Mixtape

Exam Prep

Most examination questions contain the following components:

Subject matter or topic. What, in the most general terms, is the question about?

Aspect or focus. This is the angle or point of view on the subject matter. What aspect of the subject matter is the question about?

Instruction.This refers to the instruction word or phrase. These instructions tell the student exactly what to do.

Postmodern Media

What is meant by ‘postmodern media’?
topic: Postmodern
Aspect: Postmodern Media
Instruction: Define
Media texts i would use:
Kanye West song Golddigga//copied from I got a Woman by Ray Charles,copied from It Must be Jesus by The Southern Tones.
Apocalypse Now// the music Ride of the Valkyries to criticise US foreign policy.



Why are some media products described as ‘postmodern’?
topic: Postmodern
Aspect: Postmodern Media
Instruction: Explain
Media texts i would use:
Scott Pilgrim // Comic like/game/playstation
Everything is a remix
Inception // hyper reality
Inglourious Basterds





Explain how certain kinds of media can be defined as postmodern.
topic: Postmodern
Aspect: Postmodern Media
Instruction: Explain
Media texts i would use:
Scott Pilgrim // Comic like/game/playstationEverything is a remix
Inception // hyper reality
Hobo with a shotgun // pardy based on a bad trailer, with bad acting.
Jameson




Explain why the idea of ‘postmodern media’ might be considered controversial.
topic: Postmodern
Aspect: controversial.
Instruction: Explain
Media texts i would use:
Hobo with a shotgun // pardy based on a bad trailer, with bad acting.
JamesonInglourious Basterds




“Postmodern media blur the boundary between reality and representation.” Discuss this idea with reference to media texts that you have studied.
topic: Postmodern
Aspect: media texts
Instruction: Explain
Media texts i would use:
Scott Pilgrim // Comic like/game/playstation
Everything is a remix
Inception // hyper reality





Discuss why some people are not convinced by the idea of postmodern media.

topic: Postmodern
Aspect: postmodern media
Instruction: Explain
Media texts i would use:
Scott Pilgrim // Comic like/game/playstationEverything is a remix
Inception // hyper reality
Ted
Inglourious Basterds

Postmodern texts homework

Postmodern texts from chazpowell28

Bricolage

Flight of the Conchords Homework

Flight of the Conchords from chazpowell28

Pluralism

Pluralism argues that there is no answer to anything.

Normative Pluralism - this is the acceptance of all narratives and the idea that no narratives are better than another.

Secondly, there is a kind of PoMo which is pluralist in the sense that it accepts different views, without denying that something is better than other things.

Analyse one of your coursework products in relation to genre

Genre is a conventional category that identifies pieces of music as belonged to a shared tradition of set convention. In a2 we created a music video of the Genre of our choice, we chose Indie/Rock. The reason we have genres is to be able to organise and categorise allowing people to create playlists or search for music quickly.

Theorist Richard Dyer 1973 said "Genres are pleasurable because they offer escapist fantasies into fiction worlds that remove the boredom and pressures of reality"
I feel it was important for the audience to feel lost whilst watching our video. The varied locations used in our video portrayed this sense of freedom and escapism our target audience wanted to get out of watching videos for entertainment.
Typical conventions of India style music videos would be things such as live performance videos which is shown in artists such as Ellie Goulding and bands such as the Vaccines.

Mise en scène is a key point in a Indie video artists have a 'look' and this then needs to be portrayed in my video.
For example in Brage Alphas video we styled him in hip, new, vintage clothes this gave him an Indie look which was a denim jacket with jeans and a casio watch - with his hair really messy and this gave him his 'trademark' look which was his hair!

Similarly Jonathan Schroeder 1998 Says "to gaze implies more than to look at… Relationships of power". This applies in my media video because the gaze is not only to apply to the male sex looking at the female sex, it can be applied both ways. Our music artist is male and attractive to look at for women so they think that they need a man like him and continue watching our video. Then men think that they can become him because he's cool and indie. He is a very desirable character. This makes my target audience become and feel like they have a relationship with my character.

Feedback from my peers was key to creating the right video for them or the target audience. As written before the typical conventions or indie genre videos are performance videos or star image videos. The main artists are Kate Nash Jamie T. This then helped me make my decision about the age and style of my star because of the expectations from my target audience

Overall, careful planning and consideration was carried out in order to make sure that our video met genre expectations. Our research and planning allowed us to learn and understand the generic conventions that we could use.

Meme

"The term "Internet meme" refers to a catchphrase or concept that spreads rapidly from person to person via the internet, largely through email, blogs, forums, social networking sites and instant messaging. The term derives from the original concept of memes, although it has come to refer to a much more narrowly defined category of cultural information. An internet meme is initially amusing, but overused to the point of exhaustion. Examples include Rickrolling, lolcats, "Leave Britney Alone", Nyang Cat and "All your base are belong to us"


Grumpy Cat is a nickname given to an angry-looking cat that rose to fame online after its pictures were posted to Reddit in late September 2012.


Grumpy Cat is owned by Arizona resident Tabatha Bundesen. The original photos of Grumpy Cat were posted to the /r/pics subreddit by Bundesen’s brother Bryan on September 23rd, 2012.

The Reddit post was instantly met with photoshopped parodies and image memes from others, reaching the front page with more than 25,300 up votes in the first 24 hours. The same day, three video clips of the cat playing indoors were uploaded to YouTube by Bundesen the same day.


Own Meme







Mash up

Define postmodern media with examples

           Postmodernism is the term given to the movement that includes taking the old and making the new. This is demonstrated through the use of intertextuality, self-reflexivity, bricolage, pastiche and parody. It is a cultural movement that came soon after modernism and is a term applied to a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, architecture, art, literature and culture which are characterised as either emerging from or superseding modernism

           Postmodern media often takes copy, transform and combine too far and end up supporting Jameson's theory of depthlessness. For example, the film ‘Apocalypse Now’ uses the music ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ to criticise US foreign policy, using the music to carry across racist connotations. British Gas however, have created an advert that uses a fast service and delivers this through playing the music and all the vans being lined up flying through the sky. The song has taken on too many shapes and people have used it in too many of the wrong ways that it has lost it's true racial meaning. British gas have now created a funny advert with a completely different meaning and people don't feel threatened by this.


           Post-modernism is in the R&B genre of music. Kanye West song Golddigga is copied from I got a Woman by Ray Charles, which was copied from It Must be Jesus by the gospel band The Southern Tones. This is the perfect example to define post modern media as it supports the idea that post modernism is a copy of a copy of a copy and that nothing is original. And that it can often lost its original meaning. The meaning of the song since the Gospel version has changed a lot, the meaning is completely lost. Postmodernism is then criticised for this and everything any body does now destroys the real meaning of anything which was once considered original. This is supported by Kirby Ferguson's 'Everything is a Remix' video series. Bridge Port Music, a company famous for suing artists that use samples in their music, they famously sued an artist for a less than 2 second ‘sample’ in the song 100 miles running This is an example of where post modern media can be thought to have no future, R&B artist rely on other artists 'beats' to create something new of there own. whilst researching Kanye West i found songs which he had sampled nearly all of the choruses and calmed them as his own. This is Postmodernism

Pastiche and Homage are used in postmodern media. Pastiche links with the idea of parody and how the original is mocked and becomes humorous. This can be seen in 'Hobo With A Shot Gun' this film was created from nothing, they had no idea of the film they were going to make so they ran a competition to find the best made video trailer, this then bought around hobo with a shot gun, this film was so terrible that the postmodern references are lost and the film which was trying to be bad to make it good now it's just bad that It creates bathos and the audience cannot take it seriously.

To conclude I have very mixed views on the idea of postmodernism as it can be used for what I feel is a good thing of re aranging the old and creating the new through other media texts, this then leaves me to believe that everything is a copy and nothing is an original.So as a whole postmodern media is a type of media that does not claim originality or indeed try to be original, but it thrives off of preexisting work and transforming it into something new.

kanye west postmodern

Uncool Playlist

Bricolage

Changing the meaning of traditional objects or languages to give them a subversive meaning. An example of this is punks using safety pins as a piercing. The safety pin goes from being some safe and practical to something dangerous and rebellious.

Roland Barthes- symbolic codes

what is cool?
-Something we like
-Depends on the context
-Confidence
-It doesn't have to be something fashionable
-Being popular
-Sometimes you can be too cool you become arrogant
-Uncool can be cool
-Decided by peers, journalists, trendsetters

Postmodernism and Music

Postmodernism and Music V2 by

Apply Audience Theory To Your Product.

The product I created during AS was a music Magazine of a pop/indie genre featuring a female artist Steph. The target audience for my magazine was primarily aimed at young females between the ages of 13-21 years old. i chose this age group as i believed that the pop/indie genre of our artist was most enjoyed by this audience, and as our artist was a young female artist we believed they would be able to relate to her.  

In my media product I feel that I have appealed to my audience.  The main aspect which will attract students who are female is the general genre of my music magazine, indie is a new genre which is ‘in’ at the moments students are into the indie styles and fashion, they will also be interested in the sorts of bands I have mentioned and the types of indie culture in my magazine. The front cover is pretty simple and stands out a lot, I have used a 19 year old model, she is female and well dressed and well presented, she is a new up and coming artist which would attract readers due to them wanting to keep up with the latest trends, as ‘Steph’ is a new artist this would engage readers. This new artist then carry’s onto my double page spread and will then explain a bit about her and then have an question and answer interview which will also make the readers more interested in her and can relate because also, the interview is to do with the artist from when she started, so the audience would find it interesting reading about how someone actually got into the music business in the first place which is a hard thing to do these days, because of the less opportunities students are given.

I dressed my model Steph into indie clothes which I went out and bought, I also styled her hair quite natural and with a lace bow which is also pretty indie, also I felt that all of this would appeal to my audience and make them want to read my magazine.

The image on my double page spread is good big and fills half the page, I then have a panel/banner down the right hand side of my artist ‘Steph’ in different outfits and different shots/poses, I feel that this will attract more readers because I haven’t just thrown any one picture on the page I have incorporated more than one and changed her costume and her pose, and they are also quite clear professional photos. 

My contents page is simple using elements from magazines such as Q, NME and DAZED, I used a simple but effective column strategy, and used bigger fonts for the more important text, with smaller text elsewhere. I have now used blue, cherry red and white all the way through my music magazine so I have incorporated this into my contents page and double page spread. I have gone for a casual look towards the text which again links in my target audience who are students, and the fact they are chilled and calm, so an easy font but effective one works well here. 

I know students are interested in spending their money on clothes and music, I found this out through looking into NME’s student readership page. Most students I know like to live the life and go out to festivals and gigs when they can get the money so for this reason I have dedicated a section for festivals and gigs, so that all students are up to date on the latest biggest music events. I have created a section to win music tickets in my magazine because students at university and college are known for being short of cash due to school fees and living costs this then would give them opportunities to go to great gigs.

The feedback I received from my target audience during the production of my magazine allowed me to formulate a magazine tailored to that market. By receiving feedback on things that were wrong and this that I could benefit from through changing them was a good way to improve my magazine. The feedback was harsh but eventually it helped my produce a great magazine and gain great marks.

 

Narrative Theory

Audience Theory

The Effects Model: Mediums that have an effect on their audience.
The audience is passively absorbing information and injected with an influence they cannot resist.

With my video I feel that people may have been injected with the star image and wanting to be like him without realising it too much, and related to the clothes he wears and how he acts.

Reception Theory;
Preferred/Dominant Reading: I think the reading of our video is that the audience appreciates the video on two levels. The physical appearance of our artist is preferred; our artist is the ‘star image’ in our video.

Negotiated Reading: This is when they agree with the video and add their own opinions. I feel people could do this with my video.

Oppositional Reading: The storyline may be seen to be so simple it is not captivating at all, and could be seen to follow a predictable pattern to other videos of the same genre.

The Uses/Gratification Model.
The belief that the audience is active and receives gratification from the viewing of texts. They are provided with escapism, diversion, pleasure, and in some cases, information.

Inglourious Basters - Case Study

Inglourious Basterds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the 2009 film inglourious Basterds there are various postmodern elements which are typical of Quentin tarantino.

How did the convetions of real media texts inspire you to use new media technologies to create the style of product you achieved.

When creating my music magazine for my foundation portfolio I extensively researched current music magazines before beginning the creation of my product. Looking at magazines with similar genres such as smash, clash and indie allowed me to get a good idea of the conventions. I did the same with my music video for my advanced portfolio, so researching real media texts allowed me to get the right idea on how to create a music video for my indie video. My biggest inspiration for my magazine was clash magazine.

The conventions of my music magazine where like clash magazines I had a big banner header with burst, in the colour red and blue which portrayed the link with my pop/indie genre. I also had a main image on the front which I feel I styled well and thought about a focus point in the image to draw the reader in which also was in colour scheme of my music magazine cherry red. I placed a gold chain with red love letters into the girl’s mouth and made her pose and this made a good image I also chose all the clothes which my model wore.

I used ‘da font’ to find the right font that I was looking for and then I manipulated in onto photo shop to burst out of the page which again linked in with my title ‘burst’ I could do this because I had now had quite a lot of practice using the software and it was beginning to become easier.

With my advanced portfolio music poster and digipak, I also looked at many other music posters and digipak on the market. These allowed me to view the conventions I needed to rein act to make mine effective, they also gave me ideas and inspiration. My poster and digipak are light grey with a burst of lots of colour squeezed into font which is plain and bold, I did this because I feel it fit my genre and that it would intrigue the audience to have a look and buy it. I think I used a few conventions from posters and digipak but I did not use a main image of the artist to attract people I, instead used my intriguing font with colour in it which I think worked really well also.

I was inspired by the quote ‘The making of the new and the rearranging of the old’ (Bentley 1997) as this is what I have done across all three projects talked about above.

Describe how you have developed your skills in the use of digital technology for media production and evaluate how these skills contrivuted to your creatibe decision making.

In year 12 for my AS production, I was given the task to create a music magazine with a front cover, contents page and a double page spread. In year 13 for A2 production I was given the task to create a music video and a digipak and poster. To start working on these products I needed to do some pre- production research on similar products that I could reference in my work so that I could be creative when creating my own.

Digital technologies have had a huge influence on media production over the last few years since I've started studying I have learnt a lot about the benefits of using all these different media technologies. They in turn have had a massive impact on the quality of my finished products

For my As work I had to produce the magazine, it was my first time in using programs such as Photoshop but by creating a preliminary magazine this let me explore Photoshop further and I was then able to maximise my skills to be able to complete my actual coursework magazine. I also used websites such as NME, Google and clash to be able to see how my music magazine should have turned out. Whilst trying to find a magazine convention to follow I was able to deconstruct them in terms of their key conventions and add them to my magazine. When we started the course at AS we created something called Blogger, I have had no previous experience of blogger prior to this. I relied heavily on Blogger over both years of my A Level. I used it to record all of my research, planning and progress as I went along. At A2, I had developed an awareness of blogger and new technologies such as prezi, animoto and final cut pro which gave me the opportunity to be more creative in showing my work on my Blog.

 One of the key areas I developed my skills in was Photoshop. at the beginning of AS I had never used it before and so found it very challenging when it came to creating my pre-liminary magazine. You can see I had hardly any skills of Photoshop. However now my abilities in Photoshop are far more advanced and the creation of my A2 ancillary products appear drastically more professional. You can see this because I gained 20/20 from both my digipak and poster.

Final Cut Pro is the software I used to edit my music video. I had gained a small amount of experience on this after creating an animatic of my storyboard at the start of A2 however putting together my video footage was a slow process. After completing my draft video, I had become more time efficient; this allowed me to be more creative in my second draft as I could use tools on the software, such as adding overlaps of different shots, which let my creativity expand.

In conclusion, technological skills contribute greatly to the extent and variation in creative ideas, as they broaden your mind to the possibilities. However skills themselves do not instantly make you a creative person, but can be applied to allow creative vision.

Digital technology turns media consumers into media producers. in yourown experience, how has you creativity developed through using digitaltechnnology to complete your coursework productions?

The development in digital technology has allowed consumers of these specific technologies to become producers of their own original pieces. In my experience of creating a school magazine front cover and contents page and a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread, draft digipak, digipak and a music video. My creativity had developed greatly with the use of various digital technologies used in new and different ways.


In my preliminary task I knew little about how to make my magazine look as professional and high quality as possible, I did not include any special effects in images and did not take into consideration things such as lighting, positioning, location and mise en scene of my images. When I decided to make my magazine I had to do a lot of research before I could even start, this was good because I didn’t want my magazine to be no good, I took all the conventions of my favourite magazines into account, this was because I know these methods work and are pleasing to the eye for an audience. NME was my main inspiration because it is a personal favourite and I am also included in my target audience. You would need to find the perfect model for your front cover and know how they needed to be dressed and also how they needed to be presented on the cover. so i feel that i styled my model very well to create the perfect magazine. However in my main task I learnt that these aspects of images were very important to the overall effect of the magazine. One way in which I improved my images was to mind map ideas about what aspects would look best and keep to the correct genre of my magazine. I used a digital camera in both tasks but improved the images in my music magazine by taking into consideration the most important aspects of images. Such as bright lighting, costume and I also used post-production on my image fixer on my laptop to create the very best look for all my images.

In the school magazine I chose to use just the PC, however in the music magazine I was able to use a pen drive to quickly swap between PC and laptop as there was a wider range of software on the laptop. On the laptop I was also able to easily change the colours and layout of the magazine so that I could test what looked best and fitted with the original indie genre. Another advantage of this is that I was able to email work across and get opinions on what needs improving.

A media convention that technology played a big part in its production was my digipak for my created artist. Using technology I was able to research existing digipaks and album covers that were of bands and artists that’s music was a similar genre. I was able find images of album covers using Google search engine and with seconds I had inspiration from existing album covers I could re-create. The main technology that was pivotal in the production of my Digipak was Photoshop. Using Photoshop I was able create the exact product I had planned and I could edit photos and fonts to get the exact theme I wanted. The idea of Photoshop is that creating and editing has become a lot simpler and can be done by almost anyone who owns it. This is a great example of how technology has ‘Turned Media consumers into Media producers.

The use of technology was vital throughout my whole coursework as all my research was found on Internet sites. I got information and images off the Internet and then uploaded them onto Blogger which was the site we used to track our planning and research for the coursework.

Dan black 2

The Video for Symphonies is made up entirely of intertextual references.
 

The first intertextual reference is to Universal Studios and their opening titles to films; this technique is used to make the video opening more convincing and professional. 

 

The opening credits of Dan Black's film are very similar to those used in Lost Highway. The opening is effective and follows on to Black's next clip where a car is being driven.

Aspects of the action film 'Tron' are also used in Dan Black's video. This gives a video game appeal of the video, which is popular among Hip-Hip style artists.

The opening credits of Catch Me If You Can are closely copied even down to the colour scheme, it is difficult to know why Black has copied this so obviously.

Symphonies includes some sounds from Starman, but also the opening scene with spaceships flying around; the only different is in the colour scheme used.

Dan Black has made another direct copy from Space 2001 here, as he wears a visor over his eyes very similarly to the character shown in the Space 2001 image. This continues the video game image but also ties in sci-fi.

Black and white effects are commonly used in music videos however not as obviously as this. The 'look' Dan Black is going for is an old fashioned French theme with the style of dress and the appearance of the street. The image below is from A Bout De Souffle.

Goldfinger is a very popular James Bond film, not one that people would usually copy from. The clip from Dan Black's video shows a motion picture of him singing as if it's being projected onto the painted girl's body.

Bonanza is a Wild West featured TV show. Black has copied this by the setting behind him, the font of the text used, as well as the Sherrif badge he is wearing.

The text used in this frame is an exact copy of the text used for the title of E.T - this font is used on all E.T products ever existing, so it is not a sly copy.

Donnie Darko is famous for the evil rabbit; Dan Black produces an exact copy of this.

Thunderbirds is an ever famous children's TV show, the obvious copy of a driver sitting in a car with text introducing the character is an obvious Thunderbirds trait.

Towards the end of the video Dan Black uses yet another action film / sci-fi intertextuality; Blade Runner.

A reference to King Kong, as well as Godzilla, is used with a man protecting a woman in the scene; this is another direct copy including the black and white effect as well as costume.

The final section of the video shows recreations of 'The End' in every style of every film used.

Introduction into postmodernism...

Traditionally: One man-One skill
Modern day: Mass production factories
- 'If everyone can do something, no one can.'
- 'The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.'


Jean-Francois Lyotard

Grand Narratives: Religion, Science, Politics
Nowadays, people choose the parts they want from each of the 3 beliefs to create their own beliefs, this is called Little Narratives; e.g. it can happen within Media and Fashion.

Creativity questions

- What do you understand by ‘creativity’ and to what extent have you been creative?

Creativity, in my opinion, comes from the persons' own imagination. I have been creative in my inidividual work from AS as well as in my group during A2 as I have looked at existing products (magazines, ancillary products, and music videos) and tried hard to create my own interpretation of these. This in my eyes is being creative, as I was trying to for fill a brief set by my teachers but also trying to be better than everybody else to get mine high marks, this proved to work as on both my digipak and poster I achieved full marks.


- How have you tried to facilitate and encourage your own creativity?

Over the 2 years my progress in Media has improved; however I feel I worked better at AS as I had no one to stop my own creativity and i was able to create anything i wanted with other people opinions but me as the dictator of the final piece. At A2 I did not feel as though I had much control over the final product (video) because I feel me and my partner tried to please each other too much that we got nothing done because of the other person, we didn't do very well in managing our time or putting ahead a plan of action.


- Did you experience limits/blocks on your own creativity?

When designing my A2 music video I discovered limits and in the end I changed the whole idea completely. Limits to think about a lot where to have committed actors and to plan ahead and not leave everything last minute, props and locations where also an issue we are only students and do not have a lot of access to many facilities.


- How easy/difficult was it to be creative while still working to the brief?

Sticking to the brief was not a problem for my digipak and poster or my AS work, i had done a lot of research on all of these and was confident i had created something good.


- Did working within convention stifle your creativity?

We were given a rough outline of the type of products we were asked to create during both AS and A2 however we definitely had more freedom at A2. The guideline for AS showed a specific style of magazine, which pages to include and roughly how to structure them; whereas at A2 we were given guidelines of '3 minute music video' and that was pretty much it.


- To what extent did you need to work with others and ‘bounce ideas’ off other people to be truly creative?

During the A2 project we used each others ideas to build on our own, resulting in all of the final ideas. We had a say in each idea and were able to give constructive criticism to each other, I feel we never really had a clear precise video we wanted and where trying to aim too high, this in the end resulted in loss of communication.


- How much of your creativity was about trying to picture things in your mind’s eye?

I find it easy to picture end products in my mind so I used this a lot, for example during A2 I had a clear idea of my ancillary products and really wanted my teachers to like them as a 'creative' idea, I new what a normal poster and digipak looked like and I just wanted to portray this through my own work.


- How much of your creativity was about trial and error?

During AS magazine and my ancillary products I discarded previous ideas and created new designs for my final submission. However for our A2 music video project we never had errors, only trials that we pushed aside and replaced with something easier or less time consuming.


- To what extent was a lack of confidence an issue in terms of your creativity?

I think we didn't have enough confidence to speak out to each other during our A2 project so we were not always happy with the final cut of our video. We didn't feel comfortable enough to judge each others ideas and criticise but we always reasoned with each other about ideas but neither put there foot down to portray the plan.


- To what extent was a lack of technical competence/confidence an obstacle to your creativity?

In my A2 coursework my confidence lacked towards the end of the course, I felt as though I was going to be unable to produce the same type of music video I had been planning from the start. As a result of my doubt, I achieved only a Level 2 grade in my coursework, which I was disappointed with as it was not always my fault.