that - one day he is a punk, the next he is a goth.

 At the beginning of the first series, Vince and Howard begin each show with a direct address to the audience about what is to come. Not only is this self-reflexive, as it draws attention to the constructed nature of the text and also references what is considered to be 'high art', the theatre, with curtains behind them.
 The use of bricolage throughout allows the show to reference many different genres, from music videos (the tundra rap) to fantasy ("welcome to mirror world") and romantic comedy, not to mention the cartoons used throughout later episodes. This mixing of genres is typically postmodern, however, The Mighty Boosh tends to blur the boundaries between genres rather than use bricolage in the traditional sense. The Mighty Boosh can be classed as a comedy, musical, fantasy, science fiction and many more besides. This show also parodies many other shows, as well as genres in general. The episode 'Mutants' is a  parody of the sci-fi/horror genre, and a more precise parody is 'The Nightmare of Milky Joe', which is a parody of the film 'Castaway' starring Tom Hanks. Obvious parallels can be drawn between the two texts, with Tom Hanks' character creating an imaginary friend out of a football, and in The Mighty Boosh, Howard creates Milky Joe from a coconut. However, The Mighty Boosh takes the idea one step further into the surreal, with the coconut people coming alive to capture Howard and Vince.

Post Production Timed Response

“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?

Across my two productions (thriller opening at AS and music video at A2) the post-production stage has been vital in creating convincing work. This particular stage was in some ways the most important because without it the original still images taken for my music video would not have made sense on their own, and the raw footage for my thriller opening would not have been convincing or clean cut. Eisenstein believes that editing is ‘the foundation for film art’, meaning that it is what holds a piece of work together and without it, it would be meaningless.

                In my thriller opening I used a number of transitions such as fade in and out and cross dissolve between scenes in order to let it flow smoothly. Due to having to include titles, the text had to fit in with the transitions properly to appear as a real thriller opening and they also had to be used in the right places effectively. For example, I had the producer’s name sweep upwards from the bottom of the screen and land on a rooftop, so the text was not placed just anywhere within the shot. This worked successfully because it was easy to do but had effective results. However, if I made this production again I would have included a wider variety of transitions and experimented further with them. A slow motion effect was introduced in the scene where the audience first sees the ‘main dealer’. As he stands up from his chair, I slowed down the motion of the footage to exaggerate the sense of danger and anxiety, building tension for the audience and making them aware of the villain. Slow motion is often used in these circumstances to achieve the same result. Along with these two techniques, I also used a colourisation effect to create a black and white scene of a conversation between the protagonist and his sister. This scene is a flashback, and using black and white here connotes that because it is a typical convention found in existing thriller openings, so the audience are aware of its meaning. 

                In my music video some of the same effects were used but more effectively, as a combination with more complex ones. Fast cut montage is a convention often seen in music videos, but my own was created by using stop frame animation. I took original still images in a continuous order and after uploading them onto iMovie from iPhoto, used a technique called splicing to make a sequence out of them. The result of this was a convincing moving image production that made the toy camper van appear to be travelling on its own and going on a journey. By having the image change exactly on every beat of the music, this created a relationship between music and visuals, which is a vital concept in any successful music video. My skills developed dramatically here from my AS production because no still images were used in my thriller opening, and my music video also included filmed footage meaning that my wider use of technology advanced my skills and allowed me to be more creative. I also used colourisation in my music video, but not black and white. This time I had to match the colour change to the beat of the music to develop the music-to-visuals relationship. The swap between blue and green on the stairs sequence emphasised the ‘jump’ that the camper van was undertaking whilst adding to the playful feel of the video already created by the toy vehicle and genre pf music. Having the colours blue and green was not a random decision either; they match the coloured water used in the kitchen scene before. Another one of Eisenstein’s concepts is the idea of an editing technique called ‘intellectual montage’, meaning that editing is used in a certain way to depict or suggest meaning. I hoped that by including a guitar player in my music video and not showing their face, but by having them play in sync with the music, the audience would recognise that it is a band member. By not including their face this suggested that meaning.

                I feel that I have progressed greatly from my AS production through to my A2 music video and would not have been able to without the important post-production stage. It allowed me to develop my ideas and my skills along with them in order to create a more successful, convincing production at A2. I agree with Eisenstein’s quote that I featured in my introduction because without editing, raw footage or images that have not yet been manipulated hold no meaning and cannot be classified as anything in particular, whereas after editing, they become a polished product.

Bladerunner and Inception Essay

Discuss two or more media texts that you would define as 'post-modern' and explain why you would give them this label.

The term 'post-modern' describes an approach to culture which sees all texts as being intertextual, and meaning as mediated rather than representative of a state of original reality. Postmodernists believe that it is no longer sensible to describe media texts in terms of how they represent real life or events, and that instead we should understand that the boundaries between reality and media-reality are increasingly blurred. When looking at film in particular, many techniques can be used to make a film post-modern such as bricolage (genre cross-over etc.), intertextuality, pastiche, metafiction, hyper-reality and style over content.

            Most of these techniques and others appear in the recent film 'Inception' which achieved huge popularity, mainly due to the post-modern features aside from the familiar main character. The characteristic used predominately is the confusion over time and space, with the introduction of time-bending in particular. With dreams being the theme that runs throughout the film, the overlapping of dreams brings in the slowing down of time because time does not work similarly in different layers of the dream. For example, what would be five minutes in reality is actually one hour in a dream, meaning that the film is deeply fragmented. Because outside of film and other media texts the subject of dreams often wants to be understood, by producing a film around this theme audiences may have watched it in the hope that it will explain the concept of dreams to them, whereas it was likely to just confuse them even more. This characteristic can link in with another post-modern technique used in 'Inception', which is hyper-reality. In the film, hyper-reality appears in the form of dreams, which are often more desirable than real life. An example of this involves the central character Mr Cobb and his wife Mal, who seems to appear in the dreams but not in real life. Although the audience and Cobb see her die, this is within a dream state so it becomes unclear whether she is real in the dreams and this remains unclear even at the end. This is hyper-reality because of course Cobb wishes Mal was still alive and believes she is when he sees her within dreams.

            The flattening of effect is associated with post-modernism within film meaning that the audience and characters become to feel emotionless about something. A way to get out of a dream in 'Inception' is through death and when this happens frequently the emotion that should be felt with it becomes detached, both for the characters involved and the audience watching. In terms of intertextuality, the music that features throughout the film when the characters are coming out of a dream state was originally sung by French singer Edith Piaf, who was played by the actress playing Mal in a film about the singer.

            Another film that can be described as 'post-modern' is 'Bladerunner'. This was less of a box office success when it was released in 1982 and was notorious for being misunderstood at the time. Replicants make up the majority of characters and the plot line is based around them, which immediately makes it post-modern, because these are effectively more perfect than humans. A predominate characteristic of post-modern films is genre cross-over and 'Bladerunner' is now a cult classic partly due to this. The film is a mixture of Science Fiction and Film Noir which causes confusion throughout, and the Film Noir element could also be viewed as a pastiche, copying the style in tribute to classic Film Noir films. When examining style of content, it can be assumed that the overall visual style and content was strong at the time it was released, but with the development of technology it no longer appears this way to audiences because of the continuous technological advances and what we are now used to and expect. However, it can be appreciated for being advanced for its time. Like 'Inception', confusions over time and space also feature in 'Bladerunner'. A particular lack of light causes confusion over the time of day and whether the time of day ever changes. In relation to the replicants who are supposed to be 'perfect humans' or more perfect than possible, they only have four years each to live, but do their other features and characteristics make up for this? Again, hyper-reality appears which brings confusion over the location with it for the audience. The main location or city is made to look like a mixture of LA and Japan in the future with flying cars and other advanced technology along with the replicants. The use of a combination of Japanese, English, Spanish and German as a language also disrupts what the audience expects of the location.

            Many concepts, characteristics and techniques can be described as 'post-modern' and in essence it is anything unfamiliar to us, that we do not expect to find in modern society or the modern world. Boundaries between the media and reality are increasingly becoming blurred and this 'post-modern' element seems to be featuring more frequently in media texts, and also more being more popular with different audiences. 'Inception' in particular was a huge breakthrough for the post-modern genre.

Post-Production

“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?

Across the two productions I have created (a thriller opening at AS and music video at A2), I feel that the post-production stage was significant because without it none of the footage or stop motion images would have made sense or created a story on their own. Eisenstein believed that editing was “the foundation of film art”, and he means by this that it holds together a piece of work, and essentially makes it what it is. In this essay I will discuss my skills development using these ideas.

In my thriller opening I used a black and white colourisation effect in the scene where a conversation takes place between the protagonist and his sister to represent a flashback. Black and white flashbacks are a typical convention found in thriller films meaning that the audience are aware it is a flashback, and the colourisation tool on iMovie allowed me to create it myself. This editing technique was simple to use but still had an effective outcome. I also used a slow motion effect when the 'main dealer' stood up from his chair to exaggerate the sense of danger and anxiety, and make the audience aware of the villain. If the original raw footage for this section had been better then this effect would have worked better, but having not used this before we could not predict how it would turn out.

In my music video, the editing effects that I used were much more complex due to the stop motion feature. In particular, splicing had to be used in order to trick the audience into thinking the camper van is moving and travelling on its own. Splicing simply means placing still images from the unedited selection next to each other to achieve a moving sequence. Having the image change on every beat meant that a relationship between music and visuals was produced, which is a vital element of any successful music video. Again colourisation was used, but also to match the beat of the music and correspond with the story of the video. The swap between blue and green as the camper van jumps up the stairs makes the jump even more prominent and continues the colour theme from after the blue and green water in the kitchen. Although in my thriller opening the colourisation was used to create a particular effect, I thought a lot more about how I was using it in my music video due to having to consider matching music to visuals and cutting on the beat. The bright colours added to and emphasised the playful feel already created by the toy camper van and upbeat genre of music. I would like to think that I used Eisenstein's editing style called 'intellectual montage' in my video to suggest ideas. For example, it is not clear who the guitarist is, but hopefully by having them play in sync with the music it made it obvious to the audience it is a band member.

I feel I have progressed greatly from AS to A2 due to having previous experience with the editing software, and being given a more challenging task with the introduction of new conventions and theory and using them in my own music video. The post production stage made it a lot easier to actually create a convincing music video with all these conventions because of the effects on offer. Although the material which has not been manipulated is important and has to be correct in order to produce what is needed, the post production stage brings the footage to life and in essence creates the final, polished outcome which is the most important.

Digital Technology

“Digital technology turns media consumers into producers”. In your experience, how has your creativity developed through using digital technology to complete your coursework productions? [25]


"Digital technology turns media consumers into producers" is a relevant quote to focus on when examining my own productions, starting with my thriller opening at AS through to my music video and ancillary tasks at A2. The range of digital technology on offer allowed me to express my creativity how I wanted and develop my production skills throughout the process, because without it I would not have been able to carry out my initial ideas.


Having previous experience using a digital camera and editing software on iMovie, I was able to have very clear ideas for what I wanted to produce and how I would use the technology to do so. However, when creating my Foundation Portfolio the option of being able to use software such as iMovie was still exciting and allowed me to be even more creative if I wanted to experiment with something I was not familiar with. For example, including titles in my thriller opening was a new challenge due to having to follow typical conventions used in that particular genre. The titles had to flow with the pace of the edited footage and therefore not fragment it, in order to achieve a convincing outcome. Exploring different font styles, colours and transitions led me to choose the correct ones to also match the pace and genre of the soundtrack, for which iTunes was used to legally download. Flashbacks are another typical thriller film convention, and the option to make footage black and white helped me to achieve this flashback effect. Limitations with the digital technology when producing my thriller opening would have been having to book out cameras and only being allowed them for 24 hours at a time, this gave me little time to actually film the footage needed . The same applied to having to share Apple Macs with other students for editing. Instead we chose to use our spare time outside of lessons to complete the work.


A way that I overcame this problem in my Advanced Portfolio creating a music video was by using my own camera so that nobody else had access to it, and I could have all the time I needed. With my music video also being predominately stop frame animation, I needed much more time than I did for my thriller opening in order to take the vast amount of photos. The particular Panasonic digital camera that I used to take the images allowed me to film the footage for my music video as well, which allowed me to not need great amounts of equipment and be more efficient with my time management. Before uploading my footage onto iMovie, I knew that I wanted to include some colourisation effects on the stairs sequence, and having previous experience with doing this I had no problems making this idea come to life. I was introduced to the software on iPhoto to upload my photos, which meant I could then transfer them onto iMovie and create a video. The ability to change the length of time an image actually appears on screen for gave me the opportunity to produce fast-paced video from a continuous set of images. By setting the time to 0.5 seconds for each image, this created the illusion that the toy camper van, which is the main concept, is really travelling on its own. Because of the need to use an unsigned artist due to issues with copyright, I resorted to MySpace to look for my particular band. Social Networking Sites are an integral part of music distribution and file sharing in this age of the Online Revolution, so MySpace allowed me to find an artist almost instantly. However, music cannot be downloaded directly from MySpace, which meant having to contact the band themselves and asking them to send me an MP3 of their song.


Again, when creating my ancillary tasks ( a magazine advert and album digi-pack) I had previous experience with using the software on Serif PagePlus having made a magazine before. However, this was two or three years ago, so I had to become familiar with the software again before planning out my initial ideas. In this case, the technology allowed me to be more creative instead of the other way around. I also had to use Serif PhotoPlus which I had not used before, so I experimented here. I used this software to erase the background on an original image I had taken of the camper van, in order to place it on top of the background layer on my magazine advert. To do this I simply selected the 'background eraser' and moved the cursor over the parts I wanted to erase. Layers needed to be built up using Serif PagePlus and I achieved this by moving certain parts of the magazine advert behind and in front of others, for example bringing the text in front of the background so it could be seen clearly.


Without having had all of this digital technology on offer to me, I would not have produced convincing and effective Foundation and Advanced Portfolios. "What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds" (Steve Jobs). In other words, digital technology allows us to be creative in our own ways and without it our ideas would not be as exciting and yes, it does turn media consumers into producers when they choose to use it.

Planning and Research

(A) Planning: The organisation of time and equipment 

1. Describe how you organized your time and equipment in the Foundation Portfolio task.

Firstly, shot lists were written up after deciding the plot line for my thriller opening to help structure planning and creating. However, no draft storyboards were drawn, only for the preliminary task which did help with planning for the thriller opening because the preliminary sequence featured within it. Secondly, a shooting schedule was created to ensure time was used efficiently to get enough work done.

2. How effective was this aspect of your planning?
The shooting schedule and shot list were useful in helping plan the time I had to get the thriller opening complete. Considering the deadline and time needed for editing, the filming aspect had to be done fairly quickly. To achieve this but also film some effective footage, the storyboards helped.


3. What problems did you encounter? How could it have been improved?
 There were problems with timing and being able to work with the shooting schedule which affected both myself and my partner for the project. To overcome this problem we shared the amount between us equally to ensure the filming got completed in time to begin editing. This could have been improved by creating a more detailed, precise shooting schedule and confirm that we could both stick to it.


4. How did you organise your time and equipment in the Advanced Portfolio task?
 Because of the vast amounts of work I had to put into this project to create an effective stop frame animation and filmed footage sequence, I decided to use my own camera instead of borrowing one from school, so I always had it when I needed it and did not need to worry about whether a camera would be available or not. I used the camera to take the photos for the stop frame and to film the footage which saved using more than one device.
Precise, detailed shooting schedules and pages of complex storyboards allowed me to plan my time efficiently and ensure that I included everything I intended to.


5. How does this show progression?
I thought a lot clearer about the equipment and time needed for this advanced project. More detailed storyboarding and shooting schedules than with the thriller opening helped with this.

 (B) Planning: The efficient choice and organization of actors, settings and props.

1. Describe how you chose and organized your actors/settings/props in the Foundation Portfolio task.

After watching 'Layer Cake' we researched the typical setting for our theme further to make our thriller opening convincing. We also looked into what time of day would usually feature in similar films. We did the same with actors and props. In other thrillers such as ours the characters are male so we adopted this convention and included it in our own. The shooting schedule helped us to organize the actors.

2. How effective was this aspect of your planning?

This aspect of the planning was very useful and helped with the development of our main idea for the project.

3. What problems did you encounter? How could it have been improved?

One problem was lighting. We wanted it to be relatively dark and after all it was supposed to be night time, but we worried it would not be clear enough that this was our intention and the audience might have not been able to understand that or see the action properly. This could have been improved by using spotlights and torches to create a more atmospheric feel.

4. How did you choose and organize your actors/settings/props in the Advanced Portfolio task?

One of the settings had to be inside, preferably within a house, which I already had access to. The camper van that was needed to create the concept had to be purchased, but I already knew where to find the perfect one because I had seen it where I work. The props needed were easily found around my house. I know the actor well so that was not a problem either, apart from when I had trouble with filming and had to repeat it three times without any help from my partner for the project.

5. How does this show progression?

By sticking to familiar settings where I knew everything was available, I was able to experiment more with the concept and story because this gained me more time. If I had an idea and the camera was nearby, I could create it there and then.

(C) Planning: Scripting and/or storyboarding

1. Describe the process of scripting or storyboarding your Foundation task.

We talked through our ideas and listed them, the selected and rejected them where we felt it was appropriate. The final storyboards then allowed us to film the correct sequences at the same time to ensure continuity. Some of the shots differed from the final storyboards in the end but they still helped with planning and getting the base of the story there.


2. How many drafts did you do?
We unfortunately only did a preliminary storyboard for the first task we had to create. However, this sequence did appear in our actual thriller opening so it was relevant and useful.


3. How effective was this aspect of your planning?
Not very effective, we did not plan our time properly or think clearly enough about the separate sequences withing the thriller opening.


4. What problems did you encounter? How could it have been improved?
The only problems we encountered were being able to stick to the final storyboard due to finding places to film in order to create the right setting. This could have been improved by finalising these details before filming.


5.How did you storyboard/script the Advanced Portfolio task? Did you do anything different?
I was a lot more organized with my the planning of my music video since I learnt from my previous mistakes. Firstly I drafted twenty pages of storyboards,  this amount was needed to account for the stop frame animation. This draft allowed me to take the photos and film the footage, and adapt or change any ideas I originally had. After doing this I made the final twenty-four pages of storyboards which include any changes I made.


6. How does this show progress?
This displays how much more organized I was with the second project and having to do most of the work myself, in fact all of the storyboards, helped me continue to organize my time properly and efficiently.

(D) Research: Initial target audience research

1. Describe how you researched your target audience in the Foundation Portfolio task.

After watching many existing thriller openings and gaining inspiration from 'Layer Cake', we looked more deeply into the target audience for that film, and then adopted that as our target audience. We also researched the target audiences for other thriller openings that we watched.

2. How effective/useful was this research?

Very useful and effective. This research allowed us to take an existing target audience and adapt our ideas to create a thriller opening that would also appeal to them.

3. What problems did you encounter? How could it have been improved?

Deciding on what particular conventions to include in our own thriller opening and hoping they will also attract and appeal to our target audience. This could have been improved by not adopting an existing target audience and creating our own so that our work was more personal to us.

4. How did you research your target audience for the Advanced Portfolio task? Did you do anything different?

I was familiar with the genre of music we chose to create a music video for, so I already knew of many bands of the same genre. By researching their target audiences and whether or not they were similar, we were able to agree on our own target audience instead of adopting the ones that already existed.

5. How does this show progression?

By displaying that I was able to research similar bands and their target audiences, and adapt them to fit the genre of music I used exactly. Instead of targeting existing audiences I could offer something original, new and exciting to attract my own target audience.

(E) Research: Existing media practice/products

1. Describe how you researched existing media practice/products in the Foundation Portfolio task. Did you analyse comparable products?

By watching existing thriller openings and analysing them I was able to understand the conventions of that particular genre of film. I grouped them into sub-genres withing the thriller genre and analysed them even further by looking at typical conventions more deeply. I also looked at important directors associated with the thriller genre such as Alfred Hitchcock and analysed his work.

2. How effective/useful was this research?

This research allowed me to develop my own ideas for my thriller opening, adapting existing ones and making use of the conventions I closely looked at. Hopefully this helped me to create a convincing thriller opening of my own that did not appear to have simply been copied from an existing one.

3. What problems did you encounter? How could it have been improved?

I only researched one thriller film that inspired me for my own because I couldn't find many others of the same sub-genre. Instead I made the best use of this one as possible to help me with my own work and adapted conventions that featured in other types of thrillers.

4. How did you research existing media practice/products in the Advanced Portfolio task? Did you do anything different?

I looked at and analysed more than one genre of music within the music videos and also different styles such as performance, concept and narrative. This helped me decide what genre of music I wanted to use myself, and whether I wanted to play it safe with a performance based video or be more creative and adventurous with a concept.

5. How does this show progression?

Again, I was more able to make my own decisions and not just replicate something that already exists. I was more imaginative, creative and original with my music video because of my research techniques.

How can you relate media theory to your question 1(a) answer?

'Novel (new) associations which are useful' (Isaksen and Treffinger, 1993)

• Introducing a concept with the camper van and creating a personality by using googly eyes.
• The fairylights lighting a path for the camper van around glasses filled with coloured water in the kitchen introduced a random idea, that is also dynamic and matches the videos concept.
• Including music right at the start of the thriller opening made it appear to look more like a trailer, unil the action kicks in.

'The ability to bring something new into existence' (Anthony Storr)

• Using stop frame with the concept is original.
• The combination of stop frame animation with filmed footage added an exciting twist to this new idea.

'Rule breaking/boundary testing'

• Stop frame is not a familiar convention used in music videos, which is testing the boundaries of typical music video conventions.
• Along with the concept of the camper van, this tests them even more.
• The white noise and sound of footsteps in the snow at the beginning along with the music shortly after brings together conventions from other media texts and combines them in the thriller opening.

'A process needed for problem solving...not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people' (Jones, 1993)

• I faced many difficulties when making my video, with filming and having enough stop frame animation to last the length of the song.
• To overcome these problems I had to repeat parts of the footage but crop the shot to deceive the audience into believing it is not the same one.
• I also used editing techniques such as rewinding the footage.

'The making of the new and the rearranging of the old' (Bentley, 1997)

• The obvious one here is the music video, however I created my own which does not necessarily feature all of the typical conventions used in existing videos, but still made it clear that it is a music video.
• Inspiration for the thriller opening came from the existing thriller film 'Layer Cake'. Aspects of the plot from this film were taken and twisted to make it original, such as the villain appearing to be harmless.

Bladerunner Reviews

BBC NEWS 9^th JULY 2000

Blade Runner's futuristic urban imagery was hugely influential on later movies but at the time of its release it was a relative box office flop.

However the film noir-style movie proved to be a success when released on video with repeated viewings revealing hidden depths.

When it was first made, poor reception at preview screenings prompted the film's backers to call for a happy ending being added, as well as a voice-over from Ford.

FILMSITE.ORG

The ambitious, enigmatic, visually-complex film is a futuristic film noir detective thriller with all its requisite parts - an alienated hero of questionable morality, a femme fatale, airborne police vehicles called "Spinners", dark sets and locations in a dystopic Los Angeles of 2019, and a downbeat voice-over narration.

The film's theme, the difficult quest for immortality, is supplemented by an ever-present eye motif - there are various VK eye tests, an Eye Works factory, and other symbolic references to eyes as being the window to the soul. Scott's masterpiece also asks the veritable question: what does it mean to be truly human? One of its main posters advertised the tagline: "MAN HAS MADE HIS MATCH - NOW IT'S HIS PROBLEM."

GUARDIAN.CO.UK

Blade Runner: No 3 best sci-fi and fantasy film of all time.

More stylised and visually dense.

Blade Runner, notoriously, was completely misunderstood when it was released. Now, though, there's no denying its classic status.

It is Rutger Hauer's final speech, as the dying replicant leader Roy Batty, that people remember the most. It's an emotional end, adding unexpected heartbreak to a film that may have seemed almost baffling at first viewing.

If trying to synthesize' the past and future is one factor for deciding what is postmodern, then this may be one reason why Ridley Scotts' Blade Runner (USA, 1982) can be considered postmodern, as this feature is central to the film. Blade Runner is set in L.A in 2019, yet there are constant visual features in the film that reminds us not only of the 1980's, the period in which it was made, but also the film-noir genre popular in the 1940's.

‘Blade Runner is set in a dystopian future. The film consequently has a post apocalyptic sense in its setting, the sun doesn't shine on the overcrowded, rubble strewn, neon-lit streets of cold Los Angeles'.

Ridley Scott's 1982 film, Blade Runner, has been characterized as set in a "post-nuclear world that is being reassembled elsewhere in the solar system". It reflects the convergence of various technological, environmental and economic challenges that confront postmodern society as it attempts to make sense of the constraints under which it orates.

Inception

Summary of Inception

A contemporary science fiction thriller about a corporation that has developed a technology that can enter dreams and extract information from the human mind.

Inception can be described as mind bending, stylized, and bleak. The plot revolves around manipulation, being on the run, and a race against time. The main genres are thriller, sci-fi, and mystery. In terms of style, Inception has a Hollywood tone, is surreal, and is postmodernist. In approach, it is fantastical and serious. Visually, it involves special effects. Inception has received attention for being a blockbuster and critically acclaimed.