describe dhow your skills developed in digital technology over the whole course. Also evaluate how these skills contibuted to your creativity.

Throughout my time studying Media Studies at AS and A2 level, I have created multiple pieces of work, which consist of; a preliminary video, in which I had to film a person walking through the school, with concentration on continuity as they walked through the door, I had to use, long shots, establishing shots, close ups shot reverse shot along with a panning shot. My AS coursework piece was an opening 2minutes 30  seconds to a film, in which we had to come up with the narrative to the whole film and 2 minutes 30 seconds we were to film. I worked with my friend Damon, we created a movie introduction in which one of our characters was living a normal life as a business man, but becomes awware that people are attempting to assassinate him. We got inspiration from the narrative from The Some of All Fears, Mission Impossible and Die Hard 4.0.

At A2 level, I created multiple pieces of work, which cover, a preliminary music video, a music video as my main piece of coursework and as an ancillary piece, I created a Digipak and poster. My music video is a one location multi shot of the band performing in their studio. (WEEZER, Cadburys Gorilla Advert, Foo Fighters  the Pretender, etc)

Creativity is expressed better, when you are forced to do something, as creative actions are normally seen as weird, strange or not normal, this is why most people will restrict their creativity until they are told they have to do something, and to use their creativity, to carry out the task given to them. 

Digital Technologies that I used at AS level, to create my piece, include a range of different technologies such as; blogger, google, iMovie, the school’s eMac’s, Youtube and Macromedia Flash MX 2004. At A2 Level the range widens and my skills in them dramatically improve. I used Blogger, Sony Vegas Pro, Photoshop, Youtube, Google and 

I used google to aid me in my research and planning, I knew that google returns search results according to relevancy to the users search. So I made sure that I was very specific in what I was searching for.  This allowed me to creative through our my research and planning as I could search for what I wanted to and find more detailed results, nearly all of the time returning results with the correct information/information that I was looking for. which led me to more creative thinking for our narrative, as I found inspiration from my search results. When I used Google at A2 level, I was more aware of the features that I could use such as the advanced features, which allowed me to make more detailed searches as I could use the features which allowed me to include and exclude websites and keywords, as well as this I knew that Google returned results on relevancy, which allowed my searches to be even more detailed than they were at AS, allowing me to find what I was looking for in a much shorter amount of time, 

Blogger enabled me to post my notes, research and planning, ideas, and my final piece of coursework. It enabled me to interact and portray my ideas and my search to my group, as they can leave comments on my blog posts saying what they thought of my ideas and the same applies to me for when they posted on our blog. I embeded videos and URL’s to where my research and planning had been taking place, for example, I would talk about some ideas I had and put Youtube videos or 

I used the schools eMac’s at As, as they allowed me to tell a basic narrative, and allowed me to carry out the neceessary editing styles that I wanted to use on my work, such as jump cuts and and using quick edting (go on to compare vegas pro and my new requiremnts)

Talk compare how you developed lacks examples incldue more.

1b. 

Analyse one of your media products in relation to media language.

At A2 i created a music video, which was a performance based one location, multiple shots video. 

The music video 

I will analyse my main piece of work that I produced during my A2 course. I made a video in a group with two other people, we made a music video, which was performance based and consisted of one location and multiple shots. The song we chose to produce a music video for was Linkin Park’s What I’ve Done. 

We decided that we wanted to amplify a couple of things, these included; Darren (the lead singer) singing the lyrics “What I’ve Done”, the energy and attitude with which the band played with. 

tonight revise media language

Media Theory

I used a website called UK Tribes to help me define the 'tribe' that our band members come under and I have concluded that we come under the Skater 'tribe'. What the website says about a skater;

"Vertical vampires make the most cash.

About

Skaters have become an enduring tribe, having been visible and influential for over 25 years, with skateboarding being elevated from a sport to a complete lifestyle, the mid-point between extreme sports and urban culture. Appearance-wise recent times have seen Skaters move from the baggy, Etnies look to a more indie look of skinny-jeans, floppy hair and a slouch in the step. Although your street Skater is often seen as an outlaw slacker there is still some overlap with other extreme sports: surfing and its myriad offshoots, and at the other end Skaters are still overtly fused with graffiti culture. 

Skaters are one of the few UK tribes to be defined by something other than music – and as all music becomes increasingly mainstream, this may provide inspiration for other tribes. Previously there was a connection between skaters and metallers - ‘big short kids’ - who are under 20, live outside of urban areas, are very passionate about bands no-one else has heard of, wear big shorts, chains and have piercings. These kids are now slowly becoming either Emos or Scene Kids but still retain the love of concrete and four wheels. 

Skaters have definitely taken a big shift into indie music though British hip-hop and breakbeat still remains popular with the older Skater. Skaters also listen to grunge, a lot of hardcore punk, electro and metal. In cities, baggy jeans and t-shirts with caps are being replaced with skinny jeans and a floppy fringe in a rewind to the original look of skate innovators Dogtown’s Z-Boys. Skateboard brand Vans have become the Converse of the noughties with their massive crossover into the 

mainstream via the indie network.

Tribe Icons

Tony Hawk, Spike Jonze, Dustin Dollan, Jerry Hsu, Stacey Peralta, Glen E Freidman

Alternative Names

Concrete Cowboys, Ramp Tramps"

Although I'm not so sure about the media consumption section, I don't think they are this low, admittedly they won't be in the 'heavy' category but I honestly thought they'd be higher than shown.

            According to the Ethnographic audience theory, the audience our video applies to are, people who use their laptop/computers, Smart phones, game consoles, etc to digest a lot of media online especially via websites which such as YouTube.

            The problem with this is that for the majority of people, the consumption of media using this method is that the quality of picture and sound is lower as they are using much smaller screens on the laptop/desktop computer and smart phone than their main TV as the average phone screen is about 3-4inches and pc monitor is about 17-19” in comparison to a TV average of 32”-40” which is also capable of High Definition and surround sound. This means that it’s easier to have a conversation about it with your friends as you can easily share it via social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, or even comment on the video’s page, this allows the media to hit a much wider audience than previously possible as TV, although as popular as it is has its limitations, because only certain channels are available to certain people, e.g. MTV only being available to sky, which immediately prevents the majority of UK viewers, whereas anybody who has an internet connection be that to their phone or home via an Ethernet cable or a wireless router to their laptops and computers, will be immediately able to access the video by doing a quick search for what they want on a search engine such as Google, as many different websites will host the videos. By forcing the viewers to consume their viewing of media in this way, has limitations as not everybody has access to the internet.

            Technology is playing a much larger part in the viewing and knowledge of a text as we now have a much, much wider access to sources which allow us to consume more knowledge and view more and different types of video as there are sources which can suggest different texts to us depending on our interests, but people who are technology poor are currently finding it more difficult to interact in such away as they won’t be able to access as much as others might be able to as they will miss out on the sources which require technologies such as the internet

            As cultural competence will play a part of the viewing experience, depending on what type of video you produce it may be better for your audience to be more informed as, the more informed an audience are the more critical they are, therefore pushing you to produce better videos or negatively it could create an oppositional reading (McQuail and Katz).

            So as a conclusion our media product has accidently prevented certain audiences from viewing it, as only the technology rich will have access to it. To push this even further, people with good internet connection and speed will benefit more than people with slow internet as, they will be able to view it without having to wait for it to buffer, although this also depends on the quality of the computer or phone, so even more analyse of this means that people with faster/better internet and computer/phones will be able to view it in high definition, without having to wait for it to buffer, meaning that the video is instant on, as it’s reachable without any delay any time to the person wanting to watch it. The dangers of creating a culturally competent audience is that our video then automatically creates an smaller market to aim at as we have a constraint on us, as we aren’t able to put our video on the television as we have a very small and limited budget.

Our target audience is predominantly;  

• Males aged between 14 and 25. 
• They enjoy rock music specifically alternative rock music.
• Have hobbies such as skateboarding, roller skating.
• Like brands such as converse, Nike 6.0, Quicksilver, etc. 
• Music they enjoy might include bands like Green Day, AC/DC, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Linkin Park, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Queens of the Stone Age, My Chemical Romance and Guns ‘n’ Roses.
• Their clothing style would be skinny/slim fit jeans mainly of dark blue or black, t shirts which has; the brands logo, slogan, name, a bands name, logo, album name or has a design/pattern on it, they may also wear a cap or hat, board shorts and skater shoes.

According to the Active audience theory, there are three different reading of a piece of media; the preferred reading, oppositional reading and negotiated reading. I created a music video as a part of my advanced portfolio piece. The preferred reading of my music video is that we wanted to entertain the audience but also at the same time, we wanted the image of the entire band to come across that the band follows the conventions of a average rock band such as their clothing, performance skills, attitudes (generally and to being in a band) and that the mes en scene was correct for the band’s studio/practice area.

            When discussing the production of our music video we talked about what type of video we wanted to produce and what message/image we wanted it to portray. We decided that our video would be a performance based music video instead of narrative or concept and that the preferred reading we wanted to put across would be that we wanted to entertain the  audience but to display the band’s image, enthusiasm, performance skills and to get the correct mes en scene. We decided on these values as we believed them to be important for our band, because we wanted the fans to see that we are enthusiastic about being a part of a band and enjoy producing songs such as the one in the music video, we also wanted our image to be part of the preferred reading as we saw a band’s image as very important to modern music, as people’s preferences of artists go on two things; a their music produced and b the image they portray, for example it’s not likely for a rapper to dress like a rocker and be seen as cool or popular because people wouldn’t take him/her seriously, so we wanted to dress and perform like a conventional rock band such as Linkin Park, Foo Fighters or Green Day as we researched into these types of artists and knew that these bands all wear skater shoes, slim/skinny jeans and t-shirts with statements/slightly weird art on them, this is why we dressed pretty similar to a realistic rock band would, we also believed that it would help us to look more professional (i.e. a  real rock band). Another preferred reading we wanted was to be an entertaining performance and band, because we wanted to portray that we enjoy playing music and are enthusiastic about it, by using Mcquail and Katz uses and gratification theory to analyse our music video, I believe that out of the four different types of texts, our best fits under diversion and identity, diversion because it’s predominantly and performance based entertainment music video. We created a one location multi shot video where the band performed in a studio, which along with the song style allowed for a high fast pace tempo of quick editing, which helped with the entertainment as if we used slow editing our viewers wouldn’t have been less entertained. I have said Identity as although like I have said it mainly fits into diversion it can also be classed as an identity text, as our fans would want to copy our style, in respect to our interests in bands/musicians, fashion, places we go, type of activities we like, etc, although this isn’t a major factor in our music video, I think that it is still there as we have dressed in a specific way, performed in a way that we felt necessary and the mes en scene has been created to fit a certain style.

            The alternative reading of our media product would be that we are just another band who produces rock music in their studio, who can’t think for themselves so they copy other bands in their clothing, musical style, and performances. We tried really hard not to get the majority of viewers to get this sort of reading from our media product, and to a large degree I believe we succeeded as most of our viewers didn’t give this feedback, although it was inevitable that we would get some people thinking/believing this. This is possible because the mes en scene, among many other things included 4 posters of different bands that our band like and were inspired by, so it’s possible that a viewer could think this, because we filmed our video in one location which as much as we tried to look like a studio, although it didn’t look to bad still isn’t as convincing as we had originally planned/hoped for, as we ended up filming somewhere that we didn’t want to. If we had more planning and research time we could have filmed in a real studio. As it took us a multiple days to complete filming, during this time we found out about a place located nearby us that allows you to hire out equipment such as professional recording/video studios,  stages etc, we actually wanted to film here but as we didn’t manage to find this place in our planning and research period,  it turned out that we would probably miss our filming deadline and severely run into our pos production time, meaning that there was a high chance that we might not have completed our music video on time. To prevent this and to make our chosen location look like a studio we decided to improve the mes en scene and make it look like a bands studio/hang out area where they practice, by adding things such as posters of fellow rock bands for example Green Day, Foo Fighters, 30 Seconds to Mars, etc. We also decided that we wanted to distract the attention away from surroundings of the band and focus predominantly on the band members performing, to add to the entertainment.

            The negotiated reading of our text would be that our music video does fit into the diversion category, not so much the identity category, as our video didn’t focus on that as a main part throughout, but it’s still visible, although the location does kind of look how we wanted it to, and we mostly managed to focus on the band members and use the mes en scene as a feature which was noticeable but not over powering to the standard audience member, but the viewer can still tell that the location wasn’t a professional music studio and that it looked more like a large wooden paneled room or large summer house. Even though this is the case I don’t believe that it takes away from the viewing experience and that our music video to the majority of our viewers it still entertains them and portrays the identity of the band across.

I am just completing the tasks, then I plan on uploading the document to scribd so I can put it in order on my blog.

I will apply Kramer's Theory to 5 pieces of work, one (or more) from these following artists

1. Timbaland
2. Stockhausen
3. Alvin Lucier
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers
5. (not sure)

Timbaland 

He uses crying babies, birds, monkeys to add effects to the music, although this isn't necessary as the songs would still sound good without the added effects. This could be categorized as contradictory and point number seven, the artist doesn't want the song to sound the same and repetitive so he has added in his own 'techniques' to ensure it's not repetitive and has the constant same sound throughout. He also raps and uses Auto Tune on some tracks, which points to point 10, using technology in production and transmit music. 

Destiny's Child - Get on the bus 

(insert video)

This song features the animals sounds (along with the baby crying-may be wrong song)

  I don't know if I've understood this correctly.

in my words

1. music includes aspects of both postmodernism and modernism
2. postmodern music can be ironic - Timbaland's song contain monkeys, birds and baby's
3. doesn't always follow the 'rules' of the past and present music
4. Challenge high and lows - high = classical, low = pop (pop, rock, etc in broadest sense) Dan Black and Kanye West challenge high and low's
5.  Structural unity - blurred and uses inspiration from others - meaning that artist's music has lots of intertextual references causing a blurred effect between which is/was the original and the piece which piece has taken inspiration, causes a hyper reality effect.
6. Taking elements from elitists (classical musicians, purist music listeners)/cross over from classical to populist (pop music, r&b, rock etc). This is when an artist takes a song from the elitist/classical genre to the populist (their) genre, an example of this is Beyonce singing Ave Maria (which is a classical song), the artists may do this for (although many others) two reasons; to boost their career or the song to make it more popular. The band or artist will normally keep the lyrics the same or slightly alter them but add a pop backing tune to the song to make it marketable to the mainstream audience instead of it's previous niche market, there are other artists who have done this include; Dan Black's Symphonies
   
7. The artists doesn't want the music to sound the same and repetitive, or use to much of the inspired sound (sections from other artists)
8. Music isn't autonomous e.g independent or has no influences, but it's affected by political, socail and cultural change or movements. Examples of these are Green Day/U2's - The saints are coming, a song about the Hurricane Katrina which hit New Orleans, USA, 2005, charity sings such as, Live Aid, do they even know it's christmas by band aid (both) or songs from Lady GaGa or Green Day's Holiday which is about Politics in America, another is diamonds form Sierra Leone by Kanye West which is a protest song about Blood Diamonds, from the area.
   
9. takes sections or inspiration from music which exists in different cultures and traditions, for example bands such as Red Hot Chili Peppers using/taking inspirational music form the Jazz, Blues genres etc and adding them into their songs which are categorized as Rock.
10. musician/artist doesn't just consider technology as a way of keeping record or their music and to transmit the music to their audience but they recognise that it is important in the production and attributes to their music and it's sound. Examples are DJ Shadow's live DJ/mixing on stage, KT Tunstall recording her music on stage and replaying and rerecording it on stage to produce her music, Imogen Heap, and David Albarn from Blur and Gorillaz created a album on his iPad whilst at the back of a bus during him and the Gorillaz touring America to Promote the Plastic Beach album
11. Music embraces contradictions, e.g. a Japanese band using 77 drummers in a single, they had one bassist or guitarist, but this is an example of contradiction within music as it's a contradiction to the stereotypical band/conventions within  music as you just wouldn't expect more than two or three drummers at maximum in any band.
12. doesn't use/trust binary opposites. postmodern music doesn't have/use any binary opposites as they don't work
13. Includes sampling sections or small pieces of music from others therefore fragmenting pieces of music into their own. discontinuities - not constant through out entire song or the main theme/tune/backing music to song.
14. believes all music is equal and isn't better than any other piece, 
15. Songs have more than one meaning to them, as they have more than one listener/person in the audience.
16. Doesn't always make sense in performances, scores or composers, but has more meaning and structure in listeners. It's how the audience interprets the song, it's meaning and possible moral, the audience may see an entire different meaning to a song than the artists, some audiences may see different meaning to each other, due to different levels of understanding and knowledge.

in kramers words

1. is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension
2. is, on some level and in some way, ironic
3. does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present
4. challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low' styles
5. shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity
6. questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values
7. avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold)
8. considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political contexts
9. includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures
10. considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music
11. embraces contradictions
12. distrusts binary oppositions
13. includes fragmentations and discontinuities
14. encompasses pluralism and eclecticism
15. presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities
16. locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers

  Here are my album covers
1. Front Cover
2. Inside Front Cover (booklet back cover)
3. Back Cover