Section 2 Terminology

Videogames -

Personalisation - ability to adapt things in a game and share - prosumer - skateparks in skate

Interactivity - enhanced - between gamers / gamers and game - playing multiplayer skate games on Skate 3, and building own skateparks and filming skate edits.

Instant gratification - don't have to wait anymore for new things - easy to just download new content
Undemand Culture - audience always wants new content/ideas - DLC - instant gratification allows this

The videogames industry use these to their own advantages - making more money, change acceleration marketing

There are different videogame audiences - online and offline - offline audiences do not benefit much from media and the online age - for example Skate 3 is very similar to Skate 2, just with the addition of online multiplayer which in offline career mode you cannot access, which shows how it doesn't benefit the offline gamer.

Future - online multiplayer doesn't benefit everyone - offline career modes and single player interactivity needs to be enhanced in the future - for example the oculus rift virtual games console

Film -

megaupload.com - peer 2 peer file sharing website for films - shut down - affecting the industry badly

How piracy affects small budget films - no revenue is produced, however the benefit is that people are still watching the producers film - without the internet, long tail, they probably wouldn't have seen it

Cinema needs to enhance its technologies to encourage consumers to visit more - better surround sound, new Dolby 5.1 surround sound system, cheaper cinema tickets would help as well

Section 1A: Digital Technology

Skills development - Technology -

AS Childrens film opening - Media Studies -
Digital technology that I was new to using - college camcorder (learning to use the settings), learning how to use an Apple Mac computer as I have never used one, along with the software including Final Cut to edit the childrens film and Adobe Photoshop to produce titles and credits for the film.
The camerawork in the childrens film was not really planned out very well, we did plan a storyboard, however didn't analyse how shots create meaning.

AS Thriller film opening -  Media Studies -
My knowledge of using Final Cut improved a lot since the childrens film opening, this allowed me to be more creative whilst editing the thriller film opening. Something that developed was the user of sound effects, we used multiple sound layers in the edit suite to create a conventional thriller sound track.
We analysed the shot list to ensure it was conventioanl to the thriller genre, and that the specific shots helps the audience identify who the villain was in the scene.
Blogging - learnt how to use Prezi online presentation software - easier than using powerpoint as it is more flexibile with layout

A2 Music Video -  Media Studies -
Ancillary products - photoshop
Apple Mac computers were much slower than when I used them for my foundation portfolio projects, they had been used a lot and were starting to show this by slowing down. this affected ym groups creativity more than anything during the project, as it slowed down our post production processes, which really stressed the whole group out, which led to individual members working on specific things at home, for example I learnt how to do photo burst videos using Sony Vegas on my Dell laptop.

Section 1A - Foundation Portfolio Thriller Opening

Section 1A - Foundation Portfolio Thriller Opening -

Creativity -
Creative camera angle and lighting to hide the villain in our thriller opening
Challenged conventions of film noir thriller -filmed in the countryside church instead of the urban locations conventionally used in film noirs- we were creative in incoproating some aspects of film noir into our thriller opening such as hiding the villain in shadows, having long duration shots and slow editing.


Digital Technology -

Pre-production - online software - blogger to record research and planning, embedding youtube videos, powerpoint presentations, prezi mood board presentations.

Production - DSLR to achieve high quality low light shots in the church setting that we filmed at - 50mm 1.8 for close-up shots with shallow depth of field, 18-135mm for wide and long shots.

Post production - freesound.org for sound effects - footsteps, wind, crows cawing - conventional to genre
Final Cut X for editing on apple mac computers - learnt how to add key frames to a title to make it appear as if is growing in the frame
Photoshop for creating credits -  learnt how to download fonts from dafont.com, and install them into Photoshop

Post Production -

Editing the soundtrack using sound effects from fresound.org - footsteps, wind, crows, clock
Final cut express - learnt how to key frame titles -
Photoshop different fonts for credits
Producing the company ident logo


Research and planning -

Audience research - I used the Pearl and Dean interactive film guide to find figures - we discovered that our target audience would be between the ages of 24-30 years old, sophisticated cinemagoers who understand the conventions of the genre and the difficult narrative structure of our thriller film.. 

Learnt different cinematography rules - 180 degree rule, 30 degree rule, rule of thirds

Using conventions of real media texts -

No Country for Old Men (Ethan Coen, 2007)’ which shows the guard with a prisoner out of focus in the background - this influenced the close-up of the victim in our thriller opening, with the villain in the shall depth of field in the background 

The opening sequence of True Blood, makes links between animals and humans - snakes as  representation of a character in the opening - the wooden carvings on the end of benches in our thriller opening are shown with shallow depth of field, which show the villain in out of focus of the shot. The wooden predators represent him as the killer, and help the audience read this the way we intended as producers. 

Villain character in Se7en (Fincher) - John Doe - not revealed until the end - shown in the shadows and in shallow depth of field to hide his identity - we followed these conventions of hiding the villain in our thriller opening with our villain character. 

The growing ticking soundtrack in the opening of Drive makes the audience feel uneasy- we used a ticking clock in our thriller opening as the mains sound, no composed soundtrack, just the echo of a ticing clock in the church which makes the audience feel uneasy up to the point of the cinematic boom at the end of  our thriller opening

Section 1B: Media Language

Media Language -
How I created meaning in my media production

Micro elements - cinematography, editing, sound, mes
Macro elements - narrative, genre, characters

Andre Goodwins music video theory

Genre conventions - audience expectations

Advanced portfolio A2 Music Video -

Editing -
Constant cuts from performance with lead singer to to narrative with the couple, represents how the lead singer is thinking about his ex girlfriend and her new relationship. This constructs meaning about their relationship.
Relating to Allan Camerons modular narrative - split-screen - as our music video is split into two, the lead singer reflecting on the past, and the narrative

Cinematography -

Sound -
'6 years you've been with me, 6 years and you treat me like this' - diegetic dialogue - sets the story for the audience, and opens the plot of the media text.
Stewart Halls reception theory - producers encode meaning into media texts and the consumers decode the meanings in three different ways - preferred/negotiated/oppositional readings. The dialogue in our music video helps the audience read the text the way that we as producers intended.

MES -
Iconography -
Guitars which represent the rock genre
Constant costume change - casual costumes - conventional to the indie rock genre


Goodwins music video theory -

Genre characteristics -

Lyrics and visuals -
'All of the stars' - visuals are the star time lapse that I produced - represents the meaning that the lead singer feels his relationship is in the past.

Lyrics and sound -

Demand of the record label -

Notion of looking / voyeurism -
Lead singer has a direct gaze to the audience - represents how audience are meant to identify with him

Intertextual reference -
Jimmi Hendrix graffiti is a signifier in our music video - reference to the classic rock genre which indie rock evolved from which is the signified meaning.

Representation in 'Australia'

In what ways does the clip use or challenge theories of representation?

Laura Mulvey -
The clip challenges the male gaze theory because the male character is the one objectified by the spectators in this clip - the female is the one looking at the male character sexually - the final reaction shot represents this
The female character is completely covered with clothes - however when she has her head stuck outside the tent, we only see her head which suggests she is still objectified as just a 'body part'.

Performativity- Judith Butler
The female character acts feminie - she is flustered the the male characters visual representation of masculinity - she is lady like - doesnt want to share the tent with three males
Agrees to the theory - conforming to the theory

David Gauntlett - denotation/connotation - 
Connotation of the shot of him shifting his shorts and the following reaction shot suggests a sexual reference

Denotation - dog - means best friend -
Connotation - companionship, suggests a character is caring

Section 1B: Representation

Representation: a re-presentation of reality
The way in which a media text communicates meaning in relation to a particular group of people, individual, object or place.

Theories:

Semiotics - Ferdinand De Sassuare -

As an audience we look for signs to find meaning in a text

A signifier is a representation of an object or something - the object - e.g. lips
A signified representation is the accosiated meaning to the signifier - the meaning - lips= love, lust, female, princess (narrative theories), temptress (use men), drawing attention, sex, rage, danger, death

Thriller opening -
Signifier= wooden sculpted animals/predators in the church
Signified= represents how the villain is a predator/killer/murderer/doesn't care

Music Video -
Signifier = Jimmi Hendrix guitar graffiti
Signified = a reference to the classic rock genre within our indie rock music video, represents how the indie rock genre has been influenced by classic rock

Encoding/Decoding - Stuart Hall -

Preffered - reader interprets the text the way the producer intended
Negotiated - reader may decode the text in a slightly different manner
Oppositional - reader interprets text in the opposite way the producer intended

Denotation/Connotation - Roland barthes - Mythologies (1970) -

Denotation = literal meaning of something
Connotation = suggested meaning - connotation of the colour red - death, love, danger...
'It is possible to argue that all media representations relate to broader cultural myths'

Thriller opening -
Denotation = the bible shows how the victim is religious
Connotation = represents how the victim has religous views on something, which could suggest why he is the victim of the murder in our opening. The bible is red which represents death and danger

Laura Mulvey - Male Gaze theory -

Controlling the male gaze - men being in charge is what makes a girl sexy
Female form is objectified by the frame - to be looked upon
Cinema is a male dominated arena

Scopohpilia - the pleasure at looking at other peoples bodies as objects
Voyeurism - the pleasure of seeing the forbidden

Yvonne Tasker - softening theory-
Yvonne Tasker suggests in her theory that all female characters will be 'softended' by something/someone in the film. For example a female can be softended by the fact she is a mother.
E.g. Nikita in 'La Femme Nikita (Besson), is softened by the character is Victor the Cleaner when he takes over her mission in the film.

David Gauntlett - Media 2.0 -
The internet generation is about participation and collaboration
Unmediated self-representaion in the age of prosumer. You can now produce your own ideas about things

Judith Butler - performativity -
Gender identity is a performance
Gender performativity - speech + gestures - are a daily performance by genders every day
Non conformer ism - leads to being bulled/victimized

How we used/challenged audience theories in our music video

A2 Advanced Portfolio Music Video project -

Our music video follows the story of a relationship breakup and the development of a new relationship, between a love triangle. The two main characters perform cameo roles in the narrative, whilst also performing with guitars in various locations around cambridge.

Avtive consuming -

Stuart Hall - Encoding/Decoding -
Prefered/Negotiated/oppisitonal readings of the our music video -
Because our music video has a linear narrative, it is fairly simple for the audience to understand the plot, so majority of audience members will understand the text the way that we intended as the producers, this would be a preferred reading.

Blumler and Katz - uses and gratification theory -
This theory shows what audiences 'do' with media texts, rather than what the media text 'does' to the audience. Shows how the audience are actively viewing.
States that audiences watch the media text with four different purposes.
It could be said that our music video could be for 'Entertainment', 'Personal relationships' and for 'personal identity'. This challenges the theory as the theorists state how each media text should fall into one category.

David Gauntlett Pick n Mix reader -
Suggests that audiences that are 'sophisticated' enough will be able to pick what they want from media texts and what they don't want from the media when they consume.

David Buckingam - Creative audience -
States how young audiences will use media and specifically web 2.0 to just 'fill time', to keep them 'entertained' so they aren't bored.
He also states that they use the media to make sense of their lives, to help make sense of real experiences such as relationships.


Passive viewing -

Hypodermic needle/copy cat theory -